AI Face Blur

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  Amira (software)

  Amira (ah-MEER-ah) is a software platform for visualization, processing, and analysis of 3D and 4D data. It is being actively developed by Thermo Fisher Scientific in collaboration with the Zuse Institute Berlin (ZIB), and commercially distributed by Thermo Fisher Scientific — together with its sister software Avizo. == Overview == Amira is an extendable software system for scientific visualization, data analysis, and presentation of 3D and 4D data. It is used by researchers and engineers in academia and industry. It is a tool for processing, analysis and visualization of data from various modalities; e.g. micro-CT, PET, Ultrasound. It is used in many fields, such as microscopy in biology and materials science, molecular biology, quantum physics, astrophysics, computational fluid dynamics (CFD), finite element modeling (FEM), non-destructive testing (NDT), and many more. One of the key features, besides data visualization, is Amira's set of tools for image segmentation and geometry reconstruction. This allows the user to mark (or segment) structures and regions of interest in 3D image volumes using automatic, semi-automatic, and manual tools. The segmentation can then be used for a variety of subsequent tasks, such as volumetric analysis, density analysis, shape analysis, or the generation of 3D computer models for visualization, numerical simulations, or rapid prototyping or 3D printing. Other key Amira features are multi-planar and volume visualization, image registration, filament tracing, cell separation and analysis, tetrahedral mesh generation, fiber-tracking from diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data, skeletonization, spatial graph analysis, and stereoscopic rendering of 3D data over multiple displays and immersive virtual reality environments, including CAVEs. As a commercial product Amira requires the purchase of a license or an academic subscription. A time-limited, but full-featured evaluation version is available for download free of charge. == History == === 1993–1998: Research software === Amira's roots go back to 1993 and the Department for Scientific Visualization, headed by Hans-Christian Hege at the Zuse Institute Berlin (ZIB). The ZIB is a research institute for mathematics and informatics. The Scientific Visualization department's mission is to help solve computationally and scientifically challenging tasks in medicine, biology, engineering and materials science. For this purpose, it develops algorithms and software for 2D, 3D, and 4D data visualization and visually supported exploration and analysis. At that time, the young visualization group at the ZIB had experience with the extendable, data flow-oriented visualization environments apE, IRIS Explorer, and Advanced Visualization Studio (AVS), but was not satisfied with these products' interactivity, flexibility, and ease-of-use for non-computer scientists. Therefore, the development of a new software system was started in a research project within a medically oriented, multi-disciplinary collaborative research center. Based on experiences that Tobias Höllerer had gained in late 1993 with the new graphics library IRIS Inventor, it was decided to utilize that library. The development of the medical planning system was performed by Detlev Stalling, who later became the chief software architect of Amira. The new software was called "HyperPlan", highlighting its initial target application – a planning system for hyperthermia cancer treatment. The system was being developed on Silicon Graphics (SGI) computers, which at the time were the standard workstations used for high-end graphics computing. The software was based on libraries such as OpenGL (originally IRIS GL), Open Inventor (originally IRIS Inventor), and the graphical user interface libraries X11, Motif (software), and ViewKit. In 1998, X11/Motif/Viewkit were replaced by the Qt toolkit. The HyperPlan framework served as the base for more and more projects at the ZIB and was used by a growing number of researchers in collaborating institutions. The projects included applications in medical image computing, medical visualization, neurobiology, confocal microscopy, flow visualization, molecular analytics and computational astrophysics. === 1998–today: Commercially supported product === The growing number of users of the system started to exceed the capacities that ZIB could spare for software distribution and support, as ZIB's primary mission was algorithmic research. Therefore, the spin-off company Indeed – Visual Concepts GmbH was founded by Hans-Christian Hege, Detlev Stalling, and Malte Westerhoff. In Feb 1998 the HyperPlan software was given the new, application-neutral name "Amira". This name is not an acronym, but was chosen for being pronounceable in different languages and providing a suitable connotation, namely "to look at" or "to wonder at", from the Latin verb "admirare" (to admire), which reflects a basic situation in data visualization. A major re-design of the software was undertaken by Detlev Stalling and Malte Westerhoff in order to make it a commercially supportable product and to make it available on non-SGI computers as well. In March 1999, the first version of the commercial Amira was exhibited at the CeBIT tradeshow in Hannover, Germany on SGI IRIX and Hewlett-Packard UniX (HP-UX) booths. Versions for Linux and Microsoft Windows followed within the following twelve months. Later Mac OS X support was added. Indeed – Visual Concepts GmbH selected the Bordeaux, France and San Diego, United States based company TGS, Inc. as the worldwide distributor for Amira and completed five major releases (up to version 3.1) in the subsequent four years. In 2003 both Indeed – Visual Concepts GmbH, as well as TGS, Inc. were acquired by Massachusetts-based Mercury Computer Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRCY) and became part of Mercury's newly formed life sciences business unit, later branded Visage Imaging. In 2009, Mercury Computer Systems, Inc. spun off Visage Imaging again and sold it to Melbourne, Australia based Promedicus Ltd (ASX:PME), a leading provider of radiology information systems and medical IT solutions. During this time, Amira continued to be developed in Berlin, Germany and in close collaboration with the ZIB, still headed by the original creators of Amira. TGS, located in Bordeaux, France was sold by Mercury Computer systems to a French investor and renamed to Visualization Sciences Group (VSG). VSG continued the work on a complementary product named Avizo, based on the same source code but customized for material sciences. In August 2012, FEI, to that date the largest OEM reseller of Amira, purchased VSG and the Amira business from Promedicus. This brought the two software sisters Amira and Avizo back into one hand. In August 2013, Visualization Sciences Group (VSG) became a business unit of FEI. In 2016 FEI has been bought by Thermo Fisher Scientific and became part of its Materials & Structural Analysis division in early 2017. Amira and Avizo are still being marketed as two different products; Amira for life sciences and Avizo for materials science, but the development efforts are now joined once again. In the meantime, the number of scientific articles using the Amira / Avizo software, is in the order of 10 thousands. == Amira options == === Microscopy option === Specific readers for microscopy data Image deconvolution Exploration of 3D imagery obtained from virtually any microscope Extraction and editing of filament networks from microscopy images === DICOM reader === Import of clinical and preclinical data in DICOM format === Mesh option === Generation of 3D finite element (FE) meshes from segmented image data Support for many state-of-the-art FE solver formats High-quality visualization of simulation mesh-based results, using scalar, vector, and tensor field display modules === Skeletonization option === Reconstruction and analysis of neural and vascular networks Visualization of skeletonized networks Length and diameter quantification of network segments Ordering of segments in a tree graph Skeletonization of very large image stacks === Molecular option === Advanced tools for the visualization of molecule models Hardware-accelerated volume rendering Powerful molecule editor Specific tools for complex molecular visualization === Developer option === Creation of new custom components for visualizing or data processing Implementation of new file readers or writers C++ programming language Development wizard for getting started quickly === Neuro option === Medical image analysis for DTI and brain perfusion Fiber tracking supporting several stream-line based algorithms Fiber separation into fiber bundles based on user defined source and destination regions Computation of tensor fields, diffusion weighted maps Eigenvalue decomposition of tensor fields Computation of mean transit time, cerebral blood flow, and cerebral blood volume === VR option === Visualization of data on large tiled displays

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  Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle

  The Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) is the approach Microsoft uses to integrate security into DevOps processes (sometimes called a DevSecOps approach). You can use this SDL guidance and documentation to adapt this approach and practices to your organization. == Overview == The practices outlined in the SDL approach are applicable to all types of software development and across all platforms, ranging from traditional waterfall methodologies to modern DevOps approaches. They can generally be applied to the following: Software – whether you are developing software code for firmware, AI applications, operating systems, drivers, IoT Devices, mobile device apps, web services, plug-ins or applets, hardware microcode, low-code/no-code apps, or other software formats. Note that most practices in the SDL are applicable to secure computer hardware development as well. Platforms – whether the software is running on a ‘serverless’ platform approach, on an on-premises server, a mobile device, a cloud hosted VM, a user endpoint, as part of a Software as a Service (SaaS) application, a cloud edge device, an IoT device, or anywhere else. == Practices == The SDL recommends 10 security practices to incorporate into your development workflows. Applying the 10 security practices of SDL is an ongoing process of improvement so a key recommendation is to begin from some point and keep enhancing as you proceed. This continuous process involves changes to culture, strategy, processes, and technical controls as you embed security skills and practices into DevOps workflows. The 10 SDL practices are: Establish security standards, metrics, and governance Require use of proven security features, languages, and frameworks Perform security design review and threat modeling Define and use cryptography standards Secure the software supply chain Secure the engineering environment Perform security testing Ensure operational platform security Implement security monitoring and response Provide security training == Versions ==

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  PGP word list

  The PGP Word List ("Pretty Good Privacy word list", also called a biometric word list for reasons explained below) is a list of words for conveying data bytes in a clear unambiguous way via a voice channel. They are analogous in purpose to the NATO phonetic alphabet, except that a longer list of words is used, each word corresponding to one of the 256 distinct numeric byte values. == History and structure == The PGP Word List was designed in 1995 by Patrick Juola, a computational linguist, and Philip Zimmermann, creator of PGP. The words were carefully chosen for their phonetic distinctiveness, using genetic algorithms to select lists of words that had optimum separations in phoneme space. The candidate word lists were randomly drawn from Grady Ward's Moby Pronunciator list as raw material for the search, successively refined by the genetic algorithms. The automated search converged to an optimized solution in about 40 hours on a DEC Alpha, a particularly fast machine in that era. The Zimmermann–Juola list was originally designed to be used in PGPfone, a secure VoIP application, to allow the two parties to verbally compare a short authentication string to detect a man-in-the-middle attack (MiTM). It was called a biometric word list because the authentication depended on the two human users recognizing each other's distinct voices as they read and compared the words over the voice channel, binding the identity of the speaker with the words, which helped protect against the MiTM attack. The list can be used in many other situations where a biometric binding of identity is not needed, so calling it a biometric word list may be imprecise. Later, it was used in PGP to compare and verify PGP public key fingerprints over a voice channel. This is known in PGP applications as the "biometric" representation. When it was applied to PGP, the list of words was further refined, with contributions by Jon Callas. More recently, it has been used in Zfone and the ZRTP protocol, the successor to PGPfone. The list is actually composed of two lists, each containing 256 phonetically distinct words, in which each word represents a different byte value between 0 and 255. Two lists are used because reading aloud long random sequences of human words usually risks three kinds of errors: 1) transposition of two consecutive words, 2) duplicate words, or 3) omitted words. To detect all three kinds of errors, the two lists are used alternately for the even-offset bytes and the odd-offset bytes in the byte sequence. Each byte value is actually represented by two different words, depending on whether that byte appears at an odd or an even offset from the beginning of the byte sequence. The two lists are readily distinguished by the number of syllables; the odd list has words of three syllables, the even list has two. The two lists have a maximum word length of 11 and 9 letters, respectively. Using a two-list scheme was suggested by Zhahai Stewart. == Examples == Each byte in a bytestring is encoded as a single word. A sequence of bytes is rendered in network byte order, from left to right. For example, the leftmost (i.e. byte 0) is considered "even" and is encoded using the PGP Even Word table. The next byte to the right (i.e. byte 1) is considered "odd" and is encoded using the PGP Odd Word table. This process repeats until all bytes are encoded. Thus, "E582" produces "topmost Istanbul", whereas "82E5" produces "miser travesty". A PGP public key fingerprint that displayed in hexadecimal as E582 94F2 E9A2 2748 6E8B 061B 31CC 528F D7FA 3F19 would display in PGP Words (the "biometric" fingerprint) as topmost Istanbul Pluto vagabond treadmill Pacific brackish dictator goldfish Medusa afflict bravado chatter revolver Dupont midsummer stopwatch whimsical cowbell bottomless The order of bytes in a bytestring depends on endianness. == Other word lists for data == There are several other word lists for conveying data in a clear unambiguous way via a voice channel: the NATO phonetic alphabet maps individual letters and digits to individual words the S/KEY system maps 64 bit numbers to 6 short words of 1 to 4 characters each from a publicly accessible 2048-word dictionary. The same dictionary is used in RFC 1760 and RFC 2289. the Diceware system maps five base-6 random digits (almost 13 bits of entropy) to a word from a dictionary of 7,776 distinct words. the Electronic Frontier Foundation has published a set of improved word lists based on the same concept FIPS 181: Automated Password Generator converts random numbers into somewhat pronounceable "words". mnemonic encoding converts 32 bits of data into 3 words from a vocabulary of 1626 words. what3words encodes geographic coordinates in 3 dictionary words. the BIP39 standard permits encoding a cryptographic key of fixed size (128 or 256 bits, usually the unencrypted master key of a Cryptocurrency wallet) into a short sequence of readable words known as the seed phrase, for the purpose of storing the key offline. This is used in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Monero. Like the PGP word list, the Bytewords standard maps each possible byte to a word. There is only one list, rather than two. The words are uniformly four letters long and can be uniquely identified by their first and last letters

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  Data dictionary

  A data dictionary, or metadata repository, as defined in the IBM Dictionary of Computing, is a "centralized repository of information about data such as meaning, relationships to other data, origin, usage, and format". Oracle defines it as a collection of tables with metadata. The term can have one of several closely related meanings pertaining to databases and database management systems (DBMS): A document describing a database or collection of databases An integral component of a DBMS that is required to determine its structure A piece of middleware that extends or supplants the native data dictionary of a DBMS == Documentation == The terms data dictionary and data repository indicate a more general software utility than a catalogue. A catalogue is closely coupled with the DBMS software. It provides the information stored in it to the user and the DBA, but it is mainly accessed by the various software modules of the DBMS itself, such as DDL and DML compilers, the query optimiser, the transaction processor, report generators, and the constraint enforcer. On the other hand, a data dictionary is a data structure that stores metadata, i.e., (structured) data about information. The software package for a stand-alone data dictionary or data repository may interact with the software modules of the DBMS, but it is mainly used by the designers, users and administrators of a computer system for information resource management. These systems maintain information on system hardware and software configuration, documentation, application and users as well as other information relevant to system administration. If a data dictionary system is used only by the designers, users, and administrators and not by the DBMS Software, it is called a passive data dictionary. Otherwise, it is called an active data dictionary or data dictionary. When a passive data dictionary is updated, it is done so manually and independently from any changes to a DBMS (database) structure. With an active data dictionary, the dictionary is updated first and changes occur in the DBMS automatically as a result. Database users and application developers can benefit from an authoritative data dictionary document that catalogs the organization, contents, and conventions of one or more databases. This typically includes the names and descriptions of various tables (records or entities) and their contents (fields), plus additional details, like the type and length of each data element. Another important piece of information that a data dictionary can provide is the relationship between tables. This is sometimes referred to in entity-relationship diagrams (ERDs), or if using set descriptors, identifying which sets database tables participate in. In an active data dictionary constraints may be placed upon the underlying data. For instance, a range may be imposed on the value of numeric data in a data element (field), or a record in a table may be forced to participate in a set relationship with another record-type. Additionally, a distributed DBMS may have certain location specifics described within its active data dictionary (e.g. where tables are physically located). The data dictionary consists of record types (tables) created in the database by systems generated command files, tailored for each supported back-end DBMS. Oracle has a list of specific views for the "sys" user. This allows users to look up the exact information that is needed. Command files contain SQL Statements for CREATE TABLE, CREATE UNIQUE INDEX, ALTER TABLE (for referential integrity), etc., using the specific statement required by that type of database. There is no universal standard as to the level of detail in such a document. == Middleware == In the construction of database applications, it can be useful to introduce an additional layer of data dictionary software, i.e. middleware, which communicates with the underlying DBMS data dictionary. Such a "high-level" data dictionary may offer additional features and a degree of flexibility that goes beyond the limitations of the native "low-level" data dictionary, whose primary purpose is to support the basic functions of the DBMS, not the requirements of a typical application. For example, a high-level data dictionary can provide alternative entity-relationship models tailored to suit different applications that share a common database. Extensions to the data dictionary also can assist in query optimization against distributed databases. Additionally, DBA functions are often automated using restructuring tools that are tightly coupled to an active data dictionary. Software frameworks aimed at rapid application development sometimes include high-level data dictionary facilities, which can substantially reduce the amount of programming required to build menus, forms, reports, and other components of a database application, including the database itself. For example, PHPLens includes a PHP class library to automate the creation of tables, indexes, and foreign key constraints portably for multiple databases. Another PHP-based data dictionary, part of the RADICORE toolkit, automatically generates program objects, scripts, and SQL code for menus and forms with data validation and complex joins. For the ASP.NET environment, Base One's data dictionary provides cross-DBMS facilities for automated database creation, data validation, performance enhancement (caching and index utilization), application security, and extended data types. Visual DataFlex features provides the ability to use DataDictionaries as class files to form middle layer between the user interface and the underlying database. The intent is to create standardized rules to maintain data integrity and enforce business rules throughout one or more related applications. Some industries use generalized data dictionaries as technical standards to ensure interoperability between systems. The real estate industry, for example, abides by a RESO's Data Dictionary to which the National Association of REALTORS mandates its MLSs comply with through its policy handbook. This intermediate mapping layer for MLSs' native databases is supported by software companies which provide API services to MLS organizations. == Platform-specific examples == Developers use a data description specification (DDS) to describe data attributes in file descriptions that are external to the application program that processes the data, in the context of an IBM i. The sys.ts$ table in Oracle stores information about every table in the database. It is part of the data dictionary that is created when the Oracle Database is created. Developers may also use DDS context from free and open-source software (FOSS) for structured and transactional queries in open environments. == Typical attributes == Here is a non-exhaustive list of typical items found in a data dictionary for columns or fields: Entity or form name or their ID (EntityID or FormID). The group this field belongs to. Field name, such as RDBMS field name Displayed field title. May default to field name if blank. Field type (string, integer, date, etc.) Measures such as min and max values, display width, or number of decimal places. Different field types may interpret this differently. An alternative is to have different attributes depending on field type. Field display order or tab order Coordinates on screen (if a positional or grid-based UI) Default value Prompt type, such as drop-down list, combo-box, check-boxes, range, etc. Is-required (Boolean) - If 'true', the value cannot be blank, null, or only white-spaces Is-read-only (Boolean) Reference table name, if a foreign key. Can be used for validation or selection lists. Various event handlers or references to. Example: "on-click", "on-validate", etc. See event-driven programming. Format code, such as a regular expression or COBOL-style "PIC" statements Description or synopsis Database index characteristics or specification

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  List of Haskell software and tools

  This is a list of Haskell software and tools, including compilers, interpreters, build tools, package managers, integrated development environments, libraries, and other development utilities. == Compilers, interpreters and editors == Emacs — text editor Glasgow Haskell Compiler (GHC) Hugs — bytecode interpreter (discontinued) IntelliJ IDEA — IDE with Haskell support via plugins Vim — text editor Visual Studio Code — editor/IDE with Haskell support via extensions == Libraries and frameworks == Parsec — parser combinator library Servant — web framework Yesod — web framework == Build tools and package management == Cabal — build system and packaging infrastructure Haskell Platform — bundled distribution of Haskell tools and libraries (deprecated) Stack — build tool and dependency manager == Language tools and static analysis == Fourmolu — code formatter based on Ormolu Haskell Language Server — implementation of the Language Server Protocol for Haskell HLint — source code suggestion and linting tool Hoogle — Haskell API search engine Ormolu — code formatter Stan — static analysis tool Stylish Haskell — source code formatter == Interactive environments == GHCi — interactive REPL for the Glasgow Haskell Compiler IHaskell — Jupyter kernel for Haskell == Debugging and profiling tools == hp2ps — heap profiling visualization tool ThreadScope — parallel execution visualizer for Haskell programs == Documentation generators == Haddock — API documentation generator for Haskell == Parser and lexer generators == Alex — lexer generator for Haskell Happy — parser generator for Haskell == Testing frameworks == HUnit — unit testing framework QuickCheck — property-based testing library == Version control == Darcs — distributed version control system written in Haskell

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  Web presence

  A web presence is a location on the World Wide Web where a person, business, or some other entity is represented (see also web property and point of presence). Examples of a web presence for a person could be a personal website, a blog, a profile page, a wiki page, or a social media point of presence (e.g. a LinkedIn profile, a Facebook account, or a Twitter account). Examples of a web presence for a business or some other entity could be a corporate website, a microsite, a page on a review site, a wiki page, or a social media point of presence (e.g., a LinkedIn company page and/or group, a Facebook business/brand/product page, or a Twitter account). Every web presence is associated with a unique web address to distinguish one point of presence from another. == Owned vs. unowned == Web presence can either be owned or unowned. Owned media exists when a single person or group can control the content that is published on its web presence (e.g. a corporate website or a personal Twitter account). However, when a single person or group cannot solely control the content, the creator is different from the owner. This is considered unowned media (see earned media). A Wikipedia page or a Yelp page about a person, company, or product would be an example of a known (or "earned") web presence. Occasionally, a first form of media known as "paid media" is often included in the discussion of media types: "earned vs. owned vs. paid". Paid media is commonly found in the form of advertisements, but it is not considered a form of web presence. == Management == Web presence management is the process of establishing and maintaining a digital footprint on the web. The three factors that are considered include the following: where a person or business has web presence; how each web presence represents its enterprise; and what is published at a point of presence. Web presence management is the discipline of determining and governing: the distribution of policy documents which platforms are most appropriate (e.g. internal vs. external blog, YouTube vs. Vimeo) the single inventory of personal or corporate web presence (e.g. partners or advocates) where on the web a business and any relatable assets are represented where on the web a business and any relatable assets are impersonated or pirated web properties with the particular entities they represent who has control over which web properties new web properties which are not in the personal or corporate inventory (e.g. someone creates a new presence) authorized and unauthorized changes to the creation (e.g. branding) of a web presence a workflow for creating a web property that follows its corporate standards === Management system === The purpose of a web presence management system is to manage the web presence of a person or business. This includes the collection of domain names, websites, social media, and other web pages where he, she, or it is being represented. The tool generally offers the following key functions: new presence discovery, inventory management, change detection, access control, stakeholder coordination, and compliance workflow. A web presence management system is meant to have a broader reach so that it emphasizes where a presence has been established, will be established, must be maintained, or must be remediated. An example of a web presence management system is the Brandle Presence Manager. In order to publish content to the various points of web presence, multiple content management systems and sometimes even social media management systems are often used. The primary focus of most content and social media management systems is limited to their specific web platforms. === Domain names === Another aspect of web presence management is managing the collection of domain names registered to the person or business. Any entity may register multiple domain names for the same property. As a result, they can link alternative spellings, different top-level domains, aliases, brands, or products to the same website. Similarly, negative or derogatory domain names may also be registered. This is done to prevent certain domain names from being used against the person or business. It is common for a larger business to have domain names registered by multiple employees at multiple domain name registrars, possibly a result of organizational or geographical requirements. Consequently, a web presence management system can be used to monitor all domain names registered by the business, regardless of the registrars used. == Discovery == Web presence discovery is the process of monitoring the web for a new point of presence about a person or business. Web presence discovery is often included in a web presence management system. Whether a new domain is registered, a new website is published, or a new social media account is established, it occurs outside of the person's or business’ control. As a result, its purpose is to assess a new point of presence and appropriately handle any violations. Web presence discovery differs from content listening. The former involves looking for new properties on the web, whereas the latter refers to analyzing content that already exists to hear how a person or business is seen often in near real time. Examples of content listening systems include Sysomos and Radian6, which is now a subsidiary of Salesforce.com. === Brand protection === A person or business may choose to watch for a new web presence that might appear to misrepresent or mislead an audience, such as counterfeiters, spoofers, or malicious hackers. One of the early software in the online brand protection marketplace was MarkMonitor, now part of Thomson Reuters. This software helped detect rogue domain names and websites. However, the modern day growth of social media has seen a rise in the number of fraudulent brand impersonations. It has become much easier for a new web presence to be created on those platforms, which results in a greater frequency of them today. As a preventive measure, online brand protection providers are now adding social media to their domain and website discovery options. === Security === The widespread growth of social media has also made it easier for unauthorized individuals to impersonate an employee. Consequently, social media has now become a recognized threat vector in that it can be used to socially engineer an attack on a business. To counter this, companies are able to use web presence monitoring tools to detect new points of presence on the web and thereby defend against socially engineered attacks. === Distributed inventory management === A web presence monitoring system can be used by a business to associate a new web property with its corporate inventory. It is designed to address autonomous, distributed behaviors. This usually applies to larger businesses whose geographically diverse employees are more prone to creating new points of presence on the web. For example, a retail chain may allow each local store to create and manage their web presence to market to and communicate with their local customer base. Similarly, a global business may have teams in each country or region who create and manage a web presence to adapt to local languages or cultures. == Monitoring == Web presence monitoring is the process of monitoring a known inventory of web presence to detect any changes that are made. Web presence monitoring is often included in a web presence management system and can serve multiple purposes for both larger corporations and certain individuals, such as celebrities. It is important to note that presence monitoring differs from content listening. The former involves monitoring the properties (e.g. branding) of a web property in an established inventory, whereas the latter refers to analyzing content that already exists to hear how a person or business is seen often in near real time. Additionally, presence monitoring focuses on owned media and content listening on earned media. === Corporate, brand, and regulatory compliance === Many companies ensure that certain standards are met for a property on the web that represents their business. For companies in regulated industries, such as finance and healthcare, the company may be required by law to ensure that all publicized content, regardless of platform or technology, follow specific requirements. The widespread growth of social media has seen a rise in the number of fraudulent corporate impersonations. It has become much easier for a new web presence to be created on these platforms, and so these are much more prevalent than they used to be. As a preventive measure, a web presence monitoring system alerts the company when a known property is changed, allowing for the property to be reviewed and amended so that it follows the proper standards. . A web presence monitoring system helps alert the company when a known property is changed, so it can be reviewed and brought back, if necessary, into compliance with the appro

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  Code (cryptography)

  In cryptology, a code is a method used to encrypt a message that operates at the level of meaning; that is, words or phrases are converted into something else. A code might transform "change" into "CVGDK" or "cocktail lounge". The U.S. National Security Agency defined a code as "A substitution cryptosystem in which the plaintext elements are primarily words, phrases, or sentences, and the code equivalents (called "code groups") typically consist of letters or digits (or both) in otherwise meaningless combinations of identical length." A codebook is needed to encrypt, and decrypt the phrases or words. By contrast, ciphers encrypt messages at the level of individual letters, or small groups of letters, or even, in modern ciphers, individual bits. Messages can be transformed first by a code, and then by a cipher. Such multiple encryption, or "superencryption" aims to make cryptanalysis more difficult. Another comparison between codes and ciphers is that a code typically represents a letter or groups of letters directly without the use of mathematics. As such the numbers are configured to represent these three values: 1001 = A, 1002 = B, 1003 = C, ... . The resulting message, then would be 1001 1002 1003 to communicate ABC. Ciphers, however, utilize a mathematical formula to represent letters or groups of letters. For example, A = 1, B = 2, C = 3, ... . Thus the message ABC results by multiplying each letter's value by 13. The message ABC, then would be 13 26 39. Codes have a variety of drawbacks, including susceptibility to cryptanalysis and the difficulty of managing the cumbersome codebooks, so ciphers are now the dominant technique in modern cryptography. In contrast, because codes are representational, they are not susceptible to mathematical analysis of the individual codebook elements. In the example, the message 13 26 39 can be cracked by dividing each number by 13 and then ranking them alphabetically. However, the focus of codebook cryptanalysis is the comparative frequency of the individual code elements matching the same frequency of letters within the plaintext messages using frequency analysis. In the above example, the code group, 1001, 1002, 1003, might occur more than once and that frequency might match the number of times that ABC occurs in plain text messages. (In the past, or in non-technical contexts, code and cipher are often used to refer to any form of encryption). == One- and two-part codes == Codes are defined by "codebooks" (physical or notional), which are dictionaries of codegroups listed with their corresponding plaintext. Codes originally had the codegroups assigned in 'plaintext order' for convenience of the code designed, or the encoder. For example, in a code using numeric code groups, a plaintext word starting with "a" would have a low-value group, while one starting with "z" would have a high-value group. The same codebook could be used to "encode" a plaintext message into a coded message or "codetext", and "decode" a codetext back into plaintext message. In order to make life more difficult for codebreakers, codemakers designed codes with no predictable relationship between the codegroups and the ordering of the matching plaintext. In practice, this meant that two codebooks were now required, one to find codegroups for encoding, the other to look up codegroups to find plaintext for decoding. Such "two-part" codes required more effort to develop, and twice as much effort to distribute (and discard safely when replaced), but they were harder to break. The Zimmermann Telegram in January 1917 used the German diplomatic "0075" two-part code system which contained upwards of 10,000 phrases and individual words. == One-time code == A one-time code is a prearranged word, phrase or symbol that is intended to be used only once to convey a simple message, often the signal to execute or abort some plan or confirm that it has succeeded or failed. One-time codes are often designed to be included in what would appear to be an innocent conversation. Done properly they are almost impossible to detect, though a trained analyst monitoring the communications of someone who has already aroused suspicion might be able to recognize a comment like "Aunt Bertha has gone into labor" as having an ominous meaning. Famous example of one time codes include: In the Bible, Jonathan prearranges a code with David, who is going into hiding from Jonathan's father, King Saul. If, during archery practice, Jonathan tells the servant retrieving arrows "the arrows are on this side of you," David may safely return to court; if the command is "the arrows are beyond you," David must flee. "One if by land; two if by sea" in "Paul Revere's Ride" made famous in the poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow "Climb Mount Niitaka" - the signal to Japanese planes to begin the attack on Pearl Harbor During World War II the British Broadcasting Corporation's overseas service frequently included "personal messages" as part of its regular broadcast schedule. The seemingly nonsensical stream of messages read out by announcers were actually one time codes intended for Special Operations Executive (SOE) agents operating behind enemy lines. An example might be "The princess wears red shoes" or "Mimi's cat is asleep under the table". Each code message was read out twice. By such means, the French Resistance were instructed to start sabotaging rail and other transport links the night before D-day. "Over all of Spain, the sky is clear" was a signal (broadcast on radio) to start the nationalist military revolt in Spain on July 17, 1936. Sometimes messages are not prearranged and rely on shared knowledge hopefully known only to the recipients. An example is the telegram sent to U.S. President Harry Truman, then at the Potsdam Conference to meet with Soviet premier Joseph Stalin, informing Truman of the first successful test of an atomic bomb. "Operated on this morning. Diagnosis not yet complete but results seem satisfactory and already exceed expectations. Local press release necessary as interest extends great distance. Dr. Groves pleased. He returns tomorrow. I will keep you posted." == Idiot code == An idiot code is a code that is created by the parties using it. This type of communication is akin to the hand signals used by armies in the field. Example: Any sentence where 'day' and 'night' are used means 'attack'. The location mentioned in the following sentence specifies the location to be attacked. Plaintext: Attack X. Codetext: We walked day and night through the streets but couldn't find it! Tomorrow we'll head into X. An early use of the term appears to be by George Perrault, a character in the science fiction book Friday by Robert A. Heinlein: The simplest sort [of code] and thereby impossible to break. The first ad told the person or persons concerned to carry out number seven or expect number seven or it said something about something designated as seven. This one says the same with respect to code item number ten. But the meaning of the numbers cannot be deduced through statistical analysis because the code can be changed long before a useful statistical universe can be reached. It's an idiot code... and an idiot code can never be broken if the user has the good sense not to go too often to the well. Terrorism expert Magnus Ranstorp said that the men who carried out the September 11 attacks on the United States used basic e-mail and what he calls "idiot code" to discuss their plans. == Cryptanalysis of codes == While solving a monoalphabetic substitution cipher is easy, solving even a simple code is difficult. Decrypting a coded message is a little like trying to translate a document written in a foreign language, with the task basically amounting to building up a "dictionary" of the codegroups and the plaintext words they represent. One fingerhold on a simple code is the fact that some words are more common than others, such as "the" or "a" in English. In telegraphic messages, the codegroup for "STOP" (i.e., end of sentence or paragraph) is usually very common. This helps define the structure of the message in terms of sentences, if not their meaning, and this is cryptanalytically useful. Further progress can be made against a code by collecting many codetexts encrypted with the same code and then using information from other sources spies newspapers diplomatic cocktail party chat the location from where a message was sent where it was being sent to (i.e., traffic analysis) the time the message was sent, events occurring before and after the message was sent the normal habits of the people sending the coded messages etc. For example, a particular codegroup found almost exclusively in messages from a particular army and nowhere else might very well indicate the commander of that army. A codegroup that appears in messages preceding an attack on a particular location may very well stand for that location. Cribs can be an immediate giveaway to the definiti

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  Classora

  Classora is a knowledge base for the Internet oriented to data analysis. From a practical point of view, Classora is a digital repository that stores structured information and allows it to be displayed in multiple formats: analytically, graphically, geographically (through maps); as well as carry out OLAP analysis. The information contained in Classora comes from public sources and is uploaded into the system through bots and ETL processes. The Knowledge Base has a commercial API for semantic enhancement, and an open web through which any user can access to part of the information collected (it also allows users to complete data and share opinions). Internally, Classora is organized into Knowledge Units and Reports. A «Knowledge Unit» is any element of the World about which information may be stored and presented in the form of a data sheet (a person, a company, a country, etc.) A «Report» is a group of Knowledge Units: a ranking of companies, a sport classification table, a survey about people, etc. In fact, one of the technical capabilities of Classora is that it allows the comparison of reports and knowledge units gathered from different sources, thereby generating an added value for the media in which this information is published: digital media, interactive TV, etc. == Key definitions == === Knowledge unit === The units of knowledge (also known as entries) in Classora are data sheets that have a certain semantic equivalence with the articles on the Wikipedia: they store information about any element of the world, be it a film, a country, a company or an animal. However, they differ from Wikipedia in that Classora stores structured information, enriched with a metadata layer; and therefore it is able to automatically interpret the meaning of each unit of knowledge. === Data report === A report is a group of units of knowledge in which the repetition of elements is not allowed. This definition includes any list, poll, ranking, etc.; and, in general, any consultation that involves more than one unit of knowledge. Classora excels at the reports management due to its visualization capabilities, being able to display data in the form of tables, graphs and maps. Types of reports: Sports scores: Sports competitions results sanctioned by the competent institution. Rankings and lists: All types of interesting and curious lists, whether they have an implicit order or not. Polls: Units of knowledge that are ranked according to users’ votes. Queries to the Knowledge Base: Questions from users using CQL. Networks of connections: automatically calculated from the reports and the taxonomy of each Knowledge Unit. === Organizational taxonomy === An organizational taxonomy (also referred to as entry type) is a data sheet that brings together the common attributes of a set of units of knowledge. For instance, the organizational taxonomy F1 Driver displays attributes such as date of debut, team, etc.; and the organizational taxonomy Football Club presents attributes such as city, stadium, etc. In Classora, taxonomies are hierarchically organized, so that they inherit attributes from their parent taxonomies. For instance, F1 Driver is a subsidiary taxonomy of Sportsperson, which is a subsidiary taxonomy of Person, which in turn is a subsidiary taxonomy of Organism. The simplest type of entry in Classora is Classora Object. All the other taxonomies are its subsidiaries and inherit its attributes. In fact, the only attribute Classora Object possesses is name (all units of knowledge are required to have one name at least). == Architecture of Classora == === Data Extraction Module === The Data Extraction Module consists of a set of robots coordinated by software that also manages the potential incidents. Most of the information available in Classora is automatically uploaded through those robots, which connect to the main online public sources to gather all types of data. There are three categories of robots: Extraction robots: responsible for the massive uploading of reports from official public sources (FIFA, CIA, IMF, Eurostat...). They are used for either absolute or incremental data uploading. Data scanner robots: responsible for looking for and updating the data of a unit of knowledge. They use specific sources to perform this task: Wikipedia, IMDB, World Bank, etc. Content aggregators: they don’t connect to external sources. Instead, they generate new information using Classora’s internal database. === Participatory Module === In Classora’s Open Website, Internet users may participate providing their knowledge as they would on the Wikipedia. There are different ways to participate: adding or correcting data in the Knowledge Base, voting in surveys (participatory rankings) and creating new Knowledge Units and Data Reports. === Connectivity Module === The Knowledge Base is designed to be embedded in multi-platform, multi-channel systems, thus enabling its integration into mobile devices, tablets, interactive TV, etc. This integration may be carried out through specific plugins (for navigators or other devices) or an API REST that provides content in XML or JSON formats. The API is divided into three blocks of operations. The first one is the block of general utility tools (ranging from autosuggest components about geographical hierarchies to operations to obtain the list of today’s celebrity birthdays, using CQL). The second one is the block of operations for widget generation (graphs, maps, rankings) using information from the knowledge base. Finally, there is a block of operations designed for the publication of free-source content. == Project statistics == As of April 2012, 2,000,000 Knowledge Units, 15,000 Reports, around 10,000 Maps and several million potential Comparative Analyses had been added to Classora. According to the site of web metrics Alexa, Classora Open Website is ranked at 100,557 globally and at 2,880 in the Spanish traffic ranking. Users spend an average of 9 ½ minutes in Classora.

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  Tuber (app)

  Tuber (Chinese: Tuber浏览器) was a web browser mobile app developed by Shanghai Fengxuan Information Technology that allowed users within mainland China to view filtered versions of certain websites normally blocked by the Great Firewall. Filtered versions of websites such as Google, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Netflix, IMDb, and Wikipedia could be viewed. The app was backed by cybersecurity company Qihoo 360 which served as the parent company. The app required phone number registration. Sensitive keywords were blocked by the app. On October 9, 2020, Global Times editor Rita Bai Yunyi tweeted that the move represented "a great step for China's opening up". The app was removed from China domestic app stores and operations ceased as of October 10, 2020. On October 12, when questioned by a Bloomberg News reporter on the topic, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian replied, "This is not a diplomatic issue, and I do not have the relevant information you mentioned. China has always managed the Internet in accordance with the law. I suggest you ask the competent department for the specific situation."

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  Social media as a public utility

  Social media as a public utility is a theory postulating that social networking sites (such as Meta - ie:Facebook & Instagram or Alphabet - ie: YouTube & Google, but also independent sites such as Twitter, Tumblr, Snapchat etc.) are essential public services that should be regulated by the government, in a manner similar to how electric and phone utilities are typically government regulated. It is based on the notion that social media platforms have monopoly power and broad social influence. == Background == === Definitions === Social media is defined as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of User Generated Content." Furthermore, the New Zealand Government of Internal Affairs describes it as "a set of online technologies, sites, and practices which are used to share opinions, experiences and perspectives. Fundamentally it is about the conversation. In contrast with traditional media, the nature of social media is to be highly interactive." Moreover, the term social media is described as online tools that let people interact and communicate with each other. This has become a standard word for online cultural exchange and a dominant way for individuals to engage on the internet. By using social media individuals become more closely and strongly connected than ever before. The traditional definition of the term public utility is "an infrastructural necessity for the general public where the supply conditions are such that the public may not be provided with a reasonable service at reasonable prices because of monopoly in the area." Conventional public utilities include water, natural gas, and electricity. In order to secure the interests of the public, utilities are regulated. Public utilities can also be seen as natural monopolies implying that the highest degree of efficiency is accomplished under one operator in the marketplace. Public utility regulation for social media has been largely criticized because people believe it would produce undesirable and indirect effects. However, others say that truly effective government regulation would produce valuable results. Social media as a public utility is a crucial debate because utilities get regulated, so marking social media websites as utilities would require government regulation of various social media websites and platforms such as Facebook, Google, and Twitter. Applying the term public utility to social media implies that social media websites are public necessities, and, consequently, should be regulated by the government. While social media are not as essential for survival as traditional public utilities such as electricity, water, and natural gas, many people believe it has become vital for living in an interconnected world and without it, living a successful life would be difficult. Therefore, many people believe that social media has reached utility status and should be treated as a public utility. However, others believe that this is not true because social media are constantly revolutionizing and giving such platforms "utility status" would result in government regulation, which would consequently hinder innovation. Over the past decade many have debated and questioned whether or not "Internet service providers should be considered essential facilities or natural monopolies and regulated as public utilities." === Monopoly === A monopoly is defined as "a firm that is the only seller of a product or service having no close substitutes." A natural monopoly is when the entire demand within a relevant market can be satisfied at lowest cost by one firm rather than by two or more, and if such a market contains more than one firm then the firms will "quickly shake down to one through mergers or failures, or production will continue to consume more resources than necessary." In a monopoly competition is said to be short-lived, and in a natural monopoly it is said to produce inefficient results." Public utility companies can be regulated to prevent them from gaining monopolistic control. In November 2011 AT&T's proposal for merging with T-Mobile was rejected because it would have "diminished competition," and have led to the company having monopolistic power within the telephone industry. Such regulation is permitted because the telephone industry is a public utility. Similarly, Microsoft has also been prevented from taking various business actions that could result in the company gaining monopolistic power. If social media were a public utility then regulation of Google and Facebook would similarly dictate what they could and could not do. The possibility was raised in 2018 by U.S. Representative Steve King during a House Judiciary hearing on social media filtering practices. == Arguments == Advocates of this theory believe that social media websites already act like public utilities, and therefore regulation is needed. Additionally, advocates say that in the 21st century, using such websites are as necessary for communication as using traditional public utilities such as telephone, water, electricity, and natural gas are for other everyday uses. Specifically, advocates note that Google search should be treated as a public utility and needs to be regulated because it dominates the search engine market and no website can afford to ignore it. There is the position that a social media website such as Google "is a common carrier and should be regulated as such (Newman 2011)." These are reinforced by a perception that social media companies fail to properly maintain fair platforms for discourse. === Individual level === Advocates of regulating social media as a public utility believe that having an Internet presence using social media websites is imperative for individuals to adequately take part in the 21st century. Consequently, they argue that these sites are public utilities that need to be regulated to ensure that the constitutional rights of users are protected. For example, regulation may be needed to protect freedom of speech against risks such as Internet censorship and deplatforming. Social media affects people's behavior. For instance, it plays an important role in shaping its users' decisions and actions pertaining to health. This is demonstrated in a Pew Research Center research, which showed that 72 percent of American adults turned to social media for health information in 2011. Around 70 percent of people with chronic illnesses also use the platform to find cure, diagnoses, and other health answers. This development becomes a public issue as social media are likely to provide wrong medical information. Additionally, social media sites can also facilitate deleterious health behavior such as smoking, drug use, and harmful sexual behavior. === Business level === Advocates of social media as a public utility maintain that social media services dominate the Internet and are mainly owned by three or four companies that have unparalleled power to shape user interaction, and because of this power such businesses need to be regulated as public utilities. Zeynep Tufekci, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, claims that services on the Internet such as Google, eBay, Facebook, Amazon.com, are all natural monopolies. She has stated that these services "benefit greatly from network externalities[,] which means that the more people on the service, the more useful it is for everyone," and thus it is difficult to replace the market leader. === Government level === Advocates of social media as a public utility believe that the government should impose restrictions on social media websites, such as Google, that are designed to benefit its rivals. Due to the recent substantial growth of social media websites such as Google, advocates claim that such a website "might need search neutrality regulation modeled after net neutrality regulation and that a Federal Search Commission might be needed to enforce such a regime." danah boyd expresses a future issue which the government may have to deal with in her research: Facebook is becoming an international social media website, specifically prevalent in Canada and Europe which are "two regions that love to regulate their utilities." Furthermore, recent books by New America Foundation Senior Fellow Rebecca MacKinnon and law professor Lori Andrews advise society to start considering Facebook and Google as nation-states or the "sovereigns of cyberspace." Overall, advocates of social media as a public utility believe that due to the immense popularity and necessity of social media websites, it is imperative that the Government imposes regulations in the same manner they do for electricity, water, and natural gas. == Counterarguments == Opponents of this theory say that social media websites should not be treated as public utilities because these platforms are changing every year, and because they are not essential services for s

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  IEBus

  IEBus (Inter Equipment Bus) is a communication bus specification "between equipments within a vehicle or a chassis" of Renesas Electronics. It defines OSI model layer 1 and layer 2 specification. IEBus is mainly used for car audio and car navigations, which established de facto standard in Japan, though SAE J1850 is major in United States. IEBus is also used in some vending machines, which major customer is Fuji Electric. Each button on the vending machine has an IEBus ID, i.e. has a controller. Detailed specification is disclosed to licensees only, but protocol analyzers are provided from some test equipment vendors. Its modulation method is PWM (Pulse-Width Modulation) with 6.00 MHz base clock originally, but most of automotive customers use 6.291 MHz, and physical layer is a pair of differential signalling harness. Its physical layer adopts half-duplex, asynchronous, and multi-master communication with carrier-sense multiple access with collision detection (CSMA/CD) for medium access control. It allows for up to fifty units on one bus over a maximum length of 150 meters. Two differential signalling lines are used with Bus+ / Bus− naming, sometimes labeled as Data(+) / Data(−). It is sometimes described as "IE-BUS", "IE-Bus," or "IE Bus," but these are incorrect. In formal, it is "IEBus." IEBus® and Inter Equipment Bus® are registered trademark symbols of Renesas Electronics Corporation, formerly NEC Electronics Corporation, (JPO: Reg. No.2552418 and 2552419, respectively). == History == In the middle of '80s, semiconductor unit of NEC Corporation, currently Renesas Electronics, started the study for increasing demands for automotive audio systems. IEBus is introduced as a solution for the distributed control system. In the late 1980s, several similar specifications, including the Domestic Digital Bus (D2B), the Japanese Home Bus (HBS), and the European Home System (EHS) are proposed by different companies or organizations. These were once discussed as IEC 61030, but it was withdrawn in 2006. IEBus is also a similar specification (refer to "Transfer signal format" section), but not listed in these criteria. As the result, IEBus becomes a de facto standard of car audio in Japan. Regarding the Domestic Digital Bus (D2B), it is re-defined as D2B Optical by Mercedes-Benz independently. As for Japanese Home Bus System (HBS), it is defined in 1988 as Home Bus System Standard Specification, ET-2101 by JEITA and REEA (Radio Engineering & Electronics Assiation) in Japan. It is being used by several Japanese air conditioner manufacturers (for example, M-Net from Mitsubishi and the P1/P2 or F1/F2 bus from Daikin). Fujitsu provided HBPC (Home Bus Protocol Controller) chip as MB86046B. But it is unclear whether Fujitsu (currently, Cypress) still manufactures this HBPC LSI as of 2018. Mitsumi Electric provides the MM1007 and MM1192 driver ICs for HBS. The HBS specification is also discussed in the Echonet Consortium. In 2014, a utility model patent for protocol converter from HBS to RS-485 is granted in China as "CN204006496U." Regarding the replacement of IEBus, a paper by Hyundai Autonet, currently Hyundai Mobis, describes as follows. "In communication methods for digital input capable amplifiers, Inter Equipment Bus (IEBus) was used in early times, but for now, Controller Area Network (CAN) is mainly used." == Protocol overview == A master talks to a slave. Each unit has a master and a slave address register. Only one device can talk on the bus at any given time. There is a pecking order for the types of communications which will take precedence over another. Each communication from master to slave must be replied to by the slave going back to the master with acknowledge bits each of those show ACK or NAK. If the master does not receive the ACK within a predefined time allowance for a mode, it drops the communication and returns to its standby (listen) mode. Detailed specification of OSI model layer 2 is disclosed to licensees only, but protocol analyzers are provided from some test equipment vendors. In 2012, one of Chinese manufacturer's patent is granted as "CN202841169U". An open-source software emulator called "IEBus Studio" exists on a repository of SourceForge, but the last update was on 2008-02-24. Another open-source analyzer software called "IEBusAnalyzer" is available on GitHub repository. Some hobbyist made some tools also. === Physical layer (OSI model layer 1) specification overview === From μPD6708 data sheet. and μPD78098B Subseries user's manual, hardware. Communication system Half-duplex asynchronous communication Multi-master system All the units connected to the IEBus can transfer data to the other units. Broadcast communication function (communication between one unit and multiple units) Normally, communication is individually carried out from one unit to another. By using the broadcast communication function, however, communication can be executed from one unit to plural units as follows: Group broadcast communication: Broadcast communication to group units Simultaneous broadcast communication: Broadcast communication to all units Effective transmission rate The effective transmission rate can be selected from the following three communication modes: Mixture of the plural of modes in the same bus line is not allowed. Correct communication between different base clock is not possible. Access control CSMA/CD (Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection) The priority of occupying IEBus is as follows: «1» Broadcast communication takes precedence over individual communication. «2» The lower the master address, the higher the priority. Communication scale Number of units: 50 MAX. Cable length: 150 m MAX. (when a twisted pair cable is used) Load capacity: MAX. 8000 pF; between Bus+ and Bus−, (6.000000 MHz base clock) MAX. 7100 pF; between Bus+ and Bus−, (6.291456 MHz base clock) Terminating resistor: 120 Ω Logic level Logic 1: Low level. Voltage difference between Bus+ and Bus− is under 20mV Logic 0: High Level. Voltage difference between Bus+ and Bus− is over 120mV In-phase input voltage high: Bus+ ≤ (VDD-1.0) V, Bus− ≥ 1.0 V === Transfer signal format === From μPD6708 data sheet. and μPD78098B Subseries user's manual, hardware. This frame format is much similar to that of Domestic Digital Bus (D2B). All fields are MSB first. ==== Functions of Control bits ==== === Bit format === Each IEBus bit consists of four periods. Preparation period: The first or subsequent low-level (logic "1") period Synchronization period: Next high-level (logic "0") period Data period: Period indicating value of bit; ether low-level (logic "1") or high-level (logic "0") Stop period: The last low-level (logic "1") period Synchronization is done by each bit. Time lengths of the synchronization period and data period are almost the same. The time of the entire bits' and each bit's specification, related to the time of each period allocated to it, differ depending both on the type of the transmit bit and on whether the unit is the master or a slave unit. == Automotive manufacturers using IEBus == Each manufacturer has its own name, but it is not an alias of IEBus. Those are specifications of wire harness which comprise control cables based on IEBus, OSI model layer 3 and above communication protocol, audio cables, interconnection couplers, and so on. === Pioneer === Pioneer Corporation employed IEBus for its original branded car audio in early '90s. In its earlier stage, it was used just for control bus between the head unit in dashboard and the CD changer usually placed in trunk room. Nowadays, the specification includes connection between head units, navigation systems, rear speaker systems, and so on. IP-Bus: Wire harness specification. === Toyota === Pioneer Corporation pushed Toyota Motor Corporation to adopt IEBus as the genuine parts. In 1994, Toyota decided to employ IEBus for its genuine specification, but it is slightly different from that of Pioneer. It is named as AVC-LAN. AVC-LAN: Wire harness specification, based on mode 2. === Honda/Acura === Pioneer Corporation also pushed Honda Motor. Honda also decided to adopt IEBus as its genuine parts specification just after Toyota do so. GA-NET II: Wire harness specification. Honda Music Link: Honda genuine gadget to connect Apple Inc. products. A hobbyist made touch screen controller on Acura TSX for a Car PC installed in the trunk. === Sirius XM Satellite Radio === Sirius XM Satellite Radio is a satellite broadcasting radio operator in US. Its digital media receiver equipment utilizes IEBus. == Evaluation boards == === SAKURA board === GR-SAKUKRA board and GR-SAKURA-FULL board are Renesas official promotion boards of RX63N chip, which enables IEBus mode 0 and 1, but not mode 2, i.e. not available for Toyota AVC-LAN. They are an Arduino pin compatible low-price ones, suitable for hobbyists. Their color of printed circuit board is SAKURA in Japanese, which means cherry blossom. To e

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  Netsukuku

  Netsukuku is an experimental peer-to-peer routing system, developed by the FreakNet MediaLab in 2005, created to build up a distributed network, anonymous and censorship-free, fully independent but not necessarily separated from the Internet, without the support of any server, Internet service provider and no central authority. Netsukuku is designed to handle up to 2128 nodes without any servers or central systems, with minimal CPU and memory resources. This mesh network can be built using existing network infrastructure components such as Wi-Fi. The project has been in slow development since 2005, never abandoning a beta state. It has also never been tested on large scale. == Operation == As of December 2011, the latest theoretical work on Netsukuku could be found in the author's master thesis Scalable Mesh Networks and the Address Space Balancing problem. The following description takes into account only the basic concepts of the theory. Netsukuku uses a custom routing protocol called QSPN (Quantum Shortest Path Netsukuku) that strives to be efficient and not taxing on the computational capabilities of each node. The current version of the protocol is QSPNv2. It adopts a hierarchical structure. 256 nodes are grouped inside a gnode (group node), 256 gnodes are grouped in a single ggnode (group of group nodes), 256 ggnodes are grouped in a single gggnode, and so on. This offers a set of advantages main documentation. The protocol relies on the fact that the nodes are not mobile and that the network structure does not change quickly, as several minutes may be required before a change in the network is propagated. However, a node that joins the network is immediately able to communicate using the routes of its neighbors. When a node joins the mesh network, Netsukuku automatically adapts and all other nodes come to know the fastest and most efficient routes to communicate with the newcomer. Each node has no more privileges or restrictions than the other nodes. The domain name system (DNS) is replaced by a decentralised and distributed system called ANDNA (Abnormal Netsukuku Domain Name Anarchy). The ANDNA database is included in the Netsukuku system, so each node includes such database that occupies at most 355 kilobytes of memory. Simplifying, ANDNA works as follows: to resolve a symbolic name the host applies a function Hash on its behalf. The Hash function returns an address that the host contacts asking for the resolution generated by the hash. The contacted node receives a request, searches in its ANDNA database for the address associated with the name and returns it to the applicant host. Recording works in a similar way: for example, let's suppose that the node X wants to register the address FreakNet.andna; X calculates the hash name and obtains the address 11.22.33.44 associated with node Y. The node X contacts Y asking to register 11.22.33.44 as its own. Y stores the request in its database and any request for resolution of 11.22.33.44 hash, will answer with the X's address. The protocol is a little more complex than this, as the system provides a public/private key to authenticate the hosts and prevent unauthorized changes to the ANDNA database. Furthermore, the protocol provides redundancy in the database to make the protocol resistant to failure and also provides for the migration of the database if the network topology changes. The protocol does not provide for the possibility of revoking a symbolic name; after a certain period of inactivity (currently 3 days) it is simply deleted from the database. The protocol also prevents a single host from recording an excessive number of symbolic names (at present 256 names) in order to prevent spammers from storing a high number of terms to perform cybersquatting.

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  Masking (art)

  In art, craft, and engineering, masking is the use of materials to protect areas from change, or to focus change on other areas. This can describe either the techniques and materials used to control the development of a work of art by protecting a desired area from change; or a phenomenon that (either intentionally or unintentionally) causes a sensation to be concealed from conscious attention. The term is derived from the word mask, in the sense that it hides the face from view. == In painting == Masking materials supplement a painter's dexterity and choice of applicator to control where paint is laid. Examples include the use of a stencil or masking tape to protect areas which are not to be painted. === Solid masks === Most solid masks require an adhesive to hold the mask in place while work is performed. Some, such as masking tape and frisket, come with adhesive pre-applied. Solid masks are readily available in bulk, and are used in large painting jobs. Paper products Kraft paper Butcher paper Masking tape Plastic film Frisket Polyester tape Stencils Silk screen === Liquid masks === Liquid masks are preferred where precision is needed; they prevent paint from seeping underneath, resulting in clean edges. Care must be taken to remove them without damaging the work underneath. Latex or other polymers Molten wax Gesso, typically a substrate for painting, but can also be applied to achieve masking effects == In photography == Masks used for photography are used to enhance the quality of an image. Representations of a scene—whether film, video display, or printed—do not have the dynamic contrast range available to the human eye looking directly at the same scene. Adjusting the contrast in an image helps restore some of the perceived qualities of the original scene. These adjustments are typically performed on "blown-out" highlights, and "crushed" or "muddy" shadow areas, where clipping has occurred; or on desaturated colors. Photographic masks are peculiar in that they are produced from the image they will alter, an exercise in recursion. Masks used to produce other effects are similar to those used in painting. === Controlling exposure === ==== Film ==== The basic methods of controlling exposure are dodging and burning, which respectively lighten (reduce exposure) and darken (increase exposure) areas of an image. The tools a film photographer uses range from shaped pieces of black material (such as studio foil, foam, and paper) to the photographer's hands. To create a photographic mask, a sheet of negative film is contact-exposed to the original film negative or slide positive in a particular way. Both films are then combined to produce a processed positive. The process is similar when applied using digital techniques: the inverse of the working image is reduced to an image mask; filters or other adjustments are then applied, using the mask to selectively block portions of the image. ==== Digital ==== Image editors offer at the very least a "Select All" command and a rectangular "marquee" selection tool. (The word "marquee" describes the "crawling ants" border used to highlight the active region.) Once a selection is created, further changes to the image will be confined to that area. To continue editing the rest of the image, the selection is either "deselected" or the entire image is selected. Advanced suites offer more ways to select portions of an image, as well as ways to combine these selections through. Selection masks can be switched between an editable greyscale image and a mask. They allow the user to create a mask using the suite's painting tools. === Contrast masking === When the contrast range of an image needs to be adjusted, a contrast mask is a simple solution. The processed image resembles what would be achieved when exposing through a neutral density filter, but the effects are focused highly upon the extreme regions of the image. The blocking areas of the mask coincide with the highlights of the image, and the permissive areas with the shadows, resulting in more detail appearing in each. ==== Film ==== The mask is often made from high-quality black-and-white film, such as Kodak Technical Pan, which allows for a degree of softening on the mask. Its processing time is reduced so as to not completely oppose the original negative. Both negatives are combined and registered, and collectively exposed with additional time to compensate for the presence of the mask. ==== Digital ==== Contrast masking is made simpler with digital editing. A grayscale version of the image is produced, either by desaturation or by calculating selected ratios of the image's color channels, inverted, and blurred. The mask and original image are blended together to produce the final processed image. Some image editors allow for refinement of the effect by changing the strength of the blend. Contrast masking can be considered to be the opposite of gamma correction, which adjusts the midtones of an image. Effects similar to contrast masking can be achieved by adjusting the response curves of an image. === Unsharp masking === A derivative of contrast masking is unsharp masking, an unusual term for a process intended to increase the apparent sharpness (acutance) of an image. Unsharp masking uses a blurred form of the image to increase contrast along regions of moderate contrast difference. Around edges, the blur region causes highlights to overexpose and shadows to underexpose. Taken to an extreme, the edges become overly visible and detract from the quality of the image—this is referred to as halation. Unsharp masking does not increase the actual sharpness, as it cannot recover details lost to blurring. ==== Film ==== Unsharp masking allows the photographer to sharpen areas that have become blurred in the original negative, due to long shutter speed/exposure time, or from using a wide aperture/"fast" lens. When creating the unsharp mask, extra space or diffusing material is added between the image and the mask to produce the necessary blur. ==== Digital ==== Unsharp masking has become automated in digital editing, with higher-end suites offering the process as a "tool" or "filter" in their standard sharpening kits—the actual creation of a mask is bypassed in favor of calculations that represent the mask's effect. The process depends on three factors: the radius of the blur, the strength of the effect, and the threshold degree of contrast above which the effect will be applied. (Adjusting the threshold allows the editor to apply the effect selectively upon moderately defined edges and ignore image noise.) Unsharp masking is computationally more complex than other sharpening algorithms, but results in a higher-quality remedy. Deconvolution allows for truer sharpening, but is much more complex than unsharp masking.

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  G.9972

  G.9972 (also known as G.cx) is a Recommendation developed by ITU-T that specifies a coexistence mechanism for networking transceivers capable of operating over electrical power line wiring. It allows G.hn devices to coexist with other devices implementing G.9972 and operating on the same power line wiring. G.9972 received consent during the meeting of ITU-T Study Group 15, on October 9, 2009, and final approval on June 11, 2010. G.9972 specifies two mechanisms for coexistence between G.hn home networks and broadband over power lines (BPL) Internet access networks: Frequency-division multiplexing (FDM), in which the available spectrum is divided into two parts: frequencies below 10 or 14 MHz (specific value can be selected by the access network) are reserved for the access network, while frequencies above them are reserved for the in-home network. Time-division multiplexing (TDM), in which the available channel time is split equally between both networks. 50% of time slots are allocated for the access network, and 50% are allocated to the in-home network.

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  Data definition specification

  In computing, a data definition specification (DDS) is a guideline to ensure comprehensive and consistent data definition. It represents the attributes required to quantify data definition. A comprehensive data definition specification encompasses enterprise data, the hierarchy of data management, prescribed guidance enforcement and criteria to determine compliance. == Overview == A data definition specification may be developed for any organization or specialized field, improving the quality of its products through consistency and transparency. It eliminates redundancy (since all contributing areas are referencing the same specification) and provides standardization and degrees of compliance, making it easier and more efficient to create, modify, verify, analyze and share information across the enterprise. To understand how a data definition specification works in an enterprise, we must look at the elements of a DDS. Writing data definitions, defining business terms (or rules) in the context of a particular environment, provides structure for an organization's data architecture. In developing these definitions, the words used must be traceable to clearly defined data. A data definition specification may be used in the following activities: Business intelligence Business process modeling Business rules management Data analysis and modeling Information architecture Metadata modeling Data mastering Report generation == Criteria == A data definition specification requires data definitions to be: Atomic – singular, describing only one concept. Commonly used and ambiguous terms should be defined. While a term refers to one concept, several words may be used in a term: File – A concept identifiable with one word File extension – A concept identifiable with more than one word Traceable – Mapped to a specific data element. In business, a term may be traced to an entity (for example, a customer) or an attribute (such as a customer's name). A term may be a value in a data set (such as gender), or designate the data set itself. Traceability indicates relationships in the data hierarchy. Consistent - Used in a standard syntax; if used in a specific context, the context is noted Accurate - Precise, correct and unambiguous, stating what the term is and is not Clear - Readily understood by the reader Complete - With the term, its description and contextual references Concise - To avoid circular references == Applications == === Enterprise data === A data definition specification was produced by the Open Mobile Alliance to document charging data. The document, the centralized catalog of data elements defined for interfaces, specifies the mapping of these data elements to protocol fields in the interfaces. Created for the exchange of financial data, Market Data Definition Language (MDDL) is an XML specification designed to enable the interchange of information necessary to account, to analyze, and to trade financial instruments of the world's markets. It defines an XML-based interchange format and common data dictionary on the fields needed to describe: (1) financial instruments, (2) corporate events affecting value and tradability, and (3) market-related, economic and industrial indicators. The principal function of MDDL is to allow entities to exchange market data by standardizing formats and definitions. MDDL provides a common format for market data so that it can be efficiently passed from one processing system to another and provides a common understanding of market data content by standardizing terminology and by normalizing the relationships of various data elements to one another ... From the user perspective, the goal of MDDL is to enable users to integrate data from multiple sources by standardizing both the input feeds used for data warehousing (i.e., define what's being provided by vendors) and the output methods by which client applications request the data (i.e., ensure compatibility on how to get data in and out of applications)." === Clinical submissions === The Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium, a global, multidisciplinary, non-profit organization, has established standards to support the acquisition, exchange, submission and archiving of clinical research data and metadata. CDISC standards are vendor-neutral, platform-independent and freely available from the CDISC website. The Case Report Tabulation Data Definition Specification (define.xml) draft version 2.0, the oldest data definition specification, is part of the evolution from the 1999 FDA electronic submission (eSub) guidance and electronic Common Technical Document (eCTD) documents specifying that a document describing the content and structure of included data be included in a submission. Define.xml was developed to automate the review process by generating a machine-readable data-definition document. Define.xml has standardized submissions to the Food and Drug Administration, reducing review times from over two years to several months. === Archival data === A data definition specification is the foundation of metadata for scientific data archiving. The Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard (METS) uses one principle of a DDS: consistent use of key terms to catalog digital objects for global use. The METS schema is a flexible mechanism for encoding descriptive, administrative and structural metadata for a digital library object and expressing complex links between metadata, and can provide a useful standard for the exchange of digital-library objects between repositories. A similar effort is underway to preserve complex data associated with video-game archiving. Preserving Virtual Worlds attempted to address archival-format deficiencies, citing the lack of suitable documentation for interactive fiction and games at the bit level: specifically, the absence of "representation information" needed to map raw bits into higher-level data constructs. Preserving Virtual Worlds 2 is a research project expanding on initial efforts in this field.

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