Brad Wardell's Blog


WinCustomize Policy on Copyright

Published on Tuesday, November 9, 2004 By Brad Wardell In WinCustomize Talk

Each website no the Internet has to wrestle with the issue of copyright. This is our policy.

Fair Use
Skins, themes, icons may use content created by others for the purposes of making what is popularly considered "fan art". So if you want to make a Star Wars based wallpaper or Superman skin you may do so.  We reserve the right to remove it in the event that the owner of the trademarked or copyrighted material objects (for instance, Marvel objecting to non-licensed use of Marvel characters) but in general we will accept skins, themes, icons, and wallpapers that are fan art as long as the user uploading them created it. Taking someone else's Batman wallpaper and uploading it is not going to be accepted. Creating your own Batman wallapper would be accepted.

Ports
Porting skins and themes created by others for a different platform or program is acceptable. Ports are often a great way for new skinners to learn how to skin.  My first skins were ports.  However, you must get permission to port the skin/theme from the original author in order to distribute it.  Porting of operating systems is generally accepted and would fall under the "fan art" rules. 

As a general philosophy, skins and themes that highlight and promote favorably an existing thing that is already known to people is acceptable. That is why we accept fan art but why it's not okay to take an individual's skins and port them without permission.

Konfabulator and DesktopX at a glance

Published on Tuesday, November 9, 2004 By Brad Wardell In WinCustomize News
Widgets widgets widgets. Everyone's talking about widgets. And what are they? In the customization world, they are short for mini-programs that reside on the desktop that can be created by non-software developers using images and some scripting or plugins to make work.

On Windows, DesktopX got the whole desktop enhancement thing going with its release in 2000. On MacOS, Konfabulator has owned its niche since its 2003 release.  But now the two are going head to head with Konfabulator's release on Windows. This article goes over the pros and cons of both.

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DesktopX 2.3 arrives

Published on Tuesday, November 9, 2004 By Brad Wardell In WinCustomize News
DesktopX is a program that enhances your Windows desktop by allowing users to add widgets to it or change it all together by loading themes for the DesktopX environment.

DesktopX widgets are .EXEs which means they can be run outside the DesktopX environment. Widgets are mini-applications that add new functionality to your desktop.

DesktopX widgets can be brought up with a hot key (Avedesk 1.2 and Konfabulator both have this functionality as well). Popular widgets include weather monitors, media players, stock tickers, calendars, and more.

Version 2.3 updates DXPlayer to support Windows media player WITHOUT needing SDPlayer installed.

Screenshot:Link


Download:Link

Konfabulator & DesktopX at a glance

Published on Monday, November 8, 2004 By Brad Wardell In WinCustomize News
Curious about what the hubub is about? Well hopefully someone else will write something that is more in depth that isn't connected to the developers of either program. But in the meantime, I've tried to write an objective what's what about each of these customization titans.

Konfabulator for Windows arrives..

Published on Monday, November 8, 2004 By Brad Wardell In WinCustomize Talk

FINALLY after being subjected to a year of emails and comments on how Konfabulator was going to blow DesktopX away we can finally see Konfabulator for itself and compare apples and apples.

Here's one apples and apples comparison: Memory use.

This is a thumbnail of your image, and will appear like this in the message board. 

(click to enlarge).

DesktopX 2.3 released

Published on Monday, November 8, 2004 By Brad Wardell In WinCustomize News

DesktopX is a program that enhances your Windows desktop by allowing users to add widgets to it or change it all together by loading themes for the DesktopX environment.

DesktopX widgets are .EXEs which means they can be run outside the DesktopX environment. Widgets are mini-applications that add new functionality to your desktop.

DesktopX widgets can be brought up with a hot key (Avedesk 1.2 and Konfabulator both have this functionality as well).  Popular widgets include weather monitors, media players, stock tickers, calendars, and more.

Version 2.3 updates DXPlayer to support Windows media player WITHOUT needing SDPlayer installed.

Konfabulator for Windows released

Published on Monday, November 8, 2004 By Brad Wardell In WinCustomize News

Konfabulator is a program that allows users to add mini-applications called "widgets" to their Windows desktop. Popular widgets include weather monitors, stock tickers, picture frames, to-do lists, MP3 players, etc.

Konfabulator began its life as a Macintosh program. Last year they began porting it to Windows and here it is.

It's free to try and $25 to register.