![]() ![]() Though it’s worth asking: What do I do if I actually witness a crime?īreveCreatures is a screensaver that simulates the evolution of virtual creatures. Nonetheless the current version is still worth checking out it will certainly satisfy your inner spy. But this is a screensaver with enormous potential – and hopefully it will continue to develop in future versions with the addition of some controls. The current alpha version is a little buggy at times – sometimes I would see only a black screen, or the live feed would freeze up into a still image. Unfiltered slice of life from places like the Czech Republic or Iceland is enticing. Despite the camera’s typically mundane shots, the prospect of viewing an My favorite detail of this screensaver is the information bar located at the bottom of each feed informing you of the feed’s location, local time, and geographical coordinates. Each live feed remains on your screen for 2 minutes before changing to a new one – unfortunately at this time there’s no option to adjust cycle times. The screensaver shows live images of city streets, parking lots, Internet cafes, university libraries, highways, and more – from all over the planet. The endless number of new and different visualizations provides a major reason to keep turning it on.įor the security guard in each of us, Surveillance Saver pulls live feeds from over 1,000 different surveillance cameras all over the world. ![]() But what really makes it stand out is the user’s ability to collect new animations, and to affect the production of future ones through voting (via the Up and Down arrow keys). From a user perspective – and it’s not often my art degree proves useful in writing technical articles – this screensaver really has the most impressive visual abstractions of any I’ve seen. Scott Draves, creator of the software, discusses Electric Sheep in an online video (at 2:40 in). The end result is a spectacularĬollaboration and competition between human design and computer algorithms. Users can also edit and upload their own sheep into the gene pool. Unpopular sheep eventually die off and enter an archive. The process is mediated by a genetic algorithm – the animations (or “sheep”) with high user ratings go on to reproduce with other popular sheep and produce offspring with shared characteristics. Dick’s short story, “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” this open-source screensaver connects 60,000 sleeping computers to generate morphing abstract animations. Named in homage to the science fiction author Philip K. ![]() Often cited as one of the best screensavers available, Electric Sheep is both visually stunning and conceptually engaging. Unless otherwise noted, all these screensavers are free. Here’s a look at ten of the most interesting and enjoyable screensavers I found kicking around the Web. When I went in search of new and interesting screensavers, I was looking for three things: screensavers that could change and develop over time, screensavers that made use of input devices or updating information, and screensavers that put a fun twist on age-old tricks like clocks or photo slideshows. Today, screensavers can do more than just display repetitive animations (remember Flying Toasters from the After Dark screensaver?) and it’s worth investigating what’s out there. After all, what’s the point of displaying power-wasting patterns when you aren’t around to enjoy them? Fair enough, but there is still something to be said for enjoying some interesting displays during those times when you’ve just stepped back from the Mac for a short while. And many people – quite reasonably – prefer to have their computers go into energy-saver mode when they’re away for any significant amount of time. Now that screen burn is pretty much a thing of the past, we don’t really need screensavers anymore. ![]() #1651: Dealing with leading zeroes in spreadsheet data, removing ad tracking from ckbk.#1652: OS updates, DPReview shuttered, LucidLink cloud storage.#1653: Apple Music Classical review, Authory service for writers, WWDC 2023 dates announced.1654: Urgent OS security updates, upgrading to macOS 13 Ventura, using smart speakers while temporarily blind.#1655: 33 years of TidBITS, Twitter train wreck, tvOS 16.4.1, Apple Card Savings, Steve Jobs ebook. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |