Tetsuo Time

Trillian's a multi-protocol instant messaging application. The name was taken from the story "The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy". It has the honor of being my first multi-protocol IM application from way back when Windows was my primary OS. At the time Miranda IM was just a bare bones ICQ client and nothing else could do what Trillian could do.

It was also a time when skinning was in full swing and Trillian's fully skin-able interface was a hit amongst people like me. Today skinning is pretty much a part of the operating systems so having an application sport its own skinning engine is not as desirable for someone like me as it used to be. Trillian on Windows Vista\7 only uses the native interface for its login screen. Trillian for Mac uses the native interface there too.. but it also uses it in other places.( continued inside... )

This is something I also haven't done for many weeks. Posted a screenshot..... well here is one:


No that's not my cat but I used to have one that looked like it. But she ran away and got lost.

This is something I also haven't done for many weeks. Posted a screenshot..... well here is one:


No that's not my cat but I used to have one that looked like it. But she ran away and got lost.

Yes, these three screenshots are from three different computers each with a different theme and a different wall *edit* Fixed the second screenshot:

Just a quick post...

The wall is one of the ones that comes with the latest RC of Windows 7:

[Take a look]

Just a quick post...

The wall is one of the ones that comes with the latest RC of Windows 7:

[Take a look]

I like this icon set. It's called buuf deuce by mattahan. It comes in a ~300MB torrent and has enough icons to customize EVERY application in the applications section of candybar. This makes it the most complete icon set I have ever used. It has tons more folder\etc. icons I haven't used yet.

As some of you may know Leopard has thrown a curve ball to Mac theming. Shapeshifter the premiere theming application in Tiger and below hasn't materialized for Leopard yet. So far we are stuck with manually replacing system and application resource files. For basic stuff this works but for more advanced stuff like dark themes it doesn't really work. It's better than nothing while we wait for the perfect theme app to appear right? There's one thing I take a major exception to however. This comment from macthemes:

"There's the newly-appearing apps for theming, but they'll still require you to confirm changes to sysfiles because that's how a proper secure OS works."

So far a few theme changing applications from hobbyists are coming out which pretty much just automate the replacing of resource files on the hard drive. This may work but one is deluding themselves if they think it's either proper or secure. A proper secure OS should not require for you to replace theme resources in system files. I'm sorry to say this to fellow Mac users but this is where Linux and even windows has it right at least for the time being.

I think a problem here is that previously on Tiger and below the proper way for theming the OS; Shapeshifter was encumbered by it not being free. I did pay for my copy and with all the hard work they did I believed they deserved a reward. Even more so on Leopard when a proper theming tool comes out. However some people always go for the free option even if it's less than ideal because to them free is always better. Plus some people got in their heads that APE was bad even though it didn't require for you to physically change files on the hard drive and you could disable it for one or all applications. Unsanity wrote it with proper functions and security in mind.. despite what some may say.

Anyway.. the point here is that the state of theming in Leopard right now isn't either proper or secure. It's a messy dirty, kludgy hack at best. Sure it's fun if you don't mind putting in the time and effort for the hacking. I do it.. because there's no other choice. But come on! Komisar at macthemes said he and others are working on a theming application that will do what Shapeshifter and Themepark did and more. I hope that means it's the proper theming application that we all should be waiting for.

As some of you may know Leopard has thrown a curve ball to Mac theming. Shapeshifter the premiere theming application in Tiger and below hasn't materialized for Leopard yet. So far we are stuck with manually replacing system and application resource files. For basic stuff this works but for more advanced stuff like dark themes it doesn't really work. It's better than nothing while we wait for the perfect theme app to appear right? There's one thing I take a major exception to however. This comment from macthemes:

"There's the newly-appearing apps for theming, but they'll still require you to confirm changes to sysfiles because that's how a proper secure OS works."

So far a few theme changing applications from hobbyists are coming out which pretty much just automate the replacing of resource files on the hard drive. This may work but one is deluding themselves if they think it's either proper or secure. A proper secure OS should not require for you to replace theme resources in system files. I'm sorry to say this to fellow Mac users but this is where Linux and even windows has it right at least for the time being.

I think a problem here is that previously on Tiger and below the proper way for theming the OS; Shapeshifter was encumbered by it not being free. I did pay for my copy and with all the hard work they did I believed they deserved a reward. Even more so on Leopard when a proper theming tool comes out. However some people always go for the free option even if it's less than ideal because to them free is always better. Plus some people got in their heads that APE was bad even though it didn't require for you to physically change files on the hard drive and you could disable it for one or all applications. Unsanity wrote it with proper functions and security in mind.. despite what some may say.

Anyway.. the point here is that the state of theming in Leopard right now isn't either proper or secure. It's a messy dirty, kludgy hack at best. Sure it's fun if you don't mind putting in the time and effort for the hacking. I do it.. because there's no other choice. But come on! Komisar at macthemes said he and others are working on a theming application that will do what Shapeshifter and Themepark did and more. I hope that means it's the proper theming application that we all should be waiting for.

Full because I just had a sub sammitch.

Anyway.. I realize that I haven't updated my livejournal in a while... nor have I checked my friends list that much lately. I just haven't felt up to it lately... I kind of wanted to update today though and I have a few things which I have realized I probably should make LJ entries of... such as:

( Continued Inside... )