Miscellaneous

Purdy up that thar fancy computer of yours with photographical images from a far off land.

“I don’t care what it looks like, as long as it doesn’t get in my way and I can get my work done.”

I hear so many Windows users cite this as a reason to justify why they put up with what is arguably the shittiest graphical interface ever created and one that, from my own personal experience, not only gets in the way, but fights the user every chance it gets.

I find it ironic that most of these same people who dismiss the importance of their GUI don’t seem to realize that a GUI is more than just eye-candy (or lack thereof). It’s the way information passes between you and your computer. The more efficiently that information flows, the more effective both you and your computer become. That “eye-candy” doesn’t just help you get work done, it’s how you get work done. So to those people who say they don’t particularly care what their interface looks like, I suggest that maybe they should.

I’m constantly playing, tweaking and perfecting my desktop setups because I want my computer to be as effective and powerful as possible, but also (and perhaps most importantly) because it’s FUN AS HELL. Thus, my desktop changes often along with my mood and my socks (probably more than my socks, actually). There’s always new ideas to try, and you can check some of them out here.

Most entries will cite what applications and GUI tweaks are visible so you can track them down to try for yourself if you should so desire.

And I would never be able to adequately reccomend the seemingly endless resources at ResExcellence for ideas and inspiration. If you have the unfortunate problem of running a Windows box, I’m not sure what to tell you, but I can at least point you here to get you started.

Astute readers will remember that a little while back I got the clever idea of having an occasional Postcard Contest wherein the lucky winner of whatever that week’s challenge happened to be, would get a postcard from Fukuma. Well I was having trouble finding any postcards in Fukuma that weren’t just anonymous little white cards, I came up with this: the Not-a-Postcard Contest!

That’s right, not only can you win something completely usless, you can win two things and can even choose what they are. On top of that, I found a place to print my own postcards so we get to have those after all as well. This is a preliminary catalog of little Fukuma cultural tidbits that, in the event that you win, you may choose two items from. It’s still just getting started so if you have any other ideas or requests for things you’d like to try winning, by all means have your people get in touch with my people and we’ll see what we can do. Good luck!