In the context of data visualization, a glyph is any marker, such as an arrow or similar marking, used to specify part of a visualization. This is a representation to visualize data where the data set is presented as a collection of visual objects. These visual objects are collectively called a glyph. It helps visualizing data relation in data analysis, statistics, etc. by using any custom notation. In the context of data visualization, a glyph is the visual representation of a piece of data where the attributes of a graphical entity are dictated by one or more attributes of a data record. == Constructing glyphs == Glyph construction can be a complex process when there are many dimensions to be represented in the visualization. Maguire et al proposed a taxonomy based approach to glyph-design that uses a tree to guide the visual encodings used to representation various data items. Duffy et al created perhaps one of the most complex glyph representations with their representation of sperm movement.
2024 National Public Data breach
In August 2024, three class-action lawsuits were filed against National Public Data along with over 14 complaints filed in federal court, claiming that the company permitted hackers to steal sensitive private information covering millions of individuals. The theft was alleged to have occurred in April 2024. One of the lawsuits specifically claims that in April, a hacker going by the moniker "USDoD" posted a notice on the dark web, offering the data for sale at the price of US$3.5 million. The information stolen is alleged to include 2.9 billion records containing full names, current and past addresses, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, and telephone numbers. The stolen data contains records for people in the US, UK, and Canada. National Public Data confirmed on August 16, 2024, there was a breach originating from someone trying to breach their systems since December 2023, with the breach occurring from April 2024 and over the next few months. The company also confirmed that 2.9 billion records were obtained, though they were still working to determine how many people were affected by the breach, and were working with law enforcement to identify the hacker. == Jerico Pictures == Jerico Pictures, Inc., doing business as National Public Data, was a data broker company that performed employee background checks. Their primary service was collecting information from public data sources, including criminal records, addresses, and employment history, and offering that information for sale. On October 2, 2024, Jerico Pictures filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy as it currently faces over a dozen lawsuits over the breach, and is potentially liable "for credit monitoring for hundreds of millions of potentially impacted individuals." In December 2024, National Public Data shut down, showing a closure notice on its website.
Radio code
A radio code is any code that is commonly used over a telecommunication system such as Morse code, brevity codes and procedure words. == Brevity code == Brevity codes are designed to convey complex information with a few words or codes. Specific brevity codes include: ACP-131 Aeronautical Code signals ARRL Numbered Radiogram Multiservice tactical brevity code Ten-code Phillips Code NOTAM Code === Operating signals === Brevity codes that are specifically designed for use between communications operators and to support communication operations are referred to as "operating signals". These include: Prosigns for Morse code 92 Code, Western Union telegraph brevity codes Q code, initially developed for commercial radiotelegraph communication, later adopted by other radio services, especially amateur radio. Used since circa 1909. QN Signals, published by the ARRL and used by Amateur radio operators to assist in the transmission of ARRL Radiograms in the National Traffic System. R and S brevity codes, published by the British Post Office in 1908 for coastal wireless stations and ships, superseded in 1912 by Q codes X code, used by European military services as a wireless telegraphy code in the 1930s and 1940s Z code, also used in the early days of radiotelegraph communication. == Other == Morse code is commonly used in amateur radio. Morse code abbreviations are a type of brevity code. Procedure words used in radiotelephony procedure, are a type of radio code. Spelling alphabets, including the ICAO spelling alphabet, are commonly used in communication over radios and telephones. == Other meanings == Many car audio systems (car radios) have a so-called 'radio code' number which needs to be entered after a power disconnection. This was introduced as a measure to deter theft of these devices. If the code is entered correctly, the radio is activated for use. Entering the code incorrectly several times in a row will cause a temporary or permanent lockout. Some car radios have another check which operates in conjunction with car electronics. If the VIN or another vehicle ID matches the previously stored one, the radio is activated. If the radio cannot verify the vehicle, it is considered to be moved into another vehicle. The radio will then request for the code number or simply refuse to operate and display an error message such as "CANCHECK" or "SECURE".
Digital intermediate
Digital intermediate (DI) is a motion picture finishing process which classically involves digitizing a motion picture and manipulating the color and other image characteristics. == Definition and overview == A digital intermediate often replaces or augments the photochemical timing process and is usually the final creative adjustment to a movie before distribution in theaters. It is distinguished from the telecine process in which film is scanned and color is manipulated early in the process to facilitate editing. However the lines between telecine and DI are continually blurred and are often executed on the same hardware by colorists of the same background. These two steps are typically part of the overall color management process in a motion picture at different points in time. A digital intermediate is also customarily done at higher resolution and with greater color fidelity than telecine transfers. Although originally used to describe a process that started with film scanning and ended with film recording, digital intermediate is also used to describe color correction and color grading and even final mastering when a digital camera is used as the image source and/or when the final movie is not output to film. This is due to recent advances in digital cinematography and digital projection technologies that strive to match film origination and film projection. In traditional photochemical film finishing, an intermediate is produced by exposing film to the original camera negative. The intermediate is then used to mass-produce the films that get distributed to theaters. Color grading is done by varying the amount of red, green, and blue light used to expose the intermediate. The digital intermediate process uses digital tools to color grade, which allows for much finer control of individual colors and areas of the image, and allows for the adjustment of image structure (grain, sharpness, etc.). The intermediate for film reproduction can then be produced by means of a film recorder. The physical intermediate film that is a result of the recording process is sometimes also called a digital intermediate, and is usually recorded to internegative (IN) stock, which is inherently finer-grain than original camera negative (OCN). One of the key technical achievements that made the transition to DI possible was the use of 3D look-up tables, which could be used to mimic how the digital image would look once it was printed onto release print stock. This removed a large amount of guesswork from the film-making process, and allowed greater freedom in the colour grading process while reducing risk. The digital master is often used as a source for a DCI-compliant distribution of the motion picture for digital projection. For archival purposes, the digital master created during the digital intermediate process can be recorded to very stable high dynamic range yellow-cyan-magenta (YCM) separations on black-and-white film with an expected 100-year or longer life. While still subject to the natural degradation of any analog chemical master, this archival format, long used in the industry prior to the invention of DI, was considered valuable for providing an archival medium that is independent of changes in digital data recording technologies and file formats that might otherwise render digitally archived material unreadable in the long term. A "film intermediate" is an analog variation of a digital intermediate, where a project shot on digital video is printed onto film stock and transferred back to digital video to emulate film. The term was coined after it was used on the Oscar-winning 2012 short film "Curfew". The process was also used on the films Dune (2021) and The Batman (2022). == History == Telecine tools to electronically capture film images are nearly as old as broadcast television, but the resulting images were widely considered unsuitable for exposing back onto film for theatrical distribution. Film scanners and recorders with quality sufficient to produce images that could be inter-cut with regular film began appearing in the 1970s, with significant improvements in the late 1980s and early 1990s. During this time, digitally processing an entire feature-length film was impractical because the scanners and recorders were extremely slow and the image files were too large compared to computing power available. Instead, individual shots or short sequences were processed for visual effects. In 1992, Visual Effects Supervisor/Producer Chris F. Woods broke through several "techno-barriers" in creating a digital studio to produce the visual effects for the 1993 release Super Mario Bros. It was the first feature film project to digitally scan a large number of VFX plates (over 700) at 2K resolution. It was also the first film scanned and recorded at Kodak's just launched Cinesite facility in Hollywood. This project based studio was the first feature film to use Discreet Logic's (now Autodesk) Flame and Inferno systems, which enjoyed early dominance as high resolution / high performance digital compositing systems. Digital film compositing for visual effects was immediately embraced, while optical printer use for VFX declined just as quickly. Chris Watts further revolutionized the process on the 1998 feature film Pleasantville, becoming the first visual effects supervisor for New Line Cinema to scan, process, and record the majority of a feature-length, live-action, Hollywood film digitally. The first Hollywood film to utilize a digital intermediate process from beginning to end was O Brother, Where Art Thou? in 2000 and in Europe it was Chicken Run released that same year. The process rapidly caught on in the mid-2000s. Around 50% of Hollywood films went through a digital intermediate in 2005, increasing to around 70% by mid-2007. This is due not only to the extra creative options the process affords film makers but also the need for high-quality scanning and color adjustments to produce movies for digital cinema. == Milestones == 1990: The Rescuers Down Under – First feature-length film to be entirely recorded to film from digital files; in this case animation assembled on computers using Walt Disney Feature Animation and Pixar's CAPS system. 1992: Visual effects supervisor and producer Chris F. Woods creates a VFX studio to produce the visual effects for the 1993 film Super Mario Bros. It was the first 35mm feature film to digitally scan a large number of VFX plates (over 700) at 2K resolution, as well as to output the finished VFX to 35mm negative at 2K. 1993: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs – First film to be entirely scanned to digital files, manipulated, and recorded back to film at 4K resolution. The restoration project was done entirely at 4K resolution and 10-bit color depth using the Cineon system to digitally remove dirt and scratches and restore faded colors. 1998: Pleasantville – The first time the majority of a new feature film was scanned, processed, and recorded digitally. The black-and-white meets color world portrayed in the movie was filmed entirely in color and selectively desaturated and contrast adjusted digitally. The work was done in Los Angeles by Cinesite utilizing a Spirit DataCine for scanning at 2K resolution and a MegaDef color correction system from UK Company Pandora International 1998: Zingo - The first feature film to use digital color correction via digital intermediate in its entirety. The work was performed at the Digital Film Lab in Copenhagen, using a Spirit Datacine to transfer the entire film to digital files at 2K resolution. The digital intermediate process was also used to perform a digital blowup of the film's original Super 16 source format to a 35mm output. 1999: Pacific Ocean Post Film, a team led by John McCunn and Greg Kimble used Kodak film scanners & laser film printer, Cineon software as well as proprietary tools to rebuild and repair the first two reels of the 1968 Beatles' film Yellow Submarine for re-release. 1999: Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace - Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) scanned the entirety of the visual effects-laden film for the purposes of digital enhancement and the integration of thousands of separately filmed elements with computer generated characters and environments. Outside of the approximately 2000 effects shots that were digitally manipulated, the remaining 170 non-effects shots were also scanned for continuity. However, after the digital shots were manipulated at ILM, they were filmed out individually and sent to Deluxe Labs where they were processed and color timed photochemically. 2000: Sorted - The first feature-length, color 35mm motion picture to fully utilize the digital intermediate process in its entirety from inception to completion. The film was produced at Wave Pictures' digital intermediate film facility in London, England. It was scanned at 2K resolution with 8 bits color depth per color / per pixel using a pin registered, liquid gate Oxberry
Computer aided transceiver
Computer aided transceiver (CAT) is a non-generic serial protocol used by radio amateurs for (remotely) controlling a transceiver radio receiver equipment using a computer. Conventional transmitters are manually controlled and used to transmit voice using buttons, dials, etc. However, advances in electronics have come to market devices that can be controlled by a computer and allow digital modes such as packet radio and also the use of satellite tracking, because it can continuously change the device's frequency according to the Doppler effect. This is done by connecting a Radio receiver and a PC using a CAT interface and a CAT Program Additionally, CAT interfaces can also be used to position tracking antennas, in controllers. As a satellite moves overhead. A CAT interface is a piece of hardware that connects the PC and radio that provides a connection to allows the radio and the PC to communicate with each other. The CAT interface provides the signals to and fro via correct voltage levels and in the case of a Universal Serial Bus (USB) CAT interface it requires a "protocol" for communication but communication itself is down to the radio and the software on the PC. Software that may be called a CAT program allows a radio to be controlled through the PC. Changes made on the radio through user interactions on the CAT Program are (generally) shown on the PC's screen. The functionality of CAT equipment (software & interface) depends on the radio and what features the software writers included in the CAT software. Modern radio systems do have more CAT functionality If you run a logging program that supports CAT, then that software may take advantage of the CAT system by retrieving information from the radio to help fill in log details, such as the frequency that the contact was made. CAT is also useful on many radios where there are many sub-menus in the radios menu system, and many of the sub-menu items can be easily changed via the PC. On many HF radios, the CAT system is also used to program the memories on the radio, but you would need to use appropriate programming software. A CAT interface does not receive or transmit any DATA mode, that is the purpose of a DATA interface. Although, both may be used at the same time with the correct CAT Equipment. DATA modes, and getting audio to and from the PC is the function of a DATA interface. A completely different thing but it is easier and more useful when CAT and DATA are used at the same time. Wouldn't it be nice to have an interface that could operate Frequency-shift keying (FSK), Audio FSK (AFSK), (real) Morse Code (CW), with a CAT interface and its own sound card..... (eg. The DigiMaster Pro3).
Carrier cloud
In cloud computing, a carrier cloud is a class of cloud that integrates wide area networks (WAN) and other attributes of communications service providers’ carrier-grade networks to enable the deployment of highly-complex applications in the cloud. In contrast, classic cloud computing focuses on the data center and does not address the network connecting data centers and cloud users. This may result in unpredictable response times and security issues when business-critical data are transferred over the Internet. == History == The advent of virtualization technology, cost-effective computing hardware, and ubiquitous Internet connectivity have enabled the first wave of cloud services starting in the early years of the 21st century. But many businesses and other organizations hesitated to move to more demanding applications, from on-premises dedicated hardware to private or public clouds. As a response, communications service providers started in the 2010/2011 time frame to develop carrier clouds that address perceived weaknesses in existing cloud services. Cited weaknesses vary but often include possible downtime, security issues, high cost of custom software and data transfer, inflexibility of some cloud apps, poor customer and nonfulfillment of service level agreements (SLAs). == Characteristics == To enable the deployment of time-sensitive and business critical applications in the cloud, the carrier cloud is designed to match or even exceed the characteristics of on-premises deployments. Therefore, the carrier cloud is characterized by some or all of the following items: Configurable, elastic network performance: Typical cloud computing solutions use the best effort of the public Internet to connect cloud users and data centers. This approach provides instant connectivity but does not offer control over network capacities, latencies, and jitter. Carrier clouds address these gaps with content delivery networks and/or dedicated virtual private networks (VPN) at OSI layers 1 (optical wavelengths), 2 (data link layer), and 3 (network layer). These VPNs can be configured to offer the desired performance parameters and exhibit the same type of elasticity for the network that regular clouds provide for servers and storage. To achieve the requested performance parameters, such as low latency, cloud applications can be (automatically) allocated to distributed data centers that are close enough to the cloud users. Automatic resource placement: For a cloud with multiple data centers, information about both the data center and the connecting network is relevant for a decision of where to place cloud images and storage volumes. For this decision, carrier clouds can obtain relevant information about the network, e.g., using the Application-Layer Traffic Optimization (ALTO) protocol. High level of security and governance: Cloud application providers are subject to general and domain specific security, privacy, and governance requirements and regulations, such as the European Data Protection Directive and the U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. For added security, the wide area network of the carrier cloud can provide segregated encrypted or unencrypted network links that are not accessible from the general Internet. At the data center, the carrier cloud provides e.g. virtual private servers, management processes, logs, and documentation to fulfill security and governance rules. Location control: Fundamentally, cloud users should not be concerned with the geographic location of their cloud resources. However, privacy and other regulations may mandate that certain types of data must not be sent outside a national jurisdiction or other geographical region. Open APIs: Carrier clouds provide graphical user interfaces and Web application programming interfaces that allow cloud application providers to set up, manage, and monitor both, the data center and the WAN, of their cloud services. == Architecture == Carrier clouds encompass data centers at different network tiers and wide area networks that connect multiple data centers to each other as well as to the cloud users. Links between data centers are used for failover, overflow, backup, and geographic diversity. Carrier clouds can be set up as public, private, or hybrid clouds. The carrier cloud federates these cloud entities by using a single management system to orchestrate, manage, and monitor data center and network resources as a single system.
Bookmarklet
A bookmarklet is a bookmark stored in a web browser that contains JavaScript commands that add new features to the browser. They are stored as the URL of a bookmark in a web browser or as a hyperlink on a web page. Bookmarklets are usually small snippets of JavaScript executed when a user clicks on them. When clicked, bookmarklets can perform a wide variety of operations, such as running a search query from selected text or extracting data from a table. Another name for bookmarklet is favelet or favlet, derived from favorites (synonym of bookmark). == History == Steve Kangas of bookmarklets.com coined the word bookmarklet when he started to create short scripts based on a suggestion in Netscape's JavaScript guide. Before that, Tantek Çelik called these scripts favelets and used that word as early as on 6 September 2001 (personal email). Brendan Eich, who developed JavaScript at Netscape, gave this account of the origin of bookmarklets: They were a deliberate feature in this sense: I invented the javascript: URL along with JavaScript in 1995, and intended that javascript: URLs could be used as any other kind of URL, including being bookmark-able. In particular, I made it possible to generate a new document by loading, e.g. javascript:'hello, world', but also (key for bookmarklets) to run arbitrary script against the DOM of the current document, e.g. javascript:alert(document.links[0].href). The difference is that the latter kind of URL uses an expression that evaluates to the undefined type in JS. I added the void operator to JS before Netscape 2 shipped to make it easy to discard any non-undefined value in a javascript: URL. The increased implementation of Content Security Policy (CSP) in websites has caused problems with bookmarklet execution and usage (2013–2015), with some suggesting that this hails the end or death of bookmarklets. William Donnelly created a work-around solution for this problem (in the specific instance of loading, referencing and using JavaScript library code) in early 2015 using a Greasemonkey userscript (Firefox / Pale Moon browser add-on extension) and a simple bookmarklet-userscript communication protocol. It allows (library-based) bookmarklets to be executed on any and all websites, including those using CSP and having an https:// URI scheme. However, if/when browsers support disabling/disallowing inline script execution using CSP, and if/when websites begin to implement that feature, it will "break" this "fix". == Concept == Web browsers use URIs for the href attribute of the tag and for bookmarks. The URI scheme, such as http or ftp, and which generally specifies the protocol, determines the format of the rest of the string. Browsers also implement javascript: URIs that to a parser is just like any other URI. The browser recognizes the specified javascript scheme and treats the rest of the string as a JavaScript program which is then executed. The expression result, if any, is treated as the HTML source code for a new page displayed in place of the original. The executing script has access to the current page, which it may inspect and change. If the script returns an undefined type (rather than, for example, a string), the browser will not load a new page, with the result that the script simply runs against the current page content. This permits changes such as in-place font size and color changes without a page reload. An immediately invoked function that returns no value or an expression preceded by the void operator will prevent the browser from attempting to parse the result of the evaluation as a snippet of HTML markup: == Usage == Bookmarklets are saved and used as normal bookmarks. As such, they are simple "one-click" tools which add functionality to the browser. For example, they can: Modify the appearance of a web page within the browser (e.g., change font size, background color, etc.) Extract data from a web page (e.g., hyperlinks, images, text, etc.) Remove redirects from (e.g. Google) search results, to show the actual target URL Submit the current page to a blogging service such as Posterous, link-shortening service such as bit.ly, or bookmarking service such as Delicious Query a search engine or online encyclopedia with highlighted text or by a dialog box Submit the current page to a link validation service or translation service Set commonly chosen configuration options when the page itself provides no way to do this Control HTML5 audio and video playback parameters such as speed, position, toggling looping, and showing/hiding playback controls, the first of which can be adjusted beyond HTML5 players' typical range setting. Installing a bookmarklet follows the same process as adding a normal bookmark; the only difference is that in place of the URL destination field is JavaScript code preceded by javascript:. Once created, bookmarklets can be run by clicking on them.