Since the staff is very knit-picky on images, I'd ask that you link images that are larger than 800 pixels wide. I'm going to post a thumbnail of mine that links to a bigger picture. Supposedly resized images through javascript (with the width=800 tag) still lags some archaic browsers. Of course, people who use dial-up should upgrade, but that's a different topic. :sombrero:
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi32.tinypic.com%2F2eaukwp.png&hash=43180d9a9306783c5d23f52b8c2a70c4779126cc) (http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb153/KEK_INC/desktopjuly13.png)
OS: Windows 7 Professional
Resolution: 1366 x 768 (laptop)
Rainmeter: Omnimo 2 by fediafedia (inspired by Windows Mobile Theme)
Visual Style Theme: Clearscreen Sharp by k-Johnson.
To post a screenshot, here's a little mini-guide.
Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP, Vista, 7
Press [printscreen] to create a screenshot that will be placed on your clipboard. Press paste ([CTRL]+[V]) on any image editing program like MS Paint.
Mac OSX
[Command]+[Shift]+[3] will create a screenshot and a file. You can press [Command]+[Shift]+[Control]+[3] to copy it to a clipboard for you to edit directly on an image editing program like GIMP.
Linux w/ GNOME
Menu > Applications > Take Screenshot
You may edit them on GIMP.
(//www.aaroads.com/shields/misc/desktop.jpg)
I reduced it by precisely 1/2 from 1280x1024 to 640x512.
I need to re-crop that background image. Originally it was a 3:2 aspect ratio, and then I cropped it so it fit 1280x1024 to fit the background, but I forgot to account for three rows of application tabs. Somewhere I have a better version of that photo!
(Old Blewett Pass, US-97 in Washington, btw... October, 2007.)
Please tell me you plan your trips with Notepad
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.davidjcorcoran.com%2Fdesktop.jpg&hash=987ae08e7fdfabbf81a78aaf284df1e8577830d9)
Quote from: corco on July 13, 2010, 09:51:00 PM
Please tell me you plan your trips with Notepad
nope, was watching a video and making notes in ... yep, the application specifically designed for that! Places to go back to and do screen captures of old signs.
Quotenope, was watching a video and making notes in ... yep, the application specifically designed for that! Places to go back to and do screen captures of old signs.
Darn- I was hoping I was getting confirmation that I'm not the only human on the planet that writes out entire trip itineraries in Notepad for no reason whatsoever
Quote from: corco on July 13, 2010, 09:58:54 PM
Darn- I was hoping I was getting confirmation that I'm not the only human on the planet that writes out entire trip itineraries in Notepad for no reason whatsoever
anything I need to remember while on the road, I record on my mobile phone - I right now have a list of "old signs to see" (62 items), "california old alignments" (41 items, including Nevada) and don't ask about my to do list which is over 100.
Pittsburgh Penguins ;).
BigMatt
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Flh5.ggpht.com%2F_WYYeXvkUoUE%2FTD0dfCwLePI%2FAAAAAAAAFos%2FxxaYa-7pfhc%2Fs800%2FScreen%25201.jpg&hash=d10439e0973db15e5cb7084c6bfe517f548c5da5)
Meh, why not? (Click to see in original resolution.)
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fv461%2Frawmustard%2Fdesktop_800.png&hash=f15c653517560234dded492215c8dde09d519c3e) (http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4098/4791810477_6d95dc12ee_o.png)
For some time, I had used a slideshow of my photos as wallpaper, but I have decided to stick with my favorite team. This particular wallpaper was made by a blogger and although the file was stated to be 1280x800, it actually works fine having it centered. (And of course, Photobucket decides to shrink the original on me. Not cool, man!)
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffarm5.static.flickr.com%2F4116%2F4792754978_8b56761f12_b.jpg&hash=ce1bd342187d923c0923cdae7e29af35c694f097)
The wallpaper is a photo I took near Velva, ND last summer.
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffarm5.static.flickr.com%2F4094%2F4792860866_e76ffb4fe5_b.jpg&hash=59a440e40af76dc29f0ebe61e23f867eb80c02b6)
I need to replace my wallpaper, actually--I am thinking of Puente Nuevo.
Mine is a picture of a deserted A28 freeway near my city, which is currently being widened to six lanes. It carries 90,000 vehicles per day.
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fa.imageshack.us%2Fimg517%2F9857%2Fdesktopqqs.jpg&hash=8084ab5b40652e356b26d4ec3c4af76f6f987002)
Quote from: corco on July 13, 2010, 09:58:54 PM
Quotenope, was watching a video and making notes in ... yep, the application specifically designed for that! Places to go back to and do screen captures of old signs.
Darn- I was hoping I was getting confirmation that I'm not the only human on the planet that writes out entire trip itineraries in Notepad for no reason whatsoever
You're not. (:
I have screenshots of every desktop image I've used for the past six years. Here's the latest one (click for fullsize):
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fa.imageshack.us%2Fimg269%2F6290%2Fdesktop20100703resize.png&hash=36e5fa53e0315c6324c6621889f75a984af3533b) (http://img811.imageshack.us/img811/1394/desktop20100703.png)
Don't recognize anything? Those are the bosses from Megaman 10 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megaman_10).
Quote from: agentsteel53 on July 13, 2010, 09:57:05 PM
Quote from: corco on July 13, 2010, 09:51:00 PM
Please tell me you plan your trips with Notepad
nope, was watching a video and making notes in ... yep, the application specifically designed for that! Places to go back to and do screen captures of old signs.
I use that program to make really simple web pages.
http://img.johninteractive.net/wb/index.html
I actually invited Nintendowhiz to upgrade it, since I have no knowledge of HTML. I was too lazy to make images to make it look fancier, but he was content with it. Then again, most of his website uses Times New Roman on a blank background. D:
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi374.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Foo184%2Fkj3400%2FCommonwealth%2520of%2520Paradise%2Fdesktop.jpg&hash=9ecad2aab951842df59700a60c0554111ad51495)
My desktop shows a region I'm working on in Sim City.
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.denexa.com%2Fforum_img%2Fsshot20100715.jpg&hash=f098de7f90193ab3edb8948f74774b1189a8a3b6)
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi594.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Ftt24%2FBryant5493%2FSpeedlimit80mph.jpg&hash=1c335e96652a5afdf7cd887fce89a20b50d82261)
Be well,
Bryant
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Flh5.ggpht.com%2F_ZkmN2RrOJxw%2FTLFDAkbJtSI%2FAAAAAAAAjGY%2Fg2pDuIofHNc%2Fs800%2FFullscreen%2520capture%252010102010%2520123643%2520AM.jpg&hash=845b2d57a50007bb307af2bf86300aa2ff9877b4)
^^
Where's that bridge?
Be well,
Bryant
looks to me like the Ben Franklin Bridge. US-30 in Philly.
I think I need to delete some junk off the desktop...
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg717.imageshack.us%2Fimg717%2F2682%2Fscreenshottz.png&hash=3ed98077c128c67dce0d830a73e4fb0248c9c77d)
Here's mine. As you can see, I don't waste memory by having fancy wallpaper which you can't see when you're using a problem so what's the point in making an i7 system perform like a 486?
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.speedcam.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk%2Fdesktop.jpg&hash=6a0f90540b4a63c9fe8d7a5f3ac1eb1f17d8f7b2)
Quote from: Truvelo on October 10, 2010, 06:47:54 AMHere's mine. As you can see, I don't waste memory by having fancy wallpaper which you can't see when you're using a problem so what's the point in making an i7 system perform like a 486?
I disagree. I have a four-year-old laptop with 500 MB of memory, and since my desktop wallpaper is cropped and resampled down to 1:1 correspondence with screen pixels, it is just 159 KB as a JPEG file and 3 MB--less than 1% of the total memory available--as an uncompressed Windows bitmap. Screen resolution has been climbing a lot more slowly than RAM on commodity PCs, so properly resampled desktop wallpaper imposes even less of a drag on newer computers.
It is true that you can't see the desktop wallpaper when a program is maximized, but quite often I work with programs (Notepad, various batch files, . . .) which run in windows which are smaller than the desktop, and when I am away from my computer briefly, I typically minimize all active windows and expose the desktop. It helps me compose my mind to be able to look at a picture I like when I sit down to my computer.
For some reason I pictured more of you guys as Linux nerds :D
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fbishopdan.com%2Fimages%2Fsshot.jpg&hash=368a0107dab446a8a0f4ff10782f4f2d6997b366) (http://bishopdan.com/images/sshot.png)
edit: you can click for big if you really want to
Quote from: agentsteel53 on October 10, 2010, 01:20:52 AM
looks to me like the Ben Franklin Bridge. US-30 in Philly.
Indeed it is.
^^
Oh, okay. Thanks, agentsteel and PennDOTFan.
Be well,
Bryant
I don't know why I actually have a desktop background image, when I usually have 15-20 windows open, at least one of which is maximized.
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fv621%2Fandrewt3660%2Fdesktop-1010.png&hash=3026c4b4e1b2db9ba15fb4c5a7f5c9a2bf074650)
A bit anticlimactic, isn't it?
Quote from: Andrew T. on October 10, 2010, 01:21:17 PM
A bit anticlimactic, isn't it?
^ What ancient version of Windows is that :pan:
Looks like 98 to me.
Quote from: Truvelo on October 10, 2010, 03:59:14 PM
^ What ancient version of Windows is that :pan:
It's Windows 2000 Professional; albeit disguised with Windows 95 icons.
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi52.tinypic.com%2F55f85l.png&hash=8696d9a422e0b21cc2d4023445a8cf51def66614)
Yay hockey! :D
Quote from: Andrew T. on October 11, 2010, 12:43:49 AM
Quote from: Truvelo on October 10, 2010, 03:59:14 PM
^ What ancient version of Windows is that :pan:
It's Windows 2000 Professional; albeit disguised with Windows 95 icons.
Those settings are still on Vista, so my desktop and laptop still have the old Win9x look, which I prefer.
EDIT:
Also, I typically don't use wall paper as I almost always have at least one window maximized on the screen.
I like the Win9X look. I've never seen the point of the brightly colored garish look of XP and later.
Quote from: agentsteel53 on October 11, 2010, 10:59:40 AM
I like the Win9X look. I've never seen the point of the brightly colored garish look of XP and later.
Agreed. The XP look is the worst, it looks like a cartoon or at least belongs on a child's PC.
I have seen the Windows XP look criticized as "MyFirstWindows" or "MyFisherPriceWindows," but personally I prefer it to the "classic Windows" look (no three-dimensional rendering) which XP has as an option--I feel the default colors for that are too bold.
I don't particularly care what Windows looks like on the screen as long as there is some element of customization that allows me to give my own computer a personal stamp. For me the desktop wallpaper and login icon are sufficient for that purpose. (It actually took me about three years to discover that the login icon could be changed. Prior to that, Windows had randomly assigned me a picture of a guitar as a login icon, which is very strange--to say the least--for a deaf person.)
I have the Win9x look even though I have Windows 7 Professional with the Aero schemes. I set everything for speed so there's no animation of windows or fancy mouse pointer shadows either. Windows 7 takes about 15 seconds to boot and about 2 seconds to shut down :colorful:
Quote from: Truvelo on October 11, 2010, 12:49:33 PMWindows 7 takes about 15 seconds to boot and about 2 seconds to shut down :colorful:
boot? shut down? I tend to do neither. if for some reason my computer shuts down, it does so in milliseconds... but with the UPS behind it, it has no reason to do any such thing.
First Macintosh Desktop!
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.markyville.com%2Faaroads%2FMacSS.png&hash=0812aaf35a8004c8f83163da62c231fd296ab478)
Wallpaper pays tribute to TechTV's "The ScreenSavers" before G4 ruined the network. :verymad:
Quoteboot? shut down? I tend to do neither. if for some reason my computer shuts down, it does so in milliseconds... but with the UPS behind it, it has no reason to do any such thing.
Is your computer slow much? Computers like to be restarted every couple days at least.
Quote from: corco on October 11, 2010, 07:15:29 PM
Is your computer slow much? Computers like to be restarted every couple days at least.
I tend to kill the individual apps when they get slow. Firefox, Photoshop, Inkscape all start coming to a crawl in a few days, so I just kill those one at a time as needed.
Quote from: corco on October 11, 2010, 07:15:29 PM
Is your computer slow much? Computers like to be restarted every couple days at least.
Quotescott@bolivar:~$ uptime
00:00:16 up 9 days, 14:50, 2 users, load average: 0.00, 0.01, 0.04
Correction:
Windows likes to be restarted every couple of days. Linux considers it an annoyance. Really the only need a Linux-running computer has to be shutdown is if you're performing a hardware or kernel upgrade. I've gotten uptimes of 30 days several times, and I believe the world record is somewhere around two years. Most issues can be fixed without a reboot by killing whatever process, or, at worst, logging out and back in again.
heh I've had Windows XP up for about 6 months now. The last time I powered on the computer was when I moved to my current residence.
two years sounds awfully low for a Linux world record. I'm sure there's some box that's been up for more than that. Surely someone's still running a 2.4.5 kernel somewhere.
I know at least one of our boxes at work has been up since it got moved to the new building, which took place in September 2009.
Yeah, it's been a while since I read that, so I'm sure someone has had a box up for longer, especially if they're actually trying for the record and don't want to trifle with stuff like kernel upgrades.
Quote from: Scott5114 on October 12, 2010, 01:05:11 AM
Correction: Windows likes to be restarted every couple of days. Linux considers it an annoyance. Really the only need a Linux-running computer has to be shutdown is if you're performing a hardware or kernel upgrade. I've gotten uptimes of 30 days several times, and I believe the world record is somewhere around two years. Most issues can be fixed without a reboot by killing whatever process, or, at worst, logging out and back in again.
But, not required, my workstation at the office had been up continuously for 3 months when I shut it down for us to move offices. It is running Windows Server 2003.
I have had Windows sessions running for multiple weeks on a number of occasions, but as a general rule I like to restart Windows on a more or less weekly basis. I have turned off automatic updating because it has a tendency to disrupt processes that I leave running overnight with the screen off, but I try to stay current with updates otherwise. Plus I try not to have Windows running for long periods of time when a background maintenance service has crashed and I cannot restart it (the Diskeeper service is the worst culprit in this regard).
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi53.tinypic.com%2F25rdssg.png&hash=1284f89f1b590d34c26c71af420a067df06d4913)
I'm still using the same rainmeter theme. It's been updated several times since I started this thread. Still looked like the Windows 8 preview that was released a month ago.
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi594.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Ftt24%2FBryant5493%2FThunderCats.jpg&hash=81ce9bd6be1b7e1ae113dcbf4610c47beb685a5a)
Be well,
Bryant
After seeing my family's electric bill (!!!), I've been getting into the habit of shutting down my computer and cutting power at the power strip when the computer is not in use to reduce energy consumption.
Quote from: route56 on June 23, 2011, 09:42:56 AMAfter seeing my family's electric bill (!!!), I've been getting into the habit of shutting down my computer and cutting power at the power strip when the computer is not in use to reduce energy consumption.
I think about latency before I do that. It is all well and good to have the computer shut down altogether when it is not in use for extended periods of time, but:
* I try not to cycle my laptop screen on and off frequently. I used to do so but gave up when the screen backlight failed prematurely and I had to send the computer away for about ten days so it could be replaced. This was a major inconvenience since I use my computer almost every waking hour of every day. The nominal 50% failure rate for a cold-cathode tube is around 50,000 hours but I don't think I got more than 10,000 out of the tube that failed (computer was purchased October 2006, tube had to be replaced May 2009). The tube itself costs only $10, but replacing the tube rather than the whole screen unit is a difficult DIY job and it is challenging to find repair shops which will attempt tube replacement. I paid $160 for installation of the new tube; a new screen unit, including labor, would have been around $400.
* I have hibernation enabled and have for a long time used it in preference to suspend, because it uses zero power. However, I now have a Seagate FreeAgent Go portable drive which I use for backup, and for a technical reason which Seagate has so far refused to acknowledge or repair and which did not exist with the earlier generation of FreeAgent drives, the drive becomes invisible to the USB controller after hibernation but not suspend. Since having the drive suddenly "disappear" is a recipe for master file table corruption, I have had to script my backup routines to put the computer in suspend rather than hibernation. I would rather use hibernation instead but first I need to fight Seagate technical support and win.
We still have some way to go before technology stops incentivizing power-piggery through the back door.
Here's my desktop (Win7 homebuild machine)
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.route56.com%2Fphotos%2Fscreenshot.jpg&hash=291ca6b05a29c0f36bdf624d679d07e28fd6acb7)
I'm sort of dual-monitored -- sort of because one of the monitors is my laptop screen and the other is an LCD panel. The desktop background photo is mine.
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fjimgrey.net%2Ffileserver%2Fdesktop.jpg&hash=b9b7743808f2302b3b4bfdf02696028bedffb9e5)
Mine's dual monitored as well. You can actually have a different background on your second monitor, through a program called Display-Fusion. At the very least, you can adjust the resolution so it's full-screen on your standard monitor. I generally keep my browser on my external monitor.
Quote from: J N Winkler on June 23, 2011, 11:07:50 AM
Since having the drive suddenly "disappear" is a recipe for master file table corruption, I have had to script my backup routines to put the computer in suspend rather than hibernation.
This is why it's a good design to have the file system table be a simple plain text file (/etc/fstab on Linux). If a drive vanishes, Linux just removes the device file that represents the drive, while still keeping track of the mount point (the interface to the actual file system on that volume, somewhat like the drive letter in Windows), volume/filesystem type, etc. in fstab. When the drive returns, the kernel checks it against fstab and reestablishes the mount point.
I think that's how it works, anyway. I might be wrong on some of the details.
Quote from: Scott5114 on June 25, 2011, 05:15:45 PM
Quote from: J N Winkler on June 23, 2011, 11:07:50 AM
Since having the drive suddenly "disappear" is a recipe for master file table corruption, I have had to script my backup routines to put the computer in suspend rather than hibernation.
This is why it's a good design to have the file system table be a simple plain text file (/etc/fstab on Linux). If a drive vanishes, Linux just removes the device file that represents the drive, while still keeping track of the mount point (the interface to the actual file system on that volume, somewhat like the drive letter in Windows), volume/filesystem type, etc. in fstab. When the drive returns, the kernel checks it against fstab and reestablishes the mount point.
I think that's how it works, anyway. I might be wrong on some of the details.
The Linux way of specifying filesystems doesn't protect against what J N Winkler is referring to, since the problem is that if the drive suddenly disappears, any data that is in the buffers waiting to be written doesn't get written to the disk before it disappears, leaving the disk in an inconsistent state. What can protect against this is a journaled file system, as the journal that the system keeps of the data transactions can tell the computer the state the filesystem is in when the drive comes back online. Most modern Linux filesystems (ext3 or later) and (if I remember correctly) NTFS on Windows are journaled file systems.
edit - to keep with the theme of the thread, I present my mostly-generic Ubuntu desktop:
(https://www.aaroads.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg585.imageshack.us%2Fimg585%2F5328%2Fdesktopia.png&hash=91ddb1ba231ce2996a86ff08beb7cbb132cab625) (http://img585.imageshack.us/i/desktopia.png/)
Twenty years ago or more, I used to make my own wallpapers in MSPaint. Well, I decided to revive that idea, and I just recently finished one. Here is a portion of my current desktop at work.
(https://i.imgur.com/XhKkXoe.jpg)
And here is a close-up of the .png image.
(https://i.imgur.com/Zl31awB.jpg)
My desktop background is my favorite road picture I've ever taken:
(https://i.imgur.com/SxcUDXb.jpeg)
On my office PC, I have this photo of the University of Virginia:
(https://news.virginia.edu/sites/default/files/uva_sunset_aerial.jpg)
On my home PC, I have this picture of Ms1995hoo and me taken in June 2018:
(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180619/9b44993bc66b0623163fb6ed70224da4.jpg)
I'm not sure how many years I've used it, but I just use my County Clinching map for my desktop.