The lingering death of OS/2 has come to an end.  9 years after the last major version of OS/2, IBM has officially announced what most observers (outside Usenet's comp.os.os2.advocacy) have known for years, OS/2 is dead.  IBM is directing existing customers to the Linux OS.

"We're making official what has been going on for quite some time," said Steve Eisenstadt, an IBM spokesman. "We haven't released a new version of OS/2 in nine years."

According to Eisenstadt, OS/2 has fewer than 80 customers that hold more than 10 licenses.

Stardock, from 1994 to 1998 was one of the leading OS/2 software developers.  Stardock's history on OS/2 can be found here.

For the past couple of weeks we've had a number of website issues that we've been working through.

The first issue has to do with DNS.  The Secondary DNS server for this site was no longer up due to Stardock's move (Stardock was hosting the secondary DNS server for WinCustomize.com).  This has been corrected with Network solutions but it will take some time (a few days) for this change to propagate out onto the net.  This would cause extreme slowness of loading of pages, missing images, etc.

The second issue has to do wit a database bug that we're still in the final stages of tracking down.  This would cause "server too busy" errors and just crash the website entirely. We are trying to work through that as well and hope to have it clear soon.

Hopefully by this weekend things will have cleared up considerably.

Stardock has released Multiplicity 1.02!

Multiplicity is a program for Windows XP/2000 that allows users to multiply their computing power by connecting multiple computers in an office together as a single computing platform.  It does this by establishing a high-speed network connection between each machine. A single "master" computer has a keyboard and mouse attached to it. The other computers in the room continue to have monitors connected to them. The user then assigns where each monitor is positioned in a fashion similar to setting up a multi-monitor setup.  The user can then controls the computer based on which computer's monitor the mouse cursor is on. Multiplicity sets up a universal clipboard between the machines (the Pro version even allows users to copy and paste files and folders between machines) allowing them to work together seamlessly.

Multiplicity is useful to a wide range of users including IT departments, testing centers, power users, gamers, and more.  What makes Multiplicity special is how easy it is to set up and how reliable it is to work with.  Version 1.02 includes enhanced machine detection allowing users who have Multiplicity installed on their machines to quickly connect them together.  It also includes new options for hiding the system tray icon and a few other usability tweaks.

• Screenshot of Multiplicity configuration
• Screenshot of Multiplicity concept
• Screenshot of my home setup with Multiplicity
• Article: How Multiplicity is used

Download: Multiplicity 1.02

So what exactly is Multiplicity and why should you use it?  Multiplicity is a program that allows users to take multiple computers in a given room and use them together as if they were one mega-computer.  It's not quite "distributed" computing but in the hands of someone who knows what they're doing, it can come pretty darn close.

The idea behind Multiplicity is that each computer in the room still has a monitor hooked up to it.  But only a single "master" computer needs to have a keyboard and mouse.  The computers are connected together via a network connection (wireless, direct ethernet, firewire, whatever).  Multiplicity can detect other computers that have it installed and allow the user to choose the physical location of the other computer (to the left or right of the master computer for example).  When the user moves their mouse cursor onto a screen connected to another computer, the user is then controlling that computer.  It's not remote control.  The monitors are still connected to their respective computers. You're just using one keyboard and mouse to handle your various computers. Multiplicity then sets up a universal clipboard between the machines which helps them work together as one. 

What makes Multiplicity special is its reliability and ease of setup and management.  It's incredibly easy to set up and manage and has a lot of usability options that can help make people highly productive.

Multiplicity is used by all kinds of people.  We've sold copies to test centers where a single person might want to be using several computers at once.  We've sold it to IT departments where the IT administrator might want to clear off their desks of various keyboards and mice and use just one set to control the various computers under or on their desks.  We've sold copies to graphics designers, 3D modelers, software developers, and power users.  We even have a lot of people using it to help them play games.

So how is Multiplicity used? Here are some specific examples:

For those of you who have Multiplicity, let us know how you use it.

ObjectDock 1.2 has been released.  ObjectDock is a freeware program for Microsoft Windows XP/2000 that lets users have a highly customizable dock on their desktop.  ObjectDock can respond to mouse-over events with zooming and now in v1.2 with new effects such as gentle rocking and glowing.  ObjectDock 1.2 also includes a completely redesigned icon zooming system to provide much smoother looking mouse-over effects.

Stardock also makes ObjectDock Plus which adds the ability to create tabbed docks, supports the Windows system tray (system tray items can appear in a tab or as a dock for instance), taskbar grouping, multiple docks, fly-out-menus and more.

Version 1.2: Change Log

Three new mouse-over effects are now available for non-tabbed docks! Effects include Swing, Gentle Rock, and Afterglow. Let us know which you love the best, as we're experimenting with more for the future. You can configure the duration and magnitude of the effects (Rock and glow are only available in Plus).

• New smoothness setting is now available for the zooming effect! Combines the ultra-fast mouseover animation with gradual entry/exit animation.
• Redesigned "Appearance Tweaks" properties tab for zooming docks.
• Settings "Backup" system in case of crashes rewritten, strengthened.
• Added options to temporarily disable Docklets (for troubleshooting). Look in the Advanced options (Plus) or in the Dock Contents tab (Free).
• Fixed jumpy zoom-animation when dragging within a zooming dock.
• Fixed error message on startup for users with no C:\.
• Fixed issue wherein upon exiting a zooming dock, if the cursor passes over an item's title the dock would take a step in the reverse direction.
• Fixed issue wherein the dock animation could get stuck in the "zoomed" position after the cursor has left the dock.
• Fixed conflict between IconPackager 3 and ObjectDock, which prevented dragging of icons, and at times would prevent program from loading. IconPackager 3.0a also corrects this.
• Adjusting the tab alignment will now take effect immediately.

ObjectDock's home page is http://www.objectdock.com.  ObjectDock is freeware, ObjectDock Plus is $19.95.

Screenshot: ObjectDock - standard dock
Screenshot: ObjectDock Plus - tabbed dock
Screenshot: ObjectDck Plus - fly-out menus
Video: ObjectDock mouse-over effect demo
More Info: ObjectDock Media Guide

When the Longhorn beta arrives, we expect to release an update to WindowBlinds to support beta 1.  The only issues we know of is that the new Start menu has an edit field in it and the toolbar icons are handled a bit differently.  We're working on that.

..As for people who have been applying unauthorized MSStyles, they're out of luck. Those msstyles will not run on Longhorn beta 1 unless they use them via WindowBlinds.

Everyone show us your home computing rig.  Here's what I've got going at my house.  I have two PCs connected up using Multiplicity.  One is a P4-3.4 Ghz Dell gaming setup and the other is a P4-2.8Ghz Dell black box.  Both ahve 2 gigabytes of memory on them (I do a lot of video editing and such).

Most of my week on Galactic Civilizations II was spent doing game-balancing.  That meant messing with the various .XML files that determine how long technology takes to research, how much different weapons and other ship items should cost and how powerful they should be.  The result was that a ton of changes were made to the values of these things.

For example, the weapons used to scale way too fast IMO.  You could quickly end up with ships doing 300 damage and that starts to become problematic to game balance.  Instead, weapon series go up very gradually.  Example: Lasers do 1 damage, Plasma weapons 2 damage, Phasors 3 damage, Disruptors 4 damage and so on.  The difference between Laser I and say Laser IV has to do with its cost and how much space it uses.  So the benefit is that your ship might be able to fit some other goodies on it (such as better defenses) rather than just having ridiculous kill-power.

It also didn't take long to realize that the current technology tree we had in there just wasn't workable.  It took way too many clicks, wasn't very fun, and was confusing for new players.  What we really needed to do was to rethink the technology tree.  Technology trees aren't bad, they just have to be organized. GalCiv I's tech tree was a total mess because it was a hold-over from the OS/2 version.  If we could go back and re-do it from scratch and have it more logical, it might not be such a bad idea to have a tech tree instead of whatever it is we were trying to have this time around.  Getting back to the screen itself, the tech screen was also a pain because you had to press "research" in order for it to research. The newer system is much more streamlined.

Old vs. New

I also began working on the computer AI with more vigor.  The current AI is pretty brain-dead and it's still not very good. But it's definitely non-trivial getting the computer players to design decent ships or even figure out what they should build on their planets.

Speaking of planets, we've started simplifying things on there.  We're going to get rid of the concept of "unemployment".  It just complicates the game without adding any fun to it.  Perhaps in the future we can look at finding a way to have employment rates matter but for now, it was just a hassle.  The new morale system is much more straight forward -- entertainment units per capita with the tax rate providing an overall affect on approval/morale.  In GalCiv I, morale was basically a voodoo type thing.  Now morale will be very straight forward to understand.

The other change we're working on is going to take some play-testing.  If you're not building anything on a given planet then by default only half the resources going in that area (such as military) are used.   You will be able to build improvements that will bring that down to the point where you might only have a couple of resources being used if you're not building something.  We didn't want to get rid of it entirely, fact is, whether you're building something or not, you still have to pay your employees.  But this way, it turns it into a game mechanic.  One can imagine a galactic wonder that cuts the "Wasted" spending down to 1/4th or something on all your planets.

So that's all for this week. 

Summer is here and that means lots of people are outside. But fear not, there's also been lots of activity in the Windows customization front as people check out the cool things in MacOS Tiger and Longhorn and start to try to spruce up their PCs.

In the article front, here's a guide I wrote on different ways of using the popular Windows customization suite, Object Desktop. You can read about that HERE.

Meanwhile, in terms of actual goodies to download for your computer, I came across some neat stuff:

Star Wars Yoda is a replacement boot screen for Windows XP. It looks totally cool and sure beats that standard Windows XP logo.

Speaking of Star Wars, I found a cool looking light saber replacement mouse cursor here. You use CursorXP to apply it. If you're looking for something a little more..well normal the Encoded mouse cursors are pretty cool too.

For you widget lovers out there, I found some pretty cool stuff. These widgets use DesktopX. Once you have DesktopX intalled on your computer, these widgets run like any other program except widgets use less memory to do what they do than traditional programs use (which is one of the points of using widgets). The On-Time clock widget is pretty nice. There's a gazillion clock widgets out there already but this one is particularly nice.

One of the most interesting widgets I've seen lately is the LCARS MP3 widget. It lets you specify which media player you want to control (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player or its own built in one). For anyone who is really into Star Trek TNG, this is definitely worth getting.

Meanwhile in icon land, there have been some incredibly cool icon sets packaged up with IconPackager 3. There's Luna Alt, Icon-A-Day, and the Encoded icon package. All are very nice and all are incredibly cool.

If you have ObjectDock Plus, there's some cool new backgrounds out too. I'm partial to the Gizmo background myself.

You maynot have heard of Rainlendar before, but it's a free program for giving you skinnable calendars. While there are lots of calendar widgets out there, the difference here is Rainlendar only does calendars so it has really specialized on making them very useful. NWC Blue
and elsdee RL are two recent ones that look good.

Customizing wouldn't be complete without wallpapers of course and here are a few I liked in particular:

SpaceBall.

TouchWinOS

Testosterone

Pixxel Boxx

Over in Windows Media Player land things have been somewhat quiet lately but the World of Warcraft skin for WMP is pretty cool.

In the GUI skinning department, there's been a lot of activity lately. Visual styles or whatever you want to call them change the look & feel of the Windows GUI. The most popular way to do this is with WindowBlinds, a program that extends the native visual style engine to support all kinds of cool new stuff.

Mr. Clean is like the name implies.

My Longhorn is a pretty solid attempt to get Windows XP to have the look and feel of Longhorn complete with an alpha blended Start menu.

Also in the "clean" style is MoonBlinds.

And finally, Pixel Pirate who has all kinds of cool stuff lately has made Encoded as a visual style as well.

So that's all for now. Until next time, don't be a drone, make Windows reflect your style.