For over 11 years, Object Desktop has been delivering future technologies to users long before they show up for the mainstream. If you want to know what's going to be in the OS someday, get Object Desktop.

Going back to 1994/1995, the earliest days of Object Desktop for IBM's OS/2 gives hints on things to come to the mainstream years later.

Take a look at these screenshots:

Look at Object Navigator. Designed before there was a Windows Explorer (anyone remember File Manager?) it boasted things that people today take for granted.  Look at the ZIP files -- they're folders and are treated like any other folders and were totally seamless to the user.  Again, remember the time frame 1994/1995.

The icon labels are easy to ignore but this was one of the many innovations that users often miss or taken for granted.  Similarly, Windows Vista will have a "sidebar" with "gadgets" on it.  Apple users argue that the Sidebar is taking from them. One can pull up a screenshot of System 7 (the version of the Mac OS from the same period) and try to find something as similar as Control Center which allowed users to plug in their own functionality. 

Not that Microsoft borrowed from Control Center. Stardock always considered it an obvious feature.

One feature we haven't been able to do on Windows -- yet that we did on OS/2 was Object Package. Object Package allowed a user to package a program or an entire desktop and take it to another machine with all the necessary classes and "registry" settings automatically applied.

It took awhile for Keyboard LaunchPad to make it to Windows but it did. This is another example of how seamless the ZIP handling was and how flexible Control Center could be.

Over the years many features first seen in Object Desktop found their way into the OS.  .ZIP integration, GUI Skinning, even a "Control Center" like bar.  And each new OS provides Stardock with new opportunities and new technologies to help create the next version of Object Desktop such as Object Desktop 2007:

...10 years later...

Now you have total control over the icon size on the desktop, can create your own labels, the right-click desktop menu can now be configured, minimized windows can be turned into interactive-tiles on the desktop, users can create their own gadgets and widgets, virtual desktops are faster, more powerful and able to be seamlessly integrated into the Start bar on Windows. The UI is easier to skin and can look a lot better. And by moving to Windows, with its much larger market, Stardock was able to lower the price from $89.95 to $49.95.

Users can build their own desktops from scratch, disposing entirely of what comes with Windows if they so choose.

Updates don't come yearly. Instead, they come in real-time. Users can continually download new updates to the different programs as Stardock makes them.

And even as the visuals improve, so too does the utility. Object Desktop is more than a pretty face, it provides the tools and enhancements to Windows needed so that users can make Windows work the way they want to.

And even as cutting-edge as this all looks today, someday, some of these features may seem like old hat as new features and programs that haven't even been imagined are developed.

If one looks at programs from 1994/1995 in other software arenas, they can compare how much has changed and how much has stayed the same.  Object Desktop continues to evolve and influence the market in ways far greater than its developer size would normally imply.

The last poll showed that the largest player demographic for GalCiv II is 26 to 35. So I'm in the majority -- barely at 35. Teh second was 19 to 25 with it declining dramatically in-between. 

This week's poll asks which feature of Dark Avatar (the expansion pack for Galactic Civilizations II) are people most looking forward to?

Dark Avatar isn't a traditional expansion pack. While it does add new units, new opponents, etc. That's where it starts. The real meat is how it fundamentally changes the actual game play. It's not quite a sequel but it's definitely closer to a sequel in terms of new features and content than it is to a typical expansion pack.

So the question is, which feature of Dark Avatar do you find the most interesting?

You have the ability to design your own opponents from scratch and play against them in future games.  You have your spies that you can send to do nasty things to your enemies or to protect yourself.  You have the environment categorization of planets so that you can't just rush out and colonize every planet at first. You have the epic generator which is designed to export your finished games as stories.  There's the asteroid fields which players can build labs on or defense platforms and the like.  There's the new AI options where rather than just setting the difficulty to "hard" you can instead adjust resource bonus/penalty and AI playing intelligence independently. and of course the new campaign where you play as the Drengin, conquering and enslaving. And lastly the new ships, hulls, and other goodies.

And that's just a surface level list. There's going to be a ton of detail work from large chunks of the AI being rewritten with new techniques to enhanced graphics, a Drengin UI, etc. 

If you don't have Galactic Civilizations II, it's at store near you. If you know someone who likes strategy games, please let them know. Staying on shelves, like Walmart, into the Fall is going to be tough so every sale counts.  If you already have Galactic Civilizations II, you can pre-order Dark Avatar and get a discount.

The PowerUser.TV podcast crew has struck again and this week's episode is particularly special! It's the one-year anniversary. 52 consecutive weeks in a row of zany podcasting.

Listen to one of the most popular podcasts on the Internet. Sponsored by Neowin.net, WinCustomize.com, and QuarterToThree.com. And hosted by the cool Kristin Hatcher, the tech savvy Derek Batting, Joel "Gamer" Hulsey, and the ever ranting Brad Wardell.

This week's episode talks about Windows Vista security, ATI and AMD, IE 7, gaming, and more!

At this year's ApolyCon, Sid Meier and Soren Johnson from Firaxis were amongst those who attended and gave a sneak peek at the just released Civilization IV: Warlords expansion pack.

The expansion pack to Firaxis's award-winning strategy game contains a host of goodies and if a picture is worth a thousand words then check these videos out:

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3

For those of you who attended, sorry I missed you. I would have gone but my wife is due any day now.

The PowerUser.TV podcast crew has struck again and this week's episode is particularly special! It's the one-year anniversary. 52 consecutive weeks in a row of zany podcasting.

Listen to one of the most popular podcasts on the Internet. Sponsored by Neowin.net, WinCustomize.com, and QuarterToThree.com. And hosted by the cool Kristin Hatcher, the tech savvy Derek Hatcher, Joel "Gamer" Hulsey, and the every ranting Brad Wardell.

This week's episode talks about Windows Vista security, ATI and AMD, IE 7, gaming, and more!

Galactic Civilizations II is out and in a store near you!

We've also been hard at work making new updates to the game for the past several months.  This past month we've been working on a new version - 1.3 which is a free update to all registered users.

The new update focuses mainly around making UI tweaks, performance, AI enhancements, and more. Not quite as glamorous as 1.1 or 1.2 but for long-time players, many long-requested features and changes are going in. 

The first beta of 1.3 is already available. There will be a couple of additional betas for users who want to try them out available in the coming weeks.

Here are some screenshots:

New difficulty levels!

Right-clicking on techs brings up more info now.

Smarter diplomacy

Computer players handle planets better (and in non-obvious ways - won't just plop down an influence improvement on a tile that has a bonus simply because it has a bonus).

Plus...

Galactic Civilizations II is at a store near you (or you can purchase it directly and download it immediately).

As I've mentioned previously, the universe that Galactic Civilizations exists in has been swishing around for a very long time. Back before I could even program, I always hoped to write it. I never thought that the way that the story and characters would manifest themselves would be in a computer game. But that is how it has gone so far.

Galactic Civilizations I barely touched on it other than through random events. The expansion pack, Altarian Prophecy, touched on it a bit more. And GalCiv II: Dread Lords borrows heavily from the existing universe.

A number of users asked that more of the back story be written. I don't want to give away too much of what will be in future versions of the game other than to say that any future GalCiv III (and we're talking YEARS from now) would have "heroes" (characters) in them and one such character is DL Bradley. I think he is mentioned in the Dread Lords campaign actually and (spoiler warning) at the end of GalCiv II: Dread Lords he is in a pocket dimension.

One series of short stories I had outlined long ago was entitled "Legacy of the Orb" which deals with what happens to many of the characters long after the events of the main series of stories. One of those stories deals with DL Bradley and is called "The Reluctant". In my spare time, I've been tweaking the original and putting it up.

If you're interested in reading them, the first 6 chapters are now available:

Chapter 1: https://www.galciv2.com/Journals.aspx?AID=124063

Chapter 2: https://www.galciv2.com/Journals.aspx?AID=124513

Chapter 3: https://www.galciv2.com/Journals.aspx?AID=124598

Chapter 4: https://www.galciv2.com/Journals.aspx?AID=124749

Chapter 5: https://www.galciv2.com/Journals.aspx?AID=124830

Chapter 6: https://www.galciv2.com/Journals.aspx?AID=124919

Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar, will start to unravel some of the origins of the Dread Lords and Arnor for those interested in the back story.

The main enemy of humanity and by humanity I don't mean mankind but rather compassion and the stuff that makes us connect with each other -- what makes us "human" -- is time. Make a man live forever and you will eventually strip him of his humanity. Make a thing that can sense the passing of time live long enough and eventually it'll become totally alien to us and its actions seemingly evil and cruel -- to us.

Every day is a battle.

A battle between fight or flight. A battle between positive and negative interpretation.

One of the things I've learned over the years is that happiness and unhappiness are largely chemical states in the brain.  Things like money and material wealth don't help with happiness. They can, at best, limit the number of negative vectors. That is, decrease the number of things that can cause stress.

But the clever mind can always find new things to work with.  If I am working I am regretting I'm not spending more time with my kids. They're little guys for just such a short amount of time. The oldest one just wants to be with me. He's 9 years old and simply wants to be with his daddy. Much much longer will that be? The hour glass is running out.  The 6 year old just wants me to play with him and see what he's doing.  Tick tock tick tock.

If I'm spending my time with them, I think of all the things at work I should be doing. All the people who count on me. Because I've discovered something over the last couple of years -- I am pretty good at something in particular after all, I'm really good at putting together pieces of things that when combined generate a lot of economic activity. And by really good I mean irreplaceably good.  So I worry that when I'm doing doing what I do best, I'm potentially costing other people their livelyhoods. People with families and responsibilities. And there's no easy solution to that. There's no "have other people do" what I do because few people have the peculiar combination of skills necessary to do what I do. And those that do have their own companies already.

But it's an endless rabbit hole. When you're "young" -- less than 30 anyway, you don't even recognize that youth will end. I certainly didn't. Then, sometime in the early 30s, for me it was 32, you start to hear a faint tick tock.  Maybe that's where women get the "biological" clock thing from. I don't know.  But I do know that it was around then I could start looking at the horizon and seeing that the sun is actually not going to stay at its noon mark forever.

That's when I realize I haven't done all the things I want to do and that many of those things are best experienced while at the fullness of health and energy. While I'm "at my prime" so to speak.  Adventure. Travel.

When I was in college and first dating my wife, I used to talk about getting a big old truck like my dad had and just driving across the country. No maps. No time constraints. Just drive and see the country.  Over a decade later, still haven't done that. I have a good laundry list of places I'd lke to go. But the other factors of life pull me in. The other compromises one makes that is a rite of passage in becoming an adult.

And so, late at night, when it's very quiet, the driving forces push against the obstacles. Most people won't understand what I am talking about -- which I say good because there are some things not worth understanding.  But those who do can nod with appreciation of the feeling.  The desire for solutions to problems that can't be solved, only managed. The recognition that for many decisions it isn't the choice that brings joy and fulfillment but rather the choices that result in the fewest regrets and disappointment. Or at least, a pathway to fewer sentence fragments.

The first public beta of Galactic Civilizations II v1.3 is now available.

The new version has a ton of changes some large and some small.  Various interface and usability enhancements requested by users have been implemented.  3 new difficulty levels have been added and the computer AI beefed up.

See the link below for a change log.  You will need to have Stardock Central in order to download it (And need your serial # to get to it).

Enjoy!

Enhanced File Dialog (EFD) is a new program that is part of Stardock's award-winning Object Desktop. 

EFD extends the standard Windows file dialog to have a host of additional features and flexibility that many users have long requested Microsoft to add.  Now, users with Object Desktop can download the 1.0 version of it.

The link below has Zoomba's guided tour of this new utility.