I never used screensavers very much, none of them really kept me interested for more than a day or two. But for some reason today I suddenly decided to see what's out there.
Right now I'm looking at what ScreensPro has to offer. Not all their savers have the resolution necessary for my 30-inch screen (they tell me current computers don't have the power for so high resolution animation), but some do. So far I like Electric Jellyfish.
And I bought Something Fishy from uselesscreations.com. I like it. See video.
I also like the CafeWall one. (The download is only 16k!)
Update: Comments so far point out that I save the screen and power much more by using sleep instead of a screensaver, which is non-functional with an LCD screen, and is only eye candy. Which is true. I'll only use them when I'm zipping back and forth to the computer all the time.
10 comments:
Remember on a modern computer with an LCD screen a screen saver uses more power and doesn't do anything to extend the life of the screen and may actually reduce it.
An LCD is lit by essentially a fluorescent bulb behind the LCD. It lasts longest by being off. There are no phosphors to burn in like the old CRT's.
If you blank the screen you won't be toggling the polarizing crystal, and you won't need the CPU animating the screen, so it can sleep.
I like the picture slide shows, but I always use the blanking.
I have very fond memories of AfterDark on the family's first Macintosh, nearly a decade ago.
We children would watch in awe as toasters flapped across the screen and beetles crawled under the windows.
This was a screensaver with style, nothing like the boring abstract patterns of today.
Electric sheep free works on mac, windows, linux.
http://www.electricsheep.org/index.cgi?&menu=download
Once upon a long ago we had "Monty Pythons Complete Waste of Time" PC un-productivity suite.
My kids download a lot of those Harry Potter or Lego screen savers.
I'm trying Electric sheep now, but it does not download any "sheep" like it's (apparently) supposed to. It just shows "have patience while the first sheep is downloaded" forever.
"It lasts longest by being off."
Yes. Also, many "screen savers" are quite CPU intensive, so running them will consume power. The wattage will add up in your electricity bill.
With that said, my favourite screen saver is Serene Screen. It is so real it fools the experts!
I'm a little fed up from all the guilt-building around unnecessary power consumption. Many of us live in northern countries where you have to heat your home for the better part of the year.
During those months, any power "wasted" on screensavers, lighting, etc. would actually have to be spent on heating anyway. I feel it is much smarter to get something out of all this power before converting it into heat...
I even go as far as encourage people who, like me, suffer from the lack of sunshine during winter months to light up their places as much as they can. A ceiling fan is all that's needed to make sure the resultant heat is properly used, and the effect on one's morale and health are worth 100 times the cost of a few burned lightbulbs.
I had to manually download a sheep pack to get started on linux. I did the same for windows.
Scott
"I'm a little fed up from all the guilt-building around unnecessary power consumption."
I for one have absolutely no guilt. Energy is the last thing we will run out of. (Actually, we can never run out of it.) And, paradoxically, the more we consume the sooner we will switch to 100% clean production. (Which is all politics anyway.)
But they do bill you for it. That may be a reason for many to cut down. Where I live, heating is practically free through district heating.
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