Shifty Ninja Blog
Random bits of open source and gaming goodness

Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac, Linux, OEM Wallpapers
24 May 2009 in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

I have permissions to do what I do, so there is no need to be concerned about legal matters (redistribution). I was given approval by Microsoft and could probably pull up the permission email if necessary. Apple had not replied to me, but based on permission given by MS I don’t see why they’d care. Materials such as these are all over Google and DeviantArt and various search engines image search and the internets anyway. I’m just trying to make it easier by having it all in one central portal.

I’d like to share the famous big collection of default Microsoft (Windows), Apple (Mac), Linux, and OEM wallpaper backgrounds that my friend (Thomas) and I spread to many boards. We’ve been doing this for so long and it gets appreciated where ever it goes.

We usually make future updates in the form of ImageShack uploads and post the thumbnails linking to the original sizes of the wallpapers, and also post updated RAR links. We used to have an actual gallery, but our project has grown so big so many times we’ve had to change hosts and haven’t had the time to redo the gallery yet, but we plan to bring it back eventually. However, if anyone else wants to do a gallery for us it’s fine by me as long as you give proper credit.

This is my way of contributing immediately after joining any community I go to. It often tends to bring many searchers; just keep an eye on the topic views back out in the forum. From past experiences this sometimes brings many new visitors and hits due to search engine archiving and crawling and content such as this being a popular search term.

Recently, we have gotten some requests for permission to use these wallpapers, and links to the downloads, on other websites. We ask that, if you do wish to, please feel free, however, we do want some form of recognition for doing the work. Something along the lines of “Created and maintained by Ryan & Thomas” would be sufficient. Also, we ask that you PM us the link, send us a board email, or post the link here after you have done so. This way, we can know just how far our project is spreading. Thanks for the appreciation, the contributions, and the support you’ve all given us. We’re always on the hunt for more, so please, if you have something you don’t think is in our list, feel free to share, and we’ll be glad to include it. Thanks again, and happy downloading!

Indeed, Thomas did help me with this project of ours. When updates come about, he’d likely be the one to post them. We hope this contribution will be enjoyed here as much as it is at other places around the web. We try to bring new material at least once a month, but it varies, sometimes more sometimes less. Enjoy it in any case, and if you have something that you feel we should include, please feel free to share. Thanks, and enjoy!

These wallpapers are not created by us, they are what comes by default with the versions of Windows, Mac OSX, various Linux distros, and the many OEM computer distributors. We collect them as a hobby though, yes.

We have not forgotten about this… we’ve just been very busy, like everyone else in the world. We still collect and share whenever we find new material and have time. I expected activity to pick up during the Windows 7 builds once a proper beta testing period began because Longhorn/Vista betas had constant new wallpapers and I knew 7 to be similar.

Main download links:
Linux: http://www.shiftyninjas.net/wallpapers/linux.rar
Apple Mac: http://www.shiftyninjas.net/wallpapers/mac.rar
Microsoft (no Vista): http://www.shiftyninjas.net/wallpapers/microsoft-novista.rar
Microsoft (with Vista): http://www.shiftyninjas.net/wallpapers/microsoft.rar
OEM 1: http://www.shiftyninjas.net/wallpapers/oem1-2.rar
OEM 2: http://www.shiftyninjas.net/wallpapers/oem2-2.rar
to be verified: http://www.shiftyninjas.net/wallpapers/wallpapers.rar
Seven: http://www.shiftyninjas.net/wallpapers/seven.rar

Seven specific:
Build 7048: http://www.shiftyninjas.net/wallpapers/7048_WP.zip
Build 7057: http://www.shiftyninjas.net/wallpapers/7057_walls.rar
Build 7068: http://www.shiftyninjas.net/wallpapers/7068-walls.zip
Build 7072: http://www.shiftyninjas.net/wallpapers/7072_RU.zip
Build 7077: http://www.shiftyninjas.net/wallpapers/7077-walls.rar
Build 7106: http://www.shiftyninjas.net/wallpapers/7106-walls.zip
Regional: http://www.shiftyninjas.net/wallpapers/regional7.rar

Mirror(s):
http://ryan.thevistaforums.com/seven/7048_WP.zip
http://ryan.thevistaforums.com/seven/7057_walls.rar
http://ryan.thevistaforums.com/seven/7068-walls.zip
http://ryan.thevistaforums.com/seven/7072_RU.zip
http://ryan.thevistaforums.com/seven/7077-walls.rar
http://ryan.thevistaforums.com/seven/7106-walls.zip
http://ryan.thevistaforums.com/seven/regional7.rar

Please enjoy. My partner in this project has been keeping himself very busy for a long time now, but as I said we have not been neglecting this project or the gallery. It’s been just me trying to keep it updated with only RAR files, but I promise to announce when he’s got a proper gallery going (unless anyway else is up for the time consuming task).

Open Letter to Microsoft and the Community
22 September 2008 in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

These are not my words, but the words of a great friend of mine, and I’m helping him be heard by sharing this with everyone else and spreading it around.

I decided to write this letter with the help of various others in the community who agree with my assessment of current things relating to Windows 7 and the way it is being handled. Enjoy the letter, I think we make a LOT of good points that need to be considered.

The growing number of atrocities committed by Steven Sinofsky as the Senior Vice President of the Windows group has been mounting week by week. Recently, I think we saw the effect of this boil over. But first, before we get into that, I think we need to examine who he is and what he has done.

Steven Sinofsky was brought in during a time of great turmoil, when Microsoft was doing it’s damnedest to recover from the mess that Jim Allchin and Brian Valentine made. Don’t get me wrong, they were good people and had only the best of intentions, but they made a damn mess out of Windows. Windows was late, unstable, and had an entire Operating System scrapped, billions wasted.

Now, put yourself in the shoes of a board member of Microsoft. Here we have the two highest revenue generating products, one ships like clockwork, pushes out innovation, is loved, has no PR problems, and most often comes in under budget. Then, we have this other product. It’s getting horrible press, it keeps getting delayed, it’s budget grows and its performance decreases.

The only logical choice is for Windows managed like Office. I must say, I was pretty excited when I heard that the Windows ship would be ran as tightly as Office. But as time passed, that excitement waned. It was two months after Windows Vista RTM’d that it became clear what kind of ship Windows was going to be.

Steven Sinofsky’s defiance to talk about Windows Vista Service Pack 1 painted the picture of what the road to the next version of Windows would be like. All we wanted to know is what Service Pack 1 would be. Would it fix performance bugs? Would it fix file transfer speeds? Should we have any hope that Windows Vista would get better? Alas, none of these questions were answered.

Soon after, Steven, under your directive, Microsoft employees were not even allowed to acknowledge that they were working on a new version of Windows. This was purely ludicrous, as we all know you would not have thousands of employees spinning around in their ergonomic chairs, in their beautiful little offices. The refusal to admit such a mundane detail was where your castle started to crumble.

This enraged us, and made us determined to undermine you in any way possible. We chose the method of rumor mongering. This gave way to the general belief that the next version of Windows would “go to pieces” or other stupid ideas. I will admit, this was not at all how we should of reacted. But you left us no choice. Damn it, you would not even let the name “Windows 7” be spoken until November of 2007!

As you continued to keep up your policy of defiance, all of us got even more and more angry. All the Microsoft contacts that anyone in this community had were starting to let their anger show. These people WANTED to let people know what was going on with their features, or at least wanted to hear what customers thought about what they had. You had succeeded at enraging your employees and the Windows Enthusiasts.

For you see, the culture, the very essence of the Windows Enthusiast / Microsoft relationship was based on openness and sharing. It is obvious but unnecessary that you didn’t want to be as open with Windows 7 as you were with Windows Longhorn. As I already mentioned, the management of Windows Longhorn was horrible, which is something that Windows 7 would not suffer from. You used, (and have continued to use) Windows Longhorn as an excuse to not talk.

Who could resist the temptations of an Apple like disclosure policy? We know how those psycho zealots react at their cult gatherings conferences. Who wouldn’t want that for their product? But Steven, you do not realize that Apple has always been like that. Windows was never like that, that is why such a drastic transition would never work… You attempted to wrap a fusion of Apple secrecy and Office management around this thing called Windows. This experiment failed miserably, and any competent manager would have recognized this failure with the reception of how Service Pack 1 was handled.

I am sure that Steve Ballmer has seen this failure on your part, but it would be impossible to remove you in the middle of the Windows development. In fact, you have strategically placed yourself at the heart of Windows 8 before Windows 7 has even reached beta, to make sure that you cannot be removed without the project falling apart.

You had the opportunity to talk about the Windows 7 vision, possibly even give monthly “State of Windows” videos on Channel 9. But no. You chose complete secrecy. And do not even try and comfort yourself with this “Engineering 7 blogs.” You have this innate ability to talk so much and say so little. Karl Rove would be proud of you. Do you see what this has done? It has made it so when something does leak, it is spread to all corners of the community with anger and aggression, with the sole purpose as a vendetta against you and solely you.

Over this past week, there has been an explosion of leaked information regarding 6780. Steven, this is directly because of your choice to remain quiet. Would you have simply announced if PDC attendees should expect a build of Windows 7, you would not have this problem on your hands.

In the past, Windows has always had a face. For quite some time we had Bill Gates. He was and still is revered as a God. Then, we got Jim Allchin and he did a pretty good job as the face of Windows. Despite his blunder known as Longhorn, he was who we rallied around. This time, you have not given us a person like that. You have stood in the shadows, and given us a person to hate. Our hatred for you grows every day that you are in the seat of power that you are in. As a community, we need someone to look up to. We need a face. If you chose to swoop in now and be the face of Windows, we would see right through it as a PR ploy. I implore you to get this through your head. We do not want you. Now, nor shall we ever.

But, let it be known, we do need someone to rally around. There is such a person in the Windows group. This is a person who motivates the employees. This person can lead the designing of new paradigms by developing brilliant new research methods. This person is willing to speak to the public. This person is possibly the only one who could replace you with the plans for future versions of Windows failing apart. This person knows what you have done right, and knows what you have failed horribly at. This person knows how to keep the customers happy. This person is Julie Larson-Green.

Julie Larson-Green led the development of the highly successful ribbon UI and keeps all her employees happy. When we hear that she will be in a public forum, we all get giddy at the idea of hearing her speak. Julie has seen your miserable failures, and she would know what to do and what not to do. She would find the balance between transparency and translucency.

That is why I am asking that the Windows Community backs me in my request to the CEO of the Microsoft Corporation Steve Ballmer, the Founder and Chairman of the board of the Microsoft Corporation, and the rest of the Board of Directors of the Microsoft Corporation recognize Steven Sinofsky’s failures, and back me in my request that Steven Sinofsky be replaced by Julie Larson-Green at the end of the development of Windows 7.

I sincerely thank all of you for your time.

-Chris Holmes
(Chris123NT) And the rest of the Microsoft Enthusiast community

Source(s): Chris123NT via iWinUX

Loveless Acts
26 July 2008 in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

Neowin forum #168
17 July 2008 in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

NSFW – Back Stage Pass

Welcome to the Neowin backstage area. This is a subscriber only area, so there are some house rules when posting here.

• This area may contain non work-safe posts, topics posted here may not be discussed in the public forums.
• People old, sensible and mature enough to contribute to the Neowin ‘gold reserve’ are also expected to show the same maturity in judgment.
  If you don’t like this area, skip it and enjoy our other subscriber options that you paid for.
• While we observe a lax ruleset here, flamebaiting and general assholiness is still considered a warnable offense.
• Pornography and graphically violent pictures are still not acceptable in this area. ‘Babes’ are..

Other than the above, don’t try to wiggle through loopholes, (that will just piss off the moderators) just enjoy yourselves in this less restricted area.

BetaXP
25 June 2008 in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

The BetaXP community has decided to close up shop and move over to the iWinUX community. BetaXP administration has made an executive decision in the best interests of its members to be a part of a new and active and growing community. You are welcome to come join us.

There are still plans for the site.

BetaXP administration will continue using the site for personal storage and email. Nic setup his blog on there to keep everyone updated about events happening in his life.

The community is happily living on at iWinUX. We accepted BetaXP did not remain active, and decided a fresh start was a good idea.

Still want to keep in touch with us? You will find us at iWinUX!