Submitted by drew on

 

After playing around a bit, I found that the same theme can work on both Windows 7 and Windows 8. 
 
Notes for Windows 8: New for Win8 is the ability to use a panoramic image-- Windows will span the image across multiple monitors. Really cool! Win8 themes also have the ability to automatically define a color scheme, based on the colors of the wallpaper, and apply the color scheme on the fly.
 
Notes for Windows 7: The theme works best if you have a single monitor, or the wallpaper image is the same size as all monitors. A panoramic wallpaper image will even work on Windows 7 when tilemode is turned on and the image is the same size as the primary display. (It appears to display on the first monitor starting at the upper left corner or the image, and display on the second monitor starting at the upper right corner of the image.)
 
Notes for Windows Vista: The same theme will even work on Windows Vista, with a few caveats.
  • The wallpaper images can't be PNG; export them to JPG and they will work.
  • Vista doesn't have a built-in way to change the wallpaper on a timer. If you want it to change the wallpaper, use a wallpaper changer (aka background switcher), such as http://johnsadventures.com/software/backgroundswitcher/ (this one even has a smooth fade transition).
 
Notes for Windows XP: I didn't try it, but I think XP theme files are totally different.
 
Normally, a theme is designed in the Windows 8 Personalization control panel. When you save it from there, it is packaged into a CAB file with a .deskthemepack extension. So you can rename it to .cab and extract the .theme file from it, for editing. In my case, I am installing parts of this theme to various subfolders of the Windows directory. This places the theme under the "Installed Themes" grouping within the Personalization control panel (i.e. the theme chooser window).
%SystemRoot%\Branding\<BrandLogo>.png (240X80)
%SystemRoot%\Web\Wallpaper\<ThemeName>\*.png
%SystemRoot%\Resources\Themes\<ThemeName>.theme
%ProgramData%\Microsoft\User Account Pictures\*.png (Vista: 128x128)
 
There are a few differences between a Windows Vista/7 and Windows 8 theme. I am just going to show the ones that apply to our task at hand. 
 
[Theme]
; ...snip....
; I'm not sure what this is used for, but commenting it out doesn't seem to do any harm
;ThemeId={74DCED71-1D8E-44CE-9422-4713809E000C}
 
[Control Panel\Desktop]
; ...snip....
; Windows 7
TileWallpaper=0
WallpaperStyle=10
; Windows 8
MultimonBackgrounds=0
PicturePosition=4
 
[VisualStyles]
; ...snip....
; Windows 8
AutoColorization=1
 
[MasterThemeSelector]
; Windows 7 (themes with this identifier still work on Windows 8)
MTSM=DABJDKT
; Windows 8 (themes with this idendifier do NOT work on Win7, so we'll comment it out
;MTSM=RJSPBS
 
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Windows

Converting version control repositories from Bazaar to Git (bzr to git)

Submitted by drew on

Bazaar is great on Windows. Several years later, git's tools for Windows still.... (ahem) are lacking or too commercial. However, official development on it has ended and git is so much more popular now. So I think the time has come to convert all my beloved bzr repositories to git.

First we need note some prerequisites:

Adding a hardware clock to Raspberry Pi (DS3231)

Submitted by drew on

The popular clock module is uses the DS1307 real time clock chip, which is not very precise. For just a few dollars more, you can get a module with a much more precise DS3231 RTC chip. The one I got was SunFounder's module from Amazon for $9 (free shipping for Prime). It plugs right onto the Raspberry Pi's 40 pin header and doesn't even interfere with the plastic case I have. I have a Model B, but this module should also work on Model A and Model B+. The instructions refer to DS1307, but the chips use the same I2C commands, so it also works for DS3231.

How to run a PiPresents show when you don't have a Raspberry Pi

Submitted by drew on

PiPresents is some pretty cool software that will run a PowerPoint-like presentation. But with lots more flexibility. It was originally written for the Raspberry Pi.

However.... perhaps someone else has your Pi. Perhaps you don't even have one. It is possible to run a PiPresents show on  your good ol' desktop computer (Windows, Linux, or Mac). Here's how.