XP Bliss Location? | The Coffeehouse

ricodued

This has probably been asked a couple hundred times before, but I was wondering last night, Hey, I wonder where XP's default 'Bliss' background was taken... I only ask because I thought it would be neat to look it up on Virtual Earth or something.

Does anyone actually know where the picture was taken, or, probably more likely, is it not really an actual place, just a fabricated background?

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"Energy Bliss" was taken in New Zealand... I don't know where the "official" bliss is from.

W3bbo
The Master of Baiters

IIRC, it was some place in California.

Although recently I was in some sparse region of Englandland and I noticed the rolling hills were very similar (and it was a sunny day too). So I guess it could be anywhere.

eagle

It's in South West Kerry, Eire.

I witnessed the photo being taken and often rode up that road on my bike with a laptop on my back.

jonathanh
My mod color is red

W3bbo wrote:
IIRC, it was some place in California.

Yep, "just outside Napa" according to a Microsoft spokesperson
http://s-r.com/local/story_txt.asp?date=022204&ID=s1490284

eagle

All the Sample Photos included with Windows XP were taken around my village in Kerry.

Frog Design did the look of Windows XP, they also designed the Apple look.

To anyone who doesn't believe me, I'll take you there!

daSmirnov

I love this topic.

I forwarded quite a few people to some of Eagle's past posts as he has such a good case. And the terrain of south-west Ireland seems pretty similiar.

You can see the mountains just in the background of Bliss, if my guestimations from a few tidbits of info are right then these are across the Bay of Ballinskelligs and was taken somewhere south of Waterville.

Eagle indulge us please. Cool

I suppose to the ultimate way to find out would be to get a fund together and send out some expeditions. I really think Ireland should be our first stop, then may be the Caribbean somewhere. Wink

Karim
Trapped in a world he never made!

ricodued wrote:
This has probably been asked a couple hundred times before, but I was wondering last night, Hey, I wonder where XP's default 'Bliss' background was taken... I only ask because I thought it would be neat to look it up on Virtual Earth or something.

Does anyone actually know where the picture was taken, or, probably more likely, is it not really an actual place, just a fabricated background?

It does look rather suspiciously like the planet of Naboo:

It's not such a bad thing to not know where it is, or even if it exists... after all, ignorance is bliss...

blowdart
Peek-a-boo

daSmirnov wrote:
I love this topic.

I forwarded quite a few people to some of Eagle's past posts as he has such a good case. And the terrain of south-west Ireland seems pretty similiar.

That's no saying much, the terrain of the north, around the Sperrins looks similiar as well Smiley

eagle

daSmirnov wrote:
Bay of Ballinskelligs

.

Where did you get that? It's Ballinskelligs Bay and if you walked up that hill you would fall into water.

The photo was taken in Baslickane and I hope to be back there in the spring to snap another photo.

That sunset photo was taken at Raheen pier and if you study it you will see the same mountains that are in the bliss view.

daSmirnov

eagle wrote:
Where did you get that? It's Ballinskelligs Bay and if you walked up that hill you would fall into water.

The photo was taken in Baslickane and I hope to be back there in the spring to snap another photo.

That sunset photo was taken at Raheen pier and if you study it you will see the same mountains that are in the bliss view.

Probably got it from you in an earlier discussion and made some guestimates of my own. Tongue Out

So the camera is pointing in a westerly direction?

eagle

Yes....it was taken in June 2000 a few weeks after the grass was cut for silage.

W3bbo
The Master of Baiters

eagle wrote:
Yes....it was taken in June 2000 a few weeks after the grass was cut for silage.

The B.S.-o-meter is pointing to "John Titor"

LaBomba
Summer

Wow, this should really be under techoff.

dimmy

The photo was actually taken by Charles O’Rear in Sonoma County, California, 30 miles north of San Francisco. However, after this photo was taken, this location had became a vineyard. Perhaps someone can locate this and take an after-photo for comparison. Big Smile

Cairo
I want my waffle sundae, give me my carbs!

eagle wrote:
It's in South West Kerry, Eire. I witnessed the photo being taken and often rode up that road on my bike with a laptop on my back. All the Sample Photos included with Windows XP were taken around my village in Kerry.

dimmy wrote:
The photo was actually taken by Charles O’Rear in Sonoma County, California, 30 miles north of San Francisco.

Ha, ha.
/

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Cairo
I want my waffle sundae, give me my carbs!

http://www.wineviews.com/wccscenery/index.html

Loading Image

DrMavrick

I drive past this place for years and I was pretty sure it was here that they took the picture. It is now a vineyard and does not look the same. It is along Highway 121 between Sonoma and Napa. If you google map this address 3032 Fremont Dr, Sonoma, CA, United States you can see it today by going to street view. the photo for street view is a foggy fall day but it is the same Bliss photo hill. It looks incredible when the leaves change color in the fall, but right now it does not look too special. Hope this helps.

peterwillcn

RoyalSchrubber
One. How many time travellers does it take to change a lightbulb?

ah, we need more pics, for documentation purposes of course:

Scene of bliss wallpaper in 2006

Bliss in its full, 16 megapixel glory Smiley

GoddersUK
I CAN has cheezburger and you CAN'T has stop me!

*yawn, necro thread*

but just ftr: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bliss_(image)

GoddersUK
I CAN has cheezburger and you CAN'T has stop me!

In reply to RoyalSchrubber

#Dec 26th, 2008 @ 5:14 AM

So why on earth did they include such a low res version with xp?

eagle

In reply to GoddersUK

#Dec 26th, 2008 @ 5:53 AM

VB Man
Year of the Linux MCE.

In reply to RoyalSchrubber

#Dec 26th, 2008 @ 5:14 AM

Royal, your first pic is from a Swiss guy that 'claims' he took the Bliss photograph. He clearly did not and just wants fame.

It was taken in Napa valley.

W3bbo
The Master of Baiters

In reply to GoddersUK

#Dec 26th, 2008 @ 5:53 AM

Licensing.

I found a lot of XP's wallpaper images on Corbis and Photodisc (with whom Microsoft has had earlier agreements with, see Plus! 98). These stock images are available for licensing at very high prices (Red Moon Desert is about $600USD IIRC), so if Microsoft included high resolution versions with high quality the stock agency might get annoyed.

Besides, at the time XP was released 1024x768 was emerging as the mainstream desktp resolution, at which you don't notice the upscaling in the 800x600 JPEGs. But now that more and more people have widescreen desktops it becomes very noticable. That's why the resolution of the photos in Vista has improved.