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CinePlayer

CinePlayer is a software based media player used to review Digital Cinema Packages (DCP) without the need for a digital cinema server by Doremi Labs. CinePlayer can play back any DCP, not just those created by Doremi Mastering products. In addition to playing DCPs, CinePlayer can also playback JPEG2000 image sequences and many popular multimedia file types. There are two versions of CinePlayer available, standard and Pro. The standard version supports playback of non-encrypted, 2D DCP's up to 2K resolution. The Pro version supports playback of encrypted, 2D or 3D DCP's with subtitles up to 4K resolution. == Supported formats == === Containers === AVI MOV MXF MPG TS WMV M2TS MTS MP4 MKV === Video codecs === JPEG2000 ProRes 422 DNxHD YUV Uncompressed 8-10 bits DIVX XVID MPEG4 AVC / H-264 VC-1 MPEG2 === Supported image sequences === BMP TIFF TGA DPX JPG J2C === Supported audio files === WAV MP3 WMA MP2
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G7 Rapid Response Mechanism

The G7 Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM) is an initiative introduced in the "Charlevoix Commitment on Defending Democracy from Foreign Threats", issued by the leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) countries—United States, Canada, Japan, United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy—on June 9, 2018, during their summit in Charlevoix, Quebec. The RRM's mandate is to strengthen the coordination of G7 member countries, as well as "to identify and respond to diverse and evolving threats to our democracies, including through sharing information and analysis, and identifying opportunities for coordinated response" The G7 is an informal international intergovernmental economic organization that meets annually, whose members represent the seven wealthiest advanced economies in the world, as measured by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). == Constituents == The following countries and organisations are members and observers (associate members) of the G7 Rapid Response Mechanism: Australia Canada France Germany Italy Japan Netherlands New Zealand Poland Sweden United Kingdom United States European Union North Atlantic Treaty Organization == Mandate == The RRM was mandated to "strengthen coordination to prevent, thwart and respond to malign and evolving threats to G7 democracies." It "will share information and threat analysis related to various threats to democracy, and is an established mechanism to identify opportunities for coordinated response." According to the Institute for Research on Public Policy's Policy Options magazine, the "RRM initiative seeks to strengthen the leading democracies' coordination to identify and respond to diverse and evolving threats…including through sharing information and analysis, and identifying opportunities for a coordinated response." == Administration == The RRM initiative is led by Canada through Global Affairs Canada's Centre for International Digital Policy. Tara Denham, Director of the Centre for International Digital Policy at Global Affairs Canada, directed the team responsible for setting up the RRM Coordination Unit. Global Affairs Canada—the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development—is the federal Canadian ministry responsible for diplomatic and consular relations, international trade, and international development and humanitarian assistance. The Centre for International Digital Policy includes the Digital Inclusion Lab and the RRM. Denham is also the RRM's Canadian Focal Point. At a briefing on "the security and intelligence threats to elections" of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics, the chair Bob Zimmer (CPC), said that the 2019 general election "may be different" from past elections in Canada. as the "tools that were used to strengthen civic engagement are being used to undermine, disrupt and destabilize democracy." "Democracies around the world have entered a new era—an era of heightened threat and heightened vigilance—and 2019 will see a number of countries brace for volleys of attempted disruption: India, Australia, Ukraine, Switzerland, Belgium, the EU and, of course, Canada. Evidence has confirmed that the most recent Canadian general election, in 2015, was unencumbered by interference, although there were some relatively primitive attempts to disrupt, misinform and divide. These efforts were few in number and uncoordinated, and had no visible impact on the voter, either online or in line." Zimmer described the initiative's three pillars. "enhancing citizen preparedness" through the "digital citizen initiative" "improving organizational readiness" with national security and intelligence agencies supporting Elections Canada "ensure a comprehensive understanding of and response to any threats to Canada's democratic process." by establishing the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections Task Force (SITE) which works as a team with the Communications Security Establishment (CSE), the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), as well as Global Affairs Canada Zimmer said that as part of the third pillar, "We have activated the G7 rapid response mechanism, announced at the G7 leaders' summit in Charlevoix, to strengthen coordination among our G7 allies and to ensure that there is international collaboration and coordination in responding to foreign threats to democracy." == Background == === Charlevoix summit === The G7 met from June 8 to 9, 2018 during their summit at the Manoir Richelieu in Charlevoix, in La Malbaie, Quebec. The Charlevoix Summit was the 44th G7 summit. The group issued eight "Commitments" at the summit. They included: Commitment on Defending Democracy from Foreign Threats Commitment on Equality and Economic Growth Commitment to End Sexual and Gender-Based Violence, Abuse and Harassment in Digital Contexts Declaration on Quality Education for Girls, Adolescent Girls and Women in Developing Countries Commitment on Innovative Financing for Development. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced five themes for Canada's G7 presidency which began in January 2018. === Defending Democracy from Foreign Threats === "We commit to take concerted action in responding to foreign actors who seek to undermine our democratic societies and institutions, our electoral processes, our sovereignty and our security as outlined in the Charlevoix Commitment on Defending Democracy from Foreign Threats. We recognize that such threats, particularly those originating from state actors, are not just threats to G7 nations, but to international peace and security and the rules-based international order. We call on others to join us in addressing these growing threats by increasing the resilience and security of our institutions, economies and societies, and by taking concerted action to identify and hold to account those who would do us harm." They committed to "cooperate in defending democracies from foreign threats and establish a response mechanism for that purpose". "Democracy and the rules-based international order are increasingly being challenged by authoritarianism and the defiance of international norms. In particular, foreign actors seek to undermine our democratic societies and institutions, our electoral processes, our sovereignty and our security. These malicious, multi-faceted and ever-evolving tactics constitute a serious strategic threat which we commit to confront together, working with other governments that share our democratic values." The Charlevoix Commitment states that "foreign actors seek to undermine our democratic societies and institutions, our electoral processes, our sovereignty and our security. These malicious, multi-faceted and ever-evolving tactics constitute a serious strategic threat which we commit to confront together, working together with other governments that share our democratic values." The Charlevoix Summit resolved to "establish a G7 Rapid Response Mechanism to strengthen our coordination to identify and respond to diverse and evolving threats to our democracies, including through sharing information and analysis, and identifying opportunities for coordinated response." == Monitored elections == === 2019 European Parliament election === RRM Canada's comprehensive report on the 2019 European Parliament election analyzed open data "related to foreign interference during and leading up to the 2019 European Union Parliamentary Elections, May 23–26, 2019". RRM Canada did not find "significant evidence of state-based foreign interference, or any large-scale, organized and coordinated efforts by non-state actors". They did find that "national or international non-state actors" used tactics based on those used by the Russian sponsored Internet Research Agency (IRA) in previous elections, "such as the 2016 U.S. Elections". For example, blogs, webpages, and social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook and Reddit "were used to spread divisive and false information to damage and negatively impact social cohesion and trust in democratic processes and institutions" in coordinated networks of Facebook groups. === 2019 Alberta general election === RRM Canada's analyz report on the 2019 Alberta general election was intended to "identify any emerging tactics in foreign interference and draw lessons learned for the Canadian general elections scheduled to take place in October 2019." No foreign activity was detected, although the data revealed ""suspicious account creation pattern that is indicative of troll or bot activity". They found "automated inauthentic behaviour and trolling activities" but concluded that they were "very likely domestic". The data showed "suspicious account creation pattern that is indicative of troll or bot activity", and "spikes in account creation" which suggested the "presence of accounts developed for a specific purpose." The accounts were very likely domestic and were "mainly comprised of supporters of the United Conservative Party (UCP)." A seco
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History of RISC OS

RISC OS, the computer operating system developed by Acorn Computers for their ARM-based Acorn Archimedes range, was originally released in 1987 as Arthur 0.20, and soon followed by Arthur 0.30, and Arthur 1.20. The next version, Arthur 2, became RISC OS 2 and was completed in September 1988 and made available in April 1989. RISC OS 3 was released with the very earliest version of the A5000 in 1991 and contained a series of new features. By 1996 RISC OS had been shipped on over 500,000 systems. RISC OS 4 was released by RISCOS Ltd (ROL) in July 1999, based on the continued development of OS 3.8. ROL had in March 1999 licensed the rights to RISC OS from Element 14 (the renamed Acorn) and eventually from the new owner, Pace Micro Technology. According to the company, over 6,400 copies of OS 4.02 on ROM were sold up until production was ceased in mid-2005. RISC OS Select was launched in May 2001 by ROL. This is a subscription scheme allowing users access to the latest OS updates. These upgrades are released as soft-loadable ROM images, separate to the ROM where the boot OS is stored, and are loaded at boot time. Select 1 was shipped in May 2002, with Select 2 following in November 2002 and the final release of Select 3 in June 2004. ROL released the ROM based OS 4.39 the same month, dubbed RISC OS Adjust as a play on the RISC OS GUI convention of calling the three mouse buttons 'Select', 'Menu' and 'Adjust'. ROL sold its 500th Adjust ROM in early 2006. RISC OS 5 was released in October 2002 on Castle Technology's Acorn clone Iyonix PC. OS 5 is a separate evolution based upon the NCOS work done by Pace for set-top boxes. In October 2006, Castle announced a source sharing license plan for elements of OS 5. This Shared Source Initiative (SSI) is managed by RISC OS Open Ltd (ROOL). RISC OS 5 has since been released under a fully free and open source Apache 2.0 license, while the older no longer maintained RISC OS 6 has not. RISC OS Six was also announced in October 2006 by ROL. This is the next generation of their stream of the operating system. The first product to be launched under the name was the continuation of the Select scheme, Select 4. A beta-version of OS 6, Preview 1 (Select 4i1), was available in 2007 as a free download to all subscribers to the Select scheme, while in April 2009 the final release of Select 5 was shipped. The latest release of RISC OS from ROL is Select 6i1, shipped in December 2009. == Arthur == The OS was designed in the United Kingdom by Acorn for the 32-bit ARM based Acorn Archimedes, and released in its first version in 1987, as the Arthur operating system. The first public release of the OS was Arthur 1.20 in June 1987. It was bundled with a desktop graphical user interface (GUI), which mostly comprises assembly language software modules, and the Desktop module itself being written in BBC BASIC. It features a colour-scheme typically described as "technicolor". The graphical desktop runs on top of a command-line driven operating system which owes much to Acorn's earlier MOS operating system for its BBC Micro range of 8-bit microcomputers. Arthur, as originally conceived, was intended to deliver similar functionality to the operating system for the BBC Master series of computers, MOS, as a reaction to the fact that a more advanced operating system research project (ARX) would not be ready in time for the Archimedes. The Arthur project team, led by Paul Fellows, was given just five months to develop it entirely from the ground up—with the directive "just make it like the BBC micro". It was intended as a stop-gap until the operating system which Acorn had under development (ARX) could be completed. However, the latter was delayed time and again, and was eventually dropped when it became apparent that the Arthur development could be extended to have a window manager and full desktop environment. Also, it was small enough to run on the first 512K machines with only a floppy disc, whereas ARX required 4 megabytes and a hard drive. The OS development was carried out using a prototype ARM-based system connected to a BBC computer, before moving onto the prototype Acorn Archimedes the A500. Arthur was not a multitasking operating system, but offered support for adding application-level cooperative multitasking. No other version of the operating system was released externally, but internally the development of the desktop and window management continued, with the addition of a cooperative multitasking system, implemented by Neil Raine, which used the memory management hardware to swap-out one task, and bring in another between call-and-return from the Wimp_Poll call that applications were obliged to make to get messages under the desktop. Reminiscent of a similar technique employed by MultiFinder on the Apple Macintosh, this transformed a single-application-at-a-time system into one that could operate a full multi-tasking desktop. This transformation took place at version 1.6 though it was not made public until released, with the name change from Arthur to RISC OS, as version 2.0. Most software made for Arthur 1.2 can be run under RISC OS 2 and later because, underneath the desktop, the original Arthur OS core, API interfaces and modular structures remain as the heart of all versions. (A few titles will not work, however, because they used undocumented features, side effects or in a few cases APIs that became deprecated). In 2011, Business Insider listed Arthur as one of ten "operating systems that time forgot". == RISC OS 2 == RISC OS was a rapid development of Arthur 1.2 after the failure of the ARX project. Given growing dissatisfaction with various bugs and limitations with Arthur, testing of what was then known as Arthur 2 was apparently ongoing during 1988 with selected software houses. At this stage, Computer Concepts, who had been prolific developers for the BBC Micro and who had begun software development for the Archimedes, had already initiated a rival operating system project, Impulse, to support their own applications (including the desktop publishing application that would eventually become Impression), stating that Arthur did not meet the "hundreds of requirements" involved including "true multi-tasking". Such an operating system was to be offered free of charge with the planned application packages, but with the release of RISC OS and Computer Concepts acknowledging that RISC OS "overcomes the old problems with Arthur", the applications were to be able to run under either RISC OS or Impulse. Impression was eventually released as a RISC OS application. Ultimately, Arthur 2 was renamed to RISC OS, and was first sold as RISC OS 2.00 in April 1989. The operating system implements co-operative multitasking with some limitations but is not multi-threaded. It uses the ADFS file system for both floppy and hard disc access. It ran from a 512 KB set of ROMs. The WIMP interface offers all the standard features and fixes many of the bugs that had hindered Arthur. It lacks virtual memory and extensive memory protection (applications are protected from each other, but many functions have to be implemented as 'modules' which have full access to the memory). At the time of release, the main advantage of the OS was its ROM; it booted very quickly and while it was easy to crash, it was impossible to permanently break the OS from software. Its high performance was due to much of the system being written in ARM assembly language. The OS was designed with users in mind, rather than OS designers. It is organised as a relatively small kernel which defines a standard software interface to which extension modules are required to conform. Much of the system's functionality is implemented in modules coded in the ROM, though these can be supplanted by more evolved versions loaded into RAM. Among the kernel facilities are a general mechanism, named the callback handler, which allows a supervisor module to perform process multiplexing. This facility is used by a module forming part of the standard editor program to provide a terminal emulator window for console applications. The same approach made it possible for advanced users to implement modules giving RISC OS the ability to do pre-emptive multitasking. A slightly updated version, RISC OS 2.01, was released later to support the ARM3 processor, larger memory capacities, and the VGA and SVGA modes provided by the Acorn Archimedes 540 and Acorn R225/R260. == RISC OS 3 == RISC OS 3 introduced a number of new features, including multitasking Filer operations, applications and fonts in ROM, no limit on number of open windows, ability to move windows off screen, safe shutdown, the Pinboard, grouping of icon bar icons, up to 128 tasks, native ability to read MS-DOS format discs and use named hard discs. Improved configuration was also included, by way of multiple windows to change the settings. RISC OS 3.00 was released with the very earliest version of the A5000 in 1991; it is almo
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Horus Music

Horus Music Limited is a global digital distribution and label services company. Established in 2006, Horus Music allows artists, labels and right-holders to send their music to over 200 download, streaming, and interactive platforms including iTunes, Google Play, Amazon, VEVO, 7digital, Spotify, Beatport, Deezer, Tidal, as well as offering digital marketing and playlisting opportunities. == History == The company were named Best Business Partner of 2014 by Huawei Technology of China, and were also a finalist in the International Trade category as part of the Leicester Mercury Business Awards during that same year. Their client base consists of unsigned and independent musicians and record labels, as well as well known recording artists. In November 2015, Horus Music sponsored the UK’s first Independent Label Week, in order to highlight the music that is released by the UK’s indie labels. In 2016, Horus Music celebrated their 10th anniversary Horus Music's sister companies Help for Bands and Help For Writers, provide advice and opportunities for musicians and E-book distribution for writers, respectively. Anara Publishing opened in 2017 which allows the company to work closely with a handpicked roster of musicians to provide royalty administration and sync licensing services. On 21 April 2017, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s 91st birthday, Horus Music was awarded with the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade. In 2021, Horus Music, UnitedMasters, and Symphonic Distribution partnered with pioneering music fintech company, beatBread, to offer clients access to more capital. beatBread's chordCashAI technology provides an automated advance experience for independent musicians while enable clients to choose their own terms and retain ownership of their music. == Clients == Horus Music has partnered with a number of charities including Save the Children, for the recording "Look into Your Heart", featuring Beverley Knight with Rolling Stones' Mick Jagger and Ronnie Wood, 100% of proceeds from the single were donated to the charity. The Pixel Project, who produced songs about violence against women and the blood cancer charity Bloodwise. The company have spoken openly about the state of the music industry and artists' rights and were one of the first distributors to remove their catalogue from Rdio after the streaming service was acquired by Pandora. Their relationships with artists and labels, as well as leading industry contacts, means they have the ability to work with musicians in a myriad of ways, including offering performance opportunities and even local auditions for TV shows such as The Voice UK. == Horus Music India == Horus Music India opened in 2016 and is based in Mumbai. By opening Horus Music India, the company are able to expand on their local connections as well as to provide a much more personalised service to musicians based in this area. The appointment of two Business Development Managers in India cemented their move.
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Optical sorting

Optical sorting (sometimes called digital sorting) is the automated process of sorting solid products using cameras and/or lasers. Depending on the types of sensors used and the software-driven intelligence of the image processing system, optical sorters can recognize an object's color, size, shape, structural properties and chemical composition. The sorter compares objects to user-defined accept/reject criteria to identify and remove defective products and foreign material (FM) from the production line, or to separate product of different grades or types of materials. Optical sorters are in widespread use in the food industry worldwide, with the highest adoption in processing harvested foods such as potatoes, fruits, vegetables and nuts where it achieves non-destructive, 100 percent inspection in-line at full production volumes. The technology is also used in pharmaceutical manufacturing and nutraceutical manufacturing, tobacco processing, waste recycling and other industries. Compared to manual sorting, which is subjective and inconsistent, optical sorting helps improve product quality, maximize throughput and increase yields while reducing labor costs. == History == Optical sorting is an idea that first came out of the desire to automate industrial sorting of agricultural goods like fruits and vegetables. Before automated optical sorting technology was conceived in the 1930s, companies like Unitec were producing wooden machinery to assist in the mechanical sorting of fruit processing. In 1931, a company known as “the Electric Sorting Company” was incorporated and began the creation of the world’s first color sorters, which were being installed and used in Michigan’s bean industry by 1932. In 1937, optical sorting technology had advanced to allow for systems based on a two-color principle of selection. The next few decades saw the installation of new and improved sorting mechanisms, like gravity feed systems and the implementation of optical sorting in more agricultural industries. In the late 1960s, optical sorting began to be implemented to new industries beyond agriculture, like the sorting of ferrous and non-ferrous metals. By the 1990s, optical sorting was being used heavily in the sorting of solid wastes. With the large technological revolution happening in the late 1990s and early 2000s, optical sorters were being made more efficient via the implementation of new optical sensors, like CCD, UV, and IR cameras. Today, optical sorting is used in a wide variety of industries and, as such, is implemented with a varying selection of mechanisms to assist in that specific sorter’s task. == The sorting system == In general, optical sorters feature four major components: the feed system, the optical system, image processing software, and the separation system. The objective of the feed system is to spread products into a uniform monolayer so products are presented to the optical system evenly, without clumps, at a constant velocity. The optical system includes lights and sensors housed above and/or below the flow of the objects being inspected. The image processing system compares objects to user-defined accept/reject thresholds to classify objects and actuate the separation system. The separation system — usually compressed air for small products and mechanical devices for larger products, like whole potatoes — pinpoints objects while in-air and deflects the objects to remove into a reject chute while the good product continues along its normal trajectory. The ideal sorter to use depends on the application. Therefore, the product's characteristics and the user's objectives determine the ideal sensors, software-driven capabilities and mechanical platform. == Sensors == Optical sorters require a combination of lights and sensors to illuminate and capture images of the objects so the images can be processed. The processed images will determine if the material should be accepted or rejected. There are camera sorters, laser sorters and sorters that feature a combination of the two on one platform. Lights, cameras, lasers and laser sensors can be designed to function within visible light wavelengths as well as the infrared (IR) and ultraviolet (UV) spectrums. The optimal wavelengths for each application maximize the contrast between the objects to be separated. Cameras and laser sensors can differ in spatial resolution, with higher resolutions enabling the sorter to detect and remove smaller defects. === Cameras === Monochromatic cameras detect shades of gray from black to white and can be effective when sorting products with high-contrast defects. Sophisticated color cameras with high color resolution are capable of detecting millions of colors to better distinguish more subtle color defects. Trichromatic color cameras (also called three-channel cameras) divide light into three bands, which can include red, green and/or blue within the visible spectrum as well as IR and UV. The interaction of different materials with parts of the electromagnetic spectrum make these contrasts more evident than how they appear to the naked human eye. Coupled with intelligent software, sorters that feature cameras are capable of recognizing each object's color, size and shape; as well as the color, size, shape and location of a defect on a product. Some intelligent sorters even allow the user to define a defective product based on the total defective surface area of any given object. === Lasers === While cameras capture product information based primarily on material reflectance, lasers and their sensors are able to distinguish a material's structural properties along with their color. This structural property inspection allows lasers to detect a wide range of organic and inorganic foreign material such as insects, glass, metal, sticks, rocks and plastic; even if they are the same color as the good product. Lasers can be designed to operate within specific wavelengths of light; whether on the visible spectrum or beyond. For example, lasers can detect chlorophyll by stimulating fluorescence using specific wavelengths; which is a process that is very effective for removing foreign material from green vegetables. === Camera/laser combinations === Sorters equipped with cameras and lasers on one platform are generally capable of identifying the widest variety of attributes. Cameras are often better at recognizing color, size and shape while laser sensors identify differences in structural properties to maximize foreign material detection and removal. === Hyperspectral Imaging === Driven by the need to solve previously impossible sorting challenges, a new generation of sorters that feature multispectral and hyperspectral imaging Optical Sorters. Like trichromatic cameras, multispectral and hyperspectral cameras collect data from the electromagnetic spectrum. Unlike trichromatic cameras, which divide light into three bands, hyperspectral systems can divide light into hundreds of narrow bands over a continuous range that covers a vast portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. This opens the door for more detailed analysis that leads to a more consistent product. Using IR alone might detect some defects, but combining it with a broader range of the spectrum makes it more effective. Compared to the three data points per pixel collected by trichromatic cameras, hyperspectral cameras can collect hundreds of data points per pixel, which are combined to create a unique spectral signature (also called a fingerprint) for each object. When complemented by capable software intelligence, a hyperspectral sorter processes those fingerprints to enable sorting on the chemical composition of the product. This is an emerging area of chemometrics. == Software-driven intelligence == Once the sensors capture the object's response to the energy source, image processing is used to manipulate the raw data. The image processing extracts and categorizes information about specific features. The user then defines accept/reject thresholds that are used to determine what is good and bad in the raw data flow. The art and science of image processing lies in developing algorithms that maximize the effectiveness of the sorter while presenting a simple user-interface to the operator. Object-based recognition is a classic example of software-driven intelligence. It allows the user to define a defective product based on where a defect lies on the product and/or the total defective surface area of an object. It offers more control in defining a wider range of defective products. When used to control the sorter's ejection system, it can improve the accuracy of ejecting defective products. This improves product quality and increases yields. New software-driven capabilities are constantly being developed to address the specific needs of various applications. As computing hardware becomes more powerful, new software-driven advancements become possible. Some of these advancements enhance the effectivene
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MicroTCA

MicroTCA (short for Micro Telecommunications Computing Architecture, also: μTCA) is a modular, open standard, created and maintained by the PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group (PICMG). It provides the electrical, mechanical, thermal and management specifications to create a switched fabric computer system, using Advanced Mezzanine Cards (AMC), connected directly to a backplane. MicroTCA is a descendant of the AdvancedTCA standard. == History == The rapid expansion of mobile telecommunications and their associated services (such as text messages) at the beginning of the millennium increased the demand of processing power in telecommunication systems. The existing "carrier grade" (see RAS) computing architectures were not fit to house the high performance processors of the time. In order to answer those demands, about 100 companies worked together in PICMG, resulting in the Advanced Telecommunications Architecture (AdvancedTCA, ATCA), published in 2002. After the introduction of AdvancedTCA, a standard was developed, to cater towards smaller telecommunications systems at the edge of the network. This standard was geared towards a more compact, less expensive systems, without cutting back on reliability or data throughput. This standard, called MicroTCA, was ratified 2006. MicroTCA systems migrated after its release into non-telecommunication sectors, like defence, avionics and science. This resulted in extensions to the base-standard, called modules. == Modules == === MicroTCA.0 === The base-specification for properties common to all other modules, ratified July 6, 2006. This includes: Mechanical specifications, like possible dimensions of card cages, backplanes and supported AMC-modules Electrical specifications, like power distribution and interface layout Thermal specifications, like possible cooling layouts or available cooling power Management specifications A second revision of the base-specifications was ratified January 16, 2020, containing some corrections, as well as alterations, necessary to implement higher speed Ethernet fabrics, like 10GBASE-KR and 40GBASE-KR4. === MicroTCA.1 === This module adds specifications for ruggedized systems, using forced air for cooling. Possible scenarios for MicroTCA.1-based systems include outside plant telecom, industrial and aerospace environments === MicroTCA.2 === This module adds specifications for more stringent requirements with regards to temperature, shock, vibration and other environmental conditions. These specifications are geared towards use in outside plant telecom, machine and transport industry, as well as military airborne, shipboard and ground mobile equipment. MicroTCA.2 allows the use of air- and conduction-cooled AMC-modules. === MicroTCA.3 === This module adds specifications for even more stringent requirements with regards to temperature, shock, vibration and other environmental conditions. These specifications are geared towards use in outside plant telecom, machine and transport industry, as well as military airborne, shipboard and ground mobile equipment. MicroTCA.3 requires the use of conduction-cooled AMC-modules. === MicroTCA.4 === This module extends the AMC with a Rear Transition Module (RTM), increasing PCB-space and modularity. AMC and RTM are connected with a connector, located in zone 3, defined in MicroTCA.0. These specifications are geared towards use in large-scale scientific devices, like particle accelerators or telescopes. == Components of MicroTCA == === Card Cage === The card cage (also: shelf, crate) houses all the other components and as such has two primary functions: Provide mechanical stability to the other components Ensure sufficient cooling There exist a wide array of card cages. They usually differ in: the type of modules they support (MTCA.0, MTCA.1, ...) the number of slots they provide (typically between 2 and 12) the architecture of the installed backplane (see below) the cooling scheme they use (i.e. airflow front-to-back, bottom-to-top, side-to-side, conductive,...) === Backplane === The backplane is a printed circuit board, mounted directly into the card cage. It connects all other components of a MicroTCA system to each other and provides power, data access and management access to them. Two types of power are distributed over the backplane, Management Power (+3.3 V) and Payload Power (+12 V). Unlike typical backplanes, where power is distributed to all components via a common "powerplane" in the PCB, on a MicroTCA backplane, Management and Payload Power are distributed to each component individually. While Management Power is provided to each module connected to a powered backplane, Payload Power has to be granted by the MicroTCA Carrier Hub (MCH), after ensuring that the module is MicroTCA-compatible. The standard defines various communication buses, which the backplane can/should provide: Gigabit Ethernet IPMI SATA Fat pipe (can be used for PCIe, SRIO or 10G/40G Ethernet) Point to Point Links Clocks JTAG === Cooling Unit === The Cooling Unit (CU) provides controlled air flow in air-flow-cooled card cages. It usually consists of an array of fans and a controller, which is connected to the backplane. The MicroTCA Carrier Hub (MCH) can read-out temperature sensors (if present) and fan speed, as well as change fan speed via IPMI. The Cooling Unit is usually fitted to a specific card cage. Some CUs are easily detachable (i.e. for cleaning or replacement), while other card cages come with integrated, non-detachable CUs. === Power Module === The Power Module (PM, also: Power Supply) converts the AC power from the power line to the +3.3 V Management Power (MP) and +12 V Payload Power (PP), both of which are DC. There exist a variety of power modules, which differ in: form factor (i.e. double width, single width) input voltage (110 V, 220 V, both) output power (i.e. 600 W, 1000 W) The power module senses the presence of a module in a slot via a specified pin in the module connector, and immediately provides that module with management power. Payload power is managed by the MicroTCA Carrier Hub (MCH), which communicates with the power module via IPMI. The power module uses its own type of connector, and can thus only be installed into designated slots, which in turn can't carry any other type of module. Some card cages provide an additional power module slot for redundancy. In such a case, one slot is the primary, which will provide power by default, and the other one is secondary, providing power only, if the primary does not. === MicroTCA Carrier Hub === The MicroTCA Carrier Hub (MCH) is the central managing device of a MicroTCA card cage. It manages power distribution and cooling. It usually also provides Gigabit Ethernet and/or PCIe/Serial RapidIO switching. Some MCHs additionally provide clocking. As the name indicates, they are the hub of various star topologies (i.e. for Ethernet, PCIe) on the backplane and thus require dedicated slot(s). Some backplanes support two MCHs for redundancy. In this case there are two MCH slots, with one being designated primary, and one secondary. === Advanced Mezzanine Card === Advanced Mezzanine Card (AMC) is a standard for hot-pluggable PCBs. It was originally developed to be used in AdvancedTCA systems. The standard specifies: the dimensions of the PCB with two width variants (single, double) and three height variants (Compact, Mid-size, Full) type, location and orientation of connectors (i.e. Zone 1, 2, 3) There is a huge variation of functionalities, an AMC can fulfill: Computing (i.e. a module with CPU, RAM, SSD and on-board graphics) Storage (i.e. SSD carrier) Graphics card FPGA card (i.e. for signal processing) FMC carrier Digitizer card (Analog-Digital and Digital-Analog Conversion) Clocking and Triggering and others === Rear Transition Module (MTCA.4 only) === The Rear Transition Module (RTM) was added in the MicroTCA.4 standard. It is connected directly to an AMC via a connector, located in zone 3, requiring a double width AMC and RTM. An RTM has about the same dimensions, as an AMC, basically doubling the available PCB-space per slot in an MTCA.4 card cage. Its power is provided by the AMC. Thus an RTM can not operate on its own, but requires a paired AMC. The zone 3 connector is electrically free configurable, making it possible, that a mechanically fitting AMC-RTM pair is electrically incompatible. To avoid damage due to that incompatibility, a mechanical code-pin was added to MTCA.4-compatible AMCs and RTMs, mechanically preventing the installation of an electrically incompatible RTM to an AMC. The functionality of RTMs includes, but is not limited to: RF-signal pre-/post-processing (i.e. filtering, Up-/Down-conversion, Vector De-/Modulation) Digital signal pre-/post-processing Clock-generation/-distribution Device interfaces Date storage CPU (only MCH-RTM)
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Verge3D

Verge3D is a real-time renderer and a toolkit used for creating interactive 3D experiences running on websites. == Overview == Verge3D enables users to convert content from 3D modelling tools (Blender, 3ds Max, and Maya are currently supported) to view in a web browser. Verge3D was created by the same core group of software engineers that previously created the Blend4Web framework. == Features == Verge3D uses WebGL for rendering. It incorporates components of the Three.js library and exposes its API to application developers. Puzzles Application functionality can be added via JavaScript, either by writing code directly or by using Puzzles, Verge3D’s visual programming environment based on Google Blockly. Puzzles is aimed primarily at non-programmers allowing quick creation of interactive scenarios in a drag-and-drop fashion. App Manager and web publishing App Manager is a lightweight web-based tool for creating, managing and publishing Verge3D projects, running on top of the local development server. Verge3D Network service integrated in the App Manager allows for publishing Verge3D applications via Amazon S3 and EC2 cloud services. PBR For purposes of authoring materials, a glTF 2.0-compliant physically based rendering pipeline is offered alongside the standard shader-based approach. PBR textures can be authored using external texturing software such as Substance Painter for which Verge3D offers the corresponding export preset. Besides the glTF 2.0 model, Verge3D supports physical materials of 3ds Max and Maya (with Autodesk Arnold as reference), and Blender's real-time Eevee materials. glTF and DCC software integration Verge3D integrates directly with Blender, 3ds Max, and Maya, enabling users to create 3D geometry, materials, and animations inside the software, then export them in the JSON-based glTF format. The Sneak Peek feature allows for exporting and viewing scenes from the DCC tool environment. Facebook 3D posts For Facebook publishing, Verge3D offers a specific GLB export option. The exported GLB files are displayed and can be opened in the App Manager. Asset compression Exported files can optionally use LZMA compression, resulting in a reduction in file size of up to 6x. UI and website layouts Interface layouts, created using external WYSIWYG editors, can be linked with Puzzles to trigger changes to a 3D scene being rendered in the browser and vice versa. Animation Verge3D supports skeletal animation, including animation of bipeds and character rigs, and allows for animation of material parameters. Model parts can also be set up to be dragged by the user. Physics The physics module can be linked separately to enable collision detection, dynamically moving objects, support for characters and vehicles, springs, ropes and cloth simulation. As of version 2.11, simple physics simulations can be created and controlled without coding via Puzzles, the visual programming system used by Verge3D. AR/VR The 2.10 update added support for WebXR, an in-development open technology designed to enable virtual reality and augmented reality experiences to be displayed in web browsers. It works with both headsets with controllers, like the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, and those without, like Google Cardboard. AR/VR experiences can enabled via Puzzles or JavaScript. == Workflow == Verge3D's workflow differs substantially from other mainstream WebGL frameworks. Development of a new Verge3D application is usually started from modeling, texturing and animating 3D objects. The models are assembled in the 3D authoring tool. The scene file is then used as a basis for a Verge3D project initialized from the App Manager. An interactive scenario is optionally added using the Puzzles editor. A Verge3D application can be previewed in the web browser at any development stage using the App Manager. The finished web application can be deployed on the Verge3D Network, on Facebook or on the user's website. == Notable uses == NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory used Verge3D to create an interactive 3D visualization of the Mars InSight lander. The web application allows for exploring and interacting with the real-time model of the spacecraft, with the possibility to move different parts and unfurl the solar panels. NASA's older interactive web application Experience Curiosity was ported to Verge3D from Blend4Web. The application makes it possible to operate the rover, control its cameras and the robotic arm and reproduces some of the prominent events of the Mars Science Laboratory mission. Route 66 Digital's Escape Room used Verge3D and Blender. This interactive short explores how users can navigate 3D spaces and interact with objects without the need for instruction.
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Deconfliction line

A deconfliction line is an official line of communications established between militaries who are or could be hostile, to avoid dangerous misunderstandings and miscalculations based on ignorance. The ultimate aim is to avoid accidents and conflict escalation. In the 2010s and 2020s, the US and Russia set up deconfliction lines during the Syrian civil war and Russo-Ukrainian War. They were regularly tested by military staff, and used by air traffic controllers and senior military officers. They were used to avoid midair collisions between aircraft in the same or adjacent airspace, and sometimes to give warning of airstrikes. In April 2017, Russia severed the Syrian line in retaliation for a called strike.
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Point-set registration

In computer vision, pattern recognition, and robotics, point-set registration, also known as point-cloud registration or scan matching, is the process of finding a spatial transformation (e.g., scaling, rotation and translation) that aligns two point clouds. The purpose of finding such a transformation includes merging multiple data sets into a globally consistent model (or coordinate frame), and mapping a new measurement to a known data set to identify features or to estimate its pose. Raw 3D point cloud data are typically obtained from Lidars and RGB-D cameras. 3D point clouds can also be generated from computer vision algorithms such as triangulation, bundle adjustment, and more recently, monocular image depth estimation using deep learning. For 2D point set registration used in image processing and feature-based image registration, a point set may be 2D pixel coordinates obtained by feature extraction from an image, for example corner detection. Point cloud registration has extensive applications in autonomous driving, motion estimation and 3D reconstruction, object detection and pose estimation, robotic manipulation, simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM), panorama stitching, virtual and augmented reality, and medical imaging. As a special case, registration of two point sets that only differ by a 3D rotation (i.e., there is no scaling and translation), is called the Wahba Problem and also related to the orthogonal procrustes problem. == Formulation == The problem may be summarized as follows: Let { M , S } {\displaystyle \lbrace {\mathcal {M}},{\mathcal {S}}\rbrace } be two finite size point sets in a finite-dimensional real vector space R d {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{d}} , which contain M {\displaystyle M} and N {\displaystyle N} points respectively (e.g., d = 3 {\displaystyle d=3} recovers the typical case of when M {\displaystyle {\mathcal {M}}} and S {\displaystyle {\mathcal {S}}} are 3D point sets). The problem is to find a transformation to be applied to the moving "model" point set M {\displaystyle {\mathcal {M}}} such that the difference (typically defined in the sense of point-wise Euclidean distance) between M {\displaystyle {\mathcal {M}}} and the static "scene" set S {\displaystyle {\mathcal {S}}} is minimized. In other words, a mapping from R d {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{d}} to R d {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} ^{d}} is desired which yields the best alignment between the transformed "model" set and the "scene" set. The mapping may consist of a rigid or non-rigid transformation. The transformation model may be written as T {\displaystyle T} , using which the transformed, registered model point set is: The output of a point set registration algorithm is therefore the optimal transformation T ⋆ {\displaystyle T^{\star }} such that M {\displaystyle {\mathcal {M}}} is best aligned to S {\displaystyle {\mathcal {S}}} , according to some defined notion of distance function dist ⁡ ( ⋅ , ⋅ ) {\displaystyle \operatorname {dist} (\cdot ,\cdot )} : where T {\displaystyle {\mathcal {T}}} is used to denote the set of all possible transformations that the optimization tries to search for. The most popular choice of the distance function is to take the square of the Euclidean distance for every pair of points: where ‖ ⋅ ‖ 2 {\displaystyle \|\cdot \|_{2}} denotes the vector 2-norm, s m {\displaystyle s_{m}} is the corresponding point in set S {\displaystyle {\mathcal {S}}} that attains the shortest distance to a given point m {\displaystyle m} in set M {\displaystyle {\mathcal {M}}} after transformation. Minimizing such a function in rigid registration is equivalent to solving a least squares problem. == Types of algorithms == When the correspondences (i.e., s m ↔ m {\displaystyle s_{m}\leftrightarrow m} ) are given before the optimization, for example, using feature matching techniques, then the optimization only needs to estimate the transformation. This type of registration is called correspondence-based registration. On the other hand, if the correspondences are unknown, then the optimization is required to jointly find out the correspondences and transformation together. This type of registration is called simultaneous pose and correspondence registration. === Rigid registration === Given two point sets, rigid registration yields a rigid transformation which maps one point set to the other. A rigid transformation is defined as a transformation that does not change the distance between any two points. Typically such a transformation consists of translation and rotation. In rare cases, the point set may also be mirrored. In robotics and computer vision, rigid registration has the most applications. === Non-rigid registration === Given two point sets, non-rigid registration yields a non-rigid transformation which maps one point set to the other. Non-rigid transformations include affine transformations such as scaling and shear mapping. However, in the context of point set registration, non-rigid registration typically involves nonlinear transformation. If the eigenmodes of variation of the point set are known, the nonlinear transformation may be parametrized by the eigenvalues. A nonlinear transformation may also be parametrized as a thin plate spline. === Other types === Some approaches to point set registration use algorithms that solve the more general graph matching problem. However, the computational complexity of such methods tend to be high and they are limited to rigid registrations. In this article, we will only consider algorithms for rigid registration, where the transformation is assumed to contain 3D rotations and translations (possibly also including a uniform scaling). The PCL (Point Cloud Library) is an open-source framework for n-dimensional point cloud and 3D geometry processing. It includes several point registration algorithms. == Correspondence-based registration == Correspondence-based methods assume the putative correspondences m ↔ s m {\displaystyle m\leftrightarrow s_{m}} are given for every point m ∈ M {\displaystyle m\in {\mathcal {M}}} . Therefore, we arrive at a setting where both point sets M {\displaystyle {\mathcal {M}}} and S {\displaystyle {\mathcal {S}}} have N {\displaystyle N} points and the correspondences m i ↔ s i , i = 1 , … , N {\displaystyle m_{i}\leftrightarrow s_{i},i=1,\dots ,N} are given. === Outlier-free registration === In the simplest case, one can assume that all the correspondences are correct, meaning that the points m i , s i ∈ R 3 {\displaystyle m_{i},s_{i}\in \mathbb {R} ^{3}} are generated as follows:where l > 0 {\displaystyle l>0} is a uniform scaling factor (in many cases l = 1 {\displaystyle l=1} is assumed), R ∈ SO ( 3 ) {\displaystyle R\in {\text{SO}}(3)} is a proper 3D rotation matrix ( SO ( d ) {\displaystyle {\text{SO}}(d)} is the special orthogonal group of degree d {\displaystyle d} ), t ∈ R 3 {\displaystyle t\in \mathbb {R} ^{3}} is a 3D translation vector and ϵ i ∈ R 3 {\displaystyle \epsilon _{i}\in \mathbb {R} ^{3}} models the unknown additive noise (e.g., Gaussian noise). Specifically, if the noise ϵ i {\displaystyle \epsilon _{i}} is assumed to follow a zero-mean isotropic Gaussian distribution with standard deviation σ i {\displaystyle \sigma _{i}} , i.e., ϵ i ∼ N ( 0 , σ i 2 I 3 ) {\displaystyle \epsilon _{i}\sim {\mathcal {N}}(0,\sigma _{i}^{2}I_{3})} , then the following optimization can be shown to yield the maximum likelihood estimate for the unknown scale, rotation and translation:Note that when the scaling factor is 1 and the translation vector is zero, then the optimization recovers the formulation of the Wahba problem. Despite the non-convexity of the optimization (cb.2) due to non-convexity of the set SO ( 3 ) {\displaystyle {\text{SO}}(3)} , seminal work by Berthold K.P. Horn showed that (cb.2) actually admits a closed-form solution, by decoupling the estimation of scale, rotation and translation. Similar results were discovered by Arun et al. In addition, in order to find a unique transformation ( l , R , t ) {\displaystyle (l,R,t)} , at least N = 3 {\displaystyle N=3} non-collinear points in each point set are required. More recently, Briales and Gonzalez-Jimenez have developed a semidefinite relaxation using Lagrangian duality, for the case where the model set M {\displaystyle {\mathcal {M}}} contains different 3D primitives such as points, lines and planes (which is the case when the model M {\displaystyle {\mathcal {M}}} is a 3D mesh). Interestingly, the semidefinite relaxation is empirically tight, i.e., a certifiably globally optimal solution can be extracted from the solution of the semidefinite relaxation. === Robust registration === The least squares formulation (cb.2) is known to perform arbitrarily badly in the presence of outliers. An outlier correspondence is a pair of measurements s i ↔ m i {\displaystyle s_{i}\leftrightarrow m_{i}} that departs from the generative model (cb.1). In this case, one can consider a differen
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COVFEFE Act

The Communications Over Various Feeds Electronically for Engagement Act (COVFEFE Act), House Bill H.R. 2884, was introduced in the United States House of Representatives on June 12, 2017, during the 115th United States Congress. The bill was intended to amend the Presidential Records Act to preserve Twitter posts and other social media interactions of the President of the United States and require the National Archives to store such items. H.R. 2884 was assigned to the House Oversight and Reform Committee for consideration. While in committee, there were no roll call votes related to the bill. The bill died in committee. U.S. Representative Mike Quigley, Democrat of Illinois, introduced the legislation due to Donald Trump's routine use of Twitter, stating "In order to maintain public trust in government, elected officials must answer for what they do and say; this includes 140-character tweets. If the president is going to take to social media to make sudden public policy proclamations, we must ensure that these statements are documented and preserved for future reference". If enacted, the bill "would bar the prolifically tweeting president from deleting his posts, as he has sometimes done". The COVFEFE Act would have also treated a president's personal social media accounts (e.g., Trump's "@realDonaldTrump" Twitter account) the same as official social media accounts (e.g., the "@POTUS" Twitter account). == Background == The bill title refers to "covfefe", a word in a May 31, 2017 tweet that Trump sent at 12:06 AM EDT, reading "Despite the constant negative press covfefe". This incomplete tweet was liked and retweeted hundreds of thousands of times, making it one of the most popular tweets of 2017, as people speculated on its meaning. The tweet was deleted at 5:48 AM EDT. At 6:09 AM EDT, Trump's account tweeted "Who can figure out the true meaning of 'covfefe' ??? Enjoy!" During the May 31 White House press briefing, Hunter Walker of Yahoo! News asked White House press secretary Sean Spicer about the tweet and if there was any concern about the president sending out incoherent tweets that stay up for hours. Spicer responded, "I think the president and a small group of people know exactly what he meant" and offered no other explanation. This unexpected response spawned additional media attention and criticism for its cryptic meaning, with commentators unsure whether or not Spicer was joking. Callum Borchers of The Washington Post's The Fix noted that the Trump administration deliberately responded in a way that encouraged the media and the public to focus on covfefe instead of other controversies like the Russia investigation, resignation of White House communications director Michael Dubke, or U.S.-Germany relations. == Legal significance of Trump's tweeting == Trump's tweets have been legally significant in the past. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer stated that Trump's tweets are "considered official statements by the President of the United States". Some of his tweets have contradicted his agenda by undercutting or contradicting statements of public officials as well as the arguments of U.S. Department of Justice attorneys seeking to defend Trump's decisions in court. A federal appellate court cited one of Trump's tweets in upholding a lower court's order blocking Trump's Executive Order 13780 from going into effect in 2017. Courts have been clear that Twitter statements can be used as evidence of intent. Before Trump's "@realDonaldTrump" Twitter account was suspended, he blocked a number of users, preventing them from viewing his tweets or posting public replies. A group associated with Columbia University filed a lawsuit on behalf of blocked users, called Knight First Amendment Institute v. Trump. Plaintiffs successfully argued that @realDonaldTrump reply threads constituted a "designated public forum" akin to a public meeting, and therefore blocking users based on their political viewpoints violated their constitutional right to freedom of speech. The Second Circuit upheld this ruling on July 9, 2019. Regardless of the failure of the bill, Trump's tweets have been archived in accordance with the Presidential and Federal Records Act Amendments of 2014.
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DBOS

DBOS (Formerly Database-Oriented Operating System, now just DBOS) is an open source durable workflow execution software library written for the Python, TypeScript, Java, and Go programming languages. DBOS arose from a joint open source project from MIT and Stanford, after a discussion between Michael Stonebraker and Matei Zaharia on how to scale and improve scheduling and performance of millions of Apache Spark tasks. Today it is a commercial company that offers an open source system to add durable computing to any software, built on concepts derived from the joint research project. == History == === 2020: Academic R&D Project === DBOS originated in 2020 as a joint open source project between MIT, Stanford, and Carnegie Mellon. The project explored the idea of operating system services built atop a distributed database - a database-oriented operating system meant to simplify and improve the scalability, security and resilience of large-scale distributed applications. The basic concept was to run a multi-node multi-core, transactional, highly-available distributed database, such as VoltDB, as the only application for a microkernel, and then to implement scheduling, messaging, file systems and other operating system services on top of the database. The architectural philosophy is described by this quote from the abstract of their initial preprint: All operating system state should be represented uniformly as database tables, and operations on this state should be made via queries from otherwise stateless tasks. This design makes it easy to scale and evolve the OS without whole-system refactoring, inspect and debug system state, upgrade components without downtime, manage decisions using machine learning, and implement sophisticated security features. A prototype was built with competitive performance to existing systems. ==
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Glossary of operating systems terms

This page is a glossary of Operating systems terminology. == A == access token: In Microsoft Windows operating systems, an access token contains the security credentials for a login session and identifies the user, the user's groups, the user's privileges, and, in some cases, a particular application. == B == binary semaphore: See semaphore. booting: In computing, booting (also known as booting up) is the initial set of operations that a computer performs after electrical power is switched on or when the computer is reset. This can take tens of seconds and typically involves performing a power-on self-test, locating and initializing peripheral devices, and then finding, loading and starting the operating system. == C == cache: In computer science, a cache is a component that transparently stores data so that future requests for that data can be served faster. The data that is stored within a cache might be values that have been computed earlier or duplicates of original values that are stored elsewhere. cloud: Cloud computing operating systems are recent, and were not mentioned in Gagne's 8th Edition (2009). In contrast, by Gagne's 9th (2012), cloud o/s received 3 pages of coverage (41, 42, 716). Doeppner (2011) mentions them (p. 3), but only to prove that operating systems "are not a solved problem" and that even if the day of the dedicated PC is waning, cloud computing has created an entirely new opportunity for o/s development ala sharing, networks, memory, parallelism, etc. Gagne (2012) adds that in addition to numerous traditional o/s's at cloud warehouses, Virtual machine o/s (VMMs), Eucalyptus, Vware, vCloud Director and others are being developed specifically for cloud management with numerous traditional o/s features (security, threads, file and memory management, guis, etc.) (p. 42). Microsoft's investment in cloud aspects of o/s tend to support that argument. concurrency == D == daemon: Operating systems often start daemons at boot time and serve the function of responding to network requests, hardware activity, or other programs by performing some task. Daemons can also configure hardware (like udevd on some Linux systems), run scheduled tasks (like cron), and perform a variety of other tasks. == E == == F == == G == == H == == I == == J == == K == kernel: In computing, the kernel is a computer program that manages input/output requests from software and translates them into data processing instructions for the central processing unit and other electronic components of a computer. The kernel is a fundamental part of a modern computer's operating system. == L == lock: In computer science, a lock or mutex (from mutual exclusion) is a synchronization mechanism for enforcing limits on access to a resource in an environment where there are many threads of execution. A lock is designed to enforce a mutual exclusion concurrency control policy. == M == mutual exclusion: Mutual exclusion is to allow only one process at a time to access the same critical section (a part of code which accesses the critical resource). This helps prevent race conditions. mutex: See lock. == N == == O == == P == paging daemon: See daemon. process == Q == == R == == S == semaphore: In computer science, particularly in operating systems, a semaphore is a variable or abstract data type that is used for controlling access, by multiple processes, to a common resource in a parallel programming or a multi user environment. == T == thread: In computer science, a thread of execution is the smallest sequence of programmed instructions that can be managed independently by an operating system scheduler. The scheduler itself is a light-weight process. The implementation of threads and processes differs from one operating system to another, but in most cases, a thread is contained inside a process. templating: In an o/s context, templating refers to creating a single virtual machine image as a guest operating system, then saving it as a tool for multiple running virtual machines (Gagne, 2012, p. 716). The technique is used both in virtualization and cloud computing management, and is common in large server warehouses. == U == == V == == W == == Z ==
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Edge inference

Edge inference is the process of running machine learning or deep learning models on local devices (edge devices) such as smartphones, IoT devices, embedded systems, and edge servers instead of centralized cloud computing infrastructure. A key feature of edge computing is edge inference, which allows for real-time data processing, low latency, and improved privacy by reducing the amount of data sent to remote servers.
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RR Media

RR Media was a NASDAQ listed provider of global digital media services to the broadcast industry and content owners. Its services can be divided into four main groups: global content distribution network (satellite, fiber and the internet); content management & playout; sports, news & live events; and online video services. The company was rebranded to RR Media from RRsat in September 2014. In February 2016, it was announced that, subject to regulatory approvals, RR Media was to be acquired by SES, based in Betzdorf, Luxembourg, and merged with SES subsidiary company, SES Platform Services a media services provider for television broadcasters, production companies and platform operators, based in Unterföhring near Munich, Germany. In July 2016, the merged company was named MX1. == Digital media services == Global content distribution services RR Media's global distribution network uses a combination of satellite, fiber and the internet. The network includes satellite downlink and uplink; fiber connectivity to digital media hubs; connectivity to TV service providers; and internet-based content delivery. RR Media's network delivers live television channels, streaming media and Video on demand (VOD) content in all formats including Standard-definition television (SD), High-definition television (HD), 4K resolution (4K) & 3D television (3D). End-to-end content management & playout services RR Media manages, prepares and plays out content from its media centers. Services include: content preparation (digitization, localization, conversion, ingest, multiple formatting, editing, restoration); content management (digital asset management, media ingest and library, streamlined workflows, metadata curation, Video on demand (VOD) delivery) and playout, channel creation, playlist management, advertising insertion/management, graphics, titles & overlay, live events operations). RR Media also creates branded or white label product television channels using live and archived materials. Sports, news & live events RR Media delivers live sports and event content for sports rights holders, broadcasters and news channels. Services include: live production (Outside broadcasting vans, Satellite news gathering (SNG), studios), global live distribution, sports content preparation and content management, playout and origination.RR Media provides downlink, uplink, simultaneous translation, turnaround and live production services for sports events like football, basketball, tennis and golf, news and entertainment channels. Online video services RR Media converts existing and archive content into programs, channels and other digital assets, and converges broadcast and internet delivery. Services include converged media (preparing content for broadcast or online use) Content Management Systems (CMS), VOD services, branded platforms, multi-screen delivery, web video portals and viewer measurement tools (using digital analytics). == Media centers == RR Media's media centers are based in Hawley, PA (USA), Emeq Ha’Ela (Israel) Bucharest (Romania), with another facility opened in London, (UK) in June 2015. An additional facility in Miami, FL United States was announced in April 2016. The centers provide RR Media's services, including content preparation, management, online video, live content and distribution, and 24/7 service and support. == Awards == In November 2014, RR Media won the award for Achievement in Legacy Content at the 2014 TVB Europe awards in London, in recognition for its work with British Pathe and the restoration for YouTube. In February 2014, the World Teleport Association named Avi Cohen, CEO of RR Media (formerly RRsat), as its 2014 Teleport Executive of the Year. In 2009, the World Teleport Association awarded RR Media (then RRsat) the Independent Teleport Operator of the Year award for excellence. == History == RR Media (as RRsat) was established in 1981 as a communications provider. The company was founded by David Rivel, an electronics, computers and communications engineer. Rivel is CEO of the company for 31 years and from 2012 a Member of RR Media's board of directors. Under management of Rivel RRsat Communications Network Ltd. went public on 2006-11-01 - NASDAQ:RRST In 2014, the Company rebranded from RRsat Global Communications Network to RR Media. The rebrand was launched at the International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) Show in Amsterdam. In 2015, RR Media announced its NASDAQ stock ticker symbol change to RRM. == Acquisitions == In April 2015, RR Media acquired Eastern Space Systems (ESS) in Romania, a privately held provider of content management and content distribution services and related consulting services. In June 2015, RR Media acquired Satlink Communications as part of strategy to increase scale and expand its global content distribution network and content management footprint, strengthening its customer mix and leverage media industry expertise.
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Futel

Futel is a public arts organization in Portland, Oregon dedicated to preserving and maintaining public telephone hardware and offering free phone and basic information services. Futel was founded by Karl Anderson, a former software engineer, and Elijah St. Clair. == Technology == Karl Anderson stated that one motivation for the project was to explore the idea of urban furniture. Other reasons were to preserve an important part of hacker history, and to salvage and re-use manufactured items at the end of their lifecycle. The original Futel phones were set up in Portland, Oregon. The organization cleans and repurposes old public payphones which are often salvaged from Craigslist or scrappers. Using interface boxes, they are converted into VoIP phones which are made available publicly, with no cost for phone calls. Anderson has said the service runs on "Asterisk and OpenVPN and a lot of scripts." The payphones operate using publicly-available internet connections. The phones have automated phone trees and users can make a call to local social services, to a weather forecast line, or access local transit information. Volunteers act as telephone operators, offering information about the Futel service, or are available for conversation. Users using Futel's phones may also access voicemail boxes. The system has a "wildcard line" where people can listen to samples of audio left on the main voicemail line along with commentary from Anderson and others. == Network == In February 2021, there were 10 Futel phones in Portland and 3 in other cities. Phones were set up in Detroit and Ypsilanti, Michigan, and Long Beach, Washington. The organization has provided free phone service for a Portland-area homeless encampment after receiving funding from the Awesome Foundation. In 2019 the organization reported their phones being used to make 12,000 phone calls. Futel also said their usage went up and not down during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic when they outfitted their phone kiosks with handwashing stations and used volunteers to keep the phones clean. The project is funded is primarily through grants and is staffed with volunteers. The project has inspired others such as the PhilTel project in Philadelphia and the RandTel project in Randolph, Vermont. Futel publishes a zine called Party Line.
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