Far Cry 2 is an open world first-person shooter developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It was released on October 21, 2008 in North America, October 23, 2008 in Australia, and October 24, 2008 in Europe. It was made available on Steam on October 22, 2008. Crytek, the developers of the original game, were not involved in the development of Far Cry 2. It is the second installment of the main Far Cry series, preceded by 2004's Far Cry and followed by 2012's Far Cry 3.

Ubisoft has marketed Far Cry 2 as the true sequel to Far Cry, however the sequel has very few noticeable similarities to the original game. Instead, it features completely new characters and setting, as well as a new style of gameplay that allows the player greater freedom to explore different African landscapes such as deserts, jungles, and savannas. The game takes place in a modern-day Central African nation during civil war. The player takes control of a mercenary on a lengthy journey to locate and assassinate "The Jackal", a notorious arms dealer.

Far Cry 2 was met with positive reception upon its release, with critics praising the game's setting, open-ended gameplay, visuals and AI, while criticism was directed at glitches, design choices and the writing. As of January 23, 2009, the game has sold 2.9 million copies.

Gameplay

Far Cry 2 is a sequel to the original Far Cry. The game features an open-ended experience. Players are able to ally with one or multiple factions, and to progress through the game world and missions as they see fit, resulting in a nonlinear style of gameplay commonly referred to as sandbox mode that allows the story to progress at their speed and in the order they choose. Players can use a range of vehicles, including cars, trucks, boats and hang gliders, to travel within the 50 km² (19 sq mi) gameplay area. The playing styles range from head-on assaults to stealthy infiltrations and assassinations. The game takes place in a sprawling African landscape, with terrain ranging from desert to savannah to jungle.

Various factions and vehicles are featured; enemies include human mercenaries. There is a dynamic weather system that has a day-night cycle and different weather conditions such as storms and strong winds. The time of day also affects the behavior of AI, in terms of enemy alertness and aggressiveness; for example, an enemy might have a slightly heightened awareness at night, but be unable to see the player in hiding, while during the hot part of the day the enemies might be sitting in the shade in groups but easily spot the player from a distance.

The health bar represents the health of the protagonist that is divided into five segments, each of which automatically refills if it is not depleted and the player finds cover for a few seconds. Players carry a limited supply of syrettes which can be used at any time to fully replenish the health bar, and are obtainable from first aid boxes located throughout the game world, specifically at guard posts. When nearing death (only one health bar remaining), the character must perform first aid on himself, for example removing bullets with pliers, or snapping twisted or broken fingers into position.

Weapons

The player has access to a large arsenal of real world weapons, including machine pistols, battle rifles, shotguns, sniper rifles, rocket launchers, handguns, and light machine guns. The game breaks these weapons down into three inventory slots, each with a specific list of weapons assigned to it.

In addition to the three selectable types of weapons, a machete is carried at all times, which can be used to execute enemies and the player can carry a number of hand grenades and molotov cocktails. All weapons in the game are "mirrored", with ejection ports, charging handles and other user-operated parts on the left side; the exception being the belt-fed machine guns which eject to the right, though this means the PK machine gun is still mirrored. Further changes are made to some, such as the Ithaca 37 having a side ejection port.

A major gameplay feature is that these weapons degrade over time. Weapons become dirty and prone to jamming and will eventually become completely unusable. The player can purchase weapons at various gun shops, which provide an unlimited supply of the weapon in serviceable condition, along with manuals to upgrade weapon's reliability and accuracy. More weapons can be unlocked at the gun shop by completing missions involving the destruction of competitors' arms convoys for the gun shop owner. Weapons can also be picked up off of fallen enemies, but they are always in their most degraded condition and can only be used for a short period of time before jamming and ultimately breaking down completely.

Realism

The game has realistic features such as weapon degradation and the dynamic weather system. The player needs to hold a physical map and use a handheld navigation system (which highly resembles a military-type GPS) to get around, but they are automatically updated as the player travels through the environment. The player is able to tag certain objects and locations such as cars, sniper towers, ammo pickups and buildings, so that they are able to monitor them on their map. When vehicles are damaged the player must perform a short repair animation, involving the tightening of one of the bolts on the radiator (assault trucks), headers (buggy) or other interior part with a ratchet. The player must deal with different levels of malaria. Every 30 to 40 minutes in real time, the player must take a pill in order to combat the blinding and potentially deadly effects of the illness.

The Dunia Engine allows complex sequences and run-events during gameplay; the game features a day-and-night cycle, as well as tree and vegetation regeneration. A unique fire propagation mechanism, which allows a small fire to spread and eventually cause large brush fires, may be used either to the player's advantage during combat or against the player. The behavior of fire is dependent on factors such as wind speed, wind direction, rain, and vegetation type. For example, a fire may not spread as easily in a lush, moist jungle environment compared to dry, grassy plains and savannahs.

Several species of animals can be encountered in the game, and are able to distract the enemy as well as make them aware of the player's presence. All the large animals in the game are grazing herbivores, such as zebras, wildebeest, gazelle, buffalo, impala, and gemsbok. Also domestic animals such as goats and chickens can be found. None of the wildlife found in the game pose any direct threat to the player. Enemies encountered speak two native African languages, namely Afrikaans and Zulu.

Multiplayer

Multiplayer in Far Cry 2 attempts to include the dynamic elements of the single-player game (such as fire propagation) and to provide as accessible gameplay as possible so that it is available to all skill levels and so that players have specific gameplay aspects to keep in mind when designing their own maps in the map editor. It also includes a vast number of vehicles.

Online matches can be held for a maximum of 16 players. Four modes are available with the shipping of the game, consisting of Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Diamond (a slight variation of the standard Capture the Flag as the flags are replaced with diamonds), and Uprising. The Uprising mode provides a twist on a node-capture match by including a captain for each team. Only captains can capture the designated points across the map, and a team must assassinate the enemy captain after capturing all the points to win the round.

Multiplayer gameplay is class based, with six classes available. The Commando is the standard grunt class, with an assault rifle; the Sharpshooter specializes in long range with conventional sniper rifles; the Guerrilla excels in close combat and ambush with shotguns; the Rebel uses explosives and fire with flamethrowers and rocket launchers; the Gunner provides heavy firepower with light machine guns and rocket launchers; and the Saboteur uses stealth and silenced weapons . Each class can choose an appropriate primary weapon and a side arm, as well as explosives such as frag grenades or Molotov cocktails. Players are able to unlock more powerful weapons within each class by spending up to three "blood diamonds" on a class; the diamonds are earned through the experience points from killing other players and completing objectives. Potential upgrades for individual weapons within a class include operation manuals, maintenance manuals, and bandoliers.

The Multiplayer has a ranking system which awards points for killing enemy players, reviving friendly players, capturing control points, and capturing diamonds.

Synopsis

Setting

Far Cry 2 takes place in late 2008 in a small, failed Central African state, currently embroiled in a horrible civil war. The government has recently collapsed, leaving two factions vying for control. At war are the United Front for Liberation and Labour (UFLL, led by Addi Mbantuwe, a former opposition leader) and the Alliance for Popular Resistance (APR, led by Oliver Tambossa, Chief of Staff for the former government). Both factions have claimed to have the people's interests at heart, but both have shown ruthlessness, warmongering, greed, and a general disregard for the well-being of the people. Both sides have hired many foreign mercenaries to bolster their strength over the course of the conflict. The recent exhaustion of the nation's diamond mines has thrown the nation into further turmoil, leaving many foreign mercenaries without payment and no way out.

The goal of the player's character is to find and assassinate the Jackal, an arms dealer who has been selling weapons to both sides of the conflict. The player must accomplish this goal by whatever means necessary, even if he has to succumb to the immorality of the warring factions and the Jackal himself.

Characters

The playable characters include Warren Clyde (American), Quarbani Singh (Indian-Mauritian), Paul Ferenc (Israeli-Hungarian), Xianyong Bai (Chinese), Marty Alencar (Brazilian-American), Frank Bilders (Northern Irish), Josip Idromeno (Albanian), Hakim Echebbi (Algerian) and Andre Hyppolite (Haitian). The non-playable characters include Flora Guillen (Cuban-Angolan), Nasreen Davar (Tajik), and Michele Dachss (French).

The main enemy of the game is a sadistic but intelligent arms-dealer known as the Jackal, whose guns are fueling the violence in the country. He is notorious for selling his impressive-quality weapons at very cheap prices and being fearless. He affirms his knowledge of will to power by quoting Friedrich Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil at the beginning of the game and having little to no remorse for all the death he has caused. Various tape recordings throughout the game reveal his thoughts and beliefs, in one of the tapes he reveals he is a humanist. It is rumored that the Jackal has cancer, and does not have very long to live. Despite all of the chances he has, the Jackal never tries killing the protagonist, and simply uses him as a tool to cause more chaos as the protagonist hunts for him. In the end, it is revealed that the Jackal is seeking redemption from his life as an arms-dealer, and wishes to cleanse the country of its war.

The two factions each have a leader and second in command. The UFLL's leader is Addi Mbantuwe and his subordinate's name is Leon Gakumba. The UFLL's lieutenants are Hector Voorhees, Anto Kankaras, and Joaquin Carbonell. The APR's leader is Major Oliver Tambossa and his subordinate's name is Prosper Kouassi. The APR's lieutenants are Nick Greaves, Walton Purefoy, and Arturo Quiepo.

Friends

All of the playable characters are different types of mercenaries. The playable characters the player does not choose to play become non-player characters who are friends of the player's character and who can be found in bars around the in-game nation. These friends are called Buddies and they can serve various roles in the game. All of the buddies offer side missions to the player, completion of which increases that buddy's standing with the player. Additionally there are a few "extra" buddies that can be found. In any playthrough the buddies that can be met is random and not all buddies will appear. The player's "Best Buddy" and "Second Best Buddy" can play additional roles.

The player's "Best Buddy" can provide the player alternate, or "subverted" ways to complete most of the main story missions. These subverted missions always require more steps than the standard mission, but they often make the final objective easier: if a player has to assault an enemy barge, they can either assault the barge while it is in motion, or, a buddy can direct the player to retrieve components for a bomb to blow up a bridge, simply crushing the barge beneath it. Completing subverted missions also increases the player's standing with the best buddy and adds "upgrades" to every safe house in the region, such as vehicles parked outside, medical pickups and ammo pickups. However, the inevitable final objective of a subverted mission will always be that the player must rescue their buddy, who, by the end of the mission, will have become heavily outnumbered. The player must choose to either take on a shorter, more difficult mission, or a longer but easier mission.

The player's "Second Best Buddy" can come to the player's aid when they fall in battle if they are "rescue ready". The buddy will move them to a safer location, then revive them and help fight off the remaining enemies. The buddy then needs to recuperate and will be ready to save the player again once they are visited at a safehouse.

Buddies can be wounded or killed in battle during subverted missions, buddy rescues, and other circumstances. When a buddy dies, their death is permanent, and they will not be replaced. When all of the player's buddies are dead, subverted missions and buddy rescues are no longer available. When buddies are wounded in battle, they will mark their position with a smoke grenade and cry out for help. The player can choose to render aid, or simply leave the buddy to die. If the buddy's wounds are minor enough, the player can inject them with a syrette to fully heal them. However, if the buddy's injuries are too severe, the player's only option is to euthanize them by either overdosing them with syrettes or looking away and shooting them in the head. Buddies usually have three "lives" where if they're shot down a third time, the player will not be able to save them. Their last words before death are usually "thank you."

Plot

The game starts off with the player given a mission to kill the infamous arms dealer known as "The Jackal". The player's character lands in the northern territory of Leboa-Sako and is introduced to the harsh reality of life in the country. On the way to the town of Pala in a cab, the player character begins to suffer from the effects of malaria and passes out. He awakes inside a hotel and finds the Jackal standing over him. With the player incapacitated by illness, the Jackal briefly offers some insight into his philosophy, quoting from Friedrich Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil about the will to power. He threatens to kill the player character, but ultimately chooses to spare his life and leaves, stabbing a machete into the wall and leaving a pistol on the floor for the player character to retrieve.

Meanwhile, the ceasefire in Pala has collapsed and the UFLL and APR are engaged in open fighting. The player either passes out with malaria after managing to escape or is severely wounded before he can escape. The player is revived in the camp of one of the faction lieutenants in the area (either Anto Kankaras or Joaquin Carbonell of UFLL, or Walton Purefoy or Arturo Quiepo of APR). In return for saving the player's life, the lieutenant orders the player to conduct basic errands. The player meets a journalist named Reuben Oluwagembi, who is writing a book about the conflict and the Jackal's part in it. He requests that the player find the tapes of his interview with the Jackal, scattered over the region. Once the player has acquired some malaria medicine from a priest who is helping civilians escape the violence, the player is given the freedom to choose their next mission.

The player is forced to work with both the UFLL and the APR in Leboa-Sako, each using the player as a deniable agent in order to avoid a full-scale war. When the player is in the faction HQ before he is taking a mission, conversations are heard between the faction leader and the mercenary leader; for example, on one occasion they discuss the rumor that the Jackal has cancer and only a few months left to live. In addition to the hunt for the Jackal, the player can provide the Underground with stamped travel documents for refugees in exchange for anti-malarial drugs, ambush convoys of weapon shipments in order to gain access to a greater variety of weapons and equipment from arms dealers, and assassinate targets acquired by intercepting signals from various cell-phone towers in the area.

After many successful missions, a faction captain (either Leon Gakumba or Prosper Kouassi) contracts the player to assassinate the other faction's captain. Once the assassination is complete, however, the player is betrayed and ambushed by the contractor and his troops. The player escapes, but in the chaos, he is forced to choose either to defend the priest and the civilians under his care, or to aid fellow mercenaries. The player's character eventually falls in combat, and awakes in the back of a truck filled with bodies. Any buddies the player has made up to this point are now either killed or declared missing, dependent on whom the player opted to aid. He falls off of the truck onto the road and seeks shelter in the desert, finally collapsing in the following sandstorm. The Jackal appears and takes the unconscious player to safety, but is then forced to flee when retreating troops of the other faction, now without a captain, arrive. A lieutenant from this faction offers the pla yer a chance to redeem himself by assassinating the faction captain who betrayed the player. The player assassinates the target at a troop rally and escapes south, to the province of Bowa-Seko.

In Bowa-Seko, the player and a Buddy follows the lieutenant's orders to destabilize the area and reignite the conflict by conducting a false flag operation in Port Selao. Following this, the two factions are now at war in the new province, opening up a variety of work from both sides. Eventually, the player is hired by one of the leaders (either Addi Mbantuwe or Oliver Tambossa) to deliver diamonds to the opposite faction for a peace settlement between the factions. When the player arrives at the location, however, he finds the area devastated and the faction leader dead. The Jackal appears and explains that he wants the conflict to continue, since the warlords want peace only to conduct their crimes outside the world's attention. He then seizes the diamonds and knocks the player character unconscious.

The player wakes imprisoned in an old slave outpost and discovers that he has been used as a scapegoat, blamed for murdering a faction leader and disrupting the peace settlement. The player escapes and continues his search for the Jackal. By this time, the conflict has gotten out of hand and the faction lieutenants are at each other's throats, paying the player to first kill the surviving faction leader, then various other lieutenants. Reuben later calls the player for help, fearing that he and some other journalists are either going to get deported or shot at the airfield. The player fights off the militia and rescues the journalists.

With Reuben's help, the player finally tracks down and meets with the Jackal, who reveals his intentions to help the civilian population escape the war-torn country. Although he must eventually kill the Jackal, the player character agrees to help. The Jackal's plan is for the player to assassinate the two remaining faction lieutenants and take a case of diamonds to bribe the border guards. After finding the diamonds, however, the player must fight his fellow mercenaries and friends, as they want the diamonds for themselves to escape the country.

With both faction lieutenants dead and the diamonds in hand, the player (whose malaria has increased to the point of near-fatal symptoms, and is hinted to be dying from it) meets the Jackal at a hut near the border (named the 'Heart of Darkness'). The Jackal plans to dynamite the valley leading to the border in order to prevent the militia from following the evacuating civilians - but the detonating cord has malfunctioned and the explosives must be short-circuited with a car battery at the site, leading to the detonator's certain death. The Jackal offers the player a choice; he can detonate the explosives, or take the diamonds to the border to bribe the guards and subsequently shoot himself to avoid arrest, either way ensuring the civilians' escape. The game ends with Reuben Oluwagembi witnessing the explosion, then turning to take a picture of the massed crowd of refugees crossing the border. One of the border guards is seen examining the case of diamonds.

The APR and UFLL have attempted to end hostilities and establish a government but the violence continues. Reuben's story was ignored by the international press and he is supposedly publishing it on his personal blog. The civilian population largely escaped and NGOs credit the low casualty rate to the work of the country's Underground. The Jackal has since disappeared and world governments insist that he died in the conflict, although no body is ever found. In addition, the player's exact fate is unseen, though presumably the protagonist dies, either in the explosion or by the gunshot heard at the end of the game. Such actions are performed linearly without any choice on the part of the player, despite the in-game journal hinting that the protagonist might choose to kill the Jackal instead.

Development

The unveiling of Far Cry 2 took place on July 19, 2007 in Paris, France, by head company Ubisoft. Ubisoft stated that the game had been in development by the Ubisoft Montreal team, and would be released on October 23, 2008.

The protagonist of previous Far Cry games, Jack Carver, is not featured in this game. When Ubisoft interviewed players about the original Far Cry in their research for this game, the interviewees did not find the character very memorable or likable. As a result, in the sequel the player chooses from nine different characters to play, each with a unique look and back story. The game's producer, Louis-Pierre Pharand, said that the single-player game will "potentially have close to 50 hours of game play." Lead designer Clint Hocking stated that at least 100 hours are needed to experience all of the game's content.

A pre-alpha video of the game, showcasing the visuals and 13 minutes of gameplay with developer commentary, was presented in Leipzig in August 2007. The demonstration showed off the gameplay involving gunfights and driving sequences, and unique features such as first aid and physical maps were also shown. It also showcased several graphical features tying in directly with the gameplay, such as procedural breakage of vegetation and its regeneration over time, dynamic propagation of fire, and volumetric wind effects capable of breaking vegetation and spreading fire. Man-made structures were also shown to be highly destructible.

Research

In July 2007, Ubisoft sent a team of the game's developers to Africa to carry out research for the game. They reportedly spent two weeks traveling around Kenya and camping out on the savannah. The game's producer, Louis-Pierre Pharand said that following the trip they realized they had gotten the design of the game "so wrong" and made several changes to "make the game feel like you were really there". Some African wildlife are featured in the game world, but herbivores only; according to the developers, predators without careful control would have eaten all the herbivores and starved to death.

Map editor

Far Cry 2's map editor has been designed specifically for ease of use. It includes features such as easily raising/lowering terrain and applying textures. A video was shown showcasing the editor, including an Eiffel Tower made completely from in-game pieces.

The map editor features hundreds of objects found in the single player game including vehicles, buildings, bridges and more. Fan mods for the map editor can unlock more objects. However, weapons (with the exception of mounted guns) cannot be placed on maps to support the game's class-based gameplay. Nor can people or wild animals. And you can not edit real map of the game.

The objects in the player made maps, such as buildings and structures are all just links to the objects in the game's install directories, making the map files smaller. This means that uploading and downloading maps is quick and easy. It was announced at the GC 2008 that there will be a memory space limit for each map.

The map editor uses a real-time rendered freecam view, without a heads-up display or other screen elements such as a hand-gun combination. Time-of-day can be freely chosen in the editor. Trees and grass animate in the real-time preview.

Engine

Ubisoft has developed a new engine specifically for Far Cry 2, called Dunia, meaning "world" in Arabic.

The Dunia engine was built specifically for Far Cry 2 by Ubisoft Montreal development team. It delivers realistic semi-destructible environments, special effects such as dynamic fire propagation and storm effects, real-time night-and-day cycle, dynamic music system and non-scripted enemy A.I actions.

The engine takes advantage of multi-core processors as well as multiple processors and supports DirectX 9 as well as DirectX 10. Only 2 or 3 percent of the original CryEngine code is re-used, according to Michiel Verheijdt, Senior Product Manager for Ubisoft Netherlands. Additionally, the engine is less hardware-demanding than CryEngine 2, the engine used in Crysis.

Far Cry 2 also supports the amBX technology from Philips. With the proper hardware, this adds effects like vibrations, ambient colored lights, and fans that generate wind effects.

Marketing and release

Ubidays 2008

During Ubisoft's Ubidays, held in Paris on May 28â€"29, 2008, Ubisoft revealed brand new video footage for Far Cry 2. Along with the new footage, Ubisoft displayed in-game screenshots showing off the visuals rendered by Ubisoft's Dunia Engine (see engine). A video of Ubisoft Montreal's developers talking about the upcoming game's features can be seen on G4's website.

Additional content is available to those who pre-order it at GameStop. Dubbed the GameStop Exclusive Pre-Order Edition, the package sells at the same price point as the regular SKU, and includes bonus missions, a fold out map and different packaging.

Retail versions

To celebrate the release of Far Cry 2, Ubisoft unveiled the Far Cry 2 Collectors' Edition, available in certain territories outside the U.S., that will include:

• Exclusive pill box
• Original Far Cry 2 game
• Limited edition Far Cry 2 T-shirt
• "The Art of Far Cry 2" art book
• Exclusive "Far Cry 2" pillowcase
• Collector 50 km² map
• Making-of DVD, including video from the development team's trip to Africa

The United States receives a separate Limited Edition package, available exclusively for those who pre-order it at GameStop. Dubbed the GameStop Exclusive Pre-Order Edition, the package sells at the same price point as the regular SKU, and includes the following:

• 6 Bonus Missions with about 3 extra hours of gameplay
• A fold out map of the open world of Far Cry 2
• Exclusive game packaging

It should be noted that the "bonus missions" mentioned here are not truly exclusive to GameStop pre-orders. The content, a set of missions revealing information about the previous individual sent to assassinate The Jackal, is present on all Xbox 360, PC and PlayStation 3 Far Cry 2 game discs, and can be unlocked with one of several non-unique eight-character codes. In the UK, a limited edition "steel book" edition of the game is also available with differing art work to the standard release.

Novels

Around the time of the game's release, the second of two Far Cry novels were published in Germany, authored by Michael Bhatty. The first novel primarily tells the story of the first game, and also features the sequel's Marty Alencar as a character, as well as including a flashback scene taking place in Far Cry 2's African setting. The second novel acts as a prequel of sorts to the game, with the plot focusing on Paula, a war veteran-turned-mercenary, and her struggle in the diamond conflicts and civil war which are the focus of Far Cry 2. Both of these novels feature a character not seen in either game called Zaman, a former Asian American CIA agent who acts as a trainer and mentor to both Paula and Jack Carver. Like the game engine, Zaman's name is of Arab origin, which means 'Time' or 'Era' in Arabic.

Downloadable content

On November 21, 2008 Ubisoft announced "Fortune's Pack" which includes three new weapons, an Exploding Crossbow, Ceremonial Shotgun, and Silenced Shotgun; vehicles, including a utility truck and ATV; and five new multiplayer maps. The Fortune's Pack is now available on the Xbox Live Marketplace and the PlayStation Network although, it has also been released on PC but is no longer available on its own. It is only available with purchase of the full game.

On February 9, 2009 Ubisoft announced "Hardcore" mode would be coming to Far Cry 2. A new damage model is applied with increased damage for all weapons.

PlayStation Home

Ubisoft has released two spaces for Far Cry 2 for the PlayStation 3's online community-based service, PlayStation Home. These two spaces are the "Train Station" and "Reuben's Office" from the game. In the train station, users can play a Mancala mini-game and there is a newspaper clipping that users can read. In Reuben's office, users can play a mini-game called 'Interactive Map', view dossiers and play the mini-game "Reuben's Report". These spaces are only available to users of the European and North American versions of PlayStation Home. These spaces were released during the closed beta on October 16, 2008 for the North American version and on January 22, 2009 for the European version which was after the open beta launch on December 11, 2008.

On July 2, 2009, Ubisoft released a patch for Far Cry 2 that enabled full game launching support, allowing users to set up a multi-player game in Home, and from there launch directly into the game.

Reception

Far Cry 2 has received positive reviews from game critics. The graphics that went into the open-world design and the African setting were generally praised. Critics also liked the intelligent enemies who actively hunt for the player, but noted that it was occasionally unresponsive. Some critics, such as Terrence Jarrad in the first Australian review of the game, praised all three aspects: "The unique setting, brilliant AI, and palpable atmosphere make Far Cry 2 a quintessential gaming experience."

The main criticisms of the game were the long time it took to travel from one objective to another, constantly respawning enemies, the lack of information within the plot, and the not-so-compelling storyline. The IGN review pointed out another minor issue, with the difference in the save system: the PC version allows players to save at any time, while the console versions only allow players to save at certain points.

Additionally, some reviewers noted that the focus on immersion sometimes goes too far (to the point that the game became annoying at times), and was sometimes killed by bad game-design choices and game glitches (some inconsistent textures and generic character models, magic map, instant spawning of enemies at check points, the diamond caches, the effects of malaria being overused, vehicles and firearms jamming).

Game Informer gave praise to the console save system because it gives a sense of realism to the game. While IGN criticised this, GameSpot noted that the console version's save system gave the player more of a sense of urgency as it made death seem more consequential. GamePro praises Far Cry 2, saying: "Its detailed presentation, feature-rich gameplay, and palpable sense of placing players in another world yield a bar-raising effort."

Technical issues

Far Cry 2 also suffers from a number of technical problems across all platforms, such as crashes, corrupt save files, freezes, and critical mission characters disappearing from the game. In the PC version of the game, several users were able to nullify some of these technical problems (crashes at launch) by disabling audio entirely. One of the biggest issues of the game is a corrupt saves issue where all of a player's saves are corrupted thus making it impossible to finish the game.

In May 2009, a patch was released for both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 that fixed several issues including the corrupt save game issue. In July 2009, a similar patch was released for the PC. Other bugs, such as crashes, may still occur under some circumstances, although at decreased rates. No bug fixes or patches were integrated into the Classics/Platinum rerelease of the game.

The game has issues on Windows 7 such as inability to join servers or to download custom maps.

Digital rights management

Similar to Spore, a single copy of the PC version of Far Cry 2 can only be installed ('activated') on five separate hardware configurations at any one time, although the uninstaller is able to 'revoke' the installation, thus freeing up one of the hardware configuration activations (while the system is in a usable state).

As of the 1.03 patch, the activation requirement has been removed from the PC version of the game. In addition, the game disc is no longer required to be present in the drive for gameplay.

GOG.com has since released Far Cry 2 completely DRM-free at their website.

References

External links

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In business, stealth mode is a company's temporary state of secretiveness, usually undertaken to avoid alerting competitors to a pending product launch or other business initiative. A stealth product is a product a company develops in secret, and a stealth company is a new company that avoids initial disclosure as to its existence, purpose, products, personnel, funding, brand name, or other important attributes. The term stealth innovation has been applied to individual projects and ideas that are developed in secret inside a company.

Background

Whereas secrecy is the historical norm in many fields of business, start-up companies often thrive on publicity and open sharing of information. Openness is common to the business culture of Silicon Valley and other technology centers, with competitors freely exchanging news of discoveries, products under development, and other company news. There is intense media interest in some business sectors, with even relatively small funding rounds covered in specialized press. Public relations is considered useful to attract interest from talent, customers, and investors, and to promote the careers of the people involved. Additionally, competitors often collaborate on projects, or buy each other's products.

Some companies nevertheless avoid publicity in fields that are ordinarily not secretive. Among the reasons, a small, relatively unfunded company may wish to avoid giving companies with more resources time to develop competing technologies. The very announcement that a larger or better-known company is working on a competing product may damp interest in the smaller upstart. If the innovative company has no realistic means of protecting its new intellectual property, it may seek to obtain a "first-mover advantage" by waiting until the company or its products are ready to sell before they are announced. This gives as long a lead as possible before others may copy its products, distribution channels, brand, or other business advantages. Conversely, companies with a protectable new technology may nevertheless wish to wait until they have filed or obtained a patent.

Behavior

When an entire company is in stealth mode it may attempt to mislead the public about its true company goals. For example, it may give code names to its pending products. It may operate a corporate website that does not disclose its personnel or location. New companies may operate under a temporary "stealth name" that does not disclose its field of business.

To enforce stealthy behavior, companies often require employees to sign non-disclosure agreements, and strictly control who may speak with the media.

At the in-company level, stealth mode can also refer to a new project or idea that is kept secret, not just from external parties, but also from internal stakeholders in order to avoid a (premature) dismissal of the idea. Key behaviors can include soliciting informal project sponsors, engaging in covert testing of the concept, freeing up extra resources and building a "cover story" for the project.

References

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The Start menu is a user interface element used in Microsoft Windows since Windows 95 and in some other operating systems. It provides a central launching point for computer programs and performing other tasks. It has different names in different operating systems and window managers, such as Kickoff Application Launcher in KDE, Dash in GNOME and Unity, and Start screen in Windows 8.

Traditionally, the Start menu provided a customizable nested list of programs for the user to launch, as well as a list of most recently opened documents, a way to find files and get help, and access to the system settings. Later enhancements via Windows Desktop Update included access to special folders like "My Documents" and "Favorites" (browser bookmarks). Windows XP's Start menu was expanded to encompass various My Documents folders (including My Music and My Pictures), and transplanted other items like My Computer and My Network Places from the Windows desktop. Until Windows Vista, the Start menu was constantly expanded across the screen as the user navigated through its cascading sub-menus.

Microsoft Windows

In Microsoft Windows, the Start menu in some form appears in Windows 9x, Windows NT 4.0 and all subsequent versions in the Windows NT family, as well as Windows CE, Windows Mobile and Windows Phone.

First version

The Start menu was first introduced in Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0 to overcome the shortcomings of Program Manager in previous operating systems. Program Manager consisted of a simple multiple document interface (MDI) which allowed users to open separate "program groups" and then execute the shortcuts to programs contained within. It lacked the ability to nest groups within other groups.

Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0 replaced Program Manager with desktop and Start menu. The latter was comparable in some respects with the Apple menu in Mac OS operating systems and did not have the mentioned limitations of Program Manager: Being a menu, it allowed nested grouping while keeping only one group open at the time. Items could also be simply added to the Start menu by dragging and dropping them. The menu also offered the ability to shut down and log off from their computer.

Later developments in Internet Explorer and subsequent Windows releases have allowed users to customize the Start menu and to access and expand Internet Explorer Favorites, My Documents and Administrative Tools (Windows 2000 and later) from the Start menu.

Although Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 introduced a new version of Start menu, they offered the ability to switch back to this version of Start menu. This version of the Start menu is also available in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. However, it is absent in Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 and other later Windows releases.

Second version

The next major change in the Start menu since its inception came in Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. The Start menu was expanded to two columns: the left-hand column focuses on installed programs, while the right-hand column provides access to My Documents, My Pictures, My Music and other special folders. This column also includes shortcuts for Computer and Network (Network Neighborhood in Windows 95 and 98), which have been traditionally placed on Windows Desktop, making it easier to access them even when the Desktop is obscured. The contents of this column can be customized. Commonly used programs are automatically displayed in the left-hand menu. Users may opt to "pin" programs to this side of the Start menu so that they are always accessible. A sub-menu item at the bottom of this column grants access to all items of Start menu. When this menu item is selected, a scrolling list of start menu programs replaces the user/recent list.

Windows Vista and its successors added minor changes to the menu. Prior to Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, the Start menu consisted of a group of menus and sub-menus that cascaded and expanded, obscuring the initially visible portions of the screen beneath them. In Windows Vista, however, cascading menus were replaced by a sliding window in the left pane of the Start menu. Whenever All Programs item is clicked, the contents of the left pane slide off the left edge of the Start menu and the All Programs menu slides in from the right edge of the left column. This menu presents a tree view of it hierarchy that expands towards the bottom, with a vertical scrollbar whenever needed. Also added in Windows Vista is a Search box that allows users to search for the Start menu shortcuts or other files and folders. The search box features incremental search: If indexing is not turned off, the search box returns results on-the-fly as users type into it. Since the found items can be immediately opened, the Start menu search box replaces the function of Run command from previous versions of Windows. The Run command can also be added separately to the right column in the Start menu. In Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, the search results pane covers both columns of the Start menu. The search box is extended to support searching Control Panel items. The right column in Windows 7 links to Libraries instead of ordinary folders. Most importantly, however, items on the Start menu support Jump lists through cascade buttons on their right. Unlike prior versions, the ability to revert to the "Classic" Start menu design is no longer available.

Third version

On Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012, an update to the Start menu known as the "Start screen" was introduced. It covers the entire screen and no longer features the right column. It shows much larger tiles for programs and, whenever possible, displays dynamic content supplied by the program directly on the tile itself (known as a "live tile"), behaving similarly to a widget. For instance, the live tile for an email client may display the number of unread emails. The Start screen allows users to uninstall their programs by right-clicking on them and selecting "Uninstall". Pinned apps can be placed in groups. The search box is initially hidden but can be viewed by clicking the search button on the charms bar and can also be brought up as it receives a keyboard input. True to its name, the Start screen is the first screen that a user sees upon login.

The idea of a full-screen Start can be traced back to Windows Neptune, when Microsoft originally considered a "Start page" that integrated with Windows desktop through Active Desktop. This menu has its roots in Windows Mobile and Windows Phone: In Windows Mobile Standard, which runs on smartphones, the Start menu produces a separate screen of icons. Windows Phone was the original host of the design principles of the third generation Start menu.

The Start screen no longer supports several previously available features. A list of recently launched program or shortcuts to special folders no longer appears on the Start screen. It no longer supports more than one level of nesting for groups in All Programs view. Drag and drop support for adding new items to the menu as well as reorganizing the contents of All Programs view is no longer available. In addition, for the first time in the history of Windows, the Start menu in a stock installation of Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, Windows 8.1 or Windows Server 2012 R2 does not provide any facility for shutting down, restarting or activating sleep mode or hibernation, forcing users to use the settings button in the charms bar to perform these actions. An April 2014 update for Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 restores the latter.

Fourth version

Windows 10 re-introduced the Start menu in a revised form. It uses a two column design similar to Windows 7's version, except that the right side is populated by tiles, similarly to Windows 8's Start screen. Applications can be pinned to the right half, and their respective tiles can be resized and grouped into user-specified categories. The left column displays a vertical list, containing frequently-used applications, and links to the "All apps" menu, File Explorer, Settings, and power options. Some of these links, and additional links to folders such as Downloads, Pictures, and Music, can be added through Settings' "Choose which folders appear on Start" page. The Start menu can be resized, or be placed in a full-screen display resembling the Windows 8/8.1 Start screen (although scrolling vertically instead of horizontally). The Start menu also enters this state when "Tablet mode" is enabled.

As of build 10586, the left panel of the Start menu advertises "suggested" Windows Store apps; users can opt out of these suggestions.

Windows RT 8.1 update KB3033055 adds a variant of the Windows 10 Start menu that is visually closer to the design used in early beta builds of Windows 10. It allows applications to be pinned to the top of the left column, with recently used apps listed below (much like 7), and as with 10, allows tiles to be pinned to the right column.

Start button

The Start menu may be launched either by pressing ⊞ Win (the Windows key) on a keyboard or its equivalent on a tablet device, pressing CTRL+ESC on a keyboard, or by clicking on the visual Start button. With the exception of Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012, the Start button can be found on the taskbar. On versions before Windows V ista, the Start Button consisted of the word "Start" and the Windows Logo (the word "Start" was localized for each different language version of the system, for instance, reading Avvio in Italian). On the Windows Vista and Windows 7 desktop, the word "Start" has been replaced by a blue Windows "orb" logo. However, the user can revert to displaying the word "Start" and the Windows Logo by setting the theme to Windows Classic. The Start button on Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8 is initially moved from the traditional taskbar to "charms", a hidden secondary taskbar located to the right of the screen (accessed by swiping in from the right on multitouch devices, or positioning the mouse in one of the right corners of the screen and sliding up or down). The Start screen is accessed either by that button or by clicking the lower left corner of the screen. Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 restore the button back to its original place without removing the new button in the charms.

Right-clicking on the Start button invokes a context menu. This menu in Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 is called the Quick Link menu and grants access to several frequently used features of Windows, such as accessing desktop or File Explorer.

Location on disk

Users may add Start menu entries by creating folders and shortcuts in the associated "Start Menu" folder, located on the operating system operating media. These appear in a separated section at the top of the Start menu, or, if placed in the Programs sub-folder, in the Programs menu. The location of this folder however, depends on the operating system installed:

• In Windows 9x, this folder is located either in "%windir%\Start Menu" or, if there are multiple users, in "%windir%\Profiles\[username]\Start Menu" path, where [username] is the account name of the user.
• In Windows NT 4.0, the folder is located in "%systemroot%\Profiles\%username%\Start Menu" for individual users, or "%systemroot%\Profiles\All Users\Start Menu" for shared shortcuts. One distinguishing feature in Windows NT 4.0 is that the Start menu separated the per-user shortcuts from the shared shortcuts and by a separator line and used different icons for the program folders in per-user and shared menus.
• In Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, the folder is located in "%userprofile%\Start Menu" for individual users, or "%allusersprofile%\Start Menu" for shared shortcuts.
• In Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8, the folder is located in "%appdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu" for individual users, or "%programdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu" for the shared portion of the menu.

In Windows Server 2003 and earlier, the folder name "Start Menu" has a different name on non-English versions of Windows. For example, on German versions of Windows XP it is "Startmenü". Windows installers generally use the Windows API to find out the real names and locations of the Start menu and Desktop folders. However, since Windows Vista, all Versions of Windows use the same English named folders and only display different names in the Windows Explorer.

Tweaks

TweakUI, an unsupported utility program from Microsoft, offers additional customizations, including speeding up the response time of the Start menu, window animation, and other hacks. On Windows XP and Windows Vista, it is possible to prevent specific programs from appearing in the recent programs list (the left pane of the Start menu) by modifying the Windows registry.

Open-source operating systems

Many desktop environments for open source operating systems provide a menu similar to the start menu:

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The Macintosh startup sequence behaviors include the startup chime, Happy Mac, Sad Mac and Chimes of Death.

Startup chime

The Macintosh startup chime is a single note or chord simply known as "the startup sound". The sound used differs depending on the ROM, which greatly varies depending on model type. This short sound is played when an Apple Macintosh computer is turned on. The sound indicates that diagnostic tests run immediately at startup have found no hardware or fundamental software problems.

Mark Lentczner created the code for the arpeggiated chord used on the Macintosh II. Variations of this sound were used until Jim Reekes created the startup chime used for the Quadra 700 through the Quadra 800. Reekes said, "The startup sound was done in my home studio on a Korg Wavestation. It's a C major chord, played with both hands stretched out as wide as possible (with 3rd at the top, if I recall)." He was also the creator of the iconic (or "earconic", as he calls it) "bong" startup chime used in most Macintoshes since the Quadra 840AV. A slightly lower-pitched version of this chime was used on all PCI-based Power Macs until the iMac G3. The Macintosh LC, LC II, and Macintosh Classic II do not use the Reekes chime, instead using an F major chord that just produces a "ding" sound. The first generation of Power Macintosh computers also do not use the Reekes chime, instead using a chord strummed on a Yamaha 12-string acoustic guitar by jazz guitarist Stanley Jordan. Further, the Power Macintosh 5200â€"6300 computers (excluding the 5400 and 5500, which still had the "bong" chime) used an exclusive chime not used on any other Macintosh model, and the 20th Anniversary Macintosh also used a special startup chime as well, exclusive to this particular Macintosh.

For models built prior to the introduction of the Power Macintosh in 1994, a Sad Mac icon and error code, accompanied by unusual startup tones, are displayed on failure of initial self-diagnostic tests; this is referred to as the "Chimes of Death", "Chords of Doom", or "Chimes of Doom". Chimes of death are error beeps played at a startup failure.

The chime for all Mac computers since 1999 is the same chime used first in the iMac G3. The chord is a F-sharp major chord, and was produced by pitch-shifting the 840AV's sound. The Mac startup chime is now a registered trademark in the United States, and is featured in the 2008 film WALL-E when the titular robot character is fully recharged by solar panels as well as in the 2009 Brad Paisley song Online (song).

In 2016 Apple removed the startup chime from the late-2016 MacBook Pro. Apple has since updated its support documentation to reflect this change, removing references to the startup chime from the NVRAM reset instructions for this model, however there is a UNIX terminal command that can be run to re-enable the chime.

Happy Mac

A Happy Mac is the normal bootup (startup) icon of an Apple Macintosh computer running older versions of the Mac operating system. It was designed by Susan Kare in the 1980s, and resembles models of the Compact Macintosh series. Kare also claimed that she drew inspiration from the Batman character Two-Face, since the icon has two different faces. The icon remained unchanged until the introduction of New World ROM Macs, when it was updated to 8-bit color. The Happy Mac indicates that booting has successfully begun, whereas a Sad Mac (along with the "Chimes of Death" melody or one or more beeps) indicates a hardware problem.

When a Macintosh boots into Mac OS 9 or lower, the system will play its startup chime, the screen will turn gray, and the Happy Mac icon will appear, followed by the Mac OS splash screen (or the small "Welcome to Macintosh" screen in System 7.5 and earlier), which underwent several stylistic changes. Mac OS versions 8.6 and later also included the version number in this splash screen (for example, "Welcome to Mac OS 8.6").

On early Macs that had no internal hard drive, the computer would boot up to a point where it would need to load the operating system from a floppy disk. Until the user inserted the correct disk, the Mac would display a floppy icon with a blinking question mark. In later Macs, a folder icon with a question mark that repeatedly changes to the Finder icon is shown if a System Folder or boot loader file cannot be found on the startup disk.

With the introduction of Mac OS X, in addition to the blinking system folder icon, a prohibition icon was added to show an incorrect OS version found. The bomb screen was replaced with a kernel panic (which was originally colored white but was changed to black in version 10.3). With Mac OS X 10.1, a new Happy Mac was included. This is also the last version that had a Happy Mac icon; in version 10.2, the Happy Mac symbol was replaced with the Apple logo.

Sad Mac

A Sad Mac is a symbol used by older-generation Apple Macintosh computers (hardware using the Old World ROM; in other words, Macintoshes without built in USB), starting with the original 128K Macintosh, to indicate a severe hardware or software problem that prevented startup from occurring successfully. The Sad Mac icon was displayed, along with a set of hexadecimal codes that indicated the type of problem at startup. Different codes were for different errors. This was used in place of the normal Happy Mac icon, which indicated that the startup-time hardware tests were successful. In 68k models made after the Macintosh II, a tune (Chimes of Death) was played.

Models prior to the Macintosh II crashed silently and displayed the Sad Mac, without playing any tone. PowerPC Macs played a sound effect of a car crash, and computers equipped with the PowerPC upgrade card used the three note brass fanfare death chime (A, E-natural, and E-flat) same as the Macintosh Performa 6200 and Macintosh Performa 6300.

A Sad Mac may be deliberately generated at startup by pressing the interrupt switch on Macintosh computers that had one installed, or by pressing Command and Power keys shortly after the startup chime. On some Macintoshes (e.g. PowerBook 540c) if the user presses the command and power keys before the boot screen displays, it will play the "chimes of death" (the chimes are a fraction of normal speed and there is no Sad Mac displayed).

Sad iPod

On the iPod, if damage or an error occurs in the hardware or the firmware, for example, if its files are deleted, a Sad iPod appears. This is similar to the Sad Mac, but instead of a Macintosh, there is an iPod, and there are no chimes of death. The icon also lacks a nose, and the frown is flipped horizontally. It also doesn't show hexadecimal codes indicating what problem occurred in the iPod. This error screen will not show up when a problem occurs in the newer iPods.

Chimes of Death

The Chimes of Death are the Macintosh equivalent of an IBM PC POST error beep. Most of the time, the Chimes of Death are accompanied by a Sad Mac icon in the middle of the screen.

Different Macintosh series used different death chimes. The Macintosh II was the first to use the death chimes (an upward major arpeggio, with different chimes on many models). The Macintosh Quadra, Centris, Performa, LC and the Macintosh Classic played the upward major arpeggio, followed by three or four notes, with slight variation depending on the model of the Macintosh. The Macintosh Quadra AV660 and Centris AV660 used a sound of a single pass of Roland D-50's "Digital Native Dance" sample loop, while the Performa 6100 series used a car crash sound. The Power Macintosh and Performa 6200 and 6300 series, along with the Power Macintosh upgrade card, used an eerily dramatic 3-note brass fanfare with a rhythm of drums and cymbals. The PowerBook 1400cs used a rendition of the Twilight Zone theme. The pre-G3 PCI Power Macs, the beige G3 Power Macs and the G3 All-In-One used a sound of a firecracker mixed with a metal pipe being struck, making it sound like something just exploded in side the machine when power was applied. Since the introduction of the iMac in 1998, the Chimes of Death are no longer used.

Mac OS X Jaguar, released in 2002, replaced the Sad Mac logo with the Universal "no" symbol.

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The Microsoft Windows Script Host (WSH) (formerly named Windows Scripting Host) is an automation technology for Microsoft Windows operating systems that provides scripting abilities comparable to batch files, but with a wider range of supported features.

It is language-independent in that it can make use of different Active Scripting language engines. By default, it interprets and runs plain-text JScript (.JS and .JSE files) and VBScript (.VBS and .VBE files).

Users can install different scripting engines to enable them to script in other languages, for instance PerlScript. The language independent filename extension WSF can also be used. The advantage of the Windows Script File (.WSF) is that it allows the user to use a combination of scripting languages within a single file.

WSH engines include various implementations for the Rexx, BASIC, Perl, Ruby, Tcl, PHP, JavaScript, Delphi, Python, XSLT, and other languages.

Windows Script Host is distributed and installed by default on Windows 98 and later versions of Windows. It is also installed if Internet Explorer 5 (or a later version) is installed. Beginning with Windows 2000, the Windows Script Host became available for use with user login scripts.

Usage

Windows Script Host may be used for a variety of purposes, including logon scripts, administration and general automation. Microsoft describes it as an administration tool. WSH provides an environment for scripts to run â€" it invokes the appropriate script engine and provides a set of services and objects for the script to work with. These scripts may be run in either GUI mode (WScript.exe) or command line mode (CScript.exe) offering flexibility to the user for interactive or non-interactive scripts. WSH implements an object model which exposes a set of Component Object Model (COM) interfaces. So in addition to ASP, IIS, Internet Explorer, CScript and WScript, the WSH can be used to automate and communicate with any Windows application with COM and other exposed objects, such as using PerlScript to query Microsoft Access, ooRexxScript to create what are in fact Rexx macros in Excel, Quattro Pro, Microsoft Word, Lotus Notes and any of the like, the XLNT script to get environment variables and print them in a new TextPad document, Python can be used to automate and query the data in SecureCRT.

Unless otherwise specified, any WSH scripting engine can be used with the various Windows server software packages to provide CGI scripting. The current versions of the default WSH engines and all or most of the third party engines have socket abilities as well; as a CGI script or otherwise, PerlScript is the choice of many programmers for this purpose and the VBScript and various Rexx-based engines are also rated as sufficiently powerful in connectivity and text-processing abilities to also be useful. This also goes for file access and processingâ€"the earliest WSH engines for VBScript and JScript do not since the base language did not, whilst PerlScript, ooRexxScript, and the others have this from the beginning.

WinWrap Basic, SaxBasic and others are similar to Visual Basic for Applications, These tools are used to add scripting and macro abilities. Many other languages can also be used in this fashion. Other languages used for scripting of programmes include Rexx, Tcl, Perl, Python, Ruby, and others which come with methods to control objects in the operating system and the spreadsheet and database programmes.

VBScript is the macro language in Microsoft Outlook 97, whilst WordBasic is used for Word up to 6, Powerpoint and other tools. Excel to 5.0 uses Visual Basic 5.0. In Office 2000 forward, true Visual Basic for Applications 6.0 is used for all components. Other components use Visual Basic for Applications. OpenOffice uses Visual Basic, Python, and several others as macro languages and others can be added. LotusScript is very closely related to VBA, and pure VBA licensed from Microsoft is used Corel products such as Lotus Notes, Lotus 1·2·3, Quattro Pro &c.

Any scripting language connected to the Windows can be accessed by external means of PerlScript, PythonScript, VBScript and the other engines available can be used to access databases (Lotus Notes, Microsoft Access, Oracle) and spreadsheets (Microsoft Excel, Lotus 1·2·3, Quattro Pro). This can be accomplished by means of the WSH so any language can be used if there is an installed engine.

Examples

The first example is very simple; it shows some VBScript which uses the root WSH COM object "WScript" to display a message with an 'OK' button. Upon launching this script the CScript or WScript engine would be called and the runtime environment provided.

Content of a file hello0.vbs

WSH programming can also use the JScript language.

Content of a file hello1.js

Or, code can be mixed in one WSF file, such as VBScript and JScript, or any other:

Content of a file hello2.wsf

Security concerns

Windows applications and processes may be automated using a script in Windows Script Host. Viruses and malware could be written to exploit this ability. Thus, some suggest disabling it for security reasons. Alternatively, antivirus programs may offer features to control .vbs and other scripts which run in the WSH environment.

Since version 5.6 of WSH, scripts can be digitally signed programmatically using the Scripting.Signer object in a script itself, provided a valid certificate is present on the system. Alternatively, the signcode tool from the Platform SDK, which has been extended to support WSH filetypes, may be used at the command line.

By using Software Restriction Policies introduced with Windows XP, a system may be configured to execute only those scripts which have been digitally signed, thus preventing the execution of untrusted scripts.

Available scripting engines

There have been suggestions of creating engines for other languages, such as LotusScript, SaxBasic, BasicScript, KiXtart, awk, bash, csh and other Unix shells, 4NT, cmd.exe (the Windows NT shell), Windows PowerShell, DCL, C, C++, Fortran and others. The XLNT language is based on DCL and provides a very large subset of the language along with additional commands and statements and the software can be used in three ways: the WSH engine (*.xcs), the console interpreter (*.xlnt) and as a server and client side CGI engine (*.xgi).

When a server implementing CGI such as the Windows Internet Information Server, ports of Apache and others, all or most of the engines can be used; the most commonly used are VBScript, JScript, PythonScript, PerlScript, ActivePHPScript, and ooRexxScript. The MKS Toolkit PScript programme also runs Perl. Command shells like cmd.exe, 4NT, ksh, and scripting languages with string processing and preferably socket functionality are also able to be used for CGI scripting; compiled languages like C++, Visual Basic, and Java can also be used like this. All Perl interpreters, ooRexx, PHP, and more recent versions of VBScript and JScript can use sockets for TCP/IP and usually UDP and other protocols for this.

Version history

The redistributable version of WSH version 5.6 can be installed on Windows 95/98/Me and Windows NT 4.0/2000. WSH 5.7 is downloadable for Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. Recently, redistributable versions for older operating systems (Windows 9x and Windows NT 4.0) are no longer available from the Microsoft Download Center.

Since Windows XP Service Pack 3, release 5.7 is not needed as it is included, with newer revisions being included in newer versions of Windows since.

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Lean startup is a methodology for developing businesses and products. The methodology aims to shorten product development cycles by adopting a combination of business-hypothesis-driven experimentation, iterative product releases, and validated learning. The central hypothesis of the lean startup methodology is that if startup companies invest their time into iteratively building products or services to meet the needs of early customers, they can reduce the market risks and sidestep the need for large amounts of initial project funding and expensive product launches and failures.

History

The lean startup methodology was first proposed in 2008 by Eric Ries, using his personal experiences adapting lean management principles to high-tech startup companies. The methodology has since been expanded to apply to any individual, team, or company looking to introduce new products or services into the market. The lean startup's reputation is due in part to the success of Ries' bestselling book, The Lean Startup, published in September 2011. Amazon.com listed the book as one of their Best Business Books of 2011, and by June 2012 the book had sold 90,000 copies.

Ries' said that his first company, Catalyst Recruiting, failed because he and his colleagues did not understand the wants of their target customers, and because they focused too much time and energy on the initial product launch. Next, Ries was a senior software engineer with There, Inc., which Ries described as a classic example of a Silicon Valley startup with five years of stealth R&D, $40 million in financing, and nearly 200 employees at the time of product launch. In 2003, There, Inc. launched its product, There.com, but they were unable to garner popularity beyond the initial early adopters. Ries claims that despite the many proximate causes for failure, the most important mistake was that the company's "vision was almost too concrete", making it impossible to see that their product did not accurately represent consumer demand.

Although the lost money differed by orders of magnitude, Ries concluded that the failures of There, Inc. and Catalyst Recruiting shared similar origins: "it was working forward from the technology instead of working backward from the business results you're trying to achieve."

Precursors

The lean startup methodology is based on lean manufacturing, the streamlined production process pioneered by Taiichi Ohno by combining flow principles used by Henry Ford starting in 1906 and the TWI programs introduced to Japan in 1951. After more than 15 years of experiments, he had a stable and reproducible system. Use of the term lean to describe Ohno's system was first formalized in the book The Machine That Changed the World.

The lean manufacturing system considers as waste the expenditure of resources for any goal other than the creation of value for the end customer, and continually seeks ways to eliminate such waste. In particular, the system focuses on minimizing inventory throughout the assembly line. Kanban cards are used to signal only when the necessary inputs to production are needed, and in so doing, reduce assembly waste (inventory) and increase productivity. Additionally, immediate quality control checkpoints can identify mistakes or imperfections during assembly as early as possible to ensure that the least amount of time is expended developing a faulty product. Another primary focus of the lean management system is to maintain close connections with suppliers in order to understand their customers' desires.

In an article published in the Harvard Business Review in 2013, Ries' mentor Steve Blank described how the lean startup methodology also draws its inspiration from the work of people like Ian C. MacMillan and Rita Gunther McGrath who developed a technique called discovery-driven planning, which was an attempt to bring an entrepreneurial mindset to planning.

Overview

Similar to the precepts of lean manufacturing, the lean startup methodology seeks to eliminate wasteful practices and increase value-producing practices during the product development phase so that startups can have a better chance of success without requiring large amounts of outside funding, elaborate business plans, or the perfect product. Customer feedback during product development is integral to the lean startup process, and ensures that the producer does not invest time designing features or services that consumers do not want. This is done primarily through two processes, using key performance indicators and a continuous deployment process.

Because startups typically cannot afford to have their entire investment depend upon the success of one single product launch, the lean startup methodology proposes that by releasing a minimum viable product that is not yet finalized, the company can then make use of customer feedback to help further tailor their product to the specific needs of its customers.

The lean startup methodology asserts that the "lean has nothing to do with how much money a company raises"; rather it has everything to do with assessing the specific demands of consumers and how to meet that demand using the least amount of resources possible.

Definitions

Definitions based on The Lean Startup

In his blog and book, Ries uses specific terms to refer to the core lean startup principles.

Minimum viable product

A minimum viable product (MVP) is the "version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort" (similar to a pilot experiment). The goal of an MVP is to test fundamental business hypotheses (or leap-of-faith assumptions) and to help entrepreneurs begin the learning process as quickly as possible. As an example, Ries notes that Zappos founder Nick Swinmurn wanted to test the hypothesis that customers were ready and willing to buy shoes online. Instead of building a website and a large database of footwear, Swinmurn approached local shoe stores, took pictures of their inventory, posted the pictures online, bought the shoes from the stores at full price after he'd made a sale, and then shipped them directly to customers. Swinmurn deduced that customer demand was present, and Zappos would eventually grow into a billion dollar business based on the model of selling shoes online.

Continuous deployment (only for software development)

Continuous deployment, similar to continuous delivery, is a process "whereby all code that is written for an application is immediately deployed into production," which results in a reduction of cycle times. Ries states that some of the companies he's worked with deploy new code into production as often as 50 times a day. The phrase was coined by Timothy Fitz, one of Ries's colleagues and an early engineer at IMVU.

Split testing

A split or A/B test is an experiment in which "different versions of a product are offered to customers at the same time." The goal of a split test is to observe differences in behavior between the two groups and to measure the impact of each version on an actionable metric.

A/B testing can also be performed in serial fashion where a group of users one week may see one version of the product while the next week users see another. This can be criticized in circumstances where external events may influence user behavior in one time period but not the other. For example, a split test of two ice cream flavors performed in serial during the summer and winter would see a marked decrease in demand during the winter where that decrease is mostly related to the weather and not to the flavor offer.

Actionable metrics

Actionable metrics can lead to informed business decisions and subsequent action. These are in contrast to vanity metricsâ€"measurements that give "the rosiest picture possible" but do not accurately reflect the key drivers of a business.

Vanity metrics for one company may be actionable metrics for another. For example, a company specializing in creating web based dashboards for financial markets might view the number of web page views per person as a vanity metric as their revenue is not based on number of page views. However, an online magazine with advertising would view web page views as a key metric as page views are directly correlated to revenue.

A typical example of a vanity metric is 'the number of new users gained per day'. While a high number of users gained per day seems beneficial to any company, if the cost of acquiring each user through expensive advertising campaigns is significantly higher than the revenue gained per user, then gaining more users could quickly lead to bankruptcy.

Pivot

A pivot is a "structured course correction designed to test a new fundamental hypothesis about the product, strategy, and engine of growth." A notable example of a company employing the pivot is Groupon; when the company first started, it was an online activism platform called The Point. After receiving almost no traction, the founders opened a WordPress blog and launched their first coupon promotion for a pizzeria located in their building lobby. Although they only received 20 redemptions, the founders realized that their idea was significant, and had successfully empowered people to coordinate group action. Three years later, Groupon would grow into a billion dollar business.

Steve Blank defines a pivot as "changing (or even firing) the plan instead of the executive (the sales exec, marketing or even the CEO)."

Innovation accounting

This topic focuses on how entrepreneurs can maintain accountability and maximize outcomes by measuring progress, planning milestones, and prioritizing.

Buildâ€"Measureâ€"Learn

The Buildâ€"Measureâ€"Learn loop emphasizes speed as a critical ingredient to product development. A team or company's effectiveness is determined by its ability to ideate, quickly build a minimum viable product of that idea, measure its effectiveness in the market, and learn from that experiment. In other words, it's a learning cycle of turning ideas into products, measuring customers' reactions and behaviors against built products, and then deciding whether to persevere or pivot the idea; this process repeats as many times as necessary. The phases of the loop are: Ideas â†' Build â†' Product â†' Measure â†' Data â†' Learn.

This rapid iteration allows teams to discover a feasible path towards product/market fit, and to continue optimizing and refining the business model after reaching product/market fit.

Definitions popularized after The Lean Startup

Business Model Canvas

The Business Model Canvas is a strategic management template invented by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur for developing new business models or documenting existing ones. It is a visual chart with elements describing a firm's value proposition, infrastructure, customers, and finances. It assists firms in aligning their activities by illustrating potential trade-offs.

Lean Canvas

The Lean Canvas is a version of the Business Model Canvas adapted by Ash Maurya specifically for startups. The Lean Canvas focuses on addressing broad customer problems and solutions and delivering them to customer segments through a unique value proposition.

The movement

Ries and others created an annual technology conference called Startup Lessons Learned which has subsequently changed its name to the Lean Startup Conference. Lean startup meetups in cities around the world have garnered 20,000 regular participants. The first lean startup meetup named Lean Startup Circle was created by Rich Collins on June 26, 2009 hosting speaking events, workshops, and roundtable discussions. As of 2012, there are lean startup meetups in over 100 cities and 17 countries as well as an online discussion forum with over 5500 members. Third-party organizers have led lean startup meetups in San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, Austin, Beijing, Dublin, and Rio de Janeiro, among othersâ€"many of which are personally attended by Riesâ€"with the Chicago and New York City Lean Startup Meetups attracting over 4,000 members each. The Lean Startup Machine created a new spin on the lean startup meetups by having attendees start a new company in three days. As of 2012, the Lean Sta rtup Machine claimed to have created over 600 new startups this way.

Several prominent high-tech companies have begun to publicly employ the lean startup methodology, including Intuit, Dropbox, Wealthfront, Votizen, Aardvark, and Grockit. The lean startup principles are also taught in classes at Harvard Business School and UC Berkeley and are implemented in municipal governments through Code for America.

In addition, the United States Government has recently begun to employ lean startup ideas. The Federal Chief Information Officer of the United States, Steven VanRoekel noted that he is taking a "lean-startup approach to government." Ries has also worked with the former and current Chief Technology Officers of the United Statesâ€"Aneesh Chopra and Todd Park respectivelyâ€"to implement aspects of the lean startup model into the United States Government. In particular, Park noted that in order to understand customer demand, the Department of Health and Human Services, recognized "the need to rapidly prototype solutions, engage customers in those solutions as soon as possible, and then quickly and repeatedly iterate those solutions based on working with customers." In May 2012, Ries and The White House announced the Presidential Innovation Fellows program, which brings together top citizen innovators and government officials to work on high-level projects and deliver measurable result s in six months.

Lean concepts

Lean startup principles have been applied to specific competencies within typical startups and larger organizations:

Criticism

Ben Horowitz, the co-founder of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, wrote an article in 2010 criticizing the lean startup method for over-emphasizing "running lean" (constantly cutting and reducing non-essential parts of the company to save time and money). He specifically disagreed with portraying "running lean" as an end rather than a means to winning the market without running out of cash. Horowitz gave as an example his startup Loudcloud, which by "running fat" was able to outperform 20 direct competitors and after 8 years reach a value of $1.6 billion. However, at least since 2008, numerous advocates of lean methods have pointed out that "running lean" does not mean cost cutting.

Trey Griffith, the VP of technology at Teleborder, stated in 2012 that the majority of backing for the lean startup methodology was anecdotal and had not been rigorously validated when first presented. However, he goes on to note that better support of the method comes out of a 2011 analysis of the factors of success in growth companies as described in the 2011 book Great by Choice.

John Finneran, a business writer and former user of the lean startup method, described in 2013 a number of the method's assumptions that he did not recognize during his use of the method. In particular, he observed that his clients were often not motivated to invest time and effort into helping iterate a minimal viable product; instead they wanted a more polished product to begin with. Second, he found virtually no early adopters who were willing to try to give feedback on unpolished software simply to be the first to get a chance at it. Third, he argued that lean startup can distract from essential traditional management practices like development discipline and budget protection. In general, he stated that it is important to be critical and skeptical of lean startup methods rather than pre-supposing that they will be effective. Ries had already anticipated this criticism in his book when he wrote, on page 279: "We cannot afford to have our success breed a new pseudoscience aroun d pivots, MVPs, and the like. This was the fate of scientific management, and in the end, I believe, that set back its cause by decades." This implies that the concept of validated learning applies to the lean startup methods themselves, and not just to products.

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On the classic Mac OS (the original Apple Macintosh operating system), extensions were small pieces of code that extended the system's functionality. They were run initially at start-up time, and operated by a variety of mechanisms, including trap patching and other code modifying techniques. Initially an Apple developer hack, extensions became the standard way to provide a modular operating system. Large amounts of important system services such as the TCP/IP network stacks (MacTCP and Open Transport) and USB and FireWire support were optional components implemented as extensions. The phrase "system extension" later came to encompass faceless background applications as well.

Extensions generally filled the same role as DOS's terminate and stay resident programs, or Unix's daemons, although by patching the underlying OS code, they had the capability to modify existing OS behaviour the other two did not.

The INIT mechanism

The concept of extensions was not present in the original Macintosh system software, but the system nevertheless had a private patching mechanism that developers soon learned to take advantage of - the INIT loader. This code would search for system resources of type 'INIT', and load and run them at boot time. The code resources had to be stored directly in the Mac System suitcase's resource fork, meaning it was only really available to "power users" who would be comfortable using ResEdit or other resource editor.

Since taking advantage of this mechanism was an unsupported hack, and only 32 INITs could be loaded in this manner, Apple responded by providing a more managed solution. Initially this itself was in the form of an 'INIT' resource with ID 31 placed in the System file that would search for further files of type 'INIT' in the System Folder, and load and run INIT resources inside them. (This is why some veteran Mac programmers still refer to the extensions loading mechanism as the "INIT 31 trick". INITs could now be installed simply by placing a file in the System Folder, well within the abilities of the average Mac user. Starting with System 7, extensions were relocated to the Extensions folder within the System Folder for convenience, and an auto-routing mechanism was implemented so that placing an extension into the System Folder through drag and drop would actually place the file in the appropriate subfolder.

Extensions retained the resource type of 'INIT' throughout their lifetime, and the loader was gradually enhanced to search for these resources in numerous places, including in the resource forks of control panels in a variety of formats and the Chooser.

Extensions

INITs evolved into system extensions, gaining additional ad hoc protocols along the way, such as supplying an icon to be displayed at boot time (the origin of this was 'ShowINIT'). The 'parade of puzzle pieces and icons' across the screen as each extension loaded became familiar to all Mac users. Apple themselves eventually released major (but optional) pieces of the operating system as extensions, such as QuickTime, QuickDraw 3D and many others. A substantial amount of services and drivers in Mac OSâ€"both official and third partyâ€"were provided as extensions, allowing for the OS to be trimmed down by disabling them.

System extensions were a common source of instability on the Macintosh, as third-party code was of variable quality and would often patch the system in ways that did not always work correctly. Some extensions didn't work properly together, or worked only when loaded in a particular order. In addition, different extensions might try to patch the same part of the system, which could lead to extension conflicts and other instability. Tracking down these sources of trouble was another task most Mac users encountered at some point. Troubleshooting Mac OS extensions could be a time-consuming process of bisecting and trial and error.

The simplest way to clean-boot the operating system was to hold the shift key: loading of extensions would be bypassed. System 7.5 added the Extensions Manager, which allowed the user to quickly enable or disable particular extensions, and also to define sets of them that would work correctly together. Extensions Manager came with two read-only base sets provided: one that contained the subset of extensions needed for basic OS operation, and one that enabled all the official extensions that shipped with the OS but disabled all third-party extensions.

The loading order of extensions was a side-effect of the GetFInfo function that was used by the loader to enumerate the files in the Extension folder. While Apple always have said that the order that results from enumeration of files using this function is undefined, on HFS volumes this function enumerated files in the order stored in the HFS catalog. People figured out that changing the first character in the file name could change the extension loading order, which caused trouble when Mac OS 8.1 moved to HFS+. Apple ended up having to change the loader to manually sort the filenames returned by this function into a table, and provided an interface to allow software to manually change the table.

Configuration and control panels

System extensions had no user interface: there was no standard mechanism by which the user could configure the services provided by an extension. Extensions were able to alter the graphical interface (such as adding new menus to the menu bar) and thus accept user configuration, or they could be accompanied by an application to provide the configuration interface.

With System 7, control panels become separate Finder plugins on disc that could be launched by the user. By inserting INIT code into a control panel, it became possible to build extension/control panel hybrids that modified the operating system at boot time and contained their own in-built configuration interface in the same form as any other operating system control panel.

Faceless background applications

MultiFinder and System 7 and later supported faceless background applications similar to UNIX daemons, though using cooperative multitasking. Examples included Time Synchronizer (daylight saving time adjustment and remote time synchronisation), Software Update Scheduler, and Folder Actions (folder event handling). Faceless background applications were regular applications with the restriction that they did not show up on the application menu. The only technical differences between a faceless background application and a regular application were that the "Only background" flag was set in the 'SIZE' resource. They were prohibited from opening a normal application-level window: if they did so, the system would freeze.

They were free to open global floating windows, however, since these could neither gain nor lose focus. The Control Strip in Mac OS 8 and 9 was an example of a faceless background application that displayed a global floating window to provide user interaction. The Application Switcher was another. However, the user was not aware at any time that the Control Strip was a running process; it was simply presented as an extra interface feature. The system simply described faceless background applications as "system applications".

Language features in the Open Scripting Architecture (and thus AppleScript) were initially implemented as dynamically loadable plugins known as "scripting additions" or OSAXes. In Mac OS 8 and 9, these were augmented by faceless background applications that were loaded in the background on demand. Just as with regular applications, these applications were accessed using tell clauses: the global namespace was not updated as was the case with OSAXes. The operating system did not indicate the launch of such processes nor indicate whether or not they were running.

Other non-INIT extensions

INIT-type extensions were loaded at boot time to update the operating system. Confusingly, various other files could be placed into the Extensions folder as well, many of which were not loaded at boot time. The most notable of these were shared libraries which were commonly put into the Extensions folder for ease of location. Shared libraries were not loaded at boot time.

INIT-type files were not the only type of system extension. Another type was scri, or WorldScript extension. The BootX Linux bootloader was implemented as a scri simply such files were loaded very early on in the boot process, before all other extensions. BootX could then display a dialog offering to let the user finish booting Mac OS or load Linux instead.

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