If you are a blogger or website owner/administrator, you can earn some extra revenue by  becoming an Impulse affiliate.  Impulse is Stardock’s next-generation digital distribution platform, and becoming an affiliate only takes a few minutes of your time.

Once completed, you will have the choice of several links and images to place on your site to download Impluse, and you will earn a 15% net sales commission of purchases made through Impulse that was downloaded from your site.

Just click here to begin, fill out your information and agree to the affiliate terms, and you should be just about set.  You will now have a page where you can select Impulse affiliate links, or individual product links.

You will now have a choice of various links to use on your website.  All you have to do is place the HTML somewhere on your site, and start promoting.

The Affiliate menu in the upper right-hand of the page, will also give you access to other items such as sales reports, program info, etc.

Sign up to be an affiliate now!

http://www.impulsedriven.com/affiliates.aspx

I have written about SnagIt 9 by TechSmith, and how you can use SnagIt to take better screenshots and skin previews with it.

You can find that article here.

One thing I mentioned about SnagIt is that you can extend its functionality by downloadable accessories.  These include such things as stamps, outputs, etc.

Here are some examples:

• Outputs. These accessories allow SnagIt to quickly and easily send captured shots to a designated output.  My favorite is the Flickr output which will send my images to my Flickr account with just a click of a button.  Other outputs include ones for Word, Excel, Skype, and more.

• Stamps.  Stamps are basically small images that you can add to your captures to enhance the image, or use to visually make a point about something.  There are Accent stamps, Clip art stamps, and number/letter stamps available. 

• Capture Profiles.  These profiles gives more options for specific applications when creating a capture.

There is a huge selection available for free to download at the TechSmith website.  You can also grab a free trial of SnagIt 9 while you are there.

in my work, I need to be able to record high-quality videos of my desktop without a lot of hassle, and have flexible options on what to do with that video when done recording.  One of the most common tasks I do is to create videos of .dreams, or animated wallpapers which are used by Stardock’s DeskScapes.  I use Camtasia Studio 6 from TechSmith to create these videos, and I wanted to share some tips with users.  They are one of our prize sponsors in the 2008 GUI Championships, and I wanted to show some uses for Camtasia Studio in relation to skinning.

You can get a fully function trial version of Camtasia Studio here.

http://www.techsmith.com/download/trials.asp

If you are a .dream creator, you can use Camtasia to either capture the .dream running on the desktop, or use it’s editor to edit down the video and process it for use in a variety of formats.

The image above shows the Camtasia Recorder which is the starting point for recording.  This has a brand new interface in version 6, and from here you can set it to record the entire desktop or just a specified part.  Recording the entire desktop is perfect for recording an animated wallpaper.  Sometimes I want to record just a section of the desktop, and a great example of this is when I want to show-off a really cool start-menu animation.

Other recording uses:

• Show an interactive preview of a WindowBlinds skin, icon pack, etc.
• Give a walkthrough on how to use a widget, gadget, etc.
• Record a tutorial

Once you have your recording or video ready, then we can move over to Camtasia Studio where the editing can begin.  The screenshot below shows the main screen.

There are many ways you can edit your video, really only your creativity is your limitation.  Camtasia allows you to add transitions, callouts, audio, etc. to your video.  It also has extensive zoom and pan functions so you can get a close-up view of something going on in your video.  The tools are easy to use, and are very intuitive, even for people who aren’t real familiar with video editing.

You spent all this time creating a video, now you have to find the best solution on how to share it with others.  Camtasia supports producing videos in a variety of formats including:

• Flash
• MP4
• iPod/iPhone/iTunes
• CD/DVD (AVI)
• WMV
• QuickTime
• Animated GIF
• and more

Another very cool and handy feature is the ability to produce into multiple formats.  This is great if you want to share your video on several different types of platforms.  Of course, you can always create your own settings if you are looking for more control over the output. 

As you can see, creating top quality skin previews with Camtasia Studio is a snap.  Visit www.techsmith.com/camtasia.asp for more information and free trial download.

Impulse Phase 2 has gone into beta.

To get it, make sure you have the latest version (just open up Impulse).

Then go to preferences by clicking on the Stardock orb and choose "use Impulse betas" to get access to the latest/greatest editions.

Better. Stronger. Faster.

NOTE: The beta build removes the Impulse dock. We are going to release the Impulse dock as a free download later this week. This way, people who don't want the dock don't have to deal with it and the people who want it can get it.

I was browsing the AMD website today and came across a couple of resources I wanted to share.  Gamers will particularly be interested in this, but it’s a great resource for anyone.

• http://game.amd.com

AMD GAME! is a resource from AMD that gives you the latest news on graphics cards, processors, drivers, and everything else you need to get the most out of your gaming experience.  It also includes resources on where to obtain AMD GAME! systems and components.  They also have a vast community area with downloads, blogs, forums, contests, and much more. 

Don’t forget that there is an AMD branded version of Impulse available for download.  There is much more going on over there, that it’s too much to list, so just take a browse through the site and check out what they have to offer.

Seems like it was only yesterday that we were discussing Longhorn/Windows Vista.  And now here we are talking about Windows 7. There's been some great coverage about Windows 7 on our partner site, Neowin.net which you can get to here:

• Windows 7 GUI
• PDC Round-Up
• Windows 7 Usability
• Windows 7 Demos

I personally wish Microsoft would make Windows 7 64-bit only.  It would make everyone's lives better.  Oh well, another N years of dealing with two different versions of Windows it appears.

One thing I am excited about is the "Super taskbar" in Windows 7:

First, be aware it's super configurable.  But what's a big deal about this is the skinning possibilities for this are substantial. With the extra space, a lot of cool stuff becomes possible to do that we couldn't really do with the existing taskbar.

Object Desktop News

Meanwhile, things are going very well with the upcoming Object Desktop 2009.  Hard to believe it's only 16 days away (November 19). 

Check out these screenshots:

The completely rewritten Theme Manager 3.0 should bring a smile to people's faces.  The .suite format gets revitalized and MyColors support is integrated in as well. 

One of the reasons Theme Manager 3.0 is so important is that it will allow Stardock to release a .suite version of MyColors themes that don't use licensed IP so that skinners can more easily make use of them.  Right now, it's extremely difficult for us to do that which has caused some consternation in the skinning community.

Of course, the other big updates to Object Desktop 2009 include a Vista version of BootSkin and an XP version of DeskScapes.

Mega Games Week

This week there will be a ton of big announcements on the game front.  First, Demigod is heading towards Beta 2 which will introduce a bunch of new elements to the game (the details will show up on Gamespot, IGN, GameSpy, XPlay, GamesRadar, 1Up, and beyond).

The second big announcement happens tomorrow with the much anticipated announcement of Stardock's next major PC title after Demigod, the fantasy strategy game that has been described as a spiritual successor to Master of Magic. 

GUI Champs

The GUI Championships have continued in earnest. There's been some great entries already. This year we've gotten a ton of prizes for the contest (over $15k). If you're an artist or skinner, you should definitely check it out. 

The current deadline to get stuff is still weeks away so there's time to create some cool stuff. It'll be interesting to see how much gets made.  It's always exciting to see skinners from around the world create this stuff.

Sinning...

I don't know about you but I'm waiting on pins and needles for Sins of a Solar Empire v1.1 and the micro-expansion pack, Entrenchment.  I hope to have some news on that shortly.

I wanted to share some videos of Windows 7 that have been coming out of PDC this week.  There are all types of good stuff here.

You have been hearing quite a bit about Windows 7 lately, and Brad has given his wishlist, so I wanted to follow him and give my early wishlist as well.  Although mine is a bit different in nature, these are things I think will make Windows 7 popular, and distance itself from Vista.

1. No Multiple SKU’s.  Sorry, but I honestly think this was one of the worst marketing mistakes made with Windows Vista.  Just off the top of my head there are about 6 SKU’s for Vista (Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, Enterprise, and the Starter Edition).  Can anybody really tell the major differences between these versions?  Most consumers have no idea, and I have never run into a salesperson who did a good upsell of Vista.  Too many editions are confusing, stick to one version, and make the case on why people should use Windows, not the 10 different iterations of it.
   
   
2. Family Pricing.  I have about 5 Windows PC’s in my household, and only two run Vista.  I run two because I received two free licenses by attending Microsoft events, if I wanted to install Vista on all my home PC’s, it would have cost a minimum of around $500 depending on what “versions” I chose.  There is just no incentive for purchasing multiple licenses of Windows.  Why not have a family pack of say 3 or 4 licenses for a fairly reasonable cost? 
   
   
3. 64-bit Only.  I’m going to echo Brad’s statement on this and say now is the time to take the plunge.  The memory limitations are reason enough to go this route, why be so limited when RAM is so inexpensive these days?
   
   
4. Focus on the Cloud.  I have seen some statements from Ballmer about cloud computing, and possibly it’s own OS….no thanks.  Integrate this into Windows 7 and make Windows 7 fully integrated with Live Mesh, or whatever other service they come up with.  Live Mesh is really cool so far, but it’s integration with Windows is flaky, and should be a native integration with it.  I want to see seamless syncing of my contacts, calendar, e-mail, etc. to the “cloud” without having to download additional clients.

That is my quick list for today, and I’m sure once we get more details about Windows 7, I will definitely expand on these.  However, I think Windows 7 can be a huge success if Microsoft rethinks some of the issues stated above.

Like most companies, Stardock puts together an internal business plan for setting up goals and objectives for the company for the forthcoming year (Stardock's fiscal year begins its execution phase every October 1).  As part of this business plan is an appendix that acts as a critical analysis of what Stardock customers can expect to see and what challenges the company faces to better satisfy customer expectations. 

For this year, it has been decided to make this appendix available to the public. The Stardock 2008 customer report goes over some of the successes Stardock has experienced but also looks at the failings with a considerable amount of criticism in areas that the company needs to improve on.

The contents include:

• Impulse digital distribution status report
• The status on Stardock game projects
• Stardock's position on "DRM" and copy protection explained
• An update on the Gamer's Bill of Rights
• The status of Object Desktop
• A look at the dock technology now used by Dell and others.
• The results of the 2008 customer survey report (VERY interesting results)

If you're interested in the inner workings of a consumer PC software company, you may find this document to be very interesting.

URL: https://www.stardock.com/media/stardockcustomerreport-2008.pdf

So it's official, the successor Windows Vista is Windows 7.

Windows 7 is designed to be all the things Windows Vista wasn't including:

1. It's faster. MUCH faster.
2. It's cleaner. The UI has been cleaned up a lot.
3. It's easier to use. A lot of the functionality is more streamlined
4. It's richer. The ribbon seen in Office becomes part of the OS allowing app developers to have a standardized way of taking their apps to the next generation UI (I love the ribbon).
5. The UAC is...a little bit better.  I still think Microsoft should have a setting to allow signed applications to be always okay'd by users if they want.
6. It apparently has a new Start menu and taskbar.
7. The included applets are modernized
8. It may come with native VHD (virtual hard disks) support
9. Better system tray handling

That's all well and good but I have a few other things I'd like to see added to the list:

• Make it 64-bit only. PLLEEASE!
• Give us better and cleaner access to manage the junk that loads on boot-up. (Stardock TweakWindows 7 will certainly do this otherwise)
• Make it a LOT easier to share drives over the Internet

Let me talk about 64-bit a little bit.  A lot of people don't realize just how much effort developers have to go through to support 64-bit and 32-bit.  It's a mess.  Windows 7 is a great opportunity to cut the umbilical cord on legacy 32-bit.  Most modern PCs are already 64-bit. They're just running a 32-bit OS which is a shame. Drivers, desktop enhancements, and all kinds of other things have to do special versions for 64-bit because most people run 32-bit OSes on their 64-bit hardware.

Memory is incredibly cheap and yet we're still stuck with a 2 gig limit on program memory use (a pain for game developers trying to have lots of rich textures).  My next PC is going to have 16 gigs on it minimum.

Moreover, the handle issue of 32-bit NT OSes pretty much goes away at 64-bit.  It's just a vastly more robust experience.

I'm typing this on a Thinkpad T400 which is running Vista 64 and the experience has been phenomenal (and it only has 4 gigs but I end up with an extra gig of disk caching).

Consider the performance ramifications of a system that has massive amounts of memory. You leave your PC on long enough and you could end up with massive amounts of it stored in a huge disk cache.  Windows is using 2GB for caching my system right now and the performance difference is noticeable - very noticeable. If I could get 8GB for this machine, I would.

So hopefully, we'll see Windows 7 get a lot more 64-bit users.