Dashboard Contest (updated)

August 10, 2005 ·  

I have been requesting help from the online Mac community, and most have been coming here for further clarification. I thought that I would write a quick post for those coming here on account of the competition:

For those who are using Macs running Tiger, I am looking to collect as many different dashboard variations screenshots as possible. In order to do this, I am offering a prize.

To take a screenshot, activate dashboard then push Cmd+Shift+3. The screen shot will be saved to your desktop. Attach that screenshot to a email and send to “blog@brianstucki.com” with “Dashboard” in the subject line.

1) Any Screen Resolution is ok.
2) Send in as many as you’d like, but be sure that each one is different. (change out widgets, move them around, or have a different desktop behind the dashboard.)
3) Please be aware of any personal info you may have on your dashboard, such as a WAN ip address.
4) Multiple submissions will be grouped by email address so be sure to send from the same address each time. More then one screenshot per email is ok.
5) The contest will end Monday Aug, 15, 2005.

A $30 iTunes Music Store gift certificate will be given to the person that sends in the most screenshots of different Dashboard variations.

Also, another $30 iTunes Music Store gift certificate will be given to a random submitter. (Each person will have the same chance, no matter the amount of screenshots they sent in.)

Good luck to all those that have already submitted, and those who will be joining them.

Update: I have had some questions as to why I want these. I should have said it in the first place. I intend to make Mosaic type posters, using all the screen shots as tiles. I always thought that it would be neat to have a poster like that hanging in my office…but was never fully eager to do all the screen shots myself, as it would take a long long time. I am hoping for a good variety of background colors behind the dashboard as well to fill colors nicely.

I do intend to make the image file available to the public in case they want to print off their own poster.

We’ve had good submissions so far. Keep them coming!

Update 2- The contest is now complete. See here for details

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Comments

25 Responses to “Dashboard Contest (updated)”

  1. Sailfish on August 10th, 2005 11:39 pm

    $30 in iTMS music sure is tempting, it took me days to get this all arranged.

    I don’t know if this is what your lookng for, it’s quite overpowering, there is no desktop to be seen.

    Perhaps you are looking for something appealing?

    http://homepage.mac.com/hogfish/.Pictures/76-widgets-2.5GB-RAM.jpg

    enjoy :D

  2. brian on August 11th, 2005 7:39 am

    Wow, quite an arrangement!! Thanks.

  3. D'Arcy Norman on August 11th, 2005 10:40 am

    You might want to mention _why_ you want the dashboard screenshots… Authoring a book? Trying to get some funky wallpaper for your office? Advertising? Some strange screenshot+dashboard fetish?

    I’d be more inclined to contribute if I knew why you wanted them, and were interested enough to offer $30…

  4. brian on August 11th, 2005 10:45 am

    That is a good Suggestion. I intend to make Mosaic type posters, using all the screen shots as tiles. I always thought that it would be neat to have a poster like that hanging in my office…but was never fully eager to do all the screen shots.

    I am hoping for a good variety of background colors behind the dashboard as well to fill colors nicely.

    I do intend to make the image file available to the public in case they want to print off their own poster.

  5. Sebas on August 11th, 2005 11:35 am

    Hey, what if I like a clean desktop?

  6. brian on August 11th, 2005 11:39 am

    Whatever you have is fine.

  7. Doug on August 11th, 2005 6:33 pm

    I got an email back saying your mailbox was full?! If you don’t mind let me know when it is empty or I will try again later.

  8. brian on August 11th, 2005 7:45 pm

    The support has been awesome! Sorry that it was full. YOu can go for it now!

    Also, some have asked how they can send alot at once. I told him that he could put it in a zip file and send, or put the zip file on a server somewhere. Or use http://www.yousendit.com/.

    Thanks everyone! Keep em coming!

  9. Eiolos on August 12th, 2005 2:29 am

    Sailfish : What’s the name of the widget at the right from froggster ? The one you have to make the most squares to win.

    Thx

  10. brian on August 12th, 2005 5:47 am

    E-

    I believe that is dashdots

  11. Eiolos on August 12th, 2005 6:11 am

    OK thanks, I’ll check it out tonight when I’ll be at home. I’m at work at the moment with a super windows 95 computer :P I won’t tell you the big leep it makes from my new iMac.

    I’ll take the time to do some screenshots aswell ;)

  12. brian on August 12th, 2005 8:13 am

    There was a good comment at TUAW.COM:

    you can have your background change every 5 seconds and use this program…which works real nice and is free.

    http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/20257

    Just be sure to alter it so it takes the shot ever 5 seconds or so…and move those widgets around constantly.

  13. Eiolos on August 13th, 2005 4:02 am

    Here’s mine :

    http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/6324/eiolosdashboard0hh.jpg

    Their’s alot of games, I know :P

  14. Cal on August 13th, 2005 7:28 am

    sorry to ask such a dumb question, but is the competition to find the most interesting dashboard arrangement, or is it to find the largest collection?

    :D i can’t work it out :D

  15. brian on August 13th, 2005 7:34 am

    The contest is for whoever can submit the MOST dashboard arrangements. Each snapshot should be different…but doesn’t have to be “the most interesting”.

    Thanks for asking.

  16. Eiolos on August 13th, 2005 11:50 am

    Yeah I got a bit “wannabe” after looking at the previous link.

    Here’s my normal dashboard :
    http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/721/dashboard27qy.jpg
    (I’ve put the temperature conversion for the ones who count it in fahrenheint)

    Here’s a another arrengement with differant backgroung :
    http://img285.imageshack.us/img285/4106/dashboard38xb.jpg

  17. Sailfish on August 14th, 2005 1:00 am

    To configure Timed ScreenShot, unzip and move the folder to your Applications folder. Open “Timed Screenshot Config” in Text edit and change what you see to something like this.

    #
    # Interval in seconds:
    interval=60
    #
    # Name of destination folder:
    # Can be the name of an alias
    destination=Screenshots
    #
    # Quality in %
    quality=75
    #
    interval=60
    destination=Screenshots
    quality=50%

    Change the seconds to suit what you think will work

    If you do the destination like what I have a new folder called “Screenshots” will appear in your “TimedScreenShot” folder and contain the timed shots according to date and time.

    You can adjust the jpeg quality down considerably to reduce the file size as with this program it’s rather easy to create multiple gigabytes of files.

    Force Quit the program in Activity Monitor.

    Select the Screenshot folder and use the Finders “Create Archive” under the File menu to Zip it up.

    Perhaps Brian will tell us what his eMail limit is, most likely folks will have to host the zip themselves and provide a email link.

    I think folks can certainly go nuts here, I’m only submitting my image above. :P

  18. Sailfish on August 14th, 2005 1:05 am

    Darn made a mistake, the “#” means the program will ignore that text line when it reads it. So my second set of commands will of course be ignored. But you get the picture. :D

    Good luck all :D

  19. Nadim Kobeissi on August 15th, 2005 8:53 am

    Dear Brian,
    I have taken a picture of my Dashboard (after majorly tidying it up)
    it is currently uploading to this adress:
    http://nadimkobeissi.net/desktops/tiger/dashboard.png

    By the time you read this it should have finished uploading. Please check it out and tell me what you think!

  20. Rachel on August 15th, 2005 5:01 pm

    I’m so confused.

  21. Richard on August 16th, 2005 12:01 am

    Hey, I’m with Rachel. What the heck are you talking about? Here is my dashboard picture:

    http://john1701a.com/prius/owners/stephanie_prius-dashboard_mini.jpg

  22. Caius Durling on August 16th, 2005 1:48 am

    Richard,

    Dashboard is a program in Mac OS X Tiger. It is activated with F12 (by default) and displays Widgets.

    Find out more here - http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/dashboard/

  23. Ian on August 23rd, 2005 4:32 pm

    Dashboard is not a program, it is a part of the Dock, as is Exposé.

    Ian

  24. joy ann on August 23rd, 2006 8:41 pm

    hi,, to all dashboard member,,, i really enjoy your music you guys so cool.. im from philippines i think your song was too peculiar from other continue doing great,,, reonovate lots of music,, Godbless…

  25. Rossella on September 6th, 2007 7:09 am

    How much would it be to replace a dashboard on a car?
    Or would it be more convientient to buy a new car?