Dear Stardock,

How dare you provide me an application that I can start up and have it check all my installed apps for updates, download the updates and then install them seamlessly with no real work on my part.  How dare you provide said application for free.  How dare you make said application so shiny.  How dare you make it so easy to browse.  How dare you take away any chance I have at being frustrated by installs.  How dare you make my life so easy.  I expect an answer.

hehe, wth??

[IMG]http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/2438/wthhw3.png[/IMG]

Hello folks.  I have something to say.  If you are a relatively new skinner, use the combined knowledge of the folks here at WinCustomize and other skinning community sites to help yourself.  Ask someone in a forum or PM if they wouldn't mind testing your skins out to see if there are any issues with them. 

 Some things just cannot be designed around in certain applications.  For instance, something I found out long ago, ObjectDock does NOT like graphics that aren't straight (either vertical or horizontal).  Curved corners are easy, curved graphics in the middle are not.  Once the dock starts to stretch, it begins to look, well, crappy.  You can set your borders to display some stuff correctly but OD stretches in the middle.

 Ex.  Your dock is 200 pixels wide.  RightWidth is set to 50, LeftWidth is set to 50.  The dock stretches between the right at pixel 51 and the left at pixel 51.  So anything in between there is getting stretched.  If you have a curve that area, it's getting distorted.

 You have to be mindful of this when designing stuff.  And you have to try and test it out as much as you can, in every position you can.  And still, you won't be able to cover it all, that's why it's good to pass these things around for testing.  Somebody else will have an insight that you don't.  In the end, you can't design the perfect element, somebody will always complain.  But you can catch the easy stuff.  And if somebody tells you how to fix it, you shouldn't blow them off.  They might just know what they are talking about.  ;) 

 We want to help.  Honest.

Somebody posted in a thread about being the first to skin the DellDock.  I can't remember the thread but no big deal, I thought it's own thread would suffice.  If you are into it, show what you've done.  So far, after playing around with it for about 1/2 hour, I threw a quick skin together and applied it.  I likes it better than the default.  I think I may skin the entire thing, and possibly offer it for download.  What do you think?

Anyway, if you've skinned it, show it here.  Here's mine so far:

[IMG]http://img399.imageshack.us/img399/8170/delldockmodef8.jpg[/IMG]

So I install Vista on a second hard drive and want to check out some of the Vista eye candy for WindowBlinds.  I install vStylers Vienna 3 Rapture for Vista and...dammit!  No per pixel borders, no transparency...so I reapply it and...dammit!!

Then I go into WB and check the System Info...

Your computer has a Windows Experience Index base score of 1
Your Windows Graphics Experience score is 1.9

WindowBlinds version : WindowBlinds 6.2 (build 102 x86 - Vista Edition)

WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC
WindowBlinds appears to be activated on this PC
(Generic PnP Monitor) 1 is attached to Intel(R) 82915G/GV/910GL Express Chipset Family (Microsoft Corporation - XDDM)

Wblind.dll      2008/07/22 10:08:20
Wbsrv.dll      2008/07/22 10:11:10
Wbconfig.exe      2008/07/22 10:10:32
Wbload.exe      2008/04/28 11:35:14
Wbhelp.dll      2008/04/28 11:35:07
Tray.dll           2008/04/28 11:35:21
Wbload.dll           2008/04/28 11:34:28
Screen.exe      2008/07/22 10:10:09

PLEASE report all this information when submitting a problem report.  We don't know what's in that notebook from last summer.  Per-pixel skinning requires your hardware has WDDM drivers and a graphics experience score of at least 2.

Guess I need a new video card huh?  Any suggestions?  I have a Dell Dimension 3100 Intell Pentium 4 CPU 3.20GHz

Hiya folks.  This has always caught my attention when I see them so I thought I'd start a thread to show some off.  If you have any that you've seen or better yet made, post them here.  They have to be of something real though, no random characters that don't look like an identifiable item.  Have fun.

I'll start off with The Frog.

   @..@
   (\--/)
 (.>__<.)
^^^  ^^^

Reading another thread here at WC, specifically a reply by SanChonino reminded me about hearing this on the radio awhile back.  To come up with your pornstar name use this formula:

First name = Name of a childhood pet Last name = Name of the street you grew up on

Put them together and you get your very own pornstar name.  Some don't work out so great, like mine Scoopy Sherman  :LOL: 

So, lets see them folks.

*thanks go to SanChonino for dredging this nugget up.

China was hit with a huge 7.9 earthquake today (Monday).  Thousands dead, tens of thousands injured and many, many more unaccounted for as of yet, including hundreds of school children.  My heart goes out to the families of the victims.   :SNIFF!: 

The greatest man I've ever known passed away today.  He would have been 84 this June.  He was an only child, born in the house he died in.  Married to the same woman for 61 years.  I only hope I can become half the man that he is.  I'll miss you Gramp, always.

His Hands
Dedicated to Philip McGetrick 1924 - 2008


His hands are scarred and weathered
His hands are torn and rough
His hands have seen quite alot
Some might say, they've seen enough

His hands have gone from smooth to wrinkled
His hands have sweat and bled
His hands were feared on Sherman Road
At least that's what some kids have said

His hands are full with wisdom gained
His hands have reared his children
His hands will always be respected
Among the McGetrick men and women

His hands for me are an inspiration
His hands will be my guide
His hands will show the way through life
And I will follow them with pride