After years of waiting, I’ve finally raised enough money to buy a new computer. It can’t yet play the games I want it to, but soon enough I’ll invest in some RAM and a sexy video card and everything will be peaches and cream. Only real problem is that my new Dell has only come including Window XP’s default screensavers, none of which are really suitable for showing off my newfound hardware. I mean, I’ve got stars, a logo, and some psychadelic lines that go in all kinds of directions while changing colors. I want something fun, cool looking, and something that makes use of my 19 inch flat screen moniter as a canvas.
So I towards towards the Dope. What are you fine people using? Or is there anything else you’d reccomend?
A few questions about the Electric sheep. I’ve downloaded it and it’s everything I want in a screensaver, but:
It makes my moniter “blink” as it were, every few seconds. What I mean by this is that my moniter image goes black for a split second, and then goes back to the animation. It also causes my tower to make a lot of noise when it comes on. If I were to buy a new graphics card (which I will soon enough) will these problems remain?
And
Some online friends have expressed some wareness in the direction of this program, saying that allowing my computer to communicate with many others could leave my computer open to viruses, spyware, and other problems. Assuming you know more about the manner in which my computer is connecting to others, what are the chances of this happening? Is my PC being open to viruses?
System 47. Turn your computer into a Star Trek: The Next Generation ICARS display.
Strat Wars. Random-generated space battles for your endless amusement. I currently have “Colonial Vipers vs. Borgified Cylons” (complete with Cube) on mine.
I’m curious too, and found this in the message board on the website:
“…I’m not very trusting when the world is given access to something on my computer - I need to know BitTorrent is a totally safe thing…”
"No, the way bittorrent works is there is a torrent, which is essentially a list of files and a main server called a tracker. The tracker keeps a running list of all the people who are actively using the torrent (whether downloading or uploading [seeding]). Now here’s the lay version of how it goes down. You open up the torrent and the files start downloading bit by bit (this normally happens in a fairly random order by what portions of the files are most available from the people the server connects you to) Now, you’re downloading bits of these files and as they come in the server updates what portions of these files you have on your computer, allowing you to share those bits with other people (and only those bits of those files, not any other files on your computer). Eventually you get all the bits and your download is done. At this point you can keep the torrent going by “seeding” which is basically allowing people to download parts of the files from you since you have them all.
But in short there is no way for people to get the files on your computer unless you create a torrent of files you want them to have from your computer, then upload it to a tracker, and other people download this torrent and get those files from you. "
The story as I know it, is that each machine running it uses it’s spare cycles during idle times to make calculations to generate a single frame of a fractal, and once it’s done creating a frame, it sends it back up to the server, which compiles all the frames for a single “sheep” and propagates those sheep as video recordings, effectively, down to the clients as eyecandy.
When you see it being all blinky, if it seems to be looping back on itself, that means you probably have a partial sheep, which keeps cycling over it’s partial length. You should leave the machine on and connected overnight or something so you can pick up additional sheep for it to play. OR it’s possible that, yeah, your video adapter sucks.
Each end system only receives and sends data to the central server, so it’s not any gnarly security risk to you: server sends you instructions, you send the server a computed frame, server drops you a sheep whenever enough independent systems have generated frame to complete a sheep.
QUOTE=JoeSki]A few questions about the Electric sheep. I’ve downloaded it and it’s everything I want in a screensaver, but:
It makes my moniter “blink” as it were, every few seconds. What I mean by this is that my moniter image goes black for a split second, and then goes back to the animation. It also causes my tower to make a lot of noise when it comes on. If I were to buy a new graphics card (which I will soon enough) will these problems remain?
And
Some online friends have expressed some wareness in the direction of this program, saying that allowing my computer to communicate with many others could leave my computer open to viruses, spyware, and other problems. Assuming you know more about the manner in which my computer is connecting to others, what are the chances of this happening? Is my PC being open to viruses?
[/QUOTE]
My current screensaver is from Blade: Trinity. It includes my favorite scene in the movie If you’re interested in seeing it, go here http://bladetrinity.com/ then choose “Arm Yourself.” It’s the first of the two screensavers.
I don’t know about viruses but I notice it requires access to port 8080, which is the default remote access port for my wireless gateway. That doesn’t set right with me.
I downloaded electric sheep and spent the day tending my flock and watching it evolve. This morning I couldn’t wait to see what had changed during the night. Addictive stuff!
The screensavers mentioned in this thread look ok on my “danger detector”, but remember kids, one of the best ways to get viruses and spyware is to install a bunch of screensavers & toolbars.
So if a site looks too commercial or slimy or preaches about how great their free screensaver is, be careful!
Now for my contribution to this subject: Desktop Earth http://codefromthe70s.org/desktopearth.asp It displays a map of Earth with real-time day and night areas. It can also show real-time clouds on the map.
Oh I know. At least once a day since I’ve downloaded this thing I’ve sat down in front of my moniter with my jaw slacked starring at the pretty pretty colors. If there was any good way to describe the sheep, I’d gladly discus my favorite ones.
I collect hand-made state-of-the-art kaleidoscopes. You can see why I like electric sheep (and not the way Hal appreciates sheep). I’m absolutely raven-ish when it comes to bright baubles and the play of color and light.
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