Clone (computing)

In computing, a clone is a hardware or software system that is designed to function in the same way as another system. A specific subset of clones are Remakes (or Remades), which are revivals of old, obsolete, or discontinued products.

Motivation

Clones and remakes are created for various reasons, including competition, standardization, availability across platforms, and even as homage. Compatibility with the original system is usually the explicit purpose of cloning hardware or low-level software such as operating systems (e.g. AROS and MorphOS are intended to be compatible with AmigaOS). Application software can be cloned simply by providing similar functionality (all word processors have the same basic purpose), but may also be designed to support specific file formats (e.g. OpenOffice.org is intended to supplant Microsoft Office).

Commercially motivated clones are made often during a competitor product's initial successful commercial run, intentionally competing with the original and trying to participate on their success.

Steven L. Kent

Steven L. Kent, son of woodworker Ron Kent, is an American writer, known for both video game journalism and military science fiction novels. In 1993, Steven started work as a freelance journalist, writing monthly video game reviews for the Seattle Times. He eventually became a contributor to such video game publications as Electronic Games, Next Generation, and Computer Entertainment News, as well as such mainstream publications as Parade, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, MSNBC, the Japan Times, and the Los Angeles Times Syndicate. He also wrote entries on video games for Encarta and the Encyclopedia Americana.

In 2005, Steve announced that he would concentrate on writing novels. In 2006, he published The Clone Republic and Rogue Clone. In 2007, he published The Clone Alliance.

Kent received a B.A. in 1986 and an M.A. in 1990, both from Brigham Young University.

Bibliography

Science fiction

Independence of clones criterion

In voting systems theory, the independence of clones criterion measures an election method's robustness to strategic nomination. Nicolaus Tideman was the first to formulate this criterion, which states that the winner must not change due to the addition of a non-winning candidate who is similar to a candidate already present.

To be more precise, a subset of the candidates, called a set of clones, exists if no voter ranks any candidate outside the set between (or equal to) any candidates that are in the set. If a set of clones contains at least two candidates, the criterion requires that deleting one of the clones must not increase or decrease the winning chance of any candidate not in the set of clones.

In some systems (such as the plurality vote), the addition of a similar candidate divides support between similar candidates, which can cause them both to lose. In some other systems (such as the Borda count), the addition of a similar alternative increases the apparent support for one of the similar candidates, which can cause it to win. In yet other systems (such as ranked pairs), the introduction of similar alternatives does not affect the chances of the dissimilar candidates, as required by the criterion. There are further systems where the effect of the additional similar alternatives depends on the distribution of other votes.

List of Latin-script trigraphs

A number of trigraphs are found in the Latin script, most of these used especially in Irish orthography.

A

⟨aai⟩ is used in Dutch to write the sound /aːi̯/.

⟨abh⟩ is used in Irish to write the sound /əu̯/, or in Donegal, /oː/, between broad consonants.

⟨adh⟩ is used in Irish to write the sound /əi̯/, or in Donegal, /eː/, between broad consonants, or an unstressed /ə/ at the end of a word.

⟨aei⟩ is used in Irish to write the sound /eː/ between a broad and a slender consonant.

⟨agh⟩ is used in Irish to write the sound /əi̯/, or in Donegal, /eː/, between broad consonants.

⟨aim⟩ is used in French to write the sound /ɛ̃/ (/ɛm/ before a vowel).

⟨ain⟩ is used in French to write the sound /ɛ̃/ (/ɛn/ before a vowel). It also represents /ɛ̃/ in Tibetan Pinyin, where it is alternatively written än.

⟨aío⟩ is used in Irish to write the sound /iː/ between broad consonants.

⟨amh⟩ is used in Irish to write the sound /əu̯/, or in Donegal, /oː/, between broad consonants.

Science (journal)

Science, also widely referred to as Science Magazine, is the peer-reviewed academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and one of the world's top academic journals. It was first published in 1880, is currently circulated weekly and has a print subscriber base of around 130,000. Because institutional subscriptions and online access serve a larger audience, its estimated readership is 570,400 people.

The major focus of the journal is publishing important original scientific research and research reviews, but Science also publishes science-related news, opinions on science policy and other matters of interest to scientists and others who are concerned with the wide implications of science and technology. Unlike most scientific journals, which focus on a specific field, Science and its rival Nature cover the full range of scientific disciplines. According to the Journal Citation Reports, Science's 2014 impact factor was 33.611.

Although it is the journal of the AAAS, membership in the AAAS is not required to publish in Science. Papers are accepted from authors around the world. Competition to publish in Science is very intense, as an article published in such a highly cited journal can lead to attention and career advancement for the authors. Fewer than 10% of articles submitted are accepted for publication.

Shapley Supercluster

The Shapley Supercluster or Shapley Concentration (SCl 124) is the largest concentration of galaxies in our nearby universe that forms a gravitationally interacting unit, thereby pulling itself together instead of expanding with the universe. It appears as a striking overdensity in the distribution of galaxies in the constellation of Centaurus. It is 650 million light years away (z=0.046).

History

In the late 1920s, Harlow Shapley and his colleagues at the Harvard College Observatory started a survey of galaxies in the southern sky, using photographic plates obtained at the 24-inch Bruce telescope at Bloemfontein, South Africa. By 1932, Shapley reported the discovery of 76,000 galaxies brighter than 18th apparent magnitude in a third of the southern sky, based on galaxy counts from his plates. Some of this data was later published as part of the Harvard galaxy counts, intended to map Galactic obscuration and to find the space density of galaxies.

In this catalog, Shapley could see most of the 'Coma-Virgo cloud' (now known to be a superposition of the Coma Supercluster and the Virgo Supercluster), but found a 'cloud' in the constellation of Centaurus to be the most striking concentration of galaxies. He found it particularly interesting because of its great linear dimension, the numerous population and distinctly elongated form. This can be identified with what we now know as the core of the Shapley Supercluster. Shapley estimated the distance to this cloud to be 14 times that to the Virgo cluster, from the average diameters of the galaxies. This would place the Shapley Supercluster at a distance of 231 Mpc, based on the current estimate of the distance to Virgo.

HIVE (virtual environment)

The H.I.V.E. (Huge Immersive Virtual Environment) is a joint research project between the departments of Psychology and Computer Science and Systems Analysis at Miami University. The project is funded by a grant from the U.S. Army Research Office and is currently the world's largest virtual environment in terms of navigable floor area (currently over 1200m²). The goal of the research project is to conduct experiments in human spatial cognition.

System Components

The H.I.V.E. platform consists of several components, including:

References

Waller, D., Bachmann, E., Hodgson, E., & Beall, A. C. (2007). The HIVE: A Huge Immersive Virtual Environment for research in spatial cognition. Behavior Research Methods, 39, 835-843.

External links