FrogBlog: May 2007

What? I didn't eat that! I swear! (okay, I did)

from WinCustomize Forums

Before I leave you all forever to start my new career as a beekeeper, I thought I should get back to writing the occasional skinning blog again that many people seemed to have liked.  There's been so much going on lately that it's hard to keep track of it all.

Probably the biggest piece of news this week has been the fact that WindowBlinds 6 is going to support titlebar/border glass blurring on Windows XP (see the screenshot up there).  That's obviously a pretty huge thing. I wish we could have done that  a year ago but then again, the video card drivers weren't up to par then. 

Users of Object Desktop have no doubt started to see things really starting to move again. With the preview of Object Desktop 2008 out, the tip of the iceberg of new cool stuff becomes available.  Of course, the challenge now is that about 15% of our users are using Windows Vista and another 85% are using Windows XP.  How many of those Windows XP users are going to be migrating to Vista soon? That's anyone's guess.

I've been having a lot of fun with the new ObjectDock Plus.  The weather docklet that comes with ObjectDock (free and Plus) is actually pretty useful.  It also was a huge pain in the rear end because we're actually hosting the weather data ourselves. That's right, Stardock's actually a weather data provider now! Ack. So we've had to quickly learn how to handle a lot of weather data requests.

For those of you running Windows Vista Ultimate, make sure you have DeskScapes (and Windows DreamScenes) installed.  There's been some really neat stuff lately in the animated wallpaper world.    Even now, 5 of the top 30 most popular downloads this month have been animated wallpapers (though 16 of the top 30 are WindowBlinds). 

This week, Stardock Design released two Dreams.  One was an animated shark pool and the other one was released as a Master skin and took considerable work but is a photo collage in which images from your computer are taken and placed on your desktop background in real-time in a very visually pleasing way to form a living wallpaper.

There's a lot of really cool stuff in development on that end including an incredibly cool one in which the user selects a reflection map and a ground background and then their desktop looks like a little pool or pond or something.  It's a dynamic dream so it's all done on your video card and hence uses little CPU.

One thing I'm getting very anxious for is the DesktopX 3.5 beta.  I just want that out the door so that we can get to DesktopX 4.0 which is going to be such a huge change (I'm looking forward to a new Photoshop like layer editor for DesktopX).  So what's the hold up? DesktopX 3.5 can export content to the Windows Sidebar.  And given how powerful DesktopX widgets/gadgets can be, you can imagine why this is a pretty big deal.

Well that's all for now.  I have go now and pick up my bees!

6,126 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Before I leave you all forever to start my new career as a beekeeper


Just last night there was a national news story about missing bees!!! You wouldn't happen to know anything about that?        

Appreciate the information on up coming updates and the enhancements they will have.  

Now if I was only smart enough to use what is currently available I know I would show more excitement! Heck I would even settle for not hitting the wrong keys on the keyboard!!!         

Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
career as a beekeeper


Pretty amazing about your new venture as a beekeeper. 1985, I moved my Airstream about six feet away from four hives of bees, as it was in the Malibu Hills and there just aren't that many places to park your home for $200 a month there. I studied and read up on bees and soon found that I could interact quite peaceably with them if I folowed certain behaviors. We coexisted for five years 'til I returned home to the Rockies. They never came in, even when the screen door was left open for lengthy periods.
On Dal Lake, in Srinigar, Kashmir, I had occasion to visit a honey-factory on one of the many floating islands there. The owner/beekeeper had me sit with the bees and actually remove and replace some combs filled with honey while the bees were quite active and forming "sleeves" up my arms and solidly over my face and neck. V e r y strange experience. Not one sting.
Main thing I tell my kids(9 & 11) is to leave them a small pan of water at all times, and never get between them and the sun.
Bravo for adventuring into new waters. Thanks for sharing.

Really looking forward to the new enhancements, programs and features we're hearing about.
The Political Machine 2024
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
If its all on the GPU, does that mean it will slow down any games running? (Full screen or windowed), or does the dream effectively slow down or stop completely?
Just wondering since I'm planning to upgrade to Vista over the next week and try dreams out...

~ NatSciene
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
First time I've made it into a screenshot

I can't wait for the new goodies coming out

NatScience: The dream is paused when the DWM is turned off, which it is when you open a game. It shouldn't slow games down at all.
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top

If its all on the GPU, does that mean it will slow down any games running? (Full screen or windowed), or does the dream effectively slow down or stop completely?
Just wondering since I'm planning to upgrade to Vista over the next week and try dreams out...

It's disabled when a full-screen game is run.

Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
(I'm looking forward to a new Photoshop like layer editor for DesktopX).

Oh no you didn't! O_o Yoohooo!!!
You know people are going to bug you about DX4 now even though DX3.5 isn't out yet. I sure will.


I might reinstall Dreams again. These dynamics looks interesting. All though I've never been to existed about Dreams because I rarely see my desktop. All I know is that it's probably there somewhere under the pile of windows.
Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top
One thing I've always wished they would do with Object Dock is add tab like functionality to the regular zoom bars. One of zoom bars(not tabbed bars) is setup for shortcuts right now, but I really like the idea of having tabs, but I really do not like the tabbed bars. The tabbed bars don't really zoom so that means they take up alot of desktop space. All they would have to do is put some buttons/tabs on the nonzooming side(the side closest to the edge of the screen) of the regular zoom bar and center them, then you could switch between 2 bars(e.g. Graphics Apps and Games) without having to use the current static tab bars. Anyway always good to see Stardock working on new cool stuff.