Getting around the Red Santa(Satan) Hat

[JimmyTwoToes]

Firstly I'd like to say that it is my choice to use VLC player so don't bother telling me to use a different player.

I'm sure quite a few of you have been pestered by the ..cough..pagan..cough.. Red Santa(Satan) Hat[Redhat = Hatred] & wanted a simple way of either disabling it or at least having some temporary or "quick fix" around it without tampering with the ever useful system time(& date). Whether it may be for religious reasons, Non religious reasons or for just pure peace of mind from a post 1776 phenomena spread by my evil triad lovin brethren, At least the traffic cone doesn't completly resemble a pyramid.

As it seems, "J-B" wants everyone to get around this the difficult way by recompiling it for themselves & also doesn't want to point out that the easy way is to just downgrade or revert to the older version. This "Easter Egg" was first seen in VLC Player version 0.9 & quite a few of you might actually know what that "9" symbolizes but that's really besides my real point at the moment. If anyone is scratching their heads on that one & truly wants to know all I can say it has to do with numerology & return of the "Sungod"(Satan), If you want to disagree try doing some research first & also try debating it with someone that might agree with you because I simply will not.

If in Windows XP, OS X, or even Linux & you don't want to deal with the broken and/or unfinished(Really in any OS) skins interface the simplist way is to simply just revert to VLC Player version 0.8.6 by uninstalling whichever version you may have that is causing the headache & doing a quick google search for vlc player .8.6 + whichever OS you may be using besides the newer Windows operating systems that more than likely lacks support. Install it & your done. The only real downside to this may be the lack of a couple of bug fixes that tends to affect a very small handfull of people & of course the old user interface.

In Linux the options should be simple for most users but for those who aren't sure you can either install to a differant temperary folder or completely remove the culprit & install 0.8.6, However that will only lead to yet another headache of dealing with removing the old version & reinstalling the newer one after the new year. An alternative method in Linux is to use the 0.8.6 Windows executable version through WINE & setting your Video output module to DirectX through preferances, However there may be some slight performance issues or slight screen tearing in older systems.

In OS X the same Linux method should apply beside the alternative WINE method; Obviously.

Since I occasionally still use Windows XP with Linux being my primary OS I can't say I have a solution for Windows Vista or Windows 7 users beside going through the headache of downgrading their OS back to XP or even installing XP onto an old hard drive on any computer or large SD card or USB Flash Drive on newer systems that support boot from transflash cards. An alternative method is to use XP in VMWare or the free & opensource version of VirtualBox within Vista or 7.

Alternatively, if anyone happens to recompile the sourcecode without the hat trigger for the remainder of this years trigger or the trigger for next year please feel free to post the recompiled sourcecode on a file sharing site like megaupload & tell others about it here. Thanks.

Lastly I'd really like to thank "J-B" for all his thoughtless ignorance & love for the joy of his precious Santa Hat. Whether it may be a free player or not the trouble of adding in this useless "Easter Egg" was added to the sourcecode without even thinking of adding & hiding the option to disable this feature within Advanced Options in Preferances; That simple option could have avoided any argument or debate. Period.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Lastly I'd really like to thank "J-B" for all his thoughtless ignorance & love for the joy of his precious Santa Hat. Whether it may be a free player or not the trouble of adding in this useless "Easter Egg" was added to the sourcecode without even thinking of adding & hiding the option to disable this feature within Advanced Options in Preferances; That simple option could have avoided any argument or debate. Period.

Instead of registering an account and posting attacks ad hominem, and making everyone lose time, why don't you:

• Buy a brain
• Plug it
• Use the search function of this forum
• Read the correct post and understand it
• Download VLC 1.2
• Deactivate the option in preferences

?

Seems easier, right?

But no, it is better to ridicule yourself on this forum, right, Jimmy?

Should I mention that you came before on IRC and instead of asking this very question where people have answered you, you spent 15 minutes asking for IP anonymity on this forum, while using this very same IP for IRC? Should I give your full location or?
Not to mention the time you made us lose on IRC too...

[movies1914]

Tools

Preferences

or (cntr+P)

Interface

Use custom skins

Hat is gone.

I like to choose what I want to look at.

[rwhelan]

I'm quite in agreement that an option needs to be there to turn it off. It's enough that some users find it contrary to their belief systems whether others find that objection justified or not. I don't think it's up to me to decide someone should just 'get over it' when it's so easy to fix. Is VLC 1.2 even out yet? Current version on the download site is 1.1.11

The icon may not bother me, but it bothers me that it bothers another person for no purpose.

[detlef]

As I said in another thread, since nobody pays for VLC, it is strictly the developer's business and they can do what they want. If somebody doesn't like it, he (or she) is free to get lost.
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