過去三十年來，科技產業的演進史其實是幾個業界主角的捉對廝殺史。1980年代，個人電腦取代大型機體(mainframe)的過程裡，IBM和微軟爭天下。下個十年，微軟和瀏覽器先驅網景(Netscape)及昇陽微系統博鬥，觸發網路的爆炸性成長。今天，網路籠罩智慧型手機、電視和其他非PC裝置，科技宇宙重新拉開新陣線，由蘋果和Google針鋒相對。

《商業周刊》審情度勢，預言Google終將勝出。

蘋果和Google經常以盟友姿態示人。雙方都說共同敵人是微軟。但兩大其實外弛內張，正面相撞之勢早已形成，Google執行長施密特本月3日辭去蘋果董事，識者即指是開戰的第一槍。

施密特擔任蘋果董事三年，薪酬月初揭露：他免費幹活，未拿蘋果董事的5萬美元(台幣163萬元)標準年薪，也不取三萬股董事配股。

免費其外，厚利其內：光是他從蘋果拿走的科技機密，就值回一切。蘋果執行長喬布斯的聲明道盡個箇中利害：「Google逐漸進入蘋果的核心事業，蘋果請施密特當董事的效益勢必大幅減少，因為他由於潛在的利益衝突，必須愈來愈不能出席我們的會議。」

雙方對撞的主戰場是成長快速的智慧型手機。使用Google Android行動軟體的機型和蘋果的iPhone你死我活。Google最近宣布推出個人電腦使用的操作系統Chrome Os，足與使用蘋果操作系統的Air筆電及iMac一爭高下。

另一場衝突發生於7月，蘋果斷然拒絕Google登上任何iPhone元件，因為消費者打電話變便宜，可能侵蝕搭載蘋果手機的AT&T營收。

雙方的世界觀和經營哲學南轅北轍，勢難兩立。Google是百花齊放型，認為網路應該是開放的世界，運作標準四海相通，不管你用什麼軟體，什麼運算裝置。因此年底以前將會有數十款Android手機上市，包括戴爾、摩托羅拉、三星、宏達電手機。

蘋果是孤芳自賞型，嚴密管控其生態世界，以iTunes為例：無數軟體開發商在蘋果線上店面售貨，但只能透過蘋果裝置來應用。蘋果的終極目標是創造一個只此一家，愈來愈專屬自己的宇宙，消費者只買它的產品，只用它的規矩玩遊戲。

這場擂台暫時不會有誰以擊倒勝，但鑑諸歷史，到頭來的贏家可能是Google。猶記1980年代，微軟號召一支軟體研發者和PC製造商大軍壓境，導到蘋果失利於PC市場。現在，如果Google也召集類似的聯合陣線，蘋果可能重蹈被對方的集體創新壓倒的覆轍。

最後一項關鍵是Google以雲端運算為利器。蘋果靠力量大、利潤高的Mac和iPhone賺錢，但Google已向未來大力衝刺，遠景較佳。

The Continuous Risk Management Guidebook was written with professionals in mind who are directly involved in software-intensive projects (program managers, lead engineers, software engineers, etc.). It may also be of interest to professionals from other disciplines (e.g., quality assurance, hardware engineering, testing) involved in software-intensive projects, and sponsors, change agents, technology transition agents, and software engineering process group members in organizations that want to improve.

The Continuous Risk Management Guidebook describes the underlying principles, concepts, and functions of risk management and provides guidance on how to implement it as a continuous practice in your projects and organization. Risk management can be used to continuously assess what can go wrong in projects (i.e., what the risks are), determine which of these risks are most important, and implement strategies to deal with these risks. The guidebook is based on proven practices confirmed through research, field testing, and direct work with clients.

The Continuous Risk Management Guidebook was developed to help a project or organization establish continuous risk management as a routine practice and then continue to improve this process. It is organized so that different users can read different parts of the book and get different benefits. For example, technical managers and lead engineers can read the book to learn how to build a risk management process that is tailored to their specific project or organization; software engineers can use it to understand how to perform the risk management methods and use the tools described in the guidebook; and change agents (such as members of software engineering process groups) can read it to understand why continuous risk management should be used and how to get projects to tailor it and start using it. In addition, all users of this guidebook will gain a greater understanding of continuous risk management.

Although the Guidebook deals primarily with performing continuous risk management in a software development environment, it can easily address systems, hardware, and other domains.

The new City of Madison Comprehensive Plan will provide a strategic long-term vision and basic goals, objectives, policies and recommendations to help guide the city’s future growth and development. The Plan makes recommendations in the areas of land use, transportation, economic development, parks and open space, historical and cultural resources, housing, community facilities, agricultural and natural resources, utilities, and intergovernmental cooperation. When adopted, the Comprehensive Plan will be one of the primary tools used by City agencies, the Plan Commission, Common Council and other policy bodies to make decisions about the location of land uses and community facilities, priorities for public investment and the extension of public services, business development, and how to meet transportation needs.

The Comprehensive Plan will also provide a community-wide framework for the many other levels of plans and ongoing planning activities that are an integral part of life in this city---including neighborhood and special area plans, transportation plans, and plans for specific community facilities and services, such as parks, community centers or police and fire services.

Madison’s Comprehensive Plan is being developed with the assistance of a Comprehensive Planning Grant from the State of Wisconsin Department of Administration, and will meet the requirements of Wisconsin’s “smart growth” planning legislation adopted in the 1999-2001 biennial budget. This legislation requires Wisconsin communities, including cities, villages, towns and counties, to prepare a comprehensive plan by 2010, and defines specific elements that a comprehensive plan must include, and specific issues that it must address.

Chess is a board game played between two players. The current form of the game emerged in Southern Europe during the second half of the 15th century after evolving from a similar, much older game of Indian origin. Today, chess is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.

The game is played on a chessboard, which is a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. At the start, each player (one controlling the white pieces, the other controlling the black pieces) controls sixteen pieces: one king, one queen, two rooks, two knights, two bishops, and eight pawns. The object of the game is to checkmate the opponent's king, whereby the king is under immediate attack (in "check") and there is no way to remove it from attack on the next move.

The tradition of organized competitive chess started in the 16th century. Chess today is a recognized sport of the International Olympic Committee. The first official World Chess Champion, Wilhelm Steinitz, claimed his title in 1886; the current World Champion is Viswanathan Anand. Theoreticians have developed extensive chess strategies and tactics since the game's inception. Aspects of art are found in chess composition.

One of the goals of early computer scientists was to create a chess-playing machine. Today's chess is deeply influenced by the abilities of chess programs and the opportunity for online play. In 1997 Deep Blue became the first computer to beat the reigning World Champion in a match when it defeated Garry Kasparov.

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean. The term is used to describe the Roman state during and after the time of the first emperor, Augustus. The nearly 500-year-old Roman Republic, which preceded it, had been weakened by several civil wars. Several events are commonly proposed to mark the transition from Republic to Empire, including Julius Caesar's appointment as perpetual dictator (44 BC), the victory of Octavian at the Battle of Actium (2 September 31 BC), and the Roman Senate's granting to Octavian the honorific Augustus (4 January 27 BC).

The Latin term Imperium Romanum (Roman Empire), probably the best-known Latin expression where the word imperium denotes a territory, indicates any part of the world under Roman rule. Roman expansion began in the days of the Republic, but reached its zenith under Emperor Trajan. At this territorial peak, the Roman Empire controlled approximately 6,500,000 km² of land surface. Because of the Empire's vast extent and long endurance, Roman influence upon the language, religion, architecture, philosophy, law, and government of nations around the world lasts to this day.

In the late 3rd century AD, Diocletian established the practice of dividing authority between two emperors, one in the western part of the empire and one in the east, in order to better administer the vast territory. For the next century this practice continued, with occasional periods in which one emperor assumed complete control. However, after the death of Theodosius in 395, no single emperor would ever again hold genuine supremacy over a united Roman Empire. The Western Roman Empire collapsed in 476 as Romulus Augustus was forced to abdicate by Odoacer. The Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire endured until 1453 with the capture of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks led by Mehmed II. Therefore, it is difficult to give an exact date when the Roman Empire ceased to exist.

A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on television or radio. The name "soap opera" stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers such as Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive, and Lever Brothers as sponsors and producers. These early radio serials were broadcast in weekday daytime slots when mostly housewives would be available to listen; thus the shows were aimed at and consumed by a predominantly female audience.

The term soap opera has at times been generally applied to any romantic serial, but it is also used to describe the more naturalistic, unglamorous UK primetime drama serials such as Coronation Street. A crucial element that defines soap opera is the open-ended nature of the narrative, with stories spanning several episodes. The defining feature that makes a program a soap opera, according to Albert Moran, is "that form of television that works with a continuous open narrative. Each episode ends with a promise that the storyline is to be continued in another episode".

Soap opera stories run concurrently, intersect and lead into further developments. An individual episode of a soap opera will generally switch between several different concurrent story threads that may at times interconnect and affect one another or may run entirely independent of each other. Each episode may feature some of the show's current storylines but not always all of them. Especially in daytime serials and those that are screened each weekday, there is some rotation of both storylines and actors so any given storyline or actor will appear in some but usually not all of a week's worth of episodes. Soap operas rarely "wrap things up" storywise and generally avoid bringing all the current storylines to a conclusion at the same time. When one storyline ends there are always several other story threads at differing stages of development. Soap opera episodes typically end on some sort of cliffhanger.

Evening soap operas and those that screen at a rate of one episode a week sometimes differ from this general format. They are more likely to feature the entire cast in each episode and to represent all current storylines in each episode. Evening soap operas and those serials that run for only part of the year tend to bring things to a dramatic end-of-season cliffhanger.

The story is set in the mid-21st century. Global warming has led to ecological disasters all over the world, and a drastic reduction of the human population. Mankind's efforts to maintain civilization lead to the creation of "mechas," advanced humanoid robots capable of emulating human thoughts and emotions. Among these androids there is an advanced prototype model named David, a mecha created by the Cybertronics company to resemble a human child and to "feel" love for its human owners. They test their creation on one of their employees, Henry Swinton and his wife Monica. The Swintons have a son, Martin, who has been placed in suspended animation until a cure can be found for his rare disease. Although Monica is initially frightened of David, she eventually warms to him after activating his imprinting protocol, which irreversibly causes David to feel love for her as a child loves a parent. As he continues to live with the Swintons, David is befriended by Teddy, a mecha toy, who takes upon himself the responsibility of David's well being.

Martin is suddenly cured and brought home; a sibling rivalry ensues between Martin and David. Martin's scheming behavior backfires when he and his friends activate David's self-protection programming at a pool party. Martin is saved from drowning but David's actions prove too much for Henry. It is decided for David to be destroyed at the factory where he was built, but Monica rather leaves him (alongside Teddy) in a forest to live as unregistered mechas. David is captured for an anti-mecha Flesh Fair, an event where useless mechas are destroyed before cheering crowds. David is nearly killed, but the crowd is swayed by his realistic nature and he escapes, along with Gigolo Joe (Jude Law), a male prostitute mecha on the run after being framed for murder.

The two set out to find the Blue Fairy, whom David remembers from the story The Adventures of Pinocchio. As in the story, he believes that she will transform him into a real boy, so Monica will love him and take him back. Joe and David make their way to the decadent metropolis of Rouge City. Information from a holographic volumetric display personality called "Dr. Know" eventually leads them to the top of the Rockefeller Center in the flooded ruins of Manhattan. David's human creator, Professor Hobby, enters and excitedly tells David that finding him was a test, which has demonstrated the reality of his love and desire. A disheartened David attempts to commit suicide by falling from a ledge into the ocean, but Joe rescues him, just as he is captured by the authorities.

David and Teddy take a submersible to the fairy, which turns out to be a statue from a submerged attraction at Coney Island. Teddy and David become trapped when the park's ferris wheel falls on their vehicle. Believing the Blue Fairy to be real, he asks to be turned into a real boy, repeating his wish without end, until the ocean freezes. 2000 years later, Manhattan is buried under several hundred feet of glacial ice, and humans are extinct. Mechas have evolved into an alien-looking humanoid form. They find David and Teddy: functional mechas who knew living humans. David wakes up and realizes the fairy was fake. Using David's memories, the mechas reconstruct the Swinton home, and explain to him via a mecha of the Blue Fairy that he cannot become human. However, they recreate Monica from a lock of her hair which has been faithfully saved by Teddy, but she will live for only a single day and the process cannot be repeated. David spends the happiest day of his life playing with Monica and Teddy. Monica tells David that she loves him and has always loved him as she drifts to sleep for her final time. This was the "everlasting moment" he had been looking for, he closes his eyes, falls asleep for his first time, and goes "to that place where dreams are born".