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alazyamateurgamedev · 4 years ago

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Inaugural Post

I’m going to ramble a bit about some basics of game design on a far too philosophical level, but I think it is something to consider if you are considering game design. I end up feeling like this is something developers end up ignoring when they develop their games. For this particular rant, I’m going to focus mostly on video games, since by and large, they don’t have to involve other people, which makes the overall experience much different. So as I refer to gaming below, think mostly of video games, but I also think it still applies to all kinds of game design.

First of all, games are, by my definition at least, a form of art. This is at the core of a lot of my musings about gaming, and it supplies the main challenge in making something good. Sure, they have an extremely technical requirement in terms of making it, but it is still basically a form of art. I’m sure a lot of people who don’t get gaming would say “Oh its not art!”, but really the goal with a game is to achieve some sort of emotional response (IE Fun, joy, fear, etc) or possibly intellectual response (IE “Let me stop and think about this), and that is all I think any artist who is trying to achieve. In this particular case, I am defining an artist as anyone who creates some sort of creative work, and can include art, literature, music, movies, architecture, etc. Medium is not important in this context.

Now, I am also going to focus on the idea that a game designer wants to try to a) Share their game with anyone interested and b) make money. Now, there are many reasons to make art, and some of them don’t involve public exposure, for example, painting or drawing as a form of therapy. If that is the case, this discussion isn’t targeted at you. In completing your project, you have hopefully achieved what you wanted. So if you are designing and building a game for some personal reason with no real intention of exposing it to the public, then this does not apply to you. However, I presume most people who publish a video game are trying to achieve something else like making money, accolades of people, or just sharing something they think is fun. The first two may seem self-serving, but I don’t think it is wrong. You should get credit for the work you put into something.

Because it is a form of art, that makes creating something “Good” much, much more difficult. In engineering, you can pretty often easily define “good”. Your basic goal with a non-artistic product (say a refrigerator) is to make something that does what is expected (It keeps the inside cold at a fixed temperature), and mainly to do it for a profit. So, you can define your general goals pretty easily, and then test against them to know “Hey I did a good job” or “It does a bad job”. Things like “Does the temperature stay constant while it is running?” “Does it stay on?” and “Do the doors fall off if I open them too much?” are all things you can define and test against. This is a bit of an over-simplification, as the appearance of your fridge is quite important and subjective and also because it isn’t always easy to define what parameters are acceptable, or how to define the parameters, or how to test for them, but hopefully that doesn’t happen to you as an engineer, or if it does, that is why you are paid the big bucks.

Now, this long-winded explanation leads to why gaming is hard to design. At the core of almost any game is the idea that it should be “fun”. But it is extremely hard to define “Fun”. What is fun? As a baby, sucking on your toes could be considered fun, but most of you probably do not consider it fun now. Some people think hiking or running is fun, but I do not. So fun is different to different people, and different to the same person at different times. This means you have an impossible to define goal post when trying to design a game, at least from an engineering standpoint. I bring this up, because this is probably why you see major AAA game publishers publish substandard products, and sometimes why you see Kickstarter funded games take 3 extra years to develop (more on Kickstarter in future rants). For a software company, the company’s goal is to make money, and so to make a profit, they will need to sell enough copies of the game to cover the cost to develop it. Part of that cost basically boils down to time, since it costs money to pay employees, and the more time you take to develop a game, the more it costs the company, and the more copies they need to sell.

This is just an educated guess (I’m lazy, so I’m not going to do any research on this, but I’m sure it exists), but I expect many of the “Terrible flops” were actually the company defining some sort of timeline for the game’s development that ended up not working out. They either skimped on Quality Assurance (QA, also known as testing) and the game didn’t work right, or they skimped on development, and so the gameplay just wasn’t good. Sometimes, it is just a flawed design, and you figure that out too late, and you’ve already sunk a ton of money and time into the project and need to decide what to do about it. Do you go forward with a crappy design or do you go ahead and release a substandard product in hopes that you can make some of your money back? Most larger companies will choose the latter, because they need to stay in business. A handful do not, and they are interesting cases: Blizzard before they merged with Activision and Valve. Both were notorious for not releasing games quickly, and I think you can see the polish in the Diablo and Warcraft (But not World of Warcraft) series, as well as the Half-Life series. I made the possible mistake of playing Half-Life Alyx before any other VR game, and its beautifully defined controls have spoiled me as compared to other similar VR titles. However, I’m pretty sure they worked on that for ages before releasing it as perfect as they could. However, they have loads and loads of cash and can wait. Looking at Cyberpunk 2077, to me that looked like they ran out of testing time, and thus why it was such a buggy launch, despite the delays, and they were forced to launch. Finally, I expect the entire lack of tangible Diablo 4 news is because they think they are missing some major component to make it what they want it to be.

My overall point on all of this is that it can take time to develop something fun, especially something that can be as complex as a game. And on top of that, a game has technical challenges that other forms of art do not. Not only do you have to create a fun system, but you have to make it work, and do it in a visually and acoustically engaging way. So not only do you have to make the Art, sounds, story, gameplay, but you also have to make sure it all works right. There are some ‘shortcuts’ you can take, like using established game engines (Like the Unreal Engine or Unity) so you don’t have to invent from the ground up, but that both adds cost and a possibly restrictive framework to work in.

Now, you are probably asking why am I rambling about all of this? This goes back to what I was originally rambling about, which is why are you making a game. You are probably aiming for your game to be well received, and either make some money off it, or at the very least, get good reviews and encouragement. So my point is if you wish to be successful, please make sure your game is, at the core, fun. If, after you make it, you look back on it and think “I would never play this.” Or “I’d be bored with this after two minutes”, you probably didn’t do a good job. Most of this blog will probably revolve around this idea of what is (and isn’t) fun, so I hope you’ll keep reading it. If you take anything away from it, I think you should aim to make a game that is fun to the audience you want it to be fun for, but just remember that the more restrictive your audience, the less successful game you probably will have, and really to make sure your game is, in fact, fun.

#gaming #dev #development

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noctuascion · 5 years ago

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CRYPTAGE AU: snobby rich crypto growing up with little to none affection from parents because of busy jobs that keep them away. Meets Mirage one day after showing his decoys to his friends and crypto follows him to the Witts Bar owned by mirage's dad. he was just curious and it turned into affection, cus y know mirage is the first person to show him a warm fuzzy welcome feeling. and they take off :)

Ooooo. I like this !! I'll see what I can do. It might either be super long or super short. Depends.

Empty hallways and vacant family rooms, kitchens with strangers in suits and his father and mother paying him little mind with guests over, giving life to the normally dead home. They were such prominent memories in Park's mind, so many days spent alone, spent playing with toys that he held little interest in, or tinkering away in the little makeshift lab in his room, creating little inventions that, with his amateur skill, would either fall apart or simply not function. The boy held fascination for the art of creating technology, and that fascination carried over into his adult life.

He had made it his passion, and now he had his own surveillance system company, creating his own technology and profiting from his own genius, living a comfortable life—a comfortable, lonely life.

Although he was brilliant, socializing was simply a skill he had never perfected, even when he had watched his mother and father speak, so composed and professional. He let other people handle business deals; he wasn't fond of dealing with people and their nonsense.

Still, it did take a toll on him. He, much like any human, desired to talk, to socialize with creatures similar to himself. Speaking with his cat simply wasn't the same.

Hence why he found himself in the usual shop he visited when looking for spare parts to create new devices with. The owner was a blonde with a Lichtenberg figure on her left cheek, likely from the high-voltage equipment she deals with on a daily basis. She was bubbly and sweet, and, frankly, he almost envies the absolute sunshine that emanates from her. Almost. People are drawn to the warmth, and he was as frigid as they came.

She greeted him with a rapid wave of hand, excited to once again see him in her humble little shop.

"Bonjour, monsieur Park!" Natalie greeted. "What brings you in today?"

"You know you're allowed to call me 'Tae Joon,' right?" he said in minor amusement; always one for formalities. "And I just wanted to grab some extra conductors and a new motherboard. The one I currently have is fried and a client wanted a new computer by the end of this week."

"Ah! I see! Well, you know where everything is!"

Park nodded and walked to the intended aisle, gathering the desired supplies along the way. A small basket hung on his arm, filled with various items to be purchased and used in his client's requested PC.

Although he has enough money to live comfortably the rest of his life and a company bringing in plenty of profit, he could be rather bored at times with just how mundane his life had become after reaching success. He had considered traveling, but he quickly realized that was a horrible idea; he hated being outside.

Voices, however, caught his attention. One was loud, drenched in excitement, talking at the speed of sound, masculine. Another voice was much quieter, replying slowly and uncaring, feminine. The third seemed hyper, enough energy for more than fifteen people, masculine. The voices didn't interest him—what did was the conversation.

Park didn't like to admit it, but he was a tad nosy, liked to learn new things. He wasn't a gossip by any means, and such petty subjects didn't interest him, but they were all piled in a tech place; they had to be discussing something interesting. He rounded the corner without shame, peering over at the group in question.

"… and we just finished the prototype!" the brunet, the tallest one, exclaimed, waving his arms around in excitement. Upon them were strange contraptions, circular devices Park didn't recognize—and they appeared to have a slight blue glow to them. He turned around to fetch some components on the shelf, tossing them into the basket the shorter one, prosthetic legs and a mask covering half of his face with goggles over his eyes, messy and short blond hair atop his head, was carrying. "It took us months, but it's finally in testing phase!"

"And you decided some little shop was the perfect place?" the black-haired one ask, rolling her crystalline eyes in amusement. "You're the most unorthodox man I know, Elliott."

Elliott, Park thought, putting the name to his face.

"It's perfect! And funny! Imagine someone walking down an aisle and they see me," Elliott explained, moving down the aisle a little more, picking up something before putting it back, "and then go down a different aisle—and I'm there again."

The blond snorted out a laugh. "That's genius!"

"I know, right?"

Park huffed out a quiet breath, though he was still more so interested in the technology along the other's arms, those devices that emitted the strange blue glow. He was about to turn and attempt to find a different area that was less conspicuous, but, as soon as he did, he was met face-to-face with nearly an identical copy of the tallest one down the aisle, standing just behind him with a smile. It was frightening enough that it elicited an admittedly embarrassing shout from the man, backing up and crashing into a shelf. It rattled violently against the wall it was held up against, a few things falling and crashing to the floor. Fortunately, none of them broke, but Park could feel his dignity shatter on impact.

The three down the aisle immediately spun around to see what caused the commotion, and a look of guilt crossed Elliott's visage immediately.

The other Elliott had immediately vanished, like some apparition, and Park was wondering if he was starting to hallucinate. Perhaps he was cooping himself up in his room too much…

"Oh, my god—I'm so sorry. I didn't hurt you, did I?" The man was near him now, the devices on his arms no longer glowing. His hands were floating over him, like he wanted to touch him but refrained from doing so. "I really didn't mean to scare you like that—"

"You didn't scare me," Park snapped, kneeling down and setting his basket down to begin picking up the dropped items. "Moron."

Elliott only chuckled, kneeling down as well to assist in picking the items up. "Still, sorry about making you run into a shelf. You aren't in any pain, are you?"

"I'm fine."

"You sure?"

"Yes. Fairly certain."

"Uh, okay, good!" Elliott flashed the shorter a warm smile, eyes soft and inviting. "I'm Elliott!"

"… Tae Joon."

"Nice to meet you, Tae!"

Elliott's friends had finally decided to wander over, and, eventually, Park learned their names as well. The black-haired one, sporting a nose piercing he hadn't noticed because of the distance, was named Renee, and the blond one was named Octavio, and, instantly, Park felt most of his energy drain after entertaining a single conversation with him. He was fast—and annoying.

But they were nice. Park never really conversed with others in a casual environment. He learned that Elliott and his mother were developing holo technology that would be able to replicate the appearance of someone almost identically, move and act just like them. Octavio was a daredevil, and, just by the mask being pulled down just a bit, the visible scarring, was enough of an indication of the truth that held. Renee herself was a scientist; her and her colleagues were apparently working on a project and Park found himself a bit more fascinated that he'd like.

Park had even shared his own technology, his own company, and the three weren't shy with questions—especially Elliott. It was weird, having people pay attention to him, but he couldn't quite figure out if he liked it or not. On one hand, it was nice to talk about his interests; on the other, the attention was uncomfortable, having so many eyes on him.

He was surprised to find himself feel so relaxed around them, though. Renee was quiet and mellow, much like him, so talking to her was natural. Octavio was hyper, but he was also a good listener, and he shut up when someone was talking. Elliott was just fascinating in general, a walking ray of sunshine with confidence soaring above the clouds. Renee and Octavio poked fun at him, but he always took it in stride. He couldn't help but feel a bit out of place.

"Hey," Elliott suddenly said, nudging Park gently with his elbow, somehow avoiding snapping any of the holographic devices off, "you wanna grab a drink?"

Renee and Octavio both chuckled quietly, receiving a glare lacking any real malice from Elliott.

"I don't want to intrude—"

"You're cool, dude!"

"Besides," Renee said, sporting a slight smirk, "Tav and I are heading out. Bars aren't really our scene."

"Liars. You're my number one customers."

"Dunno what you're talkin' about, amigo." Octavio laughed again, waving his good-byes. "See ya!"

And, just like that, the two made a speedy exit, leaving Park alone with Elliott. Elliott didn't seem bothered, but Park could feel panic swell. He was basically being forced into spending time with someone, a new acquaintance at best. Elliott was friendly, sure, but Park wasn't exactly a social butterfly.

Elliott seemed to have noticed, because he gently bumped Park's shoulder with his, smiling that same warm smile that seems to frequent his visage. "I'll do most of the talking, okay?"

Park could feel himself relax, if not just a bit.

— ;

The bar owned by the brunet beside him wasn't open today, so no one was inside, quiet and vacant. Elliott went behind the counter almost immediately, fetching a few alcoholic beverages Park wasn't familiar with (though he wasn't familiar with, well, any, since he's never drank before), and mixing them together, concocting some creation the tech geek both feared and anticipated.

He talked the entire time, rambling about his technology and how amazing it was, how they were so close to perfecting it he could taste it. He knew his stuff, everything stated with an intellectual mind and not just random jargon tossed out on a whim. He was intelligent, and Park… well, he found it a bit attractive. It was a pleasant surprise, since he was sure the other was full of it and didn't know much about the technology he was testing, a mere lab monkey rather than anything special.

He kept his attention on Park the entire time as well. He didn't ignore him, didn't cut him off. He treated Park like he was there, and that was a concept virtually unheard of by the surveillance expert. Elliott didn't have any ulterior motives for wanting to befriend him, no desire to abuse his wealth or even just get a job at somewhere that paid well. He was genuinely interested in Park. It made him feel warm, and that sensation, he knew for certain, was good.

Elliott slid a drink over to him, that smile of his never once fading from his visage. "I don't take you for a heavy drinker, so this one isn't too strong."

"Thank you," Park said, taking the glass and sipping the beverage. It was… interesting, a lot of things hitting him at once, and he released only the slightest cough after swallowing. "What is this?"

"An Addington!" the man replied brightly, leaning against the counter with a hand placed atop it. "It's got vermouth in it, sparkling water, and a bit of orange." He shrugged. "Best served like a martini."

"Hm."

Elliott was strange, he decided. That wasn't necessarily a bad thing. He was bubbly and happy. He was a bit awkward at times, accidentally stuttering over himself when he spoke about something without thinking beforehand, and he sometimes rambled on about nothing and everything all at once. He was kind, though, and patient, attentive and strangely endearing, charming in his own way.

And when he placed a warm hand over Park's, he decided he would give this a shot.

#apex legends #crypto #tae joon park #mirage #elliott witt #cryptage #ahhahahh i hope i kept to the peompt properly;;;;#and sorry if it's bad #am bad at writing jfjdjw #i hope you enjoyed tho !!#lenardo does a write

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psychopersonified · 5 years ago

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Q Origin story - Series 2

An imaginary Q-centric Netflix series

Series 1 Pilot here.

In this second series, we see Q’s double life and how he juggles them. One as a civilian and the other in service with MI6 - his growth his setbacks; the dramas that follow and which of the two will have to give way.

To make Q’s backstory come to life and the events that happen to and around him seem more realistic, I’ve tried to include as much relevant details including the bureaucracy, politics and technology in MI6 (with a lot of artistic licence). The details all play a role in growing plot and telling of the narrative, I promise.

This is meant to be a plot summary, not a full blown fic. Feel free to furnish with your own details.

———

Episode 1

We see him older now but still in university on the verge of getting his second PhD and third masters (about 28-ish). The last several years, he’s been working part time at MI6 Q-Branch. Major Boothroyd (Q senior) insists he continue his education in Chemistry and Engineering as he’s competent but not great yet in these areas. The Major is an absent minded professor type, involved but not affectionate yet provides enough structure and interesting projects to occupy Q.

Meanwhile Q in addition to the projects Boothroyd assigns him has started gathering some of his more cyber savvy colleagues in Q and IT Branches into a loosely defined “cyber security team”. It’s mostly them poking around MI6 systems testing and patching security. Technically, administrative IT is not under the purview of Q-Branch - you wouldn’t call Q-Branch if your laptop is refusing cooperate. Q-Branch is a specialised Field Research and Development (Weapons & Defence) division of MI6. However, there is increasing overlap with IT-Branch as terrorism and counterterrorism activities move into the cyber realm. The need to use cyber offensive measures (weapons) and protect against them (defend) blurs the lines between the branches in this age.

It is still up in the air as to which branch will eventually take over - both branches playing it like hot potato at the moment. Q has a suspicion that M wants Q-Branch to play a more involved role sooner rather than later but bureaucratic red tape and legitimate logistical and manpower concerns have yet to be addressed.

Timothy Hayden, Head of IT- branch is territorial about letting the grease monkeys down in Q-Branch toy with his high tech touch screens. He runs his branch like a corporate entity and isn’t a great fan of the somewhat disorganised tinkering elves that surround Boothroyd like a perverse Father Christmas toyshop. Boothroyd on the other hand doesn’t want Q-branch becoming mired in a multi-year IT systems transformation project that would draw resources away from their core competencies (whose budget should it come out of? what’s the scope? whose personnel? whose accountability? legacy systems, ongoing support and patches, etc.)

So for now, Q and his merry little bunch of misfits - who in later years will become the core group of senior Q-minions surrounding Q (opportunity to explore the other characters) carry on their project in the background. Its their standing Friday CYBRWar! night with IT-Branch. Their cybergames isn’t exactly sanctioned but is not prohibited either - as long as they don’t repeat the Black Friday incident where an uninformed IT boffin mistook the games as a legitimate attack and executed a hard shut down of Level 3 servers taking all email down with it…. now that was a long weekend of data recovery work no one wants repeated.

The games see them take turns playing system hacker and system defender. The score is currently an alarming 163 (success hacks) vs 57 (success repels) with both sides starting to uncomfortably acknowledge the gaping under-preparedness of their protocols. To add to the worry, a third of the successful repels are only because Q was playing lead defender. So, vigorous trash-talk and deliciously unhealthy takeaway food aside, it does serve a critical purpose - one that they won’t realise until a few years later.

Meanwhile, Q’s personal life starts to get interesting. He’s fallen for a university tutor in the Arts & History faculty (lets call him Adam) who couldn’t be more different than Q. Adam is flawlessly chisel cheeked and athletic - but internally soft, emotional and romantic. Juxtaposed to Qs fragile physicality but rapier wit and iron will. Q suspects that Adam sees in him a scrappy lost puppy in need of a good home and boundaries to focus his genius - but doesn’t mind ...initially. His first serious romance and sexual experience ensues. [insert desired smut here. LOL].

However even as his personal life blossoms, his life in Q-Branch begins to unravel. A spate of failed field operations culminating in the death of a field agent instigates an investigation. It is determined that equipment failure is a cause in all these cases. Major Boothroyd as branch head is ultimately accountable - he is censured and put on administrative leave, which is crushing to the old man who has spent his life in Q-branch. As he spends an emotional evening packing his office and reminiscing on a life spent in the bowels of MI6 creating countless gadgets for his countrymen, the stress and shame takes its toll. He suffers a stroke, and collapses. It’s Q who finds him unresponsive next to the old DB5 that Boothroyld wanted to see for the last time when Q goes to collect the old man for the “farewell” drinks Q-Branch was throwing to honour their old mentor.

Boothroyd survives but suffers long term damage to his right side, making a potential return to Q-Branch impossible. It is both an emotional and technical blow to the department which is now facing ever increasing scrutiny. There is even talk of contracting all R&D work to external defence companies and doing away with Q-Branch all together…….

Episode 2 continued under the cut.

———

Episode 2

Opens with a harried senior R trying to keep a demoralised Q-Branch together. The Major was a pillar of Q-Branch for decades and many feel a strong loyalty towards the old man, Q included. R orders a review of the few examples of returned equipment to find the root cause of failures. The engineers in Q-Branch get to it - they narrow it down to a few components but the records show no issue with them prior to assembly. Without more evidence, the investigation stalls.

Out of curiosity, Q pokes around the inventory system, trying to find a pattern. When he checks the data logs, he finds discrepancies that suggest data tampering. The component serial numbers have been moved around so that in some cases untested components or those that have failed testing are getting released to be used in the assembly of field equipment.

It is a small hack (if you can even call it that), surgically precise and inconspicuous enough that it flies under the radar. In an era of brazen top down system wide pwn-ing, no one would have given priority to securing these low level administrative systems since they don’t hold any classified information. But once compromised causes a ripple that cascades upwards. Q gets a knot in his stomach, how many more of these time bombs are hidden in the system?

Just then a field report for 007’s latest mission (Casino Royale) comes through. Q-branch is red flagged because the medical defibrillator they built for 007’s kit failed to discharge when expected - nearly costing the agent his life. It was only an act of serendipity that the liaison from HM Treasury Dept was there to assist. Q designed that defibrillator; he’d personally drawn up the schematics and the electronic controller as well as the specifications, he’d put in failsafes and redundancies knowing the critical use case of the equipment. This point he’s doesn’t know 007 personally, he knows of his reputation as a rebel and M’s experimental wild child. People say that about Q as well, that he’s M’s bet - for what exactly, only she knows. Q thinks otherwise, viewing MI6 as his gilded cage - one that M imposed and one that he now willingly submits to; to keep his egomaniacal tendencies in check (think pyjamas + tea + laptop = destruction). He resented it when he first arrived, but has since matured and loves the sense of purpose and outlet it provides.

He plans to gather more evidence about the data tampering, before presenting it to R. But the next day he gets an urgent call from R telling him to come to HQ, they’ve sent a car for him. He has to cancel a long-awaited planned weekend with Adam who doesn’t quite get what’s so important that Q can’t put it off. To everyone else, Q is still a PhD student with no more pressing concerns than finishing his doctoral dissertations - a lazy student at that.

This is where we see the cracks in Q’s civilian persona. Brilliant as he is, he barely makes his tutoring requirements and spends more time in Q-Branch than in the university labs. When he does show, he’s ill prepared and sporting increasingly implausible excuses. His PhD project is half baked and boring because the more interesting topics he’s working on is for MI6 and classified. Yet his technical genius means he still manages to run verbal rings around his peers and professors and make a general nuisance of himself (he can’t resist pulling the lion’s tail at times simply to see what would happen. We see traces of this side of him when he meets 007 later in Skyfall). He has all the ego and sensitivity (lack of) of a Sheldon-esque character but without a developmental disorder to explain his behaviour and endear him to those around him. MI6 funds his tuition so he is not wanting of anything. In summary for all appearances, he’s a privileged little shit too smart for his own good, cruising through academia without ambition or drive to make something of himself.

Adam is understandably upset. Q is annoyed at Adam’s concern and increasing attempts to ‘guide’ and ‘channel’ him. He knows he’s been more erratic and impatient lately but can’t explain to Adam why. He leaves Adam at the university entrance and gets into the unmarked black car with a promise to talk later.

When he gets to HQ he finds out that he’s facing the fallout from 007s’ field report. He’s now caught up in the internal inquiry dragnet. The inquiry board wants to issue a recall of ALL specialised field equipment designed by Q-branch. It would be a massive undertaking as it’s deployed all over the globe and across agencies (CIA, NATO, EEAS, etc that contracted work with Q-Branch) and in many cases with agents under deep cover. Not to mention the embarrassment and damage to MI6 reputation (they don’t know it yet, but this is the start of a campaign to undermine M; this is also my take on why Q-Branch makes no appearance in Casino Royal and Quantum). They also want to rescind Q’s contract and security clearance to cover their liabilities - using Q as a scapegoat.

R thinks it’s an over reaction; granted there are serious issues here but give Q-Branch time to investigate before they make a decision. The board is unconvinced; they don’t have time for a protracted review, they have already lost one of their filed agents, now nearly losing a 00-agent. If something similar happens to one of the other allied agencies because of Q-Branch tech, the reputational embarrassment will be severe. The situation is at an impasse.

With his career on the line, Q speaks up for the first time in the inquiry, surprising everyone into silence. In the last half hour, he’s been talked to as if his presence was irrelevant; a lowly Q-Branch boffin, disposable and expendable in the grand scheme of political machinations. He details his findings regarding the data tampering in the inventory management system. If he can trace which of the components are affected, he could narrow the list of equipment that potentially needs to be recalled. He asks for 3 days.

R an old school mechanical engineer, is out of his depth on this one as it’s a IT systems issue. IT-Branch Head, Hayden is uncooperative. He thinks Q is trying to deflect blame to his branch. Hayden objects, accusing Q of unauthorised hacking into IT Dept. Q admits to unauthorised access but quips back that its hardly hacking when all he had to do was jiggle the the handle to find the door unlocked. Terrorists are not going to pass up an exploit just because we asked nicely. That shuts everyone up. Out of the corner of his eye, he thinks he sees M look somewhat pleased but isn’t sure.

The board acquiesces to the 3 days….the clock starts ticking.⏳

Update: Episode 3 up now.

----

Let me know what you think? 😉

#00q #00q fanfiction #james bond #Q spin-off #quartermater #007 #would you watch this?

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hannahwaterman · 5 years ago

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Documenting 2: Visual Research

Martin Parr

Martin Parr is an English documentary photographer who is best known for his photography of the tradition of the Great British Holiday. He is probably my favourite photographer in the world, as I love how honestly and candidly he captures life. He has had around 40 solo photobooks published, and has featured in around 80 exhibitions worldwide. When asked about the art of documenting people through photography, and the ethics involved, he said the following:

“I think that all photography involving people has an element of exploitation, and therefore I am no exception. However it would be a very sad world if photographers were not allowed to photograph in public places. I often think of what I photograph as a soap opera where I am waiting for the right cast to fall into place. In more recent years I have photographed much closer where bits of people and food become part of the big picture, and one advantage of this is that it means people are less recognisable.”

Tish Murtha

Tish Murtha was a Northern English documentary photographer who took black and white photos to create a record of youth unemployment, juvenile jazz bands, kids in Elswick in South Shields, and a series of photos of London by night. Her work is very striking and raw, the black and white photography really adds a sort of grit and solemness to her photographs.

Francesco Faraci

Faraci is a Sicillian street photographer. I think his work is really beautiful and raw, and much like a contemporary version of Tish Murtha’s work.

Jason Florio

Jason Florio is an English documentary photographer. This photoseries is called Destination Europe, and it shows the journey of refugees from Libya to Europe. He has done several documentation projects all around the world, and Destination Europe was one that won him a Magnum Photography Award in 2017. These photos are seriously effecting - they are beautiful and devastating, and tell a story brilliantly. This is documentary photography with a real purpose and meaning. These photos are heartbreaking.

Keir Edmonds

“Berlin-based English urban sketching artist Keir Edmonds keeps a visual diary that illustrates his life as an expat in Germany’s capital. Believing that “you have to put in 10,000 hours to get really good at something,” the self-confessed “Englishman lost in Berlin” carries a sketchbook and pen everywhere he goes. From local architecture to summertime canals and graffiti-covered streets, his growing portfolio captures the undeniable charm of the city.

Edmonds started keeping sketchbook journals in 2015 with the goal to improve his skills in observational drawing.”

Sam Winston

Sam Winston is an artist based in London, who says his “practice is concerned with language not only as a carrier of messages but also as a visual form in and of itself”. He is known for his typography and his abstract illustration, having worked with some of the biggest art galleries in the world.

These images are from a project he undertook called 7 days - “a long durational studio work where the artist lived without sight for seven days and nights. Repeatedly transcribing five sentences the image created is without any visual reference.”

Sam says, “The idea of going ‘under’ or without images fascinated me. I had read of yogis spending years in complete darkness and psychologists running light deprivation studies but for me the question was - what landscapes are available to the artist when they are only given an internal view for seven days?

Biologically speaking the absence of daylight triggers large hormone imbalances in the pineal glad located in the centre of the brain. This gland normally releases melatonin which is the hormone that regulates sleep - and with this out of balance - you will quickly find yourself operating outside of conventional time.”

This method of abstract documentation is something I find very intriguing. As a designer, you have information input into you and it is your job to translate this meaningfully into the world. If we restrict our outputs and inputs, and put ourselves under strictor creative parameters, then as creatives we we surely find a way to make great work through the power of thinking ourelves out of those restrictions.

1. ‘A durational work where a pencil line records the length of every exhalation. The length of each line marks the length of time it takes to exhale. These marks were recorded over a 15 hour day without break. “The premise is deceptively simple - marking either an exhalation or inhalation with a pencil line - the length of the duration of a breath. Yet the cumulative effect of this action is a map that reveals a unique bridge between our unconscious and conscious functioning. It is also a refocusing of attention to our dependent relationship within the aerobic world.”

2. ‘An on going series of collages looking a various components of drawing. Each image contains one complete pencil.“This is the beginnings of a process looking at the materiality of the objects that inform artistic practice. By literally exploding, dissolving and collaging broken down artists tools we reveal their history and legacy. Whether the pencil graphite is from mines in China or the New Mexican cotton farms that make rag made paper - each artwork is a testimony to a globalized economy and the unseen geography of the tools by which we make art. “‘

3. ‘Birth day is an project that charts the 183,600 lives that come into being on the planet over a period of 12 hours. The participants draw circles to remember loved ones and also register their names in writing. In this way the public are asked to connect their own personal narrative to the much broader theme of population growth and decline.“By the time you’ve read this sentence three people have been born into the world.From observing this process I have noticed that the moment a person draws a circle (and it has a name) the artwork stops being about statistics and becomes a wall of brothers, sisters, mothers etc - in this particular case representing 260,000 lives that are born and die in 12 hours.”’

The text of Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet was read and categorised into three emotional states – passion, rage & solace. Once theses these three categories of text were typeset & printed they became the material for three the hand cut collages. The final work is the combined print of the typeset category and the hand cut collage.

Nathalie Miebach

Boston-based conceptual artist Nathalie Miebach weaves colorful, complex sculptures using rope, wood, paper, fibers, and data from weather events. Two of the artist’s recent series explore the impact of storm waters on our lives and on marine ecosystems, with variables like wind and temperature (and the harmony of the composition) often informing the rainbow of colors used to translate the data into a three-dimensional structure.

Priscilla Coleman

Priscilla Coleman is a courtroom illustrator. This is a dying art and in the UK there are only four official courtroom illustrators left. “It’s as if you’re memorising for a test,” she tells It’s Nice That. “You forget the details so you have to write something that will trigger your memory. Once I had to draw a line of airline hijackers, and they all had black hair but different hairstyles. One had long sideburns so I wrote Elvis, one was skinny so I wrote ‘skeleton man’, for others I wrote ‘potato nose’ or ‘fried hair’ or for another, I wrote the name of an ex-boyfriend he reminded me of! People’s faces are fascinating.”

Scott Elmquist

This man is a very inspiring documentary photographer. The last image above is an extremely powerful photograph to me. It shows black youth playing basketball under the defaced statue of a coloniser. Amazing. Above that is part of his Americana documentary photography series, capturing rural midwestern America and it’s communities.

#visual research #documentary #agp500 #documenting

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art-now-argentina · 6 years ago

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Par#1, Daniel Romano

For PAIR Project. Microphisics of affection Rodrigo Alonso, Art curator. Two adults walk along in an unknown place. The sun projects their shadows in front of them telling us that it is around midday. The casual walkers, a man and a woman, are wearing shorts and shirts over short-sleeved T-shirts, sandals and identical white caps. With their backs straight and arms hanging by their sides, they walk on very white legs making exactly the same movement: one straight, moving forward, supporting the weight of the body, while the other leaves the ground slowly to take a new step. The eyes looking straight ahead, lost, compensate for the empty space in front, highlighting the singularity of their synchronized walk. This photograph is part of a set that Daniel Romano has taken over the last few years, and that today make up a collection in the book Par (Pair). As in the famous piece by Diane Arbus, Identical Twins, Roselle, New Jersey, 1967, the name of the book draws attention to similarities, leaving differences aside. It invites us to notice similar details, simultaneous actions, and momentary concurrent positions of a group of people who go through life without being conscious of their mutual synchronicity. It highlights some kind of alignment of the universe, no less meaningful because of its instant nature. He takes from the complex, chaotic and vast world we inhabit a collection of isolated situations that lead us to see reality from a singular point of view. The series of photos is in fact the product of an observation exercise. Beyond the spontaneity of the acts and postures he captures, it is clear that they are repetitive from certain positions, angles and framings. Here, the view of the photographer builds a scene guided by the personal interest of finding regularity in the scheme of things; a task that reminds us of the tireless attempt by Jorge Luis Borges’ characters to discover the code of existence. The purpose of Romano is, perhaps, more modest, but no less persistent. It is not just about finding coincidences or showing people at inconsequential moments when they make the same movement, but above all, about pointing out a bond, real or possible. In his vision, people share gestures, postures, attitudes and habits. From the complicated world that we live in, the artist picks out people in communion, who, consciously or unconsciously, interact closely in the simplicity of daily activities in social and communal rituals; when they walk, rest, play sport or work. Otherwise, calling them pairs wouldn´t be justified. In every case, it is about a real search. Although the images look spontaneous, actually, they are often the result of long waits and surreptitious pursuits. Sometimes, the artist follows possible subjects for a period of time until he finds the pose that unites them or that demonstrates a whole process which reveals the effectiveness of the bond. Other times, fleeting moments are captured in the shots. No matter what the situation, his presence is crucial. In some photos, a look or a glance gives him away, but most of the time the use of a telephoto lens prevents exposure, hiding the presence of the photographer and his technical device. The shots are selected where the focus is on visual similarities. That is why, even though all the images were obtained with a direct shot and without any subsequent manipulation, the author’s vision lying behind each one of the captured images cannot be mistaken. The photographs that are part of Pair were taken in different places around the world; clothing, landscapes, streets, buildings and other features evidence these multiple scenarios. There, the artist is necessarily a stranger, a tourist. We could say that the series has, at some point, a foreigner’s view that observes with inquisitive eyes. Before a strange reality, gestures, poses and habits are subject to analysis and investigation and everyday life becomes a field of rarities and discoveries. However, today the foreigner’s, or tourist’s, view is co-opted by the leisure and entertainment industries. There is nothing spontaneous about the endlessly repetitive photographs of the Statue of Liberty or the Eiffel Tower that visitors to New York or Paris take and treasure as if they were theirs. World capitals have ceased to be strange places that spark off curiosity. On the contrary, they are very well-known places which only require superficial photographic verification to register a visit, almost always fleeting, to spaces that are so common they can be said to have lost their very meaning. From this perspective, we cannot say that Daniel Romano’s images share something with the view of the contemporary tourist. We could think that his work is similar to the activities of those travelling artists who portrayed unknown lands, going with sailors and explorers on their journeys. However, this is not the case either, because, unlike the foreigner that arrives at a certain place without knowing what he will find, Romano arrives at each of his destinations with a precise goal: finding regularities that evidence subtle ways of body language that could be traced beyond the peculiarities of those specific places. His work transcends geographic idiosyncrasies to go deep into some kind of study of global communities, or more precisely, an examination of the components which we could depict as anthropologic. Not so long ago, anthropology dealt almost exclusively with remote, strange and non- western societies. The specification to assure the objectivity of an investigation, and with it the scientific validity of an anthropologist’s work, lay in the fact that this person did not belong to the community under study and did not share their customs, life experiences or values. Being a distant observer was an essential requirement for the exploration of this other culture, which could only be an object of study if it was isolated from its examiner. However, in recent years, some authors have presented a basis for the anthropology of what is close to us. In his book Los no lugares. Espacios del anonimato. Una antropología de la sobremodernidad 1 (Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity), Marc Augé reflects on the subject and supports the possibility of having a distant and analytical vision over the society in which the investigator is immersed. To achieve this, he says, it is not necessary to change the foundations of the discipline, but to rethink how the category of the other culture is built, as “the question of the other is not a subject that anthropology finds once in a while; it is its main intellectual object, the foundations on which the different areas of investigation must be defined.” 2 One of the main problems with this perspective is the impossibility of observing society as a whole. Necessarily, the investigation must begin with small groups, or even individuals, but for Augé this does not constitute a real difficulty, as the features that characterize the group can be found in each member of the community. In any case, it is about having a better understanding of the relationships between individuals and society: “Anthropology is interested in the representation of the individual, not only because it is a social construction, but because any representation of the individual is, at the same time, a representation of the social bonds that are inherent to it [...] society begins with the individual, and that is why the individual can be an object of anthropological study.” 3 Daniel Romano’s work could be placed on this line. His interest in portraying postures, habits and movements that connected people repeat is not a pointless exercise, but a patient investigation which draws attention to shared signs acquired by individuals to the point of becoming so natural, they appear socially established. This is the thesis which underlies this group of photographs and to test it, the artist performs bona fide fieldwork. In his essay “El artista como etnógrafo”4 (The Artist as Ethnographer), Hal Foster highlights the tendency of some contemporary artists to investigate the social and cultural structure; a job that, traditionally, was performed by an anthropologist. For the American theorist in these works, “the artist does something similar to formal reflexivity; he is a self-conscious reader of culture understood as text.”5 Nevertheless, Daniel Romano´s purpose is perhaps not so ambitious and it does not need to be projected onto society as a whole. A portrayal of subjects who have some kind of bond that links them emerges from the images. Even though we do not know with any certainty what that is, we can surmise that it is that very bond which causes the similarities in their behavior. They are possibly relatives, friends, co-workers, couples; people with some sort of relationship that justifies identifying them as pairs. These groups are the target of the artist, and this is where his thesis becomes unique. It is not about detecting the traces of a model of social imposition, or the signs of deeply rooted rituals, but to propose some sort of speculation about emotional relationships; where they stop being sentimental, conscious and close, to go deep into the body, the habits, the movements - everyday life - as insignificant, unconscious and trivial acts, but no less meaningful. These acts, which are also public, translate into a powerful empathy, an essential understanding beyond words, an implied commitment that manifests itself in tiny details, usually unnoticed, but visible to others nevertheless. An important part of Daniel Romano’s work is to invite the observer to deduce those possible bonds. Like him, the audience does not have any information about the people captured in the moment or the process in which their actions become synchronized. We do know, however, that the artist has captured those situations and what we are seeing has been filtered through his view. We also know that there is no manipulation of those images. This moment of truth encourages the observers to make their own inferences and conclusions, to put themselves in the place of the photographer and to be involved in the decoding of connecting signs, using their analytical abilities. However, this moment of truth challenges the notion of photographic representation. The original snapshot freezes a moment in time, it crystallizes a circumstantial configuration of reality in a lasting image, and in doing so extends in time a situation that only lasted an ephemeral moment in front of the camera. This is the moment of the artful device of every technical reproduction in the world: the moment in which the intervention of the device that produces the image represents a manipulation of empirical information and so the creation of a new reality. One may wonder, or perhaps should wonder, what the real duration of the synchronicity the photograph shows as an irrefutable fact was. Did it continue after the moment the photo was taken? Is it the result of genuine unconscious simultaneous actions or the product of a happy coincidence? Up to what point is the artist involved in the construction of that image that doesn’t raise any doubt? Daniel Romano assumes the responsibility of his intervention when he decides to bring together all these pictures. The collection of hundreds of images of people that always seem to be performing similar actions is the height of the artful device. In this act, he shows his true intention, absolutely different from documenting reality in a photographic montage, but rather creating an authentic authorial essay. Actually, Pair gives expression to a vision of interpersonal relationships that goes beyond the choice of a subject, the determination of the framing and the taking of the shots. Its guiding thread is the personal drive of the artist to get closer to an event with which he totally identifies himself after long years of living as part of a couple. In each repeated pose, in each similar expression, there is something of the world, but, above all, there is a big part of him. Photography is the means that allows him to share his ideas with others, a vehicle for reflection and eagerness that exceeds the procedures and techniques of making the image. In his book Hacia una filosofía de la fotografía 6 (Towards a Philosophy of Photography), Vilém Flusser affirms that the photographer is a slave to the device he uses, as he can hardly make decisions over a group of elements standardized by the technology of the machine. Devices impose certain ways of seeing and reproducing reality; they are programmed to create their images according to parameters established by the industry and the prevailing values that dictate the qualities of a “good photograph.” According to his view, the artist who uses a camera and follows the rules of how it works, is doomed to adopt those parameters and cannot have truly authentic freedom of expression. Daniel Romano escapes from that Flusserian affirmation putting his own agenda before the agenda of the device. Even though his photographs use some of the essential technical resources –the framings, the snapshots, the telephoto lens- they project beyond them in respect of their goals and ambitions, and when doing so, they transcend the formal limits of the device. The discursive posture behind the images gives a conceptual coherence and depth to the series, establishing a unity that subsumes, and at the same time strengthens, individual images. This unity, which connects the set of images as a whole, is evident from the first to the last photograph. Sometimes, it appears in visual rhythms, in echoes that invite them to be seen with freshness and intelligence. But, essentially, it appears as a proposition, a search and a desire; a proposition that praises the microphysics of interpersonal bonds, a search for their deep signs and a desire that embodies the endless multiplicity of pairs. NOTES 1. Augé, Marc. Los no lugares. Espacios del anonimato. Una antropología de la sobremodernidad. Barcelona: Gedisa, 1993. 2. Ibidem. 3. Ibidem. 4. Foster, Hal. “El artista como etnógrafo,” in El retorno de lo real. Madrid: Akal, 2001. 5. Ibidem. Highlighted in the original. 6. Flusser, Vilém. Hacia una filosofía de la fotografía. Mexico: Trillas, 1990. Rodrigo Alonso He is a Bachelor of Arts specialized in contemporary art and new technologies. Theorist and researcher in the technological art field, he is a point of reference of the history and present of that production in Latin America. He has published several essays and books on the subject and regularly contributes to newspapers, art magazines and catalogues. As an independent curator, he has set up exhibitions at important Argentine and international institutions. Among his most recent exhibitions we can mention: Sistemas, acciones y procesos, 1965-1975 (Fundación Proa, Buenos Aires, 2011), Situating No Land (Slought Foundation, Philadelphia, 2011),Tales of Resistance and Change (Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, 2010) and ¡Afuera! Arte en espacios públicos (Córdoba, Argentina, 2010, with Gerardo Mosquera), among many others. In 2011, he was the curator of the Argentine group that participated in the 54° Venice Biennale. He teaches at different universities in Argentina, Latin America and Europe, both for university students and graduates. He also acts as judge and consultant in contests, prizes and international foundations. He lives and works in Buenos Aires.

https://www.saatchiart.com/art/Painting-Par-1/168670/2317892/view

#minimalism #popart #modern #figurative #conceptual #DanielRomano

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careerxlsstudyabroad · 6 years ago

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~CXL~Study Msc Pharmaceutical Sciences from Trinity College Dublin, Ireland

~CXL~

Trinity is Ireland’s leading university and is ranked 104th in the world* Trinity delivers world class education and employers worldwide hold Trinity graduates in high esteem. Graduates include Nobel Prize winners in literature, science and medicine; presidents and world leaders; award-winning actors and film makers; internationally renowned poets and playwrights, entrepreneurs and business leaders. Dublin is a vibrant, multicultural, European capital and Trinity students take full advantage of everything the university and the city have to offer. The vibrant social scene in the city and on campus ensures that students enjoy a unique university experience. Trinity's main campus of cobbled squares, historic buildings and green playing fields also includes state-of-the-art modern facilities for teaching and research and a Sports Centre with a climbing wall and swimming pool India:: Welcome Trinity's engagement with India can be traced back to the 18th Century, when in 1762 the university founded a chair in oriental languages. One hundred years later the College appointed Mir Aulad Ali (1832-1898), a Muslim from Northern India more commonly known as 'The Mir', as Professor of Arabic and Hindustani, and later Persian. During the nineteenth century, Trinity, together with Oxford, Cambridge and Edinburgh, trained generations of young men for the Indian Civil Service. The library collections reflect these multi-faceted engagements with Asia and include rare late nineteenth-century/ early twentieth century gramophone recordings made by the Trinity scholar, George Grierson, who compiled a remarkable linguistic survey of India which described 364 languages and many more dialects. Today, Trinity collaborates with many of the top Indian institutions, including National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) in Bangalore, Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Advanced Study (JNIAS), and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Dehli, Thapar University, Ashoka University and many more. There has been successful collaboration with Universities, IIT's, High Schools and other academic institutions; the Department of Science and Technology; the Indian Council for Cultural Relations; the Indian Council for Social Sciences Research; the Indian Council for Historical Research; the Tata Institute for Fundamental Research. Today Indian students make up the 2nd largest cohort of non-EU students attending Trinity, after the US. Our Indian Society, founded in 2011, is one of the most vibrant and rapidly growing in the University, whose Holi celebrations on the historic Front Square have become a beloved occasion for the entire student body. Msc Pharmaceutical Sciences:: The M.Sc. in Pharmaceutical Sciences is an integrated multidisciplinary course addressing fundamental and applied aspects of drug and drug product discovery, development, production and analysis. The programme will prepare candidates for research careers in academia and industry in pharmaceutical R&D as well as will create an awareness of issues and approaches relevant to the key pharmaceutical manufacturing sector in Ireland. The course is available for full-time study over one calendar year or part-time over two years and consists of lectures, workshops, presentations and laboratory work. Formal classes run from September to April and are normally held two days every week with the remaining time available to students for self-directed studies, writing tutor marked assignments, preparing laboratory reports and presentations. Students proceeding to a M.Sc. degree will be required to undertake a research project and present a detailed scientific report at the end of the course. The course consists of eight basic modules: regulatory aspects and industrial pharmacy, chromatographic and other separative methods of analysis, spectroscopic methods for drug analysis, molecular pharmaceutics and advanced drug delivery, biopharmaceutical sciences, pharmaceutical and medical nanotechnology, pharmacological and related methods, biotechnology, formulation development and evaluation and professional skills in pharmaceutical sciences.

The taught modules are supported by lectures and workshops on presentation, research and other transferrable skills. The course is taught mainly by College staff, although there is a contribution from specialist visiting lecturers. The research project may be conducted either in the School of Pharmacy or at the student's place of employment but in either case supervision is exercised by a member of the School of Pharmacy academic staff. Overall assessment of candidates is based on tutor marked assignments during the course work, written examinations, presentations and laboratory reports. Candidates must successfully complete the taught components of the course, before proceeding to the M.Sc. project. Provision is available for a supplemental examination in September each year if required. A reasonable attempt is required in all aspects of the examination process. A pass mark of 40% is normally required. The Pharmaceutical Industry:: The Irish Pharmaceutical Industry, both in terms of manufacturing and marketing, has grown dynamically over the last 20 years. It continues to grow and, on the manufacturing side, is fundamentally export-orientated. Within both the manufacturing and marketing sides of the industry, all the major international pharmaceutical companies are represented and, moreover, the industry extends into the area of non-pharmaceutical health care, including medical devices and diagnostic products. Pharmaceutical companies, depending on their size, typically include a multi-disciplinary team and the pharmacist may have considerable scope for his qualifications - if possible complemented with additional qualifications to his/her primary degree in the areas of sales/marketing, research and development, production quality control, administration and management. The work of the production pharmacist involves the manufacture of pharmaceuticals and, as such, affords the pharmacist the opportunity to employ both technical skills and management expertise. Before any batch of a medicinal product is released for sale, a number of tests are carried out on samples of the batch to ensure that the product meets the required standards. These tests are carried out by the quality control department and the head of that department, known as the "Qualified Person", is responsible for authorising the release of the product. The pharmacist, by virtue of his/her training, is in an excellent position to undertake the role of " Qualified Person". All human medicines must be licenced by the Irish Medicines Board (I.M.B.) prior to being sold here. The role of the registration pharmacist is to prepare dossiers in a specific format for submission to the Irish Medicines Board (I.M.B.) in order to obtain a licence. The I.M.B. is also the licensing authority for veterinary medicines. The information pharmacist provides information to doctors and pharmacists about the Company's products. He/she may also be involved in areas such as the training of the Company sales personnel and the compilation of technical booklets. Excellent opportunities exist for pharmacists in the area of sales and marketing of pharmaceuticals.

Read More at http://www.careerxls.net/campaigns/MBlogs/blog373.html

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kashishipr · 4 years ago

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What is Big Data?

Big data is a relatively new concept that has created a greater conundrum in the realm of Intellectual Property (IP) laws. Big data refers to the large and diverse sets of information that can grow at an ever-increasing rate. Such collection of massive structured, unstructured, and multi-structured data is due to our constant interaction with smart gadgets and technologies like mobile phones, credit cards, televisions, computers, smart watches, etc. The digital universe is so large that it is said that big data is doubling in size every two years, and by the end of 2020, it is expected to reach 44 zettabytes.

Where does IP come from in the Said Scenario?

It is a popular saying that “if it is worth copying, it is worth protecting.” Therefore, the domain of big data cannot escape the interplay of IP laws in its administration and protection against third parties.

Generally speaking, IP laws safeguard the right of the proprietor of the original work or invention, including literature, inventions, logos, designs, etc. Since big data in itself cannot bear anything fruitful, it has to be analyzed to make useful deductions, which is where IP plays a crucial role. IP comes into the picture considering the patented hardware used to access, collect, and store data and the copyrighted software that helps to make deduction possible. Furthermore, once the deduction is made, it can result in patentable subject matter or assets, which can prove to be useful for the company and, in turn, be safeguarded as a trade secret.

Big Data and Copyright

Copyright comes into the picture since the law safeguards the computer software and programs that are used to collect and analyze big data. In most countries, such tools are used for data analytics that aid in mining, deleting, segregating, and transforming the data can be protected; for instance, Copyright Laws in Nigeria, India, and the USA. Also, the European Union has a Database Directive in place as an initiative to harmonize Copyright Protection offered to databases in all Member States alike. However, the software is protected if it qualifies the basic test for copyright, which includes the creator to project a certain degree of originality and fixation on a tangible medium. The standard of originality followed differs in different jurisdictions as some may follow a lower degree (Sweat of Brow Theory), while others may follow a higher degree (Modicum of creativity Theory) of originality.

However, copyright laws do not protect authorless works, for example, the works generated by the computer without the intervention of mankind. In some countries, like the United Kingdom, a more liberal approach is followed by granting authorship to that individual “who made arrangements for the creation of the work” in the case of computer-generated works. Also, the collection of raw data without selection or analysis would not qualify the work to be protected as a copyrightable work.

The complication from a practical point of view arises as it is difficult to select or arrange Big Data primarily because of its sheer volume, veracity, value, variety, and velocity (the 5 V’s of big data) and also because it is almost always automatically generated in a segment from varying sources, which introduces the need of case-to-case analysis of whether an invention about the said subject-matter shall attract copyright protection or not.

Big Data and Patents

Although big data in itself is not patentable; however, the algorithm and software program may be brought under the purview of the law. Algorithms are essentially those elements that focus on how the ‘small’ data is turned into big data and then later into intelligence. Furthermore, the content generated from big data cannot be patented in general; however, where the same is capable of providing a commercial edge through expressing it as an invention, which is inherent novel and can be applied for industrial use for the company seeking to enforce its rights, it may be protected as a patent. For example, if a particular analysis from big data deduced a particular method of carrying out a business that may be useful in a given commercial sector, then such a business method can be patented. Consider, for example, the case of Commissioner of Patents vs. RPL Central Pty Ltd, wherein the claimed invention was the computer, which was used to assess the qualifications of applicants for a vocational training course. The Court distinguished between two different activities – that is, using a computer to merely carry out a scheme or plan in which the computer only acts as an intermediary and secondly using the computer in a way, which improves its functionality or solves a technical problem beyond the computer’s normal use (might be patentable). The Court held that: “Putting a business method or scheme into a computer is not patentable unless there is an invention in the way in which the computer carries out the scheme or method.”

Therefore, individual components of technology that have specialized functions are more likely to be patentable. However, seeking patents in such inventions derived through computer-generated works can be a complicated equation since works produced by unsupervised artificial intelligence are not a patentable subject matter. The same may challenge the traditional notions of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs).

The impact of big data on Patent Rights is such that the rate of growth of prior art and the access thereof will increase through the use of big data. It would mean that the rate of inventions to which a patent can be granted will decrease, and consequently, the area of technology that is patentable will simply decline since the speed at which patents are granted is slower than the rate at which data is generated.

Big Data and Trade Secrets

Analyzed and deduced data, which are derived from big data, can be safeguarded in the form of trade secrets provided they qualify the check-list including the following components:

The data should be such that it has some commercial value.

It should be known to a limited number of individuals.

There should be reasonable steps taken to ensure that the said information is kept a secret.

Trade secrets are preferred over patents since they are perpetual and involve no legal costs like registration, compliance obligations, disclosure requirements, etc. Google’s constantly evolving, top-secret search algorithm, the undisclosed key ingredients for Kentucky Fried Chicken’s (KFC) original recipe, and Coca-Cola’s heavily guarded beverage formula (also known as Merchandise 7X) are a few of the famous examples of well-administered trade secrets.

One of the biggest advantages of big data being safeguarded as a trade secret is that what may not be protectable as a patent, like individual ingredients or elements of a particular data, maybe protectable through trade secrets by the application of contracts and technological protection measures. Therefore, it doesn’t differentiate between different kinds of data and their applicability. These days, the air transport industry, the health industry, and the music industry are using contracts as a means to safeguard their data relating to fares and booking, clinical outcomes, and track records, respectively. The only disadvantage lies in the fact that it cannot prevent the competitors from reverse engineering but only against instances where someone has obtained the said confidential information by illegitimate means (for instance, through spying, theft, or bribery).

Conclusion

Although assets emerging from big data may be governed under either of the IP laws, there are new challenges introduced in the realm of IP laws while elaborating the scope of these laws. Automation, as well as assets emerging from big data, will need a new outlook from the legal standpoint to justify such creations and resolve ownership issues. It would be interesting to observe the recent developments in such light, but until then, trade secrets may act as a crucial tool to safeguard the rights of proprietors emerging from the creation of such assets. ✅ For more visit: https://www.kashishipr.com/

#intellectual property (IP)#copyright laws #copyright protection #intellectual property rights (IPRs)#patent rights #cautionary notices #kipr #ip rights #ip right protection #ip rights management #kashishipr #intellectual property law #ip attorney #trademark #trademark registration #trademark registration online #register trademark

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katejezzz · 4 years ago

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PORTFOLIO STUDENT PORTFOLIO

What Is a Portfolio?

A portfolio is a collection of financial investments like stocks, bonds, commodities, cash, and cash equivalents, including closed-end funds and exchange traded funds (ETFs). People generally believe that stocks, bonds, and cash comprise the core of a portfolio. Though this is often the case, it does not need to be the rule. A portfolio may contain a wide range of assets including real estate, art, and private investments.

You may choose to hold and manage your portfolio yourself, or you may allow a money manager, financial advisor, or another finance professional to manage your portfolio.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

A portfolio is a collection of financial investments like stocks, bonds, commodities, cash, and cash equivalents, as well as their fund counterparts.

Stocks and bonds are generally considered a portfolio's core building blocks, though you may grow a portfolio with many different types of assets—including real estate, gold, paintings, and other art collectibles.

Diversification is a key concept in portfolio management.

A person's tolerance for risk, investment objectives, and time horizon are all critical factors when assembling and adjusting an investment portfolio.

Understanding Portfolios

One of the key concepts in portfolio management is the wisdom of diversification—which simply means not to put all your eggs in one basket. Diversification tries to reduce risk by allocating investments among various financial instruments, industries, and other categories. It aims to maximize returns by investing in different areas that would each react differently to the same event. There are many ways to diversify. How you choose to do it is up to you. Your goals for the future, your appetite for risk, and your personality are all factors in deciding how to build your portfolio.

Regardless of your portfolio's asset mix, all portfolios should contain some degree of diversification, and reflect the investor's tolerance for risk, return objectives, time horizon, and other pertinent constraints, including tax position, liquidity needs, legal situations, and unique circumstances.

Managing a Portfolio

You may think of an investment portfolio as a pie that's been divided into pieces of varying wedge-shaped sizes, each piece representing a different asset class and/or type of investment. Investors aim to construct a well-diversified portfolio to achieve a risk-return portfolio allocation that is appropriate for their level of risk tolerance. Although stocks, bonds, and cash are generally viewed as a portfolio's core building blocks, you may grow a portfolio with many different types of assets—including real estate, gold stocks, various types of bonds, paintings, and other art collectibles.

The sample portfolio allocation pictured above is for an investor with a low tolerance for risk. In general, a conservative strategy tries to protect a portfolio's value by investing in lower-risk securities. In the example, you'll see that a full 50% is allocated to bonds, which might contain high-grade corporates and government bonds, including municipals (munis).

The 20% stock allocation could comprise blue-chip or large-cap equities, and 30% of short-term investments might include cash, certificates of deposit (CDs), and high-yield savings accounts.

Most investment professionals agree that, though it does not guarantee against loss, diversification is a key component for reaching long-range financial goals while minimizing risk.

Types of Portfolios

There can be as many different types of portfolios and portfolio strategies as there are investors and money managers. You also may choose to have multiple portfolios, whose contents could reflect a different strategy or investment scenario, structured for a different need.

A Hybrid Portfolio

The hybrid portfolio approach diversifies across asset classes. Building a hybrid portfolio requires taking positions in stocks as well as bonds, commodities, real estate, and even art. Generally, a hybrid portfolio entails relatively fixed proportions of stocks, bonds, and alternative investments. This is beneficial, because historically, stocks, bonds, and alternatives have exhibited less than perfect correlations with one another.

A Portfolio Investment

When you use a portfolio for investment purposes, you expect that the stock, bond, or another financial asset will earn a return or grow in value over time, or both. A portfolio investment may be either strategic—where you buy financial assets with the intention of holding onto those assets for a long time; or tactical—where you actively buy and sell the asset hoping to achieve short-term gains.

An Aggressive, Equities-Focused Portfolio

The underlying assets in an aggressive portfolio generally would assume great risks in search of great returns. Aggressive investors seek out companies that are in the early stages of their growth and have a unique value proposition. Most of them are not yet common household names.

A Defensive, Equities-Focused Portfolio

A portfolio that is defensive would tend to focus on consumer staples that are impervious to downturns. Defensive stocks do well in bad times as well as good times. No matter how bad the economy is at a given time, companies that make products that are essential to everyday life will survive.

An Income-Focused, Equities Portfolio

This type of portfolio makes money from dividend-paying stocks or other types of distributions to stakeholders. Some of the stocks in the income portfolio could also fit in the defensive portfolio, but here they are selected primarily for their high yields. An income portfolio should generate positive cash flow. Real estate investment trusts (REITs) are examples of income-producing investments.

A Speculative, Equities-Focused Portfolio

A speculative portfolio is best for investors that have a high level of tolerance for risk. Speculative plays could include initial public offerings (IPOs) or stocks that are rumored to be takeover targets. Technology or health care firms in the process of developing a single breakthrough product also would fall into this category.

Impact of Risk Tolerance on Portfolio Allocations

Although a financial advisor can create a generic portfolio model for an individual, an investor's risk tolerance should significantly reflect the portfolio's content.

In contrast, a risk-tolerant investor might add some small-cap growth stocks to an aggressive, large-cap growth stock position, assume some high-yield bond exposure, and look to real estate, international, and alternative investment opportunities for their portfolio. In general, an investor should minimize exposure to securities or asset classes whose volatility makes them uncomfortable.

Impact of Time Horizon on Portfolio Allocations

Similar to risk tolerance, investors should consider how long they have to invest when building a portfolio. In general, investors should be moving toward a conservative asset allocation as their goal date approaches, to protect the portfolio's earnings up to that point.

For example, a conservative investor might favor a portfolio with large-cap value stocks, broad-based market index funds, investment-grade bonds, and a position in liquid, high-grade cash equivalents.

Take, for example, an investor saving for retirement who's planning to leave the workforce in five years. Even if that investor is comfortable investing in stocks and riskier securities, they might want to invest a larger portion of the portfolio in more conservative assets such as bonds and cash, to help protect what has already been saved. Conversely, an individual just entering the workforce may want to invest their entire portfolio in stocks, as they may have decades to invest, and the ability to ride out some of the market's short-term volatility.

A student portfolio is a compilation of academic work and other forms of educational evidence assembled for the purpose of (1) evaluating coursework quality, learning progress, and academic achievement; (2) determining whether students have met learning standards or other academic requirements for courses, grade-level promotion, and graduation; (3) helping students reflect on their academic goals and progress as learners; and (4) creating a lasting archive of academic work products, accomplishments, and other documentation. Advocates of student portfolios argue that compiling, reviewing, and evaluating student work over time can provide a richer, deeper, and more accurate picture of what students have learned and are able to do than more traditional measures—such as standardized tests, quizzes, or final exams—that only measure what students know at a specific point in time.

Portfolios come in many forms, from notebooks filled with documents, notes, and graphics to online digital archives and student-created websites, and they may be used at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. Portfolios can be a physical collection of student work that includes materials such as written assignments, journal entries, completed tests, artwork, lab reports, physical projects (such as dioramas or models), and other material evidence of learning progress and academic accomplishment, including awards, honors, certifications, recommendations, written evaluations by teachers or peers, and self-reflections written by students. Portfolios may also be digital archives, presentations, blogs, or websites that feature the same materials as physical portfolios, but that may also include content such as student-created videos, multimedia presentations, spreadsheets, websites, photographs, or other digital artifacts of learning.

Online portfolios are often called digital portfolios or e-portfolios, among other terms. In some cases, blogs or online journals may be maintained by students and include ongoing reflections about learning activities, progress, and accomplishments. Portfolios may also be presented—publicly or privately—to parents, teachers, and community members as part of a demonstration of learning, exhibition, or capstone project.

It’s important to note that there are many different types of portfolios in education, and each form has its own purpose. For example, “capstone” portfolios would feature student work completed as part of long-term projects or final assessments typically undertaken at the culmination of a middle school or high school, or at the end of a long-term, possibly multiyear project. Some portfolios are only intended to evaluate learning progress and achievement in a specific course, while others are maintained for the entire time a student is enrolled in a school. And some portfolios are used to assess learning in a specific subject area, while others evaluate the acquisition of skills that students can apply in all subject areas.

The following arguments are often made by educators who advocate for the use of portfolios in the classroom:

Student portfolios are most effective when they are used to evaluate student learning progress and achievement. When portfolios are used to document and evaluate the knowledge, skills, and work habits students acquire in school, teachers can use them to adapt instructional strategies when evidence shows that students either are or are not learning what they were taught. Advocates typically contend that portfolios should be integrated into and inform the instructional process, and students should incrementally build out portfolios on an ongoing basis—i.e., portfolios should not merely be an idle archive of work products that’s only reviewed at the end of a course or school year.

Portfolios can help teachers monitor and evaluate learning progress over time. Tests and quizzes give teachers information about what students know at a particular point in time, but portfolios can document how students have grown, matured, and improved as learners over the course of a project, school year, or multiple years. For this reason, some educators argue that portfolios should not just be compilations of a student’s best work, but rather they should include evidence and work products that demonstrate how students improved over time. For example, multiple versions of an essay can show how students revised and improved their work based on feedback from the teachers or their peers.

Portfolios help teachers determine whether students can apply what they have learned to new problems and different subject areas. A test can help teachers determine, for example, whether students have learned a specific mathematical skill. But can those students also apply that skill to a complex problem in economics, geography, civics, or history? Can they use it to conduct a statistical analysis of a large data set in a spreadsheet? Or can they use it to develop a better plan for a hypothetical business. (Educators may call this ability to apply skills and knowledge to novel problems and different domains “transfer of learning”). Similarly, portfolios can also be used to evaluate student work and learning in non-school contexts. For example, if a student participated in an internship or completed a project under the guidance of an expert mentor from the community, students could create portfolios over the course of these learning activities and submit them to their teachers or school as evidence they have met certain learning expectations or graduation requirements.

Portfolios can encourage students to take more ownership and responsibility over the learning process. In some schools, portfolios are a way for students to critique and evaluate their own work and academic progress, often during the process of deciding what will be included in their portfolios. Because portfolios document learning growth over time, they can help students reflect on where they started a course, how they developed, and where they ended up at the conclusion of the school year. When reviewing a portfolio, teachers may also ask students to articulate the connection between particular work products and the academic expectations and goals for a course. For these reasons, advocates of portfolios often recommend that students be involved in determining what goes into a portfolio, and that teachers should not unilaterally make the decisions without involving students. For related discussions, see student engagement and student voice.

Portfolios can improve communication between teachers and parents. Portfolios can also help parents become more informed about the education and learning progress of their children, what is being taught in a particular course, and what students are doing and learning in the classroom. Advocates may also contend that when parents are more informed about and engaged in their child’s education, they can play a more active role in supporting their children at home, which could have a beneficial affect on academic achievement and long-term student outcomes.

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art-now-argentina · 6 years ago

Photo

Par#1, Daniel Romano

https://www.saatchiart.com/art/Painting-Par-1/168670/2317892/view

#conceptual #DanielRomano #popart #modern #minimalism #figurative

10 notes · View notes

laindir · 7 years ago

Text

[fic] ember dunes

Series: Tales of Zestiria Rating: T Genre: AU. Post-apocalyptic Science Fiction, Cyberpunk/Dieselpunk. Character(s): Sorey, Mikleo, Atakk, Lailah and Rose. Brief mentions of Michael, Muse and Zenrus. Warnings: Descriptions of minor violence (?? I think it’s minor-ish but YMMV), blood and injuries, pseudo-science terminology/technology. Also, slight hurt/comfort feels... kind of. I love to die in pain and feels. Summary: In which Sorey treads in his mother’s footsteps and ventures out beyond the City Dome, only to stumble upon an injured young woman and her strange companion droid. Prequel one-shot to verdant green. A/N: And... of course, the first fic I share for 2018 is one with more pain and feels. Of course. Anyway, this was an extremely self-indulgent excuse to write more sci-fi AUs and to experiment/go back to writing more descriptive action scenes set against a backdrop of introspection. Or something, lol. Inspired by many things, but mostly by this track playing on loop.

Fic can also be read on AO3.

The dunes were a burnished bronze, glowing embers under twin suns. Sorey could feel the scorching blaze through the blue-and-white layers of his tunic and cloak, his skin prickling with the heat and sweat. The tinted goggles and mask strapped over his face provided some relief from the harsh weather at least, shielding his eyes from the blinding glare as he gazed ahead.

The Dust storms have not yet begun this morning. He paused midway through his trek up a rise, allowing himself a brief respite to bask in the solitude of the golden landscape, to take in the sight of the horizon before him. Clear weather was a rare enough occurrence—he was more used to the feel of grit and sand lashing across his mask and clothing; to sullen, dreary grey and dusky yellow mist even within the City Dome.

But out here today, despite the relentless heat and the imperceptible glint of Dust all around him—today, the sky was boundless, a splash of brilliant azure, and Sorey felt strangely content.

The thin wisp of clouds above brought with it also a glimmer of memory—a conversation from years before, when he and Mikleo were still children and a weekly terror in the basement lab, much to Uncle Michael’s chagrin and to Aunt Muse’s amusement. Sorey smiled, the memory tempered with both fondness and a touch of embarrassment. Simpler days, remnants of what was and a lingering ache that never truly went away…

“And that one there—that looks like a Klein bottle, doesn’t it, Mikleo?”

Twelve-year-old Sorey can barely contain his excitement as he peers through the eyepiece of Uncle Michael’s refurbished spyglass. He pushes the contraption closer to Mikleo, nudging his best friend for a better look. Mikleo crinkles his nose doubtfully at first, but Sorey recognises the spark within those violet eyes; knows that Mikleo is as eager, as curious to see it for himself. He watches with hushed anticipation as Mikleo peeks cautiously through the eyepiece with pursed lips.

Then with a soft, almost begrudging huff—“You do realise it’s impossible for that phenomena to exist in 3D, don’t you?” Sorey frowns, then chuckles, arms crossed over his chest now. His tunic sleeves are still too long for him; only his small fingers are visible at the hems. “Well, yes, but imagine, Mikleo, if you will. Imagine if one end of the cloud dissipates fast enough just as the other end passes through the nexus point—and you’d get a Klein bottle! Don’t limit yourself to spatial constraints!” Mikleo, stubborn as ever, only grins smugly, even as his eyes are aglow with mirth. “And you have your head up in the clouds all the time. Besides, that’s non-Newtonian!”

The ghostly whispers of their shared laughter echoed still through his mind when there came a sudden electronic screech of surprise, followed by a muffled thud. Atakk’s shrill whistles quickly drew Sorey out of his reverie; he scanned the track marks snaking through the sand ahead of him. The droid had trudged along only to tumble off the edge of the slope.

Sorey carefully picked his way down the incline, sliding to a stop beside Atakk. The droid had tipped over its side, its domed head half-buried in the sand.

“It’s all right, I’ve got you now,” Sorey said gently, even as Atakk continued to complain loudly, wheels rolling about uselessly. He pulled the droid back upright with ease, brushing off the sand from its short torso.

A series of clicks and then a disgruntled bleep—

Sorey laughed. “I know you hate sand, yes. I mean, I’m not too fond of it either. It just gets everywhere. And don’t worry, I’ll watch my step around here too.”

He knew better than to be too distracted when venturing out like this—besides the scorching heat and the blanket of toxic Dust in the air, unseen dangers lurked beneath the dunes as well. He paused, the corners of his lips twitched into a smile. Mikleo would no doubt be chiding him as well if he were here now, for dawdling instead of focusing on his routine checks on the moisture harvesters.

“Better hurry with the water rations before the weather turns and a storm comes your way. You know how fast they can hit you.” A digitized voice chimed abruptly from the comlink strapped over his wrist. A moment later, the small blue holo-screen of a young man’s profile was projected out in front of him.

Sorey let out an amused sigh—right on cue, as expected. Always like Mikleo to be reining his attention back to the task at hand. “Since when were you able to make the comlink do that?” he asked, glancing back at the holo-screen. He watched as another beam of light was projected out from the comlink, sweeping across the land before him. “I did some tinkering around and got Atakk’s help to do minor upgrades to all existing communicators.” Mikleo explained through the static as the image on the holo-screen rippled. The glitch only lasted mere seconds however, and his voice and features came in sharp clarity again once the signal stabilized.

“They now have a feature set to run automatically. So it’ll relay information back to the Vault in timed intervals, in case a scout is unable to do so themselves, or in the event of emergencies. It’s always best to be prepared for anything outside of Camlann, after all.”

“And you’d managed to program all that by yourself? That’s pretty awesome!”

“It’s just an added function to better monitor the surroundings,” Mikleo said, his tone modest, but Sorey didn’t miss the look of pride that flitted over his features. “To be honest, it was actually an idea I got from you.”

“Wha—wait, really? ” “Remember that incident with the prickleboar stampede? How they tossed and trampled all over the old hoverbike like it was synth-foam?”

Sorey flinched at the memory, one hand raised to tap at his cheek sheepishly. “Yeaahh… that was, uh, wild. What’s that got to do with our comlinks though?”

“The prickleboars smashed the bike up so badly we couldn’t even get the nav-scanners on its system to work. But remember how you had managed to salvage enough of the parts and attached it to your wrist brace?” Sorey nodded; he recalled how he’d hastily rewired all the components to his old communicator’s power core, then reconfigured it so it could work as a temporary nav-scanner. “This added feature works on the same principle, really,” Mikleo continued. “The comlinks are now all fitted with a scanning chip. So even if the main nav-scan system on the transport gets busted, you would still have a portable backup you can use to gather data that can still be transmitted and further analyzed by the techs back here at the Vault.”

“That definitely sounds handy. Guess I can inspire some really great ideas, too, huh, Mikleo?”

“Hmm. You’re admittedly pretty good when it comes to thinking on your feet—I’ll give you that much.”

Sorey grinned abashedly at the unexpected praise. He would’ve returned a teasing quip or two, but something had already caught Mikleo’s attention; he glanced away, long fingers brushing ash-brown hair back from his brow and securing it with a silver clasp to keep in place as he clicked at several keys before him.

“That said, are you just going to stand there all day, staring up at clouds? I know it’s a fairly good day but we have a schedule to keep.” “I was just appreciating the skyline. I mean, we don’t even get to see real clouds in Camlann anymore. Besides, it’s not like I can’t take in the sights and collect the water rations at the same time.” “Oh?” Mikleo’s voice was light, as though humoured. Even through the signal inference and static on the holo-screen, Sorey could make out the tiny smirk upon his lips. “I wasn’t aware that you’d finally mastered the art of multitasking, so colour me a little surprised.”

“Now you’re just teasing,” Sorey huffed, nose crinkled in mock-annoyance. He ignored Mikleo’s soft chuckle as the holo-screen winked out, and continued through the sand until he reached the sturdier, rocky path he knew would lead him to one of the many solar-powered moisture harvesters built around the edge of the City’s borders.

Setting his pack down on the ground, he pulled out a tool-kit and crouched beside the large, rusting machine before him. He easily popped the small hatch in its side open, flicking the touchscreen to life and keying in the codes to begin a sequence of standard calibration and maintenance checks. As the machine continued running its tests, Sorey straightened up and gave it a quick glance-over: the huge umbrella dish was pointed at the sky, the reflective mirrors glinting a piercing diamond-white, like the unfurled petals of an enormous sunflower hungrily soaking in the sunlight.

Atakk twittered as it wheeled towards the harvester’s collection tank, dragging a metal trolley stacked with empty silicone containers behind it. Sorey hurried to its side, and together with the droid’s help, began to fill the containers up with water from the tank dispensers.

He paid no heed to the faint cry at first, engrossed with his work. Desert skipper-rats were common in the area; he’d seen the rodents chittering and skimming across the sand nearby many times before. But the cry didn’t cease, growing into what was unmistakably a weak noise of pain. Sorey looked at Atakk, who had paused and swivelled its domed head at him as well.

“I’m not sure either,” Sorey replied as the droid beeped a query. “You stay here, Atakk. I’ll go check it out.”

The droid beeped anxiously at the same time as Mikleo’s voice buzzed sharply over the comlink, “Sorey, wait—”

Sorey was already bounding lightly over the path however, searching around for the source of the cry. He heard Mikleo’s grumbles of at least let me scan the area for any feral animals, and would have offered quick apology. But his foot caught on something then, and he was tumbling over the edge of the rocky outcrop into the sandy basin below.

Ow… He winced, rubbing dirt away from his face as he tried to sit up, only to brush his hand against something—something wet and slick. His heart twisted at the bloody sheen across his palm; turning, he saw the limp figure of a young woman sprawled on the ground just beside him. She seemed unconscious, but was groaning in pain, her short red hair plastered over her bruised face. Her clothes were in tatters and she was bleeding from several lacerations all over her arms and legs.

Sorey froze at the sight, a lump in his throat. It wasn’t the woman’s injuries that had unnerved him, but the network of black, spidery lines running steadily from a deep gash in her right calf. Even the skin under her eyes were mottled, tinged with sickly purple.

“Be careful—she’s been infected with Dust…! H-hey, what are you doing?”

Sorey had gestured at Atakk, who wheeled towards him through the sand, dragging his pack behind it with extended metal claw grips.

“We can’t just leave her out here like this, Mikleo. The heat will kill her!”

“Never mind the heat—she’s been infected, Sorey. You know as well as I do what that means.”

“I still have three more antigen vials left.” Sorey replied stubbornly, retrieving the med-kit and a spare gas mask from his pack. He quickly strapped the mask over the woman’s face and then slowly, gingerly, injected two vials of antigen into her left thigh.

“—ilah..?” She murmured, flinching slightly at the touch, eyes still closed.

“We don’t know if this will work…”

Sorey swallowed, but said nothing, studying the woman’s face instead for any signs of distress. For the antigen to be effective, two doses had to be administered within an hour of the infection—he had no idea how long she’d been lying here, injured and exposed to the deadly air.

“And… I hate to say this—because I want her injuries seen to as well—but we don’t know if the Council will even allow her to enter Camlann.” Mikleo’s tone was low, but Sorey knew there was no unkindness there, only concern mixed with unease.

Food and resources had always been scarce in these arid lands, but since the War began in earnest, every Domed City scattered across the Aroundight Flats guarded their rations fiercely. Many did not welcome strangers from beyond their borders, and were especially hostile toward neighbouring cities, the fear of invasion and siege attacks always looming at the back their thoughts, like a rising cloud of stinging gnats. The Council of Camlann would not be so keen to allow the woman through their gates. And yet… Sorey shook his head; he could not find it within himself to leave her in the desert to die.

“I’ll just have to take my chances. If it comes to it, she can have my food rations—I can always hunt while collecting water rations.”

It wasn’t the best of plans, he knew. Sorey steadied himself for Mikleo’s barrage of protests. But his friend only fell silent, ruminating for a long beat. Then finally, a deep sigh—

“In any case, we don’t have much time. You should really get her and yourself out of there now. The creature—hopefully it’s just one?—that had attacked her might still be stalking close by.”

“A-ah, right!” Sorey said; then in a gentler tone, “Thank you, Mikleo.”

With her arms slung over his shoulders, Sorey lifted the woman over his back. He glanced over at the droid. “Atakk, go on ahead to the hoverbike with the rations. I’ll be right with you.”

Atakk chirruped an affirmative, wheeling resolutely back up the path to where Sorey’s hoverbike was parked in the shade of a bare ironwood tree.

Sorey moved as fast as he could, but with the added weight upon his back, it was harder for him to keep his footing through sand and loose soil that easily gave way. He was only a several paces away from the ironwood when he caught sight of movement from the corner of his eyes. He paused his steps cautiously, straining his senses for any hint of a prowling animal.

“Mikleo, are you picking up on any life-forms in the area?”

Before Mikleo could reply through the comlink, there was another flash of movement, to his right this time. Sorey fingered the hilt of the weapon at his belt, ready to snap the laser-blade to life and—

“Oh, my! How daring for a human to be venturing out here all alone!” An electronic, feminine voiced called out from somewhere behind him. The mechanical whine of an overworked engine signalled the approach of another, clunkier transport speeder. The pilot—another woman… no, droid..?—jumped off and landed before Sorey could move away, towering a full head over him. She was a little bit scratched up, much like the speeder, but there was an aura of measured grace in her stance; in her slender white-and-silver build, and in her red headpiece that glinted crown-like under the sun. Her metal fingers were clasped together, as if in concern.

“W-who are you?” Sorey asked warily, balking slightly under her luminous stare.

“You’re an explorer, aren’t you?” the droid said. “I was just wondering, if by any chance—oh! There you are, Rose.”

She pointed behind Sorey, at someone or something he could not see, only to let out a soft gasp. She immediately reached forward to squeeze his shoulder, fussing over the woman slumped over his back. “Oh, no. Dear Rose, what happened…Oh, please be all right! This is all my fault, I shouldn’t have left you—”

“Hey… hey, it’s okay,” Sorey found himself saying, feeling a sense of pity at the droid’s growing distress. “Rose—uh, that’s her name, right? I stumbled upon her just a while ago. She’s pretty beat up, and I’m not sure how long she’s been exposed to Dust, but I’ve given her two doses of antigen as a precaution. That should keep her stable while I get her to the nearest med-centre in Camlann. I could really use more help though, to be honest—my hoverbike isn’t big enough to hold us both and the water rations my city needs for the day.” He smiled gently. “You must be Rose’s… companion droid? May I ask what’s your name?”

The shaken droid tilted her elegant head, searching his face with her glowing teal eyes and then bowed graciously. “My designation code is CES-LAI05, but you may call me Lailah. It was given to me by Rose.”

“Lailah. Right.” Sorey nodded to where Atakk waited by the ironwood, gesturing her to follow him. “I’m Sorey. Come on, you can fill me in on details as we ride. Mikleo says it’s too dangerous to linger here, so—”

An eerie, menacing growl cut through the air then. The ground beneath them trembled, as though a large creature was charging towards them. Sorey felt a jolt of fear and apprehension rippling instinctively in his gut; it seemed the creature had been tracking their scent and had finally found them. He grabbed Lailah’s arm and ran, pulling the companion droid towards his hoverbike.

“Here, take my bike—it goes a lot faster,” he said, strapping Rose in just as Lailah slipped into the seat beside her and powered up the controls. “Get Rose away from here now. The nav system is already programmed to the route back to Camlann!”

Sorey whirled around before Lailah could speak, searching for his own droid. “Come on, Atakk, we need to go!” He leapt into the speeder’s pilot seat, and once he was sure Atakk was strapped in, he gunned the engines to life.

“It looks like a mantis antlion and it’s approaching way too quickly,” Mikleo said over the comlink, his voice tight with worry. “Hurry, Sorey.”

Just as both vehicles rose into the air and began to move, there was another roar—louder, closer this time—and suddenly, a monsterous black insect burst forth from the rise behind them.

Atakk let out a panicked whistle as Sorey banked sharply to the right, avoiding the long grasping claws. It did not seem to notice them however, its line of vision focused on the hoverbike speeding away before it. With a feral screech, the antlion leapt after it.

No! Sorey thought frantically, turning the speeder around to give chase. The antlion was fast and much larger than he had anticipated—four metres of waxy obsidian shell, raptorial claws hooked with serrated edges, and bone-crushing mandibles, it was an apex predator of the dunes. It would easily outrun the hoverbike.

He revved the engines as he approached the insect, and slammed the speeder into its side with as much as force as he could muster, throwing it off its pursuit of the hoverbike. The antlion staggered from the blow, whipping around furiously. Distracted from its initial quarry, it turned its attention now to Sorey, reaching out with those long claws.

Sorey tried to dodge the attack, but the insect lashed forward, claws catching the side of his speeder, the serrated edges grazing through fabric and flesh. His shoulder burning with pain, he heard Atakk’s wail of fear and the indistinct buzz of Mikleo’s voice through the comlink—right before the speeder skidded across the sand and crashed to a stop.

Though half-stunned, Sorey’s fingers were instinctively curled around the hilt of his laser-blade, snapping the weapon to life. The antlion was upon him in seconds and he struggled to keep the insect at bay, slicing away with the flashing orange blade.

But the antlion was driven by hunger and the scent of blood. It lunged forward, claws ripping off Sorey’s gas mask, before it pinned him down with its fearful jaws. The insect tightened its grip around him and Sorey retched, Dust burning through his lungs as he struggled to break free.

Pain flared through his body, but Sorey fought to angle his weapon closer, piercing the bright blade through that weak spot between the joint of the insect’s left limb and thorax. The antlion bellowed at the contact, clamping down harder. There was a grisly crunch, the splintering, snapping of a rib bone or two—Sorey cried out, writhing as he felt the pressure crushing against his chest, his strength fading rapidly.

And then, just as abruptly, the jaws around him went slack. The antlion collapsed to its side, jaws and legs quivering in death. Sorey tried to stand, but the pain was overwhelming, white spots dancing in his vision. The last thing he saw before sinking into darkness was Lailah balanced on the insect’s back, her left arm now transformed into a large saber that she’d driven straight through the antlion’s head, green ooze bubbling down the blade and staining the golden sand. *

Lailah had injected the last vial of antigen into his thigh when he blinked awake, his body already convulsing with pain. Atakk let out a relieved beep, wiggling close beside him.

“Sorey?” Lailah glanced over him anxiously, one hand pressed hard against the gash in his side. Blood was still seeping from his wounds. “Sorey, please, stay with me. You must stay awake.”

He could barely hear her voice over the throbbing in his head and the growing dizziness; over the sharp tightness in his chest. The droids continued to patch him up as best they could, but he knew, with only a single dose of antigen and without a mask, he was already running out of time.

Ignoring the pain and extreme weariness, he struggled to his feet. At his insistence, Lailah continued to ride with Rose in his hoverbike, while he and Atakk took the speeder. They hastened back to Camlann, racing across the dunes as fast the engines allowed. The comlink around his wrist had been smashed in the attack, but thankfully the hoverbike and speeder’s communicators and main nav systems were still functional.

Sorey tightened his grip on the controls, keeping his thoughts focused on reaching the Domed City, and—

Mikleo.

Fatigue was wearing him down rapidly, his limbs heavy like lead. But he struggled to keep his thoughts coherent, tried to speak anyway, his voice raw. “Atakk… can you get us through to the Vault? To Mikleo…?”

Atakk beeped, light flashing over its front panels as it worked diligently. The communicator quickly buzzed to life with the sound of a flustered, but familiar voice: “—rey, do you copy? Sorey, Atakk, please answer me!”

“W-We’re still here, Mikleo…“ Sorey managed, weakly. "We… we managed to get away somehow—” A wince and a painful gasp. “—I lost your comlink. In the attack—sorry.”

“Never mind that. Are you and Atakk all right? I’m tracking your location right now… You should be able reach in Camlann within an hour… Sorey? Sorey!”

It was difficult to focus through the haze of pain—though the bleeding had mostly stopped, his wounds still ached profoundly, his body convulsing harder now from shock. Breathing hurt the most; each ragged gasp he drew was agonizing, like fire surging through his lungs. The Dust infection had taken root within him—already he could feel the onset of nausea, a heavy chill settling deep within his bones.

Atakk’s flurry of replies drew Sorey’s thoughts back from the pain.

“—how badly is he injured, Atakk? Wha—Dust?? Okay… Just… R-Right, keep monitoring them and send me all the updates. I’m informing the med-centre right now to be ready to receive them both…”

Sorey had wanted to reassure Mikleo, that he was still fine, that he was still there. But it took all of his mental effort just to keep awake, his breath short and his vision edging precariously towards the darkness whenever the flashes of pain grew too much. He coughed again, the metallic tang of dust and blood heavy on his tongue.

Feverish, he held on stubbornly, the speeder and hoverbike blazing ahead towards home.

Only when Camlann’s gates were sealed shut behind them did the exhaustion finally bear its full weight down upon him. The hoverbike and speeder pulled to a stop before the waiting group of medics, Mikleo already rushing forward. Delirious, Sorey struggled down from the speeder and collapsed into Mikleo’s outstretched arms.

“Sorey!!”

Half-conscious from the pain, Sorey could hardly make out the look of raw anguish over his friend’s face. But he forced himself to reach out anyway, brushing a hand lightly over Mikleo’s cheek, and smiled gently.

“It’s okay, Mikleo… I’m here,” he whispered tiredly, eyes heavy as he leaned into Mikleo’s hold; falling deeper into the darkness. “Please… Help Rose…”

Everything thereafter was muted sensation; a kaleidoscopic rush of sound and movement, of blurred, frantic cacophony. He saw ash-brown streaks, and gleams of radiant violet; a patch of brilliant blue through the clear skylight of the city gates.

Everything was grey; dust and ember flickering, dancing between the void of white and black.

Then, Sorey saw nothing at all.

Seventeen human years isn’t too long—but it feels like he’s aged a lifetime within the last two seasons.

Three days after the funeral, and Mikleo stands with him now among the wilting plants in Aunt Muse’s old greenhouse. The indigo urn sits empty in a corner, and they are kneeling on the ground, dirt and grass stains streaked upon their clothing.

Sorey watches as Mikleo places the seeds within the ash, then covers them with handfuls of dark earth. The twinge of grief and loss still burned in his heart, but at least… at least Gramps is at peace now—finding his way back to Michael and Muse, and perhaps even to Selene, his mother, if death is where she had ventured of to all the while.

At least his family’s whole now, together, while he and Mikleo gaze on, longing, yearning.

There’s a brush at his hand, and Sorey turns, feeling Mikleo’s fingers gripping his hand tightly, like he’s holding a life-line.

Don’t you dare leave me too, is what Mikleo doesn’t say, but what Sorey hears anyway in the touch. He smiles, eyes red-rimmed, but still verdant and bright in the fading sunlight.

I’m always here, Mikleo—I promise.

—End—

Notes: Some tl;dr information about terminology, AU backstory/lore and the general timeline of events:

-In mathematics, a Klein bottle is an example of an abtract surface.

-Solar-powered moisture harvesters: relatively new(?) technology that can provide renewable energy, water, and heat, especially to remote, off-grid areas or communities.

-This events of this AU takes place in a post-apocalyptic future (think Nausicaa and Ergo Proxy) on a continent once called Greenwood (centuries ago, before the War). The War of the Dying Cities took a heavy toll on both the populace and the environment, rendering many areas inhabitable due to the nuclear fallout. Survivors now live within Domed Cities and rarely venture out due to high levels of radioactivity (called "Dust” in this world) that still lingered in the environment. Certain hardy plants and wildlife have slowly begun to return, but most of the land is still arid and harsh-hence why the continent is now called The Wasteland. The air outside the Domed City is also still too toxic for humans - the level varies depending on the exact area, but left untreated, even exposure to small doses can be detrimental to a person’s health. “Dust infection” is the term used for radioactive poisoning.

-Camlann is built over a deep groundwater (“fossil water”) aquifer that runs through the desert. For centuries the city had relied upon it as their main source of water. However, it was clear from recent studies that the groundwater was not renewable and was depleting at a much faster rate than expected.

- Selene and Muse were part of a research team that estimated the aquifer will dry up within their lifetimes. They had sought to construct other means to gather and store (renewable) water for the citizenry. The moisture harvesters that bordered the city were some of the technology they had invented for such use. The citizens need venture out several times a week to collect the water rations from the harvesters.

- Mikleo and Sorey are Bio-engineering research graduates. Their interest in the study of ecology and mechatronics was, in part, due to Michael, who is a well-known Robotics scientist within the Academy’s research circles and Muse, who worked as a conservationist. Sorey’s mother, Selene, was one of the few who dared brave the safety of the City Dome to explore the endless sand dunes outside. Shortly after giving birth to Sorey, she headed out on a scouting expedition, searching for the famed oases rumored to exist somewhere in the Elysium valleys. She never returned to Camlann.

- When the boys were 16, the Council of Camlann approached Michael to recruit his skills for Project War Machine. However, he refused to co-operate as he’d only wished to apply robotics for the betterment of their people, not to create weaponized droids in the War of the Dying Cities. He and Muse were punished severely for their refusal.

- Gramps became Mikleo and Sorey’s sole guardian after Michael and Muse’s deaths, but he was old and frail. He succumbed to the Dust Plague as well around the time the boys turned 17.

- Sorey’s light-blade was Selene’s first handcrafted weapon. She’d left it with Michael as a keepsake for her son before she left Camlann.

- Sorey and Mikleo are about 19-ish here.

TBH, I didn’t expect to be invested in this AU again (I’m not great at following-ups with my random one-shot AUs…), and I’ve got some ideas I’d like to play and experiment more with… I HAVE SOME HAPPY, CUTE IDEAS FOR THIS IDEA TOO DW LOL. So, there might be more episodic one-shots in this verse.

Thank you for reading! Comments and critique are welcomed for my fics - I’d like to hear what you think, if you’ve enjoyed this so far.

Also also: I’m so sorry, Sorey, for writing this aghsjfdhgsk. But well. You hurt/break the character you love the most LMAO.

#tales of zestiria #sorey #mikleo #rose (toz)#lailah (toz)#fics & everything in between #this fic should be rated: eVERYTHING IS PAIN #anyway this was a great piece to explore and write #i'm really pleased with this piece #will dumblr finally show this in the tags or am i still marked as spam

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kashishipr · 4 years ago

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What is Big Data?

Where does IP come from in the Said Scenario?

Big Data and Copyright

Big Data and Patents

Big Data and Trade Secrets

Analyzed and deduced data, which are derived from big data, can be safeguarded in the form of trade secrets provided they qualify the check-list including the following components:

The data should be such that it has some commercial value.

It should be known to a limited number of individuals.

There should be reasonable steps taken to ensure that the said information is kept a secret.

Conclusion

#intellectual property (IP)#copyright laws #copyright protection in the us #intellectual property rights (IPRs)#patent rights #cautionary notices #kipr #ip rights #ip right protection #ip rights management #kashishipr #intellectual property law #ip attorney #trademark #trademark registration #trademark registration online #register trademark

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