Looking for a free fun holiday game to play? Check out Elves, Inc. A game in which you can play either single player or multiplayer.

I was thinking about something last night while going through some of my game posting archives.

The issue isn't so much about free vs. non-free. It's really an issue of time vs. no time.

Much of the arguments on both sides boil down to very different perspectives on the value of time.

When you're a kid (i.e. a teen) you have all the time in the world. You may not think you do when you're a teen but you really do. I remember even in college thinking I was "swamped" but I did, afterall, write a commercial software product that went on to bring in millions of dollars between working 3 other jobs and taking Electrical Engineering classes full time. In essence, I had time.

Now, being "old" (just turned 30), time is more important to me than money.

To use an unrelated example:
Most strategy games come with "packs" that contain extra maps and sell for $20. These packs get flamed by some people like crazy because one can find plenty of good maps for free if they dig for them.

But that is exactly the point. Someone like me is not willing to "dig". If I can get all the maps I might want for a favorite game for just $20 instantly, then I'm set.

Convenience, short for time savings, outstrips the value of saving some nominal cost.

That's where the paid skin debates come in. There are lots of excellent free skins out there. There are some excellent free suites out there as well. But for someone who's really busy and wants to have a complete, unified look, $10 is nothing and to get a complete unified suite of 20 different skins is an incredible bargain.

This extends to software as well. Sure, you can hunt for a good freeware alternative but when I need something done, I'm going ot go with whatever I find first that works well. We paid $500 for Webtrends even though there are plenty of free log analysers out there. We just didn't feel like fooling with them. Same for our mail server. We paid for one even though there are lots of free ones. This is one reason why Linux has failed as a desktop. Because the bulk of users out there aren't teens with massive time on their hands. THey just want to sit down and get the thing to work with minimum effort and time.

So I think much of the debates on "Freeware" vs "payware" is really a debate of which you value - time or money. For most adults, $10 or $20 is so nominal that it is effectively free AS LONG AS IT'S CONVENIENT TO PAY.

But when you're a teen, it's hard to imagine that change. And hence, they think that the difference is based on principle rather than lack of time.

Here's a sneak peek of something we're going to release this week (if anyone wants to scoop us feel free).

It's a free video game (Elves, Inc.)

Here's where you download it:

https://www.stardock.com/products/elves

Enjoy! Ho ho ho!

Stardock has released version 0.75 of ObjectBar. ObjectBar is a program that takes the best desktop interface features from Windows, Macintosh, Linux, OS/2, QNX, and elsewhere and combines them into a single program. With ObjectBar, users can create their own docks, wharfs, finders, bars, etc. to match their particular working habits and visual preferences.

ObjectBar comes with several samples including MacOS classic, QNX, and a "pop out" original concept. Best of all, each particular bar is completely skinnable and skins can be used on completely different bars - meaning that ObjectBar is like several programs in one.

New in version 0.75 over the previous version is:
* Full screen application awareness
* Shadow effects on icons with alpha blending enhanced
* Fast shortcut editing
* System tray icon filtering (pick which icons display in the system tray!)
* IconPackager support
* 32bit icon support
* Lots of bug fixes

Here are a couple of screenshots of ObjectBar in action:
https://www.stardock.com/products/objectbar/ob-nov01.jpg
https://www.wincustomize.com/library/accounts/Pixtudio/ob/objectbar.jpg
https://www.wincustomize.com/library/accounts/Rainbow2000/ob/screen-p.jpg
https://www.wincustomize.com/library/accounts/scratch/ob/gnome.jpg
https://www.stardock.com/products/objectbar/ob-feb01.jpg

Users can download ObjectBar from https://www.stardock.com/products/objectbar

Really like the new holiday theme. Good choice of colors, very easy on the eyes and very christmasy.

Good job!

A new version of Themebar, the fully featured Explorer/IE toolbar skinning application has been released.

Themebar is a shareware skinning application that allows you to fully customize the appearance of Internet Explorer, Windows Explorer and Outlook Express like never before. Themebar lets you customize toolbars, animated logos, and change the background of all these applications.

New in this release:

- Create WebPanels, which are custom toolbars created using HTML. You can animate items, add sound and video just like a a webpage. You can even use dhtml to control elements on the toolbar.

- Skin Outlook Express. Themebar 2.0 now supports the skinning of toolbar icons of Outlook Express.

- Classic Themebar Support. Skin the standard toolbar, just like previous Themebar versions.

- New interface to help you customize your skins.

Themebar is extremely easy to use and won't hijack your system. Instead of cluttering up your browser or mail client, Themebar runs discreetly from your SystemTray, and it won't gobble up system resources.

I have been part of virtual communities for the past 15 years. I know what they are. I started out in the BBS world and we had a local area virtual community. It didn't have a name but we were all literally tied together by what was in the local phone exchange.

When the Internet came, I considered myself part of a larger community, the OS/2 community.

A community isn't necessarily homogenous but what makes something a "community" is the sense that it exceeds a certain threshold of closeness and that the majority of the participants have the same basic concept of what that community is.

But is there a "Skinning" community? I think not. Rather, there are several smaller communities with very distinct concepts of what that community is. I think there is a skeletal structure for a general skinning community but really, the communities are largely tied to the sites.

I think there is a Stardock community. And I think there is a WinCustomize community. I also think there is a DeviantART community as well as communities for each site. And I think there is some overlap.

But the overlap between these communities is often little to non existent in my opinion.

There is constant bickering over what actually IS the community. And I think a lot of that comes from such a diverse set of demographics. Look at the demograhpics of this site compared to say Customize.org. The average active participant here can legally drink alcohol in all states in the US and they have full time jobs.

When Skinz.org was at its height, I think there was an overall community, albeit a small one.

But I've become increasing frustrated, well let me be blunt, disgusted with certain parallel universe versions of the skin community. You have the anti-capitalists (I.e. "I haven't personally spent any real time contributing for the past year but I want to say that everything should be free! Rock on!"). You have the group that contributes some but does so out of ego-gratification (I.e. "I've done some modest work over the year and want to let you know that I"m king of the community and I will crush all those who oppose me! Worship me!"). I don't know which contigency is worse.

The former is definitely in full loudness this week in that Customize.org discussion on whether skin suites should be free or not.

And it really highlights this post's point - there is no single skin community. There are many competing visions. If I wrote a post "What do you think of people charging for skin suites" I think it's safe to say that the response would be overwhelmingly "Good for them!" here. But elsewhere you get the folks who think that it's okay for skin SITES to make money off of the work of skin authors but that skin authors should work for free. Skin authors are apparently to be slaves in this vision, slaves to skin sites who profit from their efforts.

I have gotten a real kick out of the "free beer" folks who have criticized WinCustomize because it's a "corporate site" (even though the most of the other sites are, just that in this case, our parent company is a software developer) yet this site has no banner ads, no pop ups, etc. I think it's GOOD for skin sites to make money. I think it's GOOD for them to have banner ads and whatever else they need to generate income. The difference though is that people, whoever they are, shouldn't delude themselves into thinking that selling a good or service is bad yet banner ads and pop up ads are okay. In all cases, the entity in question is trying to generate revenue to pay for those expenses.

My friend Jark took grief because he has set up a subscription service. Unbelievable. Grief from people who have contributed zilch. My friends Treetog/Alexandrie/Nuvem are taking grief because they want to charge a measely $10 in exchange for around TWENTY skins. My lunch cost more than $10 today. And of course, we're always taking grief from those who argue our software is free or that our software is doomed to be passed up by free alternatives (note to them: WB's kicking ass, people who can afford WB are choosing it over free alternatives).

Which brings me back to the beginning, there is no such thing as a single skin community. There are merely a confederation of communities, each thinking that they have the vision of what the skin community is.

I for one am thankful every day that this site, our news groups (check out news://news.stardock.com) have such wonderful cool people. I am thankful that many of the leaders of the other skin sites are so cool (I talk to Jark regularly, Scarebear is a great guy, and Chaz and I chat on IRC regularly and is a great guy too). But the events of the past few months have led me to basically stop caring what the other bitter nasty contigents think. At least in the sense of letting it dictate our actions.

Let the "free beer" folks complain and yell. Those who actually contribute are the ones whose opinions matter to me.

When we first started this site we took a lot of grief from the "free beer" folks and they eventually migrated elsewhere. I'm glad. I'm not interested in them. I don't consider them part of the community we all, together, have helped create. What we call that community doesn't matter. But it's our community. Created with care, kindness, and hard work. With people who respect each other and each other's efforts and are generous in heart. Ethically strong yet not overly judgemental of others. You guys are the type of people I want to be around. To be associated with.

Anyway, that's my rant for the day. Feel free to add yours.

C-net has a really interesting article on different ways you can make your existing Windows configuration look like Windows XP.

Stardock's Object Desktop celebrated its second birthday from its original December 4, 1999 launch. It is amazing how far it has come and how risky the concept seemed at the time (A .NET software service many months before Microsoft would launch their own).

To celebrate this Stardock has released its road map for 2002 which contains some pretty surprising advances especially in the area of DesktopX which has some revolutionary new features in development. Check out the linked road map for more details.

The suite not only includes themes for DesktopX, Hoverdesk, WinSTep, and ObjectBar(*).

It is also includes the FIRST skin to support the new SmartButton feature of WindowBlinds 3!

Other skins include:

- Aminews *
- Beatnik *
- ColorPad *
- CoolPlayer *
- eNotes *
- GreyBook *
- Ezpop *
- Icq+ 3.0 including all the new features, even the animated splash screen. The most complete icq skin ever made
- QuickNotes *
- SkinMem *
- Sysmeter2 *
- Winamp full skinned (5 windows)
- WindowsMediaPlayer full skined ( including visualization, playlist and video screens)
- XXCalculator *
- Zoomer *

All the skins marked with the "*" are freeware.

This time the skin suite was made in 6 hands, Nuvem joinned their team to create it.

The full suite is only $10 which is an amazing price if you think of how many skins are included and the quality of them. You can try out pieces of them and purchase at:

http://www.pixtudio.com/index.php3?page=suite&SuiteID=537

You can also purchase the debut skin suite at:
https://www.wincustomize.com/pixtudio.asp?Suite=pixtudiowc
and that's on sale for $8.