Black holes "evaporate" via a process known a Hawking radiation. Basically, it works as follows:
1) A particle/anti-particle pair forms just above the event horizon.
2) One of the particle gets sucked in, the other escapes.
The energy to form the particle pair comes from the black hole itself, so that escaping particle carries off some energy. And E=mc^2 so it's exactly the same as if it had carried off some mass from the black hole.
Microsoft aren't releasing this under the GPL, which is what (the post spin-doctoring) Allchin was talking about. It'll still be protected by all sorts of NDAs.
< CONSPIRACY THEORY >
It's all a ploy to get more potential open source developers to see their source under an NDA of course. Then they won't be able to work on OS projects without fear of being accused of breaking the NDA.
</CONSPIRACY THEORY >
Over here (UK) the courts seem to think they don't need to understand.
There was a complex fraud case a couple of years ago where one of the jurors asked to be removed because she couldn't understand the trial. IIRC, the judge found her in contempt of court.
If changing some of the really bad GUIs in the Hall of Shame was as easy as a 50k download, how long would those interfaces last?
I suspect most truly bad UIs are due to programmers with little HMI experience or training. I know I was guilty of crap GUIs at one time. I'm better now I hope.
Splitting the UI from the actual code could be a great benefit. It should let the people with some talent in that direction concentrate on GUIs without having to be able to code the actual app. Meanwhile, the coders can get on with the nuts and bolts without "wasting" time on the interface. Think of it as open-sourcing the UI seperately from the application.
You may get a lot of junk skins, but you'll also get some very good ones. Some will be better than the OS norms. If we're lucky, we may even see some truly useful UI innovations appearing from people who couldn't otherwise contribute. Actually, I suppose this depends on how much flexibility there is in XUL (or similar GUI languages). Are you limited to combining existing widgets in new ways or is there scope for actually making new ones without actual coding?
I wonder if these new PCs are going to be liberally plastered with ads to recoup the cost. Or does the company actually consider that giving PCs away is a relatively cheap way of getting their work force more computer savvy?
Wait, is this supposed to be a good thing? I realize that Linux should go more mainstream, but are we really ready right now for the readers of iMac for Dummies?
Coming soon... Rocket Science for Dummies
I haven't yet recovered from discovering that there is a whole range of "MCSE for Dummies" books. Explain a lot though, doesn't it?
The British lycos site ( http://www.lycos.co.uk/ ) doesn't do this. It simply gives a list of yahoo pages. I didn't notice the actual yahoo front page on the list though.
If this "mistake" gets corrected in the next day or so, we'll know they read/. though.
This is a site which appears to cover a handful of American cities. What's a local interest resource doing on a.com URL anyway?
Most people navigate anywhere on the net via search engines. A search on "events" and "Boston" (or whereever) should get you to that page regardless of whether it.com or.boston.us or.some.thing.completely.unrelated. (That last one was a full stop not a dot).
Top level names are very useful for multi-national organisations where you want people to be able to guess the URL, but is anybody seriously going to guess at anything.com for any local information?
Most of America seems to regard.com as being for its personal use even when it's totally inappropriate. Maybe we should all email them and ask whats happening in our part of the world.
Slashdot Mirror
Black holes "evaporate" via a process known a Hawking radiation. Basically, it works as follows:
1) A particle/anti-particle pair forms just above the event horizon.
2) One of the particle gets sucked in, the other escapes.
The energy to form the particle pair comes from the black hole itself, so that escaping particle carries off some energy. And E=mc^2 so it's exactly the same as if it had carried off some mass from the black hole.
Microsoft aren't releasing this under the GPL, which is what (the post spin-doctoring) Allchin was talking about. It'll still be protected by all sorts of NDAs.
/CONSPIRACY THEORY >
< CONSPIRACY THEORY >
It's all a ploy to get more potential open source developers to see their source under an NDA of course. Then they won't be able to work on OS projects without fear of being accused of breaking the NDA.
<
The UK patent office is curently seeking opionions about software patents. Your views may count.
Go to their homepage and follow the links.
We want our views heard, so keep replies polite, considered etc. etc. (you know the drill).
There was a complex fraud case a couple of years ago where one of the jurors asked to be removed because she couldn't understand the trial. IIRC, the judge found her in contempt of court.
If changing some of the really bad GUIs in the Hall of Shame was as easy as a 50k download, how long would those interfaces last?
I suspect most truly bad UIs are due to programmers with little HMI experience or training. I know I was guilty of crap GUIs at one time. I'm better now I hope.
Splitting the UI from the actual code could be a great benefit. It should let the people with some talent in that direction concentrate on GUIs without having to be able to code the actual app. Meanwhile, the coders can get on with the nuts and bolts without "wasting" time on the interface. Think of it as open-sourcing the UI seperately from the application.
You may get a lot of junk skins, but you'll also get some very good ones. Some will be better than the OS norms. If we're lucky, we may even see some truly useful UI innovations appearing from people who couldn't otherwise contribute. Actually, I suppose this depends on how much flexibility there is in XUL (or similar GUI languages). Are you limited to combining existing widgets in new ways or is there scope for actually making new ones without actual coding?
I wonder if these new PCs are going to be liberally plastered with ads to recoup the cost. Or does the company actually consider that giving PCs away is a relatively cheap way of getting their work force more computer savvy?
Wait, is this supposed to be a good thing? I realize that Linux should go more mainstream, but are we really ready right now for the readers of iMac for Dummies?
Coming soon...
Rocket Science for Dummies
I haven't yet recovered from discovering that there is a whole range of "MCSE for Dummies" books. Explain a lot though, doesn't it?
The British lycos site ( http://www.lycos.co.uk/ ) doesn't do this. It simply gives a list of yahoo pages. I didn't notice the actual yahoo front page on the list though.
/. though.
If this "mistake" gets corrected in the next day or so, we'll know they read
This is a site which appears to cover a handful of American cities. What's a local interest resource doing on a .com URL anyway?
.com or .boston.us or .some.thing.completely.unrelated. (That last one was a full stop not a dot).
.com as being for its personal use even when it's totally inappropriate. Maybe we should all email them and ask whats happening in our part of the world.
Most people navigate anywhere on the net via search engines. A search on "events" and "Boston" (or whereever) should get you to that page regardless of whether it
Top level names are very useful for multi-national organisations where you want people to be able to guess the URL, but is anybody seriously going to guess at anything.com for any local information?
Most of America seems to regard