I'm sure this has been mentioned before, but I need to vent and give my feedback.

I used to run Seti@Home many years ago. I see the screen saver has been changed significantly, its "3D" now and looks absolutely horrible, to put it mildly. Who's brilliant idea was it to make it twist and oscillate like that by default? This looks like it was designed by preteens. I guess you don't think the screen saver portion of this is important - it boggles my mind that such smart people can make such an obvious mistake.

I wonder how many thousands of potential users, and millions of computing hours have been lost by this. It is significant.

/end of rant
/uninstall seti@home

Several issues with your suggestion and ensuing opinion.

1. The old screen saver had some static images that used to burn the very screens it was supposed to be "saving". Hence the moving 3D image.

2. Only the really old CRT monitors suffered from screen burn, requiring a screen saver. Most newer CRTs and all LCD monitors do not suffer from screen burn, making screen savers a thing of the past (at least in their primary function). It is more power efficient to let your monitor go into standby than to run the pretty graphics (even if I love the graphics myself).

3. The screen saver itself reduces the CPU's efficiency in processing the work, thus lowering the productivity of computers actually processing science, equating in "millions of hours being lost". I would estimate that more hours have been lost due to the screen saver being used than to CPU hours being lost due to frustrated users that want the screen saver back. Add in the fact that GPU users have more than made up for any lost CPU users - and GPU users by definition can't use the screen saver if their GPU is processing science and not graphics.

4. Stating that the 3D screen saver looks "absolutely horrible" is merely an opinion, even is shared by a percentage of users. Fact is, the 3D was modeled exactly after the 2D version! They are exactly the same save for the 3D bars, the 3D graph and the spinning graphics (which, by the way, can be made to spin much less through your preferences).

At this point, with the servers being pounded so hard by GPU users to the point of instability, I'm not sure that the project needs to go after every single CPU user that leaves because of the screen saver. Though I also know they don't necessarily want to lose anyone at all, it is all down to personal choice.

/end of rebuttle
/more workunits for me

Hi,

I agree to Dennis - the screensaver is terrible. More: I also used SETI many years ago (and lost all my old stats, but that doesn´t realy matter for me). I tried a while toget used today with the - for me - new software.
Meanwhile I found out how to display a small window of the screensaver instead of letting it take the whole screen - but even there the quality of the graphics is - hmmm - extremly ugly.

$o |>0/|/3 answers, and I must confess your answers are ok and explain the chance a bit to such old fashioned users like Dennis and me. I thought about this a while... and I think without the possibility we miss, we miss also some kind of spirit the old version gave us in some way. Maybe I should talk to Dennis to confirm?

Anyway one point of Dennis post, I agree for other reason: more attractive graphics might lead more users and even more of the "old" users back to SETI. And I would like to see the responsibles to think about it.

Why not two possibilities? The current - for the more efficency-orientated users, and one similiar to the old one for the dreamers? ;-)

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there is only a thin red line - between the sane and the mad

Hi,

I agree to Dennis - the screensaver is terrible. More: I also used SETI many years ago (and lost all my old stats, but that doesn´t realy matter for me). I tried a while toget used today with the - for me - new software.
Meanwhile I found out how to display a small window of the screensaver instead of letting it take the whole screen - but even there the quality of the graphics is - hmmm - extremly ugly.

$o |>0/|/3 answers, and I must confess your answers are ok and explain the chance a bit to such old fashioned users like Dennis and me. I thought about this a while... and I think without the possibility we miss, we miss also some kind of spirit the old version gave us in some way. Maybe I should talk to Dennis to confirm?

Anyway one point of Dennis post, I agree for other reason: more attractive graphics might lead more users and even more of the "old" users back to SETI. And I would like to see the responsibles to think about it.

Why not two possibilities? The current - for the more efficency-orientated users, and one similiar to the old one for the dreamers? ;-)

I believe that the screen saver & graphics are also available for Linux and Mac. That means that the graphics need to be based on a graphics API that is cross platform.

The old screen saver actually burned the screen on many monitors because it did not move.

Having a second screen saver could be done, but the developers at Berkeley are extremely busy. However, the code is open source. So, if you or someone you know can write a replacement, it can be done. If it is good enough, it might even become standard.

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BOINC WIKI

Anyway one point of Dennis post, I agree for other reason: more attractive graphics might lead more users and even more of the "old" users back to SETI. And I would like to see the responsibles to think about it.

While it would be nice to see many old contributors return, I think bringing back the old screen saver would be a step backward. No one uses screen savers anymore was the point of my original post. While I understand there are plenty of nostalgic people out there, there's just no efficiency in using the screen saver at all.

Why not two possibilities? The current - for the more efficency-orientated users, and one similiar to the old one for the dreamers? ;-)

To reiterate, "efficiency-oriented" users don't use the screen saver because it takes away processing power from the CPU to run the graphics. And if you're using a CUDA-complaint graphics card, you can't run the screen saver at all because the GPU is crunching numbers for SETI instead of displaying 3D graphics.

Also, having "two possibilities" only means more work for the 5 people working in the lab at SETI@Home. More code to manage and support. More time spent hunting for bugs in two code lines. That would increase their workload exponentially.

The entire point of the BOINC framework is to allow scientists to focus on their science and not on the programming. The more time spent on programming, the less time spent on science.

I would rather they spend their time finding ETI than making some pretty graphics just to make people feel like the old days have returned, but that's just me. I prefer to look to the future and not the past.

I miss the old screensaver too. I used to just stare it and follow the data analyzing, it was someway relaxing, and same time interesting. Now this BOINC version just disturbs me, hurts my eyes, i cant stare it at all, need to just leave it run alone. I wish option that i could choose between this new 3D and old 2D.

http://www.fiemath.de/screen1.gif loved this one <3

Havent tried yet stop that annoying moving pile of electric-hay, going to try it but i think it doesnt help, outfit, information and text just looks so much more unclear compared that old one.

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