I saw this ad in the December 2005 issue of Dr. Dobb's Journal for the MS spot the difference sweepstake. It asks the viewer to spot the differences between two images of the same scene.  On the left the developer without Visual Studio and on the right with Visual Studio.  The ad claims "Once you start coding, you'll see it immediately".  It was a good advertisement as it got my attention as I tried to spot more an more differences.  So good in fact I decided it scan it in an turn it into a HTML page.  Click on the image below and you will get a pop up with the pre-Visual Studio developer.  Mouse-over the image to see post-Visual Studio.  Read the rest of the entry for things I noticed.

DrDobbsAd.jpg 

  1. Many of the to do's are finished
  2. It's light outside
  3. He is tossing a tennis ball instead of a stress ball
  4. He has a wedding ring
  5. He has children in the picture rather then an angry girlfriend
  6. He is eating fruits and water instead of coffee
  7. His books are no longer programming and debugging manuals, has book on rock climbing
  8. His cactus has sprouted
  9. Visual Studio 2005 on the screen
  10. Note on screen is to get haircut rather then work related