All posts in Software I use

Interface themes

By On Wed, Oct 25th, 2006 In Software I use With Comments Off Permanent Link to Interface themesPermalink

I think I mentioned several times that I’m a designer turned developer. And as such, my preference in both web and interface design have always been:

  • simplicity
  • subtle
  • grey(ish)
  • smooth

Ever since WindowsXP appeared, the theming community blossomed. There were apps that could turn even Windows95 into something completely different, but it really took off with WinXP. A simple hack on uxtheme.dll was all that was needed – you could then play for days trying out endless themes and visual styles found on sites like devianArt, NeoWin, WinCustomize, GetSkinned and many others.

In this huge forest, really worthwhile trees were a rare find. In my time, I tried probably 50 or so various themes. I did not like the default Luna theme – too flashy, too big (buttons and bars), too colourful…too many distractions. 95% of the themes seems created for high-school kids obsessed with FPS-like interfaces. This is dominant trend which is not likely to get beaten soon with the only contender being even worse – endless replicas of MacOSX interface.

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“Get more XX” should open in tab

By On Mon, Jan 16th, 2006 In Software I use With 3 Comments Permanent Link to “Get more XX” should open in tabPermalink

One of most advertized Firefox features is tabbed browsing. Why then FF opens this annoying new window when you click on Get More Extensions in the Extensions panel, Get More Themes in Themes panel etc?

It should open in current tab (if no URL is opened in it) or new tab (if current tab has some URL loaded, apart from about:blank).

Service Pack saga

By On Tue, Dec 27th, 2005 In Software I use With Comments Off Permanent Link to Service Pack sagaPermalink

I tried last night to install Service Pack 1 for Windows Server 2003 on my home computer. I did the same thing yesterday in the office – which worked ok – and followed the same procedure at home. Booted into Safe mode and started the install, as upgrade, as I used installation disk of Win2k3 with SP1 already applied.

It first halted while installing devices. It asked to de-install nVidia’s Ethernet drivers (?!), then asked me to confirm installation of ATI Catalyst drivers for primary screen and…stopped. No response for more than 10 minutes. Puzzled, I rebooted the comp and setup restarted, by doing installing devices again. Again it came just after primary display installation and stopped. I left it be – as it has not hanged, just nothing was happening – and after a very long time (could be 20mins, have no idea) it asked me to confirm installation of secondary display (my graphic card has TV output).

Note 1: 20+ fraking minutes?! Why in the hell waits so long to detect something? Why it does not wait 1 minute? If the damn device – any device – does not respond, it should ask me would I like to wait more or ignore it and continue.

After all this has finished, it went to restart…then restarted again…then restarted again…no end.

Note 2: service pack – the very thing that should make Windows work better – fucked itself up! I could not even enter Safe mode. At the moment when BIOS hardware detection finished and when it should start loading Windows, it restarts.

The very same thing happened few months ago when I tried to install SP1 on the office computer, using downloadable SP1 .exe file from MS site. Exactly the same thing and I had to do a repair of entire Windows installation. That’s why I tried with the upgrade thing – which worked in the office. But not at home.

So, what to do now? The only thing I could do is to start repair at home too. However, since I have disks on SATA RAID0 and Windows install do not have drivers for it – I needed to supply those drivers during installation.

Note 3: in the time of flash disks and DVDs, the only medium that Windows install accepts as the source for the drivers is floppy drive. Floppy?! I do not own floppy drive for over one year or something. Bloody idiots – why can’t you accept CD, DVD, USB flash – something not belonging to last century?

So, now I have Windows installation which fucked itself up and gives me no option to repair it because installation procedure do not see any disks in my system. Splendid. This kind of fuckups is the reason why I dislike Windows (and I’m far from alone). Modern operating system should accept modern input devices, not some ancient ones, only because MS thinks it’s not worth the time to add the support for them.

I will borrow the damn floppy from the office and connect it to repair this piece of crap, but this whole unfortunate thing shows how important little details are.

p.s. If you wonder why I even bothered to install it after the first failed attempt…Visual Studio.NET 2005 (or any derivative) will not install on Server2003 unless you have SP1 applied.

Automatic tab focus — no more

By On Mon, Dec 5th, 2005 In Software I use With Comments Off Permanent Link to Automatic tab focus — no morePermalink

Today I experienced the revelation. Firefox is my browser and FeedDemon is my feed reader. Each time I clicked on the links in FD, they would open in Firefox and the newly opened tab would take focus. Switching back and forth was a pain.

I say was, because it no longer happens, since I installed Firefox 1.5. I think there was an option in 1.0.x that promised something like that, that I tried it and it didn’t work. Whatever the reason, now it works.

Happy times.

Just die already!

By On Thu, Aug 4th, 2005 In Software I use With Comments Off Permanent Link to Just die already!Permalink

I’m spending this afternoon very productively. I wanted to install Service Pack 1 on my Windows Server 2003. Installation went OK, but when it restarted, it came into graphics mode when it should show first dialog window – and the whole computer restarted.
I tried again, same happened.

I tried Safe Mode, same result. It’s broken Safe Mode, the mode that should be working no matter what! Piece of shit simply stops there. Since I can’t get it to start, there is no way to deinstall.

Up until this, I thought that with 2003 Microsoft finally made an OS that works properly. I never had any instability with it. And then I install SP1, something that’s supposed to increase the stability and security and it renders the entire OS useless.

I swear, if it wasn’t for the Total Commander and TopStylePro, I would this instant sell all this junk and buy myself a Mac.

After numerous tries to repair it, I gave up. I used ERD Commander 2005 to uninstall SP1, but it still didn’t do the trick, as ERD only transfers the files back, registry stays screwed. With this, computer started, I was able to login, but that was it. It hangs in there, indefinitelly.

Thus I did the only thing possible – insert installation DVD, repair from setup console. This, to my big surprise, did the entire setup again, but keeping everythiong I had installed in place. I have never seen this – it usually overwrites with new install or just replaces corrupted files, if it detects them as such (which would not help me in this case). Now, that is an improvement.

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