Getting creative with the sounds from Windows 98 and Windows XP combined in a sound tracker software.

One of the most famous wallpaper images is undoubtedly the default Windows XP image showing a blissfully relaxing vista of green rolling hills and a bluer than blue sky. The wallpaper, probably one of the most viewed images of all time, is aptly named ‘Bliss.’ Do a Google image search for just the word ‘bliss,’ and the first result is the Windows wallpaper.

For Dutch Windows users however, the name of the image is Ireland, which has mistakenly led many to believe that that’s where the image was taken.

Have you ever stopped to wonder where the image was taken, or who took it? In fact, the image is so crisp you might have assumed it wasn’t real at all.

The man behind the camera  is American photographer Charles O’Rear. Don’t let his name fool you into thinking that the photo was in fact taken in Ireland. Bliss, as it turns out, is in California. In Sonoma County to be exact.

The photo was taken in 1996, years before Windows XP launched, and before the area was converted into a vineyard. In fact, a photo taken 10 years later from exactly the same spot where Bliss was shot, shows a disappointingly, dreary view:

The image has since made its way off of users’ computer and can be spotted in some of the most unexpected places. O’Rear himself has seen the image in the window of a restaurant in a Thai village and in the background of a TV interview with the Venezuelan president.

So how much did O’Rear get for taking what is considered one of the most famous photos of all time? A non-disclosure agreement prevents him from revealing the actual figure, but according to Napa Valley Register, O’Rear stated that it was:

“extraordinary” and second only to that paid to another living, working photographer for the photo of then-President Bill Clinton hugging Monica Lewinsky.

Taken with a medium format camera, the most surprising fact about the image is that O’Rear claims that it wasn’t digitally manipulated.

Either way, the present day reality is a far cry from the idyllic image that Windows abandoned with the advent of Windows Vista.

JW Van Wessel found the exact coordinates of the location, and thanks to Google Street View, you can get a 360 degree view of the area, and see exactly how it looks today:

Behind where O’Rear stood, you can see more vineyards:

While to the left and right is little else but endless highways:

SlimComputer is designed to be a simple to use utility to identify and remove many of the common trialware and annoying software that is typically shipped with new PCs. This utility helps you remove unneeded programs, toolbars, shortcuts, start-up entries, and services and slims down your new PC to make it run fast and clean.

A key feature of SlimComputer is it uses a community-powered feedback to determine useless things on your new PC. You can use this data to decide what you want to keep on your computer.

SlimComputer has the following features

1. A Slim System – Get rid of the promo bulk that comes on a new PC.
2. Applications – Remove unneeded, pre-installed software.
3. Toolbars – Remove unuseful Toolbars that can slow browsing.
4. Startup items – Remove unnecessary Startup items to boost speed.
5. Shortcuts – Remove unwanted shortcuts that clutter your desktop.
6. Restore – Undo any changes done by SlimComputer with one click.
7. Optimizer – Tweak Startup & Windows services to boost performance.
8. Uninstaller – Remove software based on community-sourced ratings.
9. Windows Tools – Get the most useful management tools in one place.

You can download SlimComputer free at source here.

So true its hurts

Core Temp is an app that true geeks sill surely love. It really only does one thing, but does it very well: it reports on the temperature of your processor, and can even grab the temperature of each individual core. A list of the supported processors (current as of September 2010) can be found below, and if yours is on the list I’d say you’re in for a real treat.

When you go to download Core Temp you’ll see that it comes in a variety of flavors: an installer or standalone/portable 32-bit and 64-bit versions. It’s the additional reporting methods that really make the app shine. You can get a Vista/Windows 7 gadget (pictured in the screenshot above), a Windows Media Center add-on, a utility that graphs the processor temperature over time, and more.

I like that the developer offers these additional features as separate downloads because it keeps the main program light and efficient. Not only that, but version 1.0 is in the works and will make it easier for developers to tap into the information that Core Temp reports on. Basically, this free app will only get better.

Want to give it a whirl? Here’s a list of processors that Core Temp is able to provide temperature data on:

Supported AMD Processors:

• All Phenom / Phenom II series.
• All Athlon II series.
• All Turion II series.
• All Athlon64 series.
• All Athlon64 X2 series.
• All Athlon64 FX series.
• All Turion64 series.
• All Turion64 X2 series.
• All Sempron series. (K8 and K10.5 based)
• Single Core Opterons starting with SH-C0 revision and up. (K8 based)
• All Dual Core Opteron series. (K8 based)
• All Quad Core Opteron series. (K10 based)
• All Hexa Core Opteron series. (K10.5 based)
• All 12 Core Opteron series. (K10.5 based)

Supported Intel Processors:

• Core i3, i5, i7 series.
• Atom.
• All Core Solo series.
• All Core Duo series.
• All Core 2 Duo series.
• All Core 2 Quad series.
• All Core 2 Extreme series.
• All Celeron-M 400 and 500 series.
• All Celeron E1000 and E3000 series.
• All Pentium E2000, E2100, E2200, E5000, E6000 and E7000 series.
• All Dual Core Low Voltage Xeons series (Yonah based. Untested).
• All Xeon 3000, 3200, 3300, 5100, 5300, 5400, 5500, 5600, 6500, 7400, 7500 series.

[ Core Temp HomePage ]