[Maflynn]

So, just about a week away from May and I realized that I haven't seen anyhting from Carpe Stellarem

So does anybody have any news on their new theming program (extender I thinks called). Wasn't there supposed to be a web site and some sort of product roll out by March? I could be wrong but I was under the impression we would be seeing stuff by now.

Mike

[wibs]

whatever impression you're under, it's generally safe to ignore it when it comes to carpe stellarem. there's a long history there of promises without any delivery.

[codywalton]

vaporware....

in the words of Proximo:
shadows and dust.... shadows and dust....

[kovacs]

Originally posted by Maflynn:
So, just about a week away from May and I realized that I haven't seen anything from Carpe Stellarem

Mike

And I hope we can keep it that way

[BurningBright]

Originally posted by kovacs:
And I hope we can keep it that way

Wow.

[Link]

I was hoping they'd end the era of the monopolist company that distributes crap shareware and tried to take over the theme market

[mac15]

Its hardly crap shareware. Shapeshifter is making theme easier to make and safer to install.

[::maroma::]

Originally posted by Link:
I was hoping they'd end the era of the monopolist company that distributes crap shareware and tried to take over the theme market

Monopolist company? Crap shareware? Please elaborate.

[fireside]

Originally posted by Link:
I was hoping they'd end the era of the monopolist company that distributes crap shareware and tried to take over the theme market

they're only a "monopolistic" company because there aren't any companies competing with them.

[Lateralus]

Originally posted by Link:
I WAS HOPNG THAYD END DA 3RA OF DA MONOPOLIST COMPANY TAHT DISTRIBUTES CRAP SHAERWAER AND TREID 2 TAEK OVAR TEH TH3M3 MARKAT

Shut up you idiot.

[wibs]

Originally posted by fireside:
they're only a "monopolistic" company because there aren't any companies competing with them.

being the only company to offer a service gives them a monopoly by default on that service. a better argument would be whether or not it's an evil monopoly

[fireside]

Originally posted by wibs:
being the only company to offer a service gives them a monopoly by default on that service. a better argument would be whether or not it's an evil monopoly

which i dont think so, considering they aren't inhibiting anyone else from releasing their own products.

BUT, they are monopolizing the theme formats by making guiKits a closed format, and since everyone is using guiKits, its not really their fault. it is their fault that they aren't making the guiKits an open format, but its not their fault the guiKits are a monopolized theme format.

[NetworkShadow]

Holy crap, not this again!

Calling Unsanity a monopoly is the dumbest thing anyone could say about it. Jason rocks, so don't go dissing SS. I'm going to try and say neutral if "Xtender" ever does get finished, I'll be willing to give it a try, even though the public beta was lame. I'm very happy with SS now and it's only getting better.

Edit: the guiKit format isn't made to monopolize the theme formats, it's made as an improvement to theme formats. Even if it was an open format I don't think things would be any different right now...

[kwyjiboy]

Originally posted by Link:
I was hoping they'd end the era of the monopolist company that distributes crap shareware and tried to take over the theme market

Where is the asshat icon?

[Lateralus]

Originally posted by kwyjiboy:
Where is the asshat icon?

No asshat icon. Got an asshat picture though.

[Jaey]

Originally posted by NetworkShadow:
I'm going to try and say neutral if "Xtender" ever does get finished, I'll be willing to give it a try, even though the public beta was lame. I'm very happy with SS now and it's only getting better.

I have to agree. The public beta was awful, but we may be pleasantly surprised when it's done. Who knows?

[deej5871]

Finally, people speaking with some sense. In earlier threads all people would say is that it would never happen and that it sucks and they wouldn't even accept the remote possibility of it actually becoming a reality (XTender that is). Now, I do realize that this is simply more evidence against Carpe Stellarem, since it was supposed to come out in late March (or so I thought), but who knows? It could still happen.

[wibs]

deej, i'll be right there with everyone trying it out when (if) we ever get a chance to. i don't consider that "public beta" to really be a chance at trying it out, and I think the odds of there being a better chance sometime in the future to be somewhere in the 50/50 range. the odds of it being enough for me to switch away from ShapeShifter/ThemePark, which I'm already very familiar and comfortable with, and really, really small. add those all together and you get about 3 strikes.

networkshadow, like it or not but ShapeShifter does have an effective monopoly on theming. do you want the latest aluminum alloy, or any one of any other theme (good or bad) released within the past half year? do you not have shapeshifter? bummer, you're out of luck.

personally I think Unsanity is a great company, and they make great products, and jason is a great guy who cares about his customers. but all of that is completely irrelevant to whether or not they have a monopoly. it's not something I mind very much (see above about it being a great company and all), but it's the truth.

[Mike S.]

I can't help but wonder if anybody would be using the term monopoly if the GUIkit format were just as it is right now but ShapeShifter were freeware.

I don't think anybody would.

[:dragonflypro:]

Originally posted by Mike S.:
I can't help but wonder if anybody would be using the term monopoly if the GUIkit format were just as it is right now but ShapeShifter were freeware.

I don't think anybody would.

true enough.

Some people just seem to get 'way bent' if anyone anywhere makes money off of software.

Fact it, many have tried (many times) and SS is the only one to deliver. That does not make them a monopoly, it makes them the only ones to succeed.

Open source is a great idea for many aspects... all software being free is just plain silly.

T

P.S. I really don't ever remember anyone accusing Kaleidoscope of being a 'Monopoly'

[fireside]

Originally posted by Mike S.:
I can't help but wonder if anybody would be using the term monopoly if the GUIkit format were just as it is right now but ShapeShifter were freeware.

I don't think anybody would.

even if ShapeShifter was free, Unsanity would still be monopolizing the themeswitching market. they're the only ones providing a service, which by default makes them a monopoly.

http://m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?bo...poly&x=15&y=15

[Mike S.]

Originally posted by fireside:
even if ShapeShifter was free, Unsanity would still be monopolizing the themeswitching market. they're the only ones providing a service, which by default makes them a monopoly.

I still fail to see how they can be viewed as a monopoly. Scratch that, I can see how they're being viewed this way and maybe they are a monopoly but monopolies are not inherently bad. They can in fact be good, it really depends on how they act in that position.

Here is how it came to be by my recollection:

There was an emerging Mac OS X themes community that was completely free, there were few tools to help create themes and using themes required users to manually swap some key files with modified versions.

Eventually things improved, somebody created software for switching themes. This software was criticized for often not working properly or being buggy. A second theme switcher app came along, this one is much simpler and faster. It gains favor. Theme development software was being developed.

Things were going pretty well for themes but there was trouble, Apple was making a lot of changes under the hood and this was making an already difficult job more difficult and less rewarding for those brave souls that actually make themes (and give them away freely) for everybody else's enjoyment.

Bottom line, theme developers were not happy campers. They're getting sick of Apple's changes forcing them to rework their designs or outright limiting what they can do. Some considered giving it up all together.

Enter Unsanity with ShapeShifter, a product designed to meet the needs of theme developers as well as make take the "destructive" element out of theme switching. I myself had experienced old style themes gone bad and the negative effects it had my system installation. It sucked.

The theme developers now have a higher quality, evolving canvas to work on and theme users have a safe method by which to enjoy themes.

Progress comes at a price but it's not an exorbitant price, $20 is very reasonable especially when you consider the upgrade policy.

It would seem that the big problem you have is with the GUIkit format, which is not open but what do you expect to get from an open GUIkit format? A free theme switcher? Based on what I've read ShapeShifter is not simply a theme switcher, it's a theme enabler. More and more of what ShapeShifter allows is simply not possible without it being there so much of the data inside the GUIkit file (which is just a bunch of common graphics files if I'm not mistaken) are completely unusable or ignored by OS X on it's own.

I seem to recall reading that ThemePark is able to take a GUIkit and export it's resources into the older theme format(s) so it's not like the GUIkit is a sealed drum unless the theme developers want it to be, in which case that's their right as artists to request.

If ShapeShifter has a monopoly then it's clearly not an abusive monopoly but a positive one. It's made theme makers happy, it given theme users a safe switching method and it will eventually make many kinds of new looks possible that Apple would never allow on their own.

In return, all they ask for is a one time payment of $20. The cost of a couple of pizzas or a value video game. Is this really so bad?

In conclusion, ShapeShifter is not the only program providing theme changing abilities because Unsanity played dirty they're the only ones providing it because everybody decided that they had the best product and stopped using the others. Heck, development pretty much stopped on the others. Monopolies are given, not taken. If somebody comes along and provides a better product than ShapeShifter then their monopoly would be gone but thus far nobody has done so.

[NetworkShadow]

Originally posted by fireside:
even if ShapeShifter was free, Unsanity would still be monopolizing the themeswitching market. they're the only ones providing a service, which by default makes them a monopoly.

http://m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?bo...poly&x=15&y=15

The only reason it's a monopoly is because there are no worthwhile alternatives, and that's not Unsanity's fault beyond making a quality peace of software. There's nothing stopping anyone from making software to compete and I don't see that as a problem because Jason isn't in it for the money, he's making the best software he can because that's what he loves to do.

[wibs]

Originally posted by fireside:
even if ShapeShifter was free, Unsanity would still be monopolizing the themeswitching market. they're the only ones providing a service, which by default makes them a monopoly.

http://m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?bo...poly&x=15&y=15

Exactly. You guys are getting all upset that we'd dare say ShapeShifter has a monopoly, while that is just the label used to define it. We (or at least I), agree that it only has the monopoly because it is the best and managed to kill its competition through being a better product despite costing money. Everyone is getting caught up on the label while agreeing on the substance. I can't believe I'm even still posting in this thread.

[fireside]

im not saying that Unsanity's monopoly is an evil monopoly like Microsoft's or DeBeers. never ONCE did i say this in this thread. but they ARE a monopoly, wether you agree with it or not. they are NOT an "evil" monopoly at all.

not all monopolies are evil, so you guys need to stop thinking that a monopoly automatically equals a bad thing.

[JoE950]

monopoly is the best game ever!

[deej5871]

Seriously Mike, no one ever said ShapeShifter was bad (so you didn't need to go off on a tangent about how they are so good)..they just said it was a monopoly, which is true. When you have near no competition, you ARE a monopoly.

[Mike S.]

Originally posted by deej5871:
Seriously Mike, no one ever said ShapeShifter was bad (so you didn't need to go off on a tangent about how they are so good)..they just said it was a monopoly, which is true. When you have near no competition, you ARE a monopoly.

I wasn't trying to extoll the virtues of ShapeShifter; I don't even use it since I'm still on Jaguar.

I was simply illustrating that they became a monopoly through legitimate means, by offering a vastly superior product that nobody has yet to surpass or even attempt to compete with.

I felt it was necessary to take that route because nobody complains about monopolies unless they have a problem with them and I just don't see why people have a problem with ShapeShifter.

[wibs]

Originally posted by Mike S.:
I just don't see why people have a problem with ShapeShifter.

have you even read anything anyone has been saying?

[Mike S.]

Originally posted by wibs:
have you even read anything anyone has been saying?

I'm replying so obviously I have but have you read anything I've been saying?

The big issue seems to be with the closed nature of GUIkit but as my long post pointed out many of the resources in there are worthless without ShapeShifter to apply them so what difference does it make whether it's open or not?

[Hi I'm Mike]

the milkman, the paperboy, the evening t.v.!







full house!

[Caesar2099]

Originally posted by fireside:
not all monopolies are evil, so you guys need to stop thinking that a monopoly automatically equals a bad thing.

but why mention it at all?

It's like calling someone a communist pig, then saying "sorry, I meant communist in a good way"

So by your logic I can call you a moronic genious

[Link]

Originally posted by NetworkShadow:
The only reason it's a monopoly is because there are no worthwhile alternatives, and that's not Unsanity's fault beyond making a quality peace of software. There's nothing stopping anyone from making software to compete and I don't see that as a problem because Jason isn't in it for the money, he's making the best software he can because that's what he loves to do.

How many people did jason pay to trash xtender and praise SS is what I'd love to know.

That's about it. Yeah it's not their fault that they're a monopoly but I see tons of people here NOT interested in encouraging people to make better competition. That's much like another company coming up and making an OS every bit as good as apple's but with an open GUI and you peeps bashing it. Calm down already

Admittedly I haven't seen the Xtender PB and I feel bad that the creators had to release it without any themes at all but I would like to see it hit the market.

[dru]

Originally posted by :dragonflypro::
P.S. I really don't ever remember anyone accusing Kaleidoscope of being a 'Monopoly'

Actually, Kaleidoscope didn't time out, it just annoyed you to register (which I did along with four or five Unsanity products). You were never prevented from trying new releases and some schemers also supported competing products (Themes, Niji/OneStep) at least until those competing products ceased development.

Shapesh!ter not only times out you CANNOT try any later versions. So for those of us who were skeptical or unhappy with the first release and did not register immediately now cannot try any later release for compatibility or funcationality since it always says the demo period has expired. That is RIDICULOUS. Some have falsely claimed new releases reset the demo period but they do not, they always have not.

Fact is Unsanity went all out to recruit themers for the secret format before it was released. Now that those themers are owned, you don't see any other format supported do you? Even for themes that don't take special advantage of SS "features". As a result, .DLTA is dead.

They've acted like a monopoly undermining the open standard format and stardardized theme format creation efforts of the past, the .GuiKit format is closed and proprietary, you can't convert out of the format to .DLTA without SS and you can't just try SS again if you ever, ever once did.

[Link]

^ My feelings exactly. Maybe we should set up a shop of themes and bring DLTA back to life

BTW: Just as a last comment.. I've been using themes (and still do) since they were first introduced back in the 10.1 days, and have NEVER ONCE had a problem with using dlta themes, and even when I edit/hack the normal aqua one themepark/themechanger/duality work great for me.. no probs.

In fact I've found them to be safer and less prone to bugs than some other theme 'enablers'. But that's just my experience - don't take my word for it.

[NetworkShadow]

Originally posted by Caesar2099:
but why mention it at all?

It's like calling someone a communist pig, then saying "sorry, I meant communist in a good way"

So by your logic I can call you a moronic genious

I like your logic.

[quandarry]

Originally posted by PowerMacMan:
Shut up you idiot.

so you fall for a trollite and leave yourself open for an abuse report.

smart move...

[wibs]

Originally posted by dru
Fact is Unsanity went all out to recruit themers for the secret format before it was released. Now that those themers are owned, you don't see any other format supported do you? Even for themes that don't take special advantage of SS "features". As a result, .DLTA is dead.

Just a drop in the bucket, I know... but due to requests Latium 2 is available in DLTA. that's a theme that actually requires some SS features though, heh.

I see 2 reasons to not offer themes in DLTA: first is bandwidth and web space. But with mirrors available, even that means nothing... and really if you're worried about the bandwidth hit from people downloading your theme in one format, why offer it in any format at all? Hell, it takes 3 seconds to export in DLTA format. If people are willing to put up with its inadequacies, I say go for it.

So really there's only 1 reason not to offer DLTA: there number of people using ThemeChanger is pretty damn small.

The DLTA versions of Latium 2 have accounted for roughly 0.24% of DigitalRamen's bandwidth this month. The guikit has accounted for 65%, and even the dated Latium 1.2 racked up 28%. Granted the guikits come in .dmgs that also include desktops and other extras, but those don't come anywhere close to negating the difference between 0.24% and 65%. Even the latium 2 private betas managed about 0.5% of the monthly bandwidth... and let's not forget about InterfaceLIFT's download mirror, which has probably tacked on a bit more for the guikit. Just something to keep in mind when saying that themers don't offer themes in DLTA - it's not because they're just trying to support ShapeShifter, it's that there isn't really any other audience.

Keep in mind I'm not pretending these numbers are scientific, and for a more mainstream theme there might be a different breakdown percentage-wise. I'd be interested in seeing, say, Max's stats for a theme that does not require SS features and is offered in both DLTA and guikit. How about it max, a little experiment?

[huggeebear]

hmmm, I have to say, I agree with much of what dru is talking about... i do wish the guikit format were open....the price of a couple of pzzas...never thought of it that way..but..as to wether or not its a 'fact' that unsanity 'bought off' the leading themers in the market i'll leave that up to you ...

[flamingmoe]

Originally posted by quandarry:
so you fall for a trollite and leave yourself open for an abuse report.

smart move...

wow, you got offended from his comment? so much that you wanted to report abuse?

must be thin-skinned boy. no wonder youre too afraid to release your themes.

[Holigen]

So I see we have some SS fanboys here and some SS bashers. Looks pretty even to me...

Just kidding, but really, I payed for SS, its just 20 bucks. You should get used to paying a lot of cash for computers if youre on a Mac.

[NetworkShadow]

Might I remind everyone that .dlta is dead because of Panther not just SS. The metal window and text color limitations were almost enough to keep people from themeing all together when Panther first came out... No sense in crying over an obsolete format if you ask me. Resource swapping themeing are long dead, and good-riddance SS is something we've really needed ever since OS X came out.

[Rosyna]

I've seen the openness, or lack thereof, of the guiKit format come up a lot in this forum. I have to wonder, what exactly does anyone think would change (for good) in the world if the guikit format was open?

[Holigen]

^^
Exactly

[Lateralus]

Originally posted by quandarry:
so you fall for a trollite and leave yourself open for an abuse report.

smart move...

Hahahaha... Hahahaha...

Whatever you say mini-mod.

[Sage]

Originally posted by Rosyna:
I've seen the openness, or lack thereof, of the guiKit format come up a lot in this forum. I have to wonder, what exactly does anyone think would change (for good) in the world if the guikit format was open?

I have to ask the same thing. I haven't seen anybody put up a really good reason as to how we'll benefit from the guiKit format being totally open... if that probably ever happened, I'd reckon 99% of the people on this board would go "Oh, that's nice", and move on uninterrupted. Open source is nice and all, but it's not always the best thing. And given Unsanity's excellent track record, I'm sure they know what they're doing.

[Luca Rescigno]

I usually don't pay for shareware... in the case of ShapeShifter though, it has definitely been worth the $20. I use themes 100% of the time. I rarely revert back to Aqua. I just get bored with one and switch to another periodically. Right now I'm using BBX Mercury, but there are a ton of themes by Swiz and Max and many others that I love.

Oh and Quandarry... why bother reporting abuse of someone else? If someone attacks you, I guess you have the right to, but no one got on your case until you decided to threaten PMM for calling Link an idiot. Besides, why don't you show some balls instead of just wimping out and calling the mods on someone who you think is being mean? Another thing... that exchange happened quite a while ago. Why bring it up days later?

[quandarry]

Originally posted by flamingmoe:
wow, you got offended from his comment? so much that you wanted to report abuse?

must be thin-skinned boy. no wonder youre too afraid to release your themes.

wow! three posts and you attack me with each one.

so i deduce you signed up with this nic just to chase after me.

jeez...i hope you don't masturbate thinking of me...i know you like me but...

[Holigen]

Beats the crap out of me, Luca

[quandarry]

Originally posted by Luca Rescigno:

Oh and Quandarry... why bother reporting abuse of someone else? If someone attacks you, I guess you have the right to, but no one got on your case until you decided to threaten PMM for calling Link an idiot. Besides, why don't you show some balls instead of just wimping out and calling the mods on someone who you think is being mean? Another thing... that exchange happened quite a while ago. Why bring it up days later?

did i say i reported any abuse? ...did i threaten anyone?

no...

i said he left himself open.

jeeze you guys really make me lose faith in the educational system.

Originally posted by Luca Rescigno:
that exchange happened quite a while ago. Why bring it up days later?

well...let me see now...darn it!...i forget.