Two Variations on an idea

1) Screensaver where the image is the desktop as you left it, but the color and shading and brightness go through a cycle simulating the daylight (or lack of) of a normal day. Possibly also simulating shadows of the icons as if the sun is passing overhead. Obviously this would have to be faster than actual speed (make that a setting), and give the option to have a clock superimposed in the corner to show the time as it passes

2) Same Idea as above except the perspective is changed. Instead of workspace being actual size and sitting on the surface of a planet, change perspective so that your workspace is the size of a planet. The screen saver simulates a star orbiting your workspace. (yes I realize that this is not how stars normally operate) The view is as if you are watching from the same plane as the star's orbit. You will see the star pass in the background far behind all of your icons and then watch the lighting change as it comes around to pass behind you lighting the desktop straight on.
-- blahginger, Nov 11 2000

This isn't exactly the same, but I think the Sony VAIO comes with a desktop background that automatically changes through morning/day/evening/night scenes as the day goes on. (It's a little bit of Active Desktop trickery; the background is really HTML with a mite of embedded JScript to change the image.)
-- egnor, Nov 11 2000


xearth for Unix-style machines is a program that replaces the xwindows background with a lit 3-d globe style view of the Earth's day side for whatever time and date the PC's clock says it is. The globe is marked with major cities. xearth is included with many Linux distributions.
-- badoingdoing, Nov 11 2000


Mac and Windows versions of xearth are available.

Xearth displays current Earthquake info. Someone should combine this with global Hurricane/Storm warnings (like the Eye of the Storm prog) and a weathermap (as in J-Track).
-- elwood, May 28 2001


Screensaver where the image is the desktop as I left it, but the way it might appear if I were actually doing some work.
-- Ander, Sep 17 2003


Turn off your computer, and let the (real) sun perform the effects. In the day it looks like day. At night it looks like night. At dawn it looks like dawn. At dusk it looks like dusk. That's so deep I think I'll head off to the nearest bamboo grove and meditate. . . .
-- Mungo, Mar 26 2004



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