As recently as a few weeks ago, I announced that Samui 1.12 would not be far from a release. Obvioiusly the theme and icons are still as of yet unreleased and do not seem to be getting closer on the horizon. The reason for this is two fold. First, Themepark, the software used to create Shapeshifter guiKits has not been updated in quite sometime. An update is being worked on but it is unavailable to me. Secondly, as it is the holiday season I have been spending a lot of time with my family and not a lot of time on my now lonely mac.

This should change somewhat after the new year as I finish up the first version of Pixelnetdesign.com and release several new projects that I have been working on. I have around 60 or so icons sitting here waiting to be released with the updated version of Samui and possibly another new set which I have yet to preview. So while Pixelnetdesign may seem quiet, there are in fact many things going on behind the scenes.

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Well.. I finally did it. I have been freeloading off my good friend Stephan Geyer for the last year. He has been overly generous allowing me free hosting for all of my releases including Samui 1.0 and Alluvium Magnite 1.0. But With the launch of my new site I decided that it was time to stop freeloading and start something of my own. So after a bit of searching, a lot of time spent in the wordpress codex to find the right method of moving my site and a new hosting package purchased from Bluehost, I now have my site up and running on its true domain! It really wasn’t too much work afterall. The biggest problem was that I stupidly didn’t read through all the wordpress documentation for moving a wordpress install which led to several failed attempts at completing the move. Bluehost provides a service called fantastico which is a one stop shop for installing many web services including wordpress. So after using fantastico to create a new wordpress install all it took was some editing of the MySql databases and the site was good to go. It all seems to be working now so go on and enjoy your stay.

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Recently, users of an internet forum that I visit: MacThemes.Net have been complaining about the lack of new OS X “themes”. Why all the fuss?

First a little background on theming OS X in general. There are basically two ways to theme the OS. One which involves creating a DLTA file and using it to replace images either manually or via an installer file. The second and considerably more user friendly method involves the use of a third party program known as Shapeshifter.

This is where most themers are running into problems and leads to the answer as to why there are no new themes being released/announced. In its current incarnation there are several limitations imposed on themers by the fact that creating Shapeshifter themes is made possible by the use of another program called Themepark. Themepark has not been updated since the release of Apple’s iTunes 5.0 and subsequent 6.0 releases. In addition a number of text color options were added to the latest version of Shapeshifter but the new version of themepark has yet to be released.

So what does all this mean to you the end user? Well bottom line is that I personally will not be working on themes until the new version of Themepark is made available. Since iTunes is probably one of the most used applications on anyones computer I see no reason to continue to work on themes until I can theme it properly. So in effect, you wont see any updates to my themes until the new version of SS/TP are out. That being said, this does not mean that all is quite on the themeing front. I have begun creating the necessary images for 2 new themes and also created the unified toolbar images for Samui 1.12 and the new version of Alluvium Magnite. So rest assured you will see new versions of these themes just as soon as I can update them after the software comes out.

About Pixelnet Design… I am coming up on a bit of a crossroads, whether to keep the site and its current name or change to a new name. I have to renew my domain www.pixelnetdesign.com this January and since the site is launching later than expected the name is not exactly what you would call “household”. The site itself is nearly complete with the last few sections being finished up this week. (Portfolio and Inside) I will also be adding more content to the “Downloads” section including some new never before seen goodies. Go ahead and leave me a comment if you like… Should I keep the name or ditch it for something new?

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