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Great Screensavers Of Our Time


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:mellow: Don't ask me- I'm just curious. I just walked past my daughter's laptop (a Dell, with a pretty large screen), and was struck by the coolness of her screensaver. I don't know who designed it nor what it's called, but an apt title would be "Tropical Fish Aquarium". Extremely life-like! (remind me never to bother with the expense and maintenance of a real aquarium). I'd be envious, if I didn't already have a better one myself. :cool: I used to use the Blue Note screensaver that somebody (Bo, was it?) shared at the BNBB. In fact, I still have it running on our old Mac G3. Now (new Mac G4), I have a program that automatically selects and displays images from any folder on the hard drive. I'm using one containing hundreds of vintage guitar images I've saved from off the web over the years. It even displays them in kind of an auto-zoom in zoom out/scan mode, which adds a lot of appeal to it. I can't really do it justice by trying to describe it- it's really a joy.

So, what do you use, and what else have you admired?

I guess I'm pretty easily entertained... sometimes I just sit and stare at these things. Hmm, think I'll go see what those fish are doin'...

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:mellow: Don't ask me- I'm just curious. I just walked past my daughter's laptop (a Dell, with a pretty large screen), and was struck by the coolness of her screensaver. I don't know who designed it nor what it's called, but an apt title would be "Tropical Fish Aquarium". Extremely life-like! (remind me never to bother with the expense and maintenance of a real aquarium). I'd be envious, if I didn't already have a better one myself. :cool: I used to use the Blue Note screensaver that somebody (Bo, was it?) shared at the BNBB. In fact, I still have it running on our old Mac G3. Now (new Mac G4), I have a program that automatically selects and displays images from any folder on the hard drive. I'm using one containing hundreds of vintage guitar images I've saved from off the web over the years. It even displays them in kind of an auto-zoom in zoom out/scan mode, which adds a lot of appeal to it. I can't really do it justice by trying to describe it- it's really a joy.

So, what do you use, and what else have you admired?

I guess I'm pretty easily entertained... sometimes I just sit and stare at these things. Hmm, think I'll go see what those fish are doin'...

what is the name of that program? sounds like it would take a lot of ram and processor, depending on the resolution of the images. i'd love to do something like that, but the files i work with are HUGE.

my screen goes black when it isn't in use.

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Way too many options on my machine.

About two dozen different methods that

each screensaver uses and each method is

randomly chosen.

For example, just one of the methods grabs

random segments of videos that I have in

my "Movie" folder and layers them while creating new patterns.

The random segments are not only taken from within linear time,

but the position within and degree of zoom and pan are

derived from chance operations.

This half-size static example uses

constantly changing excerpts

from two different videos:

060801.jpg

Here's another view from yet another video taken just a few minutes later:

060802.jpg

Edited by rostasi
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:mellow: Don't ask me- I'm just curious. I just walked past my daughter's laptop (a Dell, with a pretty large screen), and was struck by the coolness of her screensaver. I don't know who designed it nor what it's called, but an apt title would be "Tropical Fish Aquarium". Extremely life-like! (remind me never to bother with the expense and maintenance of a real aquarium). I'd be envious, if I didn't already have a better one myself. :cool: I used to use the Blue Note screensaver that somebody (Bo, was it?) shared at the BNBB. In fact, I still have it running on our old Mac G3. Now (new Mac G4), I have a program that automatically selects and displays images from any folder on the hard drive. I'm using one containing hundreds of vintage guitar images I've saved from off the web over the years. It even displays them in kind of an auto-zoom in zoom out/scan mode, which adds a lot of appeal to it. I can't really do it justice by trying to describe it- it's really a joy.

So, what do you use, and what else have you admired?

I guess I'm pretty easily entertained... sometimes I just sit and stare at these things. Hmm, think I'll go see what those fish are doin'...

what is the name of that program? sounds like it would take a lot of ram and processor, depending on the resolution of the images.

I dunno... it's part of the software that came with this Mac. Sounds like Rod and Jazzmoose have something similar. (btw, Rod, I'm not sure I'd ever get around to waking that sucker up! :lol: )

my screen goes black when it isn't in use.

Oh, man, you just ain't livin'! ;)

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I use JPG Saver - a rather simple software that displays any pic from your hard disc. Just put them all into file - or several subfiles - and select them in the program's explorer window that can be reached through the desktop properties. Uses a lot less hard disk space and I see only what I selected.

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I use JPG Saver - a rather simple software that displays any pic from your hard disc. Just put them all into file - or several subfiles - and select them in the program's explorer window that can be reached through the desktop properties. Uses a lot less hard disk space and I see only what I selected.

Thanks Mike- and what did you select? (that's really what I wanted the thread to focus on, the details of what images people enjoy viewing... although ideas and suggestions for programs are cool too).

I suppose the companion topic would be what people choose as their desktop image/wallpaper. I'm using a photo of Napili Bay:

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I use JPG Saver - a rather simple software that displays any pic from your hard disc. Just put them all into file - or several subfiles - and select them in the program's explorer window that can be reached through the desktop properties. Uses a lot less hard disk space and I see only what I selected.

I had a look at the link, Mike. Does it simply display one pic, or does it cycle through all in one specified folder?

MG

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I use JPG Saver - a rather simple software that displays any pic from your hard disc. Just put them all into file - or several subfiles - and select them in the program's explorer window that can be reached through the desktop properties. Uses a lot less hard disk space and I see only what I selected.

I had a look at the link, Mike. Does it simply display one pic, or does it cycle through all in one specified folder?

MG

It displays all the pics in a folder (and sub-folders, if you select that option), you can have them shown in random order if you want.

I have several folders I choose from - jazz photos and album covers, sexy covers ;), classical photos and covers, latin and ethnic music photos and covers, etc.

Sometimes I choose a folder where I store painting s of my favourite artists - that's the advantage of that software, that you can easily select and change the folder of your preference. If you chose a folder that includes other file types it selects only the jpgs, bmps, gifs, etc. Very convenient.

Edited by mikeweil
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About ten years ago, I was working at a large company with the typical low-walled cube-farm floor plan. One of the women I worked with sat right next to a heavily-trafficked aisle with her large 21" monitor clearly visible to anyone that walked by. One day when almost everyone on the floor had gone to lunch except the two of us, I was sitting at my workstation when I heard her let out a loud scream followed by an urgent plea for me to come over and help her. She was in the middle of a contentious divorce, and it turns out her soon-to-be ex-husband had emailed her an executable file which she ill-advisedly clicked on. It didn't appear to do anything, so she turned her back and started doing something else; about five minutes later, she turned around to discover her screen saver had been changed to a huge photograph of a naked man with an impressive erection. At which point I heard the aforementioned scream. :g

She was somewhat technically challenged, and had no idea how to banish Dude With Stiffy and get her old screensaver back. I helped her change it back, and I assume she thought twice about running unknown .EXEs from that day forward.

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