Meet Alberto Riccio, Desktop X Creator
by Madice

Alberto Riccio is a student and a Stardock programmer. He also owns a small company called RiccioSoft. Alberto is a very busy guy who made some very good programs that skinners love to skin and users love to use. He is dedicated to his work. In this interview I try to find out more about him and look at his latest creation: CursorEx. Alberto was interviewed in his favorite bar: #CursorEx at EFnet. I order some red wine for Alberto and beer for me. The bill will be send to Teknidermy...

Alberto: Hi Madice :)

Tek: Hi Alberto. At what age did you get involved with computers and what attracted you to it?

Alberto: I was 8 years old and yes, I was first attracted by games. =)

Tek: When did you start programming and what was your first program?

Alberto: I made the first "real" program about 3-4 years ago. It was a VB application I wrote for the company where my father works. Long and boring stuff. Completely different from the programs I'm currently making. Basically a database application.

Tek: What was VDE and how did you come up with the idea?

Alberto: VDE started as an experiment in a summer in which I had a lot of time. I just got Visual C and I wanted something to work on to learn C and Win32 programming. Then from a tech demo it turned into something usable and I decided to make it available.

Tek: How did you get involved with Stardock?

Alberto: They contacted me because they were interested into the VDE technology (that is: a way to build a custom object oriented desktop interface) and wanted to build a new and bigger application with that technology. That became DesktopX.

Tek: You told me that VDE wasn't a big success. Why did DesktopX become a success? 

Alberto: DesktopX has nothing to do with VDE. But the very basic concept and the first implementation of the graphic engine came from VDE. The fantastic support of Stardock was also responsible for its success. They are really able to help growing a program in several directions: Concept, support, distribution. And the chance of working in a team. This is obviously another world from programming alone. DesktopX is simpler to use, more stable, has Stardock support and a lot more people use it.

Tek: In what way is VDE different from DesktopX?

Alberto: VDE was for the most part a tech demo. Infact it was very unstable, had limited features, didn't have any support and was too complicated to be really used by a big public. DesktopX takes VDE's basic concept of custom objects on your desktop, but let you combine them together with tons of new possibilities.

Tek: You live in Italy. How is it to work for an American company?

Alberto: It is my first experience with a real job so I can't really tell you how that is different from working in Italy. But for sure I'm very happy about it.

Tek: At the moment you study. What do you study?

Alberto: I'm studying Computer Engineering. It is an hard and long study and it is not finished until I'm 24 years old at least. I started it when I was 19.

Tek: How old are you now? So, that we can figure out how long you need to study :-)

Alberto: I'm almost 22.

Tek: Does your study help you in your job?

Alberto: Absolutely not until now, though the most programming related courses start in the last 2 years. :) You know, you don't need Thermodynamics (Tek: a course Alberto just finished) to write a program. :P

Tek: Do you like your student life?

Alberto: Nah... Too hard and stressing. And if you add my work to it and split the whole thing between Milan (where I study) and Verona (where I live) twice a week it becomes almost too much.

Tek: You are a very busy man. Studying, programming DesktopX and CursorEx. Do you ever sleep? How do you divide your time among all that?

Alberto: Well, I don't have a lot of time for friends and I work until late at night.

Tek: You live in Verona and study in Milan. Is it tough to leave your home town?

Alberto: Yea... a lot. I like home & family. :)

Tek: Any interests besides your study and work?

Alberto: I love the cinema. I don't have much time for reading and such. And some time this year I'll go skying. :)

Tek: With all that work that you do, is there time for family, friends or even a girl friend?

Alberto: Not a lot of time for that. I don't have a girlfriend yet, but I'm sure that when I'll find her I'll have enough time for her. :)

Tek: Hehe. Are there heroes in the computer industry and if so who is your hero?

Alberto: Umm... there are tons of very good programmers. I don't have a particular "hero".

Tek: The programs you coded can be catogorized as being Eye Candy. Are they just that?

Alberto: That could be true for CursorEx. However, DesktopX surely has an useful purpose. It allows you to build your own functional desktop interface that meets your needs. But I do see Eye candy as a good thing. Eye candy and functionality are both very important. You don't want to work hours and hours a day on a boring gray machine. This way eye candy could turn into productivity.

Tek: What is your vision about how the desktop should look?

Alberto: A free form thing. Everyone has its own favorite look. I.e. a custom way to combine the desktop elements (task, tray, shell objects, clock, etc.) in both form and look (skin). This way you can well improve your productivity because you can work in an environment that meets your requirements.

Tek: One of your latest creations is CursorEx. What can one do with that?

Alberto: With CursorEx you can enhance your Windows 2000 cursors. CursorEx cursors have no color, size or frames limits. You have full control over the cursor shadow and transparency and also provides per pixel alpha blending support. You can even assign "On Click" special effects. I think that this is an important piece of Windows to improve. After all the cursor is what your eyes follow most of the time. :)

Tek: CursorEx is new and not many people outside the skinning community know it. How hard is it to get it widely accepted.

Alberto: Very hard. Working alone don't let me gain all the right places and contacts to let a program be known. In fact by now I'm mostly limited to publishing it on download.com, zdnet.com etc. but this doesn't seem to be enough.

Tek: How hard was it to get CursorEx on those sites?

Alberto: I submitted the program description to those software sites and I waited until they accepted it. Though this process can take a considerable amount of time. But usually when skinz.org mentions it in their news section then the number of downloads increases. :)

Tek: Does bribing help? :)

Alberto: nah... I think it doesn't work like that ;)

Tek: Why did you start your CursorEx project?

Alberto: I also started this as experiment to test Windows 2000 transparency (I love it) and my brother helped me build it, though now he gave up because he is too busy at the university.

Tek: Is it difficult for a skinner to make a scheme for CursorEx?

Alberto: No. Per-pixel alpha blending and animations surely require more work by the skinner, but I think the result is worth the effort. Anyway, those are optional and you can simply make a static cursor with simple pink transparency and improve the result using the custom effects automatically generated by CursorEx (shadow and transparency). You still have no size limit and 16M colors support.

Tek: What do you mean by "You still have no size limit and 16M colors support."?

Alberto: That even if you don't use per pixel alpha blending and do not animate it, you can still enjoy 16M colors and have no size limit like the standard cursors.

Tek: CursorEx is for W2K only. Are there any other reasons than the translucency issue that limit it to W2K?

Alberto: No. It is simply because of the transparency issue. Under NT and 9x I should limit the options to pink transparency, not even uniform alpha blending and obviously no shadows at all. So I think it is not worth it.

Tek: Will there be a plug in system for CursorEx?

Alberto: The current idea is that there won't be plug ins. I don't want a particular function (i.e. a small analog clock) as part of the cursor all the time, but it could be just me. There could be cool other possibilities but I still have to think about this option.

Tek: You have build-in support for local languages. Thanks for that. Isn't it irritating that most skin able programs are English only?

Alberto: Yes. It is quite irritating, but I think that non-english users are almost used to it.

Tek: Somehow skinners tend to design large cursors (CygnusXII and Buzz "The Big Cursor King" Hog come to mind). Why is that?

Alberto: Heh... Maybe that is just for fun or maybe they have a really high screen resolution. :)

Tek: There is a rumor that Buzz is selling 50 inch monitors just to handle his 1600*1200 cursors for CursorEx. Is that true?

Alberto: HAHA! Yea, but you also need a 2 Ghz cpu because the cursor is animated at 80 frames per second.

Tek: Haha. LOL! What do you think of Shoggot's scheme (spun)?

Alberto: Very very cool but sometime my brain locks up looking at it. :)

Tek: Hahaha. In the about dialog of CursorEx we see the name of your brother Francesco. What did he exactly do for CursorEx?

Alberto: He helped a lot working on the GUI and releasing the project. But now he prefers going out with university girls :)

Tek: I thought it was Alberto Casanova, but actually it is Francesco Casanova! How different are Francesco and Alberto?

Alberto: Haha! Well, he is way better than me with girls. But thanks to him I also know them. :)

Tek: What are the future plans for CursorEx?

Alberto: "On Click" special effects in the new release and then different states (i.e. Normal or Clicked). I.e. a Hand cursor that "clicks" with the finger when you push the button. And maybe, adding more events besides the system defaults ("text insertion", "hourglass" etc.). Special cursors when the cursor is above a button, when you are about to maximize a window etc.

Tek: If you look back at the programs you coded. Which do you like best and why?

Alberto: All of them. :P But VDE has been my first experience with a public program. So that was maybe the most exciting. I remember that at that time in Milan I didn't have a computer. So my parents used to print feedback emails and send them to me by standard email. :) When I returned back in Verona for the weekend I could finally answer them.

Tek: Can we expect any new projects?

Alberto: Umm... Not for the short term.

Tek: Thank you for this interview. Teknidermy readers will keep an eye on you ;-)

Alberto: Thanks to you. :)

After a friendly talk Alberto leaves the #CursorEx channel and probably implemented another amazing DesktopX feature just before going to bed. I believe there are heroes in the computer industry. Alberto is one of them.

Editors Note: We appreciate MadIce's contribution, and his time and effort in conducting this interview...and MadIce appreciate's Doreen's help with this piece...