Greetings, GalCiv IV fans! Over the last month, we have been hard at work turning out a new update to Galactic Civilizations IV for all of you. v0.45 released last week and focuses primarily on the ideology system. Let's take a look at what we added in the update! Before we get into it, though, please take note that this new update WILL break your saved games - sorry about that! We do our best to maintain game saves because we know how much time goes into them, but the new ideology system cha...
The Internet can be a tricky place to navigate. I talked a little bit about keeping your PC secure in a blog last week, but to be honest I barely scratched the surface when talking about all the different ways hackers and malware are clamoring to get to your personal information. ArsTechnica reported this week that some hackers impersonated the site Brave.com and pushed malware to unsuspecting users. Their technique was so sneaky that the faux site was capable of fooling even the most securit...
We are getting into the final stretches of summer, and I for one am looking forward to fall. We still have some weeks of summer left, so let's take a few minutes and show off those hot August desktops to our community! Post your desktops to the monthly thread here: https://forums.wincustomize.com/506171/ (This is a news thread and will be locked. Screenshot taken by LightStar)
Somewhere around here I have the original image of the Yor from 1992. They don’t resemble the modern Yor very much. When I wrote the Yor origin story back in 1987 (when I was in high school) the Yor followed the common trope of AI servants who rose up against their masters. Their masters, in this case, were a race of beings known as the Iconians (who are also in the game). The Yor of 1995Yor of 2021As time has gone by, I’ve thought about making the Yor be less Cy...
I use CNC and laser engravers in my workshop, so PCs are also a big part of my workshop, not just my office. I have my main PC in my home office, and I have a Fusion5 tablet in my workshop that I use to control the machines. It's a great tablet for running the few applications I need. I previously had a cheap laptop but having a touch screen is so much easier when using these apps. So, my workflow for my shop is that I design the files in my main PC in the home office, then I move them to a O...
We all love a good hacker movie moment, right? The clock is ticking, the success of the mission or survival of the world hangs in the balance, and one lone computer-whiz whips their hands across the keyboard and watches a bunch of scrolling lines on a screen, then - BAM! Database hacked, world saved, let's all go have cake. Hacking in real life is significantly less exciting - usually because, as an average person, we're often on the receiving end of those hacks. If you've ever had a credit c...
Discord has been testing the feature out on Twitter for the last few months or so, but was finally ready to launch its new "threads" feature yesterday. Threads has been a highly-requested update to the chat server, with its community of users looking for a way to make conversations in bustling servers easier to follow. Any server with "community" features enabled will be able to transform messages into threaded conversations on both mobile and desktop. Threads can be designated with their own...
How is that for a dramatic post title? Well, I'm only exaggerating a little as the WindowBlinds gallery has had a considerable number of beautiful skins added over the past few weeks. Some of these are new skins, some are updated, and some are being re-uploaded by "retired" members of the site. It's nice to see a wide range of distinctive styles and colors being used, and it's been fun to combine these themes with various static and animated wallpapers from DeskScapes to create some awesome W...
One of the challenges we have in setting up maps is the question of how quickly should players be meeting other civilizations in the game? How quickly should things show up? How much should the game direct you? I decided to take a hard look at GalCiv II and GalCiv III to see how different those first 20 turns worked out. GalCiv II: First 20 turnsTurn 1: No on-screen direction but the UI is pretty clean and My ship is already selected to move.Selected ship has an automate butto...
Major Version Update for Fences Now AvailableStardock released a major update to Fences, its popular Windows desktop organization software, today. Fences creates a one-of-a-kind experience for users by automatically organizing their Windows desktop shortcuts and icons in shaded areas, offering a clutter-free workspace for creating. Fences tucks files and folders away in plain sight with designated portals while also providing the functionality of pull...
In a world of media streaming, does Acoustic Bridge have a place anymore? I decided to play around with the program a bit and see some of the advantages it offered over streaming music directly to a device via an app like Spotify or YouTube. I admit, in general I tend to stream things from my phone and hook it up to external speakers either via bluetooth or an AV cable, so I wasn’t sure if I would be interested in anything Acoustic Bridge could do for me. Although I grab most of my m...
The Public Beta for DeskScapes 11 is Now Available Popular desktop background management application brings animated background creation, cloud wallpaper library integration, and moreBuy from Stardock | Buy from SteamBack in May, DeskScapes 11 arrived as a beta exclusive to the Object Desktop suite. Now, the beta for this popular desktop customization app is publicly available to everyone. DeskScapes allows users to manage and apply both animated and traditional desktop ...
Have you ever been hit with a copyright strike on Twitch over the music you were playing on your stream? Even if you haven't been there personally, you've probably heard the discussions that have been floating around for over a year now. Recently, a developer has come up with a clever workaround for gamers who want to play copyrighted music while they stream. The SpotifySynchronizer extension, created by Twitch developer Peter Frydenlund Madsen (AKA Peueno0) does pretty much exactly as its...
Major Version Update for Fences Coming on July 22ndStardock announced a July 22nd release for a major update to Fences, its popular Windows desktop organization software. Fences creates a one-of-a-kind experience for users by automatically organizing their Windows desktop shortcuts and icons in shaded areas, offering a clutter-free workspace for creating. Fences tucks files and folders away in plain sight with designated portals while also providing t...
Since the DeskScapes 11 beta has been out for a few weeks, along with the release on Steam, I wanted to show off some more of the dynamic wallpapers we have for DeskScapes. These are dynamic wallpapers that will change based on the time of day to give your desktop a fun, changing background throughout the day! Here are some of our favorites, and you can find many more in the DeskScapes gallery here! Beach Time Outset Island Throughout the Day Mountain Vi...