EDIT:

changed recycle bin and went for the more traditional style with Vista colours on the icon.
Will upload after a little more testing.

For any one wishing to try skinning...
Every skinner develops their own way of doing things.
That said, I am passing along something I found works for me 99% of the time. There are always exceptions but this works for me.
If every module opened is shifted to one side of the screen and given close to even space between them, and it takes on average, up to no more than 50% of a 1920x1080 screen with 11 modules open.... then you probably got it right.
This is what works for me. Other skinners will have their own little idiosyncrasies, this is mine. I have aligned the text better since this image in the disk drive module.

NOTE: Other than skinning, I would not have 11 modules on the desktop at once. I do this to accomodate anyone who might. I would only have six at most.

@BassdudeNZ - Hey, not all of us are arachnophobes. Some of us are even arachnophiles! Especially the colourful orb weavers, and tarantulas and bird spiders. Beautiful. Of the first I'm sure you've got a few native species in NZ too.

We even look after our fairly plain spiders in our home (some of them foreign - don't ask, but probably come in with fruit), making sure they don't get stuck in basins and bathtub.

I've seen some enormous orb webs around the wider Amazon area, up to about 3.5 - 4 ft. across, but never the spiders who made them.

Ugh! If the missus ever uttered any such thing/s, I'll have to beat her mercilessly according to her instructions! We're both absolute Disney haters - it's filth that should not be allowed for kids to be exposed to in any shape or form. Or any sort of "fairy" nonsense and its ilk.

Let them read The Hobbit or listen to the old BBC Radio reading of it (only about 18hrs IIRC - haven't played it in a long while, excellent though it was). And no daft 'Narnia' with its religious nonsense over- and undertones. The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, should be excellent stuff if 5 yrs. plus. There's plenty of good stuff to stimulate the young mind and imagination, without resorting to mind-filth. Just our opinion.

Yes, life for independent musos has definitely and decidedly become harder, alas. The same applies to bands that are not signed to a major label. Streaming has always been a right PITA, with e.g. the spotty thing having for years only paid them next to nothing while the lion share has always gone to those with a major label. Some used to reckon that at least it gave them some little exposure and thus compensate a bit, but really I very much doubt the maths added up. Ever shrinking numbers of live music venues haven't helped either. Even the jazz scene has seen healthier days, though one has to say thank goodness we have a good few live music - mainly jazz - Pizza Express venues in London, anyway. Ah, I remember when the Pizza Express Jazz Club in Soho's Dean St. first opened back in the 70s! Opening night, £2.50 inc. Pizza! Blueish smoke haze to mingle with the smell of booze and the music, great stuff. And they always used to promote, as it were, British or British based artists.

Politics have absolutely no place in this forum. In 'Off Topic', only with caution and moderation, I think. If I posted what I think, it would possibly start a war!

Yeah, trees are easily the best. Caves, not in my old age - they're too damp.

@NEXTER

I cannot say exactly when I made the decision not to use cliches of my father and his friends, but I did.

Thanks for all the feedback and your musical insights are so real I can remember similar scenarios when I was working non-stop in younger days.

I decided not to be the one saying "You young people have no idea how easy you have it" like the relics from my past.
I think I came to realise that it is totally impossible to explain to anyone what it was like to live in an environment where live music was around 24/7 at 365 days per year, or try to make anyone believe that if you walked into a pub or club or establishment and said "Would you like a live band?" that they jumped at it. They were days when every venue could write off anything it cost them for musicians as a tax write-off...

There's too much in changing times, rules, regulations and inventions to list even though we both lived through it, but I am pretty sure you get what I am saying.

It is like A.I. in music. I see it can potentially destroy permanently rather than create and there is nothing I can say or do that will change that. I am past frustration or even the remotest anger, I am just sad. I keep hearing Oppenheimer's destroyer of worlds quote in my head.
Cheers

@BassdudeNZ - Yes, I do get what you're saying, totally. Over here, things have always been a bit different in that any venue - pub or whatever - always had to have a license for live entertainment/music, from the local authority. Which wasn't always easy, or successful. So that limited the number of live music venues to a degree already, alas. Then came the financial crisis and the austerity period that followed under the Tory government which meant people had less disposable finances which meant some venues were already struggling. Even worse were the lockdowns due to Covid 19 which left quite a number of venues virtually folding. Combine all that with the fact that the traditional pub is fast disappearing and you won't find many left that have live music at all sadly.

Finally, there's so called AI killing the music business. Popular music, by and large, has been pretty crap for quite a long while, but now... Well, it's all the same bloody crap, alas. And a number of LLM-'created' tracks are now in the charts! Plus, when you have a handful of so-called pop stars being billionaires churning out crap - well, that surely means something's seriously wrong with the whole industry. The effects of all this stream into other 'genres', no doubt.

I agree, Oppenheimer's realisation of the monstrosity he'd created definitely comes to mind! Hell, things don't just seem to us like they were better in the past because we're older. They really were! In every respect. Until the '70s, people in this country were a lot poorer financially, but also a lot happier and a lot more community minded. Foreign holidays were for the rich. Certainly not the average Joe and Jill. And so on and on. Stop the world, I want to get off!

@NEXTER - During the Great depression last century, musicians and entertainers helped keep people focused and positive that things would work out.
Now if that happens again, no A.I is going to be able to do anything close to that.

Here is the next theme.
Like the few predecessors, I cannot upload until the disk drives are finished because simply... I know they will change and I know I will have to change these in some way.

@BassdudeNZ - Oh not even remotely. It isn't real "AI", just a load of algorithms that make up LLMs. Basically, dumb as mud. Artificial Stupidity. And every bit as dangerous as Oppenheimer's - and later, Fermi's - creation, make no mistake.

EDITED - finished theme only.


I shifted gears again...

It's part of being creative if I had to give a reason for it... I just went simple on this one. Self praise is never a recommendation but as far as 'self-liking' (Is that a word? Probably not) - I like this one it has a simple feeling about it where the focus is more on the wallpaper I suppose.... I can remove the island easily enough and make it simpler yet again... I'll probably include both so anyone downloading can choose their own preference.


I decided to go simple again. It is another wait because I won't stop creating but until I know exactly what I can and cannot do with disks, it isn't fair on anyone downloading anything. I am NOT pushing I'd rather the disks be amazing and wait. But it won't stop me doing themes. I'll add/change after then

I will revisit all my themes after the final new version is released and I have had a good series of experimentation of disk module sessions. Other than the menu and clock it is a simple almost clutter free theme...almost...

LATERZ....

revised disks for the above

NOTE on existing themes and themes I stated earlier I would upload:

I decided for anyone who has already downloaded some, that it is in THEIR best interests that I get my head around the new disk drive module to where I feel a modicum of confidence that it will display as intended on most resolutions, if not all.
Apologies for delay. I do not wish to rush it, that simple. So it will likely be after the official next release.
Thanks for your patience.

SLOWLY getting the hang of the drives...

from The DaVinci theme..

Timber drives



I need to do the flashing lights properly...