The lows are low, but the highs are home

I finally installed Firefox 4 today, removed old/outdated/unnecessary extensions and tweaks, and found some new ones to make it even sexier than before. You can’t really tell from this screenshot, but tabs will get smaller and smaller as I open new ones to prevent overflow. Just tested it - I can have 17 tabs open before they get lost. I’m ok with that number.

I won’t list everything I have installed, but ask if you like what you see! Also, I don’t have a comparison shot of FF 3 because I didn’t think about it. If I use system restore to go back and get a screenshot, can I use it to come back to the future?

Rainmeter skins at the top are edited Gnometer skins (remove icons, unnecessary text, etc.) except for the CPU/RAM. Skin in the right corner is LinePlanner, in the left is InputNotes. In the middle is an album art skin called ClearShadow that I can no longer trace. It’s the best I’ve found, though.

As for the theme, I’m using Appows Work Minimal. Or Classic. Not sure which honestly. Either way it’s dark and sexy. Tabs in Windows Explorer are from QTTabBar, and taskbar icons are edited using 7Conifier.

edit: also I guess you can’t see anything because tumblr doesn’t let you view pictures larger? that kind of defeats the whole purpose, doesn’t it

ZoomInfo

So here’s the big post I planned to show everyone the cool stuff I’ve been doing, which was supposed to have instructions for you fine folks to set them up for yourselves. Ideally, it would be so easy even my dad’s friends who read this could do it!

So I tried to get a few people to test the Rainmeter setups, and had a few failures and a lot of indifference. This after I spent three hours writing instructions for it instead of studying >.> So I realized I should just share my Rainmeter setup with anyone who actually wants it. Let the rest of you figure it out on your own like I did *shakes fist*

So I decided not to spend even longer writing instructions for Miranda IM, which I love despite its HORRIBLE, HORRID, HATEFUL, IMPOSSIBLE TO NAVIGATE community and resources. I’ve got it set up and you can all be envious of my setup unless you really like it in which case I’ll help you unlike the jerks on the Miranda forum. Apparently they’re helpful on IRC but screw that.

First picture is my default set up - uses Gnometer, Enigma for CPU/RAM, and ABP for the launcher/notes. I’ve moved the notes skin to the other side of my screen for symmetry and giving myself more room for unsorted files. The taskbar is set up using the Appows Work Classic theme for Windows 7, and the start button replacement is from the Appows suite, with Start Killer hiding the default Windows button.

Second picture is an excellent Persona 4 HUD. Your party in P4 typically has 4 members but I can’t think of anything else to measure - the ones there are measuring CPU/RAM and HDD Space/Battery.

Third picture is the Superbar skin. Quite simply the best Rainmeter taskbar I’ve seen. As in, you could actually use it as your taskbar. I’ve been working to make use of my taskbar, though, so I don’t really want a replacement right now.

Fourth picture is my Miranda IM contact list - little tab always on top of my windows, expands on mouseover. I love it. Uses the modern contact list and Malice Tab skin.

Fifth picture is my Miranda chat window - uses IEView (Adium SL Glass) and TabSRRM (x1).

Sixth picture is Assasin’s Creed: Project Legacy on facebook. From my perspective as a console gamer (its target audience), it’s the “best” facebook game I’ve played so far. It’s certainly not the “best” social game I’ve played - it fails all the social requirements of the usual facebook games. That’s exactly what I like about it. No “get help from your friends” stuff, pretty much no social anything really, which suits me just fine. The interface is slick, and they spent the time and money to write multiple bits of text for each mission.

Oh, there’s one thing it does that I really like about it in comparison to your usual facebook “RPGs” like Mafia Wars: you have stats other than strength/defense and energy/PvP energy. You only have one energy pool, first of all, and second of all your stats are (mostly) useful bonuses. Every stat point you put in increases your maximum energy, then your first stat increases your max for every 10 points you put in (useless). Second stat increases the number of things you can craft at once (+1 for every 10 points). Then you have a stat for bonus money and a stat for bonus chance to receive item drops.

Anyway this post is finally up and now I feel better.

Note: I’m just writing this to validate the many hours I’ve wasted checking this stuff out. Hopefully somebody thinks some of this stuff is cool. I actually feel better than I did though, because now I’ve resolved the issue, as opposed to spending hours and having no results. Plus I really haven’t suffered anything for it. I’m practically running ahead of schedule in terms of school. You’ve been warned, anyway.

So after finding Rainmeter a few weeks ago, feeling like I didn’t want to fiddle with it, running around looking for all kinds of ways to do stuff, I went back to Rainmeter and realized the default Gnometer skin had everything I wanted.

I tried Snarl, and using it requires installing plugins and keeping your program open - so if you want to know that you have new e-mail in Thunderbird, you have to keep Thunderbird open all the time. You want notifications from something else? That’s another program running idly in the background.

I read that Growl for Windows uses more resources than Snarl, which is frightening, because Snarl uses twice as many resources as Rainmeter is using right now. Plus running whatever programs.

So I had to start using Gmail because it seems far more popular among Rainmeter folks, and I may have to fiddle a little to get perfect access to stuff on the top of my screen while running Rainmeter, but aside from that everything is good. So. My current technology set up:

- Google Calendar for tasks and events - desktop access via Gnometer (Gcal pop-up)

- Gmail for e-mail - desktop access also via Gnometer (Gmail pop-up)

- Gnometer’s iTunes pop-up for knowing what I’m listening to

- GReader on iGoogle - keeps me from checking shit all the damn time

- Aerofoil, which turns off Aero Glass when I switch to battery life - have yet to test if that’s beneficial at all

So I’m uninstalling Thunderbird (e-mail with calendar add-on - I’m not going to waste my time teaching it to send e-mail) and SpiceBird (Thunderbird+) and that’s all well and good. It’s not like I need a dekstop program to access my internet contents. I’m going to check out Remember the Milk, Teux Deux, and Toodledo to see if I like any of them better for managing a to-do list.

Now I’m off to eat lunch, brush my teeth, have a shower, and go meet a researcher to talk to her about being in french immersion :D I wrote a paper about it, she was about to start doing research for her Master’s, I approached her to discuss, and now I am a subject. Neat!