This is a bit off the beaten path of what we normally cover here, but this is just something that's too cool to not pass along.  Scientists in Israel have invented a way of making elaborate 3D models out of flat 2D discs.  It works by pretreating a special gel disc about half the size of a beer coaster with a special monomer solution that selectively shrinks when you heat it.  It's being called "Chemical Origami" While uses are limited at the moment, some scientists image t...

If you're like me, you probably couldn't code your way out of a paper bag, and the extent of your programming abilities are getting a computer to display "Hello World!" in a terminal window.  Finding out what to learn, where to go for help, what books to read etc. makes the prospect of self-teaching something as complex as computer programming pretty daunting.  Well, MSDN has recently launched a site with the novice coder in mind.  The Beginner Development Learning Center sit...

Looking to restyle your desktop? Treat yourself to a classic look with the Pantheon suite from Stardock Design andacclaimed skinner Essorant . This elegant suite consists of everything you need to transform your windows desktop, including: Dramatic visual style Stylish icons Matching wallpaper New logon and boot screens Clock, calendar and weather gadgets You can transform your entire desktop and see Windows in a whole new way for a mere $8.95 ($7.95 for Object Desktop subsc...

March 17th is St. Patrick's day, a day most often commemorated by corned beef and cabbage, green beer, short little red-headed guys with funny hats and all sorts of people wearing buttons that say "Kiss me, I'm Irish!"  Well, we thought it might be fun to get into the spirit of the upcoming holiday here at WinCustomize with a mini-contest of sorts, something to get everyone thinking a little more "green".  Here's what you have to do to participate: Create five St. Patrick's Day t...

The retail electronics space is about to get a lot less competitive.  CompUSA announced yesterday that it is set to close more than half of its US retail locations within the next 3 months, dropping expensive and low-performing locations to focus in on their top performing stores.  After closing 126 locations, CompUSA will receive a $440 million cash infusion from an unknown source.  This is all part of a major cost-cutting and restructuring effort for the electronics retailer. ...

Users of the incredibly useful Google Maps service probably noticed a new button added to the interface recently.  Previously only available via the mobile client, desktop users now have access to a "Traffic" button that will draw an overlay on roads indicating their current traffic load.  Green means that traffic is moving at least 50 miles per hour or higher, yellow is 25 - 50 miles per hour, red is less than 25 miles per hour, and gray indicates there's no data available. Of cour...

With the release of Microsoft Office 2007 and the radical UI changes brought with the new ribbon interface, it looks like there's an opening for competition in the office productivity space to gain some ground against the Redmond giant.  Corel, owners of the WordPerfect suite is jumping into the fray with both feet this week with the release of the beta version of their flagship word processor. The WordPerfect Lightning beta is free to download and offers a new degree of online services...

Imagine you walk into a McDonalds and instead of swiping a credit card, or handing over cash, you use your cell phone to place and pay for the order.  Seem a little far-fetched and silly?  Well, NTT DoCoMo and McDonalds don't think so as it's a new service they're planning to roll out in the near future.  Already in Japan, and the UK consumers can purchase items like train tickets via their cell phones.  It's the next step in making ordering and paying for services and pr...

Google offers a wide assortment of free tools to users ranging from email, to calendaring, to instant messaging and office productivity apps.  Basically, you have access to all the tools necessary to manage your day-to-day life and work with ease.  Well, it would be easy if the applications were actually integrated seamlessly together, but at this time, they aren't.  Google Mail and Google Calendar work together sort of, but the integration isn't all that smooth.  Other piece...

Since the bursting of the dot-com bubble in 2000/2001, the looming specter hovering over the shoulder of the common IT worker has been "outsourcing."  Or at least that's the boogieman the media has chosen to hoist up to scare everyone into thinking their jobs are doomed to be taken away by someone in India making a mere fraction of their current salary.  But if you listen to Bill Gates, richest man on the planet and the mover/shaker behind Microsoft and it's meteoric rise to becoming o...

One of the biggest frustrations with installing a new operating system is finding, downloading and installing all the various device drivers you need to work the gizmos and doodads in your PC.  Most support websites are difficult to navigate, as if they're intentionally trying to hide the drivers from you, making you sift through dozens of menus and links to get to the software that will power your peripherals and expansion cards. In response to this, a site has stepped up with an up-to-...

Last week we mentioned that Microsoft was backing away from sales forecasts that it's now calling "aggressive" for Windows Vista through 2008.  A lot of people marked slow sales up to a combination of hardware and software support lagging, and the lack of compelling reasons to move away from Windows XP considering how stable of an OS it has become in the last 5 years.  However, it seems Microsoft sees the issue a bit differently. In the same call last week with analysts saying t...

Remember when Microsoft analysts were claiming that Windows Vista sales were going to be spectacular and spark massive growth in the industry because consumers would be falling over themselves to upgrade?  Well, turns out those forecasts were a little bit too aggressive.  Now though, Microsoft itself is admitting just that.  CEO Steve Ballmer said as much yesterday in a strategy presentation to analysts, saying that Vista would create a "small surge" in PC sales in fiscal 2008. ...

We often lean heavily on the members of our community to help each other out in learning how to use software like SkinStudio, IconDeveloper and DesktopX.  They're not easy tools and require a fair bit of invested time to really get a feel for how to get them to do what you want.  DesktopX is probably one of the most difficult creation tools since it requires both coding and graphics skill. After numerous tutorials on the subject, community member, and gadget guru, RomanDA is steppi...

We've all had to deal with them, the unwanted calls at inconvenient times trying to sell us things we don't want.  In recently years many of us have flocked to sign up for the Do Not Call list, barring telemarketers (except non-profits and political groups) from disturbing your dinner.  However, the calls still come.  Companies ignore the no-call lists and don't respect your requests to be removed from their database (something they're obligated by law to do if you request it) and...