Tokai Communications

Tokai Communication Inc (known as Vic Tokai Corporation until 2011) is a telecommunications company in Japan providing DSL services as well as network solutions. Its headquarters are located in the Tokai Building (TOKAIビル, Tokai Biru) in Aoi-ku, Shizuoka, Shizuoka Prefecture. In North America, the company is best known for its video games during the late 1980s to the late 1990s.

History

Vic Tokai was founded on March 18, 1977 as a CATV service provider. The following year, in 1978, it adopted the name of Vic Tokai. The "Vic" in Vic Tokai's name stood for Valuable Information & Communication while the "Tokai" is the name of its parent company TOKAI, a Japanese natural gas utility founded in 1950.

Vic Tokai began selling data processing services and computer hardware on April 1982, a sector that until then was handled by parent TOKAI. In 1983, it began developing online and graphics applications for office computers.

On April 1987, parent company TOKAI handed its remaining computer-related branches, such as electronic calculation and operational sections, to Vic Tokai, thus making the latter company able to handle data processing operations independently. Vic Tokai expanded in 1988 when it acquired another telecommunication company. The company also launched its first system consulting software the same year.

Communication

Communication (from Latin commūnicāre, meaning "to share") is the purposeful activity of information exchange between two or more participants in order to convey or receive the intended meanings through a shared system of signs and semiotic rules. The basic steps of communication are the forming of communicative intent, message composition, message encoding, transmission of signal, reception of signal, message decoding and finally interpretation of the message by the recipient.

Communication in general takes place inside and between three main subject categories: human beings, living organisms in general and communication-enabled devices (for example sensor networks and control systems). Communication in the category of living organisms (studied in the field of biosemiotics) usually occurs through visual, auditory, or biochemical means. Human communication is unique for its extensive use of language.

Nonverbal communication

Nonverbal communication describes the process of conveying meaning in the form of non-word messages. Examples of nonverbal communication include haptic communication, chronemic communication, gestures, body language, facial expression, eye contact, and how one dresses. Nonverbal communication also relates to intent of a message. Examples of intent are voluntary, intentional movements like shaking a hand or winking, as well as involuntary, such as sweating. Speech also contains nonverbal elements known as paralanguage, e.g. rhythm, intonation, tempo, and stress. There may even be a pheromone component. Research has shown that up to 55% of human communication may occur through non-verbal facial expressions, and a further 38% through paralanguage. It affects communication most at the subconscious level and establishes trust. Likewise, written texts include nonverbal elements such as handwriting style, spatial arrangement of words and the use of emoticons to convey emotion.

The Jazz Composer's Orchestra (album)

The Jazz Composer's Orchestra is a 1968 double album from the Jazz Composer's Orchestra recorded over a period of six months with Michael Mantler as composer, leader and producer. Many of the key figures in avant-garde jazz from the time contributed on the album including Don Cherry, Pharoah Sanders, Gato Barbieri, Larry Coryell, Roswell Rudd and Carla Bley. The album's finale features a two-part concerto for Cecil Taylor and orchestra.

Mantler "updated" the album in 2014 as "The Jazz Composer's Orchestra Update" on ECM Records. It features the Nouvelle Cuisine Big Band, a new orchestra with completely parallel orchestra instrumentation conducted by Christoph Cech, and new soloists: Michael Mantler (trumpet), Bjarne Roupé (guitar), Wolfgang Puschnig (alto saxophone), Harry Sokal (tenor saxophone), David Helbock (piano), and the radio.string.quartet.vienna.

Reception

Langdon Winner's Rolling Stone review stated "This is a record which all rock musicians as well as general audiences should listen to with care. The first JCOA album is a summit meeting on the Mount Olympus of contemporary jazz which deserves wide attention... By any standard of musical excellence it is a masterpiece." Brian Olewnick of Allmusic stated: "The breadth of this piece, its expansiveness, and its tension between order and chaos is one of the single high-water marks of avant-garde jazz. Communications is a masterwork in and of itself and laid the basis for stunning work by others in decades hence, notably Barry Guy and his London Jazz Composer's Orchestra. It's an essential document for anyone interested in avant jazz and late-20th century creative music"

Sprint Corporation

Sprint Corporation, commonly referred to as Sprint, is an American telecommunications holding company that provides wireless services and is a major global Internet carrier. It is the fourth largest wireless network operator in the United States, and serves 58.4 million customers as of January 2016. The company also offers wireless voice, messaging, and broadband services through its various subsidiaries under the Boost Mobile, Virgin Mobile, and Assurance Wireless brands, and wholesale access to its wireless networks to mobile virtual network operators. The company is headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas. In July 2013, a majority of the company was purchased by Japanese telecommunications company SoftBank Corporation, although the remaining shares of the company continue to trade on the New York Stock Exchange.

Sprint traces its origins to the Brown Telephone Company, which was founded in 1899 to deploy telephone service to the rural area around Abilene, Kansas. In 2006, Sprint exited the local landline telephone business, spinning those assets off into a newly created company named Embarq, which later became a part of CenturyLink. The company continues to be one of the largest long distance providers in the United States.