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Does anybody remember Johnny Castaway? ScreenAntics, the screen saver about poor Johnny on his island was the first cool screen saver that you would wanna watch for hours just to know what happens next. It was never really reached by any other, but what many don't know, you can still get it, adjusted for our modern Windows systems but still presenting the old look and feel.
I like screen savers as long as they are cool and free of course. Unfortunately there are thousands out there and finding the right sources that don't list all the crappy ones are hard to find. One good address was MVR 3D - they provided the best Matrix screen saver ever - but I just noticed that they closed their website.
Well, while browsing for a good new screen saver again the other day I found this great compliation of the best free savers as Smashing Magazine sees it. And I must say they put together a real great collection half of which is already residing on my hard drive. In the Internet age those savers that also present information from the net right on your idle screen became more and more popular. The collection here lists a few that do this smart and beautiful, like the screen shot of MappedUp that you see on the right.
Check out the collection yourself:
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/10/04/screensavers-best-of/
Read this specific article about the MVR Matrix screen savers:
http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/mvr-matrix-screen-savers.htm
Enjoy, and best regards,
George
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Id like to throw in my favorite free screen savers for ya :)
My number one pick is Breve: http://www.spiderland.org/screensaver
This screen saver is a very cool one that simulates evolution with blocks. Definitely worth a try ;)
My second pick is the famous Free Fire screen Saver: http://www.laconicsoftware.com/free-fire-screensaver.php
It simulates FIRE on what ever is on your desktop!
I must say this section 'The Best Free Screen Savers' needs our help eventhough Johnny Castaway is a force to be reckoned with. To bad his download and installation into xp requires special attention.
Its not the best but here is one for you....in case you are short on time.
google-- ajscreensaver (freeware)
Thanks for the link. They are quite cool.
George
I must agree that just because something is popular this doesn't automatically qualify it for being "good" or in the public interest! I once attended a public seminar on road safety and was duly impressed by the presenter until I suffered this guy's 530 up my arse for several miles on the way home until (eventually) he passed me in a built up area at well over the speed limit! Says it all, but hey guys, lets enjoy what we have with consideration and responsibility, including the benefit of having diverse opinions on this site to digest, and hopefully learn from.
MIDNIGHTCOWBOY
I love the Johnny screensaver...I haven't installed it yet, but have had a bunch of fun just reading all the posts about what he does. It's just too much fun. I do remember when Johnny came out, but thought he was long gone. Thank you so much for providing these links. I have a major dilemma, though! WHICH ONES TO PICK! Besides Johnny Castaway and Matrix, there are a bunch of great screensavers, so I guess I'll just download all that I like, and have fun rotating them. Thank you, again, George!
I use BOINC, this is a distributed computing tool with lots of projects to join.
From SETI and chess puzzles to find "cures" for cancer/AIDS, mapping climate change, malaria control.
You can set this up as a pure screen saver and some projects have better graphics than others. You can also have it always running in the background, some folk even dedicate computers to projects.
www.webshots.com
Beautiful, professional pictures of nature, tourist destinations, animals, etc. that allows you five free pictures a day (although a few of the especially especially high quality are not allowed to be downloaded unless you are a memeber).
Thank you for great info!
Sorry, but I cannot see a link to Johnny Castaway's, would you kindly tell us here to find it? Thank you.
Hi ernetsoch,
I forgot to mention that the Castway link is mentioned in of the many comments on that page. Here it is again:
http://web.onetel.net.uk/~gnudawn/johnny/
Best regards,
George
Screen savers are so...20th century. These days, they are one of the most uncool things on the planet. What you should be doing is enabling power-saving options so that your computer and screen go into energy-saving mode if they're not used for 5 minutes. What does your screensaver say about you? It says 'I don't care about climate change - or I don't know how to use a computer properly'. And yes - every bit of energy saved does count.
Another 'Holier than thou'. Probably goes on long plane trips to make himself feel good about being "green".
Pish, tosh. Where are Harry and Ron when you need them? Wingardium Leviosa! Stick the wand up its nose!
WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I appreciate your opinion - even though anonymous - but your comment is a little one-sided. Over 4500 hits so far and a lot of downloads proof that the screen savers are everything else than uncool. You ideally combine screen savers with power save modes and there are a lot of options to be energy aware and still enjoy the technology. Are you sure you know how to use your computer? If these environmental issues are really so important to you I suggest you get active in other communities than this one.
Best regards,
George
Wow George, that truly is arrogant. Rather than just blowing the other person off, you could have politely addressed the issue they raised, irrespective of their high level of enthusiasm. Yes their comment was a bit one-sided, however it does seem a bit irresponsible with energy issues being what they currenty are, and one-sided of you to advocate an unnecessary use of energy through screen-savers without the acknowledgement that if users don't expect to be around to actually see/enjoy the screensaver that it would be responsible of them to shut that feature off. You brag about your 45,000 hits and lots of downloads, which yippee for you and your scoresheet, now means there are possible lots of people who may change their settings to view a few fun screensavers and not change them back. Let's face it though, screensavers on the modern LCD are antiquated and unnecessary. They were originally designed for CRT (cathode ray tube) monitors which would take a while to warm up, even if you were only away for 10 or 15 min. where shutting down/powering up wasn't a feasible option and leaving it on would cause image burn in on the screen. Basic screen savers would keep the tube warm while using minimal energy compared to full on. LCD's, unless I'm mistaken, keep the flourescent backlight tube on constantly to provide an image and thus must utilize the same energy usage, in addition to the minimum amount for the processor. In perspective, say 1 million users per hour(presumably gross underestimate on a worldwide scale) leave their screensavers on, utilizing 10 watts each as opposed to 2-3 watts in sleep/hibernate or 0 if turned off. That equals about 7-10 MegaWatts per hour of unnecessary capacity...multiply that by 365 days and that's a coal powerplant that's burning just to look at the pretty screensavers. Additionally, they are unnecessary in for the 'keeping the tube warm' effect because of the quick on time for LCD monitors. Plasma monitors, if you are using them for a computer, face the burn-in image problem, so a screensaver may be helpful, however, I don't think it takes long for those to light up either from an off position. In the future, with OLEDs on the horizon, screensavers would just shorten the life of the screen, requiring purchase of a new one/tossing out the old. But hey, you're probably a Palin fan and apparently live by the 'drill baby drill' mantra so this whole soapbox diatribe will probably fall on deaf ears, because, ooh, you've already received 45,000 hits.
Cheers
John
Albany, NY
Hi John,
I appreciate your long comment here, as I appreciated the initial post that started this discussion ... as I appreciate the loads of mails and other notes I got about this.
My response was not meant offensive or arrogant. However, it came over that way and I feel sorry about that. It was not meant that way. From what I read here and from others I decided to keep these comments in here. Responses like yours equalize with those going in the other direction and I think it is worth keeping the minds going.
The environmental issues you are lining out make sense and justify to rigorously ban screen savers from your workstation. It is up to each and everyone to make that call. I had one person comparing this to software that causes unneeded traffic on the Internet. He was pointing out how much costs are involved to keep bandwidth available, referring to the many articles we probably all read about the soon collapsing Internet. Somebody else was bringing up computer games that eat up even more energy for entertainment you can also have using the good ole board games.
Anyways, my point is that we have a pluralistic society in every way. Computer users are behaving like users of any other product. Some use what is available and suit them, some carefully chose based on what his consumer behaviour might cause to other areas of our society.
We are trying to review free software here based on its availability. We try to be politically and socially independent. Though we accept all the different opinions there are and provide room for corresponding discussions, I think it is important for us to stay focused on the product and how it does what it does rather than taking an ethical, poltical or social position for or against it.
Again, I apologize to anybody who felt offended by my previous comment. I appreciate all the different opinions that were brought to my attention on this.
Best regards,
George
You truly are arrogant.
Please note that you are prohibited from denigrating any of our editors.
They are volunteers, who freely give their time for the benefit of this community, and do not deserve personal remarks.
You are, of course, perfectly welcome to voice your opinions about the software.
George,
How can I get the matrix screen saver?
TIA
Luiz
lhbmiranda@uol.com.br
Hi all,
after getting many requests about the Matrix screen savers, here is a separate article about them:
http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/mvr-matrix-screen-savers.htm
Best regards,
George
Oooh Matrix screensaver.......... :oD
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