It's probably a little early but this is my quickie prediction of what the next election will go like barring some unforeseen turn of events. Red are Bush states, blue are Kerry states.

Prediction: Kerry chooses Edwards as his running mate.

Bad idea potential 1: Kerry chooses Gephardt

What Kerry should have done: Kerry should pick Bob Graham of Florida as his VP.

The key states of this election: Florida, Pennsylvania.

Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania gives Bush enough of a chance to win there but this is the one state I am least confident of.  If Kerry chooses Graham as his VP choice then Florida could go his way giving him the election but I am thinking he'll choose Edwards.

States that aren't really in play despite pundits claims: Michigan, Illinois.

We'll see. It's going to be very close either way. A lot of states are locked up by both sides right away.

Stay tuned for updates as time goes on to see how things change. 5 states are so close that they could go either way changing the entire election.

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WindowBlinds will be on TechTV's Call For Help tomorrow! If you're a fan of the show, be sure to download the Call For Help wallpaper, created by Paul Boyer who creates wallpapers and icons for TechTV and is an admin here on WinCustomize.com.

DesktopX 2.1 has shown up for Object Desktop users. The public version will show up next week!  And it has some really cool stuff in it. Check out the linked to article at JoeUser.com for some highlights.

We're getting the finishing touches on DesktopX 2.1 out there. It's pretty exciting all the new things you can do with it. And finally it's pretty clear what the advantage are the different versions are:

When exporting an object you now have 3 options, two of which are new. 

The first option is to export it as a packaged object. That's been around since day 1 and isn't new. Packaged objects are what people upload to WinCustomize.

The second option is brand new with DesktopX 2.1. You can export your object as a program (.exe) that uses DesktopX as its run time. These are called widgets. You don't have to have DesktopX running to use widgets. You just have to have it installed on your system in order to make use of the DLLs it adds to your system. Loading a widget is just like running any other program except you have to first have DesktopX installed somewhere. This option requires the enhanced version of DesktopX 2.1 though (either via Object Desktop or on its own).

The third option is from DesktopX Pro and is for software developers. It lets you export the object as a stand-alone program. Literally a single EXE is created that you can give to anyone. No support DLLs at all. Just the EXE which does it all. What's really amazing is how small the EXE is. The overhead is only a few hunded K space wise (this is where a huge amount of effort went in -- to make sure that these stand alone programs would be small and tight). DesktopX Pro, however, is $499 ($129 for non-commercial use). If you are thinking "$129? $499 woha that's too much" you're not the target audience then. You would definitely not want to hear about DesktopX Enterprise which we sell for $10k to $30k depending on the licensing options.

I am using DesktopX Pro here and having a blast making goodies with it. Here's one I made tonight:

That's my son Ryan.  It's actually configurable within the object (see the little button in the bottom right?). So I export this as a stand alone program and send it off to the grand parents. I'm so cool.

Here's the DesktopX home page: http://www.desktopx.net

DesktopX 2.1 will be out next week. You can buy it now and you'll get 2.1 next week. The Pro version can be found here: http://www.desktopx.net/pro.asp

 

Bugfixes:

* fixed PNG Meter image path bug

* "Track Resolution Changes" option removed (it wasn't helping)

Improvements:

* Updated media plugins (kudos to Tropics)

* Improved vertical taskbar support

* Default tab size increased

* WindowsXP Look & Feel for Config Editor

* Improved readme/installer

* Multiple server instances allowed with different output settings

* Configs can be organized in subfolders of the Samurize/Configs folder

New Features:

* Choose-Your-Own Tray Icon

* Play sounds/perform commands on alert conditions

* Line graphic object

* Peaks for most meter types

* Alert conditions for PNG Image Meters

* Snap to screen edge option for Client

* Word wrapping for Text meters

This is making its way around the net...

New Chemical Element Discovered Called "Governmentium"

A major research institution has recently announced the discovery of the heaviest chemical element yet known to science. The new element has been named "Governmentium."

Governmentium has 1 neutron, 12 assistant neutrons, 75 deputy neutrons and 11 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312. These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons.

Since governmentium has no electrons, it is inert. However, it can be detected as it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact. A minute amount of governmentium causes one reaction to take over 4 days to complete when it would normally take less than a second. Governmentium has a normal half-life of 1 to 6 years; it does not decay, but instead undergoes a reorganization in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places. In fact, governmentium's mass will actually in crease over time, since reorganization causes some morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes.

This characteristic of moron-promotion leads some scientists to speculate that governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a certain quantity in concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as "Critical Morass." You will know it when you see it!

The United States is premised on the separation of church and state. But over time, what that separation means has changed.  The founding fathers wanted to ensure that people were free to practice whatever religion they wanted. Moreover, they wanted to ensure that the government did not establish any official religion. You will regularly hear the ACLU refer to the "establishment clause" of the US constitution as the basis for their various lawsuits against states.

It's a sticky situation because for such a long while, the percentage of Americans who were Christians were so high that religious concepts made their way into government policy. This wasn't intentional in most cases. If you're a true believer many things that are religious in nature just seem natural, common sense, normal. One such thing is marriage.

In hindsight, it was probably a bad idea for the government to recognize marriage as anything beyond a civil union. But it's easy to understand why this happened. Marriage is such a normal part of human life that how could the government not recognize it?  As an agnostic, it's never bothered me either way. I am comfortable with my beliefs and do not feel threatened by people's religions. In fact, I embrace their beliefs because it helps create a deep tapestry of culture that enriches us all.

I also believe in two social principles: 1) That the traditions of the super-majority should be respected and protected. 2) The rights of the minority should be protected.

I think government should get out of the marriage business entirely. I support the right of any two people to "get married" regardless of sex.  However, the super majority don't think the government should recognize these unions. And by our constitution, that's pretty much that. Marriage isn't a "right". The 10th amendment makes pretty clear that anything not explicitly outlined in the constitution is left to "the people" (in the form of their democratically elected representatives).

That said, gays should have access to civil unions that have the same legal punch as marriage. It may seem like semantics but to millions of Americans, it's not. There is a principle involved here. The same people who argued that the Super Bowl nonsense with Janet Jackson was "no big deal" are likely to not see why people object to gay marriage. The majority of Americans believe in these traditions and they have been with us for literally thousands of years. All around us, however, small minorities seem bent on using the government to infringe on those traditions.  Marriage is a cultural phenomenon, not a religious one. And as long as the majority of Americans practicing it believe it should be between a man and a women exclusively that is what it should be. It's their tradition. Contrary to what some may believe, majorities have rights too.

The government should work to ensure that civil unions have the same legal meaning as marriages. Two consenting adults, regardless of sex, should have the right to form a legal union.  For that matter, I believe that any number of consenting adults should be able to form civil unions (whether you're into "Polyamory" or whatever). But marriage should not be open for redefinition by a small minority of people. And they should not be trying to use the tools of government to hijack it for their own uses.

 

This excellent article at Wired analyses the trend in outsourcing technology jobs to India.

The conclusion: You hear that sound? It is the sound of inevitability. It is the sound of your job's death. Or at least, that's what they're saying.

Read the full article, what do you think? My job is safe though, I can type really really fast and I know how to use Word Perfect!

What a day.  So I got the the 9 missions for the Galactic Civilizations: Altarian Prophecy campaign completed today. That meant both the maps and scenarios.

I have to say, it's going to rock. Anyone who's enjoyed GalCiv in the past is almost certainly going to like having the ability to play specific maps and scenarios as well as a campaign. And I also think those players who found GalCiv to not have enough "depth" will find the scenarios to bring in enough strategic and tactical depth to really challenge them.

So that was what I spent the bulk of my time doing today. Last night I worked with Pat to fix some issues with JoeUser and did a lot of testing on the site.

I played around with a program called FolderShare which is a program very similar to one of the upcoming ThinkDesk programs. FolderShare is a nice idea that is horribly implemented. At first glance, it looks like the answer to everyone's file sharing problems. But it doesn't take long to realize that it's not really ready for prime time. Ultimately, the developers just don't "get it". They seem to be fixated with the whole file swapping mentality rather than making something that a corporation or user would want to use in a utilitarian way.  That said, given enough time users will provide them with the feedback they need to get it up to par. Which means we need to get our asses in gear with ThinkDesk because while we have a better idea, there's a lot of grunt work that needs to be done.

Getting back to GalCiv:AP, we put in the ability for sceanrios to shut down the initial minor races. This is key because many maps are balanced just right that randomly throwing on other players, even minor players, can really mess things up. I'm very pleased with how the scenarios and maps worked out.  I look forward to start play testing them next week.

I am still hopeful we can get GalCiv 1.2 out the door next week but I'm not sure. We still have to get DesktopX 2.1 done and there are still a few gotchas in our objects and such.

I really could use a vacation.

The other thing I played around with at length was our RSS reader that Adam is working on. It is coming along nicely. It just has a lot of rough edges in it. Not major things, just little things. I think one thing that would make it look a lot slicker would be DirectSkin. Give it a brushed metallic look.

The Google Ad sense stuff we've added is having good results. We may be up to making $50 per day in ads primarily from WinCustomize. This would be a nice change as that would take some of the pressure off of the various Stardock.net services which cost $15,000 per month total.  The eventual goal is to get subscriptions and ad revenue and anything else directly related to the Stardock.net service sites (wincustomize, joeuser, desktopgadgets, xpthemes.com, etc.) to pay for that $15,000 per month.  We have a long way to go. Thus far Object Desktop sales have subsidized it but we can't count on that forever.

Once we get DesktopX 2.1 out the door we can then get Object Desktop 2004 our the door soon after and that will let us focus on actual shipping products that we are very proud of. 

Meanwhile the WinCustomize browser is looking pretty sweet. I really like it but it has some minor usability issues. Let me show you what I mean:

As much as I like it. What I really wish is that the "Description" area was actually more complete.  Move the Download, apply, view comments in there with the area where those buttons were being a separator that can be adjusted. Then you can put a more fuller preview.

Basically what I am thinking would be nicer is if the "description" area was like the preview area in the Stardock Central area in terms of what it shows.  But overall it's really nice, I just am not sure if users will prefer this to just browsing the site since it's not quite as smooth an experience.

Ironically, the Stardock Central version, though lacking thse new "thumbnail" and the nice tree view feature on the left is more useful for actually browsing through skins than the WC browser in my opinion.