Apple Computer / Mac Screensavers
A Screensaver on a Macintosh Computer does exactly what a screensaver would do on a Windows computer. The screensaver is created to protect the Macintosh monitor from screen burn in. If a Mac system is idle for a particular stipulated time period without a screensaver being activated, the monitor usually develops a faded image of the screen. This means that when the image on the monitor changes, a slightly faded image of the blank screen will remain visible. Screen savers are usually used to prevent this inherent problem that is seen in computers. Any applications that you were running when the screen darkened will remain saved until the screen returns to its normal application.
Although modern technological advancements have more or less pre-empted this problem and screensavers are no longer as critical as they were some years ago, screensaver don’t seem to have lost their huge popularity. The main reason for this is that screensavers are now used more for entertainment purposes then for burn-in protection. Screen phosphor burns are hardly heard of in CRTs, although burn in your menu bar is still a possibility.
In view of the fact that screensavers are not really required for monitor protection purposes, we really should ask ourselves whether or not it makes sense to have it installed just for entertainment purposes. Be realistic, by installing a screensaver on your computer you will be using up a lot of disk space and valuable memory for something that has no practical value and is just designed to provide temporary entertainment.
If your job or computer work involves using color for professional purposes, you are sure to be concerned about the phosphor burning across the display, resulting in slight color variation. To rectify this problem however you could use a screen blanker. Some monitors can take a while to re-establish the proper color balance after they wake.
For privacy purposes, passwords for screensavers are also available but this can be easily circumvented by shift-booting. This type of safeguard is not as good as most security packages, which regularly embraces hard disk driver level password protection.
The Macintosh computer has specific programs created for it to lend a hand in blacking out unused monitor screens. One such program is known as Dark Side of the Mac. Dark Side is an application that darkens the screen and exhibits shifting images when the keyword and mouse are left idle for sometime.
Since Dark Side is a MAC application it will be listed in the Application menu situated on the far right of the Mac menu bar at any time it is running. It does not necessitate much RAM to run Dark Side so there should be few reasons to actually quit it. A helpful suggestion is to consign a Dark Side alias in your Startup Items folder or System Folder so that it begins to run whenever your machine is turned on. A straightforward means to do this is to use the “Install Dark Side” command from the Dark Side File menu. If you do decide to quit Dark Side it will be necessary to manually launch it once more in order to safeguard your screen.
The best way to find a decent screensaver for your MAC is to simply appraise all the screensavers that are available for MAC and select a the most appropriate one.
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