Yesterday we released our 6th premium DeskScapes Dream (and 3rd dynamic one) on WinCustomize; Liquid Dream . It's a great animated desktop that turns your desktop background into a rippling pool of water with tons of options to tweak and play with to get just the sort of effect you want. It's one of my favorite Dreams released so far as it's very subtle, looks really good, and doesn't hog my system resources. Here's a quick description of Liquid Dream: Water drops fall on ...
Aren't buzzwords fun? They tend to take on a life of their own, especially in the tech world, and somehow work their way into regular everyday language. How many people do you know that are familiar with the term "Blog" and are comfortable using it in a regular conversation? However, despite their widespread use, sometimes they can be quite annoying. I personally feel like punching someone when they seriously use the term "Blogosphere". Turns out I'm not the only one ...
It's interesting what you find in court documents sometimes. In response to recent legal concerns with the US Department of Justice regarding Vista's bundled desktop search tool. Microsoft has agreed to add the ability for users and OEMs to modify the default search in Vista. The most interesting tidbit is that the change will come in Service Pack 1, which will go into beta testing later this year, and be released mid 2008. This is the first hint at Service Pack 1 since Vis...
Do you have 17 months of free time on your hands that you're not sure what to do with? Are you willing to be locked in a box with a bunch of strangers for the entire time? Does the idea seem any cooler if I tell you it's for a Mars expedition simulation, being run by the European Space Agency? The ESA is preparing to run a 17 month test to simulate a human expedition to Mars and is looking for volunteers to join the project and spend the duration in an isolation tank. Volun...
Surfing the Internet is a dangerous proposition these days with all of the browser vulnerabilities that pop up every month, along with the sites trying to exploit them. But you're a smart cookie, you secure your browser, have a virus scanner running, are using popup blockers, and scan your system with a spyware cleaner periodically. However, despite the most diligent efforts, something snuck through and now your system is bogged down with all sorts of junk processes you don't want r...
Love him or hate him, it's impossible to deny the impact Steve Jobs has had on the personal computer industry, having practically invented it with the launch of the Apple ][. It's also hard to deny his influence on consumer electronics with the juggernaut product that is the iPod, and the online music marketplace with iTunes. Now, he looks poised to steamroll over the cell phone industry with the upcoming iPhone. However, despite his amazing success, he's had his share of flop...
It's Monday, which means it's poll time! Last week, I asked if you use any social networking sites, and if so, which ones. The comments section to the post was funny, with most people saying they'd rather take our their own eye with a rusty spoon than go near a site like MySpace. In the end, it seems about of you aren't the social networking sorts, with 47% saying they didn't use any such site. Top of the list remaining was Facebook, capturing roughly 18% of users. ...
Microsoft has decided that the time has come to pull the plug on the Digital Image Suite product. Considered a competitor to Adobe Photo Elements, was essentially a minimalistic set of tools to do simple photo manipulation on your digital photos. The reason for dropping the product? According to Microsoft, many of the functions found in Digital Image Suite are now built-in with Windows Vista. Of course it could have something to do with the launch of Expression Design, a...
The time has come, your trusty workhorse of a PC has reached the end of its life and now you have to scramble to purchase a new system before the old one completely gives up the ghost. You consider yourself a savvy PC shopper, able to spot the lame ploys salespeople attempt to get you to buy something you don't want or need. You even comparison shop, going to websites, pulling store flyers out of the newspaper, and scouting out the local shops in person. Well, here's another t...
There's no question that the summer months are slow ones. Most of us would rather be on vacation, or just outside enjoying the weather than sitting at our PCs indoors. Submissions to the galleries slow, forums get a little stagnant and overall things around the Internet get pretty quiet. Well, we here at WinCustomize want you to keep coming back, to forget about the sun and summer road trips and spend your lazy summer days here with us! You see, we'd just miss you all te...
Another week ends, and as has been our habit these past few months, it brings with it Island Dog's Week in Skinning article, reviewing some of the more noteworthy submissions of the past seven days. This week, we've got a combo widget, a DeskScapes animated wallpaper, a regular static wallpaper, a pretty cool ObjectDock background and a skin for the Xion media player, our newest gallery here at WinCustomize. Go check it out, grab the skins, and tell us what you think should have been t...
A feature that was long asked for on our forums was a private message function so users could get in contact with one another more easily without having to go through the public areas. Several months ago, we quietly added both PMs and emails via the forum for users. Well, turns out it was a bit too quiet as I get the feeling most of you still don't know it's there, sitting in the menus and header bars you probably don't click on very often. Well, our very own Celebrity of teh Int...
Already reviled for their cooperation with the US Government on electronic wiretapping of any data that cross the AT&T high-speed backbone, the newly reconstituted Ma Bell is taking additional steps to further piss off Internet privacy advocates. Yesterday, it was announced that AT&T would be working with industry groups in Hollywood and the music industry to filter and remove copyrighted materials from their network, a first for a major Internet carrier. The decision to develop techno...
So it's a little late to start now, but website AltSearchEngines.com declared yesterday June 12th, as a "Day Without Google". Or more accurately it would be a "Day Without Any Major Search Engine" since the rules they laid out said you had to avoid the top five, or any meta search that may include results from a major engine. The idea was to try and get people to expose themselves to the many alternative search engines that are out there on the web today, to show folks that Google, Yah...
In days not so long past, it was the dreaded "This page looks best when viewed in Internet Explorer/Netscape" message posted to the bottom of a website, the sign of the times when two competing web browsers diverged so widely from one another in how they rendered simple HTML tags. Today, some of those incompatibilities still exist, and many a web developer finds themselves writing case statements for each browser they want to support. However, a new issue is coming up; extensions an...