Windows Vista: The Sights Of Wow

A month back, I revisited and expanded on a prior post which pointed out that Microsoft had contracted with Robert Fripp to develop various sounds integrated in Windows Vista. Interacting with a modern operating system is a multi-sensual multimedia experience, of course, incorporating not only the sounds perceived by the ears, but also the touch of fingers on a keyboard, the smell of a self-destructing power supply (!!!!), the brain integrating it all….and of course the sight of the desktop and other displayed images. Ok, I couldn't come up with one for taste, although there are some food crumbs stuck in my keyboard….and dried-up remnants of coffee drips on the palm rests, and….

Therefore, Microsoft also contracted with professional photographer Hamad Darwish to shoot more than 6,000 photos around Oregon over ~1.5 weeks in early 2006, which the company subsequently whittled down to 5 wallpaper image finalists for you to pick from when you set up the O/S. Thanks to Ars Technica for the heads-up on an interview with Darwish, along with a Flickr archive of his photos.You can even visit Darwish's website for downloadable 1920×1200 pixel versions of many of them!

Followup: An interesting writeup from Engadget on the search for the locale of a Windows XP wallpaper scene.