bakerstreet

bakerstreet

Joined Member # 217
0 Posts 163 Replies 7,083 Reputation
Reply to DESKTOP X - need your opinion, what would you like to see? in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

Instead of using application-specific icons, why not make task-specific icons that could be used for any number of apps? For the most part everyone is gonna have an mp3 player, an graphics app, a browser, an email app, etc. If you focus on the task, instead of the brandname, then both people who use IE and Mozilla can use the browser icon, and so on for all the other apps. In addition, you don't have to wiegh the option of ripping out trademarked symbols and copyrighted graphics to make your

3 Replies 1,910 Views
Reply to Mozilla 1.1 & Pop-Ups in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

ah... I begin to see the problem. I haven't used explorer as my main shell in like ~3 years. Not for more than a month anyway. When I bulldoze I might get lazy for a week before I pick a shell, but explorer is not a permanent option. Also, initial load-time is not really a consideration to me, anyway, unless it is an outrageously long time, like AOLscape 6. When I think about long load times, I think Photoshop or most of the games I play... something in the 10-30 second range or mor

14 Replies 5,164 Views
Reply to Mozilla 1.1 & Pop-Ups in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

"It is not as fast as IE" is a completely subjective remark, you should really pose it that way. On my system mozilla is blindingly fast, easily as fast as IE, and imho, faster. Add to that the pop-up killer, mouse gestures, and the multitude of other perks... To each his own. I just get grumpy when people make concrete statements based on subjective experience.

14 Replies 5,164 Views
Reply to Whiners, Trolls, Morons.... in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

The 'do unto others' reference doesn't work with me, because I am much happier being told when I am being a whiner, troll, or moron... Neither am I so thin-skinned that a couple of words sitting on the hard drive of a server somewhere are going to 'hurt' me. The problem with tea-room tact is that some people simply do no hear it, or find it very easy to overlook. Overlooking an insult is something that a whiner, troll, or moron cannot do, and that is usually when you get line-by-line responses

50 Replies 2,794 Views
Reply to Metallic Skins and Photoshop in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

p.s. under no circumstances use filters. it will look rotten and you'll not learn anything. Once you learn to use the dodge/burn tool, you can then use levels adjustments to make some filter-like adjustments, but the stuff that is done by hand is the best.

7 Replies 3,175 Views
Reply to Metallic Skins and Photoshop in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

metal is 'hot'. i.e. the reflections on metal are sharp and focused. The main tool you will use is the dodge/burn tool for stuff like this. On rubber, for instance, light spreads out fairly evenly, and not very harshly. It is hard to describe. Just get a couple of skins, one metal and one not, and then take note of how the light plays on the material. It will make sense to you. If you go to my ancient tutorial for ICQ Plus and look at the rubber button I make in one part of it, you can se

7 Replies 3,175 Views
Reply to Bad copies, forgeries, and photograph reproductions. in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

Karmagirl: thanks. I have spent waaaay too much time grumping about this online, and it is refreshing to see someone with more than my own 'lay-person' know-how wander through. I think it will all sink-in gradually. This community was started by people who generally customized for themselves, or at most their friends, and as it grew that mentality remained. We now cater to millions of people, so the 'rules' suddenly apply, lol. Thanks again.

52 Replies 16,553 Views
Reply to I wasn't gonna mention this but... in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

congrats, jarget. Few things show character more than someone improving his or herself when they could more easily coast on. Best of luck, we're all here for ya. p.s. DavidK quit smoking. If you keel over dead who am I gonna get on-demand criticism from 24/7? If nothing else, switch to cigars or a pipe. Then you can be social hunchbacks like the rest of us. It is amazing how palatable cheap cigarette smoke is to the public as compared to a $5 cigar. Lot of chemical engeneering in t

28 Replies 7,030 Views
Reply to DeviantArt Going Down the Toilet? (Opinion) in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

To balance my rabid criticism, I wanted to give credit to Devart for washing out one section a lot of people were griping about: http://forum.deviantart.com/683721 I applaud the effort it must have taken to weed out ~3000 wallpapers, and with diligence I am sure it won't get be so abused ever again. I wouldn't think it fair to let this string wind off the page without tipping my hat; the right thing has been done in this case. Props to all involved.

88 Replies 20,962 Views
Reply to Bad copies, forgeries, and photograph reproductions. in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

KarmaGirl : hmm? I have referred people to the Copyright office's site fairly often, even here, as little as a couple of weeks ago. Here's my interpretation. A copyright holder has the *exclusive* right to display his work, reproduce his work, and derive other works from that work. Anyone who does any of those things without securing permission has violated copyright law. The only exception is limited amounts of works reproduced for 'fair use', which applies to educat

52 Replies 16,553 Views
Reply to Mac user obnoxiousness in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

Has Mac gone through with their claim to be making their standard boxed OS a 5 license sale? If so it would be a lot cheaper for some of us... (i'm just taking a break from squinting at photoshop and playing devil's advocate... 'scuse me)

81 Replies 23,333 Views
Reply to Bad copies, forgeries, and photograph reproductions. in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

If the content of the image has any bearing at all, then you are deriving your work from theirs. If the image has no relevance to the piece I'm not sure why it would need to be a car. I agree that a lot of this is hair-splitting, but remember that this isn't just protecting you from weenies like us. If tomorrow Microsoft, or Apple, or a Open-Source Linux developer saw one of your skins and decided to hack it up a lot and use it, you'd have the legal tools to make it an issue. Stran

52 Replies 16,553 Views
Reply to ~ WMP 9 in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

jarget: no we don't. I couldn't be sitting here skinning apps to upload here if I was using a mac or Linux. Photoshop 7 is currently an impossibility on Linux, I can't abandon that 650 dollars without a lot of thought. I play a lot of games too, so Linux is pretty much dead at birth. MS owns a big hunk of Apple, so I'm not sure how much difference that will be in the end. I build my own computers, and with Macs that isn't really an option. I used another designers powermac a few mo

16 Replies 4,470 Views
Reply to Bad copies, forgeries, and photograph reproductions. in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

If a work contains previous work by another artist it is derivative, unless the collected images are incedental, like in the 'news item' discussion. People confuse 'fair use' and 'derivative'. If you featured a wadded-up newspaper, for instance, whatever was written on it would most likely be incedental. If, though, a noteworthy photograph is staring out at you from the newspaper, and it impacts the work, then it would be derivative. (though you could claim it was incedental...) The definiti

52 Replies 16,553 Views
Reply to Zip Files in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

Not sure if they are or not, but as a rule I won't download an .exe from here or any public-upload site. I would assume they don't allow them for that reason.

4 Replies 1,049 Views
Reply to ~ WMP 9 in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

MS believes in mandatory optional components. You don't have to use WMP and IE, but they are not gonna make it easy for you not to have the constant option... This, imho, only gets nasty when you play the EULA tricks that MS plays from time to time. They give you an app that has a security hole, make it next to impossible to uninstall it, and then give you the *option* of installing a security fix *if* you agree to a EULA that pretty much gives them the right to be as intrusive as the

16 Replies 4,470 Views
Reply to Bad copies, forgeries, and photograph reproductions. in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

in my opinion, if you make a collage and hang it in your house, you are within your rights. You are using an object you purchased. If you hang it in a gallery as a work of your own, you are abusing the rights of others, i.e. displaying their work in a way that they did not have the opportunity to approve, and in a way that creates confusion between your artistry and theirs. If it were not for their work, your collage would not exist. If the snipped images weren't of importance, you'd take yo

52 Replies 16,553 Views