I just saw a screensaver from Rosetta, which is great. A question, though: it looks awfully static, which might cause burn-in. It's got about five panels with lines separating them, which remain on the screen as the protein structures appear to be moving (very slightly). Can it be rotated or something?

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About screensavers

A screensaver is a computer program originally designed to conserve the image quality of computer displays by blanking the screen or filling them with moving images or patterns when the computers are not in use. Today, screensavers are primarily for entertainment or security purposes.

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About screensavers

A screensaver is a computer program originally designed to conserve the image quality of computer displays by blanking the screen or filling them with moving images or patterns when the computers are not in use. Today, screensavers are primarily for entertainment or security purposes.

Um, I know what they are. I'm concerned that the one I saw wasn't doing the "filling them with moving images or patterns" part of the definition. I had static lines delineating five or six boxes, with static text at the bottom of the page throughout the processing of the work unit. My suggestion was to do something like what SETI@home does, which is rotate a 3D image so nothing stays in the same spot on the screen.

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i think vester wanted to point out the part that screensavers nowaday are more decorative than protective. most monitors go into power safe mode after some time regardless of the screensafer and even if not, burn-ins are unlikely with a somewhat modern monitor (example given in the wiki is the windows start button that is all the time in the place if you work on the maschine without being burnd in)

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Florian
www.domplatz1.de

i think vester wanted to point out the part that screensavers nowaday are more decorative than protective. most monitors go into power safe mode after some time regardless of the screensafer and even if not, burn-ins are unlikely with a somewhat modern monitor (example given in the wiki is the windows start button that is all the time in the place if you work on the maschine without being burnd in)

Well, maybe so, and maybe I'm just somebody who's seen too many old terminals and other monitors with screen ghosts. I was making a suggestion to the developers of the screensaver that it might be worthwhile to do something to allay the fears of people like me.

Your attempt to clarify makes a lot more sense than the unadorned quotation vester put up, that's for sure.

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None of the Boinc "screensavers" that I've seen to date are completely free of static components, so they would not qualify as true screensavers as such (except for the Boinc default screensaver, used when a project has no graphics). However, there are three things you can do that will help to insure that your screen doesn't get burned in (some LCD's can get burned in, btw):

1. Enable "go to blank" in the screensaver settings dialog and/or monitor power off.
2. Run more than one Boinc project. Then you will see different graphics from time to time, not always the same one.
3. If you have a multiprocessor computer or one with hyperthreading, allow Boinc to use more than one CPU. Then, Boinc will switch screensaver graphics every 10 minutes while the screensaver is running. (Happens when two graphics-capable projects are running)

[edit] If you are worried about the start button, you can set the task bar to "auto-hide". Then, you get the whole screen for your apps, and the button only shows up when you need it. [/edit]

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I just saw a screensaver from Rosetta, which is great. A question, though: it looks awfully static, which might cause burn-in. It's got about five panels with lines separating them, which remain on the screen as the protein structures appear to be moving (very slightly). Can it be rotated or something?

Yeah I am a first day user and I came in this morning and now my LCD is burned in. Is this permanent? I am pretty frustrated when something is called a screensaver and isnt really as this did the opposite of saving my screen, but has ruined it.

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I get the same sort of thing with my windows taskbar. It goes away if I turn my monitor off overnight. I know there was talk about having the whole screensaver move around the screen to prevent static lines. My guess is you'll hear an update on that fairly soon.

-Ethan

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I get the same sort of thing with my windows taskbar. It goes away if I turn my monitor off overnight. I know there was talk about having the whole screensaver move around the screen to prevent static lines. My guess is you're hear an update on that fairly soon.

-Ethan

I sure hope so. I just turned it off as my screensaver. I should have noticed it and known, but was too tired after installing it. Luckily all the other computers I installed it on are kvm'd so nothing was displaying all night. I have since turned boinc off as the screensaver on all my machines.

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You might already know, but you can manually open the graphics window inside the Boinc manager. If you click on a work unit you're working on, you can click the 'show graphics' button. This will open a re-sizable window with all the protein folding goodness.

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It's better to use the energy management to turn your monitor off after 5 minutes or so. The screensaver should only be used if one enjoys the graphics (which means the monitor should turn off at maximum after an hour) since it consumes energy and cpu. I use only the boincmanager and no screensaver and when I want to see the folding I look on them as Ethan described.

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I just saw a screensaver from Rosetta, which is great. A question, though: it looks awfully static, which might cause burn-in. It's got about five panels with lines separating them, which remain on the screen as the protein structures appear to be moving (very slightly). Can it be rotated or something?

Yeah I am a first day user and I came in this morning and now my LCD is burned in. Is this permanent? I am pretty frustrated when something is called a screensaver and isnt really as this did the opposite of saving my screen, but has ruined it.

LCD monitors do not suffer from "Burn in". While the image may remain visible for a short time , it is not burned into the monitor as could be the case with less expensive Cathode ray tube (CRT) monitors.

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Moderator9
ROSETTA@home FAQ
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It took over 4 years to burn the Dos WordPerfect editing screen into EGA and VGA monitors at various shops that ran WP 8 hours a day, 5 days a week.
Burn in on Cathode Ray Tubes (CRTs) is caused by an electron beam hitting the phosphors on the inside of the screen. This causes them to glow. Keep them energized too bright for too long, and the phosphors can't return to their off/rest state properly. (i.e. for many months/years).

LCDs are usually a white backlight behind a panel of groups of 3 colored dots - red green blue. Turn on the blue dot, and you get a blue spot on the screen. Turn on all 3 colored dots (the same amount), and you get a white dot on the screen. I've never seen burn in on my client's lcd monitors. Backlights die; kids scratch them with screwdrivers; people close them on top of pencils on the keyboard and crack them; or people bang them into things while carrying them around in a bag - and crack the lcd panel.

What kind of exotic screen do you have that burns in - in only a day?

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As someone has already stated, us crunching 'nuts' do not bother with the screensaver.

Funny enough, there has been a similar case of this (monitor burn-in) over at CPDN.

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