AIMBOT
A targeting script in games.
Ain’t It Cool News
A website dedicated to posting reviews on comics, movies and television.
Aircard
A wireless adapter for cellular data. Also known as a 3G modem, 4G modem, cellular modem or data card.
Akira
Katsuhiro Ôtomo’s iconic feature-length anime film, which debuted in Japan in July 1988 and in the United States in December 1989, addressed social issues such as confronting an authoritarian and greedy government, and ultimately influenced television shows such as Stranger Things, films like Rian Johnson’s Looper, and even the Kanye West music video “Stronger.”
According to Akira’s storyline, thirty-one years after the outbreak of World War III, the streets of Neo-Tokyo in the year 2019 are filled with angry protests and violence between rival motorcycle gangs and the authoritarian police state. Meanwhile, the military wrestles with politicians for control, while scientists carry out strange experiments on children. A child with amazing mental powers breaks free from custody and accidentally gets bikers involved in the project. Bullied teenage gang member Tetsuo begins to develop telekinesis, after which he is taken by the army and experimented on until eventually, his injured mind sets out to exact revenge on the society that once called him weak. Another child, Akira, is revealed as the military’s first test subject, whose own extraordinary powers resulted in the inadvertent destruction seen at the start of the film.
Ôtomo had been a respected illustrator of manga, but in the creation of Akira, he was inspired by European comic artists such as Moebius. His drawings were distinctive for their realism, and he repeatedly contrasted sounds and images to humorous or disturbing effect. For example, cartoon dogs in a pet food commercial are intercut with the baying of vicious police dogs. The story is seen as an allegory for the fallout from the nuclear bombs dropped by the United States during World War II, where Akira represents the bomb and Tetsuo is the dreaded future of such warlike attacks. Ôtomo, who wrote the original manga series – which was still being published when its cinematic adaptation was released – co-wrote the screenplay with Izô Hashimoto, and served as supervising director. A team of 70 animators created tens of thousands of intricate animation cels and pieces of background art.
Alderson disk
An enormous circular structure around a sun or star, with the object in the exact center. Named after Dan Alderson, who originally proposed the concept, an Alderson disk serves a dual purpose in science fiction, both as a rich narrative setting and an extreme engineering thought experiment. In theory, a successful Alderson disk would have a diameter of 150 million miles or so (roughly the size of the inner solar system out past Mars), and it would be several thousand miles thick. Civilizations could live on either side of it. Light from a sun, or suns, shining in the inner, empty core of the Alderson disk would strike the length of the disk edgewise, bathing disk residents in a permanent twilight.
In our solar system, the sun possesses some 99.8% of the total mass. Alderson disks upend this conventional distribution of matter, and contain immense amounts of mass. In his 1979 book, Xenology, Robert Frietas assumed a ring-shaped structure or region with a breadth of about 370 million miles from inner to outer edge, and a thickness around 3,000 miles. (In comparison, Earth’s radius is about 4,000 miles.)
Alexander
The legendary king of Macedonia and Persia, who reigned from 336 to 323 BC, established the largest empire the ancient world had ever seen. Alexander united Greece from a collection of city-states into a nation, re-established and led the Corinthian League, and conquered Babylon, Asia and the Persian Empire, establishing Macedonian colonies all along the way.
A shrewd, ruthless and brilliant military leader who never lost a battle in his lifetime, the formidable king was born in July of 356 BC in the Pella region of Macedonia (which today includes parts of Greece, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania, Serbia and Kosovo) as the son of King Philip II of Macedon and Queen Olympia (daughter of King Neoptolemus), although legend had it that his “actual” father was none other than Zeus, the ruler of the Greek gods. The young noble learned math, horsemanship and archery from Leonidas of Epirus, then from Lysimachus, and then in 343 BC, Philip hired Aristotle to tutor his son. The renowned thinker taught Alexander and his friends philosophy, poetry, drama, politics and the sciences for three years, after which Alexander completed his education at Meiza in 340 BC.
While still a teen, he became a soldier and embarked on his first military expedition in 339 BC against the Thracian tribes. In 338, Alexander took charge of the Companion Cavalry and aided his father in defeating the Athenian and Theban armies at Chaeronea. Once Philip II had succeeded in his campaign to unite all the Greek states (minus Sparta) into the Corinthian League, the alliance between father and son soon disintegrated. Alexander was just 16 when Philip went to battle the Byzantiums and left him in charge of Macedonia. Inspired by Homer’s Iliad to be a heroic warrior, Alexander saw the opportunity to prove his military worth in 338 BC, when he led a cavalry successfully against the Sacred Band of Thebes during the Battle of Chaeronea.
After Philip was assassinated in 336 BC at the hands of his bodyguard Pausanias, Alexander claimed the Macedonian throne and killed his rivals before they could challenge his sovereignty. He quickly garnered the support of the Macedonian army, including the general and troops he had fought beside under his father at Chaeronea. Beginning in 334 BC, after visiting Ilium (the site of ancient Troy), Alexander began his Asiatic expedition, and in November 333 BC, after twice defeating forces of Persia’s King Darius III, Alexander declared himself the king of Persia. His next conquest, Egypt, fell without resistance. In 331 BC, he created the city of Alexandria, designed as a hub for Greek culture and commerce. Later that year, Alexander defeated the Persians at the Battle of Gaugamela. With the collapse of the Persian army, Alexander was recognized as “King of Babylon, King of Asia, King of the Four Quarters of the World.” His next conquest was eastern Iran, where he created Macedonian colonies and in 327 BC, seized the fortress in Ariamazes. After capturing Prince Oxyartes, Alexander married the prince’s daughter, Rhoxana. It was also in 327 BC when Alexander first entered India.
While considering the conquests of Carthage and Rome, Alexander the Great died of malaria (though some believe he was poisoned) at the age of 32 in Babylon (in modern-day Iraq) on June 13, 323 BC. Rhoxana gave birth to his son a few months later. After Alexander died without naming a successor, his empire collapsed and the nations within it battled for power. Over time, the cultures of Greece and the Orient synthesized and thrived as a side effect of Alexander’s empire, becoming part of his legacy.
Hollywood has presented the great Greek hero in film, as portrayed by Richard Burton in Alexander the Great (1956) and by Colin Farrell in Oliver Stone’s Alexander (2004).
“Alexander the Great”
See Alexander.
Algorithm
A procedure, formula or specific set of instructions for carrying out a computer procedure or solving a mathematical problem, usually with the requirement that the procedure terminate at some point. A specific algorithm can also be called a method, procedure or technique.
Alice
With the slogan “Anyone can code!”, this open-source software program teaches computer programming at a basic level, using simple drag-and-drop interface to create 3D computer animations. Developed by Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer Science’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII), Alice was the brainchild of Randy Pausch (1960-2008), a Carnegie Mellon computer science professor who became famous for his life-affirming September 18, 2007 lecture, known as the “Last Lecture.” Alice removes the possibility for syntax errors, a common source of frustration for beginning programmers. In recent years, colleges and universities have utilized Alice, and an increasing number of middle and high schools are using the software to teach their students. The latest version of the Alice program, which is downloadable without charge at www.alice.org, features the popular animated character Garfield and Sims2™ animated characters and scenes, an interface that allows advanced students to use a keyboard to create programs written in standard Java, and the ability to export student-created work onto YouTube.
All-Terrain Armored Transport
See AT-AT walker.
Alpha geek
The person in a group who has the greatest expertise in computers, technology and related areas.
Alpha strike
To a gamer, firing all available weapons at once as an initial assault on a target. Though a very effective means of offense, it is also a very risky choice, since there is the chance that you don’t completely disable your enemy and you will be left with no defense should the enemy counterattack.
Alphabet Soup Bat-Container
One of the most bat-specific bat-gadgets to ever appear in the original Batman TV series, the Alphabet Soup Bat-Container (which was actually just a Thermos with the Bat-symbol on it!) was utilized in the dual-episode “A Piece of the Action”/“Batman’s Satisfaction” (Season 2, Episodes 51 and 52), which originally aired on March 1 and 2, 1967. Featuring guest appearances by The Green Hornet and Kato (Van Williams and Bruce Lee), the episode was written by Charles Hoffman and directed by Oscar Rudolph.
Alseid
See Nymph.
Alternate reality
Also known as alternate universe or parallel universe, the theory that there are unnumbered versions of our universe, planets and even individual people existing on an as-yet-undiscovered plane of existence.
Alternate universe
See Alternate reality.
Alternate-reality game (ARG)
To a gamer, a genre of gaming in which a puzzle or mystery is to be solved, ARGs can include such real-world elements such as websites, newspaper ads, and phone calls from game “characters.” Such games are usually free to play, and often have a specific goal of not only involving the player with the story and/or fictional characters, but of connecting them to the real world and to each other.
Ambigram
A typographical design consisting of text modified to be legible in more than one orientation (typically when inverted 180 degrees). An ambigram may consist of the same word that can be read in both orientations, or two different words that each become apparent to the eye at a different viewing angle.
Amplitude modulation (AM)
In order for a steady radio signal (also known as a radio carrier) to transmit information, it must be altered, or modulated, in a way that the information can be conveyed from one place to another. Amplitude modulation (AM) is one method of impressing data onto an alternating-current (AC) carrier waveform. The overall signal power varies depending on the instantaneous amplitude of the modulating data.
Amplitude modulation is the most straightforward way of modulating a signal. In AM, the carrier itself does not fluctuate in amplitude. Instead, the modulating data appears in the form of signal components at frequencies slightly higher and lower than that of the carrier. Demodulation, or the process where the radio frequency signal is converted into an audio frequency signal, is also very simple. An amplitude modulation signal only requires a simple diode detector circuit. AM is also the oldest method of transmitting human voice electronically. In an analog telephone conversation, the voice waves on both sides are modulating the voltage of the direct current loop connected to them by the telephone company.
Amplitude modulation has been in use since the very earliest days of radio technology. The first recorded instance of its use was in 1901, when a signal was transmitted by a Canadian engineer named Reginald Fessenden. To achieve this, he used a continuous spark transmission and placed a carbon microphone in the antenna lead. The sound waves impacting on the microphone varied its resistance, and in turn, this varied the intensity of the transmission. Although very crude, signals were audible over a distance of a few hundred meters. The quality of the audio was not good. Later, continuous sine wave signals could be generated and the audio quality was greatly improved. As a result, amplitude modulation became the standard for voice transmissions. Modern amplitude modulation has a variety of applications: broadcast transmissions, air band radio (ground-to-air and two-way radio), single sideband (for HF radio links), and quadrature amplitude modulation (for short-range wireless links such as wireless fidelity (WiFi) to cellular telecommunications), among many other uses. Advantages to AM broadcasting include: it is simple to implement; it can be demodulated using a circuit of very few components; receivers are inexpensive, since no specialized components are needed. Disadvantages of amplitude modulation include: the signal is not efficient in terms of power usage; it is not efficient in use of bandwidth, as it requires twice highest audio frequency; and the signal is prone to high levels of noise because most distortion is amplitude-based. Despite these shortcomings, amplitude modulation is in such widespread use, especially for broadcasting, and many amplitude modulation signals can still be heard on the various long, medium and short wavebands where they will undoubtedly be heard for many years to come.
…And Now For Something Completely Different
A feature film anthology of sketches from the first two seasons of the television series Monty Python’s Flying Circus.
Android
An automaton in humanoid form.
Anij
A native of the planet Ba’ku, Anij came into contact with the crew of the starship Enterprise in 2375 AD, as shown in the 1998 motion picture Star Trek: Insurrection. (Though a stardate is never given in the film, it has been estimated to fall in the range of 52000-32999.) Much older than she appeared, due to naturally occurring phenomenon of metaphasic particles that surrounded her planet, Anij became the love interest of Capt. Jean-Luc Picard.
Animal Farm
George Orwell’s 1945 novel that follows the animals on Mr. Jones’ farm as they conspire and carry out a plan to take the farm over from human control. According to Orwell, the book symbolically reflects events leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917, and into the Stalin era.
Animatronics
The technology connected with the use of electronics and electromechanical devices to animate puppets or other figures.
Anime
A Japanese style of animation, typically characterized by futuristic settings, violence, and sexuality, using highly stylized colorful art.
Anthropomorphism
Giving human form and/or attributes to something not human, such as an animal or a deity.
Antiderivative
See Integral.
Antimatter
Matter that has had its electrical charge reversed. Electrons with positive charges are called anti-electrons or “positrons,” and protons with negative charges are known as antiprotons.
Antivirus software
Software designed to scan computer systems and remove existing viruses.
Anung Un Rama
The true name of the graphic novel demon Hellboy, the name means “and upon his brow is set a crown of flame.”
App
See Application.
Apple Inc.
Started by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in 1976, the company has since introduced the world to such tools as the Apple computer, the Macintosh, PageMaker, Mac OS, the PowerBook, the PDA, the iMac, the iPod, and iTunes.
Application
A software program that is used for business or entertainment, an application can be made up of a single executable file or hundreds of files, which may include additional software modules, configuration files and ancillary data files. Examples of applications include web browsers, e-mail programs, spreadsheets, word processors, games, and utilities. The word “application” is used because each program has a specific application for the user, however the term specifically excludes essential control software such as the operating system. Also known as an “app.”
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