January 24-25, 2004

Monkie Business

Mars Mission: Pic of the Day - It's been a real bum deal hearing how NASA's rover Spirit has been experiencing technical troubles over the last few days. Spirit has communicated with home base on Earth, but little to no data has been transmitted, and much of the info has been "gibberish or sporadic beeps to acknowledge commands from Earth."

While the experts are digging deep into the situation to get things squared away, we did some checking on our own and think we may have come up with a possible cause for the difficulties. We managed to find a somewhat detailed picture and some audio transmission that, while some may find the evidence circumstantial, we feel the information found is rather conclusive.

Feel free to decide for yourself by taking a look at the Photo and listen to the Audio we have on file.

Our best wishes go out to you, Spirit!

January 23, 2004

Icons | Desktops | Community News | On The Net | Bananas

At The Top - Wowzers! We made it through the week. Another Monkie Feat exposing the Toes to the wild web world of virtual reality. Don't worry, that made no sense to me either. But something that makes perfect sense is to wind up the work week with a double trouble dose of fine, fine pixel pleasers with your Friday Pixel Edition. This week you get both Icons and Desktops to round up a grin for that work wearied grin of yours. So let's grab a party hat and get to the funtivities!

P.S. We may be taking the weekend off, but as of now, it is still undecided. We'll keep ya posted!

New GOO!

New Icons - Ooo la la! This set of 3 Icon New Sets is so hot that your GUI appetite will be droolin' with delight! And for dessert, their's more GOO to follow. Let's get started!

Threeland.de - From the amazing hand crafted creations of Marcus Reimann comes his latest icon set titled Last Misfox. This great panel of pixels comes from Marcus' fine collections at Threeland.de and will have your prefs switched in all the right directions for your management information system!

Robert Luciano - If you're a big football fan, then NFL Helmets NFC by Robert Luciano is certain to score a winning touch down for your desktop's every play. This great catalogue covers the football teams in the National Football Conference and will have you all geared up for Superbowl XXXVIII!

MBStuart.com - With the smash success of Apple's iPod younger sibling comes iPod minis by Michael Stuart of MBStuart.com. Michael really cranks out the pixel tuneage with this colorful set of miniature mini's. So true to life, you could almost grab them right of the screen!

New Desktops - As promised, your Wednesday On A Friday Desktop Edition adds a nice tasty piece o' pixel pie to the pixel party. Everybody burp and make room for some tasty selections!

Desktops - Now really, If You Wanna Know how Ed Allen of EA Design manages to consistently produce top notch desktop material, you might just have to ask the pixel master himself. This awesome selection comes from no-less-than-the-best of Ed's mighty fine collections!

Nature - Taking the bite off of the Season's chill is a warm number from William D. Thompson titled Flores. After a reasonable rainy season, the countryside of the high plateau of Mexico erupts in a riot of color with wildflowers. This photo was made at the boy's orphanage in San Miguel de Allende. Awesome stuff!

3-D Rendered - Juergen Eilts explores the nooks and caverns of the Earth with a beautiful underground display called Grotto. One of Juergen's many meticulously made works from ShiftedReality, this one created with Vue 4 Pro brings every spelunker's dream "castle" to life right in the living room of your desktop! Enjoy!!

 

Thanks Department --

Ed, William, Juergen, Robert, Marcus, and Michael...

Absolutely FANTABULOUS work!!!

Keep pumpin' out the pixel perfection!

THANK YOU!!

Have a piece of pixel work you want to display?

Check out our Submissions guidelines and then send it in!

Community News

Mandolux - A great big WOW comes your way from Mandolux! All this week, Mando Gomez has been busy tacking up some mighty fine new desktop selections. Let's grab a look:

Mandolux has issued five new desktops: three Cruising (Abstract/Driving), one ViDRIO Amber (Nature/Ice), and one Morning (Nature/Petal).

The latest addition is an outstanding dual monitor Cruising desktop titled Curtain of Lights - a slow-shutter photograph of a tunnel here in Southern California. Your eyes will be amazed and your desktop will thank you once you make your way to Mandolux and check out all the great new works awaiting!

The Iconfactory - There's all kinds of fun happenin' over yonder at The Iconfactory! To make your Mac and PC happy, Factory Foreman Gedeon Maheux has whipped up a new icon set titled Clipper System 2: Apps. This mighty fine set features 40 cool application icons ready for your desktop and/or dock and offers some bold colors.

Also worth another mention is the up-and-coming Pixelpalooza '04! The icon designing contest promises tons of fun and officially begins at Noon est on Monday, February 2, 2003. So get out your icon brushes and get your best designs ready to enter Pixelpalooza 2004!

On The Net

xScope 1.0.1 - The folks from ARTIS Software and The Iconfactory are pleased as purple pixel punch to announce the release of xScope 1.0.1, the powerful set of tools for designers. xScope assists designers in measuring, aligning and inspecting on-screen graphics and layouts. The software consists of six tools in one including Rulers, Screens, Loupe, Guides, Frames and Crosshair. All of the fine details on the latest update to xScope can be found by making a hop, skip, and a jump over to The Iconfactory and checkin' it out!

Bananas

Just Plain Nutz!

ICE HOLE

There was a competition between a team of blondes and a team of brunettes to see who could catch the most fish ice fishing. Once the contest started, it was clear that the brunettes were going to win -- they kept pulling out fish after fish. Soon, the blondes got worried and sent over one of their team to see what the brunettes were doing differently. A few minutes later, the blonde comes running back.

"A hole! You need to put a hole in the ice!"

BUMPER STICKERS Part II

7. I need somebody bad. Are you bad?

8. Physically pffffffft!

9. Buckle up. It makes it harder for the aliens to snatch you from your car.

10. I'm not a snob. I'm just better than you are.

11. It's my cat's world. I'm just here to open cans.

12. Earth is the insane asylum of the universe.

13. Keep staring...I may do a trick.

14. We got rid of the kids. The cat was allergic.

INKY PIG

Why did the pig have ink all over his face?

Because it came out of the pen.

LITTLE MERMAID

Why did Ariel blush?

Because the sea weed!

January 22, 2004

Monkie News | On The Net | Network News

Monkie News

Tomorrow: New Icons and Desktops - Me thinks the Monkie Man (that would be me) will be out on good behavior from the looney bin, so we can expect him, me, or whoever I am to throw together a nice little batch of both Icons and Desktops together for the Wednesday On A Friday, or whatever we call it, Friday Pixel Edition. Was that a run on sentence, or was that just the state of my mouth? Don't try to figure it out! Just swing back by on Friday for some GUI fun!

On The Net

ShapeShifter 1.1 - Hot diggity dog! The best just got better with Unsanity's release of ShapeShifter 1.1. This way cool GUI tool allows users to easily and safely customize their Mac using themes. The update brings new features, enhancements, and fixes. At a glance:

• The Battery, Clock, and Fast User Switching Menu Extras now use the themed menu colors.
• Safari, iChat, iSync and iPhoto (from iLife '04) now use themed "etched text".
• Added ability to theme Safari's tabs (for tabbed browsing) and Favorite Bar buttons.
• Added ability to customize Finder filename text colors in Icon & Column views.
• And much, MUCH more!

For all the details on the latest improvements on this awesome theme changer, move your mouse over to Unsanity and pickup the latest version of ShapeShifter!

A Better Finder Rename 6.1 - Just while you were thinking "there's got to be a better way," PUBLICSPACE.NET beat you to the punch with the release of A Better Finder Rename 6.1. This great Mac app is an awesome way to rename multiple files in the Finder. The latest version allows files to be renamed based on names in a tab-delimited text file. This allows powerful external tools such as text editors (e.g. BBEdit), spreadsheets (e.g. MS Excel) or databases (e.g. FileMaker) to be used to generate the new names. The update also contains minor bug fixes. Grab your copy of A Better Finder Rename over yonder at PUBLICSPACE.NET!

Network News

the WebWorld - BeanHead

Pondering Platforms - Music is playing a big role in whether people choose Microsoft or Mac. When the choice was simply Operating Systems, Microsoft won out. But now that music preferences are on the line, many more may be switching to Mac. Hewlett-Packard's (HP's) agreement to put iTunes on their PCs was a huge step in switching, and if any more major computer companies follow in HP's footsteps, the entire computer world could take a whole new turn. - from Yahoo

Ain't Nothin' Like The Real Thing - Coca-Cola is definitely not up to par with the real thing when it comes to it's new download service. Their music download website - www.mycokemusic.com - had loads of downtime after it was launched, and only Windows users were able to access it. Coke's problems were very promising for Pepsi, who has signed a deal with Apple to give away 100 million downloads from iTunes. The site is geared toward British customers, and there is no indication of when it will be working consistently. - from Guardian

January 21, 2004

On The Net | Community News | Bananas

At The Top - The guys in the little white jackets finally showed up and hauled the Monkie Man off to the looney bin! Okay, while that doesn't exactly paint the picture of perfection, Mr. Wiles is unavailable to do the ol' GUI pictureoo thing-a-ma-hoo for today's Wednesday Desktop Edition. So, as rumor has at current time, there will be a double shot of GUI Goodness come this Friday with a combined Icon and Desktop good time. There's still a taste of the Wednesday fried up format to grab. So snatch up a chair a grab a snack!

Community News

widget : widget - This Saturday will mark twenty years to the day that the original Macintosh was launched. In order to celebrate this momentous event, widget : widget will be releasing Magnum Opus, an icon set that contains every single piece of Apple hardware ever made. From the Newton to the iPod mini, this is a mammoth set, containing just under 300 icons. This is a MUST-SEE, MUST-HAVE, got-to-get-your-GUI fix for Apple lovers everywhere. So you best get yourself ready for a great GUI feast at widget : widget this Saturday!

The Iconfactory - Just a reminder that the due date for Pixelpalooza is coming up quick! Why, in the blink of a Monkie's eye The Iconfactory will be accepting entries for it's famous icon design contest! The fun starts on February 2, 2004 to be exact. So cruze over and peruze the Pixelpalooza rulze, get to workin' with your best icon tulze and get ready...set...you know where to go! - Bean

On The Net

MaxBulk Mailer 3.1 - Just in from the developers at MAX Programming is news of the maintenance release for MaxBulk Mailer 3.1. This fine app is the ultimate tool for all of your email marketing needs. MaxBulk Mailer allows you to design and send professional looking emails to your customers and prospects directly from your own desktop. The latest update includes several new enhancements and bug fixes. Downloads and details for MaxBulk Mailer can be made by moving your mouse over to MAX Programming. Do it!

Bananas

Just Plain Nutz

BUMPER STICKERS Part I

1. I childproofed my house, but they still get in.

2. On the front- 60 is not old. On the back- If you're a tree.

3. I'm still hot. It just comes in flashes.

4. At my age, "getting lucky" means finding my car in the parking lot.

5. My reality check just bounced.

6. I'm not 50. I'm $49.95 plus tax.

DEM BONES A' RATTLE

Why did the skeleton Burp?

Cause it didn't have the Guts to fart!!!!

MEN VS. WOMEN: ROUND 3

Success

A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend.

A successful woman is one who can find such a man.

Marriage

A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn't.

A man marries a woman expecting that she won't change and she does.

Dressing Up

A woman will dress up to go shopping, water the plants, empty the garbage, answer the phone, read a book, and get the mail.

A man will dress up for weddings and funerals.

Natural

Men wake up as good-looking as they went to bed.

Women somehow deteriorate during the night.

January 20, 2004

Monkie News | Network News

Monkie News

Tomorrow: New Desktops? - Now that's a good question! As mentioned earlier, this week's updates may be a little coconutz due to a hectic schedule behind the scenes. As a result, tomorrow's Wednesday Desktop Edition may be postponed, abbreviated, or perhaps combined with the Friday Icon Edition. In the mean time, feel free to swing by for a peek as other Wednesday news will probably go on as normal. Better yet, put de lime in de coconut and drink it all up...Put de lime in de coconut and swing by in da morning! Yes, the editor has truly lost it!

Network News

the WebWorld - BeanHead

The Many Faces Of The Mac Man - Steve Jobs does not have a split personality, but the Apple CEO does show different faces depending on his audience. You might say he is two-faced in a different sort of way. Among his coworkers we see the stuck up, bold faced big wig who settles for nothing less than the best. But Jobs shows his celebrity face in the public eye, a high tech hero that the rest of us can relate to. Both of Jobs' faces work together to help Apple face the world with superb success. - from Yahoo

It's All In A Name - Teenager Mike Rowe got creative with his domain name when starting his website. He also got in trouble with Microsoft. Rowe thought it would be cool to add "Soft" to the end of his name, making his domain name MikeRoweSoft.com. He soon heard from Microsoft's lawyers, demanding that he give up the name. When asked for compensation, Microsoft offered Rowe a measly ten dollars. In good humor, the seventeen-year-old requested $10,000 instead. A settlement has yet to be reached. - from CNN

Pricey Cow Patties - For a diamond merchant in India, finding the right cow patties is going to be priceless. His cow ate a bag of diamonds and he has been waiting for the cow to deposit them ever since, giving the animal lots of grass and laxatives. So far the man and his workers have recovered 310 of the diamonds in three days, but there are 1,722 diamonds total. Hopefully after digging through all the diamond dung, the man will recover them all. - from Ananova

January 19, 2004

Community News | Monkie Business | On The Net | Bananas

At The Top - Phew! This bunch o' trippin' billies made it back from la la land in one piece. Yesirree Bob! So now it's time to get all caught up and put on a brave new smily face to face off with the coming week. The next few days' update schedule may be a bit screw ball as the Monkie's schedule is rather packed. But we'll keep pushin' 'em out as opportunity keeps a knockin'. So let's move them Monkie tails and get to the good stuff. Shall we?!

Unsanity and OWC Theme Contest - Due to requests from theme authors participating in the Unsanity and OWC Theme Contest, Unsanity is announcing an extension to the contest timeline. The new deadline will be February 2, 2004 with winners announced one week later on the 9th. This will allow for more time to put the finishing touches on artwork and still be able to compete for over $1000.00 in cash and prizes! You best get your theming skills polished up and get your self entered!

Community News

warrior~poet - Jamie McCanless from warrior~poet likes snow, but so little has fallen there that he's drawn his own and shoveled them into a brand new set of icons! Snow might not be enough to build a snowman (snowperson? snowbeing?) but sometimes you just have to deal with winter one flake at a time. So don't get flaked out with a lack of white stuff in your area. Check out the latest icon set from warrior~poet!

Live Pencil - To start your week off right, get yourself to Live Pencil and grab some of the recent GUI goodies! Here's a look at what's in store:

• EMOTICONS: SMILIES wearing glasses, once more...GREAT!
• ANIMATIONS: From this year's Advent Calendar...DART.
• DESKTOP ICONS : SMILIES with glasses too.
• TICKLE ME : Always awesome. Always real fun!
• HIDDEN IMAGE: A new one every week...Please look for it , keep searching!

There's nothin' in the world like a bright eyed pixel pearl from the vast GUI selections of Live Pencil to get the grins stretchin' ear to ear!

Send Us Your Site News!

press@macmonkies.com

On The Net

Cocktail iPod Giveaway! - A great promotion is already under way from the makers of Cocktail! From now until February 15th, they have 5 iPod minis to give away! Every order for Cocktail placed between January 15th and February 15th will be entered in their drawing to win one of five iPod minis. Winners choose the color! All of the giveaway details can be grabbed with a simple click. Check it out!

Monkie Business

Odds and Ends

Slow Me Man Down - London cabbies estimate their average driving speed to be 9 miles per hour due to increasing traffic congestion.

Your Friends Never Sleep - One alternate title that had been considered, but then discarded, for NBC's hit Friends was Insomnia Café.

Wise Up - Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish.

- Albert Einstein

Bananas

Just Plain Nuts

MEN VS. WOMEN: ROUND 2

Bathrooms

A man has six items in his bathroom: a toothbrush, shaving cream, razor, a bar of soap, and a towel from the Holiday Inn.

The average number of items in the typical woman's bathroom is 337. A man would not be able to identify most of these items.

Arguments

A woman has the last word in any argument.

Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument.

Future

A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband.

A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife.

C.E.O. D.U.M.B

One day a secretary is leaving on her lunch break, and she notices her boss standing in front of a shredder with a clueless look on his face. The secretary walks up to him and asks if he needs help.

"Yes!" he says looking and sounding relieved, "This is very important."

Glad to help, she turns the shredder on and inserts the paper. Then her boss says, "Thanks, I only need one copy."

FLEAS

Q: What did one flea say to the other flea?

A: Shall we walk or take a dog?