istartedsomething

ZoD submitted a comment on the previous Virtual Vista post about “what kind of results would Super PI get on the Host. I think it’s important to get a sense of what you’re losing(in terms of speed, not graphics) when virtualising Vista.” I don’t know how I forgot to test such a simple concept, but I’m making up for it.

I ran SuperPI on a real Windows Vista partition with exactly the same memory allocation size to give a side-by-side comparison of the speed difference between a virtualized (VMware Server) and real OS environment.

The real Vista started off 2 seconds faster than VMware and finished 14 seconds earlier, with just a 7% margin. Considering the benefits of security, ease and accessibility virtualization offers, this nothing short of amazing. Kudos to Keith and the VMware team!

Remember, this result was tested from unoptimized hardware configurations. I bet if I had a dedicated drive for the virtual machine and defragmented the virtual disk image, the result would have been even better!

Last minute idea.

Contrary to earlier reports of a clunky looking squared Windows Vista Media Center remote showcased at Digital Life 2006 by Neowin.net (via PVRWire), the official Windows Vista Product Guide, recently updated for RTM, (via StealthPuppy) showcases a much newer and aesthetically pleasing design for the remote. Could this be the real one? It looks hooooooot, although the center “OK” button looks like if it’s straight out of OSX.

The embedded filename for this picture is clearly labeled “MCE_Vista_Remote” on page 159 of the Word document. I’m going to put my money (not that I have any) on this as the real thing!

Update: The new remote design is confirmed as only a prototype. It may/may not be the final generic Windows Vista Media Center remote.

I saw this advertisement for Nokia mobile phones on TV and I thought to myself, “did I just see Flickr on TV”? Guess what. It came around for a second commercial break, and I captured it to prove it.

No doubt Nokia is leading the way by integrating Web 2.0 services in its phones, but I think this advertisement shows off just how much Nokia is committed to Web 2.0. This ad is all about creating content, sharing content, content mash-ups and vertical markets. How cool is that? He’s even sharing music. SHARING MUSIC! Take that Zune and RIAA!

I did some digging around and found the actual Flickr profile used in the advertisement. It belongs to a person called Pille Hikinen. However the woman painting picture doesn’t exist in his gallery, probably removed immediately after the commercial was shot. But having a real Flickr user just shows how ‘real’ this is.

Oh, and did I mention, the Nokia N91 has 8 gigabytes of storage? That’s just as much as an iPod nano!

I’m a bit slow to this one, but launched recently was “They came for Windows Vista“, an episodic cartoon for Microsoft partners about the release of Windows Vista. The story surrounds Tom and his “crack team” of sales people discovering about the various ways to sell Windows Vista to a group of Microsoft-centric aliens.

The animations are beautifully crafted with glossy and cute characters, with great detail in each person, product and setting. The storyline is humorous full of subtle jokes here and there. The message is simple, if not, already well communicated through other media. However still fun to watch and provides a (far from) real life example of how hardware and software for Windows Vista will be sold from now to January.

It is also the first animation I’ve seen that has been translated and dubbed to 5 different languages. Good job to the team!

So far, only two episodes (episode one, episode two) has been released. But with a simple hack by changing the URL, the unreleased third episode is also viewable, which talks about holiday sales and express upgrades.

I think this is a fun and enjoyable way of brainwashing communicating otherwise boring information. It’d be interesting to see if this trend catches on with other products, markets and companies.

They say good things come in three’s, but I say great things come in hundred’s. I originally announced I was only giving away three measly caps and decals, but after the record-breaking response with over 1200 entries (90% of which are Chinese), Microsoft’s Deeps De Silva stepped in to boost the prize-pool to something more appropriate.

However, there are still only 3 decals in the prize-pool, so they will be randomly distributed to 3 lucky winners.

Winners will be notified by email in the next 24 hours has been notified. Please check your spam box as winning a prize is often marked as spam. Winners who do not respond to the email within a timely fashion will have their prizes reallocated to other entrants.

Look forward to more cool giveaways in the near future!

P.S. If you have a business and would like advertise your product to help me over the cost of postage, please send me an email through my about page. I’m open to ideas such as including promotional ads in the mailbag.