An original equipment manufacturer is a company that produces parts and equipment that may be marketed by another manufacturer. For example, Foxconn, a Taiwanese electronics company, manufactures parts and equipment for OEMs including Apple, Google and Nintendo; the term is used in several other ways, which causes ambiguity. It sometimes means the maker of a system that includes other companies' subsystems, an end-product producer, an automotive part, manufactured by the same company that produced the original part used in the automobile's assembly, or a value-added reseller; when referring to auto parts, OEM refers to the manufacturer of the original equipment, that is, the parts assembled and installed during the construction of a new vehicle. In contrast, aftermarket parts are those made by companies other than the OEM, which might be installed as replacements after the car comes out of the factory. For example, if Ford used Autolite spark plugs, Exide batteries, Bosch fuel injectors, Ford's own engine blocks and heads when building a car car restorers and collectors consider those to be the OEM parts.

Other-brand parts would be considered aftermarket, such as Champion spark plugs, DieHard batteries, Kinsler fuel injectors, BMP engine blocks and heads. Many auto parts manufacturers sell parts through multiple channels, for example to car makers for installation during new-vehicle construction, to car makers for resale as automaker-branded replacement parts, through general merchandising supply chains. Any given brand of part can aftermarket on others. Microsoft is a popular example of a company that issues its Windows operating systems for use by OEM computer manufacturers via the Bundling of Microsoft Windows. OEM product keys are priced lower than their retail counterparts as they are purchased in bulk quantities, but they use the same software as retail versions of Windows. They are for PC manufacturer OEMs and system builders, as such are sold in volume licensing deals to a variety of manufacturers; these OEMs use a procedure known as System Locked Pre-installation, which pre-activates Windows on PCs that are to be sold via mass distribution.

These OEMs bundle software, otherwise not pre-installed on Windows from Microsoft themselves, on the images of Windows that will be deployed with their PCs. Individuals may purchase OEM "system-builder" licenses for personal use, or for sale/resale on PCs which they build. Per Microsoft’s EULA regarding PC manufacturers and system-builder OEM licenses, the product key is tied to the PC motherboard which it’s installed on, there is no transferring the key between PCs afterward; this is in contrast to retail keys, which may be transferred, provided they are only activated on one PC at a time. A significant hardware change will trigger a reactivation notice, just as with retail. Direct OEMs are held liable for things such as installation/recovery media, as such were provided until the late-2000s; these were phased out in favor of recovery partitions located on the primary storage drive of the PC for the user to repair or restore their systems to the factory state. This not only cut down on costs, but was a consequence of the gradual obsolescence and phasing out of optical media from 2010 onward.

System builders further have a different requirement regarding installation media from Direct OEMs. While clean retail media of Windows can be installed and activated on these devices with OEM keys, actual OEM recovery media, created by the PC manufacturer only works on the PC model line, designed for it. So a recovery disc/USB for a Toshiba Satellite P50-B will only work on that model, not a Satellite S55T. OEMs rely on their ability to drive down the cost of production through economies of scale. Using an OEM allows the purchasing company to obtain needed components or products without owning and operating a factory. Contract manufacturer Electronics manufacturing services Open-design movement Open-source hardware Original design manufacturer Outsourcing Private label Rebranding Secondary market Store brand Value-added reseller

The 1997 Atlantic 10 Conference Baseball Championship was held at Bear Stadium in Boyertown, Pennsylvania from May 15–17. The double elimination tournament featured the top two regular-season finishers of each of the conference's six-team divisions. West Division second seed Virginia Tech defeated Massachusetts in the title game to win the tournament for the first time, earning the Atlantic 10's automatic bid to the 1997 NCAA Tournament; each division's top teams, based on winning percentage in the 21-game regular season schedule, qualified for the field. In the opening round of the four-team double-elimination format, the East Division champion played the West Division runner-up, vice versa; the following players were named to the All-Tournament Team. Virginia Tech catcher Barry Gauch, one of five Hokies selected, was named Most Outstanding Player. Massachusetts's shortstop Brad Gorrie, selected in 1996 was named to the team for the second time

The Seeker is a 2007 American family drama-fantasy film adaptation of the second book in the five-book children's fantasy series The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper. The film is directed by David L. Cunningham and stars Ian McShane, Alexander Ludwig, Frances Conroy, Gregory Smith, Christopher Eccleston as the Rider; the Seeker is the first film to be produced by 20th Century Fox and Walden Media as part of their Fox-Walden partnership. On his 14th birthday Will Stanton finds out that he is the last of a group of warriors – The Light – who have spent their lives fighting against evil – The Dark. Will travels through time to track down the signs; the Dark is personified by The Rider. The film adaptation drew strong negative reaction from fans of the book series for its disregard of the source material. Will Stanton is a day away from his fourteenth birthday; as the Stanton children walk home, Miss Greythorne, the local mistress of the Manor, her butler Merriman Lyon invite the siblings to a Christmas party.

Two farmers and Old George, whom Will does not know, arrive at his house with a large Christmas tree ordered by the family. The farmers know Will’s name, wish him a happy birthday, predict a storm despite the clear sky. Will’s birthday is so close to Christmas that everyone in his large family ignores it except for his little sister Gwen, who gives him his only birthday present; the family has moved from the United States to a small English village and one of his brothers has arrived home for the holidays and displaces Will to the attic. For a Christmas present, Will buys Gwen an enigmatic stone pendant at the local mall. Two suspicious security guards take him to their office. Alarmingly, as they question Will under the room's flickering lights, the guards metamorphose into rooks, they attack Will. Will begins to experience more odd incidents and receives a strange and Celtic-looking belt from his oldest brother, Stephen. At the Manor Christmas party, Will once again sees Old George who seem to know him well.

Miss Greythorne and Merriman debate about how to approach Will about his destiny. Maggie Barnes, an attractive local girl appears at the party and Will becomes upset when one of his older brothers approaches her and begins chatting to her. Will leaves the Manor, an ominous figure mounted on a white horse and accompanied by dogs chases Will; as the ominous figure prepares to kill Will, no match for him, Miss Greythorne, Merriman and Old George appear and save Will. Merriman names the threatening figure as The Rider, who warns them all that in five days' time his power – The Dark – will rise; the four adults are the last of the Old Ones – ancient warriors who serve The Light – and take Will on a walk through time and space to a place called the Great Hall, which in the present day is the church the Stantons attend. Will is the last of the Old Ones to have been born: he is the seventh son of a seventh son whose power begins to ascend on his fourteenth birthday, though Will disputes this idea because he believes he is the sixth son.

Will is The Seeker: the sign-seeker who must locate six Signs whose possession will grant The Light power over The Dark. The Rider is seeking them. Will falls and twists his ankle; the doctor who calls is The Rider in disguise but he is recognized by Will. The Rider demonstrates his powers on Will’s ankle by alternately healing it and making it much worse before restoring it to its injured state. Will discovers he has a lost twin brother named Tom, who, as a baby, mysteriously disappeared one night and was never found. Merriman instructs Will on his powers, which include sensing the Signs, summoning superhuman strength, commanding light and fire, stepping through time, the unique knowledge to decipher an ancient text in the Book of Gramarye. Will learns he can't fly, a power he wanted. Will learns the form each sign will take. Will reveals the first sign within Gwen’s pendant; as the sign-seeker, Will travels through time to find the next four signs. The Rider enlists a mysterious figure to help him get the signs from Will.

When Will's brother invites Maggie to their home, she reveals some of her powers to Will. Will reveals his affections for her, he tells her he has been thinking of her constantly. The Rider tricks Will's older brother Max, using his magic to control him; the spell over Max is broken when Will uses his great strength to give Max a concussion. By the fifth day, The Dark that The Rider commands has now gained tremendous power and begins to attack the village with a terrible blizzard. Will locates the fifth sign but without the sixth sign, the Dark continues to rise. Maggie is revealed to be the mysterious witch helping the Rider in exchange for eternal youth, she is betrayed by him when she fails to get the fifth sign and ages disintegrating into a flood of water while trying to steal them from Will. The Old Ones and Will seek sanctuary in the Great Hall. However, The Rider's final trick gains him access to The Gr