We're adding an additional machine to the site this week to help speed things up and will be ordering an additional mega server to speed things up further. This won't alleviate bandwidth but much of the slowness is actually due to server load.

In the meantime, we have begun to ration site resources. So search features, daily screenshot, and other things will not necessarily always be available if there more users than the server can handle.

Don't thank us for the new server, thank the users who have been purchasing WinCustomize subscriptions these past couple of months. And as a way to thank them, we have made sure that subscribers (and Stardock customers) get first dibs on site resources when things get tight. So if you want consistent access to the features of the site, please consider becoming a subscriber (it's the equivalent of like 80 cents per month!).

To subscribe go here: https://store.stardock.com/addproduct.asp?PRODUCT_ID=ESD-SDS-W052

Part 2 of:

"So you've decided to destroy Windows?"

A series that takes you step by step in customizing Windows into your own personal ultimate operating system.

If you were to ask what the TYPICAL system being used by people here it would go something like this:

A Pentium 3, 1Ghz machine with a Geforce 2 level card running at 1024x768.

The number of people running at less than 600mhz was roughly the same as the number of people running over 2ghz.

The highpoint was somewhere around 1Ghz with it possibly being slightly higher.

Does anyone have any data on what the typical machine used by the general population is? It would make an interesting comparison.

Last month's issue has finally finished going out. Due to some server problems, not everyone got their issue (if have an account on WinCustomize, you get WinCustomize magazine free by default).

You can read the last issue at:
http://draginol.stardock.com/wcmag/july2002/

Sorry to be a bastard but it's Saturday night and there's so many skins to administer and skins to choose for featured and that. Normally I don't do that sort of thing but because of the traffic during the week there was a real backup.

So I've temporarily put the libraries in maint mode which means only apprentices on up or customers can get to the libraries until things get caught up a little. Hence the site will feel significantly faster right now (though it won't last as I'm going to switch it back shortly).

New series on skinning: "So you've decided to destroy Windows!"
http://draginol.stardock.com/Articles/Soyouvedecidedtodestroyyo.html

The skin primer can be located here:
https://www.stardock.com/stardock/articles/skinprimer/skinprimer2002.html

For users who were looking for LCARS style desktops, you will need the DesktopX portion of the Object Desktop suite and then go here:
https://www.wincustomize.com/skins.asp?searchtext=LCARS&sort=updatedate&order=Descending&library=3&action=1

Be aware that this isn't magic stuff. You'll need to customize these themes for your system.

What's the other big thing being worked on by the Stardock gang? Galactic Civilizations. Check it out!

To provide additional benefits for users of Object Desktop and other Stardock products, we have set the site up to allow you to easily connect your WinCustomize account to your Stardock customer account. Connecting your account will provide you with (currently) unlimited downloads. In the future, we hope to be able to provide Stardock customers with additional benefits.

There is no current cap on # of downloads for users who have purchased Object Desktop or WindowBlinds or any other Stardock product. If you want to subscribe to WinCustomize to get access to the WinCustomize browser, the upcoming premium skin suites, text ads, and more, by all means do so but you don't have to subscribe to download skins.

Hope that clears things up.

There's a cool new Mapquest feature. Now you can switch between map view of a site and an aerial view.

I put in Stardock's address, here's what I found:

http://draginol.stardock.com/images/stardock.jpg

This is really cool stuff.

Most of the images on this site use JPEG (.jpg) for images.

JPEG uses a patented algorithm to do its thing. Now, after many years of royalty free use of that algorithm, the holder of the patent wants to start charging money for it!