Thunder

Thunder is the sound caused by lightning. Depending on the distance and nature of the lightning, thunder can range from a sharp, loud crack to a long, low rumble (brontide). The sudden increase in pressure and temperature from lightning produces rapid expansion of the air surrounding and within a bolt of lightning. In turn, this expansion of air creates a sonic shock wave, similar to a sonic boom, which produces the sound of thunder, often referred to as a clap, crack, or peal of thunder.

Cause

The cause of thunder has been the subject of centuries of speculation and scientific inquiry. The first recorded theory is attributed to the Greek philosopher Aristotle in the fourth century BC, and an early speculation was that it was caused by the collision of clouds. Subsequently, numerous other theories were proposed. By the mid-19th century, the accepted theory was that lightning produced a vacuum.

In the 20th century a consensus evolved that thunder must begin with a shock wave in the air due to the sudden thermal expansion of the plasma in the lightning channel. The temperature inside the lightning channel, measured by spectral analysis, varies during its 50 μs existence, rising sharply from an initial temperature of about 20,000 K to about 30,000 K, then dropping away gradually to about 10,000 K. The average is about 20,400 K (20,100 °C; 36,300 °F). This heating causes a rapid outward expansion, impacting the surrounding cooler air at a speed faster than sound would otherwise travel. The resultant outward-moving pulse is a shock wave, similar in principle to the shock wave formed by an explosion, or at the front of a supersonic aircraft.

Thunder (Andy Taylor album)

Thunder is the first solo album by British guitarist Andy Taylor, released in 1987. It features former Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones on guitar. Jones also co-wrote most of the songs on the album.

The album went out of print in 1990, but would reemerge in a newly expanded version on online music services like iTunes when Taylor made his entire catalog available in 2010. In addition to the original version of Thunder, Taylor's previous solo singles such as "Take It Easy" were included as well.

Track listing

Personnel

Thunder (Jessie J song)

"Thunder" is a song by English recording artist Jessie J. It was written by Jessie J, Claude Kelly, Benjamin Levin, Tor Erik Hermansen and Mikkel Storleer Eriksen for her second studio album Alive (2013), while production was helmed by StarGate and Benny Blanco.

Background

"Thunder" was written by Jessie J, Mikkel S. Eriksen, Tor Erik Hermansen, Claude Kelly and Benny Blanco. It was produced by Eriksen and Hermansen, credited under their production name StarGate, along with Blanco. Jessie's vocals were recorded by Chris Sclafani, Joel Peters, and Justin Pancionendon, with Mark "Exit" Goodchild serving as its engineer. Kelly provided additional vocals on the song. "Thunder" was mixed by Phil Tan and assistants Daniela Rivera and Phil Seaford. Eriksen and Hermansen recorded the song's instrumentation, and Tim Blacksmith and Danny D. were assigned as its executive producers. Andrew "McMuffin" Luftman and Scott "Yarmov" Yarmovsky were credited as production coordinators on the song.

Mode (computer interface)

In user interface design, a mode is a distinct setting within a computer program or any physical machine interface, in which the same user input will produce perceived different results than it would in other settings. The best-known modal interface components are probably the Caps lock and Insert keys on the standard computer keyboard, both of which put the user's typing into a different mode after being pressed, then return it to the regular mode after being re-pressed.

An interface that uses no modes is known as a modeless interface. Modeless interfaces intend to avoid mode errors by making it impossible for the user to commit them.

Definition

A precise definition is given by Jef Raskin in his book The Humane Interface:

"An human-machine interface is modal with respect to a given gesture when (1) the current state of the interface is not the user's locus of attention and (2) the interface will execute one among several different responses to the gesture, depending on the system's current state." (Page 42).

List of DOS commands

This article presents a list of commands used by DOS operating systems, especially as used on x86-based IBM PC compatibles (PCs). Other DOS operating systems are not part of the scope of this list.

In DOS, many standard system commands were provided for common tasks such as listing files on a disk or moving files. Some commands were built into the command interpreter, others existed as external commands on disk. Over the several generations of DOS, commands were added for the additional functions of the operating system. In the current Microsoft Windows operating system, a text-mode command prompt window, cmd.exe, can still be used.

Command processing

The command interpreter for DOS runs when no application programs are running. When an application exits, if the transient portion of the command interpreter in memory was overwritten, DOS will reload it from disk. Some commands are internal — built into COMMAND.COM; others are external commands stored on disk. When the user types a line of text at the operating system command prompt, COMMAND.COM will parse the line and attempt to match a command name to a built-in command or to the name of an executable program file or batch file on disk. If no match is found, an error message is printed, and the command prompt is refreshed.

MODE32

MODE32 is a software product originally developed by Connectix for certain models of the Apple Macintosh. It was published in 1991 and originally cost $169, however on September 5, 1991, the software was made available free to customers under licensing terms with Apple Computer.

Overview

MODE32 effectively removes a ROM flaw in certain models of early 68020 and 68030 Apple Macintosh computers (see below), which were advertised by Apple to be 32-bit. Despite the machines' hardware being designed to accommodate for this, the lack of a 32-bit Memory Manager in ROM forced these machines to run in 24-bit mode, which crippled these otherwise high-end machines to support only 8 MB of RAM. Customer dissatisfaction likely prompted the licensing agreement with Connectix.

The software runs as a control panel in Macintosh System 7, enabling the 32-bit addressing option of the operating system. The option can be found in the memory control panel when MODE32 is enabled. Otherwise the option is not displayed.

Night

Night or nighttime (sp. night-time or night time) is the period of time between the sunset and the sunrise when the Sun is below the horizon.

This occurs after dusk. The opposite of night is day (or "daytime" to distinguish it from "day" as used for a 24-hour period). The start and end points of time of a night vary based on factors such as season, latitude, longitude and timezone.

At any given time, one side of the planet Earth is bathed in light from the Sun (the daytime) and the other side of the Earth is in the shadow caused by the Earth blocking the light of the sun. This shadow is called the umbra. Natural illumination is still provided by a combination of moonlight, planetary light, starlight, diffuse zodiacal light, gegenschein, and airglow. In some circumstances, bioluminescence, aurorae, and lightning can provide some illumination. The glow provided by artificial illumination is sometimes referred to as light pollution because it can interfere with observational astronomy and ecosystems.