A previously NDA’d feature of Windows 7 has finally gone public; basically, Win7 comes with a virtualization-based “XP mode” that creates a virtual machine to host any apps that can’t run in a post-XP environment.

The real bonus here is that it allows Microsoft, like Apple before them, to make a break with backward compatibility. OS X was a quantum leap over System 9 precisely because they made no real effort to allow backward compatibility outside a “compatibility box” that was the next best thing to virtualization (since virtualization wasn’t really an option 9 years ago).

Microsoft has, so far, not made the same kind of break with the past, and that’s hamstrung the evolution of the platform. If they do this right, they’ll be able to make the same kind of leap with 7 or whatever comes after 7 that Apple made in 2000.

This is a good thing for everyone; I’m not a huge Windows fan, but I want Microsoft in the race in the same way I want the GOP in the race. Competition is good for everybody.

Penny Arcade takes on Rock Bank sub-branding.

Because, as this Slate piece makes abundantly clear, the movie people are just too bone stupid to realize they have to compete with it.

The days of controlling distribution with arcane contracts and weird periods of artificial scarcity are over. If consumers can’t legally watch what they want to watch when they want to watch it, it’s becoming easier and easier for them to do so in ways that result in zero revenue for the copyright holder. Do the math.

…it’s the 66th anniversary of the most interesting bicycle ride EVER.

Albert Hofmann joined the pharmaceutical-chemical department of Sandoz Laboratories (now Novartis), located in Basel as a co-worker with professor Arthur Stoll, founder and director of the pharmaceutical department. He began studying the medicinal plant squill and the fungus ergot as part of a program to purify and synthesize active constituents for use as pharmaceuticals. His main contribution was to elucidate the chemical structure of the common nucleus of Scilla glycosides (an active principal of Mediterranean Squill). While researching lysergic acid derivatives, Hofmann first synthesized LSD-25 in 1938. The main intention of the synthesis was to obtain a respiratory and circulatory stimulant (an analeptic). It was set aside for five years, until April 16, 1943, when Hofmann decided to take another look at it. While re-synthesizing LSD, he accidentally absorbed a small quantity through his fingertips and serendipitously discovered its powerful effects before his bicycle ride home.

Or, why restating the problem can be the best possible thing you can do. The context of the link is software development, but upon reflection it turns out that there’s pretty much always some benefit to be had by turning the problem around a few times.

(Of course, my answer to the actual dilemma linked would’ve been “join,” but that’s because I think in Perl.)

Pervasive computing is getting there, but the problem right now is that getting to the cloud of data involves the awkward process of hauling out your phone or laptop and doing a manual query. What if you didn’t have to, and what if you could solve the problem without spending more than $400?

I can’t possibly explain how cool this is. Just go watch.

(Yes, the MIT Media Lab is made of WIN.)

Have you played Settlers of Catan yet? The German-made game has become a global hit; my guess is Heathen Nation probably has a higher percentage of gamers — and thus folks who’ve seen it — than the public at large, but it’s interesting that Wired has noticed. It’s also interesting that Wired’s notice feels late despite the fact that I’ve seen no other mass-media treatment of it yet.

Don’t you want a Commodore 64 laptop? You know you do.

It appears Microsoft is just not quite able to kill XP after all; leaked HP memos suggest that zombie OS may live on until 2010, nearly nine years after its 2001 release.

For reference, nine years prior to XP’s release, we were all using Windows 3.1 (b. 18 March 1992) — or we were, if we weren’t still using DOS.

This one’s not a right or wrong thing; it’s just different.

On the Mac, scrolling instructions from scrollwheel equipped mice are directed at whatever window is below the cursor without regard to the current focus. This means one can have (say) a Word doc for notetaking open over a long web article, and scroll the article without clicking on the browser window and taking the focus away from the Word doc.

On Windows, no input is ever directed to a window unless it has focus. Using the scroll wheel on my mouse will scroll, or attempt to, whatever window has focus regardless of where my mouse cursor is.

I’m honestly not sure which I like better, but I sure DO wish there was a preference I could set on one or the other of them to make them both act the same.

(It seems likely that someone has developed the old X-windows focus-follows-mouse trick for both platforms, but seeing as how that paradigm makes me crazy, I won’t be going that route.)

ThinkGeek now has perhaps the most disturbing childhood sleeping bag EVER.

Also, squeezable bacon.

(We suggest, gently, that you check the date before ordering.)