Play, Live, Work, Enjoy.

Initially, Microsoft’s newest product Vista was projected to take-off and become a success, similar to that of its predecessors. So when Vista‘s sales and ratings came back as being unfavorable Microsoft was blindsided. Vista sent PC users into a tailspin. Containing a slew of undesirable features, Vista is thought to be so bad that many users are boycotting the program.

Rather than fix the program’s issues, Microsoft is spending an obscene amount of money on a new ad campaign in an effort to resurrect interest and increase sales. The new campaign is called the Mojave Experiment.

The Mojave Experiment depicts PC users who appear to be favorable towards Vista, without knowing that they are actually working with the operating system. The users are told that they are not working with the original Vista, but instead are using a new and improved version called Mojave. They are then shown some of the ‘features’ of Vista and their reactions are recorded on 22 hidden cameras. The main purpose of the campaign is to show that many of Vista’s criticism are unfounded.

I’d be curious to know what ‘features’ are being shown to these users and if they are simply being guided through a crème de le crème tour of the operating system, that the average computer user would not know how to use if Bill Gates himself sat down next to him and gave play by play instructions.

What are your views on Vista? In my opinion the operating system, and this ad campaign are a little too risky for my liking. I think I’ll stick to XP for the time being.

What can I say… FlashPitt was awesome! I had a great time with some great people and saw some interesting Flash and non-Flash presentations.

This was a one day show… and a long day it was. The key note by Lee Brimelow of Adobe was very cool. A lot of what we had already seen here and there with some new bits. The fact that the new drawing API allows for 3D triangles just seems to open the doors for all sorts of 3D enhancements. One of the samples Lee showed was a super slick first-person-shooter style interface. Julian Dolce's physical computing presentation inspired me to work on my "Soma Room" project. Stacey Mulcahy did not fail to impress… she speaks the truth and has some wicked funny slides to back it up. Golan Levin had some amazing non-Flash tech to show… very inspiring as well.

My presentation on Flash Games in AS3 went pretty well. I've posted the source code for the Space Invaders game I used as a case study here: http://www.jrvisuals.com/content/flashpitt08/ and plan to pretty up the page a bit as soon as I get some time. I'll also be posting my slides and updating the SI source code soon.
As always the conference wrapped with a dinner and drinks… many drinks. The next day, after a few cups of coffee, Val, Julian, Stacey, and PaperVision guru John Lindquist and I got to hit the local Apple Store and a cool art museum called the Mattress Factory.

I love the buzz of these industry conferences… meeting new people… hearing what's new and coming up directly from Adobe staff… comparing notes with other Flashers… not to mention partying with all these folks. Good times. These "smaller" one or two day conferences are nice too since they are much more affordable and don't require so much time away from home. Kudos to the FlashPitt organizers… I hope to be invited to speak at next years show!