I’ve got a dual-screen setup (the screen of my MSI Wind U100 and an old Compaq 7550). To put on a dual screen wallpaper, I set the MSI’s screen to 1024x768 (the Compaq’s default setting), choose my wallpaper, set it to tile, hit ok, then set the MSI back to 1024x600 (The MSI’s best setting).
Anyways, here is where I get a good amount of wallpapers from, as well as searching Google Images (here and here) and wandering around Digital Blasphemy. Have fun!
So far I’ve used FloorPlanner and Project Dragonfly.
Floorplanner is prone to freezing, so you have to save your project every five changes on a bad day, but everything can be changed, size-wise. Sometimes walls decide to move a bit (i.e. you’ll log on and one or two of your walls are now slanted), but you just have to shove them back into place. Also, when you duplicate a floor, there’s two of everything in it. The free version gives you three houses with an infinite number of floors each (I have something like four houses set up, set up as floors in other houses).
Project Dragonfly looks much nicer and is easier to use, but:
Furniture automatically rotates so it’s against a wall, but that makes your life difficult when putting that furniture in a corner.
You can’t resize everything (that option may be coming later, Project Dragonfly is fairly new). I wanted to put folding doors on my closet, but the only folding doors they had were the length of my entire wall. There’s one resizable bed style, two shelving units… you get the point. Very few sets of furniture can be resized to fit. Also, the stuff that is resizable can’t be resized to anything: I was trying to make by bed 3’ by 6’, but It wouldn’t go any smaller that 3’3” by 6’6”
You can only make one floor.
I’m going to stick with Floorplanner; despite its occasional bugs it can do so much more.
Hey, sorry I haven’t posted for a while. I just haven’t had anything spectacular to post about. Anyways:
Those guys at the edges of stages who pull on ropes to open and close the curtains: It’s harder than it looks. I “got” to be curtain boy for a concert at my school – those ropes are stiff! Once the curtains get about a quarter of the way down the stage, they refuse to move hardly at all and you really have to pull – which means your hands slide a little so by the end, you’ve got lines up and down your hands. But that’s not what I’m *really* posting about, I just wanted to throw that out there.
The Art of Manliness
This site (found here) gives advice on how to be gentleman in today’s culture. They also have stuff like advice on jobs, fishing advice, and, among their odder posts, why to always carry a handkerchief. Anyways, go check it out!
I’ve tried out a whole bunch of Instant Messengers – meebo, Windows Live, Pidgin… here, from my opinion, is their pros and cons.
Windows Live Messenger
Pros
- Looks nice
- Connects to other messengers
- Very very very few bugs or freezes
- Nicely set up contact list
- Easy to change picture or status
- Backgrounds
- Nice integrated games and webcam chat
Cons
- Only works on Windows
- Not so easy to add friends
- The status line can’t display hyperlinks
Yahoo! Messenger
Pros
- Nice friend adder
- can be accessed from the web at http://webmessenger.yahoo.com
Cons
- Purple color scheme (I don’t particularly like light purple, so It’s a con for me)
- Webcam is pop-up
- Only the one look
Meebo Web Messenger
Pros
- Connects to pretty much everything (for a full list, look at my older post about it)
- No new windows for your poor overcrowded Start Menu bar
Cons
- Opens the Meebo Blog in a chat tab when you open it
- has a pop-up thing at the bottom that opens if you mouse over it… which is, as it turn out, easy to inadvertently do
- Bulky webcam chat
Pidgin
Pros
- Linux!
- Opens all your conversations in one tabbed window
- Works on Linux, Unix, Windows, Mac OS X, and Ubuntu
Cons
- No webcam capability
So there you have it. Enjoy your IM service.
BTW, I tend to use Windows Live Messenger and Meebo, depending on whether I open Firefox first or Windows Live Messenger first. I have all four, though.
For downloads:
Yahoo! Messenger
Windows Live Messenger
Meebo (this links to the meebo website)
Pidgin
Also, I’m sorry I didn’t post anything for a while. Hopefully two in one day will make up for it.
I’ve got RocketDock (previously reviewed), and it comes with a Recycle Bin icon. So I didn’t need the on my desktop anymore, but it won’t let me get rid of it – so I figured out how to hide it.
1. Right click on the desktop and choose properties
2. Go to the ‘Desktop’ tab
3. Click the button that says ‘Customize Desktop’
4. Click on ‘Recycle Bin (full)
5. Click on ‘Change Icon’
6. Pick one that’s clear, or blank
7. Click OK to close the Change Icon dialog box
8. Repeat steps 4-7 on ‘Recycle Bin (empty)’
9. Click OK to close the Customize Desktop dialog box
10. Click OK to close the Display Properties dialog box
11. Click and hold just above the words ‘Recycle Bin’ that remain on your desktop. Drag down until the words are under the Start Menu bar.
12. Enjoy your Recycle Bin free desktop!
For instructions with screenshots to help guide you along, check out my Instructable here.
