Gas (sometimes stylized in all caps), formerly known as Melt as well as Crush, was an American anonymous social media app. Launched in August 2022, the app is oriented towards high schoolers. The app was developed by Nikita Bier, Isaiah Turner, and former Facebook engineer Dave Schatz. Gas was largely based upon the prior tbh app developed by co-founder Nikita Bier, along with Erik Hazzard, Kyle Zaragoza, and Nicolas Ducdodon in September 2017. tbh was acquired by Facebook inc. (now Meta Platforms) on October 16, 2017, and nearly a year later in July 2018 was dissolved, owing to low usage. Gas follows a similar purpose to tbh in being a social media app oriented towards high schoolers. In the app, users participate in anonymous polls regarding pre-written complimentary statements to their peers, such as "I'd say yes if (blank) asked me out on a date," "I think (blank) is the coolest kid in school," or "would make an ugly face and still look pretty." Winners of said polls receive a "flame." The name of the app is derived from this, with "gassing someone up" being Gen Z slang for complimenting someone. Users can pay a $6.99 subscription that enables "God Mode," which shows hints regarding who voted for them in a poll. Gas overtook TikTok and BeReal as the most downloaded app on the Apple App Store in October 2022 (the app is currently not available for Android). The app has over 5.1 million downloads as of early November 2022, over a million active users and 300 thousand daily downloads as of October 2022. Currently, the app is available in Canada and the majority of the United States. On January 17, 2023, Gas was acquired by Discord, however it would remain a standalone app and its developers became Discord staff members. On October 18, 2023, Discord announced that service for Gas would be permanently ending effective November 7, 2023, due to a steep decline in users. Effective November 7, the app became completely unusable. == Controversy regarding human-trafficking == Beginning in October 2022, rumors spread largely throughout TikTok and Snapchat alleged that the app was linked to human trafficking (in particular sex trafficking). According to Bier, the rumor originated with a single user review from China on October 5, and then was disseminated through TikTok accounts with "few to no US teen followers." Although largely dismissed as a hoax by experts, who cite how the app doesn't log user locations and general anonymity, the hoax became pervasive to the extent that various police departments, school systems, and local news outlets began issuing warnings regarding the app. For instance, on October 31, 2022, the police department of Piedmont, Oklahoma issued a warning to parents, encouraging them to check their children's phones, while on November 3, the Oklahoma Oktaha Public School system stated in a Facebook post that "Children are being kidnapped in other towns and this new app is thought to be the source of predators finding their location." (both statements have since been retracted by Police Chief Scott Singer and Superintendent Jerry Needham respectively). Additionally, local medial outlets such as KOCO in Oklahoma City ran stories making similar statements. The rumor had a negative impact on the app, with downloads plateauing for a two-week period in late October and with 3% of users in a single day reportedly uninstalling the app. Revenue and ratings have also reportedly dropped and the company's social media accounts have been bombarded with comments labeling them as sex-traffickers. Additionally, the four-person development team has reportedly been bombarded with various death threats as a result.
Embodied agent
In artificial intelligence, an embodied agent, also sometimes referred to as an interface agent, is an intelligent agent that interacts with the environment through a physical body within that environment. Agents that are represented graphically with a body, for example a human or a cartoon animal, are also called embodied agents, although they have only virtual, not physical, embodiment. A branch of artificial intelligence focuses on empowering such agents to interact autonomously with human beings and the environment. Mobile robots are one example of physically embodied agents; Ananova and Microsoft Agent are examples of graphically embodied agents. Embodied conversational agents are embodied agents (usually with a graphical front-end as opposed to a robotic body) that are capable of engaging in conversation with one another and with humans employing the same verbal and nonverbal means that humans do (such as gesture, facial expression, and so forth). == Embodied conversational agents == Embodied conversational agents are a form of intelligent user interface. Graphically embodied agents aim to unite gesture, facial expression and speech to enable face-to-face communication with users, providing a powerful means of human-computer interaction. == Advantages == Face-to-face communication allows communication protocols that give a much richer communication channel than other means of communicating. It enables pragmatic communication acts such as conversational turn-taking, facial expression of emotions, information structure and emphasis, visualization and iconic gestures, and orientation in a three-dimensional environment. This communication takes place through both verbal and non-verbal channels such as gaze, gesture, spoken intonation and body posture. Research has found that users prefer a non-verbal visual indication of an embodied system's internal state to a verbal indication, demonstrating the value of additional non-verbal communication channels. As well as this, the face-to-face communication involved in interacting with an embodied agent can be conducted alongside another task without distracting the human participants, instead improving the enjoyment of such an interaction. Furthermore, the use of an embodied presentation agent results in improved recall of the presented information. Embodied agents also provide a social dimension to the interaction. Humans willingly ascribe social awareness to computers, and thus interaction with embodied agents follows social conventions, similar to human to human interactions. This social interaction both raises the believably and perceived trustworthiness of agents, and increases the user's engagement with the system. Rickenberg and Reeves found that the presence of an embodied agent on a website increased the level of user trust in that website, but also increased users' anxiety and affected their performance, as if they were being watched by a real human. Another effect of the social aspect of agents is that presentations given by an embodied agent are perceived as being more entertaining and less difficult than similar presentations given without an agent. Research shows that perceived enjoyment, followed by perceived usefulness and ease of use, is the major factor influencing user adoption of embodied agents. A study in January 2004 by Byron Reeves at Stanford demonstrated how digital characters could "enhance online experiences" through explaining how virtual characters essentially add a sense of familiarity to the user experience and make it more approachable. This increase in likability in turn helps make the products better, which benefits both the end users and those creating the product. === Applications === The rich style of communication that characterizes human conversation makes conversational interaction with embodied conversational agents ideal for many non-traditional interaction tasks. A familiar application of graphically embodied agents is computer games; embodied agents are ideal for this setting because the richer communication style makes interacting with the agent enjoyable. Embodied conversational agents have also been used in virtual training environments, portable personal navigation guides, interactive fiction and storytelling systems, interactive online characters and automated presenters and commentators. Major virtual assistants like Siri, Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant do not come with any visual embodied representation, which is believed to limit the sense of human presence by users. The U.S. Department of Defense utilizes a software agent called SGT STAR on U.S. Army-run Web sites and Web applications for site navigation, recruitment and propaganda purposes. Sgt. Star is run by the Army Marketing and Research Group, a division operated directly from The Pentagon. Sgt. Star is based upon the ActiveSentry technology developed by Next IT, a Washington-based information technology services company. Other such bots in the Sgt. Star "family" are utilized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency for intelligence gathering purposes.
Bulletin (service)
Bulletin was an online newsletter platform launched by Facebook on July 6, 2021, that allows notable writers to make announcements directly to their subscribers. Its competitors included Substack, of which Bulletin was called a "near-clone." Writers participating in the platform's launch included Malcolm Gladwell, Mitch Albom, Tan France, Jessica Yellin, Jane Wells, Erin Andrews and Dorie Greenspan. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated that Bulletin represented the first time that the company had "built a project that is directly for journalists and individual writers." In October 2022 Meta announced the shutdown of Bulletin. The platform went into read only mode in January 2023 and became unavailable in April 2023. == History == Facebook announced Bulletin as its online newsletter platform on June 29, 2021. and launched by the company on July 6, 2021. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg touted the service by saying that Bulletin represented the first time that the company had "built a project that is directly for journalists and individual writers." Writers participating in the platform's launch included Malcolm Gladwell, Mitch Albom, Tan France, Jessica Yellin, Jane Wells, Erin Andrews and Dorie Greenspan. == Reception == Unlike competitor such as Substack, Facebook indicated upon service's launch that it would not take a cut of subscription fees of writers using that platform. According to Washington Post technology writer Will Oremus, the move was criticized by those who viewed it as a form of predatory pricing intended by Facebook to force those competitors out of business. Sandeep Vaheesan, legal director of the think tank Open Markets, called for the government to reexamine predatory pricing as a violation of antitrust law, saying, "We want companies to compete by making better products, investing in new equipment and tech — not purely relying on their financial advantages to capture market share."
Economía Feminista
Economía Feminista, in English: Feminist Economics, is an Argentine digital media, focused on disclosure and creation of economics information about the gender gap. The media is managed by Mercedes D`Alessandro, Magalí Brosio, Violeta Guitart and Agurtzane Urrutia. == Concept == Economía Femini(s)ta, is a portmanteau of feminista and minita. It attempts to end stereotypes about women. It was created in 2015 and its goal is to be a source of economic data to help to display economic differences by gender, especially in Argentina. == Awards == Economía Feminista was awarded the Lola Mora prize in 2016 for the best digital media by Dirección General de la Mujer, promoted by Buenos Aires city's Legislature.
Event cinema
Event cinema sometimes called alternative content cinema or livecasts refers to the use of movie theaters to display a varied range of live and recorded entertainment excluding traditional films, such as sport, opera, musicals, ballet, music, one-off TV specials, current affairs, comedy and religious services. == History and development == Event Cinema was set up at the start of the century with rock concerts by Bon Jovi (2001), David Bowie (2003), and Robbie Williams (2005) bringing non-film audiences into cinemas that had newly installed digital equipment. The Metropolitan Opera in New York through their partnership with Fathom Events is acknowledged as the trailblazer in this area, aggressively seeking out new markets and setting high standards for live broadcasts via satellite. Emulated by other opera houses worldwide such as the Royal Opera House following a close second, Glyndebourne, La Scala and the Sydney Opera House the genre of opera within the 'Event Cinema' industry has been a huge success, and has brought new, younger audiences into cash-strapped opera houses depended on state funding and wealthy benefactors for the first time - an unforeseen and happy consequence of digitisation. Ballet and theater have also been very successful, as have rock concerts, both live and recorded. The UK's National Theatre has been a huge success here with their season of live broadcasts under the banner 'NT Live', featuring big name casts such as Helen Mirren, whose recent turn as Queen Elizabeth II in The Audience was a sell out everywhere. (This was in partnership with another West End theatre and the NT are keen to help other theatres maximise their potential through live broadcasts). The Globe and the Royal Shakespeare Company are also producing work for live broadcast and recorded exhibition. As digitisation of cinemas matures, the Event Cinema industry is growing. The strongest territory is the US, followed by the UK and mainland European territories. Latin America is also a very strong market. Recent additions include Pompeii Live, a unique exhibition by the UK's British Museum, featuring celebrities and curators taking the audience on a live tour around the recreated set of Pompeii within the museum itself, and they are also exploring the schools market for the first time, following the live broadcast on June 18 with a daytime broadcast aimed at UK schools for the first time. If successful this will no doubt prove a model for future museums to emulate. An added incentive for exhibitors is the ability to show alternative content, i.e. alternative to mainstream, studio-driven content, such as live special events, sports, pre-show advertising and other digital or video content. In industry terms this has become known as 'Alternative Content', but has recently become known more widely as 'Event Cinema'. === Expanding markets === Some low-budget films that would normally not have a theatrical release because of distribution costs might be shown in smaller engagements than the typical large release studio pictures. The cost of duplicating a digital "print" is very low, so adding more theaters to a release has a small additional cost to the distributor. Movies that start with a small release could scale to a much larger release quickly if they were sufficiently successful, opening up the possibility that smaller movies could achieve box office success previously out of their reach. ==== Technical specifications ==== Event Cinema is also finding a market in 3rd world countries in which the higher costs and quality of DCI equipment are not yet affordable, as crucially there are no DCI specifications for Alternative Content as there is in mainstream [studio] content. This has led to an explosion in the variety of content on offer, but a lack of standardisation has led to questionable quality at times. As the industry matures, this lack of regulation is expected to change and there are moves afoot to introduce codes of practice and technical specifications. Recorded content complements mainstream studio content by maximising the 'downtime' that plagues the cinema industry, where screens worldwide spend a large proportion of their time in darkness and cinemas empty. Some cinema chains have targeted pensioners in particular, offering free tea and coffee for afternoon matinees of recorded opera, for example. Digital Cinema Packages (DCPs) have been useful to cinemas not yet equipped with satellite broadcasting capability and has enabled exhibitors to build their Event Cinema audience, which is not generally the 18-24 demographic that multiplexes are targeting. ==== New Audiences ==== Event Cinema has seen a return of an older, affluent audience, previously turned off by the multiplex experience, and cinemas are starting to capitalise on this by offering waiter-serviced, high class finger food and alcoholic beverages, complete with bars and restaurants, a world away from the traditional popcorn/soft drink model; art house cinemas are increasingly marketing themselves as 'destination' venues for an evening's entertainment, somewhere to spend an entire evening, rather than just a couple of hours. As exhibition admissions have plateau'd in recent years due to the explosion in VOD, tablet and mobile content technology, this new revenue stream has been a surprise and welcome addition to the cinema industry, though the US studios have been cautious in embracing the change as yet. The thrill of Live broadcasts means they are generally regarded as more popular than recorded events, but there are exceptions; artists with a loyal cult or teenage following tend to do particularly well in this area, as concert films featuring artists such as the Grateful Dead, Pearl Jam, JLS, Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones have shown. ==== The Future ==== As more and more distributors are emerging, offering an increasingly broad range of content to cinemas worldwide, the landscape itself is shifting: screen advertising companies, technical providers, and exhibitors themselves are reinventing themselves as Alternative Content or Event Cinema distributors, and the industry is witnessing a re-evaluation of business models and practices worldwide. Predictions are that this industry could be work in excess of US$1bn by 2015. An illustration of the growth of this industry is the news the establishment of a European trade association promoting the industry to the general public and supporting those involved in it and the Event Cinema Association.
Stairstep interpolation
In the field of image processing, stairstep interpolation is a widely employed method technique for interpolating pixels after enlarging an image. The fundamental concept is to interpolate multiple times, in small increments, using any interpolation algorithm that is better than nearest-neighbor interpolation such as; bilinear interpolation, and bicubic interpolation. A common scenario is to interpolate an image by using a bicubic interpolation which increases the image size by no more than 10% (110% of the original size) at a time until the desired size is reached. Fred Miranda, a developer, popularized this method by creating and developing several Photoshop plug-ins that incorporate this technique. == Example ==
Vinyl cutter
A vinyl cutter is an entry-level machine for making signs. Computer-designed vector files with patterns and letters are directly cut on the roll of vinyl which is mounted and fed into the vinyl cutter through USB or serial cable. Vinyl cutters are mainly used to make signs, banners and advertisements. Advertisements seen on automobiles and vans are often made with vinyl cut letters. While these machines were designed for cutting vinyl, they can also cut through computer and specialty papers, as well as thicker items like thin sheets of magnet. In addition to sign business, vinyl cutters are commonly used for apparel decoration. To decorate apparel, a vector design needs to be cut in mirror image, weeded, and then heat applied using a commercial heat press or a hand iron for home use. Some businesses use their vinyl cutter to produce both signs and custom apparel. Many crafters also have vinyl cutters for home use. These require little maintenance, and the vinyl can be bought in bulk relatively cheaply. Vinyl cutters are also often used by stencil artists to create single use or reusable stencil art and lettering == How it works == A vinyl cutter is a type of computer-controlled machine tool. The computer controls the movement of a sharp blade over the surface of the material as it would the nozzles of an ink-jet printer. This blade is used to cut out shapes and letters from sheets of thin self-adhesive plastic (vinyl). The vinyl can then be stuck to a variety of surfaces depending on the adhesive and type of material. To cut out a design, a vector-based image must be created using vector drawing software. Some vinyl cutters are marketed to small in-home businesses and require download and use of a proprietary editing software. The design is then sent to the cutter where it cuts along the vector paths laid out in the design. The cutter is capable of moving the blade on an X and Y axis over the material, cutting it into the required shapes. The vinyl material comes in long rolls allowing projects with significant length like banners or billboards to be easily cut. A major limitation with vinyl cutters is that they can only cut shapes from solid colours of vinyl, paper, card or thin plastic sheets such as Mylar. The type and thickness of material will vary for each cutter and how much downforce the cutter is capable of. If the material has no backing, a backing sheet, material or cutting mat and a temporary adhesive are needed to allow the cutter to cut through the material. A design with multiple colours must have each colour cut separately and then layered on top of each other as it is applied to the substrate. This is a process that is often applied in stencil art. Also, since the shapes are cut out of solid colours, photographs and gradients cannot be reproduced with a stand-alone cutter. === Design creation === Designs are created using vector-based software like Adobe Illustrator, FlexiSign, EasyCutPro, or other software. Vector artwork is either drawn with lines, shapes and text or images are vectorized thus create vector shapes. Most cutters (also called plotters) require special software to load/edit the artwork and communicate with the cutter. Computer designed images are loaded onto the vinyl cutter via a wired connection or over a wireless protocol. Then the vinyl is loaded into the machine where it is automatically fed through and cut to follow the set design. The vinyl can be placed on an adhesive mat to stabilize the vinyl when cutting smaller designs. === Types of vinyl === Adhesive vinyl is the type of vinyl used for store windows, car decals, signage, and more. Adhesive vinyl is applied with a transfer medium often called "transfer tape" or "carrier sheet". Heat transfer vinyl is the type of vinyl used to apply a design to fabric including t-shirts, tea towels, canvas bags, and more. Heat Transfer vinyl can be applied using a heat press or an iron, though the constant pressure and heat from a heat press is recommended by experts. === Using other materials === In addition to vinyl some cutters are capable of cutting other materials such as paper, card, plastic sheets and even thin wood. The thickness and type of material that can be cut will depend on the model of the cutter and heavily depends on the downforce. Cricut is a popular home cutter used by arts and craft enthusiasts since it allows for a wide use of different materials and is similar in size to a household printer and has strong downforce for its size. === Backing and cutting mat === If you cut material that doesn't have an adhesive backing you will require a cutting mat that you need to attach your material to. Some cutting mats are sticky, others will require you to use a temporary adhesive and/or masking tape to keep the material in place when cutting. === Cutting === The vinyl cutter uses a small knife or blade to precisely cut the outline of figures into a sheet or piece of vinyl, but not the release liner. The process of cutting vinyl material without penetrating it completely is referred to as "kiss cutting". The knife moves side to side and turns, while the vinyl is moved beneath the knife. The results from the cut process is an image cut into the material. === Weeding === The material is then 'weeded' where the excess parts of the figures are removed from the release liner. It is possible to remove the positive parts, which would give a negative decal, or remove the negative parts, giving a positive decal. Removing the figure would be like removing the positive, giving a negative image of the figures. === Transfer tape === A sheet of transfer tape with an adhesive backing is laid on the weeded vinyl when necessary. Heat Transfer vinyl often does not require use of a separate transfer tape. A roller is applied to the tape, causing it to adhere to the vinyl. The transfer tape and the weeded vinyl is pulled off the release liner, and applied to a substrate, such as a sheet of aluminium. This results in an aluminium sign with vinyl figures. == Uses == In addition to the capabilities of the cutter itself, adhesive vinyl comes in a wide variety of colors and materials including gold and silver foil, vinyl that simulates frosted glass, holographic vinyl, reflective vinyl, thermal transfer material, and even clear vinyl embedded with gold leaf. (Often used in the lettering on fire trucks and rescue vehicles.) As the vinyl film is supplied by the manufacturer, it comes attached to a release liner. == Challenges when cutting on a vinyl cutter == Cutting on a vinyl cutter requires careful calibration to achieve clean and accurate results, especially when the goal is to cut through only the top layer of material while leaving the backing intact. One of the most common challenges is setting the correct cutting depth. If the blade is not lowered enough, the vinyl material may not separate properly; if it goes too deep, it can cut through the backing layer and potentially damage the cutting mat. The cutting depth on the vinyl cutter machines typically does not exceed 1 mm. Another frequent issue is the mismatch between the blade and the type of material being processed. Using an inappropriate blade can lead to uneven cuts, premature dulling of the edge, and torn or frayed material. The overall quality of the output also depends on factors such as the cutting speed, blade sharpening and cutting angle, and the material the knife is made of.