I don’t know what they look like where you are, but in Britain, Microsoft’s TV ads extend the “I’m a PC” mantra and now suggest that it’s the users who told Microsoft how to design Windows 7.

“It was my idea”.

Nice tactic, Microsoft.

You see, while Windows 7 is a heck of a lot better than Vista, which we all blamed Microsoft for, when it goes wrong (and it will go wrong), Microsoft can turn around and say “ahhh, but it’s based on your design. It’s your fault”.

OK, that won’t really happen, but when the average user is tearing their hair out because that nifty new taskbar or window snapping isn’t behaving quite right, there may just be a little voice at the back of their head saying “it’s your fault.”

And I’ll add “You should’ve installed Linux”.

“Or bought a Mac”.

Obviously, Windows 7’s strong sales performance even at it pre-order stage beats Vista’s entire pre-order stage.

And the demand for Windows 7 is still growing strong, says Amazon UK MD’s Brian McBride.

Windows 7 also beats Amazon UK’s best-selling title – The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. Surely, there are far more better uses of Windows 7 than a book that would leave you breathless in awe and suspense, right?

This feat does not factor in future enterprise adaptation of Windows 7 yet. Wait till some Windows-eccentric corporations finally shed off their Windows XP enterprise installation, and give their employees a taste of Windows 7. For sure, more users will switch to Windows 7.

Have you? Upgraded or installed Windows 7? If not, will you install and use it? I’m inclined to think that none of us here in FG would.

So I’m sure by now everyone is already aware of the upcoming release of Windows 7 and all the new and improved features it comes with, but you might not have heard of Nanami Madobe. According to Akiba PC, the Japanese version of Windows 7 Ultimate will be getting an OS-tan named Nanami Madobe who will be voiced by popular singer Nana Mizuki. So what is an OS-tan you ask? simple, it’s basically a mascot character drawn anime-style that represents an operating system (more details here).

The problem with Nanami though, is that she was actually created by Microsoft, unlike the other OS-tans which were all fan-made. One could argue that Nanami isn’t a real OS-tan because she wasn’t created by fans. It would be interesting to see if the OS-tan community will accept her the way she is, make some slight modifications, or create a new character entirely. Personally, I think she fits in pretty well with the other OS-tans:

Anyone care to guess who’s who?

Of course, Microsoft has been dissing Macs for a long time, mainly on the basis that they’re too expensive. Thing is, it’s hard to do that with Linux, given that it will run on exactly the same hardware (and in fact, less powerful hardware, too) as Windows bloated OS, and yet is available for free.

I guess consumers who are happy to go to Best Buy on their search for a PC aren’t really too fussed, and perhaps are more willing to trust the viewpoint of the sales staff.

Though Windows 7 is looking a lot better than its predecessors, Vista has really hurt Microsoft. I suppose it has to do all it can to ensure regular consumers don’t consider switching to an enemy system.

Via

This reminds of my bitching every time I need to restart Windows Vista on my gaming desktop, and think ‘What part of _only download but let me chose when to install the updates_ don’t you understand when I see that exclamation mark on the shutdown button.

I don’t particularly follow the mobile phone market unless they are made of Lego blocks, but yesterday I followed the releases over at MWC. Mainly to see what Windows 6.5 would look like and in the hope of more information around the Palm Pre.

For once I must admit that the Redmonders finally got something right with WM6.5. The honeycomb setup for the phone’s homepage looks attractive and most of all usable. That must be a first for Microsoft!
Even though the background of choice too dark is and Windows Mobile still fugly looks with the humongous status bar and its icons, it certainly looks thousand times better than any open source attempt, because no matter whether as full blown distro or on a phone, Tux products always manage to look horrible thanks to their love for thick borders/line on everything.

Obviously nothing beats the looks of today’s most popular and loved phone.

So you might be wondering who would be so mad that he would be willing to give that much money away…take a guess?  You probably didn’t have to think much.  Who else would be so affected by a worm?  The software giant, Microsoft, has always been prone to attacks from such malware and sees the Conficker as a “criminal attack.”  According to George Stathakopulos of the company’s Trustworthy Computing Group, “people who write this malware have to be held accountable.”  Hence the reward for whoever could find the person behind the worm.

I doubt that you have not heard of the worm before but for the benefit of those who might not have, Conficker takes advantage of computers which are not updated with regard to Windows security patches.  It is a self-replicating program and can infect computers via the Internet or those innocent looking USB sticks you use on a daily basis.  And once the worm has found its way to your hard drive, it is quite hard to remove as it immediately finds ways to burrow a hole and set up defences to keep itself safe.  Once set up, the worm can be used to steal data, among other things.

Now back to the reward.  Do you think that they will ever catch the perps this time?  Remember, they still have rewards up in the air for the creators of three other worms – Blaster, MyDoom and Sobig.

The demo was revealed to be a fake, a part of a viral marketing campaign from Sonic Emotion, a company that makes surround sound systems for various electronic devices like handhelds and PCs.

The alleged demo took place at the myPhone2008 conference in Las Vegas. But research shows there was no such show.

I still can’t think of why a fake Windows Mobile demo relates to a surround sound company.

This is soooo funny!  At the exact moment Li Ning was making his final swoop to light the Olympic flame during the opening ceremonies… boom(!), the blue screen of death (BSOD) makes a sudden appearance to “flame” the event with hmmm… geeky laughter. 

Now if you’re a geek (like this fellow taking the timely shot), you’d definitely be running off to blog about it to get this scoop.  But I guess no one’s faster than Gizmodo.

The quickest remark I found was “hey, this is China so maybe they forgot something on that machine to make it bawl its guts at centerstage”, yet others would say “did they forget to rehearse all software/hardware involved”.  Me, I just shrugged it as “system failure of sorts that, like lightning, is unpredictable”.

Anyway, this is one for the history books… the only Olympics where Microsoft took centerstage with a big “Gotcha!”.