NFC

Near-field communication (NFC) is a set of communication protocols that enables communication between two electronic devices over a distance of 4 cm (11⁄2 in) or less. NFC offers a low-speed connection through a simple setup that can be used to bootstrap more-capable wireless connections. Like other "proximity card" technologies, NFC is based on inductive coupling between two so-called antennas present on NFC-enabled devices—for example a smartphone and a printer—communicating in one or both directions, using a frequency of 13.56 MHz in the globally available unlicensed radio frequency ISM band using the ISO/IEC 18000-3 air interface standard at data rates ranging from 106 to 424 kbit/s.

The new NFC Forum 'Wayfinding Mark' was launched in 2021 to 'provide designers and product manufacturers flexibility'. There are two main variants of this for use with NFC tags - the 'directional' option and a 'simplified' version. 

NFC Forum Wayfinding Mark

Both the simplified version (on the left) and the directional version (middle) have extra official 'instructional' variants with a hand/phone hovering over the icon. 

There's also been another newcomer on the scene which is gaining a little bit of popularity. The material.io NFC icon is a square representation of a simple NFC antenna. Generally used within digital elements such as websites or Apps, the icon has also started to be used on products, printed material and other items. Material.io is described as a 'design system' and the NFC icon is a clear, obvious NFC based element.

The EMVCo contactless logo

In addition to the NFC Forum logo, there is also the Contactless Indicator logo from EMVCo. This is a very common mark that is typically used to indicate the ability to make contactless payments rather than perhaps interaction with an NFC tag.

zero-day

A zero-day is a computer-software vulnerability either unknown to those who should be interested in its mitigation (including the vendor of the target software) or known and without a patch to correct it. Until the vulnerability is mitigated, hackers can exploit it to adversely affect programs, data, additional computers or a network. An exploit directed at a zero-day is called a zero-day exploit, or zero-day attack.

The term "zero-day" originally referred to the number of days since a new piece of software was released to the public, so "zero-day software" was obtained by hacking into a developer's computer before release. Eventually the term was applied to the vulnerabilities that allowed this hacking, and to the number of days that the vendor has had to fix them. Once the vendors learn of the vulnerability, they will usually create patches or advise workarounds to mitigate it.

The more recently that the vendor has become aware of the vulnerability, the more likely it is that no fix or mitigation has been developed. Once a fix is developed, the chance of the exploit succeeding decreases as more users apply the fix over time. For zero-day exploits, unless the vulnerability is inadvertently fixed, such as by an unrelated update that happens to fix the vulnerability, the probability that a user has applied a vendor-supplied patch that fixes the problem is zero, so the exploit would remain available. Zero-day attacks are a severe threat.

Shortcuts

That Shortcuts was released first for iOS 13, and updated for iOS 14, and again for iOS 15, before ultimately being released as part of macOS 12 Monterey is significant. That this visual scripting environment runs on watchOS, iOS, iPadOS, and macOS makes it perhaps the most significant application/software environment that Apple has brought to its enduser ecosystem.

-rws

On September 19, 2019, with the public launch of iOS 13, the Shortcuts app became a default app installed on all iOS 13 devices.

On June 7, 2021, at WWDC 2021, a desktop version of the Shortcuts app was announced for macOS, for forthcoming macOS Monterey and was released on October 25, 2021.

Historical Perspective:

HyperCard was originally released in 1987 for $49.95 and was included free with all new Macs sold then.[1] It was withdrawn from sale in March 2004, having received its final update in 1998 upon the return of Steve Jobs to Apple. HyperCard was not ported to Mac OS X, but can run in the Classic Environment on those Mac OS X that support it.

In the late 1980s Apple considered using HyperCard's HyperTalk scripting language as the standard language for end-user development across the company and within its classic Mac OS operating system, and for interprocess communication between Apple and non-Apple products. HyperTalk could be used by novices to program a HyperCard stack. Apple engineers recognized that a similar, but more object-oriented scripting language could be designed to be used with any application, and the AppleScript project was born as a spin-off of a research effort to modernize the Macintosh as a whole and finally became part of System 7.

AppleScript was released in October 1993 as part of System 7.1.1 (System 7 Pro, the first major upgrade to System 7).  QuarkXPress (ver. 3.2) was one of the first major software applications that supported AppleScript. This in turn led to AppleScript being widely adopted within the publishing and prepress world, often tying together complex workflows. This was a key factor in retaining the Macintosh's dominant position in publishing and prepress, even after QuarkXpress and other publishing applications were ported to Microsoft Windows.

Automator is an app used to create workflows for automating repetitive tasks into batches for quicker alteration via point-and-click (or drag and drop). This saves time and effort over human intervention to manually change each file separately. Automator enables the repetition of tasks across a wide variety of programs, including Finder, Safari, Calendar, Contacts and others. It can also work with third-party applications such as Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop or Pixelmator. The icon features a robot holding a pipe, a reference to pipelines, a computer science term for connected data workflows. Automator was first released with Mac OS X Tiger (10.4), which was released to the public on April 29, 2005.

Starting in macOS Monterey, Automator is being replaced by Shortcuts.

Shortcuts User Guide

MERV

MERV	Minimum particle size	Typical controlled contaminant	Typical application
1–4	> 10.0 μm	Pollen, dust mites, cockroach debris, sanding dust, spray paint dust, textile fibers, carpet fibers	Residential window A-C units
5–8	10.0–3.0 μm ("E3")	Mold spores, dust mite debris, cat and dog dander, hair spray, fabric protector, dusting aids, pudding mix	Better residential, general commercial, industrial workspaces
9–12	3.0–1.0 μm ("E2")	Legionella, humidifier dust, lead dust, milled flour, auto emission particulates, nebulizer droplets	Superior residential, better commercial, hospital laboratories
13–16	1.0–0.3 μm ("E1")	Bacteria, droplet nuclei (sneeze), cooking oil, most smoke and insecticide dust, most face powder, most paint pigments	Hospital and general surgery

Whilst size comparisons between viruses and bacteria can be useful to researchers, it is also useful to compare the size of SARS-CoV-2 to other things that are encountered daily. For example, a dust mite is typically 200 µm in size. If we take a 100 nm SARS-CoV-2 particle, this makes the dust mite 2000 times larger.

ONT

An optical network terminal (ONT) is a type of NID used with fiber-to-the-premises applications.

Generically, an NID may also be called a network interface unit (NIU), telephone network interface (TNI), system network interface (SNI), or telephone network box.

for example:

corespotlightd

Spotlight related process.

Better under macOS 12 Monterey