Quick stroll...
Sunday, June 4, 2006 by Frogboy | Discussion: WinCustomize News
Spring is here and skinning continues abreast. The GUI Championships, the multi-website skinning contest has had to be postponed while we improve WinCustomize's infrastructure. The slow speeds and such are a real headache. Sometimes it's lightning fast, other times it's incredibly slow. It's all very frustrating and, as you can imagine, very difficult to debug.
But cool stuff keeps getting made. BootSkin continues to thrive. I haven't tried it on Windows Vista yet to see if it works but if not, it shouldn't be too hard to update it. Stardock actually had nearly finished a high-resolution, true color BootSkin that could support true animations but Microsoft hired the lead developer in the last weeks of coding. Unfortunately, since it was all written in assembly, it was abandoned. I think a perpetual beta of it floats around for Object Desktop users. But I'm continually amazed at what people can do with 16 colors on the boot screens.
JJ Ying, one of the world's most popular skinners, continues to expand his gallery. I have to say that people like JJ Ying and many others help bring the world together. According to our stats, China is home to a significant percentage of the WinCustomize.com population. JJ Ying's Halo Cursors are particularly cool.
Windows Vista's cursors are pretty much the same as Windows XP. So expect there to be a "CursorVista" when the time comes. There may be additional things we'll be able to on Windows Vista thanks to the 3D engine that is part of Vista's desktop.
Have you ever read the Dune series? The first book was great. The second book was good. The third book was..well the first two books were definitely worth reading. NetBadger has been in the process of putting together a Dune based suite. If you're a fan of the series, it's definitely worth checking out on his personal page.
Reply #2 Sunday, June 4, 2006 10:37 PM
| Stardock actually had nearly finished a high-resolution, true color BootSkin that could support true animations but Microsoft hired the lead developer in the last weeks of coding. |
! I have been trying all day (well, like 2 hours worth lol) to post, but I either time out, or get some error in red saying I am no allowed (can't remember, only got it once). I was wondering what happened to this program. I am not an OD subscriber, but isn't Bootskin freeware? It would be nice to have a 24-bit (32-bit?) bootskin 
.
Reply #3 Sunday, June 4, 2006 10:57 PM
Reply #4 Sunday, June 4, 2006 11:04 PM
| I think a perpetual beta of it floats around for Object Desktop users. But I'm continually amazed at what people can do with 16 colors on the boot screens. |
I know someone who has it . . can they distribute it? They've been very good about not passing it around.
Reply #5 Monday, June 5, 2006 3:24 AM
| China is home to a significant percentage of the WinCustomize.com population |
dont forget America(specialy Mexico and Colombia)!
Like Aroche and Darkfussion from here Mexico and Lgp85 from Colombia.
Maybe there are more...., i hope so.
Reply #6 Monday, June 5, 2006 4:39 AM
This is got to be the most ridiculous statement I have ever seen: yeah it should work on a brand new OS w/ a whole new graphics engine and if it doesn't no problem we'll fix it even though we couldn't finish the program the first time around (since apparently no one else knows ASM).
Come on guys forget fixing it for vista, how about finishing the program as promised (high-resolution, true color BootSkin)? Isn't there someone else at Stardock that can do this? If not how about freelancing it to the old programmer.... BTW: I second the vote for putting up this so called almost finished beta...
p.s. BTW love how the smileys on the comment system only convey happy/neutral expressions? How about some annoyed/rolling eyes smileys?
Reply #7 Monday, June 5, 2006 6:41 AM
| how about finishing the program as promised (high-resolution, true color BootSkin)? |
Where was this promised? I was just asking. Where's the financial benefit to Stardock? (Development costs vs. sales revenue vs. support costs?)
| BTW love how the smileys on the comment system only convey happy/neutral expressions? How about some annoyed/rolling eyes smileys? |
Insert any smiley image you want by clicking the image button and pasting in a URL.
Reply #8 Monday, June 5, 2006 6:53 AM
Reply #9 Monday, June 5, 2006 1:12 PM
While "promised" is a strong word (when does anyone in the software community ever promise anything anymore after years and years of dismal failures) it was announced, touted, and advertised to be avaialable real soon because it would be easy... As for financial incentive: originally it was going to be free, then it was said "oh, it is harder then we thought" so stardock was planning to release it as a "PRO" (i.e. commercial version)... So they definetly saw financial incentive for releasing it...
Insert any smiley image you want by clicking the image button and pasting in a URL.
Sorry bt I don't keep a gaggle of Smiley URLs around just incase the commenting system does not allow for user to be annoyed (BTW: this is the first commenting system that I've seen that does not have any negative smileys... Talk about tooting your own horn)
Reply #10 Monday, June 5, 2006 1:37 PM
| his is the first commenting system that I've seen that does not have any negative smileys... Talk about tooting your own horn |
From the options at WC: Mad:
Frustrated: 
Sad 
not sure: surprised: Any of those could be construed as negative. What others would you want?
Reply #11 Monday, June 5, 2006 3:27 PM
Brad's right - you can do a lot in 16 colours. Here's two I use from Creatures (http://creatures.wikia.com/wiki/Creatures):
http://www.zen9361.zen.co.uk/eggs16.png
http://www.zen9361.zen.co.uk/kiss16.png
Reply #13 Monday, June 5, 2006 3:47 PM
I agree with you completly. I never faulted SD for not releasing it, I just said the statement was stupid: "we couldn't do it the first time, we still can't do it, but heck if there is a problem don't worry it'll be fixed lickidy split..." Brings Tears to my eyes
As for full color/high res I think you will find a geat demand for it.. Specially if there is a reasonable chance it will work on Vista.. A poll might be in order to better gauge this...
Reply #14 Monday, June 5, 2006 6:21 PM
BootSkin has always worked for me - until the arrival of my new pc (Athlon 4400+ Asus A8N-SLi 2x GeForce 7600GT). No matter which version of BootSkin I use it just refuses to boot with BootSkin loaded.
It's no biggie, it's not like I have to look at the XP bootscreen that often 
Reply #15 Sunday, June 11, 2006 7:30 PM
| We don't want to release a program that we know does not work for a significant proportion of people and which we cannot reasonably support. If we release another version of BootSkin, it will be more likely to implement a safer method of skin application than it will be to provide full-colour (though that ability may remain if people really want it). Brad's right - you can do a lot in 16 colours. Here's two I use from Creatures |
Those are AWESOME pictures GreenReaper! If that's your conversion work, then you need to be making some BootSkinS!!!
Reply #16 Monday, June 12, 2006 2:46 PM
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Reply #1 Sunday, June 4, 2006 9:51 PM
Dune was a bit like Asimov's Foundation Trilogy .....the first LAW of Science Fiction writing is...
Thou shalt NOT count correctly to THREE.
To be fair, Dune wasn't 'supposed' to be a Trilogy....but perhaps it SHOULD have been....