Software is a 1982 cyberpunk science fiction novel written by Rudy Rucker. It won the first Philip K. Dick Award in 1983. The novel is the first book in Rucker's Ware Tetralogy, and was followed by a sequel, Wetware, in 1988.
Software introduces Cobb Anderson as a retired computer scientist who was once tried for treason for figuring out how to give robots artificial intelligence and free will, creating the race of boppers. By 2020, they have created a complex society on the Moon, where the boppers developed because they depend on super-cooled superconducting circuits. In that year, Anderson is a pheezer — a freaky geezer, Rucker's depiction of elderly Baby Boomers — living in poverty in Florida and terrified because he lacks the money to buy a new artificial heart to replace his failing, secondhand one.
As the story begins, Anderson is approached by a robot duplicate of himself who invites him to the Moon to be given immortality. Meanwhile, the series' other main character, Sta-Hi Mooney the 1st — born Stanley Hilary Mooney Jr. — a 25-year-old cab driver and "brainsurfer", is kidnapped by a gang of serial killers known as the Little Kidders who almost eat his brain. When Anderson and Mooney travel to the Moon together at the boppers' expense, they find that these events are closely related: the "immortality" given to Anderson turns out to be having his mind transferred into software via the same brain-destroying technique used by the Little Kidders.
Software 2.0 is a term derived from Web 2.0 used to describe a second generation of software development methodologies. Analogous to the term Web 2.0, Software 2.0 refer to hosted services which aim to facilitate users creativity to develop and share their own software applications online.
The term includes open source projects -where many developers collaborate in a software project and make the source code available to the end user- and generative programming and automatic programming - where software tools assist users to build customized software applications.
Following Web 2.0 design patterns, Software 2.0 services allow users to share their software applications on web-based communities such as GitHub.
Modesty was an oyster sloop built in 1923 by The Wood and Chute Shipyard of Greenport, Long Island. Modeled after the catboat Honest, which was built in 1892 by Jelle Dykstra on the west bank of Greens Creek, West Sayville, Modesty was built as a gaff-rigged sloop, but retained the extreme beam of a catboat. For auxiliary power, a two-cylinder Gafka gasoline engine was installed.
Modesty was described by oystermen as a true "southsider". She is believed to be the last sailing scallop dredger built on Long Island. A beautiful vessel, a fine sailer and typical of the old oyster sloops, her lines show graceful proportions in hull and rig. She has a wide beam and sits low in the water. Her shallow draft permitted her to operate commercially in the oyster and scallop flats of Long Island's bays and the river estuaries of Connecticut.
The fact that she was even built at the end of the age of sail is due to a law enacted before World War I, which stipulated that only sail power could be used while dredging for scallops. By this time, many boats in the fleet had their centerboards plugged. After working as a scallop dredger in the Peconic Bay until 1936, Modesty moved to Connecticut to finish her working career as an oyster dredger. From the 1948 until 1974 she served as a pleasure yacht for various owners.
Blaze may refer to:
This is a list of playable characters from the Mortal Kombat fighting game series and the games in which they appear. The series takes place in a fictional universe composed of six realms, which were created by the Elder Gods. The Elder Gods created a fighting tournament called Mortal Kombat to reduce the wars between the realms. The first Mortal Kombat game introduces a tournament in which Earthrealm can be destroyed if it loses once again.
The Earthrealm warriors manage to defeat the champion Goro and tournament host Shang Tsung, but this leads Tsung to search for other ways to destroy Earthrealm. Since then, every game features a new mortal who wishes to conquer the realms, therefore violating the rules of Mortal Kombat. By Mortal Kombat: Deception, most of the main characters had been killed by Shang Tsung and Quan Chi (neither of whom were playable in the game), but by Mortal Kombat: Armageddon all of them return.
Appearances in the fighting games in the series:
The Sonic the Hedgehog video game franchise began in 1991 with the game Sonic the Hedgehog for the Sega Genesis, which pitted a blue anthropomorphic hedgehog named Sonic against a rotund human man named Doctor Eggman (or Doctor Ivo Robotnik). The sequel, Sonic 2, gave Sonic a fox friend named Tails. Shortly afterward, Sonic CD introduced Amy Rose, a female hedgehog with a persistent crush on Sonic, and Sonic 3 introduced Knuckles the Echidna, Sonic's rival and, later, friend. All five of these have remained major characters and appeared in dozens of games.
The series has introduced dozens of additional recurring characters over the years. These have ranged from anthropomorphic animal characters like Shadow the Hedgehog and Cream the Rabbit to robots created by Eggman like Metal Sonic and E-123 Omega, as well as human characters like Eggman's grandfather Gerald Robotnik. The series also features two fictional species: Chao, which have usually functioned as digital pets and minor gameplay and plot elements, and Wisps, which have been used as power-ups.