A scientific charting library focused on performance optimised real-time data visualisation at 25 Hz update rates for data sets with a few 10 thousand up to 5 million data points.

Plugin for Lightroom to show which focus point was active in the camera when a photo was taken

CREDITS SEQUENCE NEWSPAPER HEADLINE MONTAGE: HEADLINES flash before us, displaying their accompanying photographs. "UBERMAN - METRO CITY'S HERO AFTER DEFEATING MASTER MIND! PHOTO: A chiseled, statuesque man wearing the COOLEST SUPER HERO SUIT IMAGINABLE, COMPLETE WITH FLOWING CAPE, shines a confident smile at the lens. This is UBERMAN, champion of METRO CITY. "UBERMAN DEFEATS MASTER MIND'S GIANT ROBOT!" PHOTO: Wide-shot of Uberman in mid-flight lifting the GIANT ROBOT in the sky above the city buildings. "MASTER MIND ALL WET AFTER UBERMAN FOILS AQUARIUM HEIST!" PHOTO: Uberman stands knee-deep in water. He has his enemy by the collar. The villain blocks his face from the shot with a METALLIC GAUNTLET. The images start to flash by even quicker, each showing the MYSTERIOUS VILLAIN in various stages of humiliation. In each photograph he successfully blocks his face with his armored glove. We ZOOM IN to the last headline. "MASTER MIND BEHIND BARS ONCE AGAIN - THANKS TO UBERMAN!" PHOTO: Uberman stands in a gallant pose with his fists on his hips, obviously trying to accentuate the "U" insignia on his chest. END OF CREDITS SEQUENCE EXT. BUILDING - DAY We DISSOLVE from the photograph to Uberman standing in the exact same position. WE PULL BACK showing him atop a BUILDING overlooking the city below. A perfect view for our guardian hero. He watches the thriving metropolis, bristling with life as people happily go about their day. Yet, we can't help but detect a hint of sadness in Uberman's expression. 2. UBERMAN You look so peaceful from up here. His serenity is suddenly interrupted by a loud BEEPING SOUND coming from his wrist. He looks down at a BRACELET (a manly one) on his right arm. It's a silver band with a FLASHING red letter "U". UBERMAN (CONT'D) Looks like Roxanne's in trouble again. Uberman leaps off the building and into the air. His cape gracefully flows in the breeze behind him as he shoots off into the distance like a speeding bullet. EXT. OBSERVATORY HIDEOUT - ESTABLISHING SHOT Grime and moss decorate the outside of this long abandoned building overlooking the COAST. Once a place of knowledge and wonder - now home to a great evil. INT. OBSERVATORY HIDEOUT - DAY The inside is in complete contrast to the exterior. The huge hall with a GIANT TELESCOPE teems with advanced ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT. Computers, monitors and machines which do not have an obvious function FLASH and HUM. A STEEL DOOR slides open, revealing the subject of our story MASTER MIND - a villainous sight to behold. His FACE IS INEXPLICABLY LIGHT BLUE, topped by an OVERSIZED, MUSHROOM- SHAPED HEAD with a CIRCULAR PATCH OF WHITE HAIR ON TOP. He's dressed in the kind of costume only a super villain could pull off: a PURPLE JUMPSUIT AND BLACK BOOT ENSEMBLE WITH A GIANT GREEN "M" ON THE CHEST. His right hand, hanging at his side, is a METAL GAUNTLET WITH THREE SHORT SPIKES PROTRUDING BETWEEN HIS KNUCKLES. Master Mind begins to survey the room with his TWO PERMANENTLY ARCHED EYEBROWS. A man dressed as ALBERT EINSTEIN is busy ranting to two other men. One, a hulking brute, is dressed as LEONARDO DA VINCI. The other, a small intellectual-type carrying a clip-board, is dressed as the philosopher PLATO. EINSTEIN I hate the outfits. I mean, I get it: we're all supposed to be "masterminds" - very clever. (MORE) 3. EINSTEIN(cont'd) I just feel stupid. I mean, what the hell did Einstein really do anyway? PLATO Theory of relativity. Einstein starts feverishly scratching his side. EINSTEIN Well, you'd think he'd invent a wool sweater that didn't itch so much. Da Vinci and Plato's eyes suddenly grow with concern as they see Master Mind walk up behind Einstein. Einstein notices his colleague's staring over his right shoulder and turns around. He turns around and Master Mind SEIZES HIM BY HIS THROAT with his metal gauntlet. MASTER MIND The real Einstein once said, "God does not play dice with the world." He was right, because the world is MY dice. Is that understood? DA VINCI & PLATO Sir! Yes, sir! EINSTEIN (gasping for air) Yes, sir. Master Mind undoes his grip on Einstein's throat. MASTER MIND Alright, then - clean slate. Do we have the girl? DA VINCI Yes, sir. She fell into our trap just like you knew she would. MASTER MIND Reporters are a curious lot, and easily manipulated. He quickly checks his physique in a GIANT MIRROR, adjusts his posture and sucks in his gut. 4. MASTER MIND Alright, let's not keep the lady waiting. MOMENTS LATER Da Vinci escorts a BLINDFOLDED and bound woman, ROXANNE RITCHI, to the back of the room where Plato and Einstein are standing guard over a large BLACK SWIVEL-CHAIR facing away from us. She pulls free of Da Vinci's grasp and waits for him to undo the blindfold. Her face uncovered, we finally see Roxanne's striking features - all of which seem overshadowed by piercing eyes that seem more put off by the situation than afraid of it. MASTER MIND (O.S.) Miss Ritchi, we meet again. The chair turns menacingly slow, finally revealing Master Mind. ROXANNE You didn't need to turn around like that. I can recognize the stench of failure. Master Mind unleashes a wicked laugh. MASTER MIND I trust you gentlemen know the very sassy Roxanne Ritchi, highly regarded investigative journalist who some say has a more than friendly relationship with our super powered foe Uberman. And Miss Ritchi, I trust you've already met my new crew: The Mad Geniuses! Roxanne gives Einstein a once over. ROXANNE Looks like a real group of winners. At the risk of sounding cliche', you'll never get away with this. MASTER MIND In a way, I already have. Roxanne unleashes an exhausted SIGH. 5. ROXANNE We go through this every time. You kidnap me to get to Uberman, he immediately finds your hideout, escapes whatever lame trap you've come up with, and takes you and your cronies to jail. I propose we just save everybody some heartache this time by YOU letting me go, and ME forgetting this whole thing ever happened? MASTER MIND What about my revenge? ROXANNE We can say it was wasting everyone's time. MASTER MIND You have a wicked tongue. I hope you rid yourself of that when you're my queen. Roxanne unleashes a snort-filled laugh. ROXANNE I'm sorry. What makes you think I would want to be your queen? MASTER MIND Power corrupts absolutely, Miss Ritchi. And when I have ultimate power over this city, I have absolutely every intention of corrupting you with it. PLATO Sir! Master Mind turns to Plato who's now standing at a computer terminal. MASTER MIND (annoyed) What is it!? EXT. OBSERVATORY HIDEOUT - DAY Uberman flies toward the Observatory like a rocket. 6. INT. OBSERVATORY HIDEOUT - DAY Uberman crashes through the wall to the room we were just in. He looks around, but there's suddenly NOT A SOUL IN SIGHT. CUT TO: EXT. MASTER MIND'S HYDROFOIL - DAY The boat is shooting through the ocean, away from the observatory. INT. HYDROFOIL CONTROL ROOM - DAY Machines, cables and terminals criss-cross the craft's main bridge. Through the enormous surrounding windows we can see the observatory shrinking in the distance. Master Mind watches Uberman on a small TV monitor as the hero intently searches his hideout. UBERMAN (on monitor) Master Mind! INT. OBSERVATORY HIDEOUT - DAY Uberman throws up his arms in frustration when suddenly - MASTER MIND (O.S.) Over here, old friend. He turns to see a FAMILIAR BLUE FACE OF EVIL ON A GIANT SCREEN. UBERMAN What's the matter, miss your old jail cell? Uberman starts walking toward the monitor. MASTER MIND (ON MONITOR) Actually, I wanted to share the experience with my oldest friend. A MECHANIZED CAGE shoots out of the floor, suddenly trapping Metro City's protector. Totally unfazed, our hero stares on. 7. UBERMAN You can't possibly believe this will work. Master Mind pulls out a SMALL BLACK BOX with a SINGLE RED BUTTON on it. MASTER MIND (ON MONITOR) Oh, can't I? I have attained control of the Earth's most abundant energy source. I doubt even you are strong enough to withstand the FULL CONCENTRATED POWER OF THE SUN!!! He presses the button. EXT. OUTER SPACE A sinister-looking SATELLITE orbits Earth's atmosphere. Its bay doors suddenly open, deploying two huge SOLAR PANELS. The panels shift, angling themselves in the direction of the sun. They immediately start GLOWING as they absorb the burning star's power. The front of the satellite begins to make a loud HUMMING SOUND as it prepares to unleash its unholy power. INT. HYDROFOIL CONTROL ROOM - DAY From the giant window we can see the boat is a good mile from the observatory. PLATO We're now at minimum safe distance, master. Master Mind turns from the CAMERA he was broadcasting on and puts down the control box. MASTER MIND Excellent. Stop here, I like this view. PLATO Twenty seconds until impact. Master Mind turns to Roxanne who is being held by Da Vinci and Einstein. She almost appears a little bored. Disappointed by her lack of horror, he walks over to the monitor now showing Uberman trapped in the cage. 8. MASTER MIND Any last words? Uberman looks up at the screen with a cocky smile. UBERMAN (ON MONITOR) Yes: there's no caging the power of justice. PLATO Ten seconds to impact. On the screen we see Uberman take two of the cage's bars in his hands. He yanks...NOTHING. PLATO (CONT'D) Nine... Master Mind stares at the monitor, slightly confused. PLATO (CONT'D) Eight... Uberman yanks on the bars again, this time using his foot as leverage. MASTER MIND (genuinely concerned) What's going on? UBERMAN (straining) Hold...on...a second. Master Mind looks back at Plato and Einstein. They're equally befuddled at the hero's sudden weakness. PLATO Seven... Uberman loses his grip and FALLS BACKWARD ON HIS ASS. UBERMAN SON OF A BITCH!! Master Mind and the minions all cringe in unison. Da Vinci turns to Roxanne not believing his ears. DA VINCI What did he just say? 9. PLATO Six......Five... Master Mind begins to laugh. MASTER MIND What kind of trick is this? Uberman looks up at the camera with a very grave expression. UBERMAN Like you don't know. These bars are made of copper, aren't they? PLATO Four... MASTER MIND Yeah, so? Uberman tries to shield his grief with his hand. UBERMAN You figured out my weakness, damn you. I CAN'T BEND COPPER! PLATO Three... MASTER MIND Your weakness is copper? PLATO Two...one. Everyone turns to the window. EXT. OUTER SPACE The satellite fires a giant BEAM OF LIGHT toward the earth. EXT. OBSERVATORY HIDEOUT - DAY The beam hits the observatory. The building instantly EXPLODES in a white nova blast of fire. INT. HYDROFOIL CONTROL ROOM - DAY The blast is so bright everyone turns away from the window. Then, as suddenly as it began, the awesome light dies out. One by one, the passengers unshield their eyes and look out toward the observatory. 10. All we can see through the haze of destruction is fire and smoke. PLATO I don't think even he could have survived that. Einstein suddenly turns giddy with excitement. EINSTEIN Whoa! Is it me or did you just finally destroy Uberman? MASTER MIND (carefully skeptical) Well...let's not get ahead of ourselves. Da Vinci suddenly sees something outside. DA VINCI Look, there's something in the sky, coming this way. ROXANNE Uberman! Master Mind turns toward the window. An object is in the air, flying directly toward them. As it closes in we can just make out the FAMILIAR OUTLINE OF A CAPPED FIGURE. MASTER MIND I KNEW IT! PREPARE YOURSELVES! HE'S GONNA RAM US!!! Everyone scatters and braces themselves for the impact. Master Mind, seeing all the good places taken, doesn't know what to do with himself. He just covers his giant head with his hands. The figure CRASHES THROUGH THE WINDOW and lands at his feet. He looks down to see a CHARRED BLACK HUMAN SKELETON. Around its neck is the unmistakable black cape of Uberman. MASTER MIND (CONT'D) (horrified) HOLY SHIT! 11. Roxanne breaks out of Da Vinci's hold and runs over to the body. ROXANNE Uberman? She stares down at the still smoking corpse, the tattered black cape with the yellow "U" on it. Roxanne turns to Master Mind, who's still visibly dumbfounded at the grotesque sight before him. ROXANNE (CONT'D) You killed him! Roxanne's eyes roll back. Da Vinci catches her from behind as she FAINTS. Einstein turns to Master Mind, looking at him as if he's just walked on water. EINSTEIN You did it! Now that he's committed the impossible - our villain is at a complete loss. MASTER MIND ...so I did. EINSTEIN I mean, I know you always wanted to. I mean, all the schemes all the plots - I never thought you'd actually be capable of it. Giddy as a school girl, Einstein turns to his fellow henchmen. EINSTEIN This is history. Every villain and lackey in the history of villains and lackeys dream of this moment, but when does it actually EVER happen? A sudden realization comes over his face. EINSTEIN Good lord...You do all realize what we get to do now, don't you? 12. His question is met with acquisitive looks from Master Mind and the others. EINSTEIN We get to go on a crime wave. CRIME WAVE MONTAGE - SET TO "Fun Fun Fun" by The Beach Boys. SPINNING HEADLINE: "UBERMAN'S DEATH IGNITES CITY WIDE CRIME WAVE!" ARMORED TRUCK It's driving along when the men inside suddenly notice something - THEY'RE FLYING HIGH ABOVE THE CITY STREETS. We PULL BACK to see the truck being carried by a giant claw at the bottom of a BRAIN COPTER. Inside the cockpit Master Mind and his henchmen laugh maniacally. SPINNING HEADLINE: "CHAMPION-LESS CITY AT THE MERCY OF HOOLIGANS." METRO CITY BANK Da Vinci and Einstein run out the front of the bank holding BAGS OF MONEY. Two beat officers see them and take chase after them around the corner and into an alley. After a moment the police reemerge from the alley screaming and running for their lives as a GIANT ROBOT CHASES after them. The robot stops, then suddenly it's head opens up like convertible car top with Master Mind and Plato at the driver's wheel. They smile and shake hands at a bad deed well done. SPINNING HEADLINE: "MASTER MIND BLACKMAILS METRO!!!" A VICIOUS TORNADO It's heading for downtown Metro as Master Mind and the lackeys coolly look on. Three large DUMP TRUCKS pull up, filled to the brim with bricks of CASH. 13. The DRIVERS jump out as the lackeys take the driver seats in the three trucks. Master Mind is about to climb into the passenger seat of one when a drivers taps him on the shoulder and motions toward the tornado. MASTER MIND (absentmindedly) Oh, right. Master Mind pulls a television REMOTE from his pocket and aims it at approaching windstorm of death. He presses the button marked "Tornado Off." The tornado shrinks and disappears just before it hits the city. As they drive through the city streets, Master stares out the window with a hint of something in his eyes. Is it melancholy? END OF MONTAGE EXT. KINGPIN BOWLING - DAY It's Metro City's premier bowling alley. On top of the neon lit building is a GIANT 30 FOOT TALL CEMENT BOWLING BALL. INT. KINGPIN BOWLING - DAY HAL STEWART (early 30's) takes careful aim with his BOWLING BALL. HAL It's a sport of honor, focus and grace. Honor the ball, focus on the pins, release the ball not hard and fast, but as if you were releasing a baby dove. He takes a step, pulls back his arm, and releases the ball, following it with his eyes. It's a horrible shot - INSTANT GUTTER BALL. An aged barmaid type with a cigarette hanging from her mouth looks over at him. HAL Okay, do something like that - but center it more. 14. She picks up her custom made FOGHAT BALL and takes aim. ATTRACTIVE BLOND Tell me how my form looks, honey. Hal focuses on the misshapen bumps of her enormous Johnson administration era derriere. HAL Oh, it's lookin' good. It's lookin' REAL good. It doesn't get anymore clear. This man is a pig. VINNIE (O.S.) Hal, I want to see you in my office! Hal turns to see VINNIE, owner of the bowling alley, calling him. VINNIE Now! INT. KINGPIN BOWLING - VINNIE'S OFFICE - MOMENTS LATER Hal sits down, facing Vinnie who's sitting at his desk. VINNIE You're fired. Leave your shirt and locker key. This bit of news hits Hal like a freight train. HAL Fired? Are you going to tell me why? VINNIE Showing up to work late. Showing up to work late drunk. Sexually harassing customers. Stealing from the register. HAL Vinnie, I don't know where you're getting these accusations - Vinnie takes out a video tape from his desk drawer and puts in a VCR. 15. HAL Oh, which one do you supposedly have here? VINNIE This is all of them at once. TELEVISION A WOMAN walks up to a BOWLING EMPLOYEE and hands him a pair of shoes. As the employee turns to the wall of shoes, a very drunk and disheveled Hal comes running in and pushes him aside. HAL I've got this one, Benny. So, Cinderella. Can I help you find your glass slipper? WOMAN Yeah, I'm looking for a seven. He folds his arms on the counter and leans into her with a cat-like grin on his face. HAL (with a leer) Seven - Well, maybe I could interest you in something in an EIGHT. Namely, me. Disgusted, she walks off screen. HAL Lesbo. Suddenly realizing the register's open, he quickly grabs a stack of cash and shoves it in his pocket. BACK TO OFFICE Vinnie turns off the television and waits for Hal to respond. HAL From the angle of the camera, I can see where you might have gotten the wrong idea. Listen, Vinnie, I don't think you've thought this through. If you fire me, who's gonna be captain of the alley's bowling team? 16. VINNIE Um, I don't know. Maybe somebody who can actually bowl. You guys have never won a game. I hired you because you said you were on the pro circuit. HAL No, I said I WILL BE on the pro circuit. VINNIE Please, a loser like you will never amount to anything. This harsh remark seems to leave Hal genuinely stunned. HAL Wow...If that's how you feel...I guess we should then talk about what kind of severance I'm gonna get. EXT. KINGPIN BOWLING - DAY TWO BRUISERS open the door and throw Hal out onto the street. He quickly picks himself up and turns back toward the building. HAL Hey...what about my ball? A bowling ball sails past him, just missing his head. HAL Thank-you! EXT. CHANNEL 7 NEWS BUILDING - DAY The massive building with a giant 7 on the roof stands in the heart of Metro City. INT. CHANNEL 7 NEWS BUILDING - OFFICE - DAY The cubicles and offices are alive with the hustle and bustle of a busy news day. Phones are RINGING, REPORTERS are TALKING, and Editors are SHOUTING. The elevator doors open and out steps Roxanne Ritchi. 17. Everything stops as the entire office suddenly falls SILENT. Somewhat taken aback by the reaction, Roxanne scans the room to see every eye on her. ROXANNE It's...um...It's good to be back. Thanks for everyone's cards and concerns. I really appreciated it - now I'm ready to climb back on the horse. No one is budging - their looks of pity are really starting to make her uncomfortable. The back office door suddenly opens and out comes FRANK BONIN, the gruff, middle-aged Producer of Channel 7 News. Noticing the silence, he looks up and sees the sad expressions on everybody's face. FRANK Someone die or something? He suddenly notices Roxanne - both feet are placed firmly in his mouth. FRANK (cursing himself) Oh, Jesus. ROXANNE It's okay. Frank quickly walks up to Roxanne and takes her gently by the arm. FRANK Come on into my office, sweetie. INT. CHANNEL 7 NEWS BUILDING - FRANK'S OFFICE - CONTINUOUS He sits her down on his leather couch, then quickly turns toward his door. FRANK Can we get this woman some water for God's sake? (to Rebecca) I gave you two months off. What're you doing back? People are gonna think I'm a slave driver. 18. ROXANNE Aren't you? FRANK Yeah, but I don't want people to think it. ROXANNE Frank, listen. I want to go back to work. I NEED to go back to work. FRANK ...You're hysterical, aren't you? Frank sits down on the couch and blankets Roxanne with A WARM EMBRACE. ROXANNE What're you doing? FRANK Keeping you warm before you go into shock. (toward the open door) DO I HAVE SLICE OPEN A CAMEL HUMP TO GET A GLASS OF WATER AROUND HERE? A SECRETARY quickly enters with a bottled water. She sets it on the table in front of them and leaves. Roxanne pulls herself out of Frank's grasp and stands up to face him. ROXANNE It was a traumatic experience. Yes, everyone knows Uberman and me were...close. But what I really need - what would really make me better is getting back to work. There's a sudden awkward silence from Frank. FRANK Well, that's going to be... ROXANNE I thought you'd be happy to have me back. 19. FRANK Oh, we are. Honey, nothing makes us happier than to have our girl back, but... ROXANNE Yes? FRANK Things have sorta...changed. ROXANNE In three weeks? FRANK Listen, I'm not one who likes to open up wounds - especially ones that are just starting to scab, but you were sorta our go to girl for the exclusive on Uberman. And now that he's gone...I moved Brad into your anchor spot. ROXANNE (disgusted) Brad? Brad Helms? The man is an idiot. FRANK It's the suits. They think it's time to switch things up. ROXANNE Oh, because they can't use me to get the big story. FRANK C'mon, Roxie. Using is in the nature of what we do. They used you, you used Uberman. Everybody's happy. ROXANNE (defensive) I didn't use him. FRANK Oh, I didn't mean that. I know you two were in love or something. My bad. ROXANNE We were. 20. FRANK And that's great. ROXANNE Very in love. There's a hind of self-doubt in Roxanne's expression, as if she's failed to convince even herself of this. ROXANNE Okay. So, where are they going to move me if Brad has my spot? FRANK ...Human interest. ROXANNE Bake sales and pet stories. FRANK I told them I wouldn't be surprised if you just upped and quit. You busted your ass for that desk. Roxanne can hardly get it out - she's busy swallowing her pride ROXANNE I'll take it. Frank looks up at her, not believing what he's hearing. FRANK What? EXT. ABANDONED METRO CITY LIBRARY - NIGHT Amongst the jungle of high rises, one small building stands out from the rest - A tiny, forgotten piece of 19th century Gothic architecture. LIGHTENING FLASHES, revealing TWO CONCRETE GARGOYLES holding a cracked plaque, reading: METRO CITY LIBRARY. INT. ABANDONED METRO CITY LIBRARY - NIGHT A mixture of old and new. Dusty Victorian furniture and dilapidated bookshelves sit side by side with pristinely futuristic machinery. The building has been converted into Master Mind's new SECRET LAIR. 21. In the center of the main room is a three storey tall GLOWING BLUE ORB. At the base of it is a sign that reads "Reactor - Don't Touch." We PAN OVER to the READING ROOM where Master Mind is sitting on a couch watching TELEVISION. REPORTER ON TELEVISION (O.S.) It's been nearly six weeks, and still no word on the whereabouts of billionaire playboy, and philanthropist, Wayne Scott. Tune in at 11:00 as we look into what has become Metro City's biggest mystery. TELEVISION NARRATOR (O.S.) We now return to "The Hero of our Hearts: The Uberman story." Einstein and Plato come into the room holding a BAG OF LOOT. EINSTEIN Just robbed the diamond exchange. MASTER MIND (feigning pleasure) Great, great. Put it on the pile. Einstein tosses it on a LARGE PILE of purloined valuables in the corner of the room. EINSTEIN Anything else today? MASTER MIND No. Master Mind turns his attention back to the screen. Plato sees that Master Mind is in a funk and tries to snap him out of it. PLATO (cheerfully) Sir, the new reactor is installed. Plato nods to the giant orb. PLATO Do you want to throw the switch? I know how you love to start reactors. 22. MASTER MIND Maybe later. Einstein gives Master Mind a funny look then exchanges glances with Plato before leaving the two of them alone. Without turning away from the TV, Master Mind addresses Plato. MASTER MIND (CONT'D) What is it, Plato? PLATO (nervously) Sir, I can't help but notice that you've been...a little down lately. MASTER MIND When I want your opinion I'll beat it out of you. PLATO Yes, sir, I know, but please forgive my impertinence. It's just that you seem to have lost your lust for our profession. You've stopped going on jobs and spend most of your time watching Uberman specials. Master Mind relaxes slightly and turns to face the window in a classically contemplative pose. After an overdramatic beat... MASTER MIND I have defeated my greatest enemy. I have free reign over Metro City. I have more wealth than a thousand Sultans. I've achieved all I have worked for...so why am I so unhappy? He walks over to a PAINTED PORTRAIT that looks almost exactly like him, except slightly older, maybe meaner - MASTER MIND'S FATHER. MASTER MIND I mean, my father, god rest his evil and tormented soul, raised me straight from the test tube to be a symbol of evil. (MORE) 23. MASTER MIND(cont'd) And, I have accomplished something he had only dreamed about - the destruction of Metro City's champion. I tell you, I've always lived with this unquenchable thirst. I thought it was to make him proud or to get absolute power. But now that I've pretty much accomplished both, I am at a loss. PLATO ...I sort of have a theory about all that. MASTER MIND (snippy) Oh, really? PLATO Well, for one thing, maybe Uberman was more important to you than you thought. MASTER MIND He was a worthy rival. Sometimes I wonder, did he consider me his evil equal or was I just an annoying, little gnat to him? ...What's the second part? PLATO I think you sort of have a thing for Roxanne Ritchi. Master Mind quickly takes his lackey by the throat. MASTER MIND YOU WORM! HOW DARE YOU! WHERE WOULD YOU GET SUCH A NOTION? PLATO Sir, your plans always involve Ms. Ritchi either being kidnapped or placed in danger. If that's not love, I don't know what is. It's the grown up equivalent of dipping her pigtails in the ink well. Don't you see? She's the one treasure that's always escaped you. From Master Mind's expression, we see Plato's words beginning to ring true. 24. INT. RESTURAUNT - DAY Roxanne is having lunch with several girlfriends sitting around her, gabbing. FRIEND #1 I can't believe you came back so soon. FRIEND #2 Are you sure it's not TOO SOON, honey? ROXANNE I just wanted to get back to work. FRIEND #3 What we need to do is get you back on the saddle...the love saddle. Friend 1 and 2 give 3 disapproving looks. FRIEND #3 It's been three weeks. FRIEND #2 She just lost the love of her life, Grace. A WAITER comes by with a tray of CAESAR SALADS and begins setting them out for the ladies. ROXANNE I keep trying to tell people it wasn't really like that. Uberman and I - We were kinda having problems. We broke up. The waiter ALMOST DROPS HIS TRAY AT THIS. The women are too shocked by Roxanne's revelation to notice. FRIEND #1 You broke up with Uberman! FRIEND #3 You must have REALLY, REALLY high standards. I mean, you were dating a god. I mean, what's it take? ROXANNE Maybe someone who's a little more aware of his faults. Someone a little more sensitive. 25. FRIEND #3 Right. Someone who listens, sexy but attainable with cute little cheeks like a hamster and heartbreak in his eyes. She turns to Friend one and two to explain. FRIEND #3 She wants John Cusack. FRIEND #2 The actor? FRIEND #3 No, the famous pediatrist - Yes, the actor. Ever since we were teenagers, Roxanne's totally had the hots for him. ROXANNE Well, until he miraculously comes walking into my life, I'm just going to take a little reflection time for myself. The waiter gets a confused look on his face then slips away as Roxanne and her friends continue to chat away. EXT. RESTURAUNT - DAY The waiter tosses his apron in a trash can, then rolls up his sleeve and presses A STRANGE LOOKING DEVICE STRAPPED TO HIS WRIST. His image gets staticy, like a TV station going out, then disappears - revealing the man's true form underneath: MASTER MIND! MASTER MIND Who the hell is John Cusack? EXT. CITY STREET - DAY A YOUNG MOTHER pushes her baby stroller past a building construction site. ACROSS THE STREET A local POLITICIAN addresses a group of REPORTERS on the sidewalk, including Roxanne. 26. POLITICIAN The Fifth Avenue Renovation Project, which I championed, will breath new life into the downtown area. New life means new jobs and new revenue. ROXANNE Councilman, is it true that your brother-in-law's construction company won the contract for this project? POLITICIAN Well...er...yes, but...look I'm not here to answer a lot of crazy questions... YOUNG MOTHER The young mother stops halfway down the block, reaches into the stroller and tries to comfort her now crying baby. Above her, a CRANE is maneuvering a pile of STEEL GIRDERS to an upper floor. Hal comes around the corner and heads in her direction. CRANE The crane GRINDS TO A HALT. The OPERATOR has a confused look on his face as he moves levers back and forth in an effort to fix the problem. Hal stops a few feet from the woman and stoops down to tie his shoe. CRANE The operator's hand slips off the lever, hitting a RED BUTTON. To his horror the crane DROPS ITS LOAD OF STEEL. HAL AND THE WOMAN The woman looks up to see the girders seconds from crushing her and her baby. She screams. Hal looks up and sees it as well. He starts to run out of the way and crashes into the woman and stroller. ACROSS THE STREET 27. The reporters turns their cameras just in time to catch on film what appears to be Hal pushing the woman to safety just as the GIRDERS CRASH TO THE GROUND. HAL AND MOTHER Tears of joy in her eyes, the woman picks up her baby and kisses it. Hal struggles to catch his breath as the mother turns to him. YOUNG MOTHER Thank you! Thank you for saving me and my baby! She hugs him with her free arm, weeping with joy. HAL (not knowing what she's talking about) Huh? He's a little uncomfortable with the woman's public display of affection and the small child in-between their embrace. HAL (CONT'D) There, there. Hal slowly eases out of the woman's grip. HAL (CONT'D) Okay, we better...well, I hear these little guys smother easy. The reporters rush over and surround Hal and the mother. ROXANNE What's it feel like to be a hero? Hal looks up at Roxanne. Instantly, he's captivated by her beauty. HAL Well...I'm just a man doing what men do. You're Roxanne Ritchi, aren't you? They're suddenly interrupted when another reporter pushes his way in between them. REPORTER Were you scared? 28. HAL Scared? Who had time? The reporters eat this up. INT. ABANDONED METRO CITY LIBRARY - NIGHT TELEVISION John Cusack stands in the rain looking up at a window of a two story house. He holds up a BOOMBOX and "In Your Eyes" by Peter Gabriel begins to play. From the couch, Master Mind and his minions watch. MASTER MIND John Cusack, huh? So all I have to do is have a cute puppy dog stare, be willing to make a fool of myself and - Oh, REMOVE BOTH MY BALLS. He turns to see Da Vinci watching the movie and wiping a tear from his cheek. MASTER MIND Please, get a hold of yourself. INT. BOOKSTORE - NIGHT Roxanne is carrying a large paper coffee cup in her hands as she peruses the isles. She sets it down on a shelf to pull a book out and ends up KNOCKING THE DRINK OVER. ROXANNE Shit. She goes to pick it up when someone bends down and picks it up for her. Looking up to thank him, Roxanne is suddenly stunned speechless - It's popular and critically acclaimed actor JOHN CUSACK, or rather Master Mind disguised as him. "JOHN CUSACK" Oh the humanity - it was a Venti. ROXANNE (stunned) You're...you're. "JOHN CUSACK" Yes, it's me. John Cusack...the actor. 29. He notices the book she's reading. "JOHN CUSACK" Hey, is that Shelly? Wait, I think remember something from that one - Let's see: "My head is screaming `I want you and need you' - my heart it keeps reaching to see you and feel you - yet in the end, I'm alone once again." Wow, I scare even myself. I'm sorry. I'm just really into poetry. Probably because I'm so sensitive and always going to great lengths to express myself. But enough about me. Can I fill you up? ROXANNE (captivated) ...Yes. (catching herself) I mean, excuse me? "JOHN CUSACK" Can I fill you up? Your coffee. ROXANNE Right. INT. BOOKSTORE CAFE' - LATER Roxanne talks as John Cusack listens to her every word intently. ROXANNE I did have a boyfriend - until fairly recently. She suddenly begins to feel the stares around her as passers- by being to notice who she's with. ROXANNE I'm sorry - this is so surreal! "JOHN CUSACK" Yeah, they charge way too much at these places - Now back to your boyfriend. I'm interested and compassionate. I want to know about you. 30. ROXANNE Things were complicated. He was a man married to his work. There was...there was a lot of competition in his line of business. I'm sure you know what that's like. "JOHN CUSACK" Sure. In my business, one thing I have is RIVALS. For example, mine is...uh...Lou Ferr...igno. ROXANNE ...The body-builder who used to play The Hulk on TV? "JOHN CUSACK" Did he? Well, we're always up for the same roles. Did your boyfriend have someone like that? A particular rival that was always getting his goat - so to speak? ROXANNE Well...one rival in particular seemed to get more of his attention than I ever did. But enough about my problems. "JOHN CUSACK" NO, TELL ME MORE!!! Suddenly realizing his outburst, he begins COUGHING to mask it. "JOHN CUSACK" (CONT'D) I'm sorry. I got a whooping cough. Had it ever since Serendipity. I WONDER WHERE OUR REFILLS ARE!!! (fakes cough) See, there it goes again. Please, go on. ROXANNE Right, well, he seemed to need him more than he needed me. "JOHN CUSACK" How do you mean? 31. ROXANNE It was conflict he thrived on. He always said he wouldn't know what to do with himself if Master - I mean, this guy were gone. It was like he needed it, like oxygen. The answer to his mental funk hits him like a bolt of lightening. He turns away from her as if for private time. "JOHN CUSACK" (almost to himself) I think I finally understand...The only logical answer is to recreate that rivalry - or if that's impossible, create one of equal structure. That's it! ROXANNE What? John Cusack snaps out of his dream-like haze realizing she's heard every word. "JOHN CUSACK" Oh, sorry, sorry. Just rehearsing for a part...where I play a man who talks to himself at inappropriate times. In a sudden rush, he rises out of his chair. "JOHN CUSACK" I have to go right now, but I'd really like to see you again - if that's alright. Roxanne looks up at him - She can't help but laugh at the craziness of the situation. ROXANNE I'd love that. INT. ABANDONED METRO CITY LIBRARY - DAY Master storms in the office to find Plato and Einstein playing darts with the original Mona Lisa. EINSTEIN Got her nose! MASTER MIND I've got it! 32. Everyone stops what they're doing upon seeing that their master has returned. MASTER MIND I've got it! MASTER MIND It's plain and simple. Extraordinary minds need extraordinary stimulation. Without that stimulus they wither and die. Therefore, there is only one logical conclusion: I must create a new superhero. EINSTEIN Yeah, maybe that's not such hot idea... MASTER MIND (ignoring him) Prepare for Operation Superhero Genesis! INT. ABANDONED METRO CITY LIBRARY - LABORATORY - DAY The lab is slick, white and ultra modern. Dressed in a lab coat, Master Mind enters through a SLIDING GLASS DOOR rubbing his hands excitedly. MASTER MIND Prepare the subject. He glances down into a large HOLE in the floor to see a naked thirty year old man, SEVERS, shivering. Above the hole, a huge vat dangles precariously. Master Mind steps behind a glass partition next to Plato and Einstein. MASTER MIND (CONT'D) Plato, pour the toxic waste. Plato throws a switch causing the vat to tip hundreds of gallons of green and brown goo into the hole. MASTER MIND (CONT'D) Drainage. The slime is sucked out through the floor, leaving a goo- soaked Severs. 33. Master Mind looks into the pit. MASTER MIND (CONT'D) Well, Severs? SEVERS I feel fine. Just a little sticky, but aside from that everything's completely - BOOM - Severs explodes. A hail of blood and tissue covers Master Mind and his men. For a good ten seconds nobody moves an inch. Finally... MASTER MIND Okay then. INT. ABANDONED METRO CITY LIBRARY - LABORATORY - DAY Through a glass WATER TANK we see a man breathing normally. MASTER MIND And this one? PLATO We attached gills to him. He can breath under water. MASTER MIND Ah. Does he have extraordinary strength? PLATO Well...no. MASTER MIND Can he fly? PLATO No. MASTER MIND Resilient to weapons fire? PLATO No. MASTER MIND He just breathes under water, then. PLATO Ah...yeah. 34. Master Mind rolls his eyes and walks away. INT. ABANDONED METRO CITY LIBRARY - LABORATORY - DAY The next guinea-pig, STENWICK, is standing in a sealed glass tube not much wider than himself. MASTER MIND Plato, the radioactive spider, please. Plato throws the switch DROPPING A SINGLE SPIDER onto Stenwick's arm. Stenwick looks and winces as it bites him. STENWICK Ow! He brushes the spider off. MASTER MIND Anything, Stenwick? STENWICK (shaken) No. Ah...sir, I didn't know this was about spiders. I have a pretty severe case of arachnophobia. Master Mind thinks for a moment, then turns to Plato. MASTER MIND We're gonna need more venom. Plato throws another switch, this time DUMPING THOUSANDS OF SPIDERS on poor Stenwick. His SCREAMS begin to fade as he's engulfed with swarms of crawling arachnids. MASTER MIND (CONT'D) How `bout now, Stenwick? ....Stenwick? INT. ABANDONED METRO CITY LIBRARY - OFFICE - DAY Master Mind is pacing back and forth. The muted TV plays in the background. MASTER MIND This has proven to be a challenge. I just don't know what I want. What do I want? 35. He stares at Einstein, Da Vinci and Plato, but they offer no advice. MASTER MIND (CONT'D) I want a man of moral fiber with a strong sense of right and wrong. Someone who doesn't seek power - instead, they must have it thrust upon them and find, within themselves, the courage to rise to the occasion. Einstein lets out a short laugh, getting everyone's attention. EINSTEIN Yeah, well, it sounds like what you want is Uberman. Master Mind snaps the fingers of his non-metal hand. MASTER MIND That's it! Why make a copy when the real thing will do? The lackeys look at each other, they can't believe what they're hearing. EINSTEIN I was just kidding, sir. In case you forgot, you actually burned Uberman alive. MASTER MIND Then we'll make a new one. Plato, bring me the box! MINUTES LATER Master Mind and the lackeys stand in a circle around a small table. Plato places a STAINLESS STEEL CHEST in the tables center. As Master Mind opens it, he's immediately doused in WHITE GLOW emanating from inside. MASTER MIND Behold - Uberessence. The very thing that gave Uberman his superhuman powers. 36. EINSTEIN Where the hell did you get that? MASTER MIND Oh, I shot him with a power sucking gun and had this idea to use this to clone a whole army of evil Ubermen. I'm not sure why I never got around to following up with that. PLATO I believe he defeated you before you could, master. MASTER MIND ...Right. Man, he was good! DA VINCI You want another volunteer, sir? MASTER MIND Not another volunteer driven by the need for personal gain. Somebody else, somebody pure. Master Mind turns to see an INTERVIEW WITH HAL playing on the muted television. Underneath his face is a blue caption with white lettering that reads: "Hal Stewart - Metro City's Newest Hero?" NEWS REPORTER ...who risked his own life to save that of a young mother and her child. HAL Please, please, you're embarrassing me. I saw someone in need and I helped them. What more can we ask of ourselves. I ask you, what more? A smile creeps across the evil one's face. MASTER MIND (CONT'D) Somebody like him! EXT. CITY STREET - DAY Plato is sitting in the van, staring into a pair of binoculars as he speaks on a cellphone. 37. PLATO Yeah, sir. This guy is a real piece of work. He used to teach bowling at Kingpin's. INT. MASTER MIND'S HIDEOUT - DAY Master Mind is sitting with his feet up on a computer console as he speaks to Plato. MASTER MIND (into phone) A modest profession to brilliantly hide his true heroic nature. I love it. EXT. CITY STREET - DAY PLATO Then you are absolutely going to love this - We follow Plato's line of sight across the street where we see HAL PLAYING WITH A LARGE GROUP OF BLIND CHILDREN. PLATO - He volunteers at a school for the blind. INT. MASTER MIND'S HIDEOUT - DAY Intrigued, he suddenly sits up in his chair. MASTER MIND He volunteers. He doesn't ask for any reward for his deeds. The fates are shining down on me. This Mr. Stewart is truly an unselfish soul. EXT. BLIND SCHOOL - DAY From a distance, Hal seems to be consoling an upset child who's sitting on a rock. But up close... HAL You greedy little bastard. I already gave you a twenty. BLIND KID Hey, you want me to play along? Then pay up, bitch! 38. HAL Fine, but you better be convincing. He gives the kid a bill out of his wallet and looks over his shoulder to see a HOT TEACHER walking toward them. HAL Here she comes, go to work. Like a miniature Brando, the blind kid buries his face in his hands and begins to cry. BLIND KID (weeping) Why can't I see! Why God? Hal puts a warm consoling hand on the weeping boy's shoulder. HAL Hey, Peter. C'mon champ, let me look at you. The Hot Teacher stops and curiously watches from a distance. The boy looks up at Hal, tears running down his dark sunglasses - he should get an Oscar. HAL You know, in life we're all given no more than we can bear. This happened to you maybe because you were meant to rise above it - Maybe to be an inspiration to the other little Peteys out there. BLIND KID You really think so, Hal? HAL Hey, does it LOOK like I'm lying? Now c'mon, go feel your way to class before you get your little butt suspended. The boy stands up and is about to take off. HAL Petey, wait a minute. Hal uses his shirt sleeve to wipe the tears away from the boy's face before sending him on his way. 39. The Hot Teacher grabs her chest. Her heart is about to absolutely melt. HAL Don't run into anything! EXT. STREET - CONTINUOUS Plato lowers his binoculars. From his perspective, Hal should be next in line for popehood. PLATO I think I've seen enough, sir. This is your guy. MASTER MIND (O.S.) (over radio) Then return to base. We have much work to do. Plato starts up the van and pulls away. INT. BAR - DAY It's a busy night. A couple of trucker types are shooting pool as the bartender slings drinks. Hal is nursing a beer at the bar when he suddenly notices a very ATTRACTIVE WOMAN sitting next to him. As he goes to straighten his stool-posture, Hal suddenly catches himself on the bar's TELEVISION - it's a story about how he saved the woman and her baby at the construction site. He turns back to the Attractive Woman next to him, then back to the TV. A plan of attack is forming. HAL (obviously playing it up for the woman's benefit) Oh, there it is again. This is really getting embarrassing now. The woman looks up at the screen and gives Hal a double-take. ATTRACTIVE WOMAN Oh my God! It's you! You're the man who saved that woman and her baby the other day! It is you, isn't it? TRUCKER #1, getting a drink at the bar next to them, OVERHEARS. 40. Hal rolls his eyes and puts his hands up in the air. HAL (to Attractive Woman) Oh, crap. You got me. TRUCKER#1 taps Hal on the shoulder. TRUCKER#1 Let me tell you something. That was just about the bravest damn thing I've ever witnessed. (he turns to the rest of the bar) Hey, everybody! This guy's the hero from TV! The bar ERUPTS IN CHEERS. MOMENTS LATER Hal is riding on the shoulders of TRUCKER#2 and TRUCKER#3 as `I'm Holding Out For A Hero' plays on the jukebox. TRUCKER#1 suddenly puts his hands in the air. The room quickly goes silent. TRUCKER#1 I want to give you something. He reaches into his pocket and takes out a medal. He holds it up in the air for everyone to see. TRUCKER#1 (CONT'D) Lost my whole platoon. They were a lot a good boys, a lot of good boys. That was just the way things were in "The Grenada." I'd rather a real hero have this. Trucker#1 gives the medal to a speechless Hal. ATTRACTIVE WOMAN Hey, you're on TV again. The crowd looks up at the Television. TELEVISION - CONTINUOUS The anchor man, BRAD HELMS (early 40's, amazing mustache), suddenly has a memo passed to him. 41. BRAD HELMS This just in. Upon a second look at that tape from this morning, which we'll now replay for you, it appears it was not the heroic act it first seemed to be. The tape shows Hal running in slow motion. BRAD HELMS (O.S.) (CONT'D) With the tape slowed down you can actually see the man push the woman and her child out of the way in an effort to save his own life. The tape shows Hal, in a clear act of self-preservation, pushing the woman and child out of the way. CUT BACK TO: INT. BAR - CONTINUOUS In unison, everyone turns their heads back to Hal. HAL I guess that looks kinda bad. Trucker#1 snatches his medal back. EXT. NEARBY ROOF - NIGHT Master Mind, Da Vinci and Plato look down, spotting Hal cutting through a dark alley. DA VINCI There he is, boss. Da Vinci hands Master Mind a fantastic looking silver rifle. MASTER MIND Now, we're sure this won't kill him? PLATO Yes, sir. He'll just feel a slight electrical shock. MASTER MIND Good. Master Mind raises the rifle and aims it at Hal. 42. EXT. ALLEY - NIGHT Hal wipes the blood from his nose with his shirtsleeve. A LIGHTENING BOLT suddenly zaps Hal in the back. His teeth spark and arc electrons as his entire body shakes and shudders violently. He finally collapses, knocking over a row of garbage cans. EXT. NEARBY ROOF - NIGHT An angry Master Mind slaps Plato. MASTER MIND Slight electrical shock? EXT. ALLEY - NIGHT Hal lies flat on his back, his jacket smoldering. Dazed, he slowly rises to his feet and looks up at the sky. HAL God, I hate the weather in this city. Hal walks off into the night as he attempts to slap the emitting smoke from his jacket. EXT. NEARBY ROOF - NIGHT Master Mind turns to Da Vinci. MASTER MIND Follow him. INT. HAL'S APARTMENT - NIGHT It's a dirty, small studio. Laundry lies everywhere, dishes are piled in the sink and the litter box looks like a minefield. Hal comes staggering in. Through his POV we see the lights wobble and streak like a hallucination. He shakes his head trying to clear thing up, but it looks worse. Hal makes his way to the kitchen table and plops down on a chair. The room begins to swim. His CAT jumps on the table and sits down in front of him. 43. From Hal's POV the cat's face looks like we're seeing it through a kaleidoscope. Hal seems fascinated by it. CAT You don't look so good, man. HAL I don't feel good. I was struck by freaking lightening. Suddenly Hal realizes his cat's talking to him. HAL (CONT'D) AAAAAAHHHHH! You can talk? CAT No, you're just hallucinating. By the way, we're out of orange juice. HAL AAAAAAHHHHH! Hal jumps up, trips over a cardboard box and knocks himself out on the coffee table. INT. HAL'S APARTMENT - MORNING Hal lies in the same position we left him last night. He sits up and grabs his head. He looks like he has the worst hangover in the world. Finally, he remembers last night. He looks around, but not really sure what he's looking for. HAL Man... Shaking his head, he walks to the kitchen and opens the refrigerator. He pulls out an orange juice container and puts it to his mouth. It's empty. As if suddenly remembering something he looks from the carton to the cat, who is busy cleaning himself. He shakes the thought from his mind. BATHROOM Hal lifts the seat and unbuckles his pants. 44. HAL'S FACE He stares at the ceiling with half closed eyes. The inevitable sound of urine hitting water starts. A content look washes over his face. There is a distinct sound of porcelain CRACKING and SPLINTERING. The sound intensifies. Hal looks down to see his URINE STREAM SMASHING THE TOILET. HAL (CONT'D) Oh, God! He whips his stream away only to cut a LONG RIP IN THE WALL. HAL (CONT'D) Oh, God! He freaks out and begins to lose control of his flow as it destroys everything he accidently aims at; the bathroom mirror, a bottle of cheap cologne, the bathroom window. HAL (CONT'D) Oh, God! He aims back for the toilet, which is pretty much rubble now, to see the floor give way. Finally, the pee stops and he glances down the hole. He sees his downstairs NEIGHBOR sitting at his breakfast table. He has a fork halfway to his mouth as he stares at the smashed toilet on his pancakes. EXT. STREET - DAY Hal turns the corner to see his bus pulling away from the stop. HAL Wait! He starts running after it. ZOOM - HE TAKES OFF LIKE LIGHTENING. HAL (CONT'D) Whoa, whoa, whoa! Unable to stop, he SLAMS INTO THE BACK OF THE BUS and falls back to the ground. 45. As the bus continues on he sees an INDENTATION of his torso right below the rear window. Stunned, to say the least, he rises to his feet. HAL (CONT'D) Something's not right here. He slaps himself in the face as hard as he can. HAL (CONT'D) Wake up! Wake up, Hal! HONK! Hal spins around to see a car barreling toward him. He goes to jump out of the way - ZOOM - he FLIES TWO STORIES UP, nails a building and comes crashing back down to the sidewalk. Hal sits up, disheveled and scared. HAL (CONT'D) Okay, okay. Let's get it together, man. He closes his eyes in an attempt to will back his sanity. HAL (CONT'D) This is just some sort of...episode. It will pass, it will pass. He opens his eyes and looks down the street. A BEAUTIFUL NAKED WOMAN is coming toward him. HAL (CONT'D) Well, not too fast I hope. As she passes him and turns the corner out of his view he catches ANOTHER NAKED WOMAN - an old disgusting one. HAL (CONT'D) Yes, fast, fast! He turns away from her in horror only to see AN ENTIRE BLOCK OF NAKED PEOPLE going about their business. He rubs his eyes and looks down the street again. Everyone has returned to a clothed state. 46. He relaxes a little until he looks down and notices that he's floating a foot off the ground. HAL (CONT'D) I think I need to go home. INT. HAL'S APARTMENT - DAY Hal's front door CREAKS as it slowly opens, revealing Master Mind. He walks over to the bathroom and smiles to himself as he notices the giant hole in the floor. MASTER MIND Welcome to your second birth, Hal Stewart. Master Mind continues to survey the room. He stops to look over a "KARATE KID" POSTER on Hal's living room wall. He focuses on the majestic image of Pat Morita teaching a young Ralph Macchio to kick. MASTER MIND (CONT'D) Instruction is very important in the formative years. Every hero needs a mentor, a father figure to look up to. He presses his special watch, causing his body to MORPH INTO THE SPITTING-IMAGE OF PAT MORITA. "PAT MORITA" Perfect. INT. HAL'S APARTMENT - DAY Hal enters, grabs a bottle of vodka from atop of the fridge and takes a long pull from it. VOICE (O.S.) A man will usually find that if he drinks from a bottle, eventually, the bottle drinks from him. Hal does a SPIT TAKE. In the corner a darkened figure stands. HAL Who are you!? 47. VOICE I am the guide on your journey. Fate has chosen you to be it's champion. Pat Morita steps out from the shadows. Hal passes out again. LATER We are close on Hal's face as his eyes flutter open. He appears to be lying on the couch. He hunches up on his elbows, looks around, but everything is as it seems. He lays his head back down. HAL Thank God. It was a dream. Man, I must be losing it. A voice sounds right next to his ear. "PAT MORITA" (O.S.) You know you're out of orange juice? Hal leaps up to find he's been resting his head on Pat's lap. HAL Jesus! This isn't happening, this isn't happening. Hal backs away and trips over a box. "PAT MORITA" Calm. All things must be filtered through calmness. HAL Bullshit! Sometimes it's best to freak out. "PAT MORITA" I think we must work on your attitude first. HAL Look I'm gonna call the cops in about two seconds if you don't get out of here. 48. Pat rises and walks to Hal. He's so calm it makes Hal calm. "PAT MORITA" Are you calm now? HAL Yeah, I'm okay. Pat slaps him across the face hard. "PAT MORITA" Good, because we've got a lot of work to do. Hal grabs his jaw. HAL What the hell was that for? "PAT MORITA" Rule number one: expect the unexpected. HAL Can you just tell me what this is all about? "PAT MORITA" The heavens are not in the habit of bestowing a gift such as this to just anyone. You are being rewarded for being a man of great moral fortitude with an unwavering belief in humanity. HAL That's me alright. "PAT MORITA" I am to train you so you may fulfill your destiny to defeat the great menace to Metro City: Master Mind. Pat gets up and walks toward the door. "PAT MORITA" (CONT'D) Come. HAL We're are we going? 49. "PAT MORITA" To train. EXT. PAT'S CAR - DAY Pat is sitting in the driver's seat. The car is bumping up and down. "PAT MORITA" Strength is just as much in the mind as it is the muscle. Remember, both need to be exercised. We PULL BACK to see Hal lifting the car up over his head. He's hardly straining. HAL I'M LIFTING A FREAKING CAR!!! Pat leans on the HORN. "PAT MORITA" Hey, Corky? You listening? Two highly attractive female joggers run by. They're clearly impressed with Hal's show of strength. He smiles and mouths a "hello." HAL Yeah, work both muscles. EXT. DESERT - DAY Pat cocks back the chamber of a .357 MAGNUM. He holds it up and carefully takes aim...at Hal's chest. "PAT MORITA" Trust me. HAL What are you doing!? "PAT MORITA" An invulnerability test. Something wrong? HAL Uh...yeah. I would prefer not to get shot. Do not fire that thing! Frustrated, Pat lowers the gun. 50. "PAT MORITA" You're bulletproof. HAL Okay, do you know that for sure? Pat quickly aims and fires. Hal lets out a high pitched scream as the bullet ricochets off his chest. "PAT MORITA" I do now. Hal looks down at his chest, not so much as a scratch. HAL You suck. EXT. SKY - DAY Hal is in the air flying in a sitting position. He's weaving back and forth. HAL Ice Man, I got a bogie on my tail. Two Russian Migs coming in hard and fast. "PAT MORITA" Hey! HAL What? Hal looks down to see Pat Morita yelling at him from the roof of a building down below. "PAT MORITA" What did I tell you? Stomach down, hands up. Hal sighs and assumes the proper superhero in-flight position. HAL God, I feel so gay. Pat's CELL PHONE begins to RING. He answers it. "PAT MORITA" (in Master Mind voice) What is it? 51. ROXANNE (V.O.) John? Pat panics. He looks up to make sure no one is in earshot. He sees Hal now doing somersaults in the air. HAL YEEEE HAWWWW! Pat turns his attention back to the phone, talking in his John Cusack voice. "PAT MORITA" (in Cusack voice) Yes, it's John Cusack. ROXANNE (V.O.) Hi, it's Roxanne. Listen, I...I really enjoyed talking with you the other day. "PAT MORITA" ...As did I. ROXANNE (V.O.) Great. God, I feel really silly, and if you have a lot going on I totally understand. But, I was wondering if you maybe wanted to have lunch. He can't believe what he's hearing. "PAT MORITA" (excited) I'd love to! He quickly recovers his composure. "PAT MORITA" (CONT'D) I mean, I AM a little hungry. ROXANNE (V.O.) Great. How does the park sound, around noon-ish? "PAT MORITA" Sure! ROXANNE (V.O.) Great, see you then. 52. Pat hangs up the phone and returns it to his pocket as Hal lands behind him. HAL WHOOOOA! Man, that is so cool. It's like fly - Oh my God, I almost said it was like flying. "PAT MORITA" For the rest of the day I want you to continue to practice your flying posture. HAL Why, where're ya going? "PAT MORITA" ...To do something...mysterious ...and Asian. HAL Say no more, bro. I'll just keep at it, then. EXT. PARK - DAY John Cusack and Roxanne eat WRAPPED SANDWICHES while walking through Metro City Park. ROXANNE How's your sandwich? "JOHN CUSACK" It's quite delicious. ROXANNE Hope you don't think I'm too forward. Some men are intimidated when a woman asks them out. I just find you really easy to talk to. "JOHN CUSACK" And I you. ROXANNE You know, you're not at all like you are in the movies. "JOHN CUSACK" I'm not? 53. ROXANNE Yeah. I don't know - You have this strange, refined way of speaking. "JOHN CUSACK" I do? That is most interesting. ROXANNE Anyway, when we were talking the other day I just felt, even though we only talked for a couple of hours, that we've known each other for years. "JOHN CUSACK" I know just what you mean. Roxanne bites into her sandwich. ROXANNE You know what? This sandwich is disgusting. She tosses it in a nearby garbage can. ROXANNE (CONT'D) Of course I already ate half of it. I wonder what that says about my character? "JOHN CUSACK" It means you don't give up on a sandwich. You see that it has potential, and you give it every chance to be all it can be. Roxanne smiles at his analogy. ROXANNE Thanks, but knowing me, I was probably projecting my expectations of what a lunch should be on the sandwich. It might have been okay at first, but I just made it bitter. John Cusack notices Roxanne's smile starting to fade. "JOHN CUSACK" Is that what happened with your last sandwich - I mean, boyfriend? 54. ROXANNE When I look back, I probably shouldn't of expected so much from him. He was already a giving person. You know, one of those go out and save the world types. "JOHN CUSACK" I've run into a few. ROXANNE I was selfish, I guess. I didn't want to share him with anybody else. "JOHN CUSACK" It sounds like he was a special man. ROXANNE They broke the mold. John Cusack arches his eyebrow in a very familiar manner. "JOHN CUSACK" Perhaps not. INT. ABANDONED WAREHOUSE - DAY Hal walks up to Pat Morita sporting a Lone Ranger-type mask and wearing a purple and red superhero costume. It's not unlike Uberman's except for a giant "T" on his chest. (From here on, Hal is referred to as TITAN) TITAN What's the "T" stand for? "PAT MORITA" Titan. TITAN What's that supposed to mean? "PAT MORITA" It's from Roman mythology. Zeus's father...oh, just go with it. You look perfect. TITAN I don't think this mask is big enough. Are you sure no one is gonna recognize me? 55. "PAT MORITA" It's fine, just don't slouch. It's all in the posture. He grabs Titan's shoulders like a proud papa. "PAT MORITA" (CONT'D) It is time. INT. BANK - DAY There is a long line of people snaked around the velvet ropes. They're all waiting for their chance at the one open teller window. Four men wearing BEATLES MASKS(JOHN,PAUL,GEORGE,AND RINGO)and CARRYING SHOTGUNS enter the bank. John fires a shot in the air, sending everyone into an immediate panic. JOHN Alright folks, this is a robbery. Nobody moves - yadda, yadda, yadda... Ringo jumps over the teller wall and starts stuffing bills into a bag. As John and Paul cover the crowd, George goes to the corner office and puts a gun to the BANK MANAGER'S head. GEORGE The safe. Let's go. BANK MANAGER Okay, just don't hurt anyone. GEORGE Yeah, yeah, yeah. George leads him out by the collar. CRASH - Titan smashes through the window and lands in a bold superhero stance with hands on hips. TITAN Well, boys, there's no need for all this just to get the free toaster. Paul cocks his gun. 56. PAUL What are you suppose to be? We move in for a nice dramatic close up. TITAN Justice. GEORGE Well, justice, suck on this... George, John and Paul open fire on Titan. He just stands there and yawns as the bullets bounce off him. With their guns empty the three just stare at him in amazement. TITAN Now it's my turn. He turns to George. TITAN (CONT'D) Hey, George, here comes the sun. Titan grabs George and throws him into a fluorescent light fixture in the ceiling. Paul tries to run for the door. Titan snatches the collar of his jacket. TITAN (CONT'D) Say, Paul, your mother should know...that you're a scumbag. He tosses Paul out the window and into a parked DELIVERY TRUCK. Titan turns around just as John hits him with the butt of his shotgun. It instantly breaks apart in his hands. Titan lifts him like a rag doll up into the air. TITAN (CONT'D) John, all you need is love... He throws John who lands on top of a cubical wall - GROIN FIRST. TITAN (CONT'D) ...and a good urologist. 57. Titan effortlessly hops over the teller wall to find Ringo cowering on the floor. He grabs him by the shirt and lifts him up. HAL Well, Ringo...um...um...you're under arrest. EXT. BANK - DAY Titan walks out of the bank with Ringo and George under his arm. He's suddenly swarmed by a group of television reporters, including Roxanne. Across the street is Pat Morita. He watches Titan's first news conference with great anxiety. BANK MANAGER (to Hal) On behalf of the First National Bank of Metro City, I'd like to offer you a reward for your act of bravery. He hands Titan a check. TITAN (reading) Ten thousand dollars! Titan looks over to Pat, who violently shakes his head no. TITAN (CONT'D) (unenthusiastically) I...can't except this. Law and order is it's own...um...reward. Pat gives him the thumbs up. Pat turns, suddenly seeing Roxanne with her camera crew. Captivated, his eyes lock on her. Meanwhile, Roxanne and her cameraman, SETH, are maneuvering around the crowd to get closer to Titan. BRAD HELMS (O.S.) Not so fast, Roxanne. They both turn to see Roxanne's reporter rival Brad Helms, Geraldo without the class, and his cameraman, FRANK. BRAD HELMS This story's mine. 58. ROXANNE Listen, Brad. We were just in the area. I was just trying to - BRAD HELMS I've been in this business long enough to know pretty well what you were "just trying to do." Besides, I heard you couldn't take the big game anymore and were put on fluff detail? Dejected, Roxanne turns and motions for Seth to turn the camera off. SETH You're not gonna take that from him, are you? ROXANNE He's right. Old habit, I guess. (to Brad) We'll get out of your way. As they walk off, Brad makes a comment to Frank loud enough for her to hear. BRAD HELMS Besides, I'm sure there's a pancake supper somewhere that needs covering. INT. ABANDONED METRO CITY LIBRARY - OFFICE - DAY ON TELEVISION We see the news conference on the bank's steps. In the corner of the screen is written: "recorded earlier." BRAD HELMS For months now, since the death of Uberman, the citizens of Metro City have been holding out for a hero. Well, it appears they won't have to hold out for much longer as a new costumed crusader has suddenly stormed onto the scene. Today, at the Metro Savings and Trust, a masked mystery man single-handedly defeated "The Fab Four Gang." Just who is this new caped avenger? Brad holds the microphone to Titan's face. 59. BRAD HELMS I'm sure all of our viewers are now wondering, what's the "T" stand for? TITAN It's a message to all the scum out there. Uberman may be gone, but Metro City has a new protector, and his name is "Tighten!" Another reporter leans in. REPORTER How do you spell that? We PULL BACK to see Plato and Da Vinci watching this spectacle. Master Mind is sitting with them, reading a NEWSPAPER. MASTER MIND (reading paper) Oh, for heaven's sake. I can't believe it. He misspelled his name. Master Mind holds up the newspaper. The headline reads "Metro's New Hero: Tighten." MASTER MIND (CONT'D) No matter, I suppose. Master Mind throws the paper on the floor and begins to pace around the room with his arms folded behind his back. MASTER MIND (CONT'D) We've now fully established Titan as Metro City's hero. They will love him just as they loved Uberman. Everything is going according to plan. Einstein leans over and whispers in Plato's ear. EINSTEIN (whispering) Yeah, if the plan is getting us in jail. Master Mind turns around, facing Einstein. He walks over, standing face to face with the rebellious henchmen. 60. MASTER MIND You know, Einstein, maybe I should have called you Socrates. He also didn't know when to keep his thoughts to himself. EINSTEIN I just fail to see the point in all of this. I mean, why are we creating another superhero when it was such a pain in the ass for you to get rid of the other one? I mean, Uberman is destroyed, we should be using this opportunity to...to... MASTER MIND To what? EINSTEIN I don't know. To take over the weather, space, the world - whatever super villains are SUPPOSED to do. MASTER MIND The reason someone like you will always be a minion is because you have no foresight. We take over the earth, like you said. Then what? Women? Cars? Money? Even the grandest treasures will lose their lustre if you don't have someone to hold them over. Einstein throws up his hands. He's had enough. He pulls off his wig and throws it to the floor. EINSTEIN That's it! This balance of the force bullshit is getting way too Oprah for me. I'm blowing. Who's with me? MASTER MIND You dare? EINSTEIN Yeah, I dare. I'm sick of wearing stupid costumes, and I'm sick of working for a super villain who's turning into a softie. 61. Plato and Da Vinci's mouths drop to the floor. They turn to Master Mind for his rebuttal. MASTER MIND What - did - you - call me? EINSTEIN You heard me. You used to be an inhuman monster, now look at you. You're creating super heroes, you don't go with us on robberies anymore, it's been days since you threatened anyone, oh, and not to mention this Roxanne Ritchi thing. MASTER MIND THAT is none of your business, knave! EINSTEIN Hey, you guys haven't sealed the deal yet, have you? MASTER MIND Silence! EINSTEIN (In a woman's voice) Oh, Master, your head is so big. MASTER MIND I'm warning you, Einstein. EINSTEIN (In a woman's voice) Take me! MASTER MIND I said silence! With his metal gauntlet Master Mind grabs Einstein by the throat and lifts him into the air. Einstein looks frightened as he tries to pry himself free of Master Mind's grip. Master Mind's eyes soften as if his heart is suddenly not into what he's about to do. He let's Einstein drop to the floor. MASTER MIND (CONT'D) Get out of my sight. 62. EXT. RESTAURANT - NIGHT Roxanne and John Cusack are eating on the outside patio of a fancy restaurant. ROXANNE Don't get me wrong, I love being a reporter. I don't think I could do anything else. It's the consequences of what we do that I'm having a problem with. He listens intently as he refills her glass with wine. "JOHN CUSACK" That's where journalistic responsibility comes in, no? ROXANNE It's supposed to. "JOHN CUSACK" Sounds to me like you're running from something. ROXANNE I got someone I cared about killed. If it wasn't for me, he wouldn't have been involved. John suddenly gets a disturbed look in his eye, realizing what she's talking about. He reaches across the table and takes her hand. "JOHN CUSACK" You can't blame yourself. My father used to say each of us must answer the great call to truly feel alive. ROXANNE Was he an actor? "JOHN CUSACK" ...No. He was...a landscaper. And a horrible one. I mean he would fail time and time again at his...landscaping. And sometimes he'd get pretty beaten up or thrown in jail - ROXANNE Jail? 63. "JOHN CUSACK" My point is he took the good with the bad. He grew a little each time. Improved, learned. ROXANNE Was he ever successful? "JOHN CUSACK" God, no...but don't let deter you. Roxanne LAUGHS. ROXANNE Thanks for this. You know, this is embarrassing, but it's been a long time since I - It's starting to lightly sprinkle. Roxanne looks up. ROXANNE (CONT'D) I think it's starting to rain. We might want to find a table inside. "JOHN CUSACK" What were you gonna say? ROXANNE Oh, I was gonna say...It's been a long time since...well, I've been with someone I...enjoy being with. John Cusack smiles warmly and raises his glass for a toast. "JOHN CUSACK" To people who enjoy being with each other. They go to clang glasses, when the rain suddenly causes John Cusack's disguise generator to short. His true form of Master Mind is briefly revealed to Roxanne as a BOLT OF ELECTRICITY encircles his body. Roxanne drops her glass and jumps out of her seat. MASTER MIND (CONT'D) Oh, no. Don't look at me. LIKE A BROKEN TV the image keeps switching between MASTER MIND AND JOHN CUSACK. 64. As Master Mind starts to franticly slap at his watch, the Cusack disguise begins to hold steady. He nonchalantly returns to cutting his steak. "JOHN CUSACK" Okay, never mind that. Now, where were we? Roxanne grabs his glass and throws the drink in his face, causing the generator to short out permanently. Master Mind now sits in his true blue form. ROXANNE Oh my God. MASTER MIND You're not gonna get all freaky about this, are you? ROXANNE This...this is too much, even for you. God, I go out with you, tell you my innermost thoughts. MASTER MIND I only did this because I wanted to talk to you on the same level. You know, without all the baggage? ROXANNE Baggage? You burned my boyfriend alive, you sick son-of-a-bitch! MASTER MIND You see, that's exactly what I'm talking about. Roxanne starts to walk away. MASTER MIND (CONT'D) Roxanne! ROXANNE Stay away from me. Master Mind sinks back down to his chair. Despite the now heavy rain bombarding him, he returns to his food. Several resturaunt patron's are looking at him through the window. 65. Our villain turns to them, giving them a villainous glare. MASTER MIND What? INT. MASTER MIND'S BEDROOM - NIGHT Master Mind is lying on his back, wide awake. MASTER MIND (mumbling to himself) Stupid. What was I thinking? Plato, it's his fault. He's the one who sent me on this weak-willed path. I'll filet his scrotum for this. Me, a creature of evil, in love with Roxanne Ritchi. Preposterous. I hardly give such matters thought He rolls onto his side. He yawns and closes his eyes. Suddenly, they shoot back open. CUT TO: EXT. ROXANNE'S APARTMENT - NIGHT Master Mind pulls up in a blue Rolls Royce, across the street from Roxanne's apartment He stares up at the building, hoping to catch a glimpse of her. Finally, she appears, primping her hair in her apartment window's reflection. MASTER MIND I should just go up there and just lay it all out to her. "Roxanne, I like you - I always have. Oh, and I'm sorry I blew up your ex. (realizing the absurdity of his words) Yeah, that would go over like a pants-less clown at a child's birthday party. What the hell am I even doing here? Who cares what she thinks? I'm a supervillain and here I am acting like a love struck schoolboy. Forget this. I control my own destiny! 66. He turns the ignition key - NOTHING HAPPENS. He repeats but gets the same results. MASTER MIND (CONT'D) (disgusted) Perfect. INT. ROXANNE'S APARTMENT - NIGHT She pulls a pack of smokes off her night stand. Empty. ROXANNE Damn. She grabs her long coat and throws it over her robe. EXT. ROXANNE'S APARTMENT BUILDING Roxanne steps outside. ROXANNE Please be open. Across the street is a liquor store. The light is still on. ROXANNE (CONT'D) Thank God. She walks across the street, passing in front of Master Mind's car. Spotting her, he sinks down in his seat. Roxanne walks by, totally unaware of his presence. Relieved, Master Mind sits back up and watches her go into the store. INT. LIQUOR STORE - NIGHT Roxanne walks up to an elderly Korean SHOPKEEPER at the counter. ROXANNE A pack of Lady Strikes, please. EXT. MASTER MIND'S CAR - NIGHT Master Mind is talking on his cell phone. MASTER MIND Hello, Triple A? 67. He suddenly spots something across the street. EXT. LIQUOR STORE - NIGHT A HOODLUM walks up to the entrance of the store and pulls out a gun from under his coat. EXT. MASTER MIND'S CAR - NIGHT Master Mind stares in shock. MASTER MIND I'll call you back. He hangs up the phone and watches the Hoodlum go inside the store. INT. LIQUOR STORE - NIGHT The Hoodlum reaches across the counter and grabs a fist full of cash from the register. SHOPKEEPER Hey! SHOTGUN HOODLUM Shut up, Gramps. He turns to Roxanne, spotting a GOLD NECKLACE around her neck. SHOTGUN HOODLUM (CONT'D) Gimme that necklace! ROXANNE I don't think so. The Hoodlum cocks his shotgun. SHOTGUN HOODLUM I said give it to me! MASTER MIND (O.S.) The lady said no. The hoodlum turns around to see Master Mind in the doorway holding a STRANGE-LOOKING HAND CANNON (GOO GUN) with knobs and blinking lights. The hoodlum starts to laugh. 68. SHOTGUN HOODLUM What the hell's that? A super soaker? MASTER MIND No, it's a goo gun. The hoodlum turns his gun to Master Mind. SHOTGUN HOODLUM Yeah, what's it do? MASTER MIND It goos. Master Mind fires the cannon. It instantly covers the store in a cloud of SMOKE. The smoke clears to reveal the hoodlum STUCK TO THE WALL, covered in a thick, GREEN GUNK. Roxanne stares at him, dumbfounded. MASTER MIND (CONT'D) It's...a prototype. Master Mind starts to walk out when he's suddenly confronted by the shopkeeper. SHOPKEEPER I know you! You Master Brain guy. You a hero. Master Mind points the goo gun at him. MASTER MIND Don't - EVER - say that again. EXT. LIQUOR STORE - NIGHT Master Mind walks out with the cannon resting on his shoulder like he's a short timer in Da Nang. Roxanne follows shortly behind him. ROXANNE Hey! Master Mind turns around. ROXANNE (CONT'D) Are you following me or something? 69. MASTER MIND Don't flatter yourself. He turns away and continues walking. Roxanne runs in front of him blocking his way. ROXANNE Don't walk away from me when I'm talking to you. Finally it occurs to her what's going on. ROXANNE (CONT'D) What a minute...all that stuff you use to say to me when Uberman was alive - about me being the loyal queen by your side as you rule over Metro City. That wasn't just super villain rhetoric, was it? You actually meant it! MASTER MIND My, someone has a rather high opinion of themselves. They stare at each other in silence, their glares locked in conflict. ROXANNE (coldly) Do you really think I would be with someone like you? This stings Master Mind to the bone. And after a brief contemplation, he reaches the only logical, painful conclusion. MASTER MIND No. With that, Master Mind exits into the night, leaving Roxanne with a baffled expression on her face. INT. ABANDONED METRO CITY LIBRARY - NIGHT Master Mind enters in a huff. Da Vinci closes the door behind him as Plato notices his master's agitated state. PLATO Everything alright, sir? Master Mind GRABS PLATO BY THE GROIN with his metal gauntlet causing Plato's eyes to bulge in pain. 70. MASTER MIND (overly calm) Fine, why do you ask? PLATO You...just...seem... Master Mind tightens his grip. MASTER MIND Go on. PLATO ...distracted. Master Mind releases him. MASTER MIND Just with business, my minion. Just with business. I've decided it is time. PLATO You mean? MASTER MIND Yes, we've created our hero, now it's time to give him a little motivation. DA VINCI How do we do that? MASTER MIND To be simply good is not enough. A hero must be driven by an almost relentless desire to right a wrong that can never be corrected. PLATO You mean? MASTER MIND Yes, he must lose someone near and dear to him - his father figure. Gentlemen, it's time for Operation Mentor Kill! EXT. SKY OVER METRO CITY - DAY Titan flies high over and through the city, under bridges, between buildings, etc. He's not really working, just enjoying himself. 71. INT. WOMAN'S APARTMENT - NIGHT A PRETTY WOMAN sits at her makeup table wearing nothing but her bra and panties. Through the reflection in her mirror we see a large window directly behind her. As she applies lipstick we see Titan fly quickly by in the background. After a moment he slowly slides back in view and begins ogling the girl. She sees him in the mirror and quickly covers herself with a robe. Titan tries to hide his face as he zooms off. MOMENTS LATER Titan looks down to see an APARTMENT BUILDING IN RUIN. Emergency lights flash around it as swarms of people run around in chaos. TITAN Man, what the hell happened down there? Wait a sec - He stops in mid-air as he comes to the striking realization. TITAN (CONT'D) THAT'S MY APARTMENT!!! EXT. HAL'S APARTMENT BUILDING - DAY Titan lands in front of the rubble that was once his home. Reporters stand just beyond the police line. TITAN Crap. From the wreckage crawls a dying Pat Morita. TITAN (CONT'D) PAT! Titan goes and kneels beside Pat, holding him in his arms. TITAN (CONT'D) You okay? "PAT MORITA" I'm dying, kid. There is just one last lesson I have for you. It is the most important of all. 72. TITAN What's that? "PAT MORITA" Master Mind did this, you must avenge me. TITAN Master Mind? Why? "PAT MORITA" Because he's evil. You must stop the evil Hal - stop the... Pat's body goes limp. The cameras begin to pop and flash around them. Titan gently lays Pat's body down and stands respectfully over him. The reporters rush over. REPORTER 1 Tighten, Is this the work of Master Mind? REPORTER 2 How will the death of your mentor affect your resolve? REPORTER 3 Was that Pat Morita? Titan walks up to one of the cameras. TITAN This injustice will not go unpunished. Master Mind, if you can hear me, Tighten is coming for you. In the background we see Plato and Da Vinci, DRESSED AS PARAMEDICS, load pat's body onto a stretcher. PLATO ACCIDENTALLY DROPS HIS SIDE. As he bends down to pick it back up, Pat quickly slaps him, then goes back to playing dead. INT. ABANDONED METRO CITY LIBRARY - NIGHT Master Mind and the boys prepare the fortress for Hal's revenge attack. Master Mind is as giddy as a schoolboy. 73. MASTER MIND Alright, people, we don't have much time. Titan should be here any minute, so let's get the lead out. There is a GIANT MOUNTED DEATH RAY in the middle of the hall being tinkered with by Da Vinci. MASTER MIND (CONT'D) How's the death ray coming? DA VINCI Nearly up to full power, sir. MASTER MIND Hum. Let's turn it down a few notches. It's his first time and we don't want to get in a lucky shot, now do we? Plato enters the room. MASTER MIND (CONT'D) Anything on the radar yet? PLATO Not yet, sir. MASTER MIND I see. Well, he must be planning something big. Are the flame androids deployed? PLATO All twelve. Master Mind rubs his hands in anticipation as he sits down on his throne. MASTER MIND Wonderful, wonderful. Plato, Da Vinci, take your places next to me. They move to either side of the chair. MASTER MIND (CONT'D) No slouching. Da Vinci straightens up and sucks in his gut. They remain this way for several long moments. Master Mind occasionally glances at a DIGITAL CLOCK on the wall. Still no Titan. 74. LATER Apparently quite some time has passed. The bold stances have degraded to fatigue. PLATO He's certainly taking his time. MASTER MIND He'll be here. That's the way it works. STILL LATER Master Mind reclines in his chair and taps his metal gauntlet impatiently on the armrest. Plato has squatted down, resting his chin on his hand. MASTER MIND (CONT'D) Unprofessional, that's what this is. No, it's disrespect for the craft. Master Mind rises and begins to pace back and forth. MASTER MIND (CONT'D) Would Uberman have kept us waiting like this? Of course not. He was a pro who knew the score. It's time we spelled out a few things for this Titan. I will not be made a fool of. He storms out of the room. INT. HAL'S NEW APARTMENT - DAY Titan's sitting on the floor in a barren apartment wearing his costume top and some tighty whities. He sips his beer as he watches a basketball game on a tiny TV. Much to his annoyance, there's a KNOCK at the door. TITAN Oh, for crying out loud. He gets up and opens the door. It's Master Mind. MASTER MIND Do you know who I am? 75. It takes a few moments to register, but Titan's suddenly excited. TITAN Yeah, you're Master Mind. Yeah! You're actually the guy I want to see! MASTER MIND Oh, so NOW you want to get down to it. Well, I want to get a few things off my chest first. Master Mind walks past Titan into the apartment. He spins around, pointing at him accusingly with one of his metal fingers. MASTER MIND (CONT'D) Of all the inconsiderate - Do you have any idea how long we waited for you? We're you even planning on coming to me and getting revenge? Titan shuts the apartment door, and turns back toward his guest. TITAN Well, at first I was going to. You know, because that's what I figured I was supposed to do. But then I got to thinking- MASTER MIND (interrupting) -You got to thinking? There's nothing to think about. I'm the villain. I do something bad, you come and get me. TITAN - I got to thinking...what's the point? Master Mind throws up his hands. MASTER MIND Maybe you're right. What's the point? He suddenly notices something in the corner of his eye. He walks over to a futon in the living room. On top of it is a LARGE SACK OVERFLOWING WITH GOLD WATCHES,RINGS AND OTHER VALUABLES. 76. MASTER MIND (CONT'D) What are these? TITAN That's what I wanted to talk to you about. MASTER MIND (baffled) Where did you get all this? TITAN (proudly) Get this: I stole them. MASTER MIND From where? TITAN From all over. You see, once you killed Pat and ruined my other apartment building I was pretty pissed off, so I figured I'd go, find you and kick some ass. Then I thought to myself: "Okay,then what?" I mean, if we were to fight, what would I get out of it? Would I get my apartment back? Would I be able to pay the bills? MASTER MIND Well, what about your mentor? TITAN Tell you the truth? He was kind of a dick. I mean, being a hero is dandy and all, but it's volunteer work. Now you've always had the right take on all this. I mean, when you rob a bank or take over the diamond exchange you get something out of it. I mean, when you don't get caught, which, no offense, isn't very often. And that brings me to what I wanted to propose to you: Who could catch you if I'm by your side? Perplexed by his proposal, Master Mind just stares at Titan awe-struck. MASTER MIND You want to team-up? 77. TITAN You got the brains, I got the brawn. We could even call ourselves that: `Brain' and `Brawn'. Look at this. Titan picks up a piece of POSTER BOARD off the floor and shows it to Master Mind. TITAN (CONT'D) I even designed us some new costumes. The picture is crudely drawn with magic markers and crayons. A big headed man (Master Mind) is standing on a plate of grass in a blue costume with a picture of a brain on his chest. Next to him, is a picture of Titan in a red costume with a black cape, but his chest is mysteriously blank. Titan proudly points to the two figures. TITAN (CONT'D) See, you'd be brain, so you got a little one on your costume, and then I'll have brawn on mine...once I figure out the best, you know, visual interpretation of it. What do you think? MASTER MIND What do I think? Master Mind shakes his head tiredly. MASTER MIND (CONT'D) I think you're probably the biggest idiot I've ever met. I mean, I can't believe you. All your gifts, all your powers, and all you want to use them for is your own financial fulfillment. You know what? Your kind of people make me sick. Titan puts down his drawing. TITAN I worked hard on this. MASTER MIND Oh - gee - I am so sorry! 78. Master Mind looks to Heaven in disgust. MASTER MIND (CONT'D) (under his breath) Of all the people to pick, it had to be this loser. This strikes a cord with Titan. TITAN Now, hold on. You're going a little too far. MASTER MIND I wish your mother said that to your father the night of your conception, they would have saved me a whole lot of heartache. TITAN Hey, I mean it. Master Mind gets right in his face. MASTER MIND Oh, yeah? What are you gonna do? EXT. HAL'S APARTMENT BUILDING - DAY We see Master Mind's body CRASH through the building and land in a DUMPSTER across the street. A car pulls up. The driver's door opens. Da Vinci gets out and runs to help his master. DA VINCI Master! MASTER MIND (O.S.) It hurts. Da Vinci peeks into the dumpster to see Master Mind's body cushioned by a stack of trash bags. DA VINCI What hurts? MASTER MIND It! The overly large henchmen starts to pull his master from the dumpster when they suddenly hear a voice from above. It's Titan peeking through the hole in his apartment wall. 79. TITAN I don't need you, I don't need anybody. I have the power to do and take anything I want. And now, I'm gonna take back everything this city owes me. Beware Metro City, it's time for Titan to collect. Titan shoots up into the air. TITAN (CONT'D) Oh, and from now on - I'M GONNA FLY THE WAY I WANT TO FLY! He takes a sitting position and flies away as if he were piloting an invisible jet. Master Mind climbs out of the dumpster and watches Titan disappear into the distance. DA VINCI How'd the plan go, boss? MASTER MIND I just made myself redundant, old friend. Da Vinci gives Master Mind a whiff. DA VINCI It's not that bad. INT. BANK - DAY Titan, with a happy bounce in his step, enters the bank. The last time he was here he thwarted a robbery. He looks nostalgic. A SECURITY GUARD shyly walks up to him like a kid meeting his TV idol. SECURITY GUARD Morning, Tighten. TITAN Morning. SECURITY GUARD Is there something we can do for you? 80. TITAN Oh, don't bother about me. I'm just here to make a withdrawal. Titan walks across the lobby, drawing stares of admiration from all. A little girl waves to him sweetly. He gives her a good- natured WINK as he heads straight for the vault. The security guard watches him enter and come out with a SACK OF CASH. Sure he must be misunderstanding what's going on, the security guard just stares at Titan as he passes by and out the door. The bank manager comes over to the guard. BANK MANAGER Say, did he just rob us? SECURITY GUARD Not sure. Sort of looks it, don't it? BANK MANAGER Yeah. SECURITY GUARD Should I, you know, stop him? BANK MANAGER Umm...Yeah. As the security guard exits the bank, the manager stares out the window. His eyes suddenly grow wide with terror. The guard's body suddenly smashes through the window, landing at the startled bank manager's feet. BANK MANAGER (CONT'D) (looking down at the guard) He did rob us, didn't he? CUT TO: TELEVISION "A Channel 7 News Special Report." Brad Helms wipes into view. 81. BRAD HELMS "Absolute power corrupts absolutely." When Lord Acton stated that, in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton in 1887, no one thought much about it, but today Metro City is reeling from that very prophecy. Tighten, who many thought of as our savior, has turned his back on the cause of justice. CUT TO: TITAN BEING EVIL - MONTAGE EXT. DIAMOND EXCHANGE - DAY Titan flies through the window of the building. He emerges seconds later laughing with his shirt full of booty. EXT. CITY STREET - DAY A woman screams from the window of a BURNING BUILDING. Titan flies up to her, grabs her fur coat and zooms off again, leaving the woman behind, slightly confused. EXT. OUTSIDE MARKET - DAY Titan steals a little boy's lollipop and gooses his mother. EXT. CITY STREET - DAY Dozens of people run through the streets apparently to get out of a downpour. We cut to the top of a building and see Titan ZIPPING UP HIS PANTS and laughing. INT. ABANDONED METRO CITY LIBRARY - NIGHT Master Mind paces back and forth in front of Plato and Da Vinci. PLATO I don't understand it. He seemed to have every characteristic we were looking for in a superhero. MASTER MIND Well, there's no use crying about it now, we must take action. I'm not going to play second fiddle to that crass buffoon. We must destroy Tighten. 82. PLATO It won't be easy. Uberman had a sense of decency and genuine love for the people. That was his weakness and was easily used against him. MASTER MIND Yes, but he possesses the same flaws present in Uberman's DNA - copper. It's like Benjamin Franklin always said: "If something works don't dick with it." EXT. BAR - DAY It looks like a war zone passed through here. Smashed police cars and debris lay everywhere. This seems to be the only building left untouched. INT. BAR - DAY A very tipsy Titan is sitting at the bar, looking deep into the bottom of his beer glass for answers. TITAN I can have anything I want. I'm like a god. The BARTENDER just listens as he wipes down a glass with a dirty rag. TITAN Point to any woman in this bar. I could have her in a second. He follows the bartender's gaze to THE ONLY OTHER PERSON THERE - A passed out, MIDDLE AGED HAG OF A BARFLY. TITAN (to Old Barfly) Hey, you wanna get with this? BARTENDER Buddy, what do you want? Titan carefully considers this for a moment. TITAN What do you want? That's the question, isn't it. I mean, what do you want when you can have everything? (MORE) 83. TITAN(cont'd) I suppose what I really want is to never be forgotten again. I want to do something that can never be cast aside or one-upped. I want a - what's it called? - A legacy. I want a legacy. Yeah, that's it. I like the sound that. BARTENDER I meant, what do you want to drink? TITAN Oh. EXT. BAR - LATER Titan stumbles out of the bar, carrying a large sack of money. MASTER MIND (O.S.) Your time has come to an end, Titan! He looks up to see Master Mind suddenly standing before him. TITAN What? MASTER MIND There can be only one master criminal in this city - and it's me. TITAN Really? Titan melodramatically throws up his arms. TITAN (CONT'D) I guess I should leave town then, huh? MASTER MIND I have a better idea - NOW! Two floors up Da Vinci releases a rope. A COPPER CAGE, like the one that caged Uberman, drops down on top of Titan. Titan nonchalantly surveys the cage. He walks to the bars, tries to pull them apart but can't. MASTER MIND (CONT'D) That's copper my good man. Your one weakness. (MORE) 84. MASTER MIND(cont'd) For all your amazing gifts of brawn you are no match for my intellect. Titan thinks for a moment. Suddenly, he starts to SPIN like a human top, DRILLING HIMSELF INTO THE STREET BELOW. As he disappears beneath the surface, we see a shocked look on Master Mind's face until Titan suddenly explodes out from under the street in front of him. Master Mind stares up at him, dumbfounded. Titan makes like he's going to strike him down, but stops. TITAN You know what? You're nothing but a bug. Not even worth my effort. He turns his back to Master Mind and continues down the street. Plato makes his way from the shadows to join his master. They watch Titan shrink into the distance. MASTER MIND He's not as dumb as I thought. PLATO I guess not...Funny, though. MASTER MIND What's funny? PLATO Funny Uberman didn't think of the same thing. EXT. HIGH ABOVE METRO CITY - DAY As Titan flies, he looks down at the rooftops of the city below. Suddenly, something catches his attention. HAL That's it! He stops, hovering in place as he looks down below. The buildings, which make up the heart of downtown Metro, are in a PERFECT TRIANGLE with a long strip of street leading up to it. It sorta looks like a bowling lane. 85. HAL Hello, Legacy. EXT. KINGPIN BOWLING - DAY Vinnie and his goons come running out as the hear a COMMOTION. They look up to see Titan ripping off THE GIANT BOWLING BALL from the top of the establishment. VINNIE Hey, that's my ball! INT. ROXANNE'S APARTMENT BUILDING - DAY Roxanne enters the building's elevator. Just before the door closes an ELDERLY WOMAN slides in. ELDERLY WOMAN That was a close one. Sixth floor, please. Roxanne smiles and goes to press the button. The elderly woman suddenly pulls out a SPRAY CAN, shooting a MYSTERIOUS-LOOKING MIST into Roxanne's face. She falls to the floor unconscious. INT. ROXANNE'S APARTMENT - DAY Roxanne awakens, finding herself tied to a chair in her living room. We hear NOISE from a TV in the background as she tries to adjust her vision. Slowly, the blurry figure before her becomes clear. It's Master Mind. He sits on her Lazy-Boy, reading what looks to be some kind of JOURNAL. MASTER MIND Wow, I always thought Uberman was your first superhero - but it looks like our little Roxanne dated a linebacker in college. ROXANNE That's my diary. MASTER MIND So it is. 86. ROXANNE It's personal. MASTER MIND Well, then I wouldn't leave it in your underwear drawer for just anyone to find. He throws the diary over his shoulder. ROXANNE What do you want? MASTER MIND I need your help. ROXANNE So you knock me out and tie me to a chair? MASTER MIND You're not going to like what I'm about to tell you. As she tries to shake off her headache from being knocked unconscious, Roxanne spots something on the TV. ON TELEVISION Brad Helms is huddled behind a van. BRAD HELMS It's chaos here in city square as city police - Behind him, Titan picks up a POLICE CAR and throws it at a PADDY WAGON. Both vehicles EXPLODE on impact. BACK TO SCENE ROXANNE He's really out of control. MASTER MIND Tell me about it. As if finally realizing something, Roxanne looks back at Master Mind. ROXANNE I should have known. You have something to do with this, don't you? - With Titan turning evil. 87. MASTER MIND Well, the evil thing he did by himself. My goal was to give MYSELF purpose by creating an intellectual sparring partner. ROXANNE (confused) You're talking like you made him. MASTER MIND And they call me Master Mind. ROXANNE Let me get this straight. You missed getting your ass kicked, so you made a new guy to kick your ass. That's pathetic. MASTER MIND In hindsight... Roxanne turns back to the TV to see a group of POLICE OFFICERS open fire on Titan. The bullets just deflect off his chest. ROXANNE And his powers, they're just like Uberman's. Why would he have his powers? MASTER MIND (almost ashamed) I had some left over from something. I infused him with it. ROXANNE YOU DID WHAT!? Driven by rage, she struggles to tear out of her bonds. She finally relents, giving Master Mind a look fueled by pure hatred. MASTER MIND Yeah, that's why I decided to tie you up. ROXANNE You did all this because you wanted purpose? MASTER MIND He seemed nice. 88. TELEVISION Titan is standing on top of a destroyed police car. He waves for the camera to zoom in on him. TITAN Closer. I want to show the people my real face. He pulls off his mask, revealing himself as Hal Stewart to the public for the first time. TITAN (CONT'D) Recognize me? BACK TO SCENE ROXANNE Hal Stewart. He's the guy we thought saved that woman and kid. Turned out he was just trying to save his own ass. MASTER MIND Yeah, good to know - NOW! TELEVISION Titan throws the mask over this shoulder and hops off the car. TITAN That's right, I'm really Hal Stewart. Former hero and bowling teacher at Kingpin's Bowling. BACK TO SCENE Roxanne turns to Master Mind, condescending him with her eyes. ROXANNE You picked a bowler to give super powers to? MASTER MIND It's a modest profession! TELEVISION 89. TITAN With my new found power, I've recently started to wonder what sort of legacy I should leave. Should I be a hero? I tried that once before - even saved a lady and her baby from being squashed. I was treated like a god until everyone started to shit on me - Okay, so what if I didn't "purposely" save them! He walks over and puts his hand on a large circular concrete shape just off camera. TITAN Well, I'm going to make something that can't be taken away from me. I'm going to create a permanent monument to my greatness. One that won't be so easily forgotten or erased. The camera pulls back revealing THE GIANT CONCRETE BOWLING BALL from Kingpin's. TITAN I intend to create a new category in the Guinness Book of World's Records by rolling the biggest strike in the history of bowling. He grabs the camera and points it to the DOWNTOWN BUILDINGS. We realize they are PERFECTLY ALIGNED IN BOWLING PIN FORMATION. TITAN My thanks to the city planning commission. This wouldn't have been possible without them. Titan grabs the camera so it's pointing back at him again. TITAN Tell your friends and family to tune in right here to this station at noon tomorrow. BACK TO SCENE ROXANNE My god, he's nuts. That'll destroy the whole business triangle. 90. Master Mind seems to be contemplating something - something bad. ROXANNE What? MASTER MIND My lair is in the direct path of the ball. ROXANNE Oh, real nice. Wouldn't want anything to happen to your hideout, would we? MASTER MIND You don't understand. I have certain equipment that's - that's highly unstable. ROXANNE What do you mean? MASTER MIND I sort of have a hydrogen reactor, okay? ROXANNE A HYDROGEN reactor? MASTER MIND It's experimental - only one in the world...Well, how do you think I power all my inventions? Someone like me can't pay for electricity. The bills would be outrageous. ROXANNE A REACTOR? MASTER MIND It creates 100 times the output of a nuclear one...If destroyed it could... ROXANNE - Vaporize the entire city! MASTER MIND (proudly) Pshaw...the whole eastern seaboard, actually. That little baby is amazing. I'm quite proud of it. (MORE) 91. MASTER MIND(cont'd) (off her deadpan reaction) I mean...we'd better find a way to stop him. Master Mind thinks a moment. MASTER MIND Did Uberman have a hideout? ROXANNE What? MASTER MIND A cave, a solitary fortress of some kind. C'mon, all heros have a place to hang their capes up in. Roxanne, it may be our only chance to find something, a clue, anything that could give us a fighting chance. ROXANNE It's under his house. MASTER MIND Whose house? Roxanne can hardly believe what she's telling him. ROXANNE Wayne Scott's. Master Mind shoots up out of his chair. MASTER MIND Wayne Scott? Uberman was Wayne Scott!? Wayne Scott, the wealthy philanthropist? But he disappeared - ROXANNE (interrupting) He disappeared just over two months ago when you killed him. Not only did you rid the world of a hero, you killed a kind, noble, generous man. Perhaps ashamed, the super villain hangs his head. Master Mind walks behind Roxanne and undoes her bonds. Rubbing her wrists, she watches him as he walks over to the door. 92. ROXANNE (CONT'D) Looks like you got what you always wanted. Uberman is out of the picture and Metro City is doomed. He grabs the door knob and stops, considering her words. MASTER MIND "Metro City doomed." You know, I never thought I'd say something like this, but here it goes - He slowly turns to her, CUE HEROIC MUSIC. MASTER MIND (CONT'D) Not if I have anything to say about it. EXT. WAYNE SCOTT'S MANSION - NIGHT Master Mind stands before the huge, Gothic structure in awe. MASTER MIND Such a dark place for one such as you. I wonder, underneath your noble deeds, what inner demons drove you to your endless crusade for justice? He walks to the front entrance. The double doors have been sealed shut with boards and nails. Master Mind begins to tear them off with his metal hand. INT. WAYNE SCOTT'S MANSION - NIGHT The doors opens. A beam of moonlight immediately pierces the darkness, forming an illuminated path into the heart of the manor. Master Mind enters. Covered in dust and cobwebs, the hall looks like a gigantic crypt. MASTER MIND Good lord, man. You've only been dead for two months. Master Mind walks, coming to a gigantic painted PORTRAIT OF WAYNE SCOTT. He stops to reverently admire the image of his fallen foe. 93. MASTER MIND (CONT'D) A disguise so simple, it's ingenious. No wonder I never caught on. Besides the Armani suit, there's nothing to hide the fact that this is the same person as Uberman. In the picture, he's even standing in the same cheesy, heroic pose with his fists on his hips. MASTER MIND (CONT'D) Two lives, yet in both you were an ideal. Perhaps it was you who was victorious in the end, old friend. A BONGING sound suddenly bellows through the dark halls. Master Mind comes to a grandfather clock standing next to a gigantic BOOKCASE. On the twelfth bong it falls silent. Master Mind begins to slide it across the floor until he hears a loud CLICK. The bookcase slides into the wall, REVEALING A HIDDEN PASSAGE. MASTER MIND (CONT'D) I'll miss how predictable you were. The passage way leads Master Mind to a WORKING ESCALATOR. Master Mind gets off the escalator to see a long hallway with stone walls. He begins to hear strange SOUNDS, almost like MUFFLED SCREAMS, coming from a doorway at the end of the hallway. Master Mind starts walking towards it. As he steps closer, he begins to notice a light cracking through the bottom of the door. MASTER MIND (CONT'D) Hello? Anyone here...besides..all the BIG MEN who are with me now? Nothing. MASTER MIND (CONT'D) (to himself) What's the worst you're gonna find? (MORE) 94. MASTER MIND(cont'd) The man was a boy scout, not a serial killer. He opens the door to his immediate amazement. It's some kind of screening room. A PROJECTOR shoots an image onto A DIRTY WHITE SCREEN hanging on the wall. BEER CANS litter the floor; a table in front of a ripped-up couch is covered in discarded snack goods; and a Kiss Pinball machine stands in the far corner next to a CLOSED DOOR. Master Mind turns his attention to the action on the screen. SCREEN A woman dressed in a leather DOMINATRIX OUTFIT is whipping an overweight man lying on a swing-like device with his butt sticking out. DOMINATRIX IN FILM YOU ARE A WORM! She whips him three times. The man CRIES out in pain. FAT MAN IN FILM PINEAPPLE!!! PINEAPPLE!!! Master Mind's eyes are transfixed on the disturbing imagery. The door by the pinball machine suddenly swings open. WAYNE SCOTT, dressed in raggedy sweats, steps into the room carrying a CAN OF BEER and a bowl of JIFFY-POP. Master Mind cannot believe his horrified eyes. MASTER MIND Ahhhhhh! Wayne Scott is just as startled. WAYNE SCOTT Jesus! He drop his drink and snack to the floor. The two men stare at each other as they struggle to regain their normal breathing patterns. Wayne Scott walks over to the couch, brushes off a thick layer of chip crumbs, and sits down. WAYNE SCOTT (CONT'D) What the hell are you doing here? 95. MASTER MIND I might just ask you the same question. I had thought I incinerated you. WAYNE SCOTT You scared the bejesus out of me. How'd you figure out I was still alive? Wait, how do you know my identity!? MASTER MIND Roxanne told me. As for your ruse, I forgot to line the bottom of the copper cage - Somebody pointed that out to me recently. Figured if they could do it, so could you. But one thing I couldn't figure out - WAYNE SCOTT The skeleton? Something I "borrowed" from a medical school a few months before. MASTER MIND A few months? How long had you been planning this? WAYNE SCOTT I always planned to retire - eventually. I mean, come on, you can't do this sort of thing in your fifties. You'd just look ridiculous. The pieces of the puzzle appear to be coming together in Master Mind's head. MASTER MIND I see it all so clearly now. INT. MASTER MIND'S HYDROFOIL - FLASHBACK Master Mind and his minions cover their eyes as the observatory explodes. MASTER MIND (CONT'D - V.O.) You must have done it just seconds before the observatory exploded. 96. INT. OBSERVATORY - FLASHBACK Similar to what Titan did, Uberman bores out from under the cage. MASTER MIND (CONT'D - V.O.) You bore out from under the cage. Then, using your Uber-Speed, - EXT. OBSERVATORY - FLASHBACK Running in a blur-like haze, Uberman screeches to a halt in front of some bushes. MASTER MIND (CONT'D - V.O.) - you made your way to safety, where you had the skeleton safely hidden away somewhere. EXT OBSERVATORY - SKY - DAY Uberman soars high above the clouds. He looks down at the observatory, which is a mere speck in the distance. MASTER MIND (CONT'D - V.O) (CONT'D) Then you must have flown to a safe distance and waited for the explosion, then... Just as the observatory explodes Uberman aims and throws the SKELETON like a javelin. It soars through the air like a missile, tearing through the flames of the explosion, and crashing right into the windshield of Master Mind's hydrofoil. END OF FLASHBACK Wayne stares at Master Mind, clearly impressed. WAYNE Man, you ARE smart. MASTER MIND But why fake your death? Why go through all of it? You could have just quit. WAYNE SCOTT But the responsibility would still be there. (MORE) 97. WAYNE SCOTT(cont'd) A cop can retire and stop handing out speeding tickets - but people expect more from superheroes. I tell you, a volcano couldn't erupt in Zimbabwe without everyone expecting me to do something about it. I figured, out of sight, out of mind. MASTER MIND And Wayne Scott? Why did he have to disappear? WAYNE SCOTT Both of my lives have so much baggage. It's time for new baggage, you know? Master Mind's is absolutely flabbergasted. MASTER MIND I just can't believe it. This whole time you've been in hiding while a force of great evil is tearing your city apart? Wayne rises to his feet, waving his hands for Master Mind to say no more. WAYNE SCOTT I don't want to hear about it. That's why I don't have a television in here to remind me of all the things I SHOULD be doing. Hell, I could get a wife to do that. MASTER MIND There's a demented supervillain out there about to destroy our - I mean, your city. Wayne shrugs indifferently. MASTER MIND You're really going to do nothing? WAYNE SCOTT Good and evil have a way of balancing themselves out. If this guy is as bad as you say, somebody will rise up to fight him. It's just the order of things. You found me, didn't you? 98. Wayne puts a condescending hand on Master Mind's shoulder. WAYNE SCOTT (CONT'D) I know it's hard, but you'll find someone else someday. He then starts walking to the door. MASTER MIND You're the only one who can stop him. Wayne turns around. WAYNE SCOTT Couldn't if I wanted to. Gotta a plane to catch. MASTER MIND A plane? WAYNE SCOTT Going to Barbados for a little change in climate. Now, if you'll excuse me, I got to go pack. He reads the still defeated look on Master Mind's face. WAYNE SCOTT (CONT'D) You were a good foe. I'm sorry if I've let you down. If it makes a difference, you were the best foe a hero could ask for. MASTER MIND Not smart enough to come up with a full-proof trap. WAYNE SCOTT Well, you did almost have me when you figured out my weakness was copper. Now that made me sweat a little. Took me way too long to drill out from under that cage. MASTER MIND I got lucky. WAYNE SCOTT Anyway, it's a good thing for my sake that I could always count on you for an out. 99. MASTER MIND (suddenly confused) What do you mean? WAYNE SCOTT C'mon, we always threw each other a couple of bones. You would always leave me an out in one of your `full-proof' traps, and I'd never had you incarcerated at a penitentiary that you couldn't eventually escape from. It kept our little game going. Master Mind seems deflated. MASTER MIND Game? - Was that all this ever was to you? You know, I was trying my best every time I fought you. Those `outs' as you call them were unintentional. WAYNE SCOTT Oh. MASTER MIND I guess I was never really a match for you, was I? Wayne shrugs. MASTER MIND (CONT'D) (thoughtfully) Then how can I expect to be one for Titan? A beaten man, Master Mind heads for the door, but stops and turns around. MASTER MIND (CONT'D) What about Roxanne? Wayne unleashes an exhausted sigh. WAYNE SCOTT I think we both got what we wanted out of our relationship. She got a career out of me, and I got plenty of other things out of her. But I'm ready to move on to greener pastures. 100. Master Mind's steel hand clinches into a fist at his side. Wayne's oblivious to this. MASTER MIND I guess I wasn't the villain I thought I was, and you...you weren't the hero I thought you were. He turns to make his exit when he suddenly sees ROXANNE STANDING IN THE DOOR FRAME. Wayne is almost at a loss for words. WAYNE SCOTT Roxanne! How long have you been... ROXANNE Long enough. Roxanne looks at Master Mind. ROXANNE (CONT'D) Don't you have something else you can go do? Master Mind leaves Roxanne and Wayne facing each other in silence. EXT. ANOTHER BAR - DAY Titan emerges with Brad and Frank. He's holding a BEER CAN and a bag of PORK RINDS. TITAN Alright, I want this whole thing to look ESPN professional, understand? A distant MECHANIZED RUMBLE can be heard. The noise rises, signaling the approach of something powerful. Titan and his crew walk out to the center of the plaza as the sound becomes almost deafening. A TANK TRACK as it moves over the street. We PULL BACK to see a whole line of TANKS rolling along the street. PLAZA From the five streets branching off the plaza, a dozen tanks roll toward Titan. 101. Titan turns to Brad and Frank. TITAN (CONT'D) You guys are about to get some good footage. I might need a little room, though. Brad and Frank look at each other and run to take cover behind a nearby building. Meanwhile, Titan nonchalantly sips from his beer as the tanks begin to surround them. FEEDBACK belts out of one of the tank's loudspeaker's, causing Titan to do a mock wince. TANK LOUDSPEAKER Titan, we have orders from the city of Metro to take you into custody. If you do not give your self up willingly, we will be forced to open fire. There's a long pause as no one says anything. TANK LOUDSPEAKER What is your answer? Titan takes a sip of his beverage and UNLEASHES A GIGANTIC BURP - The shockwave of which sends several of the tanks flying into a nearby building. Two of the remaining tanks close in on the villain. Both have him dead to rights at point-blank range with their massive guns. Titan sets down his beer, then calmly plugs a fist into each barrel. They FIRE. The FORCE OF THE BLAST SENDS THEM BOTH FLYING IN OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS where they CRASH into nearby buildings. Titan bends down and pick his beet back up. TITAN (to beer) Miss me? Titan is suddenly bombarded by a massive barrage of machine- gun fire. The force sends him flying into the windshield of a nearby car. 102. He looks up to see an APACHE ASSAULT COPTER. It's nose- mounted GATLING-GUN is turning toward him. Titan gets up to his feet and looks down at his beer can. The bottom of it was blown apart in the blast. TITAN (CONT'D) Didn't mean to get you involved in all of this. He stared daggers up at the helicopter pilot just as the gun gets a bead on him. TITAN (CONT'D) Hey, man! You killed my suds! Titan throws the can up and slaps it with the palm of his hand. It flies with so much force it knocks the helicopter blade clean off. The rest of the Apache crashes to the street like a car dropped off a building. TITAN (CONT'D) That's one was for you, beer. Titan salutes the wreckage and walks away to find Brad and Frank still hiding behind the building. TITAN Guys, please tell me you got that last bit. BRAD HELMS Huh? TITAN You're kidding me. I give you my sexiest moves and you mean to tell me it was for nothing? BRAD HELMS We were afraid something might hit us. TITAN Looks like I've given the story of the century to the wrong man. He thinks about this for a moment, then it hits him. 103. TITAN Wait. What about that other reporter. Blond. Not so lumpy on the topper half, but killer legs. BRAD HELMS Roxanne. You want Roxanne. She's a much better reporter than I am. You want her. TITAN Where can I find her. FRANK We're actually not supposed to give out that sort of information. BRAD HELMS 1314 Mockingbird Lane. I believe she lives in a penthouse. TITAN You've been very helpful. He tosses Brad over his shoulder like a discarded ice cream cone. In the faint distance we see him splash down in the middle of the Metro City river. INT. ABANDONED METRO CITY LIBRARY - DAY Master Mind, pacing anxiously as Plato and Da Vinci pack boxes. Obviously Master Mind is going on the lamb. MASTER MIND Hurry, we must be on our way as soon as possible. DA VINCI Master, why must we flee? MASTER MIND I told you, Titan is too powerful. If he's set on destroying us, there's precious little we could do about it. DA VINCI Where are we going? 104. MASTER MIND To another city, someplace with a shitload of superheroes to fight. We'll start over, we'll go back to doing what we do best. PLATO With our tails between our legs? The old Master Mind would never have let this comment slip by, but as we have seen, he's not the same man. MASTER MIND Plato, do you have a better plan?! Master Mind's cell phone rings. He turns in shame from his men and answers it. MASTER MIND (CONT'D) Hello...Roxanne? INT. ROXANNE'S APARTMENT Roxanne paces back and forth on the phone. ROXANNE What are you going to do about Tighten? INTERCUT between Master Mind and Roxanne on phone. MASTER MIND Right now I'm packing, later I'll have a snack on the train. ROXANNE You're running away? MASTER MIND In a word - yes. ROXANNE You created this monster... MASTER MIND I didn't create this - the god's of irony did and I am eating the crow I so richly deserve. ROXANNE There's no time for self pity. 105. MASTER MIND I'll make the time. Roxanne can't believe what she's hearing. MASTER MIND (CONT'D) You can leave with us. You'll be safe. ROXANNE I'm not going anywhere. MASTER MIND Will you listen to me, no one can stop him. ROXANNE You have to try. The city needs your help. MASTER MIND I'm afraid you have an inflated opinion of me. ROXANNE What the hell's happened to you? The Master Mind I knew would never have run from a fight even though he knew deep in his heart that he didn't have a chance in hell of winning it. It was your best quality. You need to be that man right now...I... MASTER MIND What? ROXANNE (heart felt) I believe in you. Master Mind is taken aback, in a good way. But he catches himself before the words swell his heart. MASTER MIND Sweet words, but that man is dead. Please, Roxanne, just come with me. ROXANNE No...I guess you are a coward after all. Suddenly, there's a loud crash. 106. Roxanne looks up to see a huge hunk of her ceiling has been completely ripped off. Titan is flying above, holding the debris as casually as if it were a paper plate at a barbecue. He looks down at her and smiles. TITAN Man, have I got a story for you. Master Mind can hears Titan's familiar laugh from his side of the line. MASTER MIND Roxanne? Roxanne? EXT. KINGPIN BOWLING - DAY Titan is standing in front of the bowling alley, trying to decide on an appropriate pose for the occasion. TITAN What pose would be best? The corny folded arms thing? He demonstrates, arching his chin proudly in the air. TITAN Or maybe on the hips, like this. It's the classic Superman pose, only not as masculine. TITAN No, makes me look like a flamer pirate. As Titan starts to fix his hair in the window, Frank pretends to fix the lens on his camera as he speaks to Roxanne. FRANK (whispering) Shouldn't we be making a run for it right about now? ROXANNE (whispering) The guy can outrun bullets. I don't think either one of us is in that kind of shape. TITAN She's right, Frank. 107. Frank looks up, stunned that Titan could have possibly heard him. TITAN Also got super hearing. I promise not to keep the both of you long, but you'll thank me when this is all over. Frank and Roxanne exchange helpless expressions. INT. ABANDONED METRO CITY LIBRARY - DAY Master Mind reverently stares up at the painted portrait of his father. MASTER MIND Dad, it's me... (he looks around to make sure no one can hear) ...Bubsy. I know we haven't talked in a while, and I'm sorry. It's been a little crazy trying to live up to a legacy. The painting's menacing stare seems to reach into his very soul. MASTER MIND Anyway...You raised me to be the worst that I could possibly be. And I've tried to live up to that as best as I could - even dropping out of dentistry school like you wanted me to. But I'm about to do something now that would really piss you off. I'm going to go against everything you ever taught me. I hope...I hope that maybe you'll look down at what I'm about to do as not so much a good deed, but more like the outright defiance of a hateful and ungrateful, son. If you could do that, then maybe - in your own little way - you could - for probably the first time - find a reason to be proud of me. He looks back up at the picture. Is it our imagination, or does the painting's stare suddenly seem even angrier? 108. MASTER MIND Well...either way, you're probably going to see me real soon. (calling over his shoulder) Men? Plato and Da Vinci suddenly stop what they're doing and look up at him. PLATO AND DA VINCI Yes Sir? MASTER MIND Stop packing. Our work is not finished here. PLATO AND DA VINCI YES SIR! TELEVISION A news report shows an aerial shot of Titan setting the giant ball down in the middle of a vacant city street. REPORTER We interrupt your regular afternoon programming to show you live footage of a potential dangerous situation in downtown Metro. The former hero knows as Titan is placing what appears to be a giant ball... INT. ABANDONED METRO CITY LIBRARY - CONTINUOUS Da Vinci stops in front of a television set, seeing the news report in progress. REPORTER Hold on...It appears our own Roxanne Ritchi is somehow at the scene. We now go to her with a live report. DA VINCI Sir, I think you should see this! CUT TO: 109. EXT. CITY STREET - DAY Roxanne is standing in front of a camera with a mike in her hand. ROXANNE I'm here with the cause of the destruction in Metro City. He has kidnapped me and a cameraman to chronicle what he refers to as the creation of a monument to his invincibility and overall "Asskickiness." He will use this giant concrete bowling ball to play the largest game of bowling ever using the buildings of downtown Metro City as his pins. Titan suddenly steps into the shot. TITAN And I'm going for the biggest strike ever. He leans into the camera. TITAN And you, Metro City, have a ringside seat as I cement my name in the anal of history. ROXANNE Annals. TITAN What? ROXANNE Nevermind. EXT. CITY STREET - MOMENTS LATER Titan holds up the massive bowling ball, lining up his shot. TITAN (in quiet professional bowler announcer voice) Like Tiger before him, a young savior has come to raise a sport from the ashes. Rookie Hal Stewart, a young man with a dream, realizing that dream here today, folks. (MORE) 110. TITAN(cont'd) One might click there heels and say "There's no place like home" upon finding themselves in such a fantasy. Well, Hal looks very much at home right were he is - with a ball in hand and glory in his sights. INT. METRO CITY LIBRARY - CONTINUOUS In the bowels of Master Mind's hideout, the HYDROGEN REACTOR glows and HUMS MENACINGLY. BACK TO SCENE Roxanne just stand helpless as Frank films away. ROXANNE Hal, I know everyone treated you like shit, but you don't have to do this. TITAN You're right. I don't HAVE to do anything. Isn't that cool? Titan lines up his shot. TITAN Here's one for the record books! Titan flies a few feet and rolls the ball down the main street. ROXANNE Her face is utter horror as she watches the inevitable destruction of Metro City. As the ball rolls - it demolishes everything in it's wake; cars, street lamps - windows shatter as the giant concrete sphere brushes along side buildings. TITAN He smiles in anticipation and uses "body English" to direct the ball. GIANT BOWLING BALL POV It's nearly halfway to its target. ROXANNE 111. She closes her eyes. Titan's smile fades. He looks around as if he hears something we don't. About two hundred feet in front of the first building a GIANT SPIDER WEB flies across the path of the ball, creating a defensive barrier. An enormous letter "M" is etched in the web's center. TITAN (CONT'D) What the...? The ball breaks through the web, but it's speed is greatly reduced. FRANK Look, what's that flying in the air? We suddenly see MASTER MIND FLYING OVER THE ROLLING BALL IN A JET PACK. He quickly pulls out his goo gun and starts laying down a path of sticky plasm to stop the destructive sphere's path. MASTER MIND C'mon, slow down Master Mind looks down to see the meter of the gun close to empty. MASTER MIND C'mon. The ball slows drastically then starts rolling to the side. It heads off an embankment and rolls harmlessly into a CANAL. MASTER MIND Gutterball! TITAN He's furious to say the least. TITAN YOU! Master Mind gives him a mocking grin. MASTER MIND Bowling? What other trailer park sports can you play? 112. TITAN You are becoming a real pain in my ass. I should have done this a long time ago. Titan lunges at his tormentor. Master Mind hits the BOOSTER on his jet pack and heads back toward the other side of the city with Titan in hot pursuit. MASTER MIND (CONT'D) (into walkie talkie) Plato, Da Vinci. Secure Roxanne, he's falling for it. ELSEWHERE A flustered Titan lands. He begins searching the city streets, but Master Mind is nowhere in sight. He turns upon hearing an EEKING sound to his left. Sitting on the ground is a CHIMPANZEE wearing a strange collar. It smiles at him. TITAN What the hell? From behind, Titan is immediately set upon by five more RADIO CONTROLLED APES. TITAN (CONT'D) GODAMNIT! The critters bite hop and hit Titan. As soon as he throws one off two more jump him. Titan breaks free and with his mighty breath blows them across the street into a fruit stand. With Titan out of their sight they begin to attack the fruit. MASTER MIND He's a block away frantically hitting his remote. MASTER MIND Shit! Stupid monkeys and their fruit. Titan flies away from the mad monkeys and lands to find Master Mind sitting on the ground wrapped in a long cape with only his head sticking out. 113. TITAN (CONT'D) No more games. Titan FIRES HIS LASER VISION AT MASTER MIND's CHEST. Master Mind pulls the cloak away to reveal a FIRE HYDRANT. Titan's EYE LASERS burn through the hydrant releasing a high pressure stream of water. Master Mind uses the last remote which dumps two tons of CEMENT mix into the truck. The crowd, police and news crews move in closer when Titan doesn't emerge. Master Mind drops his last remote and walks toward the truck cautiously. MASTER MIND Could it really be that easy-- - BOOM - The back of the truck explodes, throwing dust and concrete everywhere. When the dust clears we see and enraged Titan. MASTER MIND (CONT'D) Didn't think so. As the villain walks toward him, he pulls back his fist to give Master Mind the killing blow. TITAN If you don't mind, I'm going to punch trough your face now. Preparing himself for the end, Master Mind shuts his eyes as a SUDDEN GUST OF WIND BEGINS TO PICK UP. AS Titan goes to strike, a BLURRY FIGURE RUNS IN AND SNATCHES MASTER MIND OUT OF THE AWAY. Stunned, Master Mind begins to feel around his body as if to make sure everything's still in place. MASTER MIND I'm alive. He turns to see UBERMAN standing next to him. MASTER MIND Uberman? 114. The terrified bystanders start to notice the figure standing next to Master Mind. BYSTANDER 1 It's Uberman! BYSTANDER 2 Uberman's alive! BYSTANDER 3 We're saved! As the CROWD CHEERS, A confused Master Mind turns to Metro City's newly resurrected champion. MASTER MIND I thought. UBERMAN So did I. He puts a hand on Master Mind's shoulder. UBERMAN Thank you, old enemy. MASTER MIND For what? UBERMAN Showing me the error of my ways, Showing me I'm meant to be this city's savior, showing me that, while we can try, there is no running away from our true destiny. With that, UBERMAN IS STRICKEN BY A LASER BLAST, INSTANTLY TURNING HIM INTO A CHARRED HUMAN SKELETON. Master Mind turns to see Titan smiling with his STILL SMOKING EYES. TITAN Oh...Did I interrupt something? Master Mind turns to run, but, suddenly Titan is before him. TITAN Where you going, buddy? Titan grabs Master Mind by the collar and throws him across the street into a parked car. 115. TITAN (CONT'D) Welcome to Paintown. Population: you. Master Mind manages to stand on shaky legs. He seems in a daze, unable to move. Titan flies up in the air. TITAN (CONT'D) Time to finish this. With his fist front and center, Titan speeds toward Master Mind. He's like a human torpedo, coming in for the killing blow. Master Mind comes to his senses and puts up his hands. MASTER MIND WAIT!!! Titan screeches to a halt and stops just in front of him like an old Warner Bros cartoon. TITAN What? MASTER MIND Quick joke - What's the capital of Thailand? TITAN Huh - I don't know. MASTER MIND It's bang cock! In a sudden surge of strength, MASTER MIND PUNCHES TITAN IN THE GROIN. The once mighty man instantly drops to his knees, searching, with tears in his eyes, for the proper word to express the pain suddenly surging through his member. TITAN (CONT'D) Ow. Baffled, he looks up at Master Mind's hand and sees his gauntlet is now made ENTIRELY OUT OF COPPER. MASTER MIND So, I guess pennies are good for something. 116. He punches Titan in the face, knocking him out cold. Master Mind looks down on Titan with more than a little pride. Suddenly he hears something behind him. He spins to see the crowd making a strange noise - APPLAUSE. Roxanne comes up to him. The crowd starts to go wild and cheers for Master Mind. He's not sure what to make of it. ROXANNE Pretty strange, huh? MASTER MIND They're cheering for me. ROXANNE You saved them. You saved everybody. How's it feel? Master Mind looks at the smiles all around him. He begins to well up a little. MASTER MIND It's a...it's nice, you know? I usually don't get a lot of feedback. (whispering) But I also kind of caused all this. What happens when they find that out I was the cause of some of this? Roxanne looks at the cheering crowd, then back at Master Mind. ROXANNE What they don't know won't hurt them. MASTER MIND I guess that is all in the past. ROXANNE You're the hero. MASTER MIND I don't think I'd go that far...I mean I just...er... ROXANNE Master Mind? 117. MASTER MIND Yes? ROXANNE Stop talking. She kisses him. The crowd erupts in a cheer. TELEVISION The channel 7 he channel 7 logo zooms in followed by the title "Eye on Metro City." A picture of Master Mind smiling appears on the screen behind her. SAMANTHA SUMMERS Who's bad? Well, not Master Mind. It seems the former villain has done a career 180 after defeating Tighten and saving Metro City from certain enslavement. And here he is getting a full pardon by Metro City's Mayor, Steve Dent. Cut to ceremony on capital steps. The MAYOR is shaking Master Mind's metal gauntlet when it suddenly STARTS TO CRUSH HIS HAND. MAYOR Ahhh! Secret service men quickly start to draw their weapons and take aim at Master Mind. Realizing what's happening, he quickly lets the mayor's hand go and puts his arms in the air. MASTER MIND Sorry - Metal hand. Force of habit. He elbows the mayor. MASTER MIND (CONT'D) We're okay, right? Wincing, the mayor signals the men to put their guns down. WE CUT to video of Titan behind bars in a regular prison. 118. BRAD HELMS And what about Tighten? Is there a prison in existence that can hold this super powered menace? Well, the answer we found is no. A man in a white lab coat stands in front of Titan's cell just out of reach. PRISON SCIENTIST Of course normally he could break out of there anytime, but as you can see we've taken some special precautions. The news camera pans over see Titan in his cell wearing a copper JOCK STRAP with electrical cables hooked to it. Back to Samantha at the desk. BRAD HELMS What is a Hero? It seems never has that question needed to be asked more than it does tonight. We go to our very own Roxanne Ritchi, making her triumphant return to our news desk for the answer. Brad turns. The camera pans over to Roxanne who we now see has been sitting beside him. ROXANNE What is a hero? Well, there are many different kinds. There are those who hear a call, like the policeman or doctor, then there's the kind the public creates in their search for meaning and hope. Then, there are those who have the courage to change. DARK ALLEY - NIGHT A woman is being chased by two large thugs. They're gaining on her. She comes to a brick wall - a dead end. The thugs laugh. THUG #1 Hey, gimme that purse? 119. MASTER MIND (O.S) I don't think it would go with your outfit. The thugs turn around to see Master Mind, standing with his arms folded across his chest. THUG #2 It's Master Mind! Thug #1 draws a knife. THUG #1 So? It's not like he has any superpowers. Thug #1 puts his fingers to his mouth and whistles. Suddenly two more Thugs appear behind Master Mind. MASTER MIND I'm gonna give you a chance to surrender. THUG #1 Four against one. For a Master Mind, you're really bad at math. Master Mind throws a hand signal up in the air. Suddenly a giant robotic foot crashes down on the two men behind him. Thug #1 and Thug #2 drop their knives and raise their hands in the air. Master Mind looks up and waves. MASTER MIND Way to take out those two goons, guys! We see Da Vinci and Plato at the wheel of a gigantic robot. DA VINCI What two goons? The giant robot lifts its foot to check the bottom of it's sole. It KNOCKS OVER WATER TOWER in the process. The woman looks at Master Mind, horrified. 120. MASTER MIND (apologetically) Sorry, we're new at this. THE END

W3C Strategic Highlights September 2019 This report was prepared for the September 2019 W3C Advisory Committee Meeting (W3C Member link). See the accompanying W3C Fact Sheet — September 2019. For the previous edition, see the April 2019 W3C Strategic Highlights. For future editions of this report, please consult the latest version. A Chinese translation is available. ☰ Contents Introduction Future Web Standards Meeting Industry Needs Web Payments Digital Publishing Media and Entertainment Web & Telecommunications Real-Time Communications (WebRTC) Web & Networks Automotive Web of Things Strengthening the Core of the Web HTML CSS Fonts SVG Audio Performance Web Performance WebAssembly Testing Browser Testing and Tools WebPlatform Tests Web of Data Web for All Security, Privacy, Identity Internationalization (i18n) Web Accessibility Outreach to the world W3C Developer Relations W3C Training Translations W3C Liaisons Introduction This report highlights recent work of enhancement of the existing landscape of the Web platform and innovation for the growth and strength of the Web. 33 working groups and a dozen interest groups enable W3C to pursue its mission through the creation of Web standards, guidelines, and supporting materials. We track the tremendous work done across the Consortium through homogeneous work-spaces in Github which enables better monitoring and management. We are in the middle of a period where we are chartering numerous working groups which demonstrate the rapid degree of change for the Web platform: After 4 years, we are nearly ready to publish a Payment Request API Proposed Recommendation and we need to soon charter follow-on work. In the last year we chartered the Web Payment Security Interest Group. In the last year we chartered the Web Media Working Group with 7 specifications for next generation Media support on the Web. We have Accessibility Guidelines under W3C Member review which includes Silver, a new approach. We have just launched the Decentralized Identifier Working Group which has tremendous potential because Decentralized Identifier (DID) is an identifier that is globally unique, resolveable with high availability, and cryptographically verifiable. We have Privacy IG (PING) under W3C Member review which strengthens our focus on the tradeoff between privacy and function. We have a new CSS charter under W3C Member review which maps the group's work for the next three years. In this period, W3C and the WHATWG have succesfully completed the negotiation of a Memorandum of Understanding rooted in the mutual belief that that having two distinct specifications claiming to be normative is generally harmful for the Web community. The MOU, signed last May, describes how the two organizations are to collaborate on the development of a single authoritative version of the HTML and DOM specifications. W3C subsequently rechartered the HTML Working Group to assist the W3C community in raising issues and proposing solutions for the HTML and DOM specifications, and for the production of W3C Recommendations from WHATWG Review Drafts. As the Web evolves continuously, some groups are looking for ways for specifications to do so as well. So-called "evergreen recommendations" or "living standards" aim to track continuous development (and maintenance) of features, on a feature-by-feature basis, while getting review and patent commitments. We see the maturation and further development of an incredible number of new technologies coming to the Web. Continued progress in many areas demonstrates the vitality of the W3C and the Web community, as the rest of the report illustrates. Future Web Standards W3C has a variety of mechanisms for listening to what the community thinks could become good future Web standards. These include discussions with the Membership, discussions with other standards bodies, the activities of thousands of participants in over 300 community groups, and W3C Workshops. There are lots of good ideas. The W3C strategy team has been identifying promising topics and invites public participation. Future, recent and under consideration Workshops include: Inclusive XR (5-6 November 2019, Seattle, WA, USA) to explore existing and future approaches on making Virtual and Augmented Reality experiences more inclusive, including to people with disabilities; W3C Workshop on Data Models for Transportation (12-13 September 2019, Palo Alto, CA, USA) W3C Workshop on Web Games (27-28 June 2019, Redmond, WA, USA), view report Second W3C Workshop on the Web of Things (3-5 June 2019, Munich, Germany) W3C Workshop on Web Standardization for Graph Data; Creating Bridges: RDF, Property Graph and SQL (4-6 March 2019, Berlin, Germany), view report Web & Machine Learning. The Strategy Funnel documents the staff's exploration of potential new work at various phases: Exploration and Investigation, Incubation and Evaluation, and eventually to the chartering of a new standards group. The Funnel view is a GitHub Project where new area are issues represented by “cards” which move through the columns, usually from left to right. Most cards start in Exploration and move towards Chartering, or move out of the funnel. Public input is welcome at any stage but particularly once Incubation has begun. This helps W3C identify work that is sufficiently incubated to warrant standardization, to review the ecosystem around the work and indicate interest in participating in its standardization, and then to draft a charter that reflects an appropriate scope. Ongoing feedback can speed up the overall standardization process. Since the previous highlights document, W3C has chartered a number of groups, and started discussion on many more: Newly Chartered or Rechartered Web Application Security WG (03-Apr) Web Payment Security IG (17-Apr) Patent and Standards IG (24-Apr) Web Applications WG (14-May) Web & Networks IG (16-May) Media WG (23-May) Media and Entertainment IG (06-Jun) HTML WG (06-Jun) Decentralized Identifier WG (05-Sep) Extended Privacy IG (PING) (30-Sep) Verifiable Claims WG (30-Sep) Service Workers WG (31-Dec) Dataset Exchange WG (31-Dec) Web of Things Working Group (31-Dec) Web Audio Working Group (31-Dec) Proposed charters / Advance Notice Accessibility Guidelines WG Privacy IG (PING) RDF Literal Direction WG Timed Text WG CSS WG Web Authentication WG Closed Internationalization Tag Set IG Meeting Industry Needs Web Payments All Web Payments specifications W3C's payments standards enable a streamlined checkout experience, enabling a consistent user experience across the Web with lower front end development costs for merchants. Users can store and reuse information and more quickly and accurately complete online transactions. The Web Payments Working Group has republished Payment Request API as a Candidate Recommendation, aiming to publish a Proposed Recommendation in the Fall 2019, and is discussing use cases and features for Payment Request after publication of the 1.0 Recommendation. Browser vendors have been finalizing implementation of features added in the past year (view the implementation report). As work continues on the Payment Handler API and its implementation (currently in Chrome and Edge Canary), one focus in 2019 is to increase adoption in other browsers. Recently, Mastercard demonstrated the use of Payment Request API to carry out EMVCo's Secure Remote Commerce (SRC) protocol whose payment method definition is being developed with active participation by Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover. Payment method availability is a key factor in merchant considerations about adopting Payment Request API. The ability to get uniform adoption of a new payment method such as Secure Remote Commerce (SRC) also depends on the availability of the Payment Handler API in browsers, or of proprietary alternatives. Web Monetization, which the Web Payments Working Group will discuss again at its face-to-face meeting in September, can be used to enable micropayments as an alternative revenue stream to advertising. Since the beginning of 2019, Amazon, Brave Software, JCB, Certus Cybersecurity Solutions and Netflix have joined the Web Payments Working Group. In April, W3C launched the Web Payment Security Group to enable W3C, EMVCo, and the FIDO Alliance to collaborate on a vision for Web payment security and interoperability. Participants will define areas of collaboration and identify gaps between existing technical specifications in order to increase compatibility among different technologies, such as: How do SRC, FIDO, and Payment Request relate? The Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2) regulations in Europe are scheduled to take effect in September 2019. What is the role of EMVCo, W3C, and FIDO technologies, and what is the current state of readiness for the deadline? How can we improve privacy on the Web at the same time as we meet industry requirements regarding user identity? Digital Publishing All Digital Publishing specifications, Publication milestones The Web is the universal publishing platform. Publishing is increasingly impacted by the Web, and the Web increasingly impacts Publishing. Topic of particular interest to Publishing@W3C include typography and layout, accessibility, usability, portability, distribution, archiving, offline access, print on demand, and reliable cross referencing. And the diverse publishing community represented in the groups consist of the traditional "trade" publishers, ebook reading system manufacturers, but also publishers of audio book, scholarly journals or educational materials, library scientists or browser developers. The Publishing Working Group currently concentrates on Audiobooks which lack a comprehensive standard, thus incurring extra costs and time to publish in this booming market. Active development is ongoing on the future standard: Publication Manifest Audiobook profile for Web Publications Lightweight Packaging Format The BD Comics Manga Community Group, the Synchronized Multimedia for Publications Community Group, the Publishing Community Group and a future group on archival, are companions to the working group where specific work is developed and incubated. The Publishing Community Group is a recently launched incubation channel for Publishing@W3C. The goal of the group is to propose, document, and prototype features broadly related to: publications on the Web reading modes and systems and the user experience of publications The EPUB 3 Community Group has successfully completed the revision of EPUB 3.2. The Publishing Business Group fosters ongoing participation by members of the publishing industry and the overall ecosystem in the development of Web infrastructure to better support the needs of the industry. The Business Group serves as an additional conduit to the Publishing Working Group and several Community Groups for feedback between the publishing ecosystem and W3C. The Publishing BG has played a vital role in fostering and advancing the adoption and continued development of EPUB 3. In particular the BG provided critical support to the update of EPUBCheck to validate EPUB content to the new EPUB 3.2 specification. This resulted in the development, in conjunction with the EPUB3 Community Group, of a new generation of EPUBCheck, i.e., EPUBCheck 4.2 production-ready release. Media and Entertainment All Media specifications The Media and Entertainment vertical tracks media-related topics and features that create immersive experiences for end users. HTML5 brought standard audio and video elements to the Web. Standardization activities since then have aimed at turning the Web into a professional platform fully suitable for the delivery of media content and associated materials, enabling missing features to stream video content on the Web such as adaptive streaming and content protection. Together with Microsoft, Comcast, Netflix and Google, W3C received an Technology & Engineering Emmy Award in April 2019 for standardization of a full TV experience on the Web. Current goals are to: Reinforce core media technologies: Creation of the Media Working Group, to develop media-related specifications incubated in the WICG (e.g. Media Capabilities, Picture-in-picture, Media Session) and maintain maintain/evolve Media Source Extensions (MSE) and Encrypted Media Extensions (EME). Improve support for Media Timed Events: data cues incubation. Enhance color support (HDR, wide gamut), in scope of the CSS WG and in the Color on the Web CG. Reduce fragmentation: Continue annual releases of a common and testable baseline media devices, in scope of the Web Media APIs CG and in collaboration with the CTA WAVE Project. Maintain the Road-map of Media Technologies for the Web which highlights Web technologies that can be used to build media applications and services, as well as known gaps to enable additional use cases. Create the future: Discuss perspectives for Media and Entertainment for the Web. Bring the power of GPUs to the Web (graphics, machine learning, heavy processing), under incubation in the GPU for the Web CG. Transition to a Working Group is under discussion. Determine next steps after the successful W3C Workshop on Web Games of June 2019. View the report. Timed Text The Timed Text Working Group develops and maintains formats used for the representation of text synchronized with other timed media, like audio and video, and notably works on TTML, profiles of TTML, and WebVTT. Recent progress includes: A robust WebVTT implementation report poises the specification for publication as a proposed recommendation. Discussions around re-chartering, notably to add a TTML Profile for Audio Description deliverable to the scope of the group, and clarify that rendering of captions within XR content is also in scope. Immersive Web Hardware that enables Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) applications are now broadly available to consumers, offering an immersive computing platform with both new opportunities and challenges. The ability to interact directly with immersive hardware is critical to ensuring that the web is well equipped to operate as a first-class citizen in this environment. The Immersive Web Working Group has been stabilizing the WebXR Device API while the companion Immersive Web Community Group incubates the next series of features identified as key for the future of the Immersive Web. W3C plans a workshop focused on the needs and benefits at the intersection of VR & Accessibility (Inclusive XR), on 5-6 November 2019 in Seattle, WA, USA, to explore existing and future approaches on making Virtual and Augmented Reality experiences more inclusive. Web & Telecommunications The Web is the Open Platform for Mobile. Telecommunication service providers and network equipment providers have long been critical actors in the deployment of Web technologies. As the Web platform matures, it brings richer and richer capabilities to extend existing services to new users and devices, and propose new and innovative services. Real-Time Communications (WebRTC) All Real-Time Communications specifications WebRTC has reshaped the whole communication landscape by making any connected device a potential communication end-point, bringing audio and video communications anywhere, on any network, vastly expanding the ability of operators to reach their customers. WebRTC serves as the corner-stone of many online communication and collaboration services. The WebRTC Working Group aims to bringing WebRTC 1.0 (and companion specification Media Capture and Streams) to Recommendation by the end of 2019. Intense efforts are focused on testing (supported by a dedicated hackathon at IETF 104) and interoperability. The group is considering pushing features that have not gotten enough traction to separate modules or to a later minor revision of the spec. Beyond WebRTC 1.0, the WebRTC Working Group will focus its efforts on WebRTC NV which the group has started documenting by identifying use cases. Web & Networks Recently launched, in the wake of the May 2018 Web5G workshop, the Web & Networks Interest Group is chaired by representatives from AT&T, China Mobile and Intel, with a goal to explore solutions for web applications to achieve better performance and resource allocation, both on the device and network. The group's first efforts are around use cases, privacy & security requirements and liaisons. Automotive All Automotive specifications To create a rich application ecosystem for vehicles and other devices allowed to connect to the vehicle, the W3C Automotive Working Group is delivering a service specification to expose all common vehicle signals (engine temperature, fuel/charge level, range, tire pressure, speed, etc.) The Vehicle Information Service Specification (VISS), which is a Candidate Recommendation, is seeing more implementations across the industry. It provides the access method to a common data model for all the vehicle signals –presently encapsulating a thousand or so different data elements– and will be growing to accommodate the advances in automotive such as autonomous and driver assist technologies and electrification. The group is already working on a successor to VISS, leveraging the underlying data model and the VIWI submission from Volkswagen, for a more robust means of accessing vehicle signals information and the same paradigm for other automotive needs including location-based services, media, notifications and caching content. The Automotive and Web Platform Business Group acts as an incubator for prospective standards work. One of its task forces is using W3C VISS in performing data sampling and off-boarding the information to the cloud. Access to the wealth of information that W3C's auto signals standard exposes is of interest to regulators, urban planners, insurance companies, auto manufacturers, fleet managers and owners, service providers and others. In addition to components needed for data sampling and edge computing, capturing user and owner consent, information collection methods and handling of data are in scope. The upcoming W3C Workshop on Data Models for Transportation (September 2019) is expected to focus on the need of additional ontologies around transportation space. Web of Things All Web of Things specifications W3C's Web of Things work is designed to bridge disparate technology stacks to allow devices to work together and achieve scale, thus enabling the potential of the Internet of Things by eliminating fragmentation and fostering interoperability. Thing descriptions expressed in JSON-LD cover the behavior, interaction affordances, data schema, security configuration, and protocol bindings. The Web of Things complements existing IoT ecosystems to reduce the cost and risk for suppliers and consumers of applications that create value by combining multiple devices and information services. There are many sectors that will benefit, e.g. smart homes, smart cities, smart industry, smart agriculture, smart healthcare and many more. The Web of Things Working Group is finishing the initial Web of Things standards, with support from the Web of Things Interest Group: Web of Things Architecture Thing Descriptions Strengthening the Core of the Web HTML The HTML Working Group was chartered early June to assist the W3C community in raising issues and proposing solutions for the HTML and DOM specifications, and to produce W3C Recommendations from WHATWG Review Drafts. A few days before, W3C and the WHATWG signed a Memorandum of Understanding outlining the agreement to collaborate on the development of a single version of the HTML and DOM specifications. Issues and proposed solutions for HTML and DOM done via the newly rechartered HTML Working Group in the WHATWG repositories The HTML Working Group is targetting November 2019 to bring HTML and DOM to Candidate Recommendations. CSS All CSS specifications CSS is a critical part of the Open Web Platform. The CSS Working Group gathers requirements from two large groups of CSS users: the publishing industry and application developers. Within W3C, those groups are exemplified by the Publishing groups and the Web Platform Working Group. The former requires things like better pagination support and advanced font handling, the latter needs intelligent (and fast!) scrolling and animations. What we know as CSS is actually a collection of almost a hundred specifications, referred to as ‘modules’. The current state of CSS is defined by a snapshot, updated once a year. The group also publishes an index defining every term defined by CSS specifications. Fonts All Fonts specifications The Web Fonts Working Group develops specifications that allow the interoperable deployment of downloadable fonts on the Web, with a focus on Progressive Font Enrichment as well as maintenance of WOFF Recommendations. Recent and ongoing work includes: Early API experiments by Adobe and Monotype have demonstrated the feasibility of a font enrichment API, where a server delivers a font with minimal glyph repertoire and the client can query the full repertoire and request additional subsets on-the-fly. In other experiments, the Brotli compression used in WOFF 2 was extended to support shared dictionaries and patch update. Metrics to quantify improvement are a current hot discussion topic. The group will meet at ATypi 2019 in Japan, to gather requirements from the international typography community. The group will first produce a report summarizing the strengths and weaknesses of each prototype solution by Q2 2020. SVG All SVG specifications SVG is an important and widely-used part of the Open Web Platform. The SVG Working Group focuses on aligning the SVG 2.0 specification with browser implementations, having split the specification into a currently-implemented 2.0 and a forward-looking 2.1. Current activity is on stabilization, increased integration with the Open Web Platform, and test coverage analysis. The Working Group was rechartered in March 2019. A new work item concerns native (non-Web-browser) uses of SVG as a non-interactive, vector graphics format. Audio The Web Audio Working Group was extended to finish its work on the Web Audio API, expecting to publish it as a Recommendation by year end. The specification enables synthesizing audio in the browser. Audio operations are performed with audio nodes, which are linked together to form a modular audio routing graph. Multiple sources — with different types of channel layout — are supported. This modular design provides the flexibility to create complex audio functions with dynamic effects. The first version of Web Audio API is now feature complete and is implemented in all modern browsers. Work has started on the next version, and new features are being incubated in the Audio Community Group. Performance Web Performance All Web Performance specifications There are currently 18 specifications in development in the Web Performance Working Group aiming to provide methods to observe and improve aspects of application performance of user agent features and APIs. The W3C team is looking at related work incubated in the W3C GPU for the Web (WebGPU) Community Group which is poised to transition to a W3C Working Group. A preliminary draft charter is available. WebAssembly All WebAssembly specifications WebAssembly improves Web performance and power by being a virtual machine and execution environment enabling loaded pages to run native (compiled) code. It is deployed in Firefox, Edge, Safari and Chrome. The specification will soon reach Candidate Recommendation. WebAssembly enables near-native performance, optimized load time, and perhaps most importantly, a compilation target for existing code bases. While it has a small number of native types, much of the performance increase relative to Javascript derives from its use of consistent typing. WebAssembly leverages decades of optimization for compiled languages and the byte code is optimized for compactness and streaming (the web page starts executing while the rest of the code downloads). Network and API access all occurs through accompanying Javascript libraries -- the security model is identical to that of Javascript. Requirements gathering and language development occur in the Community Group while the Working Group manages test development, community review and progression of specifications on the Recommendation Track. Testing Browser testing plays a critical role in the growth of the Web by: Improving the reliability of Web technology definitions; Improving the quality of implementations of these technologies by helping vendors to detect bugs in their products; Improving the data available to Web developers on known bugs and deficiencies of Web technologies by publishing results of these tests. Browser Testing and Tools The Browser Testing and Tools Working Group is developing WebDriver version 2, having published last year the W3C Recommendation of WebDriver. WebDriver acts as a remote control interface that enables introspection and control of user agents, provides a platform- and language-neutral wire protocol as a way for out-of-process programs to remotely instruct the behavior of Web, and emulates the actions of a real person using the browser. WebPlatform Tests The WebPlatform Tests project now provides a mechanism which allows to fully automate tests that previously needed to be run manually: TestDriver. TestDriver enables sending trusted key and mouse events, sending complex series of trusted pointer and key interactions for things like in-content drag-and-drop or pinch zoom, and even file upload. Since 2014 W3C began work on this coordinated open-source effort to build a cross-browser test suite for the Web Platform, which WHATWG, and all major browsers adopted. Web of Data All Data specifications There have been several great success stories around the standardization of data on the web over the past year. Verifiable Claims seems to have significant uptake. It is also significant that the Distributed Identifier WG charter has received numerous favorable reviews, and was just recently launched. JSON-LD has been a major success with the large deployment on Web sites via schema.org. JSON-LD 1.1 completed technical work, about to transition to CR More than 25% of websites today include schema.org data in JSON-LD The Web of Things description is in CR since May, making use of JSON-LD Verifiable Credentials data model is in CR since July, also making use of JSON-LD Continued strong interest in decentralized identifiers Engagement from the TAG with reframing core documents, such as Ethical Web Principles, to include data on the web within their scope Data is increasingly important for all organizations, especially with the rise of IoT and Big Data. W3C has a mature and extensive suite of standards relating to data that were developed over two decades of experience, with plans for further work on making it easier for developers to work with graph data and knowledge graphs. Linked Data is about the use of URIs as names for things, the ability to dereference these URIs to get further information and to include links to other data. There are ever-increasing sources of open Linked Data on the Web, as well as data services that are restricted to the suppliers and consumers of those services. The digital transformation of industry is seeking to exploit advanced digital technologies. This will facilitate businesses to integrate horizontally along the supply and value chains, and vertically from the factory floor to the office floor. W3C is seeking to make it easier to support enterprise-wide data management and governance, reflecting the strategic importance of data to modern businesses. Traditional approaches to data have focused on tabular databases (SQL/RDBMS), Comma Separated Value (CSV) files, and data embedded in PDF documents and spreadsheets. We're now in midst of a major shift to graph data with nodes and labeled directed links between them. Graph data is: Faster than using SQL and associated JOIN operations More favorable to integrating data from heterogeneous sources Better suited to situations where the data model is evolving In the wake of the recent W3C Workshop on Graph Data we are in the process of launching a Graph Standardization Business Group to provide a business perspective with use cases and requirements, to coordinate technical standards work and liaisons with external organizations. Web for All Security, Privacy, Identity All Security specifications, all Privacy specifications Authentication on the Web As the WebAuthn Level 1 W3C Recommendation published last March is seeing wide implementation and adoption of strong cryptographic authentication, work is proceeding on Level 2. The open standard Web API gives native authentication technology built into native platforms, browsers, operating systems (including mobile) and hardware, offering protection against hacking, credential theft, phishing attacks, thus aiming to end the era of passwords as a security construct. You may read more in our March press release. Privacy An increasing number of W3C specifications are benefitting from Privacy and Security review; there are security and privacy aspects to every specification. Early review is essential. Working with the TAG, the Privacy Interest Group has updated the Self-Review Questionnaire: Security and Privacy. Other recent work of the group includes public blogging further to the exploration of anti-patterns in standards and permission prompts. Security The Web Application Security Working Group adopted Feature Policy, aiming to allow developers to selectively enable, disable, or modify the behavior of some of these browser features and APIs within their application; and Fetch Metadata, aiming to provide servers with enough information to make a priori decisions about whether or not to service a request based on the way it was made, and the context in which it will be used. The Web Payment Security Interest Group, launched last April, convenes members from W3C, EMVCo, and the FIDO Alliance to discuss cooperative work to enhance the security and interoperability of Web payments (read more about payments). Internationalization (i18n) All Internationalization specifications, educational articles related to Internationalization, spec developers checklist Only a quarter or so current Web users use English online and that proportion will continue to decrease as the Web reaches more and more communities of limited English proficiency. If the Web is to live up to the "World Wide" portion of its name, and for the Web to truly work for stakeholders all around the world engaging with content in various languages, it must support the needs of worldwide users as they engage with content in the various languages. The growth of epublishing also brings requirements for new features and improved typography on the Web. It is important to ensure the needs of local communities are captured. The W3C Internationalization Initiative was set up to increase in-house resources dedicated to accelerating progress in making the World Wide Web "worldwide" by gathering user requirements, supporting developers, and education & outreach. For an overview of current projects see the i18n radar. W3C's Internationalization efforts progressed on a number of fronts recently: Requirements: New African and European language groups will work on the gap analysis, errata and layout requirements. Gap analysis: Japanese, Devanagari, Bengali, Tamil, Lao, Khmer, Javanese, and Ethiopic updated in the gap-analysis documents. Layout requirements document: notable progress tracked in the Southeast Asian Task Force while work continues on Chinese layout requirements. Developer support: Spec reviews: the i18n WG continues active review of specifications of the WHATWG and other W3C Working Groups. Short review checklist: easy way to begin a self-review to help spec developers understand what aspects of their spec are likely to need attention for internationalization, and points them to more detailed checklists for the relevant topics. It also helps those reviewing specs for i18n issues. Strings on the Web: Language and Direction Metadata lays out issues and discusses potential solutions for passing information about language and direction with strings in JSON or other data formats. The document was rewritten for clarity, and expanded. The group is collaborating with the JSON-LD and Web Publishing groups to develop a plan for updating RDF, JSON-LD and related specifications to handle metadata for base direction of text (bidi). User-friendly test format: a new format was developed for Internationalization Test Suite tests, which displays helpful information about how the test works. This particularly useful because those tests are pointed to by educational materials and gap-analysis documents. Web Platform Tests: a large number of tests in the i18n test suite have been ported to the WPT repository, including: css-counter-styles, css-ruby, css-syntax, css-test, css-text-decor, css-writing-modes, and css-pseudo. Education & outreach: (for all educational materials, see the HTML & CSS Authoring Techniques) Web Accessibility All Accessibility specifications, WAI resources The Web Accessibility Initiative supports W3C's Web for All mission. Recent achievements include: Education and training: Inaccessibility of CAPTCHA updated to bring our analysis and recommendations up to date with CAPTCHA practice today, concluding two years of extensive work and invaluable input from the public (read more on the W3C Blog Learn why your web content and applications should be accessible. The Education and Outreach Working Group has completed revision and updating of the Business Case for Digital Accessibility. Accessibility guidelines: The Accessibility Guidelines Working Group has continued to update WCAG Techniques and Understanding WCAG 2.1; and published a Candidate Recommendation of Accessibility Conformance Testing Rules Format 1.0 to improve inter-rater reliability when evaluating conformance of web content to WCAG An updated charter is being developed to host work on "Silver", the next generation accessibility guidelines (WCAG 2.2) There are accessibility aspects to most specifications. Check your work with the FAST checklist. Outreach to the world W3C Developer Relations To foster the excellent feedback loop between Web Standards development and Web developers, and to grow participation from that diverse community, recent W3C Developer Relations activities include: @w3cdevs tracks the enormous amount of work happening across W3C W3C Track during the Web Conference 2019 in San Francisco Tech videos: W3C published the 2019 Web Games Workshop videos The 16 September 2019 Developer Meetup in Fukuoka, Japan, is open to all and will combine a set of technical demos prepared by W3C groups, and a series of talks on a selected set of W3C technologies and projects W3C is involved with Mozilla, Google, Samsung, Microsoft and Bocoup in the organization of ViewSource 2019 in Amsterdam (read more on the W3C Blog) W3C Training In partnership with EdX, W3C's MOOC training program, W3Cx offers a complete "Front-End Web Developer" (FEWD) professional certificate program that consists of a suite of five courses on the foundational languages that power the Web: HTML5, CSS and JavaScript. We count nearly 900K students from all over the world. Translations Many Web users rely on translations of documents developed at W3C whose official language is English. W3C is extremely grateful to the continuous efforts of its community in ensuring our various deliverables in general, and in our specifications in particular, are made available in other languages, for free, ensuring their exposure to a much more diverse set of readers. Last Spring we developed a more robust system, a new listing of translations of W3C specifications and updated the instructions on how to contribute to our translation efforts. W3C Liaisons Liaisons and coordination with numerous organizations and Standards Development Organizations (SDOs) is crucial for W3C to: make sure standards are interoperable coordinate our respective agenda in Internet governance: W3C participates in ICANN, GIPO, IGF, the I* organizations (ICANN, IETF, ISOC, IAB). ensure at the government liaison level that our standards work is officially recognized when important to our membership so that products based on them (often done by our members) are part of procurement orders. W3C has ARO/PAS status with ISO. W3C participates in the EU MSP and Rolling Plan on Standardization ensure the global set of Web and Internet standards form a compatible stack of technologies, at the technical and policy level (patent regime, fragmentation, use in policy making) promote Standards adoption equally by the industry, the public sector, and the public at large Coralie Mercier, Editor, W3C Marketing & Communications $Id: Overview.html,v 1.60 2019/10/15 12:05:52 coralie Exp $ Copyright © 2019 W3C ® (MIT, ERCIM, Keio, Beihang) Usage policies apply.

What is JavaScript and what does it do? Before you start learning something new, it’s important to understand exactly what it is and what it does. This is especially useful when it comes to mastering a new programming language. In simple terms, JavaScript is a programming language used to make websites interactive. If you think about the basic makeup of a website, you have HTML, which describes and defines the basic content and structure of the website, then you have CSS, which tells the browser how this HTML content should be displayed—determining things like color and font. With just HTML and CSS, you have a website that looks good but doesn’t actually do much. JavaScript brings the website to life by adding functionality. JavaScript is responsible for elements that the user can interact with, such as drop-down menus, modal windows, and contact forms. It is also used to create things like animations, video players, and interactive maps. Nowadays, JavaScript is an all-purpose programming language—meaning it runs across the entire software stack. The most popular application of JavaScript is on the client side (aka frontend), but since Node.js came on the scene, many people run JavaScript on the server side (aka backend) as well. When used on the client side, JavaScript code is read, interpreted, and executed in the user’s web browser. When used on the server side, it is run on a remote computer. You can learn more about the difference between frontend and backend programming here. JavaScript isn’t only used to create websites. It can also be used to build browser-based games and, with the help of certain frameworks, mobile apps for different operating systems. The creation of new libraries and frameworks is also making it possible to build backend programs with JavaScript, such as web apps and server apps. Is it still worth learning JavaScript in 2021? The world of web development is constantly moving. With so many new tools popping up all the time, it can be extremely difficult to know where you should focus your efforts. As an aspiring developer, you’ll want to make sure that what you’re learning is still relevant in today’s industry. If you’re having doubts about JavaScript, it’s important to know that, since its creation in 1995, JavaScript is pretty much everywhere on the web—and that’s not likely to change any time soon. According to the 2020 StackOverflow developer survey, JavaScript is the most commonly used programming language for the eighth year in a row. It is currently used by 94.5% of all websites and, despite originally being designed as a client-side language, JavaScript has now made its way to the server-side of websites (thanks to Node.js), mobile devices (thanks to React Native and Ionic) and desktop (courtesy of Electron). As long as people are interacting with the web, you can assume that JavaScript is highly relevant—there’s no doubt that this is a language worth knowing! With that in mind, let’s look at some of the key benefits of becoming a JavaScript expert. Why learn JavaScript? The most obvious reason for learning JavaScript is if you have hopes of becoming a web developer. Even if you haven’t got your heart set on a tech career, being proficient in JavaScript will enable you to build websites from scratch—a pretty useful skill to have in today’s job market! If you do want to become a web developer, here are some of the main reasons why you should learn JavaScript: JavaScript experts are versatile JavaScript is an extremely versatile language. Once you’ve mastered it, the possibilities are endless: you can code on the client-side (frontend) using Angular and on the server-side (backend) using Node.js. You can also develop web, mobile, and desktop apps using React, React Native, and Electron, and you can even get involved in machine learning. If you want to become a frontend developer, JavaScript is a prerequisite. However, that’s not the only career path open to you as a JavaScript expert. Mastering this key programming language could see you go on to work in full-stack development, games development, information security software engineering, machine learning, and artificial intelligence—to name just a few! Ultimately, if you want any kind of development or engineering career, proficiency in JavaScript is a must. JavaScript experts are in-demand (and well-paid) JavaScript is the most popular programming language in the world, so it’s no wonder that JavaScript is one of the most sought-after skills in the web development industry today. According to the Devskiller IT Skills and Hiring Report 2020, 72% of companies are looking to hire JavaScript experts. Enter the search term “JavaScript” on job site Indeed and you’ll find over 40,000 jobs requiring this skill (in the US). Run the same search on LinkedIn and the results are in excess of 125,000. At the same time, the global demand for JavaScript seems to outweigh the expertise available on the market. According to this 2018 HackerRank report, 48% of employers worldwide need developers with JavaScript skills, while only 42% of student developers claim to be proficient in JavaScript. And, in their most recent report for 2020, HackerRank once again reports that JavaScript is the most popular language that hiring mangers look for in a web developer candidate. Not only are JavaScript experts in demand—they are also well-paid. In the United States, JavaScript developers earn an average yearly salary of $111,953 per year. We’ve covered this topic in more detail in our JavaScript salary guide, but as you can see, learning JavaScript can really boost your earning potential as a developer. JavaScript is beginner-friendly Compared to many other programming languages, JavaScript offers one of the more beginner-friendly entry points into the world of coding. The great thing about JavaScript is that it comes installed on every modern web browser—there’s no need to set up any kind of development environment, which means you can start coding with JavaScript right away! Another advantage of learning JavaScript as your first programming language is that you get instant feedback; with a minimal amount of JavaScript code, you’ll immediately see visible results. There’s also a huge JavaScript community on sites like Stack Overflow, so you’ll find plenty of support as you learn. Not only is JavaScript beginner-friendly; it will also set you up with some extremely valuable transferable skills. JavaScript supports object-oriented, functional, and imperative styles of programming—skills which can be transferred to any new language you might learn later on, such as Python, Java, or C++. JavaScript provides a crucial introduction to key principles and practices that you’ll take with you throughout your career as a developer. Should you learn plain JavaScript first or can you skip to frameworks and libraries? When deciding whether or not to learn JavaScript, what you’re really asking is whether or not you should learn “vanilla” JavaScript. Vanilla JavaScript just means plain JavaScript without any libraries or frameworks. Let’s explore what this means in more detail now. What is meant by vanilla JavaScript, libraries, and frameworks? If you research the term “vanilla JavaScript”, you might run into some confusion; however, all you need to know is that vanilla JavaScript is used to refer to native, standards-based, non-extended JavaScript. There is no difference between vanilla JavaScript and JavaScript—it’s just there to emphasize the usage of plain JavaScript without the use of libraries and frameworks. So what are libraries and frameworks? JavaScript libraries and frameworks both contain sets of prewritten, ready-to-use JavaScript code—but they’re not the same thing. You can think of a framework as your blueprint for building a website: it gives you a structure to work from, and contains ready-made components and tools that help you to build certain elements much quicker than if you were to code them from scratch. Some popular JavaScript frameworks include Angular, React, Vue, and Node.js. Frameworks also contain libraries. Libraries are smaller than frameworks, and tend to be used for more specific cases. A JavaScript library contains sets of JavaScript code which can be called upon to implement certain functions and features. Let’s imagine you want to code a particular element into your website. You could write, say, ten lines of JavaScript from scratch—or you could take the condensed, ready-made version from your chosen JavaScript library. Some examples of JavaScript libraries include jQuery, Lodash, and Underscore. The easiest way to understand how frameworks and libraries work together is to imagine you are building a house. The framework provides the foundation and the structure, while the library enables you to add in ready-made components (like furniture) rather than building your own from scratch. You can learn more about the relationship between languages and libraries in this post explaining the main differences between JavaScript and jQuery. For now, let’s go back to our original question: How important is it to learn vanilla JavaScript? Should you learn vanilla JavaScript first? When it comes to learning JavaScript, it can be tempting to skip ahead to those time-saving frameworks and libraries we just talked about—and many developers do. However, there are many compelling arguments for learning plain JavaScript first. While JavaScript frameworks may help you get the job done quicker, there’s only so far you can go if you don’t understand the core concepts behind these frameworks. Frontend developer Abhishek Nagekar describes how not learning vanilla JavaScript came back to bite him when he started learning the JavaScript frameworks Node and Express: “As I went to write more and more code in Node and Express, I began to get stuck at even the tiniest problems. Suddenly, I was surrounded with words like callbacks, closures, event loop and prototype. It felt like I got a reintroduction to JavaScript, but this time, it was not a toddler playing in its cradle, it was something of a mysterious monster, challenging me on every other step for not having taken it seriously.” The above Tweet references a long-running joke within the developer community, and although it dates way back to 2015, it’s still highly relevant today. If you want to become a developer who can innovate, not just execute, you need to understand the underlying principles of the web—not just the shortcuts. This means learning vanilla JavaScript before you move on to frameworks. In fact, understanding plain JavaScript will help you later on when it comes to deciding whether to use a framework for a certain project, and if so, which framework to use. Why Study JavaScript? JavaScript is one of the 3 languages all web developers must learn: 1. HTML to define the content of web pages 2. CSS to specify the layout of web pages 3. JavaScript to program the behavior of web pages Learning Speed In this tutorial, the learning speed is your choice. Everything is up to you. If you are struggling, take a break, or re-read the material. Always make sure you understand all the "Try-it-Yourself" examples. The only way to become a clever programmer is to: Practice. Practice. Practice. Code. Code. Code ! Commonly Asked Questions How do I get JavaScript? Where can I download JavaScript? Is JavaScript Free? You don't have to get or download JavaScript. JavaScript is already running in your browser on your computer, on your tablet, and on your smart-phone. JavaScript is free to use for everyone.

A flexible and customizable onboarding widget for Flutter applications. This widget allows you to create onboarding experiences with an arbitrary number of steps and starting points. It supports various customization options, including focus nodes, text styles, and overlay colors, making it easy to guide users through your app's features.

SEIS 665 Assignment 2: Linux & Git Overview This week we will focus on becoming familiar with launching a Linux server and working with some basic Linux and Git commands. We will use AWS to launch and host the Linux server. AWS might seem a little confusing at this point. Don’t worry, we will gain much more hands-on experience with AWS throughout the course. The goal is to get you comfortable working with the technology and not overwhelm you with all the details. Requirements You need to have a personal AWS account and GitHub account for this assignment. You should also read the Git Hands-on Guide and Linux Hands-on Guide before beginning this exercise. A word about grading One of the key DevOps practices we learn about in this class is the use of automation to increase the speed and repeatability of processes. Automation is utilized during the assignment grading process to review and assess your work. It’s important that you follow the instructions in each assignment and type in required files and resources with the proper names. All names are case sensitive, so a name like "Web1" is not the same as "web1". If you misspell a name, use the wrong case, or put a file in the wrong directory location you will lose points on your assignment. This is the easiest way to lose points, and also the most preventable. You should always double-check your work to make sure it accurately reflects the requirements specified in the assignment. You should always carefully review the content of your files before submitting your assignment. The assignment Let’s get started! Create GitHub repository The first step in the assignment is to setup a Git repository on GitHub. We will use a special solution called GitHub Classroom for this course which automates the process of setting up student assignment repositories. Here are the basic steps: Click on the following link to open Assignment 2 on the GitHub Classroom site: https://classroom.github.com/a/K4zcVmX- (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. Click on the Accept this assignment button. GitHub Classroom will provide you with a URL (https) to access the assignment repository. Either copy this address to your clipboard or write it down somewhere. You will need to use this address to set up the repository on a Linux server. Example: https://github.com/UST-SEIS665/hw2-seis665-02-spring2019-<your github id>.git At this point your new repository to ready to use. The repository is currently empty. We will put some content in there soon! Launch Linux server The second step in the assignment is to launch a Linux server using AWS EC2. The server should have the following characteristics: Amazon Linux 2 AMI 64-bit (usually the first option listed) Located in a U.S. region (us-east-1) t2.micro instance type All default instance settings (storage, vpm, security group, etc.) I’ve shown you how to launch EC2 instances in class. You can review it on Canvas. Once you launch the new server, it may take a few minutes to provision. Log into server The next step is to log into the Linux server using a terminal program with a secure shell (SSH) support. You can use iTerm2 (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. on a Mac and GitBash/PuTTY (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. on a PC. You will need to have the private server key and the public IP address before attempting to log into the server. The server key is basically your password. If you lose it, you will need to terminate the existing instance and launch a new server. I recommend reusing the same key when launching new servers throughout the class. Note, I make this recommendation to make the learning process easier and not because it is a common security practice. I’ve shown you how to use a terminal application to log into the instance using a Windows desktop. Your personal computer or lab computer may be running a different OS version, but the process is still very similar. You can review the videos on the Canvas. Working with Linux If you’ve made it this far, congratulations! You’ve made it over the toughest hurdle. By the end of this course, I promise you will be able to launch and log into servers in your sleep. You should be looking at a login screen that looks something like this: Last login: Mon Mar 21 21:17:54 2016 from 174-20-199-194.mpls.qwest.net __| __|_ ) _| ( / Amazon Linux AMI ___|\___|___| https://aws.amazon.com/amazon-linux-ami/2015.09-release-notes/ 8 package(s) needed for security, out of 17 available Run "sudo yum update" to apply all updates. ec2-user@ip-172-31-15-26 ~]$ Your terminal cursor is sitting at the shell prompt, waiting for you to type in your first command. Remember the shell? It is a really cool program that lets you start other programs and manage services on the Linux system. The rest of this assignment will be spent working with the shell. Note, when you are asked to type in a command in the steps below, don’t type in the dollar-sign ($) character. This is just meant to represent the command prompt. The actual commands are represented by the characters to the right of the command prompt. Let’s start by asking the shell for some help. Type in: $ help The shell provides you with a list of commands you can run along with possible command options. Next, check out one of the pages in the built-in manual: $ man ls A man page will appear with information on how to use the ls command. This command is used to list the contents of file directories. Either space through the contents of the man page or hit q to exit. Most of the core Linux commands have man pages available. But honestly, some of these man pages are a bit hard to understand. Sometimes your best bet is to search on Google if you are trying to figure out how to use a specific command. When you initially log into Linux, the system places you in your home directory. Each user on the system has a separate home directory. Let’s see where your home directory is located: $ pwd The response should be /home/ec2-user. The pwd command is handy to remember if you ever forget what file directory you are currently located in. If you recall from the Linux Hands-on Guide, this directory is also your current working directory. Type in: $ cd / The cd command let’s you change to a new working directory on the server. In this case, we changed to the root (/) directory. This is the parent of all the other directories on the file system. Type in: $ ls The ls command lists the contents of the current directory. As you can see, root directory contains many other directories. You will become familiar with these directories over time. The ls command provides a very basic directory listing. You need to supply the command with some options if you want to see more detailed information. Type in: $ ls -la See how this command provides you with much more detailed information about the files and directories? You can use this detailed listing to see the owner, group, and access control list settings for each file or directory. Do you see any files listed? Remember, the first character in the access control list column denotes whether a listed item is a file or a directory. You probably see a couple files with names like .autofsck. How come you didn’t see this file when you typed in the lscommand without any options? (Try to run this command again to convince yourself.) Files names that start with a period are called hidden files. These files won’t appear on normal directory listings. Type in: $ cd /var Then, type in: $ ls You will see a directory listing for the /var directory. Next, type in: $ ls .. Huh. This directory listing looks the same as the earlier root directory listing. When you use two periods (..) in a directory path that means you are referring to the parent directory of the current directory. Just think of the two dots as meaning the directory above the current directory. Now, type in: $ cd ~ $ pwd Whoa. We’re back at our home directory again. The tilde character (~) is another one of those handy little directory path shortcuts. It always refers to our personal home directory. Keep in mind that since every user has their own home directory, the tilde shortcut will refer to a unique directory for each logged-in user. Most students are used to navigating a file system by clicking a mouse in nested graphical folders. When they start using a command-line to navigate a file system, they sometimes get confused and lose track of their current position in the file system. Remember, you can always use the pwd command to quickly figure out what directory you are currently working in. Let’s make some changes to the file system. We can easily make our own directories on the file system. Type: mkdir test Now type: ls Cool, there’s our new test directory. Let’s pretend we don’t like that directory name and delete it. Type: rmdir test Now it’s gone. How can you be sure? You should know how to check to see if the directory still exists at this point. Go ahead and check. Let’s create another directory. Type in: $ mkdir documents Next, change to the new directory: $ cd documents Did you notice that your command prompt displays the name of the current directory? Something like: [ec2-user@ip-172-31-15-26 documents]$. Pretty handy, huh? Okay, let’s create our first file in the documents directory. This is just an empty file for training purposes. Type in: $ touch paper.txt Check to see that the new file is in the directory. Now, go back to the previous directory. Remember the double dot shortcut? $ cd .. Okay, we don’t like our documents directory any more. Let’s blow it away. Type in: $ rmdir documents Uh oh. The shell didn’t like that command because the directory isn’t empty. Let’s change back into the documents directory. But this time don’t type in the full name of the directory. You can let shell auto-completion do the typing for you. Type in the first couple characters of the directory name and then hit the tab key: $ cd doc<tab> You should use the tab auto-completion feature often. It saves typing and makes working with the Linux file system much much easier. Tab is your friend. Now, remove the file by typing: $ rm paper.txt Did you try to use the tab key instead of typing in the whole file name? Check to make sure the file was deleted from the directory. Next, create a new file: $ touch file1 We like file1 so much that we want to make a backup copy. Type: $ cp file1 file1-backup Check to make sure the new backup copy was created. We don’t really like the name of that new file, so let’s rename it. Type: $ mv file1-backup backup Moving a file to the same directory and giving it a new name is basically the same thing as renaming it. We could have moved it to a different directory if we wanted. Let’s list all of the files in the current directory that start with the letter f: $ ls f* Using wildcard pattern matching in file commands is really useful if you want the command to impact or filter a group of files. Now, go up one directory to the parent directory (remember the double dot shortcut?) We tried to remove the documents directory earlier when it had files in it. Obviously that won’t work again. However, we can use a more powerful command to destroy the directory and vanquish its contents. Behold, the all powerful remove command: $ rm -fr documents Did you remember to use auto-completion when typing in documents? This command and set of options forcibly removes the directory and its contents. It’s a dangerous command wielded by the mightiest Linux wizards. Okay, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration. Just be careful with it. Check to make sure the documents directory is gone before proceeding. Let’s continue. Change to the directory /var and make a directory called test. Ugh. Permission denied. We created this darn Linux server and we paid for it. Shouldn’t we be able to do anything we want on it? You logged into the system as a user called ec2-user. While this user can create and manage files in its home directory, it cannot change files all across the system. At least it can’t as a normal user. The ec2-user is a member of the root group, so it can escalate its privileges to super-user status when necessary. Let’s try it: $ sudo mkdir test Check to make sure the directory exists now. Using sudo we can execute commands as a super-user. We can do anything we want now that we know this powerful new command. Go ahead and delete the test directory. Did you remember to use sudo before the rmdir command? Check to make sure the directory is gone. You might be asking yourself the question: why can we list the contents of the /var directory but not make changes? That’s because all users have read access to the /var directory and the ls command is a read function. Only the root users or those acting as a super-user can write changes to the directory. Let’s go back to our home directory: $ cd ~ Editing text files is a really common task on Linux systems because many of the application configuration files are text files. We can create a text file by using a text editor. Type in: $ nano myfile.conf The shell starts up the nano text editor and places your terminal cursor in the editing screen. Nano is a simple text-based word processor. Type in a few lines of text. When you’re done writing your novel, hit ctrl-x and answer y to the prompt to save your work. Finally, hit enter to save the text to the filename you specified. Check to see that your file was saved in the directory. You can take a look at the contents of your file by typing: $ cat myfile.conf The cat command displays your text file content on the terminal screen. This command works fine for displaying small text files. But if your file is hundreds of lines long, the content will scroll down your terminal screen so fast that you won’t be able to easily read it. There’s a better way to view larger text files. Type in: $ less myfile.conf The less command will page the display of a text file, allowing you to page through the contents of the file using the space bar. Your text file is probably too short to see the paging in action though. Hit q to quit out of the less text viewer. Hit the up-arrow key on your keyboard a few times until the commmand nano myfile.conf appears next to your command prompt. Cool, huh? The up-arrow key allows you to replay a previously run command. Linux maintains a list of all the commands you have run since you logged into the server. This is called the command history. It’s a really useful feature if you have to re-run a complex command again. Now, hit ctrl-c. This cancels whatever command is displayed on the command line. Type in the following command to create a couple empty files in the directory: $ touch file1 file2 file3 Confirm that the files were created. Some commands, like touch. allow you to specify multiple files as arguments. You will find that Linux commands have all kinds of ways to make tasks more efficient like this. Throughout this assignment, we have been running commands and viewing results on the terminal screen. The screen is the standard place for commands to output results. It’s known as the standard out (stdout). However, it’s really useful to output results to the file system sometimes. Type in: $ ls > listing.txt Take a look at the directory listing now. You just created a new file. View the contents of the listing.txt file. What do you see? Instead of sending the output from the ls command to the screen we sent it to a text file. Let’s try another one. Type: $ cat myfile.conf > listing.txt Take a look at the contents of the listing.txt file again. It looks like your myfile.conf file now. It’s like you made a copy of it. But what happened to the previous content in the listing.txt file? When you redirect the output of a command using the right angle-bracket character (>), the output overwrites the existing file. Type this command in: $ cat myfile.conf >> listing.txt Now look at the contents of the listing.txt file. You should see your original content displayed twice. When you use two angle-bracket characters in the commmand the output appends (or adds to) the file instead of overwriting it. We redirected the output from a command to a text file. It’s also possible to redirect the input to a command. Typically we use a keyboard to provide input, but sometimes it makes more sense to input a file to a command. For example, how many words are in your new listing.txt file? Let’s find out. Type in: $ wc -w < listing.txt Did you get a number? This command inputs the listing.txt file into a word count program called wc. Type in the command: $ ls /usr/bin The terminal screen probably scrolled quickly as filenames flashed by. The /usr/bin directory holds quite a few files. It would be nice if we could page through the contents of this directory. Well, we can. We can use a special shell feature called pipes. In previous steps, we redirected I/O using the file system. Pipes allow us to redirect I/O between programs. We can redirect the output from one program into another. Type in: $ ls /usr/bin | less Now the directory listing is paged. Hit the spacebar to page through the listing. The pipe, represented by a vertical bar character (|), takes the output from the ls command and redirects it to the less command where the resulting output is paged. Pipes are super powerful and used all the time by savvy Linux operators. Hit the q key to quit the paginated directory listing command. Working with shell scripts Now things are going to get interesting. We’ve been manually typing in commands throughout this exercise. If we were running a set of repetitive tasks, we would want to automate the process as much as possible. The shell makes it really easy to automate tasks using shell scripts. The shell provides many of the same features as a basic procedural programming language. Let’s write some code. Type in this command: $ j=123 $ echo $j We just created a variable named j referencing the string 123. The echo command printed out the value of the variable. We had to use a dollar sign ($) when referencing the variable in another command. Next, type in: $ j=1+1 $ echo $j Is that what you expected? The shell just interprets the variable value as a string. It’s not going to do any sort of computation. Typing in shell script commands on the command line is sort of pointless. We want to be able to create scripts that we can run over-and-over. Let’s create our first shell script. Use the nano editor to create a file named myscript. When the file is open in the editor, type in the following lines of code: #!/bin/bash echo Hello $1 Now quit the editor and save your file. We can run our script by typing: $ ./myscript World Er, what happened? Permission denied. Didn’t we create this file? Why can’t we run it? We can’t run the script file because we haven’t set the execute permission on the file. Type in: $ chmod u+x myscript This modifies the file access control list to allow the owner of the file to execute it. Let’s try to run the command again. Hit the up-arrow key a couple times until the ./myscript World command is displayed and hit enter. Hooray! Our first shell script. It’s probably a bit underwhelming. No problem, we’ll make it a little more complex. The script took a single argument called World. Any arguments provided to a shell script are represented as consecutively numbered variables inside the script ($1, $2, etc). Pretty simple. You might be wondering why we had to type the ./ characters before the name of our script file. Try to type in the command without them: $ myscript World Command not found. That seems a little weird. Aren’t we currently in the directory where the shell script is located? Well, that’s just not how the shell works. When you enter a command into the shell, it looks for the command in a predefined set of directories on the server called your PATH. Since your script file isn’t in your special path, the shell reports it as not found. By typing in the ./ characters before the command name you are basically forcing the shell to look for your script in the current directory instead of the default path. Create another file called cleanup using nano. In the file editor window type: #!/bin/bash # My cleanup script mkdir archive mv file* archive Exit the editor window and save the file. Change the permissions on the script file so that you can execute it. Now run the command: $ ./cleanup Take a look at the file directory listing. Notice the archive directory? List the contents of that directory. The script automatically created a new directory and moved three files into it. Anything you can do manually at a command prompt can be automated using a shell script. Let’s create one more shell script. Use nano to create a script called namelist. Here is the content of the script: #!/bin/bash # for-loop test script names='Jason John Jane' for i in $names do echo Hello $i done Change the permissions on the script file so that you can execute it. Run the command: $ ./namelist The script will loop through a set of names stored in a variable displaying each one. Scripts support several programming constructs like for-loops, do-while loops, and if-then-else. These building blocks allow you to create fairly complex scripts for automating tasks. Installing packages and services We’re nearing the end of this assignment. But before we finish, let’s install some new software packages on our server. The first thing we should do is make sure all the current packages installed on our Linux server are up-to-date. Type in: $ sudo yum update -y This is one of those really powerful commands that requires sudo access. The system will review the currently installed packages and go out to the Internet and download appropriate updates. Next, let’s install an Apache web server on our system. Type in: $ sudo yum install httpd -y Bam! You probably never knew that installing a web server was so easy. We’re not going to actually use the web server in this exercise, but we will in future assignments. We installed the web server, but is it actually running? Let’s check. Type in: $ sudo service httpd status Nope. Let’s start it. Type: $ sudo service httpd start We can use the service command to control the services running on the system. Let’s setup the service so that it automatically starts when the system boots up. Type in: $ sudo chkconfig httpd on Cool. We installed the Apache web server on our system, but what other programs are currently running? We can use the pscommand to find out. Type in: $ ps -ax Lots of processes are running on our system. We can even look at the overall performance of our system using the topcommand. Let’s try that now. Type in: $ top The display might seem a little overwhelming at first. You should see lots of performance information displayed including the cpu usage, free memory, and a list of running tasks. We’re almost across the finish line. Let’s make sure all of our valuable work is stored in a git repository. First, we need to install git. Type in the command: $ sudo yum install git -y Check your work It’s very important to check your work before submitting it for grading. A misspelled, misplaced or missing file will cost you points. This may seem harsh, but the reality is that these sorts of mistakes have consequences in the real world. For example, a server instance could fail to launch properly and impact customers because a single required file is missing. Here is what the contents of your git repository should look like before final submission: ┣archive ┃ ┣ file1 ┃ ┣ file2 ┃ ┗ file3 ┣ namelist ┗ myfile.conf Saving our work in the git repository Next, make sure you are still in your home directory (/home/ec2-user). We will install the git repository you created at the beginning of this exercise. You will need to modify this command by typing in the GitHub repository URL you copied earlier. $ git clone <your GitHub URL here>.git Example: git clone https://github.com/UST-SEIS665/hw2-seis665-02-spring2019-<your github id>.git The git application will ask you for your GitHub username and password. Note, if you have multi-factor authentication enabled on your GitHub account you will need to provide a personal token instead of your password. Git will clone (copy) the repository from GitHub to your Linux server. Since the repository is empty the clone happens almost instantly. Check to make sure that a sub-directory called "hw2-seis665-02-spring2019-<username>" exists in the current directory (where <username> is your GitHub account name). Git automatically created this directory as part of the cloning process. Change to the hw2-seis665-02-spring2019-<username> directory and type: $ ls -la Notice the .git hidden directory? This is where git actually stores all of the file changes in your repository. Nothing is actually in your repository yet. Change back to the parent directory (cd ..). Next, let’s move some of our files into the repository. Type: $ mv archive hw2-seis665-02-spring2019-<username> $ mv namelist hw2-seis665-02-spring2019-<username> $ mv myfile.conf hw2-seis665-02-spring2019-<username> Hopefully, you remembered to use the auto-complete function to reduce some of that typing. Change to the hw2-seis665-02-spring2019-<username> directory and list the directory contents. Your files are in the working directory, but are not actually stored in the repository because they haven’t been committed yet. Type in: $ git status You should see a list of untracked files. Let’s tell git that we want these files tracked. Type in: $ git add * Now type in the git status command again. Notice how all the files are now being tracked and are ready to be committed. These files are in the git staging area. We’ll commit them to the repository next. Type: $ git commit -m 'assignment 2 files' Next, take a look at the commit log. Type: $ git log You should see your commit listed along with an assigned hash (long string of random-looking characters). Finally, let’s save the repository to our GitHub account. Type in: $ git push origin master The git client will ask you for your GitHub username and password before pushing the repository. Go back to the GitHub.com website and login if you have been logged out. Click on the repository link for the assignment. Do you see your files listed there? Congratulations, you completed the exercise! Terminate server The last step is to terminate your Linux instance. AWS will bill you for every hour the instance is running. The cost is nominal, but there’s no need to rack up unnecessary charges. Here are the steps to terminate your instance: Log into your AWS account and click on the EC2 dashboard. Click the Instances menu item. Select your server in the instances table. Click on the Actions drop down menu above the instances table. Select the Instance State menu option Click on the Terminate action. Your Linux instance will shutdown and disappear in a few minutes. The EC2 dashboard will continue to display the instance on your instance listing for another day or so. However, the state of the instance will be terminated. Submitting your assignment — IMPORTANT! If you haven’t already, please e-mail me your GitHub username in order to receive credit for this assignment. There is no need to email me to tell me that you have committed your work to GitHub or to ask me if your GitHub submission worked. If you can see your work in your GitHub repository, I can see your work.

A focused toolkit for solving real-world Playwright E2E pain points

Please Read Me First. This is a set of java file of my final version of electronic artifacts. This is a game to map my experience in Disney World, in Orlando during this spring break. However, because of my limited skills in computer science, I really have no idea how to simplify the process to run the game. Sorry for the inconvenience. In order to run the game, you may need to install JAVA. I hope the following links will help you.     http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index-jsp-138363.html#javasejdk
    http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~simpkins/teaching/gatech/cs1331/guides/install-java.html My main file is called Disney. You can call Disney in console to start the game. However, I failed to putting all the things inside Disney file. Therefore, you may also need to call AdventureLand, MainStreet, and FrontierLand to start other three games. I hope this will help you. Sorry again for the inconvenience. 1. the structure of my project My project only focused on my trip in Magic Kingdom, one part of Disney world in Orlando. It is a game which guides players to choose from six sub-games, which match six sections of the park, Main Street U.S.A, Tomorrowland, Adventureland, Frontierland, Fantasyland and Liberty Square. I chose one of the rides I took in each section which, from my perspective, shows what I found interesting in Disney world. I changed what I experienced in the park into a small computer game. I want to share my experience with others while they play my games. In the following part of self reflection, I explain the background, rules and other things about each game. For convenience of matching them, I use different color to mark different parts. I hope it will help readers a little bit when they are lost in my disordered reflections. 1. the hall of presidents - Liberty Square 2. Festivall parade - Fantasyland (I explain this one in the part of technology skill limitations) 3. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad - Frontierland 4.talking with Woody- Adventureland 5. Stitch Store - Tomorrowland 6. lunch time - Main Street USA 3. my reflection of the trip in Disney World from dream to reality When I exited Disney resort, I found a sign along the street welcomed people back to real world. Actually, when I was in Orlando, I couldn't believe as an adult, people can mess up fantasy world in the theme parks and the real world. Nevertheless, I felt I was still in fantasy world, when I dreamed twice that I fought for the key to open the door of future. As is known to all, while sleeping, people always dream about what people thinks in the daytime. Therefore, my dream shows that my mind still stayed in the world with Mickey and Donald. I believe that it is experiencing fantasy world which is the source of the greatest happiness people get from theme park. On the one hand, everybody has pressure in real life especially for adults. They can get out of pressure for a day trip in theme park. They can experience different lives here with cartoon characters. On the other hand, sometimes, it is a really hard task to fulfill some dreams, such as being a princess. However, in Disney world, you can dress up the same as Snow White, waiting for your prince; you can go to space by rocket; you can also travel all over the world in one day and enjoy the food of each country. These are all the magic of theme parks. Therefore, in my game, I learnt the way which Disney design their rides to focus on the background story of the game instead of the game itself. For example, there is a ride called Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, which streaks through a haunted gold-mining town aboard a rollicking runaway mine train. The views around the ride were like a gold mining town. There were tools for gold-mining around the railroad and the railroad looked like very old. In order to show riders that it was a haunted gold-mining town, the train always took a sudden turn or speed up quickly to scare people. I decided to name one of my game, which was inspired by this ride, the same name, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Instead of sitting inside the mine train to travel around the haunted town, mine was for users to use keyboard to control the train to travel around the gridding railroad. I place traps inside several parts of gridding to "scare" players, who cannot know where traps are until they get into them. If I know how to use animation, I will show scary pictures when players drive their train to the traps. Unlike the ride in Disney, my players can no longer travel once they encounter a trap because their train may have some problems to keep moving. Also, the main goal in the game is to find the gold. However, as we know, finding gold is really hard. Therefore, players must go to find Aladdin's Wonderful lamp where also places inside the gridding while players cannot see its exact place until they happen to drive inside the part where lamp is. Aladdin's Wonderful lamp will show players the map of the gold and when people get to the gold mine, they win. However, there is another limitation of the game. Haunted town is so dangerous during the night. Therefore, players only have 12 hours to finish the task. Train can drive one square in 20 min. Therefore, train can only move 36 times or they will also be caught by traps. In this game, I want to show audiences I have a background story like rides in Disney World. Players need to find the gold in a haunted gold-mining town. Also, in order to show the relationship with Disney, I use Aladdin's Wonderful Lamp as the guide for the players, which is a well known characters in Disney cartoon. I created another game, called talking with Woody to show the magic power of Disney characters. There are a lot of chances to meet Disney characters in Disney world. On the one hand, travelers, especially small kids, are really excited to meet the characters they watched on TV. I think some kids may believe they take pictures with real Mickey Mouse. On the hand, staffs in Disney who wear the costumes are really tired. It was hot in Orlando last week, but all costumes were very heavy. I was moved by the staffs inside Mickey. They also need to mimic the actions of characters and also need to show kindness and warmness to children. It seems like a really hard job. Therefore, I decide to show this part of Disney in my project as well. I decided to use Woody, a toy all the toys look up to. He is smart, kind and brave like a cowboy should be. He is more than a top, he is friend to everyone enjoying the movie Toy. In order to create an interactive game, I planned to ask players to guide Woody. Players need to call Woody before their instructions. For instance, if players say (actually players are typing) "Woody, please sit down", Woody will sit down (actually, there will be another line on the screen showing the same as players import). However, if players are rude and just say "sit down" without calling Woody, Woody won't act (actually there is just nothing showing up on the screen). great facilities to provide convenience to everyone The facilities to satisfy needs for special groups of people, like small kids or disabled people, are well developed. In the past in China, it seemed impossible for parents to take infants and small kids to travel. The road is not flat or wide enough for strollers or wheelchairs. However, in Disney world, everything seemed like well prepared for everyone to use. There are strollers rentals, and electric conveyance vehicles rentals, which are available to rent throughout Disney world. There are baby care center for mothers to feed, change and nurse little ones. There are locker rentals for storing personal items. There are also hearing disability services which have sign language interpretation to help disabled people to enjoy fantasy world. There are still a lot other convenient services in Disney world. I think the purpose of these services show the pursue of equality among everyone in the world. On the one hand, I am really touched by the availability of these services here. It seems Disney try its best to service everyone who have desire to experience fantasy land. On the other hand, in this way, Disney can attract more travelers in order to make more money in some ways. Also, in Disney, it seems like a tradition that there are stores at the exit of the famous rides. Somebody may think it is just a strategy to make people shopping a lot. However, I think it also provides some convenience that travelers can buy souvenirs where is memorable. For example, when I finished my trip in Escape Stitch, I entered a store with a lot of kinds of Stitch, like Stitch pillow, Stitch key chain and so on. I really want to buy something in order to remind me the wonderful feelings. Therefore, I showed my opinion inside my game as well. I wrote one part is for shopping. The items are different kinds of Stitch. My codes can act as a robot to help customers to shop in the store. There are a lot of restaurants in Disney. Maps of Disney are full of restaurants' name. The greatest things about the food are in Epcot, I experienced different counties in one day. I felt like I was in fast travel in different parts of the world and tasted their special food and snacks while I was on the way. I remembered I was still eating Japanese food when I was in "Mexico". It was a great experience. However, there were always a long waiting lines for the all restaurants. People needed to reserve a table a day before their trip and even they had the reservation, they still needed to wait for a long time. I think Disney may need some good ways to fix the problems of waiting for a long time. I have no idea of changing the situation of restaurants, but I think if there are robots to customers to order in fast food restaurant, it may help a lot. Thus, I have another code to customers to order in Plaza Restaurant. If this kind of robots can work in the real life, people can order by themselves and there will be more staffs available to prepare food. theme park uses interesting ways to teach knowledge of boring topics Theme part is also a great source of learning knowledge, especially for kids. They use Disney characters, interesting shows, or even games to teach useful things. The ways change the boring knowledge to interesting things, which always attract children's attention. The most amazing one was an interactive game in Epcot's Innoventions, called "where's the fire?", which teaches adults and children basic fire safety in a fun and entertaining way. About every five minutes, the players waiting in line are divided into two groups and move into the home's entry. Here, a host will explain the object of the game and lay out the rules. The scenario is this: you are on a mission to discover a number of fire hazards commonly found around the house. To do this, you move from room to room, looking for potential risks. To help in the task, each player is given a special "safely light" to help uncover lurking dangers. The rooms are large projection screens. When a hazard is discovered, all persons in the room must shine their safety light on the same spot. when they do, the hazard is rendered harmless and points are assigned. After playing in the game to find the hazardous things in the house, I learned a lot of safety tips. It is much easier to remember the tips I learned during the game than those I learned on textbook or internet. I believe kids will enjoy the games and learn from them as well. I also tried to show this reflection in my project. Thus, I planned to make a game, called the hall of presidents, which test people's knowledge of presidents in USA. However, I failed to achieve the goal of making it an entertaining game instead of a quiz. My game was still like a quiz. However, because it is the only code which can work well inside my big game. I decide to still hold the game for my projects in order to what my original ideas are. 4. technology skill limitations I feel terribly sorry for my limited skills in CS. It is my first time to learn JAVA this semester. I just begin to learn the core concepts of JAVA this month. When I choose to use java code for this project, I know I will face plentiful limitations and problems. Here I want to express my gratitude to Dr. Johnson, who encouraged me not to give up my ideas. To be honest, I have no idea of how to change a java code into a real game with animations. I know the background story of the game is more important for English course and pictures are the best way to show the background, but I have no idea to show all these things by JAVA coding. Therefore, I choose to use videos for my presentation. In this way, I can show my animation inside the videos while the code clue of my game is still composed by JAVA coding. Also, video gives me a lot of freedom when choose my contents for presentation. I can explain a lot details of my project clearly through videos. For example, I found the festival parade in the magic kingdom was great and I wanted to share the experience in my project by showing the pictures or videos. However, because of the technology limitations, I can only show the videos in my presentations. Also, I mistakenly deleted my videos which I shot on my trip Orlando, I can only share others' parade show...... Also, I want to apologize for the incompleteness of my game. I only dedicated to writing codes for Magic Kingdom, a part of my trip during spring break. Writing codes is a really time consuming task for me. In general, I need to spend more than eight hours to finish one project for my CS assignment this semester. While for this project, the final artifacts are composed of several parts of codes and in the end I need to write the father code in order to take care of my code family for spring break. Due to my limitation in writing codes, I can only finish one part of Disney world. However, I think my code shows all my reflections and perspectives during my trip, even though it looks like it only shows one part of my trip. The terrible mistake I made is that I found out the most of my codes I wrote had significant errors on Tuesday. I went to CS TA office for help, while the errors were still impossible to fix in order to achieve the goal I planned to get. Consequently, my game have to be separated into several parts. Instead of a big game having others as sub-games inside the big one, my final artifacts are composed by several small games. I need to start them one by one. It may cause some inconvenience for players to map their trip in Disney world.

一键启动是专注于提升操作效率的资源管理工具，支持快速批量启动多种类型资源。核心解决多任务场景下的重复操作痛点。One-Click Launch is a resource management tool focused on enhancing operational efficiency, supporting the rapid batch launching of various types of resources. It addresses the pain points of repetitive operations in multitasking scenarios.

The project focused on the use of public data to assess the economic situation in the country based on the state of the stock market and national means of payment, in particular - of the national currency. As sources are used: Open data Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation These Moscow Exchange Google Finance Data Technologies used: Backend: Databases (relational) - Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Databases (multivariate) models DataMining, OLAP-cube - Microsoft Analysis Services 12.0 Веб-сервер - Windows Server 2012 / Internet Information Services Самописный ASP.NET HTTP Restful интерфейс для взаимодействия с Frontend ETL (загрузка и пре-процессинг данных, управление обновлением данных) SQL Server Integration Services 2014 (разработка в Visual Studio 2013, SSDT) Frontend: AngularJS ChartJS Twitter Bootstrap These were chosen so that the detail (granularity) in the set is not less than 1 day. The result has been created and filled with data analytic repository (Kimball model, topology - star), which was used to build a multi-dimensional databases and OLAP-based cubes on it, as well as models of analysis of data on two main algorithms: Microsoft Time Series, Microsoft Neural Network . To ensure interoperability frontend and backend server for backend-server was set up HTTP-Restful interface JSON-issuing documents in the form of finished sets. The project includes two main areas: Intelligent visualization of open data Analysis of open data and the construction of forecasts based on them Intelligent visualization involves the use of MDX-queries to the OLAP-cube, followed by depression (drilldown) in the data, the system allows the user to quickly find the "weak points" of the economy, as part of the data collected. To predict the time a standard mix of algorithms ARTXP / ARIMA, without the use of queries involving cross-prediction (but it is possible to enroll in the system correct data). These algorithms have been tested primarily on foreign exchange rates (US dollar) and the assets of banks included in the special list of Ministry of Finance. In addition, for assets shows the different customization options algorithms - a long-term, short-term and medium-term (balanced) plan. Assessing the impact of oil prices and foreign currency exchange rate for the total market capitalization was conducted on a sample of the data collected: companies with a total market capitalization of 100 to 500 million rubles, present in the market during 2013-2015 Analytical server builds the neural network receiving the input exchange rates, companies, the weighted average share price, total capitalization of the company and the price of oil to requests received models give the opportunity to evaluate the growth rate of \ fall (if at all) the company's capitalization at historical exchange rates and / or the cost of oil. Built a system can expand to include new indicators, which will significantly increase the accuracy of forecasting.

WasteEasy is an app designed to streamline waste management. Developed during the Envision Hackathon, it focuses on waste classification and encourages proper waste segregation. Users can earn points or coupons by utilizing WasteEasy for their waste disposal needs.

A modern todo management tool that groups tasks on the basis of priority levels, comes with features of Google schedule, a timer with white noise for focussed work, awesome progress reports, and points for motivation and improved producitvity.

We have come a long way since I was a child in the 1960s when all I wanted for Christmas was a slinky and some Rock’Em – Sock’Em Robots. Now imagine we have traveled ten years into the future, and it is Christmas 2031. Alexa has replaced kids’ parents and Santa Claus. Every toy is connected to the Internet and looks like a robot version of the animal it represents. Clean thermonuclear Christmas trees will be providing us with radiant, gamma-ray energy for all our holiday needs. Pogo sticks have also made a comeback, but they are solar-powered and can leap entire city blocks. And while I am busy pretending to be the Ghost of Christmas Future, I thought it would also be fun to ask the Office of the CTO team about their predictions for futuristic, technical toys. So, I posed these two questions: What cool TECHNICAL toy or gadget would you like Santa to bring you this year in 2021? As a participating member of the Office of the CTO, what cool TECHNICAL toy or gadget (that has not yet been invented) would you like Santa to bring you in 10 years from now in 2031? christmas wishlist for the octo team overlay You know what? We just might see I see a sneak preview of some of these magical tech toys of the future in just a few weeks at the CES 2022 conference. In the meantime, take a look at the wish list from all of our Extreme technical gurus: Marcus Burton – Wireless and Cloud Architect Christmas Wish 2021: Is a Tesla Cybertruck an option? I’ll even take a prototype. That will scratch several technology itches at the same time. Think about it…EV, autonomous driving, AI, 5G probably, cloud-connected, mobile-first, and all the best in materials sciences and mechanical engineering applied to trucks. What more could an outdoorsy tech guy want? Christmas Wish 2031: I’m kinda thinking that while everyone else has their brain slurped out in the metaverse (with VR!), I will prefer to go to the actual mountains. But you know, I have a wife and kids, so I have to think about safety. So here’s my wish: a smart personal device that has a full week of battery life (using ultra-thin silicon wafers) with rapid solar charging, LEO satellite connectivity (for sending “eat your heart out” 3D pics to my friends from the “there’s no 6G here” wilderness), and ultra-HD terrain feature maps for modern navigation. Carla Guzzetti – VP, Experience, Messaging & Enablement Christmas Wish 2021: I want this: Meeting Owl Pro – 360-Degree, 1080p HD Smart Video Conference Camera, Microphone, and Speaker Christmas Wish 2031: I want a gadget where we can have virtual meetings without the need for a wearable! Who wants to wear heavy goggles all day? Doug McDonald – Director of Product Management Christmas Wish 2021: As a technologist often looking for a balance between screen time and health and fitness I hope Santa brings me the Aura Strap. The Aura strap adds additional IoT sensory capabilities to compliment your Apple smartwatch. Bioelectrical impedance analysis is the cutting-edge science behind the AURA Strap. This innovation provides a way to truly see how your body changes over the course of a day. Their body composition analysis includes fat, muscle mass, minerals, and hydration; providing personalized insights that improve the results of your workouts, diet, and your lifestyle as a whole. Christmas Wish 2031: Hopefully, this innovation will be here sooner. Still, in the spirit of my first wish from Santa, I also hope to have a service engine warning light for me. The concept is utilizing advancements in biomedical sensory devices to pinpoint potential changes in your physical metrics that may help in seeking medical attention sooner than later if variances in health data occur. I spoke about this concept in the Digital Diagnosis episode of the Inflection Points podcast from the Office of the CTO. Ed Koehler – Principal Engineer Christmas Wish 2021: My answers are short and sweet. I want a nice drone with high-resolution pan, tilt, and zoom (PTZ) cameras. Christmas Wish 2031: In ten years, I want a drone that I can sit inside and fly away! Puneet Sehgal – Business Initiatives Program Manager Christmas Wish 2021: I have always wanted to enjoy the world from a bird’s eye view. Therefore, my wish is for Santa to bring me a good-quality drone camera this year. It is amazing how quickly drones have evolved from commercial /military use to becoming a personal gadget. Christmas Wish 2031: In 2031, I wish Santa could get me a virtual reality (VR) trainer to help me internalize physical motion by looking at a simulation video while sending an electrical impulse to mimic it. It will open endless possibilities, and I could become an ice skater, a karate expert, or a pianist – all in one. Maybe similar research is already being done, but we are far away from something like this maturing for practical use. So, who knows – it’s Santa after all and we are talking 2031! Tim Harrison – Director of Product Marketing, Service Provider Christmas Wish 2021: This year, I would love to extend my audio recording setup and move from a digital 24 channel mixer to a control surface that integrates with my DAW (digital audio workstation) and allows me to use my outboard microphone pre-amps. I’ve been looking at an ICON QCon Pro G2 plus one QCon EX G2 extender to give me direct control over 16 channels at once (I use 16 channels just for my drum kit). Christmas Wish 2031: Ten years from now, I sincerely hope to receive an anti-gravity platform. First, I’ll be old, and climbing stairs will have become more challenging for these creaky old bones. Secondly, who hasn’t hoped for a REAL hoverboard? Once we know what gravity is “made of,” we can start making it easier to manipulate objects on earth and make space more habitable for human physiology. Either that or a puppy. Puppy sitting Divya Balu Pazhayannur – Director of Business Initiatives Christmas Wish 2021: I’m upgrading parts of my house over the holidays and browsing online for kitchen and laundry appliances. If you had told me that I would be spending three hours reading blogs on choosing the right cooktop for me, I would not have believed you. Does it have the right power, is it reliable, is it Wi-Fi enabled, can you talk to it – I’m kidding on that last one. Having said that, I’d love to get the Bosch Benchmark Gas Stovetop. Although I can’t speak to my appliance, its minimalist look has me writing it down on my wish list for Santa. I’ll even offer him some crispy dosas in exchange. Christmas Wish 2031: Apart from flying cars and personal robot assistants, I’d love to get the gift of better connectivity. I miss my family and friends in India, and it would be amazing to engage with them through holographic technology. I imagine it would allow for a much higher level of communication than today’s ‘talking head’ approach. Although do I want my family sitting with me in my living room? Still – I’d like to think a holograph would be just fantastic. Yury Ostrovsky – Sr. Technology Manager Christmas Wish 2021: I believe 2022 will be the year of VR toys. Virtual Reality is already popular, but I believe more applications will be developed in this area. We might see radio waves coming from different sources (Wi-Fi, LTE, 5G, BT, etc.) and visualize propagation in real-time. Christmas Wish 2031: “Prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future” – Niels Bohr Kurt Semba – Principal Architect Christmas Wish 2021: The Crown from Neurosity. It helps you get and stay in a deep focus to improve your work and gaming results. Christmas Wish 2031: A non-evasive health device that can quickly look deep into your body and cells and explain why you are not feeling well today. Jon Filson – Senior Producer, Content Christmas Wish 2021: I want a large rollable TV by LG. In part because I watch a lot of football. And while I have a Smart TV, I still can’t get it to connect to my Bluetooth speaker … so while I love it, I want it to work better, and isn’t that so often the way with tech? But more than that, I don’t like and have never liked that rooms have to be designed around TVs. They are big, which is fine, but they are often in the way, which is less so. They should disappear when not in use. It’s $100,000 so I don’t expect it any time soon. But it’s an idea whose time has come. Christmas Wish 2031: I cheated on this one and asked my 12-year-old son Jack what he would want. It’s the portal gun, from Rick and Morty, a show in which a crazed scientist named Rick takes his grandson Morty on wacky adventures in a multi-verse. That last part is important to me. Kids today are already well into multi-verses, while we adults are just struggling to make one decent Metaverse. The next generation is already way ahead of us digitally speaking, it’s clear. Alexey Reznik – Senior UX Designer Christmas Wish 2021: This awesome toy: DJI Mavic 2 Pro – Drone Quadcopter UAV with Hasselblad Camera 3-Axis Gimbal HDR 4K Video Adjustable Aperture 20MP 1″ CMOS Sensor, up to 48mph, Gray Christmas Wish 2031: Something along these lines: BMW Motorrad VISION NEXT 100 BMW Motorcycle Michael Rash – Distinguished Engineer – Security Christmas Wish 2021: Satechi USB-C Multiport MX Adapter – Dual 4K HDMI. Christmas Wish 2031: A virtual reality headset that actually works. Alena Amir – Senior Content and Communications Manager Christmas Wish 2021: With conversations around VR/AR and the metaverse taking the world by storm, Santa could help out with an Oculus Quest. Purely for research purposes of course! Christmas Wish 2031: The 1985 movie, Back to the Future, was a family favorite and sure we didn’t get it all exactly right by 2015 but hey, it’s almost 2022! About time we get those hoverboards! David Coleman – Director of Wireless Christmas Wish 2021: Well, it looks like drones are the #1 wish item for 2021, and I am no exception. My wife and I just bought a home in the mountains of Blue Ridge, Georgia, where there is an abundance of wildlife. I want a state-of-the-art drone for bear surveillance. Christmas Wish 2031: In ten years, I will be 71 years old, and I hope to be at least semi-retired and savoring the fruits of my long tech career. Even though we are looking to the future, I want a time machine to revisit the past. I would travel back to July 16th, 1969, and watch Apollo 11 liftoff from Cape Kennedy to the moon. I actually did that as a nine-year-old kid. Oh, and I would also travel back to 1966 and play with my Rock’Em – Sock’Em Robots. Rock'em Sock'em Robots To summarize, our peeps in the Office of the CTO all envision Christmas 2031, where the way we interact as a society will have progressed. In 2021, we already have unlimited access to information, so future tech toys might depend less on magical new technologies and more on the kinds of experiences these new technologies can create. And when those experiences can be shared across the globe in real-time, the world gains an opportunity to learn from each other and grow together in ways that would never have been possible.

A micro framework for controlling ILDA show lasers with JavaScript/TypeScript over WebSockets, with a focus on delivering a stream of points.

IOU Calculation for 2D Quadrilaterals The major functional components of autonomous vehicles are perception, control, planning, system management, and localization. Perception is a process that senses the surrounding environment using various sensors like Radars, LiDARs, Ultrasonic and Cameras sensors. Sensors are designed to extract information from the environment and hence, to perceive the surroundings. • Lidars are used to extract the information on the position and shape of surrounding obstacles within its range and field of view (FOV). • Camera sensor data provides information about the object class. • Radars are used to derive the position and velocity of the obstacles and so on. Multi-sensor fusion integrates the sequence of observations from a number of heterogeneous sensors into a single best estimate of the state of the environment. One of the Sensor Fusion outputs is the IOU (Intersection over Union) or Jaccard index during the object detection. When the object detection is performed through more than one source of sensors (such as Ultrasonic and Camera sensors), the IOU or Jaccard index is calculated to quantify the percent overlap from two different sources of sensors. The basic problem in multi-sensor fusion systems is to integrate a sequence of observations from a number of different sensors into a single best estimate of the state of the environment. In such a case, the IOU helps to identify the overlap area, which is captured from the multi-sensors. For example for the Autonomous Parking Functionality of ADAS (Autonomous Driving Assistance System), the Ultrasonic and Camera sensors are capturing the free space for Ego Vehicle Parking (as shown in the below figure). As per the capability and mounting position of different sensors, the available parking space is captured. The captured area from different sensors may or may not be the same. In that case, the IOU or Jaccard Index helps to quantify the overlap area detected by two different sensors. Figure 1: Practical use case of IOU The IOU or Jaccard Index is calculated as follows: Figure 2: IOU Calculation The IOU (Intersection over Union) value varies between 0 to 1. More the overlap region better the IOU value. Henceforth the confidence in the input data from the sensors increases. Lower the IOU, troubles in deciding the available space for the parking as different sensors are showing different spaces for parking. Figure 3: Confidence decision based on IOU Note: Decision of the High Confidence from calculated IOU value varies from application to application. For example, in some applications, High Confidence can be decided over 0.8 IOU value whereas, in some other applications, High Confidence can be decided over 0.9 IOU value. The IOU calculation can be done over the images or coordinates captured from the different sensors. In addition, the IOU calculation can also be performed considering the captured object as a 2D or 3D object. In this article, I have focused on the IOU calculation based on coordinates received from two different sensors. The captured coordinates would be of 2D Quadrilateral. Refer to the MATLAB Code for the Calculation of IOU using the X and Y coordinates captured from the two different sensors. The point of interest here is in finding the intersection points and identifying the quadrilateral vertices that lie inside another quadrilateral. A glimpse of the MATLAB code results: Figure 4: IOU calculation from MATLAB Code I have considered all the possible conditions for regular/irregular quadrilateral such as complete overlapping, no overlapping, vertices having negative and positive coordinates, and so on. Thank you for reading. I am open to discussion on this topic. Do reach out to me at chetan9chudhari@gmail.com. HAPPY LEARNING!!!

A collection of CC-BY-SA course material to teach the Rust programming language, in different formats, levels, and focus points. Contact me for remote and on-site trainings!

A faster spline/line renderer using the GPU + Jobs + Burst, focusing mainly on the performance of modifying control points, i.e. it is quite useful as a 2D Rope renderer.

A free cross-platform mobile app for tracking scores and rules in board games. Board Buddy simplifies gameplay by helping you keep track of scores and key points, so you can focus on the game itself and socializing with friends

Visualize the low-level outputs of YOLOv8 to analyze and understand the areas where our model focuses. Specifically, illustrate which anchor points are activated to predict bounding boxes.

Bionic Reading is a new method facilitating the reading process by guiding the eyes through text with artificial fixation points. As a result, the reader is only focusing on the highlighted initial letters and lets the brain center complete the word. In a digital world dominated by shallow forms of reading, Bionic Reading aims to encourage a more in-depth reading and understanding of written content.

ANPELA is a user-centric and application-oriented tool which is capable of navigating the data processing for single-cell proteomics (SCP). ANPELA 3.0 has significantly improved its practicality, focusing primarily on the following points: 1. multi-scenarios deployment; 2. data security; 3. open source; and 4. user-friendly interface.

计算机网络和计算机操作系统的个人学习笔记，涵盖日常期末复习及计算机408考研知识点，以及Java面试重点 Personal study notes on computer networks and computer operating systems, covering daily final review and comer 408 postgraduate entrance examinatpution knowledge points, as well as Java interview focus.

Stock investment can be one of the ways to manage one’s asset. Technical analysis is sometimes used in financial markets to assist traders make buying and selling decisions [1]. Many technical analysis trading rules are deterministic trading policies. [2] uses genetic algorithm to find technical trading rule. [3] studies evolutionary algorithms in optimization of technical rules for automated stock trading. [4] proposed a stock trading system based on optimized technical analysis parameters for creating buy-sell points using genetic algorithms. [5] studies the selection of the optimal trading model for stock investment in different industries. [6] describes the optimization of trading strategies. The optimization of trading rule using genetic algorithm or evolutionary algorithms belongs to policy-based method, which is a branch of Machine Learning. Policy-based methods try to directly optimize for the optimal policy which is an important branch for domains with continuous action spaces [7]. There are studies focus on how to find a trading strategy via Reinforcement Learning (RL) [8] or using Deep-Q learning for automatic trading algorithm [9]. But in this study we will focus on the policy-based method using Generic Algorithm that directly search for the optimal parameters of a deterministic policy. Yahoo Finance’s stock history data [10] will be used in this study. The reason to choose Yahoo Finance data is because it is free and available for public to assess. The performance of algorithm will be evaluated using different stocks. The purpose of the study is to see the difference between using an agent with optimized policy to manage one’s asset with buy-and-hold strategy, or manage one’s asset with an agent with unoptimized policy.

An AI controller for smooth turning that allows AIs to rotate toward target actors or points. Unlike the default AI Controller focus code, this controller interpolates rotation smoothly over time, giving your AI smooth looking motion instead of snapping instantly

This project focuses on exploring and visualizing geospatial data for the city of Youssoufia. We leverage open-source data from OpenStreetMap to create points of interest (POIs) on a map, representing various locations like cafes, YouCode, etc. The visualization is done using Geopandas for data processing and Matplotlib for creating static maps.

Using OpenCV to add a depth-of-field bokeh effect to 3D scenes rendered by OpenGL. Uses some optimizations and tricks such as dividing the Z-axis into slices that get coarser the further they are from focus, and some faux HDR by spreading very bight points more.

As a digital marketing company, we have actually driven numerous web site hits, millions of leads as well as also millions of sales. So if you are a local business or a young expert that wants to find out more about marketing management, then you remain in the best place. Today, we're reviewing exactly how advertising managers can develop effective projects, detailed. Our digital marketing firm saves small companies from bad advertising as well as no development, yet of course, in order to do that effectively, our advertising and marketing supervisors have to have extraordinary skills around marketing monitoring. Regrettably, a great deal of the schools today are instructing out-of-date advertising and marketing techniques. As well as the net is swamped with phony experts who show marketing however in fact have no actual experience. This can be an easy catch for anyone just beginning to seek aid regarding the globe of marketing. That's why you should pick up from individuals who have actual experience As Well As can confirm it for greater than one firm. And also these are simply results we've gotten for our firm, using our very own techniques. We have more than 10,000 hrs of actual digital marketing experience and also have aided thousands of business find the very best options to their advertising issues. Just how have we managed to do this? Via our team of marketer! In order for them to offer these efficient options, our marketing supervisors need to have outstanding abilities around marketing administration. And those abilities are precisely what our advertising and marketing supervisors have. We're mosting likely to give you some powerful techniques if you want to learn advertising and marketing monitoring or become a much better marketing manager. In this blog, you will certainly learn exactly how advertising managers can develop effective campaigns, step-by-step. We will certainly discuss: 1. Just how to onboard a brand-new marketing project 2. Just how to structure your strategy 3. How to setup everything 4. And much more! Without further trouble, let's go ahead as well as dive in with action # 1. Action 1: How to onboard a brand-new advertising project Whether you are beginning a new marketing campaign from square one or you are inheriting an existing advertising campaign, it is really important to recognize 2 things. # 1 You require to develop your advertising goals. Now usually we have clients that will certainly claim their objective is to obtain more sales. Yet that is an extremely high-level goal. With that, you'll intend to unbox your goal into something more workable. To break down your objective into actionable parts, we will certainly start to speak about leading as well as lagging indicators. A lagging indicator is normally a result, such as more sales, even more leads, or more web traffic, which are great objectives to have. Yet in order to get to an outcome or a lagging indication, you need a leading indication which is typically an action. Leading signs are points that you can regulate now everyday or each week. And these are the advertising and marketing objectives that you want to develop. As a marketing manager, you need to understand both leading and lagging objectives. # 2 You need to understand your budget. When you onboard an advertising and marketing campaign, you require to understand your campaign budget. If you are unclear about your marketing spending plan or about just how to accurately calculate your marketing budget, we have a thorough video clip that can help you here. Ultimately, the important point below is that you intend to make sure your budget plan matches your objectives. For that reason, if you desire $1 million in sales for instance, then you require to be all set to spend thousands of thousands of dollars. And also honestly, you wish to be as sensible as possible because that's the accountable thing to do as a great online marketer. A lot of people strive for the over night success desire, however the fact is excellent marketing can require time. Now that you have established you require to establish some advertising goals and also a spending plan, after that you can transfer to tip number two, which is "just how to structure your advertising strategy." Action 2: Exactly how to structure your advertising plan The first thing we suggest that you do is to develop an advertising and marketing channel, or really plainly recognize the advertising and marketing channel that already exists. If your business is already generating any type of sales, after that you likely have an advertising and marketing channel whether you understand it or not. It is necessary to recognize which part of the funnel you will certainly need to influence with your advertising project. Understanding the advertising channel will help you pinpoint which stage of the channel demands adjustments. To get a far better understanding of the advertising and marketing channel, let's take a more detailed look at an advertising funnel as well as break down an advertising funnel for B2C (service to customer) as well as B2B (organization to service) firms. At the top of the channel you have the recognition stage. For both B2B or B2C companies this is where potential consumers become aware of your company either by means of search, or an advertisement, or a person referring them to you. The next part of the channel is the interest stage. This is where your capacity clients start to read more concerning your product and services. After that phase of the channel is the consideration stage. This is where your capacity customers actually begin thinking about buying your products. They might begin to review your evaluations or compare your products to others that are on the market. After the consideration stage is the intent phase. This is the stage where the potential client prepares to buy as well as simply needs a little push to complete the transaction. If you're a B2C firm, that implies that a visitor has perhaps added something to their cart. And also if you're a B2B firm, that implies that a site visitor may have asked for a meeting or a live trial. Swiftly after that, the prospective consumer enters the examination stage. This is when the potential consumer is considering the experience they are having as they are having a look at for a B2C company or finishing the contract for a B2B firm. At the really bottom of the channel you have the actual purchase, which is when the potential client becomes a real consumer. As you can see, there is a whole process to getting a client to really end up being a client. On top of that, a channel can continue after the acquisition factor, particularly if you wish to get even more sales from your present consumers. However those phases we pointed out are mosting likely to be the major locations that the majority of marketing managers require to focus on. Nevertheless, if you wish to discover a bit a lot more concerning marketing funnels, check out this blog where we go a lot more thorough with the advertising and marketing channel phases. As you are doing your marketing administration, you wish to begin asking on your own, "Which stage in the advertising and marketing channel does my organization require the most assist with?" You will discover that some business require general understanding prior to they can enhance any other part of their funnel. You may additionally locate that some business have a lot of awareness, yet battle to convert those introduce sales. However, once you recognize where your marketing needs one of the most aid, then you can concentrate there and also start to establish those leading indication objectives. For example, in the recognition stage, you have to focus on getting to a great deal of people. And also if business spending plan you have actually established is reduced, that suggests you will likely require to make use of an organic advertising and marketing approach. Currently let's move on to tip number three, which is just how to establish your advertising and marketing projects Action 3: How to set up your marketing campaigns. The first thing you need to think of below is production. What we indicate by "production" is you need to understand WHO or WHAT you require and WHEN you require it. To figure this out, go back to your leading indications and think about just how you are mosting likely to complete them. Possibly you need a web content writer, a designer, or a marketing spending plan. Or perhaps you require to set aside a couple of hours a day, to hire an agency, or a few other tools to aid you be reliable. The bottom line is, you need to be extremely clear about what deliverables you need as well as when you require them. After manufacturing, we recommend that you track your development. Since doesn't mean you are seeking that delayed indication or that major result that you wish to accomplish. Rather, you'll want to track whether or not your growth is headed in a positive instructions. Ideally, it's very easy to determine a trend line that is going up overtime. For example, if you are publishing on YouTube on a daily basis for six months as well as you are not obtaining any kind of sights whatsoever, then that is an indication that you require to quit and reassess your advertising strategy. One of our company's favorite tools to make use of to track development is Google Analytics. It's very simple to set up on your own as well as ought to take you no time to obtain arrangement and start. As soon as you're set up for success with Google Analytics, you can go on to tip number four, which isn't truly an action however it is a crucial idea to live by. Step 4: Stay with your strategy We have actually stated it before however excellent advertising takes some time. We can't emphasize this sufficient. Unless you have a really large spending plan, we're speaking at the very least $100,000 a year, then you greater than likely will require to focus on one point at a time. That means you wish to put together a really great approach and make sure it functions PRIOR TO you proceed to something that is new and also stylish right now. We suggest you give your technique a minimum of 6 months before you quit. And this is six months of pure quality! That means you are not missing out on due dates and you are putting together an excellent amount of quantity and also top quality work. Bear in mind to still be tracking your outcomes and making sure you're constructing some energy or seeing a positive trend line. Even if the positive trend line is slow, it is still positive. Now allow's go on to our last step. Tip 5: Reporting If you are doing any type of type of advertising and marketing management or if you are an advertising and marketing supervisor on your own, after that at some time you will require to do some reporting. Whether you are reporting to yourself, stakeholders, a supervisor, or a customer, this is an area where you require to successfully interact just how your advertising and marketing is going. When you are connecting, you need to recognize your target market. If you are speaking to an additional advertising and marketing professional or somebody with an advertising background, after that you can possibly utilize more advanced descriptions of your development. However if you are speaking with someone that does not know a lot regarding advertising, after that you want to try to simplify as simply as possible. For instance, you would not begin speaking to a stranger about ROAS, ROI, conversion projects, as well as lead-to-sale conversions since there's a slim chance they would understand what you were discussing. Everything that we cover in this blog are points that you wish to communicate to whoever you are reporting to. To make sure that suggests you want to relate things back to the goals, the budget, the channel, and the positive pattern line. You'll see that poor marketing professionals only care about telling you just how good their negative results are. A bad marketing professional will tell you about all the leads they have actually created but have really little results for conversions. As good marketers, it is our obligation to interact successfully as well as with honesty. So understand your numbers, know your target market, as well as be as clear as possible whether the results are good or bad. Establishing in-depth records that are comprehensive sufficient for your audience to recognize is what will assist everyone be on the very same web page. Verdict There you have it-- 5 truly awesome suggestions for advertising monitoring. Tips that we stand by and are confirmed due to the fact that we've used them for our own advertising and marketing projects. In addition, we have actually managed campaigns for our customers that have actually driven numerous hits, numerous leads, and countless sales. That's why we believe you can stand by these important pointers we have actually supplied here.And there's so much extra you can learn more about advertising and marketing for your business! Whether you are a small company proprietor or a young specialist that intends to find out more concerning advertising and marketing administration, after that you remain in the right area. Our group of marketer prepare to help you make on your own a better marketer!

The Best Antivirus and Total Protection for Mac! What's the Best Malware Protection? Malware, Spyware, and Adware Protection Antivirus programming is basic for each PC. Without it, you hazard losing your own data, your records, and even the money from your financial balance. We've tried in excess of 40 utilities to enable you to pick the best antivirus security for your PCs. Malware, Spyware, and Adware Protection Summer is practically here, and we're all anticipating a stunning get-away, be it at the shoreline, in the mountains, or even on a journey. Malware coders get-aways, as well. Theirs is an occupation, similar to some other, from numerous points of view. In any case, that doesn't mean you'll be sheltered from infections, ransomware, bots, and other malware this late spring. The malware office director timetables get-aways, much the same as any office supervisor, to ensure someone's at work, making new assaults on your gadgets and your information. Before you head out, check your antivirus membership to ensure it won't take its very own get-away soon. In case you're not ensured at this point, put introducing an antivirus on your agenda. We've tried and McAfee com activate antivirus instruments so you can pick one and unwind with no stresses. We call it antivirus, yet in truth it's far-fetched you'll get hit with a real PC infection. Malware nowadays is tied in with profiting, and there's no simple method to take advantage of spreading an infection. Ransomware and information taking Trojans are considerably more typical, as are bots that let the bot-herder lease your PC for loathsome purposes. Current antivirus utilities handle Trojans, rootkits, spyware, adware, ransomware, and that's only the tip of the iceberg. PCMag has explored in excess of 40 distinctive business antivirus utilities, and that is not notwithstanding checking the many free antivirus devices. Out of that broad field we've named fourEditors' Choice items. mcafee activate product key antivirus utilities demonstrated powerful enough to procure an astounding four-star rating nearby their progressively conventional partners. VoodooSoft VoodooShield puts together its security with respect to stifling every obscure program while the PC is in a powerless state, for example, when it's associated with the web, and furthermore acts to identify known malware. The Kure resets the PC to a known safe state on each reboot, consequently wiping out any malware. On the off chance that you have malware, one of the ten items in the graph above should deal with the issue. You may see that one item in the outline earned simply 3.5 stars. The diagram had space for one more, and of the seven 3.5-star items, the labs just focus on F-Secure and G Data. F-Secure has the additional fillip of costing the equivalent for three licenses as most items charge for only one, so it advanced into the diagram. The blurbs at the base of this article incorporate each business antivirus that earned 3.5 stars or better. www.mcafee.com/activate offer insurance past the antivirus incorporated with Windows 10; the best free antivirus utilities additionally offer more. In any case, Microsoft Windows Defender Security Center is looking somewhat better recently, with some awesome scores from free testing labs. In our grasp on tests, it demonstrated a checked improvement since our past audit, enough to at long last bring it up to three stars. Tune in to the Labs We take the outcomes announced by free antivirus testing labs in all respects truly. The basic reality that a specific merchant's item appears in the outcomes is a demonstration of positive support, of sorts. It implies the lab considered the item huge, and the merchant felt the expense of testing was advantageous. Obviously, getting great scores in the tests is additionally significant. We pursue four labs that normally discharge nitty gritty reports: SE Labs, AV-Test Institute, MRG-Effitas, and AV-Comparatives. We likewise note whether sellers have contracted with ICSA Labs and West Coast labs for affirmation. We Test Malware, Spyware, and Adware Defenses We additionally subject each item to our very own hands-on trial of malware assurance, to a limited extent to get an inclination for how the item functions. Contingent upon how altogether the item averts malware establishment, it can acquire up to 10 for malware assurance. Our malware assurance test fundamentally utilizes a similar arrangement of tests for quite a long time. To check an item's treatment of fresh out of the box new malware, we test every item utilizing 100 amazingly new malware-facilitating URLs provided by MRG-Effitas, taking note of what level of them it blocked. Items get equivalent kudos for anticipating all entrance to the vindictive URL and for clearing out the malware during download. A few items win completely outstanding evaluations from the autonomous labs, yet don't toll too in our grasp on tests. In such cases, we concede to the labs, as they carry altogether more prominent assets to their testing. Need to know more? You can dive in for a point by point portrayal of how we test security programming. Multilayered Malware Protection Antivirus items separate themselves by going past the fundamentals of on-request examining and ongoing malware insurance. Some rate URLs that you visit or that appear in indexed lists, utilizing a red-yellow-green shading coding framework. Some effectively square procedures on your framework from associating with known malware-facilitating URLs or with false (phishing) pages. Programming has imperfections, and here and there those blemishes influence your mcafee security. Judicious clients keep Windows and all projects fixed, fixing those imperfections at the earliest opportunity. The defenselessness output offered by some antivirus items can check that every vital patches are available, and even apply any that are absent. Spyware comes in numerous structures, from concealed projects that log your each keystroke to Trojans that take on the appearance of legitimate projects while mining your own information. Any antivirus should deal with spyware, alongside every other sort of malware, yet some incorporate specific segments gave to spyware insurance. You expect an antivirus to recognize and dispose of terrible projects, and to disregard great projects. Shouldn't something be said about questions, programs it can't distinguish as positive or negative? Conduct based discovery can, in principle, secure you against malware that is so new scientists have never experienced it. In any case, this isn't generally an unmixed gift. It's normal for social discovery frameworks to hail numerous harmless practices performed by genuine projects. Whitelisting is another way to deal with the issue of obscure projects. A whitelist-based security framework just permits realized great projects to run. Questions are prohibited. This mode sometimes falls short for all circumstances, however it very well may be helpful. Sandboxing gives obscure projects a chance to run, however it segregates them from full access to your framework, so they can't do lasting damage. These different added layers serve to upgrade your assurance against malware. What's the Best Malware Protection? mcafee.com/activate antivirus would it be advisable for you to pick? You have an abundance of choices. Kaspersky Anti-Virus and Bitdefender Antivirus Plus routinely take impeccable or close ideal scores from the autonomous antivirus testing labs. A solitary membership for AntiVirus Plus gives you a chance to introduce security on the majority of your Windows, Android, Mac OS, and iOS gadgets. What's more, its unordinary conduct based recognition innovation implies Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus is the most diminutive antivirus around. We've named these four Editors' Choice for business antivirus, however they're by all account not the only items worth thought. Peruse the surveys of our top of the line items, and afterward settle on your own choice. Note that we have assessed a lot more antivirus utilities than we could incorporate into the diagram of top items. On the off chance that your preferred programming isn't recorded there, odds are we reviewed it. The blurbs beneath incorporate each item that oversaw 3.5 stars or better. Every one of the utilities recorded in this component are Windows antivirus applications. In case you're a macOS client, don't lose hope, be that as it may; PCMag has a different gathering devoted exclusively to the best Mac antivirus programming.

Face recognition, as one of the most successful applications of image analysis, has recently gained significant attention, especially during the past several years. Our idea proposes an automatic face recognition attendance system for students using raspberry pi and mini cameras based on deep learning and narrowband Internet of things. The system automatically detects and identifies faces and mark present/absent of students with the help of face detection and it points out the technical challenges of building a face recognition system. The system will automatically update the student’s presence in the class to the student’s database and update all the data to the cloud as well as sends It will message to the guardians of absentees and also to the Head of the department. Face recognition processing, including major components such as face detection, tracking, alignment, and feature extraction, and it points out the technical challenges of building a face recognition system. We focus on the importance of the most successful solutions available so far. The final part of the chapter describes chosen face recognition methods and applications and their potential use in areas not related to face recognition.