back to article Microsoft smells Musk, splashes on 'Mune' space program

Microsoft has filed a preliminary trademark application for “Mune,” spearheading an Amazon and SpaceX-like private space program. The trademark is described as: “Liquid propellant-fired projectile technology for orbital location of modular data distribution components. Trademark applications are much less detailed than patent …

  1. Andy Non Silver badge
    Windows

    April fool?

    Can't decide if this is a late April fool's joke or another serious but wacky idea by Microsoft. Hard to tell the difference nowadays.

    1. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

      Re: April fool?

      My sources bailiffs & henchmen tell me 'yes'.

    2. Mark 85

      Re: April fool?

      A quick Google and it appears it is indeed April Fool's. Nothing from MS, but this article is the oldest article indexed and it looks like others are picking up on it.

      If this is the case, well done El Reg, have multiple cold ones ---------------->

      1. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

        Re: April fool?

        Well, this one positively is an April Fool's in spaaace.

      2. VinceH
        Joke

        Re: April fool?

        Well, it's either a late April fool or...

        "Liquid propellant-fired projectile technology for orbital location of modular data distribution components."

        ...the next step in their attempts to foist Windows 10 on everyone.

    3. TheVogon

      Re: April fool?

      "But why “Mune”?"

      See http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3858372/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

      Maybe they are moving to the Moon for tax reasons?

  2. BugabooSue
    Happy

    Mune? Hmmm...

    I wonder..?

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mune:_Guardian_of_the_Moon

    "Meanwhile, Leeyoon (SatNad?) takes Mune's place in the temple of the Moon, but he can't control the temple. Under his watch, the Moon wanes and crumbles into dust..."

    Is this a dream, or reality?

    The first day of April is always such a fun day. :)

  3. energystar
    Happy

    That...

    Would be a sitting duck, on space.

  4. Flocke Kroes Silver badge

    Sound of zero hands clapping

    Temperature is the average energy per degree of freedom (number of particles multiplied by the number of ways they can move). In a complete vacuum, there are zero particles, and the sum of their energy is zero. Ask your C compiler, and it will tell you 0./0. is not a number.

    In real life, space is not a complete vacuum. Depending on where you are, the few particles could have a large or small energy. If you had a really good thermometer, and plenty of time for it to reach equilibrium with its surroundings it could read anything from 2.7 to several million Kelvin depending on where in space you put it.

    Phrases like 'Icy cold of spaaaace' have been winding me up for years, and today I snapped because I had hoped for better science from The Register even in a really cool first of April article.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Sound of zero hands clapping

      If you were floating in space without any thermal protection you would soon radiate away your heat. And I bet you would feel pretty cold.

      1. Gordon 10

        Re: Sound of zero hands clapping

        Depends if one half of you is in direct sunlight you are as likely to boil as freeze.

        1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

          Re: Sound of zero hands clapping

          A new dish: Froiled "egg orbital" - one half frozen, one half boiled, fully irradiated.

          Bon appétit!

      2. BongoJoe

        Re: Sound of zero hands clapping

        AC how would you freeze?

        To cool down you need something to cool into and as this is mostly a vaccuum you would perhaps be cold if you were out of the sunlight but you wouldn't be able to radiate heat as there's no molecules to radiate into, or onto.

        You are more than likely to be in a cold spot but unable to dump heat which is a strange position to be in. You have more chance to hear Sounds In Space than to be able to cool down a data centre.

        1. Alan Brown Silver badge

          Re: Sound of zero hands clapping

          "but you wouldn't be able to radiate heat as there's no molecules to radiate into, or onto."

          The sun's heat reaches earth... how exactly?

    2. Ben Bonsall

      Re: Sound of zero hands clapping

      Temperature is the average energy per degree of freedom (number of particles multiplied by the number of ways they can move). In a complete vacuum, there are zero particles, and the sum of their energy is zero. Ask your C compiler, and it will tell you 0./0. is not a number.

      Photons are particles too... The icy cold of spaaaaace has lots of them, their energy averages out to about 2.7 Kelvin.

      If you made a box full of space, to exclude photons from the universe, then the box will be in equilibrium with the surrounding space- it will also radiate photons between its walls with an average energy of about 2.7 kelvin.

  5. Martin Summers Silver badge

    So there really could be a great data centre in the sky. I thought that was where servers went to die!

    1. Andy Non Silver badge

      It would certainly make a call out interesting!

  6. BurnT'offering

    'Tis a pity it's a Fool

    I was looking forward to a Zune-shot, in the trademark pee-poo colour combo, rocketing into space on a stream of effluent

  7. hplasm
    WTF?

    MS enters orbit-

    - Time for a much thicker tinfoil hat!

  8. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
    Joke

    Won't someone think of the ...

    roaming charges when all those Windows machines in space want to 'phone home' with all that lovey data on what the users are doing.

    Then there are all those lovely adverts for exotic holiday destinations going in the other direction

    'Fly with MS to Titan. Lovely views of the next planet."

    See Icon

  9. BongoJoe
    Coat

    Cloud Computing...

    ...in the Oort Cloud?

    1. DropBear
      Trollface

      Re: Cloud Computing...

      ...hey, as long as you're ok with the giga-millisecond latency, the pre-acoustic-modem data rate and the Arecibo-sized dish in your back yard, go right ahead...

  10. johnwerneken

    april 1?

    this has gotta be an april fool

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