I have a dancing penguin

Widgets are little desktop program thingies that do things, on your desktop. Some are useful, such as notepads, calendars, weather updaters, and rss feeds. Others are not, such as a widget of Stewie Griffin that blurts out quotes when you click on him. My favourite of these "useless" widgets is a little waddling penguin, known as TuxNTosh. (Blend of Mac and the linux mascot?) As a new linux user (freshly installed on my laptop 2 weeks ago), I've found myself strangely attracted to the penguin. And what's even better is when he waddles across my screen in time to Bach's 5th Brandenburg Concerto.

Unfortunately, I haven't discovered how to take a screenshot of my widgets. But for gratuitous cuteness purposes, here is little TuxNTosh, plus the link to the widget in question (Mac and windows users only, no yahoo widgets for linux yet). It might get annoying in a few mintues, but if you just keep him in the background, it's a burst of adorable waddling penguin to surprise you.

(Ain't He cute!?!)

Oh, and you need Konfabulator, or Yahoo's widget engine (one and the same).

One of these days, I'll expound on the wonders/virtues of open-source software. I am aware this is a knitting blog, but who can argue with free software that is supported by a dedicated community? And plus, it's useful free software! (I love the Photoshop alternative, Gimp, and the AIM alternative, Gaim.) Besides, I'm a computer dork at heart, a noob though I be.

And speaking of knitting... I haven't done much with finals and all, but I'm getting there. Vintage Velvet is in the bag, and Saxon Braid isn't far behind. I can't wait for Christmas break!