I wish you could scare flies off your monitor by moving the mouse cursor...

[Legendary_Bibo]

I have this big fly in my way, and I've tried everything. Scrolling really fast, moving the cursor in really fast in front of it, highlighting text in front of it, and even going into paint to make a an image flash between normal and inverted colors really fast.

[el_koraco]

Try loading Unity.

[Copper Bezel]

By that logic, I wonder if KDE makes more sense with compound eyes.

[jhonan]

Make sure you're not editing dog_poo.jpg in Gimp.

[hakermania]

Omg, are you bored to scare it b moving your hand :/ :P :O ???

Anyway, there's no possible way to scare a fly, because in my TV there was once a fly and I was watching an action movie with a lot of effects and fast moving persons plus wide sound but the fly was still there :P

[robsoles]

I've done it by making a red spot suddenly appear right underneath one on my desktop monitor. I made a sharp noise with my voice as the dot appeared :)

[Copper Bezel]

What we need, then, is something to make a flashing space appear at the cursor while playing bark.ogg.

Edit: Compiz Water?

[forrestcupp]

Or you could just reach over a couple of inches with your physical (not virtual) hand and brush it off the screen. ;)

[leviathan8]

You can activate "negative" in ccsm (if you have compiz installed) and hold SUPER + N to flash your screen very quickly.

[babybean]

Some how I read that as files... mental image of icons changing to scared faces and moving out of the road when you try to click them.

[robsoles]

Some how I read that as files... mental image of icons changing to scared faces and moving out of the road when you try to click them.

It looked like that, in the list, to me too! When I saw it was about flies I thought of the one I seemed to scare with the red dot and a wee 'bark' - I had a really persistent fly a while back, I try to think of how that ended and I just draw a blank; I might have gone psycho on that guy! :shock: :lol:

[BrokenKingpin]

try loading unity.
hahahahahahaa

[Brian0312]

I'd suspect it's the movement of you making the noise that is scaring the fly, and not the dot or the sound. Flies don't have ears, and being so small, they also have incredibly fast nervous systems. So fast in fact that on CRT's they don't see a picture. Instead they see a line of illumination travelling accros the screen. LCD's are quicker and since the render pictures differently, the fly actually sees the picture, but it takes so long to come into focus by the fly's perception, that it has already figured out it doesn't need to be bothered.

I'd suggest MacGuyvering a USB based swatting mechanism you can activate via software.

[robsoles]

You do know that they sense vibration, right?

[GWBouge]

On a couple occasions, while I was playing a racing game, a fly landed on my monitor. I thought to myself, 'How on earth can a fly hang onto the windshield at these speeds?'

[nerdy_kid]

I'd suspect it's the movement of you making the noise that is scaring the fly, and not the dot or the sound. Flies don't have ears, and being so small, they also have incredibly fast nervous systems. So fast in fact that on CRT's they don't see a picture. Instead they see a line of illumination travelling accros the screen. LCD's are quicker and since the render pictures differently, the fly actually sees the picture, but it takes so long to come into focus by the fly's perception, that it has already figured out it doesn't need to be bothered.

I'd suggest MacGuyvering a USB based swatting mechanism you can activate via software.

interesting, where did you learn that?

[Dustin2128]

I knew I couldn't be the only one...

[Brian0312]

You do know that they sense vibration, right?

How loud were you yelling to shake the monitor?

[Brian0312]

interesting, where did you learn that?

Mostly from taking a neuro-modeling class as part of a Psych degree. We made computer models of fly and bee brains and then ran simulations. That, and some good old Discovery Channel geekery.,

[JDShu]

I understand your pain.

[uRock]

Spin your cube.

[Copper Bezel]

Ooh, good thought. He'd fall off. = D


How loud were you yelling to shake the monitor?
Sound is vibration. Flies are (I think) among many insects that "hear" with sensitive hairs in the feet, but they're quite sensitive, and a loud noise would generate plenty of vibration to upset one, even if the vibration wasn't easily visible to a person.

[robsoles]

How loud were you yelling to shake the monitor?

No yelling, effectively a short bark and thinking back on it I cannot guarantee that the fly wasn't influenced by my breath as much the red dot and the vibe.

To the best of my understanding flies perceive sound as 'loud & clear' as we do (if not more perceptive) in a greater range of frequencies - this is why audible tone insect repellents can work.


Spin your cube.

Mmmh, now I can't wait for my next fly and I'm a bit embarrassed it didn't occur to me! :lol: