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[PLUG] OT: OpenGL Screensavers
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Gentlemen, please! For a bunch of techie-type nerds (and I say this with all
affection!), what the heck is wrong with you???!!!??? The **whole** point of
computers is to look cool. Any actual work they do is entirely secondary.
That's why it so important to have windows in the side of your case, with
groovy blue LEDs on your fans.
There once was a famous historian of science (Samuel Florman) who's chief
thesis was that engineers don't build bridges because they want to get to the
other side of the river; They build bridges because they **have to**. It's
known as "the existential pleasures of engineering", and I'm afraid I am
terminally ill with this disease.
I run ~AMD64 Gentoo Linux (bleeding edge) and I routinely find that
I've "improved" my computer to the point it doesn't even work any more. (For
some strange reason, this tends to tick-off my wife when she needs my
computer to check her eMail... go figure). Once I get to this state, it's
time to spend a Saturday afternoon rebuilding it from scratch.
Ah, "nerdvana"!
On a more serious note, you are exactly correct JP: Screen savers are totally
worthless on modern LCD screens. Old monochrome CRT monitors burned in like
crazy, and I understand that plasma HDTVs do it too. But the chance of
actually **needing** a screensaver is pretty nil these days.
On Saturday 13 September 2008 4:35:22 pm JP Vossen wrote:
> > Date: Sat, 13 Sep 2008 09:02:16 -0400
> > From: Casey Bralla <MailList@NerdWorld.org>
> > Subject: [PLUG] Want Video Card Recommendation
> >
> > I want to be able to have groovy GL screen savers
>
> Why?
>
> Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that with
> halfway modern hardware using ACPI and CPU scaling, this is just a waste
> of power. Use the "blank" screen saver set to a few minutes, then turn
> off the display totally in a few more minutes. Anything else is just
> wasting power to a) run the display, b) crank up and run the CPU/GPU and
> c) crank up the cooling to deal with the heat from the cranked CPU/GPUs.
> Or is OpenGL not as CPU/GPU intensive as I remember? (I only ever use
> the blank screen.)
>
> And as far as that goes, are screen "savers" even necessary anymore?
> IIRC LCDs suffer a lot less from "burn-in" than did CRTs. Anyone know?
>
> Also, who else remember the days when NT (3.5.1?) starting coming with
> those GL screen savers? You walk past the nice pretty data center with
> all the servers wasting most of their CPU to produce useless eye candy.
> (Yet another reason servers should not have GUIs.) Users would call
> to complain the server was slow, so the tech would go over and jiggle
> the mouse to see what was going on. But that would kill the screen
> waster--err-saver, and "fix" the problem. For 10 minutes... :-)
>
> Later,
> JP
> ----------------------------|:::======|-------------------------------
> JP Vossen, CISSP |:::======| jp{at}jpsdomain{dot}org
> My Account, My Opinions |=========| http://www.jpsdomain.org/
> ----------------------------|=========|-------------------------------
> "Microsoft Tax" = the additional hardware & yearly fees for the add-on
> software required to protect Windows from its own poorly designed and
> implemented self, while the overhead incidentally flattens Moore's Law.
> ___________________________________________________________________________
> Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- http://www.phillylinux.org
> Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
> General Discussion -- http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
--
Casey Bralla
Chief Nerd in Residence
The NerdWorld Organisation
___________________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
General Discussion -- http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
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