istartedsomething

The PC vs Macs contest has risen to a new level.

Last week, Microsoft’s Gamerscore Blog announced GamesForWindows.com, a website dedicated to showcasing the video gaming hardware and software ecosystem on Windows PCs. It’s an obvious attempt to combat competition from Sony, Nintendo and even Apple. Speaking about Apple,

Today, GamesForMacs.com was launched to compete directly with Microsoft.

Update: Some people don’t seem to get it, so I’ll explain. First thing’s first, this is a joke. It’s not anti-Apple or pro-Microsoft, because I make fun at both. It’s not even about gaming, but rather, stereotypes. When you think of Apple and games, you think of Quake and The Sims and ‘not much games’. When you think of Windows, you think of Minesweeper, Solitaire, Freecell and majority of males playing games. Nothing more than poking fun at stereotypes.

It’s also a spoof of GamesForWindows.com, which I don’t think is an exactly worthwhile website. The website is pretty much marketing gimmick demonstrating the already popular-enough gaming platform on PCs. There isn’t much content on the website to begin with, and nothing on the website is exactly hot-off-the-press. However, it is important to note this is different to “Games For Windows”, which is an initiative to make games easier to install and play better on Windows Vista systems. That, I support.

I link to both companies’ respective pro-gaming websites to show both sides of the story. Although it is part of my grand plan to score an XBOX 360.

I’ve been doing a lot of playing around with virtual environments lately, because booting into Windows Vista everytime I want to hear the startup sound can be pretty frustrating. Today, Parallels announced Parallels Workstation 2.2 for Windows which has increased support for Windows Vista. So far, I’ve been using Microsoft’s Virtual PC 2007 Beta but I’m not 100% happy with the performance. So I decided to give Parallels a test run after hearing all the good press on its Macintosh counterpart.

I installed a virgin copy of Windows Vista Ultimate RTM on exactly the same virtual hardware to do a direct comparison between the two products. Both products has their respective ‘additions’ package (VM Additions/Parallels Tools) installed to maximize performance.

Note: I recognize that VMware Server/Workstation supports Windows Vista as well, but the lack of Intel VT support results in really poor performance.

The results was surprising. Parallels started off faster by at most 2 seconds, but eventually Virtual PC caught up and ended up winning by 8 seconds. This has put my superstition about Virtual PC’s sluggish performance on the backburner for the while, until each product optimizes their products for Vista even further.

Unfortunately, none of the solutions (Virtual PC, Parallels, VMWare) will support hardware-graphics virtualization for quite some time, so there goes any chance of Aero Glass in a virtual environment.

My good friend Andrew Dugdell has 7 great tips on even improving Virtual PC’s performance. Well worth checking if you do a lot of work in a virtual environment.

Update: Under the advice of Keith Adams (from VMware), I gave VMware Server another go. I’ve actually been a long time user of VMware Server, but ever since alternatives started supporting Intel VT, I’ve switched and found the experience much better. Perhaps it was just a psychological thing, but my new tests prove otherwise.

VMware completed the SuperPI test 6 seconds faster than Virtual PC. And with its dual-core support for guest operating systems, it runs even faster with dual-core enabled. I guess this proves Intel VT doesn’t enhance performance at all (right now), or at least VMware already runs blazingly fast. I’m switching back!

When Microsoft enthusiastically announced the final name for Windows Codename “Longhorn”, Windows Vista, back in July 2005, businesses and journalists were quick to jump on the golden opportunity to talk about lawsuits and settlements. All sorts of windows and blinds businesses saw the prospects of disputing Microsoft’s trademark claim and suing for compensation.

Days away from the official business launch of Windows Vista, and it might seem like everyone talked tough, but no one acted or dared to act. Although that’s not entirely true. A search at the trademark trial and appeal board revealed one company and one company only stood up to Microsoft, Plantronics, Inc. vs Microsoft Corporation.

The stupidity of this dispute lies with Plantronic. A Google search revealed the only Plantronic product which carries a Vista wordmark is in fact a telephone headset adapater. Talk about interrelatedness.

The dispute was eventually terminated because the Plantronics, Inc. relentlessly demanded time extensions to “investigate the claim” for over 4 months straight. I guess they never found a legitimate argument to draw the similarities between an operating system and telephone adapater.

What a waste of time.

As part of Toshiba’s voluntary Sony battery replacement program, most notebook models in the Toshiba range are eligible for a free primary battery pack. Of course, Toshiba recommends you to return your older battery, but why should you when Sony has confirmed Toshiba’s batteries are not affected by the recall issue with Dell and Apple laptops?

These batteries are worth US$100 and provides over 3 hours of juice, well worth the price of $0.

Sony seems to be screwing a large part of its core business, with faults occurring in the Playstation 3 as well. The only thing left they’re really good at is televisions and television advertisements.

Credits to Robert McLaws for inspiration.

Millions of computers starts each day with an image to remind users of which operating system they’re using. Here’s a look back at 22 years worth of the most agonizing waits in history.

Windows 1.01: Since the blue-screen-of-death has yet to be invented introduced, this color combination was fairly acceptable. Credits: PCForum.hu	Windows 3.1: The first and last vertical bootscreen. The designer must have just found the color palette, bevel and drop shadow commands in Photoshop. Credits: PCForum.hu
Windows 95: Clouds and infinite-scroll animation introduced. Copyright missing-in-action. Credits: WinSuperSite	Windows NT 4.0: Dark and scary. Borders make a return. First bootscreen to feature the Microsoft logo. Credits: Dabestsite
Windows 98: Better looking clouds for a better operating system. Copyright still missing-in-action. Credits: Windows Nation	Windows 2000: Clouds removed. Copyright return. SKUs introduced. Barely-accurate progress bar invented. Credits: The Best Website Ever
Windows ME: Just as colorful as the operating system experience. Progress bar abolished. Credits: Windows Nation	Windows XP: First white-on-black bootscreen. SKU branding (re)introduced, infinite-scroll color varied by SKU. Credits: The Elder Geek
Windows XP SP2: All operating systems are created equal – Microsoft no longer discriminates SKUs. Copyright years removed. Credits: Win History	Windows Server 2003: No points for knowing where this was inspired was. Credits: Toasty Technology

Windows Vista just has to be different. The first thing you’ll notice is there are two bootscreens, separating the low-level code and branding experience. The first bootscreen is an ultra-minimalistic scrolling animation featuring thin green lines which is only accompanied by a short copyright text. The second bootscreen features a full-resolution 32-bit animated glowing Windows pearl, synchronized together with the official startup sound. Credits: Ed Bott

It’s interesting to see how progressively smaller the Microsoft text gets.