On my Intel i945 chipset based laptop, Beryl 0.13 is wicked fast. Admittedly I’ve toned down a lot of the glitz, but I still have burn, blur, cube, negative and zoom turned on. I’m also using transparency via Nick Carroll’s Sunrise theme, which looks very nice. Alt+Tab was quick on 0.12, but it’s fast now… almost faster than w/out beryl it feels like. My remaining challenges are:

• My wobbly windows are too wobbly. I really don’t like wobble, but I do like the snap feature. However, my snap is too snappy and I often don’t have the strength to tear my windows off the side.
• Fading seems to be the least intrusive effect, especially if you have it as fast as possible. However it’s distracting for tool tips and menus… got to find an alternative.
• It would be cool to find some noticable notification effect other than water. Water is sooooo slooooow on my computer I just can’t handle it. I’d like to find an effect though that catches the eye in a pleasing way when, for example, someone IMs me and the window isn’t focused.
• I need a nice, wide-screen background with a good bit of texture. Something that isn’t too abstract. Something with dark tones (as in color, not mood). Atm I’m using a ‘skin’ from Justin.

Speaking of backgrounds, I’m working on art.ubuntu.com authentication. It’s one of about 4 projects I’m working on that is due ASAP. Once that’s done, and things slow down, that site needs some attention. There is so much good stuff there, but navigating is difficult.

In other news, last night I taught on the subject of, “Discharge Curve of Lithium Ion batteries and how it is similar to Christian Worship.” Who’d have thought you could combine electrical engineering and worship into one lesson?

Also, I still need a new theme for my website.