Pimp It

Desktop Screenie March 2009

2009-03-12T06:02:00.004+08:00

After a very long absence, I've decided to share my current desktop. I've decided to stop using rklauncher for a while and try out a double highter taskbar. So all the programs that used to be in the launcher are now found on the bottom of the taskbar. More info after the jump.

I've used a wall paper from diventart, and its Good Bye Ordinary World by Aisii. I really love the colors and background. Beautifully taken picture.
If your interested in getting the same task bar as the one I'm using check out this page from Lifehacker.
And finally the I'm using CD Art Display for the lyrics and album cover.

MS Office Icon Set

2007-10-24T23:40:00.000+08:00

Here's the full icon set for MS office.
Get it here.

Start Posting Again!~

2007-10-23T23:43:00.000+08:00

Well I've been reallie busy the past few weeks and all, but now that i have a bit more time, I'll start posting once again!~

I'll just like to share with you my current desktop screenshot.

You'll see rainlendar on the top right hand side, and rklauncher on the bottom, icon set can be downloaded here.

New and improved RKLauncher

2007-09-27T14:51:00.000+08:00

Well due to my lack of post the past week, and all the encouraging comments, I've managed to convince myself that i should do a double post. Well, for people who have not heard of RK Launcher, its a docklet program for windows users. Basically it allows you to put shortcuts into a little panel at the side of your screen, which i think looks reallie cool! This updated version comes with KKmenue, which is like a built in explorer, ical docklet, and also ishut docklet.

Anyone who uses RK Launcher should update to this version, its jam packed with many new features.
Note: you might get an error message when you try to install the program, just click ok and reinstall the program, after 2 or 3 times the program should be fully installed.

For Windows only. Get it here.
Related articles can be found here.
Icons
Customizing RK Launcher part 1, part 2
Desktop docklet, RK Launcher

Screen:

UberIcon: Pointless Eye Candy is Fun!

2007-09-27T14:35:00.000+08:00

Just like the title says, UberIcon is an eye candy application for your desktop. UberIcon controls the animation of your desktop shortcut when double clicked. You can download plugins which cause the icon to shatter into small little squares, fly around the screen like a trapped bee or even watch it peel off to the side!

For windows only. Get it here.
Plugins for different animation here.

Icons: Fasticons icon pack!

2007-09-16T14:44:00.000+08:00

I've always wanted to have a cute looking desktop, something which appeals to the child side of everyone. Well after some searching about here is a cute theme package for you! All the colorful icons and wallpaper!

Screens

Dino Toys icons

Creatures 1 & 2 icons

Animal Toy icons

Launchy, keystroke launcher for windows

2007-09-14T20:09:00.000+08:00

Launchy is a free windows utility designed to help you forget about your start menu, the icons on your desktop, and even your file manager.

Launchy indexes the programs in your start menu and can launch your documents, project files, folders, and bookmarks with just a few keystrokes!

Launchy is very similar to the program in our previous article, but i feel that Launchy is more up to date when compared to SlickRun. In addition it also has an auto indexing function which, meaning you don't have to create and "magicword" to launch programs. Furthermore it has many skins for you to choose from.

I have been using Launchy for a week now, and because i also have RKLauncher, most of the time I find myself only needing one of the two program. Both programs fulfill a largely similar role, Launchy uses the keyboard while RKLauncher uses your mouse. In terms of memories usage Launchy uses about 3 times more than RKLauncher (wif minimal settings on). Everyone should give this program a few days trail, you never know it might just be the program you've been looking for.

For Windows only. Get it here.

SlickRun, start programs by typing their name

2007-09-11T11:15:00.000+08:00

With this little program, you will never need another shortcut on your desktop. SlickRun gives you instant access to any program or website. The program allows you to assign "magic words" to programs, for example C:\\games\crazytaxi\crazytaxi.exe could be assigned "taxi", and when typed into the launcher starts the program.
The program allows you to decide the alias for each program, getting used to SlickRun is quick. SlickRun also allows you to navigate to websites, just type in the address of the desired website and SlickRun would load the page in your web browser.

A similar program is Launchy, but I will keep its review to another time.
For Windows only, get it here.

SongBird, Web Music Player

2007-09-06T23:20:00.000+08:00

I believe Songbird and other web music players are the next generation of media players. The key feature of Songbird is that it allows users to search for music and play music directly from the net. You can browse the web on it, and Songbird automatically searches the current page your on and shows all the mp3 on it. If you like the music, it is a simple click and drag to add it to you library.

They say a picture speaks a thousand words, well so does a video.

Additional features:

fully changeable feathers(skin)
open source
cross platform, Windows, Mac, Linux
many add-ons

If you like a song which you have listened, buy it, stop piracy.

Lyrics plugin for Winamp

2007-09-04T20:02:00.000+08:00

Listen to music all day long? Want to sing along with the music but don't know the lyrics? EvilLyrics automatically finds the lyrics for the song thats currently being played on you media player and displays it in another window.
In addition to finding lyrics, EvilLyrics also has a karaoke function, when enabled it would highlight the sentence which the song is currently singing. Other additional functions include the ability to search for guitar cords, album art and certain Chinese songs.

There are other lyrics plugin for Winamp, iTunes and Windows Media Player which i will be reviewing in the coming days.

For Winamp only. Get it here.

Mouse Gestures, web surf without clicking any icon

2007-09-03T15:15:00.000+08:00

I am a lazy person by nature, so lazy that I feel that it is a waste of energy to keep clicking the back button on my web browser. With this program it allows me to do just that, all i have to do is to hold down my right mouse button and drag it a little to the left to go back, or hold and drag right to go forward. Not only that, it also has gestures to scroll to the next tab, go to my hompage, and if there isn't one, I can assign it one myself.

Mouse Gestures in action:

Back

Forward

Close Tab/Window

New Tab

For Firefox, get it here.
For IE, get it here (beta version, different developer)

Rainlendar2: Calendar, To-do list all on your desktop

2007-09-03T13:03:00.000+08:00

Rainlendar 2 the most useful program i have used in a while. It keeps me up to date with what I have to do today, tomorrow, this week, and even next month.
All your events are shown on a events list, allowing you to know whats coming in a quick glance. There are options to classify events into different categories, some event category even come with the very own little icon on the calendar. Reminders can be added to events which you can specify when to be reminded of.

There are two version for this program available for download, the lite and the pro. The difference between the two is that the pro has outlook syn support, while the lite version does not. For those of us who do not need outlook syn support, using either version has no difference. For people who need outlook syn support, but who are not willing to pay the 15 pounds to go pro, you can d/l the older version of rainlendar.

For Windows and Linux. Get Rainlendar 2 or Rainlendar 1.

Screens(multi calendar, single calendar mode):

Rainlendar on my desktop:

New cBox Feature!~

2007-09-02T07:16:00.000+08:00

Well I've been sprucing up the site quite a bit recently, and was wondering how you guys find the site, are the articles well written enough? Too brief? Or should i feature something else?
Also with Kelly's Suggestion, I've added a chat box to the site!~ I hope this will provide an avenue so that you can give me some feedback on the blog.

Have a comment to make about an article or the blog, make a shout out on the chat box. Have a website which you think is great, share it with us on the chatbox!

Get cbox for you blog or site here.

Customizing RK Launcher!~ Pt. 2

2007-09-01T16:54:00.000+08:00

Now that you have themed it to you liking, its time to change the icons in RK Launcher! First up getting the icons. Here are a few recommendations:

Gant, Gant 2, Gant 3 by mattahan

Crystal Clear

3D Cartoon Icons Pack by deleket

This 3 sets should be more than enough for you to work with, but don't let me stop you from getting more. deviantART is a good source of icons or you could always search the web.

So how do you go about changing the icons?

Unzip the icons to a folder, i use C:\Program Files\RK Launcher\icons as this would make it easier for me to locate the icons later on
Right click on the icon you want to change and select, Dock Icon Properties (note there is another Properties menu but we don't want to select that)
Next click on Change Icon and another menu should pop up
Select the icon you want, or click on Browse if you've saved the icons in a different folder
Enjoy your new icon~

With that you should be able to pimp RK Launcher too your liking.

Read more:
Desktop Docklet
Customizing RK Launcher!~ Pt. 1

Got a nice icon set to share, tell us about it in the comments.

Customizing RK Launcher!~ Pt. 1

2007-08-31T12:56:00.000+08:00

Now that you have RK Launcher install on your system, its time to pimp it! For this post, I'll cover including RK Launcher as a startup program, the basic preferences of RK Launcher, followed by theming of the docklet.

To add RK Launcher as a startup program:-

1. locate RK Launcher in you start menu
2. right click and choose to create another shortcut
3. drag the shortcut to the startup folder in your start menu
4. RK Launcher should now start automatically when you start your laptop

Next lets find out what other things the docklet has. Do this by right click on the docklet and choose the settings option to bring up RK Launcher's settings. Here's a little summary of what some of the button does.

Appearance tab
Size
Dock Size - inactive icon size
Magnification - when enabled will cause the icons to be enlarged when mouse over
Background
Theme - the current theme your using
Transparency - transparency of the current theme
Hide Indicators - hides the little triangle below the icons
Hide Poofs - hides the effect when you remove an icon

Behavior tab
Locked add/delete/drag - locks the docklet, prevents acidental removal of icon
Minimize to RK Launcher - programs which are minimized will appear on the docklet (best to leave unchecked due to bad past experience)
Show new applications - programs started for the first time will appear on the docklet

Exclusions tab
Never show in RK Launcher - add programs here to prevent RK Launcher from showing it
Never minimized to RK Launcher - add programs here to prevent RK Launcher minimizing it

With that done lets quickly move on to theming... No hassle here, just find a theme you like and install it.
Here are some themes:

Simple RK Launcher Theme by ~hoovey on deviant ART

Orange Glass for RKLauncher by ~eternicode on deviant ART

Leopard Skin for RK Launcher by ~Pop--Tart on deviant ART

Well after you have chosen a theme of you liking, simply unzip the theme into the themes folder under RK Launcher. The default location is
C:\Program Files\RK Launcher\themes

With that we are half way through customizing RK Launcher, come back soon to catch part 2! Using custom Icons.

Download RK Launcher.

"Perfect" iTunes Equalizer Settings

2007-08-29T10:02:00.000+08:00

Rocker Merlin Mann posts his favorite iTunes MP3 equalizer settings as recommended by Mac OS X Hints. They are:

db +3, +6, +9, +7, +6, +5, +7, +9, +11, +8 db

Merlin says it gives tracks a "nice pop." Got any equalizer settings you love? Do share in the comments.

For iTunes only. From 43 Folders.

Toaster for Winamp

2007-08-27T23:34:00.000+08:00

Ever wanted a program that could show the song that you are currently playing on your Winamp? Something like what Samurize does but can never get around to learn how to do the coding? Well this program does just that, all you have to do is to install it and "poof" you'll have the samurize effect.. This is a must have for all that have put in effort in making sure that your mp3 has their album art!~ (ppl who have nothing better to do like me hahaha)

For Windows, Winamp only. Get it here.

Screens:

My desktop with toaster on the bottom left:

Desktop Docklet

2007-08-26T03:12:00.000+08:00

I've been using this for a while now and i think its one of the best available. I've tried objectdock and rockdock, but i've always come back to using RK Launcher, it's lightweight which means less stress on you computer and also fully customizable, and it absolutely free!~

For Windows only. Get it here.
Skins can be downloaded at devianart.

Screenshots:

The Browser

2007-08-21T11:06:00.001+08:00

Wat better way to start pimping other than pimping your browser!~

Pimpzilla is the ideal skin for a pimpaholic. When i first saw the skin I was readily impressed by it, nice pale/furry pink finish and leopard print on the tabs bar.

For Firefox only. Get it here.

Screens shot:

The First Post

2007-08-09T23:56:00.000+08:00

Well i am trying out how to use a blog, so there will be no pimping post for the first few posts..

Come back soon!~