"Horn light" is the term used in American and Canadian fire alarm systems to describe the annunciators used to notify the occupants of a building that an alarm condition exists and at least that area of the building should be promptly evacuated. The device emits a very loud noise and also uses a xenon strobe light to call attention to itself.
Older horn lights were "unsupervised". These devices, when powered by a direct current voltage, simply sounded and flashed for as long as the voltage was present. Newer horn lights are supervised; these can separately annunciate and flash so that they can be silenced while still providing the visual notification that occupants should evacuate the area.
Fire safety codes generally call for all separately enclosed areas to contain at least one horn light so that the annunciation is obvious even in enclosed spaces such as conference rooms and toilet rooms.
Older horn lights were "unsupervised". These devices, when powered by a direct current voltage, simply sounded and flashed for as long as the voltage was present. Newer horn lights are supervised; these can separately annunciate and flash so that they can be silenced while still providing the visual notification that occupants should evacuate the area.
Fire safety codes generally call for all separately enclosed areas to contain at least one horn light so that the annunciation is obvious even in enclosed spaces such as conference rooms and toilet rooms.
The Milwaukee Omnifest was a community resource with much the same goals as a Free-Net. Neil Trilling was the director.
Omnifest provided free Internet access for elementary and secondary school teachers, UW-Milwaukee Alumni Association members, and librarians before opening to the public. The prototype started at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee WI USA, the City of Festivals.
The program was well accepted and opened to the public in September 1994. It evolved into an outreach program of the UW Extension as the Center for Community Computing.
Omnifest closed due to a number of factors on March 31, 1998.
Affordable access to an on-line community
Prior to the widespread availability of Internet access, personal computers employed dialup access to servers, many of which were local bulletin boards.
Milwaukee Omnifest was one of the first dial-up Internet services available to the public via a local Milwaukee phone number. The modem pool was located at UW-Milwaukee, then later ExecPC made their excess modem pool capacity available during weekdays. Once logged into the modem pool, users could browse Omnifest text-only menus and bulletin boards maintained by volunteers. Members had E-mail and could subscribe to news groups. Omnifest hosted their own web site and members could browse the World Wide Web but were limited to using Lynx, a text-based web browser.
Subscribers were asked to pay a nominal access fee of $25.00 annually. Service was not limited to local users, Telnet could be utilized to access the Omnifest system from any computer connected to the Internet. Similarly, Omnifest members could telnet to other Freenet servers.
Although membership was small by comparison to commercially available dial-up services such as America-Online, Omnifest attracted a wide range of students, teachers, professionals, and computer enthusiasts who wanted to enjoy the benefits of the rapidly growing Internet. It also provided a venue for non-profit and community groups to provide local information.
Disabled people were another important group served. The text-based interface could be easily interpreted by screen reader software. Children could join Omnifest through their schools and explore in the supervised setting of their computer labs.
The ending
Community computing enthusiasts hoped to demonstrate that a volunteer based service could be utilized to help those in lower income groups who were interested in being part of an on-line community.
As Internet access in general and other free access Internet methods became available (such as local library services), the need for Omnifest slowly decreased. From a high of 7,000 members, by 1998 only about 900 remained. Omnifest is considered a successful example of a model transitional on-line communications service that helped to usher in the advent of low cost publicly available Internet access.
The document http://www4.uwm.edu/omnifest/neighborhood.html There Goes the Neighborhood, Neil Trilling's essay on changes in the Internet disappeared on June 15, 2007, as a result of the end of school year maintenance but has since been restored.
Freenets today?
TriState Online closed on June 30, 1999. They were one of the pioneer community networks and generously provided technical assistance and volunteers when Omnifest was starting.
Mobile Area Freenet - connection refused error message as of May 2002.
Southeast Florida Library Information Network: SEFLIN Free-Net appears no longer to be in operation although the Library site is still active.
Some have evolved into web sites.
* Victoria Telecommunity Network (Victoria Free-Net) - http://victoria.tc.ca/ lists links to international community and free-nets
* Toronto Free-Net - http://www.torfree.net/ has many links to Canadian CommunityNets and FreeNets
* Austin Free-Net, Austin TX - http://www.austinfree.net/
* Boulder Community Network, Boulder CO - http://bcn.boulder.co.us/
* Davis Community Network, Davis CA - http://www.dcn.davis.ca.us/
* Prairie Community Network, Champaign IL -http://www.prairienet.org/
* Seattle Community Network, Seattle WA - http://www.scn.org/
* Northern Colorado FortNet - http://www.fortnet.org/
* Eugene Free Community Network, Eugene OR - http://www.efn.org/
* Huron Valley Community Network, MI - http://www.hvcn.org/
* Aurora Community Network, IL - http://www.ci.aurora.il.us/ appears to be gone as of May 2006
Much of this information originally appeared on the UW-Milwaukee Milwaukee Omnifest Community Network web site.
Omnifest provided free Internet access for elementary and secondary school teachers, UW-Milwaukee Alumni Association members, and librarians before opening to the public. The prototype started at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee WI USA, the City of Festivals.
The program was well accepted and opened to the public in September 1994. It evolved into an outreach program of the UW Extension as the Center for Community Computing.
Omnifest closed due to a number of factors on March 31, 1998.
Affordable access to an on-line community
Prior to the widespread availability of Internet access, personal computers employed dialup access to servers, many of which were local bulletin boards.
Milwaukee Omnifest was one of the first dial-up Internet services available to the public via a local Milwaukee phone number. The modem pool was located at UW-Milwaukee, then later ExecPC made their excess modem pool capacity available during weekdays. Once logged into the modem pool, users could browse Omnifest text-only menus and bulletin boards maintained by volunteers. Members had E-mail and could subscribe to news groups. Omnifest hosted their own web site and members could browse the World Wide Web but were limited to using Lynx, a text-based web browser.
Subscribers were asked to pay a nominal access fee of $25.00 annually. Service was not limited to local users, Telnet could be utilized to access the Omnifest system from any computer connected to the Internet. Similarly, Omnifest members could telnet to other Freenet servers.
Although membership was small by comparison to commercially available dial-up services such as America-Online, Omnifest attracted a wide range of students, teachers, professionals, and computer enthusiasts who wanted to enjoy the benefits of the rapidly growing Internet. It also provided a venue for non-profit and community groups to provide local information.
Disabled people were another important group served. The text-based interface could be easily interpreted by screen reader software. Children could join Omnifest through their schools and explore in the supervised setting of their computer labs.
The ending
Community computing enthusiasts hoped to demonstrate that a volunteer based service could be utilized to help those in lower income groups who were interested in being part of an on-line community.
As Internet access in general and other free access Internet methods became available (such as local library services), the need for Omnifest slowly decreased. From a high of 7,000 members, by 1998 only about 900 remained. Omnifest is considered a successful example of a model transitional on-line communications service that helped to usher in the advent of low cost publicly available Internet access.
The document http://www4.uwm.edu/omnifest/neighborhood.html There Goes the Neighborhood, Neil Trilling's essay on changes in the Internet disappeared on June 15, 2007, as a result of the end of school year maintenance but has since been restored.
Freenets today?
TriState Online closed on June 30, 1999. They were one of the pioneer community networks and generously provided technical assistance and volunteers when Omnifest was starting.
Mobile Area Freenet - connection refused error message as of May 2002.
Southeast Florida Library Information Network: SEFLIN Free-Net appears no longer to be in operation although the Library site is still active.
Some have evolved into web sites.
* Victoria Telecommunity Network (Victoria Free-Net) - http://victoria.tc.ca/ lists links to international community and free-nets
* Toronto Free-Net - http://www.torfree.net/ has many links to Canadian CommunityNets and FreeNets
* Austin Free-Net, Austin TX - http://www.austinfree.net/
* Boulder Community Network, Boulder CO - http://bcn.boulder.co.us/
* Davis Community Network, Davis CA - http://www.dcn.davis.ca.us/
* Prairie Community Network, Champaign IL -http://www.prairienet.org/
* Seattle Community Network, Seattle WA - http://www.scn.org/
* Northern Colorado FortNet - http://www.fortnet.org/
* Eugene Free Community Network, Eugene OR - http://www.efn.org/
* Huron Valley Community Network, MI - http://www.hvcn.org/
* Aurora Community Network, IL - http://www.ci.aurora.il.us/ appears to be gone as of May 2006
Much of this information originally appeared on the UW-Milwaukee Milwaukee Omnifest Community Network web site.
Chris Thomas is an Australian writer, actor, journalist and broadcaster.
Thomas was born in Perth, Western Australia. He has extensive acting and journalistic experience, working for mainstream newspapers, independent publications and as a freelance. He has also worked in media and public relations and as a radio announcer. He is author of the novel Journo's Diary, the Doctor Who short story One Step Forward, Two Steps Back(published in the collection Short Trips: Defining Patterns and the plays Which One?, Reality Matters, Appetite For Destruction, Who's Your Daddy?, SMS Mess, The Bonza Land of Oz, Pickles and King Bling, published in SMS Mess and other plays.. In late 2018, Candy Jar Books published Thomas' short story Vampires of the Night as part of its Lethbridge-Stewart range. In 2019, it was published in The HAVOC Files 2 - Special Edition.
Reception
SMS Mess was described by The Drum Media as a "miniature masterpiece", and was a finalist in Short + Sweeet Brisbane and Melbourne 2009,. Reality Matters was the only Australian entry selected for Blacktown Theatre's 4 Shorts Plus season in 2007.
One Step Forward, Two Steps Back was described by Doctor Who Magazine as "the book's best piece". The Kalgoorlie Miner called Journo's Diary "a great buy for anyone in the media industries in particular but still entertaining enough for those who aren't" with book-blog.com also noting it "will appeal in particular to the younger crowd, and to anyone who's ever worked as a journalist".
Thomas has also received acting awards, including best male supporting actor for his role in The Return and The Peter Kemeny Achievement Award for adapting, co-directing and playing the valet in No Exit.
In September 2011, he announced he was running for South Perth Mayor in the upcoming local government elections on 15 October 2011 but lost to the incumbent deputy mayor Sue Doherty.
Thomas is also one of the founders of Groovy Boots Theatre.
Thomas was born in Perth, Western Australia. He has extensive acting and journalistic experience, working for mainstream newspapers, independent publications and as a freelance. He has also worked in media and public relations and as a radio announcer. He is author of the novel Journo's Diary, the Doctor Who short story One Step Forward, Two Steps Back(published in the collection Short Trips: Defining Patterns and the plays Which One?, Reality Matters, Appetite For Destruction, Who's Your Daddy?, SMS Mess, The Bonza Land of Oz, Pickles and King Bling, published in SMS Mess and other plays.. In late 2018, Candy Jar Books published Thomas' short story Vampires of the Night as part of its Lethbridge-Stewart range. In 2019, it was published in The HAVOC Files 2 - Special Edition.
Reception
SMS Mess was described by The Drum Media as a "miniature masterpiece", and was a finalist in Short + Sweeet Brisbane and Melbourne 2009,. Reality Matters was the only Australian entry selected for Blacktown Theatre's 4 Shorts Plus season in 2007.
One Step Forward, Two Steps Back was described by Doctor Who Magazine as "the book's best piece". The Kalgoorlie Miner called Journo's Diary "a great buy for anyone in the media industries in particular but still entertaining enough for those who aren't" with book-blog.com also noting it "will appeal in particular to the younger crowd, and to anyone who's ever worked as a journalist".
Thomas has also received acting awards, including best male supporting actor for his role in The Return and The Peter Kemeny Achievement Award for adapting, co-directing and playing the valet in No Exit.
In September 2011, he announced he was running for South Perth Mayor in the upcoming local government elections on 15 October 2011 but lost to the incumbent deputy mayor Sue Doherty.
Thomas is also one of the founders of Groovy Boots Theatre.
ShopX (stylized in its logo as SHOPX) is a Bengaluru-based, a business-to-business e-commerce platform that connects small Indian retailers to both suppliers and customers. ShopX was founded in 2015 by Amit Sharma and Apoorva Jois. Through a digitally-managed retail platform, Kirana and retail stores in Tier 2 and 3 towns can order products directly from brands through ShopX's logistics. The company has more than 150,000 retailers on its network and currently is present in 440 towns and cities across India.
ShopX has received funding of over $50 million from investors including Hong Kong-based Fung Holdings and Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani. ShopX acquired an offline discovery platform PriceMap in January 2018 to utilising its technology-led expertise to enhance the discoverability of offline stores and create a level playing field between online and offline businesses. ShopX has partnered with over 100 consumer brands, including Reckitt Benckiser, Patanjali, Karbonn, Micromax and Vivo.
ShopX has received funding of over $50 million from investors including Hong Kong-based Fung Holdings and Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani. ShopX acquired an offline discovery platform PriceMap in January 2018 to utilising its technology-led expertise to enhance the discoverability of offline stores and create a level playing field between online and offline businesses. ShopX has partnered with over 100 consumer brands, including Reckitt Benckiser, Patanjali, Karbonn, Micromax and Vivo.