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News Bytes

Bill Gates demands more H-1B visas

Microsoft founder Bill Gates believes that the issuing of H-1B visas for foreign IT specialists who wish to work in the US should be made easier. He said, his company had difficulties recruiting appropriate specialists and the low number of available H-1B visas further complicated the situation. At present, 65,000 foreign engineers, scientists, architects and doctors may be employed by US companies every year. According to US media, Bill Gates said that rule didn't make sense to him. If he had that kind of power, he would immediately abolish that limitation. In addition, Gates demanded a public investment program for research and better quality of American schools. The reduced number of the maximum amount of visas had already been criticized last year by US high tech companies. According to the reports, Under Secretary of Commerce Phil Bond rejected Gates' suggestions for visa policies. Not foreign workers, but IT specialists from the US should be hired.

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US company develops Apple clone for $400

Designed in white, with a 2.2 gigahertz processor and integrated graphics card - a small US company has built a computer that will run Apple's operating system Mac OS X. The most interesting is that this computer is available at a significantly lower price than the cheapest model of IT giant Apple. The offer sounds tempting. For exactly $399 the consumer will have a fully functional, brand new computer that is compatible with the Mac operating system, and even faster and better equipped than the cheapest model that Apple has to offer - the Mac mini fro $599. This new invention is being offered by the Psystar Corporation - which is running the risk of getting into serious trouble with Apple's legal department.

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US physicist Wheeler is dead

He coined the term "black hole" and was one of the greatest physicists of his time. John Archibald Wheeler died at the age of 95. Wheeler was considered one of the eminent physicists of the 20th century. He worked with Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr and greatly contributed to the development of the theory of general relativity. In 1939 he and Bohr developed a model to explain nuclear fission. He is best known for the term "black hole," which he coined in 1967. With that, he gave a name to one of the most bizarre phenomena of astrophysics. A black hole forms when stars of over 8 solar masses before the collapse explode in a supernova at the end of their existence. A black hole has such a powerful gravitational field that light can escape.