Proxy

A proxy is an agent or substitute authorized to act for another person or a document which authorizes the agent so to act, and may also be used in the following contexts:

Proxy (novel)

Proxy is a 2013 sci-fi, dystopian young adult novel by Alex London. The novel, which was released on June 18, 2013, features a gay adolescent as its action-hero protagonist. A sequel to the novel has been released in 2014, Guardian. The novel utilizes a third-person, subjective narration structure that alternates between Knox Brindle and Sydney Carton.

London states that he drew inspiration for Proxy from the 1987 book The Whipping Boy, "where the rich pay for the poor to take their punishments."

Plot

Setting

The book is set in a distant post-cataclysmic future where civilization has evolved its technology so rapidly through unrestricted capitalism to bring about a world where nearly every conceivable service can be purchased. Society has developed into a rigid class system where the Upper City lives in the height of luxury while the Lower City lives in utter poverty. As a result of the Lower City being infinitely indebted to the Upper City super corporations, the middle class has been eliminated altogether. Because of this debt, Upper City citizens can purchase the debts of someone from the Lower City. The wealthy patron will pay for the poorer person's essential needs and in return they serve as proxies to be punished whenever the rich patron either breaks the law, or needs their body for health purposes - e.g. donate blood or organs. However this system is seen as unfair, as the Lower City citizens assume this debt at birth and have no other feasible way to repay the debt. In addition any contact between the proxies and the patrons is outlawed. This injustice has brought about the existence of "The Rebooters", a rebel organization set on destroying this system by introducing "Jubilation", an idea that would erase debts, currency credits, and all digital data and records.

Proxy (film)

Proxy is a 2013 American horror film directed by Zack Parker. The movie had its world premiere on September 10, 2013 at the Toronto International Film Festival. It stars Alexia Rasmussen as a pregnant young woman who joins a support group after she miscarries due to a vicious attack. The filmmakers describe Proxy as a spiritual successor to the horror film Rosemary's Baby, and its main character Esther Woodhouse is named after the earlier film's protagonist Rosemary Woodhouse.

Film rights to Proxy were picked up by IFC Midnight shortly after its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Plot

While walking home from a doctor's appointment, the pregnant Esther Woodhouse (Alexia Rasmussen) is knocked unconscious by a person in a hoodie who hits her belly repeatedly with a brick. Despite the efforts of emergency room doctors, her baby is already dead when removed by Caesarian section. Noticing that Esther doesn't seem to have any friends or family (the baby was conceived via sperm bank), a social worker at the hospital forwards her to a support group for grieving parents.

MOD (file format)

MOD is a computer file format used primarily to represent music, and was the first module file format. MOD files use the “.MOD” file extension, except on the Amiga where the original trackers instead use a “mod.” prefix scheme, e.g. “mod.echoing”. A MOD file contains a set of instruments in the form of samples, a number of patterns indicating how and when the samples are to be played, and a list of what patterns to play in what order.

History

The first version of the format was created by Karsten Obarski for use in the Ultimate Soundtracker; tracker software released for the Amiga computer in 1987. The format has since been supported by hundreds of playback programs and dozens of other trackers.

The original version of the MOD format featured four channels of simultaneous audio playback, corresponding to the capabilities of the original Amiga chipset, and up to 15 instruments.

Later variations of the format have extended this to up to 32 channels and 31 instruments.

The format was designed to be directly playable on the Amiga without additional processing: for example, samples are stored in 8-bit PCM format ready to be played on the Amiga DACs, and pattern data is not packed. Playback required very little CPU time on an Amiga, and many games used MOD files for their background music.

Mod (subculture)

Mod is a subculture that began in 1960s Britain and spread, in varying degrees, to other countries and continues today on a smaller scale. Focused on music and fashion, the subculture has its roots in a small group of London-based stylish young men in the late 1950s who were termed modernists because they listened to modern jazz, although the subculture expanded to include women.

Significant elements of the mod subculture include fashion (often tailor-made suits); music (including soul, ska, and R&B); and motor scooters (usually Lambretta or Vespa). The original mod scene was associated with amphetamine-fuelled all-night dancing at clubs.

In England during the early to mid 1960s, mods often engaged in brawls with rockers, which led to many news articles. The mods and rockers conflict led sociologist Stanley Cohen to coin the term moral panic in his study about the two youth subcultures, which examined media coverage of the mod and rocker riots in the 1960s. In the mid-to-late 1960s, the conflicts between mods and rockers subsided, as several rock bands, including The Who and the Small Faces adopted a mod style. London became synonymous with fashion, music, and pop culture in these years, a period often referred to as "Swinging London." In turn, mod influence spread to the United States and around the world.

Mod (video gaming)

A mod or modification is the alteration of content from a video game in order to make it operate in a manner different from its original version. Mods can be created for any genre of game but are especially popular in first-person shooters, role-playing games and real-time strategy games. Mods are made by the general public or a developer and can be entirely new games in themselves, but mods are not stand-alone software and require the user to have the original release in order to run. They can include new items, modded weapons, characters, enemies, models, textures, levels, story lines, music, money, armor, life and game modes. They can be single-player or multiplayer. Mods that add new content to the underlying game are often called partial conversions, while mods that create an entirely new game are called total conversions and mods that fix bugs only are called unofficial patches.

Games running on a personal computer are often designed with change in mind, allowing modern PC games to be modified by gamers without much difficulty. These mods can add extra replay value and interest. The Internet provides an inexpensive medium to promote and distribute mods, and they have become an increasingly important factor in the commercial success of some games. Developers such as id Software, Valve Software, Re-Logic, Bethesda Softworks, Firaxis, Crytek, The Creative Assembly and Epic Games provide extensive tools and documentation to assist mod makers, leveraging the potential success brought in by a popular mod like Counter-Strike.