Kapsules Version 0.9.8.40 Released

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Kapsules is a premier desktop widget engine software. A widget is a mini-program designed to be, well, what you want it to be!

Kapsules makes use of the Windows Scripting Host, which allows it to use any language which is availible with an Active Script Engine. That means you can use anything from VBScript to PHP to write a widget. Yeah! Even RubyScript or Perl! At current there are widgets being written in 8 different scripting languages!

Version 0.9.8.40 is the next step towards version 1.0 of Kapsules. Much effort was put into this version of Kapsules over the past month. This version is by far the biggest improvement on speed and stability as compared to any other version.

Resource usage was also given special attention for .40, and memory use is back down around what it was for some of the early versions of Kapsules. While Kapsules is still not for the 'memory (RAM) challenged' it is by far the most memory efficient version.

Kapsules is free to download and free to use, so go ahead and give it a try.

Download: Kapsules 0.9.8.40 (1.22mb)

Screenshot: >> Click here <<

View: Getting Started Guide for New Users

View: Version History and Change List

Taking much of its inspiration from the PC game Doom 3, the film will take place in a paramilitary research facility on Mars, where things go awry and hell is literally raised. Some theories say that the Rock is actually Satan in disguise, which would tie in to the film and game's devilish setting.

Johnson let on about his excitement for the film. "Here's the great thing about Doom... It's rated 'R,' it's unapologetic, just like the video game. I love blowing [expletive] up, and in this movie..." Johnson also gave details about the legendary BFG, calling it a "bio-force gun," rather than the more profane term gamers pegged the acronym as standing for.

Doom the movie is expected to hit the screen in August and is being directed by Cradle 2 the Grave director Andrzej Bartkowiak. Contrary to earlier reports by id Software, the film is indeed being developed by Universal Pictures and will costar Die Another Day's Rosamund Pike in a less villainous role.

Doom 3 was released on the PC last August, and an Xbox version will hit shelves April 3.

#1 nookadum on 07 Mar 2005 - 08:34

Holy crap this got a lot faster. Nice job!

#2 smashguy on 07 Mar 2005 - 10:56

Cheers!

#3 pre on 07 Mar 2005 - 11:37

Cool

EDIT: This is even cooler than what I thought!!!!.... look at all the Widgets you can get!! http://kapsules.shellscape.org/forge.aspx?p=1

Last edited by 78410 on 07 Mar 2005 - 11:46

#4 andrew_ on 07 Mar 2005 - 13:57

Hey I'm glad you guys are enjoying it!

(2 replies) #5 el22 on 07 Mar 2005 - 14:45

Between Konfabulator and Kapsules, which would you recommend?

#5.1 klyde on 07 Mar 2005 - 20:41

It depends on what your needs are. Konfabulator is good for its extreme user friendliness and widgets that almost always work "right out the box." However if you're a customization freak, Konfabulator's widgets aren't the easiest to customize. Kapsules is also user friendly and very easy to use once you get the hang of it. Unlike Konfab, the Kapsule's widgets are very easy to customize to your needs. Many times it's as easy as replacing the background.png file or using the widget colorization feature.

#5.2 shao on 08 Mar 2005 - 08:58

i liked konfab, thinking it was free. it's not. :-<

#6 andrew_ on 07 Mar 2005 - 16:18

Depends on what your likes and wants are.
Fords and Chevys basically do the same thing, but everyone has their preferences.

#7 AnimaL on 07 Mar 2005 - 16:44

I couldn't register on the Kapsules forums so I thought I would post this here being that a lot of neowins are from the UK:

Get RadTV (TV Listings Widget) working with UK TV Listings!

I have been trying to find widgets that work properly with UK TV listings for too long now so I decided to have a go at getting this one to work myself. To get it working with icons I had to do a bit of fiddling so I thought I would share it with all you guys...

NOTE: Substitute forward slashes in file paths for back slashes.

1) First of all download xmlTV from http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=39046

2) Extract the files into a folder in your root (e.g. C:/xmlTV) - this is very important.

3) Go to a DOS prompt and run "c:/xmlTV/xmltv.exe tv_grab_uk_rt --configure".

4) Now you have to select the channels that you want to be able to see in RadTV. Type BBC for example and it will come up with a list of all the BBC channels - you can then just select the ones you want from the list. I selected all the UK terrestrial channels.

5) Now at the DOS prompt run "c:/xmlTV/xmltv.exe tv_grab_uk_rt --output C:/xmlTV/TV.XML".

6) Run the RadTV widget, goto the options and point the xmlTV field at "C:/xmlTV/TV.XML".

7) All done! To make life easier you can create a batch file to run "c:/xmlTV/xmltv.exe tv_grab_uk_rt --output TV.XML" which will need running about every 2 weeks to get the latest listings.

If you want the icons to show up it gets a little bit more complicated:

1) Open up file C:/xmlTV/xmltv.dtd in notepad and search for the following text (it's about 2/3 down):

<!ELEMENT icon EMPTY>
<!ATTLIST icon src CDATA #REQUIRED
width CDATA #IMPLIED
height CDATA #IMPLIED>

2) Replace all of it with just:

<!ELEMENT icon (#PCDATA)>

3) Now open up file C:/xmlTV/TV.XML in notepad and notice near the top you have all of your channels listed. My XML file looks like this:

<channel id="east.bbc1.bbc.co.uk">
<display-name>BBC1 East</display-name>
<display-name>1</display-name>
</channel>
<channel id="east.bbc2.bbc.co.uk">
<display-name>BBC2 East</display-name>
<display-name>2</display-name>
</channel>
<channel id="anglia.tv.co.uk">
<display-name>ITV1 Anglia</display-name>
<display-name>3</display-name>
</channel>
<channel id="channel4.com">
<display-name>Channel 4</display-name>
<display-name>4</display-name>
</channel>
<channel id="channel5.co.uk">
<display-name>Five</display-name>
<display-name>5</display-name>
</channel>

4) What you need to do is replace the 2nd "<display-name>" field for each channel with "<icon>iconfilename</icon>". So now my file looks like this:

<channel id="east.bbc1.bbc.co.uk">
<display-name>BBC1 East</display-name>
<icon>bbc1.gif</icon>
</channel>
<channel id="east.bbc2.bbc.co.uk">
<display-name>BBC2 East</display-name>
<icon>bbc2.gif</icon>
</channel>
<channel id="anglia.tv.co.uk">
<display-name>ITV1 Anglia</display-name>
<icon>itv.jpg</icon>
</channel>
<channel id="channel4.com">
<display-name>Channel 4</display-name>
<icon>channel4.jpg</icon>
</channel>
<channel id="channel5.co.uk">
<display-name>Five</display-name>
<icon>five.jpg</icon>
</channel>

5) Download the following channel logos and save them in C:/xmlTV with their relevant name:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcone/images/bbc_one_logo.gif - save as C:/xmlTV/bbc1.gif
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctwo/images/bbc_two_logo.gif - save as C:/xmlTV/bbc2.gif
http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1405000/images/_1406284_itv300_2.jpg - save as C:/xmlTV/itv.jpg
http://www.millwalkhouse.co.uk/judo/home/blog/jpg/channel4.jpg - save as C:/xmlTV/channel4.jpg
http://www.ackbar.f9.co.uk/channel5.jpeg - save as C:/xmlTV/five.jpg

6) You will have to change the header info in the C:/xmlTV/TV.XML file every time you update it with new listings (just create a text file with the modified few lines in it and then you can just do a copy and paste whenever you update).

All done - hope this helps

AnimaL

Last edited by 6910 on 07 Mar 2005 - 23:44

#8 DeMo_BR on 07 Mar 2005 - 17:09

Is it better than Samurize??

#9 shanepitman on 07 Mar 2005 - 17:50

Looks great, but 26mb of RAM just for the app itself with no widgets loaded is more than I'm willing to give up.

#10 andrew_ on 07 Mar 2005 - 18:21

If youre a resource nut then Kapsules isnt for you. It takes a fair amount of memory to use. It always has and its been around for over a year now. The 'omgbbq it takes too much memory for me to use!' comments are so 2004.

Dont waste time trying to compare it to other apps of the same nature, each app has their own unique things to offer.

AnimaL :

Sorry about the forum registrations. I posted a news bit on the forums letting people know that they are broken, but unfortunately I wont have time until later today to fix whatever is wrong.

#11 shanepitman on 07 Mar 2005 - 18:45

Don't get me wrong, it's not a resource hog by any means, at least no more so than any other app of it's kind. If I didn't do a lot of graphic editing and play crappy games like WoW (talk about a resource hog) then I'd use Kapsules in a heartbeat. If you've got the spare resources, then the fact that it's free, it works well, and there are a lot of applets available for it should be a sure draw to anyone. Sorry if I came off like a bad review earlier.

#12 andrew_ on 07 Mar 2005 - 19:58

No worries.

To all, Forum Registrations 'appear' to be fixed. Please let me know if anyone has any troubles attempting to register.

#13 Septimus on 08 Mar 2005 - 09:40

Kaps never goes over 32mb's for me and that is with anything up to 20 widgets (as a test).

Google has just released their SDK for Desktop search, now to write a widget for it

#14 Dave Hybrid on 04 Jul 2008 - 13:02

Great bit of software, the guys at Computer Juice recommended it.

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