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Author: bigdaddy
Uploaded: Aug. 08 2006
Views: 6160
Downloads: 1508
Reported problems: 0

This is my attempt at a theme that would be suitable for everyday use. It is very utilitarian and it is meant to. However there are a lot of goodies too. Weather forecast, animated weather radar, virtual desktop, random quotes, media controls, RSS feeds, lsxCommand, 16 dynamic Wallpaper options via bsetroot, and even a game! It uses lsColor, so it will always match your system colors too. If you use the dynamic wallpaper options, they also use lsColor so your wallpaper will always match the theme!

The theme is made for W2K and XP, but it would be simple to take out the 3 alpha mapped images and replace them with magic pink and make it a 9x & up theme. Tested at 800x600 and up resolution, no problem.

Even though it is a plain looking bar theme, it is not necessarily a simple theme. Please read the readme to set up your weather. Comments and critique welcome.

17 Comments

xcal wrote on August 10, 2006 at 23:28:

This theme has my vote for the LOSI contest. The weather stuff would have to be simplified, though!

bigdaddy wrote on August 11, 2006 at 04:12:

I agree whole heartedly xcal. What would be nice, and I just thought of it, is if when during installation with the new installer it would set up the default user location. That could be used for things other than weather too.

This whole theme was meant to feel as default as possible. I hope people realize that it isn't meant to have a lot of flash. It is something to revert back to when you are tired of all the eye candy.

West wrote on August 11, 2006 at 04:23:

This has my vote as well. I have tried the other themes, and while all of them are good (a lot better than my submission, really) this one felt most "right". My only and very minor complaint is that the color scheme could be a little more subdued; that blue color with white text on top makes my eyes hurt. But then again it might also be my monitor (it's old and has a certain fuzziness around the edges).

Also, I don't know if that weather thingy should really be included. I don't know if those weather services are more common in the US or something, because I'm in Sweden and I have yet to find a theme where I could get the forecasts working. Even if I could set it up for Stockholm (the closest larger city), I'm about 200 km away so knowing what the weather's like there is of no use to me :)

xcal wrote on August 11, 2006 at 04:25:

Yup, that's why I picked this one. I think you nailed what you were going for (except the weather isn't newbie friendly). It's not too flashy, but still looks smooth, and it has the few extras that you'd want in a default theme to tease people with.

No offense to eiki and winFCE 1.7, which has the lead. It's a really nice theme, and very well done, but it looks too linux/mac-ie to be a default Litestep theme.

@West: My FBL Dynamic 1.7 supports weather in ANY location that weather.com lists, and is very simple to setup. It's just a matter of putting your area code in the editbox and clicking set location. =)

West wrote on August 11, 2006 at 04:29:

I agree. I also find it a little too busy with those two bars and a lot of icons. But maybe this is not the place to comment on that theme :)

Uh, wait a minute: I didn't have the same blue color as in the Default screenshot. Does it have color schemes or did it somehow retrieve colors from my setup?

xcal wrote on August 11, 2006 at 04:38:

It uses lscolor. For example, my active colors are grey atm.

Brian wrote on August 11, 2006 at 05:32:

@West: just go to weather.com and type "Sweden" in the search box. You can then choose from any of the following locations - one of which is hopefully nearby. Generally they are all SWXX + 4 digit code. =)

Abisko
Angelholm
Bastad
Boras
Enkoping
Eskilstuna
Falkenberg
Gaddede
Gavle
Gothenburg
Gotska Sandon
Gunnarn
Halmstad
Harnosand
Helsingborg
Hoburg
Holmogadd
Huddinge
Junsele
Kallinge
Karlshamn
Karlskrona
Karlstad
Kristianstad
Kuggoren
Kungalv
Landskrona
Lidingo
Linkoping/Malmen
Lulea
Malilla
Malmo
Malung
Molndal
Norrkoping
Nykoping
Ostersund/Froson
Partille
Ronneby
Satenas
Skelleftea
Soderhamn
Sodertalje
Sollentuna
Solna
Solvesborg
Soraker
Stockholm
Sundbyberg
Sundsvall
Sveg
Svenska Hogarna
Timra
Torup
Trelleborg
Trollhattan
Uddevalla
Umea
Upplands-Vasby
Uppsala
Vanersborg
Varberg
Vasteras
Visby

Wow. That's the biggest post I've ever made. Check screenshots for the results from Gothenburg/Göteborg.

West wrote on August 11, 2006 at 05:52:

Gavle is not just nearby, it's where I live :)

Brian wrote on August 11, 2006 at 06:00:

Great, I'll pop on over for a beer later. Next time I'm in the neighborhood, that is. Can't bring any beer on the plane now, thanks to the terrorists. =(

West wrote on August 11, 2006 at 06:14:

Yeah, well, we all know that beer can be used for hijacking planes. "Fly this plane where I tell you, or I'll get drunk and disorderly!"

Brian wrote on August 11, 2006 at 06:29:

Could be a real brewhaha.

bigdaddy wrote on August 11, 2006 at 11:34:

*groan* There you go people. Give him a big hand, Brian Wolven. He's here all week.

West, it uses lsColor to retrieve the system colors. It also uses lsColor with bsetroot to create the 16 different wallpapers. So if you don't like the theme colors, it's easy to change. Look in the %misc% folder, I included a 3dcc library of my favorite themes.
Weather can be removed very easily. I apologize, I didn't consider our oversea friends. Dac, if you areout there, sorry!

Brian wrote on August 12, 2006 at 19:14:

I got constant errors from the wallpaper alias bangs about not having ActiveCaption and GradientActiveCaption defined until I stuck some dummy values for them in the theme.rc. Anybody else have that problem?

bigdaddy wrote on August 13, 2006 at 05:01:

Brian, I just went throug all 16 wallpapers and did not have any error messages. IS it a paticular on ethat is doing it? What are the circumstances? Do you change a color scheme and not recycle? (that shouldn't matter)

The only way that those two values would not be present (that I can think of) would be if litestep was not running or lscolor was unloaded.

Brian wrote on August 13, 2006 at 05:50:

I didn't do anything. It happened when I installed it, and every recycle thereafter, until I stuck in the dummy values. It's as if the lscolor defs are not being set in time... which makes me think of something... yep, that's it. I load alias.dll in my personal.rc, because I use some theme-independent aliases on a regular basis. That messes up the load order you have defined in your theme, with lscolor first. Now *there's* an interesting situation to handle for OTS3. =)

bigdaddy wrote on August 14, 2006 at 00:04:

wow. Good trouble shooting there Brian.

Brian wrote on August 14, 2006 at 02:16:

Hey, when you make as much trouble as I do, you *have* to be good at shooting it.

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