Do majorities determine facts? How about motivated minorities? Do they determine fact? This is an issue that the popular Wikipedia has had to deal with.

CNET has an op-ed piece about Wikipedia and how its growing popularity -- and growing use as the defacto standard on "what is true"(TM) has highlighted the fact that it's open to abuse, disinformation, and plain old error in ways that "closed" knowledge bases are not.  That's not to say that encyclopedias don't make mistakes -- they certainly do.  Moreover, traditional encyclopedias and other closed mediums often have hidden agendas that the reader may not be aware of.

However, Wikipedia's openness means that anyone can modify any page regardless of merit.  For example, this Fall, a disgrunted WinCustomize user used the WinCustomize Wiki entry to trash moderators and admins they didn't like.  Even now, over half the entry is dedicated to "criticism" of WinCustomize due to forum arguments (where according to logs, less than 1.5% of WC users go).

Read CNET's excellent commentary on the subject.

ScreenScroll is a small program to be used to simulate a scroll of the screen. That is, it moves all visible windows a specified number of pixels or percent of the screen vertically and/or horisontally. It is also possible to move the wallpaper the same length and direction. This is usefull to help you see where you are on the virtual screen. It is also possible to use include lists to only move some windows or exclude list to leave some windows.
 
The program does only change two settings in the registry if you are using the move wallpaper function. If you are not using that, then the program does not add anything to the registry or or any other folder than that where the program it self is in. And because it is not constantly running it does not take up any unnecessary resources.

Hat-Tip to ShellCity.net and Virtual Plastic.

The end of the Galactic Civilizations II beta will be this month.  After that, it goes into strictly private testing.

It is during that point we take the feedback we've received and start incorporating it in as much as possible, polish things up, tweak game play, fix bugs, etc.

If it is anything like the GalCiv I beta, there will be loud posts insisting that the final game is doomed (anyone here remember the last GalCiv I public beta?)  needless to say, the transformation that occurs between the final game and release can be significant.

The area we are weakest on is in the area of compatibility testing. We could really use some feedback from users running on low-end systems or running on Windows 98, ME, or 2000.

There will be another beta -- beta 4D -- this next Thursday along with the posting of the draft user manual for the game.  At that point, it will be important for people to turn in their two cents on what they think needs to be tweaked, fixed, etc.

Stay tuned.

As I get older or at least busier, I have a lot less toleration for micro management.  I just don't find it fun.  I know lots of people do but I personally hate it.  When I play Civilization IV, for instance, those workers go on A (auto improve) right away.  And I think it works fine.  I'm sure the workers aren't optimal but they're well into the "good enough for me" area.

That said, I've always resisted having any micro management issues resolved by computer AI.  That is, I don't like the idea of having some sort of "governor" that is actually an AI doing the work for you.  I've never seen a governor AI that can remotely match a good human player.

Instead, we've focused on trying to have cleaner interfaces that allow players to automate what they would do.  The most famous example of this (which was considered very innovative back in the original OS/2 version) was the ship and social governors -- tell all planets building X to start building Y. 

We've got that in GalCiv II but...I want more.  I just don't know yet where to draw the line.  One governor going in that's new is the rally point governor.  I never used rally points in GalCiv I. Didn't see the "big deal".  But now I do.  Oh boy do I.

But now that I'm starting to use rally points I find them a pain.  What if I want to change which rally point my ships are going to?  So we added a "All planets sending ships to rally point X should go to rally point Y".  Similarly, we set up one for ships -- all shps currently traveling to rally point X go to rally point Y." (where Y can be a rally point or back home or to stop entirely).

We also finalized on how upgrading ships is going to be done and we basically caved in to simplicity:

You want to upgrade a ship? Fine, it's money and time.  There will be a base cost + a cost based on the difference in cost between the original ship and the new one.  And there will be a small time penalty between 1 and 4 turns based on how far from your home planet the ship is.  You will be able to upgrade individual ships or entire classes of sihps at once.

We were supposed to get Beta 4D out this past week.  Unfortunately since this may be one of the last public betas, we wanted to wait until we got the compressed textures in so we could do further compatibility testing.

The levee on 17th Street in New Orleans shouldn't have broken.  While designed to handle a load of 14 feet of water, it never reached that and broke causing what is now estimated at $300 billion in damage.

According to the investigation, the engineering error was so obvious, so trivial that it should have been spotted and that it was not caught ultimately resulted in a significant percentage of the damage done to New Orleans from Katrina.

Read the whole thing.

While the media is content to let pundits just shoot off rhetoric to back their own predefined agendas, some people in the blogsphere have put some effort into analysing the actual data from Iraq.

Check out this link for some really detailed analysis of what's going on. Are we winning? Who's getting killed? What's going on?

Version 5

WindowBlinds is a software program for Microsoft Windows that enables users to completely alter the Windows graphical user interface (GUI) by applying specialized UI themes known commonly as skins (also called visual styles).  These skins can change virtually every element of the GUI such as title bars, push buttons, radio buttons, checkboxes, the Start bar, Explorer task panels, scrollbars, toolbar buttons, progress bars, progress animations, and much more.

WindowBlinds was first released in 1999 for Windows 95, 98, and NT 4.0.  Since then, it has been completely rewritten to take advantage of newer operating systems such as Windows XP along with adding a host of new features.

WindowBlinds 4 was released in 2003. This document outlines what is new in WindowBlinds 5.

WindowBlinds 5 works on Windows XP (32-bit and 64-bit as well as 2003 Server, Windows Vista support is due when Windows Vista ships).

The major new features of WindowBlinds 5.0 over 4.0 can be boiled down to this:

• Per-pixel alpha blended support for nearly all elements of the GUI such as title bars, borders, buttons, menus, special dialogs, start menu, etc.  This means that the graphics can be seamlessly be blended into whatever is behind the graphic. This makes possible spectacular looking user interfaces previously not possible on Windows. 
• No Dedicated Process.  WindowBlinds now works as an extension of the OS itself. It requires no special process to be running to work.
• Newer, easier to use Configuration program.
• Enhanced hardware acceleration support. WindowBlinds 5 makes use hardware acceleration to a much greater degree to speed up repainting, resizing, and moving of windows. It should be noticeably faster, particularly on slower machines, than Windows by default.
• Animated per-pixel title bars and frames. Title bars and frames can be animated. The animation in most cases is hardware accelerated meaning it should use no CPU for the animation.
• Toolbar icon changing.  WindowBlinds can change your toolbar icons for Internet Explorer and Explorer.
• Progress Animation changing. WindowBlinds can change progress animations (copy, move, etc.).  The ones in Windows XP by default are over 10 years old.

However, that's just the tip of the iceberg.  Below is a more comprehensive list of what's new:

• Internet Explorer 7 skinning
• Glow effects for title bar buttons
• Glow effects for most other controls on the system (put mouse over a button and if the skin supports it, a glow appears around it)
• Idle mode implemented for full-screen games (gamers should find their systems run faster if running WindowBlinds over the default Windows XP visual style).
• Explorer task panels that can appear on top.
• Support for MSStyles via SkinStudio conversion
• Improved compatibility with non-theme aware programs
• Support for over a dozen new languages
• Ability to change the hue, saturation, and brightness of skins by users using sliders.
• Skin memory management optimizations so that skins use less memory
• Countless new minor controls supported such as the ability to skin the shut down dialogs, please wait dialogs, etc. Like all controls, even these support per-pixel alpha blending.

In addition to these, hundreds of tweaks, fixes, and small enhancements have been added as well.

A shareware download of WindowBlinds 5 is available. It comes with several skins that support per-pixel alpha blending. It can be downloaded at: www.windowblinds.net

WindowBlinds can be purchased on its own for $19.95. It can also be purchased as part of the award-winning suite of desktop enhancement utilities called Object Desktop. Users who had WindowBlinds 4 can upgrade to WindowBlinds 5 for $15. The enhanced version has many features and options not available in the shareware version. To Purchase WindowBlinds go here.

There's been a very stimulating series of articles written by JoeUser bloggers with regards to the opinions of civilians on the sidelines making claims about what the military should and shouldn't do.  I missed some of the first ones (particularly a great one by Texas Wahine) so here's the series so far:

We need to help those Iraqis! (a civilian frustrated with those who oppose the war)

If you love war so much, why not go fight it? (frustration with non-serving civilians who seem to glorify war)

Why aren't you fighting in Iraq? (Bakerstreet responds to the above)

I dont' have to serve to support (same)

Are you a pasty pile of goo? (are people being overly defensive?)

One-Upmanship on JoeUser (whose opinions matter more?)

As a professional jerk, I'm a lot less sensitive to the feelings of soldiers or pro-military or anti-military people.  Simply put, I support the war. I support the job the military is doing. The job. Our soldiers are doing a job. I don't really care whether they like the job or not any more than I care whether individual policemen or firemen like the job they're doing. I only care that they do their job. 

That said, I can totally sympathize with soldiers and their families who see arm-chair generals, comfy at home, who treat warfare as little more than a sport for their amusement. I have seen this attitude in many pro-war people, a total disconnect from the hellish, dangerous, and staggeringly difficult times our soldiers face.  I can totally get what they're saying.  But I don't want to be lumped into that.  I haven't served in the military. I probably never will.  But I feel I do have an appreciation for the job our soldiers are doing even if I cannot even imagine what they've gone through.  Therefore, I make no bones that I support the job they've done.

Then again, being a jerk, I don't have any particular sympathy for the Iraqis. I would support bringing troops home IF there was the understanding that if Iraq fell into terrorist hands we would go in there and overthrow what they'd cobbled together.  Winning against terrorism doesn't mean we have to set up some sort of peaceful democratic state. Not in my opinion anyway. There's any number of countries that are in states of near anarchy.  What we have to work against are states with significant financial and material assets who support terrorism or who allow terrorists to openly organize and plan.  Hence, while I agree us leaving Iraq would likely result in a non-democratic government run by Shiites who oppressed minorities or even lead to civil war, I don't really care. I'd rather have our soldiers home.  IF that oppressive government started to support anti-US policies, pursue WMDs, sponsor terrorists, then we could go in again and take them out.

Of course, many of you reading what I just wrote probably are shaking your head at my naivete. Because you're right.  The US cannot (contrary to what some left-wing fringe Europeans think) just send the military in on a whim to overthrow countries we didn't like. Not until I'm emperor anyway.    Therefore, the most balanced course of action is probably to stay until there's enough infrastructure in place that Iraq can move forward on its own and draw down troops gradually as they can.

Betanews has taken a first look at WindowBlinds 5.  One of the most obvious new features in WindowBlinds 5 is its ability to do per-pixel alpha blending on nearly all of your Windows GUI controls including the title bar and borders of your windows.  This allows for all kinds of new skinning effects (not to mention making it much easier to create cool looking themes).  One popular effect that we're seeing are people making skins that make Windows XP appear similar to Microsoft's upcoming Windows Vista OS. 

Windows Vista is a huge step forward for Windows.  Its experience is delivered through a composited 3D accelerated surface.  Or put another way, the Windows Vista environment will have the same capabilities that a modern PC game would have and all the effects there-in. 

Needless to say, Windows XP lacks this, but in terms of user interface, Stardock was able to develop a technique that allows WindowBlinds to leverage the advancements in video cards over the past few years so that Windows XP could superficially look similar to Windows Vista.  It should be pointed out that Windows Vista is much much more than just a visual overhaul. It really is a next-generation OS that Stardock will be encouraging users to move to as soon as it's available.

Hopefully WindowBlinds 5 will help users get a taste of the kinds of cool things one can expect in the future in Windows itself.

Stardock has released WindowBlinds 5 to the public today.  WindowBlinds allows users to completely alter the look and feel of the Windows interface by applying visual styles (skins) to title bars, buttons, the Start bar, borders and more. Consumers customize nearly everything else in their environments: their cars, homes, clothing and cell phones are based on their personal preferences and needs. With WindowBlinds 5, users can now make their Windows desktops look and feel the way they want.

WindowBlinds 5 introduces a broad range of new features, including per-pixel alpha blending, resulting in smooth or glassy title bars and borders that realistically distort the content behind them; as well as the ability to change toolbar icons, progress animations and the hue and saturation of the Windows interface.

With over over 8 million users worldwide, WindowBlinds 5 is the most popular desktop-enhancement utility of all time according to CNET’s Download.com where it recently passed the 9 million download mark. It is also used by companies such as Microsoft, ATI, nVidia, Alienware, Nintendo and many others to provide custom Windows user interfaces for their customers.

WindowBlinds 5 is $19.95 as a stand-alone program or for $49.95 by purchasing Stardock’s award-winning Windows enhancement suite, Object Desktop. A shareware version of WindowBlinds is available for free download.