A Farewell to Screen Savers
July 31, 2017 11:19 AM Subscribe
Slate Future Tense: What Were Screen Savers? Originally a software solution to the hardware problem of burn-in on CRTs, screen savers gradually morphed from a practicality to "...artworks that we rarely thought of as art, partly because we never knew the names of the artists who had made them." After Dark was one of the most prominent, now featured in an exhibition called Sleep Mode and memorialized in Aggressively Stupid: The Story Behind After Dark.
My personal favorite: Bad Dog.
Screensavers and After Dark previously.
My personal favorite: Bad Dog.
Screensavers and After Dark previously.
I actually miss screen savers a lot. They were a little infusion of whimsy and/ or beauty into my workday. I'm actually tempted to see what the screen saver options are on my laptop.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 11:34 AM on July 31, 2017 [10 favorites]
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 11:34 AM on July 31, 2017 [10 favorites]
I have to bite my tongue to contain the nerdrage whenever I hear someone use the term "screen saver" when they mean "wallpaper". E.g. "Check out my new screensaver, it's a photo of my puppy" as they hold up their phone and point to their lock screen.
Anyway, I loved After Dark so I'm interested in learning more about it.
posted by good in a vacuum at 11:36 AM on July 31, 2017 [16 favorites]
Anyway, I loved After Dark so I'm interested in learning more about it.
posted by good in a vacuum at 11:36 AM on July 31, 2017 [16 favorites]
XScreensaver and its modules are still available as a download. There's even an iOS app so you can get the experience on your phone. My favorite is the BSoD screensaver. Nothing like having a bunch of random OS crashes pop up on your screen.
posted by SansPoint at 11:39 AM on July 31, 2017 [14 favorites]
posted by SansPoint at 11:39 AM on July 31, 2017 [14 favorites]
This is great. I just wish the writer of the After Dark story hadn't used the phrase "shuck and jive."
posted by limeonaire at 11:39 AM on July 31, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by limeonaire at 11:39 AM on July 31, 2017 [5 favorites]
Huh. I checked, and you can totally put a screensaver on my work computer. I am very tempted to use the bubbles one, except that I might get mesmerized by it and not accomplish anything.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 11:41 AM on July 31, 2017
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 11:41 AM on July 31, 2017
MrGuilt, you just took me back into the past, a time-travel adventure I had almost forgotten about. Oh man, I haven't thought of Johnny Castaway in years and years. Thanks for that.
posted by Fizz at 11:48 AM on July 31, 2017
posted by Fizz at 11:48 AM on July 31, 2017
I loved After Dark, especially the Star Trek TNG version. Best screensaver was when you had ships going across the screen, a Borg cube showed up, after it traversed all the other ships would go away... and then a much larger Borg cube would appear. Next best one was when you had the bridge crew do the scene from "Parallels" where Desperate Riker shows up.
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:50 AM on July 31, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:50 AM on July 31, 2017 [4 favorites]
Always liked flying toasters.
posted by sammyo at 11:55 AM on July 31, 2017 [13 favorites]
posted by sammyo at 11:55 AM on July 31, 2017 [13 favorites]
I was sad when I could no longer run Johnny Castaway on modern computers because of compatibility issues. I still have After Dark on my vintage Macintosh SE/30, usually set to run flying toasters. Sometime I turn the computer on just to let the screen savers run.
posted by fimbulvetr at 11:57 AM on July 31, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by fimbulvetr at 11:57 AM on July 31, 2017 [2 favorites]
XScreensaver still has active development! jwz put out a new version just recently.
Back in 2000 I had a startup that was literally running our screensavers and us reselling your computers' idle time. We were very excited about BlueMountain, which Excite@Home had just bought for nearly $1B. (IIRC, they had a screensaver product with a lot of installs). And of course push media had only recently stopped being the new hotness after Pointcast failed.
Now your computer just goes in to low power mode. It's better this way.
posted by Nelson at 11:57 AM on July 31, 2017 [6 favorites]
Back in 2000 I had a startup that was literally running our screensavers and us reselling your computers' idle time. We were very excited about BlueMountain, which Excite@Home had just bought for nearly $1B. (IIRC, they had a screensaver product with a lot of installs). And of course push media had only recently stopped being the new hotness after Pointcast failed.
Now your computer just goes in to low power mode. It's better this way.
posted by Nelson at 11:57 AM on July 31, 2017 [6 favorites]
Those little toasters were flying across the computer screen in the tiny room the doctor called us into to announce my mother had cancer.
posted by thursdaystoo at 12:00 PM on July 31, 2017 [24 favorites]
posted by thursdaystoo at 12:00 PM on July 31, 2017 [24 favorites]
A special place in my heart for Homer Simpson mowing the lawn in a dress.
posted by Fizz at 12:00 PM on July 31, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Fizz at 12:00 PM on July 31, 2017 [1 favorite]
I also have Johnny Castaway installed on an old 486 laptop I use to run old games. Still enjoyable to watch that screensaver after all these years.
posted by fimbulvetr at 12:01 PM on July 31, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by fimbulvetr at 12:01 PM on July 31, 2017 [1 favorite]
I had the After Dark ST:TOS pack, and I remember the little sprite-animated Spock wandering around the screen, with Bones' voice saying "His brain is gone!"
Good times.
posted by adamrice at 12:04 PM on July 31, 2017 [5 favorites]
Good times.
posted by adamrice at 12:04 PM on July 31, 2017 [5 favorites]
My favorite was StarMessage, which displayed the current moon phase against a celestial, including a few shooting stars. Best of all, you could type a message to display within it, spelled in out animated stars.
posted by Lunaloon at 12:19 PM on July 31, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Lunaloon at 12:19 PM on July 31, 2017 [1 favorite]
Kind of disappointed that the article doesn't mention jwz, who (minimally) counts as Mefi's Own.
posted by zompist at 12:20 PM on July 31, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by zompist at 12:20 PM on July 31, 2017 [4 favorites]
I've been doing without them for some months, since my computer broke... but thank you, I now went ahead and reinstalled Electric Sheep. Flock is growing by the minute :)
posted by holist at 12:23 PM on July 31, 2017
posted by holist at 12:23 PM on July 31, 2017
Bryan Braun has helpfully recreated a selection of the original After Dark screensavers in CSS (Classic Mac OS-themed), if you feel like full-screening your browser and soaking up the nostalgia.
posted by sysinfo at 12:24 PM on July 31, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by sysinfo at 12:24 PM on July 31, 2017 [3 favorites]
yeah but "Those of you with Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode (AMOLED) displays may eventually suffer from a defect known as “burn-in”. Frequently displayed images — like the lockscreen — can permanently imprint onto the screen"
Looking forward to the return of "pipes" on my lock-screen.
posted by marvin at 12:24 PM on July 31, 2017 [10 favorites]
Looking forward to the return of "pipes" on my lock-screen.
posted by marvin at 12:24 PM on July 31, 2017 [10 favorites]
I regret many of the hours I spent tweaking my xwindows settings as a wee lad. . . but that perfectly tuned xmountains screensaver that kept me company for years was well worth the effort.
I never got the toaster thing. But, to each their own.
posted by eotvos at 12:28 PM on July 31, 2017 [2 favorites]
I never got the toaster thing. But, to each their own.
posted by eotvos at 12:28 PM on July 31, 2017 [2 favorites]
Sleep Mode | The Art of the Screensaver runs till late next month, worth the visit if screensavers are your thing :)
posted by TrinsicWS at 12:31 PM on July 31, 2017
posted by TrinsicWS at 12:31 PM on July 31, 2017
After Dark may have been the first commercial software that I pirated off Usenet. Such a huge, huge piece of software, from back when there was pretty much just one meme at a time.
posted by rhizome at 12:32 PM on July 31, 2017
posted by rhizome at 12:32 PM on July 31, 2017
Good news everyone - Organic Art is still available. Should work fine on your Windows 95 PC...
posted by pipeski at 12:32 PM on July 31, 2017
posted by pipeski at 12:32 PM on July 31, 2017
After Dark may have been the first commercial software that I pirated off Usenet.
Ah, yes. Pirating.
Flying Toasters lawsuit: In 1989, software company Berkeley Systems released its immensely popular After Dark screensaver. The best-known of the various screensaver options was Flying Toasters. In 1994 the group sued Berkeley Systems, claiming that the toasters were a copy of the winged toasters featured on this cover. The band's case was lost because Berkeley claimed no prior knowledge of the artwork, and the judge noted the band had failed to trademark the cover art.
posted by hal9k at 12:37 PM on July 31, 2017 [1 favorite]
Ah, yes. Pirating.
Flying Toasters lawsuit: In 1989, software company Berkeley Systems released its immensely popular After Dark screensaver. The best-known of the various screensaver options was Flying Toasters. In 1994 the group sued Berkeley Systems, claiming that the toasters were a copy of the winged toasters featured on this cover. The band's case was lost because Berkeley claimed no prior knowledge of the artwork, and the judge noted the band had failed to trademark the cover art.
posted by hal9k at 12:37 PM on July 31, 2017 [1 favorite]
ON MIGHTY TOASTER WIIIIIINGS
posted by Faint of Butt at 12:39 PM on July 31, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by Faint of Butt at 12:39 PM on July 31, 2017 [4 favorites]
I'm pretty sure that I put as many hours into Lunatic Fringe as I did other "real" games at the time.
posted by AndrewInDC at 12:49 PM on July 31, 2017 [9 favorites]
posted by AndrewInDC at 12:49 PM on July 31, 2017 [9 favorites]
Writing classic Mac screensavers was fun. In those days there was no screensaver API on the Mac and you had to write your own code to patch the event system, so you could detect that the machine had been idle for a while and then run your code to take over the screen and do the animation.
In terms of Mac code you had to write an INIT that installed a jGNEFilter into the chain that started at address 0x029A, aka 666, which tells you something about how evil the process was. You could hack something together in C but really it took at least some hand-written 68K assembler to do event filtering properly without side-effects. Your code could then see every event for every app, including all keystrokes, a huge security hole that nobody really thought about at the time.
Then you'd write a control panel CDEV to provide the UI to do things ilke change the delay before it kicked in, etc.
Finally you'd write the code to take over the screen when asked and draw the animation. I used to put this bit into a regular app that my installler would hide away somewhere.
My greatest hits were the official Ansel Adams screensaver and the Economist screensaver, but I wrote plenty that I can't even remember now.
posted by w0mbat at 1:04 PM on July 31, 2017 [24 favorites]
In terms of Mac code you had to write an INIT that installed a jGNEFilter into the chain that started at address 0x029A, aka 666, which tells you something about how evil the process was. You could hack something together in C but really it took at least some hand-written 68K assembler to do event filtering properly without side-effects. Your code could then see every event for every app, including all keystrokes, a huge security hole that nobody really thought about at the time.
Then you'd write a control panel CDEV to provide the UI to do things ilke change the delay before it kicked in, etc.
Finally you'd write the code to take over the screen when asked and draw the animation. I used to put this bit into a regular app that my installler would hide away somewhere.
My greatest hits were the official Ansel Adams screensaver and the Economist screensaver, but I wrote plenty that I can't even remember now.
posted by w0mbat at 1:04 PM on July 31, 2017 [24 favorites]
My favorite screensaver moment. This was 5 or 6 years ago and I was serving on a jury. The prosecution used a computer to show some photos and play some audio of 911 calls. They did this on a computer that was attached to a giant, archaic rear projection television that they had wheeled into court facing the jury box. The attorneys and court room staff were not very tech literal so you can imagine that the screensaver kept kicking off with the Flying Windows. It was immensely distracting since it was in our field of vision. The judge and attorneys couldn't see it easily so we kept having to interrupt the trial to let them know the screensaver was on. They eventually just got rid of the computer and tv rather than disabling the screensaver.
(The judge also accidentally tripped the courtroom silent panic button which resulted in Sheriff's Deputies pouring into the courtroom but that is a story for another time).
posted by mmascolino at 1:05 PM on July 31, 2017 [7 favorites]
(The judge also accidentally tripped the courtroom silent panic button which resulted in Sheriff's Deputies pouring into the courtroom but that is a story for another time).
posted by mmascolino at 1:05 PM on July 31, 2017 [7 favorites]
I'm pretty sure that I put as many hours into Lunatic Fringe as I did other "real" games at the time.
THANK YOU
I could not remember the name of the screensaver that was also a game, and that is it! Also You Bet Your Head
That also brought me to Maelstrom, and these sound effects are taking me so far back into my childhood. That weird-ass YEEEEoooo sound at the beginning.
posted by Existential Dread at 1:06 PM on July 31, 2017 [5 favorites]
THANK YOU
I could not remember the name of the screensaver that was also a game, and that is it! Also You Bet Your Head
That also brought me to Maelstrom, and these sound effects are taking me so far back into my childhood. That weird-ass YEEEEoooo sound at the beginning.
posted by Existential Dread at 1:06 PM on July 31, 2017 [5 favorites]
I used to love messing about in ResEdit, trying to change the graphics of screen-savers. For instance, I made a screensaver pasting my manager's face over the toaster (it was the 1994 version, before they upgraded the graphics and added the toast), so it was like a fleet of his head flapping/flying diagonally down the screen.
posted by blueberry at 1:06 PM on July 31, 2017 [10 favorites]
posted by blueberry at 1:06 PM on July 31, 2017 [10 favorites]
And that meme was Dancing Baby.
Ha ha, no. Dancing Baby was fully 10 years later!
posted by rhizome at 1:10 PM on July 31, 2017
Ha ha, no. Dancing Baby was fully 10 years later!
posted by rhizome at 1:10 PM on July 31, 2017
Lunatic Fringe is on the web. Sorry.
RIP my productivity
Who am I kidding, it's been dead since Trump was elected
posted by Existential Dread at 1:15 PM on July 31, 2017 [3 favorites]
RIP my productivity
Who am I kidding, it's been dead since Trump was elected
posted by Existential Dread at 1:15 PM on July 31, 2017 [3 favorites]
I picked up a new TV a few months ago, 75" 4K LED/LCD only a year behind the state of the art...
Only to discover a Screen Burn Protection feature. On my TV that's spending 50% of its time as a computer monitor.
It doesn't seem to be a big risk (the minimum time you can set for the built-in "screensaver" is like 2 hours) and from what I've read LCD "burn-in" is often temporary and easily reversed, but I was still dumbfounded to encounter this flashback from the 90s. I still haven't figured out whether this particular Samsung LCD panel is particularly susceptible or whether they're just the first company to be paranoid about it.
And now... holy shit, XScreensaver has like a hundred new modules, including many by JWZ!? I know what I'm configuring tonight.
posted by roystgnr at 1:16 PM on July 31, 2017
Only to discover a Screen Burn Protection feature. On my TV that's spending 50% of its time as a computer monitor.
It doesn't seem to be a big risk (the minimum time you can set for the built-in "screensaver" is like 2 hours) and from what I've read LCD "burn-in" is often temporary and easily reversed, but I was still dumbfounded to encounter this flashback from the 90s. I still haven't figured out whether this particular Samsung LCD panel is particularly susceptible or whether they're just the first company to be paranoid about it.
And now... holy shit, XScreensaver has like a hundred new modules, including many by JWZ!? I know what I'm configuring tonight.
posted by roystgnr at 1:16 PM on July 31, 2017
A few years ago, we bought a lovely new wide-screen monitor, and, even thought I knew it wasn't technologically beneficial, I went looking for an aquarium screen saver. I'd always liked watching them (real aquariums too). I found the miracle that is SereneScreen.
You can pick out which fish you want, turn on and configure a clock feature, and even control how the fish swim, I think. I loved it! I'm going to see if I can set it up on my new computer.
I didn't really use it as a "screen saver"; I just liked turning it on occasionally to watch the fish for a few seconds. Oh, and listen to the sound effects. And look through the menus of fish. I think I stuck with the free version, but it was plenty fun.
posted by amtho at 1:23 PM on July 31, 2017
You can pick out which fish you want, turn on and configure a clock feature, and even control how the fish swim, I think. I loved it! I'm going to see if I can set it up on my new computer.
I didn't really use it as a "screen saver"; I just liked turning it on occasionally to watch the fish for a few seconds. Oh, and listen to the sound effects. And look through the menus of fish. I think I stuck with the free version, but it was plenty fun.
posted by amtho at 1:23 PM on July 31, 2017
I greatly miss screensavers too. Back in the day the saver me and my friends liked was the freeware Torgo Saves The Screen, which played Torgo's Theme when the computer went idle, and then a cartoon version of everyone's favorite lodge caretaker would shamble across the screen, saying periodically: "I am... TORgo... I take... care of your SCREEN... when you're awAY...." Then: "The MASter wouldn't apPROVE of... burn-in...." And when he went off-screen, Crow would quip "He's around here somewhere I can here his theme music."
My Dad loved Johnny Castaway, and asked if I could find some way to get it to run on his Windows 10 machine, but unfortunately it's a 16-bit executable and his 64-bit OS just refuses to run it. (That also means you can't run Torgo on it, alas.)
posted by JHarris at 1:34 PM on July 31, 2017 [5 favorites]
My Dad loved Johnny Castaway, and asked if I could find some way to get it to run on his Windows 10 machine, but unfortunately it's a 16-bit executable and his 64-bit OS just refuses to run it. (That also means you can't run Torgo on it, alas.)
posted by JHarris at 1:34 PM on July 31, 2017 [5 favorites]
Being rather outré, I always liked the Totally Twisted release. I miss the useless utility of the After Dark screens.
posted by njohnson23 at 1:37 PM on July 31, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by njohnson23 at 1:37 PM on July 31, 2017 [2 favorites]
I had a Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast screensaver from After Dark!!! God, I loved those so much. I need to see if I can boot up my Mac IIci and get them to work again
posted by Hermione Granger at 1:43 PM on July 31, 2017
posted by Hermione Granger at 1:43 PM on July 31, 2017
I miss System 47. I loved having a dual-monitor setup that looked like it was running LCARS.
posted by sleeping bear at 1:47 PM on July 31, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by sleeping bear at 1:47 PM on July 31, 2017 [1 favorite]
My favorites were the Mathematically Beautiful Screen Savers.
posted by lagomorphius at 2:03 PM on July 31, 2017
posted by lagomorphius at 2:03 PM on July 31, 2017
I have a copy of The Psychedelic Bus of Dead Knowledge A Grateful Dead Mind Expansion Trivia Game around here somewhere, which IIRC had a screensaver mode, but the grand-daddy of pallet shifting will always be AcidWarp
posted by mikelieman at 2:17 PM on July 31, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by mikelieman at 2:17 PM on July 31, 2017 [1 favorite]
Does anyone else remember Flowfazer?
posted by doctor_negative at 3:25 PM on July 31, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by doctor_negative at 3:25 PM on July 31, 2017 [1 favorite]
Pretty sure widespread power management support did more to kill screensavers than the switch from CRT to LCD technologies.
(Wow, screensavers are so poorly supported now that my spell check doesn't even think it's a word)
posted by ckape at 4:40 PM on July 31, 2017 [2 favorites]
(Wow, screensavers are so poorly supported now that my spell check doesn't even think it's a word)
posted by ckape at 4:40 PM on July 31, 2017 [2 favorites]
Late 2000's I was part of a "cost savings team" and found that the fancy screensavers of the time (e.g. 3GL) were actually driving processors at 100% power and were actually costing money. Blank from then on; RIP Smashface
posted by achrise at 5:21 PM on July 31, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by achrise at 5:21 PM on July 31, 2017 [3 favorites]
I just want to install the flying toasters and Bad Dog and all of them for that matter to my modern windows machine(s). Why, oh why, is life so cruel that I cannot?
posted by RolandOfEld at 5:26 PM on July 31, 2017
posted by RolandOfEld at 5:26 PM on July 31, 2017
I can't remember the After Dark module that served as a light show/lullaby in my house 20 years ago. It wasn't one of the well-known ones. Floating geometry...?
And I found a third party screensaver that was a beautifully rendered (for 1997) night sky/clouds.
posted by pernoctalian at 6:16 PM on July 31, 2017
And I found a third party screensaver that was a beautifully rendered (for 1997) night sky/clouds.
posted by pernoctalian at 6:16 PM on July 31, 2017
I had the jumping elephants screensaver from Monty Python's Complete Waste Of Time. There was one day when I forgot and left my really kickin' PC sound system turned way up, and headed to work. My poor neighbors in the shop downstairs... Let's just say a pair of 18" subs delivers really authentic elephant stomps.
posted by xedrik at 6:22 PM on July 31, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by xedrik at 6:22 PM on July 31, 2017 [5 favorites]
I keep my Mac set up to make screensavers happen. I don't use any of the defaults; I have a carefully-curated collection that includes several of the Really Slick Screensavers, the beautiful crowd-sourced fractal renders of Electric Sheep, and the incomparable Hotel Gadget, which never fails to make me smile when it shows up.
Also there is RandomExtra, which gives you better control over which screensaver shows up than OSX's randomizer.
I am also the rare breed of person who is willing to pay for a music visualizer - I use Aeon, by the author of GForce, which you may know as "the old iTunes visualizer". There's an iOS version, too.
posted by egypturnash at 6:23 PM on July 31, 2017 [2 favorites]
Also there is RandomExtra, which gives you better control over which screensaver shows up than OSX's randomizer.
I am also the rare breed of person who is willing to pay for a music visualizer - I use Aeon, by the author of GForce, which you may know as "the old iTunes visualizer". There's an iOS version, too.
posted by egypturnash at 6:23 PM on July 31, 2017 [2 favorites]
I made a Flying Toaster LED panel for my employer's stand at Toronto Maker Festival. It was quite the hit with people of a certain age.
posted by scruss at 6:26 PM on July 31, 2017
posted by scruss at 6:26 PM on July 31, 2017
I used to like the Matrix screensaver, and I still use the Fliqlo flip clock screensaver when I'm feeling nostalgic.
posted by fuse theorem at 6:26 PM on July 31, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by fuse theorem at 6:26 PM on July 31, 2017 [3 favorites]
My favorite old school saver was called “Mowin’ Man.” My current favorite modern one is the Apple TV screen savers that have been ported to the Mac.
posted by 4ster at 6:55 PM on July 31, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by 4ster at 6:55 PM on July 31, 2017 [1 favorite]
An elegant time-waster, for a more civilized age
posted by thelonius at 7:01 PM on July 31, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by thelonius at 7:01 PM on July 31, 2017 [3 favorites]
I had the Bloom County screensaver.
Which, with its 3D rendered Opus was guaranteed to bring your average PC to a grinding halt.
It also had toasters, if that was your speed.
posted by madajb at 7:18 PM on July 31, 2017
Which, with its 3D rendered Opus was guaranteed to bring your average PC to a grinding halt.
It also had toasters, if that was your speed.
posted by madajb at 7:18 PM on July 31, 2017
I miss Mopyfish enormously. You'd feed the fish, and it would die if you over- or under-fed it. There are other fish screensavers, but none as cute and realistic as Mopyfish.
posted by Melismata at 7:34 PM on July 31, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Melismata at 7:34 PM on July 31, 2017 [1 favorite]
No mention of the founders of Berkeley Systems starting MoveOn with all the toaster money.
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:53 PM on July 31, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:53 PM on July 31, 2017 [3 favorites]
My favorite screensaver (and maybe my favorite Douglas Adams bit) was the Holistic Sofa inspired by Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. The minimally spoiler-ish explanation is that there's a sofa halfway up a staircase, but it's impossible to move it up or down the stairs no matter how you orient it. The screensaver shows a wireframe version of the scene, rotates the sofa in various ways, and puts up a big X at each failed solution.
This weekend my wife & I had to move an awkwardly big bookcase down a twisty staircase, with not much room to spare and with a lot of contortions. She asked why I was so amused by the process, and I tried to explain the sofa scene. I can't say that I convinced her that it was as funny as I thought it was, but her patience while I tried did convince me that I married *very* well.
posted by NumberSix at 9:19 PM on July 31, 2017 [3 favorites]
This weekend my wife & I had to move an awkwardly big bookcase down a twisty staircase, with not much room to spare and with a lot of contortions. She asked why I was so amused by the process, and I tried to explain the sofa scene. I can't say that I convinced her that it was as funny as I thought it was, but her patience while I tried did convince me that I married *very* well.
posted by NumberSix at 9:19 PM on July 31, 2017 [3 favorites]
Got 2.0 for my first color Mac LC580. Played with all the settings and modules for YEARS. In later years, my sister and I both drove our office mates crazy with spirited singalongs with On Mighty Toaster Wings. We still sing it around the house occasionally. Hell, I want to wake her up and sing it NOW!
posted by a humble nudibranch at 10:19 PM on July 31, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by a humble nudibranch at 10:19 PM on July 31, 2017 [3 favorites]
In later years, my sister and I both drove our office mates crazy with spirited singalongs with On Mighty Toaster Wings.
Flying out of the sunposted by Blue Jello Elf at 10:45 PM on July 31, 2017 [4 favorites]
The smell of toast is in the air
When there's a job to be done
The Flying Toasters will be there!
And it's flap! Flap! Flap!
Now help is on the way
A victory song they sing
We pop up to save the day
On flying toaster wings!
In brightest day or after dark
When times of trouble are at hand
The flying toasters set a spark
And hope is blazing 'cross the land!
And it's flap! Flap! Flap!
Salvation from above
A precious gift they bring
Gleaming angels of love
On flying toaster wings!
My favorites (when I wasn't playing Lunatic Fringe) were the pretty ones -- I could spend hours tinkering with the colors and settings on Satori or on Rose.
posted by rewil at 10:53 PM on July 31, 2017
posted by rewil at 10:53 PM on July 31, 2017
Thanks, Blue Jello Elf. I didn't go wake my sister but I did sing it (twice) while marching to the kitchen and back, followed enthusiastically by two cats! (I'm not sure whether the cats' enthusiasm was stirred by my singing or by the food I gave them while in the kitchen.)
posted by a humble nudibranch at 11:19 PM on July 31, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by a humble nudibranch at 11:19 PM on July 31, 2017 [1 favorite]
For the uninitiated: "On Mighty Toaster Wings" www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7nn4IXCeJc
posted by alchemist at 3:41 AM on August 1, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by alchemist at 3:41 AM on August 1, 2017 [3 favorites]
My favorite was the rotating 3D text screensaver Windows 95 had. My school back then unwisely didn't lock down the settings so it was theoretically possible for a student to go in and change the screensaver text from the school name to, say, "[$NAME] eats monkey boogers" in rainbow font.
Theoretically.
posted by lineofsight at 5:10 AM on August 1, 2017 [1 favorite]
Theoretically.
posted by lineofsight at 5:10 AM on August 1, 2017 [1 favorite]
I spent so many hours daydreaming in class in middle school while staring at the maze screensaver from Windows 98. Pipes too. They may have saved the screen from burn-in but I think they're burned into my brain.
posted by Wretch729 at 6:37 AM on August 1, 2017
posted by Wretch729 at 6:37 AM on August 1, 2017
Back when I had 3 monitors, the HAL 9000 screensaver (YT link) was my favorite. What it showed was copied exactly from what was shown on the monitors in the movie.
Its website was shut down unfortunately (copyright blah blah).
posted by Captain Fetid at 8:18 AM on August 1, 2017 [1 favorite]
Its website was shut down unfortunately (copyright blah blah).
posted by Captain Fetid at 8:18 AM on August 1, 2017 [1 favorite]
I use Polar clock on my windows 10 machine at home. At work (on windows 7), everyone has a corporate-branded screensaver that's actually kind of nice.
posted by jazon at 8:46 AM on August 1, 2017
posted by jazon at 8:46 AM on August 1, 2017
I have to bite my tongue to contain the nerdrage whenever I hear someone use the term "screen saver" when they mean "wallpaper". E.g. "Check out my new screensaver, it's a photo of my puppy" as they hold up their phone and point to their lock screen.
Same. Though to be fair, a screensaver being a picture you save on your screen does make slightly more sense than wallpaper being something you apply to a desktop.
posted by flabdablet at 9:11 AM on August 1, 2017 [1 favorite]
Same. Though to be fair, a screensaver being a picture you save on your screen does make slightly more sense than wallpaper being something you apply to a desktop.
posted by flabdablet at 9:11 AM on August 1, 2017 [1 favorite]
You better believe I paid $5 to get Flying Toasters on my Win7 PC.
posted by overeducated_alligator at 9:37 AM on August 1, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by overeducated_alligator at 9:37 AM on August 1, 2017 [1 favorite]
Mac users of a certain vintage might have been lucky enough to find out about Todd Rundgren's astounding Flowfazer screensaver, lovingly brought back to life by the original programmer for iOS
posted by dbiedny at 10:00 PM on August 1, 2017
posted by dbiedny at 10:00 PM on August 1, 2017
And if you liked the shared-computation screensaver trend, there's Electric Sheep (wiki), who also sells an annual t-shirt of The Best Design as decided by users and their computers.
posted by rhizome at 10:31 PM on August 1, 2017
posted by rhizome at 10:31 PM on August 1, 2017
Wow, Electric Sheep is still operating? That's amazing, it's been 18 years! Back when I was doing my shared-computation startup I met with Scott Draves partly out of curiosity and partly to see if somehow we could work together (ie, if I could co-opt him.) He's done well for himself in his career.
posted by Nelson at 7:33 AM on August 2, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Nelson at 7:33 AM on August 2, 2017 [1 favorite]
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posted by MrGuilt at 11:20 AM on July 31, 2017 [14 favorites]