teknidermy

I recently sent this msg to the old qwilk email at xoblite site, asking about Desktopian:

"Hello!

I was looking around the web for old softwares and old deskmod related sites, and I want to know what happened with desktopia.org. Is there any mirrored version or a chance to upload the site again for archiving purposes? I saw some pages at WayBackMachine, and remember that the last time I saw the site was back in 2008, the last update was in 2004.

I'm a deskmod enthusiast since 1999/2000, when I was 14, and is a bit sad to see that some of the good sites like desktopian and blizzle are now just digital dust... And sites like customize.org, skinz and others are just a web2.0 thrash or full of ads, respectively.

Sorry about my english,

and thanx for the attention

Andre"

And now, I want to know some about Teknidermy and other related projects, like VirtualPlastic... Why Modspots is offline? Server issues?

pixnix.pre-lude.com

craeonics is in la la land about now and I'm really not sure how to answer you but I will try until that dutchy returns from la la land and can respond to you w/ a better answer.

Anyways, my guess is alot of the older skinning sites are dying off (or rather died) due to the fact many devs that made free theming software stopped updating to accommodate all the OS changes over the years so most of those older sites that were hosting skins and themes for those dev's programs had things to consider: should they keep paying hosting fees for a data base of outdated and now totally useless skins and themes simply for nostalgic reasons? And we can see the obvious answer to that?

(that's my guess anyways) As for us and Tek I still have no clue why we are still standing? Plastic keeps paying the hosting bill for us to stay afloat (and I still don't know why he does it) but as long as Tek is still standing I suppose I will keep coming to visit the other 5 ppl that keep visiting. hehe

Umm I suppose you can also draw a line through "Shell-Shocked" on that list on the left too?

Yikes! I clicked on Skinnables (have not clicked on that one in years) Not sure what I just felt? hehe!

Oh boy must be a sickness for us to get so attached to these crazy websites...

Okay so Andre it looks like Skinnables.org is really the only reliable, true and faithful Archive for the "older" theming software if that is what you are looking for?

I'm still half asleep (and at work), so let me digest all that first.

Short answer before reading everything: Tek is in winter sleep. However it may wake up to a Rip van Winkle situation: [link].

hmmm okay. I received a email reply from craeonics...

and that's my answer:

"thank you so much for the fast answer...

I've been a big fan of the scene since de early 00's, and since 2006 I have a blog [pixnix] about this.

...and I understand you. Since 2004 I had a community on Orkut, for brazilian citizens, where we shared some good informations and content related to the deskmod world. But, since the last year the community (Desktop Art) is dying together with Orkut (I left the founder position). The people there are doing other things and I suppose I'm one of the few that still mantains the hobby, at least writing sometimes about it. A lot of blogs here in Brazil about the scene aren't anymore.

The last year I had some problems, and my blog was sleeping too, and it is still at some similar status now. Sometimes I post some stuff. I just wanted to know the status at the "backstage", from the people that have been in the scene since (or before) I was 14 years old.

PCDesktops is outdated since 2004, but at least it is still online, and I think that it's better than destroy or hide all the data. It will be a lot sad to see these great sites going offline, like Blizzle, Digital Dreams, Desktopian and others, because they were (and are) the best references we have.

My best wishes to Skinnables, Teknidermy, Modspots, Virtual Plastic.

Sorry about my poor english,

Thanx again!"

I understand the question about "host a museum website". and is very good to see some people here, in a fast reply to my question. I recently read a ancient Teknidermy issue talking about some dying sites back in 2001, and it's a bit curious phenomenon, 10 years later.

I just don't want to see the deskmod scene disappearing like IRC in Brazil (or the rest of the world) or because some people just don't know or do not want to be creative to modify the "new" interfaces of the current OSes, just because they're good or glassy enough. (Now I'm talking about the users, not the developers). :D

a translated version of my last post at pixnix

[link]

it has some of my visions about archiving and using old software :d

What I said per email:

"Skinning in general is a bit down the toilet, so to speak. And that has been the case since the early 00's. I suspect that a lot of people who used to be active as developers and "bloggers" moved on to other things (life, kids, other platforms).

What's going on with Tek is twofold: 1) been meaning to rewrite the underlying code for years now, still have not done so and therefore have not been posting news that actively; and 2) the scene as we once knew it seems to have gone away. It still exists, in some shape and form, but I've somehow lost track of it. See for instance: [link]

In short:

- desktopian = dead (tin_omen is busy with other stuff, qwilk never did much, _why vanished from the Net)

- skinz = bought by a spammer in 2000 or so

- customize = same as it ever was really, just less activity

- tek = more or less sleeping (I always say it will be back at some point)

- modspots = dead (domain expired, sryo rescued the domain, but no-one was participating, so he let it expire again)

- virtualplastic = plastic does Habbo stuff these days, see: [link] "

Tek will be around as long as Ken pays for the domain name, plastic does the hosting (also hosts skinnables.org by the way) and I don't get run over while crossing the street.

I wholeheartedly agree with André and his vision. It's a damn shame that these things fade out of existence. Then again, I studied History so data retention is crucial.

Skinnables has Inhotus, by the way: [link]. On of these days I need to ask plastic for the keys to the store and back that stuff up. Then again, we can already run HTTrack and the like and grab the entire site.

Yeah, I know about Inhotus. The problem is to find some specific skins. I'm trying to contact the owner of Skinventory [link] apparently he had a big archive of skins, including a lot for Inhotus. I pretend to recover some of those and publish some on my site, obviously mantaining the credits. I cannot host all of their database of skins, due to limitations of my webhost, hence I pretend to focus only on those for the rare softwares.

Thanx again

Good luck with that. Though I fear you might run into copyright issues and Snowman (dude behind Skinventory) might not want to give you those skins because of that. At least not to put up somewhere. Bit of a grey area.

shell-shocked isn't dead (yet) - I left all the article and tutorials up more or less in archive mode - but there seems to be an issue with the hosting that I'm not finding that elusive spare moment to deal with. will do soon though, and it's still my hope to revamp the site and get things moving again... but real life's being a bitch at the moment...

Say what!?

/me rubs my eyes! Raviiiii! =)

(glad to see you are still around! Don't worry too much about life being a b**** it'll change the next few moments (just when you want to toss the towel in, so hang in there!) hehe!

I'd better not cross out that link to Shell Shocked just yet then.

wowwww... and 42 weeks later I'm back here. It was a little surprise for me to see a post about this thread "[link]".

Today I see the same scene. At least it's not really dead... And my old post about a software directory is still dormant. [[link]]

but now, for the next 2 months, I'll have some time to think about this, work a bit on this project (as an architecture student the time to this hobby is a lot scarce).

Has someone a way to contact Snowman, from skininventory?

His site lists an email address: [link]

Plus, he's also a mod over at WinCustomize: [link] and we last saw him here (at Tek) somewhere last month, I think.

thanx

I have admin access to skinnables.org and new posting access to virtualplastic.net (ya, still, after all these years). I really need to do something. Right now I'm back in school, which eats time. I barely have enough time to customize my own system let alone much else. My motivation declined as there was less and less news to report, which was my main "role" in the community. [link]

I'm trying to motivate myself by trying something different. It's a chronicle of sorts that I've started here at Tek: [link]

/me thinks the main skinning scene will move over to the iPad now (at least it looks that way but we will see)

Fat chance of that happening. In the Cult of Mac you can "think different" as long as you follow in line. I will never understand why they put up with that hideous interface.

Anyway, ghost face, what are you studying?

Actually the iPad might end up ruling the world. I might even get one after the next version comes out I'm just waiting to see how much they've improved on it over the prior versions that have been out. I'm not into following in line either dutchy but "if" I like something enough and think it's good enough, then I'm not ashamed to step out of my character and step into that line real quick like and get me one. I can't get used to the Mac desktops at all (I've tried) but I "cannot" break away from the iPhone (I've tried that too and "nothing" beats the iPhone)

I think w/ desktop theming it's just not as challenging as it used to be and now w/ the iPhone and iPad it's new ground to break and more challenging (that is if you can get the stupid Jailbreaks to get into your devices!) I've not been able to theme my iPhone for a while now cuz I went and upgraded my iPhone to the 4s which has an A5 processor in it (hopefully it should be any day now)

I now see my desktop machines only for working and/or using as a tool to theme my iPhone period.

You are not the average user. You may have a point about phones and tablets taking a chunk out of the desktop market, but these are casual user who will never skin anything.

Besides, have yet to see a skinned iPad or software to do so.

Software to do so? That would definetely take the challenge away. It's all done by scratch basically HTML XML java etc

Agreed. The truth is that desktops have been over powered for years. If all you want to do is surf the web, a tablet is better. I have a nook color. I actually prefer it if a website has a mobile version. It just is more natural. It's the book form-factor that I like. I've done what I can to customize it with the default settings, but I need to root it.

Now, if I have to write anything, even this forum post, I want a nice comfy keyboard. I need a browser or a text editor with a spellchecker too. This is when the typewriter form-factor is nicer. A laptop does the job nicely for me. I also have a lot of customization options.

I have a desktop still too. It's old now though (~5 yrs). I miss being able to game with it and get serious work done. Once I get some spare cash I'll gut it and upgrade. I have a recliner for a computer chair and a 24" monitor. It's much more pleasant of an experience than my ultrabook.

That's three devices to do similar things. Most people will just stick with one or two and not know what they are missing. Ok, they may with tablets, but not with laptops. While I want a desktop and a laptop, as money is short, it shows I only need a laptop. Hence the decline is desktops, but not the death.

That's my take anyway.

An interesting note is that tablets with a detachable keyboard can double as a laptop. The problem is that you do not get the best of both worlds. You either get a heavier, oversized tablet or an undersized laptop. This is what happens when you cross a book with a typewriter.

Those tablets with the docking station annex keyboard thing weigh about the same and are the same size as an iPad though. Think Asus Transformer.

Anyway, no I don't have one and no, I don't want one. Still waiting for bloody e-paper to go places.

Btw, I'm going for a B.S. in Computer Security, which is a specialized networking degree heavy on Windows Server 2008 and Cisco stuff. Plenty of firewall classes. It also includes things like computer forensics (e.g. FTK) and disaster recovery. I'm done in June. After that, maybe I'll make a LS themes or two.

Way to go, you're almost done. After that degree you need to get some field experience and you should be set.

Somewhere in between being busy at work or too tired after my day I'm going to give you two guys who have absolutely no imagination when it comes to the potential for the iPad a mini course but not today (cuz I'm busy at work and not tonight cuz I'll be too tired from my day)

Congrats Boo on your goals! Glad to hear you're doing so well.

Hmm, look you said:

Besides, have yet to see a skinned iPad or software to do so.

// crae_work / 210 weeks and 4 days ago

Ohhh, you'd be shocked! to see what people are doing on their iPads now. There are loads and loads of apps to theme the iPad and customize it like crazy.

Anyways, off to the gym to most likely get annoyed by that asian guy...

Apparently the spam is coming from some surf tracking bot or something (because I shop at Coach New York sometimes) so it could be some kind of browser related tracking thingie. (Ray Ban sunglasses are not me though)

I noticed I do get a lot of ads that pop up based on my shopping habits "sometimes" so it could be that some spam hitting tek is simply following our visitors? (not sure)

Hmm, actually the links are to old Coach styles though so it's not current spam? [link]

I know this bag is not even around.

At least if they're going to spam us, spam with some currently legit links! hehe

Well reading this was a blast from the past. And now I'm working on a M.S. in Information Systems.

The desktop died, by the way. I just have a MacBook Air and an iPad Mini 2. Both are around or over two years old.

/me waits for professional student jokes

Apple has gotten boring and not coming out with anything exciting and new (hence you sitting on those for two years)

GhostFace is about 120 by now. Finish that damn school already!

just checking my last post on deviant (beeswax) and... wow. surprised to see somebody read this 24 weeks ago. well, well, my old project folded temporarily, but it's very good to know teknidermy is still around.

Everything folds but Tek is eternal. Well, until Ken has had enough and stops paying for the domain.

Not that we're doing anything, but hey.

I am more surprised the board accepted that accent grave. I always eats my posts when I use accents. I need to go dig through the code to see what causes this.

and it is still great to see tek around. and with the same theme!

customize.org is not around for months (by now)

Posts like this popping up to the top of the board, give me a heart attack...

Still being around with the same could also be qualified as neglect.

"Still being around with the same could also be qualified as neglect."

Live web fossil.

Five year necropost. Usually, the only ones resurrecting old threads are spammers. And always the same thread. So everytime I see an old thread like this at the top...