Shadow Lord

Reply to Is art worthless on the Internet? in WinCustomize News WinCustomize Forums

All we have been saying is that not everything will be free, and that skinners who make exceptional content and want to sell it should be able to. I quote the original post: "So far, Stardock Design has released 6 free .Dreams and 1 premium .Dream. On top of that, Stardock has released DeskScapes as freeware and DreamMaker as freeware. And of course, we host the Dreams here on WiniCustomize which, on their own, used over 2 TERRABYTES of bandwi

Reply to Is art worthless on the Internet? in WinCustomize News WinCustomize Forums

Artists: They take a profit as well as costs from each sale. Consumer: By providing the good/better content as premium (it might not be much right now, but eventually all the good skinners will become masters so the only thing available for free will be the repetetive junk which fills most of the DBs) they devalue the consumers purchase. What is the point of buying WB/IP/or anything else if then to take advanatage of it you have to pay for the skins? If I buy WB I expect to be able to get p

Reply to Is art worthless on the Internet? in WinCustomize News WinCustomize Forums

Whoever is doing that logo and all the extra work is a fool and in desperate need of work. Brand identity isn't just something you get for a few bucks. I've been in graphic design for 6 years working at a printing house and now an advertising agency, so I've seen the amount of time that goes into creating stuff like that. If you think $500 is a fair value, I think you're not in touch with reality. That's $20 an hour for 25 hours of work. I'll be surprised if you can ge

Reply to Is art worthless on the Internet? in WinCustomize News WinCustomize Forums

People check profile think I've been around for only 8 months.. Well you know what happens when you ASSUME. The problem is not that an entity decided to charge $5 for their work (look through my posts I've never said artist should not be compensated. I have said some have an over blown sense of selfworth). If the market bears it fine. [size="7"]The problem is that SD thinks they are doing the CONSUMER a favor by putting up this site. [/s]ze] Then they bitch moan about TB of b

Reply to Is art worthless on the Internet? in WinCustomize News WinCustomize Forums

My rate is $150, my cheapest CAD technician's rate is $60 You obviously don't know shit about business or finance so give it up. $150 for doing what? You are trying to compare apples to oranges. I also know people whose billing rate is $350/hr. We call them our malpractice lawyers and they are worth every penny. My assertion was on 25/hr for someone sitting at home skinning in his spare time. Of course the point flew completly over your head so the discu

Reply to Is art worthless on the Internet? in WinCustomize News WinCustomize Forums

[quote]It's always entertaining how people pick and choose snippets of a discussion/argument to home in on....[I'm doing it now, too][/quote] I did it because: 1. The comment bothered me 2. I did not think it strengthened your original post, in fact it weakend it plus I did reply to the rest of things you said as well... [quote]So then, why is it the sanitation engineer...who spends his days up to his armpits in effluent [yours and mine] gets four fifths o

Reply to Is art worthless on the Internet? in WinCustomize News WinCustomize Forums

Stop comparing physicians to graphic artists I thought graphic artists wanted to be compared to proffessionals... Guess I was wrong. Analogies are for people that can't grasp the original concept and have to resort to something they know and can manipulate to meet their needs. Incidentally it was your linked/copied/pasted post that drew the analogy.. So exactly what are you saying about yourself?<

Reply to Is art worthless on the Internet? in WinCustomize News WinCustomize Forums

s for what I am replying to....well....it will be the nature of the actual TOPIC of this thread....'is artwork worthless on the net?' Spoken like true SD fan. Squash any criticism of the company, don't acknowledge it, heck don't even entertain the idea that the company can be criticized... As for waht nVidia, nintendo, and MS are willing to pay: I hardly think they are willing to hire a no name guy off of WC who is sellign a skin for $5.00.

Reply to Is art worthless on the Internet? in WinCustomize News WinCustomize Forums

Would you offer a neurosurgeon the “opportunity” to add your name to his resume as payment for removing that pesky tumor? (Maybe you could offer him “a few bucks” for “materials”. What a deal!) As a physician I have to say that this is absolutely true. On any given day I do at least one case for which I will not get paid for. These cases at our hospital are officially classified as "cash accounts" for people without any form of insurance. The reality, an

Reply to Is art worthless on the Internet? in WinCustomize News WinCustomize Forums

this is NOT paying for someone to empty kerbside rubbish bins...it's paying for creative/artistic content as well as physical labour] This also really bothered me. I don't know where you grew up but where I grew up I was in the middle of the income pool (i.e I had friends who where much wealthier then we were and friends who were also much poorer). Just becasue someone does manual labor does not make their work less valued. It is probably work you could

Reply to Is art worthless on the Internet? in WinCustomize News WinCustomize Forums

Actually $25/hr is fairly conservative and generous. Personally I'd divide each specific component of the process such as Project Mgm't, Graphic Design, Programming, R&D,Marketing, etc. Just because someone is not working or is doing this in their spare time doesn't make it any less of a business than a full-time enterprise. A business is still a business and costs are still costs. So, don't ask someone to bend over and grab their ankles because you don't want t

Reply to Is art worthless on the Internet? in WinCustomize News WinCustomize Forums

[quote]A person who displaces his normal productive income time [job] by creating quality content within the skinning community/field is thoroughly entitled to a comparative hourly value. 100 hours at $25 per....sounds quite viable.....$2500 would make a sensible STARTING value to such endeavour. Factor in artistic value through uniqueness/originality [this is NOT paying for someone to empty kerbside rubbish bins...it's paying for creative/artistic content as well as physical labour]..

Reply to Is art worthless on the Internet? in WinCustomize News WinCustomize Forums

I am going to make a large post answering a number of the points others have brought up. Apologies for not using direct quote/reply to your posts. Most content on WC is free. It will stay free. However, life is not free, and sometimes in life you actually have to give something back to the people who give you stuff. Like, money. The point isn't whether life is free or not. The point is that there is no value in buying WindowBlinds if I have to p

Reply to Is art worthless on the Internet? in WinCustomize News WinCustomize Forums

Ahhh hello???? What are you guys smoking at Stardock with your scenario one and two crap???? IF you are goign to do that sort of BS then please follow through. I totally agree w/ most of what you have said in scenario one but you did not go to its conclusion. So after stardock starts charging all sorts of money for .dream files, dreammaker pro, dreamscene extra special deluxe pro (now with more colors...), etc. less and less people will come by to the site and interest will ultimately die in .dr

Reply to Norway bans iTunes store, cuts nose, spites face in WinCustomize News WinCustomize Forums

Perhaps a European company should start up their own service and compete with Apple. What exactly is the barrier to entry to selling digital music over the Internet? I believe a russian company did... But seems like a lot of american companies are trying to shut them down... Therussians had the gads to offer freedom of choice to their users... I

Reply to Norway bans iTunes store, cuts nose, spites face in WinCustomize News WinCustomize Forums

Well I just have to say: Way to go Norway!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now if we only could get the sniveling cowards in congress to stand up for the populace (read customer's rights) by getting tough on BS DRM, authentication, HDCP etc. etc. then maybe we wouldn't need such drastic measures by other countries... I am all for content producers protecting their property/IP but when it begins to hamper my ability to enjo

Reply to LogonStudio Vista Arrives! in WinCustomize News WinCustomize Forums

So is BootVista in the works?

Reply to Object Desktop 2007 nears in WinCustomize News WinCustomize Forums

There's always IconPackager. And IconDeveloper. And SkinStudio. And IconX and ObjectBar and let's not forget DesktopX... Yeah, but there is nothing unique in those.... IP and ID like utilities are for the mosat part a dime a dozen.. SS would be nice if I had some talent to design anything for myself..

Reply to Object Desktop 2007 nears in WinCustomize News WinCustomize Forums

We always support past OSes for a very long time. Heck, we supported Win98 longer than MS did I believe. We still support Windows 2000 and that's over 6 years old. We'll be supporting XP for some years to come. But we are also working on Object Desktop "stuff" that makes use of Windows Vista. Oh, I

Reply to Object Desktop 2007 nears in WinCustomize News WinCustomize Forums

My new state-of-the-art pc will not run any version of Bootskin Yeah, but that is not a measure of if something works... Probably also worth mentioning tha

Reply to Object Desktop 2007 nears in WinCustomize News WinCustomize Forums

We won't list all what we're doing with Windows Vista until it's much closer to release for obvious reasons. Fair enough... I guess I won't be spending my money until its much closer to release either for obvious reasons... I mean any new costumer (not an old costumer who is renewing a subscript

Reply to Object Desktop 2007 nears in WinCustomize News WinCustomize Forums

I guess Stardock has no interest in new costumers...

Reply to Object Desktop 2007 nears in WinCustomize News WinCustomize Forums

So how about Ms. Cordelia? Exactly what will OD do for Vista? Also will OD 07 w/ all the new updated apps fix/have these features: 1. Console Skinning by WB 2. Bootskin that actually works (full color skins etc...) 3. Better intergeration through out? (i.e. SkinStudio allows you to desing skins for all OD products (WB, BootSkins, Winlogon, etc...) 4. SoundPackager makes an appearance... If it does you got

Reply to Object Desktop 2007 nears in WinCustomize News WinCustomize Forums

To echo a previous question that went totally unanswered: "looking at some of the new features and reading about the ones that will be included with the final release…..I’m not sure that I will need to run OD with the new Windows. Can you tell us a little more about how the 07 OD will benefit those of us that upgrade to one of the Vistas’" Exactly what will OD do for Vista? Also will OD 07 w/ all the new updated apps fix/have th

Reply to DesktopX: External scripts in DesktopX Tutorials WinCustomize Forums

Well it showed up on my reload of the page originally, it was right on topic, and I don't know saying stardock does not include easily accessible change logs, sys req, and the sort sound to you liek strong language? I have never been able to go to the stardock web page and get info on their products that clearly states this is the latest version, this is what is fixed, this is the sys req, etc... The harshest thing I said was that windowblinds and IP w