Note that the only things wireless about this setup are the keyboard and mouse (well, the ASUS netbook also has WiFi)-- everything else has a wire. How did I do at hiding them (except for the iPod sync cable and 3.5mm audio cable, of course)?

I do a bit of everything with my workstation-- I like to call this my "study"-- though mainly I write and read whether it's digitally or on paper. Literature, music, art-- it's my life force. Technology is just a very warm and fuzzy hobby.

This is a very new setup for me-- I actually redesigned my study mainly to show it off on the Lifehacker Workspace Show and Tell (and hopefully get it in as a featured workspace!), and partially because my room was cluttered and unproductive. This new setup works beautifully for me: Outside the window that my chair faces is a lovely green tree in which robins like to roost and sing. Since my brother measured the door wrong for this room, there is always good air flow when the window's open. My study is nice and open so that I can stretch out if needs be and think as I listen to Eric Whitacre pieces or Mormon Tabernacle Choir or Paul Cardall. I have plenty of space to work with, and all of my necessary tools are close at hand. My study is also enamored with various items that spruce up the overall morale of anyone who enters and helps my creative juices flow (hence the train set under the bed, the ship suspended from the ceiling, various pictures and art, action figures, vintage items, and cacti-- let's not forget the glowy blueness of my compy).

Funny fact: I bought the mini filing cabinet with the ASUS netbook atop it you see specifically for this setup. I used to have a big, bulky dresser upon which my printer used to sit. I cut that dresser up a few days ago, took off the top, and placed it on the mini filing cabinet-- it now serves beautifully as a desk for my netbook. Except for my socks and unmentionables (which go in the top drawer of the mini filing cabinet), all of my clothes now hang in the closet, and I have much more space to use in my study. The only sad thing is that there is writing in some of the drawers of that old dresser from when I was three or four. Alas. We can't hold on to everything.

as used here

www.jesuispauvre.com/2009/01/16/un-budget-doit-il-etre-co...

motivatethyself.com/what-would-you-do-with-10-million-dol...

monomoney.com/2008/08/budgets-dont-have-to-be-complicated/

plonkee.com/2008/02/14/dont-look-for-better-than-average-...

freefrombroke.com/2008/07/there-may-be-unclaimed-money-or...

www.elblogsalmon.com/2008/08/09-sera-mas-dificil-consegui...

deskback.blogspot.com/2008/12/lifehacker-2-new-entries-ea...

lifehacker.com/5099255/best-new-and-improved-software-of-...

nicksimnews.com/1233_money-and-living-the-good-life/

www.wordstrumpet.com/2008/12/im-baaaaack.html

www.superandolacrisis.com/el-dinero-y-sus-mitos-i/

November 2016

You can see below the Ikea footstool and a small wire drawer set, as well as the majority of the desktop. The desk-chair is a recent addition as well.

Desk tags can be found on the other picture.

This is my newest desktop, it is heavily based off of one of Ian Michael Smith's desktops. I basically took many of his ideas and adapted them to my desktop.

Download Enigma 3.0

- - - - - - -

This one was a long time coming. For those of you who've been waiting since December, I really appreciate your patience, and I hope it was worth the wait.

This is a milestone release of Enigma, designed to encourage modding and future expansion. Among the long list of changes:

• Stylesheets. All of the formatting information - including not only colors, fonts and images, but also sizes and positions - have been moved out of the skin files and into a separate set of files, which I call "stylesheets." Users can switch between different stylesheets by changing a single setting in the Enigma Options panel. This means it's now possible for myself (and other designers) to release new styles that completely changes Enigma's look and layout, without changing any of the fundamental code. All the user has to do is install the stylesheet and change an option.

In the near future, I hope to release one or two example stylesheets to demonstrate the kind of dramatic modification that is now possible.

• Rotating skin modes. Instead of having separate skin files for minor variations - text vs. graphic, left-aligned vs. right-aligned, that sort of thing - Enigma's individual skins now switch between up to 6 different layout modes when middle-clicked. This layout information is also contained in the stylesheet files, so modders will have a lot of freedom to redefine skin layouts.

• New Options panel. The old configuration addon was a big jump forward, but it also had a lot of problems, especially in Windows Vista and 7, which don't play nicely with strange executables. Thanks to the new InputText plugin, Enigma's user preferences can be managed entirely from within Rainmeter.

• Website. Enigma now has an official website at enigma.kaelri.com. As of now, this is where you can always go to download the latest versions of Enigma's code (both stable and beta), documentation, support links, credits, and all of the bonus addons that used to be part of this package. (The suite will also be mirrored here, and on Rainmeter.net. You'll get the same Enigma from any of those locations.)

In addition, the Enigma Home skin now has an update checker, which will either inform you that your version is up to date, or, if an upgrade is available, link you directly to the download page. New releases and patches are going to be really easy from here on out.

• Music. Thanks to the heroic efforts of the Rainmeter dev team, Enigma's music skin will now work seamlessly with AIMP, foobar2000, iTunes, MediaMonkey, MusicBee, Winamp, Windows Media Player, and even, with a few limitations, Spotify. This has been the single most-requested feature in the last six months, and I'm delighted and relieved to say that it's now a reality. The Rainmeter guys have really outdone themselves with this one.

• Got a few brand-new skins here, including search skins, using the new InputText capabilities. At the moment, they come in Google, Wikipedia and Windows Run flavors, but are trivially easy to modify. We also have a simple photo slideshow skin (another frequent request).

• Old favorites have also been significantly improved. The Google Calendar reader is finally functional again, after many hours of skirmishing with Google's feed format. The skin also rotates between up to three of your calendars, and is accompanied by a miniature version for the taskbar, showing your primary calendar's next event. The general Reader skins have also been streamlined, and no longer need to be separated between Atom and RSS - you can now toggle the format with one click in the Options panel. The App Launcher buttons have also been separated into individual skins with several layout options, although the old menu bar is still around for those who like it.

• The Sidebar and Taskbar skins, which form the backbone of any Enigma desktop, now have adjustable width and height options. Not only that, but all of your other skins will automatically adapt to the new dimensions and snap right into place! (Thanks to dragonmage for this innovation.) For Windows Vista/7 users, the bars have also been juiced up with a little Aero Blur.

• You can now double-click to refresh any skin. A small thing, but it really comes in handy.

• And with all of these additions and expansions, the whole suite package is now 40% smaller, down to a slim 1.3 MB.

I'm really proud of Enigma 3.0. It's a whole new breed of Rainmeter skin, and I really believe that some of the innovations we've put into it will continue Enigma's long tradition of proving what Rainmeter is capable of being.

- - - - - - -

Wallpaper: Ageeba

Chronodex July - December 2013 Weekly Diary Free Download Released

Chronodex friends here you go! The July to December 2013 version is released, feel free to download and plan ahead your visual scheduling for the rest of the year.

Here are some of the places you can interact with other Chronodex users:

Chronodex

Chronodex Facebook Page

Chronodex Flickr Group

The Fountain Pen Network thread about Chronodex

Lifehacker's cover of Chronodex

Yes Chronodex is kind of weird, it looks a bit too complicated, it is not like any other traditional scheduling tools, but it is inspirational and free style. I made it so as to break the rules of scheduling, most diaries/schedule books have rigid grids and timeline which limit the available space for you to write notes related to your schedule, you can use any space on the paper to link your time specific entries thus free from the traditional constraints.

Look at our beautiful cross harbour tunnel, it is a 'grid', it is 'rigid' but it works in mass transportation because it provides a system and create order. It is dull too, especially in times of traffic jam and rainy days. What you have to dissect is that there is a difference between mass order and personal creativity. Chronodex is for your personal creativity in what seems to be a rigid time system, it is for you to exploit/explore the space nobody ever made constraints of.

I've also made Chronodex a free download to share in 2011 when my father was too old and too sick lying on bed struggling, questioning himself feeling useless. We had no way to help, prayers from all of you mysteriously helped somehow IMHO, but the thing is, I wanted to prove that everything is connected, he was not and never useless, if people appreciate Chronodex, it was because of him I existed and being educated by him into a person with inquisitive mind. He should be proud of himself, even though there was no way I could convey this to him during his deterioriation. Today on the Star Ferry lower deck, I saw a grandfather holding his grandson's T-shirt looking over the harbour an European tall ship cruising by, the light tug, the togetherness and a sense of exploration made me sob inside, recalling my own exploration with Dad and his brief time with my own kid.

Tonight, Mom told me her encounter with Dad on his 140th day of passing which happens to be my little brother's birthday. A cicada was standing weakly on the floor where Dad used to stay often, she picked it up with both hands and prayed the Great Compassion Mantra (大悲咒), bringing it to the window seam and left it there. Minutes later, it flew away energetically full of life. The scene reminds us of the Chao Shao-an (趙少昂)'s painting which my Dad loved so much and had been on our living room wall for the longest time, AND it is Lychee season now. Can you see all the connections and emotions?

The stuffs we hold dear of, always leave impressions for people close and around us, these things are proves of our existence painted over with emotions and mysterious connections.

So this coming week, like the last, I will be out of my home town heading Shanghai for a week of intensive preparation of a new store launch. Love the travel, hate the separation, enjoying everything in between.

Meanwhile, Traveler's Notebook fans in Hong Kong had a great time in the Star Ferry ride, after-party and small meet-ups. I hope to do it more often, feel free to drop by our Facebook group. Now, follow me for a 15 seconds tranquil journey across the lovely Victoria Harbour.

More on Scription blog: scription.typepad.com/blog/2013/06/chronodex-july-decembe...

This is the background for my Spidermac Creation on Lifehacker.com If you have any questions or comments please leave them on the original Spidermac page located here:

www.flickr.com/photos/zackshackleton/3399610935/

Thank you!

This will probably be my last proper desktop for the year. Like Wing, it's an experimental design, not really what I'm using on a regular basis. It's a departure from my usual aesthetic - it lacks a central focal point, it uses a lot of icons, and it leaves the edges open.

I'm not sure if it's ethical to submit this to Lifehacker as an "Enigma-inspired" desktop, seeing as it's my own theme, so I'll leave that decision to them.

I used a fantastic Autohotkey script, courtesy of ryemcc, which allows me to show/hide the taskbar by pressing the sorely-neglected Pause key. As a result, virtually nothing is visible except the desktop and what's on it - namely, some superficial edits to my Rainmeter theme.

I'm experimenting with a very primitive "Launcher" skin. Adding the following line to any object (ideally an image) will allow it to run the specified command when double-clicked. I don't think that's precisely how it's intended to be used, but it works.

LeftMouseupAction=!Execute ["command"]

I do want to credit Dylan Bloom, whose desktop got me thinking about a desert look, as well as pulling the taskbar into the middle.

- - - - - - -

- Wallpaper: Fatamorgana by norbi.

- Rainmeter theme: Enigma.

- Icons: "ecqlipse 2".

- Inspiration: Desert Dreams - An "Enigma" Modification.

- Clocks: 1.

After getting annoyed and giving up on my previous desktop, I spent 10 mins and ended up with this - a simple and minimal interim desktop.

Please feel free to leave any ideas, questions, comments etc below.

Note: I know this desktop is almost a month old but a couldn't be bothered uploading it earlier.

Josh left his Blackberry phone on top of his car, and may have run over it as he backed over his spot. He managed to pick up the broken pieces and let me photograph them when he returned to the office.

Update: Featured in this story about a broken Blackberry phone owni.eu/2011/04/27/the-world-wide-mind/

And in the post about the accelerating change of technology in academia www.educationfutures.com/2009/01/26/were-always-busy-but-...

Featured photo in this story about BBM's role in the London Riots, in which potential blocks for the private network were discussed www.slashgear.com/social-media-block-for-potential-crimin...

Used in this news post about the Blackberry outages in the North America, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East during October 2011 signalnews.com/rim-blackberry-outages-spread-to-us-732

And in this post about Blackberry's decreasing market share in the U.S. www.intomobile.com/2011/11/01/blackberry-us-smartphone-ma...

Featured photo in this ArsTechnica post about determining the causes of the worldwide Blackberry Outage in October 2010 arstechnica.com/business/news/2011/11/why-rim-still-hasnt...

And in this post about the Blackberry outage www.periscopepost.com/2011/10/rim-rocked-blackberry-servi... and in this follow-up story www.periscopepost.com/2011/10/rim-offers-apps-as-compensa...

And in this post about the Japanese smartphone market whatjapanthinks.com/2012/03/05/japanese-smartphone-annoya...

And in this post about RIM's continued financial problems www.ecrans.fr/Bientot-RIP-pour-RIM,14975.html

Featured photo in this Wired blog post about Blackberry's latest struggles www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2012/12/another-nail-in-rim...

Used in these Paperblog en.paperblog.com/rim-rocked-blackberry-service-failures-i... posts en.paperblog.com/rim-offers-apps-as-compensation-for-blac... about the 2011 Blackberry outages

Also use in this blog post about company phones and the bring-your-ow-device policies becoming more common www.citeworld.com/mobile/21557/comscore-phone-market-shar...

Featured photo in this blog post about the White House supporting the unlocking of cell phones dailylounge.com/the-daily/entry/white-house-supports-unlo...

And used in these French news posts about Blackberry's shrinking mobile market share www.zdnet.fr/actualites/gartner-les-smartphones-cartonnen... and www.ecrans.fr/Sombres-auspices-pour-Blackberry,16795.html and the-gsm-mobile.blogspot.com/2013/08/gartner-smartphones-c...

Used in this post about the value of RIM Blackberry's stock value slant.investorplace.com/2013/09/bbry-blackberry-buyout-wa...

And in this Fast Company post about Blackberry pulling their BBM app from the app store www.fastcompany.com/3018094/fast-feed/a-rough-week-gets-r...

Featured photo in this Vice story about how Blackberry may have cooperated with the NSA's spying programs www.vice.com/en_ca/read/how-has-the-nsa-been-able-to-spy-...

As seen in this blog post about how enterprise users can transition away from Blackberry phones www.citeworld.com/mobile/22547/blackberry-transition-plan

Featured photo in this Mashable post about Blackberry's difficulties in the mobile market mashable.com/2013/09/23/is-blackberry-done/

Used in this Forbes blog post about Blackberry's recent business problems, and how they might use tax refunds www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2013/11/06/blackber...

Featured photo in this German blog post about insurance plans for smartphones, and the most common ways phones get broken or lost detektor.fm/kultur/fortschritt-lohnt-sich-eine-handyversi...

Remixed photo in this blog post summing up the latest negative blog stories about Blackberry blogs.computerworld.com/smartphones/23308/blackberry-on-l...

Featured photo in this blog post about more quarterly losses for Blackberry www.forbes.com/sites/maggiemcgrath/2013/12/20/blackberry-...

As seen in this blog post encoruaging CEOs to smash their blackberry www.mediauk.com/article/34422/top-5-things-that-every-ceo...

Featured photo in this BoingBoing blog post about the airline security's ban on broken electronics at Heathrow airport boingboing.net/2014/07/07/tsa-tells-uk-airport-security.html

Used in this blog post about Blackberry's continued business problems, including the dealyed release of the much hyped Blackberry Classic phone www.infoworld.com/article/2878977/blackberry/blackberry-i...

Not sure what the connection is, but featured photo in this blog post about how law enforcement uses social media businessoflawblog.com/2015/03/social-media-law-enforcement/

Featured photo in this blog post about Blackberry's broken business model theoverspill.wordpress.com/2015/03/31/blackberrys-lucky-t...

Used in this ABC (Australia) blog post about how Blackberry and Nokia failed to succeed in a changing marketplace compared to more successful brands www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/drive/from-nokia-to...

Featured photo in ComputerWorld/CIO's blog post about smartphone patents and how a court order might force the destruction of smartphones in the US market www.computerworld.com/article/2943113/computer-hardware/n...

As seen in this FastCo blog post about reducing e-waste and recycling parts from consumer electronics www.fastcoexist.com/3050542/the-gold-and-silver-and-more-...

Used in this blog post about the potential effects of the Trans-Pacific trade pact on gadgets, hackers, and tinkering blog.adafruit.com/2015/10/13/tpp-threatens-tinkerers-make... and another similar post on the topic by Motherboard blog motherboard.vice.com/read/white-hat-hackers-would-have-th...

As seen in this Japanese blog post about MVNO networks and using your phone abroad hikakaku.com/blog/mvno%E3%81%AF%E6%99%AE%E5%8F%8A%E3%81%9...

Used in this post about iOS and Android fail rates www.gadgety.co.il/157628/android-ios-failure-rate-2016q1/

Picked as a great photo for use in the Consumerist blog consumerist.com/2016/06/10/consumerist-friday-flickr-find...

Featured in this blog post about whether Blackberry is making a comeback among app developers www.appmakr.com/blog/blackberry-apps-making-comeback/

Used in this Consumerist post about Blackberry's life after ceasing manufacturing hardware consumerist.com/2016/12/15/blackberry-brand-phones-return...

Featured photo in this blog post about spam and scam phone calls thoughtcatalog.com/nicole-long/2017/04/if-you-ever-get-a-...

As seen in this Japanese blog post about Blackberry's ending contract with NTT saiyasu-syuuri.com/blog/blackberry-broken-maker-repair-cost/

Used in this philosophical article www.patheos.com/blogs/rolltodisbelieve/2017/12/06/introdu...

Featured photo in this blog post about how to break up with your smartphone blog.usejournal.com/breaking-up-with-your-smartphone-e956...

As seen in this blog post about what happens to e-Waste earth911.com/eco-tech/e-waste-expose/

Featured in this Lifehacker article about how to extinguish a battery fire lifehacker.com/how-to-extinguish-a-battery-fire-1822040010 and in Japanese www.lifehacker.jp/2018/02/how-to-extinguish-a-battery-fir...

Used in this blog post about the limited growth remaining in the smartphone market www.computerworld.com/article/3278248/smartphones/flaccid...

Used in this French article about T-mobile and Blackberry users www.presse-citron.net/t-mobile-propose-une-offre-qui-fait...

As seen in my own blog post about the mobile market and smartphones www.matthewhurst.com/2013/12/late-majority-how-smartphone...

My typical daily load to my intern place and/or campus. Here are the contents:

1. Three ring binder; for organizing loose papers and class materials/handouts.

2. Staples notebook for taking class notes.

3. Small notebook for taking notes on the fly.

4. Blistex lip balm.

5. Kleenex.

6. Apartment keys.

7. Dana Design Big Apple backpack. It's been discontinued.

8. Pens and mechanical pencil. The pencil can double as a straightening tool for bent pins.

9. Eraser.

10. Clif bar.

11. Advil.

12. BreathSavers mint.

13. Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex 320 GB portable hard drive. Not particularly large capacity, but I use mostly cloud storage anyway.

14. USB flash drive loaded with Portable Apps.

15. USB flash drive with Live Ubuntu Linux.

16. Micro USB cable for charging my Moto G (not pictured).

17. Wallet containing driver's license, student ID, various cards, cash.

18. Fenix E12 flashlight.

19. Leatherman Wave multitool.

20. MEElectronics M9P headset.

21. Logitech M325 mouse.

22. Gamma Ray computer glasses.

23. Nook HD+; mostly for reading ebooks and pdf files, and playing daily crossword puzzles.

24. Acer C720 Chromebook. Light and surprisingly capable laptop, especially with elementary OS installed on it using crouton.

25. Water bottle; a gift from a friend.

I had an IKEA ALEX drawer unit and decided to get my PC of the floor. At the same time I decided to do a summer cleaning of the inside of the PC. The mousepad has been changed - still sticking with Steelseries, but now the 4HD.

Need to do some adjusting to the back left light, as I have glued the power switch under the table in a quite unreachable position.

The wallpaper is the magnificent skyscraper shot inToronto by Matthew Wiebe at Unsplash as seen on Lifehacker earlier in August.

See the old setup: www.flickr.com/photos/jsmedemark/24358307015

Had this set-up for a while now (as you can probably tell from when I took the screen-shot). Anyway, no major changes, just playing around with the geektool configuration and the wallpapers.

Like? Dislike? Thoughts? Comments?

As usual, want to know anything - just ask (it will make me get off my ass and find out the info)

Playing around with additional monitors worked... I was able to connect 5 monitors with the 3 connectors from my video card and the two built in connectors on the mobo.

Checkout my full write-up at danielheth.com/office

I made this with rainmeter enigma and arcs. The start button is changed from start button changer v2.6.

After creating the original mind.Depositor with clips and used it for a while, I found a small problem but it bugs me on regular basis. To insert and pull out the cards, it requires force, no matter how small it is, it creates stress. That's why superior Japanese stationery designs often put into considerations how to reduce user efforts. They call the practice "Universal Design".

So I set out to do a simpler version by using two pieces of leather only. I also have a practice to carry a small notepad or Field Notes to capture to-do inputs temporarily before transferring them to GTD index cards. So I'm adding a slit for the notepad and a slit to store extra blank index cards.

On the left hand side of the cover, I can put a notepad by inserting it to a slit, put blank GTD index cards in the pocket and insert a Field Notes.

On the right hand side I can put two categories of index cards (Personal and Work) into different pockets.

There is also a flap used as a bookmark or enclosure.

The whole thing becomes more compact and functional. It requires less effort to use, it is a simpler design with pleasant leather as the only material, I'm so happy with it. I especially like the color contrast of the outer white and inner brown. So check out the sections below and learn how to create your own.

Original mind.Depositor

Download mind.Depositor Index Card Templates

How to create the original mind.Depositor

How to create mind.Depositor 2

Previous cover of mind.Depositor: Lifehacker.com (followup, and Japanese version of it), GTDTimes, Moleskinerie, Koloist, David Allen Co., Lifehacking.jp, Geeks Guide To Productivity

More on Scription blog: moleskine.vox.com/library/post/minddepositor-2---leather-...

June '18. I've added a Dell 21" monitor in portrait mode for easier viewing of my work calendar

Here's something I randomly stumbled upon and found would look neat combined - Minimalistic yet informative (as I prefer my themes :D) - It is made up from the following Rainmeter skins:

- twistlemon's Social Launcher (The top shortcut bar, modified to also lead me to the C drive and my Downloads folder :) )

- Easily modifiable: Simply pick "Edit skin" from the right-click menu and find the part that says "Text links" and replace the text and links with whatever destination you want :)

- And lilshizzy's Encoded skin pack:

- Weather - Edit skin -> Find "MeasureWeatherRSS -> Line nr. 4 saying "URL" -> Switch out "USCA1192" with your own location code ( www.weather.com -> search your city of choice and read the code in the URL-bar in your browser, for example mine reads ".../Copenhagen+Denmark+DAXX0009", meaning DAXX0009 is my weather code :) )

- Power

- Uptime

- Recycle bin

- Time

- HDD - Edit skin -> Scroll to after the "-----" line under "Styles" and on all three "Drive"'s put in the HDD you want to measure -> Scroll to "HDD1 Name" and change "LeftMouseUpAction" to your drive so that it will open the drive when you click on the "X" on the skin :)

- RAM

- CPU

- Network

- Music

The wallpaper can be found at WallpapersWide

And a quick 'thank you' to Lifehacker for featuring another one of my screenshots ^_^

Update:

I just replicated this theme on my desktop Pc and created an install file, so if anyone wants a quick setup of the theme, go to my DeviantArt display and click 'Download' :) I hope it helped out somebody ^_^

Wallpaper: screenbarrier.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/batman-wallpape...

Time/Date: A basic 10 foot HUD I made, based on one by djclotz on deviantArt

Now Playing: 10 Foot Spotify (http://djclotz.deviantart.com/art/10-Foot-Spotify-152248100)

to-do list: Rainmeter config I made.

Right pane: Gnometer for Rainmeter.

Everything I need is within reach.

This has been my base of operations for nearly a year. Unfortunately, the business I work for is basically shuttered and on 8-13-10 I packed all of this up and put most of it into storage units.

I'll go into more detail here than in the notes, so on with the basics:

Custom built 3.066 GHz Core i7 machine w/ 12 GB ram running CentOS Linux on the left. This is my main workstation which is primarily used to run Maya 2010 and has both a 21.5" and 19" LCD monitors powered by an NVIDIA Quadro FX1800 card. No custom workstation would be complete without a vintage IBM Model M 'clicky' keyboard now would it? Oh, and in case you are wondering, yes, I am modeling a Lunar Module from the Apollo program.

In that same vicinity are my 1940s vintage Telechron red Bakelite wall clock that keeps perfectly accurate time and a Art Deco styled lady lamp named Isabel. Not pictured are my custom framed print by Andrew Bell and a 1970s vintage Honeywell computer advertisement featuring a dragon made of capacitors and chips. Also not seen, but just behind the two adjacent LCD monitors are a 7x100W Sony receiver and my turntable. These are hooked up to speakers which I placed in the ceiling grid above my desk.

Just to the right of that tower is a little white NAS box. That is a Synology DS209 with two 1TB Caviar Black drives in a RAID 1 array. This is networked storage available to each machine of the render farm for storing finished images.

Moving right from those we find an 8 port Gigabit ethernet switch for the render farm, and next a 4x KVM switch. The KVM switch connects four of the five towers on the ground to a single mouse, keyboard and 19" LCD monitor. These are the workhorses of my render farm and range from 64bit capable 3 GHz Pentium 4 machines to 3 GHz Athlon64 X2 ones. Each is maxed out with at least 4GB of ram to help handle large scenes.

Next to those is my now 'old' HP ZD8000 laptop. This was the portable workstation I bought in college. I ordered it with a 3.4 GHz Pentium 4 and I managed to later stuff 4 GB of ram into the thing. It's running the Wacom Cintiq 20WSX tablet display to the immediate right. I use this machine for any Photoshop work, drawing and painting, as a spare Maya station and as a render farm slave when needed.

Continuing down the line we find my older laptop, a Compaq 1800 with a 1 GHz Pentium III processor and all of 320 MB of ram. This is the render master and assigns scenes to each of the render slaves.

Finally, the 17" LCD monitor on the right is hooked up to any of my three really old machines. I have a Gateway 2000 P5-75 with a 75 MHz Pentium running Windows 95, a GEM machine which has the faster 150 MHz Pentium and runs Windows NT then at last the Micron Millennia Pro2 200 Rev B which I've outfitted with dual 200 MHz Pentium Pro processors and a mind boggling 256 MB of ECC Buffered DIMM RAM so that I can truly get the most out of my Windows 98 experience. These machines are just there for fun and frustration. Ever tried finding Sound Blaster drivers for 15 year old computers? When I do I'll be playing Lemmings, Freddy Pharkas and Warcraft to no end.

In front of those vintage machines sits my record collection.

At the very end we find an IKEA Helmer cabinet to store all of the cables, bits, bobs etc.... and a vintage IBM PC Server 704 being used as a bookshelf and holding my HP scanner. Oh how I love anything put out by Ballistic Publishing.

I put a lot of work into making this setup ideal for the kind of work I do. I had a comfortable layout with ample space to glide from one machine to the other, I had a few toys and decorations to liven things up a bit, every last cable was hidden neatly using under desk trays from IKEA and I was able to work efficiently but still play a bit if need be. As I was dismantling it all I couldn't help thinking "what was the point?"

Another minor update to my now-infamous desktop. (Please see that post, and the accompanying Lifehacker articles here and here, for more details. And thanks again. :)

I've taken my Samurize config and completely reproduced it in Rainmeter. In fact, as you can see, I've added a few tidbits. The only thing I have yet to find is a plugin for iTunes song information. (It's been two years, people! Two years! There must be a way!) So I've added a temporary media player widget to Google Desktop while I work on uncovering Rainmeter's secrets.

If you want to use my theme on this new platform, the good news is that this is far, far easier to set up. Just download the ZIP and extract the folder inside to your "C:\Program Files\Rainmeter\Skins". All you have to do then is add the configs one by one and drag them into place. And to edit the borders for a different resolution, all you have to do is tweak three little numbers - instructions included.

I basically went from knowing nothing about Rainmeter to completing this theme in 24 hours, which should tell you something about its capabilities. It's harder to build something from scratch than it is in Samurize, because there's no GUI editor; every element has to be hand-coded. And Samurize, frankly, has a lot more out-of-the-box capability than Rainmeter, which hasn't had an update in years and has neither a website nor any developer support; it's really been adopted by the modding community and warped beyond recognition.

Rainmeter's real strength is that it's modular. You're not restricted to a single cohesive theme; you can mix and match virtually whatever you want, and drag it around whereever you want. As for editing, the learning curve pays off; because it doesn't rely on a rigid editor application, Rainmeter enables creativity and customization one level deeper than Samurize.

Rainmeter's only limitation is its neglect. Its potential relies on plugins, many of which have yet to be written. Maybe I can use my tiny little bully pulpit here to encourage some more talented developers around here to make some. :)

Wallpaper in this shot is purebred Aqua. You can find it all over the place, but here's a link. I use it on my "clean" Yod'm desktop, for sandbox-type tasks like this.

Wallpaper: (of) Seattle Harbor, found at Interfacelift.com

Tools used:

Geektool

Yahoo Widgets

Shapeshifter

For LifeHacker:

This is my City workspace at home, which is in my bedroom. Since I'm only in high-school, I don't have my own office. My desk was created with 3 tiers so that it can have as much storage space as possible. The middle tier has all my computer stuff, and the two tiers to the sides are mainly storage. Since I do a lot of video editing for my school, the 24" monitor is very handy. Plus, it's good for movies.

I just received the Henge Dock yesterday, so I still have to decide weather it's going to be useful in the future. I do, however, already have some complaints. Firstly, I need to use my brother's charger, because it doesn't support the new Apple chargers originally found on the MacBook Air. Secondly, I completely use the functionality of my webcam, which sucks. Thirdly, I lose the ability to use the display as a secondary screen. Finally, it's really aggravating that it doesn't support hardshell cases, because most people have them on their Mac's.

I got my iPad in May, because back then, I was using a Dell Latitude D630, which was given to me by my school, and seriously sucked. The iPad was a good alternative for non-school stuff. This year, however, we upgraded to Mac's.

The rest of the stuff is stuff that I got for my birthday, or stuff that I bought this summer to make the ultimate desk.

I'll update this description to describe the individual items. I've picked up many of my favorite items after spotting something useful in the LifeHacker group.

My mother's wall clock in her conservatory.

This image has been used in 14 articles...

• lifehacker.com/5523367/from-the-tips-box-easy-ram-procras...

• www.saltlakecriminaldefense.com/2011/05/criminal-statutes...

• lifehacker.com/5816391/procrastination-is-like-a-credit-card

• www.weightlosstipswomen.info/fast-and-easy-weight-loss-tr...

• lifehacker.com/5854188/the-clock-is-ticking-how-to-save-t... (remixed)

• transcriptionglobal.com/blog/index.php/2011/12/16/tempora...

• www.blackboard.uhi.ac.uk/courses/1/DEV_AQAS/content/_5673...

• sternteam.ca/selling-home-toronto/timing-home-sale/

• something-greater.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/who-was-timothy.... (remixed)

• www.easywaystoloseweightpro.com/5-weight-loss-tips.html

• www.survivingcollege.com/your-back-to-school-timeline/

• 30tool.seesaa.net/article/304930417.html

(in Japanese, English translation here)

• www.blogwerk.com/2012/11/23/erfolgreiche-facebook-posts-g...

(in German, English translation here)

• blog.hootsuite.com/your-content-strategy-should-not-be-re...

*Featured Desktop on Lifehacker.com*

While looking at minimalistic wallpapers, I found this wallpaper and an idea sparked in my head. Wouldn't it be cool to have desktop information "reflected" in the mirrors of the wallpaper? I thought so, especially since I hadn't previously seen something like this done.

What's In this Desktop:

[Wallpaper:]

- Link. What you see in the screen shot is a slightly modified version I did to accommodate for the task bar.

[Icons:]

- Devine Icons-2

[Taskbar:]

The invisible taskbar can be found here.

[Rainmeter:]

- 10-Foot HUD

- Simple Sentence for the weather temps and conditions.

- Lines for the RAM and CPU measures

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Full-Size screen shot of the desktop.

I have this entire suite bundled in a Rainstaller file for easy installation! (Scaled to 1440x900) AND now since the amount of traffic I got to download this file, I have moved a fixed installer to a file hosting site:

[Here]

If the Rainstaller doesn't work for you:

Then download the zip archive of the skins at the link below. Just copy the skins into the Rainmeter directory in My Documents and restart Rainmeter.

[Here]

Have any comments, tips, or tweaks you think it could use? Let me know!

I've been using this desktop setup for a few months now. Removed most of the clutter (alot of the geektool scripts didn't survive the upgrade to SL).

Like? Dislike? Comments? Observations? Random Monty Python Quotes?

Wallpaper is: Blank 009267 by *lethalNIK-ART on dA.

Folder Icons are: Opacity Folder Set by*Thvg on dA

Font is Caviar Dreams (Free on dafont etc)

HD Icon is unknown (cant find the artist or name)

To Do list is a plain text doc that with quicksilver used to add items.

I've been thinking about getting dragthing to make the icons on the left an actual dock as opposed to simply alias icns. Anyone else use dragthing? Like? Dislike?

My command center.

Home improvement weekend part II: taking care of all those pesky charging devices.

Here's the Lifehacker post.

Two in one day. Won't become a habit, I promise.

I immediately found myself missing the CRWS design, which is still my favorite to date. Usually, right after I compose a good design, I feel like it's the best thing I've ever done; when I don't get that feeling, I take it as a sign. (I'm sure those of you involved in any creative pursuit know what I'm talking about.)

The obvious new toy here is the iTunes skin, which I whipped up after a) realizing that the information was not quite crucial enough to warrant a taskbar, b) discovering the Helvetica font family, which is obscenely attractive, and c) months of jealousy towards those of you with a talent for integrating the wallpaper. This first foray is simple, but my hope is that the subtle angle is enough to make it blend in neatly.

In practice, I'll probably even remove the Network and Location elements, or have them hidden along with the rest of the sidebar (Toggle skin in the top-left corner). Even a mostly-blank taskbar or sidebar has the advantage of intuitively drawing your eye to whatever is there. And the psychological benefit of using a consistent, compartmentalized format cannot be underestimated. I'd expand on that thought if I were running on a few more hours of sleep than I am; perhaps it's the fodder of a potential blog post.

Anyway. I'm sure this will follow the usual pattern: I like the followup ten times as much, but everyone else favors the original. So it goes. :)

Windows XP visual style is NOOTO; all other components as seen in the original Grays (Desktop 24).

Just Rainmeter working here, Windows 7 with Glass Onion theme ( solmiler.deviantart.com/art/Glass-Onion-for-W7-202355689 )

-- Valhalla Wallpaper: browse.deviantart.com/customization/wallpaper/minimalisti...

-- an edited version of the SimpleMedia clock and weather: browse.deviantart.com/?qh=&section=&q=simple+medi...

-- an edited DC2 RSS reader: ultimatert.deviantart.com/art/Desk-Cloud-2-1-Jan-15-2012-...

-- Simple Sentence for the music player: white-baron.deviantart.com/art/Simplesentencethree-175994306?

-- GoogleBar: browse.deviantart.com/?qh=&section=&q=googlebar+r...

-- Music: Courtesy The White Stripes

Read how we did the $1,200 "Quilty As Charged" Garage Makeover on the Atwater Village Newbie blog.

After getting bored with my previous desktops, I tried something different with this one - and failed miserably. I ended up changing this barely a day later as it really didn't work for me.

Please feel free to leave any ideas, questions, comments etc below.

Note: I know this desktop is almost a month old but a couldn't be bothered uploading it earlier.

Jim Bean, John Jameson, and Jack Daniels play the part of the Wise Men & Baby Jesus is an 8-hour Tylenol in a bottle-cap manger.

All set up messy but operational. Future plans include some pendant lighting hanging over the main surface (from the underside of the staircase), a picture rail installed on the block wall for art and inspiration and additional IKEA draw units for some of the storage slots. Also a 2 gang box was installed in the desk (behind the printer) but is not yet wired up. All wire management was done under the desk and the wires to and from the computer are neatly tucked in plastic corrugated conduit that I picked up from Autozone.

Current Version 3.0:

Computer: Intel Pentium D 940 Presler 3.2GHz LGA 775 Dual-Core Processor on a Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3L motherboard with GeForce GTS250, 8GB OCZ RAM and over 2.5TB storage. OS is 64bit Windows Vista Ultimate with 2 - 22" ACER widescreen monitors (P224W & AL2223W) and Creative Labs 3.1 audio.

Desk: Custom made for the space under my stairs with a single piece of 3/4" MDF and uses 2x4's for support. IKEA Expedit bookcase as the return (Right side), IKEA Expedit bookcase on left for storage/support. Lighting is 6 Hampton Bay 3-Light LED task and accent lights (~$46/3pk) mounted under the shelf. Monitor shelf above the desk is 9" deep and also made from 3/4" MDF with a Roman Ogee edge.

Overall desk size:

Width - 9' 4"

Depth - 2' 6"

Height - 2' 6.25"

Return Width - 1' 3.5"

Return Length - 4' 11"

My bed. Desk works as a nice headboard. Skyrim map had to be done.

My shiny new Gaming Rig... it was supposed to be an HTPC but I got sidetracked when the painfully gorgeous case arrived and kept on upping the spec... This case supports some pretty serious kit. The build includes...

Asus P8Z77-I Deluxe Mini-ITX mobo

Intel Core i7 3770K CPU @ 4.6 GHz

16 GB DDR3 1833 MHz RAM

2x 120 GB SanDisk Extreme SSDs (RAID-0)

2x Seagate 2TB HDD (RAID-1)

EVGA GTX 670 FTW 2GB Graphics card

Corsair Hydro H100i Liquid Cooling kit

MadCatz V5 Gaming Keyboard & R.A.T.3 mouse

Krator NESO4 2.1 Speakers

LG IPS27I-BN IPS 1080p Monitor

BitFenix Recon LCD fan controller

Update: Ooh wondered where all the views were coming from... my image has just been featured on lifehacker.com

lifehacker.com/5994570/five-best-small-form-factor-pc-cases

This workspace is in my dorm room. Being a college student in a dorm, I basically had to make do with what was given to me—I am not realistically capable of choosing my own desk, etc. This presented a challenge when I attempted to create a cordless workspace, but as it turned out, the desk that I had was pretty good for hiding cables, with a little ingenuity.

Equipment shown here: 23" Apple Cinema Display, Logitech MX Revolution mouse, Apple Wireless Keyboard, M-Audio BX5a Deluxe Monitors, an IKEA desk lamp, and backlighting provided by an IKEA Dioder setup (which can show a variety of colors: purple, blue, red, green, yellow, orange, white, cyan. or, it can fade between them, or, it can go through them in succession).

Played with the desktop a bit more. Wanted something a bit cleaner and streamlined, but still useful.

Snackr RSS going up top, Blob icons (a number of custom ones I made for apps like Calibre, Tweetie and Pandora), Geektool for some desk artifacts, Geeky Adium theme, and bowtie theme Zukunft condensed white.

Misc food

receipt from Deep Ellum

blogged here

and

blogged here

Fun with Geektool + Yahoo Widgets

Foreword

First of all, a deep (and entirely unoriginal) apology for being inactive for so long. Just after last Christmas, I was hit in the face by a huge flaming chunk of Real Life, leaving virtually zero time for my pet projects. I have still been answering emails sent to kaelri+lcd@gmail.com, so if you have a question, or you need help with Enigma, please don't hesitate to send a message. I still can't guarantee a prompt reply, but it's your best bet, and it's always great to hear from people.

Since it's been so long, I wanted to reward your patience with a real in-depth post. With screenshots! So read on.

Although I've had no opportunity to work on Rainmeter stuff, I've used some of my scattered moments of free time to tweak my Firefox setup, based on experiences with Chrome, Opera, and yes, even Safari 5. The beauty of extensible browsers is that whenever one of them gets a great new feature, someone will make it available for the others in short order. This means that the most extensible, customizable browser gets a huge Darwinian advantage. And in that, Firefox is still the undisputed king.

-----------------------

Chrome

Even though I've made a lot of behind-the-scenes changes, you'll notice that it doesn't look much different from my previous setup from almost two years ago. That's because I can't really simplify it any more than it is. I've even removed the back/forward and menu buttons now, so typically, the only element that's actually visible is the awesomebar on top.

Theme: After all this time, NASA Night Launch is still the best, cleanest, smoothest, most professional dark-colored Firefox theme on the planet. If they charged for this theme, I would pay.

Search: I really feel that keyword-based search bookmarks are the perfect solution to this issue of combining the search and address bars. I could never get the hang of Chrome's way of doing things - if I type "wiki lifehacker," will I search Wikipedia for "lifehacker," or will I google for "wiki lifehacker"? An action that is so basic to modern Internet living requires a method as habitual and thought-free as possible, and keywords are the answer. All I have to do is prefix whatever I type with the corresponding code:

- g: Google

- w: Wikipedia

- u: YouTube

- d: Dictionary.com

- t: Thesaurus.com

- tr: Google Translate (This will automatically translate the text which follows.)

To set this up for yourself, copy the link location of each search into a bookmark, and type the desired prefix into the "keyword" field. Thanks again to Nabeel for introducing me to this concept.

[Screenshot]

Menu: You'll notice that there's absolutely no menu bar or button in sight. That's because I'm using a feature of Personal Menu that I've previously overlooked: adding menu items to the toolbar context menu. I can now just right-click on either side of my toolbar to access the menu. I know it sounds awkward, but it's actually very easy to get used to. I use keyboard shortcuts for most things, which allowed me to condense everything I actually use into a remarkably short list.

[Screenshot]

Status Bar: Gone, obviously, but replaced with the simplest, most perfect extension I've ever seen. It's called Fission, and it does exactly three things. First, it adds a loading bar to the background of the awesomebar, ala Safari. (You can also have it normal-sized on the far-right side, which I do, because otherwise it's wasted space.) Second, it displays the page status, also on the far right side. Third, when you hover over a link, it changes the address in the awesomebar to the location of the link. In other words, it uses the awesomebar to completely replace all the usefulness of the status bar, and it does so in the most elegant way imaginable.

[Screenshot]

-----------------------

Sidebar

I think the most dramatic addition is the sidebar, courtesy of All-in-One Sidebar. I gave Opera another try several weeks ago, and while I ultimately switched back to Firefox, I was smitten with the sidebar that Opera uses. I found it easier to use, because it's adjacent to the edge of the screen, so it requires less aiming than the regular (horizontal) toolbars, and it saves vertical space, which, as we all know, is more important on a widescreen laptop. Two hours later, I'd found this, and now, my entire interface, other than the awesomebar, has been moved to it. AiOS is wonderful in several different ways:

Hide/Show: I probably would not have kept this extension if there hadn't been an easy way to hide it when I wanted to minimize my interface. Fortunately, it offers not only a grabber on the far left (barely visible, but easy to click, since I only need to flick the mouse left), but a keyboard shortcut: F4.

[Screenshot]

Flexible Buttons: I only have a few buttons, but as you can see, they're stretched out to fill the full height of the window. This is great, because it gives each button an absolutely gigantic click area.

Sidebars: This is actually the point of AiOS. As you know, Firefox can open your Bookmarks (Ctrl-B) and History (Ctrl-H) as sidebar panels. AiOS takes this further: it lets you open Downloads, Addons, Page Info, and other tools as docked, collapsible panels. It feels good to have all of Firefox's most important dialogs in a consistent format, and if you're, say, doing a lot of tweaking in your various extensions' options, it saves a lot of time to have it permanently open.

[Screenshot]

MultiPanel: AiOS adds one more sidebar of its own, called MultiPanel. This does a couple of different things. The one I love most is that you can open a second page inside the panel. It can even render the page in a mobile format, perfect for sidebar viewing. Menus at the top of the panel also offer quick access to the page source (which can be made to open in the sidebar by default) and the "about:" dialogs, including about:config (same).

[Screenshot (Full)]

[Screenshot (Mobile)]

-----------------------

Fast Dial

Still using Fast Dial as both my homepage and new-tab page. I could save on some performance by replacing it with a homemade HTML file, but for the moment, it doesn't bother me, and it's nice for the infrequent times when I do need to move stuff around. I made the thumbnails myself in Photoshop (not that they're anything special; just jumping on the Helvetica bandwagon).

As you can probably tell from the contents, I'm still a heavy and devoted user of Google services, especially since I've finally taken the leap to browser-only messaging. Yes, I have given up Thunderbird (except for making IMAP backups, because I'm still paranoid), and am now using Gmail to manage four different email addresses from a single inbox, which, to Gmail's credit, is working flawlessly, thanks to a combination of forwarding, filtering, and a secure send-from-address feature. As for my feeds, I'm using Google Reader with the gorgeous Helvetireader skin, via Greasemonkey. And as they say, I haven't looked back.

[Screenshot (Reader)]

[Screenshot (Mail)]

-----------------------

Bookmarks

It took a bit of fiddling, but I was able to add my bookmarks toolbar to the sidebar. Here's the trick: I moved all of my bookmarks into a single, unlabeled folder, so the effect is that it appears as if it's just a button, and therefore takes no horizontal space. The only (nitpicky) downside is that it doesn't really work without the "flexible buttons" option in AiOS; it expands to fill the entire sidebar vertically, which is annoying.

One of the things I'm asked about most often is my organization scheme. It's pretty simple, actually. Writer contains the sites where I'm an active member and contributor: forums, wikis, etc. Reader used to contain my daily reading material, before I started using feeds; now it holds my archive of saved posts, news stories and other pages, sorted by tag. (I discovered this completely by accident: Firefox lets you add a tag to any bookmark folder, where it appears as a menu.) Writer is where I save the pages that I don't have time to read. As you can imagine, this grows rapidly, and I have to cull it every few weeks. Resources is a list of useful tools that I may need during the course of the day. (Click the screenshot below to see.) After that, all that's left are a few folders dedicated to each of my currently-active projects. This method has served me well for literally years. I don't know if it qualifies as a "GTD" tactic, but I certainly recommend it.

[Screenshot (Reader)]

[Screenshot (Resources)]

Readability: This is the newest addition to my browsing suite. After Safari 5 popped up last week - although Safari for Windows is still the trashiest app ever released by a developer of Apple's standing - I was reasonably impressed with the "Reader" feature, and, naturally, I tried to see if anything like it was available for Firefox. Lo and behold, I discovered Readability. It's a bookmarklet which changes the layout of any page you throw at it, stripping all the unnecessary elements and reformatting the text to your preferred reading conditions. It's lovely. (Via Soeren Says.)

[Screenshot]

-----------------------

Gestures

The last extension I'll be highlighting is All-in-One Gestures. Like AiOS, I grabbed this after being really pleased with the mouse gestures in Opera. I never really thought I'd like them, but it does save an awful lot of time, and of course, it's customizable, so you can define those gestures that are most intuitive to you. It's now just a quick swipe to go back, forward, to the top or bottom of the page, to refresh, to open a new tab, or load the homepage in the current tab. These are just a few of the functions it can be used to invoke. It even has a command to increment a digit in the current page's URL - in other words, scroll through multi-page articles with a flick of the wrist. I admit, this isn't as seamless as Opera's method, which not only finds the page number automatically, but activates it whenever you use "forward" on a page that's already at the end of your history. But this works. I don't have to think about it, which is the most important thing.

This is also a great example of how extensions can be used to enhance each other. One of AiOG's other uses is to open a "favorite bookmark." I added the Readability bookmarklet (above). So now, I can reformat any webpage to my liking with a flick of the wrist. Welcome to the future.

-----------------------

Other Extensions

I won't go in-depth with these, since they're not really relevant to my browser interface like the others are. But for completion's sake, I'm also using:

- Adblock Plus

- Firefox Sync

- Lazarus Form Recovery

- Resurrect Pages

- Shooter

-----------------------

One More Thing

Go to about:config. Find the key called "general.smoothScroll". Change it to true. Instant smooth-scrolling, no extensions needed. Cheers.

via Instagram ift.tt/1emtpQ3

Windows 7 prof, rainmeter (some tweaks), custom wallpaper

Here's something most people don't know about me: as much as I love technology, and follow the latest news from Google, Apple, et al, I actually don't buy gadgets very often. I can't stand spending money needlessly, accumulating crap that I don't know how to get rid of, and, especially, retiring a tool before I've gotten all the value out of it. I just bought my first smartphone this year. And last week, I finally retired my faithful Dell Inspiron B130, which has been my exclusive machine since September 2006.

Now, some of you may scoff. A budget laptop marketed for college students is not the kind of choice you expect from someone who is fairly tech savvy and who uses a computer pretty much 24/7, for work and for play. But after nearly half a decade of constant use, I have nothing but praise for the Little Notebook That Could. Somewhere around here, I've told the tale of how, after I accidentally deleted the boot sector during a botched Linux venture, she miraculously healed herself without the use of a Windows disc or recovery software. I never once had to reinstall the OS, never had to contact Dell support, never had a serious virus or hardware malfunction, never experienced the sluggishness, overheating and physical cruft that my friends have had with their notebooks. Guys, if you take care of your computer, your computer will take care of you.

Nonetheless, the Dell was showing her age. While the very-worn battery and hard drive could probably be replaced, a 1.7 GHz single-core processor just doesn't cut it anymore, especially if you're looking to upgrade to Windows 7. So I've switched to an HP G62x, and after a little over a week of full-time use, I have no regrets. While less mobile than a netbook, and less powerful than, say, a MacBook Pro, these mid-range workhorses can really serve you well as a primary machine, and you can get some surprising deals if you do your homework. I got this thing with half a terabyte of internal storage (no more juggling external drives to watch my movies!) and an ATI Radeon Mobility video card, which, while it wouldn't satisfy a hardcore gamer, has been a real treat for me - not least because it unlocks some Photoshop features that I could never use before. This for under $600. And since I can install up to 8GB of RAM and (someday) an SSD, I'm thinking I can make this one last even longer than its predecessor.

Anyway. This desktop post won't have anything new for the customizers. I'm just marking my switch to a brand new platform. All of my desktops up to this point - throughout all the Lightning Sunset, the browser tinkering, the Rainmeter revival - were done on that little Dell. I'm looking forward to seeing where this new vessel will take me.

- - - - - - -

Before I get into my customization details, I have to say, straight off, that Windows 7 is a fantastic operating system. I know I'm a little late to the party here, but it needs to be said. The taskbar is a sheer joy to use. Jump lists are brilliant, especially pinning files, which eliminates the need for a lot of my old hotkeys. The redesigned Windows Explorer is an incredibly sleek, refined application. Networking just works now. And there are so many little touches: if you click and drag down on the title bar of a maximized window, it will restore the window and move it with your cursor, all without lifting the button.

Really, I'd write a whole review of Windows 7 alone, if there weren't already hundreds of them. Suffice to say, I'm no longer embarrassed to be a Windows user. Not that I really was before, but you know how it is - Linux people telling you you're an ignorant slave, Mac people telling you you have no taste. Especially looking at the directions that both OS X and Ubuntu are going these days, I can say with full confidence that Windows 7 is the OS I would choose from a cold start.

- - - - - - -

Desktop

Theme:

- Visual Style: Shadow for 7 by krissirk. I tried the big names, including Appows and Shine. But this one just hit the mark. So many VS designers like to add their little frills around the edges, but Shadow is just clean, consistent and simple. The subtle Aero transparency is very professional - it makes Google Chrome look gorgeous, among other things. Just a real quality VS. I doubt it'd be much different if I'd made it myself.

- Wallpaper: Big Sky by Fifty Foot Shadows, one of my favorite wallpaper sources. I'm an incurable romantic, so the fact that this is an actual photograph, when a simple Photoshop gradient would have been just as easy, makes it somehow special to me.

Startups:

- Autohotkey, though Windows 7's built-in features have rendered many of my scripts obsolete. But I'm still using keys for window transparency, text replacement, and the How-To Geek's Alt+Drag script. I've also remapped those app keys along the side of the keyboard to make them more useful - for example, one of them summons Launchy with one press, and another shows/hides my Trillian contact list.

- Launchy. The new Start Menu search, which is really wonderful, has allowed me to streamline Launchy's index a bit. (Which is good, because the current Launchy beta is a real memory leaker, unfortunately. Hoping for a fix soon.)

- 7 Taskbar Tweaker. This thing has a bunch of features, but I use exactly one of them: middle-click to close windows on the taskbar. I used Taskbar Shuffle back in XP to do the same thing, and I still strongly believe that this should be a native function for all taskbar-oriented OSes, especially since it's become a standard in every web browser.

- StartKiller. Removes the start button. I already have one on my keyboard, thankyouverymuch.

- Dropbox. No explanation needed, I think.

- Lightscreen. Very, very handy for taking screenshots - stays out of the way and gets the job done.

- http://www.stereopsis.com/flux. Which Flickr doesn't want to turn into a link, for some reason. Hmph.

- - - - - - -

I still haven't figured out what kind of Rainmeter theme I'm going to use on the new OS, and sadly I'm not sure when I'll have a chance to muck around with it. Too busy with work, another side project that moved up about a year ahead of schedule, and some other poorly-timed events... 2011 has been a challenging year thus far. But we'll see where I end up on the currents.

This is a re-creation of Hawk's and Woodztream's desktop.

I contributed:

-The left set of data and it's scripts

-The iTunes Now playing (custom)

-Dock icons (custom)

-Used Magic Menu 3.0 to auto-hide my menubar.

Click Me to view a larger size.

Wallpaper by Hawk

Font: STHeiti

Data: Geektool

-----

Check out my work at CarbonMade(dot)com.