ModStomp - Games & Gadgets & Stuff! » Computers

Office 2007 Color Schemes / Themes

Rudeboy — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 18:14:39 +0000

In an effort to keep all us little monkeys up-to-date, we were all just upgraded to Office 2007 here at work and the first thing I noticed was the nasty default “toothpaste” color scheme. Don’t get me wrong… blue is one of my favorite colors, but that shade was just plain offensive. And so I proceeded to search for the “Themes” option to make a quick update. Unfortunately though, Office 2007 is different enough that even if my very existence had depended on it updating the color scheme, I wouldn’t have been able to locate where to make the change. Luckily for you though, I’ve now located this elusive option and I now share this information with you (it’s much easier than I was making it).

First, open any Office 2007 application (besides Outlook) and click on the nifty new “Office Orb” in the upper left-hand corner.

Second, at the bottom of the menu that appears, click on “-application name- Options” (where -application name- equals the app you happen to have open).

Third, on the default “Popular” tab of the new options window, select your color scheme from the drop down menu on the right. Please note that this option changes the color for all Office 07 apps so you can’t set each to a separate color scheme.

There you go. That’s it! You can choose from one of the follow schemes so hopefully you can find one that works with your windows theme. I’m just glad to be rid of “Zesty Cresty Blue”.

More Steampunk Goodness

Rudeboy — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 23:20:16 +0000

Someday I’ll have the time (but never the creativity) to build something like this. I’m not sure what it is that draws me to these steampunk creations, but they touch a special place in my nerdy little heart. Anyway… check out the entire Gizmodo gallery here.

The Sad State of Smartphone Software

Zarch — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 02:49:31 +0000

I was going through my blogs today and stumbled on a note from the guys at Smartphone Thoughts. I like these guys, but again, it was a plug for a piece of software they hadn’t tried, in the vein of “looks kinda neat – anyone try it?”. This brought me over to the best-seller list on their site, where the current top dog is a clock program. Yeah, a freaking clock program.

So what’s going on here? We’ve got a reasonably powerful device with web connectivity, and a clock is the best we can come up? Surely the other top sellers will be better. Let’s see; we’ve got a mediocre home screen customizer with really tiny Windows 95-style graphics. There’s CorePlayer, which is decent, but it used to be free (back when it was still TCPMP). There’s a tweaking app which makes tweaks to the registry for you and may have some other useful features. Next is a notes management app, and then ANOTHER STUPID CLOCK.

I can’t put money down for this stuff, especially when I see some very nice free apps on the market. Google Maps is very well executed. Windows Live Search is very functional and simple to use. Yahoo! Go is a pretty good piece of software, too; a little slow, but it’s a beta still. These are all free.

Where are the professional, useful applications? Where are the real developers hiding?

What about all the wonderful Web 2.0 (forgive me) web apps available? I’m talking about Google Docs, Mint.com, and similar. Where are useful apps like those in a portable format? So far the only strides have been online versions of Gmail and Google Reader ( and a few others). Where is the creativity? Where’s a blog tool that supports WordPress? Where’s an IM tool that works? Where’s a real replacement for Microsoft Reader (MobiPocket really sucks)? Nah, we don’t need that; we need a ringtone manager or seven different weather apps.

Here’s my point, in case I haven’t hammered it in enough. Before developing another alarm clock or home screen plugin, step back and see what would REALLY be cool. Until then, I suppose we could always take our agendas to the eXtreme.

Zarch’s Network Closet

Zarch — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 20:05:41 +0000

I took the opportunity to upgrade my Smoothwall to the new version 3 last night, and took some pictures of my “network closet”. I think this serves as an example of how NOT to EVER treat the heart of your home’s connectivity. My network closet is currently just an area of my unfinished basement with a little table set up to hold everything. There’s a big, ancient, 3Com switch, a smaller gigabit switch, my cable modem, my trusty Asus wireless AP, and the router for my VoIP service. Note the huge power strip on the floor, right next to my water heater.

So last night’s project brought up a unique case of jury-rigging. The little Compaq thing I’m using for the Smoothwall used a laptop CD drive, which has gone bad. The power connector wasn’t a standard Molex, and I could not find a splitter anywhere. My power supply supplies have suffered severe losses, so I couldn’t do a dual power supply thing. Luckily, I found a fix.

In my rummaging, I turned up an unused USB-IDE hard drive case. I stole the power from that and plugged the IDE in from the Smoothwall box, and was able to make the upgrade from there. Ugly, but workable.

So how’s Smoothwall 3? It’s a decent upgrade, actually. I wouldn’t run and upgrade if you’ve got a good system going, but the built-in QoS should help when I’m trying to torrent and make a phone call at the same time, and there are many more configuration options right in the GUI. I’d say consider it if you’re needing a little extra bandwidth management or switching from a store-bought router/firewall.

Zarch’s Gear: A New Series About My Stuff

Zarch — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 03:28:46 +0000

I thought it might be of interest to post about the gadgets that accompany me in my day to day life. I’m a gadget whore, you might say, always looking for another fix of the latest crap that comes out. That’s why the stuff that sticks around might provide some interest: if a device survives my gadget churn for any length of time, there must be something pretty good about it. I might also mention the gear that didn’t pass, that got cycled out quickly, just for contrast. So watch for the new posts, starting with one later tonight.

Forget Emulation… I Want This!!!

Rudeboy — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 20:35:24 +0000

Not sure about the details surrounding this thing, but all I can say is WOW! One might argue that this baby is a few years late to the scene, but that didn’t stop one intrepid modder from creating a thing of dreams (from about 15 years ago). I mean… how often did you used to wish that your Gameboy could do just a little more as you played yet another round of monochrome Tetris?

Another Mouse to Ponder

Zarch — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 03:17:00 +0000

And this one is the sexiest so far, at least from this angle. engadget has the goods on this one; looks like it’s got its own proprietary wireless signal, so they’re thinking there will be no lag. Also, they’ve got a couple of variants, one straight optical, and one laser. The optical mouse they’re aiming at FPS guys; no macros, no weird crap, and an ultra-reliable optical sensor should be just the ticket. For you MMO people, the laser variant does have macros, which are evidently “remembered” by the mouse without the need for drivers (once they’ve been set up). So this one appeals to me; the design is clean and functional without a lot of “styling”; think a nicely stealthed BMW 5-series compared to a hopped-up Eclipse. It’s got two side buttons, which ought to appeal to Rudeboy. Here’s a link to their press release and another to their home.

New Contender in the Mouse Debates

Zarch — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 20:29:23 +0000

Rudeboy and I have different taste in mice, but we share one thing: a fancy mouse won’t buy you any extra frags. Now, granted, you’re not going to get a lot of kills if you’re playing with your laptop’s trackpad or little eraser-thingy pointer. But I’ve almost always been happy with an ancient two-button optical from Logitech (recently got a Logitech G7, which is nice, but it is overkill), and Rudeboy’s got an old Intellimouse with side buttons. Microsoft just launched a new Sidewinder, which does look sharp, but it’s going to be pricey and I have my doubts about how useful the LCD really is on a mouse.

Still, a nerd likes to tweak, and this thing seems pretty tweakable. Might be worth a look when the prices come down, neh?

The Dragon Case

Rudeboy — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 05:07:31 +0000

Here’s another slick case from the guys over at Extremetech.com. Apparently they’re having a case mod contest and this was another of the winners (along with Optimus Prime below).

There have been a few wood cases that have popped up over the past couple years, but you can tell that some serious time went into this one. I especially like this particular case because of the custom ninja star fan grills. I mean… who can deny the supreme awesomeness of ninjas? Not me.

Autobots! Let’s…. compute?

Rudeboy — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 20:42:44 +0000

Holy freaking mother of all things nerdy!

I’ve seen a few case mods in my day, but I think this one takes the cake. Not only is it a fantastic representation of our good buddy Optimus, but it’s also one of the largest pc cases I’ve ever seen standing at about 6″10′ when fully assembled (yeah… that’s six feet ten inches) and weighing in at around 125 lbs. And I thought my case was a pain to drag to lan parties. Head on over to ExtremeTech.com to check out several other pics as well as the specs on the machine that keeps the Leader of the Autobots up and running. Just hope he’s got sufficient cooling cause you’d hate to see him freeze up in the middle of a heated battle with Megatron.