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darkmatter
October 3rd, 2005, 06:44 AM
Just recieved a link to a very cool open source program from my brother, and thought it would be a good idea to share:

http://www.electricsheep.org/

Electric Sheep is a free, open source screen saver run by thousands of people all over the world. It can be installed on any ordinary PC or Mac. When these computers "sleep", the screen saver comes on and the computers communicate with each other by the internet to share the work of creating morphing abstract animations known as "sheep". The result is a collective "android dream", an homage to Philip K. ****'s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.

Anyone watching one of these computers may vote for their favorite animations using the keyboard. The more popular sheep live longer and reproduce according to a genetic algorithm with mutation and cross-over. Hence the flock evolves to please its global audience.
The site has packages for Debian, Redhat, Win32, and OS X. Going to try an install later and see how it runs under Breezy.:)
tehwa
October 3rd, 2005, 07:21 AM
Works under Hoary (i think) It is setup and ready to go, but apparently it takes a while to get the first sheep happening, So I might wait until I have more time to sit and watch a black screen :)

Edit: This would make a great Totem Visualisation
darkmatter
October 3rd, 2005, 07:24 AM
Works under Hoary (i think) It is setup and ready to go, but apparently it takes a while to get the first sheep happening, So I might wait until I have more time to sit and watch a black screen :)
Edit: This would make a great Totem Visualisation

Excellent, then Breezy should be a blast.

It's the only screensaver I've come across that involves a 'sense of community' at some level.

Seemed only natural to post the link here.
tehwa
October 3rd, 2005, 09:32 AM
I just left my box for 15 minutes and upon return, I though ninjas had busted into my monitor and channelled the ninja gods for colour and lines unknown to us lowly humans.

Best screensaver ev4r.
jeremy
October 3rd, 2005, 11:27 AM
I think that androids count themselves to sleep imagining humans going about their, so often pointless, daily routines.