...or is it? I find it fascinating. I'm curious what everyone thinks the effects (versus the intent) of the law will be on independent content creation on the internet (versus content consumption). 

In My Account > My Downloads on the main Stardock site, the product key for my DesktopX is incorrect. The last block of numbers is completely different from the one I saved from original purchase (which is correct and works.)

Anyone else have this issue?

Under the hood, I mean. I know how to use it, but how exactly does it work? What's it doing in the system? And what happens when you try to read a file that doesn't exist?

IE9 here. In the DX themes gallery there are 2 master skins. Here is what the page looks like loaded without compaitibility mode:

Here is what it looks like, when I mouse over the skin name of either master skin:

The problem goes away with compatibility mode. But that introduces other problems:

And funky font:

…weather. DesktopX weather. The end of DesktopX is a topic for another day.

So, it seems the current weather feed—you know, the one which replaced the The Weather Channel feed because TWC moved to a license-based system—will be deprecated. Weather Underground is also moving to a license-and-fee-based system. It will affect some of the more recent weather widgets and gadgets in the DesktopX galleries. When will the current feed no longer be available? Dunno. Perhaps, it will coincide with the end of the world this December.

For now, it’s still functioning, but there are already features that are no longer supported, such as location search & search results (when you don’t know the name or code for the location, or when there are multiple locations with the same name.)

Are there any other weather provider alternatives? Looking into it (likely for the last time.)

More importantly, is there a point to finding another weather provider? Clearly, the market has spoken. Weather providers have decided the free service business model is unsustainable, considering having to keep up with the sheer volume of traffic. Find another service, and once use of their feed spikes, they, too, will adpot a fee-and-license-based system to manage the onslaught.

So, unless you’re a company that can afford and manage a license, like Stardock vis a vis AccuWeather, the days of free-range, customized desktop weather are coming to a close. And, really, mobile computing is putting most desktop applications out to pasture, anyways.  

This has been your heads-up. [e digicons]:sun:[/e]   (<--not really how I looked when I found out.)

In the galleries: LINK

The gadget saves private messages from Wincustomize to your documents folder. That's it.

This has been sitting around for almost a year, and I'm just starting to get ideas for a DX theme.

So, we'll see where it goes...if it does, lol.

DOWNLOAD WUNDERGROUND WEATHER TEMPLATE

So what’s new?

This template uses wunderground.com exclusively for current and forecast weather. NOAA is out. This means many more locations to choose from and no more long (annoying) location names.

Specifically, wunderground adds:

-Radar
-Webcams
-Local Personal Weather Stations
-Airport locations
-Weather Alerts
- Restores Day & Night time icons

What’s changed under the hood?

An external script is still in use for all the data retrieval and parsing functions, BUT all functions relating to presentation (that’s the stuff you’d want to modify) are back in the main object’s script, making it less of a pain for everyone to access.

How do I start using it?

Same as before only less complicated: decide what objects to keep, delete everything else except for the main background (“wu_script”) object. Change graphics and layout as desired.

To change the weather icons, replace all the .PNG files included in “wu_script” Properties > Summary > Custom Files with images of your own using the exact file names you see there.

Adding Information

Here I’ll briefly show how to add and duplicate information.

Supposing you want another location name display separate from the main window.

1. Clone the location name object (don’t clone entire group.)
2. Open the “wu_script” script
3. Add 2 new lines of code

In the "wu_script" object's script, look for the  CURRENT WEATHER  section under DISPLAY WEATHER. Below that you’ll see a General Current Weather section and a Personal Weather Station Current Weather section. Duplicate the Location text code and change the object name in both sections. See below:

You can also use any of the extra information not already on display. You’ll see a list of these variables at the top of the script. For instance, ‘localTime’.

1. Create a new text object, “wu_timestamp”
2. Open the “wu_script” script
3. Add 2 new lines of code

Again, under both General Current Weather and Personal Weather Station Current Weather add the following line of code:

DesktopX.Object(“wu_timestamp”).text = localTime

For more ideas on how to modify the template check out this stripped down widget version of the wunderground weather template.

Backwards Compatibility

In one step, you can upgrade your old Summer Weather 2 weather widgets to run exclusively on wunderground.

• Go to the main DesktopX folder (Programs > Stardock > DesktopX), delete the existing NOAAWUexternalscript.txt file, and replace with the NOAAWUexternalscript.txt file included in the zip. Restart widgets.

In addition, if you’re an author upgrading a widget for reupload:

• Delete all files in “Weather_Back” Properties > Summary > Custom Files, and add the “NOAAWUexternalscript.txt” file in the zip (when prompted, click Yes to replace.)
• Update info image to reflect weather provider exclusivity

This upgrade does not support:

• Extra objects included in the Summer Weather 2 template (duplicate objects, etc.) not found in the Wunderground Weather template.
• Extra features provided by Wunderground that are not included in Summer Weather 2 template (radar, webcams, nighttime icons, etc.)

Questions, comments, visit http://sviz.wincustomize.com

DOWNLOAD WUNDERGROUND WEATHER TEMPLATE

Howdy all. [e digicons]:)[/e]

I'm working on a suite of DesktopX objects designed to make using DX Builder mode a little easier for users. I call it Xen. I'm looking for dedicated beta-testers to let me know what's broken, what could be improved, and what other features could be added.

The first component that's ready for testing is the Xen Group Control.

It is designed to make it easier to change the properties of a group of objects--be they an actual group, or just all text objects.

Features:

-Control All objects, children of an object, all text objects, or a group of objects.
-Control: font properties, hue, brightness, contrast, opacity, visibility, or move several objects at once.
-Includes a help document with instructions

With early feedback I've also added the ability to change text border.

To Use:

Just import the object into your DX Builder project, or load your project then run Xen Group Control. See the help document for details.

Download the Xen Group Control beta 2 - HERE

See it in action - HERE

And now we come to the very last edition of I Love DesktopX. I have to thank all of you who’ve read, commented, and featured this series of articles, because I just wouldn’t keep doing it without you guys support.

This being the biggest month for the holidays, below I’ve decided to feature seasonal skins from the past month. But if you’re not feeling the Christmas cheer yet, we’ve also got 3 non-seasonal skins for you to deck the halls with.

Santa Clock by Doubird

I had Doubird’s Anticko clock up all last month, and it looks like I’ve found my new clock of choice for December. It’s a simply designed clock with a lovely Christmas scene that will bring holiday cheer to your desktop. Makes me want to listen to old nostalgic Christmas songs.

Happy Effin' HO HO by happycamper88 

I can totally see anyone having a dismal holiday season getting a kick out this. It’s a bit icky for my desktop, but I find it hilarious nonetheless.

Merry Christmas? Bah effin’ humbug!

WC Community Holiday Suite '09 - Countdown Weather  by Island Dog 

This countdown gadget is made to match the 2009 Wincustomize Community Holiday Suite of skins. Keep track of how many days before Santa arrives, how many days before you find out what presents everyone got you, or how many days you have left to finish your Christmas shopping. Either way, this is a handy gadget to have, and it takes up very little space on your desktop.

Check out the matching DX desktop, weather, and the full community suite here: LINK

Clear View by Richard Mohler 

This is an updated version of the popular Clear View widget. It’s extremely minimal in design, and I love that it takes up so little space. For such a small package you get all your basic tools including weather, clock, media, and system info.

As you might expect with a clear widget, it goes well with pretty much everything.

Hanukkah and Friends DX by Redneckdude

I love this beautiful theme. Nice balance of colors, minimalistic design, easy on the eyes and great on the desktop.

You can get the matching weather widget here: LINK

Find the whole suite here: LINK

R 001  by BoXXi 

It’s not all that often you find a killer theme in purple, but if anyone can pull it off it’s definitely Master BoXXi. The original theme was by another author, but I’m glad BoXXi recreated it for DX. Simply put, this theme is the awesome sauce. It’s packed full of user and system shortcuts, system info, and a wallpaper changer, all in one striking layout.

Resolution dependant: 1680 x 1050

Digital Clock Using Images

Sometimes fancy font just doesn’t cut it, especially when you want to make your clock 3D. Making a digital clock with images isn’t as complicated as you might think. We just need about dozen images and a small script.

First you’ll create your images, the digits 0 through 9. You will also need a colon, AM, and PM image. Here are some of the ones I used.

The first object we’ll create in DesktopX is the first digit—the ‘1’ in 12:00.

Create a new object. Then add 4 states: “none”, 0, 1, 2. (Why 0 or 2? Because you might want to do a 24 hour clock, in which case you’ll need them for 0600 hours or 2100 hours.)

Apply your images to each state. For the “none” state, leave the image field blank. You can delete the Mouse Away or Default state if you like. 

Create another object for the second digit. Add the states: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. Apply your images to each state.

To save time and energy, clone digit 2 twice for the third and fourth digits. Then, create another object for the am/pm sign. Add the states: “am” and “pm” and apply your images.

Lastly, create your colon object and Group all.

On to the script. 

 [code="vbscript"]

Dim timefrmt : timefrmt = 3

'Called when the script is executed
Sub Object_OnScriptEnter
 Object.SetTimer 1,1000
End Sub

 [/code]  

 [code="vbscript"] 

Sub Object_OnTimer1
 t = FormatDateTime(Now(), timefrmt) 'get the time
 tparts = split(t,":") 'parse the time
 
 If timefrmt = 3 Then
  phr = tparts(0) 'parse hours
  pmin = tparts(1) 'parse minutes
  psec = tparts(2) 'parse seconds
  psecparts = split(psec, " ")
  ampm = LCase(psecparts(1)) 'parse am/pm from the seconds
 
  '>>>>  Set States
  If Len(phr) = 2 Then DesktopX.Object("clock_digit1").state = Left(phr,1) Else DesktopX.Object("clock_digit1").state = "none"
  If Len(phr) = 2 Then DesktopX.Object("clock_digit2").state = Right(phr,1) Else DesktopX.Object("clock_digit2").state = phr
  DesktopX.Object("clock_digit3").state = Left(pmin,1)
  DesktopX.Object("clock_digit4").state = Right(pmin,1)
  DesktopX.Object("clock_ampm").state = ampm '<<<<
 
 ElseIf timefrmt = 4 Then
  phr = tparts(0) 'parse hours
  pmin = tparts(1) 'parse minutes
  If phr => 12 Then ampm = "pm" Else ampm = "am"
 
  '>>>>  Set States
  DesktopX.Object("clock_digit1").state = Left(phr,1)
  DesktopX.Object("clock_digit2").state = Right(phr,1)
  DesktopX.Object("clock_digit3").state = Left(pmin,1)
  DesktopX.Object("clock_digit4").state = Right(pmin,1)
  DesktopX.Object("clock_ampm").comments = ampm '<<<<
 End If

 alignText
End Sub

 [/code] 

[code="vbscript"]

Function alignText
 textalign = "center"
 
 If textalign = "center" Then
 
  DesktopX.Object("clock_digit3").left = DesktopX.Object("clock_colon").right
  DesktopX.Object("clock_digit4").left = DesktopX.Object("clock_digit3").right
  DesktopX.Object("clock_digit2").right = DesktopX.Object("clock_colon").left
  DesktopX.Object("clock_digit1").right = DesktopX.Object("clock_digit2").left
 
 ElseIf textalign = "left" Then
 
  DesktopX.Object("clock_digit2").left = DesktopX.Object("clock_digit1").right
  DesktopX.Object("clock_colon").left = DesktopX.Object("clock_digit2").right
  DesktopX.Object("clock_digit3").left = DesktopX.Object("clock_colon").right
  DesktopX.Object("clock_digit4").left = DesktopX.Object("clock_digit3").right
 
 ElseIf textalign = "right" Then
 
  DesktopX.Object("clock_digit3").right = DesktopX.Object("clock_digit4").left 
  DesktopX.Object("clock_colon").right = DesktopX.Object("clock_digit3").left 
  DesktopX.Object("clock_digit2").right = DesktopX.Object("clock_colon").left
  DesktopX.Object("clock_digit1").right = DesktopX.Object("clock_digit2").Left
 
 End If
End Function

[/code] 

The script consists of three simple functions. The first thing is to get it to show the correct time. As always, we use FormatDateTime to get the current system time. To show 24 hour, change the timefrmt value at the top to 4. To show 12 hour, change the timefrmt value to 3.

On the 1-second timer, we splice up the time and set each corresponding object’s state to the correct digit.

Unlike with a text clock, we have to line up the objects manually. So we create an alignText function. I’ll spare you the details, but you can align left, right, or center by changing the textalign value. Obviously, you would need to make adjustments to positioning depending on the images you use.

That's all there is to it. The example dxpack is here: LINK

Thanks for reading and happy DXing!