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I love Screensavers, and I still have them enabled on my machines. Typically, the screensaver kicks in about 10 minutes in, and the machine sleeps properly abo
by Jaruzel 9y ago
I love Screensavers, and I still have them enabled on my machines. Typically, the screensaver kicks in about 10 minutes in, and the machine sleeps properly about 20-30 minutes in. Laptops on battery power are the only time I forgo them; choosing to go direct to sleep modes 5-10 minutes in.
I have (like many of us) written fun some Screensavers in my time. My current stock one is actually boring - it's a Windows 8/10 style clock and date (think the one on the lock screen) in white lettering, that floats around on a black screen. Simple but useful.
In the past I've written fractal based one, game of life ones, youtube streaming ones, ISS live camera ones (they've since locked out direct access to the feed - boo). I've wanted to write one that plays recorded footage of all the flight paths in World of Warcraft - like a virtual DroneCam - but I never seem to find the time to record the footage...
Screensavers are a lost art form, and I totally agree with the article.
As an aside, how many of us used to get annoyed when people said 'I've got that picture as my screensaver' when you know they mean 'I've got that picture as my wallpaper'? Grrr.
- flashman 9y ago> a lost art form Yes, totally, and one that only flowered for a quarter century! Although if somebody released a generalised program that allowed others to create their own screensavers as plugins, perhaps they could flourish once again?
- asdfgadsfgasfdg 9y agoxscreensaver does this.
- criley2 9y agoI feel like screensavers and music visualizers are similar art forms, and both flourished for only a short period of time. I guess music visualization still has a niche industry in live performance or creating video entertainment. But screensavers...
- DanBC 9y agoAnd Geiss combined both. http://www.geisswerks.com/geiss/ http://www.geisswerks.com/geiss/ And the author did a bunch of other graphic stuff too: http://www.geisswerks.com/ http://www.geisswerks.com/
- fl0wenol 9y agoI think everyone in this thread should familiarize themselves with the demoscene (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demoscene https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demoscene) It's 30 years old now and still going strong, and it'd be right up your alley. There's plenty of trippy, interesting, or technically demanding audio/visual demonstrations for you to run, emulate, or just watch on youtube.
- koolba 9y agoMake an easy way to script them in JavaScript with npm based installs and you'll see 1000 overnight.
- laumars 9y agoI remember the elation I had as a teenager in the 90s when I first discovered how easy it was to write screensavers