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AI Assistant Editor — independent reviews, comparisons, pricing and step-by-step guides on Aizhi.

Semi-automation

Semi-automation is a process or procedure that is performed by the combined activities of man and machine with both human and machine steps typically orchestrated by a centralized computer controller. Within manufacturing, production processes may be fully manual, semi-automated, or fully automated. In this case, semi-automation may vary in its degree of manual and automated steps. Semi-automated manufacturing processes are typically orchestrated by a computer controller which sends messages to the worker at the time in which he/she should perform a step. The controller typically waits for feedback that the human performed step has been completed via either a human-machine interface or via electronic sensors distributed within the process. Controllers within semi-automated processes may either directly control machinery or send signals to machinery distributed within the process. Centralized computer controllers within semi-automated processes orchestrate processes by instructing the worker, providing electronic communication and control to process equipment, tools, or machines, as well as perform data management to record and ensure that the process meets established process criteria. Many manufacturers choose not to fully automate a process, and instead implement semi-automation due to the complexity of the task, or the number of products produced is too low to justify the investment in full automation. Other processes may not be fully automated because it may reduce the flexibility to easily adapt the processes to reflect production needs.
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Blocking of Twitter in Nigeria

Twitter was blocked in Nigeria from 5 June 2021 to 13 January 2022. The government imposed a ban on the social network after it deleted tweets made by, and temporarily suspended, the Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari, warning the southeastern people of Nigeria, predominantly Igbo people, of a potential repeat of the 1967 Nigerian Civil War due to the ongoing insurgency in Southeastern Nigeria. The Nigerian government claimed that the deletion of the president's tweets factored into their decision, but it was ultimately based on "a litany of problems with the social media platform in Nigeria, where misinformation and fake news spread through it have had real world violent consequences", citing the persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria's corporate existence. In January 2022, Nigeria lifted its blocking of Twitter after the platform agreed to establish a legal entity within the country sometime in the first quarter of 2022. == Background == On 1 June 2021, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari posted a tweet threatening a crackdown on regional separatists "in the language they understand". The next day, Twitter deleted the tweet, claiming it was in violation of Twitter rules, but gave no further details. Nigeria's Information Minister Lai Mohammed said that Twitter's actions were part of an unfair double standard, as Twitter had not banned incitement tweets from other groups. During the Nigerian Civil War a majority of deaths resulted from the blockade of Biafra which caused the deaths of millions of civilians from starvation, a fact that was not alluded to in the tweet. The Nigerian government has long held concerns over the use of Twitter in the country. The ongoing local End SARS protest began on Twitter and got amplified in 2020 when it had 48 million tweets in ten days. Buhari's government floated the idea of social media regulation on different occasions prior to banning Twitter. Attempts to pass an anti-social media bill in the past have failed majorly due to massive outcry on Twitter. Days before the ban, the country's minister of information called Twitter's activities in Nigeria suspicious, citing its influence on the End SARS protests. == Aftermath == Three days after Twitter was suspended, it was reported that the move had cost the country over 6 billion naira and would also contribute to the worsening unemployment in the country. ExpressVPN reported an over 200 percent increase in web traffic and searches for VPN spiked across the country. In response, Nigeria's Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation Abubakar Malami at first openly threatened to prosecute citizens who bypass the ban using a VPN but then denied saying so after a screenshot of a Twitter deactivation notification he shared on Facebook showed a VPN logo. Nigeria's cultural minister Lai Mohammed stated the ban would be lifted once Twitter submitted to locally licensing, registration and conditions. "It will be licensed by the broadcasting commission, and must agree not to allow its platform to be used by those who are promoting activities that are inimical to the corporate existence of Nigeria." In late June 2021, Twitter announced it would enter talks with the Nigerian government over the platform's suspension. The talks began in July 2021. On 15 September 2021, Mohammed said the Nigerian government will lift the ban on Twitter in a "few days." The Minister said Twitter gave a progress report of their talks with them, adding that it has been productive and quite respectful. On 1 October 2021, President Muhammadu Buhari in his Independence Day broadcast said Twitter must meet the Nigerian government's five conditions before the suspension of the social media platform will be lifted. The conditions are: Respect for national security and cohesion; registration, physical presence and representation in Nigeria; fair taxation; dispute resolution; local content. == Reactions == The ban was condemned by Amnesty International, the British, Canadian and Swedish diplomatic missions to Nigeria, as well as the United States and the European Union in a joint statement. Two domestic organizations, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) and the Nigerian Bar Association, indicated intent to challenge the ban in court. Twitter itself called the ban "deeply concerning". Former U.S. President Donald Trump, who was permanently suspended from Twitter following the United States Capitol attack in January, praised the ban, stating "Congratulations to the country of Nigeria, who just banned Twitter because they banned their President", and also called on other countries to ban Twitter and Facebook due to "not allowing free and open speech." == Lifting of the ban == On 12 January 2022, the Nigerian Government lifted the ban after Twitter agreed to pay an "applicable tax" and establish "a legal entity in Nigeria during the first quarter of 2022".
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Downloadable content

Downloadable content (DLC) is additional content created for an already released video game, distributed through the Internet by the game's publisher. It can be added for no extra cost or as a form of video game monetization, enabling the publisher to gain additional revenue from a title after it has been purchased, often using a microtransaction system. DLC can range from cosmetic content, such as skins, to new in-game content, like characters, levels, modes, and larger expansions that may contain a mix of such content as a continuation of the base game. In some games, multiple DLCs (including future DLC not yet released) may be bundled as part of a "season pass"—typically at a discount rather than purchasing each DLC individually. While the Dreamcast was the first home console to support DLC (albeit in a limited form due to hardware and internet connection limitations), Microsoft's Xbox helped popularize the concept. Since the seventh generation of video game consoles, DLC has been a prevalent feature of major video game platforms with internet connectivity. == Etymology == Since the popularization of microtransactions in online distribution platforms such as Steam, the term DLC has become a synonymous for any form of paid content in video games, regardless of whether they constitute the download of new content. Furthermore, this led to the creation of the oxymoronic term "on-disc DLC" for content included on the game's original files but locked behind a paywall. == History == === Precursors to DLC === The earliest form of downloadable content were offerings of full games, such as on the Atari 2600's GameLine service, which allowed users to download games using a telephone line. A similar service, Sega Channel, allowed for the downloading of games to the Sega Genesis over a cable line. While the GameLine and Sega Channel services allowed for the distribution of entire titles, they did not provide downloadable content for existing titles. Expansion packs were sold at retail for some PC games, which featured content such as additional levels, characters, or maps for a base game. They often required an installation of the original game in order to function, but some games (such as Half-Life) had "standalone" expansions, which were essentially spin-off games that reused engine code and assets from the original game. === On consoles === The Dreamcast was the first console to feature online support as a standard; DLC was available, though limited in size due to the narrowband connection and the 200 block limit of the Visual Memory Unit memory card. These online features were still considered a breakthrough in video games. With the release of the Xbox, Microsoft was the second company to implement downloadable content. Many Xbox titles, including Splinter Cell, Halo 2, and Ninja Gaiden, offered varying amounts of extra content, available for download through the Xbox Live service. Most of this content was available free. With the advent of the GameCube, Nintendo was the third company to implement downloadable content. Many GameCube titles offered varying amounts of extra content from Game Boy Advance titles with the GameCube – Game Boy Advance link cable. All of this content was available free. The Xbox 360 (2005) included more robust support for digital distribution, including DLC downloads and purchases, via its Xbox Live Marketplace service. Microsoft believed that publishers would benefit by offering small pieces of content at a small cost ($1 to $5), rather than full expansion packs (~$20), as this would allow players to pick and chose what content they desired, providing revenue to the publishers. Microsoft also utilized a digital currency known as "Microsoft Points" for transactions, which could also be purchased through physical gift cards to avoid the banking fees associated with the small price points. The PlayStation 3 (2006) adopted the same approach with their downloadable hub, the PlayStation Store. Sony planned on having the bulk of its content be purchased separately via many separate online microtransactions for PlayStation Network titles, including Gran Turismo HD Concept and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. The Wii (2006) featured a sparser amount of downloadable content on their Wii Shop Channel, the bulk of which is accounted for by digital distribution of emulated Nintendo titles from previous generations. Music video games, such as titles from the Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises, took significant advantage of downloadable content as a means of offering new songs to be played in-game. Harmonix claimed that Guitar Hero II would feature "more online content than anyone has ever seen in a game to this date." Rock Band features the largest number of downloadable items of any console video game, with a steady number of new songs that were added weekly between 2007 and 2013. Acquiring all the downloadable content for Rock Band would, as of July 12, 2012, cost $5,880.10. === On personal computers === As the popularity and speed of internet connections rose, so did the popularity of using the internet for digital distribution of media. User-created game mods and maps were distributed exclusively online, as they were mainly created by people without the infrastructure capable of distributing the content through physical media. In 1997, Cavedog offered a new unit every month as free downloadable content for their real-time strategy computer game Total Annihilation. Later PC digital distribution platforms, such as Games for Windows Marketplace and Steam, would add support for DLC in a similar manner to consoles. === On handhelds === Nokia phones of the late 1990s and early 2000s shipped with side-scrolling shooter Space Impact, available on various models. With the introduction of WAP in 2000, additional downloadable content for the game, with extra levels, became available. The Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection service on the Nintendo DS could be used to obtain a form of DLC for certain games, such as Picross DS—where players could download puzzle "packs" of classic puzzles from previous Picross series games (such as Mario's Picross). as well as downloadable user generated content. Due to the Nintendo DS's use of cartridges and lack of dedicated storage, most "DLC" for DS games was limited in scope, or in some cases (such as Professor Layton and the Curious Village and Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2), was already part of the game's data on the cartridge, and merely unlocked. Its successor, the Nintendo 3DS, natively supported the purchase of DLC for supported titles via Nintendo eShop. Starting with iPhone OS 3, downloadable content became available for the platform via applications bought from the App Store. While this ability was initially only available to developers for paid applications, Apple eventually allowed for developers to offer this in free applications as well in October 2009. == On-disc DLC == In some cases, a purchased DLC may not actually download new content to the device, but merely consists of data used to enable associated content that is already present within the game's data. DLC of this nature revealed via data mining is typically referred to as "on-disc DLC" or PULC (premium unlockable content). This practice has sometimes been considered controversial, with publishers being accused of using what is effectively a microtransaction to lock access to content that was already contained within the game as sold at retail. Data relating to future DLC may be included on-disc or downloaded during updates for technical reasons as well, either to ensure online multiplayer compatibility for existing content between players who have not yet purchased the new DLC, or as dormant support code for planned content that is still in development at the time of the release. == Monetization == Downloadable content is often offered for a price. Since Facebook games popularized the business model of microtransactions, some have criticized downloadable content as being overpriced and an incentive for developers to leave items out of the initial release, with The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion's horse armor DLC having faced a mixed reception upon its release for that reason. However, by 2009, the Horse Armor DLC was one of the top ten content packs that Bethesda had sold, which justified the DLC model for future games. Where a normal software disc may allow its license sold or traded, DLC is generally locked to a specific user's account and does not come with the ability to transfer that license to another user. In addition to individual content downloads, video game publishers sometimes offer a "season pass", which allows users to pre-order a selection of upcoming content over a specific time period, and ensuring the customer's ability to immediately obtain the content upon release. As users do not have the ability to fully preview the content before their purchase, there is a chance that the content of a season
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Digital inclusion

Digital inclusion involves the activities necessary to ensure equitable access to and use of information and communications technologies for participation in social and economic life including for education, social services, health, social, and community participation. Digital inclusion includes access to affordable broadband Internet services, Internet-enabled devices, access to digital literacy training, quality technical support, and applications and online content designed to enable and encourage self-sufficiency, participation, and collaboration. Related concepts include digital divide, digital exclusion and digital inequality, however digital inclusion focuses more on the strategies, policies, and programs required to address the digital divide. As many services have moved online and with the increasing use of telehealth to deliver primary care, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, digital inclusion, including digital literacy and internet access is increasingly regarded as a social determinant of health. Accessibility, relevance, and impact have been identified as essential elements of digital inclusion as it pertains to health information systems. "Digital inclusion is broadly defined as different strategies designed to ensure that all people have equal access, opportunities and skills to benefit from digital technologies and systems" (ITU, 2019, as cited in Carmi and Yates, 2020). Since 2020, there have been many technology companies that have begun implementing different features or roles within their companies to support breaking down the digital divide. For example, HP has announced the digital divide accelerator. This accelerator will support nonprofits in Greece, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Spain. The goal for this role is to help equip children and other people within the community to understand the skills needed to become a part of the digital community. == Background == With the increasing use of computers and the Internet in the 1990s and early 2000s concerns rose around digital equality, however this primarily focused on the physical access to technology. This gave rise to the concept of the digital divide which was originally developed to describe the growing disparity in Internet access between rural and urban areas of the United States of America. This gradually expanded to considerations of digital access between countries in what is termed the global digital divide, which mirrors many of the disparities seen within countries but on an international scale. However, with the adoption of digital technologies across most sectors of society, and the increasing diversity of technologies and programs, access and use of ICT became more complex and essential for many aspects of daily life. This led to new terminology and a second wave of research on digital inequality which has been identified as the (1) usage gap, (2) second level digital divide, (3) emerging digital differentiation, and (4) digital inclusion. == Strategies for digital inclusion == A review of the literature in 2019 found that while physical access to digital technologies and the internet continues to be a barrier to digital inclusion, digital ability and attitude were also potential barriers. Key strategies identified for improving digital inclusion are social support, direct user experience and collaborative learning/design. Education is a key aspect of digital inclusion as digital technologies have become a key means of engaging with all levels of the education system, requiring levels of digital competence for successful engagement with the curriculum. In addition lifelong learning is required as technologies, services and systems are changing constantly. Public libraries and community service providers play a key role in supporting digital inclusion through access to computers, internet connection and expertise and training. Designing for digital inclusion may also help with poor written literacy, which remains a barrier for 10% of the world's population. UNESCO has developed Guidelines for designing digital technologies in ways that could assist those who are illiterate. == Indigenous digital inclusion == Digital inclusion is a critical issue for many Indigenous communities across the globe, many of whom lack access to adequate resources. The Australian Government has set a National Closing the Gap target for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to have equal levels of digital inclusion by 2026. Many people on tribal land and in Native Hawaiian land struggle with the technology gap. The Native Entities Capacity and Planning Grant Program has $45.3 million available to help address these challenges and empower Indian Tribes, Alaska Native entities, and Native Hawaiian organizations. Some of the impacts so far are in the education and workforce development and healthcare access through telehealth.[13] == Measuring digital inclusion == The Australian Digital Inclusion Index (ADII) is a research project which has been tracking digital inclusion throughout Australia since 2016. It uses survey data to measure digital inclusion across three dimensions of access, affordability and digital ability. == The Future of Digital Inclusion == On February 16, 2021, a global dialogue within the United Nations (UN) took a look at the future of digital inclusion. Through the adoption of the 2030 UN Agenda for Sustainable Development, Member States made a commitment. They pledged to "leave no one behind." By 2030, the UN's goal is to close the digital divide by providing access to the Internet and mobile technologies for all nations and peoples and for all segments of society. The UN sees the crisis of too many people in our global society still living unconnected and how the digital divide remains a challenge that must be addressed. == Gaming == The Xbox Adaptive Controller is a groundbreaking example of digital inclusion, designed to make gaming more accessible to people with limited mobility. Developed by Microsoft, it features large programmable buttons and ports that connect to a wide range of external devices like switches, joysticks, and mounts, allowing users to customize their gaming experience based on their unique needs. By removing traditional physical barriers to gameplay, the Xbox Adaptive Controller empowers more people to participate in digital entertainment, promotes equal access to technology, and fosters a more inclusive gaming community. == Digital inclusion advocacy groups == Australian Digital Inclusion Alliance National Digital Inclusion Alliance (US)
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Magiran

Magiran (Persian: مگیران)—Iran's publications database—is a digital library that was founded in 2000 and includes digitized versions of scientific journals, which currently provides the possibility of searching among the full text of 1,500 journals. Registration is required for full access to the database, but access to some items such as newspapers is also possible without registration. A list of Iranian researchers is also maintained there.
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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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Web worker

A web worker, as defined by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG), is a JavaScript script executed from an HTML page that runs in the background, independently of scripts that may also have been executed from the same HTML page. Web workers are often able to utilize multi-core CPUs more effectively. The W3C and WHATWG envision web workers as long-running scripts that are not interrupted by scripts that respond to clicks or other user interactions. Keeping such workers from being interrupted by user activities should allow Web pages to remain responsive at the same time as they are running long tasks in the background. The web worker specification is part of the HTML Living Standard. == Overview == As envisioned by WHATWG, web workers are relatively heavy-weight and are not intended to be used in large numbers. They are expected to be long-lived, with a high start-up performance cost, and a high per-instance memory cost. Web workers run outside the context of an HTML document's scripts. Consequently, while they do not have access to the DOM, they can facilitate concurrent execution of JavaScript programs. == Features == Web workers interact with the main document via message passing. The following code creates a Worker that will execute the JavaScript in the given file. To send a message to the worker, the postMessage method of the worker object is used as shown below. The onmessage property uses an event handler to retrieve information from a worker. Once a worker is terminated, it goes out of scope and the variable referencing it becomes undefined; at this point a new worker has to be created if needed. == Example == The simplest use of web workers is for performing a computationally expensive task without interrupting the user interface. In this example, the main document spawns a web worker to compute prime numbers, and progressively displays the most recently found prime number. The main page is as follows: The Worker() constructor call creates a web worker and returns a worker object representing that web worker, which is used to communicate with the web worker. That object's onmessage event handler allows the code to receive messages from the web worker. The Web Worker itself is as follows: To send a message back to the page, the postMessage() method is used to post a message when a prime is found. == Support == If the browser supports web workers, a Worker property will be available on the global window object. The Worker property will be undefined if the browser does not support it. The following example code checks for web worker support on a browser Web workers are currently supported by Chrome, Opera, Edge, Internet Explorer (version 10), Mozilla Firefox, and Safari. Mobile Safari for iOS has supported web workers since iOS 5. The Android browser first supported web workers in Android 2.1, but support was removed in Android versions 2.2–4.3 before being restored in Android 4.4.
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Friending and following

Friending is the act of adding someone to a list of "friends" on a social networking service. The notion does not necessarily involve the concept of friendship. It is also distinct from the idea of a "fan"—as employed on the WWW sites of businesses, bands, artists, and others—since it is more than a one-way relationship. A "fan" only receives things. A "friend" can communicate back to the person friending. The act of "friending" someone usually grants that person special privileges (on the service) with respect to oneself. On Facebook, for example, one's "friends" have the privilege of viewing and posting to one's "timeline". Following is a similar concept on other social network services, such as Twitter and Instagram, where a person (follower) chooses to add content from a person or page to their newsfeed. Unlike friending, following is not necessarily mutual, and a person can unfollow (stop following) or block another user at any time without affecting that user's following status. The first scholarly definition and examination of friending and defriending (the act of removing someone from one's friend list, also called unfriending) was David Fono and Kate Raynes-Goldie's "Hyperfriendship and beyond: Friends and Social Norms on LiveJournal" from 2005, which identified the use of the term as both a noun and a verb by users of early social network site and blogging platform LiveJournal, which was originally launched in 1999. == Friend/follower count, friend collecting, and multiple accounts == The addition of people to a friend list without regard to whether one actually is their friend is sometimes known as friend whoring. Matt Jones of Dopplr went so far as to coin the expression "friending considered harmful" to describe the problem of focusing upon the friending of more and more people at the expense of actually making any use of a social network. Friend collecting is the adding of hundreds or thousands of friends/followers, a not uncommon order of magnitude on some social sites. As a result, many teen users feel pressured to heavily curate their posts, posting only carefully posed and edited photographs with well-thought-out captions. Some Instagram users will create a second account, known as a Finsta (short for "Fake Instagram"). A Finsta is typically private, and the owner only allows close friends to follow it. Since the follower count is kept down, the posts can be more candid and silly in nature. Users may also create multiple accounts based on their interests. Someone with a personal social media account might be a photographer and maintain a separate account for that. There is risk associated with following large numbers of people: scholars say that social anxiety could be an effect of managing a large social media network, as users can feel jealous and have a "fear of missing out". == Unfriending and unfollowing == Unfriending is the act of removing someone from a friends list. On Facebook, this means the action is unilateral, meaning, the friendship is terminated on both sides. The act of unfriending is often used when one user was flirting and made the other uncomfortable. Unfollowing is a little different. When a user unfollows someone on Instagram or Twitter, it continues a one-sided relationship. Often, the unfollowed user doesn't realize they were unfollowed, so they continue the following. == Social network friending and friendship == There are distinct groups of "friends" that one can friend on a social networking service. The notion of a social network friend does not necessarily embody the concept of friendship. Although terminology has not yet evolved to distinguish the different types of social networking friends, they can be broken into the following three categories. friends who are actually known These are people that may be one's friends or family in real life, with whom one has regular interaction either on-line or off-line. organizational friends These are companies and other organizations who maintain a "friending" relationship as a contacts list. complete strangers These are social networking "friends" with whom one has no relationship at all. Within these categories "friends" can be made up of strong ties, weak existing ties, weak latent ties, and parasocial ties. Strong ties can be made up of close family members and friends where self-disclosure, intimacy and frequent content occur. Weak existing ties can be made up of acquaintances, co-workers and distance relatives with whom the user has inconsistent contact. Weak latent ties can be made up of people within a similar geographical location or profession that can be used as a potential future bridge to other connections. Parasocial ties can be made up of celebrities, public figures and media personas. Human nature is to reciprocate a friending, marking someone as a friend who has marked oneself as a friend. This is a social norm for social networking services. However, this leads to mixing up who is an actual friend, and who is a contact. Tagging someone as a "contact" who has marked one as a "friend" can be perceived as impolite. Other concerns about this issue are treated in Sherry Turkle's Alone Together which analyses many behavioral dynamics in social media friendships. Turkle defines herself as "cautiously optimistic", but expresses concern that distance communications may undermine genuine face-to-face spoken discourses, lessening people's expectations of one another. One social networking service, FriendFeed, allows one to friend someone as a "fake" friend. The person "fake" friended receives the usual notifications for friending, but that person's updates are not received. Gavin Bell, author of Building Social Web Applications, describes this mechanism as "ludicrous". Results from a 2007 survey the Center for the Digital Future stated that only 23% of internet users have at least one virtual friend whom they have only met online. Ideally the number of virtual friends is directly proportional to the use of the Internet, but the same survey showed 20% of heavy-users (more than 3 hours/day) who claimed an average of 8.7% online friends, reported at least one relationship that started virtually and migrated to in-person contact. This results and other concerning issues are included in the book Networked: The New Social Operating System co-written by Lee Rainie and Barry Wellman in 2012. == Ethical considerations == The act of "friending" someone on a social networking service has particular ethical implications for judges in the United States. Judicial codes of conducts in the various states generally incorporate some form of provision that judges should avoid even the appearance of impropriety. Whether this regulates and even prohibits judges "friending" attorneys that appear before them, and law enforcement personnel, has been the subject of some analysis by the judicial ethics panels of the various states. They haven't all agreed on the guidance that they have given to judges: The New York state Judicial Ethics committee in 2009 simply advised judges to employ caution, noting that the issue of "friending" someone on a social networking service is a publicly observable act that has little difference from other public behavior concerns judges already face. The Florida Judicial Ethics Advisory committee in 2009 noted that, judges being normal human beings, it was unavoidable for judges to form friendships without the responsibilities of their job. It prohibited judges from friending any attorneys that appeared before them, whilst allowing friending of those who do not, on the grounds that it may give the appearance to the general public (even if the substance is otherwise) that those attorneys who are friended hold special sway with the judge. A minority opinion of the committee asserted that there is a substantive difference between "friending" on a social networking service and actual friendship, and that the general public, being aware of the norms of social networking services, was capable of drawing this distinction and would not reasonably conclude either a special degree of influence or a violation of the code of judicial conduct. This minority opinion was outnumbered twice in 2009, both in the Judicial Ethics Advisory and in the Florida Supreme Court Judicial Ethics Advisory committee. The South Carolina judicial conduct committee in 2009 permitted judges to friend attorneys and law enforcement personnel, with the proviso that no judicial business should be conducted upon nor discussed via the social networking service. "... a judge should not become isolated from the community in which the judge lives.", the committee stated. The Kentucky Judicial Ethics committee in 2010 took the same position as the minority opinion in Florida. It urged judges to exercise caution, but recognized that the act of friending "does not, in and of itself, indicate the degree or intensity of a judge's relationship with the person who is the 'friend'
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Web-based simulation

Web-based simulation (WBS) is the invocation of computer simulation services over the World Wide Web, specifically through a web browser. Increasingly, the web is being looked upon as an environment for providing modeling and simulation applications, and as such, is an emerging area of investigation within the simulation community. == Application == Web-based simulation is used in several contexts: In e-learning, various principles can quickly be illustrated to students by means of interactive computer animations, for example during lecture demonstrations and computer exercises. In distance learning, web-based simulation may provide an alternative to installing expensive simulation software on the student computer, or an alternative to expensive laboratory equipment. In software engineering, web-based emulation allows application development and testing on one platform for other target platforms, for example for various mobile operating systems or mobile web browsers, without the need of target hardware or locally installed emulation software. In online computer games, 3D environments can be simulated, and old home computers and video game consoles can be emulated, allowing the user to play old computer games in the web browser. In medical education, nurse education and allied health education (like sonographer training), web-based simulations can be used for learning and practicing clinical healthcare procedures. Web-based procedural simulations emphasize the cognitive elements such as the steps of the procedure, the decisions, the tools/devices to be used, and the correct anatomical location. == Client-side vs server-side approaches == Web-based simulation can take place either on the server side or on the client side. In server-side simulation, the numerical calculations and visualization (generation of plots and other computer graphics) is carried out on the web server, while the interactive graphical user interface (GUI) often partly is provided by the client-side, for example using server-side scripting such as PHP or CGI scripts, interactive services based on Ajax or a conventional application software remotely accessed through a VNC Java applet. In client-side simulation, the simulation program is downloaded from the server side but completely executed on the client side, for example using Java applets, Flash animations, JavaScript, or some mathematical software viewer plug-in. Server-side simulation is not scalable for many simultaneous users, but places fewer demands on the user computer performance and web-browser plug-ins than client-side simulation. The term on-line simulation sometimes refers to server-side web-based simulation, sometimes to symbiotic simulation, i.e. a simulation that interacts in real-time with a physical system. The upcoming cloud-computing technologies can be used for new server-side simulation approaches. For instance, there are multi-agent-simulation applications which are deployed on cloud-computing instances and act independently. This allows simulations to be highly scalable. == Existing tools == AgentSheets – graphically programmed tool for creating web-based The Sims-like simulation games, and for teaching beginner students programming. AnyLogic – a graphically programmed tool that generates Java code for discrete-event simulation, system dynamics and agent-based models Easy Java Simulations – a tool for modelling and visualization of physical phenomenons, that automatically generates Java code from mathematical expressions. ExploreLearning Gizmos – a large library of interactive online simulations for math and science education in grades 3–12. FreeFem++ Javascript Version – FreeFem++ is a free and open source PDE solver using the finite element method. GNU Octave web interfaces – MATLAB compatible open-source software Lanner Group Ltd L-SIM Server – Java-based discrete-event simulation engine which supports model standards such as BPMN 2.0 Nanohub – web 2.0 in-browser interactive simulation of nanotechnology NetLogo – a multi-agent programming language and integrated modeling environment that runs on the Java Virtual Machine OpenPlaG – PHP-based function graph plotter for the use on websites OpenEpi – web-based packet of tools for biostatistics Recursive Porous Agent Simulation Toolkit (Repast) – agent-based modeling and simulation toolkit implemented in Java and many other languages SageMath – open-source numerical-analysis software with web interface, based on the Python programming language SimScale – web-based simulation platform supporting computational fluid dynamics, solid mechanics, and thermodynamics StarLogo – agent-based simulation language written in Java. VisSim viewer – graphically programmed data-flow diagrams for simulation of dynamical systems webMathematica and Mathematica Player – a computer algebra system and programming language. VisualSim Architect – VisualSim Explorer enables system-level models to be embedded in documents for viewing, simulation and analysis from within a web browser without any local software installation.
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Comet (programming)

Comet is a web application model in which a long-held HTTPS request allows a web server to push data to a browser, without the browser explicitly requesting it. Comet is an umbrella term, encompassing multiple techniques for achieving this interaction. All these methods rely on features included by default in browsers, such as JavaScript, rather than on non-default plugins. The Comet approach differs from the original model of the web, in which a browser requests a complete web page at a time. The use of Comet techniques in web development predates the use of the word Comet as a neologism for the collective techniques. Comet is known by several other names, including Ajax Push, Reverse Ajax, Two-way-web, HTTP Streaming, and HTTP server push among others. The term Comet is not an acronym, but was coined by Alex Russell in his 2006 blog post. In recent years, the standardisation and widespread support of WebSocket and Server-sent events has rendered the Comet model obsolete. == History == === Early Java applets === The ability to embed Java applets into browsers (starting with Netscape Navigator 2.0 in March 1996) made two-way sustained communications possible, using a raw TCP socket to communicate between the browser and the server. This socket can remain open as long as the browser is at the document hosting the applet. Event notifications can be sent in any format – text or binary – and decoded by the applet. === The first browser-to-browser communication framework === The very first application using browser-to-browser communications was Tango Interactive, implemented in 1996–98 at the Northeast Parallel Architectures Center (NPAC) at Syracuse University using DARPA funding. TANGO architecture has been patented by Syracuse University. TANGO framework has been extensively used as a distance education tool. The framework has been commercialized by CollabWorx and used in a dozen or so Command&Control and Training applications in the United States Department of Defense. === First Comet applications === The first set of Comet implementations dates back to 2000, with the Pushlets, Lightstreamer, and KnowNow projects. Pushlets, a framework created by Just van den Broecke, was one of the first open source implementations. Pushlets were based on server-side Java servlets, and a client-side JavaScript library. Bang Networks – a Silicon Valley start-up backed by Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen – had a lavishly financed attempt to create a real-time push standard for the entire web. In April 2001, Chip Morningstar began developing a Java-based (J2SE) web server which used two HTTP sockets to keep open two communications channels between the custom HTTP server he designed and a client designed by Douglas Crockford; a functioning demo system existed as of June 2001. The server and client used a messaging format that the founders of State Software, Inc. assented to coin as JSON following Crockford's suggestion. The entire system, the client libraries, the messaging format known as JSON and the server, became the State Application Framework, parts of which were sold and used by Sun Microsystems, Amazon.com, EDS and Volkswagen. In March 2006, software engineer Alex Russell coined the term Comet in a post on his personal blog. The new term was a play on Ajax (Ajax and Comet both being common household cleaners in the USA). In 2006, some applications exposed those techniques to a wider audience: Meebo’s multi-protocol web-based chat application enabled users to connect to AOL, Yahoo, and Microsoft chat platforms through the browser; Google added web-based chat to Gmail; JotSpot, a startup since acquired by Google, built Comet-based real-time collaborative document editing. New Comet variants were created, such as the Java-based ICEfaces JSF framework (although they prefer the term "Ajax Push"). Others that had previously used Java-applet based transports switched instead to pure-JavaScript implementations. == Implementations == Comet applications attempt to eliminate the limitations of the page-by-page web model and traditional polling by offering two-way sustained interaction, using a persistent or long-lasting HTTP connection between the server and the client. Since browsers and proxies are not designed with server events in mind, several techniques to achieve this have been developed, each with different benefits and drawbacks. The biggest hurdle is the HTTP 1.1 specification, which states "this specification... encourages clients to be conservative when opening multiple connections". Therefore, holding one connection open for real-time events has a negative impact on browser usability: the browser may be blocked from sending a new request while waiting for the results of a previous request, e.g., a series of images. This can be worked around by creating a distinct hostname for real-time information, which is an alias for the same physical server. This strategy is an application of domain sharding. Specific methods of implementing Comet fall into two major categories: streaming and long polling. === Streaming === An application using streaming Comet opens a single persistent connection from the client browser to the server for all Comet events. These events are incrementally handled and interpreted on the client side every time the server sends a new event, with neither side closing the connection. Specific techniques for accomplishing streaming Comet include the following: ==== Hidden iframe ==== A basic technique for dynamic web application is to use a hidden iframe HTML element (an inline frame, which allows a website to embed one HTML document inside another). This invisible iframe is sent as a chunked block, which implicitly declares it as infinitely long (sometimes called "forever frame"). As events occur, the iframe is gradually filled with script tags, containing JavaScript to be executed in the browser. Because browsers render HTML pages incrementally, each script tag is executed as it is received. Some browsers require a specific minimum document size before parsing and execution is started, which can be obtained by initially sending 1–2 kB of padding spaces. One benefit of the iframes method is that it works in every common browser. Two downsides of this technique are the lack of a reliable error handling method, and the impossibility of tracking the state of the request calling process. ==== XMLHttpRequest ==== The XMLHttpRequest (XHR) object, a tool used by Ajax applications for browser–server communication, can also be pressed into service for server–browser Comet messaging by generating a custom data format for an XHR response, and parsing out each event using browser-side JavaScript; relying only on the browser firing the onreadystatechange callback each time it receives new data. === Ajax with long polling === None of the above streaming transports work across all modern browsers without negative side-effects. This forces Comet developers to implement several complex streaming transports, switching between them depending on the browser. Consequently, many Comet applications use long polling, which is easier to implement on the browser side, and works, at minimum, in every browser that supports XHR. As the name suggests, long polling requires the client to poll the server for an event (or set of events). The browser makes an Ajax-style request to the server, which is kept open until the server has new data to send to the browser, which is sent to the browser in a complete response. The browser initiates a new long polling request in order to obtain subsequent events. IETF RFC 6202 "Known Issues and Best Practices for the Use of Long Polling and Streaming in Bidirectional HTTP" compares long polling and HTTP streaming. Specific technologies for accomplishing long-polling include the following: ==== XMLHttpRequest long polling ==== For the most part, XMLHttpRequest long polling works like any standard use of XHR. The browser makes an asynchronous request of the server, which may wait for data to be available before responding. The response can contain encoded data (typically XML or JSON) or Javascript to be executed by the client. At the end of the processing of the response, the browser creates and sends another XHR, to await the next event. Thus the browser always keeps a request outstanding with the server, to be answered as each event occurs. ==== Script tag long polling ==== While any Comet transport can be made to work across subdomains, none of the above transports can be used across different second-level domains (SLDs), due to browser security policies designed to prevent cross-site scripting attacks. That is, if the main web page is served from one SLD, and the Comet server is located at another SLD (which does not have cross-origin resource sharing enabled), Comet events cannot be used to modify the HTML and DOM of the main page, using those transports. This problem can be sidestepped by creating a proxy server in
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New media

New media are communication technologies that enable or enhance interaction between users, as well as interaction between users and content. In the middle of the 1990s, the phrase "new media" became widely used as part of a sales pitch for the influx of interactive CD-ROMs for entertainment and education. The new media technologies, sometimes known as Web 2.0, include a wide range of web-related communication tools such as blogs, wikis, online social networking, virtual worlds, and other social media platforms. The phrase "new media" refers to computational media that share material online and through computers. New media inspire new ways of thinking about older media. Media do not replace one another in a clear, linear succession, instead evolving in a more complicated network of interconnected feedback loops . What is different about new media is how they specifically refashion traditional media and how older media refashion themselves to meet the challenges of new media. Unless they contain technologies that enable digital generative or interactive processes, broadcast television programs, non-interactive news websites, feature films, magazines, and books are not considered to be new media. The term "new media" stands in contrast to old media, which dominated the media landscape as a form of mass media for many years. == History == In the 1950s, connections between computing and radical art began to grow stronger. It was not until the 1980s that Alan Kay and his co-workers at Xerox PARC began to give the computability of a personal computer to the individual, rather than have a big organization be in charge of this. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, however, we seem to witness a different kind of parallel relationship between social changes and computer design. Although causally unrelated, conceptually, it makes sense that the Cold War and the design of the Web took place at exactly the same time. Writers and philosophers such as Marshall McLuhan were instrumental in the development of media theory during this period which is now famous declaration in Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, that "the medium is the message" drew attention to the too often ignored influence media and technology themselves, rather than their "content," have on humans' experience of the world and on society broadly. Until the 1980s, media relied primarily upon print and analog broadcast models such as television and radio. The last twenty-five years have seen the rapid transformation into media which are predicated upon the use of digital technologies such as the Internet and video games. However, these examples are only a small representation of new media. The use of digital computers has transformed the remaining 'old' media, as suggested by the advent of digital television and online publications. Even traditional media forms such as the printing press have been transformed through the application of technologies by using of image manipulation software like Adobe Photoshop and desktop publishing tools. Andrew L. Shapiro argues that the "emergence of new, digital technologies signals a potentially radical shift of who is in control of information, experience and resources". W. Russell Neuman suggests that whilst the "new media" have technical capabilities to pull in one direction, economic and social forces pull back in the opposite direction. According to Neuman, "We are witnessing the evolution of a universal interconnected network of audio, video, and electronic text communications that will blur the distinction between interpersonal and mass communication; and between public and private communication". Neuman argues that new media will: Alter the meaning of geographic distance. Allow for a huge increase in the volume of communication. Provide the possibility of increasing the speed of communication. Provide opportunities for interactive communication. Allow forms of communication that were previously separate to overlap and interconnect. Consequently, it has been the contention of scholars such as Douglas Kellner and James Bohman that new media and particularly the Internet will provide the potential for a democratic postmodern public sphere, in which citizens can participate in well informed, non-hierarchical debate pertaining to their social structures. Contradicting these positive appraisals of the potential social impacts of new media are scholars such as Edward S. Herman and Robert McChesney who have suggested that the transition to new media has seen a handful of powerful transnational telecommunications corporations who achieve a level of global influence which was hitherto unimaginable. Scholars have highlighted both the positive and negative potential and actual implications of new media technologies, suggesting that some of the early work in new media studies was guilty of technologicaldeterminism – whereby the effects of media were determined by the technologies themselves, rather than by tracing the complex social networks that governed the development, funding, implementation, and future evolution of any technology. Based on the argument that people have a limited amount of time to spend on the consumption of different media, displacement theory argue that the viewership or readership of one particular outlet leads to the reduction in the amount of time spent by the individual on another. The introduction of new media, such as the internet, therefore reduces the amount of time individuals would spend on existing "old" media, which could ultimately lead to the end of such traditional media. == Definition == Although, there are several ways that new media may be described, Lev Manovich, in an introduction to The New Media Reader, defines new media by using eight propositions: New media versus cyberculture – Cyberculture is the various social phenomena that are associated with the Internet and network communications (blogs, online multi-player gaming), whereas new media is concerned more with cultural objects and paradigms (digital to analog television, smartphones). New media as computer technology used as a distribution platform – New media are the cultural objects which use digital computer technology for distribution and exhibition. e.g. (at least for now) Internet, Web sites, computer multimedia, Blu-ray disks etc. The problem with this is that the definition must be revised every few years. The term "new media" will not be "new" anymore, as most forms of culture will be distributed through computers. New media as digital data controlled by software – The language of new media is based on the assumption that, in fact, all cultural objects that rely on digital representation and computer-based delivery do share a number of common qualities. New media is reduced to digital data that can be manipulated by software as any other data. Now media operations can create several versions of the same object. An example is an image stored as matrix data which can be manipulated and altered according to the additional algorithms implemented, such as color inversion, gray-scaling, sharpening, rasterizing, etc. New media as the mix between existing cultural conventions and the conventions of software – New media today can be understood as the mix between older cultural conventions for data representation, access, and manipulation and newer conventions of data representation, access, and manipulation. The "old" data are representations of visual reality and human experience, and the "new" data is numerical data. The computer is kept out of the key "creative" decisions, and is delegated to the position of a technician. e.g. In film, software is used in some areas of production, in others are created using computer animation. New media as the aesthetics that accompanies the early stage of every new modern media and communication technology – While ideological tropes indeed seem to be reappearing rather regularly, many aesthetic strategies may reappear two or three times ... In order for this approach to be truly useful it would be insufficient to simply name the strategies and tropes and to record the moments of their appearance; instead, we would have to develop a much more comprehensive analysis which would correlate the history of technology with social, political, and economical histories or the modern period. New media as faster execution of algorithms previously executed manually or through other technologies – Computers are a huge speed-up of what were previously manual techniques. e.g. calculators. Dramatically speeding up the execution makes possible previously non-existent representational technique. This also makes possible of many new forms of media art such as interactive multimedia and video games. On one level, a modern digital computer is just a faster calculator, we should not ignore its other identity: that of a cybernetic control device. New media as the encoding of modernist avant-garde; new media as metamedia – Manovi
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Frictionless sharing

Frictionless sharing refers to the transparent or automatic dissemination of user activity across social media platforms, typically without requiring explicit action from the user each time content is shared. The concept gained prominence in 2011 after Mark Zuckerberg announced a series of new features for Facebook at the F8 developers conference, framing the changes as enabling “real-time serendipity in a friction-less experience.” == History and concept == Before 2011, the term “frictionless sharing” was occasionally used in academic and technical contexts to describe sharing of resources with minimal effort, such as through social bookmarking or Creative Commons licensing to reduce barriers to reuse of research data. The concept took on a broader cultural meaning when Facebook introduced its Timeline interface and new “social apps” in 2011. These features enabled third-party applications to automatically publish user activity to the platform—effectively shifting sharing from a deliberate act to a passive process. For example, integrating music streaming service Spotify meant that any song a user listened to could automatically appear in a Facebook “Ticker,” allowing friends to see the activity and click through to play the song themselves. == Zuckerberg’s vision == Zuckerberg articulated a vision of a Web in which sharing occurs by default rather than by choice: “You read, you watch, you listen, you buy—and everyone you know will hear all about it on Facebook.” This “frictionless” model assumes ongoing consent after an initial opt-in. Once users connect an app to their profile, any future activity with that app may be automatically shared. This shift from intentional posting to ambient sharing represented a significant evolution in how personal data is distributed online. == Criticism and debate == Many commentators and users have raised concerns about frictionless sharing. While some criticism centers on online privacy, others focus on how automatic updates can flood news feeds and erode the social value of sharing. Critics argue that when sharing becomes automatic, it dilutes the personal curation that makes social media exchanges meaningful. According to Slate, this approach risks “killing taste,” because users typically choose to share only select content they find worth highlighting, rather than everything they consume. AL.com similarly observed that the frictionless model encourages over-sharing, overwhelming both users and their networks with minor or trivial activities. For example, integrating multiple platforms—such as Twitter, Foursquare, Pinterest, Spotify, and others—can create an incessant stream of updates that some users may find intrusive or irritating. This can lead to what critics describe as “narcissistic” or noisy timelines, potentially undermining the “social” nature of social media. == Business model and data implications == For Facebook, frictionless sharing offers clear business advantages. More frequent and detailed sharing provides valuable data that can be used to refine targeted advertising and personalize content delivery. The model also encourages users to spend more time on the platform, reinforcing its position as a central hub of online social activity. Other technology companies have experimented with similar approaches. Google has introduced forms of cross-platform integration that facilitate automatic activity sharing, though with a more explicit opt-in structure compared to Facebook. This approach has been described as “friction with consent,” allowing users to manually enable or disable integrations on a per-service basis.
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List of artificial intelligence journals

This is a list of notable peer-reviewed academic journals that publish research in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), including areas such as machine learning, computer vision, natural language processing, robotics, and intelligent systems. == General artificial intelligence == Artificial Intelligence (journal) – Elsevier Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research (JAIR) – AI Access Foundation Knowledge-Based Systems – Elsevier == Machine learning == Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery – Springer Machine Learning (journal) – Springer Journal of Machine Learning Research – Microtome Pattern Recognition (journal) – Elsevier Neural Networks (journal) – Elsevier Neural Computation (journal) – MIT Press Neurocomputing (journal) - Elsevier == Deep learning and neural computation == IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation – IEEE IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems – IEEE Nature Machine Intelligence – Springer Nature == Computer vision == International Journal of Computer Vision – Springer IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence – IEEE Machine Vision and Applications – Springer == Natural language processing == Computational Linguistics (journal) – MIT Press Natural Language Processing Transactions of the Association for Computational Linguistics – ACL == Robotics and intelligent systems == IEEE Transactions on Robotics – IEEE Autonomous Robots – Springer Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems – Springer == Interdisciplinary and ethics in AI == AI & Society – Springer Artificial Life – MIT Press Philosophy & Technology – Springer Minds and Machines – Springer
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Go-box

Go-box is a name used for a number of electronic devices. The "Go-Box" is often a box, crate, carry-case, modified briefcase or similar construction containing electronic equipment pre-setup and ready to function. The box can then be taken into the field or placed at a remote site with minimal effort. These are often used by radio amateurs (or "Hams") for emergency communications, experimental work, or field communications. This has also led to similar equipment being used in the Emergency Services, utility companies, military, and government agencies. A search of the YouTube website can reveal a number of ideas for these devices mostly built by people at home. Terms created after the use of "go-box" include the "go-bag" which is an 'essentials' bag of items needed for evacuations or quick departures, i.e. medicines, clothes, torch, Broadcast radio receiver, batteries, etc. In Austria it is a radio transmitter used in trucks as part of the Videomaut toll collection system. One use of the term in the United States it is a device which is supposed to change traffic signals from red to green. U.S. Fire trucks have a similar device, called an Opticon, that uses an infrared beam. Two residents of Miami, Florida, were arrested for selling fake go-boxes online. Several hundred were sold, prices ranging from $69 to $150. In reality, the boxes contained nothing more than strobe lights.
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Facebook Platform

The Facebook Platform is the set of services, tools, and products provided by the social networking service Facebook for third-party developers to create their own applications and services that access data in Facebook. The current Facebook Platform was launched in 2010. The platform offers a set of programming interfaces and tools which enable developers to integrate with the open "social graph" of personal relations and other things like songs, places, and Facebook pages. Applications on facebook.com, external websites, and devices are all allowed to access the graph. == History == Facebook launched the Facebook Platform on May 24, 2007, providing a framework for software developers to create applications that interact with core Facebook features. A markup language called Facebook Markup Language was introduced simultaneously; it is used to customize the "look and feel" of applications that developers create. Prior to the Facebook platform, Facebook had built many applications themselves within the Facebook website, including Gifts, allowing users to send virtual gifts to each other, Marketplace, allowing users to post free classified ads, Facebook events, giving users a method of informing their friends about upcoming events, Video, letting users share homemade videos with one another, and social network game, where users can use their connections to friends to help them advance in games they are playing. The Facebook Platform made it possible for outside partners to build similar applications. Many of the popular early social network games would combine capabilities. For instance, one of the early games to reach the top application spot, (Lil) Green Patch, combined virtual Gifts with Event notifications to friends and contributions to charities through Causes. Third-party companies provide application metrics, and several blogs arose in response to the clamor for Facebook applications. On July 4, 2007, Altura Ventures announced the "Altura 1 Facebook Investment Fund," becoming the world's first Facebook-only venture capital firm. On August 29, 2007, Facebook changed the way in which the popularity of applications is measured, to give attention to the more engaging applications, following criticism that ranking applications only by the number of people who had installed the application was giving an advantage to the highly viral, yet useless applications. Tech blog Valleywag has criticized Facebook Applications, labeling them a "cornucopia of uselessness." Others have called for limiting third-party applications so the Facebook user experience is not degraded. Applications that have been created on the Platform include chess, which both allow users to play games with their friends. In such games, a user's moves are saved on the website, allowing the next move to be made at any time rather than immediately after the previous move. By November 3, 2007, seven thousand applications had been developed on the Facebook Platform, with another hundred created every day. By the second annual f8 developers conference on July 23, 2008, the number of applications had grown to 33,000, and the number of registered developers had exceeded 400,000. Within a few months of launching the Facebook Platform, issues arose regarding "application spam", which involves Facebook applications "spamming" users to request it be installed. Facebook integration was announced for the Xbox 360 and Nintendo DSi on June 1, 2009 at E3. On November 18, 2009, Sony announced an integration with Facebook to deliver the first phase of a variety of new features to further connect and enhance the online social experiences of PlayStation 3. On February 2, 2010, Facebook announced the release of HipHop for PHP as an opensource project. Mark Zuckerberg said that his team from Facebook is developing a Facebook search engine. “Facebook is pretty well placed to respond to people’s questions. At some point, we will. We have a team that is working on it", said Mark Zuckerberg. For him, the traditional search engines return too many results that do not necessarily respond to questions. “The search engines really need to evolve a set of answers: 'I have a specific question, answer this question for me.'" On June 10, 2014, Facebook announced Haxl, a Haskell library that simplified the access to remote data, such as databases or web-based services. === Partnerships with device manufacturers === Starting in 2007, Facebook formed data sharing partnerships with at least 60 handset manufacturers, including Apple, Amazon, BlackBerry, Microsoft and Samsung. Those manufacturers were provided with Facebook user data without the users' consent. Most of the partnerships remained in place as of 2018, when the partnerships were first publicly reported. == High-level Platform components == === Graph API === The Graph API is the core of Facebook Platform, enabling developers to read from and write data into Facebook. The Graph API presents a simple, consistent view of the Facebook social graph, uniformly representing objects in the graph (e.g., people, photos, events, and pages) and the connections between them (e.g., friend relationships, shared content, and photo tags). On April 30, 2015, Facebook shut down friends' data API prior to the v2.0 release. === Authentication === Facebook authentication enables developers’ applications to interact with the Graph API on behalf of Facebook users, and it provides a single-sign on mechanism across web, mobile, and desktop apps. ==== Facebook Connect ==== Facebook Connect, also called Log in with Facebook, like OpenID, is a set of authentication APIs from Facebook that developers can use to help their users connect and share with such users' Facebook friends (on and off Facebook) and increase engagement for their website or application. When so used, Facebook members can log on to third-party websites, applications, mobile devices and gaming systems with their Facebook identity and, while logged in, can connect with friends via these media and post information and updates to their Facebook profile. Originally unveiled during Facebook's developer conference, F8, in July 2008, Log in with Facebook became generally available in December 2008. According to an article from The New York Times, "Some say the services are representative of surprising new thinking in Silicon Valley. Instead of trying to hoard information about their users, the Internet companies (including Facebook, Google, MySpace and Twitter) all share at least some of that data so people do not have to enter the same identifying information again and again on different sites." Log in with Facebook cannot be used by users in locations that cannot access Facebook, even if the third-party site is otherwise accessible from that location. According to Facebook, users who logged into The Huffington Post with Facebook spent more time on the site than the average user. === Social plugins === Social plugins – including the Like Button, Recommendations, and Activity Feed – enable developers to provide social experiences to their users with just a few lines of HTML. All social plugins are extensions of Facebook and are designed so that no user data is shared with the sites on which they appear. On the other hand, the social plugins let Facebook track its users’ browsing habits through any sites that feature the plugins. === Open Graph protocol === The Open Graph protocol enables developers to integrate their pages into Facebook's global mapping/tracking tool Social Graph. These pages gain the functionality of other graph objects including profile links and stream updates for connected users. OpenGraph tags in HTML5 might look like this: === iframes === Facebook uses iframes to allow third-party developers to create applications that are hosted separately from Facebook, but operate within a Facebook session and are accessed through a user's profile. Since iframes essentially nest independent websites within a Facebook session, their content is distinct from Facebook formatting. Facebook originally used 'Facebook Markup Language (FBML)' to allow Facebook Application developers to customize the "look and feel" of their applications, to a limited extent. FBML is a specification of how to encode content so that Facebook's servers can read and publish it, which is needed in the Facebook-specific feed so that Facebook's system can properly parse content and publish it as specified. FBML set by any application is cached by Facebook until a subsequent API call replaces it. Facebook also offers a specialized Facebook JavaScript (FBJS) library. Facebook stopped accepting new FBML applications on March 18, 2011, but continued to support existing FBML tabs and applications. Since January 1, 2012 FBML was no longer supported, and FBML no longer functioned as of June 1, 2012. === Microformats === In February 2011, Facebook began to use the hCalendar microformat to mark up events, and the hCard for the events' venues,
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