November 9, 2003

Monkie Business

Odds and Ends

Pic of the Day: Crashed - Ever had one of those days where you're so tired that you can't even make it to your bed before you start to fall asleep and crash? Today's Pic of the Day purrfectly depicts that moment for our fuzzy friend when the wearied awakedness winds down and becomes eyes wide shut! Take a look!

November 8, 2003

Community News | Monkie Business

Community News

The Iconfactory - Attention pixel pushers! The fine folks from The Iconfactory have released two new resources geared toward developers and icon artists - IconBuilder Pro 4.1 for Adobe Photoshop CS and the launch of the new Developer Zone!

IconBuilder Pro 4.1 has been updated to work with the recently released Adobe Photoshop CS, as well as Apple's new Panther OS X. It includes several important feature additions and improvements. Plus, it is a free upgrade for registered users and is available NOW!

The Developer Zone is a new, free FAQ page that contains answers to their most frequently asked technical questions regarding anything icon related. It helps answer questions like how to incorporate custom icons in cross-platform presentations, how to apply icons in various flavors of Windows, and why we consider Panther's new .ZIP compression scheme to be harmful for Mac users.

There's all kinds of GUI goodness goin' down at The Iconfactory. So get yourself on over and check it out!

Monkie Business

Odds and Ends

One Eye Open - Dolphins swim in circles while they sleep with the eye on the outside of the circle open to keep watch for predators. After a certain amount of time, they reverse and swim in the opposite direction with the opposite eye open.

Some Like It Hot! - Every time it erupts, Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park spurts up to 8,000 gallons of 199-degree water about 140 feet into the air.

Silver From Heaven - In 1940, silver coins fell from the skies on to the town of Gorky, Russia. A tornado had lifted up an old money chest and dropped the coins it contained as the wind carried it long. Must be why pennies are goin' outta style!

Think About It! - People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they never use.

- Kierkegaard

November 7, 2003

Icons | Community News | Bananas

At The Top - Oooo Eeee! Must be time for GUI. It also means I have the song "Your Mama Don't Dance" stuck in my head! But even if your daddy don't rock 'n' roll, your desktop will as we roll out this week's Friday Icon Edition. There's plenty of pixel pleasures, News, and of course, fuzzy green Bananas too. So it's time to hit the town and have some fun...Outta the car, long hair!

New GOO!

New Icons - Grab your toothbrush! You're gonna need it after biting into this sweet set of 3 New Icon Sets. Your eyes will dribble, your mouth will growl, and your tummy will be plenty plump! So we won't make you anticipate the wait any longer!

miX the piX - The man, the myth, the legend...Master miXer Hein Mevissen continues to amaze the masses with the rather humbly named icon set titled Some Folders. This most recent creation from Hein's home base of miX the piX packaged for Pixadex, will have you pickin' your GUI eyes up off the floor longing for more!

Steve Ansell - There's never a dull moment in the imaginative mind of Steve Ansell! Steve's incomparable creativity is cleverly uncovered with Manhole Cover Icons. This photorealistic set ought to keep a lid on all things for your storage needs without a dime paid to the Public Utilities Department!

Threeland.de - Sporting his true blue Mac spirit is Marcus Reimann with another incredible edible eye candy collection called Adobe Blue. Part of Marcus' "blue series" at Threeland, this assembly of finely crafted pixels offers a place to put all of your Adobe docs from Illustrator to Photoshop. You'll find your desktop will be singing some joyful blues! Enjoy!

 

Thanks Department --

Hein, Steve, and Marcus...

To the three of you, I humbly stand and salute
your amazing abilities!

THANK YOU!!

Send Us Your Icons!

Community News

Mandolux - Mando Gomez surfs in with another fine collection of desktops added this week to the galleries of Mandolux. Here's the splash:

Mandolux has issued this week six new desktops: four Surfing (Vector/Techno), one CAP (University of Kentucky), and one Asiana (Art/ Bodhisattva).

The latest desktop is titled V-Wave and it's an abstract view of a tiny surfer riding a menacing and unusual wave (natural occurring V-Waves are extremely rare) that is about to explode. Need we say more? Grab your board and surf to Mandolux!

PlasmaDesign - Mr. Rob Randtoul has been exceptionally busy beautifying his home base at PlasmaDesign and is now welcoming all to gather and gander! Since the old form had outgrown itself, Rob worked hard to streamline the site and ensure all content is easy to find and is presented in a clean and attractive manner. There's plenty of cool features to check out, so take a trek to PlasmaDesign and check it out!

Bananas

Just Plain Nutz!

NEVER HEARD THAT ONE

A fellow bought a new Corvette and was out on an interstate for a nice evening drive. The top was down, the breeze was blowing through what was left of his hair, and he decided to open her up. As the needle jumped up to 80 mph he suddenly saw a flashing red and blue light behind him. "There ain't no way they can catch a Corvette," he thought to himself and opened her up further. The needle hit 90, 100, 130 and finally 150 with the light still behind him.

"What the heck am I doing?" he finally thought and pulled over.

The cop came up to him, took his license without a word, and examined it and the car. "I've had a tough shift and this is my last pull over. I don't particularly feel like doing more paperwork, so if you can give me an excuse for your driving that I haven't heard before, you can go."

"Last week my wife ran off with a cop," the man said, "and I was afraid you were trying to give her back."

"Off you go," said the officer.

TWO MORONS

Once there were these two morons sitting on a rock. One moron fell off. Why didn't the other one fall off?

He was a little more on!

ADULT EDUCATION Part II

Things I've Learned from My Children

7. When you hear the toilet flush and the words "uh-oh," it's already too late.

8. Brake fluid mixed with Clorox makes smoke, and lots of it.

9. A six-year-old can start a fire with a flint rock.

10. Certain Legos will pass through the digestive track of a 4-year-old.

11. No matter how much Jell-O you put in a swimming pool, you still can't walk on water.

12. Pool filters do not like Jell-O.

- From an anonymous Mother in Austin, Texas

November 6, 2003

Monkie News | Network News

Monkie News

Tomorrow: New Icons - Well, well, well. Another week is briskly breezing us by and the incoming weekend is looking mighty fine! What could make a Friday even more welcome? You guessed it -- Spiffy looking pixels for our Friday Icon Edition! So if you're looking for yet another reason to smile on a Friday, swing back by the Monkie Zoo for a barrel of GOO, News, and Bananas too!

Network News

the WebWorld - BeanHead

Praising Panther - Panther is being promoted in the press through a piece penned in USA Today. Writer Ed Baig boasts that by creating the new Mac OS, Apple simply took Jaguar from its excellent state of existence and made it even better. A few favorite features are found in the article as well; with expositions on Expose, customizable key commands, and mail handling. Baig also commented that the cool cat comes with the classiest case of user switching on the block. - from Apple and USA Today

Chip Off the Old Apple Block? - Microsoft may or may not have a chip on it's shoulder, but it will soon have a new chip in it's Xbox...the same kind of chip that is found in Mac PowerPCs, as a matter of fact. At one time it was thought that Apple would switch from IBM computer chips to Intel, but the tables have turned as Microsoft has become the switcher in this situation. Perhaps it could be more than a coincidence that the Xbox will be casing a computer chip that was co-developed by Apple. Seems as though Gates is STILL using Apple as his testing lab. - from Wired

November 5, 2003

Desktops | Community News | On The Net | Bananas

At The Top - Talk about your weather in Wyoming...When it stops snowin', it starts blowin'! And we all know what wind does to cold temperatures. But regardless of the all-too-cool temps, we've got plenty of pixels blowin' in for this week's Wednesday Desktop Edition that will warm a smile for miles around. Add to all this goodness Community News, Software News On The Net, and Bananas, and you have plenty of treats to roast around the warmth of the GUI fire. Spark it up!

New GOO!

New Desktops - Howz about a nice big slice of GUI pie for this week's Wednesday Desktop Edition? If an eye a-peeling desktop desert is what you want, then that's just what you'll get as we serve up 5 Fantabulous New Desktops for this week's dining. Tuck in your napkin and let's have a feast!

Desktops - Warming things up in an cool sort of way is quite the colorful piece by Dave Hornsby titled Rainbow Ice. You'll find that this amazing array of colors will bring the proverbial pot of gold at the end of the rainbow right to your desktop's door. It will be like Springtime all year 'round!

Focusing in on the natural oddities in the world is James Naylor with an almost comical desktop titled Rust Colored Glasses. I knew granny could see anything you could try and hide, but this set of "bifocals" takes the cake. I bet you had no clue that the old gal was related to the Jolly Green Giant!

 

3-D Rendered - Hang on tight! Mr. Alan Sherwood returns with quite the blast as we shoot down the barrel Depth Charge. This amazing grayscale piece from the galleries of burntcanvasdesign is part of Alan's "motheaten" series. But don't let the series title throw ya. This is one solid selection!

The more I look at the digital desktop creations by Juergen Eilts of ShiftedReality, the more I am utterly amazed at his abilities to mirror landscapes one might find on this planet. Breakthrough is an incredible selection that words do not begin to describe nor do it justice. A must see piece!

Just having installed Panther without a hitch, MacMonkies monkie man Bradford Wiles was inspired to create some shiny new GOO for the "like having a new computer" X-perience that OSX 10.3 offered up. Thus, the unveiling of Big Three for Apple's 3rd major release of the best OS on the planet! Enjoy!

Thanks Department --

Alan, Juergen, James, and Dave...

Hot stuff, gentlemen!

You all made for a MARVELOUS Desktop Edition!

THANK YOU!!

Have a piece you want to display?

Check out our Submissions guidelines and then send it in!

Community News

The Iconfactory - You say you want a Revolution? Then you better make your way through The Matrix and maneuver your mouse to The Iconfactory! Grillin' up the GUI grid at the Factory is Dave Brasgalla with his Matrix Documentations set for this week's Icon Tuesday. This new set is vital material for all Matrix and Mac fans as they portray their counter parts with X-ceptional accuracy and specifications. Make your move to The Iconfactory and get to grabbin'!

Mandolux - Batter up! Mando Gomez pitches another fine desktop in the fields of Mandolux. Just issued is a new CAP desktop: University of Kentucky. This is a photograph of a blue cap with the UK logo. So there's no need to strike out. Hit a home run with your desktop by making your way to Mandolux!

On The Net

Fracture 1.2 - Just out from the fun folks at Stick Software is the latest release of Fracture. This is a cool screensaver that draws fractal images created from mathematical formulas. Version 1.2 of Fracture adds a "save every completed image" feature for users who wish to review the art Fracture has made while their machine was idle. It also adds online version checking so users can be notified of further updates. A quick click to Stick Software will get you the latest version of Fracture!

xBack 2.5.1 - Whoa! If you really wanna make your desktop come alive, check out xBack 2.5.1 from Gideon Softworks, Inc. xBack is a utility that allows you replace your desktop with a screen saver. With xBack, you can really add a whole new dimension to your desktop view. All the details on the latest version of xBack can be found simply by pointing your browser to Gideon Softworks, Inc. and checkin' it out!

Bananas

Just Plain Nutz

ADULT EDUCATION Part I

Things I've Learned from My Children

1. A king size waterbed holds enough water to fill a 2000 square foot house 4 inches deep.

2. If you spray hair spray on dust bunnies and run over them with roller blades, they can ignite.

3. A 3 year old's voice is louder than 200 adults in a crowded restaurant.

4. If you hook a dog leash over a ceiling fan, the motor is not strong enough to rotate a 42 pound boy wearing Batman underwear and a Superman cape. It is strong enough, however, if tied to a paint can, to spread paint on all four walls of a 20x20 ft room.

5. A ceiling fan can hit a baseball a long way.

6. The glass in windows doesn't stop a baseball hit by a ceiling fan.

- From an anonymous Mother in Austin, Texas

GROSS BASKETBALL

Q: Why is basketball the grossest sport there is?

A: Because they dribble all over the court.

THE BRIDGE

Two drivers came to a bridge over which only one car could cross at a time. One driver leaned out his window and said to the other, ''I never back up for idiots.''

So the other driver put his car in reverse and said, ''That's okay. I do.''

November 4 2003

Monkie News | Network News

Monkie News

Tomorrow: New Desktops - I smell a pixel or two brewin' up for tomorrow's mid-week Wednesday Desktop Edition. And me thinks you will enjoy the selection simmerin' in the Monkie kettle. You'll find some returning artists as well as...Well, guess you'll just have to stop back tomorrow to get the full eye of the eyeful! See ya then!

Network News

the WebWorld - BeanHead

Super Switcher - Timing was everything for Dr. Srinidhi Varadarajan. He needed powerful machines to help build the Virginia Tech supercomputer. Though he had never owned a Mac, Apple came through just in time with its G5s, providing him with more than he needed. Not only were the price and the timing right, but thanks to the G5s Virginia Tech's supercomputer is now rated as third most powerful in the world. Clones are being requested and Varadarajan comments that more G5 computer clusters are coming in the future. - from Apple and MacDevCenter

Toilet Tragedy: Cell Phone Stops Train - A passenger on a New York train stopped train traffic when he plunged his arm down the toilet where he had dropped his cell phone. Problem was, he got his arm stuck. At first a fellow commuter called the crew, but eventually firefighters were called in to try to free the man's arm. Train traffic was stalled for an hour and half while rescuers struggled to get the man's arm out of the toilet. Finally, they had to take the toilet apart. The man's arm was retrieved, but his cell phone wasn't. - from Ananova

November 3, 2003

Community News | On The Net | Monkie Business | Bananas

At The Top - Burrrr, chilly chilly, burrrr! I don't know about your neck of the woods, but in Monkiesville, it dumped bunches of snow. And with the snow came plenty of cold. Guess that's what they call a Rocky Mountain Winter in Fall? Oh well. There's never a dull moment. And speaking of dull moments...no, wait! That's where the Monkie business begins and the dull days end. So let's kick off this week with a smirk and a grin. Let's begin!

Community News

burntcanvasdesign - Whoa! It's been a while since we've heard from Alan Sherwood of burntcanvasdesign. But he's back with a wicked new icon set to announce. After being unable to find icons he wanted, Alan set about creating the classiest iPod icons and then thought, "Hey! Well let's do some more." So out came new generation macs. There's a set of two different icon bases, the 3g ipod and the G5 totaling 9 icons all from lovely angles. Swing over to bcd and check them out A.S.A.P.!

Mandolux - Mando Gomez keeps his craft a crankin' as he has added new desktop work to the galleries of Mandolux. Just released is perhaps one of the greatest desktops he's ever made - it's a photograph of a Bodhisattva. This marvelous antiquity set is schist and wonderfully carved, originally from the Gandhara region in Pakistan (2nd-3rd century). Get a good glimpse of desktop history by making your move to Mandolux.

Live Pencil - Animations, animations, animations! If you didn't get enough Halloween treats, there's still time to grab the GOO from Live Pencil! Fresh from the factory are:

• ANIMATIONS: The inner light!!!
• ANIMATIONS: Crazy whimsical pumpkin...Can't stop moving!
• ANIMATIONS: SPOOKY HALLOWEEN to all!
• ANIMATIONS: Trick or Treats...Written with candy.
• WALLPAPERS: 9 new wallpapers November's calendar. Plus more Halloween.
• HIDDEN IMAGE: A new one every week...Please look for it, keep searching!

So if you wanna get a post Halloween belly full from consuming an added portion of good GUI goodies, grab your candy bag and fill up at Live Pencil!

Send Us Your Site News!

press@macmonkies.com

On The Net

OmniGraffle: Address Book Chart Builder - The software makes from The Omni Group have announced the fourth of an ongoing series of free "add-on" releases to their products. The Address Book Chart Builder add-on demonstrates the interaction possible between OmniGraffle and the Address Book application included with Mac OS X 10.3. This add-on uses OmniGraffle to build family trees, org charts, and free-form relationship charts including pictures and email addresses where possible. It requires Mac OS X 10.3 and OmniGraffle 3.02 or OmniGraffle Professional 3.02. All you gotta do to grab it is aim and click! Get it!

ThemeChanger - Just announced is the availability of ThemeChanger 0.6.1. which switches your theme in Mac OS X. It supports the .theme and .dlta formats, and generates an aqua backup automatically. You can also restore the aqua backup via single-user mode, if an installed theme damages your system. ThemeChanger is designed to be fast, free, and most importantly, easy to use. The latest version of ThemeChanger includes several new features and bug fixes. For all the details on this awesome GUI tool, head over to ThemeChanger's homepage and grab a look!

SSH Helper 1.1 - Released from Gideon Softworks, Inc. is SSH Helper 1.1. SSH Helper is the only OpenSSH configuration utility for Mac OS X. It allows you to easily control who's allowed to access your account, generate new OpenSSH keys, view/export your public keys, and setup and control the OpenSSH Server. For all release notes and download information on SSH Helper, you simply have to make a click to Gideon Softworks. Check it out!

Monkie Business

Odds and Ends

True Blue Two - The number two is the only number greater than zero that, when added to or multiplied by itself, gives the same result: 4.

Biggy-Wiggy Walt Disney Deal - No one can say just when Walt Disney began to think about undertaking his biggest project to date, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. But by the summer of 1934, his ideas were beginning to take concrete form. An exploratory outline that he distributed to his animation staff, dated August 9, 1934, included the following discussion of the dwarfs' names:

"The names which follow each suggest a type of character and the names will immediately identify the character in the minds of the audience." Some of the names that were considered then discarded included Scrappy, Doleful, Crabby, Wistful, Dumpy, Soulful, Tearful, Snappy, Helpful, Gaspy, Gloomy, Busy, Dirty, Awful, Dizzy, Shifty, and Biggy-Wiggy.

The Fact Of The Matter - People don't ask for facts in making up their minds. They would rather have one good, soul-satisfying emotion than a dozen facts.

- Robert Keith Leavitt

Bananas

Just Plain Nuts

HOOLIGAN HIJINX

A big hulking hooligan walks into a bar, slams his fist down, and yells "Give me a Budweiser, or...!" Scared, the bartender serves the man his Budweiser. This happens everyday for a week straight, and the bartender turns into a nervous wreck. He asks his wife for advice, and she tells him he should stand up for himself. Easier said than done, he thinks, but he decides to try it. The next day, the hooligan returns.

"Give me a Budweiser, or...!"

"O-o-o-o-r-r-r w-what?" stammers the bartender.

"A small Coke."

Broadway Meets Daytime T.V.

What do you call ghosts who scare talkshow hosts?

The Phantom of the Oprah.

CANADIAN, EH?

There were three explorers, hiking through what is now known as Canada. "You know," said one of the explorers, "we should name this place we're hiking through."

"I know," said the second explorer. "We'll each pick a letter and then make a name out of that."

"Okay," said the third, "I'll go first. C, eh."

"N, eh."

"D, eh."

And that's how they named Canada.