Windows 7 really was some girl's idea, rules ASA The ASA has ruled that it's perfectly plausible to claim that Windows 7 was developed by a bunch of rugby players' girlfriends, "private-browsing" dads, and spud-faced kids in Spanish cafes rather than a bunch of highly trained, generously paid developers in Redmond. The ruling came in response to eight complaints about one of …
I was one of those who complained, and of course I didn't believe the adverts... but the problem is that huge numbers of people *do* believe that Windows is a brilliant operating system and that Microsoft *did* invent all of this stuff. The same people who think they ought to pay Microsoft for anti-virus software to counter the fact that Windows is inherently broken in the first place, and that having to re-boot your computer every few days is a natural part of having a computer.
Jeez... Microsoft has been fined over a BILLION euros by the European Court of First Instance for multiple instances of criminal abuse of its near monopoly on operating systems... don't you think that challenging some of the wilder claims it makes about its crapware is a sensible thing to do?
"TBH, that Ad just made me think rugby players are idiots"
Things don't bode particularly well for the girl either if spangly new laptop (plus data) ultimately suffers the same fate, does it? [hence Paris ] ;)
...not particularly convinced "to the cloud! [Windows logo appears Batman-style]" necessarily conveys the intended impression either, but at least it's passably amusing either way.
"..when they understood that the feature had been available for several years on other operating systems..."
Other operating systems like Windows XP Media Centre edition and Windows Vista.
Seriously though, if the complainants want to show me another operating system where it's possible to have a full functioning PVR with support for terrestrial, cable and satellite without installing any additional software and that can be set up by a rugby players boyfriend (rather than someone who knows how to configure a mysql server), then they might have a point.
MythTV has problems with encoded content, such as the standard "digital cable" that's being punted around here. No more analog channels, no more MythTV :( Shame I can't find a decent setup that doesn't require serial wiring to the channel-changing hookups on the back of the cable-provider-provided box. I'm sure Windows has the same problem though, so moot point?
"If this leaves you feeling that having to have the joke explained means it didn't really work, no matter"
I think it worked for the rest of the population, it just flew over the heads of 8 idiots... Not uncommon. Actually thought they were pretty good adverts.
Now the advert featuring a woman who Photoshops her family by using "the cloud", now that's a different kettle of fish that I don't really get either..
*Oh*. I'd always assumed that the ads were supposed to mean that someone (presumably lots of people) had given Microsoft some feedback, and they'd listened to it and added the feature. Which is a far more comical idea, now I come to think of it.
I'd always asumed the same the advert models were represnting people who had left feedback to microsoft (or microsoft had some sort of Focus Group event and got ideas from idiots who have time to spare to attend focus groups)
Then it turns out microsoft are saying that the ideas were deceitfully stolen from other people and put into windows 7, same old microshaft... buy 'em out boys!
Apple redefined PC to mean "any home computer that isn't an apple" ages ago. After all, Macs are PCs (personal computers) but they decided they didn't want to be associated with what they are and claimed they were somehow different. Hardware wise the only difference is the apple stamp and being 2 years behind the rest of the market, just like dell, only at a 3x premium for that stamp. Software wise they are still just bastardized unix from the version of NExT they forked off of and their own special UI.
According to the Mac App launch, the computers that the new App Store (retail download-only) software titles run on are PCs.
I would interpret "Windows 7 was my idea" to mean at least "The feature that I just described is in Windows 7 and was not in previous versions", but apparently I know nothing.
Now, it would've been comical for someone to complain about the (thankfully) discontinued "I'm a Mac, and I'm a PC" ads because the snobbish bastard was clearly not a fruity PC*, and the other guy was clearly not a PC.
* They're both IBM-compatible PCs running x86 hardware. The only difference is the software and the outer look!
"They're both IBM-compatible PCs running x86 hardware" It's not that simple. An Apple designed Personal Computer (or 'Mac') isn't actually IBM compatible (AT/ATX etc.). Contrary to popular belief, perpetuated by trolls like you, only the Mac Pro contains what could be described as 'off-the-shelf' parts, and while Windows can be installed without OS X being on the machine it's inadvisable.
If being able to watch TV is an "inbuilt capability" then surely all Windows 7 users in the UK need to ensure they have a TV license, and sellers of machines with Windows 7 installed need to ensure the buyers details are passed on to the TV Licensing organisation so they can send out their usual extortion letter demanding money.
Whether a user uses it to watch TV is not the point, but that the machine how has the capability to do this is. If I own a TV then I need a license whether I watch TV channels or not!
Only if they have the receiver hardware included. When you buy one of those USB TV sticks in PC World they ask for your details so they can pass them onto the TVLA but just having software that can decode/record/playback TV signals doesn't require a license as the legislation doesn't cover that.
Its an inbuilt capacity to handle a DVB-T or S signal.
The claim is quite specific - no additional sofware required. You still need the hardware and if you bought a boxen with a tuner card and win7 installed in the UK you would find that the retailed would pass on your details to TVlicensing.
Its the tuner card that makes you TV capable.
As for plugging a tuner card into a Linux box and having it go "oh great - a TV card - here's some tv to watch" - good one, very funny.
it requires extra hardware to watch tv, the license will be required when you buy that. If you buy a TV card for any pc they send your details to TV licensing.
If the windows 7 computer already has the hardware, the computer supplier will pass your details on to them.
Microsoft may not be that great but Windows 7 is actually pretty good. but most of you slagging it wouldn't have used it would you?
You only need a tv license in the UK if you watch broadcast stuff on your screen (TV, computer etc).
I have used Windows 7 for about a week ... it is way faster and better than Vista, but that is not the point ... it is still slower than XP. Also, they fixed the memory bug that appeared in Vista where it used twice as much RAM than actually required.
Apart from that, they changed the ui so much it is crap, it took me ages to find things in the beginning ... the start menu browsing has become useless - the old way was better/more efficient .... ok, you can search, but what if you cannot remember the name, but recognize the icon or its name when you see it?
A waste of time ... no ifs, buts or maybes about it.
Any UK internet connected computer capable of playing streamed flash, running iPlayer, etc. etc. requires a TV license. That would include an ancient old PC running Win95, any iPhone, Macs of many generations, even my Sony Ericsson C905 Symbian phone. There is nothing special about Win7 in that regard. And yes, the likes of Dixons, etc. are obliged to pass your name / address on anyway.
If you're worried about the extortionate rates of a license I suggest you take a look at TV from other countries and decide whether you'd prefer that instead. But if you're UK based you have got a license haven't you? You're not freeloading off the rest of us are you?
The W7 adverts are quite obviously just jokes that inform the viewer of certain features and the ASA has agreed. Let's be honest here, the adverts are pretty funny/awesome right and do make you feel better about buying W7?
What we did discover today though is that 8 people have no life.
Paris because making good prons was her idea.
***"It added that Windows 7 was the only broadly available platform which supported both DVB-T and DVB-S without additional software."***
DVB-T and DVB-S support has been built into the Linux kernel for some time. Certainly before Windows 7 (or even Vista) hit the streets.
The last time I checked, Linux was "Broadly available" to anyone who can be arsed to choose a distro, download and install it.
"I'm a PC" was an obvious - and I think successful - attempt to counter Apple's advertising. It went a something like this:"Hey folks! Apple thinks that everyone who uses a Windows PC is a dork. You use a Windows PC. Everyone uses a Windows PC. Do you like it that Apple thinks you're all dorks?"
I thought "Windows 7 was my idea" was fairly obviously an attempt by Microsoft to brand Windows 7 as "the new Windows you want" and position themselves as "listening to customer feedback" after the public image disaster of Vista, which was the new version of Windows that nobody wanted.
Anyone who takes adverts so literally as to complain about this round of Microsoft advertising will be absolutely *gutted* to learn that you can't wear trainers in space, that you can't cheat death by bribing John Malkovich with coffee, and meerkats are not indigenous to Russia.
Those Mac/PC adverts were tedious enough to warrant poking fun at, the implication that everyone wants to be a polo neck wearing coolster rather than a bespecticaled nerd (or just a normal person, who has a computer) was pretty insulting. At least they dropped them pretty quickly in the UK, but in the US, they were much more savage with the Mac and PC characters being transparantly Steve Jobs and Bill Gates and they kept being shown again and again.
I recently got a serious work request for a machine to record the contents of a person's brain.
It was suggested that since a toy had been seen on tv that did something like that, then it must be possible.
The person had a budget of 200 quid.
So yes people do believe adverts, that's who they are made for!!!
Although it may be hard to believe but i think that the people who post on this forum forget that they are far more evolved and intelligent than the average tech user / tv consumer / general citizen.
(that last bit was a joke)
Since buying a Windows 7 PC I find that I'm hounded and pursued by gangs of females just begging for it and eager to satisfy my every need whenever I go out. So much so that I no longer have need for any browser and high-speed internet connection.
Thank you Microsoft. Or maybe it's the spray-on deodorant I also bought at the same time?
About the only car I have driven that has zero feedback through any of the controls, at all.
Despite having half the power, the Ka I drive for work is actually faster point to point because I can tell what it's doing through the seat of the pants/steering wheel/pedals - it gives you confidence to drive it harder, and allows you to keep up a higher average speed as a result. The C4 is the opposite of that - it forces you drive conservatively because you can't tell what it's up to.
Citroen C4 - hateful, hateful thing.
Steven R
Will somebody kindly explain what "life without walls" is supposed to mean?
Without walls, the roof would collapse on me and life would very swiftly end
The same also applies to completely wank car adverts where cars appear to fly.
IIm sorry but cars dont fly (yet) and I wouldnt buy one if they did in case it ran on Windows.
"The ASA has ruled that it's perfectly plausible to claim that Windows 7 was developed by a bunch of rugby players' girlfriends, "private-browsing" dads, and spud-faced kids in Spanish cafes rather than a bunch of highly trained, generously paid developers in Redmond."
Aha, they've obviously used a previous version or two of windows. Some of them definitely feel as though they were developed by rugby players' girlfriends!
Mind you, a lot of their software is like that, so I can see where the ASA are coming from with that one ;)
I believe the news here has been horribly overlooked namely...
ASA in sensible decision shocker!
The ASA in a radical change from normal procedures decides that if only 8 people complained about an advert that millions must have seen and ignored / got the joke / didn't give a toss about and therefore concludes the 8 people concerned are fuckwits that seriously need to get a life.
I think you'll find mactards smug rather than bitter.
I suspect that the overall issue is that the "get a mac" campaign was generally thought to be clever, funny and entertaining whereas the "I'm a pc" campaign is annoying.
Irony, thy name is Microsoft.
I was really hoping that someone would cook up a Web site, where you could upload a photo of yourself (looking like the people in these ads), add your own caption, and get a spoof "I'm a PC..." ad.
It would've been fun to have an ad reading "I'm a PC, and Windows 7 can bite me". Especially if I could stick Tux on there in place of the Winlogo...
........you would have you would have to be so brain dead that you would have difficulty walking and breathing at the same time, let alone have any idea what a pc was. I say that without taking any position concerning the quality of the advertisements per se. The Famous Eight remind very strongly of those supporters (two men and dog) the late Mary Whitehouse had who always managed to fined _something_ offensive to complain about even if it was the weather forecast.
>> I really think that in order to be "mislead" by those ads you would have you would have to be so brain dead that you would have difficulty walking and breathing at the same time, let alone have any idea what a pc was.
Sounds like the perfect description of the average PC World Customer (or staffer for that matter). Perhaps that is what PC stands for, *P*C World *C*ustomer
Invention is subjective. You invent something because you don't know what exists outside your world. That doesn't necessarily mean that what you've invented is unique, its more likely to be an expression of how little you know.
This advertising was just a way of trying to illustrate how Win7's UI has a "common touch", designed for use by ordinary people. (Its certainly not designed for use by computer users.)
Microsoft implied that recording telly on on your PC is a new feature only possible with Windows 7. Only 8 people complained, but I bet more than 8 idiots went out and bought Windows 7 because they wanted to record telly. The other 999,992 idiots are still trying to install Windows 7 or work out why they can't record record telly with TV tuner or work out why their DVD Player won't read the DVD.
BTW, with regard to the point someone made about TV licenses and buying a TV card, when you buy any hardware capable of receiving broadcast television, the supplier is required to pass on your details - however you aren't (AFAIK) required to give the correct details to the retailer (or even any details).
Also BTW, if you buy a telly at Tesco and use a clubcard, they won't ask you for your address, they'll take it from their database.
Indeed. I could watch tv on RISC OS in the late 1980s/early 90s. It entailed taking the video output from the Teletext adapter and feeding it into a digitiser podule. It wasn't great but I could get screen grabs from tv programmes. I've also had Eye-tv on the Mac for quite a while.
XP has been around almost a decade, even if everybody who had a Windows XP system bought a Windows 7 system, it would still not outsell, since ppl have had several pc's over the decade .... or do you mean it outsells XP, which you cannot get your hands on now except in niche markets, counting sales since Windows 7 came out?
LOL
Linux outsold Vista .. LOLZ
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