September 22, 2002

10:32 AM

Your screensaver is boring.
Electric Sheep(Linux, OSX) produces animated flame fractals rendered via distributed computation. n 0 time(Win) draws its data from things such as a custom word list, cached web site text, your favorites, or your cookies. The Bank of Time(Win2k-, OS9-) grows plants based on your idle time connected to the net. Dirty Fingerprints(Win) leaves fingerprints all over your screen, generated by user clicks on contributing sites. Or, if you really want, you can join in the effort to crack various encryption methods(most systems) at Distributed.net. Deskswap(prev. link) has unfortunately been offline for months, due to bandwidth issues.
posted by Su (18 comments total)

Incidentally, the original program that Electric Sheep is based on, Flame, was adopted by Procreate for use in KPT Effects and renamed FraxFlame(ed: Ew), which seems to have also had the result of making Flame unavailable anywhere. If somebody happens to have a copy of it, Mac or Windows, I'd really appreciate a copy.
posted by Su at 10:38 AM on September 22, 2002

I've become a fingerprints guy - it matches my keyboard. This is one of those posts whose actual influence won't be measured by the number of comments, I suspect. All the more reason to thank you.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 11:25 AM on September 22, 2002

My screensaver helps out with cancer research.
posted by skallas at 12:16 PM on September 22, 2002

There is no cost to participate and no impact on your computer use.
(From Skallas's link)

I wish I had a good screensaver to contribute. What a great thread this could be if everyone with a good screensaver to share would leave a link. Su is quite right - most of our screensavers are boring or far too cute for their own good. They need a good jolt if they're not to be just refrigerator magnets.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 12:35 PM on September 22, 2002

I used to use Geiss, but it killed my computer. I should try it again now that I've got more than 16Mb RAM. It's especially good when you have a mic plugged in and noisy co-workers.

I'm really sad that Electric Sheep doesn't work on Win - does anyone have anything as simply beautiful for us poor Windows (l)users? I might have to install linux now just for that 'saver.
posted by some chick at 12:43 PM on September 22, 2002

I agree with Miguel. Thanks, skallas (and Su). I just downloaded and became a member and emailed my family about the Cancer Research Project. [How about a Team MeFi?]
posted by jaronson at 12:45 PM on September 22, 2002

reFresh : reLoad serves up a number of interesting works. Nothing flash-bang though, just simple images.
posted by mkn at 1:08 PM on September 22, 2002

My screensaver of choice is Drempels. It's made by the same person who did Geiss and Milkdrop for Winamp if you are familiar with either.

Some former discussion about it is here.
posted by Pockets at 1:22 PM on September 22, 2002

Screensavers suck. Go power saving monitors!
posted by Orange Goblin at 1:46 PM on September 22, 2002

electric sheep is pretty, but the tiny black box has a white background on osx...
posted by rhyax at 2:04 PM on September 22, 2002

rhyax, hit the configure button in prefs. change the aspect ratio to full screen.
posted by patricking at 3:07 PM on September 22, 2002

My screensaver helps scientists understand protein folding, protein aggregation, and related diseases. My Google Toolbar doesn't do this, but it will soon.
posted by eatitlive at 3:15 PM on September 22, 2002

I run the the cancer research screensaver on 2 pc's at school and the folding protein on another.
Am always looking for something different for my laptop.
My husband runs the SETI at home
Drempels is sooo cool.
Thanks ya'll for the above links!
posted by redhead at 4:13 PM on September 22, 2002

There are great. I love gizmos. Thanks.

It's quite amusing to set up n 0 time to read and display metafilter.com...
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:55 PM on September 22, 2002

Recently Screen Savers (tech tv) had a bit on a screen saver that worked as post-it notes, where you could leave yourself messages, like "get milk". Anyone know where I could find it? I've searched the Screen Savers site, and googled, but have had no luck. Thanks in advance! :)
posted by sadie01221975 at 8:41 PM on September 22, 2002

I can't believe some brillo hack hasn't ported Electric Sheep to Windoze. Man, what *lovely* animations -- y'all gotta check out the top ten.
posted by five fresh fish at 10:14 PM on September 22, 2002

My screensaver doesn't do anything but look really cool (Mac OS X only, but there's a link to the Windows version).
posted by toddshot at 10:22 PM on September 22, 2002

Su, is this what you were looking for?

I can loose too many hours in that fractal kind of stuff...
posted by mutagen at 11:46 PM on September 22, 2002