Alibaba Cloud, also known as Aliyun (Chinese: 阿里云; pinyin: Ālǐyún; lit. 'Ali Cloud'), is a cloud computing company, a subsidiary of Alibaba Group. Alibaba Cloud provides cloud computing services to online businesses and Alibaba's own e-commerce ecosystem. Its international operations are registered and headquartered in Singapore. Alibaba Cloud offers cloud services that are available on a pay-as-you-go basis, and include elastic compute, data storage, relational databases, big-data processing, DDoS protection and content delivery networks (CDN). It is the largest cloud computing company in China, and in Asia Pacific according to Gartner. Alibaba Cloud operates data centers in 29 regions and 87 availability zones around the globe. As of June 2017, Alibaba Cloud is placed in the Visionaries' quadrant of Gartner's Magic Quadrant for cloud infrastructure as a service, worldwide. == History == Alibaba Cloud was founded in September 2009, and R&D centers and operation centers were opened in Hangzhou, Beijing, and Silicon Valley. === 2010–2013 === In November 2010, the company supported the first Single's Day (11.11) Taobao shopping festival, with 2.4 billion PageViews (PV) in 24 hours. Two years later, in November 2012, it became the first Chinese cloud service provider to pass ISO27001:2005 (Information Security Management System). In January 2013, Alibaba Cloud merged with HiChina (founded by Xiangning Zhang) for the www.net.cn business as one of the largest acquisitions in the company's history at the time. In August of that year, ApsaraDB architecture supported 5000 physical machines in a single cluster. === 2014–2017 === The company's Hong Kong data center went online in May 2014, and in December of that year, Alibaba Cloud defended a 14-hour-long DDoS attack, peaking at 453.8 Gbit/s. In July 2015, the Alibaba Group invested US$1 billion in Alibaba Cloud. A month later, Alibaba Cloud's first Singapore data center opened, and Singapore was announced as Alibaba Cloud's overseas headquarters. Two US data centers went online in October 2015, and that same month MaxCompute took the lead in the Sort Benchmark, sorting 100 TB data in 377s compared with Apache Spark's previous record of 1406s. The Alibaba Cloud Computing Conference was also held in October 2015 in Hangzhou and attracted over 20,000 developers. A month later, in November, the company supported the 11.11 shopping festival with a record of $14.2 billion transactions in 24 hours. Alibaba Cloud partnered with SK Holdings C&C in April 2016 to provide cloud services to Korean and Chinese companies. A month later, the company formalized a joint venture with SoftBank to launch cloud services in Japan that utilize technologies and solutions from Alibaba Cloud. In June 2016, Alibaba Cloud expanded its data center operations in Singapore with the establishment of a second availability zone. Alibaba Cloud also achieved two new certifications overseas: Singapore Multi-Tier Cloud Security (MTCS) standard Level 3, and the Payment Card Industry Three-Domain Secure (PCI 3DS). The company partnered with Vodafone Germany in November 2016 for Data Center operations and to provide cloud services to German and European companies. Alibaba became the official cloud services provider of the Olympics in January 2017. A month later, in February, the company became a founding Member of the EU Cloud Code of Conduct. In June 2017, Alibaba Cloud was placed in the Visionaries quadrant of Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure as a Service, Worldwide. Alibaba Cloud partnered with Malaysia's Fusionex in September 2017 to provide cloud solutions in Southeast Asia, and the Malaysia data center commenced operations in October. That same month, the company partnered with Elastic and launched a new service called Alibaba Cloud Elasticsearch. Alibaba Cloud India data center commenced operations in December 2017. In addition, Alibaba Cloud received the C5 standard certification from the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) for its data centers in Germany and Singapore. === 2018–2021 === In February 2018, Alibaba Cloud's Indonesia data center commenced operations. The company's first data center opening in the Philippines in June 2021. Alibaba Cloud unveiled the ARM-based Yitian 710 chip, designed in-house, for use in its data centers in October 2021. On November 24, 2021, the bug Log4Shell was disclosed to Apache by Chen Zhaojun of Alibaba Cloud's Security Team. On December 22, 2021, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology suspended a partnership with Alibaba Cloud for "failure in reporting cybersecurity vulnerabilities" related to the Log4Shell bug. === 2022 === In September 2022, Alibaba Cloud announced a $1 billion pledge to upgrade its global partner ecosystem. == Data center regions == Alibaba Cloud has 25 regional data centres globally. The Data Center in Germany is operated by Vodafone Germany (Frankfurt) and certified with C5. == Products == Alibaba Cloud provides cloud computing IaaS, PaaS, DBaaS and SaaS, including services such as e-commerce, big data, Database, IoT, Object storage (OSS), Kubernetes and data customization which can be managed from Alibaba web page or using aliyun command line tool. AnalyticDB was first released in May 2018, and the latest version 3.0 was released in 2019. On April 26, 2019, TPC published TPC-DS benchmark result of AnalyticDB. In 2019, a paper about the system design of AnalyticDB was published in VLDB conference 2019. == Academic partners == List of academic alliances: Shanghai Jiao Tong University Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) University of Malaya Hong Kong Shue Yan University Macao University of Science and Technology Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) Télécom Paris SUPINFO International University Université de technologie sino-européenne de l'université de Shanghai Gadjah Mada University Universitas Prasetiya Mulya Bina Nusantara University Krida Wacana Christian University Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education Nanyang Polytechnic Republic Polytechnic Sekolah Tinggi Teknologi Informasi NIIT Usman Institute of Technology AISSMS Institute of Information Technology == Controversy == On October 26, 2016, Zhang Kai, CEO of ITHome issued an announcement stating he could no longer tolerate Alibaba Cloud's overselling and service interruption issues, and had migrated the hosting entirely to Baidu Cloud. Alibaba Cloud subsequently issued an apology letter, but indirectly mentioned that website performance should consider system architecture and avoid single-point design.
Dabbler
Dabbler is natural media drawing software for beginners. It was initially developed by Fractal Design Corporation. It is a simplified version of Fractal Design Painter, and included multimedia tutorials and a fullscreen interface. Dabbler was released as "Art Dabbler" after the MetaCreations merger, and rights were eventually transferred to Corel. Dabbler operating systems are Mac OS and Microsoft Windows.
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/
Directed-energy weapon wildfire conspiracy theories
The directed-energy weapon wildfire conspiracy theories are claims circulating on social media and in fringe commentary that 2020s wildfires in places such as California, Hawaii and Texas were started or steered by directed-energy weapons or other lasers or directed-energy systems rather than by the documented ignition sources identified by investigators. Fact-checking organisations and newsrooms have repeatedly shown that widely shared images and clips said to depict “beams from the sky” are unrelated, miscaptioned or fabricated, and that official inquiries point to causes such as damaged or re-energised power lines, vegetation and extreme wind conditions. Coverage of the January 2025 Los Angeles fires described a resurgence of familiar hoaxes while local and federal agencies coordinated public rebuttals. == Background == Rumours linking directed-energy weapons to wildfire outbreaks appeared during earlier disaster seasons, then re-emerged at scale during the 2018 Camp Fire and again with the 2023 Maui wildfires and the 2025 Los Angeles fires. Journalists documented how large disasters reliably attract miscaptioned imagery and speculative narratives that portray official explanations as cover stories, while researchers and emergency managers noted that such claims tend to flourish during the information vacuum that accompanies fast-moving events. == Narratives and debunks == Recurring claims include assertions that videos show lasers igniting neighbourhoods, that “green” or “blue” items or roofs were spared because lasers cannot burn those colours, that trees remaining upright indicate precision targeting of houses, and that beams recorded over Hawaii or Texas came from secret platforms. Investigations show that a purported laser-strike video was actually an explosion at a Russian gas station recorded years earlier, that a photograph said to capture an “attack” was an Ohio gas flare from 2018, and that a separate video of green lights over Hawaii was captured months before the Maui fires by an astronomical camera and is unrelated. Fact-checks addressing colour myths have further explained that images of intact blue roofs were either misinterpreted or in at least one widely shared instance artificially generated, and that laser interaction with materials is not governed by such simplistic rules. == Investigations and identified causes == Authorities who examined specific incidents have published findings that contradict DEW narratives. A multi-agency investigation into the Maui disaster concluded that downed and later re-energised lines ignited an initial morning fire that re-kindled under extreme winds in the afternoon, with reports detailing the timeline and infrastructure context; summaries by national outlets echoed those conclusions. Investigators of the February 2024 Smokehouse Creek Fire in the Texas Panhandle reported that power lines ignited both the state’s largest wildfire and another major blaze, and the regional utility acknowledged its facilities appeared to have been involved; subsequent media coverage outlined the findings and regulatory follow-up. For the 2018 Camp Fire in Northern California, public reports from Butte County and subsequent proceedings identified PG&E transmission equipment as the source of ignition, with documentation of maintenance issues on the Caribou–Palermo line preceding the event. == Platform and agency responses == As major fires burned in and around Los Angeles in January 2025, officials from city agencies and national partners pursued a coordinated strategy to counter falsehoods by issuing timely updates, flagging fake imagery and directing residents to verified resources. Reporters described how federal emergency managers and local departments used social channels and briefings to rebut specific rumours, including claims about lasers and targeted ignition, and to clarify that early imagery often misleads during fast-moving disasters.
Digital heritage
The Charter on the Preservation of Digital Heritage of UNESCO defines digital heritage as embracing "cultural, educational, scientific and administrative resources, as well as technical, legal, medical and other kinds of information created digitally, or converted into digital form from existing analogue resources". Digital heritage also includes the use of digital media in the service of understanding and preserving cultural or natural heritage. The digitization of both cultural heritage and Natural heritage serves to enable the permanent access of current and future generations to culturally important objects ranging from literature and paintings to flora, fauna, or habitats. It is also used in the preservation and access of objects with enduring or significant historical, scientific, or cultural value including buildings, archeological sites, and natural phenomena. The main idea is the transformation of a material object into a virtual copy. It should not be confused with digital humanities, which uses digitizing technology to specifically help with research. There have been several debates concerning the efficiency of the process of digitizing heritage. Some of the drawbacks refer to the deterioration and technological obsolescence due to the lack of funding for archival materials and underdeveloped policies that would regulate such a process. Another main social debate has taken place around the restricted accessibility due to the digital divide that exists around the world. Nevertheless, new technologies enable easy, instant and cross boarder access to the digitized work. Many of these technologies include spatial and surveying technology to gain aerial or 3D images. Digital heritage is also used to monitor cultural heritage sites over years to help with preservation, maintenance, and sustainable tourism. It aims to observe any changes, diseases, or deterioration that may occur on objects. == Cultural and natural heritage == Digital Heritage that is not born-digital can be divided into two separate groups—digital cultural heritage and digital natural heritage. Digital cultural heritage is the maintenance or preservation of cultural objects through digitization. These are objects, in some cases entire cities, that are considered of cultural importance. These objects are sometimes able to be digitized or physically represented in minute detail. Digital cultural heritage also includes intangible heritage. These are things such as "oral traditions, customs, value systems, skills, traditional dances, diets, performances" and other unique features of a culture. Intangible heritage is particularly vulnerable to destruction due to urbanization. There are several projects and programs which concentrate on digital cultural heritage. One such project is Mapping Gothic France, which aims to document and preserve cathedrals across France using images, VR tours, laser scans, and panoramas. This allows for scientific and historical study and preservation of the cathedrals and also provides detailed access to the sites for anyone in the world. The aim of projects like these is to help with the preservation and restoration of cultural objects. After the fire at Notre-Dame de Paris in 2019, digital scans are a major component in the ongoing restoration. Digital natural heritage pertains to objects of natural heritage that are considered of cultural, scientific, or aesthetic importance. Digital heritage in this instance is used not only to grant access to these objects, but to monitor any changes over time, such as with plant or animal habitats. Geographic information systems are a form of technology that is used primarily in the study of natural heritage. Western Australia has one such digital heritage project where they have created a digital repository of native plants important to both the region and the Aboriginal people. This is in order to protect and preserve the important biological heritage of Western Australia. == Educational impact == The digitization of these heritage objects has impacts around the world and across many disciplines. The increase of digital items means that people, especially the youth, are able to learn about new objects and cultures online through various media. They provide viewers with a more in-depth experience with an item or place, instead of just an image. The media is also able to be curated to age- or educational-level appropriateness, making learning easier. Some of the technology used in education, especially in museums, includes mobile apps, virtual reality, social media, and video games. Cultural heritage institutions are using this technology to try to expand access, increase appreciation for these items, and to gain new viewpoints on their collections. Digital heritage also helps scientists, archeologists, or other historians and specialists collect data on these objects, providing more information on the objects and the past. Digital Heritage is still currently being studied and improved by several sectors invested in cultural and intellectual preservation. It is particularly of interest to museums, governments, and academic institutions. Research by these groups are creating new concepts, methodologies, and techniques for the implementation of digital heritage to protect this type of cultural and natural heritage. As new technologies are created, museums and other heritage institutions are provided with more ways of disseminating their information and engaging with the public. A lack of resources within certain groups may still hinder everyone from accessing digital heritage. == Technologies used == The digitization of cultural heritage is attained through several means. Some of the main technology used is spatial and surveying technology. Space archaeological technology - Observations from space satellites are non-intrusive and can be integrated with other technologies on the ground. It is used to photograph vast areas of earth and help with research. Remnants of ancient civilizations or other human objects are also able to be spotted via satellite imaging. Unmanned aerial vehicles - UAV, such as drones, are commonly used in digitization of cultural heritage objects. The Great Wall of China is one such site that has been digitized and analyzed through unmanned aerial vehicle investigation. The resulting images, 3-D scans, maps, and other data are used to evaluate and maintain the Great Wall. Laser Scanning - Laser scanning is used to scan an area and recreate spatially accurate depictions, such as a 3D model. Virtual and Augmented Reality - VR is used primarily for education but does have uses for reconstruction and research. It is used to provide users with an immersive experience, as though they are actually at the site. Geographic Information systems - GIS are used primarily to study objects and sites over time. It is also important in studying the socioeconomic status of the past. 3D Modeling - 3D modeling has become more widely used due to an increase in technology that works specifically with heritage sites. It is often used in tandem with GIS to reconstruct objects for restoration, documentation, preservation, and educational purposes. Data is collected using satellite or other aerial imaging and ground-based imaging. There is some concern about the accuracy and authenticity of these types of digital reconstructions and their effects on the sites themselves. A major barrier to digital heritage is the amount of resources it takes to undertake such projects, such as money, time, and technology. Money and the lack of qualified personnel are two that are considered the most obstructive. This is especially an issue in less developed areas or within underfunded groups such as minorities. == Virtual heritage == A particular branch of digital heritage, known as "virtual heritage", is formed by the use of information technology with the aim of recreating the experience of existing cultural heritage, as in (approximations of) virtual reality. It is hard to differentiate this branch from the core contribution of digital heritage which is storing the heritage data digitally. Parsinejad et al. developed two techniques for Digital Twinning of the architectural assets and representation of the physical assets virtually in the museum context. Two techniques are hand recording and digital recording and both have challenges in adoption and implementation of Digital Twin as a revolutionary concept. == Digital heritage stewardship == Digital heritage stewardship is a form of digital curation which is modeled after collaborative curation. Digital heritage stewardship means stepping away from typical curatorial practices (e.g. discovering, arranging, and sharing information, material, and/or content) in favor of practices which allow its stakeholders the opportunity to contribute historical, political, and social context and culture. The collaborative practice encourages the creation, engagement, and maintena
Cloud-native computing
Cloud native computing is an approach in software development that utilizes cloud computing to "build and run scalable applications in modern, dynamic environments such as public, private, and hybrid clouds". These technologies, such as containers, microservices, serverless functions, cloud native processors and immutable infrastructure, deployed via declarative code are common elements of this architectural style. Cloud native technologies focus on minimizing users' operational burden. Cloud native techniques "enable loosely coupled systems that are resilient, manageable, and observable. Combined with robust automation, they allow engineers to make high-impact changes frequently and predictably with minimal toil." This independence contributes to the overall resilience of the system, as issues in one area do not necessarily cripple the entire application. Additionally, such systems are easier to manage, and monitor, given their modular nature, which simplifies tracking performance and identifying issues. Frequently, cloud-native applications are built as a set of microservices that run in Open Container Initiative compliant containers, such as Containerd, and may be orchestrated in Kubernetes and managed and deployed using DevOps and Git CI workflows (although there is a large amount of competing open source that supports cloud-native development). The advantage of using containers is the ability to package all software needed to execute into one executable package. The container runs in a virtualized environment, which isolates the contained application from its environment.
Open Sound Control
Open Sound Control (OSC) is a protocol for networking sound synthesizers, computers, and other multimedia devices for purposes such as musical performance or show control. OSC's advantages include interoperability, accuracy, flexibility and enhanced organization and documentation. Its disadvantages include higher bandwidth requirements, increased load on embedded processors, and lack of standardized messages/interoperability. The first specification was released in March 2002. == Motivation == OSC is a content format developed at CNMAT by Adrian Freed and Matt Wright comparable to XML, WDDX, or JSON. It was originally intended for sharing music performance data (gestures, parameters and note sequences) between musical instruments (especially electronic musical instruments such as synthesizers), computers, and other multimedia devices. OSC is sometimes used as an alternative to the 1983 MIDI standard, when higher resolution and a richer parameter space is desired. OSC messages are transported across the internet and within local subnets using UDP/IP and Ethernet. OSC messages between gestural controllers are usually transmitted over serial endpoints of USB wrapped in the SLIP protocol. == Features == OSC's main features, compared to MIDI, include: Open-ended, dynamic, URI-style symbolic naming scheme Symbolic and high-resolution numeric data Pattern matching language to specify multiple recipients of a single message High resolution time tags "Bundles" of messages whose effects must occur simultaneously == Applications == There are dozens of OSC applications, including real-time sound and media processing environments, web interactivity tools, software synthesizers, programming languages and hardware devices. OSC has achieved wide use in fields including musical expression, robotics, video performance interfaces, distributed music systems and inter-process communication. The TUIO community standard for tangible interfaces such as multitouch is built on top of OSC. Similarly the GDIF system for representing gestures integrates OSC. OSC is used extensively in experimental musical controllers, and has been built into several open source and commercial products. The Open Sound World (OSW) music programming language is designed around OSC messaging. OSC is the heart of the DSSI plugin API, an evolution of the LADSPA API, in order to make the eventual GUI interact with the core of the plugin via messaging the plugin host. LADSPA and DSSI are APIs dedicated to audio effects and synthesizers. In 2007, a standardized namespace within OSC called SYN, for communication between controllers, synthesizers and hosts, was proposed. == Design == OSC messages consist of an address pattern (such as /oscillator/4/frequency), a type tag string (such as ,fi for a float32 argument followed by an int32 argument), and the arguments themselves (which may include a time tag). Address patterns form a hierarchical name space, reminiscent of a Unix filesystem path, or a URL, and refer to "Methods" inside the server, which are invoked with the attached arguments. Type tag strings are a compact string representation of the argument types. Arguments are represented in binary form with four-byte alignment. The core types supported are 32-bit two's complement signed integers 32-bit IEEE floating point numbers Null-terminated arrays of eight-bit encoded data (C-style strings) arbitrary sized blob (e.g. audio data, or a video frame) An example message is included in the spec (with null padding bytes represented by ␀): /oscillator/4/frequency␀,f␀␀, Followed by the 4-byte float32 representation of 440.0: 0x43dc0000. Messages may be combined into bundles, which themselves may be combined into bundles, etc. Each bundle contains a timestamp, which determines whether the server should respond immediately or at some point in the future. Applications commonly employ extensions to this core set. More recently some of these extensions such as a compact Boolean type were integrated into the required core types of OSC 1.1. The advantages of OSC over MIDI are primarily internet connectivity; data type resolution; and the comparative ease of specifying a symbolic path, as opposed to specifying all connections as seven-bit numbers with seven-bit or fourteen-bit data types. This human-readability has the disadvantage of being inefficient to transmit and more difficult to parse by embedded firmware, however. The spec does not define any particular OSC Methods or OSC Containers. All messages are implementation-defined and vary from server to server.