Another Friday, another series of questions from the community answered by our moderation staff!

This week, we hear from WOM, Koasati, Starone, Zubaz, Quentin94, Fuzzy Logic, Hankers, Jafo, Erk and Snowman.

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Question 1 -

Is there anything you miss about not being a moderator (i.e. a regular user) (HG_Eliminator)

Wizop WOM
	Yes, not having to watch what you say when people piss you off.
Super Wizop Koasati
	No, not really.
Wizop starone
	no.
Sir Zubaz
	Believe it or not, but I actually edit my thought (if not my spelling) when dealing with the jerks that crop up once in a while here.  I sometimes wish I could say what I wanted.
Wizop Quentin94
	Miss? definitively not
Overseer Fuzzy Logic
	Yes, skinning. Since becoming a mod I just don't seem to have the time.
Moderator Hankers
	Nope, nothing at all.
Admin Jafo
	Being [relatively] able to call someone an arse publicly and have it only reflect poorly upon myself [and not the site as well].
Wizop Erk.
	I kinda miss being able to fire up Photoshop anytime I want to, but thats also due to my real life work commitments as well.
Super Wizop Snowman
	No, not really. I'm still the same

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Question 2 -

What do you like the most about the community?  (CarGuy1)

Wizop WOM
	For the most part, how people interact with each other.  How you can develope friendships without even seeing one another.
Super Wizop Koasati
	The friendly folks.
Wizop starone
	Kinship.
Sir Zubaz
	I'm an Army brat and we have a tendency to create "family" where we can.  This place is my family.  Thankfully, when compared to RomanDA, Island Dog, Jafo, and Zoomba, I'm the good-looking, smart one.
Wizop Quentin94
	The community itself, the friendship and the fact every people (or close ) try to help everyone in needed, regarding softwares, skinning or personal issues.  When you are in need here there are always someone to help you.
Overseer Fuzzy Logic
	The way people come to each other's assistance. It's great to see that kind of support here and I don't think I'm going OTT to say WinCustomize has the very best people. Someone is always there for you when you need them.
Moderator Hankers
	The friendship and willingness of members to assit each other in a myriad of ways (skinning, computer setup) and most importantly the caring for our fellow man/woman when they are in need (due to some medical or personal reason).
Admin Jafo
	The sense of 'community' itself.  Very few people have met others in person [real life - tm] yet create genuine lasting friendships through the common interest/s of skinning, etc.
Wizop Erk.
	The kinship ... plain & simple. We have a rockin' bunch of people, and I think there's not a bettter place on the net  to be.
Super Wizop Snowman
	The concept of "the community" has changed with the disappearance of more and more skin-sites.  In the "old days" The Community were the interaction between uses on different sites.  Today any one site is considered a 'community'.  To me "the community" died along side the original Skinz.org.

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Question 3 -

If you could change one thing for the betterment of the community, what would it be? (CarGuy1)

Wizop WOM
	Instantly vaporize the Rippers.  Hehe.
Super Wizop Koasati
	That's a tough one...... I'm afraid if I answered this one, I'd open a can o' worms.
Wizop starone
	Hum, well, no strife, no rips, no porn coming up for moderation (instant wipe out, so to speak).
Sir Zubaz
	I wouldn't change much.  We really are a self-policing bunch.  I'd like to find a way to get more lurkers involved more.  We have a ton of members but there are probably less than 30 "regulars" in the forums, IRC, and galleries.  I know they have something to offer . . we just need to get them out there.
Wizop Quentin94
	See more people come here and make their place in. In few wordsl: See More of the currents members talking in forums and Get some new blood.
Overseer Fuzzy Logic
	More support for some of the smaller sites. I would hate to think the community would end up being just one or two large sites.
Moderator Hankers
	I'd like to see more participation in the forums from a greater number of members/subscribers.
Admin Jafo
	There are many...but one of them would be to wave a magic wand and have all countries world-wide respect, adhere-to and enforce Artists' copyright to the point of pulling the pins of sites which fail to comply. [would save Koop a lot of heartache].
Wizop Erk.
	I'd like to see more interaction from folks who are members/subscribers, as I think ALL input is valuable and everyone's opinions/thoughts/ideas are welcome ...[so c'mon all you lurkers ...get to it!]
Super Wizop Snowman
	See #2

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Question 4 -

Are you a mod at more than one site? (w4xpl4y3r)

Wizop WOM
	Yes, Skinning Dot Net.
Super Wizop Koasati
	Nope, just here.
Wizop starone
	No, just mod here.
Sir Zubaz
	I used to mod elsewhere but this place gradually has taken over my on-line life.
Wizop Quentin94
	Nop here only.
Overseer Fuzzy Logic
	No. WinCustomize is quite enough of a handful!
Moderator Hankers
	Yes, Skinning,net
Admin Jafo
	No, not as such, though was an admin at skinz.org many years ago...and am still a 'senior member' at Deviantart [though that's more about age, really]...
Wizop Erk.
	Nope... just here.
Super Wizop Snowman
	Yep.  Wincustomize, Skinz.org, LotsOfSkins.com I used to be admin on Skinbase too, but the management of the site went in a direction I just couldn't accept, so I desided to leave.

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Question 5 -

Have you met any other mods, or even community members, in person? (Ranger375)

Wizop WOM
	Yes, 1 mod and 1 community member
Super Wizop Koasati
	Not yet. Hope to meet Zubaz someday, since he frequently drives within a mile of my house. Pictoratus lives about an hour away, maybe we'll get together someday.
Wizop starone
	Met one.  Wish I could meet them all.
Sir Zubaz
	I've been lucky enough to get a bit drunk with Zoomba.  (well . . maybe more than a bit) but that's the closest I've gotten.  I drive through the town Koasati lives in a few times a year but never get a chance to stop (or make the effort ).  If anyone in the community is in Houston give me a PM, maybe we can hook up for lunch or dinner or maybe a drink.
Wizop Quentin94
	Unfortunately not.
Overseer Fuzzy Logic
	Not met anyone. I have had a phone conversation with BoXXi a few years ago (um, five years...). I was in hospital for an operation and Bryan was kind enough to phone to see how I was doing.
Moderator Hankers
	Not as yet but there are a few that would be great to meet.
Admin Jafo
	Not mods, no.  Closest I'd have come to that was talking directly with Alexandrie once.  One skinner I did 'hang out' with...a bit....was Grimspoon ...fellow Melbournian.  He was into Litestep, Winamp, etc...and [though they are unlikely to admit it] started Devart's involvement into commercial prints. [I saw some commercial/professional grade prints of Nuvem's artwork at Grim's place once.....brilliant stuff].
Wizop Erk.
	Not yet, but I have family who live just oustside Melbourne ...and one of these days I'm just gonna drop in on Jafo right at 'beer o'clock' with a nice cold slab of ale..
Super Wizop Snowman
	No, not yet, but Aussie-land and/or USA be warned..... One day I might be knocking on a few mates's doors

The month of February is off to a great start!  Valentines Day is next week and I have gotten a wonderful response from the community.  Keep an eye out for some Valentines features real soon.  Don't forget to check out this months edition of the .dream video, it's really a good one.

Now for this weeks picks! 

	Floristic for CursorFX by TOMPCpl With the release of CursorFX this week, I hope to see more fantastic submissions such as this one.  Great work.
	Quest SysInfo in DesktopX widgets by  RomanDA Made to match the free Quest MyColors theme, this gadget displays various system info with a nice touch of animation.
	Solar Flare in Dreams by TheMasterBaron This .dream is just spectacular.  Not much to say, just be sure this one is on your download list.
	Parisienne in IconPackager by BoXXi This is a very unique and beautifully designed icon pack that will go with a wide variety of skins.
	K-TEK 4D Email in ObjectDock icons by Tiggz Another great set of icons n the K-TEK series.  This is perfect to use for e-mail in ObjectDock.
	Softness in Wallpapers by jazzilady The colors in this wallpaper are very nice, and I really like the design in this one.  Nice work.
	Ergo for WindowBlinds by navigatsio This WindowBlinds skin has some smoothness and an easy to use design.  Very nice.

Congrats and thanks to all the skinners featured this week.  Always check their personal pages for more works, and lets get some more Valentines Day skins coming in.  See you next week!

 

Tools of the Dream Trade

Over the past year I've gotten many inquiries about what tools I use to make my dreams.  So I've finally decided to write something describing how I ended up using the tools I do and hopefully help others get started making there own creations.

The first dreams I did were done using HD video found on the internet that I simply looped.  Under Water is an example of one of my looped dreams.  Looping video dreams require you slowly fade the beginning of the video onto the end of the video or adding the reverse of the video at the end.  In both cases, the last frame of the video is also the first frame so that it loops.  While I never used Vista's Movie Maker, I believe you can do the video fade technique using it, and the best part is that it's free with Vista.  The tool that I personally would use for this, however, is Adobe's After Effects. 

After doing a few HD video dreams, I started using After Effects to create more abstract dreams using particles and fractal noise.  I found many tutorials for After Effects that quickly got me up to speed on using it.  My favorite being Andrew Kramer's Video Copilot tutorials.  You can do a lot with After Effects right out of the box.  I created the Apollo dream using only After Effects, and without any plug-ins.  I now use After Effects for all my video editing needs and it is by far the best tool in my arsenal.  I can do all sorts of final touchups, including color adjustments and light ray effects.  I can't say enough about how great After Effects is and how it got me interested in graphic design.

After doing a few dreams in After Effects, I decided to take a leap into the wondrous world of 3d modeling using Autodesk's 3ds Max.  At first it was a bit intimidating as there where so many more options, menus, controls and terminology.  Again, I searched the internet for tutorials and slowly pieced together my first master skin; Good Night Earth.  Having done the Earth before in my Apollo dreams, it was a great place to start.  Not to mention, the Earth is a simple 3d shape to create.

Lately, I discovered fractal flames using Apophysis and found a way to animate them (Check out my Spiral Ghost dream to see what I'm talking about).  This really caught my eye and some of the fractals (called flames) out there look amazing.  Again, I'm searching the internet again for more tutorials on creating flames.  However, as I found out, creating a cool flame doesn't always translate into cool animations.  It requires trial and error to create a flame that looks cool as a single image and also animates well.

The final tool I use and is also the final step in the dream creating process is TMPGEnc 4 XPress.  After outputting my dream video from After Effects as an uncompressed video, I use TMPGEnc 4 XPress to convert my video into a MPEG-2 video for packaging up into my .dream file using DreamMaker.  I found this tool to do a very good job at encoding once I found/understood what the options do.

Well, that about sums it up.  I hope you enjoyed this brief autobiography of the Master Baron.

This is the first edition of "This Month in Dreams" for 2008!  The year has kicked off well with a bunch, and I mean a bunch of submissions for January.  Just wait until until DeskScapes 2.0 is released, I think we are going to see a big increase in high-quality animated wallpapers.

Now for this months .dreams!

All the .dreams featured in the video can be downloaded from the links below.  To use .dreams you will need Vista Ultimate, and Stardock DeskScapes installed.

• Surfs Up by CarGuy1
• EarthAndMoon by stephenvw
• Angel Wings by MalleyWowwy
• Spirit Dance by TheMasterBaron
• Summer Breeze by CarGuy1
• Tunnel of Love by TheMasterBaron
• Poubel Coconuts by brenopoubel

 

Well another holiday of sorts is coming, and it seems to be a mildly popular holiday with skinners.  Taking a quick browse through the galleries there is quite a number of wallpapers and WindowBlinds skins themed for Valentines Day.

I have also noticed quite a few being submitted from the past week, so I thought a nice compilation of Valentines Day skins is in order.  As usual, I'm calling for the communities help with this.  If you have some favorite Valentines Day skins you would like to recommend for featuring, leave the link in the comments of this thread.

 

Since 1999, Stardock has been a pioneer in digital distribution.  The original Galactic Civilizations was the first PC game to be released at retail and digitally at the same time.  Its flag-ship product, Object Desktop, made the transition from being a retail product to being digitally distributed with a subscription in 1999.

For the past few years, Stardock has distributed its content with Stardock Central:

Stardock Central

And while Stardock Central was very cutting edge when it was launched back in 2003, it's getting a bit long in the tooth.  For the past year, Stardock has been working on a  new platform that will finally combine Stardock's various technological assets into a single place. This new platform is called Impulse.

 

Impulse

Impulse isn't just a cosmetic make-over of Stardock Central. It greatly expands the capabilities of Stardock's digital distribution offerings. 

Here are 5 key differentiators of Impulse:

1. Users do not have to load Impulse to use the software or games.
2. Impulse will support third-parties submitting their software or game, name their price, and then after review having it available -- all done nearly automatically. Stardock already has this system in place on WinCustomize.com with "Master" themes.
3. Impulse will integrate its next-generation social networking features in the Community tab that will let users have friends, chat about games, have blogs, and more.
4. Impulse includes built in support for backing up your purchase to CD/DVD.
5. Impulse allows users who buy software or games at retail to still manage their updates and re-download the entire product on Impulse (for products that support this feature).

 

Impulse provides a cleaner UI than Stardock Central.

 

Managing your software on Impulse is a snap. If you bought a game or software program at retail or even from another digital distributor, you may be able to still manage updates and such on Impulse.

Impulse is still in internal beta at Stardock but it expects to release it in mid February with additional features for it being added through the course of the year.

We're back again with another set of questions asked by you, and answered by members of the WinCustomize moderation team.  Today we hear from WOM, Koasati, Zubaz, Elvee, Erk, Jafo, Starone, Quentin94 and Fuzzy Logic.

Remember to check back again next Friday for Part 3!

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Question 1 -

What is the best thing about being a moderator?  The worst?  (Zubaz)

Wizop WOM
	Being able to contribute to WC.  I spend hours a day modding and watching the general forum.  The worst thing is listening to all the crying and verbal attack from people that do not get their way.
Super Wizop Koasati
	The best thing; Giving something back to the community. The worst; Cuts into my skinning time.
Wizop starone
	The best thing about being a mod is being able to contribute.  The worst, hmmmm, I'm thinking...well, just haven't experienced a worst yet.
Sir Zubaz
	Why is it that when I reread my question as Zoomba formatted it, it looked to me that I was the worst thing about being a mod?  The best thing for me is knowing that Stardock had enough faith in me to trust part of what they'd created to me.  I'd done a lot of growing up on these forums over the years with the help of more senior mods.  That's great too. The worst thing for me is seeing some people piss in my house (figuratively) and not be able to beat them down like I sometimes want to.  My job is to "moderate" . . sometimes I really don't want to.
Wizop Quentin94
	To be able to help users and others skinners and to contribute to wincustomize.com The worst? ... Hum... Didn't found it for now
Overseer Fuzzy Logic
	The best thing about being a mod is being in a position to have a positive impact on the site and the community. The hardest thing...um... keeping my mouth shut! I like to say what I think and sometimes say without thinking...!
Moderator elvee
	The best would be to having the privilege of being a Representative of WinCustomize, helping others to the best of my ability. I haven't had a worst yet.
Admin Jafo
	Having the opportunity to look out for everyone within the community. The worst....wondering how often you are getting it wrong.
Wizop Erk.
	The best thing about being a moderator is being able to help out wherever possible, to keep things flowing as smoothly as I can. The worst thing? ...Spammers, and cleaning up after them. But even that's not much of a chore...

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Question 2 -

Were you surprised when you were asked to become one?  What were your thoughts?  (Zubaz)

Wizop WOM
	Yes I was suprised , shocked and happy.
Super Wizop Koasati
	Yes, very surprised. My thoughts were no doubt very similar to the ones I'm having right now....
Wizop starone
	Yes, I was definitely surprised about being asked to be a mod.  My thoughts were those of disbelief until reality hit.
Sir Zubaz
	I was flabbergasted when I was invited to join the ranks.  I really didn't think I was worthy/ready.  Jafo spent lots of time in IRC and PM helping me get settled.
Wizop Quentin94
	Truly honored and surprized that they gave me my chance to help more this wonderful site.
Overseer Fuzzy Logic
	Yes, a little. At the time I joined the team the site was in a state of change: the messageboard was an unpleasant place to be, a lot of the longer serving mods had moved on to other projects. Behind the scenes I'd exchanged quite a few e-mails about what could be done to turn things around, so I knew someone was listening, but I never expected the invitation. My first thought was at last I could help in a meaningful way. Hopefully I have.
Moderator elvee
	Very much surprised.   I was totally speechless, thrilled and honored all at the same time.
Admin Jafo
	Yes.  There were lots of people I could think of at the site's beginning who had been around as long as I...and would have been suited.
Wizop Erk.
	I was very surprised at being asked. My biggest goal at the time was to make it to Journeyman, so it kind of exceeded my own expectations. Like Starone, I also couldn't believe I'd been chosen ...but I'm very grateful that I was.

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Question 3 -

Is it anything like you expected?  (Zubaz)

Wizop WOM
	Yes, its what I expected, having been at the site  from almost the begining and seeing what goes on.
Super Wizop Koasati
	I had previously been a mod/admin at lotsofskins.com, and skinbase.org, so I had a general idea of what to expect.
Wizop starone
	Was definitely nervous about the responsibility but do enjoy doing it.
Sir Zubaz
	Looking back it seemed a pretty natural extension of what I was doing as "one of the guys".  the biggest surprise for me was the way I started editing my responses.  I found myself thinking "How best to say this as a representative of Stardock and Wincustomize?"  "What response is best for the community?"  Sometimes I think that's part of Zoomba's master plan to shut me up. (Ed: It didn't seem to work...)
Wizop Quentin94
	Yes and more. Anyway thanks to the "older" mods for the help given to find my way.
Overseer Fuzzy Logic
	Hmmm, I'm not sure I knew what to expect...
Moderator elvee
	Mixed on that. I knew some of the things to expect. Other things I didn't know, so I was a little nervous at first.
Admin Jafo
	Yes.  I think I knew the SD crew long/well enough to know what it'd be like to be caught up in it all.
Wizop Erk.
	It was pretty much as I'd expected it to be. I'd had a little insight into it by paying attention to what the current moderators were doing. I was a little worried that I'd goof it up at first, but I got some great tips from Zoomba & Jafo [and others (thanks) ] and it all just went from there.

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Question 4 -

What's the hardest thing you've had to do as a mod? (Zubaz)

Wizop WOM
	Vote on someone being demoted.  Its easy to recomend someone for promotion but to then take it away.
Super Wizop Koasati
	Learning to bite my tounge. I tend to say what I mean, and can be to the point (blunt). I can also be a bit of a smart***...... In text format this can easily be construed as arrogance. I'm trying to do better.
Wizop starone
	Humm, the hardest thing about being a mod....not wanting to hurt anyone's feelings.
Sir Zubaz
	I have to agree with Fuzzy . . there are times when I am not able to really go off on topics that I'd like to jump in.  I've thought about creating a pseudonym but think I'd be too transparent and everyone would know it was me.  {In truth they'd just have to count the typos}
Wizop Quentin94
	I think the hardest thing should be to don't make mistakes/errors
Overseer Fuzzy Logic
	The hardest thing is probably having to distance myself from some of the most emotive topics. Sometimes I would really like to say what I think...
Moderator elvee
	Ha ha!   Hoping not to mess up.
Admin Jafo
	I had a 'wee drama' on the Forums.....a 'clever' individual was being an arse and it was actually impossible to sort it or him 'easily'.....so I shut down the forums totally - pulled the plug.  I wasn't even sure at the time I was supposed to be able to...but I'd found this nice neat 'off' button....so I used it.  Probably ten/twenty minutes later....caught up with Frogboy...and between the two of us we cleaned up the mess.
Wizop Erk.
	The hardest thing? ... Diplomacy. Sometimes, in certain situations, you feel like you could 'tear someone [read: spam posters] a new one' ...but commonsense prevails mostly. I always re-read everything before I post it ~in the hopes that I'm conveying the message correctly. It's a rare thing that you have to come down on anyone anyway, these days.

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Question 5 -

Is the job rewarding to you?  (HG_Eliminator)

Wizop WOM
	Yes it is rewarding, being able to directly help the site I love and the people.  Interacting with people that I've known for years and to meet some new one.
Super Wizop Koasati
	Yes, I enjoy helping, and WC is where most of my cyber-family hangs out.
Wizop starone
	Yes, it is rewarding.
Sir Zubaz
	I get so much out of being a part of this commnity that if I had to step down as a mod it'd be fine.  But the truth is that I'd like to think I help make WC a better place.  This place holds my closest friends, keeping it on an even keel with the rest of the mods is a thrill I wouldn't likely trade.
Wizop Quentin94
	Yes, really rewarding. Definitively loving it
Overseer Fuzzy Logic
	Absolutely. I wouldn't swap the job for anything. Making a contibution to something so worthwhile is the biggest reward anyone could have.
Moderator elvee
	Very rewarding! Wouldn't trade it for anything.
Admin Jafo
	Yes.  Though with me being 14 to 16 hours out of whack with the US ...I have a quite odd daily timetable - very odd sleeping hours....no sexlife ...  Even my cat complains....she's doing it right now....1.00 am, Sunday morning as I type this .... having spent 10 hours today house-building - not the cat, - me...
Wizop Erk.
	I definitely enjoy it ...I get to see the newest stuff before most others do, and as I've said many times ...we have an awesome community here now. It makes it fun to do, and that's rewarding enough in itself.

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The first of February is already here, where did January go to?  Well the end of January came to a great close as far as skinning goes.  The first month of the year went well, so I think this will be a great year for skinning.

Now for this weeks picks! 

	Kallista for CursorFX by BoXXi BoXXi is back again with another cursor set, this time more "subtle" than the last.  Great work.
	Aero Executive Wall Clock in DesktopX themes by  Tiggz This is an animated desktop clock that perfectly compliments the Aero Executive WB skin.
	Poubel Coconuts in Dreams by brenopoubel We have another "tropical" .dream this week.  This has some gently swaying palm trees against a sunset background.
	Dreamweaver for IconPackager by Skinhit This icon pack is part of the "Dreamweaver" suite over at SkinArtistry.  Very nice.
	Classic Arcade for SoundPackager by Diamond12a If you are a fan of classic arcade games, then this sound pack is definitely for you.
	The Stowaways Make Plans in Wallpapers by kenwas Another beautifully rendered wallpaper from kenwas.  This is the standard resolution, but be sure to check his page for a widescreen version.
	Buzzz for WindowBlinds by SKOriginals This WindowBlinds skin was designed for Vista, and his a sleek design that also recolors well.
	X & Y for WindowBlinds by navigatsio I guess we could call this a Valentines Day skin, but either way it has a fantastic color and design.
	Aura for WindowBlinds by Stardock Design Another free skin from Stardock Design.  This time an update of Aura for WB6 and Windows Vista.

Valentines Day is just a couple of weeks away, so if you have a Valentines Day skin already posted, or plan to, be sure to drop me a note.  See you next week!

 

 

Believe it or not this is not another "Vista sucks" rant. Sure, my experience with Vista, so far, has not been perfect but not to that point. I am, so far, actually quite pleased with Vista. I have had a couple of issues with some games that won't work but I'm sure I will find a version that does. It just a matter of doing the research online.

 

So, down to business. This is my baby, an HP Pavillion dv9740us. Here are the specs;

 

PC Wizard 2008 Version 1.82

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Owner: *****

Organization: Hewlett-Packard

User: *****

Operating System: Windows Vista (TM) Home Premium Home Edition 6.00.6000

Report Date: Tuesday 29 January 2008 at 18:45

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

<<< System Summary >>>

 

> Mainboard : Quanta 30CB

> Chipset : Intel GM965

> Processor : Intel Core 2 Duo Mobile T5500 @ 1666 MHz

> Physical Memory : 3072 MB

> Video Card : Nvidia Corp GeForce 8600M GS

> Hard Disk : TOSHIBA (160 GB)

> Hard Disk : TOSHIBA (160 GB)

> DVD-Rom Drive : Optiarc BD ROM BC-5500A ATA Device (this baby plays Bluray)

> Monitor Type : LGPhilipsLCD - 17 inches

> Network Card : Intel Corporation Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN

> Network Card : Realtek Semiconductor RTL8168/8111 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet NIC

> Operating System : Windows Vista (TM) Home Premium Home Edition 6.00.6000

> DirectX : Version 10.00

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

I don't know about you but I think that's a pretty sweet setup. I have waited 10 years to get myself a laptop and I figured I get a decent one. As you can see it has Windows Vista Home Premium. While I would have preferred Ultimate, I'm ok with this for now. So far my experience with Vista has been pretty good. A few game problems as I have mentioned but nothing I can't eventually solve. I do, however, hate that constant screen that comes up everytime I install or run a program asking permission to run it. I can understand the security point of it, but this is ridiculous. Microsoft really killed it here.

 

The large screen is awesome; everything looks great including movies and games. Considering how much I was gonna pay for a 15.4 inch Dell XPS with similar components, I got a great deal and saved on shipping time and price. At first I was unable to play a bluray movie I bought; I had to update the Quickplay feature this HP PC came with in order to play the Bluray disk. It's similar to the Windows Media Center and I like it somewhat. I can listen to my MP3's, watch DVD's and other movie formats, I can listen to local FM stations, internet stations and it even came with a TV Tuner card and a nice remote control so I can watch TV anywhere.

 

I bought myself a copy of Call of Duty 4 and, while this still being a laptop it does lag from time to time but works great none the less. It's a great game though it's very short. I beat it in 2 days. I figure it was more designed for the online experience than anything else. So far most of my programs have worked flawlessly so I think Vista is a keeper. My wife is also happy; she got herself her own laptop, a n HP dv9000 series like mine, just not as powerful and with a few less features.

 

I'm a happy camper. This Pc will keep me busy for a while. What do you fellas think?

 

For nearly a decade, Object Desktop has been the premiere solution users of Windows to turbo-charge their desktop experience. In 2008, we're going to see some of our biggest changes yet.

 

Preliminaries

Starting this year, Stardock is going to create two versions of Object Desktop. There will be normal Object Desktop which will have the core parts of the suite (WindowBlinds, IconPackager, DesktopX, etc.) and Object Desktop Ultimate which will a lot more programs in it. All present users of Object Desktop will be automatically migrated to Object Desktop Ultimate.

Another change this year will be how Object Desktop is packaged. In the past, a new user would simply get a serial # and a link to download Stardock Central.

This year, Stardock Central will be going away. Instead, a new program (which we can't yet talk about) will be replacing it to provide a much better experience not just with Object Desktop but in terms of managing all kinds of digital content. Moreover, users will download a core Object Desktop download so that we can assume that certain basic pieces of the program are installed.

The core of Object Desktop 2008 will be:

• WindowBlinds
• IconPackager
• DesktopX
• DeskScapes (if applicable)
• MyColors
• Object Desktop LaunchPad
• New Updating program

Additional programs that will be included with the standard edition of Object Desktop 2008 are:

• SoundPackager
• 3 premium suites plus 3 additional premium suites within the year.

Object Desktop Ultimate will include the above plus all the other programs that you expect with Object Desktop. And as mentioned, if you have Object Desktop at the time of launch, you get Object Desktop Ultimate automatically.

 

The growing importance of content

As some people have noticed, Stardock Design has begun releasing free content into the community in the form of skins, themes, icons, wallpapers, suites, etc.

One of the big changes for Object Desktop users will come in the form of a steady stream of content that will be free to Object Desktop users. Every so often, Stardock Design will release a new premium suite that will be automatically appended to your account as something you can download through MyColors. The minimum commitment is 6 per year (1 every other month).

Stardock wants to be able to fully demonstrate the capabilities of Object Desktop as well as provide samples and tutorials to up and coming skin authors who want to make their own stuff.

 

So what else is new?

We're still in the process of migrating things to Windows Vista. By the end of 2008, everything should have a Windows Vista version (that includes 64-bit). In fact, on that front, we will begin acquiring increasing numbers of 64-bit Vista boxes for making us "live in" 64-bit mode.

Windows XP users will continue to see Object Desktop grow in the sense that features thought to be possible only on Windows Vista will migrate to Windows XP users.

We'll also have a lot of updates to existing programs including:

 

IconPackager 4

Most people may not realize how important IconPackager 4 is going to be. If you're a Windows Vista user, you must realize by now that most existing icon packages are useless on Vista. That's a real shame since there's so many good icon packages out there. IconPackager 4 will address this in the following ways:

1. IconPackager 4 will allow users to independently set their live folder icons from the rest of the package.
2. IconPackager 4 will automatically scale up existing icons such that they look correct on Windows Vista.
3. IconPackager 4 will have a much better user interface to allow us to expand its base feature set more easily in the future.

IconDeveloper 2

Noticed that there aren't as many new icon packages as there used to be? That's because it's a lot more work to make icons for Windows Vista.

IconDeveloper has been rewritten for the Vista age. It runs fine on Windows XP but now icon artists can future-proof their work. Eventually Stardock hopes to add wizards and other helpers to make creating Vista-specific elements even easier.

IconDeveloper 2 will be part of Object Desktop Ultimate.

 

TweakVista 1.x

You may have heard somewhere but not all people are perfectly happy with Windows Vista. TweakVista is Stardock's answer to this by allowing users to tweak and alter Windows Vista safely in ways that match the user's preference.

TweakVista 1.1 is due out shortly with additional updates due throughout the year. Available on the Ultimate Edition.

 

WindowBlinds 6.x

WindowBlinds will, of course, continue to evolve throughout the year. There's a lot of area where we still want to give users more control. For example, fonts. We want users to be able to control fonts to a much greater degree than they currently do.

 

DesktopX 3.x

DesktopX has not had a smooth ride on Windows Vista. That's because of the UAC. DesktopX widgets and such rely heavily on VB Script which the UAC has made a lot more difficult to deal with. Another popular type of widget/gadget have been ones that make use of the NT performance monitors.which are largely gone or forbidden in Windows Vista. So now you know why DesktopX 3.5 hasn't shown up in a timely manner.

So what's the future of DesktopX? Once Vista SP1 officially comes out, Stardock will be able to make final compatibility testing and release. But that won't be the end of the DesktopX journey on Vista. That's just the beginning.

DesktopX's future will rely increasingly on providing more plug-ins to allow authors to build a lot more types of widgets and gadgets. We're starting with the media player gadget. Then we plan to create:

• Weather gadget plugins
• Performance monitor plugins
• Clock plugins
• RSS plugins
• Stock plugins
• And others on request

In this way, the "coding part" is handled by Stardock and skinners can focus purely on the skinning part.

 

DeskScapes 2.x

DeskScapes is another key component of Object Desktop that a lot of resources will be going into. DeskScapes is a lot like WindowBlinds in those early days where users found that some skins used virtually no CPU and others used a ton. DeskScapes is like that too. Some of the included content uses virtually no CPU at all. But on the other hand, some of the video-based content uses quite a bit. Your mileage will vary.

 

SkinStudio 6

There's still some work to do on SkinStudio 6 but we're getting close to the point where we think it's ready for general availability and then we can move on to adding more features (like batch colorizing!). SkinStudio 6 is key because it will allow more casual users to be able to make skins again.

 

MyColors

No single project had more resources put on it this year than MyColors. On the surface, it seems like such a simple program. But under the covers, it's a feat of engineering. Consider all the permutations in which someone might have WindowBlinds, IconPackager, etc. installed and making sure that users who get a MyColors theme can run them via WindowBlinds or MyColors depending on the version. MyColors 2008 was the first version that could safely coincide with WindowBlinds and IconPackager on the same system thanks to its self-healing architecture.

 

Other Notes

This is by no means an exhaustive list. There will be updates to most of the other programs already in there along with the addition of a couple of new programs later this year that I can't yet talk about. Suffice to say that both XP users and Vista users will be in for some pleasant surprises we think.

But 2008 will definitely mark a turning-point for Object Desktop. It will be the year in which we explicitly have a consumer version as well as a power user version and are able to cater to both groups accordingly.

Probably the single biggest change will be the vast increase in the amount of resources dedicated to Object Desktop. This can be seen most particularly in the content arena with free MyColors themes being provided every other month or so.

Object Desktop 2008 (standard) will remain $49.95 and renew for $34.95. Object Desktop Ultimate Edition will list for $69.95 and renew for $39.95. All existing Object Desktop users at the time of launch will be migrated automatically to Ultimate edition.