AI Chat Free Unlimited

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  Artificial intelligence in spirituality

  Some users of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, especially chatbots, may develop beliefs that AI has or can attain supernatural or spiritual powers. AI models such as ChatGPT are turned to for fortune telling, mysticism and remote viewing. Recent and sudden advances in large language models have led to folk myths about their origin or capabilities, as well as their deification or worship by some users. Tucker Carlson has made similar claims, including directly to Sam Altman. Pope Leo XIV advised priests against using LLM models when it came to the creation of sermons.

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  Secure state

  A secure state is an information systems security term to describe where entities in a computer system are divided into subjects and objects, and it can be formally proven that each state transition preserves security by moving from one secure state to another secure state. Thereby it can be inductively proven that the system is secure. As defined in the Bell–LaPadula model, the secure state is built on the concept of a state machine with a set of allowable states in a system. The transition from one state to another state is defined by transition functions. A system state is defined to be "secure" if the only permitted access modes of subjects to objects are in accordance with a security policy.

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  Path tracing

  Path tracing is a rendering algorithm in computer graphics that simulates how light interacts with objects and participating media to generate realistic (physically plausible) images. It is based on earlier, more limited, ray tracing algorithms. Path tracing is used to create photorealistic images for artistic purposes, and for applications such as architectural rendering and product design. It is also used to render frames for animated films, and visual effects for film and television. Because it can be very accurate and unbiased, it is commonly used to generate reference images when testing the quality of other rendering algorithms. The technique uses the Monte Carlo method to compute estimates of global illumination and simulate the ways different materials reflect (or scatter), transmit, absorb, and emit light. It can incorporate simple modeling of the effects of aperture and lens (depth of field, and bokeh) and shutter speed (motion blur), or more realistic simulation of the optical components in a camera. The algorithm works by describing illumination in a scene using the rendering equation, or light transport equation, and finding an approximate solution using Monte Carlo integration. An inefficient (but accurate) version of the algorithm can be very simple, and involves tracing a ray from the camera, allowing this ray to bounce in random directions as it hits different objects in the scene, and computing the amount of light transmitted along the path to the camera whenever the path encounters a light source. This process is repeated many times for each pixel (each repetition, with generated path and transmitted light, is called a sample), and the results are averaged. One main difference between this algorithm and standard ray tracing is that a single unbranching path is traced each time, while "Whitted-style" or "Cook-style" ray tracing recursively samples branching paths (e.g. when light is both reflected and refracted by a glass object). More practical versions incorporate improvements such as quasi-Monte Carlo methods (techniques that distribute samples more evenly), importance sampling (take more samples of paths that are likely to transport more light), and next event estimation (allow a very limited form of branching, and sample additional paths that connect to the lights more directly). Because path tracing uses random samples there is noise in the final image, which decreases as more samples are taken. Images commonly require many thousands of samples per pixel (spp) to reduce noise to an acceptable level, and denoising techniques (e.g. based on neural networks) are often used. Denoising is usually necessary when path tracing is used for real-time rendering in video games, because relatively few samples can be taken. Many alternative algorithms for path tracing have been developed, although they do not always outperform more straightforward implementations. These include bidirectional path tracing (which traces paths forwards from the light source as well as backwards from the camera), Metropolis light transport, and ways of combining path tracing with photon mapping. Video games often use biased versions of path tracing to improve performance (e.g. limiting the number of bounces in each path). A family of techniques called ReSTIR has been developed that can help real-time path tracing by sharing data between nearby pixels and consecutive frames. == History == Like all ray tracing methods, path tracing is based on ray casting, which Arthur Appel used for computer graphics rendering in the late 1960s. In 1980, John Turner Whitted published a recursive ray tracing algorithm that allows rendering images of scenes containing mirrored surfaces and refractive transparent objects. In 1984, Cook et al. described a form of ray tracing called distributed ray tracing, which uses Monte Carlo integration to render effects such as depth of field, motion blur, reflection from rough surfaces, and area lights. The same year, the radiosity method (not a ray tracing method) was published, which was the first physically based method for rendering diffuse global illumination. In 1986, Jim Kajiya published a paper exploring how to use distributed ray tracing to render physically-based global illumination, and this paper also introduced and named the method called "path tracing". Path tracing and other distributed ray tracing techniques were further refined in the late 1980s and early 1990s by researchers such as James Arvo and Peter Shirley, and by Greg Ward in the open source Radiance software. Despite being theoretically able to render any lighting, the original form of path tracing can sometimes be very inefficient (or noisy) for rendering light that is reflected or refracted before illuminating a visible surface, including diffuse global illumination where light enters an area through narrow gaps, because it traces paths only from the camera. To address this, variations of path tracing that trace paths from both the camera and from light sources, called bidirectional path tracing, were published in 1993 by Eric Lafortune and Yves Willems, and in 1997 by Eric Veach and Leonidas Guibas. In 1997 Veach and Guibas also published an alternative method called Metropolis light transport, which combines bidirectional path tracing with the Metropolis method. Veach's lengthy Ph.D. dissertation described both techniques, along with the theoretical background of path tracing; later, the book Physically Based Rendering (which won an Academy Award for Technical Achievement in 2014) helped to make information about path tracing more widely available. Path tracing requires tracing a large number of paths of light in order to produce an image with a visually acceptable amount of noise. This made path tracing very slow on computers available in the 1980s and 1990s, and noise remained a problem when trying to reproduce the style of earlier computer graphics animated films. Most animated films produced until around 2010, by studios such as Pixar, used rasterization-based rendering, with ray tracing used selectively for reflections (and later for precomputed or cached global illumination). However the speed of computers rapidly increased during the 1990s. Blue Sky Studios pioneered using Monte Carlo ray tracing for global illumination in animation, including in the 1998 short film "Bunny", but they did not disclose the precise techniques used. Path tracing gradually become more practical for film production in the early 2000s. The Arnold renderer, developed by Marcos Fajardo, was used by Sony Pictures Imageworks to produce the feature-length film Monster House, released in 2006. Pixar rewrote their RenderMan software to use path tracing, and released their first feature-length path-traced film Finding Dory in 2016. Although path tracing still had a large computational cost, animation studios discovered that less human labor was required when using it, for example because global illumination no longer needed to be faked by manually placing lights. The amount of noise present in path traced images still caused difficulties, particularly when rendering motion blur (which was used extensively by earlier animated films) but denoising techniques were developed to address this. New techniques were also needed for rendering hair and fur, and to handle the extremely large scenes sometimes required by films. Renderers such as Arnold, and Disney's Hyperion, originally only used CPUs for rendering, but as GPUs became more capable (and APIs such as CUDA, OpenCL, and OptiX were released) researchers and developers began adapting algorithms and implementations to use GPUs. GPUs can dramatically reduce rendering time: for example using a high-end GPU to accelerate portions of the rendering code can make it over 30 times faster than using only a high-end CPU. == Description == Kajiya's 1986 paper defined a recursive integral equation called the rendering equation, which describes a simplified form of light transport. Using Monte Carlo integration for the integral on the right side of the equation leads fairly directly to the path tracing algorithm: I ( x , x ′ ) = g ( x , x ′ ) [ ϵ ( x , x ′ ) + ∫ S ρ ( x , x ′ , x ″ ) I ( x ′ , x ″ ) d x ″ ] {\displaystyle I(x,x')=g(x,x')\left[\epsilon (x,x')+\int _{S}\rho (x,x',x'')I(x',x'')dx''\right]} This expresses I(x,x'), the light arriving at point x from point x', as the product of a geometry term, g(x,x'), which is 0 if there is something blocking the light between the two points and 1 otherwise, and the amount of light leaving point x' and traveling towards x. The light leaving point x' is the sum of the light emitted by the surface at x', and the integral of the light arriving at x' from all other points in the scene (the integration domain S) and being reflected towards x. The factor ρ(x,x',x''), which calculates how much light is reflected, must take into account the angles at which the light is arriving and leaving, and

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  Snap (computer graphics)

  In computer graphics, snapping allows an object to be easily positioned in alignment with grid lines, guide lines or another object, by causing it to automatically jump to an exact position when the user drags it to the proximity of the desired location. Some CAD software provides a "Snap" pull-down menu with diverse options as preferences for the practice of the operation. In Windows, with the "snap windows" option enabled, snapping a window against the top (or side) edge of the screen causes it to change into full screen (or half-screen for multitasking). Software snapping is analogous to hardware detents which serve to indicate discrete values or steps of an input device.

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  Document mosaicing

  Document mosaicing is a process that stitches multiple, overlapping snapshot images of a document together to produce one large, high resolution composite. The document is slid under a stationary, over-the-desk camera by hand until all parts of the document are snapshotted by the camera's field of view. As the document slid under the camera, all motion of the document is coarsely tracked by the vision system. The document is periodically snapshotted such that the successive snapshots are overlap by about 50%. The system then finds the overlapped pairs and stitches them together repeatedly until all pairs are stitched together as one piece of document. The document mosaicing can be divided into four main processes. Tracking Feature detecting Correspondences establishing Images mosaicing. == Tracking (simple correlation process) == In this process, the motion of the document slid under the camera is coarsely tracked by the system. Tracking is performed by a process called simple correlation process. In the first frame of snapshots, a small patch is extracted from the center of the image as a correlation template. The correlation process is performed in the four times size of the patch area of the next frame. The motion of the paper is indicated by the peak in the correlation function. The peak in the correlation function indicates the motion of the paper. The template is resampled from this frame and the tracking continues until the template reaches the edge of the document. After the template reaches the edge of the document, another snapshot is taken and the tracking process performs repeatedly until the whole document is imaged. The snapshots are stored in an ordered list to facilitate pairing the overlapped images in later processes. == Feature detecting for efficient matching == Feature detection is the process of finding the transformation that aligns one image with another. There are two main approaches for feature detection. Feature-based approach : Motion parameters are estimated from point correspondences. This approach is suitable for the case that there is plenty supply of stable and detectable features. Featureless approach : When the motion between the two images is small, the motion parameters are estimated using optical flow. On the other hand, when the motion between the two images is large, the motion parameters are estimated using generalised cross-correlation. However, this approach requires a computationally expensive resources. Each image is segmented into a hierarchy of columns, lines, and words to match the organised sets of features across images. Skew angle estimation and columns, lines and words finding are the examples of feature detection operations. === Skew angle estimation === Firstly, the angle that the rows of text make with the image raster lines (skew angle) is estimated. It is assumed to lie in the range of ±20°. A small patch of text in the image is selected randomly and then rotated in the range of ±20° until the variance of the pixel intensities of the patch summed along the raster lines is maximised. To ensure that the found skew angle is accurate, the document mosaic system performs calculation at many image patches and derive the final estimation by finding the average of the individual angles weighted by the variance of the pixel intensities of each patch. === Columns, lines and words finding === In this operation, the de-skewed document is intuitively segmented into a hierarchy of columns, lines and words. The sensitivity to illumination and page coloration of the de-skewed document can be removed by applying a Sobel operator to the de-skewed image and thresholding the output to obtain the binary gradient, de-skewed image. The operation can be roughly separated into 3 steps: column segmentation, line segmentation and word segmentation. Columns are easily segmented from the binary gradient, de-skewed images by summing pixels vertically. Baselines of each row are segmented in the same way as the column segmentation process but horizontally. Finally, individual words are segmented by applying the vertical process at each segmented row. These segmentations are important because the document mosaic is created by matching the lower right corners of words in overlapping images pair. Moreover, the segmentation operation can organize the list of images in the context of a hierarchy of rows and column reliably. The segmentation operation involves a considerable amount of summing in the binary gradient, de-skewed images, which done by construct a matrix of partial sums whose elements are given by p i y = ∑ u = 1 i ∑ v = 1 j b u v {\displaystyle p_{iy}=\sum _{u=1}^{i}\sum _{v=1}^{j}b_{uv}} The matrix of partial sums is calculated in one pass through the binary gradient, de-skewed image. ∑ u = u 1 u 2 ∑ v = v 1 v 2 b u v = p u 2 v 2 + p u 1 v 1 − p u 1 v 2 − p u 2 v 1 {\displaystyle \sum _{u=u_{1}}^{u_{2}}\sum _{v=v_{1}}^{v_{2}}b_{uv}=p_{u_{2}v_{2}}+p_{u_{1}v_{1}}-p_{u_{1}v_{2}}-p_{u_{2}v_{1}}} == Correspondences establishing == The two images are now organized in hierarchy of linked lists in following structure : image=list of columns row=list of words column=list of row word=length (in pixels) At the bottom of the structure, the length of each word is recorded for establishing correspondence between two images to reduce to search only the corresponding structures for the groups of words with the matching lengths. === Seed match finding === A seed match finding is done by comparing each row in image1 with each row in image2. The two rows are then compared to each other by every word. If the length (in pixel) of the two words (one from image1 and one from image2) and their immediate neighbours agree with each other within a predefined tolerance threshold (5 pixels, for example), then they are assumed to match. The row of each image is assumed a match if there are three or more word matches between the two rows. The seed match finding operation is terminated when two pairs of consecutive row match are found. === Match list building === After finishing a seed match finding operation, the next process is to build the match list to generate the correspondences points of the two images. The process is done by searching the matching pairs of rows away from the seed row. == Images mosaicing == Given the list of corresponding points of the two images, finding the transformation of the overlapping portion of the images is the next process. Assuming a pinhole camera model, the transformation between pixels (u,v) of image 1 and pixels (u0, v0) of image 2 is demonstrated by a plane-to-plane projectivity. [ s u ′ s v ′ s ] = [ p 11 p 12 p 13 p 21 p 22 p 23 p 31 p 32 1 ] [ u v 1 ] E q .1 {\displaystyle \left[{\begin{array}{c}su'\\sv'\\s\end{array}}\right]=\left[{\begin{array}{ccc}p_{11}&p_{12}&p_{13}\\p_{21}&p_{22}&p_{23}\\p_{31}&p_{32}&1\end{array}}\right]\left[{\begin{array}{c}u\\v\\1\end{array}}\right]\qquad Eq.1} The parameters of the projectivity is found from four pairs of matching points. RANSAC regression technique is used to reject outlying matches and estimate the projectivity from the remaining good matches. The projectivity is fine-tuned using correlation at the corners of the overlapping portion to obtain four correspondences to sub-pixel accuracy. Therefore, image1 is then transformed into image2's coordinate system using Eq.1. The typical result of the process is shown in Figure 5. === Many images coping === Finally, the whole page composition is built up by mapping all the images into the coordinate system of an "anchor" image, which is normally the one nearest the page center. The transformations to the anchor frame are calculated by concatenating the pair-wise transformations found earlier. The raw document mosaic is shown in Figure 6. However, there might be a problem of non-consecutive images that are overlap. This problem can be solved by performing Hierarchical sub-mosaics. As shown in Figure 7, image1 and image2 are registered, as are image3 and image4, creating two sub-mosaics. These two sub-mosaics are later stitched together in another mosaicing process. == Applied areas == There are various areas that the technique of document mosaicing can be applied to such as : Text segmentation of images of documents Document Recognition Interaction with paper on the digital desk Video mosaics for virtual environments Image registration techniques == Relevant research papers == Huang, T.S.; Netravali, A.N. (1994). "Motion and structure from feature correspondences: A review". Proceedings of the IEEE. 82 (2): 252–268. doi:10.1109/5.265351. D.G. Lowe. [1] Perceptual Organization and Visual Recognition. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston, 1985. Irani, M.; Peleg, S. (1991). "Improving resolution by image registration". CVGIP: Graphical Models and Image Processing. 53 (3): 231–239. doi:10.1016/1049-9652(91)90045-L. S2CID 4834546. Shivakumara, P.; Kumar, G. Hemantha; Guru, D. S.; Nagabhushan, P. (2006). "

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  RockMyRun

  Rock My Run (stylized as RockMyRun; trademarked slogan: "The Best Running Music in the World™") is a mobile running/fitness app founded in 2011 that provides running and workout music in the form of DJ mixes. It is owned by Rock My World, Inc., a health and fitness technology company based in San Diego, California. The app allows users to listen to these professional DJ mixes on their smartphone while running or working out to enhance and motivate their performance. Rock My World, Inc. also developed the app Jolt.ai for the software Slack. == History == During the early stages of the company, Rock My World, Inc. raised more than $2 million in funding generated by the Irvine Company's The Vine SD and from institutional investors including Skullcandy, ZTE and Lighter Capital and were admitted to the Plug and Play Tech Center in Sunnyvale and to the tech incubator EvoNexus in San Diego. In an interview with co-founder and ex-Qualcomm staff Adam Riggs-Zeigen, he said that "from the beginning [their] big goal is to help people live healthier lives." == Features == The RockMyRun app contains thousands of mixes or "stations" produced by its professional DJs intended to increase enjoyment and performance during exercise. DJs who have provided mixes for the app include David Guetta, Zedd, Steve Aoki, Major Lazer and Afrojack. All of the music can be personalized based on the user's steps per minute, heart rate or ideal cadence allowing the user to "always hear the right music at the right time at the right tempo". All RockMyRun mixes are organized into stations to help users discover music that suits their needs. RockMyRun contains mixes of all genres and each station is categorized into their respective genres and displays tags to let users know the type of music contained in the mix. RockMyRun has two membership types; it is free as a standard member, but for uninterrupted listening and additional features, users can upgrade to a paid "Rockstar" membership. Since March 2023, couples can now be on the same RockMyRun playlists and "share" earbuds. This allows people to train together, easier. A group of DJs curate playlists for specific training needs and different energy levels. == Reception == RockMyRun has been featured on television programs such as The Today Show on two occasions and on The Rachael Ray Show, and in positive reviews by many publications and websites including The New York Times on four separate occasions, TIME, The Huffington Post, The Denver Post, Men's Fitness, Real Simple, The Vulcan Post, The L.A. Times, Glamour, Paste magazine, PCMag, Dubai Week, BetaNews, CNET, CNBC, Reuters, Insider, Tom's Guide and Yahoo! Tech. RockMyRun has also been mentioned/recommended in books/publications such as A Practical Guide to Teacher Wellbeing by Elizabeth Holmes and Applying Music in Exercise and Sport by Dr. Costas Karageorghis. Ultimate Ears placed RockMyRun at the top of their list at No. 1 on their "5 Favorite Workout Music Apps". In a positive review by David Strausser for AndroidGuys in 2015, he praised the app in a detailed review, saying "The mixes are incredible and the rates are reasonable. The app is quick, beautiful." In 2015, Jill Duffy of PC Magazine gave a review of the app, pointing out its key features, and stating that the app is great if you enjoy listening to different, or new music, that can match your tempo while running. Also in 2015, Digital Trends listed RockMyRun, as one of the best exercise music apps in the article "No need to make exercise playlists with these music apps". In 2018, Redbull.com recommended RockMyRun in preparation for the Wings for Life World Run in their article "10 essential hacks for running to work to get you in World Run shape". In 2019, The Fashion Spot included RockMyRun in their list of "The Best Workout Apps for People Who Hate to Work Out", saying: "RockMyRun matches music to the tempo of your running pace – the music literally follows your steps/heart rate. The app has thousands of mixes/music options along with tracking capabilities." Also in 2019, MakeUseOf.com included RockMyRun in their list of "The 7 Best Running and Workout Music Apps". In September 2022, VeryWellFit listed RockMyRun as the first of three "Other Playlist Options" in the article "How to Create a Running Playlist, According to Running Coaches". Tech Grapple recommended the app in "The best workout free music apps for iPhone and Android" saying that "RockMyRun is the best application that you can use during workout. It comes with amazing DJs to craft mixes that will keep you moving." == Partners == RockMyRun is partnered with the following brands/companies: C25K Del Taco JLab Audio iFit Active Network, LLC Night Nation Run (the world's first running music festival) Lady Foot Locker Mayweather Boxing + Fitness Mio Global Orangetheory Fitness Red Rock Apps Tapout Fitness

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  Security information management

  Security information management (SIM) is an information security industry term for the collection of data such as log files into a central repository for trend analysis. == Overview == SIM products generally are software agents running on the computer systems that are monitored. The recorded log information is then sent to a centralized server that acts as a "security console". The console typically displays reports, charts, and graphs of that information, often in real time. Some software agents can incorporate local filters to reduce and manipulate the data that they send to the server, although typically from a forensic point of view you would collect all audit and accounting logs to ensure you can recreate a security incident. The security console is monitored by an administrator who reviews the consolidated information and takes action in response to any alerts issued. The data that is sent to the server to be correlated and analyzed are normalized by the software agents into a common form, usually XML. Those data are then aggregated in order to reduce their overall size. == Terminology == The terminology can easily be mistaken as a reference to the whole aspect of protecting one's infrastructure from any computer security breach. Due to historic reasons of terminology evolution; SIM refers to just the part of information security which consists of discovery of 'bad behavior' or policy violations by using data collection techniques. The term commonly used to represent an entire security infrastructure that protects an environment is commonly called information security management (InfoSec). Security information management is also referred to as log management and is different from SEM (security event management), but makes up a portion of a SIEM (security information and event management) solution. == Regulatory compliance == Security information management systems support compliance with regulatory frameworks that require centralized collection and analysis of security data. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Security Rule requires covered entities to implement audit controls that record and examine activity in information systems containing electronic protected health information (45 CFR 164.312(b))."45 CFR § 164.312 - Technical safeguards". Legal Information Institute. Retrieved April 1, 2026. SIM platforms aggregate these audit records to support the required regular review of information system activity records (45 CFR 164.308(a)(1)(ii)(D)). The December 2024 HIPAA Security Rule NPRM proposed requiring regulated entities to deploy automated systems capable of monitoring and recording access to ePHI, including the ability to detect unauthorized access attempts in near real-time."HIPAA Security Rule To Strengthen the Cybersecurity of Electronic Protected Health Information". Federal Register. January 6, 2025. Retrieved April 1, 2026. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) similarly requires centralized log management and daily review of security events (Requirements 10.4 and 10.6)."PCI DSS v4.0" (PDF). PCI Security Standards Council. March 2022. Retrieved April 1, 2026. NIST Special Publication 800-53 addresses security information management through the AU (Audit and Accountability) control family, which specifies requirements for audit event generation, content, storage, and analysis."NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5: Security and Privacy Controls". National Institute of Standards and Technology. September 2020. Retrieved April 1, 2026.

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  TigerGraph

  TigerGraph is a private company headquartered in Redwood City, California. It provides graph database and graph analytics software. == History == TigerGraph was founded in 2012 by programmer Yu, Ruoming, Li, Like and Mingxi, under the name GraphSQL. In September 2017, the company came out of stealth mode under the name TigerGraph with $33 million in funding. It raised an additional $32 million in funding in September 2019 and another $105 million in a series C round in February 2021. Cumulative funding as of March 2021 is $170 million. == Products == TigerGraph's hybrid transactional/analytical processing database and analytics software can scale to hundreds of terabytes of data with trillions of edges, and is used for data intensive applications such as fraud detection, customer data analysis (customer 360), IoT, artificial intelligence and machine learning. It is available using the cloud computing delivery model. The analytics uses C++ based software and a parallel processing engine to process algorithms and queries. It has its own graph query language that is similar to SQL. TigerGraph also provides a software development kit for creating graphs and visual representations. As of Mar 2024, TigerGraph version is up to version 4.2.0 TigerGraph offers free Community Edition for developers, researchers, and educators. It can be obtained from https://dl.tigergraph.com/ == Query Language == GSQL , designed by Mingxi Wu and Alin Deutsch in 2015, is a SQL-like Turing complete query language. GSQL includes additions to make it compliant with the Graph Query Language standard.

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  Deep Instinct

  Deep Instinct is a cybersecurity company that applies deep learning to cybersecurity. The company implements artificial intelligence to the task of preventing and detecting malware. The company was the recipient of the Technology Pioneer by The World Economic Forum in 2017. Lane Bess has been CEO of the company since 2022. == Overview == In 2015, Deep Instinct was founded by Guy Caspi, Dr. Eli David, and Nadav Maman. The headquarters of the company is located in New York City. In July 2017, NVIDIA became an investor. According to Tom's Hardware, NVIDIA’s investment enabled access to a GPU-based neural network and CUDA platform, which they were using to achieve maximum vulnerability detection rates. As of February 2020, the company had raised $43 million in Series C funding round. In April 2021, Deep Instinct raised $100 million in Series D funding to accelerate growth. == Partnerships == In April 2019, Deep Instinct partnered with Chinese artist, Guo O. Dong on an art project titled, The Persistence of Chaos, consisting of a laptop infected with 6 pieces of malware that represented $95 billion in damages. The art was auctioned with a final bid of $1,345,000. In the same year, Globes reported that, HP Inc partnered with Deep Instinct to launch their security solution HP SureSense, which has been applied to the EliteBook and Zbook devices.

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  CityEngine

  ArcGIS CityEngine is a commercial 3D modeling program. Developed by Esri R&D Center Zurich (formerly Procedural Inc.), it specializes in the generation of 3D urban environments to support the creation of detailed large-scale 3D city models. Unlike traditional 3D modeling methodology, which uses computer-aided design (CAD) tools and techniques, CityEngine takes a procedural modeling approach which shapes generation via a rules-based system. Due to its integration with the wider ArcGIS platform, CityEngine can also be used with geographic information system (GIS) datasets. CityEngine can be used for urban planning and architecture, graphics visualization, game development, entertainment, and archeology. CityEngine can be used to visualize the building information modeling (BIM) data of buildings in a larger urban context, making for more realistic construction projects. == History and releases == === Software history === ArcGIS CityEngine, originally named Esri CityEngine, was developed at Swiss technology university ETH Zurich by Pascal Mueller, the co-founder and CEO of Procedural Inc. While researching for his PhD at the ETH Computer Vision Lab, Mueller invented a number of techniques for procedural modeling of 3D architecture that make up the foundation of CityEngine. CityEngine publically debuted at the 2001 SIGGRAPH conference; since then, additional research papers have been published that have contributed to CityEngine and its features. The first commercial version of CityEngine was released in 2008. In 2007, Procedural Inc. was founded and separated from ETH Zurich, the top-ranking technology university in Switzerland. In the summer of 2011, Procedural Inc. was acquired by Esri Inc., becoming Esri R&D Center Zurich. Esri CityEngine was renamed to ArcGIS CityEngine in June 2020 to offically make it a part of the ArcGIS software suite. === Releases === === Licensing and pricing === ArcGIS CityEngine is included in the Professional and Professional Plus tiers of ArcGIS Online. Pricing may vary by region and distributors. In the US, the professional tier costs US$2,200 per year; in the UK, it is £4,200 per year (excluding VAT). CityEngine can be purchased elsewhere via a local Esri partner. . Once purchased, users can download and obtain license details from the MyEsri portal. == Features == CGA (computer generated architecture) parametric modeling rules to control mass, geometry assets, proportions, or texturing of buildings or streets on a citywide scale Select a target location and import geo-referenced satellite imagery and 3D terrain of the location to more quickly build accurate urban environments through OpenStreetMap integration Interactively control specific street or building parameters, such as height or age Import/export geo-spatial/vector data with industry-standard formats such as Esri Shapefile, File Geodatabase, and OpenStreetMap, as well as file formats for WebGL, KMZ, Collada, Autodesk FBX, Autodesk Maya, 3DS, Wavefront OBJ, RenderMan RIB, Alembic, e-on software's Vue, Universal Scene Description USD, Khronos Group GLTF, Unreal Engine, and Unreal Datasmith Script and generate rules-based reports to show socioeconomic figures (e.g., Gross Floor Area (GFA) and Floor Area Ratio (FAR)) to analyze their urban design proposals. VR viewing of modeled environments with Samsung Gear VR Use a variety of materials through the Esri materials library == Procedural modeling == ArcGIS CityEngine uses a procedural modeling approach to automatically generate models through a predefined rule set. The rules are defined through a CGA shape grammar system, enabling the creation of complex parametric models. Users can change or add the shape grammar as needed. Urban environments can be modeled within CityEngine by starting with creating a street network (either from the street drawing tool or with data imported from map data). Then, lots may be subdivided as many times as specified, resulting in a map of multiple lots and streets. CityEngine can then be instructed to start generating the buildings using defined procedural modeling rules. At this point, the city model can be re-designed and adjusted by changing the parameters or the shape grammar. === Geodesign === Though CityEngine is not an analytical tool like GIS, discussions about geodesign often mention the use of ArcGIS CityEngine. As it can be used to enhance 3D shape generation in ArcGIS, ArcGIS CityEngine is a critical product to improve the applicability of geodesign by using geospatial information to design or analyze a city. == Applications == === Urban design and planning === Garsdale Design used ArcGIS CityEngine in the creation of city master plans in Iraq before 2013, both to model existing historic areas and also model future plans. Larger companies like Foster+Partners and HOK Architects have also used CityEngine in their urban planning projects. === Urban and environmental studies === Because its primary feature is building informative city models, some urban researchers use CityEngine to compare land-use planning schemes, for example in very dense global cities such as Hong Kong and Seoul. Environmental scientists can also utilize the instant 3D model generation in CityEngine, which can make for more convenient informative research than modeling a city by creating each building individually. === Game development === CityEngine can be used as a tool in the creation of video games that require detailed 3D environments to assign interactive scripts. === Movie industry === Zootopia (also known outside of the US as Zootopolis), which won the 2016 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film, used CityEngine to model the city in its movie. multi-scaling city, the designers used CityEngine due to its rule-based system. CityEngine was also used to create Big Hero 6's San-Fransokyo. === Military === Due to its integration with the Esri product suite and its ability to process geospatial data to create 3D scenes/maps, CityEngine can be used within military/defense organizations. == List of movies and TV shows using CityEngine == Studios and companies rarely state what software they use in their pipelines. When CityEngine is mentioned as a tool in production, it's often in a small reference in a larger article. Movies only claimed to use CityEngine by a single Esri employee Presented at FMX 2025 workshop == Ports == ArcGIS CityEngine is built on top of Eclipse IDE, and has therefore able to be used on Windows and Linux operating systems. Support for macOS was stopped in March 2021. == Plugins and extensions == ArcGIS CityEngine currently works with a number of third party 3D modeling, rendering, and analytical software products via its SDK and API; these currently are: ArcGIS CityEngine for ArcGIS Urban: ArcGIS Urban Suite Puma: ArcGIS CityEngine for Rhinoceros 3D Palladio: ArcGIS CityEngine for Houdini Serlio: ArcGIS CityEngine for Maya PyPRT: ArcGIS CityEngine for Python ArcGIS CityEngine provides a Python scripting interface built on Jython (current version 2.7.0) which allows users to create their own tools and functionality. == Publications ==

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  Comparison of color models in computer graphics

  This article provides introductory information about the RGB, HSV, and HSL color models from a computer graphics (web pages, images) perspective. An introduction to colors is also provided to support the main discussion. == Basics of color == === Primary colors and hue === First, "color" refers to the human brain's subjective interpretation of combinations of a narrow band of wavelengths of light. For this reason, the definition of "color" is not based on a strict set of physical phenomena. Therefore, even basic concepts like "primary colors" are not clearly defined. For example, traditional "Painter's Colors" use red, blue, and yellow as the primary colors, "Printer's Colors" use cyan, yellow, and magenta, and "Light Colors" use red, green, and blue. "Light colors", more formally known as additive colors, are formed by combining red, green, and blue light. This article refers to additive colors and refers to red, green, and blue as the primary colors. Hue is a term describing a pure color, that is, a color not modified by tinting or shading (see below). In additive colors, hues are formed by combining two primary colors. When two primary colors are combined in equal intensities, the result is a "secondary color". === Color wheel === A color wheel is a tool that provides a visual representation of the relationships between all possible hues. The primary colors are arranged around a circle at equal (120 degree) intervals. (Warning: Color wheels frequently depict "Painter's Colors" primary colors, which leads to a different set of hues than additive colors.) The illustration shows a simple color wheel based on the additive colors. Note that the position (top, right) of the starting color, typically red, is arbitrary, as is the order of green and blue (clockwise, counter-clockwise). The illustration also shows the secondary colors, yellow, cyan, and magenta, located halfway between (60 degrees) the primary colors. == Complementary color == The complement of a hue is the hue that is opposite it (180 degrees) on the color wheel. Using additive colors, mixing a hue and its complement in equal amounts produces white. === Tints and shades === The following discussion uses an illustration involving three projectors pointing to the same spot on a screen. Each projector is capable of generating one hue. The "intensities" of each projector are "matched" and can be equally adjusted from zero to full. (Note: "Intensity" is used here in the same sense as the RGB color model. The subject of matching, or "gamma correction", is beyond the level of this article.) A shade is produced by "dimming" a maximum chroma color. Painters refer to this as "adding black". In our illustration, one projector is set to full intensity, a second is set to some intensity between zero and full, and third is set to zero. "Dimming" is accomplished by decreasing each projector's intensity setting to the same fraction of its start setting. In the shade example, with any fully shaded hue, that all three projectors are set to zero intensity, resulting in black. A tint is produced by "lightening" a maximum chroma color. Painters refer to this as "adding white". In our illustration, one projector is set to full intensity, a second is set to some intensity between zero and full, and third is set to zero. "Lightening" is accomplished by increasing each projector's intensity setting by the same fraction from its start setting to full. In the tinting example, note that the third projector is now contributing. When the hue is fully lightened, all three projectors are each at full intensity, and the result is white. Note an attribute of the total intensity in the additive model. If full intensity for one projector is 1, then a primary color has a combined intensity of 1. A secondary color has a total intensity of 2. White has a total intensity of 3. Tinting, or "adding white", increases the total intensity of the hue. While this is simply a fact, the HSL model will take this fact into account in its design. === Tones === Tone is a general term, typically used by painters, to refer to the effects of reducing the "colorfulness" of a maximum chroma color; painters refer to it as "adding gray". Note that gray is not a color or even a single concept but refers to all the range of values between black and white where all three primary colors are equally represented. The general term is provided as more specific terms have conflicting definitions in different color models. Thus, shading takes a hue toward black, tinting takes a hue towards white, and tones cover the range between. == Choosing a color model == No one color model is necessarily "better" than another. Typically, the choice of a color model is dictated by external factors, such as a graphics tool or the need to specify colors according to the CSS2 or CSS3 standard. The following discussion only describes how the models function, centered on the concepts of hue, shade, tint, and tone. === RGB === The RGB model's approach to colors is important because: It directly reflects the physical properties of "Truecolor" displays As of 2011, most graphic cards define pixel values in terms of the colors red, green, and blue. The typical range of intensity values for each color, 0–255, is based on taking a binary number with 32 bits and breaking it up into four bytes of 8 bits each. 8 bits can hold a value from 0 to 255. The fourth byte is used to specify the "alpha", or the opacity, of the color. Opacity comes into play when layers with different colors are stacked. If the color in the top layer is less than fully opaque (alpha < 255), the color from underlying layers "shows through". In the RGB model, hues are represented by specifying one color as full intensity (255), a second color with a variable intensity, and the third color with no intensity (0). The following provides some examples using red as the full-intensity and green as the partial-intensity colors; blue is always zero: Shades are created by multiplying the intensity of each primary color by 1 minus the shade factor, in the range 0 to 1. A shade factor of 0 does nothing to the hue, a shade factor of 1 produces black: new intensity = current intensity (1 – shade factor) The following provides examples using orange: Tints are created by modifying each primary color as follows: the intensity is increased so that the difference between the intensity and full intensity (255) is decreased by the tint factor, in the range 0 to 1. A tint factor of 0 does nothing, a tint factor of 1 produces white: new intensity = current intensity + (255 – current intensity) tint factor The following provides examples using orange: Tones are created by applying both a shade and a tint. The order in which the two operations are performed does not matter, with the following restriction: when a tint operation is performed on a shade, the intensity of the dominant color becomes the "full intensity"; that is, the intensity value of the dominant color must be used in place of 255. The following provides examples using orange: === HSV === The HSV, or HSB, model describes colors in terms of hue, saturation, and value (brightness). Note that the range of values for each attribute is arbitrarily defined by various tools or standards. Be sure to determine the value ranges before attempting to interpret a value. Hue corresponds directly to the concept of hue in the Color Basics section. The advantages of using hue are The angular relationship between tones around the color circle is easily identified Shades, tints, and tones can be generated easily without affecting the hue Saturation corresponds directly to the concept of tint in the Color Basics section, except that full saturation produces no tint, while zero saturation produces white, a shade of gray, or black. Value corresponds directly to the concept of intensity in the Color Basics section. Pure colors are produced by specifying a hue with full saturation and value Shades are produced by specifying a hue with full saturation and less than full value Tints are produced by specifying a hue with less than full saturation and full value Tones are produced by specifying a hue and both less than full saturation and value White is produced by specifying zero saturation and full value, regardless of hue Black is produced by specifying zero value, regardless of hue or saturation Shades of gray are produced by specifying zero saturation and between zero and full value The advantage of HSV is that each of its attributes corresponds directly to the basic color concepts, which makes it conceptually simple. The perceived disadvantage of HSV is that the saturation attribute corresponds to tinting, so desaturated colors have increasing total intensity. For this reason, the CSS3 standard plans to support RGB and HSL but not HSV. === HSL === The HSL model describes colors in terms of hue, saturation, and lightness (also called luminance). (Note: the definition of sa

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  Joox

  Joox (stylised in all caps) is a music streaming service owned by Tencent, launched in January 2015. Joox is the biggest music streaming app in Asian markets such as Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand and also in South Africa before it was shut down in early 2022. Joox is a freemium service, providing most of its songs free, while some songs are only available for premium users, offered via paid subscriptions or by doing different tasks offered. In 2017, Joox launched their service in their first non-Asian market, South Africa, which for an unknown reason shut down five years later. The service now accounts for more than 50% of all music streaming app downloads in their Asian markets. The number of music-streaming users in Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar and Indonesia was expected to reach 87 million by 2020. == Background == Before the emergence of Joox, Tencent owned QQ Music, one of the largest music streaming and download service in China. In 2015, they introduced Joox as their expansion of music services to overseas market instead of mainland China, starting first in Hong Kong. Instead of providing free services by playing audio ads to users like Spotify, another major music service, Joox focused on banner ads, splash ads and other advertising methods such as category playlists and in-app skins. They claimed it as a success. Joox offered their premium VIP access to DStv subscribers free of charge. DStv is the sister company to Tencent and is the primary pay-TV provider in South Africa. In November 2021, it was announced that Joox will stop streaming in South Africa in March 2022.

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  National Cyber Security Policy 2013

  National Cyber Security Policy is a policy framework by Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) It aims at protecting the public and private infrastructure from cyber attacks. The policy also intends to safeguard "information, such as personal information (of web users), financial and banking information and sovereign data". This was particularly relevant in the wake of US National Security Agency (NSA) leaks that suggested the US government agencies are spying on Indian users, who have no legal or technical safeguards against it. Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (India) defines Cyberspace as a complex environment consisting of interactions between people, software services supported by worldwide distribution of information and communication technology. == Reason for Cyber Security policies == India had no Cyber security policy before 2013. In 2013, The Hindu newspaper, citing documents leaked by NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden, has alleged that much of the NSA surveillance was focused on India's domestic politics and its strategic and commercial interests. This sparked a furore among people. Under pressure, the government unveiled a National Cyber Security Policy 2013 on 2 July 2013. == Vision == To build a secure and resilient cyberspace for citizens, business, and government and also to protect anyone from intervening in user's privacy.It mentioned a five year target of training five lakh cyber security personnel by 2018. == Mission == To protect information and information infrastructure in cyberspace, build capabilities to prevent and respond to cyber threat, reduce vulnerabilities and minimize damage from cyber incidents through a combination of institutional structures, people, processes, technology, and cooperation. == Objective == Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (India) define objectives as follows: To create a secure cyber ecosystem in the country, generate adequate trust and confidence in IT system and transactions in cyberspace and thereby enhance adoption of IT in all sectors of the economy. To create an assurance framework for the design of security policies and promotion and enabling actions for compliance to global security standards and best practices by way of conformity assessment (Product, process, technology & people). To strengthen the Regulatory Framework for ensuring a SECURE CYBERSPACE ECOSYSTEM. To enhance and create National and Sectoral level 24x7 mechanism for obtaining strategic information regarding threats to ICT infrastructure, creating scenarios for response, resolution and crisis management through effective predictive, preventive, protective response and recovery actions. -To improve visibility of integrity of ICT products and services by establishing infrastructure for testing & validation of security of such product. To create workforce for 500,000 professionals skilled in next 5 years through capacity building skill development and training. To provide fiscal benefit to businesses for adoption of standard security practices and processes. To enable Protection of information while in process, handling, storage & transit so as to safeguard privacy of citizen's data and reducing economic losses due to cyber crime or data theft. To enable effective prevention, investigation and prosecution of cybercrime and enhancement of law enforcement capabilities through appropriate legislative intervention. == Strategies == Creating a secured Ecosystem. Creating an assurance framework. Encouraging Open Standards. Strengthening The regulatory Framework. Creating a mechanism for Security Threats Early Warning, Vulnerability management, and response to security threats. Securing E-Governance services. Protection and resilience of Critical Information Infrastructure. Promotion of Research and Development in cyber security. Reducing supply chain risks Human Resource Development (fostering education and training programs both in formal and informal sectors to Support the Nation's cyber security needs and build capacity. Creating cyber security awareness. Developing effective Public-Private partnerships. To develop bilateral and multilateral relationships in the area of cyber security with another country. (Information sharing and cooperation) a Prioritized approach for implementation.

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  Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice

  Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice is a textbook written by James D. Foley, Andries van Dam, Steven K. Feiner, John Hughes, Morgan McGuire, David F. Sklar, and Kurt Akeley and published by Addison–Wesley. First published in 1982 as Fundamentals of Interactive Computer Graphics, it is widely considered a classic standard reference book on the topic of computer graphics. It is sometimes known as the bible of computer graphics (due to its size). == Editions == === First Edition === The first edition, published in 1982 and titled Fundamentals of Interactive Computer Graphics, discussed the SGP library, which was based on ACM's SIGGRAPH CORE 1979 graphics standard, and focused on 2D vector graphics. === Second Edition === The second edition, published 1990, was completely rewritten and covered 2D and 3D raster and vector graphics, user interfaces, geometric modeling, anti-aliasing, advanced rendering algorithms and an introduction to animation. The SGP library was replaced by SRGP (Simple Raster Graphics Package), a library for 2D raster primitives and interaction handling, and SPHIGS (Simple PHIGS), a library for 3D primitives, which were specifically written for the book. === Second Edition in C === In the second edition in C, published in 1995, all examples were converted from Pascal to C. New implementations for the SRGP and SPHIGS graphics packages in C were also provided. === Third Edition === A third edition covering modern GPU architecture was released in July 2013. Examples in the third edition are written in C++, C#, WPF, GLSL, OpenGL, G3D, or pseudocode. == Awards == The book has won a Front Line Award (Hall of Fame) in 1998.

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  Sherwood Applied Business Security Architecture

  SABSA (Sherwood Applied Business Security Architecture) is a model and methodology for developing a risk-driven enterprise information security architecture and service management, to support critical business processes. It was developed independently from the Zachman Framework, but has a similar structure. The primary characteristic of the SABSA model is that everything must be derived from an analysis of the business requirements for security, especially those in which security has an enabling function through which new business opportunities can be developed and exploited. The process analyzes the business requirements at the outset, and creates a chain of traceability through the strategy and concept, design, implementation, and ongoing ‘manage and measure’ phases of the lifecycle to ensure that the business mandate is preserved. Framework tools created from practical experience further support the whole methodology. The model is layered, with the top layer being the business requirements definition stage. At each lower layer a new level of abstraction and detail is developed, going through the definition of the conceptual architecture, logical services architecture, physical infrastructure architecture and finally at the lowest layer, the selection of technologies and products (component architecture). The SABSA model itself is generic and can be the starting point for any organization, but by going through the process of analysis and decision-making implied by its structure, it becomes specific to the enterprise, and is finally highly customized to a unique business model. It becomes in reality the enterprise security architecture, and it is central to the success of a strategic program of information security management within the organization. SABSA is a particular example of a methodology that can be used both for IT (information technology) and OT (operational technology) environments. == SABSA matrix == Note: The above is the original SABSA Matrix, which is still valid today, but it has been expanded by a comprehensive service management matrix and updated in some detail and terminology areas. In the words of David Lynas, SABSA author, "The SABSA Matrix and the SABSA Service Management Matrix have not been updated since the late 90s. We have redesigned them to deliver the improvements your feedback has requested over the years. We have not fundamentally changed the structure or principles of the matrices (very few elements have changed position) but have focused on terminology update and consistency." The new versions can be downloaded (along with the 2009 revision of the SABSA White Paper and other important documents like the SABSA Certification Roadmap) at the SABSA Members' Web Site.

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