Paul Boyer, better known as Mormegil, has put together a series of WinCustomize articles called Icon-A-Day to show people how to create their own slick looking icons. 

One of the new things we're trying to do at WinCustomize.com (thanks to people like Paul and others) is provide original content on a regular basis for people to learn more about how to get the most out of their PC. 

Read the Icon-A-Day Articles: Icon # 1, Icon # 2, Icon #3, Icon # 4, Icon #5, Icon # 6, Icon # 7, Icon #8.

Every registered user and every blog has points associated with it. These points are added together set up the different ranks of users and blogs on this site.

Why have a point system at all?

What motivated me to set this up was that I wanted to set up a medium in which people could write articles and that the popularity of that article would be based, at least in party, on merit. All too often, what gets read on the Internet is purely a matter of luck - some very popular website links to some article and then everyone reads it.

No points system is going to be able to overcome lots of sites linking to a given article. But a points system can make a big difference when all other things are equal.

And points basically come from a number of sources - number of people who read your article. Number of people who respond to it. And people giving it "insightful" or "interesting" ratings. And while such things are subject to abuse (and no doubt will be abused), something is better than nothing. And our system is designed so that opinions of users who are trusted (i.e. not prone to abuse the system) will count for a lot more points when they rate something.

The more points something gets, the more places throughout the Stardock.net syndication system the article will be seen. That means sites ranging from JoeUser.com to WinCustomize.com and even places like TotalGaming.net and PoliticalMachine.com (depending on the topic and # of points).

You receive points in 3 forms: Points from your personal site (i.e. your blog), Points from your articles, and points from your activities (writing comments, writing articles, etc.).

N = User's Access Level (1 for Citizen, 9 for Admin).

Point System: Details

When we measure top "blog sites" such as on JoeUser.com, we do this by adding up the total points your articles have received in the past 30 days.

When we measure top "users" such as on JoeUser.com we do this by adding up the total points the user has received in the past 30 days.

(some of this is still under construction).

WindowBlinds 4.5 is nearly ready for release. One of the highlights is the new hue changing colorization system.

Just move some sliders and the colors of your skin change. Works very well.

To enable this, you have to go to the WindowBlinds config, click on colorization and then turn it to HSL coloring. I don't know if I'll ever go back to the other system.

The first beta of Enhanced Dialogs is now available for Object Desktop users.  Enhanced File Dialogs seamlessly hook in to replace the standard Windows file dialogs. Now users can control which icons show up on the left, always have resizable dialogs, and they actually remember what view you last used (details, icons, etc.).

If you don't already have Object Desktop, definitely look at getting it.  It's a must-have utility suite for enhancing your Windows experience. www.objectdesktop.com.

Microsoft has posted its schedule for Longhorn:

Dates:

Milestone 9 (platform complete) - 16th March 2005
Beta 1 - 25th May 2005
Beta 2 - 12th October 2005
Release Candidate 0 - 22nd February 2006
Release Candidate 1 - 12th April 2006
Release To Manufacturing - 24th May 2006

Hat tip: www.neowin.net.

In Harry met Sally, the character Harry, played by Billy Crystal, asserts that men and women can't be friends because the sex thing always come into play.

There's always a lot of debate on this subject and as I get more life experience, the more I can conclude a firm maybe.  There are various levels of friendships and there are various forms those friendships can take.  So the simple answer is, yes a guy can be just friends with a woman. But there are a lot of qualifiers to that answer.

Qualifier #1: How close of a friend you can be is limited by any romantic relationships you may have. If you're married, it's okay to have girls who are friends whom you work with and see professionally. But don't expect to be having heart to heart talks on the phone at home with them or hanging out all the time.

Qualifier #2: The venues in which your friendship manifests itself is limited by any romantic relationships you have.  If you're married, you can certainly have female friends you can go out to lunch with or visit while on a trip.  But don't expect to take your female friend (And just your female friend) on a trip to some convnetion.

Qualifier #3: Your own personal discipline will have a great impact on how close a friendship you can have as well as what venues you can express your friendship in.  I have had a lot of female friends over the years. This has a lot to do with being raised by a single mother and being an only child. I simply tend to get along better with females as a generalization. But I also have a lot of self-discipline. And being a bit autistic I am able to fall into a pretty rigid pattern to make sure no invisible lines are crossed.  Human beings are feeling creatures. There's no way around it. So even if you recognize that deep feelings may exist in some inner resivoir, personal discipline can keep things in line. 

Personal discipline can mean being friends with people who also exhibit strong self-discipline. It can mean controlling the venue and putting safeguards on everything.  I have a lot of female friends but my wife also knows about all these friendships and I am conscious that some things are appropriate and others aren't.  For instance, some of my female friends I get along with so well that if they were a guy, I'd invite them to go to a movie with me and just me.  But because they're female, I don't.  This is partly out of the self-discipline I was discussing and part for my wife's peace of mind. She trusts me but healthy relationships mean both parties try to avoid doing things they know might cause stress for the other.

On the other hand, when I go to San Francisco or LA or New York or Washington DC on business and I have friends there who are females, I'd think nothing of going out to dinner to catch up on things.  Venue and intimacy of friendship are the two competing things.

So that's my rambling un-spellchecked take on the matter. You can be friends with people of the opposite sex but there are limitations on the venues that you can express your friendship in and the level of intimacy you can obtain with that friend that are not as much of an issue when the friend is of the same sex.

What's your take?

I hate Januaries. It seems like that is the time of year that my body decides to make me aware that I'm not a kid anymore.  I got a bad head cold which I've never really had.

I just normally don't get sick. And to illustrate that, this past weekend was the first time I've ever had to blow my nose.  It's just never come up. That's not to say I've never had the sniffles but I've never had it bad enough where I felt the need to blow my nose until this weekend.  Which was a comical scene in the extreme.

Most people I suspect have had to blow their nose since their childhoods. So to them, it's obvious how to blow ones nose.  But if you think about it, it's not necessarily obvious. My wife looked on with I suspect some amusement as I mastered the mechanics of forcing air out through my nose. It took awhile and I can't say I enjoyed it.  My bellyaching meant little to my wife who has sinus problems. I had long complained about kleenex (since I've never used kleenex before) being around the house and now I was making use of it like it was going out of style.

Plus there's all kinds of new discomforts..aches..pains.  Things I never would have imagined 10 years ago.  And I'm only 33. I can't imagine what it'll be like to be 40 or 70 for that matter. I think I can understand why people, as they get older, fear death less and less.

Being a sissy, I don't like pain or discomfort. I have a very low tolerance for it. And more and more it seems like there's always something in the background causing some small but noticeable amount of discomfort. Whine whine whine.

Apple has announced a $499 computer - the Mac Mini. This computer could really put the Mac on the map in a much more mainstream way.  Designed as the ultimate computer PC, the Mini is designed to literally just plug in and go.

Will this change the facts on the ground in the PC vs. Mac demographic?