istartedsomething

One of the best blogs at Microsoft has just gotten better. The official Windows Vista team blog has just updated their blogging software and design to a brand new Vista-inspired look-and-feel.

Using the latest version of Community Server (version 2.1), an ASP.NET powered community solution, the blog now includes a gallery and ability to integrate multimedia content. Previously the blog was powered by the generic TechNet blogging engine, which has several limitations as many Microsoft bloggers have pointed out. The new Vista blog runs on its own domain and presumably server. The blog design has also been updated from a generic TechNet blogs template to a Vista-Bliss inspired theme with enough transparency to make Aero Glass look amateurish. Surprisingly, the design works almost flawlessly between Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 2, something most Vista-related resources designed by Microsoft can’t do.

It is interesting to note that the new design portrays a darker theme with a white-text-on-black approach. Perhaps a sign of times changing, it was first the Windows Vista website turning dark, followed by the black taskbar, black Sidebar and now a dark blog. Perhaps Microsoft is attempting to appeal to the Gothic community.

It was no other than Windows Vista’s godfather Jim Allchin who announced the new Vista blog. An unexpected but not surprising approach as Jim has been working extremely close with the Vista enthusiast community, frequently communicating directly to key community leaders. Something that most other Co-Presidents or company executives can’t get their head around. It’s a shame that Jim doesn’t have his own blog.

Nick White has done a terrific job up-till-now aggregating and writing the best and most official Windows Vista news and resource. It could only get better, and it already has.

File this under “silly bugs-by-design recognized by Microsoft but can’t do anything about but ruin a great user-experience” (see footnote), and also, “very useful Windows Vista tips from Long Zheng”. The latter being most important. This guide will show you the best way to stretch and apply wallpapers in Windows Vista whilst maintaining the best quality possible.

The problem

As many of you may have stumbled across this problem when trying to set your favorite Pokemon pictures as wallpapers, Windows Vista has a critical design flaw that prohibits wallpapers from being interpolated when stretched to the appropriate screen resolution. Take a look at this visual comparisons to see what I mean:

The jagged curved edge is caused by a lack of image interpolation. Without doing into too much detail, image interpolation is a mathematical method of upscaling images when the ratio is not dividable by 2. This is a problem because you are trying to scale for example 1 pixel into 1.3 pixels. Technically that is impossible, but with image interpolation, you could ‘mix’ pixels to create a perception of smooth gradual transitions between two pixels. Here is the above example in greater detail:

In Windows Vista, for some silly reason, the desktop control panel does not perform image interpolation correctly on JPEG images. Therefore, when you apply a wallpaper not exactly the same size as your screen resolution, the end result can be awful. But however, bitmap (BMP) images ARE properly interpolated from the control panel. Go figure that one.

The mind-blowingly simple solution

Quite simply, use the “Set as Desktop Background” function when you right-click images.

The “Set as Desktop Background” function utilizes the PIX engine, which powers the Windows Photo Gallery application. PIX supports image interpolation, and applies it correctly to images when you set as a wallpaper. As a side note: it’s unsure why the Windows Photo Gallery itself doesn’t use image interpolation on photos when zooming in pictures, but add that to the list of strange behaviors by-design at Microsoft.

An insider tell me this is a recognized problem even by the Microsoft designers themselves, but unable to fix because of the legal and legacy issues surrounding it. But at least you now know, the right and best way to apply desktop backgrounds in Windows Vista. But don’t tell your friends, let them suffer.

In addition: At least Vista maintains image aspect-ratio when rescaling to wallpapers, a concept XP never understood. So it’s not that much of a step backwards.

Update: Microsoft reads. Microsoft listens. Microsoft fixes. All in a day’s work.

“Next Week in Tech” is going to be a new weekly pictorial feature speculating on the hottest technology headlines, next week. This first edition has been produced with the helping hand of Ed Bott. Images credit Microsoft and Engadget.

The name Next Week in Tech comes from my favourite technology podcast, This Week in Tech by Leo Laporte.

Microsoft Annual Report 2006 says,

Catastrophic events may disrupt our business…A catastrophic event that results in the destruction or disruption of any of our critical business or information technology systems could severely affect our ability to conduct normal business operations and, as a result, our future operating results could be adversely affected.

It’s been nearly two weeks since I first reported about Microsoft’s viral marketing campaign for Windows Vista called Clearification. Back then, the relationship between the campaign and Windows Vista was extremely vague and confusing. But now, Clearification has just posted the second installment of the “Demetri Martin finds Clearification” videos. Everything is clearer now.

In the second episode titled “Welcome to the I.A.P.”, we learn more about the organization which Demetri Martin has been institutionalized in. The acronym actually stands for the Institute for Advanced Person, founded “sometime in the past”. The IAP is partly funded by “money we find around” under couch cushions.

But more importantly, this episode demonstrates quite clearly how Windows Vista ties into the story. As I was partly right in my original assumptions, Windows Vista serves as a tool which the IAP uses to aid its people. There were several quite prominent placements of Vista technologies, including:

• The Momento digital picture frame (I just reported yesterday)
• A desktop PC running Windows Vista
• A slideable Tablet PC running Windows Vista
• Aero’s Live Thumbnails
• Wireless network projector

And of course, mentioned in the episode, Microsoft is one of the corporations which fund the IAP, along with International Handles, Indisposable Camera Company and Eric.

The episode almost reminded me of LOST, showing a video describing the origins of the IAP in-place of the Dharma Initiative. The jokes were once again fairly ‘in-your-face’ which didn’t make you laugh out loud, but at least gave you a smirk on your face. I don’t know how Demetri Martin can pull off such a straight face, but he is truly the star.

Here’s some screencaps of the most memorable moments. I want that “person” shirt!

Check out what the Sydney Morning Herald, one of the most respected newspaper medias in Austraila, said about Windows Vista.

Aero is Vista’s new graphical user interface that promises to brighten up your desktop, and will include a highly stylised Start button, redesigned program menus, intricately detailed icons and various other visual cues.

Do not buy Vista for the new kernel and framework, improved security, enhanced shell, better searching, new bundled games, new Media Center, speech recognition, better networking, and every other new feature in Windows Vista. But please, do try out the new Start button. Microsoft thinks it is their best ever. It makes a compelling sell.

This is why mainstream media and technology news does not mix.

Microsoft’s Sean Alexander sent in this tip about the Momento by A Living Picture, a digital picture frame that has been certified and enhanced for Windows Vista. A lot of progress has been made since its original WinHEC May 2006 debut, it’s available for pre-order for shipping in early December of 2006.

Digital picture frames aren’t new concepts, for example, Philips has already shipped a digital photo display device in September of last year. But there’s still a lot of improvements to be made until these devices becomes a mass-market consumer product. For example, some of the limitations of the Philips device includes limited storage capacity and a manual photo management process. But this is where Momento and Windows Vista comes in.

The most obvious is wireless connectivity using 802.11 b/g. And not being limited to only photos stored on a computer in the household, the Momento can access photos from memory cards, mobile phones, digital cameras or even someone across the globe with the integrated Momento Live service. No points for guessing where the inspiration for the name came from. This could make a great way to share family photos to far-away relatives and family straight to the most appropriate device for viewing photos.

There’s also other neat functions including a clock and calendar, which can all be accessible through the remote control supplied. But possibly the most interesting and undocumented feature for the Momento is the support for Windows Sideshow. Using SideShow, users could run gadgets to deliver information such as emails, stock quotes, weather and meeting schedules. And the possibilities are endless. Someone could code a gadget to provide a secondary display screen for games similar to the Nintendo DS, color palettes for an artist or visualizers to accompany music. It’s almost like having a ‘smart’ mini-display. Sadly there’s no touch interface.

As for the design of the device, I’m not too sure about the inches of white border surrounded the actual display which comes in sizes of 7″ or 10″. But apparently the frames are changeable.

The device is powered by Windows CE and uses a 800×480-resolution TFT display. Supports audio, video, and obviously images from SD/MMC/xD/SmartMedia/Memory Stick/USB/Wifi. Is compatible with Windows XP, but ‘enhanced’ for Windows Vista.

It is currently priced at US$200 for the 7″ and $300 for the 10″, still way too expensive for the consumer market. Expect to see it on your manager’s desk soon, and when you do, you can praise them on how much more beautiful their siblings look in a digital picture frame compared to passé framed prints.

Images credit: Amazon.