jrk@sys.uea.ac.uk (Richard Kennaway) (10/10/89)
A contentious subject line to grab people's attention! But first, a request: part 2 of FadeToBlack 3.2 on comp.binaries.mac didnt reach this site. Can someone who has it send it to me please? Well, do screen-savers like FadeToBlack, Moire, Blackout, Flex, etc. do anything useful? They are supposed to prevent the image being "burnt-in" to the screen by blanking the screen after n minutes of inactivity. However, for two or three years I had a Mac+ in my office, running about 8 hours a day, and although I tried out umpteen screen-savers, for most of that time I didnt use one. There was never any sign of burn-in. A few weeks ago the + was changed for a II, with a colour screen. Are colour screens more susceptible to burn-in? Moire and Flex do provide pretty patterns, but I generally prefer to be able to look at my Mac and see what I was doing when I left it. -- Richard Kennaway SYS, University of East Anglia, Norwich, U.K. Janet: kennaway@sys.uea.ac.uk uucp: ...mcvax!ukc!uea-sys!jrk
Adam.Frix@f200.n226.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Adam Frix) (10/11/89)
Let me interject this into the discussion about screen savers and whether or not they help: go into your local campus video arcade(s) and look at some of the games that aren't in use or aren't very popular. Burn-in does occur, and is a real pain. There are any number of good screen savers out there, ranging from very inexpensive (Pyro!, for one) to absolutely FREE, so I see no reason to use one. I'm using Pyro!, and I leave my Plus and Jasmine DD40 on 24 hrs/day. It's always worked flawlessly, never caused problems, and works without my needing to pay attention to it. My point is, you've got everything to gain and nothing to lose in using a screen saver, so I don't see why anyone would be so against it. --Adam-- -- Adam Frix via cmhGate - Net 226 fido<=>uucp gateway Col, OH UUCP: ...!osu-cis!n8emr!cmhgate!200!Adam.Frix INET: Adam.Frix@f200.n226.z1.FIDONET.ORG
hallett@positron.uucp (Jeff Hallett x5163 ) (10/12/89)
In article <25674.25331193@cmhgate.FIDONET.ORG> Adam.Frix@f200.n226.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Adam Frix) writes: >occur, and is a real pain. There are any number of good screen savers out >there, ranging from very inexpensive (Pyro!, for one) to absolutely FREE, >so I see no reason to use one. I'm using Pyro!, and I leave my Plus and ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Non sequitor. Your facts are uncoordinated. Do you usually use things you see no reason to use. I assume you mean that you "see no reason NOT to use one". I am Nomad. I am perfect. BTW, :^) :^) :^) -- Jeffrey A. Hallett, PET Software Engineering GE Medical Systems, W641, PO Box 414, Milwaukee, WI 53201 (414) 548-5163 : EMAIL - hallett@gemed.ge.com "Your logic was impeccable Captain. We are in grave danger."
kaufman@Neon.Stanford.EDU (Marc T. Kaufman) (10/12/89)
In article <25674.25331193@cmhgate.FIDONET.ORG> Adam.Frix@f200.n226.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Adam Frix) writes: >...My point >is, you've got everything to gain and nothing to lose in using a screen >saver, so I don't see why anyone would be so against it. I used to use a screen saver, but I took it out of the system when I found it interfering with some applications. Not ALL applications can handle the screen update properly, and not all screen savers let the application run while they are pfutzing with the screen. Try starting a long build in MPW. When the screen saver kicks in, everything goes to H***, sometimes including a crash. Maybe, when I can again assure that the screen saver never kicks in unless everything is idle, I will go back to using one again. [I used one for many months, happily, before I finally put it aside]. Marc Kaufman (kaufman@Neon.stanford.edu)
amanda@intercon.com (Amanda Walker) (10/13/89)
The biggest problem with most screen savers, as Marc mentioned, is that they tend to be "invasive". In the past n years (n > 4 :-)) I've only used two screensavers: "Autoblack" on a Mac Plus, and "Dimmer" on my Mac II. Both of these have the advantage that they don't interfere with whatever's running, including its screen display. Autoblack does this by reserving the alternate screen buffer at boot time and flipping to it to save the screen, and Dimmer works by manipulating the Mac II video card's color-correction (gamma) table to effectively turn down the brightness. It's very slick. I've never had *any* compatibility problems with either of these screensavers. They don't put up fancy string art patterns or fireworks--they do one thing well, and that is turning off (or down) your screen if you haven't done anything for while. That's all I want. -- Amanda Walker <amanda@intercon.com> "Tobacco is the only drug in America that will kill you if it's taken as directed." --Dr. C. Everett Koop, former U.S. Surgeon General
pepke@loligo (Eric Pepke) (10/13/89)
In article <12392@polya.Stanford.EDU> kaufman@Neon.Stanford.EDU (Marc T. Kaufman) writes: >are pfutzing with the screen. Try starting a long build in MPW. When the >screen saver kicks in, everything goes to H***, sometimes including a crash. >Maybe, when I can again assure that the screen saver never kicks in unless >everything is idle, I will go back to using one again. [I used one for many >months, happily, before I finally put it aside]. I just tried doing a build in MPW and then forcing After Dark to go on by putting the cursor into the "sleep now" region. It worked fine. While MPW was doing the build, After Dark didn't get much processing time, which is as it should be. Eric Pepke INTERNET: pepke@gw.scri.fsu.edu Supercomputer Computations Research Institute MFENET: pepke@fsu Florida State University SPAN: scri::pepke Tallahassee, FL 32306-4052 BITNET: pepke@fsu Disclaimer: My employers seldom even LISTEN to my opinions. Meta-disclaimer: Any society that needs disclaimers has too many lawyers.
joseph@elbereth.rutgers.edu (Seymour Joseph) (10/13/89)
At Rutgers we have large labs with many machines in them. About a year ago, we decommisioned a lab full of Lisa (Macintosh XL) computers after they had been used for 3-4 years. As we were unbolting them and piling them on pallets, it was obvious that they had been running Mac Software for years. The menu bar with the apple file and edit menus visible was clearly burned into the top of the CRT and some had the trash can and default boot disk icons burned in too. It does happen. Screen savers can help delay it. Seymour