Two-way finite automaton

In computer science, in particular in automata theory, a two-way finite automaton is a finite automaton that is allowed to re-read its input.
Two-way deterministic finite automaton.
A two-way deterministic finite automaton (2DFA) is an abstract machine, a generalized version of the deterministic finite automaton (DFA) which can revisit characters already processed. As in a DFA, there are a finite number of states with transitions between them based on the current character, but each transition is also labelled with a value indicating whether the machine will move its position in the input to the left, right, or stay at the same position. Equivalently, 2DFAs can be seen as read-only Turing machines with no work tape, only a read-only input tape.
2DFAs were introduced in a seminal 1959 paper by Rabin and Scott, who proved them to have equivalent power to one-way DFAs. That is, any formal language which can be recognized by a 2DFA can be recognized by a DFA which only examines and consumes each character in order. Since DFAs are obviously a special case of 2DFAs, this implies that both kinds of machines recognize precisely the class of regular languages. However, the equivalent DFA for a 2DFA may require exponentially many states, making 2DFAs a much more practical representation for algorithms for some common problems.
2DFAs are also equivalent to read-only Turing machines that use only a constant amount of space on their work tape, since any constant amount of information can be incorporated into the finite control state via a product construction (a state for each combination of work tape state and control state).
Formal description.
Formally, a two-way deterministic finite automaton can be described by the following 8-tuple: formula_1 where
In addition, the following two conditions must also be satisfied:
It says that there must be some transition possible when pointer on the alphabet reaches the end.
It says that once the automaton reaches the accept or reject state, it stays in there forever and the pointer goes to the right most symbol and cycles there infinitely.
Two-way nondeterministic finite automaton.
A two-way nondeterministic finite automaton (2NFA) may have multiple transitions defined in the same configuration. Its transition function is
Like a standard one-way NFA, a 2NFA accepts a string if at least one of the possible computations is accepting. Like the 2DFAs, the 2NFAs also accept only regular languages.
Two-way alternating finite automaton.
A two-way alternating finite automaton (2AFA) is a two-way extension of an alternating finite automaton (AFA). Its state set is
States in formula_23 and formula_24 are called "existential" resp. "universal". In an existential state a 2AFA nondeterministically chooses the next state like an NFA, and accepts if at least one of the resulting computations accepts. In a universal state 2AFA moves to all next states, and accepts if all the resulting computations accept.
State complexity tradeoffs.
Two-way and one-way finite automata, deterministic and nondeterministic and alternating, accept the same class of regular languages. However, transforming an automaton of one type to an equivalent automaton of another type incurs a blow-up in the number of states. Kapoutsis determined that transforming an formula_25-state 2DFA to an equivalent DFA requires formula_26 states in the worst case. If an formula_25-state 2DFA or a 2NFA is transformed to an NFA, the worst-case number of states required is formula_28. Ladner, Lipton and Stockmeyer.
proved that an formula_25-state 2AFA can be converted to a DFA with formula_30 states.
The 2AFA to NFA conversion requires formula_31 states in the worst case,
see Geffert and Okhotin.
It is an open problem whether every 2NFA can be converted to a 2DFA
with only a polynomial increase in the number of states.
The problem was raised by Sakoda and Sipser,
who compared it to the P vs. NP problem
in the computational complexity theory.
Berman and Lingas discovered a formal relation between this problem
and the L vs. NL open problem,
see Kapoutsis for a precise relation.
Sweeping automata.
Sweeping automata are 2DFAs of a special kind that process the input string by making alternating left-to-right and right-to-left sweeps, turning only at the endmarkers. Sipser constructed a sequence of languages, each accepted by an n-state NFA, yet which is not accepted by any sweeping automata with fewer than formula_32 states.
Two-way quantum finite automaton.
The concept of 2DFAs was in 1997 generalized to quantum computing by John Watrous's "On the Power of 2-Way Quantum Finite State Automata", in which he demonstrates that these machines can recognize nonregular languages and so are more powerful than DFAs.
Two-way pushdown automaton.
A pushdown automaton that is allowed to move either way on its input tape is called two-way pushdown automaton (2PDA);
it has been studied by Hartmanis, Lewis, and Stearns (1965).
Aho, Hopcroft, Ullman (1968)
and Cook (1971) characterized the class of languages recognizable by deterministic (2DPDA) and non-deterministic (2NPDA) two-way pushdown automata;
Gray, Harrison, and Ibarra (1967) investigated the closure properties of these languages.


Stefen Fangmeier

Stefen Markus Fangmeier (born 9 December 1960 in El Paso, Texas, United States) is an American visual effects supervisor and film director. He worked on numerous major feature films, including "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events", "Saving Private Ryan", ', "Twister", "The Perfect Storm" and '. He also has been a second unit director for two films, "Dreamcatcher" (2003) and "Galaxy Quest" (1999). After more than 15 years of visual effects work, Fangmeier moved into feature film directing with his debut on "Eragon", which was released in 2006 to negative critic reviews but was a box office success .
Since "Eragon", Fangmeier has largely focused on supervising and directing visual effects, including for the eighth season of "Game of Thrones" and "". Fangmeier speaks German as well as English, and lives in Los Angeles.


Robert France

Prof. Robert Bertrand France (October 8, 1960 – February 15, 2015) was a Jamaica-born American computer scientist.
Robert B. France was born in Jamaica on October 8, 1960, the eldest son of Robert W. and Jeanette France. He attended high school in Guyana and studied for a BSc degree in Natural Sciences at the University of the West Indies in Saint Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago, majoring in Computer Science and Mathematics and receiving a first class degree in 1984. He then attended Massey University in New Zealand funded by a Commonwealth Scholarship, where he achieved a PhD degree in computer science in 1990. During the same year, he married Sheriffa R. Soleyn in Saint Vincent. They emigrated to the United States together and in due course moved to Fort Collins, Colorado.
During 1990–92, France was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Institute for Advanced Computer Studies, University of Maryland. From 1992 to 1997, he was an assistant professor in the Computer Science and Engineering Department at Florida Atlantic University (FAU), becoming tenured in 1997–98. France was then appointed an associate professor from 1998 until 2004 and then full professor at Colorado State University within the Department of Computer Science. He undertook research on model-driven software development, especially concerning formal software modeling languages and associated analysis tools. He was co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of the "Software and Systems Modeling" journal from 1999 until 2015.
In 2008, Robert France and his co-authors Andy Evans, Kevin Lano, and Bernhard Rumpe, were awarded the "Ten Year Most Influential Paper Award" at the MODELS 2008 Conference on "Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems" for the 1998 paper "The UML as a Formal Modeling Notation". In 2013, France was awarded a five-year International Chair at INRIA in France. He was awarded a senior Dahl–Nygaard Prize for his research by the Association Internationale pour les Technologies Objets (AITO) in 2014. In the same year, he was awarded a Colorado State University, College of Natural Sciences Professor Laureate and an Excellence in Science and Technology Award from the Institute of Caribbean Studies.
Robert France died on February 15, 2015. He had a son and daughter with his wife, Sheriffa.


Dream Pinball 3D

Dream Pinball 3D is a pinball simulation game developed by TopWare and published by SouthPeak Games for Microsoft Windows, first released online in 2006, and then ported to Wii and Nintendo DS in 2008. "Dream Pinball 3D" features six tables to play on, each with a distinct theme, including a medieval table, an aquatic table, a monsters (zombies and vampires mostly) table, and a dinosaurs table. Apart from the different visual styles, each of these tables pose a different challenge because of their varying flipper, ramp, and bumper positions.
Gameplay.
As in the majority of pinball simulation video games - the objective is to gain as many points as possible by hitting the correct bumpers and obstacles. Bonuses included - point multipliers and extra lives - they are gained by hitting particularly hard shots. The games also features six different pinball materials - such as gold and steel - which affects the ball's physics. The Windows version features an online high score list - in which the player can compare their performance with others.
Reception.
The DS, PC and Wii versions received "mixed" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.


Giant Robo

 is a Japanese manga series by Mitsuteru Yokoyama. The manga, which was first published in 1967, spawned a live-action "tokusatsu" television series of the same name, as well as a series of original video animations called "".
Plot.
Part 1.
The secret society "Big Fire", scheming to conquer Earth, is furthering "Project GR". The special investigation organization of the United Nations dispatches an agent in "Country T" to interfere with the plan. Daisaku Kusama, a Japanese tourist, is mistaken for the agent and is abducted by "BF".
Part 2.
Daisaku Kusama comes back barely alive to Japan with Secret Agent Azuma with GR1. However, "BF" plans an attempt on Daisaku's life to recapture GR1 and they let GR2 and GR3 attack Tokyo.
Part 3.
A bomber carrying a hydrogen bomb crashes into Japanese waters. The hydrogen bomb has already been recovered by "BF" though the bomber is recovered at once. "BF" demands that GR1 should be exchanged for the hydrogen bomb.
Adaptations.
Adaptations include:
"GR: Giant Robo".
 is an animated TV series written by Chiaki Konaka ("Serial Experiments Lain", "The Big O") and directed by Masahiko Murata (', "Mazinkaiser") and produced by SoftGarage. The TV series is a re-imagining of Mitsuteru Yokoyama's manga and was created to commemorate "Giant Robos 40th anniversary.
"GR" premiered January 19, 2007. The series finished its run on July 6 of the same year, totaling 13 episodes, with the possibility for two further seasons. As of 2020, the series appears to have been cancelled.
The story takes place at the dawn of the 21st century, when Earth is overrun by giant robots. Daisaku Kusama encounters one of these monsters, the titular Giant Robo, in a ruin in Okinawa. Beckoned by forces he cannot understand, Daisaku is made to bond, body and spirit, with the ancient weapon and defend his homeland from the incoming evil.
A pilot for the show was made in 2005, which was a selection of scenes from the 1967 manga in animated form. Due to a change in staff at SoftGarage, the idea of a faithful adaptation of "Giant Robo" was scrapped in favor for a modern world view, not unlike that of "Neon Genesis Evangelion". The show also has elements of the Cthulhu Mythos in it, with the Giant Robos originally being ancient machines built to fight off eldritch beings known only as "The Old Ones" that threatened the sanctity of the human race.


Asmita Marwa

Asmita Marwa is an Indian fashion designer, rated by Vogue as one of nine top up-and-coming international designers. Asmita Marwa believes in fusing the traditional with the global. Her eclectic and vibrant avatar of Kalamkari took the fashion world by storm.
Asmita Marwa's fashion label is sustainable, and the garments are created and manufactured using ethical norms and practices.
Design career.
Marwa began designing clothes in Hyderabad in the 1990s. She was the first Hyderabad designer to enter the Telugu film industry. Numerous actors, including Nagarjuna, Balakrishna, Preity Zinta, Anjala Zaveri, Shriya, Mahesh Babu, Tabu, Asin, Charmy, and Anushka, have worn her clothes, in films like Manmadhudu, Santhosham, Premante Idera, Arjun, Attadu, Pokiri, and Gharshana.
In December 2003 Marwa launched a fashion label, Asmita, sold through her signature store Reves d’Etoile and at "xlnc" in Hyderabad and "Aza Fashions" in Mumbai and Delhi. Marwa's designs for Asmita featured in the Blenders Pride Fashion Fringe Show in 2004. In 2008 she took part in the Lakme Fashion Week.
Lakme Fashion Week:
March/April; 2008
The collection "Gaia-An Awakening"
Fall Winter March 2009
'Maya and her Jaggery Knots' was Asmita Marwa's third collection, which combined diverse elements like Khadi, Antique Banaras, Tartan Checks, Telugu Calligraphy and giant roses.
Style journalism.
For many years Marwah wrote a style column in the Hyderabad Times
Personal life.
Marwah is married and has a son. She has also participated in the Blenders Pride Fashion tour, the goa beach fashion week and is a member of the fashion council of India.


Pizza Island

Pizza Island was a shared cartooning studio space in Greenpoint, Brooklyn established in 2010. It was established by Sarah Glidden, Julia Wertz, and Domitille Collardey, and included Kate Beaton, Meredith Gran, Lisa Hanawalt, Karen Sneider, and Deana Sobel Lederman. Unintentionally, it consisted of all-female cartoonists.
History.
Sarah Glidden and Julia Wertz had the idea to created a shared cartoon space in October 2009, just as Domitille Collardey was planning to move from her native France to New York. The location of Pizza Island was discovered on Craigslist. According to Glidden, the name comes from a nonexistent restaurant they were mistakenly seeking one night.
Pizza Island was located in Studio 2J at the Morgan Fine Arts and Film Center on 649 Morgan Avenue in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
Their studio was semi-annually open for tours and some Pizza Island members would offer prints and artwork for sale.
Group.
Despite its resemblance to a cartoonists collective, Pizza Island cannot be considered an artist collective because there was no shared project or collective rules imposed upon the Pizza Island members. Instead, each was encouraged to pursue her own independent projects, including such different projects as Kate Beaton's comedic webcomic Hark! A Vagrant to Sarah Glidden's 20-page political comic on Iraqi refugees in Syria.
Though the cartoonists worked on separate projects, sharing the space caused them to create lasting connections, such as the friendship of Kate Beaton and Lisa Hanawalt. Being around each other influenced them enough to learn from the others' art styles, comedy, and subject matter. While working, the cartoonists often engaged in conversations and critiques to benefit their comics and illustrations.
Disbandment.
Pizza Island announced its disbandment on January 17, 2012 with a satirical blog post written by Wertz, detailing their "cat fights" and "screaming" upon ending this "all-male" studio, as well as lampooning the different cartoonists with exaggerated caricatures of their personality (such as Lisa Hanawalt lovingly drawing a horse as she speaks, having Sarah Glidden run away from the interview with art supplies tumbling out of her clothes, and detailing a failed relationship between Julia Wertz and a parasitic twin growing out of Lisa Hanawalt's back).
In reality, the cartoonists parted ways at the end of the lease while retaining their friendships and creative alliances.


Last man standing (video games)

Last man standing (LMS) or last team standing (LTS) is a multiplayer deathmatch gameplay mode featured in some first-person shooter computer and video games, and is also the essence of battle royale games. The aim of a player in a last man standing match is to neutralize their opponents and remain the sole survivor; the basic rules followed are generally the same of the deathmatch gametype, with an important difference: respawn is limited or not allowed at all. Each player is assigned a specific number of lives per match (or just one when there is no respawn); once these lives have been expended, the player will no longer be able to return to the current match and remain as an invisible spectator until there is a winner and the LMS round is over. Within several games players are called to buy or pick up items, while other titles will have the players spawned with full weapons and ammo and there are no powerups available on the map.
Several different variations of the last man standing mode exist, with the most common being team LMS. The rules are the same of the standard LMS and the winning team is the one able to eliminate all the members of the opposing teams and keep at least one of its components alive.
The first last-man-standing video game with a shrinking play zone was the 1983 action game "Bomberman".
Camping.
In Last Man Standing mode, camping, which is often considered an unsocial and dishonest tactic, is highly beneficial. A player can stay in hiding until other players have killed each other, so that a majority of the players are already eliminated. The hiding player now not only has the advantage of additional lives (the player wasn't killed as many number of times as other players who were constantly moving), but also now has to fight a lesser number of players, each of whom has a disadvantage of lesser number of lives. This means that their chances of winning are higher than others, without any skill involved. Hence, it is often considered cheating.
Camping tends to stall a game. Due to camping being highly beneficial, if everybody hides so as to wait until some players are eliminated, the game will not be allowed to proceed.
Modern games, like "Unreal Tournament 2004" can detect from a players movement if they are camping. If detected, the player is first given a warning and if the player continues camping, action is taken according to the server rules (generally, a camper is removed from the game).
In vehicular combat games, camping can be prevented with a timeout clock that resets each time a player hits a rival vehicle.
Battle royale games, such as "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds", "Fortnite Battle Royale", "Free Fire and ScarFall - The Royale Combat" discourage camping by gradually reducing the size of the area where LMS competitors can play on, typically with a deadly energy field. Any players who do not move to safer ground as the field closes in will suffer continuous damage and eventually die if they fail to escape it.


Fight Network (UK)

Fight Network was a British programming block that broadcast nightly over the channel space of Showcase by Information TV. The channel was owned by Anthem Sports & Entertainment and available through Showcase by Information TV at 9:00 PM every night. Programming featured combat sports from around the world. The channel launched on 17 July 2018 and was based on the Canadian channel of the same name. The channel itself was a revival of the previous version of The Fight Network, which formally broadcast under the name of TWC Fight! and The Wrestling Channel before ceasing transmissions in 2008. However, the channel ceased operations on Showcase in September 2020.
History.
Relaunch.
On 13 July 2018, it was announced that Anthem Sports & Entertainment Corp. would relaunch Fight Network as a programming block on Showcase by Information TV. The block would feature various sports, including live "Impact Wrestling", "Ultimate Challenge MMA", "Abu Dhabi Grand Slam", "WGP Kickboxing", "Wrestling at the Chase" and other programmes. Due to the way it was placed and the obscurity of the original version, Anthem were treating it as a new channel launch.
Later in 2019 the channel would add other wrestling promotions like Ring Of Honor, Smash Wrestling, Championship Wrestling from Hollywood and British promotion Preston City Wrestling with them airing on different days than "Impact!".
Closure.
On 26 August 2020, Anthem announced that the programming block would no longer be available on Showcase from September 2020, effectively ceasing its operations.
Programming.
The most notable content to air on Fight Network is a simulcast of Impact Wrestling, which aired in the United Kingdom on Wednesdays at 9.00pm .


Gameplay of Overwatch

"Overwatch" is a team-based first-person shooter game developed by Blizzard Entertainment and released in May 2016 for several platforms. The game features a number of gameplay modes that support casual play, ranked play, and competitive modes used for professional esports events, such as the Overwatch League. A sequel, "Overwatch 2", was announced in 2019 and will include new player versus environment (PvE) co-operative multiplayer modes, in addition to player versus player (PvP) modes available from the original game.
Fundamentals.
"Overwatch" features squad-based combat with two opposing teams of six players each. Players choose one of thirty-two hero characters, each with their own unique abilities and role classes. The three character roles include: damage characters that have powerful attacks to lead attacks or defend control points and choke points, support characters that provide buffs and debuffs for their allies and enemies respectively (such as healing or speed alterations), and tank characters that have a large amount of armor and hit points to withstand enemy attacks and draw fire away from teammates. During the pre-match setup, players on a team will be given advice from the game if their team is unbalanced, such as if they are lacking defensive heroes, encouraging players to switch to other heroes pre-match and balance the starting team. Within a match, players can switch between characters in-game following deaths or by returning to their home base. The game is designed to encourage players to adapt to the opposing team during a match by switching to characters that better "counter" their abilities. As part of a major update across both regular players of "Overwatch" and "Overwatch" esports leagues to launch in September 2019, Blizzard introduced a "Role Queue" for quick play and competitive modes, requiring the player to select one of damage, support, or tank roles for the duration of a game, though freely able to switch between heroes in that role, so that in matchmaking, teams will be made up of two of each roles. From February through June 2020, Blizzard ran its competitive seasons using a "hero pool" mechanic, where only a selection of heroes will be available to play each week similar to "League of Legends", to evaluate using it in the long term. However, after this point, Blizzard found that the hero pool approach was not necessary to maintain balance for characters, instead being able to use other modes, such as an experimental card mode, to test balance adjustments that were later brought to the main game, and dropped the hero pool approach save for the Overwatch League.
Each hero has a primary ability and at least two additional abilities that can be invoked at any time, some requiring a brief cooldown period before they can be used again. Furthermore, each player slowly builds up a meter towards their character's "ultimate" ability; this meter builds up over time but can build up faster for defeating opponents or performing other beneficial tasks for their team such as healing other team members. Once ready, the player can use this ability at any time which may last for a few seconds (such as increased attack strength or immunity to attacks) or be a single powerful action (such as throwing a small explosive), after which they then must wait for the meter to fill up again. Opposing players will be alerted to the use of this ultimate ability by an exclamation from the character, often in the character's native language; for example, when using his "Deadeye" ability gunslinger McCree will call out "It's high noon" as the player engages the ultimate ability to target multiple visible enemies and deal lethal damage to those still in sight. This gives opposing players a brief moment to try to take cover or respond appropriately.
A second meter tracks how many in-round points a player has scored over time, which are rewarded for killing or assisting in killing, providing team defense or healing, and scoring objective points. When a certain threshold is reached, the player character's icon will be "on fire," representing that that character is a threat, but otherwise does not directly affect gameplay. This meter will slowly drop if the player does not continue to score points.
Overwatch employs an automated instant replay system, designed to highlight important moments of the game. After the game's end, the server selects a fragment of the match which had a large impact on the game's progression, such as a rapid succession of kills or an effective use of team healing, and then broadcasts it to all players from the point of view of the player responsible for it. This is called a "Play of the Game" (often abbreviated to "PotG"), or "Play of the Match" ("PotM") in competitive games that have longer matches. Afterwards, a result screen is shown, highlighting up to four individual players from both teams for their achievements during the match (such as damage dealt, healed or blocked, or time spent on the objective), and all players are given the option to commend one of them. Following a June 2018 patch, players can also give out up to three endorsements to any other player in the match based on leadership, teamwork, or sportsmanship. Such endorsements boost experience gained by the receiving players, and factors into matchmaking, favoring players that continue to get endorsements. A custom replay system, automatically storing a player's last ten games in each game mode and with numerous camera and positioning features, was introduced into the "Public Test Region" (PTR), a special set of servers where upcoming patches can be tested by any player, in May 2019, and released for all servers in June 2019.
Players gain experience points following a match towards a metagame level based on several factors such as whether they won or lost, how effectively they used their character's powers, being awarded gold, silver, or bronze medals for their team across six categories such as most time spent on the objectives; and beating past personal records in these categories. Initially, experience was only awarded when playing the game's matchmaking modes and not custom games, but the custom server browser update, released in February 2017, enabled experience gains for custom games. Each experience level earns a player a loot box, which contain four random cosmetic items for individual heroes, including victory poses, paint sprays, alternate skins (costumes), emotes and voice lines. Items are given out based on their rarity level, with "Common", "Epic", and "Legendary" tiers. Loot boxes may contain in-game currency called "credits", which can be used to purchase specific cosmetic items directly, with their cost based on the item's rarity. Duplicate items are rewarded with in-game currency. Other items can only be acquired by completing in-game achievements. Players have the option to buy loot boxes with real-world money through microtransactions.
Character roles.
Characters in "Overwatch" come in three varieties: Damage, Tank, and Support. These roles serve to categorize the heroes by similar characteristics that can be used to describe them and their play style. If playing in an “open-queue” game-mode, the game shows tips to the players depending on which heroes have been selected; e.g., the team will recommend that a player selects a Support hero if there are none on the team.
Player-versus-Player map types.
In standard and competitive play, and in some of the special Arcade modes, maps are randomly selected for the match. Each "Overwatch" map has a specific game mode that it supports, which include:
Each mode includes an "overtime" period that gives the attacking team additional time to complete an objective once normal time expires, as long as at least one member of the attacking team is actively on or near the objective throughout the overtime period. The attacking team has a brief period of time to return to the objective if they leave or are knocked away from it, with that grace time diminishing as overtime proceeds.
Other game maps exist in the game's Arcade modes or can be created through custom games. These include:
The custom server options enable players to create additional game modes not readily classified under the existing modes; for example, players can create 6 versus 1 settings, where one team must try to defeat a single player who is significantly overpowered compared to standard characters.
Player-versus-Environment map types.
"Overwatch 2" will introduce cooperative player-versus-environmental missions where four players work against computer-controlled opponents. There are two main types of these missions:
Maps.
"Overwatch" was released with 12 maps, but new maps have been added over time. Like new heroes, these maps are usually introduced first within the Public Test Region (PTR), allowing players to opt-in to help test and provide feedback on the maps. Once Blizzard feels the map is ready, it is then added to all gameplay regions, entering into normal casual map rotation and often featured in a special Arcade mode for a week or so. New maps are not introduced immediately into competitive mode; though Blizzard had previously waited until the completion of a competitive mode season to introduce a map, as of May 2018 they now plan to add new maps into the competitive mode rotation two weeks following their global introduction into casual play.
The maps are typically designed to support portions of the "Overwatch" narrative, which follows from thirty years after a robotic uprising, the Omnic Crisis, occurred in Earth's near future. The crisis was resolved by the Overwatch agency, which afterward was disbanded. In the game's present, with a threat of another Omnic Crisis and appearance of several shadowy groups, the members of Overwatch have rejoined forces. Most of the game's maps are inspired by real-world locations. The first four maps, "King's Row", "Hanamura", "Temple of Anubis", and "Ilios" are inspired by London, Japan, the ruins of Ancient Egypt, and Greece respectively. During seasonal events, certain maps may be redecorated for the event's theme, but otherwise retain the fundamental layouts, such as Halloween updates for the Hollywood and Eichenwald maps during the "Halloween Terror" events.
Starting in November 2019, Blizzard implemented a map pool that limits the number of available maps in each mode for competitive play (and which also applied to the professional competitions like Overwatch League). This allows Blizzard to curate maps that are not presently in the pool based on player feedback and other observations without disrupting the competitive seasons. These maps otherwise remain available for the various Quickplay and Arcade options.
Assault maps.
"Overwatch" shipped with three Assault maps, with two additional Assault map added since release.
Escort maps.
"Overwatch" shipped with three Escort maps and since added three additional ones.
Hybrid maps.
"Overwatch" shipped with three Hybrid maps and has added two since.
Control maps.
Three control maps were shipped with "Overwatch" and two have been added since.
Arena maps.
Arena maps were added to "Overwatch" to support various causal game modes, in particular matches featuring three-versus-three players but can be re-purposed for other modes. These maps are much smaller in effective area than other gameplay modes.
Other maps.
These are maps that have been added to support specific gameplay modes not otherwise identified above.
Game modes.
"Overwatch" features several means of gameplay, including tutorials and practice modes against computer-controlled opponents, casual matchmaking, weekly brawls, custom games, and competitive play. "Overwatch" allows players to group up prior to starting most of the team modes with friends, or can join a group after finishing a match. With a June 2018 patch, "Overwatch" also allows players create open groups based on certain requirements, such as fixed character roles or desired gameplay type, with other players able to find such groups via the same criteria.
Casual modes.
Casual matchmaking allows players, alone, or in a party with invited friends, to be randomly matched against others in Quickplay mode. The game servers will attempt to match the gathered players in party via a dynamic queue with others based on general skill level, only broadening outside this search range if it takes a long time to find matching players. With the "Role Queue" update in September 2019, players will need to queue up in one of the three roles or form groups that do not exceed these roles before starting a match, while a new "Quickplay Classic" Arcade mode will be added without the role locking requirements. Blizzard works to adjust this matchmaking approach to making sure players will find matches of people with roughly equivalent skill level. For example, in June 2016, Blizzard removed the option for players to avoid specific opponents; the option was meant for players to be able ignore trolls, but instead found that highly skilled players were being put on these avoidance lists and were having difficulty finding games or would be matched with new and less-skilled players.
"Overwatch" was launched with a rotating Weekly Brawl mode, inspired by "Hearthstone"s Tavern Brawls. These matches featured unique rules, such as players forced to play a specific hero or a specific class of hero, or may force a random hero on the player each time they respawn; as the mode's name suggests, these Brawls would change weekly. The Weekly Brawl was merged into an Arcade mode on November 15, 2016. Arcade mode features a rotating variety of games based on all game modes, and from which players can earn unique in-game items or loot boxes. During seasonal events, these Arcade modes may feature unique game modes for that event, such as a three-on-three soccer-type game during the 2016 Summer Olympics, a co-operative player-versus-environment defense mode during the game's first Halloween event, and a Capture the Flag mode as part of the 2017 Chinese New Year event.
Custom games enable players to have open or private games with several possible options that can be adjusted, such as match length, which maps to play, limitations on character selection, and similar options that are used to create the Weekly Brawl or Arcade matches. An update first released in April 2019 introduced the Workshop, a means to use similar scripting tools that Blizzard has available to further customize game options or modify how heroes work in custom games. When initially released, custom games did not allow players to gain experience points. Blizzard has since allowed experience to be earned in custom games with safeguards to prevent players idling for experience points.
Competitive mode.
Competitive mode allows players segregated by both region and platform to play in ranked matches to try to advance in their skill ranking (SR) as high as possible during 2-to-3 month long competitive seasons. Competitive matches uses the same rules as the professional Overwatch League. Prior to the September 2019 "Role Queue" update, players must play 10 matches at the start of a new season to determine their skill ranking, a combination of their win/loss/draw record, their previous season's performance, and their own performance with the various heroes over the 10 matches. Following the "Role Queue" update, players get three separate skill ranking for each of the three roles, and only require 5 games in that role at the start of the season to quantify the skill rating for that role.
Once a player has a skill ranking, all competitive matches are played using matchmaking with players near similar skill levels, and one's skill ranking will rise or fall upon winning or losing a match, respectively; draws do not affect the skill ranking. One's skill ranking determines which of six tiers they are in, with end-of-season rewards given out based on the highest tier that one achieved that season. Those in the highest tiers, Master and Grandmaster, must continue to play matches to maintain their position within those tiers or will have their skill rank drop if they are inactive. Winning or drawing a match earns players "competitive points", a separate form of in-game currency that can be used to buy "golden weapons" for a selected hero. Blizzard continues to monitor how competitive play works out and has tweaked various aspects of the system throughout seasons in response to player feedback.
"Overwatch"s normal competitive mode is limited to the map types of Control, Assault, Escort, and Hybrid. Control maps are played in a best-of-three matchup, with teams vying to take a central control point. Once a team takes control of a point, by clearing all opponents from the point for a short period of time, they must defend the point as their percentage of control of the point slowly increases towards 100%. If the opposing team can clear the defenders and keep the point clear, they then take control, though the original team retains its percentage of control it had. Once a team reaches 99% of the control needed, they must clear the opposing team from the point to complete 100% capture and take the round.
The other three map types, Assault, Escort, and Hybrid, are based on one team attacking to take control points and/or move a payload through checkpoints within a limited amount of time, while the other team defends against these. Games on these maps are played in at least two rounds, with teams switching roles between the attacking and defending teams between these rounds. One team is randomly selected to start as the attacking team, and is scored based on how many checkpoints they have captured/passed and if they cannot completely capture the next checkpoint or escort the payload, how close they were to their next objective. This latter is based on the maximum percentage of control they had of the control point or the farthest the payload was moved; however, teams must take at least one-third of a control point to get credit for that, otherwise their score is treated as if they had not taken any of it. If the team successfully completes all objectives, then the time remaining (the "time bank") is recorded.
In the second round, the attacking and defending teams' roles are switched. If the first attacking team completed all objectives, the second team must do so as well to at least tie up the match. Otherwise, the new attacking team is shown the score they must beat via the game's interface and on the map. If they succeed, they win the match, and failure to at least match that score is a loss. If both teams end up with the same score but with no time remaining in their time banks, the match is considered a draw. Otherwise, additional sudden death matches are played to try to break the tie. The tiebreaker rules depend on the map type, but generally, these have each team have an opportunity to play as the attacking team, starting with what time remains in their time bank, to attempt to get the best score possible; in these sudden death rounds, no time bonus is granted when reaching any checkpoint. Multiple series of sudden death rounds may be needed if both teams succeed in completing all objectives while still having time remaining.
"Overwatch" has run short-term competitive seasons for other game modes typically as part of the seasonal events. This has included Lucioball, Capture the Flag, Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and Elimination. The approach to these are similar as with normal competitive modes, requiring players to complete ten matches to gain a ranking, which is then used for future matchmaking and can be increased or decreased based on the outcome of a match.


Rayna Gellert

Rayna Gellert (born December 15, 1975) is an American fiddler, acoustic guitarist, singer, and songwriter specializing in old-time music. She grew up in Elkhart, in northern Indiana, formerly lived in Asheville, North Carolina, and is currently based in Nashville, Tennessee. Her father is the traditional fiddler and banjo player Dan Gellert. Originally a classically trained violinist, she took up the old-time fiddle in 1994, when she moved to North Carolina to attend Warren Wilson College. She received a bachelor's degree from Warren Wilson College.
Gellert is a former member of the Freight Hoppers. From 2003 to 2009 she performed and recorded with the all-female old-time band Uncle Earl. In 2003, she was a featured performer at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. She has also performed with the dance company Rhythm in Shoes, the West African-influenced band Toubab Krewe, Abigail Washburn, and Scott Miller. She has toured throughout the United States, Europe, and Chile.
She has been a finalist at the Appalachian String Band Music Festival in Clifftop, Fayette County, West Virginia several times.
Gellert is married to the guitarist Jeff Keith (of the bands Kentucky Wild Horse and the Red State Ramblers).


Criticom

Criticom is a 3D fighting video game developed by Kronos Digital Entertainment and originally released in November 1995 in the USA, March 1996 in Europe and October in Japan by Vic Tokai for the PlayStation. The Sega Saturn version was released in early 1997.
Gameplay.
The fighting action takes place on a round, elevated platform. Each fighter begins the fight with a full power meter and one power meter refill in reserve that is activated when the primary meter is depleted. There are no rounds. The fight runs until one fighter is knocked out (no more power in their meter), one is knocked out of the arena (or steps/jumps out), or the time runs out. As the game progresses, the player gains access to two additional "levels" for the character, which unlocks new moves and gives the character a new appearance.
Plot.
Two alien races, the Nezom and Zerai clans obtained a powerful crystalline stone called "The Relic", and anointed themselves "The Chosen Ones". The Chosen Ones used this power to subjugate the other races, exterminating those that failed to comply. After this era of war, The Chosen Ones began to enjoy a new age of peace. However, The Relic was stolen and The Chosen Ones' power was shaken. Now, warriors from all over the universe seek the relic, each with their own ambitions.
Development.
"Criticom" initially had a comic book character license and Sony Computer Entertainment as its publisher. As the game neared the end of the design phase, Sony took the license from Kronos Digital Entertainment and give it to one of their European subsidiaries. Rather than completely abandon their design work, Kronos opted to create new characters and shop the game concept to other publishers. Kronos president Stan Liu recounted:
Reception.
The first news and screenshots of the game sparked an enthusiastic reaction from "VideoGames", which called it "one of the coolest fighting game experiences in a long time", but ultimately went on to receive mostly negative reviews, as critics found the strong character designs and graphics to be outweighed by the poor animation and gameplay.
Reviewing the PlayStation version in "GamePro", Scary Larry praised the game's interesting characters, "gorgeous" backgrounds, and sound effects. However, he felt the sluggish moves, particularly the throws, give the game less impact and make it more of a holdover until the next installment of "Virtua Fighter" or "Toshinden". A reviewer for "Next Generation" said the game has impressive graphics, making particular note of the realistic lighting and shadow effects, but looks poor in motion due to the animation being done "by hand", without motion capture. While he found the character designs to be consistently "clever and imaginative", he deemed the game an overall failure due to the way the choppy frame rate interferes with the gameplay. Rich Leadbetter of "Maximum" remarked that the game has excellent graphics but poor animation and unexciting moves, and compared it unfavorably to "Zero Divide" and "Tekken 2". "" called it "a challenging combat game that only reveals its depth with time".
"GamePro" named the Saturn version the worst fighting game of the year, stating that compared to the PlayStation version of the previous season, it has "even slower gameplay, choppy, simple graphics, and no chance at being any fun".
According to Kronos president Stan Liu, the game was a commercial success, partly because it had been completed on budget and on time, and partly because it sold in respectable numbers, which he attributed chiefly to it being a fairly early PlayStation game.
Sequels.
The game spawned two semi-sequels, "Dark Rift" and "Cardinal Syn".


The Grid (video game)

The Grid is a 2000 arcade game by Midway. It is a third person shooter which comprises of a super-violent television game show hosted by a "Smash TV"-like host. The game centres around deathmatches. Players control their character using a joystick with a trigger for shooting, a top button for jumping and trackball for aiming. The object of each match is to accumulate the most points by eliminating other opponents. Local multiplayer with up to six players is possible by linking up multiple cabinets. Computer-controlled bots can also be used in place of human opponents. Players can also collect cash that can be used to upgrade player attributes. Individual player progress and statistics can be saved and retrieved through unique account numbers that are entered on a keypad.
The game was created by the developers behind the "Mortal Kombat" series of games and has cameos from characters Sub-Zero, Scorpion, and Noob Saibot. This was Midway's last arcade game.


Terminator Salvation (video game)

Terminator Salvation is a third-person shooter action video game, released on May 19, 2009 to coincide with the release of the film of the same title on the same week. It is developed by The Halcyon Company's gaming subsidiary, Halcyon Games, along with Grin and published by Equity Games and Evolved Games. The game was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, mobile and iOS.
Set in 2016 in Los Angeles, the console and PC versions of the game take place between the events of ' and "Terminator Salvation" and follow John Connor (Gideon Emery), and his team, consisting of Angie Salter (Rose McGowan), Barnes (Common) and Blair Williams (Moon Bloodgood). However, Christian Bale refused to lend his voice and likeness for the game. Rose McGowan voiced the game-exclusive character Angie Salter, who is an ex-high school teacher. Common and Moon Bloodgood voiced their own characters from the film (Barnes and Blair, respectively). An animated web series, ', takes place before the game, and was released by Machinima on May 18, 2009.
"" was released in 2019, and disregards both film and the game.
Gameplay.
"Terminator Salvation" is a third-person shooter where the player needs to "constantly move, flank, cover and utilize their squad to progress." The player must battle Skynet enemies from the film of the same name as well as new enemies specifically designed for the game.
The game features a campaign that can be played alone or cooperatively with one other local player via split-screen. The co-op version of the game enables players to play as both John Connor and his teammate Blair Williams.
The game employs a cover and movement system not unlike those featured in "Gears of War" and "", wherein the player can quickly choose to dodge between different forms of cover, coming out only to fire shots at enemies. Staying in cover is advantageous, as the player only regenerates health when they have not received damage for a certain amount of time (as in the "Halo" and "Call of Duty" games). Although players initially are only equipped with an M4 carbine, other weapons such as the RPG-7 and M79 grenade launcher, Remington 870 shotgun, and M249 SAW as well as various types of grenades (Flash and fragmentation) are acquired throughout the game. Enemy A.I. is relatively strong, both keeping track of the player's location realistically (that is, not omniscient but using sight and sound to locate the player) as well as actively pursuing and flanking them when cover is sought by the player.
Plot.
Console & Windows version.
, John Connor reflects on the old days of preparing for the future battle. Returning to an evac point with Blair Williams and other soldiers, they battle their way through machines to discover that there are no helicopters waiting for them. Escaping in trucks instead, the group is attacked by a Hunter-Killer aircraft. After John Connor manages to destroy the H-K, a T-600 appears and kills several members of his team.
The team travels underground, then above again, battling machines. The surviving trio manages to reach the evacuation point, meeting soldiers. Aerostat drones attack, and John, Blair and others go outside to take care of them.
A Resistance team led by soldier David Weston (Sean Cory Cooper) asks for help, but his transmission is lost. The team then tries to make a landing place for a helicopter. The chopper lands and rescues the team, but John and Blair stay behind to rescue David's team.
A rescue team, Epsilon, has a helicopter going down, so the duo goes to its crash-site to check for survivors. They rescue four soldiers, Angie (Rose McGowan), an unknown, Deckard (Joe Camareno) and Dobkin (Nolan North). They fight a legion of machines and then, afterwards, decide to head for an old Resistance outpost. Deckard and the unknown are killed by a T-600, and the team is forced to retreat. They manage to destroy two T-600s. They have no choice but to retreat, but with no way out, the team is forced to destroy the T-600s, though Dobkin is mortally wounded in the fight.
The three continue to go to Skynet while defending themselves. They decide to go to a tower so they can observe Skynet patrols so as to plan a route to rescue David. They encounter T-600s with rubber skin, which the trio destroy. John warns the other two about the T-800, which has real, vat-grown skin. They reach the tower, where they encounter a Hunter-Killer, but John, Blair and Angie manage to destroy it. There are too many machines on a nearby street that they planned to go down, so the three decide to go to Union Station at the subway, following the tracks to Skynet.
They traverse their way to a hidden survivalist camp. The survivalists don't trust them at first (because of the T-600s with rubber skin), but they manage to gain their trust. They say they have not encountered Skynet for a long time. The leader, named Warren Campbell (Ed O' Ross), leads him to Barnes (Common), who will supply them. Machines come, and John, Blair and Barnes fight off the machines while Warren and Angie evacuate the area. Barnes reveals to John that machines actually come every two months. They destroy the machines with detonators, and everybody evacuates by train. John and Blair defend the train by missile launcher. They stop to rescue other people from machines and succeed. They escape, but the train derails, so they go on foot to a truck depot, meeting up with other soldiers. Warren drives a school bus, while John and Blair defend it, eventually saving the bus. They go their separate ways, but Warren says they can visit them anytime. Warren still has doubts of their plan, saying that they can't communicate as long as a Skynet communications tower still stands. Barnes joins the three, saying he's tired of running and wishes to join the Resistance.
Battling numerous machines to infiltrate the Skynet compound, an alarm is accidentally triggered when Connor steals important documents. While Barnes sets up explosives, John, Blair and Angie old off T-600s and T-7-T's. While the explosives go off, they run into the elevator to escape. However, with the control panel located outside, Angie sacrifices herself so that John and the others can return to the surface. John is racked with guilt, but Blair explains that he had helped Angie fight, and she believed he could help humanity win.
Later, John is fixing what appears to be a vehicle. He calls his base (answered by teammate Linda (Lupe)), saying he needs airpower to rescue David's team. Linda says it is going to be a problem, because of a harvester. "That won't be a problem", John says, because he reprogrammed a Hunter-Killer tank, and programmed it to go straight to Skynet. He does not have control of the guns, though. That quickly changes when Warren's team returns, with the access codes to the guns and Warren apologizes.
They first have to locate and destroy Skynet's anti-aircraft turrets. They destroy four areas of turrets and machines, but the tank takes too much damage. John suggests that they could deactivate them on foot. John, Blair and Barnes are joined by three men to deactivate the turrets and to find David's men. Warren and the others cover John by destroying as many machines as possible.
They traverse Skynet and destroy all machines that they encounter, until they find Weston and his men. Warren's men agree to escort them to the vehicles, while John, Blair, David and Barnes go through the service tunnels to deactivate the turrets.
The four try to make it to the control room. John shuts down the machines for a few minutes, enough time to get them out of Skynet. The four attempt to escape Skynet before they destroy the base. With the four of them safe, they all return to their Resistance camp. Connor narrates, saying that he has gained faith by what he is about to create in the future, instead of the past.
iOS version.
The game takes place in the year 2018. John Connor arrives via a helicopter in Los Angeles to assist a squad of resistance fighters. The captain of the squad tells him to reach a bunker. Upon reaching the bunker, he is informed that some of the Resistance fighters got trapped in it and is tasked with rescuing them. After John rescues the fighters, the captain informs him that the bunker is going to explode. John is successfully able to escape from the bunker.
A team of resistance fighters carrying a special transmitter in the city was given a mission to call airstrikes on a Hunter-Killer tank to destroy it and recover its remains for research. However the team got attacked and was scattered. It fell upon John to recover the transmitter and complete the mission. While recovering the transmitter parts, he encounters the H-K tank. He is given the last transmitter part by a member of the team who tells him to find a way around the H-K tank through a nearby house in order to call upon an airstrike on it. John is successful in calling an airstrike on the H-K tank and it is destroyed.
The game then shifts to Marcus Wright who awakens among the ruins of Los Angeles but has no idea where he is. He befriends a young Kyle Reese. They both decide to escape the city and join the Resistance. Marcus goes to the hills where he hopes to find a working car. Marcus is attacked by a Hunter-Killer aircraft in a parking lot although he is able to destroy it. Marcus is able to find a vehicle and along with Kyle tries to escape out of the city in it. While driving, they spot a Harvester near them. They try to avoid being detected by him while driving but it's able to discover them and chases after them. However they are able to take it down and escape the city.
The game then shifts back to John. The intel gathered from the destroyed H-K tank showed the location of Skynet's base and John decides to enter it alone. The way to the base is guarded by a H-K tank which he is able to destroy. He rides to the base using a Moto-Terminator taken down by the Resistance. In the base he encounters a T-700 which he destroys. The base defences catch John by surprise and injure him, but he manages to escape and blow up the complex. The game with John seeing the complex destroy inside the pupil of his eye.
Development.
The game was announced on November 15, 2007, when the Halcyon Company also announced the formation of Halcyon Games, the video game arm of the studio. It had been in development for several months at Grin and Halcyon Games, before filming took place. Peter Levin, a former Disney executive, headed up Halcyon Games as acting CEO. The CEO revealed that Halcyon decided to develop the game internally rather than contract another studio to create the game.
Although a multiplayer mode was originally planned it was decidedly dropped to allow the game to be released on schedule. With Halcyon developments' VP Cos Lazouras stating "It is my opinion to do less better, than more but mediocre. We did get local co-op in which is incredibly cool."
Reception.
"Terminator Salvation" received mixed reviews from critics. Acclaim depended on the platform the game was on. GameRankings gave the iOS version a score of 83%, and Metacritic gave the game 48 out of 100 for the Xbox 360 version, 43 out of 100 for the PlayStation 3 version, and 49 out of 100 for the PC version.
"GameSpot" reviewer Chris Watters rated it a 5 out of 10, citing the repetitive combat, mediocre visuals, short length, and that the lead actor of the film, Christian Bale, did not do the voice acting for the game's John Connor. Hilary Goldstein of "IGN" gave all console versions except the iOS version a 6.3 out 10 for its passable visuals, good ally A.I., and complete lack of replay value. He also criticized it because Bale's voice was missing. In the video review, "IGN" did not like Bale not voicing or the short game, but liked the enemy A.I. and the cover system.


Tadashi Ehara

Tadashi Ehara is a game designer who has worked primarily on role-playing games.
Career.
Tadashi Ehara, the buyer for the San Francisco game store Gambit, became the second employee of Chaosium. "Different Worlds" magazine was launched in 1979 by Ehara and Greg Stafford of Chaosium as a general-interest role-playing magazine. Ehara became the first editor of "Different Worlds", and remained editor-in-chief throughout the magazine's run. Ehara left Chaosium in 1985 and took "Different Worlds" with him, due to financial difficulties the company was having, and publishing resumed with "Different Worlds" #39 (May/June 1985) through Ehara's new partner, Sleuth Publications; only eight issues were published by Sleuth over a two-year period, ending with "Different Worlds" #46 (May/June 1987). Much of the Judges Guild inventory was sold to Ehara. Gamelords was sold to Ehara in 1986, and he received 10,000 pounds of backstock in 344 cartons on December 1, 1986. Ehara's last big acquisition while at Sleuth was a license to publish the original "Empire of the Petal Throne" game. Ehara withdrew from Sleuth, taking with him all the RPG products and properties he had acquired over the previous two years. Ehara then used "Different Worlds" as the basis of a new company, Different Worlds Publications, although he only put out one more issue of "Different Worlds", #47 (Fall 1987). From 1987-1989, Ehara also published a reprint of "Empire of the Petal Throne" (1987), and a reprint of part of Gamescience's "Swords & Glory" (1987-1988), the second Tékumel RPG.


Gladys Peto

Gladys Emma Peto (1890–1977) was an English artist, fashion designer, illustrator and writer of children's books.
Early life and education.
Peto was born in Cookham, the only daughter of William Peto and Mary Jane Reeves of Cannon Court, Maidenhead.
She attended Maidenhead High School, then Harvington College in Ealing. She later went on to study at the Maidenhead School of Arts in 1908, and London's School of Art in 1911. She undertook a design course at the John Hassall Correspondence school in 1918.
Career.
Peto created drawings for "The letters of Phrynette" in "The Sketch". This was similar to the series "Letters of Eve" in "The Tatler". The latter was illustrated by Annie Fish and there was a court case.
Her family was not especially artistic. As a girl in Maidenhead, she would go out "in her father's trap" and notice interesting people along the way. She would get home and sketch them.
She moved with her husband, who had retired from the Army, to Northern Ireland in 1939 and retired from commercial art in 1946. She devoted her remaining years to painting landscapes in watercolors and to drawing and cultivating flowers. She suffered a stroke in 1970 that paralyzed her right, and dominant, hand, but continued to draw, paint and write with her left hand.
In the 1930s, it was the "in" thing to wear a Peto dress. Peto's advertising illustrations for Allen and Hanbury's infant formula, Ovaltine and many other products were featured in magazines and posters.
In 1922, she married Dr Cuthbert Lindsay Emmerson of the Royal Army Medical Corps, and she traveled with him to Malta, Cyprus and Egypt. He retired in 1946 as a Colonel and died in 1977.


Robert Markham (game designer)

Robert Markham is a prolific American wargame designer. His game "Raid on St. Nazaire" won the 1987 Charles S. Roberts awards for Best World War II Board Game and Best Wargame Graphics.
Markham is credited as the designer of at least 60 board games or game items. He has also run his own game publishing company with Markham Designs. His co-designer for a few of his early games was Mark Seaman, who was Markham's college roommate and the best man at his wedding.
Games that Robert Markham has designed or co-designed include the following:
Markham is now a retired history and English teacher who taught middle school and high school in Danbury, Connecticut, for 37 years. He served as associate editor of "North & South" magazine for seven years and was an editor of "Volunteers" magazine, another American Civil War magazine, for five years.


Foster and Catchings

"Foster and Catchings" refers to two American economists of the 1920s, William Trufant Foster and Waddill Catchings, who worked extensively together and hence are often referred to as a pair.


Adventure Island 3

 is a side-scrolling platform game published by Hudson Soft that was originally released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1992. It is the third game in the "Adventure Island" released for the NES, following "Adventure Island II". Unlike the first two games in the series, the NES version was never released in Europe. A portable version was also released for the Game Boy in 1993 titled Takahashi Meijin no Bouken Jima III, renamed to Adventure Island II: Aliens in Paradise outside of Japan.
Gameplay.
Higgins can crouch, an ability he did not have in the previous NES games, but he loses the ability to backtrack during a stage. Unlike the previous game, the boss does not move to a different stage when the player loses a life.
The inventory system from the second NES game is still present, but this time he has eight items to choose from instead of just five. Higgins has a fifth dinosaur friend who can help him out: a triceratops (summoned by a star card) that can defeat enemies with his rolling attack. The other new items include a boomerang weapon that can be used as an alternative from Higgins' traditional stone axe weapon, and a crystal that provides Higgins with one hitpoint when he begins a stage.
There are different hidden rooms as well, such as a treasure room where Higgins can choose a new power-up, a surfing bonus round, a room containing a crystal (with an option to continue the level or skip it), and a room with the option of skipping a boss (which will also skip the stage) or not.
Version differences.
The Game Boy version features a password system, as well as an interactive overall map that allows the player to revisit previously completed stages to find new paths.


Siavash Fani

Siavash Fani ( Tehran, Iran) is a Canadian graphic designer.
Life and education.
He went to the visual art school in 1992. After that in 1996 he started studying visual communications (Graphic Design) at Azad university in Tehran B.A - M.A. He was pretty interested in design and for this reason he selected working for the newspapers and magazine for 7 years. He also continued his education and received his master in visual communication (Graphic Design) from Azad university in Tehran and Interactive Media Management at George Brown College in Toronto, Canada. User Experience Design at OCADU in Toronto, Canada.
Work history.
He worked as a designer and director in a lot of newspaper design studios like Hayateno newspaper, Soroush magazine, Hamshahri newspaper and also Iran newspaper and some advertising agencies until 2010. He also was an instructor at Humber College and OCADU University in Toronto, Canada.
Exhibitions.
IX International Eco-poster Triennial "the 4th Block" 2015, Kharkiv, Ukraine
Happy New Year 2015! Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Happy New Year 2014! Toronto, Ontario, Canada
IX International Eco-poster Triennial "the 4th Block" 2012, Kharkiv, Ukraine
Persianissimo + 10, poster exhibition 2011, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Web poster exhibition - Posters about the earthquake in Japan 2011
Posters for Steve Jobs 2011, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Web exhibition - Happy New Year 2011
Anniversary of 9/11, web poster exhibition 2011
Lahti Poster Biennial 2011, Lahti, Finland.
Divarkoob poster exhibition 2010, Tehran, Iran.
A colorful day! poster exhibition 2010, Tehran, Iran.
Arts Hole
Third International Biennial of Posters of the Islamic World 2009, Tehran, Iran
25 years of Iranian Theatrical posters 2008, Tehran, Iran.
Urban management poster exhibition 2008, Tehran, Iran.
Second International Biennial of Posters of the Islamic World 2007, Tehran, Iran
International Day of Disabled Persons, 2007 Rene Wanner's Poster Page
International contest of art resistance 2006, Tehran, Iran
Melli bank and environment poster competition 2004, Tehran, Iran
First annual book cover design competition 2003, Tehran, Iran
First Self-Promotional Posters Exhibition of Iranian Graphic Designers 2001 Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Tehran, Iran.
See also.
DPI Magazine Interview
A book name New Visual Culture of Modern Iran, 2006, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Member of Registered Graphic Designers, RGD October 2014 – Present
Member of Iranian Graphic Designers Society (IGDS) September 2003 – Present
Member of International Journalist Federation (IFJ) April 2000 – Present


Dream Chronicles (video game)

Dream Chronicles (originally titled Dream Chronicles: The Endless Slumber) is a 2007 adventure, hidden object, and puzzle casual game developed by KatGames and published by PlayFirst. It is the first installment in the series.
Set in a mystical world where mortal and fairy realms collide, the game tells the story of a mortal woman named Faye who is the only being able to awaken from a powerful fairy's dream spell. She embarks on an adventure through a dream world to find her fairy husband and save her hometown. To solve the mystery, players must complete puzzles and search for clues leading to the whereabouts of Faye's husband.
As the first part of the first trilogy, "Dream Chronicles" spawned two direct sequels, ' and ', which were released in 2008 and 2009 respectively.
Gameplay.
"Dream Chronicles" is a seek-and-find adventure game. Its gameplay consists of a series of puzzles that the player must solve to reach the next chapter. Each scene incorporates one or more puzzles. Most involve searching for and making use of hidden objects, while others are logic puzzles. Players are required to collect items from the scene and put them back where they belong.
When the player enters a room or location for the first time, the main character, Faye, makes an entry statement, serving as brief instructions for the player. Almost all objects in a room can be described to the player by Faye. Items can be collected and placed in the inventory. Once there, the player can use them on other objects, and combine them to solve puzzles. Unlike "hardcore" adventure games, items only function within the room in which they are collected, and not in future puzzles. Solving the puzzle at hand unlocks the door to the next location. The game itself is separated into many segments, separated by cut-scenes that tell the story through the main character Faye's point of view.
Various colored gems are present throughout the game. These are Dream Pieces, gems that make up the Dream Jewels collection. They provide detailed information about some important fairies and their roles in the Fairy Realm which features in the series. Finding and completing Dream Jewels adds to the player's score at the end of the game. Though regarded as borrowing "Myst" series' concepts, "Dream Chronicles" is one of the earliest casual games combining the adventure game's elements with hidden object game's proportions (along with "Azada" and "Mortimer Beckett").
At the end of the game, the player earns a high score, depending on completion time and number of Dream Pieces found. When re-playing the game under the same name to beat the score, the location of some items changes.
Plot.
A mortal woman named Faye had a dream in which the Fairy Queen of Dreams, Lilith, was casting a dream spell upon her Town of Wish, and making every resident fell into a magically deep sleep. Strangely, Faye could hear her husband Fidget trying hopelessly to awaken her somehow. Waking up from this dream, Faye cannot believe that those things that have occurred in her dreams are happening in reality as well: Lilith has already abducted Fidget. However, before being abducted, Fidget used his remaining power, removed the sleep spell from Faye, and left a path for her to follow in his precious diary. Faye decides to check her little daughter Lyra. Unfortunately, Lyra is falling into the sleep spell like every other resident in the town. Faye starts her journey in hope of finding Fidget, but is constantly hindered by Lilith's magical obstacles. It is not long before Faye discovers the secret that the in-law family has tried to keep from her so long: Fidget and his parents are Fairies. Faye soon learns more about the in-law family's fairy heritage and their secret past. She acknowledges that all marriages are arranged in the Fairy Realm, and the concept of love was unknown until Fidget's parents, Aeval and Tangle, fell in love. Fidget was to marry Lilith, but his parents chose to raise him in the mortal world, so he could marry a mortal for love too. Lilith believed that her marriage to Fidget would strengthen her powers as the Fairy Queen of Dreams. She already had the power to watch and monitor the dreams, daydreams, and imaginings of mortals, but she wanted the power to control their dreams. Since Fidget married Faye, Lilith has hatched an evil plan to make sure that Fidget will become hers. Fidget reveals these secrets to Faye through his diary, which makes Faye feel confused and frustrated. She soon accepts the truth when she discovers a talking, carnivorous plant named Herbert who, according to Fidget, is his mother's best friend. After leaving the comfort of her in-laws’ home, Faye crosses the street and tries to open the main gate of the Town of Wish. She ventures outside but quickly gets lost in the forest when the moon rises. Luckily, a sign found in the dark shows Faye directly to Lilith's mansion where she thinks Lilith is keeping her husband. Faye finds Fidget there and is able to reunite with him momentarily. Lilith soon appears to separate the couple again, taking Fidget with her and casting another sleep spell upon Faye. Faye falls into another deep sleep and hopelessly sees Lilith taking Fidget in front of her.
Development.
Before releasing "Dream Chronicles", KatGames had developed eight games but none of them earned success because of their poorly low-budget appearances. Having been aware of this, when starting the development of their ninth title (which became "Dream Chronicles"), KatGames moonlighted on it during other projects in the hope to find funding and attention for the game.
In 2005, CEO and lead game designer of KatGames, Miguel Tartaj shared the game idea with two potential partners but according to him "it didn't go anywhere". Tartaj wanted to find a publisher who could provide his team with the creative input and non-development support. He also needed a partner whom his team trusted, and had a track record of successfully navigating the casual games market. Tartaj first met PlayFirst's creative director Kenny Dinkin and director of publishing Craig Bocks at Casual Connect Amsterdam in 2006, and pitched to him the idea of "Dream Chronicles". KatGames eventually signed an agreement to PlayFirst on what came to be known in June 2007 as "Dream Chronicles".
Miguel Tartaj shared his thoughts when KatGames became a PlayFirst's partner: "We knew that an adventure game like "Dream Chronicles" was going to be unique for our team and unique for the casual games industry. [...] The iterative nature of a story-based game like "Dream Chronicles" was going to require a much higher degree of flexibility throughout the game's design and development process. Each new scene involved unique graphics, puzzles, and story elements, so we knew that it wouldn't all be 'figured out' upfront. I prefer to work more iteratively and put pieces together to try things out as we go along. PlayFirst's willingness to accept this fact was something that I appreciated in terms of my work style. Not only being able to work this way, but to also be supported in doing it was a great advantage for my team. We truly were able to 'dream' as we went along."
Release and post-release.
"Dream Chronicles" was first released as a download on June 12, 2007 by PlayFirst. The game peaked at number-one on PlayFirst, Logler Global, RealArcade, GameHouse, Shockwave, MSN Games and Zylom; number-two on iWin.com, Arcade Town, Big Fish Games and Yahoo! Games; number-three on Reflexive Arcade and Oberon Games. It peaked inside top ten on Pogo.com, SpinTop Games, Amazon.com and other major casual game charts.
On December 12, 2011, a high-definition version of this game was available via App Store for iPad device.
Reception.
"Dream Chronicles" was met with generally unfavorable reviews. According to review aggregator Metacritic, upon the release of "Dream Chronicles" to home consoles in 2010, it was the worst received
PlayStation 3 game of the year, and the fifth worst received Xbox 360 game of the year. Criticism was commonly leveled at the game's dated and uninspired gameplay, however it received some praise for its artwork. Despite its poor critical reception across major outlets, the game was warmly received by some casual game reviewers.
Impact.
In late 2007, "Dream Chronicles" was awarded for the "2nd Runner-Up Best Puzzle Game of 2007", and picked into the 2007 Customer Favorites list by Big Fish Games. In early 2008, the game received five nominations at the Second Annual Casual Game "Zeeby" Awards held by Gamezebo, including four Craft Awards (Best Visual Art, Best Story, Best Innovative Game, and Best Audio Game of 2007) and one People's Choice Award (Best Hidden Object & Adventure Game of 2007). "Dream Chronicles" won the latter and lost the former to "", "Build-a-lot", and "Peggle" respectively in July 2008.


Rehane Yavar Dhala

Rehane Yavar Dhala née Rehane Khaleeli (born 27 January 1969), best known as REHANE, is a fashion designer based in Chennai, India and known for her mélange of modern Indian sensibilities with a strong sense of European haute couture and ready-to-wear fashion.
Rehane's flagship store is in Chennai with selected outlets across the globe, Evoluzione in Bangalore, Kimaya in Mumbai and Dubai, Indomix in New York City, Chubara in Washington, D.C. and Strip in Hyderabad. She regularly showcases her designs at Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week in New Delhi and Lakme Fashion Week in Mumbai.


Hum Honorary Phenomenal Serial Award

The Hum Honorary Phenomenal Serial Award is given by the Board of Directors of the Hum Television Network and Entertainment Channel (HTNEC) to the Hum Television Network most critically acclaimed and cult followed drama serial of the year. The recipients of this award are usually directors, producers, writers, main cast and technical crew of the production.
This is one of the Special Award given by the Channel directors to the work of exceptional achievements. All the categorized and organized special award is awarded annually during the ceremony.
Hum Honorary Phenomenal Serial Award incepted with the origin of first Awards, and it may not be awarded every year, it is one of the category that is only based on the special inaugurated work of the year, this award may have irregular wins.
Recipients.
Following is the listing of the recipients of Hum Honorary Phenomenal Serial Award:
2010s.
Note: "The † symbol indicates a posthumous award."


Mohammad Alavi (game developer)

Mohammad Alavi (, ) is an Iranian video game developer who currently works at Respawn Entertainment. He is best known for his critically acclaimed work on the "Call of Duty" series at Infinity Ward, creating the iconic "Crew Expendable" and "All Ghillied Up" missions from ' (2007) as well as the controversial "No Russian" mission from ' (2009).
Biography.
Mohammad Alavi was born in the 1980s in Tehran, Iran and relocated to the United States with his family after the Iran–Iraq War. He remains proud of his family's culture, and calls himself "An Iranian inside his heart". Alavi attended Maggie L. Walker Governor's School for Government and International Studies in Richmond, Virginia. He then attended Virginia Tech, majoring in Biology and Chemistry before becoming a video game designer after being credited for creating some of the best modded games in "PC Gamer" magazine. He applied to and attended Full Sail University. He has two elder siblings, a brother and a sister, who are both physicians.
Career.
Alavi's main field of expertise is design and cinematic gameplay scripting. His creations are described "thoughtful" and noted in terms of artificial intelligence (AI) companion roles.
Entering video game industry.
During his college years, Alavi started to create mods for "Duke Nukem 3D", "Quake", "Half-Life" and "Counter-Strike". His hobby was to work as a mapper and texture artist for mods. He later made a reputation for himself under the alias "BadMofo", when one of his works was published on an issue of "PC Gamer". Alavi later entered Full Sail University to focus on programming, and applied for a programming job at Infinity Ward following his graduation. Considering his reputation as a modder, the company offered him a job as a level designer, instead of a programmer.
"Call of Duty" series.
According to "Edge", Alavi "is responsible for some of the most intense and memorable campaign levels in "Call Of Duty" history". "PC Gamer" called Alavi "the designer behind two of the most acclaimed missions in "Call of Duty" history ("All Ghillied Up" and "No Russian")".
Alavi created his first professional levels for "Call of Duty 2", including the potato-throwing grenade tutorial.
The first level of "", "Crew Expendable", which is set on a ship on a stormy sea is also his work. His design for the level was initially rejected by the leads, due to technical complexities, but Alavi stayed after hours and worked 18-hour days for three weeks to secretly script the rejected level. Once the leads became aware of his work and saw his not quite done work, they were convinced to include it in the game.
The same went for a flashback mission called "All Ghillied Up", when he ended up writing the necessary code himself. His "tense and deliberately paced mission" was debuted in E3 2007. The mission marked the first time in the series that non-player characters were capable of stealth behaviours. The mission won significant critical attention, being described as "One Of Gaming's Best Levels" and "The Best Call Of Duty Mission Ever" in reviews. In 2011, "Now Gamer" ranked the level the 20th on its "Top 50 Gaming Moments". It was also ranked #13 in "IGN"'s "Top 100 Video Game Moments".
Alavi's script for AI in "Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare", ended up having value and formed the template next title of the series, "".
"No Russian" controversy.
Alavi was the designer of ""s controversial mission called "No Russian". The mission was described ""Call of Duty"s most controversial moment" by "PC Gamer" and "GamesRadar" named it "one of the 10 most shocking game moments of the 2000s."
"Titanfall" series.
In 2010, Alavi co-founded "Titanfall"'s team in Respawn Entertainment alongside other former "Call of Duty" developers. He served as the senior map designer for the studio, and shot some motion capture footage as an actor. According to "PC Gamer", its difficult to know the details of Alavi's design and scripting in the game, however his influence is apparent in "how "Titanfall"s on-map AI allies support the player". In an interview, Alavi stated that he was heavily involved in different aspects of the project, including AI design, gameplay and level design. He also bore much responsibility for the game involving a narrative component at all, pushing for longer and different introductions to each campaign map. In order to convince that the feature can be achieved within budget, he designed an introduction for "Airbase" map in three days.
Alavi resumed his work at Respawn Entertainment by working on "Titanfall 2".


Liberate Tate

Liberate Tate is an art collective exploring the role of creative intervention in social change. The group aims to "free art from oil" with a primary focus on the art museum Tate ending its corporate sponsorship with BP. Liberate Tate has become internationally renowned for artworks about the relationship of public cultural institutions with oil companies. In 2016 Liberate Tate won its campaign with the announcement that BP sponsorship of Tate would come to an end in 2017.
Origin.
The collective was founded during a Tate workshop in January 2010 on art and activism. When Tate curators tried to censor the workshop from making interventions against Tate sponsors, even though none had been planned, the participants decided to continue their work together and set up Liberate Tate.
Positions.
Early in 2010 Liberate Tate issued an open invitation for artists, art lovers and other concerned members of the public to act to ensure that Tate ends its oil sponsorship. This led to a growing movement of artists and the public, including Tate members, raising their voices for a more ethical approach to the art museum's relationships and sources of funding.
Artworks.
Liberate Tate works include:
Publication.
In December 2011 Liberate Tate, with arts and research organisation Platform and activist group Art Not Oil, released a publication, "Not if but when: Culture Beyond Oil," on oil sponsorship of the arts.
Audio tour.
In March 2012 Liberate Tate, with Art Not Oil and Platform, released a sound artwork themed around the issue of BP sponsorship of Tate, "Tate à Tate". The site-specific work, an alternative to the official Tate Multimedia Guide and Tate to Tate tours, is for the three locations of Tate Britain, Tate Modern and the Tate Boat. The work is downloaded onto smartphone, iPod or MP3 player and played whilst walking around the Tate London galleries and while sitting on the boat journey along the Thames between the galleries. Artists collaborating with Liberate Tate on "Tate à Tate" were performance artist Mark McGowan (aka The Artist Taxi Driver), Jim Welton and Ansuman Biswas as well as composer Isa Suarez, comedian Mae Martin and journalist Phil England.
Open Letter to Nicholas Serota.
Liberate Tate enhanced performances with evidence of the voice of Tate members and visitors as the art collective argued Tate itself had appeared to not make any meaningful effort to assess their views. Given this, Liberate Tate gave stakeholders this opportunity with an Open Letter to Nicholas Serota in late 2011. Signed by over 8,000 people in just three weeks with a call on Tate to "disengage with BP given the damage being caused by the company to ecosystems, communities and the climate" this was handed to the Tate director at the Tate Members Council on 2 December 2011.


SAP S/4HANA

SAP S/4HANA is SAP's ERP for large enterprises. It is the successor of SAP R/3 and SAP ERP and is optimized for SAP's in-memory database SAP HANA.
Purpose.
The offering is an Enterprise Resource Planning software package meant to cover all day-to-day processes of an enterprise (for example, order-to-cash, procure-to-pay, plan-to-product, and request-to-service) and core capabilities. It integrates functions from lines of businesses as well as industry solutions, and also re-integrates portions of SAP Business Suite products such as SAP SRM, SAP CRM and SAP SCM. As SAP Business Suite 4 only runs on the SAP HANA database it is packaged as one product: SAP S/4HANA. SAP's classical R3, ERP and ECC based business suite and related products were designed to run on several database platforms, including those from Oracle, Microsoft and IBM.
History.
The platform SAP HANA has been available since 2010, and SAP applications like SAP ERP and the SAP Business Suite have been able to run on the SAP HANA database and/or other supported database systems.
The launch of the new suite, called SAP S/4HANA, took place on 3 February 2015 at the New York Stock Exchange. The event introduced cloud and on premise editions, and launched the on-premise edition. Availability of the cloud edition followed at SAPPHIRE NOW (SAP’s annual customer conference) on 6 May 2015 in Orlando, Florida.
SAP S/4HANA is being called SAP's biggest update to its ERP strategy and platform in over two decades. Post-launch, Gartner analysts noted that SAP S/4HANA represented a "transformational shift," but raised questions about the functionality, availability, pricing and migration surrounding S/4HANA.
By 21 April 2015, 370 customers had purchased S/4HANA. After the first half of 2015, positive growth was confirmed for SAP. In October 2015 SAP confirmed that S/4HANA had exceeded over 1,300 customers. Growth continued through the third quarter of 2015. Following its third quarter earnings announcement, SAP said the number of SAP S/4HANA customers had risen to 1,300. After fourth quarter close of 2016, SAP announced that 5,400 customers had implemented SAP S/4HANA. By 30 June 2018, the customer base for product reached 8,900 customers.
There are numerous ERP systems with the same intention. Some of the product's competitors in the Software as a Service space are Oracle, Infor, Microsoft and Workday, Inc.
Editions and deployment.
SAP S/4HANA can be deployed on-premises, in the cloud, or through a hybrid model. The S/4HANA product offering consists of two editions: SAP S/4HANA On-Premise and SAP S/4HANA Cloud.
SAP S/4HANA On-Premise is similar in terms of coverage, functionality, industry-specific support, and localization to the current SAP Business Suite (in 39 languages, 64 country versions).
SAP also offers SAP S/4HANA Cloud (in 18 languages, 33 country versions). SAP has emphasized the product as pivotal to its cloud shift.
Both editions consist of functionality for finance, accounting, controlling, procurement, sales, manufacturing, plant maintenance, project system, and product lifecycle management, plus integration with SAP SuccessFactors, SAP Ariba, SAP Hybris, SAP Fieldglass and SAP Concur.
Overview of releases.
SAP S/4HANA (on-premise) releases are once per year, SAP S/4HANA Cloud releases are quarterly. Version coding for cloud edition: YYMM example 1709 - September 2017. Version coding for on-premise edition (since 2020): YYYY example 2020 - Release 2020.
SAP S/4HANA On-Premise releases:
SAP S/4HANA Cloud releases:
Implementation.
There are various ways to get to S/4HANA. This depends on a customer’s starting point. For example, new implementation, system conversion, and selective data transition.
Product lifecycle.
Both SAP S/4HANA on-premise and the SAP S/4HANA cloud editions have release strategies. The cloud editions are released quarterly. The on-premise edition has one new release per year and receives additional functionality and corrections in the form of Feature Pack Stacks (FPS) or Service Pack Stacks (SPS) each quarter.
On-premise: Each year, SAP is shipping a new product version of its on-premise SAP S/4HANA product (e.g. SAP S/4HANA 1610) this will always be followed by three successive FPS on a quarterly basis, after this SAP releases the next product version and the previous product version is receiving SPS on a quarterly basis until the end of mainstream maintenance. Technically, a FPS is like a SPS, but it may include non-disruptive, non-mandatory features. The numbering of FPS/SPS will be consecutive, i.e. the first SPS after a FPS3 would be consequently SPS4.


Thomas M. Reid

Thomas M. Reid (born December 23, 1966 in Fort Collins, Colorado) is an author and game designer who grew up in Arlington, Texas. Reid attended the University of Houston where he minored in Creative Writing. Subsequently, he got a job at Wizards of the Coast writing "AD&D" books. During his tenure there, he wrote many "AD&D" novels. After Wizards was bought out by Hasbro, Reid resigned and moved back to Texas along with his wife and three children where he continues his creative writing vocation.
Early life and education.
Thomas M. Reid was born to Norma and Tony Reid in a snowstorm in the mountains of Fort Collins, Colorado, two days before the Christmas of 1966. He spent the first two years of his life living in Colorado and Virginia before the family moved back to Texas, growing up in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Reid graduated high school in 1985, and after a year at the University of Houston, he returned to the DFW area and changed his major to liberal arts. While attending college at UT Arlington he spent time playing "Dungeons & Dragons" again with all his old childhood friends. Eventually, he came to Austin, where he met his wife Teresa and got a B.A. in history from the University of Texas in 1989.
Career.
Reid answered a TSR advertisement in the back of "Dragon" Magazine seeking professional editors, so he and Teresa moved to Delavan, Wisconsin, in the fall of 1991. Reid lived in Wisconsin for nearly six years, working initially as an editor and eventually being promoted to creative director at TSR, Inc. When Wizards of the Coast purchased the company and relocated everyone to Washington, Reid and his family moved there too. During his ten years with the company, Reid had a hand in a variety of products and lines, including the core "D&D", Forgotten Realms, Ravenloft, and Planescape lines, and the "Star Wars" and "Wheel of Time" RPGs. Some of his personal favorite editing and design projects include "Dragon Mountain", a trilogy of beholder adventures, "Tale of the Comet", and the golem Angelique in "Children of the Night: The Created". In addition to gaming material, Reid has written a handful of "Dragon" Magazine articles and a pair of short stories that appear in Forgotten Realms anthologies. Reid is the author of more than a dozen short stories and novels, including "Insurrection", the second book of the R.A. Salvatore's War of the Spider Queen series for the Forgotten Realms. He also wrote the novels "Gridrunner" for the Star*Drive setting and "Temple of Elemental Evil" for the Greyhawk setting.
Reid eventually returned to Texas, and lives in the greater Austin area with his wife and three kids—Aidan, Galen, and Quinton. They live on a quarter-acre cat ranch in the Texas Hill Country. Reid stays home and writes full-time now, but when he's not working, Reid loves to go hiking and camping, play with his kids, and root for the Rangers, Cowboys, Stars, and Texas Longhorns. He also loves to play softball, indoor soccer, touch football, basketball, tennis, and golf in the daytime, and to game, read, write, and paint miniatures after dark.


Andy Tudor

Andy Tudor is a video game designer. He is the Creative Director for the video game developer Slightly Mad Studios in London, England.
Career.
Tudor is known for working on ' (2009), ' (2011), and "The Walking Dead: Assault" (2013). He is also credited as a Voice Director and Motion Capture Technical Director on previous titles for SCE Cambridge Studio, including "". and "Primal".


Kecheng Liu

Kecheng Liu (born 1957) is a Chinese/British expert in organisational semiotics a professor of applied informatics at the University of Reading, and a professor of management science and engineering.
Biography.
Born in Jiangsu, China, Liu received his B.A. degree in computer science in 1982 at the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In the Netherlands, he received his MSc in Decision Support Systems in 1989 at the International Institute for Aerospace Survey and Earth Sciences, and his Ph.D. in information management in 1993 at the University of Twente with a doctoral thesis entitled "Semiotics applied to information systems development".
After graduation in 1993, Liu became a faculty member at the School of Computing of the Staffordshire University. In 2003 he moved to the Department of Computer Science of the University of Reading. By 2005 he was appointed professor of informatics and e-business at the University of Reading. Liu is a Fellow of British Computer Society. and Fellow of Charted Institute of Management and Senior Fellow of Higher Education Academy. He is currently the Director for Strategic Initiatives, Henley Business School of the University of Reading. He is the founding Head of School of Business Informatics, Systems and Accounting (2011–2016) which consists of two departments: Informatics and Systems, and Accounting and Financial Management. He also founded and is now the Honorary Director of Informatics Research Centre (2014 to date), and was Deputy Director of Technologies for Sustainable Built Environments (2009–2013), both being multidisciplinary research centres within the University of Reading. He is now mainly based in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, serving as the Executive Vice President of Wuhan College, a private university with more than 12,000 students.
He has been visiting professor at the Renmin University of China, Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Fudan University and Beijing Institute of Technology, where he is also a PhD supervisor. He also has had similar visiting positions at the Southeast University, Beijing Jiaotong University, Dalian University of Technology, and Shanghai University of Finance and Economics. He has been invited to deliver lectures in information systems and semiotics in China, Australia, Czech, France, Holland, Hong Kong, Portugal, Spain, Chile and Brazil. He is member of Senior Board of IBG (British Intelligent Buildings Group) and senior advisor on digital hospital in a governmental healthcare organisation in China.
Work.
Liu's research interests in early 2000s have been in the field of "requirements studies, information systems analysis and design, object methods for systems engineering, normative modelling of software agents, e-commerce systems, digital strategy and leadership."
More recently, these interests has shifted towards "organisational semiotics, requirements studies, enterprise information systems management and engineering, business processing modelling, alignment of business and IT strategies, co-design of business and IT systems, pervasive informatics and intelligent spaces for working and living."
Publications.
Liu has authored and co-authored over 200 publications in his field of expertise.


OutRun (album)

OutRun is the debut studio album by French electronic musician Kavinsky. It was released on 22 February 2013 by Record Makers, Vertigo Records and Mercury Records. Production for the album was handled primarily by Kavinsky, along with close friend and fellow French electro house artist SebastiAn. The album is named after Sega's 1986 arcade game of the same name, which featured the Ferrari Testarossa.
The concept behind "OutRun" follows Kavinsky's backstory of a young man who crashed his Testarossa in 1986 and reappeared in 2006 as a zombie who produces electronic music. Kavinsky cites influences from 1980s video games, television cop shows such as "Miami Vice", and the films of Dario Argento.
Singles.
"ProtoVision" was released on 10 December 2012 as the album's official lead single. The music video, directed by Marcus Herring, was released on 7 December 2012 on Vimeo and on 10 December 2012 on YouTube.
Usage in media.
A one-minute snippet of the song "Odd Look" was used in a 2012 French commercial for BMW i, which was shown in cinemas. "Nightcall" plays during the opening credits of the 2011 film "Drive". "Roadgame" has been used by Mercedes-Benz in a 2012 French commercial and in 2015 for the Italian commercial of the CLA Shooting Brake. In a British 2021 TV commercial for Gusto pre-prepared food ingredient boxes, a short clip of "Rampage" was used as an example of 80's electronica.
Critical reception.
"OutRun" received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 75, based on 12 reviews.
Personnel.
Credits for adapted from the liner notes of "OutRun".
Musicians
Technical
Artwork


Seven Rings