Many people are familiar with
computer case modifications, thanks to the
photogenic nature of mods. On the software side, most operating systems feature some potential for customization, though this is often limited to tweaking the colors and sounds. For some, this isn't enough. Enter "
skinning," the casual term for interface customization. To a degree, the
history of the media player Winamp (YT, 7:03;
transcript with pictures) mirrors the history of skinning. From a version 0.2, a visually dull app in June 1997, to easy user customization in version 2 in September 1998, and the complexly customizable Winamp3 in August 2002.
Wired captured something of the excitement at its peak in an article from 2000, before computing began shifting to more closed devices. Now approaching a
post-WIMP (windows, icons, menus and a pointer) era, where skinning is done with
alternative launchers. But for those still using traditional computers of one sort or another, it's not too late to modify your interface.
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Apr 17, 2012 -
70 comments
Trauma is an escape-the-
room -dream game with a hauntingly beautiful aesthetic that tells the story of a young woman recovering from an accident. It is a cross-platform download or can be played in its entirety for free
in Flash.
[more inside]
posted by Thomas Tallis is my Homeboy
on Aug 31, 2011 -
9 comments
Halfway through the third book of the
Hitchhiker's Guide series, there is
a throwaway reference to a doomed starship, one whose incredible splendor was matched only by the cosmic absurdity of its maiden-day annihilation.
But the story didn't end there. Unbeknownst to many fans, this small piece of Adamsian lore was the inspiration for an ambitious and richly-detailed side-story: a 1998 computer adventure game called
Starship Titanic.
Designed by Douglas Adams himself, the game set players loose in the infamous vessel, challenging them with a maddening mystery laced with the devilish wit of the novels.
The game was laden with extra content, including
an in-depth strategy guide,
a (mediocre) tie-in novel by Terry Jones,
a whimsical First Class In-Flight Magazine, and even a pair of 3D glasses for one of the more inventive puzzles.
Key to solving these puzzles was the game's groundbreaking communications system -- players interacted with
the ship's robotic crew through a natural language parsing engine called SpookiTalk, whose 10,000+ lines of conversational dialogue spawned
16 hours of audio recorded by professional voice actors, including
John Cleese,
Terry Jones, and even Douglas Adams himself in
several cameos (spoiler cameo). Want to experience the voyage for yourself? Then watch this narrated video playthrough (
intro (ads) -
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9? 10 11 12 13) ...or click inside for a information on how to run the game for free on Windows, Mac, and Linux (along with a bunch of other goodies!).
[more inside]
posted by Rhaomi
on Dec 22, 2010 -
109 comments
Mendeley is a cross-platform research management tool which features article databasing, PDF annotation, online backup, private, shared and public collections, metadata lookup on Google Scholar, direct exporting of multiple citation styles to Word, OpenOffice and BibTex, the ability to add documents directly from a web browser, and social networking with other members in your field of study. Like
Zotero (
previously), but out of the browser and with note-taking abilities. For Windows, Mac and Linux.
posted by l33tpolicywonk
on Jun 11, 2010 -
27 comments
"Every hard drive in the world will eventually fail. Assume that yours are all on the cusp of failure at all times." An Ode to DiskWarrior, SuperDuper, and Dropbox: John Gruber talks about his Mac's hard drive failing and how he was able to recover all of his data using
DiskWarrior, a file recovery utility,
SuperDuper!, a backup utility that creates a fully bootable backup, and the file syncing system
DropBox. While his advice is Mac specific, you can get a similar system going on Windows with
Acronis for backups and one of many free file recovery programs such as
TestDisk (which also has a Mac version).
[more inside]
posted by The Devil Tesla
on Mar 15, 2010 -
90 comments
The How-To Geek provides hints and tips for a variety of operating systems and popular pieces of software. The how-tos cover a pleasing range of head-slapping I-should-have-known-thats to relatively advanced techniques. Follow the
latest page to read the site in blog form.
posted by nthdegx
on Jul 8, 2007 -
12 comments
The clueless reviews the Mac Mini His chief gripes are "The Mini boots up into a stripped-down operating system which Apple calls OS X, similar to the stripped-down WindowsCE OS found on many handhelds." and "No serial ports, no way to connect a printer, no PS/2 ports, no floppy drive, no 5.25" bays." Let the hate mail campaign begin!
posted by StormBear
on Feb 2, 2005 -
47 comments
Mac takes control of Windows! A very useful addition to the Mac desktop for those who administer Windows-based servers. This handy utility allows you to start a Terminal Services session on a Windows machine.
This and a nice
X Windows client lets my little 'ol iBook show the big iron who's the boss!
posted by Chief Typist
on Jul 18, 2002 -
13 comments
Behold Oddpost! Like they say, it really is "indubitably the most astounding web-based email application on earth." I was skeptical, but their drag-and-drop interface is so clean and functional that comparing it to Microsoft Hotmail or Yahoo! Mail is like comparing a Frank Lloyd Wright house to a birdcage made of Tinkertoys. All DHTML, so it requires IE 5+ on Windows. Netscape, Opera, Mac, and Linux users are out of luck. (Welcome to
the effects of market share.)
posted by monkey-mind
on Apr 6, 2002 -
45 comments
Fakeintosh - Have you ever wanted to run Mac OS 8 on your PC, but couldn't? Well now you can with this flash animation. I'm amazed at how detailed it is.
posted by bytecode
on Aug 23, 2001 -
14 comments
This is for those of you running Windows, but wishing you still had a Mac. (novelty purposes only)
posted by thirteen
on Aug 11, 2000 -
4 comments
This redesign looked swell on my Mac, but the tables are all screwy when I look at it through Windows (at work). Explorer 5 ain't the same on both platforms. Argh!! Not a hard fix, but what do you do when your 'blog looks like ass and you can't fix it for a whole day!! I know it's uncool to link to oneself - I'm not just trying to generate pageviews. I'm genuinely pissed off about all these web standards problems!
posted by aladfar
on Jun 2, 2000 -
11 comments
