Software (novel)

Software is a 1982 cyberpunk science fiction novel written by Rudy Rucker. It won the first Philip K. Dick Award in 1983. The novel is the first book in Rucker's Ware Tetralogy, and was followed by a sequel, Wetware, in 1988.

Plot summary

Software introduces Cobb Anderson as a retired computer scientist who was once tried for treason for figuring out how to give robots artificial intelligence and free will, creating the race of boppers. By 2020, they have created a complex society on the Moon, where the boppers developed because they depend on super-cooled superconducting circuits. In that year, Anderson is a pheezer — a freaky geezer, Rucker's depiction of elderly Baby Boomers — living in poverty in Florida and terrified because he lacks the money to buy a new artificial heart to replace his failing, secondhand one.

As the story begins, Anderson is approached by a robot duplicate of himself who invites him to the Moon to be given immortality. Meanwhile, the series' other main character, Sta-Hi Mooney the 1st — born Stanley Hilary Mooney Jr. — a 25-year-old cab driver and "brainsurfer", is kidnapped by a gang of serial killers known as the Little Kidders who almost eat his brain. When Anderson and Mooney travel to the Moon together at the boppers' expense, they find that these events are closely related: the "immortality" given to Anderson turns out to be having his mind transferred into software via the same brain-destroying technique used by the Little Kidders.

Software (band)

Software was a German electronic duo active between 1984 and 2000, comprising Peter Mergener (born 1951) and Michael Weisser (born 1948). Formerly the duo used the name Mergener&Weisser.

History

The group released their records under the IC (Innovative Communication) label, which also released a number of other electronic musicians, including Klaus Schulze and the Neue Deutsche Welle group Ideal.

From 1990 to 1992 Weisser produced, during a temporary break with Mergener, four albums under the Software name with a different group composition: Fragrance with Klaus Schulze and Georg Stettner (born 1970), and Modesty-Blaze I / II and Cave with Billy Byte (Stephan Töteberg).

After the dissolution of Software in 1999, the two musicians went their separate ways: Peter Mergener continues to compose and play electronic music, while Michael Weisser first founded the group G.E.N.E. (Grooving Electronic Natural Environments), and is currently, among other things, active as a media artist.

Software 2.0

Software 2.0 is a term derived from Web 2.0 used to describe a second generation of software development methodologies. Analogous to the term Web 2.0, Software 2.0 refer to hosted services which aim to facilitate users creativity to develop and share their own software applications online.

The term includes open source projects -where many developers collaborate in a software project and make the source code available to the end user- and generative programming and automatic programming - where software tools assist users to build customized software applications.

Following Web 2.0 design patterns, Software 2.0 services allow users to share their software applications on web-based communities such as GitHub.

Related concepts

See also

References

Est! Est!! Est!!! di Montefiascone

Est! Est!! Est!!! di Montefiascone (also known as just Est! Est!! Est!!!) is an Italian wine region centered on the commune of Montefiascone in province of Viterbo in Latium. Since 1966, the white Trebbiano- and Malvasia bianca-based wines produced within the 1,000 acres (400 ha) of the region can qualify for Denominazione di origine controllata (DOC) designation under Italian wine laws.

The unusual name of the wine region dates back to a 12th-century tale of a German Bishop traveling to the Vatican for a meeting with the Pope. The Bishop sent a prelate ahead of him to survey the villages along the route for the best wines. The 'wine scout' had instructions to write 'Est' (Latin for 'It is') on the door or on the wall of the inns he visited when he was particularly impressed with the quality of the wine they served so the Bishop following on his trail would have known in advance where to make a stop. At a Montefiascone inn, the prelate was reportedly so overwhelmed with the local wine that he wrote Est! Est!! Est!!! on the door. While this tale has been widely repeated, with some variations (such as the event taking place in the 10th century and/or involving a Flemish bishop, attending the coronation of Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor instead of meeting the Pope, etc.), the story is considered by many wine experts, such as Master of Wine Mary Ewing-Mulligan, to be apocryphal.

Est, Netherlands

Est is a town in the Dutch province of Gelderland. It is a part of the municipality of Neerijnen, and lies about 8 km west of Tiel.

In 2001, the town of Est had 600+ inhabitants. The built-up area of the town was 0.065 km², and contained 108 residences. The statistical area "Est", which also can include the peripheral parts of the village, as well as the surrounding countryside, has a population of around 610.

References

Erhard Seminars Training

Erhard Seminars Training (est), an organization founded by Werner H. Erhard, offered a two-weekend (60-hour) course known officially as "The est Standard Training". The purpose of est was "to transform one's ability to experience living so that the situations one had been trying to change or had been putting up with, clear up just in the process of life itself." The est training was offered from late 1971 to late 1984.

Training

List of The Chronicles of Amber characters

The Chronicles of Amber is a fantasy series written by Roger Zelazny chiefly in ten books published from 1970 to 1991. It features a great variety of characters from the realm of "our" universe as well as myriad parallel universes. All universes spiral out on a continuum, which are more closely related to one end, Amber (and its history and functions), or slides on a scale closer and closer to Amber's opposite, the Courts of Chaos, at the other.

Amberites

Characters from Amber are referred to as Amberites.

The royal family

Much information about the royal family is compiled only in the authorized companion book Roger Zelazny's Visual Guide to Castle Amber. Some personal colors and offspring are identified only there.