Busted: Microsoft Copied Mac for Windows 7

I'm LMAO over an article that a friend just forwarded to me. It's the tale of a Microsoft employee that explains how Windows 7's interface design was modeled after Mac OS X... then Microsoft comes back with "OH NO HE DI'N'T! WE DID NOT COPY!"

We all know the truth.... one look Windows 7 says it all! (Now, I've had good experiences with Windows 7 thus far [running on my Mac's, of course, for the purpose of playing Ultima Online] - but come on, Microsoft... admit it. You've been copying interface design ideas your whole lives).

Here's the entire interview with Simon Aldous, Partner Group Manager for Microsoft:

http://www.pcr-online.biz/features/328/Microsofts-new-vision

And here's the quote of interest:

One of the things that people say an awful lot about the Apple Mac is that the OS is fantastic, that it’s very graphical and easy to use. What we’ve tried to do with Windows 7 – whether it’s traditional format or in a touch format – is create a Mac look and feel in terms of graphics. We’ve significantly improved the graphical user interface, but it’s built on that very stable core Vista technology, which is far more stable than the current Mac platform, for instance.

And here's Microsoft refuting the statements made by one of their own:

http://www.pcr-online.biz/news/32707/Microsoft-denies-Windows-7-was-inspired-by-Apple

In an interview with PCR at the Microsoft Partner Network event last month, Simon Aldous, Microsoft Partner Group Manager, made reference to creating a Mac look and feel in terms of graphics with Windows 7. Simon was incorrect in describing Windows 7 in this way and subsequent headlines claiming that the Mac OS inspired Windows 7 are totally inaccurate.

Bwahahahahahaaaaaa!!!! (that's me, laughing my ass off).

Quote of the Day

As Microsoft continues to tout the Apple Tax, perhaps it should look inward a bit and realize that people are willing to pay for Apple products for the high-quality user experience, and not settle for a subpar experience on a product they use every day.

As seen in: "Microsoft Windows 7: Upgrade or Just Buy a Pizza?"

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Problems Using PC-Formatted Drive with Leopard & Time Machine

Whew! I was pretty excited tonight when Leopard was in my mailbox. Finally! (It was supposed to be here yesterday, grumble grumble grumble). I'll save my Leopard thoughts for later - just wanted to document my first Leopard problem (which, SURPRISE, was indirectly caused by my old Windows PC).

I have a 750GB Western Digital MyBook. It's pretty sweet. I was using it as my backup drive for my Windows PC, and it was formatted FAT32. When I trashed my PC and got an iMac a couple weeks ago, I checked WD's web site and sure enough, they had a Mac version of their backup software. Sweet!

Then came Leopard and Time Machine... automatic backups that can be accessed in a completely granular fashion. Imagine! Buh-bye, WD Backup. Hello, Time Machine!

I plugged in my WD MyBook after installing Leopard, and like promised, Leopard asked if I wanted to use that drive to backup with Time Machine. Absolutely! Time Machine said it needed to be reformatted to the Mac format. Sure, no problem.

Except that the format failed.

Disk erase failed with the error: File system formatter failed.

Yikes!

I tried using Disk Utility to no avail. It would format fine as FAT32, but not as any Mac format.

Already-too-long-story-short:

Gizmodo saved me!

Thankfully, the fix is easy.

• Go to the Partition tab. Create two partitions. Under Options, select GUID Partition Table (what you would use to make a Mac OS boot disk) and click OK then Apply.

• Once your partitions are in place, do it again, reverting back to just one partition, but still keeping the GUID Partition Table option. Click OK and Apply again, and at this point you should be cool.

• To be safe, you can then go to Erase and set formatting for Mac OS Extended (Journaled), then format it once and for all. But when you get there, you will probably see that your volume is already formatted in the right way.

Gizmodo reports that some users were able to get this solution working only creating one partition, and that the key seems to be using the GUID Partition Table option.

Whatever the case, these steps worked for me, and Time Machine is now happily chugging way with its first full backup of my new iMac - now dressed in Leopard skin :)

I Switched

My PC died this weekend. I can't say for certain what exactly is shot, but the beast has managed to fry a brand new CPU and now a brand new (and rather expensive) video card.

It is now being dismembered. Remaining good parts (excluding the mainboard and power supply, one of which I'm sure is the culprit here) will be sold on eBay when I get back from Vegas and Seattle next week.

I am now the proud new owner of a 20" 2.4GHz iMac.

Go, me!

I'm 110% happy with my decision to switch. The process of migrating over from Vista to OS X has been painless thus far. This machine is gorgeous, fast, and silent. I bet it even consumes less power.

I heart Apple :)

Apple TV and Windows Vista?

As one of the final components of my media room, I excitedly bought an Apple TV yesterday. Really, I just want to be able to watch my favorite video podcasts on it, but I may also buy some movies or TV shows on iTunes eventually.

The problem is, I can't get it to sync with my Windows Vista Business Edition PC.

The setup couldn't have been easier. Plug in the HDMI cable to the TV. Plug in the power. Walk through the network setup wizard. It connected to my 802.11g wireless network with WPA encryption - no problems.

Then, I fired up iTunes on my PC. Apple TV requires iTunes 7.1 or higher. No problem. I've got the latest iTunes. The Apple TV was instantly detected in iTunes, and it walked me through the authorization process with the iTunes Music Store. All went well.

It appeared to begin the "sync" process of copying my selected iTunes info to the Apple TV hard drive over the wireless network. However, there would be a sliver of progress, and then it would hang. I let it sit overnight, thinking maybe the initial sync was just slow due to the huge amount of content it had to transfer.

No such luck. I woke up this morning and there was no additional progress.

The Apple TV is connecting to my network and to the internet fine. I can view all of the movie trailers and content directly from the iTunes Music Store. I just can't view anything from my iTunes on my Vista PC.

I've gone through all of the troubleshooting documentation. I have:
- Disabled Windows Firewall
- Opened up suggested ports on my Linksys router
- Disabled ALL non-Microsoft startup services, except for iTunes related services
- Connected the Apple TV directly to my router with a wired connection
- Restored the Apple TV to factory settings and started over
- Rebooted all equipment (cable modem, router, computer, Apple TV)

I don't think the problem is related to my wireless network in any way. I think it's just Vista.

Many people are reporting syncing problems with Vista, but those who have gotten it working don't have any special advice.

Any ideas out there?

Please don't bother with the "Get a Mac!" advice. I already have a Mac. Unfortunately for me, it's provided by the company I work for, and I cannot move my iTunes library to it. While I may buy my own personal Mac in the future, that time is not now, so that advice is useless to me.

I also won't ditch Vista for XP (the officially supported Windows OS for Apple TV). I've had no problems with Vista thus far, and honestly I think the responsibility lies with Apple this time around to make their products (Apple TV and iTunes) work with Vista, or don't advertise Windows compatibility at all. Vista was already available when the Apple TV was released. If Apple couldn't make the thing work with the current version of Windows, they shouldn't have claimed Windows compatibility.

I've been working on this for almost 24 hours. If I can't get it working tonight, the Apple TV will go back to Best Buy where I got it, with a big dose of tarnish on Apple's reputation in my mind.

Steve Jobs and Bill Gates - Rare Public Appearance Together

Good times, good times.

Here are some photos from a rare public appearance of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates together at the recent D: All Things Digital conference.