Saturday night, around midnight over here, we got a little visit from SpongeBob SquarePants. Now SpongeBob is always welcome to drop in, but he always manages to make a mess of things.

Translation: the server we're on got hacked and we and every other site on the server got ‘defaced’ by some guys with way too much spare time on their hand. These kids replaced every index.* file on the system with their own. Now that's quite a bitch to clean up.

Which is probably why not much later, our faithfull administrator pulled the plug on it, reformatted the lot and ‘reinstalled’ a backup of all data.

Luckily they make daily backups, I sure as hell don't. Anyhow, we're back. Sort of. || craeonics | comments (11)

Can I say that Object Desktop is the biggest player in Skindom these days? Or is it WindowBlinds making the waves and the other apps getting sucked along in its wake?

At any rate, a 2004 package was released some days ago:

“Stardock is proud to present Object Desktop 2004!

Object Desktop 2004 is a snapshot of Stardock's premiere suite of desktop enhancement software such as WindowBlinds, DesktopX, IconPackager, ObjectBar, WindowFX, Theme Manager, SkinStudio, IconDeveloper and more!

The major components of Object Desktop have been updated and enhanced to come together for Object Desktop 2004. Object Desktop 2004 is available as a CD. If you already have Object Desktop, you can download the latest versions of the Object Desktop programs via Stardock Central.

You can learn more about the new features here and how to get it here: http://www.stardock.com/products/odnt/odnt-2004.html.

Purchase at: http://www.stardock.com/order.asp?product=ObjectDesktop.

EXTRA:

Here's an exclusive sneak peek at Universal Metal 2004! A premium suite that combines the talents of the top designers in the industry including Pixtudio and Paul Boyer. Check it out at: http://www.stardock.com/products/universemetal.”

Or perhaps WinAmp is still the biggest player. But if that is so, it sure is living in its own dimension. || craeonics | comments (1)

In order to spice up the GUI Olympics experience a bit, organiser frogboy sat down for a little chat with DeviantArt kahuna jark.

They discuss things like “how does DevArt keep afloat” and “Where do you see skinning going in the future”, which is all fine and dandy. But then jark starts saying things like:

“The success of deviantART is attributed to a number of factors with the main one being that deviantART fills a niche that no other site does. Along with that we offer a unique set of features not found on other sites within the community and have a very easy barrier to entry.”

…and:

“deviantART is the single-most exciting and compelling online digital art community that one will ever encounter.”

Don't know about you, but people using superlatives to describe their own work and doing so in a serious way, give me the creeps. Makes it look like an advertisment.

Whatever happened to good-old self-criticism? Or is everything business these days? || craeonics | comments (7)

It didn't really dawn upon me when I read this email that just dropped into my inbox. After looking at the attached images, it still didn't dawn upon me, though some voice deep inside of me made me aware of the fact that something odd was going on here. Only after reading the email for a second time, my mind did grasp this concept.

Skinux' SkinCandle is a, umm, skinnable candle. Yes, you've read that right. And it's a fancy one too.

“Skinux releases SkinCandle — a free skinable desktop candle application for Windows XP and Windows 2000. SkinCandle simulates a natural candle and semi-transparent fire to the desktop. Download it today and light up your desktop. All SkinCandle skins are powered by Skinux and can be changed using the open Skinux XML format documented on the Skinux website www.skinux.com. This program is free and is a demo of the Skinux skins technology.”

It's also a 6 meg download. Which is why I haven't grabbed it yet. Why so big? Probably because it includes a backend of their skin engine technology, of which this is a demo.

Seems pretty advanced, yet the app itself is a bit ill-timed, for surely christmas would have been a more appropriate launch date. Then again, having to wait all those months… || craeonics | comments (15)

Somewhere last friday Ravi suddenly into the Shell-Shocked mailing list, announcing a soon to be new issue of his shell focused ezine.

The man moves swift, yet is rather slow to post news about it. First the almighty Shell City Bob covered it, then the red ghost sent me the piece below and then and only then did Ravi announce the new issue himself.

That said, let's see what ill-trothen regions of Shelldom this latest issue uncovers.

First CutTheRedWire:

“Shell Shocked has released its eighth issue packed with tutorials, reviews, interviews and other shell related info. This issue focuses on the *box shells, the new iShell, and how to code shell modules. It also includes a variety of interface and other related topics. Feel free to leave your comments and openly discuss the issues of any article.”

And a table of contents from the ravishing master himself:

“Editorial: Issue #8 (20th April, 2004) by Ravindra Maharaj

Blah blah blah .... blah.

Themes, Styles & Wallpapers by Various Artists

A few goodies for our faithful readers :). Check 'em out!

News: Nov 21 - Apr 20, 2004 by Kevin Brew

Cypress takes on the task of informing the masses about what's been going on in the shell world for the last 5 months!

Review: The GUI Next Door: Blackbox for Windows by Mattias Westlund

In the first of a regular series of shell reviews, West takes a look at BlackBox. I have to admit I find one thing puzzling about West's review: What do Catherine Bell's breasts have to do with minimalism? Quite a bit apparently! "BlackBox has more eye candy than you might expect from a minimalist shell, and it has a sleek hi-tech look that I at least find appealing"? Erm.. riight. ;) Read and Enjoy - I did!

Review: *box Shells, BB4Win, and bbLean by Miguel Garza

Looper checks in with a most informative article on *box shells, particularly BB4Win and bbLean. For a great overview of *box shells and their features, look no further. (All right, all right, you got me, you WILL have to look one page further in order to READ it.)

Tutorial: Hacking The Look by Rev. Edward Karn

Reverend Karn aka ZenLogic aka Reverend Karn (because I don't know which is the handle here) presents us with an updated version of an article he originally wrote for 2600.com (May the hair on their toes never fall out). This article has it all: modifying a dll with a hex editor, screenshots, lots n lots o' Res-Hacker, a touching moment of DBZ or two, and pomes fer cryin out loud. Go read it already!

Review: iShell Installer 2.1 by Joshua Blocher

Verbalshadow provides a quick writeup of a relative newcomer to the shell scene, Allelimo's and Ironhead's iShell. Looks like the iShell folks are going for a minimalist look with extensive functionality. Check it out.

Interview: Bladestaylor (*box plugin dev) by Miguel Garza

Looper Rides Again with his interview of Bladestaylor, dev of SystemBarEx, a simple but efficient BB toolbar plugin. Sporting the longest answer to the longest question in Shell-Shocked history, this article provides an interesting look at the thoughtfulness that has gone into the SystemBarEx design. Dip in!

Review: PureLS 0.40 by Christian Noer

TucknDar offers an article on the motivation and style of PureLS, offshoot shell of LiteStep. More to whet the appetite than give a full accounting, this little nugget will probably provide the hook to get others to give PureLS a shot. Read and get whet!

Tutorial: Coding: iShell Applets - Part 1 by Alessandro Limonta

Allelimo, one of the devs for iShell, an open source replacement shell available on Source Forge, has put together a tutorial on creating your own iShell applets. Put on your C++ hat and dip into the stuff that makes the Alternative Shell world tick.

Tutorial: Coding: iShell Applets - Part 2 by Alessandro Limonta

Part 2 of Allelimo's tutorial on creating applets for iShell.

Tutorial: Coding: iShell Applets - Part 3 by Alessandro Limonta

Part 3 of Allelimo's tutorial on creating applets for iShell.

Article: Why the Apple Dock Still Sucks by Bruce Tognazzini

Apparently ONE article by The Tog in the last issue wasn't enough for you! And APPARENTLY you people had the temerity to criticize Tog's lofty dismissals as "no longer valid"! Hoo boy! You thought you had the last word! Boy were you wrong! Tog is back with an update of his previous evaluation. Now READ the last word! (At least, the last word until further notice.)

Article: Securing your Computer by Jim Maurer

Notwithstanding Bill G's born-again commitment to his OS' security, there have been more Windows worm and virus exploits in the last year than any before. But even on a Windows box, it's possible to attain reasonably good security with some basic steps, without spending a mint. Even if you're already familiar with basic security (a likelihood in our lot), check out Jim's article for additional options.

Jokes: The Liter Side by Brian Wolven

Aging, Scottish Art, Bumper Stickers, The CIA, Colonoscopy, Lesson For The Day, Sherlock Holmes, Guys' Rules, Tonto ... and more in this issue's joke section!”

After that onslaught there's only one things I can say.

*phew* || craeonics | comments (9)

And I'm not done stealing news just yet. Again, from SkinBase, CareBear speaketh:

“Quintessential Player (QCD) has released an all new version with some pretty cool additions. This application can just about do it all. And what it doesn't do, I don't need!

Go get it! It's free

Features:

• MP3, Ogg, WAV, and CD support

• Full Speed CD Ripping

• FREE MP3 Encoding

• Streaming audio support

• Skins and Plug-ins support

• Powerful Tag Editor

• Gracenote CDDB support

• Crossfading support

• Multiple visualizations

• New Resizeable extensions

• New Skin Layouts

• New Improved User Interface”

I must wholeheartedly agree with the bearmon, this often overlooked media player has been around, skinnable and capable of giving WinAmp a run for its money since the dawn of time. It tends to remind me of the late K-Jöfol. And since K-Jöfol had the best skins ever, that can't be a bad comparison.

Mind you, I don't know what the average QCD skin looks like. Despite its potential, they could be crud. || craeonics | comments (1)

For those of you who feel that plain old Internet Explorer doesn't seem to cut it in this time and age, but are afraid to leave Uncle Bill's nest and enter the dragon's lair, you might want to have a look at MyIE2.

Or as the newspost I stole from SkinBase goes:

“MyIE2 is a free tabbed browser based on the IE core (IE5.x or above required). It can open multiple web pages within one browser window, and uses little system resources. MyIE2 has a greatly integrated & highly customizable interface which supports Skins, Plug-Ins, IE Extensions, and specific IE toolbars (e.g. Google Toolbar). MyIE2 has all the features of Internet Explorer plus much, much more!

Changes in this version:

• Changed the titlebar text to IE style

• Added “Do nothing” action in ‘Other’ mouse gesture command list.

• Added support for XP Theme background in status bar.

• Added function to Double click skin name in the list to apply the skin.

• Added control for UseTheme Key in skin.ini [TOOLBAR_STYLE] heading.

• Fixed several bugs and increased stability.”

Their ‘skins’ appear to be hosted at a site called skinnable.com, on which the following phrase caught my eye:

“Looking for a home for your skinning site? We're looking for good sites to host, so contact us now!”

Hmm…

Anyhow, take the tour to find out what this thing is capable of.

Biased old me, ofcourse, is not going to bother with that, but it does seem to have a solid set of features and extensions. || craeonics | comments (1)

This is old news to many, but there never was an official news article on two little apps that can make a big difference in explorer. One skins the tree view of the side panel, and the other adds an image behind all menus in explorer.

Treehugger is a shell extension that lets you skin the folder tree in the file manager. The background, selected item, plus and minus signs, and more can all be skinned. It can also turn off icons if fitting. For anyone moding their desktop, this gives another touch to complete your theme.

[Been using this for ages. Even found a bug in it. Still have to tell grigri about it though. Some day. — crae]

ContextBG is a shell extension that adds an image behind all the menus in explorer. This included main menus, context menus, the desktop menu, etc. It also does not added to the menu size because the image stays within the menu. It does not skin per menu entry as menu entries just go over top of the image.

To change the image, the dll has to be hacked. This can be easily done in reshacker. Still, same as Treehugger, it is one more thing a user can modify to perfect their desktop. (Note: there is no official section for ContextGB yet)

Both are freeware and written by grigri. || cuttheredwire | comments (11)

BSPlayer has had a few minor upgrades this year. Most have been bug fixes in preparation for 1.0 version, but there are almost twenty of them spanning three builds.

BSPlayer has had a few upgrades this year, but not much has been reported on them. All the updates have been bug fixes, so that might explain it. No new features have been added, but that is common for a release candidate. This new version is worth the upgrade if you have experienced any of these bugs, or especially if you are willing to send bug reports. They are what will make this program solid.

For those that don't know, BSPlayer is a media player that focuses on video. It plays anything you have a codec for, and has a lot of options and control. Naturally, it's skinnable. The controls can look like what ever you want. The video area just shows the movie, and the borders (not skinned) can even be turned off.

Version 1.00 RC1 Changes

BSPlayer: http://www.bsplayer.org/ || cuttheredwire | comments

Buddhism dictates that all (physical) existence is suffering. One's soul will continue to reincarnate until said soul has learned to dissociate itself from existence and transcend into a state of being (or should I say: non-being?) called Nirvana (technically a Hinduist doctrine, but Buddhism stems from Hinduism like Christianity and Islam are branches of Judaism).

Now this evolution can stretch across many lifetimes, but there's where Buddha came up with a shortcut (called the Eightfold Path). In short it comes down to this: the fastest way to transcend you physical existence is by distancing yourself from earthly bonds.

“Is there a point to this all?”, you ask.

Why yes, this a mere introduction to what I call the art of postponement.

Even though I am an heathen who does not believe in things like ‘souls’ or an afterlife and will therefore burn in Hell according to the beliefs of the majority of Tek's readers (but that's a different story altogether), this concept of dissociating oneself with life closely resembles to what I do on a daily basis. In fact, it also appears to be closely related to the Taoist doctrine of wu wei or nondoing.

The art of postponement is to (as the name implies) postpone things until the last possible moment.

There are so many things that need to be done every day. But do they really need to be done? Are they a necessity? Or are they what society expects of you? I say that a lot of our daily chores have little more importance than to fit in with expectancies. And therefore I postpone.

“Jesus Christ, get to the point already!”

Right now, I am postponing many things. I have been postponing issue thirteen of Tek since December (did you know it was almost ready for publication back then, but I pulled it?). I have been postponing making that logo I finished PK I'd make for him weeks ago. I have been postponing setting up the order form so people could gets that teknigear, even though Doreen already had stack of them printed, saw her bank account plundered and has been forced to go live under a bridge untill I enable people to order from her and solve that liquid funds issue. And I have been postponing posting news on this site. There did appear to be any urgent news anyway.

But just as I figured the world had lost its grip on me and I was greated by ethereal realms that lie beyond, the iron claw of He Who Cuts The Red Wire draws me back into the grimness of reality.

Yes, all these words just to introduce red's news. Perhaps I should put this piece above those then? || craeonics | comments (13)

I'm being conned.

It's that time of the year again, and I almost fell for one. Pranks, that is. Hey, it's been a long day and I haven't looked at a calendar in days. What's your excuse?

Seeing it's approaching midnight over here, I think it's safe for me to point out some of the more obvious ones.

Now the trick to pulling off a good prank is to make it believable. It should be something that makes you go “hmmm”.

DevArt's pranks are as always, transparent as glass. Sorry, no, the Brits don't own DevArt. Sorry boys, that doesn't surpass Jark getting arrested at Disneyland.

WinCustomize made me go “hmmm” for a sec. A brief sec. But somehow, StarDock's flagship apps on the Mac is a bit too convenient. But with their roots laying on the OS/2 platform, there could have been some truth in it. Somewhere.

An alternative type of prank is what Blizzle did. I really can't say what it is. You just have to go see for yourself. It sure as hell brings back memories of how the web used to look when it started to boom, though.

And the last one of today. One that I'm not entirely convinced of. One that just as well could be the truth.

ArtUproar got replaced with the default Apache homepage. Anyone who's ever installed it knows what I'm talking about.

Mad rumours going out. Ads weren't generating enough revenue and so Chazzles pulled the site. Or was it just plain maintenance?

Apparently, it appears to be just maintenance. If it is a prank though, I've fallen for it. Tomorrow will tell.

In other related news, the return of EndEffect? || craeonics | comments (9)