Microsoft Surface is a series of touchscreen-based personal computers and interactive whiteboards designed and developed by Microsoft, running the Microsoft Windows operating system. The devices are manufactured by original equipment manufacturers, including Pegatron, are designed to be premium devices that set examples to Windows OEMs, it comprises 7 generations of hybrid tablets, 2-in-1 detachable notebooks, a convertible desktop all-in-one, an interactive whiteboard, various accessories all with unique form factors. The majority of the Surface lineup features Intel processors and are compatible with Microsoft's Windows 10 operating system; the Surface family features eight main lines of devices: The Surface line of hybrid tablets, with optional detachable keyboard accessories, optional stylus pen. The latest model, the Surface Go, uses an Intel Pentium Gold 4415Y SoC processor; the Surface Pro is a line of hybrid tablets, with similar, optional detachable keyboard accessories and optional stylus pen.

The 2 latest models are the Surface Pro 7, which has a 10th generation Intel Core series processor, the Surface Pro X, which has the Microsoft SQ1 ARM SoC The Surface Laptop, a notebook with a 13.5-inch or 15-inch non-detachable touchscreen. The original device runs Windows 10 S by default. Starting with the Surface Laptop 2, the regular Home and Pro editions are used; the Surface Book, a notebook with a detachable tablet screen. The base is configurable with or without discrete graphics and an independently operable tablet screen, on which the optional stylus pen functions; the stylus pen is sold separately from the latest Surface Book model. The Surface Studio, a 28-inch all-in-one desktop that adjusts into a digital drafting table with stylus and on-screen Surface Dial support; the Surface Hub, a touch screen interactive whiteboard designed for collaboration. The Surface Neo, an upcoming dual-screen touch screen device of which both screens are 9 inches running on Windows 10X; the Surface Duo, an upcoming dual-screen touch screen device of which both screens are 5.6 inches and can be used as a phone that runs Android.

Microsoft first announced Surface at an event on June 18, 2012, presented by former CEO Steve Ballmer in Milk Studios Los Angeles. Surface was the first major initiative by Microsoft to integrate its Windows operating system with its own hardware, is the first PC designed and distributed by Microsoft; the first Surface device in the Surface line, was marketed as "Surface for Windows RT" at the time was and was announced by Steven Sinofsky, former President of Windows and Windows Live. The second Surface line, based on the Intel architecture was spearheaded with Surface Pro, marketed as "Surface for Windows 8 Pro" at the time, was demoed by Michael Angiulo, a corporate VP. Sinofsky stated that pricing for the first Surface would be comparable to other ARM devices and pricing for Surface Pro would be comparable to current ultrabooks. Ballmer noted the "sweet spot" for the bulk of the PC market was $300 to $800. Microsoft revealed the pricing and began accepting preorders for the 2012 Surface tablet, on October 16, 2012 "for delivery by 10/26".

The device was launched alongside the general availability of Windows 8 on October 26, 2012. Surface Pro became available the following year on February 9, 2013; the devices were available only at Microsoft Stores retail and online, but availability was expanded into other vendors. In November 2012, Ballmer described the distribution approach to Surface as "modest" and on November 29 of that year, Microsoft revealed the pricing for the 64 GB and 128 GB versions of Surface with Windows 8 Pro; the tablet would go on sale on February 2013, in the United States and Canada. A launch event was set to be held on February 8, 2013, but was cancelled at the last minute due to the February 2013 nor'easter; the 128GB version of the tablet sold out on the same day as its release. Though there was less demand for the 64GB version because of the much smaller available storage capacity, supplies of the lower cost unit were as tight. On September 23, 2013, Microsoft announced the Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2, which feature hardware and software updates from the original.

The Surface 2 launched October 22, 2013, alongside the Surface Pro 2, four days after the general availability of Windows 8.1. Microsoft launched a variation of the Surface 2 with LTE connectivity for the AT&T network on March 18, 2014. Microsoft announced the redesigned Surface Pro 3 on May 20, 2014, which went on sale on June 20, 2014; the following year, on March 30, 2015, it announced the Surface 3, a more compact version of the Surface Pro 3. On September 8, 2015, Microsoft announced the "Surface Enterprise Initiative", a partnership between Accenture, Dell Inc. and HP, to "enable more customers to enjoy the benefits of Windows 10." As part of the partnership, Dell will resell Surface Pro products through its business and enterprise channels, offer its existing enterprise services for Surface Pro devices it sells. Microsoft announced the next generation Surface Pro 4 and the all new Surface Book, a hybrid laptop, at Microsoft October 2015 Event in New York on October 10, 2015. Microsoft began shipping Surface Hub devices on March 25, 2016.

In June 2016, Microsoft confirmed. No replacement product has been announced. Reports suggest this may be a consequence of Intel discontinuing the Broxton iteration of the Atom processor. On October 26, 2016 at Microsoft's event, a Surface Studio and Surface Book with Performance Base was announced. A wheel accessory, the Surface D

James Howard Goodnight is an American billionaire businessman and software developer. He has been the CEO of SAS Institute since 1976, which he co-founded that year with other faculty members of North Carolina State University. Goodnight was born to Albert Goodnight and Dorothy Patterson in Salisbury, North Carolina, on January 6, 1943, he lived in Greensboro. In his youth, he worked at his father's hardware store. Mathematics and chemistry were Goodnight's strongest subjects in school, thanks in part, he says, to a "wonderful chemistry teacher" at New Hanover High School. Goodnight's career with computers began when he took a computer course his sophomore year at North Carolina State University. At the time, he said, "a light went on, I fell in love with making machines do things for other people." The following summer he got a job writing software programs for the agricultural economics department. Goodnight is a member of the Beta-Beta chapter of Tau Kappa Epsilon at NC State, with contributions from other alumni Goodnight was responsible for the construction of a new fraternity house for the chapter in 2002.

Goodnight received a master's degree in statistics in 1968. While working on his master's, his curiosity was piqued over the prospect of a man being sent to the moon, his programming skills helped him land a position at a company building electronic equipment for the ground stations that communicated with the Apollo space capsules. While working on the Apollo program, Goodnight experienced a work environment that had an annual turnover rate of 50 percent; this shaped his views on his future role as an employer. Goodnight returned to North Carolina State University after working on the Apollo project, he earned a PhD in statistics with a thesis titled Quadratic unbiased estimation of variance components in linear models with an emphasis on the one-way classification under the supervision of Robert James Monroe, became a faculty member from 1972 to 1976. Goodnight joined another faculty at North Carolina State in a research project to create a general purpose statistical analysis system for analyzing agricultural data.

The project was operated by a consortium of eight land-grant universities and funded by the USDA. Goodnight along with another faculty member Anthony James Barr became project leaders for the development of the early version of SAS; when the software had 100 customers in 1976, Goodnight and three others from the University left the college to form SAS Institute in an office across the street. Goodnight remained CEO of SAS Institute for more than 35 years as the company grew from $138,000 its first year in business, to $420 million in 1993 and $2.43 billion by 2010. Under his leadership, the company grew each year. Goodnight became known for creating and defending SAS' corporate culture described by the media as "utopian." He rejected acquisition offers and chose against going public to protect the company's work environment. Goodnight has maintained a flat organizational structure with about 27 people who report directly to him and three organizational layers. HSM Global described Goodnight's leadership style in a framework of three pillars: "help employees do their best work by keeping them intellectually challenged and by removing distractions.

In 2004, he was named a Great American Business Leader by Harvard. That same year he was named one of America's 25 Most Fascinating Entrepreneurs by Inc. Magazine, he has been a frequent speaker and participant at the World Economic Forum. Goodnight met his wife, while he was a senior at North Carolina State University and she was attending Meredith College, they have been married five decades and have three children. Goodnight was the world's 172nd and America's 55th richest individual, with a net worth of $9 billion, as of October 2018. Goodnight has an interest in improving the state of education elementary and secondary education. In 1996, Goodnight and his wife, along with his business partner, John Sall and his wife Ginger, founded an independent prep school Cary Academy. Both of the Goodnights are involved in the local Cary, NC, community, he owns Prestonwood Country Club and The Umstead Hotel and Spa situated on the edge of the SAS campus. List of Americans by net worth List of Tau Kappa Epsilon brothers Prestonwood Country Club Oral History Interview with Jim Goodnight, Oral Histories of the American South Karklgaard, Rich.

"Jim Goodnight: King of Analytics". Forbes. Goodnight's official Bio

Microhyla kodial, the Mangaluru narrow-mouthed frog, is a frog species belongs to family Microhylidae. It is endemic to a small portion of India, was discovered in the urban part of Mangalore; this new discovery was published at international journal Zootaxa on Tuesday May 16, 2018. Microhyla kodial is a small species with a snout to vent length of about 16.9-17.4mm in male and 18.0 to 20.4mm in female. Its snout is rounded in ventral and dorsal view, the canthus rostralis is indistinct and the snout protrudes beyond mouth in ventral view. Vertebral stripes are absent along with the absence of superciliary tubercles; the exact distribution of M. kodial is uncertain, but it is believed to be restricted to a small geographical area around Mangalore on the west coast of India, where its typical habitat is marshy vegetation with open grassland with herbs and shrubs. However, it is not related to any of the native Indian Microhyla species, genetic analysis indicates that its closest relatives are Microhyla species in Southeast Asia.

The area in which it was found is known to have been a dumping area for imported timber. Thus, it has been speculated that M. kodial is native to Southeast Asia and was introduced to India on timber shipments, where it established a small population. Https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0Bj8xWng8k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhAlQj_fFuo https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/222099