AI Face Lift

AI Face Lift — independent reviews, comparisons, pricing and step-by-step guides on Aizhi.

• 

  Operation Serenata de Amor

  Operation Serenata de Amor is an artificial intelligence project designed to analyze public spending in Brazil. The project has been funded by a recurrent financing campaign since September 7, 2016, and came in the wake of major scandals of misappropriation of public funds in Brazil, such as the Mensalão scandal and what was revealed in the Operation Car Wash investigations. The analysis began with data from the National Congress then expanded to other types of budget and instances of government, such as the Federal Senate. The project is built through collaboration on GitHub and using a public group with more than 600 participants on Telegram. The name "Serenata de Amor," which means "serenade of love," was taken from a popular cashew cream bonbon produced by Chocolates Garoto in Brazil. == Modules == Throughout development of the project, new modules have been newly introduced in addition to the main repository: The main repository, serenata-de-amor, serves as the starting point for investigative work. Rosie is the robot programmed to identify public funds expenses with discrepancies, starting with CEAP (Quota for Exercise of Parliamentary Activity); it analyzes each of the reimbursements requested by the deputies and senators, indicating the reasons that lead it to believe they are suspicious. From Rosie was born whistleblower, which tweets under the name of @RosieDaSerenata, distributing the results found on social media. Jarbas (Github repository) is a data visualization tool which shows a complete list of reimbursements made available by the Chamber of Deputies and mined by Rosie. Toolbox is a Python installable package that supports the development of Serenata de Amor and Rosie. == History == Operation Serenata de Amor is an Artificial intelligence project for analysis of public expenditures. It was conceived in March 2016 by data scientist Irio Musskopf, sociologist Eduardo Cuducos and entrepreneur Felipe Cabral. The project was financed collectively in the Catarse platform, where it reached 131% of the collection goal paying 3 months of project development. Ana Schwendler, also a data scientist, Pedro Vilanova "Tonny", data journalist, Bruno Pazzim, software engineer, Filipe Linhares, a frontend engineer, Leandro Devegili, an entrepreneur and André Pinho took the first steps towards constructing the platform, such as collecting and structuring the first datasets. Jessica Temporal, data scientist and Yasodara Córdova "Yaso", researcher, Tatiana Balachova "Russa", UX designer, joined the project after the financing took place. The members created a recurring financing campaign, expanding the analysis of public spending to the Federal Senate. Donors make monthly payments ranging from 5 BRL to 200 BRL to maintain group activities. The monthly amount collected is around 10,000 BRL. == Results == In January 2017, concluding the period financed by the initial campaign, the group carried out an investigation into the suspicious activities found by the data analysis system. 629 complaints were made to the Ombudsman's Office of the Chamber of Deputies, questioning expenses of 216 federal deputies. In addition, the Facebook project page has more than 25,000 followers, and users frequently cite the operation as a benchmark in transparency in the Brazilian government. One of the examples of results obtained by the operation is the case of the Deputy who had to return about 700 BRL to the House after his expenses were analyzed by the platform. The platform was able to analyze more than 3 million notes, raising about 8,000 suspected cases in public spending. The community that supports the work of the team benefits from open source repositories, with licenses open for the collaboration. So much so that the two main data scientists of the project presented it at the CivicTechFest in Taipei, obtaining several mentions even in the international press. The technical leader presented the project in Poland during DevConf2017 in Kraków. It was also presented in the Google News Lab in 2017. It was presented by Yaso, when she was the Director of the initiative, at the MIT Media Lab/Berkman Klein Center Initiative for Artificial Intelligence ethics, and at the Artificial Intelligence and Inclusion Symposium, an initiative of the Global Network of Internet & Society Centers (NoC). It was also presented both by Irio and Yaso at the Digital Harvard Kennedy School, over a lunch seminar, where the transparency of the platform and the main solutions found were discussed, so that the code and data are always available to verify its suitability. This infographic provides information about the first results of Operation Serenata de Amor, a project that analyzes open data on public spending to find discrepancies. The project was presented by Yaso to the House Audit and Control Committee of the Chamber of Deputies in August 2017, and raised the interest of House officials who work with open data. The operation has been a source of inspiration for other civic projects that aim to work with similar goals, demonstrating the broader impact of artificial intelligence also in industry in Brazil. Participation of several team members in events throughout Brazil and abroad can be found on the Internet, such as presentation at OpenDataDay, held at Calango Hackerspace in the Federal District, Campus Party Bahia, Campus Party Brasilia, Friends of Tomorrow, XIII National Meeting of Internal Control, in the event USP Talks Hackfest against corruption in João Pessoa, the latter being also highlighted in the National Press.

  Read more →
• 

  Mini-STX

  Mini-STX (mSTX, Mini Socket Technology EXtended, originally "Intel 5x5") is a computer motherboard form factor that was released by Intel in 2015 (as "Intel 5x5"). These motherboards measure 147mm by 140mm (5.8" x 5.5"), making them larger than "4x4" NUC (102x102mm / 4.01" x 4.01" inches) and Nano-ITX (120x120mm / 4.7" x 4.7") boards, but notably smaller than the more common Mini-ITX (170x170mm / 6.7" x 6.7") boards. Unlike these standards, which use a square shape, the Mini-STX form factor is 7mm longer from front-to-rear, making it slightly rectangular. == Mini-STX design elements == The Mini-STX design suggests (but does not require) support for: Socketed processors (e.g. LGA or PGA CPUs) Onboard power regulation circuitry, enabling direct DC power input IO ports embedded on the front and rear of the motherboard (akin to NUC, but unlike typical motherboards which often use headers instead to connect built-in ports on enclosures) == Adoption by manufacturers == This motherboard form factor is still not in particularly common use with consumer-PC manufacturers, although there are a few offerings: ASRock offers both DeskMini kits (that use mini-STX boards) and standalone motherboards, Asus offer VivoMini kits (that use mini-STX boards) and standalone motherboards, Gigabyte offers a few motherboards, and industrial PC suppliers (e.g. Kontron, Iesy, ASRock Industrial) also provide some options for mini-STX equipment. == Derivatives == ASRock developed a derivative of mini-STX, dubbed micro-STX, for their 'DeskMini GTX/RX' small form-factor PCs and industrial motherboards. Micro-STX adds an MXM slot which allows the use of special PCI Express expansion cards, including graphics or machine learning accelerators, but increases the width of the board to be extended two inches, resulting in measurements of 147 x 188 mm (5.8" x 7.4")

  Read more →
• 

  Mass media use by the Islamic State

  The Islamic State (IS) is known for its extensive and effective use of propaganda. It uses a version of the Muslim Black Standard flag and developed an emblem which has clear symbolic meaning in the Muslim world. The Islamic State targets younger audiences, such as teenagers and young adults, since they are more vulnerable to propaganda. It is known to exploit the internet to spread its propaganda by establishing websites, such as the Al Fustat domain. Videos by the Islamic State are commonly accompanied by nasheeds (chants), notable examples being the chant Dawlat al-Islam Qamat, which came to be viewed as an unofficial anthem of the Islamic State, and Salil al-Sawarim. Academic research has emphasized the scale and volume of Islamic State media production beyond its flagship magazines. A quantitative study cited in R. Malash’s academic work documented 1,373 distinct Islamic State media products released over a six-month period between 1 August 2017 and 28 February 2018, including magazines, newsletters, reports, photographic releases, audio recordings, and other media formats. Scholars have used such datasets to illustrate the breadth and intensity of the group’s media output, particularly during periods of territorial decline, when propaganda activity remained high despite military pressure. == Traditional media == === Al-Furqan Foundation for Media Production === In January 2006, shortly after the group's rebranding as the "Islamic State of Iraq", it established the Al-Furqan Foundation for Media Production (Arabic: مؤسسة الفرقان للإنتاج الإعلامي, romanized: Muasasat al-Furqān lil'īntāj al'ilāmī), which produces CDs, DVDs, posters, pamphlets, and web-related propaganda products and official statements. It is the primary media production house of the Islamic State and responsible for production of major media releases, including the statements of the spokesmen and leaders of the group. On January 10, 2006, Al-Furqan released its very first video, titled (Arabic: زحف الأنوار, romanized: Zahf al-Anwār) It was founded by the Iraqi man Dr Wa'il al-Fayad, known as Abu Muhammad al-Furqan. He got his name "Al-Furqan" from his role in founding this media house, which was named after the 25th surah of the Quran Al-Furqan. It is the oldest media production house for the Islamic State, being founded in November 2006 to release media for the Islamic State of Iraq. The earliest release indexed by the SITE Intelligence Group is on 21 November 2006, documenting the storming of a police station in the Iraqi town of Miqdadiyah. Al-Furqan is considered to be a considerable innovation in jihadist media, with Kavkaz Center describing it as "a milestone on the path of jihad, a distinguished media that takes the great care in the management of the conflict with the crusaders and their tails and to expose the lies in the crusader's media." In October 2007, the Long War Journal reported on United States Army raids targeting Al-Furqan media cell members across Iraq, including in Mosul and Samarra. Between August 2013 and March 2014 they released the 22 part series Messages from the Land of Epic Battles. On 2 September 2014 SITE Intelligence Group discovered the beheading video called A Second Message to America, about the death of Steven Sotloff. Since then, Al-Furqan has released videos of their operations across Iraq and Syria, as well as execution videos directed to governments around the world. In April 2019, Al-Furqan released a video Interviewing Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Al-Furqan also produces media in the form of audio, which consists mostly of recordings of IS leaders and spokesmen giving speeches, as well as producing a single nasheed under their name called "Ya Allah Al-Jannah" (O Allah, (we ask you for) Paradise), sung by now-dead member of IS, Uqab Al-Marzuqi. === Al-I'tisam Foundation for Media Production === The Islamic State of Iraq founded a second media foundation - Al-I'tisam Media Foundation - around 2011, marked by their first video release, titled "The Conqueror of the Murtaddin: Abu Ahmad Al-Ansari". The foundation has since released a few series of videos, 50 parts of "Windows on the Land of Battles", 9 parts of "Pictures from the Land of Battles", a 9-part series quoting leaders about the establishment of the Islamic State, and other series before their last release, "Deterring the Safavids in Salah ad-Din" in 2015. Since then, there were no further releases from their behalf. === Al-Hayat Media Center === In mid-2014, IS established the Al-Hayat Media Center, which targets Western audiences and produces material in English, German, Russian, Urdu, Indonesian, Turkish, Bengali, Chinese, Bosnian, Kurdish, Uyghur, and French. When IS announced its expansion to other countries in November 2014 it established media departments for the new branches, and its media apparatus ensured that the new branches follow the same models it uses in Iraq and Syria. Then FBI Director James Comey said that IS's "propaganda is unusually slick," noting that, "They are broadcasting... in something like 23 languages". In July 2014, Al-Hayat began publishing a digital magazine called Dabiq, in a number of different languages including English. According to the magazine, its name is taken from the town of Dabiq in northern Syria, which is mentioned in a hadith about Armageddon. Al-Hayat also began publishing other digital magazines, including the Turkish language Konstantiniyye, the Ottoman word for Istanbul, the French language Dar al-Islam, and the Russian language Istok (Russian: Исток). By late 2016, these magazines had apparently all been discontinued, with Al-Hayat's material being consolidated into a new magazine called Rumiyah (Arabic for Rome). === Al-Naba === While the group's glossy, foreign-language magazines like Dabiq and Rumiyah ceased publication as the group lost territory, the weekly Arabic newsletter Al-Naba (The News) has continued to publish regularly, becoming the central pillar of the group's "media jihad" in the post-territorial phase. Recent scholarship, including studies published in 2025, suggests that Al-Naba serves a dual purpose: maintaining internal cohesion among dispersed fighters and projecting a narrative of endurance to enemies. Unlike the earlier magazines which were designed for recruitment, Al-Naba focuses on bureaucratic reporting, military statistics, and religious instruction. These are then translated and disseminated by decentralized supporter networks ("media mujahideen") to reach non-Arabic speakers. === Furat Media Center === The Al-Furat Media Center is another media center established in around 2015 to cater towards non-Arab speaking audiences. However, unlike the other organizations, the production wasn't as professional as ones made by the other media centers. Instead, they partially relied on local media departments and foreign communities of the Mujahideen to produce short-form videos. However, some professional long-form videos were also made under their behalf. As of now, the media center is the only known active branch of all the media centers of the Islamic State, after heavy losses from past campaigns against them. Their last release was "The Resolve of Muwahhidin in Russia", where videos from the Surovikino penal colony hostage crisis were edited and released. === Ajnad Foundation for Media Production === Ajnad Foundation is one of the official media wings of Islamic State which produces nasheeds and Quran recitations. It was established in January 2014 and has released more than 150 nasheeds. === Asdaa Foundation === Like the Ajnad Foundation, the Asdaa Foundation (Arabic: مؤسسة أصداء) or Asedaa Foundation produces Anasheed (Islamic chants). The foundation is the closest counterpart to Ajnad in producing Islamic State nasheeds, only difference being Ajnad is directly linked to the Islamic State while Asdaa is only classified as a "supporter organization" (munaser/munasera). The foundation had humble beginnings possibly in Yemen, where low-quality nasheeds were produced at first by 2 munshids, Abu Layth Al-Iraqi and Abu Ya'qub Al-Yamani. After that, the quality had improved a bit (possibly with new equipment and increased recognition) and eventually had its nasheeds included in the Islamic State's official media releases. One of its munshids, Abu Hafs is a renowned munshid who sings around 70 nasheeds, who as well works with Ajnad Foundation in some instances. He is currently alive, and working under Ansar Production Center (مركز إنتاج الأنصار), another Munasir foundation and Asedaa. Another Yemeni munshid, Abu Musab al-Adani, worked temporarily with Asdaa Foundation before defecting back to AQAP, from which he previously defected from. Some of their anasheed is used in IS's execution videos, a popular one is their human slaughterhouse execution video released during the time of Eid Al-Adha in 2016. The background nasheed they used was "We Came To Fill The Horizons With Terror", produced by the Asd

  Read more →
• 

  JQuery

  jQuery is a JavaScript library designed to simplify HTML DOM tree traversal and manipulation, as well as event handling, CSS animations, and Ajax. It is free, open-source software using the permissive MIT License. As of August 2022, jQuery is used by 77% of the 10 million most popular websites. Web analysis indicates that it is the most widely deployed JavaScript library by a large margin, having at least three to four times more usage than any other JavaScript library. jQuery's syntax is designed to make it easier to navigate a document, select DOM elements, create animations, handle events, and develop Ajax applications. jQuery also provides capabilities for developers to create plug-ins on top of the JavaScript library. This enables developers to create abstractions for low-level interaction and animation, advanced effects and high-level, theme-able widgets. The modular approach to the jQuery library allows the creation of powerful dynamic web pages and Web applications. The set of jQuery core features—DOM element selections, traversal, and manipulation—enabled by its selector engine (named "Sizzle" from v1.3), created a new "programming style", fusing algorithms and DOM data structures. This style influenced the architecture of other JavaScript frameworks like YUI v3 and Dojo, later stimulating the creation of the standard Selectors API. Microsoft and Nokia bundle jQuery on their platforms. Microsoft includes it with Visual Studio for use within Microsoft's ASP.NET AJAX and ASP.NET MVC frameworks while Nokia has integrated it into the Web Run-Time widget development platform. == Overview == jQuery, at its core, is a Document Object Model (DOM) manipulation library. The DOM is a tree-structure representation of all the elements of a Web page. jQuery simplifies the syntax for finding, selecting, and manipulating these DOM elements. For example, jQuery can be used for finding an element in the document with a certain property (e.g. all elements with the h1 tag), changing one or more of its attributes (e.g. color, visibility), or making it respond to an event (e.g. a mouse click). jQuery also provides a paradigm for event handling that goes beyond basic DOM element selection and manipulation. The event assignment and the event callback function definition are done in a single step in a single location in the code. jQuery also aims to incorporate other highly used JavaScript functionality (e.g. fade ins and fade outs when hiding elements, animations by manipulating CSS properties). The principles of developing with jQuery are: Separation of JavaScript and HTML: The jQuery library provides simple syntax for adding event handlers to the DOM using JavaScript, rather than adding HTML event attributes to call JavaScript functions. Thus, it encourages developers to completely separate JavaScript code from HTML markup. Brevity and clarity: jQuery promotes brevity and clarity with features like "chainable" functions and shorthand function names. Elimination of cross-browser incompatibilities: The JavaScript engines of different browsers differ slightly so JavaScript code that works for one browser may not work for another. Like other JavaScript toolkits, jQuery handles all these cross-browser inconsistencies and provides a consistent interface that works across different browsers. Extensibility: New events, elements, and methods can be easily added and then reused as a plugin. == History == jQuery was originally created in January 2006 at BarCamp NYC by John Resig, influenced by Dean Edwards' earlier cssQuery library. It is currently maintained by a team of developers led by Timmy Willison (with the jQuery selector engine, Sizzle, being led by Richard Gibson). jQuery was originally licensed under the CC BY-SA 2.5, and relicensed to the MIT License in 2006. At the end of 2006, it was dual-licensed under GPL and MIT licenses. As this led to some confusion, in 2012 the GPL was dropped and is now only licensed under the MIT license. === Popularity === In 2015, jQuery was used on 62.7% of the top 1 million websites (according to BuiltWith), and 17% of all Internet websites. In 2017, jQuery was used on 69.2% of the top 1 million websites (according to Libscore). In 2018, jQuery was used on 78% of the top 1 million websites. In 2019, jQuery was used on 80% of the top 1 million websites (according to BuiltWith), and 74.1% of the top 10 million (per W3Techs). In 2021, jQuery was used on 77.8% of the top 10 million websites (according to W3Techs). == Features == jQuery includes the following features: DOM element selections using the multi-browser open source selector engine Sizzle, a spin-off of the jQuery project DOM manipulation based on CSS selectors that uses elements' names and attributes, such as id and class, as criteria to select nodes in the DOM Events Effects and animations Ajax Deferred and Promise objects to control asynchronous processing JSON parsing Extensibility through plug-ins Utilities, such as feature detection Compatibility methods that are natively available in modern browsers, but need fallbacks for old browsers, such as jQuery.inArray() and jQuery.each(). Cross-browser support === Browser support === jQuery 3.0 and newer supports "current−1 versions" (meaning the current stable version of the browser and the version that preceded it) of Firefox (and ESR), Chrome, Safari, and Edge as well as Internet Explorer 9 and newer. On mobile it supports iOS 7 and newer, and Android 4.0 and newer. == Distribution == The jQuery library is typically distributed as a single JavaScript file that defines all its interfaces, including DOM, Events, and Ajax functions. It can be included within a Web page by linking to a local copy or by linking to one of the many copies available from public servers. jQuery has a content delivery network (CDN) hosted by MaxCDN. Google in Google Hosted Libraries service and Microsoft host the library as well. Example of linking a copy of the library locally (from the same server that hosts the Web page): Example of linking a copy of the library from jQuery's public CDN: == Interface == === Functions === jQuery provides two kinds of functions, static utility functions and jQuery object methods. Each has its own usage style. Both are accessed through jQuery's main identifier: jQuery. This identifier has an alias named $. All functions can be accessed through either of these two names. ==== jQuery methods ==== The jQuery function is a factory for creating a jQuery object that represents one or more DOM nodes. jQuery objects have methods to manipulate these nodes. These methods (sometimes called commands), are chainable as each method also returns a jQuery object. Access to and manipulation of multiple DOM nodes in jQuery typically begins with calling the $ function with a CSS selector string. This returns a jQuery object referencing all the matching elements in the HTML page. $("div.test"), for example, returns a jQuery object with all the div elements that have the class test. This node set can be manipulated by calling methods on the returned jQuery object. ==== Static utilities ==== These are utility functions and do not directly act upon a jQuery object. They are accessed as static methods on the jQuery or $ identifier. For example, $.ajax() is a static method. === No-conflict mode === jQuery provides a $.noConflict() function, which relinquishes control of the $ name. This is useful if jQuery is used on a Web page also linking another library that demands the $ symbol as its identifier. In no-conflict mode, developers can use jQuery as a replacement for $ without losing functionality. === Typical start-point === Typically, jQuery is used by putting initialization code and event handling functions in $(handler). This is triggered by jQuery when the browser has finished constructing the DOM for the current Web page. or Historically, $(document).ready(callback) has been the de facto idiom for running code after the DOM is ready. However, since jQuery 3.0, developers are encouraged to use the much shorter $(handler) signature instead. === Chaining === jQuery object methods typically also return a jQuery object, which enables the use of method chains: This line finds all div elements with class attribute test , then registers an event handler on each element for the "click" event, then adds the class attribute foo to each element. Certain jQuery object methods retrieve specific values (instead of modifying a state). An example of this is the val() method, which returns the current value of a text input element. In these cases, a statement such as $('#user-email').val() cannot be used for chaining as the return value does not reference a jQuery object. === Creating new DOM elements === Besides accessing existing DOM nodes through jQuery, it is also possible to create new DOM nodes, if the string passed as the argument to $() factory looks like HTML. For example, the below code finds an HTML select element, and cr

  Read more →
• 

  Reference Software International

  Reference Software International, Inc. (RSI), was an American software developer active from 1985 to 1993 and based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and San Francisco, California. The company released several productivity and reference software packages, including the Grammatik grammar checker, for MS-DOS. The company was acquired by WordPerfect Corporation in 1993. == History == === Background (1980–1985) === Reference Software International, Inc., was founded by Donald "Don" Emery and Bruce Wampler in 1985 in San Francisco, California. Both Wampler and Emery were college professors when they founded RSI: Wampler at the University of New Mexico as a professor of computer science and Emery a professor of marketing at San Francisco State University. After graduating from the University of Utah in around 1978, Wampler founded his first software company, Aspen Software, in Tijeras, New Mexico, in 1979. Wampler founded Aspen to develop an early spell checker software package, called Proofreader, for the TRS-80, licensing Random House's Webster's Unabridged Dictionary for the package's lexicon. In 1980, he began development on a grammar checker inspired by Writer's Workbench, a pioneering grammar checker for Unix systems. Wampler used Writer's Workbench heavily during the writer of his doctoral dissertation but disliked having to jump between the Apple II on which he composed the dissertation and the mainframe on which Writer's Workbench ran, and so wanted to develop a version of the latter for microcomputers. Wampler's work came to fruition as Grammatik in 1981, eventually ported to several other microcomputer platforms in the early 1980s. In 1983, by which point the company had 12 employees and sold a combined 80,000 units of Grammatik and Proofreader, Wampler sold Aspen to Dictronics, a software company best known for developing the Electronic Thesaurus, an early thesaurus program for microcomputers. Dictronics was in turn purchased by Wang Laboratories; according to Wampler, "Wang bought [Aspen] and sat on it. They did nothing with it". Wampler moved on to teach for the University of New Mexico, but, frustrated by Wang's inaction, got the urge to resurrect his work. In 1985, he was able to license back Grammatik and Proofreader from a small California-based software firm that had grandfathered rights to a forked version of both. In the same year, he met Emery, who, impressed by Wampler's, founded Reference Software International to market his software. RSI's research and development headquarters were based in Albuquerque, while the company's sales and marketing department was based in Walnut Creek, California. === Success (1985–1992) === In August 1985, RSI released their first product: the Random House Reference Set, a new version of Proofreader for the IBM Personal Computer and compatibles, revised to be a terminate-and-stay-resident program that ran atop other word processors such as WordStar or WordPerfect. At the time, Reference Set was the only such program on the market that functioned like this. RSI netted $114,000 from sales of Reference Set by the end of 1985. In June 1986, they released version 2.0 of Grammatik as Grammatik II for the PC. The latter was a breakout hit for RSI, receiving praise in the press (including technology journals such as PC Magazine) and RSI selling 1,000 units a month. In spring 1987, they released Reference Set II, which allowed users to import their own words into the built-in dictionary and added a thesaurus of 300,000 words. In November 1987, they released version 3.0 of Reference Set, which comprised two new field-specific dictionaries for the medical and legal professions. As well as the general Random House dictionary and thesaurus, it included Stedman's Medical Dictionary and Black's Law Dictionary. Emery consulted Paul Brest and Bob Jackson—professors of law at Stanford Law School and San Francisco State respectively—for the curation of the law dictionary; and Burton Grebin—at the time the executive director of Mount Saint Mary's Hospital—for the curation of the medical dictionary. In fall 1988, the company released Grammatik III, a total rewrite that made use of artificial intelligence to more accurately judge the grammar of sentences by breaking them down into a syntactic hierarchy. Grammatik III received universal acclaim, with Gloria Morris of InfoWorld calling it the apparent leader in the grammar checking field and Sandra Anderson of Mac Home Journal calling it "hands down ... the best of the industry" six years after its release. By 1989, the product had competitors in Correct Grammar by Lifetree Software and RightWriter by Rightsoft, Inc. By 1990, RSI achieved annual sales of $9.7 million. In the same year they released Grammatik IV, which was the first to offer direct integration with WordPerfect on both MS-DOS and Windows. In March 1992—by which point RSI had sold 1.5 million copies of Grammatik across all versions—the company released version 5 of the program, another rewrite that updated the lexicon further and added new functions such as word redundancy detection. Around the same time, the company introduced Easy Proof, a pared-down version of Grammatik intended for novice writers, students, and family computers. In 1991, the company was engaged in a trademark dispute with Systems Compatibility Corporation (SCC) of Chicago, Illinois, over the rights to the Software Toolkit title. Both companies had published software bundles bearing the name in the turn of the 1990s; SCC had published theirs first in 1988 and registered the trademark with the USPTO. SCC was granted a restraining order against RSI in January 1991. The following month, RSI agreed to rename their product, preventing a protracted legal battle. === Decline and acquisition (1992–1993) === By early 1992, RSI achieved annual sales of more than $13 million, employed 120 people, and had opened international offices in London, Belgium, and Antwerp to sell foreign versions of Reference Set and Grammatik. The company reached peak employment in the middle of 1992, with 140 employees. However, RSI's launch of six disparate titles in the year proved problematic for the company when they failed to sell as well as they had projected, and the company laid off employees by the dozens. By December 1992, only 71 employees were left, 32 from their San Francisco office. On the last day of 1992, RSI received an acquisition offer from WordPerfect Corporation, makers of the namesake word processor based in Orem, Utah. The deal was inked in January 1993, RSI's stakeholders receiving $19 million. The company's remaining employees were absorbed into WordPerfect in Orem. WordPerfect continued selling Grammatik as a standalone product for several years.

  Read more →
• 

  Amplified conference

  An amplified conference is a conference or similar event in which the talks and discussions at the conference are 'amplified' through use of networked technologies in order to extend the reach of the conference deliberations. The term was originally coined by Lorcan Dempsey in a blog post. The term is now widely used within the academic and research community with Wankel proposing the following definition: The extension of a physical event (or a series of events) through the use of social media tools for expanding access to (aspects of) the event beyond physical and temporal bounds. Such amplification takes place in the context of intent to make the most of the intellectual content, discussion, networking, and discovery initiated by the event through the process of sharing with co-attendees, colleagues, friends and wider informed publics. A paper by Haider and others illustrates how amplified conferences are becoming mainstream in a discussion on "how social media have been employed as part of the project, particularly around event amplification". As described by Guy in the Ariadne ejournal the term is not a prescriptive one, but rather describes a pattern of behaviors which initially took place at IT and Web-oriented conferences once WiFi networks started to become available at conference venues and delegates started to bring with them networked devices such as laptops and, more recently, PDAs and mobile phones. == Different Approaches to 'Amplification' of Conferences == There are a number of ways in which conferences can be amplified through use of networked technologies: Amplification of the audiences' voice: Prior to the availability of real time chat technologies at events (whether use of IRC, Twitter, instant messaging clients, etc.) it was only feasible to discuss talks with immediate neighbours, and even then this may be considered rude. Amplification of the speaker's talk: The availability of video and audio-conferencing technologies make it possible for a speaker to be heard by an audience which isn't physically present at the conference. Although use of video technologies has been available to support conferences for some time, this has normally been expensive and require use of dedicated video-conferencing technologies. However the availability of lightweight desktop tools make it much easier to deploy such technologies, without even, requiring the involvement of conference organisers. Amplification across time: Video and audio technologies can also be used to allow a speaker's talk to be made available after the event, with use of podcasting or videocasting technologies allowing the talks to be easily syndicated to mobile devices as well as accessed on desktop computers. Amplification of the speaker's slides: The popularity of global repository services for slides, such as SlideShare, enable the slides used by a speaker to be more easily found, embedded on other Web sites and commented upon, in ways that were not possible when the slides, if made available at all, were only available on a conference Web site. Amplification of feedback to the speaker: Micro-blogging technologies, such as Twitter, are being used not only as a discussion channel for conference participants but also as a way of providing real-time feedback to a speaker during a talk. We are also now seeing dedicated microblogging technologies, such as Coveritlive and Scribblelive, being developed which aim to provide more sophisticated 'back channels' for use at conferences. Amplification of a conference's collective memory: The popularity of digital cameras and the photographic capabilities of many mobile phones is leading to many photographs being taken at conferences. With such photographs often being uploaded to popular photographic sharing services, such as Flickr, and such collections being made more easy to discover through agreed use of tags, we are seeing amplification of the memories of an event though the sharing of such resources. The ability of such photographic resources to be 'mashed up' with, say, accompanying music, can similarly help to enrich such collective experiences. Amplification of the learning: The ability to be able to follow links to resources and discuss the points made by a speaker during a talk can enrich the learning which takes place at an event, as described by Shabajee's article on "'Hot' or Not? Welcome to real-time peer review" published in the Times Higher Education Supplement in May 2003. Long term amplification of conference outputs: The availability in a digital format of conference resources, including 'official' resources such as slides, video and audio recordings, etc. which have been made by the conference organisers with the approval of speakers, together with more nebulous resources such as archives of conference back channels, and photographs and unofficial recordings taken at the event may help to provide a more authentic record of an event, which could potentially provide a valuable historical record. The amplification of conferences can be viewed as an example of how new technologies are altering standard practice. By using these techniques a different type of interaction is created at the conference itself, but also the boundaries around the conference can be seen as permeable, with remote participants engaging in discussion. An amplified conference also provides a considerably altered archive compared with a 'traditional' one. For the latter, the printed proceedings will be the main record, but for an amplified event this record is distributed across many media and takes in a wider range of content types, including the papers, videos of the presentations (for example on YouTube), the slides (e.g. on Slideshare), photos of the event (Flickr), interaction between participants (Twitter), reflections and comments (blogs), etc. The amplified conference represents an example of changing practice in digital scholarship.

  Read more →
• 

  Scalable Video Coding

  Scalable Video Coding (SVC) is a video compression standard developed jointly by the ITU-T and the ISO/IEC. The two organizations formed the Joint Video Team (JVT) to create the H.264/MPEG-4 AVC standard (ITU-T Rec. H.264 | ISO/IEC 14496-10 AVC). SVC aims to provide adaptable or scalable content, allowing a single encoded video stream to be decoded at various bitrates, resolutions, and quality levels, thus catering to diverse devices and network conditions. == History == In October 2003, the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) issued a Call for Proposals on SVC Technology. Fourteen proposals were submitted, twelve of which utilized wavelet compression, while the remaining two were extensions of H.264/MPEG-4 AVC. The proposal from the Heinrich-Hertz-Institut (HHI) was selected by MPEG as the foundation for the SVC standardization project. In January 2005, MPEG and the Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG) agreed to finalize SVC as an amendment to the H.264/MPEG-4 AVC standard. In November 2008, Google launched Gmail Video Chat, which employed an H.264/SVC codec, marking the first consumer application of the standard. This service was succeeded by Google+ Hangouts in 2012. In 2011, Google Code highlighted SVC as the successor to the open-source RVC video chat engine, noting its prominence in 2010. == Principles of scalability == === Overview === Scalability refers to the ability to represent a video signal at multiple levels of detail within a single encoded bitstream. This enables decoding of a base layer for basic quality and additional enhancement layers for progressively higher quality. SVC defines three types of scalability: Spatial scalability: Supports multiple resolution levels. Temporal scalability: Enables varying frame rates. Quality scalability: Provides different image quality levels. === Spatial scalability === Spatial scalability allows the reconstruction of video at different resolutions, such as QCIF, CIF, or SD. This is achieved through a pyramidal decomposition into multiple spatial layers. === Temporal scalability === Temporal scalability adjusts the frame rate of the decoded video stream. Various frame rates are supported using a hierarchical structure of video frames. === Quality scalability === Quality scalability, or Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) scalability, improves the signal-to-noise ratio of a layer, reducing quantization distortion between the original and reconstructed images. SVC supports two approaches: Fine Grain Scalability (FGS) and Coarse Grain Scalability (CGS). ==== Coarse Grain Scalability (CGS) ==== CGS incorporates quality scalability across spatial resolutions. Each spatial resolution is encoded as a separate layer, refining texture and motion data. For a given resolution, quality scalability is achieved by encoding multiple quality layers with progressively finer quantization steps, starting from a base layer with minimal quality. ==== Fine Grain Scalability (FGS) ==== FGS enables progressive refinement of transformed coefficients within a single spatial layer. The base quality layer is encoded using the AVC standard with an initial quantization parameter (QP) ensuring minimal acceptable quality. Subsequent refinement layers reduce the QP by six, halving the quantization step. The refinement data stream can be truncated at any point, allowing fine-grained quality scalability.

  Read more →
• 

  Electronics

  Electronics is a scientific and engineering discipline that studies and applies the principles of physics to design, create, and operate devices that manipulate electrons and other electrically charged particles. It is a subfield of physics and electrical engineering which uses active devices such as transistors, diodes, and integrated circuits to control and amplify the flow of electric current and to convert it from one form to another, such as from alternating current (AC) to direct current (DC) or from analog signals to digital signals. Electronic devices have significantly influenced the development of many aspects of modern society, such as telecommunications, entertainment, education, health care, industry, and security. The main driving force behind the advancement of electronics is the semiconductor industry, which continually produces ever-more sophisticated electronic devices and circuits in response to global demand. The semiconductor industry is one of the global economy's largest and most profitable industries, with annual revenues exceeding $481 billion in 2018. The electronics industry also encompasses other branches that rely on electronic devices and systems, such as e-commerce, which generated over $29 trillion in online sales in 2017. == History and development == Karl Ferdinand Braun's development of the crystal detector, the first semiconductor device, in 1874 and the identification of the electron in 1897 by Sir Joseph John Thomson, along with the subsequent invention of the vacuum tube which could amplify and rectify small electrical signals, inaugurated the field of electronics and the electron age. Practical applications started with the invention of the diode by Ambrose Fleming and the triode by Lee De Forest in the early 1900s, which made the detection of small electrical voltages, such as radio signals from a radio antenna, practicable. Vacuum tubes (thermionic valves) were the first active electronic components which controlled current flow by influencing the flow of individual electrons, and enabled the construction of equipment that used current amplification and rectification to give us radio, television, radar, long-distance telephony and much more. The early growth of electronics was rapid, and by the 1920s, commercial radio broadcasting and telecommunications were becoming widespread and electronic amplifiers were being used in such diverse applications as long-distance telephony and the music recording industry. The next big technological step took several decades to appear, when the first working point-contact transistor was invented by John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain at Bell Labs in 1947. However, vacuum tubes continued to play a leading role in the field of microwave and high power transmission as well as television receivers until the middle of the 1980s. Since then, solid-state devices have all but completely taken over. Vacuum tubes are still used in some specialist applications such as high power RF amplifiers, cathode-ray tubes, specialist audio equipment, guitar amplifiers and some microwave devices. In April 1955, the IBM 608 was the first IBM product to use transistor circuits without any vacuum tubes and is believed to be the first all-transistorized calculator to be manufactured for the commercial market. The 608 contained more than 3,000 germanium transistors. Thomas J. Watson Jr. ordered all future IBM products to use transistors in their design. From that time on, transistors were almost exclusively used for computer logic circuits and peripheral devices. However, early junction transistors were relatively bulky devices that were difficult to manufacture on a mass-production basis, which limited them to a number of specialised applications. The MOSFET was invented at Bell Labs between 1955 and 1960. It was the first truly compact transistor that could be miniaturised and mass-produced for a wide range of uses. Its advantages include high scalability, affordability, low power consumption, and high density. It revolutionized the electronics industry, becoming the most widely used electronic device in the world. The MOSFET is the basic element in most modern electronic equipment. As the complexity of circuits grew, problems arose. One problem was the size of the circuit. A complex circuit like a computer was dependent on speed. If the components were large, the wires interconnecting them must be long. The electric signals took time to go through the circuit, thus slowing the computer. The invention of the integrated circuit by Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce solved this problem by making all the components and the chip out of the same block (monolith) of semiconductor material. The circuits could be made smaller, and the manufacturing process could be automated. This led to the idea of integrating all components on a single-crystal silicon wafer, which led to small-scale integration (SSI) in the early 1960s, and then medium-scale integration (MSI) in the late 1960s, followed by VLSI. In 2008, billion-transistor processors became commercially available. == Subfields == == Devices and components == An electronic component is any component, either active or passive, in an electronic system or electronic device. Components are connected together, usually by being soldered to a printed circuit board (PCB), to create an electronic circuit with a particular function. Components may be packaged singly or in more complex groups as integrated circuits. Passive electronic components are capacitors, inductors, resistors, whilst active components are such as semiconductor devices; transistors and thyristors, which control current flow at electron level. == Types of circuits == Electronic circuit functions can be divided into two function groups: analog and digital. A particular device may consist of circuitry that has either or a mix of the two types. Analog circuits are becoming less common, as many of their functions are being digitized. === Analog circuits === Analog circuits use a continuous range of voltage or current for signal processing, as opposed to the discrete levels used in digital circuits. Analog circuits were common throughout electronic devices in the early years, in devices such as radio receivers and transmitters. Analog electronic computers were valuable for solving problems with continuous variables until digital processing advanced. As semiconductor technology developed, many of the functions of analog circuits were taken over by digital circuits, and modern circuits that are entirely analog are less common; their functions being replaced by hybrid approach which, for instance, uses analog circuits at the front end of a device receiving an analog signal, and then use digital processing using microprocessor techniques thereafter. Sometimes it may be difficult to classify some circuits that have elements of both linear and non-linear operation. An example is the voltage comparator, which receives a continuous range of voltage but only outputs one of two levels, as in a digital circuit. Similarly, an overdriven transistor amplifier can take on the characteristics of a controlled switch, having essentially two levels of output. Analog circuits are still widely used for signal amplification, such as in the entertainment industry, and conditioning signals from analog sensors, such as in industrial measurement and control. === Digital circuits === Digital circuits are electric circuits based on discrete voltage levels. Digital circuits use Boolean algebra and are the basis of all digital computers and microprocessor devices. They range from simple logic gates to large integrated circuits, employing millions of such gates. Digital circuits use a binary system with two voltage levels labelled 0 and 1 to indicate logical status. Often logic 0 will be a lower voltage and referred to as Low while logic 1 is referred to as High. However, some systems use the reverse definition (0 is High) or are current based. Quite often, the logic designer may reverse these definitions from one circuit to the next as they see fit to facilitate their design. The definition of the levels as 0 or 1 is arbitrary. Ternary (with three states) logic has been studied, and some prototype computers made, but have not gained any significant practical acceptance. Universally, computers and digital signal processors are constructed with digital logic circuits using transistors such as MOSFETs in the electronic logic gates to generate binary states. Logic gates Adders Flip-flops Counters Registers Multiplexers Schmitt triggers Highly integrated devices: Memory chip Microprocessors Microcontrollers Application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) Digital signal processor (DSP) Field-programmable gate array (FPGA) Field-programmable analog array (FPAA) System on chip (SOC) == Design == Electronic systems design deals with the multi-disciplinary design issues of complex electronic devices and systems, such as mob

  Read more →
• 

  Instance selection

  Instance selection (or dataset reduction, or dataset condensation) is an important data pre-processing step that can be applied in many machine learning (or data mining) tasks. Approaches for instance selection can be applied for reducing the original dataset to a manageable volume, leading to a reduction of the computational resources that are necessary for performing the learning process. Algorithms of instance selection can also be applied for removing noisy instances, before applying learning algorithms. This step can improve the accuracy in classification problems. Algorithm for instance selection should identify a subset of the total available data to achieve the original purpose of the data mining (or machine learning) application as if the whole data had been used. Considering this, the optimal outcome of IS would be the minimum data subset that can accomplish the same task with no performance loss, in comparison with the performance achieved when the task is performed using the whole available data. Therefore, every instance selection strategy should deal with a trade-off between the reduction rate of the dataset and the classification quality. == Instance selection algorithms == The literature provides several different algorithms for instance selection. They can be distinguished from each other according to several different criteria. Considering this, instance selection algorithms can be grouped in two main classes, according to what instances they select: algorithms that preserve the instances at the boundaries of classes and algorithms that preserve the internal instances of the classes. Within the category of algorithms that select instances at the boundaries it is possible to cite DROP3, ICF and LSBo. On the other hand, within the category of algorithms that select internal instances, it is possible to mention ENN and LSSm. In general, algorithm such as ENN and LSSm are used for removing harmful (noisy) instances from the dataset. They do not reduce the data as the algorithms that select border instances, but they remove instances at the boundaries that have a negative impact on the data mining task. They can be used by other instance selection algorithms, as a filtering step. For example, the ENN algorithm is used by DROP3 as the first step, and the LSSm algorithm is used by LSBo. There is also another group of algorithms that adopt different selection criteria. For example, the algorithms LDIS, CDIS and XLDIS select the densest instances in a given arbitrary neighborhood. The selected instances can include both, border and internal instances. The LDIS and CDIS algorithms are very simple and select subsets that are very representative of the original dataset. Besides that, since they search by the representative instances in each class separately, they are faster (in terms of time complexity and effective running time) than other algorithms, such as DROP3 and ICF. Besides that, there is a third category of algorithms that, instead of selecting actual instances of the dataset, select prototypes (that can be synthetic instances). In this category it is possible to include PSSA, PSDSP and PSSP. The three algorithms adopt the notion of spatial partition (a hyperrectangle) for identifying similar instances and extract prototypes for each set of similar instances. In general, these approaches can also be modified for selecting actual instances of the datasets. The algorithm ISDSP adopts a similar approach for selecting actual instances (instead of prototypes).

  Read more →
• 

  MADI

  Multichannel Audio Digital Interface (MADI) standardized as AES10 by the Audio Engineering Society (AES) defines the data format and electrical characteristics of an interface that carries multiple channels of digital audio. The AES first documented the MADI standard in AES10-1991 and updated it in AES10-2003 and AES10-2008. The MADI standard includes a bit-level description and has features in common with the two-channel AES3 interface. MADI supports serial digital transmission over coaxial cable or fibre-optic lines of 28, 56, 32, or 64 channels; and sampling rates to 96 kHz and beyond with an audio bit depth of up to 24 bits per channel. Like AES3 and ADAT Lightpipe, it is a unidirectional interface from one sender to one receiver. == Development and applications == MADI was developed by AMS Neve, Solid State Logic, Sony and Mitsubishi and is widely used in the audio industry, especially in the professional audio sector. It provides advantages over other audio digital interface protocols and standards such as AES3, ADAT Lightpipe, TDIF (Tascam Digital Interface), and S/PDIF (Sony/Philips Digital Interface). These advantages include: Support for a greater number of channels per line Use of coaxial and optical fiber media that support transmission of audio signals over 100 meters, up to 3000 meters over multi-mode and 40,000 meters over single-mode optical fiber The original specification (AES10-1991) defined the MADI link as a 56-channel transport for linking large-format mixing consoles to digital multitrack recording devices. Large broadcast studios also adopted it for routing multi-channel audio throughout their facilities. The 2003 revision (AES10-2003) adds a 64-channel capability by removing varispeed operation and supports 96 kHz sampling frequency with reduced channel capacity. The latest AES10-2008 standard includes minor clarifications and updates to correspond to the current AES3 standard. Audio over Ethernet of various types is the primary alternative to MADI for transport of many channels of professional digital audio. == Transmission format == MADI links use a transmission format similar to Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) networking. Since MADI is most often transmitted on copper links via 75-ohm coaxial cables, it more closely compares to the FDDI specification for copper-based links, called CDDI. AES10-2003 recommends using BNC connectors with coaxial cables and SC connectors with optic fibers. MADI over fibre can support a range of up to 2 km. The basic data rate is 100 Mbit/s of data using 4B5B encoding to produce a 125 MHz physical baud rate. Unlike AES3, this clock is not synchronized to the audio sample rate, and the audio data payload is padded using JK sync symbols. Sync symbols may be inserted at any subframe boundary, and must occur at least once per frame. Though the standard disassociates the transmission clock from the audio sample rate, and thus requires a separate word clock connection to maintain synchronization, some vendors do give the option of locking to parts of the transmission timing information for purposes of deriving a word clock. The audio data is almost identical to the AES3 payload, though with more channels. Rather than letters, MADI assigns channel numbers from 0–63. Frame synchronization is provided by sync symbols outside the data itself, rather than an embedded preamble sequence, and the first four time slots of each sub-channel are encoded as normal data, used for sub-channel identification: Bit 0: Set to 1 to mark channel 0, the first channel in each frame Bit 1: Set to 1 to indicate that this channel is active (contains interesting data) Bit 2: notA/B channel marker, used to mark left (0) and right (1) channels. Generally, even channels are A and odd channels are B. Bit 3: Set to 1 to mark the beginning of a 192-sample data block == Sampling frequency == The original AES10-1991 specification allowed 56 channels at sample rates from 32 to 48 kHz with an additional vari-speed range of ± 12.5%. This leads to a total range of 28 to 54 kHz. At the highest frequency, this produces a total of 56 × 32 × 54 = 96768 kbit/s, leaving 3.232% of the channel for synchronization marks and transmit clock error. The 2003 revision specifies different relations between sampling frequency and number of channels. 32 kHz to 48 kHz ± 12.5%, 56 channels; 32 kHz to 48 kHz nominal, 64 channels; 64 kHz to 96 kHz ± 12.5%, 28 channels. With a 48 kHz sampling frequency, 64 channels take 64 × 32 × 48000 = 98.304 Mbit/s. Adding the minimum 8 × 58 kbit/s of framing produces 98688 bit/s, leaving 1.312% free for timing variation and other overhead. Both versions of the standard accommodate higher sampling frequencies (for example, 96 kHz or 192 kHz) by using two or more channels per audio sample on the link.

  Read more →
• 

  Pull technology

  Pull coding or client pull is a style of network communication, where the initial request for data originates from the client, and then is responded to by the server. The reverse is known as push technology, where the server pushes data to clients. Pull requests form the foundation of network computing, where many clients request data from centralized servers. Pull is used extensively on the Internet for HTTP page requests from websites. A push can also be simulated using multiple pulls within a short amount of time. For example, when pulling POP3 email messages from a server, a client can make regular pull requests, every few minutes. To the user, the email then appears to be pushed, as emails appear to arrive close to real-time. A trade-off of this system is that it places a heavier load on both the server and network to function correctly. Many web feeds, such as RSS are technically pulled by the client. With RSS, the user's RSS reader polls the server periodically for new content; the server does not send information to the client unrequested. This continual polling is inefficient and has contributed to the shutdown or reduction of several popular RSS feeds that could not handle the bandwidth. For solving this problem, the WebSub protocol, as another example of a push code, was devised. Podcasting is specifically a pull technology. When a new podcast episode is published to an RSS feed, it sits on the server until it is requested by a feed reader, mobile podcasting app, or directory. Directories such as Apple Podcasts (iTunes), The Blubrry Directory, and many apps' directories request the RSS feed periodically to update the Podcast's listing on those platforms. Subscribers to those RSS feeds via app or reader will get the episodes when they request the RSS feed next time, independent of when the directory listing updates.

  Read more →
• 

  Ajax (programming)

  The Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, usually referred to as Ajax (or AJAX, ) is a set of web development techniques that uses various web technologies on the client-side to create asynchronous web applications. With Ajax, web applications can send and retrieve data from a server asynchronously (in the background) without interfering with the display and behaviour of the existing page. By decoupling the data interchange layer from the presentation layer, Ajax allows web pages and, by extension, web applications, to change content dynamically without the need to reload the entire page. In practice, modern implementations commonly utilize JSON instead of XML. Ajax is not a technology, but rather a programming pattern. HTML and CSS can be used in combination to mark up and style information. The webpage can be modified by JavaScript to dynamically display (and allow the user to interact with) the new information. The built-in XMLHttpRequest object is used to execute Ajax on webpages, allowing websites to load content onto the screen without refreshing the page. == History == In the early-to-mid 1990s, most Websites were based on complete HTML pages. Each user action required a complete new page to be loaded from the server. This process was inefficient, as reflected by the user experience: all page content disappeared, then the new page appeared. Each time the browser reloaded a page because of a partial change, all the content had to be re-sent, even though only some of the information had changed. This placed additional load on the server and made bandwidth a limiting factor in performance. The foundations of AJAX originate back in 1996 with the introduction of JavaScript 1. Developers quickly discovered that any HTML element which accepted a "src" attribute could be used to fetch remote data. By changing the src of a hidden frame, a developer could fetch remote data, process or display it without a page refresh. The remote data could be a string, JavaScript code, XML or a partial HTML page generated on the server. The same could be done with and tags, but many developers were alarmed at the concept of an executable GIF and preferred to use the hidden