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screen-saver posts

Filed under: Macintosh, Apple, Freeware, Mobile Minute

DashSaver makes your Mac's Dashboard into a screensaver

DashSaver

The Dashboard on my Mac perplexes me. While it feels like it should be a great productivity tool, the truth is that I rarely think to open it. I have widgets for everything from weather to my calendar and todos, and even financial information. And yet, if I never look at them, what good are they?

I started wondering if anyone else thought that Dashboard widgets would make a good screen saver, since that would ensure that they would be staring me in the face when I came back to my computer. And as it turns out, Andrew Turner thought so, as he developed a Mac screen saver called DashSaver for just this purpose.

DashSaver installs as a screen saver, and simply launches your Dashboard when the normal time has elapsed and your regular screen saver would show. There are no frills whatsoever in this tiny download. But beware - if you regularly lock your computer, DashSaver may not be for you. As per the release notes, it can't show the dashboard until the computer is unlocked, effectively leaving you without a screen saver showing.

It's worth noting that no changes have been made to DashSaver since April of 2006, so this program hasn't been updated since OS X Tiger. In my testing, however, it works just fine under Leopard.

Obviously, if you have sensitive or personal information on your Dashboard and your computer is not always in complete privacy, DashSaver probably isn't for you. But if you are looking for a way to keep those Dashboard widgets more top-of-mind, it might be worth a try. DashSaver is a free Mac download.

Filed under: Fun, Windows, Macintosh, Commercial, Freeware, Mods, Beta

Cubicle Flood Screen Saver

Cubicle Flood Screen SaverOkay, I'll admit it: I'm a sucker for a fancy new screen saver. And if it's something that is totally unique, so much the better. Cubicle Flood certainly meets that criteria. In the Cubicle Flood screen saver, you get to see various views of what appears to be an empty office space through the office's security cameras. Over the course of eight or so hours the office starts to flood, until the whole thing is completely submerged.

I have to admit, sometimes when you're drowning under various pressures at work, having a screen saver that is a metaphor for your current condition can be somewhat comforting, in a perverse way. And boy does it bring out interesting reactions from your co-workers!

While you're visiting Idle Time Software to download Cubicle Flood (available for both Windows and Mac computers), don't forget to check out the Holding Pattern screen saver, which shows you a view out the window of an air liner.

Cubicle Flood is currently in beta, while Holding Pattern comes in First Class ($17.50, comes with 57 aerial views), or Coach (free, comes with 17 views) versions.

Filed under: Internet, Social Software

Flotzam: Pretty visualization of your social networking data

Flotzam
Flotzam is an application that makes pretty visualizations out of your social network updates. Every time someone posts new media or comments to your Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and Digg accounts, Flotzam floats a message across your screen. You can also add any RSS feed to receive updates from other sites.

Flotzam doesn't offer much more than a pretty visualization. You can click on a message to open a web browse and see the message in its original context. But there's no way to post your own updates from Flotzam. You can install the application as a screen saver, which could actually be useful. But unfortunately Flotzam's a bit of a resource hog, so you might be better off using a blank screen as a screen saver if you want to save energy while your computer is idle.

We also noticed that Flotzam had a tendency to crash while it was checking our Facebook page. Once we removed Facebook from our preferences the problem went away. Note that you'll need to visits the Flotzam page using Internet Explorer if you want to install the application.

[via Go2Web20]

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