Wednesday, December 18, 2002

Building Lego Animals Google Search It At the end of November Benjamin and I played around with Legos and created a few animals.  Now before you laugh (you are still required to laugh, I just ask that you read the explanation/excuse before you do.  Note that there are much more dynamic Lego construction projects out there but the display seemingly unlimited Lego supplies using the "real" Lego stuff.  In contrast, I had one x piece version of the aged 2-4 year old blocks (the big ones.)   My assignment (as supplied by my 2.5 year old son) was to create some animals.  Below are the results of my efforts.       (I am not sure whether I should be more embarrassed by the photography or the Lego animals.) 1:35:38 PM   []    comment []

Change the Windows Log On Screensaver Google Search It The Tue, Dec 17, 2002 (Vol. 2, 50 - Issue 56) E-Zine edition of WinXP News mentioned the tip below for changing the screensaver that appears when a user is not logged on.  This is clearly not a productivty tip but for a home machine it might be nice to display the family photo album rather than the windows logo for your computer screen saver even when not logged so I quote it here anyway: The logon screen saver is the screen saver you see when no one is logged onto the computer. That default Windows XP logon screen saver isn't very interesting, as all it does is flash a banner that says "Windows XP" in different places every second or two. How about using a screen saver of your choice? You'll have to edit the Registry (and exercise the usual caution when doing so) but it's not difficult; just follow these steps: Click Start and then click Run. Type Regedt32 into the Open text box and click OK. Navigate to the following Registry key: HKEY USERSDEFAULTControl PanelDesktop Look in the right pane of the Registry Editor and find the entry for SCRNSAVE.E X E (no spaces between the E's and X). Double click on it. In the Edit String dialog box, replace the logon.scr entry with the name of the screen saver you want to use. For example, if you want to use the 3D Pipes screen saver, type in sspipes.scr. It's important that your screen saver be in the WINDOWSSystem32 folder, so make sure it is before you do this (if the screensaver you want to use is in a different location, you can copy it to this folder). Click OK to save the changes. Close the Registry Editor. The new logon screen saver will be used the next time you restart the computer. I created a reg file for setting the screen saver to the "My Pictures SlideShow" (ssmypics.scr) to save the manual entry.  Note, however, this requires access to the My Pictures directory. On a related note, I learned about the My Pictures Slide Show screen saver from my Mom.  (Wow Mom!)  This screen saver is included with Windows XP and it displays the photos in the My Pictures directory.  Since I migrated to Windows.NET Server shortly after Windows XP was released I never noticed the screen saver but was pleased to find it now that I have gone back to Windows XP. 7:14:02 AM   []    comment []

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