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Codec

A codec is a device or computer program that encodes or decodes a data stream or signal. Codec is a portmanteau of coder/decoder.

In electronic communications, an endec is a device that acts as both an encoder and a decoder on a signal or data stream, and hence is a type of codec. Endec is a portmanteau of encoder/decoder.

A coder or encoder encodes a data stream or a signal for transmission or storage, possibly in encrypted form, and the decoder function reverses the encoding for playback or editing. Codecs are used in videoconferencing, streaming media, and video editing applications.

History
In the mid-20th century, a codec was a device that coded analog signals into digital form using pulse-code modulation (PCM). Later, the name was also applied to software for converting between digital signal formats, including companding functions.

Examples
An audio codec converts analog audio signals into digital signals for transmission or encodes them for storage. A receiving device converts the digital signals back to analog form using an audio decoder for playback. An example of this is the codecs used in the sound cards of personal computers. A video codec accomplishes the same task for video signals.

When implementing the Infrared Data Association (IrDA) protocol, an endec may be used between the UART and the optoelectronic systems.

Compression
In addition to encoding a signal, a codec may also compress the data to reduce transmission bandwidth or storage space. Compression codecs are classified primarily into lossy codecs and lossless codecs.

Lossless codecs are often used for archiving data in compressed form while retaining all information present in the original stream. If preserving the original quality of the stream is more important than eliminating the correspondingly larger data sizes, lossless codecs are preferred. This is especially true if the data is to undergo further processing (for example, editing) in which case the repeated application of processing (encoding and decoding) on lossy codecs will degrade the quality of the resulting data such that it is no longer identifiable (visually, audibly, or both). Using more than one codec or encoding scheme successively can also degrade quality significantly. The decreasing cost of storage capacity and network bandwidth has a tendency to reduce the need for lossy codecs for some media.

Many popular codecs are lossy. They reduce quality in order to maximize compression. Often, this type of compression is virtually indistinguishable from the original uncompressed sound or images, depending on the codec and the settings used. The most widely used lossy data compression technique in digital media is based on the discrete cosine transform (DCT), used in compression standards such as JPEG images, H.26x and MPEG video, and MP3 and AAC audio. Smaller data sets ease the strain on relatively expensive storage sub-systems such as non-volatile memory and hard disk, as well as write-once-read-many formats such as CD-ROM, DVD, and Blu-ray Disc. Lower data rates also reduce cost and improve performance when the data is transmitted, e.g., over the internet.

Media codecs
Two principal techniques are used in codecs, pulse-code modulation and delta modulation. Codecs are often designed to emphasize certain aspects of the media to be encoded. For example, a digital video (using a DV codec) of a sports event needs to encode motion well but not necessarily exact colors, while a video of an art exhibit needs to encode color and surface texture well.

Audio codecs for cell phones need to have very low latency between source encoding and playback. In contrast, audio codecs for recording or broadcasting can use high-latency audio compression techniques to achieve higher fidelity at a lower bit rate.

There are thousands of audio and video codecs, ranging in cost from free to hundreds of dollars or more. This variety of codecs can create compatibility and obsolescence issues. The impact is lessened for older formats, for which free or nearly-free codecs have existed for a long time. The older formats are often ill-suited to modern applications, however, such as playback on small portable devices. For example, raw uncompressed PCM audio (44.1 kHz, 16-bit stereo, as represented on an audio CD or in a .wav or .aiff file) has long been a standard across multiple platforms, but its transmission over networks is slow and expensive compared with more modern compressed formats, such as Opus and MP3.

Many multimedia data streams contain both audio and video, and often some metadata that permits synchronization of audio and video. Each of these three streams may be handled by different programs, processes, or hardware; but for the multimedia data streams to be useful in stored or transmitted form, they must be encapsulated together in a container format.

Lower bitrate codecs allow more users, but they also have more distortion. Beyond the initial increase in distortion, lower bit rate codecs also achieve their lower bit rates by using more complex algorithms that make certain assumptions, such as those about the media and the packet loss rate. Other codecs may not make those same assumptions. When a user with a low bitrate codec talks to a user with another codec, additional distortion is introduced by each transcoding.

Audio Video Interleave (AVI) is sometimes erroneously described as a codec, but AVI is actually a container format, while a codec is a software or hardware tool that encodes or decodes audio or video into or from some audio or video format. Audio and video encoded with many codecs might be put into an AVI container, although AVI is not an ISO standard. There are also other well-known container formats, such as Ogg, ASF, QuickTime, RealMedia, Matroska, and DivX Media Format. MPEG transport stream, MPEG program stream, MP4, and ISO base media file format are examples of container formats that are ISO standardized.

Malware
Fake codec are used when an online user takes a type of codec and installs viruses and other malware into whatever data is being compressed and uses it as a disguise. This disguise appears as a codec download through a pop-up alert or ad. When a user goes to click or download that codec, the malware is then installed on the computer. Once a fake codec is installed it is often used to access private data, corrupt an entire computer system or to keep spreading the malware. One of the previous most used ways to spread malware was fake AV pages and with the rise of codec technology, both have been used in combination to take advantage of online users. This combination allows fake codecs to be automatically downloaded to a device through a website linked in a pop-up ad, virus/codec alerts or articles as well.

title: Codec


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Talk:Cut-up technique

Literacy of hiphoppers
"Some have suggested these practices are a form of cut-ups, but most such musicians are probably unaware of Tzara, Burroughs or Gysin (DJ Spooky being an exception)." DJ Spooky is likely not the only literate and historically knowlegeable person in hip-hop or electronic music. Consider revision. unsigned comment by User:84.222.71.200, way back on 07:16, 14 February 2005
 * The implication is not that hip-hoppers are illiterate, but that their technique is derived from musical precedents (e.g. Jamaican sound systems & toasting, which had made their way to the Bronx by the late '70s), rather than from literary techniques. -- Gyrofrog (talk) 16:33, 1 September 2005 (UTC)

"Some have suggested these practices are a form of cut-ups, but most such musicians are probably unaware of Tzara, Burroughs or Gysin (DJ Spooky being an exception)." WTF wikipedia.... source this with existing or original research and it can stay, otherwise this serves only as a great example of the glib and unprofessional nature of many wikipedia articles. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.67.7.219 (talk • contribs) 06:17, 6 December 2006

 * I've just removed what's left of this paragraph (which in any event, lacked any attribution though it's been an issue on this discussion page since Feb. 2005). Again, hip-hop and sound collage are audio techniques; cut-up is a literary technique. All may be forms of collage but "collage" does not equal "cut-up". See my comments elsewhere on this talk page. -- Gyrofrog  (talk) 19:51, 26 November 2008 (UTC)

Found poetry
Does 'found poetry' merit a definition of its own? It differs specifically from cut-up in that the material in the latter may be exclusively generated by the producer of the new work, whilst in the former it is more generally a manipulation of the original work of other artists.

Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite
Would the solo from The Beatles' "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite" fit into this category, or does it have to do only with words (they cut recordings of the instrument into irregular lengths, threw them into the air, and taped them back together at random, not even checking to see if they were forwards or backwards)?

 * An interesting idea. I see no reason why cut-up technique or its originators would have frowned on such a process, so add a mention if you feel up for it. sjc

 * More likely that The Beatles and/or George Martin were influenced by musique concrete which has been around almost as long as tape recorders have been available. For all I know, musique concrete was influenced by Tzara's earlier methods, but doesn't necessarily have anything to do with beat generation cut-up technique. On the other hand, the practitioners of musique concrete and cut-ups may have been fully aware of each other. But it seems simpler to to trace such developments in psychedelic music, electronic music, hip-hop, etc. to earlier musical experiments (e.g. musique concrete) moreso than literary experiments. Gyrofrog

On a related note, it seems more sensible to trace the use of a montage sequence in film, music video, etc. to Soviet montage theory (or at least film-related techniques in general). Again, cut-up is a literary technique. Both audio and film montage predate cut-ups. -- Gyrofrog (talk) 19:44, 26 November 2008 (UTC)
 * Redux

Computerized randomization
I've read "compositions" by computer programs that formed random sentences, based on existing texts. The program developers (and some reviewers) said that the results had a flavor similar to (or at least amusingly reminiscent of) the originals. Can we mention this in the article, or link to a new article describing the computer technique? --Ed Poor

 * The article is still fairly short, so more material isn't a problem. computer-generated cut-ups are extensions of the original premise perhaps. Is Mr Kite cut-up, or Cubomania? For that matter, is Cubomania a type of cut-up? - Tarquin 07:04 Jul 31, 2002 (PDT)

 * I'm not sure how to answer this question. In cubomania, an image is cut into a number of equal-sized squares, which are then rearragned, automatically or at random, into the same size as the original image.  But I don't know if it would be defined as a "cut-up" or no.  --Daniel C. Boyer 15:48, 6 Mar 2004 (UTC)

 * Markov chaining is one of the programmable techniques used to produce the type of compositions mentioned. So far as I understand it, this involves recording the frequency of different word (or character) adjacencies and then randomly reproducing a text with the same or similar frequencies.

 * More or less. It uses the frequencies of word adjacencies and then randomly selects words based on the preceding word using the recorded frequencies as probabilities. The results can be pretty funny.   — Gwalla | Talk 23:01, 6 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Well, I think that at least some material on computerized cut-ups is warranted, so I added a "travesty" section. I think there's a notable hole in Wikipedia when it comes to travesty generators. Reinderientalk/contribs 20:15, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

Record stores
"DJs may spend hours in record stores [...]"

The way to find unique music, just like with clothes, is thrift stores. I remember an interview with buck65 where he mentioned not wanting to re-release his old shit since he liked that feeling of being in a thrift-store, flipping through dusty lp's, and finding something really underground. I would also say finding cool stuff to add to your music/wuddeva occurs more just from intaking loads and loads of art, (it's only possible for those that live and breath it). —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Seas (talk • contribs) 08:19, 1 September 2005 (UTC)

Claims Tzara incited a riot
The article claims "Tristan Tzara offered to create a poem on the spot by pulling words at random from a hat. A riot ensued and André Breton expelled Tzara from the movement." Is there any citation for this? The claim was made by Burroughs several times but, while Tzara was involved in several riots, I've not seen any evidence that Tzara's random poetry was the cause of any of them. Thanks!

I Agree, I've heard that Breton and Tzara got into a few fights but never caused by his poetry, also

Breton never expelled Tzara from dadaism. It also mentions surrealism which at the time (1920) didn't

quite exist

Why WPVA
Why is this article considered "within the scope of WikiProject Visual art?" "Cut-up technique" seems to involve literature and music, not Visual art. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Bus stop (talk • contribs).

 * The bot probably did all the techniques in the Surrealist techniques category. --sparkit TALK 23:10, 3 March 2007 (UTC)

 * Yup, that's a good explanation. I'm removing the tag. Planetneutral 23:27, 3 March 2007 (UTC)
 * The Cut Up is visual . correctopiumjones 23 (talk) 01:38, 15 December 2007 (UTC)

Literary Influences
Is now blank~............... needs some work re Burroughs novels and other writers. Who will help?

porridge moved correctly to music

opiumjones 23 (talk) 01:10, 15 December 2007 (UTC)

Removed Interpol video
I'm removing the reference to the Interpol video. I'm not familiar with it but as described, it isn't a cut-up - a montage, perhaps, but that's an older film technique, and cut-up is a literary technique. (This isn't the first time someone has cited a film or audio montage as an example of cut-ups; see earlier Beatles discussion.) If anything this technique has roots in (for example) early Soviet cinema, which predates cut-ups (and probably musique concrete, for that matter). In any event, there's no attribution for this analysis, and it appears to be original research. -- Gyrofrog (talk) 19:40, 26 November 2008 (UTC)

Cut up Collage
I saw this in the links. Should this be added to the article? 76.91.186.42 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 17:35, 12 June 2010 (UTC).
 * Do you mean http://paradox.rambisyouth.com ? I am not sure whether it meets notability criteria. I am also unsure whether this is more of a cut-up or a photomontage (or both). -- Gyrofrog  (talk) 15:36, 14 June 2010 (UTC)

link to online cut-up technique tool
I've added this link a few times and each time it has been deleted. I think this is a useful and appropriate website tool that allows users to apply the cut-up technique to today's news. Please take a look: http://www.publicassemblage.com The site appears to be a free tool that can be used by anybody (as long as they have flash) and is directly related to the cut-up technique. If you are removing this link, please explain your reasoning. In my opinion this site could only encourage the use of the cut-up technique. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kitlegit (talk • contribs) 19:57, 14 September 2010 (UTC) Agree. Here's another link to a satirical post modern essay generator, which is essentially a cut-up technique using a set of postmodern related language and references. http://www.elsewhere.org/pomo/ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.101.27.187 (talk) 19:01, 20 August 2011 (UTC)

Caleb Whitefoord (1734-1810)
I am always wary about "ancestors" for the 20th century avant-garde and esp. for stuff like comics, but Caleb Whitefoord around 1766 did a lot of WSB-stuff with newspapers, Austin Kleon and others have recently noticed, I have been told about it by de:User:F2hg.amsterdam.--Radh (talk) 10:24, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

BBC documentary
There was a good BBC Radio 4 documentary within the last year or so on Burroughs/Cut-up. Would be good in External links. All the best: Rich Farmbrough, 19:01, 3 July 2014 (UTC).

 * The article now has text that cites that documentary. However, I fundamentally disagree with the documentary's premise. Cut-up is an aleatory technique; deliberately re-editing a Ronald Reagan speech (for example) is the opposite of aleatory.  Such efforts may have been inspired by cut-ups, but they're not the same.  The BBC program seems to have confused cut-up with montage/collage in general.  Cut-up is a type of collage but collages are not necessarily cut-ups (i.e. aleatory).  I'm inclined to remove this information as per WP:ONUS but for now I'm going to flag it. -- Gyrofrog  (talk) 02:36, 21 August 2015 (UTC)
 * I have gone ahead and removed the section, based on my earlier comment. -- Gyrofrog (talk) 19:35, 19 December 2016 (UTC)

Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is often said to have used this technique and it is not unlikley. But there is no evidence for asserting this is so, in his writings or in others' writings who have known him?

Just people guessing?

EDLIS Café 14:45, 3 October 2019 (UTC)  — Preceding unsigned comment added by EdRicardo (talk • contribs)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Talk:Cut-up technique


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Clyde Tombaugh

Clyde William Tombaugh (February 4, 1906 –  January 17, 1997) was an American astronomer. He discovered the ninth planet Pluto in 1930, the first object to be discovered in what would later be identified as the Kuiper belt. At the time of discovery, Pluto was considered a planet, but was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006. Tombaugh also discovered many asteroids, and called for the serious scientific research of unidentified flying objects.

Early life
Tombaugh was born in Streator, Illinois, son of Muron Dealvo Tombaugh, a farmer, and his wife Adella Pearl Chritton on February 4, 1906. He was the first of six children in the family with his sister, Esther being born 2 1/2 years after Clyde followed by his brother Roy in 1912, Charles in 1914, Robert in 1923 and Anita Rachel in 1929. Tombaugh's interest in astronomy appears to have begun when he visited the Yerkes Observatory in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin when he was 12 years old in 1918. His uncle Lee also helped spark his interest in astronomy as he was an amateur astronomer who used a 3 in diameter non-achromatic refractor telescope and gave him several astronomy related books.

The family's poor finances, due to years of bad weather on the farm and a bad corn harvest in 1921, caused them to move to a new farm in Burdett, Kansas in 1922. As the family had moved to the farm in August 1922 and the crops needed to be prepared urgently, Tombaugh had to drop out of high school for a year to help his father prepare the crops on the family farm. Tombaugh graduated from high school in 1925. Tombaugh's plans for attending college were frustrated when a hailstorm in June 1928 ruined his family's farm crops. Tombaugh read an article in Popular Astronomy in 1924 by an amateur astronomer named Latimer J. Wilson, titled "The Drift of Jupiter's Markings" showing sketches of Jupiter and decided he wanted to make his own telescope so he could see the features shown on Jupiter in sketches.

Astronomy career
Beginning in 1926, he built several telescopes with lenses and mirrors by himself. To better test his telescope mirrors, Tombaugh, with just a pick and shovel, dug a pit 24 feet long, 8 feet deep, and 7 feet wide. This provided a constant air temperature, free of air currents, and was also used by the family as a root cellar and emergency shelter. He sent drawings of Jupiter and Mars to the Lowell Observatory, at Flagstaff, Arizona, which offered him a job. Tombaugh worked there from 1929 to 1945.

Pluto
It was at Lowell in 1930 that Tombaugh discovered Pluto. Following his discovery, Tombaugh earned bachelor's and master's degrees in astronomy from the University of Kansas in 1936 and 1938. While a young researcher working for the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, Tombaugh was given the job to perform a systematic search for a trans-Neptunian planet (also called Planet X), which had been predicted by Percival Lowell based on calculations performed by his student mathematician Elizabeth Williams and William Pickering.

Starting April 6, 1929, Tombaugh used the observatory's 13 in astrograph to take photographs of the same section of sky several nights apart. He then used a blink comparator to compare the different images. When he shifted between the two images, a moving object, such as a planet, would appear to jump from one position to another, while the more distant objects such as stars would appear stationary. Tombaugh noticed such a moving object in his search, near the place predicted by Lowell, and subsequent observations showed it to have an orbit beyond that of Neptune. This ruled out classification as an asteroid, and they decided this was the ninth planet that Lowell had predicted. The discovery was made on Tuesday, February 18, 1930, using images taken the previous month.

Three classical mythological names were about equally popular among proposals for the new planet: Minerva, Cronus and Pluto. However, Minerva was already in use and the primary supporter of Cronus was widely disliked, leaving Pluto as the front-runner. Outside of Lowell staff, it was first proposed by an 11-year-old English schoolgirl, Venetia Burney. In its favor was that the Pluto of Roman mythology was able to render himself invisible, and that its first two letters formed Percival Lowell's initials. In order to avoid the name changes suffered by Neptune, the name was proposed to both the American Astronomical Society and the Royal Astronomical Society, both of which approved it unanimously. The name was officially adopted on May 1, 1930.

Following the discovery, it was recognized that Pluto wasn't massive enough to be the expected ninth planet, and some astronomers began to consider it the first of a new class of object – and indeed Tombaugh searched for additional trans-Neptunian objects for years, though due to the lack of any further discoveries he concluded that Pluto was indeed a planet. The idea that Pluto was not a true planet remained a minority position until the discovery of other Kuiper belt objects in the late 1990s, which showed that it did not orbit alone but was at best the largest of a number of icy bodies in its region of space. After it was shown that at least one such body, dubbed Eris, was more massive than Pluto, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) reclassified Pluto on August 24, 2006, as a dwarf planet, leaving eight planets in the Solar System.

Tombaugh's widow Patricia stated after the IAU's decision that while he might have been disappointed with the change since he had resisted attempts to remove Pluto's planetary status in his lifetime, he would have accepted the decision now if he were alive. She noted that he "was a scientist. He would understand they had a real problem when they start finding several of these things flying around the place." Hal Levison offered this perspective on Tombaugh's place in history: "Clyde Tombaugh discovered the Kuiper Belt. That's a helluva lot more interesting than the ninth planet."

Further research
Tombaugh continued searching for over a decade after the discovery of Pluto, and the lack of further discoveries left him satisfied that no other object of a comparable apparent magnitude existed near the ecliptic. No more trans-Neptunian objects were discovered until 15760 Albion, in 1992.

However, in 2005 the relatively bright object was discovered. It has a relatively high orbital inclination, but at the time of Tombaugh's discovery of Pluto, Makemake was only a few degrees from the ecliptic, near the border of Taurus and Auriga, at an apparent magnitude of 16. This position was also very near the galactic equator, making it almost impossible to find such an object within the dense concentration of background stars of the Milky Way. In the fourteen years of looking for planets, until he was drafted in July 1943, Tombaugh looked for motion in 90 million star images (two each of 45 million stars).

Asteroids
Tombaugh is officially credited by the Minor Planet Center with discovering 15 asteroids, and he observed nearly 800 asteroids during his search for Pluto and years of follow-up searches looking for another candidate for the postulated Planet X. Tombaugh is also credited with the discovery of periodic comet 274P/Tombaugh–Tenagra. He also discovered hundreds of variable stars, as well as star clusters, galaxy clusters, and a galaxy supercluster.

The asteroid 1604 Tombaugh, discovered in 1931, is named after him. He discovered hundreds of asteroids, beginning with 2839 Annette in 1929, mostly as a by-product of his search for Pluto and his searches for other celestial objects. Tombaugh named some of them after his wife, children and grandchildren. The Royal Astronomical Society awarded him the Jackson-Gwilt Medal in 1931.

UFOs
Tombaugh was probably the most eminent astronomer to have reported seeing unidentified flying objects. On August 20, 1949, Tombaugh saw several unidentified objects near Las Cruces, New Mexico. He described them as six to eight rectangular lights, stating: "I doubt that the phenomenon was any terrestrial reflection, because... nothing of the kind has ever appeared before or since... I was so unprepared for such a strange sight that I was really petrified with astonishment.".

Tombaugh observed these rectangles of light for about 3 seconds and his wife saw them for about $1 1/2$ seconds. He never supported the interpretation as a spaceship that has often been attributed to him. He considered other possibilities, with a temperature inversion as the most likely cause. "From my own studies of the solar system I cannot entertain any serious possibility for intelligent life on other planets, not even for Mars... The logistics of visitations from planets revolving around the nearer stars is staggering. In consideration of the hundreds of millions of years in the geologic time scale when such visits may have possibly occurred, the odds of a single visit in a given century or millennium are overwhelmingly against such an event." A much more likely source of explanation is some natural optical phenomenon in our own atmosphere. In my 1949 sightings the faintness of the object, together with the manner of fading in intensity as it traveled away from the zenith towards the southeastern horizon, is quite suggestive of a reflection from an optical boundary or surface of slight contrast in refractive index, as in an inversion layer. I have never seen anything like it before or since, and I have spent a lot of time where the night sky could be seen well. This suggests that the phenomenon involves a comparatively rare set of conditions or circumstances to produce it, but nothing like the odds of an interstellar visitation.

Another sighting by Tombaugh a year or two later while at a White Sands observatory was of an object of −6 magnitude, four times brighter than Venus at its brightest, going from the zenith to the southern horizon in about 3 seconds. The object executed the same maneuvers as in Tombaugh's first sighting.

Tombaugh later reported having seen three of the mysterious green fireballs, which suddenly appeared over New Mexico in late 1948 and continued at least through the early 1950s. A researcher on Project Twinkle reported that Tombaugh "... never observed an unexplainable aerial object despite his continuous and extensive observations of the sky."

Shortly after this, in January 1957, in an Associated Press article in the Alamogordo Daily News titled "Celestial Visitors May Be Invading Earth's Atmosphere", Tombaugh was again quoted on his sightings and opinion about them. "Although our own solar system is believed to support no other life than on Earth, other stars in the galaxy may have hundreds of thousands of habitable worlds. Races on these worlds may have been able to utilize the tremendous amounts of power required to bridge the space between the stars ...". Tombaugh stated that he had observed celestial phenomena which he could not explain, but had seen none personally since 1951 or 1952. "These things, which do appear to be directed, are unlike any other phenomena I ever observed. Their apparent lack of obedience to the ordinary laws of celestial motion gives credence."

In 1949, Tombaugh had also told the Naval missile director at White Sands Missile Range, Commander Robert McLaughlin, that he had seen a bright flash on Mars on August 27, 1941, which he now attributed to an atomic blast. Tombaugh also noted that the first atomic bomb tested in New Mexico would have lit up the dark side of the Earth like a neon sign and that Mars was coincidentally quite close at the time, the implication apparently being that the atomic test would have been visible from Mars.

In June 1952, Dr. J. Allen Hynek, an astronomer acting as a scientific consultant to the Air Force's Project Blue Book UFO study, secretly conducted a survey of fellow astronomers on UFO sightings and attitudes while attending an astronomy convention. Tombaugh and four other astronomers, including Dr. Lincoln LaPaz of the University of New Mexico, told Hynek about their sightings. Tombaugh also told Hynek that his telescopes were at the Air Force's disposal for taking photos of UFOs, if he was properly alerted.

Near-Earth objects
Tombaugh's offer may have led to his involvement in a search for Near-Earth objects, first announced in late 1953 and sponsored by the Army Office of Ordnance Research. Another public statement was made on the search in March 1954, emphasizing the rationale that such an orbiting object would serve as a natural space station. However, according to Donald Keyhoe, later director of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP), the real reason for the sudden search was because two near-Earth orbiting objects had been picked up on new long-range radar in the summer of 1953, according to his Pentagon source.

By May 1954, Keyhoe was making public statements that his sources told him the search had indeed been successful, and either one or two objects had been found. However, the story did not break until August 23, 1954, when Aviation Week magazine stated that two satellites had been found only 400 and 600 miles out. They were termed "natural satellites" and implied that they had been recently captured, despite this being a virtual impossibility. The next day, the story was in many major newspapers. Dr. LaPaz was implicated in the discovery in addition to Tombaugh. LaPaz had earlier conducted secret investigations on behalf of the Air Force on the green fireballs and other unidentified aerial phenomena over New Mexico. The New York Times reported on August 29 that "a source close to the O. O. R. unit here described as 'quite accurate' the report in the magazine Aviation Week that two previously unobserved satellites had been spotted and identified by Dr. Lincoln LaPaz of the University of New Mexico as natural and not artificial objects. This source also said there was absolutely no connection between the reported satellites and flying saucer reports." However, in the October 10 issue, LaPaz said the magazine article was "false in every particular, in so far as reference to me is concerned."

Both LaPaz and Tombaugh were to issue public denials that anything had been found. The October 1955 issue of Popular Mechanics magazine reported: "Professor Tombaugh is closemouthed about his results. He won't say whether or not any small natural satellites have been discovered. He does say, however, that newspaper reports of 18 months ago announcing the discovery of natural satellites at 400 and 600 miles out are not correct. He adds that there is no connection between the search program and the reports of so-called flying saucers."

At a meteor conference in Los Angeles in 1957, Tombaugh reiterated that his four-year search for "natural satellites" had been unsuccessful. In 1959, Tombaugh was to issue a final report stating that nothing had been found in his search. His personal 16-inch telescope was reassembled and dedicated on September 17, 2009, at Rancho Hidalgo, New Mexico (near Animas, New Mexico), adjacent to Astronomy's new observatory.

Other ventures
During World War II he taught naval personnel navigation at Northern Arizona University. He worked at White Sands Missile Range in the early 1950s, and taught astronomy at New Mexico State University from 1955 until his retirement in 1973. In 1980 he was inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame. In 1991, he received the American Academy of Achievement's Golden Plate Award presented by Awards Council member Glenn T. Seaborg.

Later life
Direct visual observation became rare in astronomy. By 1965 Robert S. Richardson called Tombaugh one of two great living experienced visual observers as talented as Percival Lowell or Giovanni Schiaparelli. In 1980, Tombaugh and Patrick Moore wrote a book Out of the Darkness: The Planet Pluto. In August 1992, JPL scientist Robert Staehle called Tombaugh, requesting permission to visit his planet. "I told him he was welcome to it," Tombaugh later remembered, "though he's got to go one long, cold trip." The call eventually led to the launch of the New Horizons space probe to Pluto in 2006. Following the passage of Pluto by New Horizons on July 14, 2015, the "Heart of Pluto" was named Tombaugh Regio.

Personal life
Clyde Tombaugh had five siblings. Through the daughter of his youngest brother, Robert, he is the great-uncle of Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw.

Tombaugh was an active Unitarian Universalist, and he and his wife helped found the Unitarian Universalist Church of Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Death
Tombaugh died on January 17, 1997, in Las Cruces, New Mexico, at the age of 90, and he was cremated. A small portion of his ashes was placed aboard the New Horizons spacecraft. The container includes the inscription: "Interred herein are remains of American Clyde W. Tombaugh, discoverer of Pluto and the Solar System's 'third zone'. Adelle and Muron's boy, Patricia's husband, Annette and Alden's father, astronomer, teacher, punster and friend: Clyde W. Tombaugh (1906–1997)". Tombaugh was survived by his wife, Patricia (1912–2012), and their children, Annette and Alden.

In popular culture
"I had never been much interested in Pluto—too few facts and too much speculation, too far away and not desirable real estate. By comparison the Moon was a choice residential suburb. Professor Tombaugh (the one the station was named for) was working on a giant electronic telescope to photograph it, under a Guggenheim grant, but he had a special interest; he discovered Pluto years before I was born."
 * Clyde Tombaugh's fame for his discovery of Pluto was enough for him to qualify as a contestant on the October 24, 1956, episode of the game show I've Got A Secret.
 * The 2006 release The Avalanche by musical artist Sufjan Stevens contains an instrumental track titled "For Clyde Tombaugh".
 * The ninth episode of the fourth season of Fargo featured a visit to a memorial marking the site of Tombaugh's boyhood home.
 * Robert Heinlein's 1958 juvenile science fiction novel Have Space Suit – Will Travel features a scientific base on Earth's moon called Tombaugh Station. When the hero arrives on Pluto, he reflects:

title: Clyde Tombaugh


text:
Christopher Báthory

Christopher Báthory (Báthory Kristóf; 1530 – 27 May 1581) was voivode of Transylvania from 1576 to 1581. He was a younger son of Stephen Báthory of Somlyó. Christopher's career began during the reign of Queen Isabella Jagiellon, who administered the eastern territories of the Kingdom of Hungary on behalf of her son, John Sigismund Zápolya, from 1556 to 1559. He was one of the commanders of John Sigismund's army in the early 1560s.

Christopher's brother, Stephen Báthory, who succeeded John Sigismund in 1571, made Christopher captain of Várad (now Oradea in Romania). After being elected King of Poland, Stephen Báthory adopted the title of Prince of Transylvania and made Christopher voivode in 1576. Christopher cooperated with Márton Berzeviczy, whom his brother appointed to supervise the administration of the Principality of Transylvania as the head of the Transylvanian chancellery at Kraków. Christopher ordered the imprisonment of Ferenc Dávid, a leading theologian of the Unitarian Church of Transylvania, who started to condemn the adoration of Jesus. He supported his brother's efforts to settle the Jesuits in Transylvania.

Early life
Christopher was the third of the four sons of Stephen Báthory of Somlyó and Catherine Telegdi. His father was a supporter of John Zápolya, King of Hungary, who made him voivode of Transylvania in February 1530. Christopher was born in Báthorys' castle at Szilágysomlyó (now Șimleu Silvaniei in Romania) in the same year. His father died in 1534.

His brother, Andrew, and their kinsman, Tamás Nádasdy, took charge of Christopher's education. Christopher visited England, France, Italy, Spain, and the Holy Roman Empire in his youth. He also served as a page in Emperor Charles V's court.

Career
Christopher entered the service of John Zápolya's widow, Isabella Jagiellon, in the late 1550s. At the time, Isabella administered the eastern territories of the Kingdom of Hungary on behalf of her son, John Sigismund Zápolya. She wanted to persuade Henry II of France to withdraw his troops from three fortresses that the Ottomans had captured in Banat, so she sent Christopher to France to start negotiations in 1557.

John Sigismund took charge of the administration of his realm after his mother died on 15 November 1559. He retained his mother's advisors, including Christopher who became one of his most influential officials. After the rebellion of Melchior Balassa, Christopher persuaded John Sigismund to fight for his realm instead of fleeing to Poland in 1562. Christopher was one of the commanders of John Sigismund's troops during the ensuing war against the Habsburg rulers of the western territories of the Kingdom of Hungary, Ferdinand and Maximilian, who tried to reunite the kingdom under their rule. Christopher defeated Maximilian's commander, Lazarus von Schwendi, forcing him to lift the siege of Huszt (now Khust in Ukraine) in 1565.

After the death of John Sigismund, the Diet of Transylvania elected Christopher's younger brother, Stephen Báthory, voivode (or ruler) on 25 May 1571. Stephen made Christopher captain of Várad (now Oradea in Romania). The following year, the Ottoman Sultan, Selim II (who was the overlord of Transylvania), acknowledged the hereditary right of the Báthory family to rule the province.

Reign

Stephen Báthory was elected King of Poland on 15 December 1575. He adopted the title of Prince of Transylvania and made Christopher voivode on 14 January 1576. An Ottoman delegation confirmed Christopher's appointment at the Diet in Gyulafehérvár (now Alba Iulia in Romania) in July. The sultan's charter (or ahidnâme) sent to Christopher emphasized that he should keep the peace along the frontiers. Stephen set up a separate chancellery in Kraków to keep an eye on the administration of Transylvania. The head of the new chancellery, Márton Berzeviczy, and Christopher cooperated closely.

Anti-Trinitarian preachers began to condemn the worshiping of Jesus in Partium and Székely Land in 1576, although the Diet had already forbade all doctrinal innovations. Ferenc Dávid, the most influential leader of the Unitarian Church of Transylvania, openly joined the dissenters in the autumn of 1578. Christopher invited Fausto Sozzini, a leading Anti-Trinitarian theologian, to Transylvania to convince Dávid that the new teaching was erroneous. Since Dávid refused to obey, Christopher held a Diet and the "Three Nations" (including the Unitarian delegates) ordered Dávid's imprisonment. Christopher also supported his brother's attempts to strengthen the position of the Roman Catholic Church in Transylvania. He granted estates to the Jesuits to promote the establishment of a college in Kolozsvár (now Cluj-Napoca in Romania) on 5 May 1579.

Christopher fell seriously ill after his second wife, Elisabeth Bocskai, died in early 1581. After a false rumor about Christopher's death reached Istanbul, Koca Sinan Pasha proposed Transylvania to Pál Márkházy whom Christopher had been forced into exile. Although Christopher's only surviving son Sigismund was still a minor, the Diet elected him as voivode before Christopher's death, because they wanted to prevent the appointment of Márkházy. Christopher died in Gyulafehérvár on 27 May 1581. He was buried in the Jesuits' church in Gyulafehérvár, almost two years later, on 14 March 1583.

Family
Christopher's first wife, Catherina Danicska, was a Polish noblewoman, but only the Hungarian form of her name is known. Their eldest son, Balthasar Báthory, moved to Kraków shortly after Stephen Báthory was crowned King of Poland; he drowned in the Vistula River in May 1577 at the age of 22. Christopher's and Catherina's second son, Nicholas, was born in 1567 and died in 1576.

Christopher's second wife, Elisabeth Bocskai, was a Calvinist noblewoman. Their first child, Cristina (or Griselda), was born in 1569. She was given in marriage to Jan Zamoyski, Chancellor of Poland, in 1583. Christopher's youngest son, Sigismund, was born in 1573.

title: Christopher Báthory


text:
CPAN

The Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN) is a repository of over 250,000 software modules and accompanying documentation for 39,000 distributions, written in the Perl programming language by over 12,000 contributors. CPAN can denote either the archive network or the Perl program that acts as an interface to the network and as an automated software installer (somewhat like a package manager). Most software on CPAN is free and open source software.

History
CPAN was conceived in 1993 and has been active online since October 1995. It is based on the CTAN model and began as a place to unify the structure of scattered Perl archives.

Role
Like many programming languages, Perl has mechanisms to use external libraries of code, making one file contain common routines used by several programs. Perl calls these modules. Perl modules are typically installed in one of several directories whose paths are placed in the Perl interpreter when it is first compiled; on Unix-like operating systems, common paths include /usr/lib/perl5, /usr/local/lib/perl5, and several of their subdirectories.

Perl comes with a small set of core modules. Some of these perform bootstrapping tasks, such as ExtUtils::MakeMaker, which is used to create Makefiles for building and installing other extension modules; others, like List::Util, are merely commonly used.

CPAN's main purpose is to help programmers locate modules and programs not included in the Perl standard distribution. Its structure is decentralized. Authors maintain and improve their own modules. Forking, and creating competing modules for the same task or purpose, is common. There is a third-party bug tracking system that is automatically set up for any uploaded distribution, but authors may opt to use a different bug tracking system such as GitHub. Similarly, though GitHub is a popular location to store the source for distributions, it may be stored anywhere the author prefers, or may not be publicly accessible at all. Maintainers may grant permissions to others to maintain or take over their modules, and permissions may be granted by admins for those wishing to take over abandoned modules. Previous versions of updated distributions are retained on CPAN until deleted by the uploader, and a secondary mirror network called BackPAN retains distributions even if they are deleted from CPAN. Also, the complete history of the CPAN and all its modules is available as the GitPAN project, allowing to easily see the complete history for all the modules and for easy maintenance of forks. CPAN is also used to distribute new versions of Perl, as well as related projects, such as Parrot and Raku.

Structure
Files on the CPAN are referred to as distributions. A distribution may consist of one or more modules, documentation files, or programs packaged in a common archiving format, such as a gzipped tar archive or a ZIP file. Distributions will often contain installation scripts (usually called Makefile.PL or Build.PL) and test scripts which can be run to verify the contents of the distribution are functioning properly. New distributions are uploaded to the Perl Authors Upload Server, or PAUSE (see the section Uploading distributions with PAUSE).

In 2003, distributions started to include metadata files, called META.yml, indicating the distribution's name, version, dependencies, and other useful information; however, not all distributions contain metadata. When metadata is not present in a distribution, the PAUSE's software will try to analyze the code in the distribution to look for the same information; this is not necessarily very reliable. In 2010, version 2 of this specification was created to be used via a new file called META.json, with the YAML format file often also included for backward compatibility.

With thousands of distributions, CPAN needs to be structured to be useful. Authors often place their modules in the natural hierarchy of Perl module names (such as  or  ) according to purpose or domain, though this is not enforced.

CPAN module distributions usually have names in the form of CGI-Application-3.1 (where the :: used in the module's name has been replaced with a dash, and the version number has been appended to the name), but this is only a convention; many prominent distributions break the convention, especially those that contain multiple modules. Security restrictions prevent a distribution from ever being replaced with an identical filename, so virtually all distribution names do include a version number.

Components
The distribution infrastructure of CPAN consists of its worldwide network of more than 250 mirrors in more than 60 countries. Each full mirror hosts around 31 gigabytes of data.

Most mirrors update themselves hourly, daily or bidaily from the CPAN master site. Some sites are major FTP servers which mirror lots of other software, but others are simply servers owned by companies that use Perl heavily. There are at least two mirrors on every continent except Antarctica.

Several search engines have been written to help Perl programmers sort through the CPAN. The official search.cpan.org includes textual search, a browsable index of modules, and extracted copies of all distributions currently on the CPAN. On 16 May 2018, the Perl Foundation announced that search.cpan.org would be shut down on 29 June 2018 (after 19 years of operation), due to its aging codebase and maintenance burden. Users will be transitioned and redirected to the third-party alternative MetaCPAN.

CPAN Testers are a group of volunteers, who will download and test distributions as they are uploaded to CPAN. This enables the authors to have their modules tested on many platforms and environments that they would otherwise not have access to, thus helping to promote portability, as well as a degree of quality. Smoke testers send reports, which are then collated and used for a variety of presentation websites, including the main reports site, statistics and dependencies.

Authors can upload new distributions to the CPAN through the Perl Authors Upload Server (PAUSE). To do so, they must request a PAUSE account.

Once registered, they may use a web interface at pause.perl.org, or an FTP interface to upload files to their directory and delete them. Modules in the upload will only be indexed as canonical if the module name has not been used before (granting first-come permission to the uploader), or if the uploader has permission for that name, and if the module is a higher version than any existing entry. This can be specified through PAUSE's web interface.

CPAN.pm, CPANPLUS, and cpanminus
There is also a Perl core module named CPAN; it is usually differentiated from the repository itself by using the name CPAN.pm. CPAN.pm is mainly an interactive shell which can be used to search for, download, and install distributions. An interactive shell called cpan is also provided in the Perl core, and is the usual way of running CPAN.pm. After a short configuration process and mirror selection, it uses tools available on the user's computer to automatically download, unpack, compile, test, and install modules. It is also capable of updating itself.

An effort to replace CPAN.pm with something cleaner and more modern resulted in the CPANPLUS (or CPAN++) set of modules. CPANPLUS separates the back-end work of downloading, compiling, and installing modules from the interactive shell used to issue commands. It also supports several advanced features, such as cryptographic signature checking and test result reporting. Finally, CPANPLUS can uninstall a distribution. CPANPLUS was added to the Perl core in version 5.10.0, and removed from it in version 5.20.0.

A smaller, leaner modern alternative to these CPAN installers was developed called cpanminus. cpanminus was designed to have a much smaller memory footprint as often required in limited memory environments, and to be usable as a standalone script such that it can even install itself, requiring only the expected set of core Perl modules to be available. It is also available from CPAN as the module App::cpanminus, which installs the cpanm script. It does not maintain or rely on a persistent configuration, but is configured only by the environment and command-line options. cpanminus does not have an interactive shell component. It recognizes the cpanfile format for specifying prerequisites, useful in ad-hoc Perl projects that may not be designed for CPAN installation. cpanminus also has the ability to uninstall distributions.

Each of these modules can check a distribution's dependencies and recursively install any prerequisites, either automatically or with individual user approval. Each support FTP and HTTP and can work through firewalls and proxies.

Influence
Experienced Perl programmers often comment that half of Perl's power is in the CPAN. It has been called Perl's killer app. It is roughly equivalent to Composer for PHP; the PyPI (Python Package Index) repository for Python; RubyGems for Ruby; CRAN for R; npm for Node.js; LuaRocks for Lua; Maven for Java; and Hackage for Haskell. CPAN's use of arbitrated name spaces, a testing regime and a well defined documentation style makes it unique.

Given its importance to the Perl developer community, the CPAN both shapes and is shaped by Perl's culture. Its "self-appointed master librarian", Jarkko Hietaniemi, often takes part in the April Fools' Day jokes; on 1 April 2002 the site was temporarily named to CJAN, where the "J" stood for "Java". In 2003, the  domain name was redirected to Matt's Script Archive, a site infamous in the Perl community for having badly written code.

Some of the distributions on the CPAN are distributed as jokes. The  hierarchy is reserved for joke modules; for instance,   adds a   function that doesn't run the code given to it (to complement the   built-in, which does). Even outside the  hierarchy, some modules are still written largely for amusement; one example is , which can be used to write Perl programs in a subset of Latin.

In 2005, a group of Perl developers who also had an interest in JavaScript got together to create JSAN, the JavaScript Archive Network. The JSAN is a near-direct port of the CPAN infrastructure for use with the JavaScript language, which for most of its lifespan did not have a cohesive "community".

In 2008, after a chance meeting with CPAN admin Adam Kennedy at the Open Source Developers Conference, Linux kernel developer Rusty Russell created the CCAN, the Comprehensive C Archive Network. The CCAN is a direct port of the CPAN architecture for use with the C language.

CRAN, the Comprehensive R Archive Network, is a set of mirrors hosting the R programming language distribution(s), documentation, and contributed extensions.

title: CPAN


text:
Colorado Rockies

The Colorado Rockies are an American professional baseball team based in Denver. The Rockies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West Division. The team plays its home baseball games at Coors Field, which is located in the Lower Downtown area of Denver. The club is owned by the Monfort brothers and managed by Bud Black.

The Rockies began as an expansion team for the 1993 season and played their home games for their first two seasons at Mile High Stadium. Since 1995, they have played at Coors Field, which has earned a reputation as a hitter's park, as demonstrated by the 1995 team that had four players (Dante Bichette, Vinny Castilla, Andrés Galarraga, and Larry Walker) each hit for 30 home runs; they were soon referred to as the "Blake Street Bombers". The Rockies have qualified for the postseason five times, each time as a Wild Card winner. In 2007, the team earned its only NL pennant after winning 14 of their final 15 games in the regular season to secure a Wild Card position, capping the streak off with a 13-inning 9–8 victory against the San Diego Padres in the tiebreaker game affectionately known as "Game 163" by Rockies fans. The Rockies then proceeded to sweep the Philadelphia Phillies and Arizona Diamondbacks in the NLDS and NLCS and entered the 2007 World Series as winners of 21 of their last 22 games. However, they were swept by the American League (AL) champions Boston Red Sox in four games. As the Rockies were swept in their only World Series appearance, they are one of only two teams never to win a World Series game (the other being the Seattle Mariners, who have yet to make a World Series appearance).

From 1993 to 2023, the Rockies have an overall record of ( winning percentage). After the Denver Nuggets won the 2023 NBA Finals, the Rockies became the only one of Denver’s franchises in the five major North American professional sports leagues (MLB, MLS, NBA, NFL, & NHL) yet to win a championship.

History
Denver had long been a hotbed of minor league baseball as far back as the late 19th century with the original Denver Bears (or Grizzlies) competing in the Western League before being replaced in 1955 by a AAA team of the same name. Residents and businesses in the area desired a Major League team. Denver's Mile High Stadium was built originally as Denver Bears Stadium, a minor league baseball stadium that could be upgraded to major league standards. Several previous attempts to bring Major League Baseball to Colorado had failed. In 1958, New York lawyer William Shea proposed the new Continental League as a rival to the two existing major leagues. In 1960, the Continental League announced that play would begin in April 1961 with eight teams, including one in Denver headed by Bob Howsam. The new league quickly evaporated, without ever playing a game, when the National League reached expansion agreements to put teams in New York City and Houston, removing much of the impetus behind the Continental League effort. Following the Pittsburgh drug trials in 1985, an unsuccessful attempt was made to purchase the Pittsburgh Pirates and relocate them. However, in January 1990, Colorado's chances for a new team improved when Coors Brewing Company became a limited partner with the AAA Denver Zephyrs.

In 1991, as part of Major League Baseball's two-team expansion (along with the Florida (now Miami) Marlins), an ownership group representing Denver led by John Antonucci and Michael I. Monus was granted a franchise. They took the name "Rockies" due to Denver's proximity to the Rocky Mountains, which is reflected in their logo; the name was previously used by the city's first NHL team (now the New Jersey Devils). Monus and Antonucci were forced to drop out in 1992 after Monus's reputation was ruined by an accounting scandal. Trucking magnate Jerry McMorris stepped in at the 11th hour to save the franchise, allowing the team to begin play in 1993. The Rockies shared Mile High Stadium with the National Football League (NFL)'s Denver Broncos for their first two seasons while Coors Field was constructed. It was completed for the 1995 Major League Baseball season. In 1993, they began in the West division of the National League. That year the Rockies set the all-time Major League record for attendance, drawing 4,483,350 fans (a record that stands to this day). The Rockies were MLB's first team based in the Mountain Time Zone. They have reached the Major League Baseball postseason five times, each time as the National League wild card team. Twice (1995 and 2009), they were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs. In 2007, the Rockies advanced to the World Series, only to be swept by the Boston Red Sox. The team's stretch run was among the greatest ever for a Major League Baseball team. Having a record of 76-72 at the start of play on September 16, the Rockies proceeded to win 14 of their final 15 regular season games. The stretch culminated with a 9-8, 13-inning victory over the San Diego Padres in a one-game playoff for the wild card berth. Colorado then swept their first seven playoff games to win the NL pennant (thus, at the start of the World Series, the Rockies had won a total of 21 out of 22 games). Fans and media nicknamed their improbable October run "Rocktober".

Colorado made postseason berths in 2017 and 2018. In 2018, the Rockies became the first team since the 1922 Philadelphia Phillies to play in four cities against four teams in five days, including the 162nd game of the regular season, NL West tie-breaker, NL Wild Card Game and NLDS Game 1, eventually losing to the Milwaukee Brewers in the NLDS.

Like their expansion brethren, the Miami Marlins, they have never won a division title since their establishment and they, along with the Pittsburgh Pirates are also one of three MLB teams that have never won their current division. The Rockies have played their home games at Coors Field since 1995. Their newest spring training home, Salt River Fields at Talking Stick in Scottsdale, Arizona, opened in March 2011 and is shared with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Controversies
On June 1, 2006, USA Today reported that Rockies management, including manager Clint Hurdle, had instituted an explicitly Christian code of conduct for the team's players, banning men's magazines (such as Maxim and Playboy) and sexually explicit music from the team's clubhouse. The article sparked controversy, and soon-after The Denver Post published an article featuring many Rockies players contesting the claims made in the USA Today article. Former Rockies pitcher Jason Jennings said: "[The article in USA Today] was just bad. I am not happy at all. Some of the best teammates I have ever had are the furthest thing from Christian", Jennings said. "You don't have to be a Christian to have good character. They can be separate. [The article] was misleading."

On October 17, 2007, a week before the first game of the 2007 World Series against the Boston Red Sox, the Colorado Rockies announced that tickets were to be available to the general public via online sales only, despite prior arrangements to sell the tickets at local retail outlets. Five days later on October 22, California-based ticket vendor Paciolan, Inc., the sole contractor authorized by the Colorado Rockies to distribute tickets, was forced to suspend sales after less than an hour due to an overwhelming number of attempts to purchase tickets. An official release from the baseball organization claimed that they were the victims of a denial of service attack. These claims, however, were unsubstantiated and neither the Rockies nor Paciolan have sought investigation into the matter. The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation started its own investigation into the claims. Ticket sales resumed the next day, with all three home games selling out within two and a half hours.

In March 2021, Ken Rosenthal and Nick Groke reported in The Athletic that, during the season, the Rockies had made baseball operations personnel work as clubhouse attendants in addition to their front office duties, resulting in work days lasting up to 17 hours. Former staffers described doing laundry for players while team personnel asked them for scouting and statistical information. The article further described a general atmosphere of dysfunction and unaccountability in Colorado's front office. General manager Jeff Bridich resigned the following month.

On April 10, 2024, during a charter flight on a United Airlines Boeing 757, coach Hensley Meulens posted a video of himself seated in the captain's seat mid-flight. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is investigating the incident.

Uniforms
One of the Rockies' team colors is purple which was inspired by the line "For purple mountain majesties" in "America the Beautiful". The shades of the color used by the ball club lacked uniformity until PMS 2685 was established as the official purple beginning with the 2017 season.

The Rockies' home uniform is white with purple pinstripes, and the Rockies are the first team in Major League history to wear purple pinstripes. The front of the uniform is emblazoned with the team name in silver trimmed in black, and letters and numerals are in black trimmed in silver. During the Rockies' inaugural season, they went without names on the back of their home uniforms, but added them for the following season. In 2000, numerals were added to the chest.

The Rockies' road uniform is grey with purple piping. The front of the uniform originally featured the team name in silver trimmed in purple, but was changed the next season to purple with white trim. Letters and numerals are in purple with white trim. In the 2000 season, piping was replaced with pinstripes, "Colorado" was emblazoned in front, chest numerals were placed, and black trim was added to the letters. Prior to the 2012 season, the Rockies brought back the purple piping on their road uniforms, but kept the other elements of their 2000 uniform change.

The Rockies originally wore an alternate black uniform during their maiden 1993 season, but for only a few games. The uniform featured the team name in silver with purple trim, and letters and numerals in purple with white trim. In the 2005 season, the Rockies started wearing black sleeveless alternate uniforms, featuring "Colorado", letters and numerals in silver with purple and white trim. The uniforms also included black undershirts, and for a few games in 2005, purple undershirts. The Rockies retired the black sleeveless uniform in 2022, replacing it with the "City Connect" uniform (see below).

From 2002 to 2011, the Rockies wore alternate versions of their pinstriped white uniform, featuring the interlocking "CR" on the left chest and numerals on the right chest. This design featured sleeves until 2004, when they went with a vest design with black undershirts.

In addition to the black sleeveless alternate uniform, the Rockies also wear a purple alternate uniform, which they first unveiled in the 2000 season. The design featured "Colorado" in silver with black and white trim, and letters and numerals in black with white trim. At the start of the 2012 season, the Rockies introduced "Purple Mondays" in which the team wears its purple uniform every Monday game day, though the team continued to wear them on other days of the week.

Prior to 2019, the Rockies always wore their white pinstriped pants regardless of what uniform top they wore during home games. However, the Rockies have since added alternate white non-pinstriped pants to pair with either their black or purple alternate uniforms at home, as neither uniform contained pinstripes.

The Rockies currently wear an all-black cap with "CR" in purple trimmed in silver and a purple-brimmed variation as an alternate. The team previously wore an all-purple cap with "CR" in black trimmed in silver, and in the 2018 season, caps with the "CR" in silver to commemorate the team's 25th anniversary.

In 2022, the Rockies were one of seven additional teams to don Nike's "City Connect" uniforms. The set is predominantly green and white with printed mountain range motifs adorning the chest. The lettering was taken from the official Colorado license plates. The right sleeve has a yellow patch featuring the shortened nickname "ROX", the "5280" sign representing the altitude of Denver, two black diamonds representing Double Diamond skiing, and the exact longitude and latitude of Coors Field. The left sleeve has the interlocking "CR" in white with green trim, and purple piping was added to represent purple seats at Coors Field. Caps are green with a white panel, featuring a "CO" patch with various Colorado-inspired symbols, including colors from the state flag and mountain ranges. In 2023, the Rockies tweaked their "City Connect" uniform, pairing it with white pants on day games and green pants on night games.

Retired numbers
Todd Helton is the first Colorado player to have his number (17) retired, which was done on Sunday, August 17, 2014.

Jackie Robinson's No. 42, was retired throughout all of baseball in 1997.

Larry Walker, the first member of the Baseball Hall of Fame wearing a Colorado Rockies hat, became the second Colorado player to have his number retired, which occurred in 2021.

Keli McGregor had worked with the Rockies since their inception in 1993, rising from senior director of operations to team president in 2002, until his death on April 20, 2010. He is honored at Coors Field alongside Helton, Walker, and Robinson with his initials.

Out of circulation, but not retired
The Rockies have not re-issued Carlos Gonzalez's No. 5 since leaving the team after 2018.

NL MVP

 * 1997 – Larry Walker

NLCS MVP

 * 2007 – Matt Holliday

NL Rookie of the Year

 * 2002 – Jason Jennings

NL Comeback Player of the Year

 * 2017 – Greg Holland
 * 2020 – Daniel Bard

Silver Slugger Award

 * Dante Bichette (1995)
 * Vinny Castilla (1995, 1997–1998)
 * Andrés Galarraga (1996)
 * Eric Young (1996)
 * Ellis Burks (1996)
 * Larry Walker (1997, 1999)
 * Mike Hampton (2001–2002)
 * Todd Helton (2000–2003)
 * Matt Holliday (2006–2008)
 * Carlos González (2010, 2015)
 * Troy Tulowitzki (2010–2011)
 * Michael Cuddyer (2013)
 * Nolan Arenado (2015–2018)
 * Charlie Blackmon (2016–2017)
 * Trevor Story (2018–2019)
 * Germán Márquez (2018)

Hank Aaron Award

 * 2000 – Todd Helton

Gold Glove Award
First base: Second base: Shortstop: Third base: Outfield:
 * Todd Helton (2001–2002, 2004)
 * DJ LeMahieu (2014, 2017–2018)
 * Brendan Rodgers (2022)
 * Neifi Pérez (2000)
 * Troy Tulowitzki (2010–2011)
 * Nolan Arenado (2013–2020)
 * Larry Walker (1997–1999, 2001–2002)
 * Carlos González (2010, 2012–2013)
 * Brenton Doyle (2023)

Manager of the Year Award

 * 1995 – Don Baylor
 * 2009 – Jim Tracy

NL Batting Champion

 * Andrés Galarraga (1993)
 * Larry Walker (1998, 1999, 2001)
 * Todd Helton (2000)
 * Matt Holliday (2007)
 * Carlos González (2010)
 * Michael Cuddyer (2013)
 * Justin Morneau (2014)
 * DJ LeMahieu (2016)
 * Charlie Blackmon (2017)

DHL Hometown Heroes (2006)

 * Larry Walker – voted by MLB fans as the most outstanding player in the history of the franchise, based on on-field performance, leadership quality and character value

Team award

 * 2007 – Warren Giles Trophy (National League champion)
 * 2007 – Baseball America Organization of the Year

Championships

 * colspan="3" style="text-align:center;"| National League Champions
 * style="width:30%; text-align:center;"| Preceded by: St. Louis Cardinals
 * style="width:40%; text-align:center;"| 2007
 * style="width:30%; text-align:center;"| Succeeded by: Philadelphia Phillies
 * colspan="3" style="text-align:center;"| National League Wild Card Winners
 * style="width:30%; text-align:center;"| Preceded by: None (First)
 * style="width:40%; text-align:center;"| 1995
 * style="width:30%; text-align:center;"| Succeeded by: Los Angeles Dodgers
 * style="width:30%; text-align:center;"| Preceded by: Los Angeles Dodgers
 * style="width:40%; text-align:center;"| 2007
 * style="width:30%; text-align:center;"| Succeeded by: Milwaukee Brewers
 * style="width:30%; text-align:center;"| Preceded by: Milwaukee Brewers
 * style="width:40%; text-align:center;"| 2009
 * style="width:30%; text-align:center;"| Succeeded by: Atlanta Braves
 * style="width:30%; text-align:center;"| Preceded by: Arizona Diamondbacks
 * style="width:40%; text-align:center;"| 2018
 * style="width:30%; text-align:center;"| Succeeded by: Washington Nationals
 * colspan="3" style="text-align:center;"| National League Wild Card Runner-Up
 * style="width:40%; text-align:center;"| 2017
 * style="width:30%; text-align:center;"| Preceded by: Arizona Diamondbacks
 * style="width:40%; text-align:center;"| 2018
 * style="width:30%; text-align:center;"| Succeeded by: Washington Nationals
 * colspan="3" style="text-align:center;"| National League Wild Card Runner-Up
 * style="width:40%; text-align:center;"| 2017
 * colspan="3" style="text-align:center;"| National League Wild Card Runner-Up
 * style="width:40%; text-align:center;"| 2017
 * style="width:40%; text-align:center;"| 2017
 * style="width:40%; text-align:center;"| 2017

Rivalries
The Rockies developed an on-and-off rivalry with the Arizona Diamondbacks, often attributed to both teams being the newest in the division. Colorado had joined the NL West in 1993, while the Diamondbacks are the newest team in the league; founding in 1998. The two teams have met twice in the postseason; notably during the 2007 National League Championship Series which saw the Rockies enter the postseason as a wild card, and went on to upset the division champion Diamondbacks in a sweep en route to the franchise's lone World Series appearance. The two teams met again in the 2017 National League Wild Card Game, which was won by Arizona.

The Rockies also have clashed in divisional matchups with the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants particularly as both teams often thwarted the Rockies' postseason ambitions by winning the division. The Rockies have never won the NL West while the Dodgers and Giants have combined for 21 division titles since the Rockies began play in 1993.

Home attendance
The Rockies led MLB attendance records for the first seven years of their existence. The inaugural season is currently the MLB all-time record for home attendance.

+ = 57 home games in strike shortened season. ++ = 72 home games in strike shortened season.

Minor league affiliations
The Colorado Rockies farm system consists of seven minor league affiliates.

Radio and television
Colorado Rockies games are produced by MLB Network and televised locally on Rockies.TV, a streaming service with no blackouts that is available with MLB.tv for $199.99 a year or $39.99 a month, or without MLB.tv for $99.99 a year or $19.99 a month. Games air on the following cable providers and networks:

 * DirecTV/DirecTV Stream (CH. 683)
 * Xfinity/Comcast (CH. 1262)
 * Spectrum (Colorado and Wyoming) (CH. 130 or CH. 445)
 * Spectrum (Gunnison and Telluride) (CH. 305 or CH. 445)
 * Spectrum (Lincoln) (CH. 435 or CH. 445)

Jeff Huson and Drew Goodman are the usual TV broadcast team, with Ryan Spilborghs and Kelsey Wingert handling on-field coverage and clubhouse interviews. Jason Hirsh, and Cory Sullivan handle the pre-game and post-game shows. Corrigan, Spilborghs, and Sullivan also fill in as play-by-play or color commentator during absences of Huson or Goodman. From 1997 to 2023, most regular season games were produced and televised by AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain.

As of 2010, Rockies' flagship radio station is KOA 850AM, with some late-season games broadcast on KHOW 630 AM due to conflicts with Denver Broncos games. The Rockies Radio Network is composed of 38 affiliate stations in eight states.

As of 2019, Jack Corrigan and Jerry Schemmel are the radio announcers, serving as a backup TV announcer whenever Drew Goodman is not available.

In January 2020, long-time KOA radio announcer Jerry Schemmel was let go from his role for budgetary reasons from KOA's parent company. He returned in 2022, replacing Mike Rice, who reportedly refused the COVID-19 vaccine.

As of 2013, Spanish language radio broadcasts of the Rockies are heard on KNRV 1150 AM.

title: Colorado Rockies