AI Paraphrasing Tool

AI Paraphrasing Tool — hands-on reviews, top picks, pricing, pros and cons and a practical how-to guide on Aizhi.

SimSimi

SimSimi is an artificial intelligence conversation program created in 2002 by ISMaker. It grows its artificial intelligence day by day assisted by a feature that allows users to teach it to respond correctly. SimSimi, pronounced as "shim-shimi", is from a Korean word simsim (심심) which means "bored". It has an application designed for Android, Windows Phone and iOS. The application was banned in Thailand in 2012 after users taught it to make responses containing profanity, and to criticise leading politicians. In April 2018, SimSimi was suspended in Brazil due to accusations of sending inappropriate messages, such as sexual language, bullying and even death threats, being labeled as "dangerous" mainly due to its popularity among children, and according to its developer, the suspension of the app in the country "was inevitable because the SimSimi app, at least in the last few days, had a significant negative social impact in Brazil.”
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Rider Spoke

Rider Spoke developed by Blast Theory in collaboration with the Mixed Reality Lab was first staged at the Barbican, London in October 2007. Created for cyclists, it combines elements of theatre, performance, game play and state of the art technology. Rider Spoke was built in the IPerG project on the EQUIP architecture. Rider Spoke has since been presented in Athens (2008), Brighton (2008), Budapest (2008), Sydney (2009, Adelaide (2009) and Liverpool (2010).
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Mortimer Rogoff

Mortimer Alan Rogoff (May 2, 1921 – August 1, 2008) was an American inventor, businessman, and author as well as an amateur photographer and radio operator. He is recognized for his work in spread spectrum technology which is the technology that modern cell phones and GPS systems are based on. He is also considered the grandfather of the electronic navigation chart. == Early life == Rogoff was born in Brooklyn, New York. He earned his B.S.E.E. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1943 and his M.S.E.E. from Columbia University in 1948. While at Rensselaer he was a member of Kappa Nu fraternity and the Features Editor for the student newspaper. During World War II, he enlisted in the United States Navy and worked on developing radio communication and aerial navigation systems. One of the techniques he developed was undetectable by Axis forces because its power was below that of the background noise and its frequency varied in random ways. This secure transmission was the beginning of spread spectrum technology which would become the basis for GPS and CDMA cellular telephone systems. Although he was never able to patent the technology because it was a military secret he did get some recognition for it almost forty years later when he received the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ Pioneer Award in 1981. == Career == Rogoff worked for twenty-two years (1946 to 1968) for ITT Laboratories in New Jersey. In 1958, he became their deputy director of Engineering. He was Vice President of ITT Laboratories from 1962 to 1963. From 1963 to 1968, he was promoted to the corporate staff where he became head of European operations. In 1968 he left ITT to work for the Diebold Group where he became an Executive Vice President. After leaving the Diebold Group he founded several technology and automation businesses, including his own consulting firm, and Teletext Communications Corporation. Later in the 1970s, he was a Principal with Booz Allen Hamilton. In 1979, his book ‘’Calculator Navigation’’ was published. This book demonstrated practical methods for calculating precise ship locations using radio navigation with a consumer calculator. In 1981, he founded a new company, Navigation Sciences Inc., in Bethesda, Maryland. With this company he patented a method for marine navigation that combined radar maps with electronic charts in 1986. This was a major advancement in field. Today, this system is known as the Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS). Rogoff had seen the need for a new charting system in 1968 from his apartment at 180 East End Avenue in New York City. From there, he saw a boating accident where a life was lost and decided there had to be a way to automate navigation. Rogoff then became of member of the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) sub-committee on Safety of Navigation, a representative to the International Electrotechnical Commission, and became the chairman of the Radio Technical Commission for Maritime Services Special Committee 109 on Electronic Charts. He was able to use his influence on these boards to push through a proposal of ECDIS standards in 1989 where none has been before. As his friend Giuseppe Carnevali said, “Although nobody could argue against the need for a standard, no one was ready to endorse one; however, nobody was brave enough to oppose it.” A Test Bed project on these proposals was conducted by the United States Coast Guard. The amended standards were accepted by the IMO in November, 1995. In 2000, he was named as a Fellow of the Institute of Navigation. He was also a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. During this time, he was also president of the Navigational Electronic Charts System Association. == Personal == In 1979, he moved to Washington, D.C. and bought a home in Nantucket, Massachusetts. He married Sheila Zunser in 1943 and they were together for sixty-five years. They had three daughters: Louisa Thompson, Alice Rogoff, and Julia Peach. His sister was sociologist Natalie Rogoff Ramsøy of the University of Oslo. He was a member of the Cosmos Club and President of The Navigational Electronic Chart System Association (NECSA). He was a very good amateur photographer and liked amateur radio (call sign W2EE). He died in Nantucket from bladder cancer. == Patents == Patent number: 4176316 – Secure Communication System – November 27, 1979 With Louis A. DeRosa Patent number: 4590569 – Electronic Navigation System – May 20, 1986 With Peter M. Winkler and John N. Ackley Patent number: RE34004 – Secure Communication System – July 21, 1992 With Louis A. DeRosa == Publications == Rogoff, Mortimer September 1957. Automatic Analysis of Infrared Spectra. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences; vol. 69: no. 1: 27–37. Gen. P.C. Sandretto and Mortimer Rogoff. 1958 “A Novel Concept for Application to the Control of Airways Traffic.” NAVIGATION: Journal of The Institute of Navigation; vol. 6: no. 2: 102–107 Rogoff, Mortimer 1979. Calculator Navigation; ISBN 0-393-03192-6. Published by W.W. Norton & Company (New York and London). Rogoff, Mortimer December 1985. Electronic Charting. Yachting; vol. 158: no. 6: 54–57. Rogoff, Mortimer Winter 1990. Electronic Charts in the Nineties. NAVIGATION: Journal of The Institute of Navigation; vol. 37: no. 4: 305–318.
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Svelte

Svelte is a free and open-source component-based front-end software framework and language created by Rich Harris and maintained by the Svelte core team. Svelte is not a monolithic JavaScript library imported by applications: instead, Svelte compiles HTML templates to specialized code that manipulates the DOM directly, which may reduce the size of transferred files and give better client performance. Application code is also processed by the compiler, inserting calls to automatically recompute data and re-render UI elements when the data they depend on is modified. This also avoids the overhead associated with runtime intermediate representations, such as virtual DOM, unlike traditional frameworks (such as React and Vue) which carry out the bulk of their work at runtime, i.e. in the browser. The compiler itself is written in JavaScript. Its source code is licensed under MIT License and hosted on GitHub. Among comparable frontend libraries, Svelte has one of the smallest bundle footprints at merely 2KB. == History == The predecessor of Svelte is Ractive.js, which Rich Harris created in 2013. Version 1 of Svelte was written in JavaScript and was released on 29 November 2016. The name Svelte was chosen by Rich Harris and his coworkers at The Guardian. Version 2 of Svelte was released on 19 April 2018. It set out to correct what the maintainers viewed as mistakes in the earlier version such as replacing double curly braces with single curly braces. Version 3 of Svelte was written in TypeScript and was released on 21 April 2019. It rethought reactivity by using the compiler to instrument assignments behind the scenes. The SvelteKit web framework was announced in October 2020 and entered beta in March 2021. SvelteKit 1.0 was released in December 2022 after two years in development. Version 4 of Svelte was released on 22 June 2023. It was a maintenance release, smaller and faster than version 3. A part of this release was an internal rewrite from TypeScript back to JavaScript, with JSDoc type annotations. This was met with confusion from the developer community, which was addressed by the creator of Svelte, Rich Harris. Version 5 of Svelte was released on October 19, 2024 at Svelte Summit Fall 2024 with Rich Harris cutting the release live while joined by other Svelte maintainers. Svelte 5 was a ground-up rewrite of Svelte, changing core concepts such as reactivity and reusability. Its primary feature, runes, reworked how reactive state is declared and used. Runes are function-like macros that are used to declare a reactive state, or code that uses reactive states. These runes are used by the compiler to indicate values that may change and are depended on by other states or the DOM. Svelte 5 also introduces Snippets, which are reusable "snippets" of code that are defined once and can be reused anywhere else in the component. Svelte 5 was initially met with controversy due to its many changes, and thus deprecations caused primarily by runes. However, most of this has subsided since the initial announcement of runes, and the further refining of Svelte 5. Also at Svelte Summit Fall 2024, Ben McCann announced the Svelte CLI under the sv package name on npm. In early 2025, the Svelte team announced Asynchronous Svelte, an experimental feature set centered around asynchronous reactivity in Svelte using await expressions. As of August 2025, the feature is available via an experimental compiler option. This coincided with the experimental release of remote functions, an RPC feature in SvelteKit, Svelte's metaframework. Key early contributors to Svelte became involved with Conduitry joining with the release of Svelte 1, Tan Li Hau joining in 2019, and Ben McCann joining in 2020. Rich Harris and Simon Holthausen joined Vercel to work on Svelte fulltime in 2022. Dominic Gannaway joined Vercel from the React core team to work on Svelte fulltime in 2023. == Syntax == Svelte applications and components are defined in .svelte files, which are HTML files extended with templating syntax that is based on JavaScript and is similar to JSX. Svelte's core features are accessed through runes, which syntactically look like functions, but are used as macros by the compiler. These runes include: The $state rune, used for declaring a reactive state value The $derived rune, used for declaring reactive state derived from one or more states The $effect rune, used for declaring code that reruns whenever its dependencies change Starting with Svelte 5, the framework introduced a significant reactivity overhaul that replaces the previous `$:` reactive declarations with new runes such as $state, $derived, and $effect. The $effect rune is now used for post-render operations without modifying state, while $derived is used for computations that depend on other reactive values. This change aims to simplify the mental model of reactivity and make component logic more explicit. Additionally, the { JavaScript code } syntax can be used for templating in HTML elements and components, similar to template literals in JavaScript. This syntax can also be used in element attributes for uses such as two-way data binding, event listeners, and CSS styling. A Todo List example made in Svelte is below: == Associated projects == The Svelte maintainers created SvelteKit as the official way to build projects with Svelte. It is a Next.js/Nuxt-style full-stack framework that dramatically reduces the amount of code that gets sent to the browser. The maintainers had previously created Sapper, which was the predecessor of SvelteKit. The Svelte maintainers also maintain a number of integrations for popular software projects under the Svelte organization including integrations for Vite, Rollup, Webpack, TypeScript, VS Code, Chrome Developer Tools, ESLint, and Prettier. A number of external projects such as Storybook have also created integrations with Svelte and SvelteKit. == Influence == Vue.js modeled its API and single-file components after Ractive.js, the predecessor of Svelte. == Adoption == Svelte is widely praised by developers. Taking the top ranking in multiple large scale developer surveys, it was chosen as the Stack Overflow 2021 most loved web framework and 2020 State of JS frontend framework with the most satisfied developers. Recent surveys continue to show Svelte's strong developer satisfaction, with the 2024 State of JS survey maintaining its position among the most praised frontend frameworks. The 2024 Stack Overflow Developer Survey reported that 73% of developers who used Svelte want to continue working with it, and noted that Stack Overflow's own team used Svelte for building their 2024 Developer Survey results site. Svelte has been adopted by a number of high-profile web companies including The New York Times, Google, Apple, Spotify, Radio France, Square, Yahoo, ByteDance, Rakuten, Bloomberg, Reuters, Ikea, Facebook, Logitech, and Brave. A community group of primarily non-maintainers, known as the Svelte Society, run the Svelte Summit conference, write a Svelte newsletter, host a Svelte podcast, and host a directory of Svelte tooling, components, and templates.
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Prequel (mobile application)

Prequel, Inc. is an American technology company and mobile app developer known for developing the Prequel mobile application, which enables editing photos and videos with filters and effects generated using artificial intelligence. Prequel was founded in 2018 by Serge Aliseenko and Timur Khabirov, who currently serves as the company's CEO. It is headquartered in New York City. As of August 2022, it had been downloaded more than 100 million times. == History == In 2016, entrepreneur Timur Khabirov and investor Serge Aliseenko registered a US corporation named AIAR Labs Inc, which was developing AR solutions as an outsourced contractor. Of several proprietary products, Prequel was selected for beta-testing as a product focused on editing photos and videos. In 2018, Prequel was released on the Apple App Store. The launch cost $3 million USD, financed with the founders’ personal funds. The first release included approximately 10 filters for photos and the same amount of effects that augmented images with rose petals, rain and snow, VHS and film reel simulations, glitch, grain, sun puddles, and lomography. By June 2020, the app had also been released for Android. In 2021, Prequel founders Timur Khabirov and Serge Aliseenko launched a venture studio for startups working with artificial, computer vision, and AR-based visual art. In December 2022, Prequel reached the number 14 slot on the global rankings for Apple App Store’s Top Charts and the number 5 slot on the App Store’s U.S. charts. In March 2023, Prequel launched a new app called Artique, which is an AI-powered image editing app for businesses. Artique provides advertising and marketing graphic design using ready-made templates that users can customize, while giving suggestions and visual cues through artificial intelligence. Prequel was also one of the companies participating in discussions about artificial intelligence at SXSW 2023. == Features == Prequel describes its app as an "Aesthetic Pic Editor. The app uses artificial intelligence to create and edit content. Prequel can be used to touch up faces on images and videos and can also tie various decorative elements to certain points on the human body and face. Prequel filters include the "Cartoon" filter, which converts selfies into cartoon-style pictures. Other filters include Kidcore, Dust, Grain, Fisheye, Retro Style, Miami, Disco, and VHS-style filters, as well as the ability to create Renaissance-style pictures. Prequel also gives users the ability to apply color correction tools and to make moving images with 3D effects out of 2D images. Prequel allows users to take photos and videos directly through the app and apply filters and effects in real time. The app also comes with manual editing options for photos, such as adjusting the brightness and/or exposure and cropping photos, as well as an option to automatically apply adjustments. The Prequel app uses the Core ML, MNN, and TFLight frameworks to work with its neural networks. Some AI solutions are launched server-side, and some on the user's mobile device. A resulting photo or video edited with the app is called "a prequel." The app daily generates over 2 million such prequels, which are published by users in Instagram, TikTok, and other social media. As of 2022, the app has more than 800 filters and effects, along with video templates and support for GIFs and stickers. Prequel is free-to-use, but has a premium version that gives users access to more effects, filters, and beauty tools. Since its launch in 2018, Prequel has been downloaded more than 100 million times.
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Bainu (website)

Bainu ("how are you?") is a Chinese social networking website written in the Mongolian language. As of 2020 it had about 400,000 users, concentrated in Inner Mongolia. == Core features and positioning == Language and Cultural Characteristics Bainu is based on Traditional Mongolian Script and supports social interactions in the Mongolian language, including various message formats such as text, voice, images, and video. This design aims to preserve and promote Mongolian language and culture, particularly appealing to users in Inner Mongolia and other Mongolian-populated areas. Social Features Instant Messaging: Supports one-on-one private chats and group chats. Users can create interest-based groups or join local communities. Life Sharing: Through the "Chomorlig" feature (similar to Moments or a dynamic feed), users can share daily highlights to enhance community interaction. Location-Based Socializing: Recommends nearby users based on location, making it easier to connect with Mongolian friends in the same city or neighboring regions. Multilingual Support The app interface is available in English, Mongolian, and Simplified Chinese. == Technical Features and User Experience == Cross-Platform Compatibility Supports iPhone, iPad, Mac (with M1 chip or above), and Apple Vision Pro devices, covering users across the Apple ecosystem. Pricing Model Free download and basic features are available. Premium services (e.g., ad-free experience, extended social functions) require a subscription, with pricing options including $0.99/month, $2.99/quarter, and $6.99/year. User Feedback Positive Reviews: Some users praise it as the "best Mongolian-language chat app," recognizing its cultural value and social convenience. Negative Feedback: Reports of app crashes and technical issues, with some users calling for improved stability (e.g., frequent crashes in the iOS version). == Privacy and Data Policy == Bainu collects user data such as location, contact information, and device identifiers, which are linked to user identities. Additionally, user behavior may be tracked through third-party services, raising some privacy concerns. == Current Development and Challenges == User Base As of 2020, Bainu had approximately 400,000 users, primarily concentrated in Inner Mongolia. Policy Impact It was reported by Voice of America (VOA) that the Chinese authorities blocked Bainu on 23 August 2020 in order to prohibit Mongolians from discussing the issue of the authorities’ implementation of "bilingual education" in elementary schools. But now, in 2025, this software is completely available for download and use. see:https://bainu.com/
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Digital Cinema Initiatives

Digital Cinema Initiatives, LLC (DCI) is a consortium of major motion picture studios, formed to establish specifications for a common systems architecture for digital cinema systems. The organization was formed in March 2002 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, 20th Century Studios, Universal Studios, Walt Disney Studios and Warner Bros. Entertainment The primary purpose of DCI is to establish and document specifications for an open architecture for digital cinema that ensures a uniform and high level of technical performance, reliability and quality. By establishing a common set of content requirements, distributors, studios, exhibitors, d-cinema manufacturers and vendors can be assured of interoperability and compatibility. Because of the relationship of DCI to many of Hollywood's key studios, conformance to DCI's specifications is considered a requirement by software developers or equipment manufacturers targeting the digital cinema market. == Specification == On July 20, 2005, DCI released Version 1.0 of its "Digital Cinema System Specification", commonly referred to as the "DCI Specification". The document describes overall system requirements and specifications for digital cinema. Between March 28, 2006, and March 21, 2007, DCI issued 148 errata to Version 1.0. DCI released Version 1.1 of the DCI Specification on April 12, 2007, incorporating the previous 148 errata into the DCI Specification. On April 15, 2007, at the annual NAB Digital Cinema Summit, DCI announced the new version, as well as some future plans. They released the "Stereoscopic Digital Cinema Addendum" to begin to establish 3-D technical specifications in response to the popularity of 3-D stereoscopic films. It was also announced "which studios would take over the leadership roles in DCI after the current leadership term expires at the end of September." Subsequently, between August 27, 2007, and February 1, 2008, DCI issued 100 errata to Version 1.1. So, DCI released Version 1.2 of the DCI Specification on March 7, 2008, again incorporating the previous 100 errata into the specification document. An additional 96 errata were issued by August 30, 2012, so a revised Version 1.2 incorporating those additional errata was approved on October 10, 2012. DCI approved DCI Specification Version 1.3 on June 27, 2018, integrating the 45 errata issued to the previous version into a new document. On July 20, 2020, fifteen years to the day after Version 1.0, DCI issued a new DCI Specification Version 1.4 that assimilated 29 errata issued since Version 1.3. On October 13, 2021, DCI approved a new DCI Specification Version 1.4.1 that integrated the 23 errata that had been issued to DCI Specification Version 1.4. For the convenience of users, DCI also created an online HTML version of DCI Specification, Version 1.4.1. Due to the HTML conversion process, the footnotes in the DCSS now appear as endnotes. The PDF version contains pagination and page numbers whereas the HTML version does not. DCI Specification Version 1.4.2, dated June 15, 2022, includes revisions and refinements respecting Object-Based Audio Essence (OBAE), also known as Immersive Audio Bitstream (IAB). Version 1.4.2 also implements post-show log record collection utilizing SMPTE 430-17 SMS-OMB Communications Protocol Specification. Additionally, Version 1.4.2 incorporated two prior addenda: the Digital Cinema Object-Based Audio Addendum, dated October 1, 2018 and the Stereoscopic Digital Cinema Addendum, Version 1.0, dated July 11, 2007. Users using Version 1.4.2 no longer need to refer to the separate addenda. Previous DCSS versions are archived on the DCI web site. Based on many SMPTE and ISO standards, such as JPEG 2000-compressed image and "broadcast wave" PCM/WAV sound, the DCI Specification explains the route to create an entire Digital Cinema Package (DCP) from a raw collection of files known as the Digital Cinema Distribution Master (DCDM), as well as the specifics of its content protection, encryption, and forensic marking. The DCI Specification also establishes standards for the decoder requirements and the presentation environment itself, such as ambient light levels, pixel aspect and shape, image luminance, white point chromaticity, and those tolerances to be kept. Even though it specifies what kind of information is required, the DCI Specification does not include specific information about how data within a distribution package is to be formatted. Formatting of this information is defined by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) digital cinema standards and related documents. == Image and audio capability overview == === 2D image === 2048×1080 (2K) at 24 frame/s or 48 frame/s, or 4096×2160 (4K) at 24 frame/s In 2K, for Scope (2.39:1) presentation 2048×858 pixels of the imager is used In 2K, for Flat (1.85:1) presentation 1998×1080 pixels of the imager is used In 4K, for Scope (2.39:1) presentation 4096×1716 pixels of the imager is used In 4K, for Flat (1.85:1) presentation 3996×2160 pixels of the imager is used 12 bits per color component (36 bits per pixel) via dual HD-SDI (encrypted) 10 bits only permitted for 2K at 48 frame/s CIE XYZ color space, gamma-corrected TIFF 6.0 container format (one file per frame) JPEG 2000 compression From 0 to 5 or from 1 to 6 wavelet decomposition levels for 2K or 4K resolutions, respectively Compression rate of 4.71 bits/pixel (2K @ 24 frame/s), 2.35 bits/pixel (2K @ 48 frame/s), 1.17 bits/pixel (4K @ 24 frame/s) 250 Mbit/s maximum image bit rate === Stereoscopic 3D image === 2048×1080 (2K) at 48 frame/s - 24 frame/s per eye (4096×2160 4K not supported) In 2K, for Scope (2.39:1) presentation 2048×858 pixels of the imager is used In 2K, for Flat (1.85:1) presentation 1998×1080 pixels of the imager is used Optionally, in the HD-SDI link only: 12 bit color, YCxCz 4:2:2 (i.e. chroma subsampling in XYZ space), each eye in separate stream === Audio === 24 bits per sample, 48 kHz or 96 kHz Up to 16 channels WAV container, uncompressed PCM DCI has additionally published a document outlining recommended practice for High Frame Rate digital cinema. This document discloses the following proposed frame rates: 60, 96, and 120 frames per second for 2D at 2K resolution; 48 and 60 for stereoscopic 3D at 2K resolution; 48 and 60 for 2D at 4K resolution. The maximum compressed bit rate for support of all proposed frame rates should be 500 Mbit/s. == Related information == The idea for DCI was originally mooted in late 1999 by Tom McGrath, then COO of Paramount Pictures, who applied to the U.S. Department of Justice for anti-trust waivers to allow the joint cooperation of all seven major motion picture studios. Universal Pictures made one of the first feature-length DCPs created to DCI specifications, using their film Serenity. Although it was not distributed theatrically, it had one public screening on November 7, 2005, at the USC Entertainment Technology Center's Digital Cinema Laboratory in the Pacific Theatre, Hollywood. Inside Man (2006) was Universal's first DCP commercial release, and, in addition to 35mm film distribution, was delivered via hard drive to 20 theatres in the United States along with two trailers. The Academy Film Archive houses the Digital Cinema Initiatives, LLC Collection, which includes film and digital elements from DCI's Standard Evaluation Material (StEM), a 12-minute production shot on 35mm and 65mm film, created for vendors and standards organizations to test and evaluate image compression and digital projection technologies.
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Daylight Computer Co.

Daylight Computer Co. is a Public Benefit Company that designs and manufactures devices that do not emit blue light or flicker. Anjan Katta, the company's founder and CEO, stated that he started the company to reduce his personal eyestrain and the distraction that came with conventional devices. The first device that the company released is the Daylight DC-1, a tablet using a monochrome transflective liquid-crystal display designed for outdoor use, while also being usable indoors with an amber backlight. The company's goal is to create a "healthy computer." == History == In June 2018, Anjan Katta began the process of designing a device that did not emit blue light or flicker. He was inspired by the Kindle stating that he wanted to create a device that was, "an analog object that happens to have digital magical capabilities.” By 2020, he created his first scientific prototype and created the first proof-of-concept prototype in 2021. In the early research and development stages of the device, Katta had spent $300,000 of his own money. Eventually, Katta obtained a $12 million investment from current and former executives of companies such as Oculus, Pinterest, and Dropbox. In 2024, the company held a launch party at the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park for the Daylight DC1, the company's first device. The event had roughly 200 attendees. Later that year, Daylight sold out its first run of 5,000 devices. The Daylight DC1 is a 1.2 pound tablet that runs its own operating system, SolOS, based on Android 13. It has a refresh rate of 60 Hz, fast enough to process video. In 2025, the product was demonstrated by Danny Jones on the Joe Rogan Experience. The company has been described by outlets such as Wired and VentureBeat as a "returning computing to hippie ideals" and being a product for "techno-hippies." The company is headquartered in San Francisco, California.
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Aporia (company)

Aporia is a machine learning observability platform based in Tel Aviv, Israel. The company has a US office located in San Jose, California. Aporia has developed software for monitoring and controlling undetected defects and failures used by other companies to detect and report anomalies, and warn in the early stages of faults. == History == Aporia was founded in 2019 by Liran Hason and Alon Gubkin. In April 2021, the company raised a $5 million seed round for its monitoring platform for ML models. In February 2022, the company closed a Series A round of $25 million for its ML observability platform. Aporia was named by Forbes as the Next Billion-Dollar Company in June 2022. In November, the company partnered with ClearML, an MLOPs platform, to improve ML pipeline optimization. In January 2023, Aporia launched Direct Data Connectors, a novel technology allowing organizations to monitor their ML models in minutes (previously the process of integrating ML monitoring into a customer’s cloud environment took weeks or more.) DDC (Direct Data Connectors) enables users to connect Aporia to their preferred data source and monitor all of their data at once, without data sampling or data duplication (which is a huge security risk for major organizations. In April 2023, Aporia announced the company partnered with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to provide more reliable ML observability to AWS consumers by deploying Aporia's architecture to their AWS environment, this will allow customers to monitor their models in production regardless of platform.
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Death and the Internet

A recent extension to the cultural relationship with death is the increasing number of people who die having created a large amount of digital content, such as social media profiles, that will remain after death. This may result in concern and confusion, because of automated features of dormant accounts (e.g. birthday reminders), uncertainty of the deceased's preferences that profiles be deleted or left as a memorial, and whether information that may violate the deceased's privacy (such as email or browser history) should be made accessible to family. Issues with how this information is sensitively dealt with are further complicated as it may belong to the service provider (not the deceased) and many do not have clear policies on what happens to the accounts of deceased users. While some sites, including Facebook and X (formerly Twitter), have policies related to death, others remain dormant until if applicable, deleted due to inactivity or transferred to family or friends. The FADA (Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act) was set in place to make it possible to transfer digital possessions legally. More broadly, the heavy increase in social media use is affecting cultural practices surrounding death. "Virtual funerals" and other forms of previously physical memorabilia are being introduced into the digital world, complete with public details of a person's life and death. == E-mail == Gmail and Hotmail allow the email accounts of the deceased to be accessed provided certain requirements are met. Yahoo! Mail will not provide access, citing the No Right of Survivorship and Non-Transferability clause in the Yahoo! terms of service. In 2005, Yahoo! was ordered by the Probate Court of Oakland County, Michigan, to release emails of deceased US Marine Justin Ellsworth to his father, John Ellsworth. == By website == === Facebook === ==== Policies ==== In its early days, Facebook used to delete profiles of dead people, but does not anymore. In October 2009, the company introduced "memorial pages" in response to multiple user requests related to the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting. After receiving a proof of death via a special form, the profile would be converted into a tribute page with minimal personal details, where friends and family members could share their grief. In February 2015, Facebook allowed users to appoint a friend or family member as a "legacy contact" with the rights to manage their page after death. It also gave Facebook users an option to have their account permanently deleted when they die. As of January 2019, all 3 options were active. ==== Controversies ==== In 2013, BuzzFeed criticized Facebook for the lack of control over memorialization that resulted in a "Facebook death" prank aimed at locking users out of their own accounts. In 2017, Reuters reported that a German court rejected a mother's demand to access her deceased daughter's memorialized account stating that the right to private telecommunications outweighed the right to inheritance. In July 2018, Dubai's DIFC Courts ruling clarified that Facebook, Twitter and other social media accounts should be bequeathed in legally binding will. Social media networks have also been criticized for not responding to relatives' requests to alter information on memorialized accounts. Another criticism is that Facebook users often are unaware that their content is ultimately owned not by them, but by Facebook. === Dropbox === ==== Policies ==== Dropbox determines inactive accounts by looking at sign-ins, file shares, and file activity over the previous 12 months. Once an account is determined inactive, Dropbox deletes the files on the account. To request access to the account of a deceased person, heirs are required to send appropriate documents by physical mail. === Google === ==== Policies ==== In April 2013, Google announced the creation of the 'Inactive Account Manager', which allows users of Google services to set up a process in which ownership and control of inactive accounts is transferred to a delegated user. Google also allows users to submit a range of requests regarding accounts belonging to deceased users. Google works with immediate family members and representatives to close online accounts in some cases once a user is known to be deceased, and in certain circumstances may also provide content from a deceased user's account. === X (formerly Twitter) === ==== Policies ==== Until 2010, Twitter (launched in July 2006) did not have a policy on handling deceased user accounts, and simply deleted timelines of deceased users. In August 2010, Twitter allowed memorialization of accounts upon request from family members, and also provided them with an option of either deleting the account or obtaining a permanent backup of the deceased user's public tweets. In 2014, Twitter updated its policy to include an option to delete deceased user photographs. This policy was implemented after multiple Twitter trolls sent Zelda Williams, daughter of Robin Williams, photoshopped images of her father. As of January 2019, the only option that Twitter offered for the accounts of dead people was account deactivation. Previously published content is not removed. To deactivate an account Twitter requires an immediate family member to present a copy of their ID and a death certificate of the deceased. Twitter specified that it does not provide account access to anyone, but does allow people having account login information to continue posting. A prominent example is Roger Ebert's account maintained by his wife Chaz. ==== Controversies ==== In 2012, The Next Web columnist Martin Bryant noticed that since Twitter, unlike Facebook, did not have a "one account per real person" emphasis, memorializing accounts presented a difficulty to the service. He also criticized the service for the lack of control over hacking of such accounts and disapproved the practice of passing dead people's usernames to new owners after a certain period of inactivity. In 2013, Variety ran a feature about Cory Monteith's Twitter account that had 1.5 million followers at the moment on his death and gained almost 1 million new followers afterwards. Monteith's fans also launched #DontDeleteCorysTwitter campaign. As of February 2019, the celebrity's account had 1.63 million followers. Various media reported awkward incidents related to automatic posting and account hacking. === iTunes === ==== Policies ==== iCloud and iTunes accounts are "non transferable" since the content is not owned — users only have a licence to access it. === Wikipedia === Users who have made at least several hundred edits or are otherwise known for substantial contributions to Wikipedia can be noted at a central memorial page. Wikipedia user pages are ordinarily fully edit-protected after the user has died, to prevent vandalism. === YouTube === YouTube grants access to accounts of deceased persons under certain conditions. It is one of the data options that one can select to give access to a trusted contact with Google's Inactive Account Manager. === Instagram === ==== Policies ==== As of the COVID-19 pandemic, Instagram has notified its users of a delay in time of reviewing reports of deceased users due to the limited staff the pandemic has caused. Users that submit a report on a deceased user on Instagram can either memorialize the account or remove it from Instagram's platform. Through memorializing the account, Instagram secures and protects a platform of a deceased user, but per their policy, they do not supply any of the login credentials to the account. For both memorializing or removing a deceased users account, a verified user needs to submit a tangible document that shows proof of death of the user. However, to fully remove an account, the user must be a close or direct family member to the deceased person, and show proof of credibility as well. === Microsoft === ==== Policies ==== Per Microsoft's policies, they do not supply any of the login credentials to a deceased user's Microsoft account. A user does not have to contact or notify Microsoft of the deceased user, as the related user is able to close the account themselves. At default, Microsoft removes accounts after 2 years of inactivity. If the user does not have access to the deceased user's account, Microsoft recommends that the user deletes all bank accounts linked to that of the deceased to ensure no subscriptions are still going through. If the user wants to request to gain access to the deceased user's account, a court order or a subpoena has to be provided to Microsoft, but does not guarantee access to the deceased user's account. For users that live in Germany, more documentation is needed to gain access of a deceased user's account, including the deceased user's death certificate, a form of ID, and a documentation of consent from the deceased. The requesting user needs to provide a form of ID as well. == Digital inheritance == Digital inheritance is the process of handing over
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Economía Feminista

Economía Feminista, in English: Feminist Economics, is an Argentine digital media, focused on disclosure and creation of economics information about the gender gap. The media is managed by Mercedes D`Alessandro, Magalí Brosio, Violeta Guitart and Agurtzane Urrutia. == Concept == Economía Femini(s)ta, is a portmanteau of feminista and minita. It attempts to end stereotypes about women. It was created in 2015 and its goal is to be a source of economic data to help to display economic differences by gender, especially in Argentina. == Awards == Economía Feminista was awarded the Lola Mora prize in 2016 for the best digital media by Dirección General de la Mujer, promoted by Buenos Aires city's Legislature.
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Fear of missing out

Fear of missing out (FOMO) is the feeling of apprehension that one is either not in the know about or missing out on information, events, experiences, or life decisions that could make one's life better. FOMO is also associated with a fear of regret, which may lead to concerns that one might miss an opportunity for social interaction, a novel experience, a memorable event, profitable investment, or the comfort of loved ones. It is characterized by a desire to stay continually connected with what others are doing, and can be described as the fear that deciding not to participate is the wrong choice. FOMO could result from not knowing about a conversation, missing a TV show, not attending a wedding or party, or hearing that others have discovered a new restaurant. In recent years, FOMO has been attributed to a number of negative psychological and behavioral symptoms. FOMO has increased in recent times due to advancements in technology. Social networking sites create many opportunities for FOMO. While it provides opportunities for social engagement, it offers a view into an endless stream of activities in which a person is not involved. Further, a common tendency is to post about positive experiences (such as a great restaurant) rather than negative ones (such as a bad first date). Psychological dependence on social media can lead to FOMO or even pathological Internet use. FOMO is also present in video games, investing, and business marketing. The increasing popularity of the phrase has led to related linguistic and cultural variants. FOMO is associated with worsening depression and anxiety, and a lowered quality of life. FOMO can also affect businesses. Hype and trends can lead business leaders to invest based on perceptions of what others are doing, rather than their own business strategy. This is also the idea of the bandwagon effect, where one individual may see another person or people do something and they begin to think it must be important because everyone is doing it. They might not even understand the meaning behind it, and they may not totally agree with it. Nevertheless, they are still going to participate because they don't want to be left out. == History == Patrick J. McGinnis coined the term FOMO and popularized it in a 2004 op-ed titled "Social Theory at HBS: McGinnis' Two FOs" in The Harbus, the magazine of Harvard Business School, where he was then a student. The article also referred to another related condition, Fear of a Better Option (FOBO), and the role of these two fears in the school's social life. Currently the term has been used as a hashtag on social media and has been mentioned in hundreds of news articles, from online sources like Salon.com to print papers like The New York Times. === Earlier forms === The phrase "fear of missing out" is a common English phrase, especially in the form "fear of missing out on (something)". The term "fear of missing out" (but not the term FOMO) was used earlier in the academic business literature by marketing strategist Dan Herman, who used it in presentations in the late 1990s, and included the phrase in a 2000 paper about "short-term brands", where a motivation for trying these brands is "ambition to exhaust all possibilities and the fear of missing out on something". Herman also believes the concept has evolved to become more wide spread through mobile phone usage, texting, and social media and has helped flesh out the concept of the fear of missing out to the masses. Before the Internet, a related phenomenon, "keeping up with the Joneses", was widely experienced. FOMO generalized and intensified this experience because so much more of people's lives became publicly documented and easily accessed. == Symptoms == === Psychological === Fear of missing out has been associated with a deficit in psychological needs. Self-determination theory contends that an individual's psychological satisfaction in their competence, autonomy, and relatedness consists of three basic psychological needs for human beings. Test subjects with lower levels of basic psychological satisfaction reported a higher level of FOMO. FOMO has also been linked to negative psychological effects in overall mood and general life satisfaction. A study performed on college campuses found that experiencing FOMO on a certain day led to a higher fatigue on that day specifically. Experiencing FOMO continuously throughout the semester also can lead to higher stress levels among students. An individual with an expectation to experience the fear of missing out can also develop a lower level of self-esteem. A study by JWTIntelligence suggests that FOMO can influence the formation of long-term goals and self-perceptions. In this study, around half of the respondents stated that they are overwhelmed by the amount of information needed to stay up-to-date, and that it is impossible to not miss out on something. The process of relative deprivation creates FOMO and dissatisfaction. It reduces psychological well-being. FOMO led to negative social and emotional experiences, such as boredom and loneliness. A 2013 study found that it negatively impacts mood and life satisfaction, reduces self-esteem, and affects mindfulness. Four in ten young people reported FOMO sometimes or often. FOMO was found to be negatively correlated with age, and men were more likely than women to report it. People who experience higher levels of FOMO tend to have a stronger desire for high social status, are more competitive with others of the same gender, and are more interested in short-term relationships. Studies have found that experiencing fear of missing out has been linked to anxiety or depression. === Behavioral === The fear of missing out stems from a feeling of missing social connections or information. This absent feeling is then followed by a need or drive to interact socially to boost connections. The fear of missing out not only leads to negative psychological effects but also has been shown to increase negative behavioral patterns. In aims of maintaining social connections, negative habits are formed or heightened. A 2019 University of Glasgow study surveyed 467 adolescents, and found that the respondents felt societal pressure to always be available. According to John M. Grohol, founder and Editor-in-Chief of Psych Central, FOMO may lead to a constant search for new connections with others, abandoning current connections to do so. The fear of missing out derived from digital connection has been positively correlated with bad technology habits especially in youth. These negative habits included increased screen time, checking social media during school, or texting while driving. Social media use in the presence of others can be referred to as phubbing, the habit of snubbing a physically present person in favour of a mobile phone. Multiple studies have also identified a negative correlation between the hours of sleep and the scale at which individuals experience fear of missing out. A lack of sleep in college students experiencing FOMO can be attributed to the number of social interactions that occur late at night on campuses. == Settings == === Social media === Fear of missing out has a positive correlation with higher levels of social media usage. Social media connects individuals and showcases the lives of others at their peak. This gives people the fear of missing out when they feel like others on social media are taking part in positive life experiences that they personally are not also experiencing. This fear of missing out related to social media has symptoms including anxiety, loneliness, and a feeling of inadequacy compared to others. Self-esteem plays a key role in the levels a person feels when experiencing the fear of missing out, as their self worth is influenced by people they observe on social media. There are two types of anxiety; one related to genetics that is permanent, and one that is temporary. The temporary state of anxiety is the one that is more relevant to the fear of missing out, and is directly related to the individual looking at social media sites for a short period of time. This anxiety is caused by a loss of feeling of belonging through the concept of social exclusion. FOMO-sufferers may increasingly seek access to others' social lives, and consume an escalating amount of real-time information. A survey in 2012 indicated that 83% of respondents said that there is information overload in regards that there is too much to watch and read. Constant information that is available to people through social media causes the fear of missing out as people feel worse about themselves for not staying up to date with relevant information. Social media shows just exactly what people are missing out on in real time including events like parties, opportunities, and other events leading for people to fear missing out on other related future events. Another survey indicates that almost 40% of people from ages 12 through 67 i
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Cognitive robotics

Cognitive robotics or cognitive technology is a subfield of robotics concerned with endowing a robot with intelligent behavior by providing it with a processing architecture that will allow it to learn and reason about how to behave in response to complex goals in a complex world. Cognitive robotics may be considered the engineering branch of embodied cognitive science and embodied embedded cognition, consisting of robotic process automation, artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning, optical character recognition, image processing, process mining, analytics, software development and system integration. == Core issues == While traditional cognitive modeling approaches have assumed symbolic coding schemes as a means for depicting the world, translating the world into these kinds of symbolic representations has proven to be problematic if not untenable. Perception and action and the notion of symbolic representation are therefore core issues to be addressed in cognitive robotics. == Starting point == Cognitive robotics views human or animal cognition as a starting point for the development of robotic information processing, as opposed to more traditional artificial intelligence techniques. Target robotic cognitive capabilities include perception processing, attention allocation, anticipation, planning, complex motor coordination, reasoning about other agents and perhaps even about their own mental states. Robotic cognition embodies the behavior of intelligent agents in the physical world (or a virtual world, in the case of simulated cognitive robotics). Ultimately, the robot must be able to act in the real world. == Learning techniques == === Motor Babble === A preliminary robot learning technique called motor babbling involves correlating pseudo-random complex motor movements by the robot with resulting visual and/or auditory feedback such that the robot may begin to expect a pattern of sensory feedback given a pattern of motor output. Desired sensory feedback may then be used to inform a motor control signal. This is thought to be analogous to how a baby learns to reach for objects or learns to produce speech sounds. For simpler robot systems, where, for instance, inverse kinematics may feasibly be used to transform anticipated feedback (desired motor result) into motor output, this step may be skipped. === Imitation === Once a robot can coordinate its motors to produce a desired result, the technique of learning by imitation may be used. The robot monitors the performance of another agent and then the robot tries to imitate that agent. It is often a challenge to transform imitation information from a complex scene into a desired motor result for the robot. Note that imitation is a high-level form of cognitive behavior and imitation is not necessarily required in a basic model of embodied animal cognition. === Knowledge acquisition === A more complex learning approach is "autonomous knowledge acquisition": the robot is left to explore the environment on its own. A system of goals and beliefs is typically assumed. A somewhat more directed mode of exploration can be achieved by "curiosity" algorithms, such as Intelligent Adaptive Curiosity or Category-Based Intrinsic Motivation. These algorithms generally involve breaking sensory input into a finite number of categories and assigning some sort of prediction system (such as an artificial neural network) to each. The prediction system keeps track of the error in its predictions over time. Reduction in prediction error is considered learning. The robot then preferentially explores categories in which it is learning (or reducing prediction error) the fastest. == Other architectures == Some researchers in cognitive robotics have tried using architectures such as (ACT-R and Soar (cognitive architecture)) as a basis of their cognitive robotics programs. These highly modular symbol-processing architectures have been used to simulate operator performance and human performance when modeling simplistic and symbolized laboratory data. The idea is to extend these architectures to handle real-world sensory input as that input continuously unfolds through time. What is needed is a way to somehow translate the world into a set of symbols and their relationships. == Questions == Some of the fundamental questions to be answered in cognitive robotics are: How much human programming should or can be involved to support the learning processes? How can one quantify progress? Some of the adopted ways are reward and punishment. But what kind of reward and what kind of punishment? In humans, when teaching a child, for example, the reward would be candy or some encouragement, and the punishment can take many forms. But what is an effective way with robots?
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Digital classics

Digital classics is the application of the tools of digital humanities to the field of classics, or more broadly to the study of the ancient world. == History == Classics was one of the first of the humanities disciplines to adopt computing approaches; the first references to the use of computing in the classical humanities date to the early 1960s, which might be surprising considering the reputation of the discipline as old-fashioned and stuffily traditionalist. Major projects such as the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae, founded in 1972, and the text collections of the Packard Humanities Institute set the trend, and there are still a significantly large number of ancient world projects among Humanities Computing projects today. Also, the success of traditional scholarly publications in digital guises, such as seen in the Bryn Mawr Classical Review, and the early adoption of hypertext in high profile projects like the Perseus Digital Library helped to legitimize computing in the study of classics in ways that has not always been the case in other areas of the humanities. This apparent paradox may be as a result of the many methodologies and different sources of evidence that classicists have always had to embrace, from literary sources and linguistics, to art history and archaeology, history, philosophy, religious theory, ancient documents such as inscriptions and papyri, and so forth. The fragmentary nature of many of the texts and languages of the ancient world, the scattered evidence from the material culture of ancient Greece and Rome, and the necessity to evaluate all these varieties of evidence in context are particularly likely to benefit from digital approaches such as databases, text markup, image manipulation and machine learning. == Digital classics projects == There are currently several major projects that aim to encourage and develop digital approaches to classical scholarship. The Stoa Consortium at the University of Kentucky distributes news of the discipline, and serves as a peer-reviewed electronic publication venue, and encourages open source approaches to digital classics. The Perseus Project is a digital library that also provides a collection of digital texts and analysis tools to the public; principally (but not exclusively) classical. Digital Classicist is another project and community which shares information and advice about the digital humanities applied to the field of classics. Epigraphy.info is an international open community pursuing a collaborative environment for digital epigraphy. The Liverpool Classics Mailing List is a project which can be subscribed to in which one receives email regarding Classics events around the world, as well as call for papers, studentships and public lectures.
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Battleboarding

Battleboarding, also known as versus debating and "who would win" debating, is an activity that involves discussing and debating around hypothetical fights between individuals; most popularly, fictional characters. These debates are often held in forums, blogs, sites and wikis, known as versus sites or battle boards. Netizens who engage in battleboarding online are often called "battleboarders". The earliest iterations of battleboarding first appeared in various online boards and forums, though its origins can be traced back to magazines, television shows, and comic book letter columns. Eventually, the online activity grew, becoming one of the most popular internet activities today, and spawning many online communities dedicated solely for battleboarding. It soon evolved into its own subculture, and even went on to inspire other media. == History == === Origins === Before the advent of the internet, articles about hypothetical fights were published in magazines. These articles range from topics like sports, comics and anime, such as Black Belt Magazine issue May 1997 which discussed about a hypothetical match between Muhammad Ali and Bruce Lee, and Wizard Magazine #133 which discussed about various hypothetical fights between American comic characters against Japanese anime characters. During that time, many comic book publishers also conceptualized and published "versus" storylines like Batman Versus Predator and Justice League/Avengers. Many films also capitalized on the concept of characters from different franchises fighting each other, such as Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1934), King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962), Freddy vs Jason (2003), and Alien vs. Predator (2004). Another inspiration behind battleboarding were television shows and documentaries whose premise involved hypothetical fights concerning a variety of subjects like zoology, paleontology, and military history. These include shows such as Animal Face-Off (which pitted animals against each other), Deadliest Warrior (which pitted historical warriors, oftentimes from different time periods, against each other), and Jurassic Fight Club (which was about analyzing cases where different types of dinosaurs fought one another). Death Battle, a web series about pitting characters against each other that began in 2010, is a similar show that soon inspired many battleboarding communities and fandoms. Death Battle, as with many other battleboarding series and websites before it, utilised "calcs", which are mathematical equations that try to calculate how strong a character or weapon is. Other popular web series about the subject include Super Power Beat Down and Grudge Match. === Forums and sites === Many internet forums about movies, comics, anime, and video games often held discussions about hypothetical fights between characters from these media. These discussions would be the first iteration of online battleboarding. A notable early battleboarding website was stardestroyer.net (founded 1998), created by Michael Wong. The website focuses in large part on match-ups between the Star Wars and Star Trek franchises, and also includes a forum covering this as well as other more general battleboarding topics, usually related to science fiction and space opera. In addition to the forums, several webpages written by the administrators and contributors were embedded on the site. These attempted to mathematically quantify the capabilities of Star Wars technology and prove their superiority to their Star Trek equivalents, such as Wong's "Star Wars vs Star Trek: Technology Overview" and Brian Young's "Turbolaser Commentaries." stardestroyer.net had a notable impact on early battleboarding culture and also influenced official products. Curtis Saxton, author of several officially-licensed Star Wars technical reference books, thanked Wong, Young, and several other stardestroyer.net contributors by name in the acknowledgements section of Star Wars: Attack of the Clones Incredible Cross-Sections (2002), referring to them as "prominent among the hundreds of people contributing to constructive debates about Star Wars technicalities over the years, resulting in the consensus of conceptual and physical foundations applied in these pages." Saxton's books in the Incredible Cross-Sections series contain specific numbers about the capabilities of Star Wars ships original to these publications and not used in any other official sources. In an interview conducted by TheForce.Net, Saxton claimed to have been offered the job of writing reference books by a DK employee familiar with his "Star Wars Technical Commentaries" webpage (1995–2001), where Saxton attempted to calculate the firepower, speed, and durability of Star Wars spaceships using his background as an astrophysics student. One of the oldest and longest-running battleboarding forum is Comic Vine's "battle forum", whose first post was in 2007. Comic Vine also has one of the largest impacts on battleboarding, creating many common rules and terminologies such as "bloodlusted", "morals are off", "speed equalized", and many others. Another long-running battle forum is a subreddit called r/whowouldwin, where redditors can post and debate fights about real or fictional individuals. Verdicts of these match-ups are often chosen by using evidences of a character's power, weakness, or feat, such as movie clips, comic book panel scans, and excerpts from related literature; all of which are posted and categorized in a separate subreddit called r/respectthreads. Other influential battle forums include Fanverse, where users can post their own calcs about a character's power level. The popularity of battle forums inspired the creation of websites dedicated only for battleboarding. These include The Outskirts Battle Dome, a website that popularized the use of "power levels" in battleboarding; the aforementioned stardestroyer.net; and Space Battles, a website whose forums and threads are filled with posts about hypothetical fights between characters as well as other related topics. Another influential battleboarding site is the now defunct Fact Pile, and its sister site, FactPileTopia. Fact Pile is one of the first battleboarding site that actually listed down and documented winners of their match-ups. The site closed down in 2016 along with its forum, wikia, and YouTube channel. Besides these, blogs about battleboarding were also created, such as dreager1.com. === Wikis === Nowadays, the most popular battleboarding communities can be seen in Fandom, with two of the oldest and most popular being Deadliest Fiction and VS Battles Wiki. Deadliest Fiction is a Deadliest Warrior-inspired fanon created in July 2010 by a group of historians, academics, and pop culture enthusiasts. Being one of the most influential and accurate battleboarding sites around, Deadliest Fiction allows users to create hypothetical match-ups in the form of blogs, where other users can vote and debate around who will win in the comment section. Once a verdict is reached, the site allows the user to create a simulated fanfiction of how the fight would happen. The same year in October, a similar battleboarding site named VS Battles Wiki was created. In the VS Battles Wiki, users can create profiles and power levels of characters, post match-ups in its threads and forums, and list down the winners and losers of these threads in said character profiles. The wiki is considered the most active wiki battleboarding site today, with over 1 million visitors per month. However, throughout the years, the VS Battles Wiki has had its share of controversies, such as alleged inaccuracies in its profiles. There have also been websites and fanfiction wikis inspired by the battleboarding internet show Death Battle. These include the long-running G1 Death Battle Fan Blog, r/deathbattlematchups, and the popular Death Battle Fanon Wiki and DBX Fanon Wiki. Death Battle also released its own dice and card game, complete with rules and effects taken from battleboarding. == Subculture == In its rise in popularity, battleboarding has given birth to a unique online subculture with its own rules, activities, and terminologies. Several of these influences have become present in other online communities and popular media. Some of the common slang and terminologies used in battleboarding subculture includes: Battle Field Removal: Often abbreviated to "BFR", this is a rule that a fight can end if one character is taken out of a battlefield. This rule is used for characters who have the powers to teleport or transport enemies without actually killing them. Battle Royale: A term originating from Comic Vine in which multiple characters are pitted against each other. The name is probably derived from the film Battle Royale or the video game genre of the same name. Bloodlusted: A hypothetical situation wherein the characters are pitted against each other while in a furious, berserker-like state. Calc: These are calculations battl
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