Slashdot Mirror

GSpot writes: "While doing my weekly surf to see if there has been any change in one of my favorite websites, themes.org is being redirected to themes.freshmeat.net and seemingly has been reborn yet again. The previous incarnation had a dreadful interface that was difficult to navigate and when it worked it was painfully sssssllllllooooowwwww. The current version is upon a first impression a much more pleasant experience. I plan on visiting often." Mirotrem points out this brief history of themes.org running on the site (written by Chris D.), detailing the moves the site has made to this point. (Freshmeat, Themes.org, and Slashdot are all part of the world-controlling conspiracy under the VA Software umbrella better known as the Sinister Andover Keiretsu.)

Daelin writes: "Themes.org is almost ready to re-open! They need people to write submission guidelines and then maintain the item queue for item types that people want covered, however. This is a chance for some people to help out a hub which connects several different communities."

sammoth writes: "themes.org was hacked [CT:Cracked] and replaced with a rather vulgar logo. The intruder makes some bold statements about the security, or lack there of, on several sites. " Of course I'm still in Tokyo right now, so your guess about what's happening is just as good as mine. And 5000ms ping times to the U.S. East Coast sure makes posting this story tricky ;) Apparently the cracker managed to get into SourceForge and Apache.org too ... and he posted user accounts and passwords on t.o along with a rant that I haven't seen. Update: 05/31 02:40 PM by T : Here's an informative explanation on apache.org of the break-in on that site.

Well, a number of readers noted, and I've been on X-Chat with ElCoronel and technoir regarding themes.org. It's been down for the last day or so due to some technical difficulties (hard drive go buh-bye!), but it should be returning soon -- it was not Apple seizing the hardware, like a couple of submitters had thought.Most of you probably noticed that Themes is back-up - thanks to Patrick Ashmore, Tony Ramos, and Marc Merlin (and anyone else I forgot) for riding the evil-hell bus of late night sysadmining, finding the problem and fixing it.

SirFlakey writes: "Just browsing the Patents database at delphion I came across this patent from a couple of weeks back. Apparently Apple Computer has patented a method of theming the OS. I wonder how this affects theming on Linux ?" Perhaps unsurprizing, considering Apple's general unhappiness with Apple-like themes, and that they convinced themes.org to remove Aqua, AquaX and others. Apple obviously has a lot tied up in their look-and-feel, but the patent's actual claims strike me as pretty thin. Sounds like Apple wants to be the sole owner of complex desktop customization, which I think some people might object to.

A couple of people wrote in noting that Themes.org has had to comply with a request from Apple that they remove the following themes: Aqua, AquaX, eMac, and eMac-GTK.

syf0n writes: "While most are raving about Mac's OS X, Microsoft has covertly launched their latest attempt at an operating system...Windows Whistler. Some screenshots have finally been posted over at m0ss...I have to say, some of the GUI changes they've made are incredible. The shutdown menu and some of the dialogs in the Control Panel are kind of disturbing -- it looks a bit too user friendly for me! I'm dying to see how the giant folder icons work! Also, you'll notice the "hide the contents of this drive" option. Sounds interesting! Some other info about the beta is available in the root." Annndd...if there are any good themes, they should be made into themes for us, a la Aqua.

syf0n writes: "While most are raving about Mac's OS X, Microsoft has covertly launched their latest attempt at an operating system...Windows Whistler. Some screenshots have finally been posted over at m0ss...I have to say, some of the GUI changes they've made are incredible. The shutdown menu and some of the dialogs in the Control Panel are kind of disturbing -- it looks a bit too user friendly for me! I'm dying to see how the giant folder icons work! Also, you'll notice the "hide the contents of this drive" option. Sounds interesting! Some other info about the beta is available in the root." Annndd...if there are any good themes, they should be made into themes for us, a la Aqua.

Tonight at The Usual is our now traditional LWCE mega party. This time it's brought to us by OSDN, VA Linux, and all the assorted sites like Linux.com, Themes.org, SourceForge, ThinkGeek and what have you. The party is of course to celebrate the Debian 2.2 release. Music will be provided by San 'NeTTwerk' Mehat DJing and featuring Jon 'CowboyNeal' Pater scratching. The party starts at 8pm and continues well past my bed time.

Tackat wrote to us regarding the recent announcement from the KDE folks concering KDE2. While KDE has had widget themes and such, the people behind KDE have announced support for GTK Themes. For some screenshots, check out the announcement body.

Tackat wrote to us regarding the recent announcement from the KDE folks concering KDE2. While KDE has had widget themes and such, the people behind KDE have announced support for GTK Themes. For some screenshots, check out the announcement body.

kisrael writes: "Today's Suck.com talks about how the freedoms designers now have in UI appearance-- starting with the the Web, moving to Skins for WinAmp, ending with the latest versions of QuickTime and the preview release of Netscape 6-- are ignoring visual and interface standards that users have come to rely on." A lot to think about and discuss here: personally I'm a big fan of skins and themes, but it only takes seconds to find countless awful themes. There are exceptions, but they're rare.

Anonymous Coward writes "Themes.org announced a new section today: Palm Pilot themes! Palm.Themes.org looks very promising, especially to those who have a color Palm Pilot. You can check out the news story here (which contains a link to the actual site)." The comments from early downloaders make it sound especially promising.

dlc asks: "i have a simple question for slashdot readers. let's say, hypothetically speaking, that i have a Linux box, co-located on a fast pipe, with fresh builds of the kernel, Apache, mod_perl, and MySQL, and i want to contribute back to the community. we already have a slashdot and a freshmeat, a segfault and a themes.org, a linux.com and a kernel.org; what else is there to be done? What do Slashdot readers want that they cannot find somewhere else? Is a user-driven site (such as Slashdot or Freshmeat) preferable to a content driven site (such as linux.com or kernel.org)? "

Teferi writes "I was browsing t.o and just noticed this - Apple has apparently sent a Cease and Desist letter to themes.org stating that several of the OSX-look themes up othere are copyright violations, because they use the Apple logo in one or two small places (like this theme). " I've actually exchanged mail with OctobrX on this one, and read the C&D letter. Apple's stating violation based on using of copyrighted materials - the Mac OS and Apple logos in this case. Hopefully, now that Apple is talking with the creator of the themes, things can be resolved amicably, and the themes restored - but for the meantime, the themes have been pulled.

Teferi writes "I was browsing t.o and just noticed this - Apple has apparently sent a Cease and Desist letter to themes.org stating that several of the OSX-look themes up othere are copyright violations, because they use the Apple logo in one or two small places (like this theme). " I've actually exchanged mail with OctobrX on this one, and read the C&D letter. Apple's stating violation based on using of copyrighted materials - the Mac OS and Apple logos in this case. Hopefully, now that Apple is talking with the creator of the themes, things can be resolved amicably, and the themes restored - but for the meantime, the themes have been pulled.

adraken writes "Wired is reporting on the recent charges filed against Corel CEO, Michael Cowpland. Cowpland replied to the charges, "Obviously it's upsetting. And that's why I've been putting a lot of energy into proving my side is right in this situation. But, nevertheless, it's not distracting because I'm convinced there's nothing been done that's wrong -- and that will show up." The article goes into an indepth look at Cowpland and his life. "

adraken writes "Jean-Louis Gassée of Be Inc. talks about the recent release of IBM's PPC motherboard specs, the G4, and what BeOS will do about it in Be Inc.'s latest newsletter."

Yep, it's that time again! Nghia gave us a link to some "Jedi Academy" trailers. Several folks wrote in to say that the guys at Themes.org have a new look. forehead graciously provided an "interesting" bit, based on this "Richard Stallman-as-Marx" posting. "I decided to rework the whole song". Orbitz pointed us at a web-controlled RC car with camera. Next is my favorite, as submitted by Electric Keet, Stick Figure Porn. Thyla pointed us in the general direction of Carbonated Borscht for the Evil Geek's Soul, with a thanks to Illiad. Crazy Man on Fire gave us a link to upcoming distributed.net projects coming out soon. poink threw us a link to The Cereal Page (Ok, someone has waaaay too much time on his hands...) J. Pierpont gave us a link to more info on Episode II and III. Now, from Armin Lenz submitted a link to a CPU Gurus, a new CPU site discussing various current and future processors. Finally, Mike Healy, one of The Bazaar dudes, sent us a status report. Read more for the skinny.

Mike Healy writes "Since Steve Blood, our event chairman, is out of the country - he is actually checking out a solar eclipse in Austria - i've taken it upon myself to give you all an update on the Bazaar. I'd wait for steve to get back, all bleary eyed, by i must squelch the rumors being promulgated by certain sales guys for other events, that we folded. This couldn't be further from the truth. Fact of the matter is we are scheduled, locked and loaded and PUMPED for December 14-16 at the javits NYC.

The Bazaar will be the first large scale conference on opensource software to hit the east coast and will stress program, program and program. Our Theory is that if you build it, they will .com

Not only does EarthWeb, by nature of being an IT content HUB have access to the freshest most imperative material, but we have also brought in an indstry expert, lydia Bennett of Dialogos fame, to aggregate and work closely with conference chairs and advisory board to make sure all tracks and tutorials are epic.

Check out the website for more on the program. The exhibit floor will be refreshingly unlike any you have seen in this space being made up of customed designed, turn key demo stations. This not only makes it a breeze for vendors , but also adds integity to the exhibit floor. No huge booths with revolving marquis, No loud PA systems. No freak shows. This is the wrong event to come to if you want to see Trumps daughter in a g string handing out T shirts... This is the right event if you want to meet some of the biggest brains out there and get no nonsense answers regarding opensource free software... Anyway, thats it for now.. More from Steve when he gets back"

chris wrote in to tell us that Registration for the 3^rd Annual Atlanta Linux Showcase is open. First 100 registrations get an OS-Wars T-Shirt (I have one, they rock) brazilian brain sent us an English Translation of an Interview with Alfredo Kojima of WindowMaker fame. Scott wrote in to tell us that the July issue of Daemon News is online and Jim wrote in to tell us that the July issue of The FreeBSD 'zine is out too. geophile wrote in to tell us that Propoganda 10 is out. More excellent background images to consume your free RAM. Very yum. erios23 notified us of a new toy on jwz's webpage. BluBall sent us a Slashdot reference in Salon's Silicon Funnies. Spoofs Linux and Slashdot and even me a bit I guess (well, my name anyway). And finally chrisd (who may be biased on this one) wrote in to say that VA is one of the 10 best companies to work for (According to ZD) ranking amongst Replay, Nokia and Novell. I suspect that Nerf has something to do with it.

Paul wrote in to point us to the GNU Jobs Page. ^BR wrote in to say that the may issue of Daemon News is out for your BSDies out there, and CaVi wrote in to say that the Linux Gazette is out (sorry that these took so long to announce... moving was a bitch). Bitscape sent us a Salon story about Coding in Vampire Mode. Mikesch noted that www.palmcolors.com is selling colored Palm Pilots rsn. Looking for new backgrounds? President John F. Kennedy wrote in to tell us that the Volume 7 of Propoganda is up. And for those who are curious, he actually did send me beer! robert@budzynski.ddns.org sent us this art gallery with fodder and dayeight sent us a photomosaic picture for you Lara Craft Perverts out there. HighJack noted that the latest version of JWZs X Screensaver distribution contains a new one that looks like those funky falling charachters from The Matrix. And finally for some crazy fun stuff, dave sent us hilarious proof that Star Trek is Satanic, and chrisd sent us one of the best ebay auction items in recent memory. Psst-this is Hemos. It was Rob's birthday on May 10-he thinks he escaped. E-mail him and tell him how much you love him.

Paul wrote in to point us to the GNU Jobs Page. ^BR wrote in to say that the may issue of Daemon News is out for your BSDies out there, and CaVi wrote in to say that the Linux Gazette is out (sorry that these took so long to announce... moving was a bitch). Bitscape sent us a Salon story about Coding in Vampire Mode. Mikesch noted that www.palmcolors.com is selling colored Palm Pilots rsn. Looking for new backgrounds? President John F. Kennedy wrote in to tell us that the Volume 7 of Propoganda is up. And for those who are curious, he actually did send me beer! robert@budzynski.ddns.org sent us this art gallery with fodder and dayeight sent us a photomosaic picture for you Lara Craft Perverts out there. HighJack noted that the latest version of JWZs X Screensaver distribution contains a new one that looks like those funky falling charachters from The Matrix. And finally for some crazy fun stuff, dave sent us hilarious proof that Star Trek is Satanic, and chrisd sent us one of the best ebay auction items in recent memory. Psst-this is Hemos. It was Rob's birthday on May 10-he thinks he escaped. E-mail him and tell him how much you love him.

Time once again to clean up the submissions bin: First up, Georg C. F. Greve wrote in to tell us that the April issue of Brave GNU Word is up. As always, we have Linux websites popping up left and right: Michael wrote in to point us to LinuxPlanet for newbies, 23D sent us linuxartist.org for the non technical folks, and Popeye wrote in to show us The Linux Lounge for people who I guess want to sit. President John F. Kennedy wrote in to tell us that Propaganda for E is out if you need awesome (and gigantic) tilable background images. Frater 219 wrote in to say that ESR has updated the Jargon File to 4.1.1. Next up, some Slashdot ink: Shag hooked us up with a story about the Slashdot Effect taking down another site, Tomalak brought this Article about Slashdot in InternetWorld (thankfully there is no picture) and cgray wrote in with a link to an article about Jimmy Guterman experiencing the Slashdot Effect- except this one is mostly about the flame. Newton sent us www.ihatestarwars.com for those of you who are sick of the hype. jeth gave us a link to special agent Kimble a Flash Movie. The Wanderer submitted the Dysfunctional Faily Circus in response to last weeks quickie about the Circus reviews in Amazon. An anonyous reader sent us Goumet Ting's page. It looks exactly like my diet.

Time once again to clean up the submissions bin: First up, Georg C. F. Greve wrote in to tell us that the April issue of Brave GNU Word is up. As always, we have Linux websites popping up left and right: Michael wrote in to point us to LinuxPlanet for newbies, 23D sent us linuxartist.org for the non technical folks, and Popeye wrote in to show us The Linux Lounge for people who I guess want to sit. President John F. Kennedy wrote in to tell us that Propaganda for E is out if you need awesome (and gigantic) tilable background images. Frater 219 wrote in to say that ESR has updated the Jargon File to 4.1.1. Next up, some Slashdot ink: Shag hooked us up with a story about the Slashdot Effect taking down another site, Tomalak brought this Article about Slashdot in InternetWorld (thankfully there is no picture) and cgray wrote in with a link to an article about Jimmy Guterman experiencing the Slashdot Effect- except this one is mostly about the flame. Newton sent us www.ihatestarwars.com for those of you who are sick of the hype. jeth gave us a link to special agent Kimble a Flash Movie. The Wanderer submitted the Dysfunctional Faily Circus in response to last weeks quickie about the Circus reviews in Amazon. An anonyous reader sent us Goumet Ting's page. It looks exactly like my diet.

Joy! Cleaning out the submissions box: Praxxus sent us a link to an article you'll swear is a joke... a new use for old computers: filling potholes. HerbieTMac wrote in to say that Ice-T has joined the fray by releasing a new MP3 single. sanpitch sent us an interesting article about facial expression recognition. polar_bear` wrote in to say that Linux Mall has an Associates Program just like CD-Now. Or Amazon, speaking of which Sevn gave me the heads up on their entry for Bill "Family Circus" Keane- check out the reader reviews of Daddy's Hat is on Backwards. Trust me. Read it. Someone had to much spare time, and I'm glad they did. [null] hooked us up with the definitive Mr. T vs. site and east sent us an offensive dilbert parody site. gseidman wrote in to tell us about an important translation project underway to decipher the alien language used on Futurama. Assorted Slashdot notes from the world: An anonymous reader linked us to a cute comment on Neal Stephenson's server about the Slashdot effect. suprax noted that Slashdot and Freshmeat have a cameo in the current dead tree edition of PC Computing. adamv sent us a link to an interview with the creator of IMDB where he says he wishes he designed Slashdot. Funny, I wish I had designed IMDB. And Lastly, Jesse Shrieve, my favorite BSD pusher and dedicated Slashdot Server whipping boy noticed that Slashdot is up to 28 on hot100.com. We're neat.

Finally a chance to break in my cheesy little "Quickies" icon *grin*. First up is Miguel "Mr GNOME" de Icaza who wrote in to point us at Open Resources which looks like a pretty nice site. NiceGuy wrote in to say that Propaganda 6 is out if you happen to be sick of your desktop- some of the finest textures I've seen yet. Rob Biggs wrote in to say that Transmetta has opened up their website. *cough*. Aurik sent us linkage to some geek toys like a plasma fire saber and mass drivers and rail guns Jowey wrote in to say that ReBoot has been bought by the cartoon network and will be re-aired. Now I gotta get a dish. broken sent us a link to the Pig Dance. Is anyone else really sick of these? Brian Fair sent us linkage to a sticker that I guess you could put on your big truck if you have one. Those things amuse me. I've seen them with Ford Logos and stuff, I guess it was only a matter of time. Ah well, thats it for me. I'm gonna wail on some badly tuned power chords, watch Futurama and just take it easy for a bit.

President John F. Kennedy wrote in to say that Propaganda 5 is out. Another outstanding series of background images. RPoet wrote in to say that The Gimp had a 1.1.3 developer release come out. Bill the Cat sent us another strange eBay Auction Item. Les VanBrunt sent me a picture from LWCE that should be destroyed. netweasel sent us a link to Jesus Action Figures! Collect All 12 Apostles! Jesus! With Super Healing Grip! I bet Boba Fett would win. Bowie J. Poag wrote in to say that CopyLeft now has Themes.org shirts for sale. unitron sent us a link to Phone Spell which converts ph#s to words. I found some cute ones for mine- wish my area code didn't have a 1 in it. Lastly, another reminder to go to the User Account page and edit your preferences. Slashdot article filtering should be working. More coming tomorrow, assuming this stuff works as advertised.

President John F. Kennedy wrote in to say that Propaganda 5 is out. Another outstanding series of background images. RPoet wrote in to say that The Gimp had a 1.1.3 developer release come out. Bill the Cat sent us another strange eBay Auction Item. Les VanBrunt sent me a picture from LWCE that should be destroyed. netweasel sent us a link to Jesus Action Figures! Collect All 12 Apostles! Jesus! With Super Healing Grip! I bet Boba Fett would win. Bowie J. Poag wrote in to say that CopyLeft now has Themes.org shirts for sale. unitron sent us a link to Phone Spell which converts ph#s to words. I found some cute ones for mine- wish my area code didn't have a 1 in it. Lastly, another reminder to go to the User Account page and edit your preferences. Slashdot article filtering should be working. More coming tomorrow, assuming this stuff works as advertised.

President John F. Kennedy wrote in to say that Propaganda 5 is out. Another outstanding series of background images. RPoet wrote in to say that The Gimp had a 1.1.3 developer release come out. Bill the Cat sent us another strange eBay Auction Item. Les VanBrunt sent me a picture from LWCE that should be destroyed. netweasel sent us a link to Jesus Action Figures! Collect All 12 Apostles! Jesus! With Super Healing Grip! I bet Boba Fett would win. Bowie J. Poag wrote in to say that CopyLeft now has Themes.org shirts for sale. unitron sent us a link to Phone Spell which converts ph#s to words. I found some cute ones for mine- wish my area code didn't have a 1 in it. Lastly, another reminder to go to the User Account page and edit your preferences. Slashdot article filtering should be working. More coming tomorrow, assuming this stuff works as advertised.

President John F. Kennedy wrote in to say that Propaganda 5 is out. Another outstanding series of background images. RPoet wrote in to say that The Gimp had a 1.1.3 developer release come out. Bill the Cat sent us another strange eBay Auction Item. Les VanBrunt sent me a picture from LWCE that should be destroyed. netweasel sent us a link to Jesus Action Figures! Collect All 12 Apostles! Jesus! With Super Healing Grip! I bet Boba Fett would win. Bowie J. Poag wrote in to say that CopyLeft now has Themes.org shirts for sale. unitron sent us a link to Phone Spell which converts ph#s to words. I found some cute ones for mine- wish my area code didn't have a 1 in it. Lastly, another reminder to go to the User Account page and edit your preferences. Slashdot article filtering should be working. More coming tomorrow, assuming this stuff works as advertised.

So I'm here at the Babylon Cafe, and all these people are chatting and drinking and having fun, and I'm in the corner posting morph- is asking for someone with a lick of design sense to design a Logo for SlashNET- email him if you come up with one. 600x150 pixels on black. mschmitt linked us to the UNIX pronunciation HOWTO. Carlie Fairchild wrote in to plug The Linux Journals online Store. An anonymous reader sent us a link to an InfoWorld article that talks about the recent warring in the free software movement. President John F. Kennedy wrote in to tell us that Propoganda 4 is out if you're looking for sweet background images. cpfeifer sent us a link to a site that is selling aluminum light sabers. I bet they don't work, but I still want one. Brian Craft sent us a link to the most Unusual Ergonomic Keyboard that I've seen in awhile. Lord Hiades sent us a link to a t-shirt based on Adminspotting. cpfeifer sent us a link to The Jesus Dance. An anonymous reader sent us a link to a freaky site where you can get funky contacts to scare your friends with. An anonymous reader sent us a link to the truth about Steve Balmer

So I'm here at the Babylon Cafe, and all these people are chatting and drinking and having fun, and I'm in the corner posting morph- is asking for someone with a lick of design sense to design a Logo for SlashNET- email him if you come up with one. 600x150 pixels on black. mschmitt linked us to the UNIX pronunciation HOWTO. Carlie Fairchild wrote in to plug The Linux Journals online Store. An anonymous reader sent us a link to an InfoWorld article that talks about the recent warring in the free software movement. President John F. Kennedy wrote in to tell us that Propoganda 4 is out if you're looking for sweet background images. cpfeifer sent us a link to a site that is selling aluminum light sabers. I bet they don't work, but I still want one. Brian Craft sent us a link to the most Unusual Ergonomic Keyboard that I've seen in awhile. Lord Hiades sent us a link to a t-shirt based on Adminspotting. cpfeifer sent us a link to The Jesus Dance. An anonymous reader sent us a link to a freaky site where you can get funky contacts to scare your friends with. An anonymous reader sent us a link to the truth about Steve Balmer

kernel was the first to tell us that Linux.com has some content. You can also read a Press Release. The most notable piece of information is that the site will be managed by Trae McCombs (Slashdot author, Themes.org guy, and VA Employee). He will be slave to a board of directors that will hopefully help make sure that Linux.com does in fact fulfill what it should: support the community). The board of directors includes me, scoop, mandrake, Chris DiBona, Nick Petreley, and representatives from Oracle and SGI.

Sorry its been so long, but I've been busy keeping the guys over at themes.org busy with various things. This weeks Guest is Seth Spitzer of Netscape. He has some interesting things to say during this weeks interview. Don't forget to check out last weeks Guest Tiler which was about the whole new "Yellow Dog Linux" distro. hoping the /. effect doesn't kill t.o :) We get almost as much traffic as Rob does... its just spread out over the whole site. I wonder if slashdot could hold up to the slashdot effect..... hmmmm.

Sorry its been so long, but I've been busy keeping the guys over at themes.org busy with various things. This weeks Guest is Seth Spitzer of Netscape. He has some interesting things to say during this weeks interview. Don't forget to check out last weeks Guest Tiler which was about the whole new "Yellow Dog Linux" distro. hoping the /. effect doesn't kill t.o :) We get almost as much traffic as Rob does... its just spread out over the whole site. I wonder if slashdot could hold up to the slashdot effect..... hmmmm.

Robert Flemming wrote in to say that KDE 1.1pre2 is out. I also noticed that GNOME has 0.99.3 RPMs available now if you're into that. LoCoPuff sent us a link to a CNN article about theWindows Refund that mentions Slashdot and quotes me (cough cough). Nate wrote in to say "Brian Eno's "Oblique Strategies" meet the Everything 2 code in The Oblique Strategies Garden. Indeterminacy=fun. " Robert Dale sent us a parody of Iggy Pop's Lust for Life called Lust For Linux (surprise) For todays Star Wars bits, Alan Shutko sent us a link to pictures of Official Star Wars Legos. And the todays flashback comes from The_Black_Macrame who sent a link to the complete errata list from the original Star Wars. It's an oldie, but a goodie. hangman got bored and decided to trash a DEC 2100 and post pictures. Check it out if you're into computer mutilation. An anonymous reader sent us a link to one image you don't want to see on an ATM. And lastly, jhack sent us a link to a nice little page on painting your mac black if you happen to think that blue color is a bit excessive. The final results are pretty sharp. Now stop reading quickies and go compile your 2.2 kernel.

Techn0ir writes: E.themes.org has added a whole bunch of new goodies for you to play with. We've updated the screenshot gallery, as well as adding a "User Database". There is also a new message board, Themes ratings and new polling system. Enjoy! There are also a good bit of other changes over @Themes.org so swing over there and check em' out.

Techn0ir writes: E.themes.org has added a whole bunch of new goodies for you to play with. We've updated the screenshot gallery, as well as adding a "User Database". There is also a new message board, Themes ratings and new polling system. Enjoy! There are also a good bit of other changes over @Themes.org so swing over there and check em' out.

Techn0ir writes: E.themes.org has added a whole bunch of new goodies for you to play with. We've updated the screenshot gallery, as well as adding a "User Database". There is also a new message board, Themes ratings and new polling system. Enjoy! There are also a good bit of other changes over @Themes.org so swing over there and check em' out.

Been meaning to write this one for a while, but you know how time is. The following is an account of a...misadventure had by myself, OctobrX and Rob Walker of VA Research while at the Atlanta Linux Showcase (which was great, BTW). None of the names have been changed, because, well, no one's an innocent these days. Click below for the story. So, it's the end of the Atlanta Linux Showcase. OctobrX, Rob Walker from VA Research and I are sent on a mission. VA has come along with enough computers to crack the RC5 challenge in a few seconds. Add in a bunch of big monitors, letting lots of people (like us) use their machines in their booth, and one kick-butt looking booth, and they have a shipping nightmare.

I came back from visiting around, and found Rob and OctobrX talking about going to Office Max to pick up shipping plastic. This stuff is like the Samsonite of saran wrap. If you've been to one of the mega-stores and seen their pallets wrapped in this plastic wrap, that's the stuff. You could wrap bodies in this and ship them all over the world--or 21" monitor boxes. Whichever. VA had a distinct lack of this wrap-that is, zero. Rob had been sent on a mission to get it, and since OctobrX was a local, he was co-opted for geographical knowledge. I was just along for the ride.

First stop was the area Office Max. Despite what appeared to be an abundance of office supply products, we met with along zeros when asking about the location of this particular type of shipping material. Rob went so far as to ask the store personnel, who responded with the ever witty "Well, if's not out there, then we don't have it. I don't know who has it. Try Office Depot, or Home Depot."

Never to be stopped in our valiant quest for massive amounts of what is essentially really big saran wrap, OctobrX hurtled up this through rush hour Atlanta traffic, until we pulled around the hill to Avalo....er...Home Depot. Draped across the front of the store was a massive sign stating in exciting letters "Open 24 hours a day". Up in the front, Rob began to drool excitedly at the thought of a 24/7 Home Depot, and verbally fell over himself trying to describe the elation and ecstasy that he felt in his heart. If only he knew the toils and troubles this store would bring down on us.

We entered the store and began excitedly looking at all of the wrapping plastic--ladders, paint, people...er, no. Every pallet in the place had this wrapping plastic around it. We began searching the store for the locale of this fabled substance. One issue-this Home Depot was approximately the size of the greater Chicago land area-I figure it had to be at least two or three thousand acres large. We wandered up and down, admiring the high quality designer plumbing supplies, and finding rolls of the plastic wrapping sitting on top of different products.

Rob, being the ever-resourceful individual that he is, took one as a, ah, "prop". We asked where we could find more and were directed down the main aisle. Here we met Jerome. Jerome would be our contact for the reminder of our Home Depot adventure. Upon encountering him, Rob asked excitedly where we could buy some of this amazing stuff.

The word from on was that we couldn't.

No, apparently this material which was used extensively throughout the store for exactly what we wanted it for--wrapping products, was reserved solely for use within the store. More and more employees gathered around as we began to hold a heated "discussion" about whether or not we could obtain said product.

Even with offers of bribery in the air, Jerome stood firm. After more begging, pleading, and wheedling, we managed to get the manager on the phone. Jerome, OctobrX, and myself stood by while watching Rob on the phone.

For those of you who have never had the pleasure of watching Rob in action, imagine the most persuasive phone voice you've ever heard, combined with someone who will never let you get a word in edgewise, and has that know-it-all voice developed from years of tech support.

It doesn't even come close to Mr. Rob Walker. The phone is putty in his hands.

After literally fifteen minutes of watching Rob, talking about the convention, /. and themes and Linux with the assorted employees gathered to watch the spectacle, the manager was finished with Rob, and wanted to speak with Jerome. Jerome talked, looked at us a few times, and then hung up the phone.

To get a clear picture of this, you should understand Jerome is not a small man. Jerome is stout, well-muscled guy. So's Trae, but hey, it's Jerome's store. Jerome turns to and says in a somewhat gravelly voice: "I'm supposed to escort you out of the store."

Rob looks a little surprised and responded with "No, you don't mean it, right?"

Jerome shook his head, smiles, and told us to follow him-Rob had managed to convince the manager of the value the Home Depot was supplying to us, faithful customers, and what a service they were doing for the community. Well, probably some of that, but also just trying to get Rob off the phone probably had a good deal to do with it as well.

Smiling like me after three or four shots Bushmills, we walked through the store. Rob and Jerome vanish for a few moments, we get our plastic priced, and leave the store. We walked back in a few minutes later to give to Jerome the VA, themes, /., and freshmeat shirt on my back.

So, only a good ninety minutes afterwards, we returned to the convention center, victories warriors. Bottom line is that Jerome of the Atlanta Home Depot went above and beyond, Home Depot should start carrying this plastic wrap for sale for easily, and Tim, the manager of said Home Depot, recognizes customer gold mines when he see's it.

That, and Rob knows how to wheedle people. Congrats to him...

Robert Flemming of kde.themes.org writes... "From what I gather based on a bit of an information leak, there is going to be a BIG announcement concerning KDE/QT and opensource software likely tomorrow. I'll leave the rest up to your imagination. You can get more info over at kde.themes.org"

Robert Flemming of kde.themes.org writes... "From what I gather based on a bit of an information leak, there is going to be a BIG announcement concerning KDE/QT and opensource software likely tomorrow. I'll leave the rest up to your imagination. You can get more info over at kde.themes.org"

After a long time waiting, we finally now have fonts.themes.org and gtk.themes.org! Swing over to Themes.org and check things out!

After a long time waiting, we finally now have fonts.themes.org and gtk.themes.org! Swing over to Themes.org and check things out!

After a long time waiting, we finally now have fonts.themes.org and gtk.themes.org! Swing over to Themes.org and check things out!

Hemos and I are seconds away from leaving for ALS. Everyone be good while we're gone! We'll hopefully be back online yet tonight and be able to post live reports from the show. Looking forward to seeing a lot of you at the t.o/fm//. booth. (Thanks again to Cyclic Software and VA Research for getting all of us down there and setting us up)

boinger wrote in to send us a link to a yahoo bit saying that ALS has broken the record for the largest number of exhibitors at a Linux conference. I bet this trend continues for every con for that comes along for awhile. I'll be there. I guess I'm one of the exhibitors (VA Research and Cyclic are our official sponsors, so go buy their stuff :) in a booth with t.o and freshmeat so see ya there. No, I won't be naked, but I might go topless for a bit if anyone wants to give me a laptop with a fully functional x key *grin*

Hope Rob doesn't mind... Well, I have a new poll on my site: Themes.org aka: [ t.o ] If you get a chance swing over there and vote fore Rob for best theme creator ;) (I did heh). Also, I got bored and made a Atlanta Linux Showcase Theme! I hope this helps drum up some more interest in the Showcase. Did I mention Malda would be naked?

Hope Rob doesn't mind... Well, I have a new poll on my site: Themes.org aka: [ t.o ] If you get a chance swing over there and vote fore Rob for best theme creator ;) (I did heh). Also, I got bored and made a Atlanta Linux Showcase Theme! I hope this helps drum up some more interest in the Showcase. Did I mention Malda would be naked?

Hope Rob doesn't mind... Well, I have a new poll on my site: Themes.org aka: [ t.o ] If you get a chance swing over there and vote fore Rob for best theme creator ;) (I did heh). Also, I got bored and made a Atlanta Linux Showcase Theme! I hope this helps drum up some more interest in the Showcase. Did I mention Malda would be naked?