Orange Pylon

I like this site so much, I actually started listening to ReMixes again.

Edit: Good work Atmuh, but here's a more detailed guide. First of all, I use XPize (link), which does three things: it cracks the uxtheme.dll (which will allow you to use custom themes... more on that later), it changes your boot and logon screens (along with some other stuff), and it gives you a clone of the Windows Media Center edition theme, which looks nice but it's not really necessary. While you're installing it, just make sure you uncheck "TaskSwitch XP" in the Extras section ---it's useless. Okay, next you need a nice wallpaper. DeviantArt's wallpaper section (link) has some great stuff, if you dig for it. Make sure you click the "categories" button and select the type of wallpaper you want. If you like the one I'm using, you can get it (here). Okay, so now you have some nice boot and logon screens, and a new wallpaper, but an ugly old taskbar and windows. DeviantArt has themes too, which you can get (here). The download link for the theme is always just to the left of the picture (which is a preview of how the theme will look). Find one you like, download it, and extract it to C:\Windows\Resources\Themes. Now, right-click on your desktop and click "properties". Click on the Appearance tab, open up the Windows and Buttons list, and see if your theme is there. If it is, select it and whatever color scheme or font you wish. If it ISN'T there, and you only see Windows Classic and Windows XP style (maybe the Royale theme that XPize installs), open My Computer and browse to C:\Windows\Resources\Themes, look at the folder or files of the theme you downloaded and look for a readme file. That should tell you how to get it working right. BTW, here's the theme I'm currently using (link). There, that should get you a nice pimped-out desktop and interface. If you have any questions or problems, post here or shoot me a PM and I'll help you out.

Neat, is this a new desktop thread? Here's my latest desktop, after switching back to XP Media Center Edition: I still get all my themes and wallpapers from DeviantArt, for the most part.

I don't think that prevents games from being art. However, it can and often does prevent them from being GOOD art. I'm pretty sure that, by the definition I've given (which nobody's challenged yet, unfortunately), you can make something that aspires to be about more than a simple diversion, yet still panders to the lowest common denominator. But then we would have to debate whether or not crappy should be considered art at all, then we'll have to debate about what makes something crappy and the objectivity or subjectivity of it, and I'm far too lazy to go on about those subjects. Oy, what have I gotten myself into?

You didn't answer my question. Edit: Also, that last part is completely ridiculous, because without science you wouldn't have any decent medium with which to express art. This also means that art would have to be devoid of all logic or intellectualism, which is total nonsense.

What does cost have to do with the artistic merit of anything?

Is there any good reason why video games can't be art, at least by the definition I gave above?

I don't think the classification of "art" has anything at all to do with money. Simplest way I can explain my understanding of art is that it's when a creative work of some sort succeeds at being more than a simple, throwaway entertaining diversion. This could mean a lot of things, since art can be intended to stir emotions, make a philosophical statement, project how things are, were, will be, could be, could have been, etc (and I know I'm omitting quite a few things here).

It's a fairly common mentality. It's like you can't even respect a person anymore unless they're starving.

Why the holy shit would they bother? Does anyone even give a fuck about VGMix anymore?

He did good by writing down some of the serial numbers. That's always a good thing to do when you have lots of expensive electronics.

OHHH okay. For some reason I didn't think Fraps could do it. Thanks!

In other words, I have a really awesome video wallpaper that I want to show off in those Post Your Desktop threads, but posting the video clip itself would pretty much defeat the purpose. So, how can I record a short clip of what's going on with my desktop, preferably with a full framerate?

Well, now I've run into my first possibly DRM related problem in Vista. This time with the new Media Center. I can't watch more than five seconds' worth of AMC before it gives me a Restricted Content message. I don't know if I'm actually blocked from watching the channel or if it's just a glitch, but I'll try to get to the bottom of it. I'll ask Microsoft, my cable company, and AMC itself.

As far as I can tell, the two differences are 1: the sidebar and 2: there's less widgets. And I'm not even sure about the sidebar. I'm not really a fan of how the bar works, though. I'd like to be able to move my mouse to the side of the screen and have the bar fade in with all my desired widgets, instead of having to click into it or having it always on top.

There's a "copy protect" checkbox in Windows Media Player's ripping options, which I have cleared. I don't see any other Windows-related ways to rip a CD available. Nevertheless, I'm ripping one of the Cowboy Bebop soundtracks I have, and I'll test it out later.

I have Rafael Kubelik's Mahler symphony cycle in M4A, and they all seem to work just fine in iTunes, but not Winamp or WMP. The 64-bit edition of Vista does apparently have some compatibility problems, but I don't see how that would affect this. Did you buy the songs from iTunes?

What, my posts in this thread are not enough? Name a file and I'll play it. I just played a little bit of The Da Vinci Code through an old 17" dell CRT. So, bullshit.

Oh. Then I'd better not tell Microsoft about all those .ogg and .flac files I play. KEEP IT ON THE DOWN LOW. Good benchmarks btw, especially with the x1650.

Not to the remix part of it, anyway. I still bring my winning charm to the forums.

I've barely listened to any remixes since #1000. Should I be banned or something?

...yeah, we're definitely going to need some specifics here. Have you tried compatibility mode? Latest video drivers (if you're having trouble with OpenGL games)? I doubt DRM has anything to do with the problems you're having.

A mouse with a spinning rim for a scrollwheel? Sign me up, that's some pimp shit. Ya better axe somebody.

I severely dislike Apple's mice. Then again, I dislike a lot of mice that aren't my MX518. Those Razers look kinda slick, though.

I'll agree with you on the hardware point. If I were in the market for a new laptop, I would strongly consider a Macbook Pro. Pricy, but just about everything, inside and out, is pretty much perfect. I wouldn't be as interested in a mac desktop because, hey, I like building my own. But I would totally smear myself over a Mac laptop if given the opportunity. I am actually completely ignorant of how mac gaming works. Do macs use OpenGL or some other API? Best wait for a few new video driver releases before switching that partition over to Vista. Support for OpenGL isn't perfect yet, but it's improving. If you do decide to switch, though, I can guarantee that the time spent using Vista will be better than using XP. I know of a couple people on another forum I used to post at that said Vista worked with Bootcamp, so there's that.