Comments on: Desktop Earth 2.0

Desktop Earth 2.0

purephase — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 19:37:00 -0800

"Desktop Earth 2.0 is a wallpaper generator for Windows. It runs whenever you're logged on and updates your wallpaper with an accurate representation of the Earth as it would be seen from space at that precise moment." The images are fantastic. Oh, and it's free. (See similar - via digg).

By: slatternus

slatternus — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 19:42:13 -0800

I've been running this for about a week now. I find it very stable on my WinXP system, and it looks just as sweet as sugar!

By: aberrant

aberrant — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 19:45:41 -0800

The other utilities on that page look really good, too. Great post!

By: rmm

rmm — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 19:48:39 -0800

Beautiful - thanks for sharing the link. if any Mac users have an equivalent application, please post...

By: purephase

purephase — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 19:53:43 -0800

aberrant writes "The other utilities on that page look really good, too. Great post!" Yeah, I highly recommend the 3rtg software. It's useful if you would rather not rely on your ISP's statistics about bandwidth utilization (and you have a router that doesn't keep it's own metrics). rmm writes "if any Mac users have an equivalent application" The developer mentioned in his to do list that he plans to port it over to Mac (for his Mrs) so it should be along soon.

By: luftmensch

luftmensch — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 19:55:37 -0800

Can anyone tell me what kind of strain this will put on a system? It looks beautiful but I'm afraid any more stuff running when I game will just kill my computer.

By: coyote's bark

coyote's bark — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 19:56:09 -0800

errrr.. there has been a similar app for macs for some time now. i'll see if i can find it. arf!

By: JB71

JB71 — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 19:58:44 -0800

I worship in your general direction. This. Is. Exceedingly, Wonderfully, Fantastically Cool. Thank you.

By: Balisong

Balisong — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 19:59:11 -0800

Legal & Disclaimer: This is free software. You may use it in any way you like, but redistribution is not permitted. There are no warranties of any kind. If the software does not work: too bad. If you lose data: too bad. If your computer blows up: again, too bad. I am in no way responsible. Nice!

By: purephase

purephase — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 19:59:43 -0800

luftmensch writes "Can anyone tell me what kind of strain this will put on a system? It looks beautiful but I'm afraid any more stuff running when I game will just kill my computer." I don't game so I can't speak for it's performance while playing, however, on the two machines I have it installed I don't even notice it during regular use.

By: coyote's bark

coyote's bark — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 20:00:03 -0800

as promised.. http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/14212 enjoy

By: loquacious

loquacious — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 20:05:44 -0800

Damn your hide, purephase. This link was next in my queue. I'm running it on a P3 750 - 384 RAM with zero issues, with the real cloud updates turned on and all that sparkly stuff with 1 minute image refresh. Gorgeous stuff.

By: joost

joost — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 20:07:31 -0800

hey, this is awesome indeed, but the filesize is fairly large. Also, I am concerned about my PC getting slower because of this.

By: interrobang

interrobang — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 20:08:27 -0800

The Mac version has a huge watermark over it, right in the middle, just so everyone knows.

By: coyote's bark

coyote's bark — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 20:11:26 -0800

hhmmm maybe it does.. well then maybe one of the zillion orso others for osx will work more to your liking... http://www.versiontracker.com/php/search.php?mode=basic&action=search&str=earth&plt%5B%5D=macosx&x=0&y=0 :-)

By: dangerousdan

dangerousdan — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 20:11:28 -0800

Corker! This as an active desktop and sunclock as the screen saver.

By: Malor

Malor — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 20:15:39 -0800

I've been running a simpler variant of this on my Unix desktops for years and years... xearth was the equivalent. But that one doesn't do clouds and stuff, so this is cooler. I just rotate now among wallpapers I found at DeviantArt. Great stuff there.

By: Alvy Ampersand

Alvy Ampersand — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 20:22:24 -0800

Hmmm, doesn't seem to want to work on my PC(XP). Do I have to do something to my current wallpaper settings, reboot... ?

By: martona

martona — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 20:25:06 -0800

Hello Mefi! I'm a longtime lurker here... never posted nor registered, but I saw my server getting hammered from here so I figured I'd stop by. I wrote DesktopEarth. Thanks for the kind words. Slatternus: you might want to download the new version. I just uploaded V2 yesterday, so you're running the old one.

By: synkro

synkro — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 20:27:02 -0800

Cool app.

By: purephase

purephase — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 20:27:59 -0800

martona writes "I wrote DesktopEarth. Thanks for the kind words." Thanks for the software!

By: Alvy Ampersand

Alvy Ampersand — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 20:28:25 -0800

Ah! It's alive!!! Big thank yous to purephase and martona!

By: Samuel Farrow

Samuel Farrow — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 20:41:22 -0800

Martona - it is fantastic, you are a star.

By: fvw

fvw — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 20:42:33 -0800

Malor: Try xplanet, it does cloud cover (and isn't restricted to earth, though the availability of good imagery for many planets is limited).

By: Optimus Chyme

Optimus Chyme — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 20:43:38 -0800

Very cool.

By: loquacious

loquacious — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 20:44:20 -0800

Matona: OMFG. *lick* Thank you. Your app is the first screensaver - err - desktop wallpaper app I've bothered to download and actually use in over 10 years.

By: joeblough

joeblough — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 20:51:53 -0800

here is the equivalent for OSX. the "plain" xplanet isnt really fully baked on OSX.

By: PinkStainlessTail

PinkStainlessTail — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 21:03:42 -0800

Really really good. "Hide the taskbar" good.

By: Joeforking

Joeforking — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 21:08:16 -0800

I thought the earth was spherical when seen from space.

By: y2karl

y2karl — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 21:26:38 -0800

This is very cool but, for the moment, I'll hang on to my copy of John Walker's Earth Screen Saver for Windows from Fourmilab

The Earth screen saver displays an image of the Earth as currently illuminated by the Sun, from a variety of viewpoints. You can view the Earth from the Sun (day side), the night side, from the Moon, or from an arbitrary altitude above any point on the globe specified by latitude and longitude.

I have mine set for as seen from geosynchrous orbit above Seattle and I love watch the angle of the sunlight shift as the seasons change--I love, for instance, how, around midnight, there's the barest sliver of daylight across the top of a darkened Earth on and near the winter solstice--but I'll be checking up for when this one goes spherical.

By: y2karl

y2karl — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 21:29:31 -0800

er, geosynchronous, that is....

By: crunchland

crunchland — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 21:34:31 -0800

see also, Earthview. Dual screen support, and it can even display accurate cloud cover maps.

By: Tlogmer

Tlogmer — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 21:44:13 -0800

On a related note, does anyone know of an OS X app that changes the desktop picture depending on time of day. (Reflection of Daylight seems to do exactly, that, but it's 404ed.)

By: weapons-grade pandemonium

weapons-grade pandemonium — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 22:03:27 -0800

I have this one on my bookmarks toolbar, and look at it from time to time. You can set different parameters--views, times, etc.

By: mathowie

mathowie — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 22:10:58 -0800

Matona, I'd love to know when a mac version is available. I'd even pay for it.

By: adzm

adzm — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 22:41:52 -0800

I never thought I would ever have any sort of animated background. This is great, thanks!

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 23:32:01 -0800

Wow. Thanks purephase.

By: salmacis

salmacis — Sat, 11 Mar 2006 00:09:28 -0800

matthowie: Have you tried OSXPlanet as posted by joeblough? As far as I can tell it's exactly the same thing, and I'm running it on my Mac right now.

By: orthogonality

orthogonality — Sat, 11 Mar 2006 01:19:54 -0800

xplanet does the same thing (with clouds, earthqquakes, and local weather if you want) for all nine planets and several moons.

By: goo

goo — Sat, 11 Mar 2006 03:23:44 -0800

Does this show earthquakes? I've used xearth for a few years, and like watching the earthquakes. The Boxing Day tsunami especially - I saw the huge yellow circle on xearth, said 'holy fuck that's a big one', then twenty minutes later it was on the news.

By: triv

triv — Sat, 11 Mar 2006 04:23:24 -0800

this looks really great, and you'll all be surprised to know that it won't run on windows me. and no, that isn't my os of choice. great nonetheless martona :)

By: stavrosthewonderchicken

stavrosthewonderchicken — Sat, 11 Mar 2006 04:52:53 -0800

dugg. What, yesterday?

By: Mwongozi

Mwongozi — Sat, 11 Mar 2006 04:58:20 -0800

OSXPlanet for Macs. Also includes live cloud data, earthquakes, storms, volcanos, and satellite locations. And you get a choice of different map projections too, thoughy sadly not my favourite, the Dymaxion.

By: tiamat

tiamat — Sat, 11 Mar 2006 05:18:11 -0800

wow. thanks for the link!

By: melissa may

melissa may — Sat, 11 Mar 2006 05:30:45 -0800

Great work and much thanks, martona. I'm really enjoying it!

By: uncle harold

uncle harold — Sat, 11 Mar 2006 05:38:13 -0800

martona: Thanks! Really cool app. If I may make a feature request... it would be extremely nice if I could choose to have the earth move below the shadow mask, instead of the mask over the earth surface. That way I could place the few icons I need on my desktop on the permanent "nightside".

By: ewagoner

ewagoner — Sat, 11 Mar 2006 06:36:35 -0800

uncle harold -- the very first option is "Center Image On:". Set it to noon, rather than your timezone, and you'll have what you want.

By: Marianne

Marianne — Sat, 11 Mar 2006 06:58:25 -0800

It's always a new day if you set it to Sunrise. Thanks from a fervent Pollyanna!

By: danb

danb — Sat, 11 Mar 2006 08:24:16 -0800

martona, you're awesome for creating this. MeFites, you're awesome for directing me to Mac versions.

By: the cydonian

the cydonian — Sat, 11 Mar 2006 09:03:44 -0800

Staring at a city-lights-lit midnight map of Asia, and couldn't help notice a certain thick, straight line at the bottom of the Malayan peninsula. Is that the highway from Kuala Lumpur to Johor Bahru? Taiwan also seems to have a similar line. North Korea, otoh, isn't as spooky as it usually is in this sort of a map.

By: Penks

Penks — Sat, 11 Mar 2006 09:55:15 -0800

loquacious : "Matona: OMFG. *lick* Thank you. Your app is the first screensaver - err - desktop wallpaper app I've bothered to download and actually use in over 10 years.
Same here. Except for the licking part; I very rarely lick strangers.

By: newfers

newfers — Sat, 11 Mar 2006 10:05:13 -0800

Beautiful, but after 10 mins, I switched back to a picture of my kitty. But I am insane!

By: tiamat

tiamat — Sat, 11 Mar 2006 14:04:16 -0800

been running it for a few hours now on my laptop. Wow doesn't even begin to describe it. You can really tell you've been procrastinating when you can visibly see the day/night line move.

By: Jawn

Jawn — Sat, 11 Mar 2006 19:39:01 -0800

Awesome, now I don't even have to go outside to tell whether it's day or night!

By: dhruva

dhruva — Sun, 12 Mar 2006 00:36:40 -0800

joeblough: Thanks for the Mac link, its awesome!

By: webnrrd2k

webnrrd2k — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 10:25:51 -0800

That's nice and all, but you should really check up Xplanet (http://xplanet.sourceforge.net/). It's a Unix program, but there's a windows version. It's very configurable -- you can get it to show satellite positions, earthquakes, even views of different planets. Very good looking. This is the thing for you, if that's the sort of thing you're into!

By: purephase

purephase — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 10:47:13 -0800

I'd like to point out that my similar link in the FPP points to a thread about xplanet.