访谈录 Interview 2007-02-06&08, Vista和Apple大撞车

So David you noticed some similarities there between Window's Vista¹ and Apple's operating system OS 10.

Oh, well, kinda like kicks you between the eyes. I don't mean to imply that Vista is nothing but copies from Apple. But there are some certain similarities that are unmistakable.

All right, so walk us through some of them here.

Well, for example, if you click the start menu you get the redesigned start menu with the search box at the bottom. And anything you type into that box Vista instantly finds every program, document, e-mail, address book entry from your entire computer in one second. Extremely useful.

Pretty handy.

Now, let me switch over to the Mac OS 10, it happens to be also not just extremely handy but extremely similar to the identical search feature that's been on Mac OS 10 for a year and a half or so.

But it's called something different.

Well, yeah, and also, I should say it's not identical. Apple's is in the upright corner. Though the Microsoft one is in the lower left. So, it's not the same thing at all.

Completely different.

Yeah, exactly.

All right. So what's another example?

Er, there's a great new photo gallery program in Window's Vista. This is a great way to organize your photos. You can touch them up, e-mail them, organize them. The only thing is, I'm gonna switch over to the Mac now. It's extremely similar to this program, I-photo which's been around on the Apple for years again; they can larger, smaller do whatever you need to do.

I have to say if I blinked I wouldn't have known that you switch between one and the other.

Here's Window Vista, highly touted² new feature, something called the Sidebar. Otherwise called Gadgets³. These are individual single-purpose dedicated⁴ little programs, one for the weather report, one for your stock portfolio⁵, one for notes, so on, very useful, not bloated, not complicated to use. But also highly similar to the same thing on the Mac, of course these are called widgets, not gadgets. So you can see there're really nothing ( not exactly the same thing).

The same but different.

Exactly.

And, and I'm not saying, by the way, that Apple doesn't also steal from Microsoft on occasion. They do. And does it really matter? No, it doesn't. because what happens is both operating systems get better. And these definitely are improvements to Vista.

So, can the question be answered, who is copying who or who is first in something?

Um, it's very tricky⁶, because you'll find people who even point out that these things came before Mac OS 10, there was a Shower Program that you could use on the Mac that did the same sort of things. So, who really began the idea, hard to say. But what you can say is who identified it first as a worthy⁷ edition. And I have to say Apple is leading the race on that one.

1 vista   

n.远景，深景，展望，回想

参考例句：

• From my bedroom window I looked out on a crowded vista of hills and rooftops.我从卧室窗口望去，远处尽是连绵的山峦和屋顶。
• These uprisings come from desperation and a vista of a future without hope.发生这些暴动是因为人们被逼上了绝路，未来看不到一点儿希望。

2 touted   

v.兜售( tout的过去式和过去分词 )；招揽；侦查；探听赛马情报

参考例句：

• She's being touted as the next leader of the party. 她被吹捧为该党的下一任领导人。
• People said that he touted for his mother and sister. 据说，他给母亲和姐姐拉生意。 来自辞典例句

3 gadgets   

n.小机械，小器具（ gadget的名词复数 ）

参考例句：

• Certainly. The idea is not to have a house full of gadgets. 当然。设想是房屋不再充满小配件。 来自超越目标英语 第4册
• This meant more gadgets and more experiments. 这意味着要设计出更多的装置，做更多的实验。 来自英汉非文学 - 科学史

4 dedicated   

adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的

参考例句：

• He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
• His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。

5 portfolio   

n.公事包；文件夹；大臣及部长职位

参考例句：

• He remembered her because she was carrying a large portfolio.他因为她带着一个大公文包而记住了她。
• He resigned his portfolio.他辞去了大臣职务。

6 tricky   

adj.狡猾的，奸诈的；(工作等)棘手的，微妙的

参考例句：

• I'm in a rather tricky position.Can you help me out?我的处境很棘手，你能帮我吗？
• He avoided this tricky question and talked in generalities.他回避了这个非常微妙的问题，只做了个笼统的表述。

7 worthy   

adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的

参考例句：

• I did not esteem him to be worthy of trust.我认为他不值得信赖。
• There occurred nothing that was worthy to be mentioned.没有值得一提的事发生。