Long read: The beauty and drama of video games and their clouds

"It's a little bit hard to work out without knowing the altitude of that dragon..."

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Whistler in the Wind

Wondering what Microsoft's next generation operating system looks like?

"Whistler" is an unlikely name for Microsoft's new operating system. "Windows 2K1" or something like that would have seemed a more likely candidate, but as we close in on the product's final stages of development, it seems ever more likely with each passing day that Microsoft will be keeping the nonsensical codename. Beyond the name, Whistler is Microsoft's next generation kernel, which will supposedly unite NT levels of stability with 9x levels of performance. That sounds remarkably familiar, does it not? Ah well, if you were actually wondering what the company intended to do with the operating system besides rehash Windows 2000 ad campaigns, then you ought to weave your way over to an article on this website, "Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows." The article, which is entitled "Whistler Build 2410: On the Road to Beta 2," features up to date information on the new system and the advanced, simplified menu system which has been integrated into it. There are of course plenty of new screenshots of the system in action as well. It all looks very smooth, with some interested new additions, like a bastardized verison of EZ CD Creator so that anyone with a CD writer can drag and drop items to disc using Explorer, and personalised network protocols, aimed at mobile users, so that you can move your machine between home and work networks without reconfiguring. Read the full article here.