net

net, mesh fabric, known from prehistoric times. Nets have been made of many materials, including sinews, strips of hide, silk, vegetable and synthetic fibers, and metallic threads. Their earliest use was probably for snaring animals and for fishing. Fishing nets include the stationary net, an early type; the drift net, an oblong vertical net, buoyed on its upper edge; the seine, whose ends are brought together to enclose the fish; and the bag-shaped trawl net, dragged along sea bottom. Hair nets include the gold or silver, wire or cord cauls worn in ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome; reticulated caps and cauls popular in Europe especially in the 14th cent.; chenille or ribbon snoods of the 19th cent.; and the "invisible" net of human hair. Net fabrics include veilings, tulle, and maline, as well as heavier dress nets, curtain nets, and filet, a foundation for lace. Nettings are used also for safety nets, for hammocks, and for hoisting loads.

Type of parallel computation in which computing elements are modeled on the network of neurons that constitute animal nervous systems. This model, intended to simulate the way the brain processes information, enables the computer to “learn” to a certain degree. A neural network typically consists of a number of interconnected processors, or nodes. Each handles a designated sphere of knowledge, and has several inputs and one output to the network. Based on the inputs it gets, a node can “learn” about the relationships between sets of data, sometimes using the principles of fuzzy logic. For example, a backgammon program can store and grade results from moves in a game; in the next game, it can play a move based on its stored result and can regrade the stored result if the move is unsuccessful. Neural networks have been used in pattern recognition, speech analysis, oil exploration, weather prediction, and the modeling of thinking and consciousness.

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System by which employees are paid a share of the profits of the business enterprise in which they are employed, in keeping with a plan outlined in advance. These payments, which may vary according to salary or wage, are in addition to regular earnings. Profit-sharing plans were probably first developed in France in the early 19th century as worker incentives. Today such plans are used by businesses in Western Europe, the U.S., and parts of Latin America. Profit shares may be distributed on a current or deferred basis or through some combination of the two. Under current distribution, profits are paid out to employees immediately in the form of cash or company stock. In deferred-payment plans, profit shares may be paid into a trust fund from which employees can draw annuities in later years.

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In business usage, the excess of total revenue over total cost during a specific period of time. In economics, profit is the excess over the returns to capital, land, and labour. Since these resources are measured by their opportunity costs, economic profit can be negative. There are various sources of profit: an innovator who introduces a new production technique can earn entrepreneurial profits; changes in consumer tastes may bring some firms windfall profits; or a firm may restrict output to prevent prices from falling to the level of costs (monopoly profit).

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SourceForge.net is a source code repository. It acts as a centralized location for software developers to control and manage open source software development. SourceForge.net is operated by Sourceforge, Inc. (formerly VA Software) and runs a version of the SourceForge software, forked from the last open-source version available. , SourceForge.net hosts more than 180,000 projects and more than 1.9 million registered users, although it does contain many dormant or single-user projects.

SourceForge.net has offered free access to hosting and tools for developers of free software / open source software for several years, and has become well-known within such development communities for these services.

SourceForge.net competes with other providers such as RubyForge, Tigris.org, BountySource, BerliOS, JavaForge and GNU Savannah.

The domain sourceforge.net attracted at least 28 million visitors annually by 2008 according to a Compete.com survey.

In 2008, the design of project pages has been updated, and now most of the information is inaccessible without ECMAScript.

Offerings

SourceForge.net allows any project uniquely named in its registry to be sub-domained as http://project-name.sourceforge.net or http://project-name.sf.net. This gives some prominent URL branding to a project and a high activity in it can get the project listed on the main page http://sourceforge.net as a Top Project. Having a high number of registered members numbering over a million, and often been researched for project information, any participating project can gain fast access to the market of developers and users for a short and efficient adoption rate.

SourceForge.net provides storage space for a project to house content such as a wiki, MySQL database, source code versions managed with CVS or Subversion, and even their own website pages at the subdomain location.

By uploading code to SourceForge.net, you grant SourceForge a perpetual proprietary license.

Temporary ban in mainland China

The entire SourceForge.net website was banned in mainland China around 2002, though the ban was later lifted in 2003. Sourceforge.net had been blocked in China as of June 26, 2008. This blocking may be related to the recent protests of Beijing Olympic Games, which began on 8 August, 2008. This follows the China-boycott of the developer(s) of the (sourceforge hosted) FOSS software product Notepad++. The project's developer said that the action is not against Chinese people, but against Chinese government's repression against Tibetan unrest earlier in this year. This ban was lifted on July 23, 2008.

Banned countries

In its terms of use, SourceForge states that its services are not available to users in countries on the sanction list of the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (e.g., Cuba and Iran). , people from those countries can browse SourceForge projects and download from them, but access to the secure server (https://sourceforge.net) is not allowed. This means that people coming from those IP addresses can't login to SourceForge or contribute to projects.

See also

• Comparison of open source software hosting facilities

References

External links

• SourceForge.net
• " The SourceForge Story", by James Maguire (2007-10-17)