Scanimate

Scanimate is the name for an analog computer animation system developed from the late 1960s to the early 1980s.

The Scanimate systems were used to produce much of the video-based animation seen on television between the late 1970s and early 1980s in commercials, promotions, and show openings. One of the major advantage the Scanimate system had over film-based animation and computer animation was the ability to create animations in real time. The speed with which animation could be produced on the system because of this, as well as its range of possible effects, helped it to supersede film-based animation techniques for television graphics. By the mid-1980s it was superseded by digital computer animation, which produced sharper images and more sophisticated 3d imagery.

Animations created on Scanimate and similar analog computer animation systems have a number of characteristic features that distinguish them from film-based animation: The motion is extremely fluid, using all 60 fields per second (in NTSC format video) or 50 fields (in PAL format video) rather than the 24 frames per second that film uses; the colors are much brighter and more saturated; and the images have a very “electronic” look that results from the direct manipulation of video signals through which the Scanimate produces the images.


How it works

A special high-resolution (around 800 lines) monochrome camera films high-contrast artwork. The image is then displayed on a high-resolution screen. Unlike a normal monitor, its deflection signals are passed through a special analog computer that enables the operator to bend the image in a variety of ways. The image is then shot from the screen by either a film camera or a video camera. In the case of a video camera this signal is then fed into a colorizer, a device that takes certain shades of grey and turns it into color as well as transparency. The idea behind this is that the output of the Scanimate itself is always monochrome. Another advantage of the colorizer is that it gives the operator the ability to continuously add layers of graphics. This makes possible the creation of very complex graphics. This is done by using two video recorders. The background is played by one recorder and then recorded by another one. This process is repeated for every layer. This requires very high-quality video recorders.


Television programs and films that featured Scanimation

  • NBC Sports
  • The Electric Company
  • Logan’s Run
  • Star Wars
  • Sesame Street
  • Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
  • Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (film)


References

  • Carlson, Wayne (2003). Section 12: Analog approaches, non-linear editing, and compositing (from A Critical History of Computer Graphics and Animation). Retrieved Mar. 13, 2004 from http://accad.osu.edu/~waynec/history/lesson12.html
  • Sieg, David W. (2003). Old-School Electronic Animation Central - Formerly the Scanimate Files. Retrieved Mar. 13, 2004 from http://scanimate.zfx.com.


External links

  • Old-School Electronic Animation Central - Formerly the Scanimate Files
  • Scanimation in the Analog Days (An explanation of the Scanimate system)

FDS

FDS has several meanings:

  • Famicom Disk System, a peripheral for the Nintendo Famicom
  • In computing, Fedora Directory Server, a server implementation of LDAP
  • Federated Department Stores, a chain of department stores in the United States
  • In anatomy, Flexor Digitorum Superficialis is a muscle of the forearm.
  • Feminine Deodorant Spray (FDS), a brand of vaginal deodorant.
  • In project management, a Functional Design Specification is a document that explicitly enumerates a project’s requirements to allow unambiguously tracking each one throughout the project’s lifetime (also, see Functional Requirements Specification).
  • Ferrovie dello Stato, the Italian railway company.
  • The ticker for FactSet Research Systems.

How Images Think

How Images Think is a book by Ron Burnett published by MIT Press in 2004 and reprinted in 2005 which deals with New Media and many changes that digital technologies have made possible both in modern western culture and in society as a whole.

Digital images are an integral part of all media, including television, film, photography, animation, video games, data visualization, and the Internet. In the digital world, spectators become navigators wending their way through a variety of interactive experiences, and images become spaces of visualization with more and more intelligence programmed into the very fabric of communication processes. In How Images Think, Ron Burnett explores this new ecology, which has transformed the relationships humans have with the image-based technologies they have created. So much intelligence has been programmed into these image-dependent technologies that it often seems as if images are “thinking”; ascribing thought to machines redefines our relationship with them and enlarges our ideas about body and mind. Burnett argues that the development of this new, closely interdependent relationship marks a turning point in our understanding of the connections between humans and machines.

After presenting an overview of visual perception, Burnett examines the interactive modes of new technologies — including computer games, virtual reality, digital photography, and film — and locates digital images in a historical context. He argues that virtual images occupy a “middle space,” combining the virtual and the real into an environment of visualization that blurs the distinctions between subject and object — part of a continuum of experiences generated by creative choices by viewers, the results of which cannot be attributed either to images or to participants.

Land mass

Not to be confused with landmass.

Land mass refers to the total area of a country or geographical region (which may include discontinuous pieces of land such as islands). The Earth’s total land mass is 148,939,063.133 km² (57,511,026.002 square miles) which is about 29.2 % of its total surface.

Text Mode Demo Contest

Text Mode Demo Contest (TMDC) is a semi-annual text mode demo competition organized by tAAt ry and held over the internet. The inherent limitations of text mode graphics create unique challenges for demosceners. To help promote the event, a text mode invitation demo is released ahead of the competition. The competition is held between the 11.11 and the 12.12 every year. One charming aspect of the Text Mode Demo Competition is the technical limitation of the Text Mode. For some demosceners this is a strange thing, other like the challenging factor about it and therefore see this as some good oldschool-flavored democoding.


See also

  • Text mode demos
  • Demoscene


External links

  • Official Site
  • TMDC on Pouët
  • Interview with Jari Komppa one of the organizers of the TMDC, September 2007

Marchlyn Mawr

Marchlyn Mawr reservoir is a high level lake in Snowdonia behind Elidir Fawr mountain. It is used as the high level water source for Dinorwig power station, a pump storage hydroelectricity scheme.

It is said that nearby lies the cave containing Arthur’s treasure, a source of dazzlement to the wanderer who sees it, and of disaster to the pilferer who touches it.

Shore Fast Line

The Shore Fast Line was a line of fast trolley cars running along the shore between Atlantic City, New Jersey, and Ocean City, New Jersey, from 1903 until 1948. The company that operated the Shore Fast Line was called Shore Fast Line, Incorporated.

Some historians believe that Charles Darrow, the patentor of the Monopoly board game, named the imaginary railroad Short Line, which appears on the game board, after the Shore Fast Line. It is also possible that the name Short Line simply referred to a short-line railroad, which is a railroad that operates along short distances.

  • Circle Line New York around Manhattan sightseeing tours Since 1945, Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises has been entertaining passengers young and old with the world’s most famous boat rides.
  • Bottom Line Secrets from Bottom Line Publications Bottom Line Secrets presents the best, most useful information on life, family, relationships, health, business, careers, and finance from the most
  • Cruise Line Jobs - photography jobs, travel photography jobs. Cruise Line Jobs. Photography jobs, travel photography jobs. Cruise ship employment guide - information on cruise ship jobs, photography jobs,
  • DART.org - Green Line Expansion Information DART Green Line Expansion images Just as green is the color of growth, the Green Line is a symbol of DART's growth—a sign that North Texas is on the move.
  • Inside Line: Features Inside Line goes behind the scenes of The Fast & the Furious: Tokyo Drift with exclusive video and tests of the cars, including a twin-turbo 350Z,
  • SVG Line <line x1="0" y1="0" x2="300" y2="300" style="stroke:rgb(99,99,99);stroke-width:2"/> </svg> The x1 attribute defines the start of the line on the x-axis
  • Stateline.org Daily online publication of The Pew Research Center features news and features about politics and social policy, focusing on state government.
  • Power Line: Author Archive Customize. Default font size Large font size Larger font size. Click an option above to increase/decrease Power Line's font size.

Paid Services

Paid Services are the not-free electronic commerce of digital services and information goods in digital media. Examples of digital media are for instance the world wide web or mobile media (SMS, WAP). Features of digital services are their usability, applicability and recoverability but not their exchangeability.

Paid Services differ from Paid content in the way that digital content can be passed on and be used by different individuals. Digital services can be characterized as a right which can be exercised, but not passed on without it being lost. The difference can be made clear by considering the differences between a MP3 music file and online games. The MP3 file can often be duplicated, passed on and exchanged - without capacity boundaries or losses suffered by an individual. These features of MP3 files as an example of digital content are one of the main reasons for the huge revenue collapses in the music and media industry since the existence of the Internet. Online games, however, as an example of digital services, is only a right to participate when the purchased input is offered and traded. This right can be traded and passed on, but, contrary to MP3 files, the vendor forfeits the benefit of this right at the moment it is passed on.


External links

  • Paid Content Report
  • Digital-Economy.org

Indian Ocean Commission

The Indian Ocean Commission (COI), known as the Commission de l’Océan Indien in French, is an intergovernmental organization that joins Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, France (for Réunion and Mayotte), and the Seychelles plus Kenya and Tanzania together to encourage cooperation. It was started in January 1984 under the General Victoria Agreement. The official language of communication is French although with increasing membership of some English-speaking countries of east Africa, English is now also becoming used.


Objectives

  • diplomatic cooperation;
  • economic and commercial cooperation;
  • cooperation in the field of agriculture, maritime fishing, and the conservation of resources and ecosystems;
  • cooperation in cultural, scientific, technical, educational and judicial fields.

Note: the Maldives are an overviewer of the commission.

The original ideas were to encourage trade and cultural heritages, but most of the ideas taken by the islands were to create good relationships within the area. Because the islands are largely overlooked, the idea was to promote tourism.


External links

  • COI website (in French)
  • World Bank Regional Institutions
  • Information of COI in Mauritius

RAF Army Cooperation Command

RAF Army Cooperation Command was a short-lived major command of the Royal Air Force during World War II. It was formed on 1 December 1940 when No. 22 Group was raised to major command status. Its function was to act as the focus for activities connected with the interaction of the British Army and the RAF, such as close air support. However, it proved to be a controversial command with the Chief of the Imperial General Staff General Sir Alan Brooke being an implacable foe of the command arrangement. Its existence was eventually brought to an end on 31 March 1943, when most of its assets were transferred to the Second Tactical Air Force. It only had one commander during its short existence, Air Marshal Sir Arthur Barrett.

Remanence

Remanence is the magnetization left behind in a medium after an external magnetic field is removed. It is denoted in equations as <math>M_r</math>. In engineering applications it is often assumed that the magnetization M is synonymous with the flux density B, hence the remanence is denoted as <math>B_R</math> (see the image).

The remanence magnitude can be taken from a hysteresis loop at the intersections of the loop with the vertical magnetization axis.

Remanence has application in:

  • geology (concerning paleomagnetism)
  • computer engineering (concerning data storage and recovery, see data remanence)
  • physics (concerning magnetism).

The value of remanence is one of the most important parameters characterising permanent magnets.


References

  • R. V. Lapshin, “Analytical model for the approximation of hysteresis loop and its application to the scanning tunneling microscope”, Review of Scientific Instruments, volume 66, number 9, pages 4718-4730, 1995.


External links

  • Coercivity and Remanence in Permanent Magnets


See also

Popular Flying Association

The Popular Flying Association is the representative body in the United Kingdom for amateur aircraft construction, recreational and sport flying. It oversees the construction and maintenance of homebuilt aircraft, under an approval from the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).


History

The association was formed in 1946 as the Ultralight Aircraft Association and took on its present name in 1952. Initially, and still primarily, an engineering organisation for approving designs for homebuilding and regulating their construction and maintenance, it is now also active in encouraging sport and recreational flying and campaigning for a regulatory regime that will provide as little restriction as possible, consistent with safety, for the construction and operation of homebuilt aircraft.
It publishes a monthly magazine, Popular Flying, and holds an annual rally that is the largest event of its type outside the USA. Current membership (2006) is over 8,000.


Process

The regime for approving homebuilt aircraft in the United Kingdom differs from that in many other countries, of which the United States is the prime example. Instead of an experimental system, under which an aircraft may fly once it has completed the testing phase immediately after construction, the UK requires a formal document known as a Permit to Fly. This is issued by the CAA on the recommendation of the PFA. Aircraft on a PFA Permit may not fly at night, in cloud or over populated areas. There are also limits on the number of seats (four) and on weight, power and stalling speed. The permit is valid only in UK airspace unless by agreement with another state, which is normally obtainable for countries in the European Union and many outside it. The Permit has to be renewed annually after the aircraft has been inspected by an inspector appointed by the PFA.
The PFA’s approval also covers homebuilt autogyros, (gyroplanes), but not helicopters.


Future

The future of the homebuilt system and the Permit to Fly has become unclear since the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) became operational in 2003. EASA has a remit to impose common regulations across all European Union (EU) States where each State currently has its own system. Being primarily concerned with commercial aviation, EASA may decide to devolve authority for some areas, such as the many complexities of sport and recreational flying, to other organisations, either directly or via each National Aviation Authority. It is possible a pan-European homebuilt organisation, regulated directly by EASA, could emerge.

Popular Flying Association

Delta pylon

A delta pylon is a type of support structure for high-voltage electric power transmission lines. The pylon has a V-shaped top for the admission of the cross beam. Delta pylons are usually established only for one electric circuit, occasionally also for two electric circuits. They are used for voltages up to 765 kV. Delta pylons are far common in the USA, France, Spain, Italy and former Yugoslavia, while in Germany on delta pylons shifted high voltage transmission lines are very rare.


See also

  • Two-level pylon
  • Three-level pylon

Kathleen Noone

Kathleen Noone (born January 8, 1945 in Hillsdale, New Jersey) is an American soap opera/television actress.

She may be best-known for her role as Ellen Shepherd Dalton on All My Children, a role she played from 1977 to 1989. Immediately after leaving All My Children, she was asked to play the new role of Claudia Whittaker, elder sister of Greg Sumner (William Devane) on Knots Landing. She played the role from 1990 until the show was canceled in 1993.

In 1997, Noone originated the role of Bette Katzenkazrahi on the new soap Sunset Beach, playing her for the show’s entire duration (shy of three years) until December 31 1999.

Noone most recently played the role of Edna Wallace on Passions. She joined the show in June 2002 and signed on. After her storyline dried up, the actress was bumped to recurring status in 2005, but has made several appearances every year since. She also has a recurring role as “Maggie”, Jim’s mother-in-law, on the series
According to Jim.


External links

  • Official website
  • Kathleen Noone profile from Passions Online

House Detective

In its classic format, this HGTV show would feature two home inspections per half hour installment. The inspections were usually from some particular greater metropolitan area: Washington, DC; San Francisco, CA; Los Angeles, CA, far Upstate NY, etc. Typically some youngish couple would have foolishly bought a house without an inspection and experience problems, and HGTV’s producers would come in with an inspector. The inspector would go through the house and systematically find problems. These would be revealed in a way that maximized drama and opportunities for corny puns (usually related to the occupation of the home owner). Dangerous problems would be accompanied by scary mood music, even if they weren’t expensive to fix. In the end, the condition of the house nearly always turned out to be better than feared and our home owner would rally to the cause of fixing the problems. After each inspection, a tiny segment called “Inspector’s Notebook” gave tips on certain specific topics mentioned in the preceding inspection.

In its newest incarnation, House Detective is now on a one-inspection-per-show format, with the latter half devoted to fixing problems discovered in the first half. It’s also hipper for a wealthier, more happening audience, featuring more style and fewer puns.

  • HGTV House Detective
  • HouseMaster Home Inspections
  • National Institute of Building Inspectors

Wiesław Rosocha

  • 1945 Born in Sokolow Podlaski Poland
  • 1969 - 1974 Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts
  • 1979 - Until now Freelancer


Major awards

  • 1981 - Special Prize for “Best Book Illustration of a Year” (Warsaw)
  • 1985 - Gold Medal at 6th International Biennial of Posters in Lahti (Finland)
  • 1986 - 1st Prize in Competition for the Best Children’s Book of a Year (Warsaw)
  • 1991 - Bronze Medal at International Triennial of Graphic Art in Toyama (Japan)
  • 1992 - Gold Medal at 6th International Exhibition ADC in New York (USA)


Other Polish graphic designers

  • Franciszek Starowieyski
  • Henryk Tomaszewski
  • Jan Lenica
  • Jan Mlodozeniec
  • Jan Sawka
  • Mieczysław Wasilewski
  • Roman Cieślewicz
  • Stasys Eidrigevicius
  • Tadeusz Piechura
  • Wiesław Wałkuski
  • Wiktor Sadowski


See also

  • List of graphic designers
  • List of Polish painters
  • List of Polish graphic designers
  • Graphic design

Virtual keyboard

A virtual keyboard is a feature of a computer program or a program in and of itself that acts as a virtual extension of a controller, often with fewer buttons than a keyboard would have. In the world of desktop PCs, the Windows XP program On-Screen Keyboard acts as a virtual keyboard that can be operated with an actual keyboard or a computer mouse. In stylus-operated personal data assistants it is common for the user to input text by tapping a virtual keyboard built into the operating system of the PDA.

These keyboards are often used as features of emulation software for systems that have fewer buttons than a computer keyboard would have.

Virtual keyboards are also used by people who can not use the usual keyboards due to physical limitations.


Virtual keyboards compared to physical keyboards

Because virtual keyboards function differently from physical text input devices, they may provide some degree of protection against keystroke logging.

People accustomed to physical keyboards often have to dedicate a significant amount of time to learn fast typing with a virtual keyboard, even though the keyboard layout is typically similar to real keyboards. Unlike with physical keyboards, users are unable to feel the keys under their fingers, which results in a lack of familiarity with the keys’ positions,forcing the user to slowly hunt and peck type. This has aided the development of external physical keyboards for PDA’s and other electronical devices.


External links

  • On-Screen Keyboard Magic - Elegant features for Microsoft On-Screen Keyboard
  • Example of a web-based virtual keyboard, for entering foreign character sets
  • Another example of a web-based virtual keyboard

A Jew in Communist Prague

A Jew in Communist Prague is the title of a series of graphic novels created by Vittorio Giardino. They feature the main character Jonas Fink. They are published in the United States by NBM.

.ne

.ne is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Niger.

Unrelated to the .ne top-level domain, “ne” is sometimes used as a second-level domain within other country-code domains, in which registrants may register second-level domains of the form .ne.xx, where xx is the ccTLD. Two examples are Japan (.ne.jp) and South Korea (.ne.kr). Other ccTLDs use “net” instead.


External links

  • IANA .ne whois information

Code conversion

In telecommunication, the term code conversion has the following meanings:

1. Conversion of signals, or groups of signals, in one code into corresponding signals, or groups of signals, in another code.

2. A process for converting a code of some predetermined bit structure, such as 5, 7, or 14 bits per character interval, to another code with the same or a different number of bits per character interval.

In code conversion, alphabetical order is not significant.

NWLink

NWLink is a IPX/SPX-compatible protocol developed by Microsoft and used in its Windows NT product line. It is a routable protocol.

NWLink is Microsoft’s version of Novell’s IPX/SPX Protocol. The Microsoft version of NWLink includes the same level of functionality as the Novell Protocol. NWLink includes a tool for resolving NetBIOS names.

NWLink packages data to be compatible with client/server services on NetWare Networks. However, NWLink does not provide access to NetWare File and Print Services. To access the File and Print Services the Client Service for NetWare needs to be installed.