The lost watch
 

I know i know - screensavers are not needed to protect monitors anymore, and it is stupid to even spend money on them, especially as much as this one should cost, and it seems to be around since a bit longer, too. I haven't bought it and will not (far too expensive for just a screensaver), but I just tested it in trial mode, which means for two minutes it runs by normally itself (manually started) before it get'S disturbed by an ugly screen reminding you to buy a register code.

But this thing is very very beautiful.

http://www.3planesoft.com/pages/watch.html

see yourself, you can safely download and install it, and deinstall it via software menu again (I did). It looks absolutely fascinating and is a masterpiece of beauty, really. It can be manually started, too (not only via the screensaver function).

Watch, enjoy, relax!

Meh... I run SETI@home for my screensaver. It's rather cool knowing that when I'm not using it, my computer is searching for intelligent alien transmitted radio signals.

:D

I used to be part of SETI few years ago. Then this idea came to me. If they want to talk to us wouldn't they have already?

Who knows maybe we get lucky.;)

The only problem I have with the idea of SETI is the aliens would have to be pretty close to receive our message in our lifetime. Assuming they would return the call.:hmm:

If they are calling us how long will it take there message to cross countless parsecs to reach us from point A to point B in light years. Don't get me wrong someone is going to get the message...... when?:smug:

Cheezy humour... I warned you!:nope:
Caller=Operator I would like to make a long long distant call?
Operator=Where are you trying to reach sir?
Caller=Proxima Centauri
Operator=Where? huh?
Caller=Its about 4.2 Light years from us.
Operator=Click.:rotfl:

(One light year = 5.88 trillion miles or 9.46 trillion Kilometers)

Anyhow what do I know?:doh:

Hate to rain on the SETI parade, but...

Recent scientific research done by some SETI physicists indicates that radio and TV signals suffer from attenuation caused by gravitic lensing, interference from solar wind, and cosmic radiation.

Put in a nutshell, electromagnetic signals merge into the cosmic background noise about two light-years beyond the edge of our solar system, becoming so diffuse as to be indistinguishable from that background noise.

There is a slim hope that signals in the X-ray part of the spectrum may be detectable if they're powerful enough since the X-ray beams from pulsars and quasars do indeed reach Earth from many hundereds of light-years away.

Then again, those are highly energetic stars that pack somewhat more punch than a manufactured transmitter.

Other signal sources that might also be viable are modulated neutrino beams, modulated quantum shift doppler, or conventional radio waves tunneled through a wormhole originating at the alien world and opening out into our solar system.

Unfortunately, except for the 'wormhole transmitter', we do not have the technology to detect such signals at this time, including any "Star Trek" style 'subspace' radios.

Looks like SETI's budget should be used instead to develop warp drive so we can go out there and find these "little green men" in person like real men should!

When I am not using my system - I switch it off.

And although SETI is a passive program, we also try a lot to make ourselves known to "those out there", with Voyager 1+2 for example, and radio wave pollution (in fact, having listened to the radio occasionally my greatest fear is that our radios are the first thing others would learn about us - they could not escape and think we are totally nut dumbheads, I expect). I wonder if it really is clever to let everybody know that we are there, and where. From our history we know that when cultures make contact, the superior one most of the time conquers and shatters the inferior. the Nazi scientists showed us what man is capable to do to his next, in gruel horrific deeds and procedures. We do not know if this must be true for other life forms as well, of course, but it is a consideration you can'T wave off the table - with which argument should that be possible, regarding the unknown alien? Also, if others have the possibility to reach us, we can assume they are friendly ETs. But we also must take into account that they are hostile to us, or want our planet or ressources, or ourselves. Or maybe they just trample on us like little kids smash a fly for fun or trample on an ant'S hill just because it is there, headlessly. No human ethics can be used to make prjections about the behavior and motives of alien ethics - because they are alien. On earth, species in oceans for example used to kept separate by space, temperatures differences, tidings, different salt saturation in the water, or in the vertical: pressure. Often it results into desaster when a species gets transplanted into a new ecosystem where it was unknown before, like it happens due to man'S friendly help (traffic, climate change). the newcomer kill estaiblished species and bring them to the brink of extinction, and by that destabilize a complete running ecosystem.

Maybe the wide abyss between worlds in space is not for nothing. Just imgaine man would reach a world with some kind of life forms - we would be greedy for the ressources nevertheless, and say that it took a lot of effort to go there, we now cannot return with nothing. So we would colonize it nevertheless. This is the point where we talk about ants again, and maybe about Incas and Mayas and Indians, too.

Most likely it would be the other way around, though. Earth lies in those 10% of the galaxy's space that are the galaxy'S youngest 10%. that means that over 90% of solar systems in this galaxy are very very much older than our sun is, and we talk of up to hundreds of millions of years. Most civilisations maybe would not survive that time anyway, but those who eventually did - will have had time to develope that they are probably in possession of capabilities and knowledge that we cannot match them in any way, and that they would apear to us as pure magic. We even do niot know if we have the intelliegence to recognioze such a superior intelligence as such. So, chances that in a future contact we will not be the shining heroes, but the ants, are at least 9:1. that might hurt our ego, but if it does, this would just indicate that we still consider the Earth to be the centre of all universe around which everything is revolving. If we want to say that we know a lot, or not, depends on the scaling standard to which we compare. Those saying that we can communicate with Gods by ripping somebody's heart out of his chest, or that we would fall off the Earth if we sail to the edge of the disc, also thought they "knew". It turned out that they knew wrong, completely, although they had "evidence" and "proof".

Seen that way, SETI is funny, but a bit of a carricature of the way our minds are ticking.

There is one explanation why we have not been contacted so far, btw. First, maybe the contact almost is there, but to their terms, not to ours. Second, maybe we have been monitored and judged, and it was decided that one does not wish to have to deal with this crazy civilisation at all.

The surest sign that there is intelligent life on other planets is that they have never tried to associate with us.

Getting back to the original topic (boy this board can derail a topic fast!)

That is a cooleo screen saver but I agree, it aint that cool.

17 bucks for a 4 mb screen saver that does not have either submarines or scantly clad women on it is a bit much.

:lol:

http://www.videosift.com/video/Famil...omage-to-Alien

SETI isn't about contacting or even decoding the signals. It's set up to detect a signal and that's it. I realise that radio signals are subject to gravitational lensing and such, but there are still millions of stars within range where that lensing would be minimal. They've also only scanned maybe about 5% of the total sky around us. They're also looking into other communication methods that ET may be using other than simple radio waves and methods of detecting them as well. There is no definite and chances are slim, but right now, it's the best shot we have right now to make the greatest discovery mankind has ever made.

Sorry to dereail the thread. :D

Too late. Easy words will not get you oput of this mess again. I won't forget, and I won't forgive. You will suffer for this dearly. Promised!

The day threads stop getting derailed is the day I know that subsim.com is no more. :)

*Watches the thread go off the railroad tracks and up a ramp where it jumps over a tank full of sharks*

*Quickly hides from Skybird*
:88)

I always go for free screensavers, if I use one at all. Many of them are quite good.

If this were the late 90s, when screensavers were all the rage, you might be able to justify the cost by being part of the fad.

Back then, it seemed everyone had "Flying Toasters" or the "Dancing Baby" running on their idle desktops and people spent lots of money on screensaver making software like Firehand Lightning or Stardust.

Funny, those sharks don't look so dangerous from this altitiude. :p

the one screensaver I sometimes use, looks pretty much fascinating:

movie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I884Qy6idQI