Steins;Gate (TV series)

Steins;Gate is a 2011 anime television series created by the animation studio White Fox based on 5pb. and Nitroplus's 2009 visual novel of the same name, and is part of the "Science Adventure" franchise along with "Chaos;Head" and "Robotics;Notes". It is set in 2010, and follows Rintaro Okabe, who together with his friends accidentally discovers a method of time travel through which they can send text messages to the past, thereby changing the present.
The series was directed by Hiroshi Hamasaki and Takuya Satō, and written by Jukki Hanada, with animation direction and character design by Kyuuta Sakai, and music by Takeshi Abo. It aired for 24 episodes, and was simulcast in North and South America, Africa, the Middle East and parts of Europe by Crunchyroll and in the United Kingdom by Anime on Demand. A 25th episode was later included with the DVD and Blu-ray releases; these releases were handled by Funimation in North America and by Manga Entertainment in the United Kingdom. The series has also spawned four original net animation episodes and , and "Steins;Gate 0", an anime adaptation of the "Steins;Gate" game's sequel, premiered in 2018. "Steins;Gate" was well received by critics: several reviewers liked the story and writing, although some criticized the pacing of the first half.
Plot.
"Steins;Gate" is an adaptation of the visual novel of the same name. It is set in 2010 in Akihabara, Tokyo, and follows Rintaro Okabe, a self-proclaimed "mad scientist", who runs the "Future Gadget Laboratory" in an apartment together with his friends Mayuri Shiina and Itaru "Daru" Hashida. While attending a conference about time travel, Okabe finds the dead body of Kurisu Makise, a neuroscience researcher; he sends a text message about it to Daru, and later discovers that Kurisu is alive, and that the message arrived before he sent it. The laboratory members learn that the cell phone–operated microwave oven they are developing can send text messages back in time; they are joined by Kurisu, and investigate it, sending text messages – referred to as "D-mails" – to the past to change the present. Kurisu eventually creates a device that can send memories through the microwave oven, effectively allowing the user to time travel.
SERN, a fictional organization based on CERN that is secretly researching time travel, learns of the time machine and sends people to the laboratory to retrieve it, killing Mayuri in the process. Okabe goes back in time multiple times to prevent Mayuri's death, but fails each time. He learns that he needs to undo all the changes their D-mails have caused, and does so until he realizes that undoing the first D-mail would return him to the timeline where Kurisu was found dead. Okabe and Kurisu tell each other about their romantic feelings for one another, after which Kurisu tells Okabe to save Mayuri. Daru hacks into SERN's database, and they delete the record of the D-mail, returning them to the original timeline.
Later, Suzuha Amane, Daru's future daughter, arrives in a time machine to tell Okabe that the only way to prevent a time-travel arms race leading to World War III is to prevent Kurisu's father Nakabachi from killing her and stealing her time travel theories. Suzuha and Okabe travel back in time, but Okabe accidentally kills Kurisu himself. Returning to the present, Okabe receives a message from his future self telling him that to escape the current timeline, he needs to save Kurisu while recreating the vision of the dead Kurisu that his past self saw. Traveling back in time again, he provokes Nakabachi into stabbing him, knocks Kurisu unconscious, and puts her in his pool of blood for his past self to see, causing the timeline to diverge into one where Kurisu lives and World War III does not occur.
Production and release.
"Steins;Gate" was created at the animation studio White Fox, and was produced by Mika Nomura and Yoshinao Doi, directed by Hiroshi Hamasaki and Takuya Satō, and written by Jukki Hanada, with Kyuuta Sakai serving as character designer and chief animation director. While Takeshi Abo, the composer for the "Science Adventure" games, only had a small role in the previous anime adaptation of the series, he was appointed to compose for the "Steins;Gate" anime together with his coworker Jun Murakami. Abo composed new music, and made use of the same atmosphere and musical worldview as when he composed for the "Steins;Gate" game, but also had to consider that the music had to be synchronized with the motions of the anime; this was a very different way of working than the one he uses when composing for games.
The anime adaptation was announced in July 2010 by Chiyomaru Shikura, the head of 5pb. It aired for 24 episodes from April 6 to September 14, 2011, and was released on DVD and Blu-ray in nine volumes from June 22, 2011 to February 22, 2012 in Japan; the ninth and final volume included a 25th "special episode" not included in the broadcast. For the series' rebroadcast in 2015, an alternate version of episode 23 where Okabe does not save Kurisu was aired to promote the "Steins;Gate" game's sequel "Steins;Gate 0". "Steins;Gate: Sōmei Eichi no Cognitive Computing", a series of four original net animation shorts based on the series focusing on how computers could improve people's lives in the future, was made in a collaboration with IBM following a talk between Shikura and representatives from IBM Japan. The episodes were released from October to November 2014 on IBM's Mugendai website in Japanese, and on IBM Japan's YouTube channel in Japanese with English subtitles. The anime series has also received an animated film sequel, "", which premiered on April 20, 2013, and an anime adaptation of "Steins;Gate 0" premiered in 2018. Footage from the "Steins;Gate" anime is used in the 2018 game "Steins;Gate Elite" – a fully animated, updated version of the original "Steins;Gate" game – along with new animation by White Fox.
Outside Japan, the series was distributed by different companies. Crunchyroll simulcast the series in North and South America, Scandinavia, the Netherlands, the Middle East, and Africa; Anime on Demand did the same in the United Kingdom. Funimation later acquired the license for the North American rights, produced an English dub, and released the series on DVD and Blu-ray in two volumes in 2012. Madman Entertainment acquired the license for the Australian rights, and streamed the series on their website. Manga Entertainment waited to acquire the license for the United Kingdom rights until Funimation had completed the English dub, and released it in two volumes on DVD and Blu-ray in 2013.
Reception.
Sales.
The first Japanese Blu-ray volume opened as the week's fourth best selling animation Blu-ray and the seventh best selling Blu-ray overall, with 11,802 copies sold according to Oricon, and remained on the sales charts for an additional three weeks, selling 14,921 copies in total. At the end of 2012, volume 9, 8, and 7 were the 44th, 46th, and 49th best selling animation Blu-rays of the year in Japan. The Japanese DVD and Blu-ray boxes that collect the whole series also charted: the DVD box, which was released in March 2013, was the 26th best selling animation DVD of the week, and the Blu-ray box, which was released in February 2016, premiered on fourth place and charted for two weeks.
Critical reception.
The series has been well received by critics, with Carlo Santos at "Anime News Network" calling it "one of the most addictive sci-fi thrillers in recent anime history", Richard Eisenbeis at "Kotaku" calling it one of the best anime he had seen, and Chris Beveridge at "The Fandom Post" calling it his favorite simulcast title of 2011. In 2011 it won a "Newtype" Anime Award for the best male anime character of the year, for Rintaro Okabe. IGN listed "Steins;Gate" among the best anime series of the 2010s.
Critics have enjoyed the series' story and writing. Santos enjoyed how "Steins;Gate" misleads the viewer by spending the first half of the series on comedy before turning into a thriller for the second half, and how the finale revisits the events of the first episode, making for a "rock-solid climax". Rebecca Silverman at "Anime News Network" called the pacing of the first half uneven, with exciting scientific discoveries coupled with less interesting sequences about daily life in the laboratory and maid café visits, but found the second half of the show to be a step up; she enjoyed the added urgency, and how the characters were given development and how the viewer was given insight into their motivations from the first half of the series. Similarly, Aiden Foote at "T.H.E.M. Anime Reviews" said that the first half, while entertaining, is lacking in direction. Eisenbeis noted the rules for how time travel works as well defined, which he called among the hardest things to do when writing time travel fiction. Pierce Drew at "The Fandom Post" enjoyed the story and characters, but noted that Luka adds very little to the story. Patrick of "Cedar Mill & Bethany Community Libraries" called it a "brilliant mash-up of hard science fiction, comedy, romance and drama".
Santos called the character designs memorable, and found it refreshing that the anime featured an overweight person as one of its main characters. He noted that the backgrounds, while making use of muted and grayish tones, still had enough color to be visually appealing. One area he was disappointed with was how the series often makes use of "talking head" shots with little animation and low framerates. He found the music to set the mood well, but also that "nothing particularly stands out". Silverman thought that the series' visuals were uneven for the first half, having some "nice visual flair" at some points, such as a black-and-white scene in episode 11, and some fan-service shots that she found ill-fitting. For the second half, she found the visuals and audio design to have improved, with a focus on visual themes such as clasped hands, and the use of highly detailed and more realistic art during stressful moments in the story. Foote enjoyed the visual presentation of Akihabara, which he described as "lifeless but ever moving, like sand in the desert wind"; he called it evocative of morning street scenes in the directors' earlier work "Serial Experiments Lain" (1998), and proof that they had not lost their touch since then. Drew thought the visuals were of high quality throughout the series, and that they were a good, albeit less detailed, representation of the art style used in the "Steins;Gate" game.


Jenna K. Moran

Jenna Katerin Moran, previously Rebecca Sean Borgstrom and Ryan Sean Borgstrom (born March 3, 1972), is a role-playing game writer.
Career.
Moran is the author of the "Weapons of the Gods" RPG, published in 2005 - years after it was announced - as the first in-house RPG from Eos Press. Moran is also the author of the indie role-playing games "Nobilis", "The Game of Powers" (the LARP version of "Nobilis"), and "Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine". She has also contributed as an author to several source books for "Exalted" and other works.
Moran legally changed her name. Rebecca Sean Borgstrom was, she says, her legal name, but she did not consider it her "real" name. She is also credited as R. Sean Borgstrom, Rebecca Borgstrom, and Sean Borgstrom. In contexts where she is well known, such as mailing lists centered on games she has authored, she is often referred to simply as "RSB."
Moran graduated from Georgetown University with a bachelor's degree in computer science in 1988, and from Johns Hopkins University with a doctorate in computer science in 2000.
Moran writes Hitherby Dragons, a blog-style ongoing story or collection of stories. She posts a new entry Monday through Saturday. The collection consists of legends and histories. Legends are performances put on by a girl named Jane, her brother Martin, and other recurring actors. Histories are actual events in Jane's world.
Moran, under the name Rebecca Borgstrom, appears as a player character in the scenario "And I Feel Fine," by Geoffrey C. Grabowski, which was published in the "One Shots" sourcebook for "Unknown Armies". This fictional version of Borgstrom lives in a trailer and is described as "a single mom making her good way in a bad world." Another role-playing game author, Rich Dansky, also appears as a player character in the same scenario.
Role-playing bibliography.
Jennaverse.
The following three games are considered to exist in a shared universe, and are playable with reference to each other.
"Nobilis".
The following books by Moran have been published for the "Nobilis" role-playing game:
"Exalted".
Moran has authored the following books for the "Exalted" role-playing game:
"In Nomine".
Moran wrote the following books for the "In Nomine" role-playing game:


PSfrag

PSfrag is a LaTeX package that allows one to overlay Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) figures with arbitrary LaTeX constructions, properly aligned, scaled, and rotated. The user has to place a text tag into the EPS file and the corresponding LaTeX construction into the LaTeX file that will include the EPS file. PSfrag will remove the tag and replace it by the specified LaTeX construction.
The authors of PSfrag are Craig Barratt, Michael Grant and David Carlisle.
Pdf compatibility.
PSfrag is not pdf-compatible, but there exist external solutions, like pstool, pst-pdf or pdfrack.


Fighting Vipers

Fighting Vipers (ファイティングバイパーズ" Faitingu Vaipāzu") is a 3D fighting video game developed by Sega AM2. It uses the same game engine as AM2's "Virtua Fighter 2" but features enclosed arenas and an armor mechanic, and was targeted more towards Western audiences, using a U.S. setting and more freeform styles of martial arts. The game was released in the arcade in 1995 using the Sega Model 2 hardware. The game was ported to the Sega Saturn, and to PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade in 2012. Though "Fighting Vipers" was not very popular in North American arcades, the Saturn version was one of the most high-profile games in the system's 1996 holiday lineup, and was met with positive reviews.
Gameplay.
"Fighting Vipers" features a similar style of gameplay to Sega AM2's more renowned "Virtua Fighter" series, specifically "Virtua Fighter 2", using simply guard, punch and kick attack buttons with a focus on combo moves. The Saturn version uses its three extra buttons for three smaller combos.
Each of the 9 characters featured in the game wears armor that can be broken off by opponents, leaving them more vulnerable to taking damage. A human shaped meter in the top corners of the screen monitors damage to the armor. Walls surround each arena, caging the combatants in, allowing for attacks in conjunction with them (bouncing off etc.). If a knockout attack is strong enough, characters can knock their opponent over, on top, or straight through the walls.
The Saturn port of "Fighting Vipers" added Playback Mode and Training Mode, both of which are now used widely in the genre, by games such as "Tekken" and "Soulcalibur". Players could save their matches and play them again in Playback Mode, while Training Mode talked the player through the moves of each character one-by-one.
Characters.
Bahn: despite only being a 17-year-old high school student from Nishino Machi, Bahn is a powerful and imposing fighter in a long coat and hat. He has come overseas to find and fight his father, whom he has never met and abandoned him and his mother when he was a boy. He has declared himself 'Gengis Bahn III'.
Candy (or Honey): a petite 16-year-old fashion student with a pleasant nature, Candy designed her own trademark plastic fairy costume herself, and has entered the tournament to promote her original fashion line. Takara, a Japanese toy company, made three dolls of this character.
Grace: a 19-year-old African-American born in Armstone City whose armor is themed after the protective gear for inline skating, including the skates themselves. Grace is making her living as a fashion model. Though she once dreamed of becoming a professional figure skater, her lover and coach betrayed her, leaving her disillusioned.
Raxel: the narcissistic lead singer and guitarist for a hair metal band called 'Death Crunch' with KISS-styled armor and carrying a red Gibson Flying-V electric guitar, Raxel is the son of an Armstone City councilman, a drop out who left home after a fight with his father. Raxel has simply entered the tournament to heighten his own profile and become more famous.
Tokio: a 16-year-old pretty boy rebelling against a strict kabuki actor's household. Tokio is a former leader of a street gang called 'Black Thunder' but left after feeling responsible for another gang member's death. He has entered the tournament for a challenge and for thrills.
Sanman: a mysterious fat man about whom nothing is known, other than his birthday (3 March) and an obsession with the number 3, hence his name ("san" is Japanese for "three"). Sanman drives a large customized scooter.
Jane: a butch and muscled 18-year-old part-time construction worker, Jane trained her whole life to join the Navy, but did not make it past training. She was discharged after repeatedly losing control of herself during fights and injuring fellow seamen. Jane now wants to test just how tough she is, hence entering the Fighting Vipers tournament.
Picky: a 14-year-old stereotypical skateboarder Picky's armor is styled after protective gear for skateboarders. He carries his skateboard on his back, and hits opponents with it. Picky began skateboarding to impress his first love, but later on he left her for Candy.
Mahler: the unlockable ninth character, Mahler is a mysterious 20-year-old with a grudge against the Mayor of Armstone City (who has organised the tournament) wearing poisonous armor resembling a snake. He isn't officially registered as a member of the tournament.
B.M.: the boss of the game and the man who organised the tournament, B.M. is a powered-up version of Mahler. Both Mahler and B.M.'s names may have been inspired by musician Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, who was known in America as the "Big Mahler".
Kumachan: a 10-year-old smiling bear character wearing an orange hat, who is included as an unlockable character in the Sega Saturn port. It is based on the giant floating balloon mascot seen in the Old Armstone Town stage. It uses Sanman's fighting style, and its 2nd player counterpart is called Pandachan. Even though it can fight, its 3D model never moves.
Pepsiman: the Japanese mascot of Pepsi who only appears in the Japanese Sega Saturn version of the game as an unlockable character. He was removed from the US and PAL releases.
Development.
"Fighting Vipers" was developed using the same game engine which was first used for "Virtua Fighter 2", and uses a nearly identical arcade board, though with slightly faster processing speed. Unlike "Virtua Fighter 2", there are no ring-outs; producer Yu Suzuki stated, "We received comments about the ring-outs in "VF" and so for "FV" the fighting can continue mercilessly."
The character Mahler was created by reducing the power specifications of the boss, B.M., so that he would be appropriately balanced for player vs. player matches.
A demo of the game was displayed at the 1995 JAMMA show with all eight characters playable, though they did not yet have all their moves available.
The Saturn conversion, like the arcade original, was developed by Sega AM2. The programming team consisted of 15 people, most of whom had worked on the Saturn version of "Virtua Fighter 2", and some of whom had worked on the arcade version of "Fighting Vipers". Work on the conversion began in the first quarter of 1996 and took eight months. After converting the "Virtua Fighter 2" engine, the team focused first on recreating the barriers, as they anticipated this would be the most difficult part to accomplish on the Saturn hardware. Because armor and walls can be broken in the game, there was no easy way of reducing the number of polygons in those elements. In part to compensate for the lower polygon counts on the characters, a new form of dynamic lighting incorporating Gouraud shading was added to the Saturn version. In order to make this effect possible, and have the game run at a speed comparable to the arcade version, the team decided at the beginning of development that they would not use the Saturn's high-resolution mode.
Reception.
In Japan, "Game Machine" listed "Fighting Vipers" on their December 15, 1995 issue as being the most popular arcade game at the time. It was considerably less popular in North American arcades.
Reviewing the arcade version, a "Next Generation" critic called "Fighting Vipers" "a beautiful, highly polished, polygon-rendered and texture-mapped game featuring brand new characters, unprecedented closed-in arenas (for a 3D fighter), a slightly different set of fighting strategies using armor, and a more cinematic style of viewing." He also praised the more intuitive button combinations used to execute moves. Despite this, he concluded that the game fails to measure up to recent fighting games, chiefly due to the "strained" character designs: "Raxel, Jane, Picky, Sanman are undeniably trendy and conclusively uncool ... They lack the artful, graceful movements of "VF2"s Lau, Sarah, or Pai."
In reviews for the Saturn version, the barrier mechanics - allowing players to beat opponents against or through walls and use them to launch attacks - were met with universal approval. Most were also enthusiastic about being able to break off an opponent's armor for extra damage, though Crispin Boyer and Sushi-X of "Electronic Gaming Monthly" felt the amount of flesh exposed when a fighter's armor is broken off amounted to cheap lewdness. While some complained of reduced polygon counts and occasional slowdown compared to the arcade version, the conversion to the Saturn as a whole was well-regarded, with critics especially praising its retention of the arcade version's smooth animation, its use of light sourcing, and the Saturn-exclusive features. "GameSpot" concluded, "If you have a Saturn, this is the fighting game to own. If you don't, "Fighting Vipers" gives you a good reason to get one." Scary Larry of "GamePro" said it "is one of our favorites because it's fast, sexy, and easy." And while most critics felt that "Fighting Vipers" clearly falls short of "Virtua Fighter 2", Rich Leadbetter of "Sega Saturn Magazine" said it "is far more of a gratifying experience to the average gamer than VF or its sequel" and a "Next Generation" reviewer concluded, ""VF2" is one of the best games of all time, but "Fighting Vipers" nearly eclipses it."
Sequels and re-releases.
A sequel, "Fighting Vipers 2" was released, introducing new characters. It was ported to the Dreamcast but only in Japan and Europe.
All of the "Fighting Vipers" characters were used in Sega AM2's "Fighters Megamix" for the Sega Saturn. "Fighting Vipers" was also re-released for the PlayStation 2 as part of the Sega Ages line. A PAL version was planned, but never released.
"Fighting Vipers" was re-released in late 2012 on PlayStation Network and Xbox Live as one of five games included in the Sega Model 2 Collection. The re-release features online play, but does not contain any of the extra content found in the Saturn version. "Fighting Vipers" is also included as a playable arcade game in "Judgment".
Bahn appears as a solo unit in "Project X Zone", an 3DS' RPG crossover of Capcom, Sega and Namco Bandai Games.
"Sonic the Fighters".
A programmer working on "Fighting Vipers" put Sonic the Hedgehog and Tails in the game for amusement, which led to Sega AM2 commissioning a "Sonic" fighting game, "Sonic the Fighters". Hidden within the data of the arcade version of "Sonic the Fighters" is an additional character named Honey, a yellow cat wearing Candy's red plastic fairy costume. She is only playable by hacking the game's data. Honey's model was removed from the "Sonic the Fighters" port on "Sonic Gems Collection". However, in the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 port, she is a playable character, and was later introduced to the cast of Archie Comics' "Sonic the Hedgehog" comics during an arc based on "Sonic the Fighters". The arc depicts Honey as a fashion designer similar to her human counterpart, and also features a boar character based on Jane.


Planet Explorers

Planet Explorers is an adventure role-playing video game developed and published by Pathea Games. Development began in January 2014, existing as an early access game. The game was released on 8 November 2016 for Microsoft Windows, OS X and Linux on the Steam digital distribution platform.
The gameplay of "Planet Explorers" allows players to change the terrain, to build walls, bridges and ramps, up to complex structures and buildings with a lot of customization, to save and copy them. Players can create an unlimited number of objects, including weapons, armor and different vehicles in any form with stats depending on their ingredients/materials, and to do this anywhere. Other activities in the game include exploration, resource gathering and combat. As of June 2019, multiplayer is no longer available due to code being deleted from their servers. The game is now free to play on Steam. The source code to the game will be released in the near future.
Gameplay.
"Planet Explorers" is a third- or first-person (F5-key toggles the view), sandbox adventure game. Players can build custom vehicles, weapons, VTOL and pretty much anything else and use it in game. There are two major gameplay areas in "Planet Explorers", one being the Story mode, the other being Adventure mode. Story mode features a set map and multiple quests that progress throughout the game. Adventure mode is a random procedural map that contains random quests and events, which lets players select the type of planet and climate they want to visit, so that they can quickly buy goods in such established colony. Further, the game play is a mixture of 3rd person action and adventure, with the player able to use multiple weapons and objects. There are around 70 kinds of creatures and more than 15 kinds of minerals that can be utilized by humans on planet Maria. Although some creatures are as tall as buildings and are fierce enough to kill humans, herbivores tend to be docile.
This sandbox game makes use of a new OpenCL system on the Unity engine, which enables players to alter the terrain and create objects.
Story mode.
This game mode involves following the main story quest arc, in addition to numerous side quests, to progress through the game. It features a 17x8 km world map with many unique characters, landscapes, locations and over 100 types of potential enemies. Players are free to choose how to play the story, they can fight or be peaceful, build a farm, make food, keep the colonists alive, negotiate with the sentient aliens or defend the perimeter from the local life forms. Story mode also features co-op with other players.
Adventure mode.
Adventure mode was added to "Planet Explorers" in Alpha version 0.61. In this mode, the game creates a random procedural map that contains random quests and events. However, the players can select the type of planet and climate. It allows the players to wander freely in an open world, buy templates, resources and equipment.
Builder mode.
In builder mode, players have access to infinite resources, items and equipment in the game through the inventory menu, and can place or remove them instantly. This mode has no enemies and helps the players focus on building and creating large projects.
Plot.
"Planet Explorers" takes place in the year 2287. One of the first colony ships sent out by Earth arrives at the planet Maria, an unknown planet in the Epsilon Indi Star System. During its landing sequence, as something goes wrong, the massive ship loses control and crashes into the planet. What originally was a first colony mission has now turned into a mission for mere survival on an unforgiving planet filled with creatures ready to outlast the visitors from Earth. In order to survive in this new world the survivors will have to explore, gather, build, create, fight or befriend the planet inhabitants, and ultimately, establish a lasting new home.
Development.
Voice cast.
The primary quest giver, "Ataro Baatar" is voiced by actor Vincent van Ommen. Other voice talents include Ben Britton, Katabelle, Anthony Sardinha and Omri Rose.
Soundtrack.
The "Planet Explorers - Official Soundtrack" is composed by Aakaash Rao and features woodwind players Sandro Friedrich and Lucian Nagy, cellist Deryn Cullen, and singers Zefora Alderman and Graham Foote. The soundtrack contains 14 tracks and has been be made available on Valve's digital distribution platform, Steam, as downloadable content for the main game.
Reception.
The public alpha release was generally well received, holding a user-score of 7.3 on Metacritic. Many publications and individual people have referred fondly to "Planet Explorers" and praised the game's creative aspects and unlimited options of customization, including PC Gamer, Rock, Paper, Shotgun and RatSplatGaming. However, most reviewers refrained from giving an actual score based on the game's early access status.
PC Gamer's Emanuel Maiberg described an early iteration of the in-development game as "There are hundreds of hours of entertainment to be had with Planet Explorers if you want put in the time to extract them but it's too unattractive to bear for that long." and criticized user-interface elements and the technical issues with the game, though mentioning that Pathea Games updates the game regularly.
Armed Gamer placed "Planet Explorers" in the top 5 of "Steam Early Access Games to Keep on Your Radar" saying "This is certainly the game to keep an eye on once it develops into beta and onward." Planet Minecraft praised the unlimited possibilities the game has to offer, ultimately saying "Is it worth the money? I really believe it is. The vision of where the game will go in the future is really exciting."


London Sketch Club

The London Sketch Club is a private members club for artists working in the field of commercial graphic art, mainly for newspapers, periodicals, and books.
History.
The club was founded in 1898 by a breakaway group of members from the Langham Sketching Club, following a disagreement over whether to have hot or cold suppers after an evening's drawing. The founder members were Dudley Hardy, Phil May, Cecil Aldin, Walter Churcher, and Tom Browne. George Charles Haité was its first president.
A joint exhibition with the Langham Sketching Club was held at the Mall Galleries in 1976.
For a while in the late 1970s, the Society of Strip Illustration held its monthly meetings at the Sketch Club.
Clubhouse.
The club relocated in 1903 from its original location to premises in Wells Street, off Oxford Street. In 1957, the club moved to 7 Dilke Street in Chelsea.


Alternating finite automaton

In automata theory, an alternating finite automaton (AFA) is a nondeterministic finite automaton whose transitions are divided into "existential" and "universal" transitions. For example, let "A" be an alternating automaton.
Note that due to the universal quantification a run is represented by a run "tree". "A" accepts a word "w", if there "exists" a run tree on "w" such that "every" path ends in an accepting state.
A basic theorem states that any AFA is equivalent to a deterministic finite automaton (DFA), hence AFAs accept exactly the regular languages.
An alternative model which is frequently used is the one where Boolean combinations are represented as "clauses". For instance, one could assume the combinations to be in disjunctive normal form so that formula_7 would represent formula_8. The state tt ("true") is represented by formula_9 in this case and ff ("false") by formula_10.
This clause representation is usually more efficient.
Alternating finite automata can be extended to accept trees in the same way as tree automata, yielding alternating tree automata.
Formal definition.
An alternating finite automaton (AFA) is a 6-tuple,
formula_11, where
The model was introduced by Chandra, Kozen and Stockmeyer.
State complexity.
Even though AFA can accept exactly the regular languages, they are different from other types of finite automata in the succinctness of description, measured by the number of their states.
Chandra et al. proved that converting an formula_23-state AFA to an equivalent DFA
requires formula_24 states in the worst case. Another construction by Fellah, Jürgensen and Yu. converts an AFA with formula_23 states to a nondeterministic finite automaton (NFA) with up to formula_26 states by performing a similar kind of powerset construction as used for the transformation of an NFA to a DFA.
Computational complexity.
The membership problem asks, given an AFA formula_27 and a word formula_28, whether formula_27 accepts formula_28. This problem is P-complete. This is true even on a singleton alphabet, i.e., when the automaton accepts a unary language.
The non-emptiness problem (is the language of an input AFA non-empty?), the universality problem (is the complement of the language of an input AFA empty?), and the equivalence problem (do two input AFAs recognize the same language) are PSPACE-complete for AFAs.


Jean-Baptiste Waldner

Jean-Baptiste Waldner (born 30 March 1959) is a French engineer, management consultant and author, known for his contributions in the fields of Computer-integrated manufacturing, enterprise architecture, nanoelectronics, nanocomputers and swarm intelligence
Biography.
Waldner received his engineering degree in mechanical engineering from the Université de technologie de Belfort-Montbéliard in 1983, his Dr Engineer in Electronics in 1986 from the École Supérieure d'Électricité, and his doctoral engineering degree in nuclear science and engineering in 1986 from the Institut National des Sciences et Techniques Nucléaires.
In 1986 Waldner started as consultant for the French Information Technology and Services company Bull, where he specialized in Computer Integrated Manufacturing. From 1990 to 1993 he was senior manager at Deloitte, senior partner at Computer Sciences Corporation from 1993 to 1996, Program Director for IT and Shared Services Centers at Carrefour from 1999 to 2001, and co-founded his own management consulting firm Waldner Consulting in 2004.
Work.
Waldner's research interests ranges from Manufacturing Resource, Planning Computer Integrated Manufacturing and Enterprise Architecture, to Nanoelectronics and Nanocomputers.
Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP/MRP2).
The Manufacturing Resource Planning concept has evolved over the past 30 years from a simple means of calculating materials requirements and components (which does not even take into account the production capacity of the company) - to integrated ERP MRP concepts and software to automated management of the entire company..
During the 1980s the increasing changes of sales forecasts, which resulted in continuous and manual adjustments of the production plan, has in led to the MRP (Material Requirement Planning) model, which was strictly limited to the supply of materials. Eventually this evolved in means for wider production resources management, MRP2 (Manufacturing Resources Planning).
Waldner (1992) showed, that MRP and MRP2 are essential principles of Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM). In the planning process of the enterprise they are the essential link between General Planning and execution and control. Thereby MRP2 covers three phases (see image):
According to Oliveira (2003) the work of Waldner (1992) and others became "an important effort towards the goal of increasing the competitiveness of manufacturing companies through the introduction of automation and wider use of computers."
Computer Integrated Manufacturing.
According to Waldner (1992) Computer Integrated Manufacturing is used to describe the complete automation of a manufacturing plant, with all processes running under computer control and digital information tying them together. There are three major challenges to development of a smoothly operating computer-integrated manufacturing system:
Machado et al. (2000) explained that "control, monitoring and supervision of industrial processes are increasingly demanding a great investment in technological solutions each time more embedded and with real-time capabilities, especially devoted to the interconnect, in an intelligent way, of shop-floor equipment with operational information systems." This gave rise to a new type of so-called "Control-based Information System", in which information in factory plants flow between the shopfloor and the upper Computer Integrated Manufacturing systems as Waldner (1992) stated.
Nanocomputers and swarm intelligence.
The author forecasts a fundamental technological disruption in the computer world in the years 2020-25 by considering the physical limit of the miniaturization of the components to the silicon and the fatality of the Moore's law. This phenomenon, combined with the demand for mobility, will transform the landscape of conventional computing bringing about the breakthrough that will enable a vast and heterogeneous network of objects that impose a new vision of the software (i.e. distributed intelligence with lighter/simpler software code at the unit level but introducing much more numerous agents). Computing system will evolve from a centralized or distributed model to swarm intelligence, self-organized systems in which nodes will count in billions. The author notes that a human being interacts with 1000 to 5000 objects in a typical day" "At maturity, connected devices and Internet of things market could range from a few tens of billions to several trillion units. In 2007, as an early pioneer, Waldner strongly believed that the Internet of Things was poised to deeply transform the supply chain and the logistics industry.
Waldner has a predominant interest in human–computer interaction (HCI) and considers that the evolution of computing machines and of the solutions they bring will rely fundamentally on the progress of these interfaces.
Publications.
Waldner has authored several books and articles. Books:


Blackwater (video game)

Blackwater is a first-person shooter video game developed by Zombie Studios with the player assuming the role of a Blackwater Worldwide contractor. The game was first revealed at E3 in 2011. It was later released that year on the Xbox 360 and it uses the Kinect-supported system. The game is the first Kinect shooter on the market. It was published by 505 Games.
Gameplay.
The game is set in a fictional town in North Africa, where players lead a team of operatives. Players are tasked with protecting aid workers and other dignitaries in a volatile nation overrun by a warlord named General Limbano. The gameplay is described as on-rails, similar to the style of arcade games "Virtua Cop" or "Time Crisis". The player moves along a set path and highlights targets with their hand, hovering over them for a few moments to take the shot. To take cover from enemy fire, the player must duck and lean side-to-side.
Describing the characters in the game, Richard Dormer of Zombie Studios said, “They're not commandos ... They’re not in there saving the world against the next nuclear bomb. They’re there working with the UN and trying to protect people. No one wants to be a hero. Everybody wants to survive the next day. If there’s one thing that’s important to Blackwater it’s their 100% success rate for protecting people.” Throughout the game, the player will switch between squad members Devin, Baird, Smash, and Eddie. While playing as Devin and Baird, the gamer will be firing an assault rifle. As Smash, the gamer will use a shotgun and as Eddie, a sniper rifle.
"Blackwater" gives players the ability to completely control the gameplay experience using a traditional controller or Kinect's controller-free abilities which introduces a level of immersion to the FPS genre. Throughout each stage in the game, there are sequences where the player will have to perform actions such as jumping across gaps or busting down doors. Players can also kick away oncoming melee attackers.
Ian Howe, president of 505 Games said, "being able to get the controller out of player’s hands with Kinect and have them on the ground and immersed in the experience will give them a glimpse of what it takes to be a member of an elite fighting force."
Development.
Erik Prince approached 505 Games to create and publish the game. Prince said "this game and its immersive Kinect-based approach will give players the chance to experience what it is like to be on a Blackwater team on a mission without being dropped into a real combat situation."
During development, 505 Games and Prince worked hand-in-hand with Zombie Studios and former Blackwater operatives to mimic the intensity of real-world missions.
Describing the game, Prince said, "This is not a training device. This is not a simulator. We're not doing this to teach folks how to conduct military operations in an urban terrain. That's not it at all. This is more along the lines of kids running around their neighborhood playing cops and robbers or cowboys and Indians." Prince sees the game as a potential franchise.
Reception.
"Blackwater" has received generally negative reviews. It had an average score of 38.45% at GameRankings, based on 11 reviews and an average score of 37/100 at Metacritic, based on 12 reviews.
The Official Xbox Magazine gave Blackwater a mixed but mostly positive review with a rating of 7/10. While it noted some flaws such as obvious enemy paths and restarting from the beginning of levels, the review also noted that "where this game shines is its Kinect-based mechanics", saying that they "had a blast shooting, kicking, climbing, jumping, and repelling to complete objectives."
Dan Chiappini, writer for GameSpot, describes the game as "deceptively physical even for a Kinect title, and while it's not designed primarily as a fitness game, it could be a good way to shed a few extra kilos and get your shooter fix at the same time."
In the first review of the game, GamesRadar gave "Blackwater" 1/10, calling it "an insult to gamers and a step backward for the Kinect", stating that they were "not judging the Kinect’s functionality, but instead, Blackwater’s complete failure to implement it in any sort of enjoyable fashion."
James Newton of KINECTaku said, "Blackwater is to be commended for maintaining a fairly lively and varied pace." However, he gave it a score of 5/10, concluding that it felt like "a gun game missing a gun".
Giant Bomb also gave this game its "worst game of the year award" for 2011.


Warsow (video game)

Warsow, also stylized as War§ow, is an open source first-person shooter video game.
Development.
"Warsow" was first publicly released on June 8, 2005 as an alpha version. The stable version 1.0 was released on July 28, 2012 after 7 years of development.
"Warsow"s codebase is free and open source software, distributed under the terms of the GPL; it is built upon Qfusion, an advanced modification of the Quake II engine. The artwork and other media were originally licensed under the proprietary "Warsow Content License", which allowed the contributors of this media to use the work in a "personal portfolio" but not in any other game, but have around 2012 released under the Creative Commons License Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International.
"Warsow" is loosely based on the E-novel "Chasseur de bots" by Fabrice Demurger. The novel is the basis of the game's cyberpunk visual style, which is achieved by combining cel-shaded cartoon-like graphics with dark, flashy and dirty textures. Since visual clarity is important in maintaining competitive gameplay, "Warsow" tries to keep effects minimalistic, clear and visible.
On October 18, 2012, the game was released on GOG.com. "Warsow" was submitted to Steam Greenlight on February 9, 2013, and was greenlit on September 18.
At the end of 2016, the former main developer of "Warsow" posted: "development team has disintegrated and development infrastructure ... has been discontinued or abandoned".
Gameplay.
The very competitive gameplay of "Warsow" focuses heavily on movement and trickjumps. Many of the tricks in "Warsow" originate from the "Quake" series, including circle-jumping, bunny hopping, strafe-jumping, double jumping, ramp-sliding, and rocket jumping, but "Warsow" also gives players the ability to dash, dodge or wall jump, tricks that were originally possible in "Urban Terror". It uses a separate button for most of the special movements, making it easier to use them while doing other things at the same time. The various movement tricks combine to add an extra dimension to the gameplay; as the player's proficiency at moving increases, they are able to collect health, armor and weapons more quickly, and to overpower less capable enemies. The variety and flexibility of the physics has spawned an entire community dedicated to competing on the various "Race" maps that the game offers.
Reception.
Media coverage.
"Warsow" was mentioned on "Good Game" in the episode on 14 April 2008 in a segment listing the best free to play games available. Warsow was reviewed with 8 of 10 by "Linux Format" in August 2011.
Competitive play.
"Warsow" has been accepted as a competition-worthy game by several large online leagues such as the Electronic Sports League and ClanBase.
In addition to acceptance by large leagues, many specialized "Warsow" cups have emerged. Well-known examples are Bamboocha, a Europe-based Warsow Duel Tourney, and ESW: Warsow, a Japanese Warsow cup. In 2007, several LAN tournaments featuring "Warsow" have emerged such as Crossfire Devotii Challenge 3, Warsow.nl LAN, and E-Sport Stadium 2007.
Additionally, "Warsow" has been featured on the German TV-channel GIGA Television several times, namely in "GIGA eSports" and its sub-shows "Skill Sunday" and "Free For All" and the Pay TV IPTV station GIGA 2, also produced by Turtle Entertainment.


Iginio Ugo Tarchetti

Iginio (or Igino) Ugo Tarchetti (; 29 June 1839 – 25 March 1869) was an Italian author, poet, and journalist.
Life.
Born in San Salvatore Monferrato, his military career was cut short by ill health, and in 1865 he settled in Milan. Here he entered literary study, becoming part of the Scapigliatura, a literary movement animated by a spirit of rebellion against traditional culture. He worked on several newspapers and published a torrent of short stories, novels, and poems. He contracted tuberculosis and died in poverty at the age of 29.
Tarchetti published his plagiarized translation of "The Mortal Immortal" (1833) by Mary Shelley as "The Elixir of Immortality", with small but significant changes but without attribution. He also appropriated foreign texts in the Gothic tradition, such as works by E. T. A. Hoffmann, Edgar Allan Poe and Theophile Gautier. Lawrence Venuti, who discovered the antecedents of "Mortal Immortal" while translating Tarchetti's "Fantastic Tales", considers his appropriation as serving the social agenda of Scapigliatura. "Fantastic Tales" was the first ever translation of Tarchetti into English.
Adaptations.
"Fosca", written in 1869, was the basis for Ettore Scola's 1981 film, "Passione d'amore", which in turn served as the basis for James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim's 1994 musical "Passion".


Hum Award for Best Music Band

The Hum Award for Best Music Band is one of the Hum Awards presented annually by the Hum Television Network and Entertainment Channel (HTNEC) to best Band Artists who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the Music industry. Since its inception, however, the award has commonly been referred to as the hum for Best Music Band. Nominations are made by Hum members who are artists and composers, and the winners are chosen by the Hum membership as a whole.
History.
Hum Television Network and Entertainment Channel presented this award to one of the most promising Music Band and its artist of Pakistan Music Industry. As of Second ceremony Overload was honored at 2nd Hum Awards ceremony 2013 for his achievements.
Winners and nominees.
In the list below, winners are listed first in the colored row, followed by the other nominees. As of the Second ceremony, four Music Bands were nominated for their music videos for this award.
For the first ceremony, the eligibility period spanned full calendar years. For example, the 1st Hum Awards presented on April 28, 2013, to acknowledged Best Music Band of music album that were released between January, 2012, and December, 2012, the period of eligibility is the full previous calendar year from January 1 to December 31.
Date and the award ceremony shows that the 2010 is the period from 2010 to 2020 (10 years-decade), while the year above winners and nominees shows that the videos year in which they were telecast, and the figure in bracket shows the ceremony number, for example; an award ceremony is held for the dramas of its previous year.


Slingback

A slingback is a type of woman's footwear characterized by an ankle strap that crosses only around the back and sides of the ankle and heel, whereas a typical strap completely encircles the ankle all the way around it.
It typically has a low vamp front similar to that of classic full shoe heels.
Slingbacks can be considered a type of sandal and come in a wide variety of styles from casual to dressy, with heel heights ranging from flat to medium and sometimes high,
heel types ranging from as thin as a stiletto to as thick as wedges and they can be both closed or open-toe.
Slingback straps are usually adjustable through a buckle or an elastic segment, allowing the wearer to slip their foot into the sandal easily without the need to make further (or any) manual adjustment to the strap or buckle, while still holding the foot in the sandal relatively securely. The buckle can be made of metal, plastic, or even sometimes stone.
Classic designs include Chanel's two-tone slingback, introduced in 1957 and relaunched in 2015 by designer Karl Lagerfeld.


Beena Kannan

Beena Kannan is an Indian business woman, who is the CEO and lead designer of Seematti textiles.
After university, she joined the family textile retailing business 'Seematti' in 1980, working with her father and husband. Seematti was started by her pioneering grandfather, the famous textile king Veeriah Reddiar. She became one of the most noticed wedding silk sari designers in south India. Her unique contribution appears to be her efforts to retain the pride of place for saris even in the face of onslaught from Western and North Indian fashions. Beena Kannan attracted attention when the longest ever silk sari created by her (half a km long) entered the Guinness Book of Records and Limca Book of Records in 2007. She has launched her sari designs in UAE (2007) and the United States (2009). Her rapport with the weaving communities earned for her a "Lifetime Achievement Award" from Coimbatore Erode Weaving community in 2009. In September 2011, Beena Kannan-designed saris walked the "Swarovski Elements 2011″ Ramp.


Loren L. Coleman

Loren L. Coleman is a science-fiction writer, born and grew up in Longview, Washington. He is known for having written many books for series such as "Star Trek", "Battletech"/"Mechwarrior", "Age of Conan", "Crimson Skies", "" and others. He has also written game fiction and source material for such companies as FASA Corporation, TSR, Inc. and Wizards of the Coast. He resides in Washington with his wife Heather and three children.
Career.
Loren L. Coleman is a former member of the United States Navy. He is a prolific "Battletech" author whose first novel was "Double-Blind" (1997); after several other "Battletech" books, he wrote the finale to FASA's "Classic" era novels, "Endgame" (2002). Coleman came up with an idea to get a license to publish original and canon "Battletech" fiction set in the classic era, and to sell it via a subscription-based online website; Randall N. Bills, the "Battletech" line developer, was interested in Coleman's idea for a new business.
He is also one of the founders of InMediaRes, a company that he founded with Heather Coleman, Randall Bills, Tara Bills and Philip DeLuca in September 2002 with the intention of licensing Classic BattleTech fiction. This was accomplished in the fall of 2003 when WizKids agreed to grant IMR an exclusive license for publishing new, canon BattleTech fiction online. This was done through BattleCorps.com, which was launched in August 2004.
In 2005, InMediaRes announced its intention to create a similar website for Shadowrun, Holostreets.
Coleman announced on April 20, 2007 that InMediaRes was in negotiations to acquire the licenses for Classic BattleTech and Shadowrun from WizKids as Fantasy Productions' license was set to expire.
In June 2007, InMediaRes created the Catalyst Game Labs imprint from which to publish their Shadowrun, and Classic BattleTech licensed properties, as well as other material which could be produced or licensed at a later date.
In early 2010s, he began writing The ICAS Files series, a science fiction short-stories.


Superflex

Superflex is a Danish artist group founded in 1993 by Jakob Fenger, Rasmus Nielsen and Bjørnstjerne Christiansen. Superflex describe their projects as "Tools", as proposals that invite people to participate in and communicate the development of experimental models that alter the economic production conditions. Often the projects are assisted by experts who bring in their special interest, these tools can then be further used and modified by their users.
Often their projects are related to economic forces, democratic production conditions and self-organisation. Superflex has examined alternative energy production methods (Supergas) and commodity production in Brazil, Thailand and Europe in their projects, which both expose and question the existing economic structures. These artistic activities — as, for example, the ongoing project Guaraná Power, in which the artists developed a drink together with local farmers who cultivate the caffeine-rich berries of the guarana plant — are not necessarily opposed to commercialism and globalisation, but try instead to render economic structures visible and to establish a new balance.
Through their projects engaging with alternative models for the creation, dissemination and maintenance of social and economic organisation – such as Copyshop, Guaraná Power, Rebranding Denmark and Free Beer – Superflex has become involved in legal disputes, as well as suffered prohibition orders and police raids, relating to their artistic use of commercial signs and symbols. However, finding that the restrictions placed on their work sometimes led to unexpectedly interesting results, Superflex began to explore the productive potential of prohibition and conceived a series of projects structured to impose regulations on others.
Superflex has gained international recognition for their projects. They have had solo exhibitions, among others, at the Kunsthalle Basel in Switzerland (Supershow — more than a show), GFZK in Leipzig, Germany (Social Pudding in collaboration with Rirkrit Tiravanija), Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt am Main (Open market), the REDCAT Gallery in Los Angeles (Guarana Power), Mori Museum in Tokyo, Gallery 1301PE in Los Angeles and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Superflex has participated in international arts biennials such as the Gwangju biennial in Korea, Istanbul Biennial, São Paulo Biennial, Shanghai Biennial and in the "Utopia Station" exhibition at the Venice Biennale. They contributed to the exhibition Rethink Kakotopia shown at the Nikolaj Centre of Contemporary Art in Copenhagen 2009 and at Tensta Konsthall 2010.
Public art.
Superkilen.
An urban park project in Copenhagen is divided into three main areas: the red square, the black market and the green park. While the red square designates the modern, urban life with café, music and sports, the black market is the classic square with fountain and benches. The green park is a park for picnics, sports and walking the dog. The people living in the vicinity of the park are of more than 50 nationalities. Instead of using the designated city objects/furnitures used for parks and public spaces, people from the area were asked to nominate city objects such as benches, bins, trees, playgrounds, manhole covers and signage from other countries. These objects were chosen from a country of the inhabitant’s national origin or from somewhere else encountered through traveling. The objects were produced in a 1:1 copy or bought and transported to the site.
Five groups traveled to Palestine, Spain, Thailand, Texas and Jamaica in order to acquire five objects. The objects have been installed throughout the park. The park has more than 100 objects from than 50 countries. Commissioned by the City of Copenhagen and Realdania, the concept for Superkilen was developed by Superflex in collaboration with architectural firms Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) and Topotek1.
Power Toilets.
Power Toilets is a permanent public art work erected on a beach in the recreation area Park van Luna in Heerhugowaard, The Netherlands. The interior of the lavatory building is a copy of the toilets used by the members of the United Nations Security Council in the UN headquarters in New York City, identical in detail to that of the sanitary facilities at one of the most secure buildings in the world. Typical for the 1950s corporate style the design includes marble, big mirrors, stainless steel, yellow ceramic tiles, grey anthracite mosaic floor tiles and American Standard appliances.
Power Toilets was designed in collaboration with Nezu Aymo architects. Originally commissioned by DRFTWD office associates for the municipality of Heerhugowaard in 2004, it was accomplished in 2010 with support from the province of Noord-Holland and SKOR, Foundation Art and Public Space. Contractors: Bouwbedrijf Gerrits and Sinnige b.v. and Sculpfiction.
Public collections.
Superflex' works are represented in public art institutions such as:
They have been commissioned to produce the 2017 Hyundai Turbine Hall installation at the Tate Modern gallery in London, opening 3 October.


Crown of Arthain

Crown of Arthain is a 1981 video game published by Microlab.
Contents.
"Crown of Arthain" is a two-player fantasy game in which the board, a hex map drawn in hi-res graphics with features such as rivers, forests, and a mountain range down the middle, is home for two princes searching for their father's crown.
Reception.
John Morrison reviewed "Crown of Arthain" in "The Space Gamer" No. 49. Morrison commented that ""Crown of Arthain" would have made a fair two-player game if the monster frequency was reduced drastically. Also, the price is a tad high. As a one-player game it has nothing to recommend it. I recommend it as-is only to rich gamers who'll buy anything."


Gauntlet for the Gold

A Gauntlet for the Gold match is a professional wrestling match used in Impact Wrestling (formerly Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, TNA).
Match format.
Different from the other gauntlet matches, in which one competitor faces several others in turn, the Gauntlet for the Gold match is very similar to the fellow professional wrestling promotion WWE's Royal Rumble match. It consists of two competitors beginning the match in the ring, followed by competitors entering the ring at timed intervals. Elimination is in the standard battle royal format in which a competitor must go over the top rope and hit the floor in order to be eliminated. If a wrestler falls to the floor without going over the top rope or is thrown over the top but does not fall to the floor, the competitor may re-enter the ring and continue the match.
The final portion of the match consists of the last two competitors squaring off in a regular singles match in which victory must be attained by pinfall or submission.
The Gauntlet for the Gold usually involves a double digit number of wrestlers, and the prize is usually either a championship or a championship match opportunity.
Variations.
There is a tag team variation of the Gauntlet for the Gold. A single wrestler enters one at a time at predetermined intervals. When all but two competitors are eliminated, the partners of the two survivors return and the match becomes a standard tag team match.
On October 23, 2005, at the Bound for Glory pay-per-view, the Gauntlet for the Gold Match was fought as completely elimination-only, since the winner had to immediately face the NWA World Heavyweight Champion for the title.
There was also an Ultimate X Gauntlet at Victory Road in 2007, with over-the-top-rope rules and after all 10 participants entered the match, it became a standard Ultimate X match, with the remaining entrants in the match competing in it.
In 2019, Impact Wrestling created an alternate version of the gauntlet under the name Call Your Shot Gauntlet with the same conditions as the gauntlet for the gold but with the model of Intergender wrestling where either man or woman can win via pinfall or submission. Whoever wins the said bout will earn a future title shot opportunity of their choosing and receives a trophy as an additional reward with the stipulation of having one year to cash in on their title shot.
Match history.
Gauntlet for the Gold / Bound for Gold.
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Richard Morrison (film titles designer)

Richard Morrison (born September 1953) is an English designer of film title sequences. He has created over 150 feature film title sequences in a career of more than thirty years.
Having studied graphics, photography and film, Morrison's initial career began on the James Bond film series collaborating with an American graphic designer Maurice Binder. He has worked on film openers ever since for film directors including Franc Roddam, Ridley Scott and Jean-Jacques Annaud. His title sequences include films such as "Batman", "Enemy at the Gates", "Gandhi", "Brazil" and "The Killing Fields".
Describing his work in an interview with "Empire" (August 2008) Morrison explained: "I look for a nuance, a subliminal energy in a film that I can then work into an idea. A lot of my title sequences don’t give much away, but they give you a flavour. So the viewer thinks - Oh, this is intriguing, show me more…"
Morrison has been chairman of Europe's film and animation conference “Pencil to Pixel” since 2002, and in 2009 he was appointed Honorary Professor of Digital Film School of Media Arts and Imaging at the University of Dundee, Scotland.
Morrison is currently developing a few film title sequences including Tim Burton's "Frankenweenie" and "Dark Shadows as well as David Mamet's currently untitled biopic on Phil Spector.


Chu Chia-Jen

Major General Chu Chia-Jen (; 1900 – July 11, 1985) was a Chinese aviation engineer in charge of manufacturing and development of military aircraft for the National Revolutionary Army in the 1930s to 1950s.
Biography.
Chu was born in 1900 in Hanshou County, Hunan, Qing China. After completing his secondary studies in Suzhou he studied aviation engineering at MIT from 1920 to 1926. After working at several aircraft manufacturers in the US, he returned to China in 1928. He worked at aviation factory near Shanghai Hongqiao Airport as a service technician, then joined the National Revolutionary Army and was in charge of an aircraft manufacturing facility in Yunnan. In 1930 he worked at the Nanjing Aeronautics Department.
Chu helped developed two experimental helicopters, the Hummingbird in the 1940s and CJC-3 in the 1950s. Neither aircraft was developed into a production model. He also developed the XP-0, the only Chinese-made aircraft of World War II.
Zhu retired on December 31, 1962. He moved to the United States in 1980 and died at his home there on July 11, 1985.


Kidada Jones

Kidada Ann Jones () (born March 22, 1974) is an American actress, model, and fashion designer. Jones works as a designer for The Walt Disney Company, where she has a line known as Kidada for Disney Couture. Jones is a daughter of composer Quincy Jones and actress Peggy Lipton.
Early life and education.
The eldest daughter of composer/arranger Quincy Jones and actress Peggy Lipton, Jones was born in Los Angeles, California. Jones was raised in Bel-Air with her younger sister Rashida, who is now an actress and screenwriter. Jones attended the Los Angeles Fashion Institute for Design and Merchandising and left at age 19 to work with the designer Tommy Hilfiger. She is Jewish on her mother's side, and African-American on her father's side. Lipton's parents were Harold Lipton (1911–1999), a corporate lawyer, and Rita Benson (1912–1986), an artist.
Career.
Kidada Jones began working as a celebrity stylist for her father's publication "Vibe" magazine. She gained attention when she styled Michael Jackson for the cover of "Vibe" in 1995. She was recruited by designer Tommy Hilfiger, who launched a successful ad campaign centered on Jones and a group of her friends (including Aaliyah, Tamia, Kate Hudson, Nicole Richie, and Oliver Hudson). She worked as his muse for eight years. Jones' fashion work included designing a clothing line for Snoop Dogg for three years. Jones also appeared during this period as a model in such fashion magazines as "Elle", "Vogue," and "Harper's Bazaar".
Since 2005, Jones has been working with The Walt Disney Company, designing for Kidada for Disney Couture. "W" magazine described this as "a line of clothing and jewelry for adults sold at boutiques" and said that Jones acts "as a conduit to hip tastemakers the brand might otherwise miss." According to Jim Calhoun, Disney's executive vice president of consumer products, North America, "Kidada is not just one of those people that points out what's cool. She has a real hand in making things cool." She also consults on Disney projects.
In 2017, Jones published "School of Awake", a book meant to empower young girls. Jones appeared on Oprah Winfrey's "Super Soul Sunday".
Personal life.
Jones dated rapper and actor LL Cool J from 1992 to 1994. In his autobiography, "I Make My Own Rules", LL Cool J stated that he ended their relationship because of her spiritual beliefs. "She would go to an ashram, consult a guru, and pray to statues," he said.
Jones was the girlfriend to rapper and actor Tupac Shakur prior to his death. She was waiting for Shakur in their Las Vegas hotel room when he was shot on September 7, 1996 and was at the hospital with Shakur when he ultimately died from his injuries six days later.
She was married to Jeffrey Nash from 2003 until 2006.


Morality (novella)

Morality is a novella by American writer Stephen King published in the July 2009 issue of "Esquire". It was then included as a bonus story in "Blockade Billy", a novella published on May 25, 2010, and later collected and re-introduced in the November 3, 2015 anthology "The Bazaar of Bad Dreams". In the latter publication, King revealed that the story was inspired by issues of moral philosophy in his own life, back when he was a struggling student and would occasionally shoplift or write other students' essays (an academic offence) to make ends meet. "Morality" received the 2009 Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novelette.
Plot summary.
Chad and Nora Callahan are suffering from financial difficulties brought on by lack of employment and low-paying jobs. While they are seemingly frustrated with the influx of monthly bills and other expenses, they remain largely optimistic about the future. Chad hopes to supplement their income by writing a book based on his experiences as a substitute teacher, while Nora, a nurse, works full-time for a retired clergyman named George Winston, who is partially paralyzed and uses a wheelchair after suffering from a stroke.
Nora's time spent with Winston is largely uneventful, until one day he offers Nora a solution to her money problems. Winston says that he has lived his life largely without sin and seeks to experience one major sin before he dies. However, he is unable to leave his house given his current condition, making committing any worthwhile sin impossible without aid. Winston states that he intends to commit a sin vicariously through Nora's actions and effectively "doubl[ing] his sin quotient" in the eyes of God. He makes it clear that for Nora's help and assumption of risk in this deed, he will pay her a total of $200,000.
Initially, after Winston reveals what the sin involves, Nora is appalled and assumes that he must be insane. After discussing the pros and cons of the offer with Chad—and reasoning that with the money they would be able to pay off all their debts and move to Vermont—Nora agrees to the proposal. After committing the act with Chad, Nora returns to Winston with a videotape documenting their efforts. While viewing the tape, it's revealed that the sin Winston chose to commit consisted of Nora going up to a small child in a park in broad daylight and punching him in the face, causing the child to suffer a bloody nose.
Seemingly satisfied with the outcome of Nora's actions, Winston agrees to pay her the money. He supposes that Nora will no longer wish to work for him now that she has seen his true face. Nora says she finds the whole situation repulsive and wonders why Winston would want to commit such a senseless act. Shortly afterward, she learns that Winston has committed suicide. Nora wonders about the videotape and whether or not it will be discovered.
As time passes, Chad and Nora are wracked with guilt over their complicity. Their optimism wanes as their fear of exposure increases. Chad starts drinking, while Nora has two affairs and develops a tendency for masochistic satisfaction during sex. They eventually divorce. Chad blames the failure and poor quality of his book on guilt and Nora's lack of faith in his writing talent. Nora is happy to be rid of Chad and begins working full-time at a hospital. Nora finds an old book titled "The Basis of Morality" in a used bookstore; she had previously seen it in Winston's study. After reading through it, Nora sadly concludes that there is little or nothing in the book that she didn't already know.


Loris Abate

Loris Abate (1928 – November/December 2020) was an Italian jewelry designer and businessman. He founded the "Mila Schön" label with Mila Nutrizio Schön in 1960, which found critical and financial success. In 1978, he and Fino Mornasco founded Schontess, a company that produced fabric, ties, and scarves. He also has produced his own eponymous brand. He was the president of the Camera della Moda (Chamber of Fashion) from 1985 to 1991.
Abate and his family also breed horses for show jumping competitions, and produce wine and oil on their "azienda agricola" in Tuscany, Allevamento Baroncio.
In December 2020, it was announced that he had died at the age of 92.


Uniforms of the United States Armed Forces

Each branch of the United States Armed Forces has its own uniforms and regulations regarding them.


Alan R. Moon

Alan R. Moon (born 18 November 1951) is an author of board games, born in Southampton, England. He is generally considered to be one of the foremost designers of German-style board games. Many of his games can be seen as board game variations on the travelling salesman problem.
Career.
Alan R. Moon has worked as a game designer for Avalon Hill, Parker Brothers, and Ravensburger F.X. Schmid USA. His first published game was "Black Spy" (Avalon Hill, 1981), inspired by the classic card game, "Hearts". But his first game that got him attention was "Airlines", published by the German company Abacus in 1990. He started his own publishing company, White Wind in 1990 and ran it until 1997. He now publishes his games through other companies, such as Ravensburger and Days of Wonder.
Since 2000, Alan has been a full-time freelance game designer, with dozens of games to his credit. Moon has won the Spiel des Jahres award twice, for "Elfenland" in 1998 and for "Ticket to Ride" in 2004; "Ticket to Ride" has won almost two dozen other awards worldwide.


Tim Ryan (engineer)

Tim Ryan is an American engineer, inventor and entrepreneur who is best known for founding Midiman (later renamed M-Audio). As of 2004 he works with Avid Technology.
Early career.
Ryan grew up the son of a concert pianist and developed a love of music from an early age, but he did not become a musician himself. While working toward a Bachelor of Arts degree at the California Institute of Technology, he excelled at science, math, and engineering, and decided to apply those skills to his love of music. According to Ryan, in 1977 he and two fellow Caltech students Alan Danziger and Don Lieberman were looking at some of E-mu Systems products selling for about $400, and thought that, considering the wholesale cost of the electronic parts involved was about $15, they could produce a similar product and sell it for half the price.
What the students ended up designing instead was one of the first digital synthesizers, the 800-chip Con Brio, Inc. Advanced Digital Synthesizer (ADS), which utilized three 6502 processors, the same processor used in the Apple II computer and Commodore 64. The ADS offered an advanced feature set for its time: 64 oscillators which could be both amplitude- and frequency-modulated, split keyboard capability, 16-stage envelopes, layering and modulation, and multiple digital-to-analog converters. The resulting unit cost $30,000, but there was very little market for this kind of synthesizer. Con Brio produced three different examples of the ADS, but only sold one, which was used on some major studio film scores and then owned by Chick Corea. They ceased operations in 1982.
Software and hardware.
Ryan then co-founded Third Street Software, a Commodore and Apple software development company that did contract software development for Sequential Circuits, Syntech, and Sonus, including the first multitimbral sequencing software for Sequential's 600-series synthesizer. Ryan then helped design two of the best-selling US sequencers of the time, the Studio One (for the Commodore) and Studio Two (for the Apple II).
Having decided that he wanted to own his own company, he founded Midi Soft in 1988 and shortly thereafter renamed it Midiman, due to Yamaha already having rights to the Midi Soft name. Offering a variety of small, affordable MIDI problem solvers, sync devices, and interfaces, Midiman quickly established itself and later branched out into soundcards and audio interfaces, studio monitor speakers and MIDI keyboards, with the company's mission being "to increase virtualization, musical malleability, performance control and portability to an unprecedented level."
In 2002, Ryan was named the 2002 Los Angeles Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in the Media/Entertainment category. He was recognized for "founding and guiding a company that is currently one of the dominant suppliers in the computer-centric digital audio arena and one of the key players in the desktop recording revolution."
In 2004, Avid Technology acquired Midiman, Inc. (at that time doing business as M-Audio) and kept Ryan on board with the company as general manager.


Weems String Band

The Weems String Band were an old-time country string band who recorded in the 1920s.
The band was made up of the Weems family based in Perry County, Tennessee including brothers Frank and Dick on fiddle, Jesse on cello and brother-in-law Alvin Conder on banjo and vocals augmented at times with two younger members, Atlas "Dodge" Conder, and Ray Hinson who is Dick Weems step-son, on guitar and banjo. The only known photo of the band is as a sextet, although they recorded as a quartet without the younger members.
They recorded one single for Columbia Records in 1928. The songs were versions of the standards "Greenback Dollar" and "Davy". Reportedly they had originally planned to record instrumentals but were told to go home and return to the studio the next day with lyrics.
Although their recorded output was tiny the Weems Stringband are noted for their use of fingering positions taken from classical violin training as well as their use of a cello. In spite of such apparent formal training their sole record is quite simple and repetitive in approach with a driving rhythmic if elegant sound. This dichotomy has made their record highly collectable.
Little is known of the lives of the Weems family after recording their one single they disappear from the historical record although Alvin Conder is known to have performed as a band member at the Grand Ole Opry in the 1930s.
Artist R. Crumb chose the Weems band as one of those for a series of trading cards in 1980 for Yazoo Records, later compiled in book form.


William W. Connors

William W. Connors is a game designer who has worked primarily on role-playing games.
Career.
William W. Connors has worked for a number of companies since the mid-1980s, either on staff or as a freelancer, including TSR, Wizards of the Coast, id Software, and Hasbro. Connors was the guiding force behind the Ravenloft game line. Connors heads up the entertainment division of Senario, LLC, a Chicago-area entertainment and consumer products company.
Connors resides in southeastern Wisconsin with his wife Kathryn and two sons, Chris and Patrick.
Works.
His "Dungeons & Dragons" work has included "The Republic of Darokin" (1989), "Monstrous Compendium Volume One" (1989), "Monstrous Compendium Volume Two" (1989), "Monstrous Compendium Forgotten Realms Appendix" (1989), "Monstrous Compendium Dragonlance Appendix" (1990), "Monstrous Compendium Greyhawk Appendix" (1990), "Monstrous Compendium Spelljammer Appendix" (1990), "Legends & Lore" (1990), "Greyhawk Ruins" (1990), "Campaign Sourcebook and Catacomb Guide" (1990), "The Castle Guide" (1990), "Monstrous Compendium Ravenloft Appendix" (1991), "Monstrous Compendium Forgotten Realms Appendix II" (1991), "Darklords" (1991), "Dark Sun Boxed Set" (1991), "The Atruaghin Clans" (1991), "Van Richten's Guide to Ghosts" (1992), "Quest for the Silver Sword" (1992), "Hordes of Dragonspear" (1992), "Forbidden Lore" (1992), "Dark Sun Monstrous Compendium Appendix: Terrors of the Desert" (1992), "Web of Illusion" (1993), "Monstrous Compendium Ravenloft Appendix II: Children of the Night" (1993), "Marauders of Nibenay" (1993), "Book of Artifacts" (1993), "Wizard's Player's Pack" (1994), "Thief's Player Pack" (1994), "Ravenloft Campaign Setting", 2nd Ed. (1994), "Priest's Player Pack" (1994), "Masque of the Red Death and Other Tales" (1994), "Fighter's Player Pack" (1994), "Wizards and Rogues of the Realms" (1995), "The Gothic Earth Gazetteer" (1995), "Dungeon Master Survival Kit" (1995), "A Light in the Belfry" (1995), ' (1996), ' (1996), "The Shadow Rift" (1997), "Domains of Dread" (1997), "Servants of Darkness" (1998), "The Inner Planes" (1998), "Champions of the Mists" (1998), "A Saga Companion" (1998), and "" (1999).


List of Impact! special episodes

This is a list of the professional wrestling television series "Impact!", the flagship television program of the Impact Wrestling promotion. The series has gone to include special pay-per-view caliber episodes used as equivalent to pay-per-view events as well as continued some of the promotion's former pay-per-view events as special episodes continuing the same theme of the pay-per-views such as hardcore wrestling variations of Hardcore Justice, the X Division matches of Destination X, the Bound for Glory Series of No Surrender and Lethal Lockdown matches of Lockdown.


Giovanni Bassano

Giovanni Bassano (c. 1561 – 3 September 1617) was an Italian composer associated with the Venetian School of composers and a cornettist of the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras. He was a key figure in the development of the instrumental ensemble at the basilica of San Marco di Venezia (St. Mark). His detailed book on instrumental ornamentation has survived. It is a rich resource for research in contemporary performance practice. Bassano was most responsible for the performance of the music of Giovanni Gabrieli, who would emerge as one of the most renowned members of the Venetian School.
Life.
Giovanni was likely born in Venice, Republic of Venice, around 1560 or 1561 in the parish of San Maurizio. He was the son of Santo Griti da Sebenico (now Šibenik, Croatia) and Orsetta Bassano. Orsetta's father Jacomo Bassano was the only brother of the six sons of Jeronimo Bassano who did not move permanently to London from Venice around 1540 as part of a new recorder consort to King Henry VIII. Santo seems to have taken over his father-in-law's instrument-making business and adopted the surname of Bassano for himself. He was the probable inventor of bassanelli.
Giovanni Bassano arrived as a young instrumental player at St. Mark's probably in 1576 at the age of 18. He quickly acquired a reputation as one of the finest instrumentalists in Venice. By 1585 he had published his first book, , which details how best to ornament passages when transcribing vocal music for instruments. In that same year he became a music teacher at the seminary associated with St. Mark's. In 1601, he took over the job from Girolamo Dalla Casa as head of the instrumental ensemble. He served in this post until his death in August 1617.
In addition to directing the music at St. Mark's, Bassano directed several groups of , bands of wind players including bagpipes, recorders, shawms, flageolets, bassoons, and conceivably other instruments, which were used in other churches (such as San Rocco) or street festivals.
Bassano was also a composer, though his music has been overshadowed by his renown as a performer and his associated performance treatise. He wrote motets and "concerti ecclesiastici" (sacred concertos) in the Venetian polychoral style; and he also wrote madrigals, canzonettas and some purely instrumental music. His canzonettas achieved some fame outside Italy: Thomas Morley knew them, printing them in London in 1597 in English translation.
Some of Bassano's instrumental music is ingeniously contrapuntal, as though he were indulging a side of his personality that he was unable to display in his more ceremonial, homophonic compositions. His fantasias and ricercars are densely imitative and contain retrograde and retrograde inversions of motivic ideas, a rarity in counterpoint before the 20th century.
The similarity of Bassano's motets to the early work of Heinrich Schütz, who studied in Venice with Gabrieli, suggests that the two may have known each other. Likely Schütz knew Bassano's music and was influenced by it.


Gina Fratini

Gina Fratini (born Georgina Caroline Eve Butler, 22 September 1931 – 25 May 2017) was a British fashion designer.
Early life.
She was born in Kobe, Japan, the daughter of the Hon. Somerset Butler (son of Charles Ernest Alfred French Somerset Butler, 7th Earl of Carrick) and his wife Barbara, and spent most of her childhood in India. Her godfather was Sir Victor Sassoon. On her return to the UK, she studied at the Royal College of Arts.
Career.
She set up her own business in 1964 and became one of the top British designers of the early 1970s, winning the Dress of the Year Award in 1975; some of her garments from the period are held in the Victoria & Albert Museum's costume collection. Among the top personalities who wore Fratini designs was Elizabeth Taylor, who wore a Fratini wedding dress for her second wedding to Richard Burton. Diana, Princess of Wales, also wore Fratini designs to public events.
As a designer, she was known for her use of natural fabrics such as cotton and silk and her long "fantasy"-style dresses, which were not easily reproduced by cheaper dressmakers. In 1989, she closed down her business but continued to work for individual clients such as the Princess of Wales, who wore one of her creations for a 1990 official portrait by Terence Donovan; she also produced some designs for Norman Hartnell.
Marriages.
Gina's first marriage was in 1954, to David Goldberg. They were divorced in 1961, and Fratini married the Italian illustrator Renato Fratini, but they divorced in 1968. Finally, in 1969, she married James Alan Short, a Scottish actor/comedian better known as Jimmy Logan; they divorced in 1977. She was romantically involved with the actor Anthony Newley from 1993 onwards. The couple had known each other in the 1950s. Following Newley's death, Fratini was quoted as saying: "We came back together at the perfect time, I suppose ... But it ended too soon."
Later life.
Following the closure of Fratini's fashion house November 1989, she had no regular employment. She lived with Anthony Newley in Jensen Beach, Florida, from 1993 until his death in 1999. Her long-time assistant and housekeeper, Marie, accompanied her on the move to the United States. Fratini died on 25 May 2017 in London.


Cracking the Conspiracy

Cracking the Conspiracy is a point-and-click adventure game released by Pixel Shop Inc. in 1998. The game focuses on science fiction and political secrets. A possible Macintosh version was planned, but never came to development due to lack of demand and Mac hardware. The game also stars the actor John Hurt.
Plot.
The player character called John is sent by a friend named Kelsey Hart to infiltrate Area 51 and uncover all secrets to expose to the world. John infiltrates the base via a uranium mine and goes undercover as a janitor.
Gameplay.
The game interface consist of a single-screen rooms, inventory box for storing usable items, a description box for describing the current room and a health bar for showing the player's vitality status. Occasionally when the player comes across a puzzle, that single screen will take up the whole screen, obscuring the other menu boxes. The player must take caution to avoid hostile security forces and aliens within the base area.
Development.
The Mennenoh brothers began working on the game in June 1996, aided by some friends and relatives throughout and finished by August 1998. The programming code used was Lingo with over 80,000 lines of code in the program. The audio was recorded and edited with Sound Forge.
Graphics.
The 3D graphics were created using 3D Studio MAX R2. They started in Wireframe format. The modeling and rendering was done with Kinetix's 3D Studio MAX. Character animations were done with Character Studio. Image and Animation editing was done with Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Premiere respectively. The 3D animation was implemented with Adobe Director. The game had over 3,000 images and 358 videos using QuickTime.


Jason Holmgren

Jason Holmgren is an American cartoonist, art director, and role-playing game designer.
Career.
Holmgren first started as a cartoonist for "Shadis" Magazine, where his strip, "Joe Genero: Adventures of the Average Man", debuted in 1990. The comic focused on the conceits of popular role-playing games, which all defined "average" in different ways. He later wrote and illustrated "The New Adventures of Fineous Fingers" for the same magazine, under license from J.D. Webster.
Holmgren is responsible for several cover illustrations for the early issues of Jolly Blackburn's popular "Knights of the Dinner Table", and contributed to the design of the character Sara . His artwork has been featured in "Dork Tower". Holmgren was head artist for "Sheep on the Borderlands", a 2002 Origins Award nominee.
In 1998, Holmgren co-founded Sanguine Productions, and a year later produced "Ironclaw: Anthropomorphic Fantasy Role-Play". Despite the 2000 release of the third edition of "Dungeons & Dragons" and the subsequent marketplace dominance of the d20 System, the "Ironclaw" game found a small but solid core audience. Holmgren served as head designer and art director on later Sanguine projects, including "Jadeclaw", "Albedo: Platinum Catalyst", and "Usagi Yojimbo". He was nominated for an Ursa Major Award for "Albedo: Platinum Catalyst" in 2004.
Holmgren lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States.


Jaap Schekkerman

Jaap Schekkerman (born 1953) is a Dutch computer scientist and founder of the Institute For Enterprise Architecture Developments (IFEAD) in the Netherlands. He is particularly known for his 2003 book "How to Survive in the Jungle of Enterprise Architecture" in which he compared 14 Enterprise Architecture Frameworks.
Biography.
Schekkerman received a degree in clinical chemistry from the Bakhuis Roozeboom Instituut in Beverwijk in 1973, and his Engineer's degree in electronic engineering from the HTS Amsterdam in 1979. Further on he received a certificates in information technology from in 1984, and a certificates in business economics from the Open University in the Netherlands in 1988.
Schekkerman started working as assistant scientist at the Free University Amsterdam in 1973. The next year he started working at the Red Cross Hospital in Beverwijk, where he became chief information officer and participated in the development of medical information technology. From 1985 to 1989 he managed the IT Research & Development department of the insurance company Centraal Beheer, and in 1989 became IT consultant at the Dutch Software developer . From 1995 till 2005 he was business and Information Technology consultant for Capgemini, from 2005 till 2008 Business Technology Strategy & Enterprise Architecture consultant for Verdonck, Klooster & Associates in the Netherlands, and since 2008 management consultant for Logica, and lecturer at the Delft TopTech Program of the Technical University Delft.
In 1982 Schekkerman received the American Ames Award for his article about medical information technology development. In 2001 he founded the Institute For Enterprise Architecture Developments (IFEAD) in the Netherlands.
In 2012 Schekkerman became Global Director Cyber Security at CGI (Canada) where he was responsible for Cyber Security of Industrial Control Systems at companies world wide.
In 2013 Schekkerman is awarded with the International Global Excellence iCMG Hall of Fame Award for his 20 years contribution to the Enterprise and Security Architecture Profession at the Architecture World Summit 2013, India.
In 2015 Schekkerman was one the leading founders of the Cyber Research Center - Industrial Control Systems, a cyber research center focused on Cyber Protection & Resilience of Industrial Control Systems. Cyber Protection & Resilience are the Only Drivers for Successful Architecture Today
In 2018 Schekkerman stopped his activities at the Cyber Research Center - Industrial Control Systems for personal reasons.
"Extended Enterprise Architecture Framework Essentials Guide : Version 1.5" Institute For Enterprise Architecture Developments
</ref> and the Extended Enterprise Architecture Maturity Model.
Work.
Institute For Enterprise Architecture Developments.
In 2001 Schekkerman founded the Institute For Enterprise Architecture Developments (IFEAD). for research in and knowledge exchange about the emerging field of Enterprise Architecture.
The Institute works together with a series of institutes in the field and facilitated a series of publications in the field of Enterprise Architecture.
"How to Survive in the Jungle of Enterprise Architecture Frameworks".
In his 2003 book "How to Survive in the Jungle of Enterprise Architecture Frameworks" Schekkerman defined enterprise architecture as:
Enterprise Architecture is a complete expression of the enterprise; a master plan which "acts as a collaboration force" between aspects of business planning such as goals, visions, strategies and governance principles; aspects of business operations such as business terms, organization structures, processes and data; aspects of automation such as information systems and databases; and the enabling technological infrastructure of the business, such as computers, operating systems and networks.
Schekkerman had witnessed a growing importance of Enterprise Architecture. He explained:
Recent Surveys of CEO’s, CIO’s and other executives provide some evidence of the growing importance of Enterprise Architecture over the last few years. In one of the most recent studies of the Institute For Enterprise Architecture Developments (IFEAD), Enterprise Architecture was ranked near the top of the list of most important issues considered by CEO’s and CIO’s.
Apparently, this suggests the significance of the overarching framework within which the various aspects of decision-making and development are considered: including Business Architecture, Information Architecture, Information-Systems Architecture (Data Architecture), Technology Infrastructure Architecture and things like Software Architecture.
The various decisions related to business development and technology innovations need to be considered in a systemic manner within the framework of various architectures. Choices of methods and techniques have to be made in the context of the goals and objectives...
Enterprise Architecture Frameworks.
The "How to Survive in the Jungle of Enterprise Architecture Frameworks" started with a general introduction of the principles of enterprise architecture and the EA practice in the US and in Europe. Subsequently, this book compares 14 of the most popular Enterprise Architecture Frameworks of that time.
Starting with the Extended Enterprise Architecture Framework (E2AF) it describes Enterprise Architecture Planning (EAP), The Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework (FEAF), the Treasury Enterprise Architecture Framework (TEAF), The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF), the Zachman Framework, the Integrated Architecture Framework (IAF), the Joint Technical Architecture (JTA), the C4ISR and DoDAF, the Department of Defense Technical Reference Model (DoD TRM), and finished with the reference architecture TAFIM, CIMOSA, PERA en the SAGA - Standards and Architectures for e-Government Applications.
Extended Enterprise Architecture Framework.
Early 2000s Schekkerman developed the Extended Enterprise Architecture (E2A) and Extended Enterprise Architecture Framework (E2AF). The Extended Enterprise Architecture (E2A) is designed to address three different elements in a comprehensive way:
According to Schekkerman (2007) in enterprise architecture "style is reflecting the culture, values, norms and principles of an organization. Most of the time, the term enterprise architecture is dealing with construction and function, without any attention of the style aspect, while the style aspect reflects the cultural behavior, values, norms and principles of that organization in such a way that it reflects the corporate values of that organization."
The Extended Enterprise Architecture Framework (E2AF), first published in 2003, is based on the IEEE 1471 Standard for describing the architecture of a software-intensive system regarding views and viewpoints, and other elements from FEAF and TOGAF. It uses a 2-D matrix structure, similar to the Zachman Framework, and defines four types of scopes: business, information, system, and infrastructure. However, overall in comparison to the Zachman Framework the E2AF is more technology-oriented.
Publications.
Schekkerman published more than 100+ articles and several books on Enterprise Architecture and related subjects. Schekkerman also contributed as author to several other Books and Publications. A selection: