Wife tasked me to make a desktop theme to go with her favorite show, The Mark&Lynda podcast.. doing some mockup ideas..

With recent visits of the old guard of skinning, I once again wanted to offer the opportunity for folks to post about their first skin, what got them in to skinning, any interesting skinning related story that they might remember or even a short biography of their skinning life.

Pictures if yas have any, are welcome additions but not necessary.

I'll start.

1997 I find this interesting program called SimpleStep to customize my desktop.. I download it and even tho it was in it's beta stages I saw it had potential.. I poke around and fix the task manager that was having issues, then repackage it and ship it off to it's creator Lonerunnr. He emails me back asking for my phone number. * interestingly enough it is during our first phone call he asked what my handle was. I said I did not have one, so he gave me the handle PhenomTT*.  For the next dozen months or so we collaborate, bouncing ideas etc..

Just before the freshly renamed LiteSTEP 1.0 ß23d is released he asks me if I could take over the project as he had other Ideas on the back burners he needed to have a go at. Me with a new baby in the house and trying to start my own business I could not take on such a responsibility, but said I would stick around helping the new development team as a beta tester and help out where I could.. Francis agreed and told me my handle would be an everlasting part the LiteSTEP Development team, to this day I am the only beta tester ever to be listed in the original LS development team..

I suggest we offer the source code to the masses. Francis states he wants the project to live on and grow without being watered down and disseminated, So we come up with the idea of releasing it under a GNU GPL with the stipulation.

Please, do not distribute modified versions on your own or we will end up with a big mess. 
If you have made modifications that you would like to see in the released package, contact the Litestep project coordinator and 
submit your work. You may also join the Litestep development team, we welcome everybody who is motivated.

I hung around for almost another year and helped with stuff like wharfs etc. and thus made my very first skin..
 

Made sometime early 1998 for LStaskman.. yeh is not much to look at. but back then I was so stoked..


I would love to hear other stories of how folks got in to skinning, as well as if possible see your first Diamond in the rough..

Would also love to hear again how Brad and the guys started off and built the skinning Empire we all know to be Stardock.. [e digicons]:thumbsup:[/e]  

 
Cheers..

I recently had my home button stop working. I have barely had my ipod 4th gen over a year and took great lengths to take excellent care of it, Never dropped it etc. I thought I had possibly just wore it out and would need to upgrade..

After some research I found out that it was not broken but merely that a tiny and I mean tiny shim placed between the internal switch and the one we push fell off. This tiny little plastic shim is glued on to the top of the internal switch and after so long falls off leaving the home button un-useable..

Now one could take the ipod in to apple they will sell you another for $100-$150 depending on generation etc..Then take your Ipod send it to their repair center, glue a new shim on to your old ipod, re-package and resell it..

wow talk about making free money..reselling an Ipod possibly 2-3 times at a profit sounds dam sweet.. to them..

I opted to look up how to repair the home button and do it my self.. there's plenty of videos on youtube detailing exactly how to fix it your self and save a hundred bucks or so..

In short you warm up the ipod slightly with a Hair dryer or setting it in the sun for a few minutes just enough to warm the adhesive up under the glass screen. Then gently slide a thin sturdy piece of plastic under the glass around the edges to break the hold of the adhesive and lift the screen out. ( on fourth gen Ipods you need to lift the glass from the bottom by the home button as there is a clip under the top portion that hang's up and will break the screen if you try to lift from the top) once the bottom is free and you can lift it you would need to swing it up toward the top.

Once open you can see the button sitting on the main board directly below the home button we press which is still attached to the screen..I glued a tiny piece of the tip of a plastic tooth pick to the top of the button with gel type super glue.. let it dry, placed the screen back down on top of the ipod and gently pressed the edges of it to reseal it to the ipod.. and boom.. I now have a working home button again....

IMo apple could have easily made the button we press with a nib on the bottom to actuate the internal switch we press that would have possibly outlasted the ipod it's self.. But then reselling an Ipod you paid them to take and fix would seem much more profitable..

My new Asus laptop came with windows 8, the start screen was annoying and the desktop had no way to easily navigate to my favorite files and programs. So i decided to give Start 8 a try... works like a charm, no hassle set up and easy to configure. Yay!! my start buttons back !!. Thx Guys :) [e digicons]:thumbsup:[/e]

I hope everyone had a great holiday.. [e digicons]5*[/e] [e digicons]:star:[/e]

Here's a little video I found that made mine a bit more hilarious..

[video]http://youtu.be/bvWud0HaC3M[/video]

I liked the old OD game.. was fun lil addition that offered a peek in to the fun people behind the scenes.  I had hoped the pictures would be updated over the years tho...

I was recently messing with a few old Litestep themes and ran across these..

My first skins,

    made some time in early 1998?.. the Backgrounds were made for a Module named Lstaskman v1.2..

Not much to look at considering.. but ahh the memories..

Do you remember your first skin? Post pix if u dare.. hehe  [e digicons];)[/e]

The devs at L.S. have assembled a new site for the Steppers in the community. After the demise of the old site Acidfire,The-Golem,Alur,Tobbe and Rootrider. have managed to assemble a new site for us steppers. Feel free to drop on in and poke about, Sounds like lots of interesting stuff is in the future..  [e digicons]:thumbsup:[/e]

Litestep.info

Way back when dinosaurs roamed the continent Pangaea, hatched a zebra striped skinning crusader, He started out with sticks and mud then eventually moved his way up to caves and berries.  "nahw yeu know why thos cave drawrings r so hard to decypher".. [e digicons]:w00t:[/e] and has been pluggin at it ever since..

Happy Birthday old friend, I hope today brings only the best for ya. :)

HG :)

As of lately I'm starting to get annoyed with my cellphone insurance carrier.

Let me explain, I bought 2 years ago a LG dare. I lost it while at work last year, so I had the MRS call the insurance carrier for my Phone to get me a replacement.  " I was currently working out of state and  had no access to the insurance carriers number much less a phone to call them, I had to borrow a co workers phone to Call the Mrs" they tell her the Dare was discontinued and told her If I did not like the LG voyager "downgrade" of a phone they sent me I could call them up and get a LG chocolate3 touch instead. 

Next day the Voyager shows up at my room, external broken screen and all. I call them using the internal screen and buttons telling them the phone was received broken, after about 20 min of doing tech support stuff to try and fix the messed up external screen, I tell the lady that I would prefer the Chocolate touch screen promised to the Mrs if I did not like this phone, she said sorry this is no longer a warranty issue and is now a tech issue and she could no longer send me a chocolate replacement. I was livid.. the next day the replacement voyager shows..

I use this one unhappily for almost a year until the charging port decides to fall off. The mrs uses thier online claims service and another busted voyager is sent, I call them back today and say " this is the 3rd Voyager in a year, Can I now get the chocolate 3 you promised last year?" She says I'm sorry sir but I only show you getting 2 of the LG under the Tech side of ur warranty and will have to have 3 returned phones before we can switch you to another make of phone.  I am spitting nails at this point. I realize at this point if this phone coming works I will be stuck with the crappy thing forever.

They downgrade me to a 2 megapxl camera phone with no 3.5mm head phone jack on which none of my peripherals work, "Car charger,Usb cable,custom noise reducing headphones with Call capability. From a 3.1 megapxl multi media phone, and are seemingly making me go thru their entire stock of broken voyagers before I can get something comparable to my old dare.

Im really feeling ripped off at this point..

Yes I could go and sign another contract and get a new smart phone etc. but It's not the point.. If that's the only way to get another phone comparable to what I had before then why buy the stupid insurance?

Any one else have issues with their Phone insurance carrier?