Amidst the shareware and the framework dependent widget engines, we finally hit upon one that does not need all that nonsense: dotWidget.

Or rather, it looks clean. Haven't actually ran it yet.

To blatantly rip blizzle:

“dotWidget displays little self-contained windows (widgets) on-screen. These widgets can do anything from displaying RSS feeds and stock prices to current weather details and the time.

Yes, another Release Candidate - however, this one - as I see it - is representative of the final product.”

Head over to k23 productions for more. || craeonics | comments (12)

Everyone's favourite skinnable calendar developer has been putting out a number of release candidates for us to test out over the last few weeks.

“The release date of the new version of Rainlendar is getting near but asthere are a lot of changes and I don't have time to test things thoroughly, I'll release couple of release candidates first and let the users do the testing :-)”

And no, I'm not even going to attempt to summarise the countless fixes and improvements in these releases. Rainy is quite a busy beaver. More info in his release thread. || craeonics | comments

And welcome to our new server. If the address up there is not ‘teknidermy.com’, don't worry. That's just something which will resolve itself in a few days.

I still need to go through a number of files and make sure everything is working a-okay (yes, I am aware of the duds), but those database troubles should be a thing of the past. || craeonics | comments (3)

We're going to be switching servers in the near future.

Tek is currently residing on a slice of space leased by Skinnables. Skinnables however, does not own this server and shares it with countless other sites. Something which is rather common in the hosting world.

Usually this gives little grief… until one of your co-hostees decides to run scripts that hog the database, making all the other sites on said server that also wish to use that database tumble over. This is what's been happening these last few weeks. Any competent host would swiftly deal with abuse of resources, but alas, our host proved incompetent and did nothing.

As you might expect, the pandamon wasn't too happy about this, so he secured a dedicated server and that's where we bunnies are headed to.

The actual transfer of files from one machine to the other is unlikely to cause much of a problem. The trouble with moving sites is usually the DNS-change.

DNS is what translates domain names like ‘teknidermy.com’ to the physical address (the ip-address) of the server (currently 64.74.127.235). When moving servers, the ip-address the domain name points to has to be changed. This system, however, has a 36 hour latency, which is why when sites move, they can become unreachable for a couple of days (the domain name still points to the old machine, while the site is on the new one).

I'm going to try if I can make this move transparent to visitors. As in: you won't know it's happening.

And on a side-note, I'm getting wordier by the day. Could've said all this in a sentence or two probably. || craeonics | comments

The qwilkster sent me and every other ‘news’ site out there a note on the latest incarnation of his Blackbox for Windows spin-off, Xoblite.

Or as he describes it:

“xoblite is an advanced Blackbox for Windows branch with integrated SystemBar and Slit + a whole lot more… =]”

Which is ofcourse far too cryptic for the non-shell-aware among us. Hell, it's even cryptic for me.

I'm not going to enlighten you though, this is one of those ‘see for yourself’ cases.

“Hello all,

after 14 1/2 months of development, xoblite bb2 is finally ready for the world! :D

Some of the new features in this release…

• Introducing xoblite *THEMES*! :D -> change all aspects of the *box interface with a single click of a menu item!

• Automatic version checking and updating of the core + plugins (‘AutoUpdate’)

• Font drop shadow support for all core user interface elements

• Built-in command scripting support (@Script)

• Lots of cool new core bro@ms, including LoadPlugin/UnloadPlugin, CheckForUpdates and PausedRestart

• Three exclusive new menu bullets: Triple, Comment and Grid! :D

• Menu separators

• Right+Mid click actions for menu items (e.g. edit file, set as wallpaper, copy path to clipboard)

• Second generation slit puzzle positioning

• Send bro@ms from external applications using Blackbox.exe -broam <string>

• ‘Safe mode’: Hold down the control key to disable loading of plugins at startup… :)

• Updated *box API support for improved plugin compatibility

• Updated xoblite bb1 styles + new styles x-ashes and qtopia

• …and much, much more! :D

Download: …x marks the spot… :D

Feedback: Yes please, by email or a post on the forums!”

Sexy! And the site is damn tasty too. || craeonics | comments (8)

You've probably already seen this, but it's an interesting story. If you ask me what the flagship product of Skindom is, I would instantly answer “WinAmp” (If you'd ask me what app had the best skins, I would say K-Jöfol, but that's a different story (not to mention the Ghost of the Past haunting the present)).

Judging by this BetaNews article though, the llama's days appear to be numbered.

“The last members of the original Winamp team have said goodbye to AOL and the door has all but shut on the Nullsoft era, BetaNews has learned.

Only a few employees remain to prop up the once-ubiquitous digital audio player with minor updates, but no further improvements to Winamp are expected.”

No further improvements means stagnancy and as the Laws of Design state: “stagnancy is deterioration”. It'll probably linger about for a couple of years before it fades.

Then again, looking at its die-hard fanbase and those hippies who stubbornly use the 2.x version, it might stick around a little bit longer.

Don't know what everyone had against version 3, which sported one of the finest, most sophisticated skinning systems ever. Perhaps it was too complex for the frail minds of Skindom. || craeonics | comments (3)