Curious about the best AI writing assistant? An AI writing assistant is software that uses machine learning to help you get more done — it combines speed, accuracy, and an interface that just works. Hands-on testing shows real-world results vary, so a short free trial is the smartest way to decide. Whether you are a beginner or a pro, the right AI writing assistant slots into your workflow and pays for itself fast. This guide breaks down the top picks, their pros and cons, and who each one is best for.
Decorrelation
Decorrelation is a general term for any process that is used to reduce autocorrelation within a signal, or cross-correlation within a set of signals, while preserving other aspects of the signal. A frequently used method of decorrelation is the use of a matched linear filter to reduce the autocorrelation of a signal as far as possible. Since the minimum possible autocorrelation for a given signal energy is achieved by equalising the power spectrum of the signal to be similar to that of a white noise signal, this is often referred to as signal whitening. == Process == === Signal processing === Most decorrelation algorithms are linear, but there are also non-linear decorrelation algorithms. Many data compression algorithms incorporate a decorrelation stage. For example, many transform coders first apply a fixed linear transformation that would, on average, have the effect of decorrelating a typical signal of the class to be coded, prior to any later processing. This is typically a Karhunen–Loève transform, or a simplified approximation such as the discrete cosine transform. By comparison, sub-band coders do not generally have an explicit decorrelation step, but instead exploit the already-existing reduced correlation within each of the sub-bands of the signal, due to the relative flatness of each sub-band of the power spectrum in many classes of signals. Linear predictive coders can be modelled as an attempt to decorrelate signals by subtracting the best possible linear prediction from the input signal, leaving a whitened residual signal. Decorrelation techniques can also be used for many other purposes, such as reducing crosstalk in a multi-channel signal, or in the design of echo cancellers. In image processing decorrelation techniques can be used to enhance or stretch, colour differences found in each pixel of an image. This is generally termed as 'decorrelation stretching'. === Neuroscience === In neuroscience, decorrelation is used in the analysis of the neural networks in the human visual system. The raw inputs from cone cells and rod cells under go many steps of processing before it is handled by the visual cortex. These steps generally perform decorrelation, both spatial (surround suppression in the retina) and temporal (handling of movement in the lateral geniculate nucleus). === Cryptography === In cryptography, decorrelation is used in cipher design (see Decorrelation theory) and in the design of hardware random number generators.
Physicalization
Physicalization of computer hardware (the opposite of virtualization), is a way to place multiple physical machines in a rack unit. It can be a way to reduce hardware costs, since in some cases, server processors cost more per core than energy efficient laptop processors, which may make up for added cost of board level integration. While Moore's law makes increasing integration less expensive, some jobs require much I/O bandwidth, which may be less expensive to provide using many less-integrated processors. Applications and services that are I/O bound are likely to benefit from such physicalized environments. This ensures that each operating system instance is running on a processor that has its own network interface card, host bus and I/O sub-system unlike in the case of a multi-core servers where a single I/O sub-system is shared between all the cores / VMs.
Teamwork (project management)
Teamwork.com is an Irish, privately owned, web-based software company headquartered in Cork, Ireland. Teamwork creates task management and team collaboration software. Founded in 2007, as of 2016 the company stated that its software was in use by over 370,000 organisations worldwide (including Disney, Spotify and HP), and that it had over 2.4m users. == History == Peter Coppinger and Dan Mackey founded a company, Digital Crew, in 2007. This company built websites, intranets and custom web-based solutions for clients in Cork, Ireland. Frustrated by whiteboards and software management tools, Coppinger wanted a software system that would help manage client projects and which would be easy to use and generic enough to be used by different types of companies. Originally 37signals Basecamp users themselves, Coppinger and Mackey were frustrated by the limited feature set, and by Basecamp's apparent inaction on their feedback. In October 2007, Coppinger and Mackey launched Teamwork Project Manager, nicknamed TeamworkPM. In March 2015, this was renamed as Teamwork Projects. In 2014, after two years of negotiations, TeamworkPM bought the domain name 'Teamwork.com' for US$675,000 (€500,000). At the time this was one of the most expensive domain name purchases by an Irish company, and involved the transfer of a domain name which had been dormant since it was first acquired by the original owner in 1999. In 2015, Teamwork.com was named by Gartner to be one of their "Cool Vendors" in the Program and Portfolio Management Category. This was followed by the launch of a new real-time messaging product, Teamwork Chat, in January 2015. In June 2015, the company announced a drive to recruit for 40 positions by the end of the year. This was followed by the announcement that the company was investing more than €1 million in a new office, and had leased office space in Park House, Blackpool. In June 2016, Teamwork.com undertook a further recruitment drive to entice developers to Cork. In July 2021, the company announced that it had raised an investment of $70 million (€59.1 million) from venture capital firm Bregal Milestone to fund further growth. == Products == Teamwork markets a number of cloud-based applications, including Teamwork, Teamwork Desk, Teamwork Spaces, Teamwork CRM and Teamwork Chat. Teamwork was launched on 4 October 2007, at which time it had time management, milestone management, file sharing, time tracking, and messaging features. Teamwork's platform reportedly integrates with martech software like HubSpot, as well as other productivity tools like Slack, G Suite, MS Teams, Zapier, Dropbox and QuickBooks. == Awards == In 2016, Teamwork was awarded Cork's Best SME in the Cork Chamber of Commerce "Company of the Year" awards. In 2016, Teamwork was named number 7 in Deloitte's Fast 50 tech companies hit €1.6bn turnover. In 2015, Teamwork was identified as a Gartner "Cool Vendor" in the Program and Portfolio Management Category.
Software development process
A software development process prescribes a process for developing software. It typically divides an overall effort into smaller steps or sub-processes that are intended to ensure high-quality results. The process may describe specific deliverables – artifacts to be created and completed. Although not strictly limited to it, software development process often refers to the high-level process that governs the development of a software system from its beginning to its end of life – known as a methodology, model or framework. The system development life cycle (SDLC) describes the typical phases that a development effort goes through from the beginning to the end of life for a system – including a software system. A methodology prescribes how engineers go about their work in order to move the system through its life cycle. A methodology is a classification of processes or a blueprint for a process that is devised for the SDLC. For example, many processes can be classified as a spiral model. Software process and software quality are closely interrelated; some unexpected facets and effects have been observed in practice. == Methodology == The SDLC drives the definition of a methodology in that a methodology must address the phases of the SDLC. Generally, a methodology is designed to result in a high-quality system that meets or exceeds expectations (requirements) and is delivered on time and within budget even though computer systems can be complex and integrate disparate components. Various methodologies have been devised, including waterfall, spiral, agile, rapid prototyping, incremental, and synchronize and stabilize. A major difference between methodologies is the degree to which the phases are sequential vs. iterative. Agile methodologies, such as XP and scrum, focus on lightweight processes that allow for rapid changes. Iterative methodologies, such as Rational Unified Process and dynamic systems development method, focus on stabilizing project scope and iteratively expanding or improving products. Sequential or big-design-up-front (BDUF) models, such as waterfall, focus on complete and correct planning to guide larger projects and limit risks to successful and predictable results. Anamorphic development is guided by project scope and adaptive iterations. In scrum, for example, one could say a single user story goes through all the phases of the SDLC within a two-week sprint. By contrast the waterfall methodology, where every business requirement is translated into feature/functional descriptions which are then all implemented typically over a period of months or longer. A project can include both a project life cycle (PLC) and an SDLC, which describe different activities. According to Taylor (2004), "the project life cycle encompasses all the activities of the project, while the systems development life cycle focuses on realizing the product requirements". === History === The term SDLC is often used as an abbreviated version of SDLC methodology. Further, some use SDLC and traditional SDLC to mean the waterfall methodology. According to Elliott (2004), SDLC "originated in the 1960s, to develop large scale functional business systems in an age of large scale business conglomerates. Information systems activities revolved around heavy data processing and number crunching routines". The structured systems analysis and design method (SSADM) was produced for the UK government Office of Government Commerce in the 1980s. Ever since, according to Elliott (2004), "the traditional life cycle approaches to systems development have been increasingly replaced with alternative approaches and frameworks, which attempted to overcome some of the inherent deficiencies of the traditional SDLC". The main idea of the SDLC has been "to pursue the development of information systems in a very deliberate, structured and methodical way, requiring each stage of the life cycle––from the inception of the idea to delivery of the final system––to be carried out rigidly and sequentially" within the context of the framework being applied. Other methodologies were devised later: 1970s Structured programming since 1969 Cap Gemini SDM, originally from PANDATA, the first English translation was published in 1974. SDM stands for System Development Methodology 1980s Structured systems analysis and design method (SSADM) from 1980 onwards Information Requirement Analysis/Soft systems methodology 1990s Object-oriented programming (OOP) developed in the early 1960s and became a dominant programming approach during the mid-1990s Rapid application development (RAD), since 1991 Dynamic systems development method (DSDM), since 1994 Scrum, since 1995 Team software process, since 1998 Rational Unified Process (RUP), maintained by IBM since 1998 Extreme programming, since 1999 2000s Agile Unified Process (AUP) maintained since 2005 by Scott Ambler Disciplined agile delivery (DAD) Supersedes AUP 2010s Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) Large-Scale Scrum (LeSS) DevOps Since DSDM in 1994, all of the methodologies on the above list except RUP have been agile methodologies - yet many organizations, especially governments, still use pre-agile processes (often waterfall or similar). === Examples === The following are notable methodologies somewhat ordered by popularity. Agile Agile software development refers to a group of frameworks based on iterative development, where requirements and solutions evolve via collaboration between self-organizing cross-functional teams. The term was coined in the year 2001 when the Agile Manifesto was formulated. Waterfall The waterfall model is a sequential development approach, in which development flows one-way (like a waterfall) through the SDLC phases. Spiral In 1988, Barry Boehm published a software system development spiral model, which combines key aspects of the waterfall model and rapid prototyping, in an effort to combine advantages of top-down and bottom-up concepts. It emphases a key area many felt had been neglected by other methodologies: deliberate iterative risk analysis, particularly suited to large-scale complex systems. Incremental Various methods combine linear and iterative methodologies, with the primary objective of reducing inherent project risk by breaking a project into smaller segments and providing more ease-of-change during the development process. Prototyping Software prototyping is about creating prototypes, i.e. incomplete versions of the software program being developed. Rapid Rapid application development (RAD) is a methodology which favors iterative development and the rapid construction of prototypes instead of large amounts of up-front planning. The "planning" of software developed using RAD is interleaved with writing the software itself. The lack of extensive pre-planning generally allows software to be written much faster and makes it easier to change requirements. Shape Up Shape Up is a software development approach introduced by Basecamp in 2018. It is a set of principles and techniques that Basecamp developed internally to overcome the problem of projects dragging on with no clear end. Its primary target audience is remote teams. Shape Up has no estimation and velocity tracking, backlogs, or sprints, unlike waterfall, agile, or scrum. Instead, those concepts are replaced with appetite, betting, and cycles. As of 2022, besides Basecamp, notable organizations that have adopted Shape Up include UserVoice and Block. Chaos Chaos model has one main rule: always resolve the most important issue first. Incremental funding Incremental funding methodology - an iterative approach. Lightweight Lightweight methodology - a general term for methods that only have a few rules and practices. Structured systems analysis and design Structured systems analysis and design method - a specific version of waterfall. Slow programming As part of the larger slow movement, emphasizes careful and gradual work without (or minimal) time pressures. Slow programming aims to avoid bugs and overly quick release schedules. V-Model V-Model (software development) - an extension of the waterfall model. Unified Process Unified Process (UP) is an iterative software development methodology framework, based on Unified Modeling Language (UML). UP organizes the development of software into four phases, each consisting of one or more executable iterations of the software at that stage of development: inception, elaboration, construction, and guidelines. === Comparison === The waterfall model describes the SDLC phases such that each builds on the result of the previous one. Not every project requires that the phases be sequential. For relatively simple projects, phases may be combined or overlapping. Alternative methodologies to waterfall are described and compared below. == Process meta-models == Some process models are abstract descriptions for evaluating, comparing, and improving the specific process adopted by an organization. ISO/IEC 12207 ISO/IEC 12207 i
Attensity
Attensity was an American company that provided social analytics and engagement applications for social customer relationship management (social CRM). Attensity's text analytics software applications extracted facts, relationships and sentiment from unstructured data. == History == Attensity was founded in 2000. An early investor in Attensity was In-Q-Tel, which funds technology to support the missions of the US Government and the broader DOD. InTTENSITY, an independent company that has combined Inxight with Attensity Software (the only joint development project that combines two InQTel funded software packages), was the exclusive distributor and outlet for Attensity in the Federal Market. In 2009, Attensity Corp., then based in Palo Alto, merged with Germany's Empolis and Living-e AG to form Attensity Group. In 2010, Attensity Group acquired Biz360, a provider of social media monitoring and market intelligence solutions. In early 2012, Attensity Group divested itself of the Empolis business unit via a management buyout; that unit currently conducts business under its pre-merger name. Attensity Group was a closely held private company. Its majority shareholder was Aeris Capital, a private Swiss investment office advising a high-net-worth individual and his charitable foundation. Foundation Capital, Granite Ventures, and Scale Venture Partners were among Biz360's investors and thus became shareholders in Attensity Group. In February 2016, Attensity's IP assets were acquired by InContact, and Attensity closed.
Endomondo
Endomondo is a health and wellness website. It allows users to track their health statistics and provides insights on fitness trends. Originally launched in 2007, Endomondo was acquired by Under Armour in 2015. Under Armour shut down Endomondo in 2020, but, by 2024, Endomondo re-launched as its own entity. == History == Endomondo started in Denmark in 2007 by Mette Lykke, Christian Birk and Jakob Nordenhof Jønck. In 2011, the company opened an office in Silicon Valley, USA, but kept its research and development department in Denmark. In 2013, Endomondo LLC was listed in Red Herring as a European finalists for promising start-ups. The same year, Christian Birk and Jakob Nordenhof Jønck left the daily operation of the company, but kept co-ownership. In February 2015, Endomondo LLC was acquired by athletic apparel maker Under Armour for $85 million. Endomondo, at that time, had over 20 million users. In October 2020, Under Armour announced that Endomondo would be shutting down and selling off MyFitnessPal to the private equity firm Francisco Partners for $345 million. Service stopped on 31 December 2020, giving customers until 15 February 2021 to download an archive of their historic data. In 2024, Endomondo.com was brought back online as a professional fitness guidance website. == Features == Endomondo provides numerous workouts, guidance on exercises, performance-enhancing nutrition, and tips. Previously, Endomondo was able to track numerous fitness attributes such as running routes, distance, duration, and calories. The software helped analyze performance and recommend improvements. There was a free and a paid version available of Endomondo. The free version had advertisements. The paid Premium version was free of advertisements and included additional features such as the possibility to create one's own training plan. The offering of additional features was different between the Android, IOS and Windows platforms, and had significantly better features for tracking performance over time than UnderArmours suggested replacement. Endomondo offered challenges of various types to the user and allowed users to create their own challenges.