Category: Microsoft
Doom Running in Notepad⇢
Getting Doom running on weird hardware is all-time favorite hobby of some on the Internet, but this takes things to the next level.
Clippy Was Born on the Mac⇢
Benjamin Cassidy, in a really fun article looking at the life — and death — of Clippy:
Clippy was born on a Mac. When Kevan Atteberry was hired to design characters for Microsoft Bob and Office 97, he’d shuttle between the company’s leafy grounds and his Bellevue studio space, where a desktop made by a certain rival awaited. Animation required using Microsoft’s proprietary software, but before hustling files over to HQ, he could tinker in his second-floor walk-up with tons of light and a landlord who never raised the rent. It was here he picked up a Ticonderoga two-and-five-tenths pencil and started outlining an infamous paperclip. Digitizing it just meant closing the blinds and booting up the Macintosh he preferred to his employer’s PCs.
Janet Jackson Versus XP Laptops⇢
Raymond Chen, writing at The Old New Thing at Microsoft:
A colleague of mine shared a story from Windows XP product support. A major computer manufacturer discovered that playing the music video for Janet Jackson’s “Rhythm Nation” would crash certain models of laptops. I would not have wanted to be in the laboratory that they must have set up to investigate this problem. Not an artistic judgement.
One discovery during the investigation is that playing the music video also crashed some of their competitors’ laptops.
Remembering IE⇢
Andrew Cunningham, writing at Ars Technica:
Microsoft’s Internet Explorer has died many deaths over the years, but today is the one that counts. The final version of the browser, Internet Explorer 11, will no longer receive support or security updates starting today, and it will gradually be removed from Windows 10 PCs via a Windows Update at some point in the future. It was never installed on Windows 11 PCs at all.
The Windows 95 Launch Video⇢
My pal Florence Ion, writing at Gizmodo:
I want to thank whatever stars aligned that surfaced this video of the Windows 95 launch event in my algorithm. While clips from the presentation have floated around online for decades, the full 90-minute keynote has been harder to track down. Uploaded this week by the angels over at the Blue OS Museum YouTube account, the complete presentation is an absolute time capsule of technology culture as it existed on Aug. 24, 1995. It also features some incredibly cringe moments, most of which stem from Jay Leno’s cheesy and problematic joke-telling.
Windle Brings Wordle to Windows 3.1 Users⇢
This is delightful, but I’m keeping an eye out for a version for the classic Mac OS.
The Story of Bliss⇢
I was no fan of Windows XP, but this documentary about its default wallpaper is fascinating.
The Test Drivers #35: Windows 11, with Panos Panay⇢
From the ability to run Android apps, to the new design and window snapping features and its ability to properly manage windows when an external display is added or taken away, there’s a lot that to like with Windows 11. Over on The Test Drivers, Myke and Austin spoke with Microsoft’s Panos Panay about the new release. It’s a fun interview, and it is really cool to see it on Relay FM.
The Windows-on-New-Macs Ball is in Microsoft’s Court⇢
Craig Federighi, in an interview with Ars Technica, speaking about Windows on Apple Silicon Macs:
We have the core technologies for them to do that, to run their ARM version of Windows, which in turn of course supports x86 user mode applications. But that’s a decision Microsoft has to make, to bring to license that technology for users to run on these Macs. But the Macs are certainly very capable of it.
Windows XP Included Incomplete Aqua-like Theme⇢
Tom Warren at The Verge, writing about some half-finished themes found in this week’s XP source code dump:
One is labeled “Candy” and includes a design that closely resembles Apple’s Aqua interface that was first introduced at the Macworld Conference & Expo in 2000. Although the theme is incomplete, the Windows XP Start button and various buttons and UI elements are clearly themed to match Apple’s Aqua.
Amazing Bugs in Microsoft Flight Simulator⇢
Don’t get me wrong; Microsoft Flight Simulator looks amazing, but some of these bugs are hilarious.