Axis (novel)

Axis is a science fiction novel by author Robert Charles Wilson, published in 2007. It is a direct sequel to Wilson's Hugo Award-winning Spin, published two years earlier. The novel was a finalist for the 2008 John W. Campbell Award.

Plot

Axis takes place on the new planet introduced at the end of Spin, a world the Hypotheticals engineered to support human life and connected to Earth by way of the Arch that towers hundreds of miles over the Indian Ocean. Humans are colonizing this new world — and, predictably, fiercely exploiting its resources, chiefly large deposits of oil in the western deserts of the continent of Equatoria.

Lise Adams is a young woman attempting to uncover the mystery of her father's disappearance ten years earlier. Turk Findley is an ex-sailor and sometimes-drifter. They come together when showers of cometary dust seed the planet with tiny remnant Hypothetical machines. Soon, this seemingly hospitable world becomes very alien, as the nature of time is once again twisted by entities unknown.

Axis (album)

Axis is the second album released by Australian hip hop artist MC Pegz. It was released in 2005, 18 months after his debut album. This recording features appearances from other Australian MCs, including Hilltop Hoods, Hyjak N Torcha, and Debaser (Ethic and Sapient).

Reception

Track listing

All tracks written by Tirren Staaf and Leigh Ryan unless otherwise noted.

Credits

Apache Axis

Apache Axis (Apache eXtensible Interaction System) is an open-source, XML based Web service framework. It consists of a Java and a C++ implementation of the SOAP server, and various utilities and APIs for generating and deploying Web service applications. Using Apache Axis, developers can create interoperable, distributed computing applications. Axis development takes place under the auspices of the Apache Software Foundation.

Axis for Java

When using the Java version of Axis there are two ways to expose Java code as Web service. The easiest one is to use Axis native JWS (Java Web Service) files. Another way is to use custom deployment. Custom deployment enables you to customize resources that should be exposed as Web services.

See also Apache Axis2.

JWS Web service creation

JWS files contain Java class source code that should be exposed as Web service. The main difference between an ordinary java file and jws file is the file extension. Another difference is that jws files are deployed as source code and not compiled class files.

Magic (B'z album)

Magic is the seventeenth studio album released by Japanese hard rock band B'z on November 18, 2009. A limited edition was released featuring a bonus DVD with the video "Magical Backstage Tour 2009" (videos of recording sessions, live footage of their performance at Summer Sonic 09 and more).

It was preceded by two singles: "Ichibu to Zenbu/Dive" and "My Lonely Town." "Ichibu to Zenbu" was used as the Fuji Television drama Buzzer Beat's theme song, and "Dive" was used as a CM song for the Suzuki Swift advertising campaign. The album track "Pray" served as the theme to the Japanese film Tajomaru, which was released to Japanese theaters in September 2009. On the release date of the album, it was reported that another album track, "Long Time No See," would serve as the theme to Salaryman Kintaro 2, which is set to begin airing in January 2010 on TV Asahi.

Magic debuted at No. 1 on the Japanese Oricon weekly album charts with its initial week sales of around 341,000 copies. The album became their 24th number-one album on Oricon charts. The album is also certified Double Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) for shipment of 500,000 copies.

Gibson MaGIC

Media-accelerated Global Information Carrier (MaGIC) is an Audio over Ethernet protocol developed by Gibson Guitar Corporation in partnership with 3COM. MaGIC allows bidirectional transmission of multichannel audio data, control data, and instrument power.

Revision 1.0 was introduced in 1999; the most current revision 3.0c was released in 2003.

MaGIC is used in several guitar products such as Gibson Digital Guitar.

Capabilities

Network protocol

In terms of ISO OSI model, MaGIC can use physical and link layer (MAC/LLC) based on 100 Mbit Fast Ethernet signalling specified in IEEE 802.3/IEEE 802.3af and IEEE 802.2, however MaGIC implements proprietary network and application layers which can be used with different physical layers such as Gigabit Ethernet or optical media.

Secret Time

Secret Time is the first mini album by South Korean girl group Secret. The album was released on April 1, 2010, and contains ten tracks. "Magic" was used as the promotional song for the album. The song debuted at number 2 on South Korea's Gaon Singles Chart and the album debuted at number 4 on the Gaon Album Chart on April 1.

Promotion

"Magic" was first used as a promotional track from the album. On March 29, 2010, a teaser video was released online. In the teaser, the girls were performing a dance track called "Break Time". The final music video premiered on April 1, 2010 along with Secret Time 's release. Due to printing errors, the physical release for their mini-album was delayed for five days but was released online on various music portal sites. The music video reached 1 million views on video sharing sites such as YouTube and Cyworld and the “Suspender Dance”, which was featured in the music video teaser for "Magic", gained popularity amongst netizens.

Secret had their debut performances of "Magic" on Mnet's M! Countdown, KBS's Music Bank, MBC's Show! Music Core and SBS's Inkigayo from April 8 to April 11.

Ship's bell

A ship's bell is used to indicate the time aboard a ship and hence to regulate the sailors' duty watches. The bell itself is usually made of brass or bronze and normally has the ship's name engraved or cast on it.

Timing of duty periods

Unlike civil clock bells, the strikes of the bell do not accord to the number of the hour. Instead, there are eight bells, one for each half-hour of a four-hour watch. In the age of sailing, watches were timed with a 30-minute hourglass. Bells would be struck every time the glass was turned, and in a pattern of pairs for easier counting, with any odd bells at the end of the sequence.

The classical system was:

At midnight on New Year's Eve sixteen bells would be struck – eight bells for the old year and eight bells for the new.

Most of the crew of a ship would be divided up into between two and four groups called watches. Each watch would take its turn with the essential activities of manning the helm, navigating, trimming sails, and keeping a lookout.