Meta-learning (computer science)

Meta-learning (computer science)

Meta-learning is a subfield of machine learning where automatic learning algorithms are applied to metadata about machine learning experiments. As of 2017, the term had not found a standard interpretation, however the main goal is to use such metadata to understand how automatic learning can become flexible in solving learning problems, hence to improve the performance of existing learning algorithms or to learn (induce) the learning algorithm itself, hence the alternative term learning to learn. Flexibility is important because each learning algorithm is based on a set of assumptions about the data, its inductive bias. This means that it will only learn well if the bias matches the learning problem. A learning algorithm may perform very well in one domain, but not on the next. This poses strong restrictions on the use of machine learning or data mining techniques, since the relationship between the learning problem (often some kind of database) and the effectiveness of different learning algorithms is not yet understood. By using different kinds of metadata, like properties of the learning problem, algorithm properties (like performance measures), or patterns previously derived from the data, it is possible to learn, select, alter or combine different learning algorithms to effectively solve a given learning problem. Critiques of meta-learning approaches bear a strong resemblance to the critique of metaheuristic, a possibly related problem. A good analogy to meta-learning, and the inspiration for Jürgen Schmidhuber's early work (1987) and Yoshua Bengio et al.'s work (1991), considers that genetic evolution learns the learning procedure encoded in genes and executed in each individual's brain. In an open-ended hierarchical meta-learning system using genetic programming, better evolutionary methods can be learned by meta evolution, which itself can be improved by meta meta evolution, etc. == Definition == A proposed definition for a meta-learning system combines three requirements: The system must include a learning subsystem. Experience is gained by exploiting meta knowledge extracted in a previous learning episode on a single dataset, or from different domains. Learning bias must be chosen dynamically. Bias refers to the assumptions that influence the choice of explanatory hypotheses and not the notion of bias represented in the bias-variance dilemma. Meta-learning is concerned with two aspects of learning bias. Declarative bias specifies the representation of the space of hypotheses, and affects the size of the search space (e.g., represent hypotheses using linear functions only). Procedural bias imposes constraints on the ordering of the inductive hypotheses (e.g., preferring smaller hypotheses). == Common approaches == There are three common approaches: using (cyclic) networks with external or internal memory (model-based) learning effective distance metrics (metrics-based) explicitly optimizing model parameters for fast learning (optimization-based). === Model-Based === Model-based meta-learning models updates its parameters rapidly with a few training steps, which can be achieved by its internal architecture or controlled by another meta-learner model. ==== Memory-Augmented Neural Networks ==== A Memory-Augmented Neural Network, or MANN for short, is claimed to be able to encode new information quickly and thus to adapt to new tasks after only a few examples. ==== Meta Networks ==== Meta Networks (MetaNet) learns a meta-level knowledge across tasks and shifts its inductive biases via fast parameterization for rapid generalization. === Metric-Based === The core idea in metric-based meta-learning is similar to nearest neighbors algorithms, which weight is generated by a kernel function. It aims to learn a metric or distance function over objects. The notion of a good metric is problem-dependent. It should represent the relationship between inputs in the task space and facilitate problem solving. ==== Convolutional Siamese Neural Network ==== Siamese neural network is composed of two twin networks whose output is jointly trained. There is a function above to learn the relationship between input data sample pairs. The two networks are the same, sharing the same weight and network parameters. ==== Matching Networks ==== Matching Networks learn a network that maps a small labelled support set and an unlabelled example to its label, obviating the need for fine-tuning to adapt to new class types. ==== Relation Network ==== The Relation Network (RN), is trained end-to-end from scratch. During meta-learning, it learns to learn a deep distance metric to compare a small number of images within episodes, each of which is designed to simulate the few-shot setting. ==== Prototypical Networks ==== Prototypical Networks learn a metric space in which classification can be performed by computing distances to prototype representations of each class. Compared to recent approaches for few-shot learning, they reflect a simpler inductive bias that is beneficial in this limited-data regime, and achieve satisfied results. === Optimization-Based === What optimization-based meta-learning algorithms intend for is to adjust the optimization algorithm so that the model can be good at learning with a few examples. ==== LSTM Meta-Learner ==== LSTM-based meta-learner is to learn the exact optimization algorithm used to train another learner neural network classifier in the few-shot regime. The parametrization allows it to learn appropriate parameter updates specifically for the scenario where a set amount of updates will be made, while also learning a general initialization of the learner (classifier) network that allows for quick convergence of training. ==== Temporal Discreteness ==== Model-Agnostic Meta-Learning (MAML) is a fairly general optimization algorithm, compatible with any model that learns through gradient descent. ==== Reptile ==== Reptile is a remarkably simple meta-learning optimization algorithm, given that both of its components rely on meta-optimization through gradient descent and both are model-agnostic. == Examples == Some approaches which have been viewed as instances of meta-learning: Recurrent neural networks (RNNs) are universal computers. In 1993, Jürgen Schmidhuber showed how "self-referential" RNNs can in principle learn by backpropagation to run their own weight change algorithm, which may be quite different from backpropagation. In 2001, Sepp Hochreiter & A.S. Younger & P.R. Conwell built a successful supervised meta-learner based on Long short-term memory RNNs. It learned through backpropagation a learning algorithm for quadratic functions that is much faster than backpropagation. Researchers at Deepmind (Marcin Andrychowicz et al.) extended this approach to optimization in 2017. In the 1990s, Meta Reinforcement Learning or Meta RL was achieved in Schmidhuber's research group through self-modifying policies written in a universal programming language that contains special instructions for changing the policy itself. There is a single lifelong trial. The goal of the RL agent is to maximize reward. It learns to accelerate reward intake by continually improving its own learning algorithm which is part of the "self-referential" policy. An extreme type of Meta Reinforcement Learning is embodied by the Gödel machine, a theoretical construct which can inspect and modify any part of its own software which also contains a general theorem prover. It can achieve recursive self-improvement in a provably optimal way. Model-Agnostic Meta-Learning (MAML) was introduced in 2017 by Chelsea Finn et al. Given a sequence of tasks, the parameters of a given model are trained such that few iterations of gradient descent with few training data from a new task will lead to good generalization performance on that task. MAML "trains the model to be easy to fine-tune." MAML was successfully applied to few-shot image classification benchmarks and to policy-gradient-based reinforcement learning. Variational Bayes-Adaptive Deep RL (VariBAD) was introduced in 2019. While MAML is optimization-based, VariBAD is a model-based method for meta reinforcement learning, and leverages a variational autoencoder to capture the task information in an internal memory, thus conditioning its decision making on the task. When addressing a set of tasks, most meta learning approaches optimize the average score across all tasks. Hence, certain tasks may be sacrificed in favor of the average score, which is often unacceptable in real-world applications. By contrast, Robust Meta Reinforcement Learning (RoML) focuses on improving low-score tasks, increasing robustness to the selection of task. RoML works as a meta-algorithm, as it can be applied on top of other meta learning algorithms (such as MAML and VariBAD) to increase their robustness. It is applicable to both supervised meta learning and meta reinforcement learning. Discovering meta-knowledge works by inducing knowledge

Audio mining

Audio mining is a technique by which the content of an audio signal can be automatically analyzed and searched. It is most commonly used in the field of automatic speech recognition, where the analysis tries to identify any speech within the audio. The term audio mining is sometimes used interchangeably with audio indexing, phonetic searching, phonetic indexing, speech indexing, audio analytics, speech analytics, word spotting, and information retrieval. Audio indexing, however, is mostly used to describe the pre-process of audio mining, in which the audio file is broken down into a searchable index of words. == History == Academic research on audio mining began in the late 1970s in schools like Carnegie Mellon University, Columbia University, the Georgia Institute of Technology, and the University of Texas. Audio data indexing and retrieval began to receive attention and demand in the early 1990s, when multimedia content started to develop and the volume of audio content significantly increased. Before audio mining became the mainstream method, written transcripts of audio content were created and manually analyzed. == Process == Audio mining is typically split into four components: audio indexing, speech processing and recognition systems, feature extraction and audio classification. The audio will typically be processed by a speech recognition system in order to identify word or phoneme units that are likely to occur in the spoken content. This information may either be used immediately in pre-defined searches for keywords or phrases (a real-time "word spotting" system), or the output of the speech recognizer may be stored in an index file. One or more audio mining index files can then be loaded at a later date in order to run searches for keywords or phrases. The results of a search will normally be in terms of hits, which are regions within files that are good matches for the chosen keywords. The user may then be able to listen to the audio corresponding to these hits in order to verify if a correct match was found. === Audio Indexing === In audio, there is the main problem of information retrieval - there is a need to locate the text documents that contain the search key. Unlike humans, a computer is not able to distinguish between the different types of audios such as speed, mood, noise, music or human speech - an effective searching method is needed. Hence, audio indexing allows efficient search for information by analyzing an entire file using speech recognition. An index of content is then produced, bearing words and their locations done through content-based audio retrieval, focusing on extracted audio features. It is done through mainly two methods: Large Vocabulary Continuous Speech Recognition (LVCSR) and Phonetic-based Indexing. ==== Large Vocabulary Continuous Speech Recognizers (LVCSR) ==== In text-based indexing or large vocabulary continuous speech recognition (LVCSR), the audio file is first broken down into recognizable phonemes. It is then run through a dictionary that can contain several hundred thousand entries and matched with words and phrases to produce a full text transcript. A user can then simply search a desired word term and the relevant portion of the audio content will be returned. If the text or word could not be found in the dictionary, the system will choose the next most similar entry it can find. The system uses a language understanding model to create a confidence level for its matches. If the confidence level be below 100 percent, the system will provide options of all the found matches. ===== Advantages and disadvantages ===== The main draw of LVCSR is its high accuracy and high searching speed. In LVCSR, statistical methods are used to predict the likelihood of different word sequences, hence the accuracy is much higher than the single word lookup of a phonetic search. If the word can be found, the probability of the word spoken is very high. Meanwhile, while initial processing of audio takes a fair bit of time, searching is quick as just a simple test to text matching is needed. On the other hand, LVCSR is susceptible to common issues of speech recognition. The inherent random nature of audio and problems of external noise all affect the accuracies of text-based indexing. Another problem with LVCSR is its over reliance on its dictionary database. LVCSR only recognizes words that are found in their dictionary databases, and these dictionaries and databases are unable to keep up with the constant evolving of new terminology, names and words. Should the dictionary not contain a word, there is no way for the system to identify or predict it. This reduces the accuracy and reliability of the system. This is named the Out-of-vocabulary (OOV) problem. Audio mining systems try to cope with OOV by continuously updating the dictionary and language model used, but the problem still remains significant and has probed a search for alternatives. Additionally, due to the need to constantly update and maintain task-based knowledge and large training databases to cope with the OOV problem, high computational costs are incurred. This makes LVCSR an expensive approach to audio mining. ==== Phonetic-based Indexing ==== Phonetic-based indexing also breaks the audio file into recognizable phonemes, but instead of converting them to a text index, they are kept as they are and analyzed to create a phonetic-based index. The process of phonetic-based indexing can be split into two phases. The first phase is indexing. It begins by converting the input media into a standard audio representation format (PCM). Then, an acoustic model is applied to the speech. This acoustic model represents characteristics of both an acoustic channel (an environment in which the speech was uttered and a transducer through which it was recorded) and a natural language (in which human beings expressed the input speech). This produces a corresponding phonetic search track, or phonetic audio track (PAT), a highly compressed representation of the phonetic content of the input media. The second phase is searching. The user's search query term is parsed into a possible phoneme string using a phonetic dictionary. Then, multiple PAT files can be scanned at high speed during a single search for likely phonetic sequences that closely match corresponding strings of phonemes in the query term. ===== Advantages and disadvantages ===== Phonetic indexing is most attractive as it is largely unaffected by linguistic issues such as unrecognized words and spelling errors. Phonetic preprocessing maintains an open vocabulary that does not require updating. That makes it particularly useful for searching specialized terminology or words in foreign languages that do not commonly appear in dictionaries. It is also more effective for searching audio files with disruptive background noise and/or unclear utterances as it can compile results based on the sounds it can discern, and should the user wish to, they can search through the options until they find the desired item. Furthermore, in contrast to LVCSR, it can process audio files very quickly as there are very few unique phonemes between languages. However, phonemes cannot be effectively indexed like an entire word, thus searching on a phonetic-based system is slow. An issue with phonetic indexing is its low accuracy. Phoneme-based searches result in more false matches than text-based indexing. This is especially prevalent for short search terms, which have a stronger likelihood of sounding similar to other words or being part of bigger words. It could also return irrelevant results from other languages. Unless the system recognizes exactly the entire word, or understands phonetic sequences of languages, it is difficult for phonetic-based indexing to return accurate findings. === Speech processing and recognition system === Deemed as the most critical and complex component of audio mining, speech recognition requires the knowledge of human speech production system and its modeling. To correspond the Human speech production system, the electrical speech production system is developed to consist of: Speech generation Speech perception Voiced & unvoiced speech Model of human speech The electrical speech production system converts acoustic signal into corresponding representation of the spoken through the acoustic models in their software where all phonemes are represented. A statistical language model aids in the process by identifying how likely words are to follow each other in certain languages. Put together with a complex probability analysis, the speech recognition system is capable of taking an unknown speech signal and transcribing it into words based on the program's dictionary. ASR (automatic speech recognition) system includes: Acoustic analysis: input sound waveform is transformed into a feature Acoustic model: establishes relationship between speech signal and phonemes, pronunciation model and lang

Social media and identity

Social media can have both positive and negative impacts on a user's identity. Scholars within the fields of psychology and communication study the relationship between social media and identity in order to understand individual behavior, psychological impacts, and social patterns. Communication within political or social groups online can result in practice application, real-world implementation of a concept, of those found identities or the adoption of them as a whole. Young people, defined as emerging adults in or entering college, are especially found to have their identities shaped through social media. Sometimes it seems as though social media is taking over and changing us for the worse. Social media is always changing and can be hard to keep up with. Platforms come and go trends change everyday. What was cool yesterday is lame today. The biggest change from recent years that users are still adjusting to is the name change of Twitter now called X. Since Elon Musk purchased the platform he changed the name but nothing else about the app. Users now feel the need to explain when talking about X. Now it is often referred to as ‘X(Twitter)’ to clarify. == Social Media Usage and Demographics == We know what social media is and how it is used but who uses it? The Pew Research center conducted a 10 year study from 2005-2015 about the demographics of social media usage. While this article is 10 years old the statistics in it are from a very formative time in social media. This is when most people joined and were consistently using social media. Age: While it is no surprise that 90% of young adults use social media they are the main demographic of users. Older adults (65 and older) really hit a boom on social media. In 2005 only 2% of older adults used any form of social media. By 2015 35% of older adults used social media. We can infer that that percentage has grown even more since 2015. Gender: It is known that women tend to use social media more than men. In 2015 it was noted that 65% of women used social media. Men were not far behind, 62% of men were reported to use social media. There are no notable differences of users from various races and ethnicities. The research also shows that more suburban and urban residents use social media over those who live in rural areas. == Young adults == Young adults are especially influenced by social media, where they find social groups to belong to. Research shows that nearly half of teens believe social media platforms has a negative impact on people their age. Psychologists believe that at a time when young adults are coming into adolescence, they are more likely to be influenced by what they see on sites like Instagram or Twitter. Most young adults will widely share, with varying degrees of accuracy, honesty, and openness, information that in the past would have been private or reserved for select individuals. Key questions include whether they accurately portray their identities online and whether the use of social media might impact young adults' identity development. Media Imagery, in particular, is said to be a major influence on the minds of young men and women. Studies have shown that it is even more relevant when it comes to the issue of body image. Social media, in part, has been created to host a safe haven for those who do not claim a solid identity in the material world, but past identities are not easy to escape from since the Internet preserves much of the information that was shared. Social media is an essential part of the social lives of young adults. They rely on it to maintain relationships, create new relationships, and stay up to date with the world around them. Adolescents find social media to be extremely helpful when changing environments, like moving off to university for example. Social media provides students, especially first year students, the opportunity to create the identity they want the world to see. However, it has been seen that these students create online personas that may not reflect their true selves bringing up the issues of impression management. Social media provides young adults with the opportunity to present themselves as something other than their authentic self. Social media providers can help build relationships and community on their platforms. This is something that will create a more positive impact from social media. When young adults interact with each other using social media they are creating something called a social self-identity. Social self identity is what individuals create when they assimilate to being in a group. Social media has gained the reputation of being isolating. If these platforms encourage community then they can help grow users' social self-identity. == Media literacy == The definition of media literacy has evolved over time to encompass a range of experiences that can occur in social media or other digital spaces. The definition of media literacy is also broad and wide ranging in its context. Currently, media literacy is the idea that one is able to analyze, evaluate, and interact with media content in a meaningful way. Educators teach media literacy skills because of the vulnerable relationship that young adults can have with social media. Some examples of media literacy practices, particularly on Twitter, include using hashtags, live tweeting, and sharing information. One of the overall goals of media literacy within the context of social media is to keep young adults aware of potentially violent, graphic, or dangerous content that they may come across on the internet, and how to determine if the content is credible while engaging responsibly with it. In order to be considered media-literate, a person must be able to take in media from online and social platforms and have the correct competencies and context to be able to organize the information. In order to be considered media-literate, the digital information must be given to the user in a way that it can be put into the correct perspective and analyzed, deducted and synthesized.Teenagers and young adults can be vulnerable to specific content online outside of their age-range. Media literacy campaigns and education research shows that targeting those who fall into this age category would be the best way to understand and target their needs as young online users. There are multiple individual studies investigating social media identity relating to media literacy online, however there is a need for much more conclusive information that analyzes multiple studies at a time. Social media literacy is still considered an under-researched topic. Many scholars in media literacy research emphasize the impact of training young adults to consume media in a safe way is the major solution for furthering internet education in children and young adults. The more information the young adults are given on media literacy, the better prepared they are to enter the digital world confidently. One scientific model that has been proposed, known as The Social Media Literacy (SMILE) model is a framework that hypothesizes that at the core of this model it is helping young adults truly know the meaning and display the actions of media literacy online. SMILE is also meant to inspire more research on the subject of media literacy as it relates to social media effects and young adult learning abilities. The model was applied through the lens of a social media positivity bias among adolescents and puts forth five different assumptions about social media and media literacy; Social media literacy as a moderator (what is seen on social media) Social media literacy as a predictor (what is seen for specific individuals on social media) Media literacy within social media is a reciprocal process The development of social media literacy depends on a conditional process of variables affecting other variables Media literacy within social media is a differential learning process, and who teaches it is highly affective of the outcome This model also stresses that human beings learn media literacy (and social media literacy) naturally as they go through life. Research suggests that having young adults taught media literacy from an educator may make them less interested (and therefore less careful) of threats on social media. == Self Presentation == People create images of themselves to present to the public, a process called self presentation. Depending on the demographic, presenting oneself as authentic can result in identity clarity. Methods of self presentation can also be influenced by geography. The framework for this relationship between a user's location and their social media presentation is called the spatial self. Users depict their spatial self in order to include their physical space as a part of their self presentation to an audience. According to a 2018 research paper, patients of plastic surgeons have gone in and asked for specific snapchat "filter" features. This led to a theory of Snap

Data recovery

In computing, data recovery is a process of retrieving deleted, inaccessible, lost, corrupted, damaged, or overwritten data from secondary storage, removable media or files, when the data stored in them cannot be accessed in a usual way. The data is most often salvaged from storage media such as internal or external hard disk drives (HDDs), solid-state drives (SSDs), USB flash drives, magnetic tapes, CDs, DVDs, RAID subsystems, and other electronic devices. Recovery may be required due to physical damage to the storage devices or logical damage to the file system that prevents it from being mounted by the host operating system (OS). Logical failures occur when the hard drive devices are functional but the user or automated-OS cannot retrieve or access data stored on them. Logical failures can occur due to corruption of the engineering chip, lost partitions, firmware failure, or failures during formatting/re-installation. Data recovery can be a very simple or technical challenge. This is why there are specific software companies specialized in this field that help to get back data on your system. == About == The most common data recovery scenarios involve an operating system failure, malfunction of a storage device, logical failure of storage devices, accidental damage or deletion, etc. (typically, on a single-drive, single-partition, single-OS system), in which case the ultimate goal is simply to copy all important files from the damaged media to another new drive. This can be accomplished using a Live CD, or DVD by booting directly from a ROM or a USB drive instead of the corrupted drive in question. Many Live CDs or DVDs provide a means to mount the system drive and backup drives or removable media, and to move the files from the system drive to the backup media with a file manager or optical disc authoring software. Such cases can often be mitigated by disk partitioning and consistently storing valuable data files (or copies of them) on a different partition from the replaceable OS system files. Another scenario involves a drive-level failure, such as a compromised file system or drive partition, or a hard disk drive failure. In any of these cases, the data is not easily read from the media devices. Depending on the situation, solutions involve repairing the logical file system, partition table, or master boot record, or updating the firmware or drive recovery techniques ranging from software-based recovery of corrupted data, to hardware- and software-based recovery of damaged service areas (also known as the hard disk drive's "firmware"), to hardware replacement on a physically damaged drive which allows for the extraction of data to a new drive. If a drive recovery is necessary, the drive itself has typically failed permanently, and the focus is rather on a one-time recovery, salvaging whatever data can be read. In a third scenario, files have been accidentally "deleted" from a storage medium by the users. Typically, the contents of deleted files are not removed immediately from the physical drive; instead, references to them in the directory structure are removed, and thereafter space the deleted data occupy is made available for later data overwriting. In the mind of end users, deleted files cannot be discoverable through a standard file manager, but the deleted data still technically exists on the physical drive. In the meantime, the original file contents remain, often several disconnected fragments, and may be recoverable if not overwritten by other data files. The term "data recovery" is also used in the context of forensic applications or espionage, where data which have been encrypted, hidden, or deleted, rather than damaged, are recovered. Sometimes data present in the computer gets encrypted or hidden due to reasons like virus attacks which can only be recovered by some computer forensic experts. == Physical damage == A wide variety of failures can cause physical damage to storage media, which may result from human errors and natural disasters. CD-ROMs can have their metallic substrate or dye layer scratched off; hard disks can suffer from a multitude of mechanical failures, such as head crashes, PCB failure, and failed motors; tapes can simply break. Physical damage to a hard drive, even in cases where a head crash has occurred, does not necessarily mean permanent data loss. However, in extreme cases, such as prolonged exposure to moisture and corrosion —like the lost Bitcoin hard drive of James Howells, buried in the Newport landfill for over a decade — recovery is usually impossible. In rare cases, forensic techniques such as magnetic force microscopy (MFM) have been explored to detect residual magnetic traces when data holds exceptional value. Other techniques employed by many professional data recovery companies can typically salvage most, if not all, of the data that had been lost when the failure occurred. Of course, there are exceptions to this, such as cases where severe damage to the hard drive platters may have occurred. However, if the hard drive can be repaired and a full image or clone created, then the logical file structure can be rebuilt in most instances. Most physical damage cannot be repaired by end users. For example, opening a hard disk drive in a normal environment can allow airborne dust to settle on the platter and become caught between the platter and the read/write head. During normal operation, read/write heads float 3 to 6 nanometers above the platter surface, and the average dust particles found in a normal environment are typically around 30,000 nanometers in diameter. When these dust particles get caught between the read/write heads and the platter, they can cause new head crashes that further damage the platter and thus compromise the recovery process. Furthermore, end users generally do not have the hardware or technical expertise required to make these repairs. Consequently, data recovery companies are often employed to salvage important data with the more reputable ones using class 100 dust- and static-free cleanrooms. === Recovery techniques === Recovering data from physically damaged hardware can involve multiple techniques. Some damage can be repaired by replacing parts in the hard disk. This alone may make the disk usable, but there may still be logical damage. A specialized disk-imaging procedure is used to recover every readable bit from the surface. Once this image is acquired and saved on a reliable medium, the image can be safely analyzed for logical damage and will possibly allow much of the original file system to be reconstructed. ==== Hardware repair ==== A common misconception is that a damaged printed circuit board (PCB) may be simply replaced during recovery procedures by an identical PCB from a healthy drive. While this may work in rare circumstances on hard disk drives manufactured before 2003, it will not work on newer drives. Electronics boards of modern drives usually contain drive-specific adaptation data (generally a map of bad sectors and tuning parameters) and other information required to properly access data on the drive. Replacement boards often need this information to effectively recover all of the data. The replacement board may need to be reprogrammed. Some manufacturers (Seagate, for example) store this information on a serial EEPROM chip, which can be removed and transferred to the replacement board. Each hard disk drive has what is called a system area or service area; this portion of the drive, which is not directly accessible to the end user, usually contains drive's firmware and adaptive data that helps the drive operate within normal parameters. One function of the system area is to log defective sectors within the drive; essentially telling the drive where it can and cannot write data. The sector lists are also stored on various chips attached to the PCB, and they are unique to each hard disk drive. If the data on the PCB do not match what is stored on the platter, then the drive will not calibrate properly. In most cases the drive heads will click because they are unable to find the data matching what is stored on the PCB. == Logical damage == The term "logical damage" refers to situations in which the error is not a problem in the hardware and requires software-level solutions. === Corrupt partitions and file systems, media errors === In some cases, data on a hard disk drive can be unreadable due to damage to the partition table or file system, or to (intermittent) media errors. In the majority of these cases, at least a portion of the original data can be recovered by repairing the damaged partition table or file system using specialized data recovery software such as TestDisk; software like ddrescue can image media despite intermittent errors, and image raw data when there is partition table or file system damage. This type of data recovery can be performed by people without expertise in drive hardware as it requires no special physica

Server-Gated Cryptography

Server-Gated Cryptography (SGC), also known as International Step-Up by Netscape, is a defunct mechanism that was used to step up from 40-bit or 56-bit to 128-bit cipher suites with SSL. It was created in response to United States federal legislation on the export of strong cryptography in the 1990s. The legislation had limited encryption to weak algorithms and shorter key lengths in software exported outside of the United States of America. When the legislation added an exception for financial transactions, SGC was created as an extension to SSL with the certificates being restricted to financial organisations. In 1999, this list was expanded to include online merchants, healthcare organizations, and insurance companies. This legislation changed in January 2000, resulting in vendors no longer shipping export-grade browsers and SGC certificates becoming available without restriction. Internet Explorer supported SGC starting with patched versions of Internet Explorer 3. SGC became obsolete when Internet Explorer 5.01 SP1 and Internet Explorer 5.5 started supporting strong encryption without the need for a separate high encryption pack (except on Windows 2000, which needs its own high encryption pack that was included in Service Pack 2 and later). "Export-grade" browsers are unusable on the modern Web due to many servers disabling export cipher suites. Additionally, these browsers are incapable of using SHA-2 family signature hash algorithms like SHA-256. Certification authorities are trying to phase out the new issuance of certificates with the older SHA-1 signature hash algorithm. The continuing use of SGC facilitates the use of obsolete, insecure Web browsers with HTTPS. However, while certificates that use the SHA-1 signature hash algorithm remain available, some certificate authorities continue to issue SGC certificates (often charging a premium for them) although they are obsolete. The reason certificate authorities can charge a premium for SGC certificates is that browsers only allowed a limited number of roots to support SGC. When an SSL handshake takes place, the software (e.g. a web browser) would list the ciphers that it supports. Although the weaker exported browsers would only include weaker ciphers in its initial SSL handshake, the browser also contained stronger cryptography algorithms. There are two protocols involved to activate them. Netscape Communicator 4 used International Step-Up, which used the now obsolete insecure renegotiation to change to a stronger cipher suite. Microsoft used SGC, which sends a new Client Hello message listing the stronger cipher suites on the same connection after the certificate is determined to be SGC capable, and also supported Netscape Step-Up for compatibility (though this support in the NT 4.0 SP6 and IE 5.01 version had a bug where changing MAC algorithms during Step-Up did not work properly).

Echo Lake (software)

Echo Lake (AKA Family Album Creator) was the most notable multimedia software product produced by Delrina, which debuted in June 1995. It was touted internally as a "cross [of] Quark Xpress and Myst". It featured an immersive 3D environment where a user could go to a virtual desktop in a virtual office and assemble video and audio clips along with images, and then print them out as either a virtual book other users of the program could use, or for print. It was a highly innovative product for its time, and ultimately was hampered by the inability of many users able to input their own multimedia content easily into a computer from that period. Creative Wonders bought the rights to the Echo Lake multimedia product, which was re-shaped as an introductory program on multimedia and re-released as Family Album Creator in 1996.

Internet Security Alliance

Internet Security Alliance (ISA) was founded in 2001 as a non-profit collaboration between Carnegie Mellon University's CyLab and Electronic Industries Alliance, a federation of trade associations. The Internet Security Alliance is focused on cyber security, acting as a forum for information sharing and leadership on information security, and lobbying for corporate security interests. == International operations == The Internet Security Alliance operates with a global membership to provide international security for its partners. The organization's membership includes companies located on four continents, and the Executive Committee always includes at least one non-U.S.-based company. The Internet Security Alliance believes that international communication is crucial for long-term greater information security, as it allows for a more realistic approach to addressing the many challenges faced by users of the Internet. == Publications == Published in 2009, The Financial Impact of Cyber Risk is the first known guidance document to attempt to approach the financial impact of cyber risks from the perspective of core business functions. It claims to provide guidance to CFOs and their colleagues responsible for legal issues, business operations and technology, privacy and compliance, risk assessment and insurance, and corporate communications.