Are You Running Impulse? Check Out the Impulse Community Site

It's pretty!

Wednesday, April 16, 2008 by Zoomba | Discussion: WinCustomize News

If I had to pick three things that Stardock is incredibly good at, of course I'd start off with skinning/desktop experience software like WindowBlinds, IconPackager etc, and then I'd have to say PC strategy games.  But those two sit on top of our third strength; community building.

We've taken the lessons learned from WinCustomize, and Brad's own years of running BBSes "back in the day" and applied them to our gaming communities surrounding Galactic Civilizations, Sins of a Solar Empire and soon Demigod, and now we're getting ready for a completely new community site attached to Impulse, our new digital distribution tool, and our next major step in community services

ImpulseDriven.net is currently in beta along with Impulse itself.  Using the technology we developed initially on JoeUser, we've smoothed out a lot of rough edges, improved the UI and have what we feel is a great community discussion site centered around games, skinning and technology in general.

There are two ways you can access the site, either from the Community tab within Impulse, or by pointing your web browser to ImpulseDriven.net.  It's important to note that you will need IE7 installed to properly view it within Impulse.  IE7/Firefox 2 will work equally well if accessing the site directly.

Let us know what you think!  And remember, this is just the first pass at it.  There are a lot of plans for expanding and improving the site over the next year.

27 Reply 9 Referrals
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Philly0381
Reply #1 Wednesday, April 16, 2008 12:21 PM
I've been using Impulse since the second day it was available. I've enjoyed each enhancement to it that has come out since then.

The Impulse Community Site is something new for the WC and SDC crowd and might take a little getting used to. It has even cause ugly and pretty posts to show up in the forums. Someone even offered up in IRC that whether ugly or pretty it does have a nice personality.   

One thing you can say about it, keeping in touch or being able to contact others in the community should be a lot easier now with the community site. I think more people with use it than not. How a feature functions is higher on my list than its design.  

Zoomba
Reply #2 Wednesday, April 16, 2008 12:23 PM
We have a lot of social-interaction features planned for ImpulseDriven.  And you can bet you'll see a lot of the tech from that site make its way over to WinCustomize in the future.

ShelbyGT_The_Car
Reply #3 Wednesday, April 16, 2008 1:41 PM
when I close my Impulse in the community tab as being in the forum - that is where it starts backup at and makes it the home page SGT  

ShelbyGT_The_Car
Reply #4 Wednesday, April 16, 2008 1:56 PM
well no it does not - just returns to forums again

ALMonty
Reply #5 Wednesday, April 16, 2008 4:59 PM
I guess it sounds kinda sad but I only use Impulse to update my software. I use the webpage to read the forums.

I.R. Brainiac
Reply #6 Wednesday, April 16, 2008 5:02 PM
Last I heard IE7 dosnt skin with windowblinds on XP...so no thanks. If I must go there,I guess it will be Firefox...but it dosnt skin with windowblinds properly either so... In other words,WB has precedence.  (maybe while I'm suffering on Vista,IE7 is already there and skinned)    

Bebi Bulma
Reply #7 Wednesday, April 16, 2008 5:22 PM
I'd rather have a more updated, standards-compliant (as far as IE goes), secure browser than worry about it being skinned properly.

neophil78
Reply #8 Wednesday, April 16, 2008 5:24 PM
Last I heard IE7 dosnt skin with windowblinds on XP...so no thanks. If I must go there,I guess it will be Firefox...but it dosnt skin with windowblinds properly either so... In other words,WB has precedence. (maybe while I'm suffering on Vista,IE7 is already there and skinned)


Same, but in french         

I.R. Brainiac
Reply #9 Wednesday, April 16, 2008 7:07 PM
Yes Bebi...I want that too,tabs are great...not sure why IE7 dosnt skin in WB.  

ShelbyGT_The_Car
Reply #10 Wednesday, April 16, 2008 7:48 PM
Hate to say it IRB - but my XP Pro here with IE7 is skinned using My Colors Theme of "Cosmos". For that matter any skin I want it to be. I've never had a problem with IE7. Now the tabs in IE8 are not skinned. But So far so good with WB on XP.
Would you like to see a screenie?

As to thread - The only thing I find hard to do with the new Impulse Net is to navigate to places I want to go. Not enough links there for the usual stuff I use in the forums. [ that I'm used too! ] As for what language and such just don't know?? I'm American and use English so it works good in that respects.

I'd rather have a more updated, standards-compliant (as far as IE goes), secure browser than worry about it being skinned properly.


As for FF being so secure - I think not - as it is I have better security using IE7 than any other browser. But I see that as an opinion only - for some people think with their fingers and not with the way things actually are done. [ fast and receptive - in disguise only ]

But that is just the way I am with stuff. Do not get me wrong I use FF for certain applications and I do believe it can be used in a secure way. But just using it is not all that secure.
I await the final IPV6 net with encryption. With a new mobile chip being now placed on the assembly line at Intel.{The Intel Atom}
WWW Link
There is soon to make way for this to happen drastically. First with total use of the net via cell phones and next the pc with 64 bit only in 2015. Thus Vista will be one of the only OS's able to be upgraded to the new net being drawn out by developers for the next generation to come.

SGT  

MarkSnyder61
Reply #11 Wednesday, April 16, 2008 8:00 PM
Impulse refused to update Icon Packager but SDC allowed me to so I think there's a problem with Impulse and detecting licensing??

Vampothika
Reply #12 Wednesday, April 16, 2008 8:26 PM
.....not sure why your clinging to xp ir...its gonna die one of these days....  

I DO look forward to you skinning wb for vista.....you should join the club, the water is warm and
the sun is shining...you cant go wrong......trust me.

plus its more skinnable and pliable than you think.......you can be imaginative with not alot of limits....trust me....

I.R. Brainiac
Reply #13 Thursday, April 17, 2008 1:45 AM
Hate to say it IRB - but my XP Pro here with IE7 is skinned using My Colors Theme of "Cosmos". For that matter any skin I want it to be. I've never had a problem with IE7. Now the tabs in IE8 are not skinned. But So far so good with WB on XP.
Would you like to see a screenie?
Yes,a screenie of IE7 skinned by WB on XP would be good...tho I suspect most of the my colors blinds are UIS1 frames on XP...which dosnt help me one bit.  
plus its more skinnable and pliable than you think.......you can be imaginative with not alot of limits....trust me....
No,its not more skinnable than I think.I'm well aware of what you can and cannot do in Vista...correctly.You assume incorrectly,that I havnt looked at all the quirks inherent in taking an XP skin and making it Vista ready.I have gone thru blinds with vStyler(probably the most complete Vista skinner...he's a stickler for accuracy and completeness),and got a lot of precise info on what is required.   I setup a clean install of XP,got IE7,latest WB...none of the 3 Stardock design skins(UIS2 and 1)included skinned IE7(except for mousovers and toolbar background...and the way it breaks that up into 3 sections is terrible). Cant move or remove address bar or search bar.Like you can in XP.This is typical of the entire Vista philosophy.  

I.R. Brainiac
Reply #14 Thursday, April 17, 2008 2:13 AM
What the heck is wrong with the line breaks in the forums?  

Dragon is the most current skin you can get from Stardock,(Cha ninja and Mike Bryant),and IE7 is not skinned...and these are people who KNOW skinning.  

Vampothika
Reply #15 Thursday, April 17, 2008 7:47 AM
(Cha ninja and Mike Bryant),and IE7 is not skinned...and these are people who KNOW skinning.  


lets hope then in the future it can be so.............


ShelbyGT_The_Car
Reply #16 Thursday, April 17, 2008 8:36 AM
OK IRB here is Dragon 1st
Cosmos is the next one
They both work just fine here with IE7 in WB

Click the image for larger view...










ZubaZ
Reply #17 Thursday, April 17, 2008 9:08 AM
Nothing inside IE is skinned.
Compare to IE7 in Vista:


I.R. Brainiac
Reply #18 Thursday, April 17, 2008 1:08 PM
Nothing inside IE is skinned.


Thank you Zubaz...I thought maybe I was going crazy...or worse yet...wrong.  

Fuzzy Logic
Reply #19 Thursday, April 17, 2008 1:36 PM
Hmmm, I thought everyone understood that parts of IE7 in XP were hard coded. They will never be skinnable 

ZubaZ
Reply #20 Thursday, April 17, 2008 2:32 PM
Thank you Zubaz...I thought maybe I was going crazy...or worse yet...wrong.


I've used your skins . . I think it's clear that you *ARE* crazy (and maybe a little bit wrong) but not in this case.      

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