Finally, all those >100-inch monitor owners among us can have a wallpaper that’s native to their resolution. I hereby present to you the Windows Vista aurora in 10,000*5,626px resolution.
I must admit there’s no fine detail at 100% zoom, but bigger is always better, right?
A while ago, Microsoft began working on an icon to symbolize Information Cards. The download describes, “this icon is intended to provide a common visual cue that Information Cards can be used to provide information to a site or program, similarly to how the RSS icon is used to indicate the availability of syndicated content.”
If you don’t know what InfoCards are, these are basically virtual cards containing identification information such as your name which can be sent and received by websites and web services. On Windows, this is implemented via the CardSpace technology. Other platforms have their own implementation but theoretically Information Cards are universal. If you’re on Vista, type “CardSpace” into your start menu, make an InfoCard for yourself and use it on the demo site here.
I think the idea of an icon is great, especially in comparison to the RSS icon which not only serves as a symbol but also a promotional message to attract people to subscribe to content. On top of just indicating a website is ‘InfoCards compatible’, it also spreads the word about InfoCards. However I wasn’t too keen on the design. The purple was unique, but it wasn’t very bright or vivid either. The roundness of the outside border didn’t match the squareness of the inside cutout. But I did like the “i”, and how it is shaped like a person.
I had a stab at coming up with my own alternative design.
By no means it’s perfect, for example some of the people who I’ve shown it to have said the colors are not very friendly and the Smart Card chip feature might mislead some people to believe this was a security device (although it can be). I’d love to get everyone’s feedback on what’s good and not good, as well as the Microsoft design.
Ratatouille (if you haven’t seen – go see) is easily one of the best movies this year. Beyond the gorgeous visuals effects, lovable characters, captivating plot and witty dialog, one particular quote – more specifically monologue had an effect on me that was probably more than intended. This will not spoil the movie if you haven’t seen it.
Anton Ego: In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face is that, in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is more meaningful than our criticism designating it so.
When I first heard it with the highbrow voice acting by Peter O’Toole, it made me realize just how true it was. How most bloggers, myself include, are like critics if not food critics.
Our work is easy, too easy compared to even the most desired labors. We sit comfortably in-front of a computer, and once in a while visit some places and meet some people – often at the expense of others, and then write or create some forms of content. Our job inherent little if no risk. To those who we often write about – companies and individuals in particular, risk their brand and image in an attempt to ‘please’ us and our judgment. Admittedly, negative criticism is indeed both fun to write and fun to read, which might explain the lack of positive Vista news.
But none of the above is as true as the last sentence. Bloggers often forget in the midst of all the products and technology they come across, far more than the average and even educated consumer will ever come across, “the average piece of junk is more meaningful than our criticism designating it so.”
Regardless of whether or not other bloggers will agree with me, I feel a little guilty now with all the things surrounding Ultimate Extras.
If I told you there was a public presentation and arguably demonstration of Windows 7, you probably wouldn’t believe me. Which is why I had to share this video with you.
Thanks to DigitalDud on Channel9 for noting, on October 13 last week, Microsoft’s distinguished engineer Eric Traut gave a presentation at the University of Illinois about Microsoft’s virtualization technology and also mentioned Windows 7 – the next version of Windows after Vista. And believe it or not it was on video. Whilst the presentation is not directly about Windows 7, it does contain a demonstration of MinWin – an internal project to build the most efficient Windows kernel which will in turn be used in Windows 7.
The whole presentation (WMV) goes for approximately 1 hour and includes a very deep look into hypervisors. I’ve clipped out the 8-minute segment which Eric focuses on Windows 7 specifically to make it easier to watch. Because Eric goes into a lot of detail as well as background information about what is presented, and because it’s 2AM, I won’t regurgitate it. All I’ll say is that if you think Windows at its core is bloated, think again.
The ASCII bootscreen is very classy.
To someone who deals with photos quite often like myself, Windows Photo Gallery is one of the most impressive built-in applications in Windows Vista. It is both functional and beautiful to work with. Needless to say, Live Photo Gallery is icing on the cake – moist, delicious cake. And the cake is not a lie.
Before today, Photo Gallery satisfied most of my post-processing needs through the basic but effective adjustment tools. All that was missing was the link between editing my photos and archiving and sharing the photos on Flickr. However in the latest Live Photo Gallery update delivered just today, Flickr uploading has been integrated right into the application so it’s literally become the tool in my workflow.
The progress the Digital Memories Experience (DMX) team has made in the past 6 months is amazing, especially for a free application with no revenue model. A lesson the Ultimate Extras team needs to learn. And I’m even more excited about where they’re heading.
In a job posting today by the DMX team looking for a Software Development Engineer, they dropped a few hints on what to expect in the next generation of Photo Gallery.
Think of all the digital photos and videos that you have taken recently, and those that you receive from your family and friends through the year. These photos and videos are no doubt precious and important to you. We all value these moments and we want to easily relive these memories and to easily share them, all through a 21st-century user-interface that is elegant and polished. Don’t you want to be on the team chartered with bringing a world-class experience to collecting, organizing, creating, and sharing these memories?
Now is an ideal time to join the Digital Memories Group as we wrap up shipping the Windows Live Photo Gallery in the new Windows Live Suite and prepare for the next wave of features. We’re a high-quality development team creating features for a fun and highly competitive photo and video space, a space that matters dearly to millions upon millions of people. It is also a space where Windows Live can show the worth of an elegant rich client collaborating with connected services.
We need a talented, creative Senior Developer who is passionate about the future of digital photography and video usage and who has a special interest in consumer-focused elegant UI, in addition to being ready to improve the Photo Gallery’s ability to collect media, organize and arrange the media, and share that media a variety of ways, including up in the cloud. Think of all the places where photos appear and how easy it should be for our customers to get their photos out there and to bring in photos they find interesting. Looking at our road ahead, we have abundant opportunities for developers seeking challenges and career growth and have exciting challenges around making the complexity of a connected rich-client easy to understand.
The Digital Memories Experience team (DMX) is helping people make deeper connections with those they care about. We want to give you the ability to effortlessly share your memories, be that a simple slideshow of photos and videos (e.g. evolution of the Vista Slideshow or of Photo Story), a carefully authored experienced (evolution of Movie Maker), or a fully interactive cinematic multimedia experience (a narrated 3D path through a Photosynth that you can control). And we want to make it easy and fun to enjoy your photos and videos, whether that is on the PC in your office, the Media Center in your living room, the XBox in your entertainment center, or on your mobile device when you are out and about. DMX is a part of the Windows Live Experience division (WLX/LEX), which also includes Mail, Hotmail, Messenger, SkyDrive, Spaces, Writer, Calendar, and Family Safety. To achieve our vision for digital memories we work with many other teams including: Core User Experience, Find & Organize, Graphics (Windows Imaging Codecs – WIC – and DirectX) in WEX, MCE, Expression, and Xbox. [This paragraph brought to you by our love of keyword targeting :)]
PhotoSynth creator? I’ll trade you my Weighted Companion Cube. It’s worth everything.
