["[Dialogue between User and Assistant on 2024-01-01 00:00]\n<User>Here are some news I learnt earlier:\nThe United States shares land borders with Canada (to the north) and Mexico (to the south), and a territorial water border with Russia in the northwest, and two territorial water borders in the southeast between Florida and Cuba, and Florida and the Bahamas. The contiguous forty-eight states are otherwise bounded by the Pacific Ocean on the west, the Atlantic Ocean on the east, and the Gulf of Mexico to the southeast. Alaska borders the Pacific Ocean to the south, the Bering Strait to the west, and the Arctic Ocean to the north, while Hawaii lies far to the southwest of the mainland in the Pacific Ocean.\n\nThe capital city, Washington, District of Columbia, is a federal district located on land donated by the state of Maryland. (Virginia had also donated land, but it was returned in 1849.) The United States also has overseas territories with varying levels of independence and organization: in the Caribbean the territories of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and in the Pacific the inhabited territories of Guam, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands, along with a number of uninhabited island territories.\n\nThe five Great Lakes are located in the north-central portion of the country, four of them forming part of the border with Canada, only Lake Michigan situated entirely within United States. The southeast United States contain subtropical forests and, near the gulf coast, mangrove wetlands, especially in Florida. West of the Appalachians lies the Mississippi River basin and two large eastern tributaries, the Ohio River and the Tennessee River. The Ohio and Tennessee Valleys and the Midwest consist largely of rolling hills and productive farmland, stretching south to the Gulf Coast.\n\nThe Great Plains lie west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains. A large portion of the country's agricultural products are grown in the Great Plains. Before their general conversion to farmland, the Great Plains were noted for their extensive grasslands, from tallgrass prairie in the eastern plains to shortgrass steppe in the western High Plains. Elevation rises gradually from less than a few hundred feet near the Mississippi River to more than a mile high in the High Plains. The generally low relief of the plains is broken in several places, most notably in the Ozark and Ouachita Mountains, which form the U.S. Interior Highlands, the only major mountainous region between the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachian Mountains.\n\nThe Great Plains come to an abrupt end at the Rocky Mountains. The Rocky Mountains form a large portion of the Western U.S., entering from Canada and stretching nearly to Mexico. The Rocky Mountain region is the highest region of the United States by average elevation. The Rocky Mountains generally contain fairly mild slopes and wider peaks compared to some of the other great mountain ranges, with a few exceptions (such as the Teton Mountains in Wyoming and the Sawatch Range in Colorado). The highest peaks of the Rockies are found in Colorado, the tallest peak being Mount Elbert at 14,440 ft (4,400 m). The Rocky Mountains contain some of the most spectacular, and well known scenery in the world. In addition, instead of being one generally continuous and solid mountain range, it is broken up into a number of smaller, intermittent mountain ranges, forming a large series of basins and valleys.\n\nWest of the Rocky Mountains lies the Intermontane Plateaus (also known as the Intermountain West), a large, arid desert lying between the Rockies and the Cascades and Sierra Nevada ranges. The large southern portion, known as the Great Basin, consists of salt flats, drainage basins, and many small north-south mountain ranges. The Southwest is predominantly a low-lying desert region. A portion known as the Colorado Plateau, centered around the Four Corners region, is considered to have some of the most spectacular scenery in the world. It is accentuated in such national parks as Grand Canyon, Arches, Mesa Verde National Park and Bryce Canyon, among others. Other smaller Intermontane areas include the Columbia Plateau covering eastern Washington, western Idaho and northeast Oregon and the Snake River Plain in Southern Idaho.\n\nThe Intermontane Plateaus come to an end at the Cascade Range and the Sierra Nevada. The Cascades consist of largely intermittent, volcanic mountains, many rising prominently from the surrounding landscape. The Sierra Nevada, further south, is a high, rugged, and dense mountain range. It contains the highest point in the contiguous 48 states, Mount Whitney (14,505 ft or 4,421 m) It is located at the boundary between California's Inyo and Tulare counties, just 84.6 mi or 136.2 km west-northwest of the lowest point in North America at the Badwater Basin in Death Valley National Park at 279 ft or 85 m below sea level.\n\nThese areas contain some spectacular scenery as well, as evidenced by such national parks as Yosemite and Mount Rainier. West of the Cascades and Sierra Nevada is a series of valleys, such as the Central Valley in California and the Willamette Valley in Oregon. Along the coast is a series of low mountain ranges known as the Pacific Coast Ranges. Much of the Pacific Northwest coast is inhabited by some of the densest vegetation outside of the Tropics, and also the tallest trees in the world (the Redwoods).\n<Assistant>Appreciated. I'll retain these important details.", "[Dialogue between User and Assistant on 2024-01-02 00:00]\n<User>Let me tell you about some new developments:\nThe Atlantic coast of the United States is low, with minor exceptions. The Appalachian Highland owes its oblique northeast-southwest trend to crustal deformations which in very early geological time gave a beginning to what later came to be the Appalachian mountain system. This system had its climax of deformation so long ago (probably in Permian time) that it has since then been very generally reduced to moderate or low relief. It owes its present-day altitude either to renewed elevations along the earlier lines or to the survival of the most resistant rocks as residual mountains. The oblique trend of this coast would be even more pronounced but for a comparatively modern crustal movement, causing a depression in the northeast resulting in an encroachment of the sea upon the land. Additionally, the southeastern section has undergone an elevation resulting in the advance of the land upon the sea.\n\nThe east coast Appalachian system, originally forest covered, is relatively low and narrow and is bordered on the southeast and south by an important coastal plain. The Cordilleran system on the western side of the continent is lofty, broad and complicated having two branches, the Rocky Mountain System and the Pacific Mountain System. In between these mountain systems lie the Intermontaine Plateaus. Both the Columbia River and Colorado River rise far inland near the easternmost members of the Cordilleran system, and flow through plateaus and intermontaine basins to the ocean. Heavy forests cover the northwest coast, but elsewhere trees are found only on the higher ranges below the Alpine region. The intermontane valleys, plateaus and basins range from treeless to desert with the most arid region being in the southwest.\n\nThe Laurentian Highlands, the Interior Plains and the Interior Highlands lie between the two coasts, stretching from the Gulf of Mexico northward, far beyond the national boundary, to the Arctic Ocean. The central plains are divided by a hardly perceptible height of land into a Canadian and a United States portion. It is from the United States side, that the great Mississippi system discharges southward to the Gulf of Mexico. The upper Mississippi and some of the Ohio basin is the semi-arid prairie region, with trees originally only along the watercourses. The uplands towards the Appalachians were included in the great eastern forested area, while the western part of the plains has so dry a climate that its native plant life is scanty, and in the south it is practically barren.\n\nDue to its large size and wide range of geographic features, the United States contains examples of nearly every global climate. The climate is temperate in most areas, subtropical in the Southern United States, tropical in Hawaii and southern Florida, polar in Alaska, semiarid in the Great Plains west of the 100th meridian, Mediterranean in coastal California and arid in the Great Basin. Its comparatively favorable agricultural climate contributed (in part) to the country's rise as a world power, with infrequent severe drought in the major agricultural regions, a general lack of widespread flooding, and a mainly temperate climate that receives adequate precipitation.\n\nThe Great Basin and Columbia Plateau (the Intermontane Plateaus) are arid or semiarid regions that lie in the rain shadow of the Cascades and Sierra Nevada. Precipitation averages less than 15 inches (38 cm). The Southwest is a hot desert, with temperatures exceeding 100 \u00b0F (37.8 \u00b0C) for several weeks at a time in summer. The Southwest and the Great Basin are also affected by the monsoon from the Gulf of California from July to September, which brings localized but often severe thunderstorms to the region.\n\nMuch of California consists of a Mediterranean climate, with sometimes excessive rainfall from October\u2013April and nearly no rain the rest of the year. In the Pacific Northwest rain falls year-round, but is much heavier during winter and spring. The mountains of the west receive abundant precipitation and very heavy snowfall. The Cascades are one of the snowiest places in the world, with some places averaging over 600 inches (1,524 cm) of snow annually, but the lower elevations closer to the coast receive very little snow.\n\nOn average, the mountains of the western states receive the highest levels of snowfall on Earth. The greatest annual snowfall level is at Mount Rainier in Washington, at 692 inches (1,758 cm); the record there was 1,122 inches (2,850 cm) in the winter of 1971\u201372. This record was broken by the Mt. Baker Ski Area in northwestern Washington which reported 1,140 inches (2,896 cm) of snowfall for the 1998-99 snowfall season. Other places with significant snowfall outside the Cascade Range are the Wasatch Mountains, near the Great Salt Lake, the San Juan Mountains in Colorado, and the Sierra Nevada, near Lake Tahoe.\n\nIn the east, while snowfall does not approach western levels, the region near the Great Lakes and the mountains of the Northeast receive the most. Along the northwestern Pacific coast, rainfall is greater than anywhere else in the continental U.S., with Quinault Rainforest in Washington having an average of 137 inches (348 cm). Hawaii receives even more, with 460 inches (1,168 cm) measured annually on Mount Waialeale, in Kauai. The Mojave Desert, in the southwest, is home to the driest locale in the U.S. Yuma, Arizona, has an average of 2.63 inches (6.7 cm) of precipitation each year.\n\nIn central portions of the U.S., tornadoes are more common than anywhere else on Earth and touch down most commonly in the spring and summer. Deadly and destructive hurricanes occur almost every year along the Atlantic seaboard and the Gulf of Mexico. The Appalachian region and the Midwest experience the worst floods, though virtually no area in the U.S. is immune to flooding. The Southwest has the worst droughts; one is thought to have lasted over 500 years and to have hurt Ancestral Pueblo peoples. The West is affected by large wildfires each year.\n\nOccasional severe flooding is experienced. There was the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, the Great Flood of 1993, and widespread flooding and mudslides caused by the 1982-1983 El Ni\u00f1o event in the western United States. Localized flooding can, however, occur anywhere, and mudslides from heavy rain can cause problems in any mountainous area, particularly the Southwest. Large stretches of desert shrub in the west can fuel the spread of wildfires. The narrow canyons of many mountain areas in the west and severe thunderstorm activity during the summer lead to sometimes devastating flash floods as well, while Nor'Easter snowstorms can bring activity to a halt throughout the Northeast (although heavy snowstorms can occur almost anywhere).\n\nThe West Coast of the continental United States and areas of Alaska (including the Aleutian Islands, the Alaskan Peninsula and southern Alaskan coast) make up part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, an area of heavy tectonic and volcanic activity that is the source of 90% of the world's earthquakes.[citation needed] The American Northwest sees the highest concentration of active volcanoes in the United States, in Washington, Oregon and northern California along the Cascade Mountains. There are several active volcanoes located in the islands of Hawaii, including Kilauea in ongoing eruption since 1983, but they do not typically adversely affect the inhabitants of the islands. There has not been a major life-threatening eruption on the Hawaiian islands since the 17th century. Volcanic eruptions can occasionally be devastating, such as in the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington.\n\nCompact Disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage format. The format was originally developed to store and play only sound recordings but was later adapted for storage of data (CD-ROM). Several other formats were further derived from these, including write-once audio and data storage (CD-R), rewritable media (CD-RW), Video Compact Disc (VCD), Super Video Compact Disc (SVCD), Photo CD, PictureCD, CD-i, and Enhanced Music CD. Audio CDs and audio CD players have been commercially available since October 1982.\n<Assistant>Thanks for letting me know. I'll keep track of this.", "[Dialogue between User and Assistant on 2024-01-03 00:00]\n<User>I've gathered some additional data to share:\nIn 2004, worldwide sales of audio CDs, CD-ROMs and CD-Rs reached about 30 billion discs. By 2007, 200 billion CDs had been sold worldwide. CDs are increasingly being replaced by other forms of digital storage and distribution, with the result that audio CD sales rates in the U.S. have dropped about 50% from their peak; however, they remain one of the primary distribution methods for the music industry. In 2014, revenues from digital music services matched those from physical format sales for the first time.\n\nThe Compact Disc is an evolution of LaserDisc technology, where a focused laser beam is used that enables the high information density required for high-quality digital audio signals. Prototypes were developed by Philips and Sony independently in the late 1970s. In 1979, Sony and Philips set up a joint task force of engineers to design a new digital audio disc. After a year of experimentation and discussion, the Red Book CD-DA standard was published in 1980. After their commercial release in 1982, compact discs and their players were extremely popular. Despite costing up to $1,000, over 400,000 CD players were sold in the United States between 1983 and 1984. The success of the compact disc has been credited to the cooperation between Philips and Sony, who came together to agree upon and develop compatible hardware. The unified design of the compact disc allowed consumers to purchase any disc or player from any company, and allowed the CD to dominate the at-home music market unchallenged.\n\nIn 1974, L. Ottens, director of the audio division of Philips, started a small group with the aim to develop an analog optical audio disc with a diameter of 20 cm and a sound quality superior to that of the vinyl record. However, due to the unsatisfactory performance of the analog format, two Philips research engineers recommended a digital format in March 1974. In 1977, Philips then established a laboratory with the mission of creating a digital audio disc. The diameter of Philips's prototype compact disc was set at 11.5 cm, the diagonal of an audio cassette.\n\nHeitaro Nakajima, who developed an early digital audio recorder within Japan's national public broadcasting organization NHK in 1970, became general manager of Sony's audio department in 1971. His team developed a digital PCM adaptor audio tape recorder using a Betamax video recorder in 1973. After this, in 1974 the leap to storing digital audio on an optical disc was easily made. Sony first publicly demonstrated an optical digital audio disc in September 1976. A year later, in September 1977, Sony showed the press a 30 cm disc that could play 60 minutes of digital audio (44,100 Hz sampling rate and 16-bit resolution) using MFM modulation. In September 1978, the company demonstrated an optical digital audio disc with a 150-minute playing time, 44,056 Hz sampling rate, 16-bit linear resolution, and cross-interleaved error correction code\u2014specifications similar to those later settled upon for the standard Compact Disc format in 1980. Technical details of Sony's digital audio disc were presented during the 62nd AES Convention, held on 13\u201316 March 1979, in Brussels. Sony's AES technical paper was published on 1 March 1979. A week later, on 8 March, Philips publicly demonstrated a prototype of an optical digital audio disc at a press conference called \"Philips Introduce Compact Disc\" in Eindhoven, Netherlands.\n\nAs a result, in 1979, Sony and Philips set up a joint task force of engineers to design a new digital audio disc. Led by engineers Kees Schouhamer Immink and Toshitada Doi, the research pushed forward laser and optical disc technology. After a year of experimentation and discussion, the task force produced the Red Book CD-DA standard. First published in 1980, the standard was formally adopted by the IEC as an international standard in 1987, with various amendments becoming part of the standard in 1996.\n\nThe Japanese launch was followed in March 1983 by the introduction of CD players and discs to Europe and North America (where CBS Records released sixteen titles). This event is often seen as the \"Big Bang\" of the digital audio revolution. The new audio disc was enthusiastically received, especially in the early-adopting classical music and audiophile communities, and its handling quality received particular praise. As the price of players gradually came down, and with the introduction of the portable Walkman the CD began to gain popularity in the larger popular and rock music markets. The first artist to sell a million copies on CD was Dire Straits, with their 1985 album Brothers in Arms. The first major artist to have his entire catalogue converted to CD was David Bowie, whose 15 studio albums were made available by RCA Records in February 1985, along with four greatest hits albums. In 1988, 400 million CDs were manufactured by 50 pressing plants around the world.\n\nThe CD was planned to be the successor of the gramophone record for playing music, rather than primarily as a data storage medium. From its origins as a musical format, CDs have grown to encompass other applications. In 1983, following the CD's introduction, Immink and Braat presented the first experiments with erasable compact discs during the 73rd AES Convention. In June 1985, the computer-readable CD-ROM (read-only memory) and, in 1990, CD-Recordable were introduced, also developed by both Sony and Philips. Recordable CDs were a new alternative to tape for recording music and copying music albums without defects introduced in compression used in other digital recording methods. Other newer video formats such as DVD and Blu-ray use the same physical geometry as CD, and most DVD and Blu-ray players are backward compatible with audio CD.\n\nMeanwhile, with the advent and popularity of Internet-based distribution of files in lossily-compressed audio formats such as MP3, sales of CDs began to decline in the 2000s. For example, between 2000 - 2008, despite overall growth in music sales and one anomalous year of increase, major-label CD sales declined overall by 20%, although independent and DIY music sales may be tracking better according to figures released 30 March 2009, and CDs still continue to sell greatly. As of 2012, CDs and DVDs made up only 34 percent of music sales in the United States. In Japan, however, over 80 percent of music was bought on CDs and other physical formats as of 2015.\n<Assistant>Perfect. I've stored this information in my memory.", "[Dialogue between User and Assistant on 2024-01-04 00:00]\n<User>I'd like to share some important information:\nReplicated CDs are mass-produced initially using a hydraulic press. Small granules of heated raw polycarbonate plastic are fed into the press. A screw forces the liquefied plastic into the mold cavity. The mold closes with a metal stamper in contact with the disc surface. The plastic is allowed to cool and harden. Once opened, the disc substrate is removed from the mold by a robotic arm, and a 15 mm diameter center hole (called a stacking ring) is created. The time it takes to \"stamp\" one CD is usually two to three seconds.\n\nThis method produces the clear plastic blank part of the disc. After a metallic reflecting layer (usually aluminium, but sometimes gold or other metal) is applied to the clear blank substrate, the disc goes under a UV light for curing and it is ready to go to press. To prepare to press a CD, a glass master is made, using a high-powered laser on a device similar to a CD writer. The glass master is a positive image of the desired CD surface (with the desired microscopic pits and lands). After testing, it is used to make a die by pressing it against a metal disc.\n\nThe die is a negative image of the glass master: typically, several are made, depending on the number of pressing mills that are to make the CD. The die then goes into a press, and the physical image is transferred to the blank CD, leaving a final positive image on the disc. A small amount of lacquer is applied as a ring around the center of the disc, and rapid spinning spreads it evenly over the surface. Edge protection lacquer is applied before the disc is finished. The disc can then be printed and packed.\n\nThe most expensive part of a CD is the jewel case. In 1995, material costs were 30 cents for the jewel case and 10 to 15 cents for the CD. Wholesale cost of CDs was $0.75 to $1.15, which retailed for $16.98. On average, the store received 35 percent of the retail price, the record company 27 percent, the artist 16 percent, the manufacturer 13 percent, and the distributor 9 percent. When 8-track tapes, cassette tapes, and CDs were introduced, each was marketed at a higher price than the format they succeeded, even though the cost to produce the media was reduced. This was done because the apparent value increased. This continued from vinyl to CDs but was broken when Apple marketed MP3s for $0.99, and albums for $9.99. The incremental cost, though, to produce an MP3 is very small.\n\nCD-R recordings are designed to be permanent. Over time, the dye's physical characteristics may change causing read errors and data loss until the reading device cannot recover with error correction methods. The design life is from 20 to 100 years, depending on the quality of the discs, the quality of the writing drive, and storage conditions. However, testing has demonstrated such degradation of some discs in as little as 18 months under normal storage conditions. This failure is known as disc rot, for which there are several, mostly environmental, reasons.\n\nThe ReWritable Audio CD is designed to be used in a consumer audio CD recorder, which will not (without modification) accept standard CD-RW discs. These consumer audio CD recorders use the Serial Copy Management System (SCMS), an early form of digital rights management (DRM), to conform to the United States' Audio Home Recording Act (AHRA). The ReWritable Audio CD is typically somewhat more expensive than CD-RW due to (a) lower volume and (b) a 3% AHRA royalty used to compensate the music industry for the making of a copy.\n\nDue to technical limitations, the original ReWritable CD could be written no faster than 4x speed. High Speed ReWritable CD has a different design, which permits writing at speeds ranging from 4x to 12x. Original CD-RW drives can only write to original ReWritable CDs. High Speed CD-RW drives can typically write to both original ReWritable CDs and High Speed ReWritable CDs. Both types of CD-RW discs can be read in most CD drives. Higher speed CD-RW discs, Ultra Speed (16x to 24x write speed) and Ultra Speed+ (32x write speed) are now available.\n<Assistant>Thanks for the update. I've recorded these facts.", "[Dialogue between User and Assistant on 2024-01-05 00:00]\n<User>I'd like to tell you about some recent findings:\nA CD is read by focusing a 780 nm wavelength (near infrared) semiconductor laser housed within the CD player, through the bottom of the polycarbonate layer. The change in height between pits and lands results in a difference in the way the light is reflected. By measuring the intensity change with a photodiode, the data can be read from the disc. In order to accommodate the spiral pattern of data, the semiconductor laser is placed on a swing arm within the disc tray of any CD player. This swing arm allows the laser to read information from the centre to the edge of a disc, without having to interrupt the spinning of the disc itself.\n\nThe pits and lands themselves do not directly represent the zeros and ones of binary data. Instead, non-return-to-zero, inverted encoding is used: a change from pit to land or land to pit indicates a one, while no change indicates a series of zeros. There must be at least two and no more than ten zeros between each one, which is defined by the length of the pit. This in turn is decoded by reversing the eight-to-fourteen modulation used in mastering the disc, and then reversing the cross-interleaved Reed\u2013Solomon coding, finally revealing the raw data stored on the disc. These encoding techniques (defined in the Red Book) were originally designed for CD Digital Audio, but they later became a standard for almost all CD formats (such as CD-ROM).\n\nCDs are susceptible to damage during handling and from environmental exposure. Pits are much closer to the label side of a disc, enabling defects and contaminants on the clear side to be out of focus during playback. Consequently, CDs are more likely to suffer damage on the label side of the disc. Scratches on the clear side can be repaired by refilling them with similar refractive plastic or by careful polishing. The edges of CDs are sometimes incompletely sealed, allowing gases and liquids to corrode the metal reflective layer and to interfere with the focus of the laser on the pits. The fungus Geotrichum candidum, found in Belize, has been found to consume the polycarbonate plastic and aluminium found in CDs.\n\nThe digital data on a CD begins at the center of the disc and proceeds toward the edge, which allows adaptation to the different size formats available. Standard CDs are available in two sizes. By far, the most common is 120 millimetres (4.7 in) in diameter, with a 74- or 80-minute audio capacity and a 650 or 700 MiB (737,280,000-byte) data capacity. This capacity was reportedly specified by Sony executive Norio Ohga in May 1980 so as to be able to contain the entirety of the London Philharmonic Orchestra's recording of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony on one disc. This is a myth according to Kees Immink, as the code format had not yet been decided in May 1980. The adoption of EFM one month later would have allowed a playing time of 97 minutes for 120 mm diameter or 74 minutes for a disc as small as 100 mm. The 120 mm diameter has been adopted by subsequent formats, including Super Audio CD, DVD, HD DVD, and Blu-ray Disc. Eighty-millimeter discs (\"Mini CDs\") were originally designed for CD singles and can hold up to 24 minutes of music or 210 MiB of data but never became popular.[citation needed] Today, nearly every single is released on a 120 mm CD, called a Maxi single.[citation needed]\n\nThe logical format of an audio CD (officially Compact Disc Digital Audio or CD-DA) is described in a document produced in 1980 by the format's joint creators, Sony and Philips. The document is known colloquially as the Red Book CD-DA after the colour of its cover. The format is a two-channel 16-bit PCM encoding at a 44.1 kHz sampling rate per channel. Four-channel sound was to be an allowable option within the Red Book format, but has never been implemented. Monaural audio has no existing standard on a Red Book CD; thus, mono source material is usually presented as two identical channels in a standard Red Book stereo track (i.e., mirrored mono); an MP3 CD, however, can have audio file formats with mono sound.\n\nCompact Disc + Graphics is a special audio compact disc that contains graphics data in addition to the audio data on the disc. The disc can be played on a regular audio CD player, but when played on a special CD+G player, it can output a graphics signal (typically, the CD+G player is hooked up to a television set or a computer monitor); these graphics are almost exclusively used to display lyrics on a television set for karaoke performers to sing along with. The CD+G format takes advantage of the channels R through W. These six bits store the graphics information.\n\nSVCD has two-thirds the resolution of DVD, and over 2.7 times the resolution of VCD. One CD-R disc can hold up to 60 minutes of standard quality SVCD-format video. While no specific limit on SVCD video length is mandated by the specification, one must lower the video bit rate, and therefore quality, to accommodate very long videos. It is usually difficult to fit much more than 100 minutes of video onto one SVCD without incurring significant quality loss, and many hardware players are unable to play video with an instantaneous bit rate lower than 300 to 600 kilobits per second.\n\nPhoto CD is a system designed by Kodak for digitizing and storing photos on a CD. Launched in 1992, the discs were designed to hold nearly 100 high-quality images, scanned prints and slides using special proprietary encoding. Photo CDs are defined in the Beige Book and conform to the CD-ROM XA and CD-i Bridge specifications as well. They are intended to play on CD-i players, Photo CD players and any computer with the suitable software irrespective of the operating system. The images can also be printed out on photographic paper with a special Kodak machine. This format is not to be confused with Kodak Picture CD, which is a consumer product in CD-ROM format.\n\nThe Red Book audio specification, except for a simple \"anti-copy\" statement in the subcode, does not include any copy protection mechanism. Known at least as early as 2001, attempts were made by record companies to market \"copy-protected\" non-standard compact discs, which cannot be ripped, or copied, to hard drives or easily converted to MP3s. One major drawback to these copy-protected discs is that most will not play on either computer CD-ROM drives or some standalone CD players that use CD-ROM mechanisms. Philips has stated that such discs are not permitted to bear the trademarked Compact Disc Digital Audio logo because they violate the Red Book specifications. Numerous copy-protection systems have been countered by readily available, often free, software.\n\nA transistor is a semiconductor device used to amplify or switch electronic signals and electrical power. It is composed of semiconductor material with at least three terminals for connection to an external circuit. A voltage or current applied to one pair of the transistor's terminals changes the current through another pair of terminals. Because the controlled (output) power can be higher than the controlling (input) power, a transistor can amplify a signal. Today, some transistors are packaged individually, but many more are found embedded in integrated circuits.\n\nThe transistor is the fundamental building block of modern electronic devices, and is ubiquitous in modern electronic systems. First conceived by Julius Lilienfeld in 1926 and practically implemented in 1947 by American physicists John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley, the transistor revolutionized the field of electronics, and paved the way for smaller and cheaper radios, calculators, and computers, among other things. The transistor is on the list of IEEE milestones in electronics, and Bardeen, Brattain, and Shockley shared the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics for their achievement.\n<Assistant>Thanks for the update. I've recorded these facts.", "[Dialogue between User and Assistant on 2024-01-06 00:00]\n<User>I want to share some knowledge I just acquired:\nThe thermionic triode, a vacuum tube invented in 1907, enabled amplified radio technology and long-distance telephony. The triode, however, was a fragile device that consumed a lot of power. Physicist Julius Edgar Lilienfeld filed a patent for a field-effect transistor (FET) in Canada in 1925, which was intended to be a solid-state replacement for the triode. Lilienfeld also filed identical patents in the United States in 1926 and 1928. However, Lilienfeld did not publish any research articles about his devices nor did his patents cite any specific examples of a working prototype. Because the production of high-quality semiconductor materials was still decades away, Lilienfeld's solid-state amplifier ideas would not have found practical use in the 1920s and 1930s, even if such a device had been built. In 1934, German inventor Oskar Heil patented a similar device.\n\nFrom November 17, 1947 to December 23, 1947, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain at AT&T's Bell Labs in the United States performed experiments and observed that when two gold point contacts were applied to a crystal of germanium, a signal was produced with the output power greater than the input. Solid State Physics Group leader William Shockley saw the potential in this, and over the next few months worked to greatly expand the knowledge of semiconductors. The term transistor was coined by John R. Pierce as a contraction of the term transresistance. According to Lillian Hoddeson and Vicki Daitch, authors of a biography of John Bardeen, Shockley had proposed that Bell Labs' first patent for a transistor should be based on the field-effect and that he be named as the inventor. Having unearthed Lilienfeld\u2019s patents that went into obscurity years earlier, lawyers at Bell Labs advised against Shockley's proposal because the idea of a field-effect transistor that used an electric field as a \"grid\" was not new. Instead, what Bardeen, Brattain, and Shockley invented in 1947 was the first point-contact transistor. In acknowledgement of this accomplishment, Shockley, Bardeen, and Brattain were jointly awarded the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics \"for their researches on semiconductors and their discovery of the transistor effect.\"\n\nIn 1948, the point-contact transistor was independently invented by German physicists Herbert Matar\u00e9 and Heinrich Welker while working at the Compagnie des Freins et Signaux, a Westinghouse subsidiary located in Paris. Matar\u00e9 had previous experience in developing crystal rectifiers from silicon and germanium in the German radar effort during World War II. Using this knowledge, he began researching the phenomenon of \"interference\" in 1947. By June 1948, witnessing currents flowing through point-contacts, Matar\u00e9 produced consistent results using samples of germanium produced by Welker, similar to what Bardeen and Brattain had accomplished earlier in December 1947. Realizing that Bell Labs' scientists had already invented the transistor before them, the company rushed to get its \"transistron\" into production for amplified use in France's telephone network.\n\nAlthough several companies each produce over a billion individually packaged (known as discrete) transistors every year, the vast majority of transistors are now produced in integrated circuits (often shortened to IC, microchips or simply chips), along with diodes, resistors, capacitors and other electronic components, to produce complete electronic circuits. A logic gate consists of up to about twenty transistors whereas an advanced microprocessor, as of 2009, can use as many as 3 billion transistors (MOSFETs). \"About 60 million transistors were built in 2002\u2026 for [each] man, woman, and child on Earth.\"\n<Assistant>Thank you for sharing. I've noted this information.", "[Dialogue between User and Assistant on 2024-01-07 00:00]\n<User>I just discovered some interesting information:\nThe essential usefulness of a transistor comes from its ability to use a small signal applied between one pair of its terminals to control a much larger signal at another pair of terminals. This property is called gain. It can produce a stronger output signal, a voltage or current, which is proportional to a weaker input signal; that is, it can act as an amplifier. Alternatively, the transistor can be used to turn current on or off in a circuit as an electrically controlled switch, where the amount of current is determined by other circuit elements.\n\nThere are two types of transistors, which have slight differences in how they are used in a circuit. A bipolar transistor has terminals labeled base, collector, and emitter. A small current at the base terminal (that is, flowing between the base and the emitter) can control or switch a much larger current between the collector and emitter terminals. For a field-effect transistor, the terminals are labeled gate, source, and drain, and a voltage at the gate can control a current between source and drain.\n\nIn a grounded-emitter transistor circuit, such as the light-switch circuit shown, as the base voltage rises, the emitter and collector currents rise exponentially. The collector voltage drops because of reduced resistance from collector to emitter. If the voltage difference between the collector and emitter were zero (or near zero), the collector current would be limited only by the load resistance (light bulb) and the supply voltage. This is called saturation because current is flowing from collector to emitter freely. When saturated, the switch is said to be on.\n\nProviding sufficient base drive current is a key problem in the use of bipolar transistors as switches. The transistor provides current gain, allowing a relatively large current in the collector to be switched by a much smaller current into the base terminal. The ratio of these currents varies depending on the type of transistor, and even for a particular type, varies depending on the collector current. In the example light-switch circuit shown, the resistor is chosen to provide enough base current to ensure the transistor will be saturated.\n\nIn a switching circuit, the idea is to simulate, as near as possible, the ideal switch having the properties of open circuit when off, short circuit when on, and an instantaneous transition between the two states. Parameters are chosen such that the \"off\" output is limited to leakage currents too small to affect connected circuitry; the resistance of the transistor in the \"on\" state is too small to affect circuitry; and the transition between the two states is fast enough not to have a detrimental effect.\n\nBipolar transistors are so named because they conduct by using both majority and minority carriers. The bipolar junction transistor, the first type of transistor to be mass-produced, is a combination of two junction diodes, and is formed of either a thin layer of p-type semiconductor sandwiched between two n-type semiconductors (an n\u2013p\u2013n transistor), or a thin layer of n-type semiconductor sandwiched between two p-type semiconductors (a p\u2013n\u2013p transistor). This construction produces two p\u2013n junctions: a base\u2013emitter junction and a base\u2013collector junction, separated by a thin region of semiconductor known as the base region (two junction diodes wired together without sharing an intervening semiconducting region will not make a transistor).\n<Assistant>Received. I'll store this information.", "[Dialogue between User and Assistant on 2024-01-08 00:00]\n<User>I want to tell you about some new discoveries:\nBJTs have three terminals, corresponding to the three layers of semiconductor\u2014an emitter, a base, and a collector. They are useful in amplifiers because the currents at the emitter and collector are controllable by a relatively small base current. In an n\u2013p\u2013n transistor operating in the active region, the emitter\u2013base junction is forward biased (electrons and holes recombine at the junction), and electrons are injected into the base region. Because the base is narrow, most of these electrons will diffuse into the reverse-biased (electrons and holes are formed at, and move away from the junction) base\u2013collector junction and be swept into the collector; perhaps one-hundredth of the electrons will recombine in the base, which is the dominant mechanism in the base current. By controlling the number of electrons that can leave the base, the number of electrons entering the collector can be controlled. Collector current is approximately \u03b2 (common-emitter current gain) times the base current. It is typically greater than 100 for small-signal transistors but can be smaller in transistors designed for high-power applications.\n\nIn a FET, the drain-to-source current flows via a conducting channel that connects the source region to the drain region. The conductivity is varied by the electric field that is produced when a voltage is applied between the gate and source terminals; hence the current flowing between the drain and source is controlled by the voltage applied between the gate and source. As the gate\u2013source voltage (VGS) is increased, the drain\u2013source current (IDS) increases exponentially for VGS below threshold, and then at a roughly quadratic rate (IGS \u221d (VGS \u2212 VT)2) (where VT is the threshold voltage at which drain current begins) in the \"space-charge-limited\" region above threshold. A quadratic behavior is not observed in modern devices, for example, at the 65 nm technology node.\n<Assistant>Understood. I'll keep these facts for future reference.", "[Dialogue between User and Assistant on 2024-01-09 00:00]\n<User>Let me update you with some new information:\nFETs are divided into two families: junction FET (JFET) and insulated gate FET (IGFET). The IGFET is more commonly known as a metal\u2013oxide\u2013semiconductor FET (MOSFET), reflecting its original construction from layers of metal (the gate), oxide (the insulation), and semiconductor. Unlike IGFETs, the JFET gate forms a p\u2013n diode with the channel which lies between the source and drain. Functionally, this makes the n-channel JFET the solid-state equivalent of the vacuum tube triode which, similarly, forms a diode between its grid and cathode. Also, both devices operate in the depletion mode, they both have a high input impedance, and they both conduct current under the control of an input voltage.\n\nFETs are further divided into depletion-mode and enhancement-mode types, depending on whether the channel is turned on or off with zero gate-to-source voltage. For enhancement mode, the channel is off at zero bias, and a gate potential can \"enhance\" the conduction. For the depletion mode, the channel is on at zero bias, and a gate potential (of the opposite polarity) can \"deplete\" the channel, reducing conduction. For either mode, a more positive gate voltage corresponds to a higher current for n-channel devices and a lower current for p-channel devices. Nearly all JFETs are depletion-mode because the diode junctions would forward bias and conduct if they were enhancement-mode devices; most IGFETs are enhancement-mode types.\n\nThe bipolar junction transistor (BJT) was the most commonly used transistor in the 1960s and 70s. Even after MOSFETs became widely available, the BJT remained the transistor of choice for many analog circuits such as amplifiers because of their greater linearity and ease of manufacture. In integrated circuits, the desirable properties of MOSFETs allowed them to capture nearly all market share for digital circuits. Discrete MOSFETs can be applied in transistor applications, including analog circuits, voltage regulators, amplifiers, power transmitters and motor drivers.\n\nThe Pro Electron standard, the European Electronic Component Manufacturers Association part numbering scheme, begins with two letters: the first gives the semiconductor type (A for germanium, B for silicon, and C for materials like GaAs); the second letter denotes the intended use (A for diode, C for general-purpose transistor, etc.). A 3-digit sequence number (or one letter then 2 digits, for industrial types) follows. With early devices this indicated the case type. Suffixes may be used, with a letter (e.g. \"C\" often means high hFE, such as in: BC549C) or other codes may follow to show gain (e.g. BC327-25) or voltage rating (e.g. BUK854-800A). The more common prefixes are:\n\nThe JEDEC EIA370 transistor device numbers usually start with \"2N\", indicating a three-terminal device (dual-gate field-effect transistors are four-terminal devices, so begin with 3N), then a 2, 3 or 4-digit sequential number with no significance as to device properties (although early devices with low numbers tend to be germanium). For example, 2N3055 is a silicon n\u2013p\u2013n power transistor, 2N1301 is a p\u2013n\u2013p germanium switching transistor. A letter suffix (such as \"A\") is sometimes used to indicate a newer variant, but rarely gain groupings.\n\nManufacturers of devices may have their own proprietary numbering system, for example CK722. Since devices are second-sourced, a manufacturer's prefix (like \"MPF\" in MPF102, which originally would denote a Motorola FET) now is an unreliable indicator of who made the device. Some proprietary naming schemes adopt parts of other naming schemes, for example a PN2222A is a (possibly Fairchild Semiconductor) 2N2222A in a plastic case (but a PN108 is a plastic version of a BC108, not a 2N108, while the PN100 is unrelated to other xx100 devices).\n\nThe junction forward voltage is the voltage applied to the emitter\u2013base junction of a BJT in order to make the base conduct a specified current. The current increases exponentially as the junction forward voltage is increased. The values given in the table are typical for a current of 1 mA (the same values apply to semiconductor diodes). The lower the junction forward voltage the better, as this means that less power is required to \"drive\" the transistor. The junction forward voltage for a given current decreases with increase in temperature. For a typical silicon junction the change is \u22122.1 mV/\u00b0C. In some circuits special compensating elements (sensistors) must be used to compensate for such changes.\n\nBecause the electron mobility is higher than the hole mobility for all semiconductor materials, a given bipolar n\u2013p\u2013n transistor tends to be swifter than an equivalent p\u2013n\u2013p transistor. GaAs has the highest electron mobility of the three semiconductors. It is for this reason that GaAs is used in high-frequency applications. A relatively recent FET development, the high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT), has a heterostructure (junction between different semiconductor materials) of aluminium gallium arsenide (AlGaAs)-gallium arsenide (GaAs) which has twice the electron mobility of a GaAs-metal barrier junction. Because of their high speed and low noise, HEMTs are used in satellite receivers working at frequencies around 12 GHz. HEMTs based on gallium nitride and aluminium gallium nitride (AlGaN/GaN HEMTs) provide a still higher electron mobility and are being developed for various applications.\n\nDiscrete transistors are individually packaged transistors. Transistors come in many different semiconductor packages (see image). The two main categories are through-hole (or leaded), and surface-mount, also known as surface-mount device (SMD). The ball grid array (BGA) is the latest surface-mount package (currently only for large integrated circuits). It has solder \"balls\" on the underside in place of leads. Because they are smaller and have shorter interconnections, SMDs have better high-frequency characteristics but lower power rating.\n\nIn the Pre-Modern era, many people's sense of self and purpose was often expressed via a faith in some form of deity, be that in a single God or in many gods. Pre-modern cultures have not been thought of creating a sense of distinct individuality, though. Religious officials, who often held positions of power, were the spiritual intermediaries to the common person. It was only through these intermediaries that the general masses had access to the divine. Tradition was sacred to ancient cultures and was unchanging and the social order of ceremony and morals in a culture could be strictly enforced.\n<Assistant>Thanks for the information. I've saved it.", "[Dialogue between User and Assistant on 2024-01-10 00:00]\n<User>Here are some facts I recently discovered:\nThe term \"modern\" was coined in the 16th century to indicate present or recent times (ultimately derived from the Latin adverb modo, meaning \"just now). The European Renaissance (about 1420\u20131630), which marked the transition between the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern times, started in Italy and was spurred in part by the rediscovery of classical art and literature, as well as the new perspectives gained from the Age of Discovery and the invention of the telescope and microscope, expanding the borders of thought and knowledge.\n\nThe term \"Early Modern\" was introduced in the English language in the 1930s. to distinguish the time between what we call Middle Ages and time of the late Enlightenment (1800) (when the meaning of the term Modern Ages was developing its contemporary form). It is important to note that these terms stem from European history. In usage in other parts of the world, such as in Asia, and in Muslim countries, the terms are applied in a very different way, but often in the context with their contact with European culture in the Age of Discovery.\n\nIn the Contemporary era, there were various socio-technological trends. Regarding the 21st century and the late modern world, the Information age and computers were forefront in use, not completely ubiquitous but often present in daily life. The development of Eastern powers was of note, with China and India becoming more powerful. In the Eurasian theater, the European Union and Russian Federation were two forces recently developed. A concern for Western world, if not the whole world, was the late modern form of terrorism and the warfare that has resulted from the contemporary terrorist acts.\n\nIn Asia, various Chinese dynasties and Japanese shogunates controlled the Asian sphere. In Japan, the Edo period from 1600 to 1868 is also referred to as the early modern period. And in Korea, from the rising of Joseon Dynasty to the enthronement of King Gojong is referred to as the early modern period. In the Americas, Native Americans had built a large and varied civilization, including the Aztec Empire and alliance, the Inca civilization, the Mayan Empire and cities, and the Chibcha Confederation. In the west, the European kingdoms and movements were in a movement of reformation and expansion. Russia reached the Pacific coast in 1647 and consolidated its control over the Russian Far East in the 19th century.\n\nIn China, urbanization increased as the population grew and as the division of labor grew more complex. Large urban centers, such as Nanjing and Beijing, also contributed to the growth of private industry. In particular, small-scale industries grew up, often specializing in paper, silk, cotton, and porcelain goods. For the most part, however, relatively small urban centers with markets proliferated around the country. Town markets mainly traded food, with some necessary manufactures such as pins or oil. Despite the xenophobia and intellectual introspection characteristic of the increasingly popular new school of neo-Confucianism, China under the early Ming dynasty was not isolated. Foreign trade and other contacts with the outside world, particularly Japan, increased considerably. Chinese merchants explored all of the Indian Ocean, reaching East Africa with the treasure voyages of Zheng He.\n\nThe Qing dynasty (1644\u20131911) was founded after the fall of the Ming, the last Han Chinese dynasty, by the Manchus. The Manchus were formerly known as the Jurchens. When Beijing was captured by Li Zicheng's peasant rebels in 1644, the Chongzhen Emperor, the last Ming emperor, committed suicide. The Manchus then allied with former Ming general Wu Sangui and seized control of Beijing, which became the new capital of the Qing dynasty. The Mancus adopted the Confucian norms of traditional Chinese government in their rule of China proper. Schoppa, the editor of The Columbia Guide to Modern Chinese History argues, \"A date around 1780 as the beginning of modern China is thus closer to what we know today as historical 'reality'. It also allows us to have a better baseline to understand the precipitous decline of the Chinese polity in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.\"\n\nSociety in the Japanese \"Tokugawa period\" (Edo society), unlike the shogunates before it, was based on the strict class hierarchy originally established by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The daimyo, or lords, were at the top, followed by the warrior-caste of samurai, with the farmers, artisans, and traders ranking below. In some parts of the country, particularly smaller regions, daimyo and samurai were more or less identical, since daimyo might be trained as samurai, and samurai might act as local lords. Otherwise, the largely inflexible nature of this social stratification system unleashed disruptive forces over time. Taxes on the peasantry were set at fixed amounts which did not account for inflation or other changes in monetary value. As a result, the tax revenues collected by the samurai landowners were worth less and less over time. This often led to numerous confrontations between noble but impoverished samurai and well-to-do peasants, ranging from simple local disturbances to much bigger rebellions. None, however, proved compelling enough to seriously challenge the established order until the arrival of foreign powers.\n\nOn the Indian subcontinent, the Mughal Empire ruled most of India in the early 18th century. The \"classic period\" ended with the death and defeat of Emperor Aurangzeb in 1707 by the rising Hindu Maratha Empire, although the dynasty continued for another 150 years. During this period, the Empire was marked by a highly centralized administration connecting the different regions. All the significant monuments of the Mughals, their most visible legacy, date to this period which was characterised by the expansion of Persian cultural influence in the Indian subcontinent, with brilliant literary, artistic, and architectural results. The Maratha Empire was located in the south west of present-day India and expanded greatly under the rule of the Peshwas, the prime ministers of the Maratha empire. In 1761, the Maratha army lost the Third Battle of Panipat which halted imperial expansion and the empire was then divided into a confederacy of Maratha states.\n\nThe development of New Imperialism saw the conquest of nearly all eastern hemisphere territories by colonial powers. The commercial colonization of India commenced in 1757, after the Battle of Plassey, when the Nawab of Bengal surrendered his dominions to the British East India Company, in 1765, when the Company was granted the diwani, or the right to collect revenue, in Bengal and Bihar, or in 1772, when the Company established a capital in Calcutta, appointed its first Governor-General, Warren Hastings, and became directly involved in governance.\n\nThe Maratha states, following the Anglo-Maratha wars, eventually lost to the British East India Company in 1818 with the Third Anglo-Maratha War. The rule lasted until 1858, when, after the Indian rebellion of 1857 and consequent of the Government of India Act 1858, the British government assumed the task of directly administering India in the new British Raj. In 1819 Stamford Raffles established Singapore as a key trading post for Britain in their rivalry with the Dutch. However, their rivalry cooled in 1824 when an Anglo-Dutch treaty demarcated their respective interests in Southeast Asia. From the 1850s onwards, the pace of colonization shifted to a significantly higher gear.\n\nThe Dutch East India Company (1800) and British East India Company (1858) were dissolved by their respective governments, who took over the direct administration of the colonies. Only Thailand was spared the experience of foreign rule, although, Thailand itself was also greatly affected by the power politics of the Western powers. Colonial rule had a profound effect on Southeast Asia. While the colonial powers profited much from the region's vast resources and large market, colonial rule did develop the region to a varying extent.\n<Assistant>Wonderful. I'll remember these key points."]
[{"question": "What was a major concern for Western civilization during the 21 century?", "answer": "terrorist acts"}, {"question": "What time period is referred to as The Late Enlightenment?", "answer": "1800"}, {"question": "Where does the fungus Geotrichum candidum originate from?", "answer": "Belize"}, {"question": "Where is the start of data on a CD?", "answer": "the center"}, {"question": "In what time were there many socio-technological trends?", "answer": "Contemporary era"}, {"question": "When was the first transistor created?", "answer": "1926"}, {"question": "What was the original intended format for CDs?", "answer": "musical format"}, {"question": "What percent decrease did audio CD sales experience?", "answer": "50%"}, {"question": "Who created Photo CDs?", "answer": "Kodak"}, {"question": "How many Great Lakes form a border with Canada?", "answer": "four"}, {"question": "What format has never been implemented on CDs?", "answer": "Four-channel sound"}, {"question": "Through who did the masses have access to the divine?", "answer": "spiritual intermediaries"}, {"question": "What are Nanjing and Beijing?", "answer": "Large urban centers"}, {"question": "Who was the director of the Philips audio division in 1974?", "answer": "L. Ottens"}, {"question": "What is the second letter in the part numbering scheme?", "answer": "the intended use"}, {"question": "What were gold contacts attached to to increase signal output?", "answer": "germanium"}, {"question": "How many letters does the part numbering scheme begin with?", "answer": "two letters"}, {"question": "What did social order mandate be strictly enforced?", "answer": "ceremony and morals"}, {"question": "What belief was considered sacred by ancient civilizations?", "answer": "Tradition"}, {"question": "What made it possible for CDs to be played on any companies CD player?", "answer": "unified design"}, {"question": "At what rate is the drain-source current increased when the gate-source current is increased?", "answer": "a roughly quadratic rate"}, {"question": "What is the usual collector current for small-signal transistors?", "answer": "greater than 100"}, {"question": "What is the term for a negative image of the glass master?", "answer": "die"}, {"question": "What are common applications of HEMT?", "answer": "satellite receivers"}, {"question": "What did Nakajima's team use to create a digital PCM adaptor audio tape recorder?", "answer": "a Betamax video recorder"}, {"question": "What contributed to the rise of the US as a world power?", "answer": "agricultural climate"}, {"question": "What do the terms \"Early Modern\" and  'Modern Ages\" originate from?", "answer": "European history"}, {"question": "Where do the terms \"Middle Ages\" and \"Modern Ages\" originate from?", "answer": "European history"}, {"question": "Which region in the US is also one of the most snowiest places in the world?", "answer": "The Cascades"}, {"question": "How were the moral standards of ancient cultures enforced?", "answer": "strictly"}, {"question": "What term was coined in the 16th century to indicate present time?", "answer": "modern"}, {"question": "Who does the US share water borders with in the northwest?", "answer": "Russia"}, {"question": "In 2004 how many CDs had been sold around the world?", "answer": "30 billion"}, {"question": "In what year were digital and physical music sales the same?", "answer": "2014"}, {"question": "What is the term for the center hole in a CD?", "answer": "stacking ring"}, {"question": "What is the priciest component of a CD?", "answer": "jewel case"}, {"question": "What is a switching circuit trying to simulate when on?", "answer": "short circuit"}, {"question": "How far north do the Interior Highlands reach?", "answer": "Arctic Ocean"}, {"question": "How many studio albums did David Bowie release in February 1985?", "answer": "15"}, {"question": "Which northern country do the Rocky Mountains terminate at?", "answer": "Mexico"}, {"question": "What type of flats compose the Great Basin?", "answer": "salt flats"}, {"question": "During what geological period did the Appalachian mountains reach their highest formation point?", "answer": "Permian time"}, {"question": "What is the size of a Maxi Single?", "answer": "120 mm"}, {"question": "Where is a quadratic behavior not observed?", "answer": "in modern devices"}, {"question": "Which artist was the first to have their full catalogue converted to CD?", "answer": "David Bowie"}, {"question": "What is the average amount of rainfall that the Quinault rainforest in Washington receives?", "answer": "137 inches"}, {"question": "When did the IEC isntigate the Red Book CD-DA as an international standard?", "answer": "1987"}, {"question": "What type of paper can Photo CD images be produced on?", "answer": "photographic paper"}, {"question": "What determines the current ratio in transistors?", "answer": "the type of transistor"}, {"question": "What determines the amount of current in an electrically controlled switch?", "answer": "other circuit elements"}, {"question": "How many terminals do BJTs have?", "answer": "three"}, {"question": "What size is the diameter of the center hole in a CD?", "answer": "15 mm"}, {"question": "What was society based on during the Tukugawa period?", "answer": "strict class hierarchy"}, {"question": "What was once an indicator of the devices creator?", "answer": "a manufacturer's prefix"}, {"question": "Which region of the US experiences rain year round?", "answer": "Pacific Northwest"}, {"question": "Who said that protected CDs are not allowed to carry the CDDA logo?", "answer": "Philips"}, {"question": "How much did a jewel case cost in 1995?", "answer": "30 cents"}, {"question": "In which area are a large number of the country's agricultural products grown?", "answer": "the Great Plains"}, {"question": "What were Religious officials perceived as in the Pre-Modern era?", "answer": "spiritual intermediaries"}, {"question": "What does AHRA stand for?", "answer": "Audio Home Recording Act"}, {"question": "What year did Philips propse the idea of a digital audio format?", "answer": "1974"}, {"question": "During which seasons are tornados most common?", "answer": "spring and summer"}, {"question": "In what era were there many socio-technological trends?", "answer": "Contemporary era"}, {"question": "At what point is a channel off in enhancement-mode?", "answer": "at zero bias"}, {"question": "What did Nanjing and Beijing contribute to?", "answer": "growth of private industry"}, {"question": "How were taxes charged in the Tokugawa period?", "answer": "set at fixed amounts"}, {"question": "The phrase modern originated form what?", "answer": "Latin adverb modo"}, {"question": "The 21st century is refereed to as what?", "answer": "the Information age"}, {"question": "How much video can a CD-R contain?", "answer": "60 minutes"}, {"question": "Name one of the tribes Native Americans formed in the Americas?", "answer": "Aztec Empire"}, {"question": "When was the thermionic triode invented?", "answer": "1907"}, {"question": "Name one of the tribes Native Americans established in the Americas.", "answer": "Aztec Empire"}, {"question": "What was considered a threat to Western civilization?", "answer": "terrorist acts"}, {"question": "How are glass masters created?", "answer": "high-powered laser"}, {"question": "What is a switching circuit trying to simulate when off?", "answer": "open circuit"}, {"question": "What caused urbanization to increase in China?", "answer": "the population grew"}, {"question": "What is a plastic version of a BC108?", "answer": "PN108"}, {"question": "What is the Edo period also known as?", "answer": "the early modern period"}, {"question": "What was the original intended format for CDs?", "answer": "data storage"}, {"question": "What is the marking for a 2N2222A in a plastic case?", "answer": "PN2222A"}, {"question": "How long does it take to stamp out one CD?", "answer": "two to three seconds"}, {"question": "In what year did Philips institute a laboratory to create a digital audio disc?", "answer": "1977"}, {"question": "Which region experiences the worst droughts in the US?", "answer": "Southwest"}, {"question": "What are the low mountain ranges that are located along the pacific coast called?", "answer": "Pacific Coast Ranges"}, {"question": "What caused the transition between the middle ages and early modern times?", "answer": "The European Renaissance"}, {"question": "In what year was the point-contact transistor invented?", "answer": "1948"}, {"question": "What is the precipitation average in the Intermontane plateaus?", "answer": "15 inches"}, {"question": "What can cause sudden disc degradation?", "answer": "disc rot"}, {"question": "What is the name of the famous valley located in California?", "answer": "Central Valley"}, {"question": "what does the 2N is the JEDEC EIA370 mean?", "answer": "a three-terminal device"}, {"question": "During which months are portions of the US affected by the monsoon from the Gulf of California?", "answer": "July to September"}, {"question": "What was society in  the Tokugawa period based in?", "answer": "strict class hierarchy"}, {"question": "Where did Lilienfeld file his patent?", "answer": "Canada"}, {"question": "What is the period between 1600-1868 referred to as?", "answer": "the Edo period"}, {"question": "How were taxes charged during the Tukugawa period?", "answer": "set at fixed amounts"}, {"question": "How are MP3s compressed?", "answer": "lossily-compressed"}, {"question": "What is the term used to describe the \"Right to collect revenue\"?", "answer": "diwani"}, {"question": "What does a letter at the end of a device number mean?", "answer": "a newer variant"}, {"question": "What is the only major mountain ranged located between the Appalachian Mountains and the Rocky Mountains?", "answer": "Interior Highlands"}, {"question": "What is the bipolar junction transistor a combination of?", "answer": "two junction diodes"}]