[Shara]

It's seven palo, with SC2 custom background and the Starcraft2.exe shortcut on the protoss templar eye :p

[Lightfoot]

This IS my current desktop, but it's probably not that interesting because I'm currently just using a flat color instead of a picture.  You can see I have a lot of drag and drop converters on the desktop.  I usually have the dock hidden, but I thought I'd unhide it for the picture.

[Lightfoot]

Here's my current Ubuntu (Linux) desktop, scaled down to 75% size. The graphic is from an older late-night bump on Cartoon Network.

Is that the way the menus are usually set up?  I didn't remember there being so much on the top and so little on the bottom.  I do remember that unlike Macs or PCs, it's easy to move things around where you want.

Pal replies: yah, they call them 'panels' (bars/docks for menus and desktop tools) and you can choose any edge to place them on as well as which items you want each to contain (of course, you can also alias items to the desktop itself though I personally like to keep it empty). As far as what's on top normally (before adding extra items) it's just the three menus (Applications, Places, System) along with the help ("?") and browser buttons on the left and the clock/calendar, Empathy email/IM/chat and audio on the right (network has been moved up there too after I took this grab). The other things on the bottom are just minimized windows, which I now display within a menu from the top instead of as individual buttons in the bottom panel (so now the bottom is empty except for the trash of course, which seems to want to stay in the lower right corner no matter what). There are a whole bunch of options for how the UI looks, and of course you can set panels to be invisible (desktop shows through), autohide, etc... but I've got pretty much everything fairly close to stock

In addition to the standard items, I've added just a few extras including a dictionary tool, shutdown button and a screen grabber. Generally, I prefer a somewhat minimalist desktop overall.

Added later: from your desktop, I see that maybe you use EyeTV... did you ever make a thread about it? I've always wanted one.
 

[AgentDee]

nice little Power Girl pic I found that Ghost Yurei put on his deviantart page .

[number3fac]

I've been enjoying The Gates recently, and wanted to put up something on my desktop with Rhona Mitra.  I found this in an old folder labeled for Rhona, and while I'm enjoying it, I've been questioning whether it's actually her.  The only other image I have in her folder is a Pacman morph of this image, so I'll have to go hunting for some more wallpapers with her sometime.

Any feedback on if the model is really Rhona Mitra would be appreciated, too.

[Lightfoot]

Any feedback on if the model is really Rhona Mitra would be appreciated, too.

You might already know it, but Rhona Mitra was the original Lara Croft model they took to video game conventions (if I remember correctly).  They fired her (I'd think) because she was getting too well known as the character.  She's also in StarGate Universe recently as their current enemy.

The picture looks like a mixture of digital painting and photographs.  Elements could be from multiple models, or even completely original.  To me, it looks like the TR clothes may have been added, or they at least look very airbrushed.

[Lightfoot]

Pal replies: yah, they call them 'panels' (bars/docks for menus and desktop tools) and you can choose any edge to place them on as well as which items you want each to contain (of course, you can also alias items to the desktop itself though I personally like to keep it empty). As far as what's on top normally (before adding extra items) it's just the three menus (Applications, Places, System) along with the help ("?") and browser buttons on the left and the clock/calendar, Empathy email/IM/chat and audio on the right (network has been moved up there too after I took this grab). The other things on the bottom are just minimized windows, which I now display within a menu from the top instead of as individual buttons in the bottom panel (so now the bottom is empty except for the trash of course, which seems to want to stay in the lower right corner no matter what). There are a whole bunch of options for how the UI looks, and of course you can set panels to be invisible (desktop shows through), autohide, etc... but I've got pretty much everything fairly close to stock

In addition to the standard items, I've added just a few extras including a dictionary tool, shutdown button and a screen grabber. Generally, I prefer a somewhat minimalist desktop overall.

Added later: from your desktop, I see that maybe you use EyeTV... did you ever make a thread about it? I've always wanted one.
 

I've used Ubuntu before, but it was several versions ago.  When planing to replace my old G4, I considered Linux, Windows, and building a Hackintosh.  I tried a number of versions of Linux and the art and drawing software available.

My brother got me an EyeTV 250 Plus a number of years ago.  It has some imperfections, but it's better than the only other video capture device I've used.  Should I start a thread about it?  What would you like to know about it?

Pal replies: I'm new to Linux in general and only used Ubuntu 9.x for a short while before 10 came out and switching to it, so I can't speak to how much of an improvement was made when 10 was released from a functionality standpoint. However, from a GUI standpoint, 10 looks as modern as OSX, and cleaner than either Vista or Seven, whereas Ubuntu 9.x felt more like Mac OS9 or Windows 95/98 from an interface standpoint. Having run OSX, Vista and Ubuntu lately, I'm liking the Ubuntu 10.x GUI most of all, even though I'm still a Mac guy at heart (26 years is a long time and you get used to a thing). As it happens, I *did* try to Hackintosh the Dell on which I'm now running Ubuntu, installing and troubleshooting 3 different Hackintosh kernels with help from Chev, but none ran properly/with any stability, thus negating the whole point of OSX IMO, so that prompted me to try Ubuntu (since Vista eventually turned out to be awful IMO). As I'm now a Linux fan, it all worked out for the best (of course, I don't play any games at all and fairly basic/free graphics software satisfies my needs).

I asked about the EyeTV because I'm always curious about what systems folks use for video capture... when I was shopping for one a couple years ago, the 250 was what I was zeroing in on IIRC. You needn't post about it solely on my account... I was just wondering if you already had so I could learn of your impressions re: its usability (as a Tivo replacement), the image quality of the caps/clips, what limits you might have encountered in terms of resolution/frame rate due to CPU/bus bandwidth, etc... Just part of my natural nosiness I guess.

PS: pardon my editing into your post to reply... I know doing so doesn't mark the thread as edited... but I'm just trying to keep a lid on my post count inflated as it is due (in part) to all the extra posts I must make as a moderator.

[Lightfoot]

Pal replies: I'm new to Linux in general and only used Ubuntu 9.x for a short while before 10 came out and switching to it, so I can't speak to how much of an improvement was made when 10 was released from a functionality standpoint. However, from a GUI standpoint, 10 looks as modern as OSX, and cleaner than either Vista or Seven, whereas Ubuntu 9.x felt more like Mac OS9 or Windows 95/98 from an interface standpoint. Having run OSX, Vista and Ubuntu lately, I'm liking the Ubuntu 10.x GUI most of all, even though I'm still a Mac guy at heart (26 years is a long time and you get used to a thing). As it happens, I *did* try to Hackintosh the Dell on which I'm now running Ubuntu, installing and troubleshooting 3 different Hackintosh kernels with help from Chev, but none ran properly/with any stability, thus negating the whole point of OSX IMO, so that prompted me to try Ubuntu (since Vista eventually turned out to be awful IMO). As I'm now a Linux fan, it all worked out for the best (of course, I don't play any games at all and fairly basic/free graphics software satisfies my needs).

Yeah, my Hackintosh attempts resulted in a computer that would crash whenever you ran anything that used 3D effects, even the Chess program.  It wasn't stable enough to consider.  One of the things I like about Linux is that there are so many different versions, some have a lot of eye candy, some are bare-bones, others are somewhere in-between, and they can use the same programs.

I asked about the EyeTV because I'm always curious about what systems folks use for video capture... when I was shopping for one a couple years ago, the 250 was what I was zeroing in on IIRC. You needn't post about it solely on my account... I was just wondering if you already had so I could learn of your impressions re: its usability (as a Tivo replacement), the image quality of the caps/clips, what limits you might have encountered in terms of resolution/frame rate due to CPU/bus bandwidth, etc... Just part of my natural nosiness I guess.

Let's see... It's a small USB2 device that has three connectors: cable TV, composite, and s-video.  I've used it on my current computer (Early 2009 Mac mini), and my previous one (2002 G4/dual 1ghz).  I haven't upgraded to the newest software (which I would need to do if I wanted to upgrade the mini to Snow Leopard), I have 2.5.3, which is a version or two behind.

The software is a little slow to start on both computers (takes about the same time as Photoshop CS1), and it always opens a window of the currently selected video source.  It -had- an online cable-box-like program guide, but it used "TitanTV", and was only free for about a year or two.  It can still record, but you have to set in the times like with a VCR (but you can set schedules to repeat, name them, etc).  There are a number of different window size options, there have been times where my computer wasn't in view of any television and I've used it to display a small window of whatever I wanted to watch while I worked.  Most often though I've used it to convert old VHS tapes to DVDs.

The picture quality isn't perfect, especially when watching though the cable TV there are some lines in the video.  It's possible it's more sensitive than a TV or VCR, or that it's some issue with the cable wire or connection.  Some tweaking might solve it.  Currently, the picture is better though the (composite) connection to the VCR than directly using the cable feed.  I don't have any kind of HD source (if it allows HD), both computers could handle full resolution SD video at normal (30 fps?) frame rates.  The software has several options for how big you might want the MPEG files.  When recording I do sometimes notice a little lag with the computer in general, but I've never sat and tried to figure out how much of that is processor related, and how much is hard drive related.

It comes with a remote control, it can do picture in picture, it can export to many kinds of files, the newer version can edit files, it has an optional full-screen menu.  When TitanTV was active it could name the files after the episode recorded, and also give it a summary.

It's not perfect, but I like it.  It's better than the Windows-based ATI wonder-something-rather I've used before.  The video looks better, and the software makes more sense.  I have sometimes had issues with it stopping a several-hour recording, there might be a file size limit for a single file.

Pal replies: THANKS for the info Lightfoot, I appreciate it!

[number3fac]

You might already know it, but Rhona Mitra was the original Lara Croft model they took to video game conventions (if I remember correctly).  They fired her (I'd think) because she was getting too well known as the character.  She's also in StarGate Universe recently as their current enemy.

Yes, I think this is the main reason why this is in my Rhona Mitra folder...I wasn't aware of any other Tomb Raider models when I saved it (or perhaps the person posting it said it was her), so that's how it got there.  But I don't know that it's her for sure; at least, the face doesn't look the way she does now (as I've seen the SGU episodes with her, as well as her role on The Gates).  Maybe she's had some work done, but I more strongly suspect the face belongs to another model, and was hoping someone might have some info one way or the other.  The original artist/composer seems to have the handle "DannyC" but I don't even know where to start looking for that individual's work.

[AgentDee]

here is the best pic I could find of Rhona as "Lara Croft" who was 20/21 at the time.

[unknown_0]

Pal have you tried http://everyjoe.com/technology/the-perfect-os-x-dock-for-linux/?utm_source=everyjoe&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=b5hubs_migration

Pal replies: I appreciate the assist, but I'm not sure what good that (AWM) might do for me. I don't feel any need to make the standard Ubuntu GUI look like OSX... I'm perfectly happy/comfortable with the Ubuntu GUI as-is, though I agree that it's cute to make a Linux box look so much like an OSX box if that's what you're after. Me, I just deleted the bottom panel completely since all it contained was the trash (which I'll get used to at the top of the screen) so as to recover those last few inches of desktop real-estate and background.

Not to go off-topic (any more than we already have ) but the MAIN THING I MISS ABOUT OSX now that I'm using Ubuntu is that Ubuntu doesn't recognize/support the OSX 'Labels' feature that allows you to quickly color file and folder icons as displayed in the GUI. Having been using Mac OS for decades, I've become dependent upon this feature (red icons for time-sensitive files, green for favorite items, grey for moot ones, etc...) and many of the zillions of files and folders on my Mac have been color-coded by me like this over time. The fact that Ubuntu won't do this (as far as I can tell) is what's kept me from bringing my whole archive of files over from the Mac to the Ubuntu machine. I've looked around online, and seen other Ubuntu users pine for the same feature (to be added to a future Ubuntu build or made possible by a third-party tool) but so far, I've not seen any way to make it possible.   I'll be deeply indebted to anyone who knows how to make this possible and shares the info.

[MaxBigfoot]

Here's mine as of right now.  Nothing special, really.

[rtpoe]

Nice to see a desktop instead of a sidetrack from the Computer sub-forum.

[AgentDee]

current desktop, nothing fancy .

[SwitcherX]

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