A model of software deployment ...

A model of software deployment ...

A model of software deployment whereby a provider licenses an application to customers for use as a service on demand?

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Answer:

SaaS (Software as a Service)

What Is Gamification?

What Is Gamification?

Source: Gamification with Unity 5.x - By: Lauren S. Ferro - Publisher: Packt Publishing - Pub. Date: November 28, 2016 - Web ISBN-13: 978-1-78646-224-4 - Print ISBN-13: 978-1-78646-348-7

Gamification relates to the use of games to tackle issues related to real-world situations, and while the term has become popular, the concept is not entirely new. Think about loyalty cards, not just frequent flyer mile programs, but maybe even at your local butcher or café. Do you get a discount after a certain number of purchases; maybe the 10^th coffee is free. For a while, various reward schemes have already been in place; even giving children a reward for completing household chores or good behavior and awarding gold stars for academic excellence constitute gamification. If you consider social activities such as Scouts, they utilize gamification as part of their procedures. Scouts learn new skills, such as cooperativeness, and by doing so gain different status, and receive badges to demonstrate levels of competency. Gamification has become a favorable approach to engaging clients with new and exciting design schemes to maintain interest and promote a more enjoyable and ideally "fun" product. The product in question does not have to be digital. Therefore, gamification can exist both in a physical realm (as mentioned before with gold stars awards) as well as in a more prominent digital sense (such as badge and point reward systems) as an effective way to motivate and engage users. Some common examples of gamification include:

• Loyalty programs: Each time you engage with the company in a particular way such as buying certain products, or amount of you are rewarded. These rewards can include additional products, points towards items, discounts, and even free items.
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• School House points: A pastime that some of us may remember, especially for fans of Harry Potter. Each time you do the right thing such as following the school rules you get some points. Alternatively, you do the wrong thing and you lose points.
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• Scouts: They reward levels of competency with badges as well as ranks. The more skilled you are the more badges you collect, wear, and ultimately the faster you work your way up the hierarchy.
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• Rewarding in general: This will often be associated with some rules and these rules determine whether or not a reward is obtained. Eat your vegetables, you get dessert; do you math homework you get to play. Both have winning conditions.
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• Tests: As horrifying as it might sound they can be considered as a game. For example, we're on a quest to learn about history. Each assignment you get is like a task, preparing you for the final battle...the exam. At the end of all these assessments, you get a score or a grade that indicates to you your progress as you pass from one concept to the next. Ultimately, your final exam will determine your rank among your peers and whether or not you make it to the next level or not (that being anywhere from your year level to a university). It may be also worth noting that just like in games, you also have those trying to work the system, searching for glitches in the system that they can exploit. However, just like games, they too eventually are kicked.

Motion Graphic Design

Motion Graphic Design

Motion graphic design is a subset of graphic design which uses graphic design principles in  filmmaking, video production, etc. through the use of animation or filmic techniques; for example, graphics used in film and television opening sequences, or  the spinning, three-dimensional station identification logos of some television channels. Motion graphic design is for creating "motion graphic"; where "motion graphic" is pieces of digital footage or animation which create the illusion of motion or rotation, and are usually combined with audio for use in multimedia projects.

There are many software for motion graphic design in the market such as:

» Adobe After Effects
» Eyeon Fusion
» Nuke
» Autodesk Combustion
» Apple Motion/Shake
» Max/MSP
» Apple Quartz Composer
» Various VJ Programs
» Smith Micro Software Anime Studio
» Adobe Flash
» Natron

Also, there are many software for 3D motion graphic design in the market such as:

» Maxon Cinema 4D
» Softimage XSI
» Autodesk 3d studio max
» Autodesk Maya
» NewTek Lightwave
» e-on Vue Infinite
» The Blender Foundation Blender software
» EI Technology Group Electric Image Animation System

In the following you can watch Cinema 4D UK Motion Graphics Reels in 2015 and 2016.

 

What is the Hardest Substances on Earth?

What is the Hardest Substance on Earth?

Lonsdaleite. It is 58 percent harder than diamond.

Lonsdaleite, also called Hexagonal Diamond, is an allotrope of carbon with a hexagonal lattice. In nature, it forms when meteorites containing graphite strike the Earth.

References:
1. New Scientist Live https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16610-diamond-no-longer-natures-hardest-material/
2. Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonsdaleite

BSOD

BSOD

BSOD, or Blue Screen of Death, is a terminology for any critical system errors in the Windows operating system that causes a crash leading the system (computer) not to be able to recover and the user has to shut down and restart the system [source: here]. A sample BSOD is displayed below:

BSOD (a sample screen)

 

What is Lumosity Performance Index?

What is Lumosity Performance Index?

There are 3 types of Lumosity Performance Indices: 

1. Game Lumosity Performance Index
2. Area Lumosity Performance Index
3. Overall Lumosity Performance Index
Game Lumosity Performance Index (LPI) is determined by gathering and analyzing score distributions for each game across a wide range of users. A Game LPI is set to each game score. The Game LPI of a player is set each time she/he plays a game based on how her/his current score compares to her/his previous scores for that game.

Area LPI (Speed, Memory, Attention, Flexibility, and Problem Solving) is calculated using players Game LPIs for the games in that cognitive area.

Overall LPI is based on players Game LPIs from all cognitive areas. Since players might not play an equal number of games from each area, Overall LPI might not be the same as the average of the 5 Area LPIs.

Google DeepMind

Google DeepMind

Google DeepMind is a British artificial intelligence company founded in September 2010 as DeepMind Technologies. It was renamed when it was acquired by Google in 2014. The company has created a neural network that learns how to play video games in a fashion similar to that of humans, as well as a Neural Turing Machine, or a neural network that may be able to access an external memory like a conventional Turing machine, resulting in a computer that mimics the short-term memory of the human brain. The company made headlines in 2016 after its AlphaGo program beat a human professional Go player for the first time [more info].

Dopamine, Endorphin, Oxytocin and Serotonin { What is happiness? }

From "Habits Of A Happy Brain" by: Loretta Graziano Breuning:

The feeling we call “happiness” comes from four special brain chemicals: dopamine, endorphin, oxytocin, and serotonin. These “happy chemicals” turn on when your brain sees something good for your survival (‪‬see #X below). Then they turn off, so they’re ready to activate again when something good crosses your path.

Each happy chemical triggers a different good feeling:

Dopamine produces the joy of finding things that meet your needs—the “Eureka! I got it!” feeling.

Endorphin produces oblivion that masks pain—often called euphoria.

Oxytocin produces the feeling of being safe with others—now called bonding.

Serotonin produces the feeling of being respected by others—pride.

(#X) Your brain is inherited from people who survived. This may seem obvious, but when you look closer at the huge survival challenges of the past, it seems like a miracle that all of your direct ancestors kept their genes alive. You have inherited a brain that is focused on survival. You may not think you are focused on survival, but when you worry about being late for a meeting or eating the wrong food, your survival brain is at work. When you worry about being invited to a party or having a bad hair day, your survival brain sees the risk of social exclusion, which was a very real threat to your ancestors. Once you’re safe from immediate threats like hunger, cold, and predators, your brain scans for other potential threats. It’s not easy being a survivor!

iFunBox - This is iFunBox

iFunBox 

Launched in August 2008, iFunBox is one of the best file manager for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. With iFunBox you can manage files on your device just like Windows File Explorer on your PC, take advantage of the device's storage and use it as a portable USB disk, and import/export music, video, photo files with no effort. The best part about using iFunBox is it requires no jailbreak at all.

Core Feature 1: Total Control of iPhone/iPad File System
Manage files on your iPhone or iPad in a way just like Windows File Explorer but more robust and friendly. Easily transmit files and folders to your computer with the optimized file transfer and browsing. iOS 6 is now fully supported.
iPhone/iPad File Manager
• Navigation, Upload and Download
• Quick Preview, Drag&Drop
• Delete, Rename and Move
• Asian / Long Filename Support

Core Feature 2: One-stop App Install and Backup
Safe App Install on iPhone/iPad with .ipa packages. No Jailbreak required for installing purchased apps. Support install unofficial/unsigned .ipa based on AppSync without installous. Backup install apps back to .ipa packages for sharing and reinstallation. Uninstall/Install apps in batch easily.
iOS App Manager
• One-step Batch uninstall/install App
• Back up installed App to .ipa package
• Install unsigned .ipa package
• Quick App list preview

Core Feature 3: Hi-Speed General Purpose Storage
Use your iPhone as an USB Portable Disk for general files. Exploit the large flash memory on iPhone or iPad with transmission speed beyond 5MB/s on iPhone and 15MB/s on iPad.
iPhone/iPad Portable Disk
• Realtime Progress Indicator
• High Speed Data Transmission
• Scheduled Data Transferring
• Recursive Copy Subfolders

Core Feature 4: Access App sandbox without Jailbreak
Accessing App sandbox is very useful for backup/sharing saved games, app settings. You can also upload video to a 3rd-party player like “OPlayer HD” instead of using iPod, and download documents you created in an App like "Numbers".
Play with all user applications
• No jailbreak needed
• Backup/sharing data generated by Apps
• Upload PDF, Word Doc, videos and other files for viewing/playback

Core Feature 5: Wallpaper Function
Thumbnail previewing helps a lot for wallpaper management. It is also integrated in all other folders including camera folder. Now it is more easy to seletively delete photos in the camera and replace resource images.
Upload Wallpaper in Batch
• Image Thumbnail Preview
• Batch Uploading and Conversion
• Change Image Resolution
• High Quality Image Resizing

Core Feature 6: Export Music and Movie on iPhone/iPod
Export Apple iTunes© managed audio and video in iPhone, iPad or iPods to PC as a backup copy or burn to CD. Scan and populate music and movie files in iPhone and iPod even when iTunes is refused to connect.
Backup iPod Music & Movie
• iTunes© Managed Media Files
• Recover Songs and Movie
• Copy from iPad/iPhone
• Copy to PC with Friendly Title 

 This is iFunBox

Source: http://www.i-funbox.com/about_us.html

What is 4K gaming? And what is 4K TV?

What is 4K gaming? And what is 4K TV?

Either for a computer or a TV, "4K" or "Ultra HD" means to increase four times as many pixels in as Full HD; e.g., a Full HD TV has 2,000,000+ pixels, where a 4K Ultra HD TV has 8,000,000+ pixels.