Codec

A codec is a device or computer program capable of encoding or decoding a digital data stream or signal.Codec is a portmanteau of coder-decoder or, less commonly, compressor-decompressor.

A codec encodes a data stream or signal for transmission, storage or encryption, or decodes it for playback or editing. Codecs are used in videoconferencing, streaming media, and video editing applications. A video camera's analog-to-digital converter (ADC) converts its analog signals into digital signals, which are then passed through a video compressor for digital transmission or storage. A receiving device then runs the signal through a video decompressor, then a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) for analog display.

Related concepts

In the mid 20th century, a codec was a hardware device that coded analog signals into digital form using pulse-code modulation (PCM). Late in the century the name was also applied to a class of software for converting between different digital signal formats, including compander functions.

Metal Gear Solid

Metal Gear Solid (Japanese: メタルギアソリッド, Hepburn: Metaru Gia Soriddo) is an action-adventure stealth video game developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Japan and first published by Konami for the PlayStation in 1998. The game was directed, produced, and co-written by series creator Hideo Kojima, and serves as a sequel to the MSX2 video games Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, which Kojima also wrote and directed.

Metal Gear Solid follows Solid Snake, a soldier who infiltrates a nuclear weapons facility to neutralize the terrorist threat from FOXHOUND, a renegade special forces unit. Snake must liberate two hostages, the head of DARPA and the president of a major arms manufacturer, confront the terrorists, and stop them from launching a nuclear strike. Cinematic cutscenes were rendered using the in-game engine and graphics, and voice acting was used throughout the entire game.

Metal Gear Solid was well received, shipping more than six million copies, and scoring an average of 94/100 on the aggregate website Metacritic. It is regarded by many critics as one of the greatest and most important games of all time, and is often seen as the game which helped popularize the stealth genre. The commercial success of the title prompted the release of an expanded version for the PlayStation and PC, titled Metal Gear Solid: Integral; and a remake, Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes was later released for the GameCube. The game has also spawned numerous sequels, prequels and spin-offs, including several games, a radio drama, comics, and novels.

Metal Gear (disambiguation)

Metal Gear is a series of video games.

Metal Gear may also refer to:

Metal Gear series

Main games

GRA

GRA or Gra may refer to:

In arts and entertainment:

Organizations:

Places:

Other uses:

Gender Recognition Act 2004

The Gender Recognition Act 2004 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that allows transgender people to change their legal gender. It came into effect on 4 April 2005.

Operation of the law

The Act gives transsexual people legal recognition as members of the sex appropriate to their gender (male or female) allowing them to acquire a new birth certificate, affording them full recognition of their acquired sex in law for all purposes, including marriage. The two main exceptions are a right of conscience for Church of England clergy (who are normally obliged to marry any two eligible people by law), and that the descent of peerages will remain unchanged. Additionally, sports organisations are allowed to exclude transsexual people if it is necessary for 'fair competition or the safety of the competitors'.

People present evidence to a Gender Recognition Panel, which considers their case and issues a Gender Recognition Certificate. If the person involved is in a legally recognised marriage they will be issued an 'Interim Gender Recognition Certificate', which can then be used as grounds for annulment of the marriage, but otherwise has no status. After annulment, a full Certificate will be issued.

Yugra

Yugra or Iuhra (Old Russian Югра, c.f. Byzantine Greek Οὔγγροι) was the name of the lands between the Pechora River and Northern Urals in the Russian annals of the 12th–17th centuries, as well as the name of the Khanty and partly Mansi tribes inhabiting these territories, later known as Voguls

The Khanty–Mansi Autonomous Okrug of Russia is also called Yugra.

The name Yugra also gave rise to the modern adjective Ugric.

History

The 12th century missionary and traveller Abu Hamid al-Gharnati gives one of the earliest accounts of the region, which he calls Yura in Arabic:

The Golden Lady of the Obians was apparently an idol of the Yugrans. The first reports of the Golden Lady are found in the 14th-century Novgorod Chronicles, with reference to Saint Stephan of Perm. Next, the golden idol is mentioned in the 16th century by the subjects of the Grand Duke of Moscow, commissioned to describe the trade and military routes of the expanding Russia. The first non-Russian we know of to comment on the golden lady is Mathias from Miechov, Professor of Krakow University. The golden idol appeared on Sigismund von Herberstein's map of Moscovia published on 1549, and on a number of later maps, e.g. Gerhard Mercator's "Map of the Arctic (1595)", where it is labeled Zolotaia Baba (from Russian Золотая баба - "Golden Lady" or "Golden Idol").