Have you seen an advert for Vista yet?

The consumer launch is tomorrow, yet you’d be troubled to guess. Aside from a window in PC World on Tottenham Court Road, I’ve seen more Mac advertising right now than Vista. Discussing this with a colleague, we were troubled to remember such a low key launch, particularly in relation to the elongated gestation period of the OS.

Granted, the *real* promotion doesn’t start just yet. But if I’ve spent billions on a product, I might stump up for a few ads right about now…

So let’s do Vista-ad watch. Where have *you* seen one?

I’m looking at a print advert right now which is telling me that Vista Ultimate in a retail box will cost me £369.99 inc VAT. Meanwhile, if I want the bells and whistles, top of the range Office Ultimate 2007, that’s another £599.99.

Amazing. Two pieces of software, on which Microsoft hang half of their turnover, and to attract buyers to the top of the range versions, nearly £1000 needs to be lifted from their pockets. Even the Standard versions of both will relieve over £500 from your bank account if you pay full whack.

Is it any wonder, then, that already many stores are offering OEM copies of the software at much, much cheaper prices. Of course, to benefit from the OEM price the software can only be sold with requisite hardware, and it’s tied to one machine only. Microsoft are believed to be cracking down on OEM software being sold openly, yet that plan already seems to be failing. Is it any wonder that prospective early adopters, the loyal customers who surely Microsoft should be looking after, are being tempted by prices closer to 40% of the full retail price?

Yet even that’s not going to tempt many, I fear. With reports coming in already of driver problems, and with the pricing surely unrealistic in a market where computer pricing has been sliding down, how long before Microsoft have to offer some genuine incentive to encourage take up of their OS?

Both products are real, marked improvements. But neither is worth that kind of money.
WIll you be buying them?

A brief respite from outside toilets and trains for a minute: instead, a moment of triumph. It’s like one of those moments where you complete the last level of a computer game, and look to celebrate it with somebody. But until the Internet came along, there was noone there. With a bit of luck, someone will click on this entry and will feel the pride coming through the screen.

Anyway, the reason for my happiness (and that’s how you spell it, Will Smith) is that since this morning, I’ve more than doubled my web access speed at home, and conversely - at least for the immediate future - I’m paying less for it! It took, from start to finish, five minutes. Three of them were reading posts online from people who had enjoyed similar success, the next eighteen seconds was listening to an automated message, and the remainder of the time was used convincing the man at the end of the line that Sky Broadband might like my business. Result!

Er, I’ll be miserable and toilet-bound again next time, no doubt. But I’m determined to enjoy one of the few points I score!

There’s nothing like a good price hike on your train fare to put you in the best frame of mind for the New Year. But considering Christmas consisted of a mixture of fitting an outside toilet, struggling to master Virtua Tennis on Sony PSP and socks, it’s perhaps unsurprising that things haven’t got off to the best of starts.

I’ve been cheered immensely though by the numerous Micro Mart readers who have contributed over the Festive Season to our Windows Crashing feature. The idea behind it is simple: when there’s a public information screen of some sorts that shows Windows in a state of disrepair, they snap a photo and send it over to us. And we print one a week.

Only thing is, we might have to make more space at this rate. Recent contributions seem to cover most airports, motorway service stations and airports, along with Universal Studios, NASA and Times Square. It’s surprising how many of those screens are powered by Windows XP, and it’s surprising how badly XP covers its tracks when it’s gone tits up.

Not to worry though. Vista will make it all better…!