Misc M$ Stuff

Two pieces of news today, both about Micro$oft.
1. Apparently users can be tricked into saying that Vista is better than XP when they're told that they're using some new Windows version code-named Mojave. So I guess this means that Vista's negative image is entirely fabricated and that it really is the best thing since sliced bread. Not really. These machines were probably specifically built for the purpose of the test and they are not necessarily representative of the problems that Joe User (myself included) experienced when using it. Sure it has some "wow" features, but incompatibility, usability & stability issues trump all that (especially when running resource-intensive research algs). Vista is crap, no PR stunt is going to fix that.

2. On a brighter note, I've finally gotten around to trying Micro$oft WorldWide Telescope and it really is cool! It definitely beats the Google Sky feature in Google Earth (for now). I really like the Office 2007-esque fluent interface that changes options based on the region of the sky you are viewing. I'm shocked I'm not forced to pay a subscription for the service. Download it from the link above, or the one in the sidebar. Stay tuned... Google Sky is being ported as a pure web service too, and it looks promising.