If you would like to unsubscribe from XSWeekly at any time, simply send an e-mail to xsweekly-unsubscribe@wuzzle.org and you will be removed. You can e-mail me at demigod@meganet.net with any questions, suggestions, etc. XSWEEKLY Shell Related News 09.09.00 - 15.09.00 ------------------------------------------------- Like everyone did not see this coming, but I have something to say about that Wired article. It was one of the worse POS articles I have read in a long time. Now, don't get me wrong, I like the idea that shells and customization is making it into hard print but... this was a travesty of justice. To start off with, the article name, GUIs Just Want to Have Fun, was just plain sad. They really could have come up with a million other, much better names to grab the users attention. Instead they opted to use something so uberlame that it makes me cringe to even type it out here. Comon, this is supposed to be a professional magazine here people! Next we get to the article itself. Right off the bat you realize that the author really has no clue on what he is writing about and just using catch phrases. He quotes Bowie Poag, creator of the propaganda tiles, as if he is a driving force in the custo community. Next he calls the shell IceSphere IceStep. That right there just shows how much he really paid attention to what he was researching on. And don't even get me started on the line "and the tartly named DarkStep." Ok, after we get past the lameness of his reporting on shells, he goes on to praise realplayer for an entire page! What a sell out! I wouldn't have minded if he has a few things to say about how skinning and customizing is becoming main stream, but he spends more time on saying how great realplayer is than on any other one topic. This is a blatant sell out right there. Now, from what I understand, he had a lengthy interview with Headius but he is no where to be found in the article. Headius is one of the main coders in the LiteStep core and instead we have quotes from lonerunner and Bowie Poag??? Not to mention that he makes it seem as if lone is still the head of LS development! Not only is this article horrible, its also misleading, filled with propaganda for realplayer, and written with no regards to any logic that I can decipher. Personaly I love the idea that customization and shells are finally getting there coverage but like the ZDTV run on LiteStep, it is totally wrong. The community is being misrepresented horrible even when some of its main people are giving their input. I have sent my e-mail to Wired stating how saddened I was that they allowed any monkey with the relative knowledge to use a word processor and a spell checker to pump out crap articles to sell out to cooperations and make a buck. Send in your letter too, maybe if we send in enough letter they will actually take the time to screen these monkeys and get a real writing staff. Then again, maybe not. - demigod ---------- [ Mail Bag ] ---------- This weeks mailbag question is: What did you think of the Wired article on customization? e-mail - demigod@meganet.net url - http://www.xsweekly.com/mail.html ----------- [ Spotlight ] ----------- ................................................. -= Shell Specific =- ................................................. ------------------ [ Top News Stories ] ------------------ - LiteStep, DarkStep, and IceStep? in Wired (10:04 13.09 na) Wired recently ran it's article on the customization community and mentioned LiteStep, DarkStep, and IceSphere though it got the last one wrong. Although it's nice to see these shell's getting some publicity, I with the author had taken more time to write this article correctly. url - http://www.interq.or.jp/jupiter/philsci/porch_workshop_topics/wired-article.zip --------- [ Modules ] --------- - geOUser 1.0 ~ Stanislav Antov (10:12 13.09 geo) "This is a plugin for geOShell that shows the number of people using it (and therefore geOShell too) Some people compare it to LS Count in regard to functionality, but some have mentioned that LS Count does not show the users but tabulate them on the server." url - http://www.fragmentized.com/ e-mail - fragmented@subdimension.com (source: http://news.geoshell.com) +-------<*>-------+ - xVWMx 1.0 ~ MrJukes (10:06 14.09 ls) xVWMx is a virtual windows manager that shows the contents of each of the desktops. You can set the number of desktops, refresh rate, and a bunch of other options. url - http://modulo.litestep.org e-mail - mrjukes@purdue.edu (source: http://modulo.litestep.org) +-------<*>-------+ - IconBox 1.1 ~ MrJukes (10:09 14.09 ls) IconBox is a copy of E's iconbox. It allows for drag and drop, auto placement after minimize and a lot of other features. New in this version: - You don't need to specify the full path for images anymore - Fixed drawing to reduce the amount of blackness url - http://modulo.litestep.org e-mail - mrjukes@purdue.edu (source: http://modulo.litestep.org) +-------<*>-------+ - LsSlider 1.1 ~ Black Hawk (9:08 15.09 ls) "LsSlider is a general Slider loadmodule for Litestep. You can use LsSlider to control Winamp, any given Channel of your Soundcard or you can use LsSlider to call Bang Commands." New in this version: - Added a "WinAmp Volume" Mode - Removed "Error Closing Step.rc" Messagebox - Darkstep and purleLS should be able to run it without "Nag-box" on startup - Fixed various issues with AlwaysOnTop and threaded Sliders - I won't implement a [BANG] mode until s.o. tells me he need it url - http://www.blkhawk.de e-mail - blkhawk@blkhawk.de (source: http://www.blackhawk.de) +-------<*>-------+ - PCP_Vol 0.3 ~ pcppopper (10:29 15.09 ls) "This module deals with windows volume controlling system. It is loosely..em..loosely based on v_bang.dll by blackhawk. I desired to do a rewrite of it since I only have 32 megs of ram so every kb counts, (v_bang.dll = 22.016b, pcp_vol.dll = 5.632b). (Note on the sizes: v_bang.dll is packed using the upx .exe packer which makes it more than half the original size. pcp_vol.dll uses some compiler optimizations to get it's small size. the .text and .reloc sections are merged with the .data section which makes it a bit smaller.)" New in this version: - Fixed a lot of bugs in this readme. Notoriously the v_bang bashing bug (sorry, i didn't mean any harm.) and the bug that prevented channels to be specified correctly. url - http://www.ls2k.org e-mail - da.box@home.se (source: http://www.ls2k.org) ---------- [ Programs ] ---------- - Carapace 1.5 ~ Pixol (9:14 15.09 na) Carapace is a shell manager with a ton of features. It includes crash protection, thread maintenance, per shell settings, etc... This is THE shell manager to use. url - http://www.dtop.org/pixolpod e-mail - pixol@hotmail.com (source: pixol via irc) ------ [ Misc ] ------ - Shell Trek ~ ne0_akt (10:18 13.09 na) This is a very interesting story that ne0_akt is working on. It is something like the history of the current shells written in a fiction like setting. I enjoyed it alot and am looking forward to the next part. Check it out, it is worth the read. url - http://www.xsweekly.com/shelltrek.html e-mail - ne0_akt@dangerous-minds.com (source: PureLS Mailing List ~ [Shell Trek] - A New Beginning) --------------- [ Latest Builds ] --------------- - LiteStep o 24.6 build 090400 o http://builds.litestep.net/builds/ls-0246-dev-20000904.zip - DarkStep o 0.971 o http://www.darkstep.com/files/DarkStep971.zip - geOShell o 4.6.5a o http://news.geoshell.com/Plugins/Download/geoshellr465a.zip - PureLS o 052900 o http://209.46.69.134/purels/binaries/00-05-29r.zip ................................................. -= Alt OS Specific =- ................................................. --------------- [ Latest Builds ] --------------- - SEAL o 1D (042900) o http://www.home.sk/public/seal/sealexe.zip - V2_OS o 0.63.2a o http://www.v2os.cx/downloads/dl_system.htm ................................................. -= Beyond the Specifics =- ................................................. ------------ [ Intresting ] ------------ - An Article On Open Source Management Another /. link, this time to a well written article on Open Source and the way it is managed or more to the point, not managed. Great read imo. url - http://www.lotus.com/developers/devbase.nsf/articles/doc2000091200 ---------- [ Programs ] ---------- - Winamp Remote Control Saw this on shell city. This is something that I can use for my home lan because I'm too lazy to pick up my second kb. From the readme: "The broadest overview would have to be that the winamp plugin gives winamp the ability to respond to control messages from remote machines connected via a network. "In more concrete terms - install the plugin, and you can control winamp on machine 1, by using a client application on machine 2." url - http://www.freenetpages.co.uk/hp/patrickmmartin/winampremote/ .................................... All content Copyright (c) 1999-2000 XSWeekly. All rights reserved.