Tech Shout!

On January 30, when Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates unveiled the company’s much awaited operating system, Windows Vista, he also displayed a virtual version of his own collection of the scientific musings of Leonardo Da Vinci at the British Library. Check out the video to know more

And even though Bill Gates spent most of the time telling the crowd about Vista’s potential to assist the next generation of business and entertainment software, the main attraction of the presentation remained the display of a virtual notebook filled with fluttering and beautifully textured pages of Da Vinci’s work.

In fact, it must have left all amazed, as the virtual notebook that Bill Gates showed off, had pages and pages filled with the artist Da Vinci’s own handwriting, although it was a bit faded. Nonetheless, this display must have captured everyone’s attention and definitely stole the show.

According to Bill Gates, Chairman, Microsoft, “This is an innovative way to bring treasures, including mine, to a new audience”. The notebook filled with Leonardo Da Vinci’s thoughts and inventions consists of 72 pages and is known as the Leicester Codex. The program that displayed the Leicester Codex is called Turning the Pages 2.0, and is one of the many programs that come bundled with Windows Vista.

Vista will help power what Gates called the new “digital lifestyle” by opening up a new environment for software makers to develop their products, something he said had always been critical to Windows’ success. “We’re unleashing people’s creativity and I’m excited by what can happen,” he said.

Gates bought the Leicester Codex in 1994 for $31 million. It is joined on the British Library’s Web site by the Arundel Codex, one of the more prominent pieces of the British Library’s collection.