Run Tablet PC Energy Blue theme on your XP box

Windows XP (Tablet 2005) Energy Blue Theme - cropped from 1280x1024
Posted by Hello

A neat find - this theme is meant for Windows XP Tablet Edition 2005, and the installer will prevent you from installing it on your desktop (or laptop) running standard XP. But, it's possible to get the theme running anyway.

Here's how (it's easy):

1. Download the theme from Microsoft (click to download)
2. Use a program like WinRAR to extract the contents of the self-extracting archive to a folder. WinZip may be able to do this too.
3. Re-create the file structure shown here. Create a new folder with the name 'Themes'. Inside it, create another folder with the name 'Royale'. Inside 'Royale' create two folders: 'Shell' and 'Wallpaper'. Inside 'Shell' create four folders: 'Homestead', 'Royale', 'Metallic', and 'NormalColor'.
4. Now move a few files you extracted in step 2. Take 'royale.theme' and drop it in the 'Themes' folder. Move 'royale.msstyles' into the 'Royale' folder. Next, take 'energybliss.jpg' and put it in the 'Wallpaper' folder. Finally, take 'shellstyle.dll' and copy it into each of the 4 folders you made in the 'Shell' directory.
   Update: It appears that the shellstyle.dll part is unnecessary as it doesn't actually change anything from the standard Luna skin. From what I've read, this version of the skin's shellstyle.dll is the same as stock XP's, so Common Tasks in folders won't look any different.
5. Now, open C:\Windows\Resources and move the 'Themes' folder (it contains 7 files and 7 folders) into it. Click yes to any prompts you get.
6. Go ahead and delete the other files you extracted.
7. Right-click your desktop and choose "Energy Blue" from the Theme dropdown box on the Themes tab.

There are entire sites dedicated to styling up Windows how you like. I never got into that, but I like this theme and am glad I stumbled across it.

Greater than the sum of its parts, for sure

Get suckered into buying a family pack of ice cream bars? Is the box sitting in your freezer 3/4 full because you got tired of them after a week?

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Meh ==> Yum
Posted by Hello

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Then try this: toss ice cream bars (scrape them off the stick) and sandwiches into a blender with a splash of milk and a few ice cubes, hit blend, and then enjoy a nifty milkshake. The ice is needed to thicken things, and you may consider adding some hershey's syrup to counteract the over-sweetness of most ice cream sandwiches/bars. And I like to toss in some chocolate chips for good measure.

Tune in next week to put those perishables to good use in the tasty Sour Cream Cheese Grilled Sandwich (mayonnaise optional).

Now Fear This

Today I was going to have Subway for lunch - but the shop is small and the line long and barely moving when I got there (plus the service sucks, so it's not a very attractive proposition to begin with); I would've had nowhere to sit and am not a fan of eating at the office. So, I looked around and ended up at McDonald's (it's been awhile).

Now, the last time I ate a cheeseburger from McDonald's was at least 8 years ago; probably 10. My dad had taken my brother and I out golfing one morning on an executive course and we were done by the early afternoon. So of course my brother and I whined about being hungry and wanting some food; this particular course was near a McDonald's and though at the time I hated the place my dad let my brother choose - so we drove through and I got some double-cheeseburger thing. It almost made me sick - not through food poisoning, but just through flavor. Since then I have not touched any beef from any McDonald's and only in the last year have given their chicken a try when convenience outweighed taste. Or laziness.

So anyways, today I decided to give a burger a shot - and it wasn't bad. Certainly as good as the Burger King junk I had a few weeks ago and the Wendy's/Carl's stuff I barely remember from months ago. Of course it doesn't hold a candle to In-n-Out, but I was truly surprised that the food was decent.

I'm a little scared of these recent discoveries - first that the chicken tastes ok and now that the burger's aren't bad. I've avoided any McDonald's since being a little kid and now..it's..not so bad. And yes, I've read Fast Food Nation, My Year of Meats (a work of fiction based on heavy research - you probably haven't read it but it's a great read) and seen Super Size Me. But having read Michael Fumento's Science Under Siege and being naturally skeptical I am not so quick to join the 'processed food is scary' believers. (Science Under Siege explains, with volumes of citations of research to back it up, how so many things we take for granted as being horribly dangerous to us actually are not)

McDonald's is a far stretch from what I'd call a good meal, but if I'm in a hurry I know I can at least pop in and get something quick.

Every Secret Thing

The other day I actually clicked on one of those BlogSnob blogs that get displayed over on the right under the 'Random blogs' header. BlogSnob randomly displays 2 blogs of other people in the system. It's free; kinda neat. Not a show-stopper by any stretch though, especially because now they toss in an ad every now and then (the guy running it has to make $$ somehow).

Anyways, after clicking through linked sites I came across one mentioning some great book. All I can find now are the reviews linked from that one blog, but I've now picked up Every Secret Thing by Laura Lippman and it's starting out pretty well - it's been awhile since I've read a good mystery. It's gotten good reviews.

If you read the reviews, you'll see this isn't a happy story. I'm already getting a feel for the characters; their lives are all sad but while normally that would disinterest me I'm very much drawn in right now.

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Every Secret Thing - Paperback cover - from Amazon
Posted by Hello

Parking cars

From the Blogger news area is this site with a great, clever premise. People take photos holding up little toy cars to make them look like they're out in traffic, parking, etc. Very cool!

Time for a new phone

I'm switching cell providers - going from Nextel to Verizon. Verizon's getting my business because they have the best coverage of anyone and this phone has to work well enough to replace the landline I dumped.

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v710
Posted by Hello

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And I even have a phone picked out - the v710. But now I'm getting worried - some reviews complain about shoddy crafstmanship and low battery life. I can live with the latter, although I'd hope with light calling it can last for at least 2 days without a charge. But if the phone is going to fall apart on me then I've got a problem. Glancing at the other phones listed on Verizon's site isn't very heartening, I want something with tri-mode support so I can have the best possible change of reception anywhere, but most don't support it. Those that do are ugly or don't have the features I want.

And I'm new enough to the game that I don't know how to find phones that Verizon allows but just doesn't list on their website (I assume there must be phones like this!).

edit: :D Pretty phone..almost don't want to put it in the leather case.

Interesting Series

Warning - (Simple) Math Post

So I came across a series today and had to guess the next term. I did, I think correctly, but in doing so found two different ways of doing so that are fairly different.

Here's the series: 1, 4, 10, 19, 31, ?

It's kind of embarrasing, but the first solution I found was the overly complicated one (it at least matches the next solution on all terms that I checked); writing out 3 lines of numbers makes it easier to see..

01 04 10 19 31 ??
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01 02 03 04 05 06 <--square this row
00 00 01 03 06 10 <--add this row to the one above
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00 01 02 03 04 05 <--the amount by which the row above this increments

So, to get the next term, square 6 and add 10 to it to get 46. Each term is a sum of a square and a member of some common increasing series.

The simple way to move from one term to the next is to add the next multiple of 3. Or, to just say that a_n = 3(n-1) + a_n-1, where n is an integer in (2,∞) and a₁=1.

01 04 10 19 31 ??
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03 06 09 12 15 <--the amount by which the row above this increments

So neither of these is in closed form. The second is the procedure I should've come up with first - it's much simpler. Perhaps later I'll try to see if I can get this to fit into a nice non-recursive formula. Or maybe one of you math/CS smart readers can save me the trouble. ;)