“Few people understand Microsoft better than Tandy Trower, who worked at the company from 1981-2009. Trower was the product manager who ultimately shipped Windows 1.0, an endeavor that some advised him was a path toward a ruined career. Four product managers had already tried and failed to ship Windows before him, and he initially thought that he was being assigned an impossible task. In this follow-up to yesterday’s story on the future of Windows, Trower recounts the inside story of his experience in transforming Windows from vaporware into a product that has left an unmistakable imprint on the world, 25 years after it was first released….”

The Secret Origin of Windows (via Technologizer)

Fallout New Vegas – New Screenshots (via duckandcover.cx)

“Just as you have one heart, and one brain, your Windows installation comes with but one desktop. Sure, you can change the look of this digital meeting space by applying new wallpapers, or adding sidebars and widgets, or letting Windows 7 do all that automatic stuff that it does every ten minutes or so. But that’s not really changing the desktop per se–at the end of the day, you’re still blessed (or cursed) with the same ol’ functionality that’s been a staple of the Windows platform since its inception.

That’s about to change….”

The Best Way To Customize Your Desktop: 3 Top Apps Compared (via Maximum PC)

“…While agreeably magnificent services like Steam and Impulse are yanking in the first light of the digital distribution age, the abandonment of physical media in favor of direct desktop-delivered game packages is eroding the once inseparable union of instructive pamphlet to respective gaming title….”

A Brief Review of Gaming Manuals

“As most software and creative professionals know, coffee is an important technology for boosting mental acuity and maintaining peak on-the-job performance. But did you also know that coffee can be a damn tasty beverage? It’s true. All you need is the appropriate amount of disrespect for the mainstream coffee industry and a desire to enjoy a better beverage. So read on, and learn the secrets to great coffee….”

A Coder’s Guide to Coffee

“…Then I played Ocarina of Time. After that, Super Mario 64 quickly followed by Star Fox, Donkey Kong, Pokemon, and Kirby. Then a friend gave me a SNES, and I played Super Metroid, A Link to the Past, and the Super Mario RPG. By the time I was a teenager, you’d be hard pressed to find a Nintendo game I hadn’t played. Nintendo revealed to me all that the medium could do; ranging from large, lasting adventures, to short, but incredibly addicting platformers. In many ways, Nintendo is the reason why I love video games….”

Why I Love and Hate Nintendo

Super Mario Galaxy 2 Trailer!!!!!!!!

“The Microsoft Corporation first released their scaled down version of Windows 95, Windows CE (some say this stands for “Compact Edition” or “Consumer Electronics” although Microsoft dispute this) Version 1 in the November of 1996. It was designed to be user friendly, easy to use and familiar (To users of Windows 95 anyway).

To discuss the development of Windows CE we have to look back to the Summer of 1992. The inaugural steps of some of the technologies that would later dominate the Windows CE world can be traced back to 1990, however the initial motions at creating a Mobile Windows device heralded in 1992….”

The History of Microsoft Windows CE

“The real Windows Mobile 7, that is, Photon as it once was called, is dead. Windows Mobile 7 was supposed to be an evolution of Windows Mobile 5 and 6. It was supposed to be built on the paradigm that previous generations of Windows Mobile had been created from: a Start-menu centric application experience, two soft keys on bottom, and applications that acted as they would on the desktop (often with a close button). Well Photon was scrapped, probably around 2008 when the Mobile division of Microsoft saw a big reorganization. With that, Microsoft started from scratch to build the next generation of Windows Mobile, or Windows Phone as they began calling it in 2009. Also at that time, they decided to extend the life of Windows Mobile 6 to buy some time, and a year later we saw 6.5. And despite rampant criticism, 6.5 shipped on a lot of really awesome devices like the HTC Touch Pro2 and HD2, Acer neoTouch, and Samsung Omnia II………”

Thoughts on Windows Phone 7 Series (BTW: Photon is Dead) (via Pocketnow.com)

“It can’t be easy being Ray Ozzie. Microsoft’s chief software architect is just 18 months into the job as Bill Gates’ handpicked successor, yet depending on whom you ask, his tenure will either signal a bold new era for the company or mark the beginning of its terminal decline.

From the perspective of Microsoft shareholders, the picture certainly looks grim. After a decade of timid stock performance, the fiscal year that ended June 2009 saw Microsoft’s net revenue decrease for the first time in its history. It also announced its first-ever layoffs and has since exceeded its original estimate of 5,000 pink slips. But worst of all, for the first time in recent memory, Microsoft confronts a rival of goliath proportions that actually seems capable of going the distance with the software giant….”

Microsoft vs. Google: The empire strikes back (via Infoworld