ScreenDæmon is a simple, extremely efficient screen saver. All it does is fade your screen to black after a certain amount of idle-time has passed, and wake the screen up again when it detects user activity. You may place your cursor in a specified corner to make the screen fade immediately, or to keep it from fading altogether.
Fading your screen during inactive periods will help to prevent the burn-in damage that occurs when a static image is displayed for too long.
What do I need to make use of ScreenDæmon?
To run ScreenDæmon, you must have System 7.0 or greater, and a Macintosh that supports gamma fading. Any Macintosh with Color QuickDraw should suffice. ScreenDæmon will NOT run on the Macintosh SE (or earlier) machines. If you have an older Mac, or you're running System Software older than System 7.0, then I recommend that you use Basic Black, another free screen saver that I wrote. You should be able to get it wherever you got this package.
Note that ScreenDæmon is not intended to run on PowerBooks. To my knowledge, LCD screens do not suffer burn-in damage, and thus don't require a screen saver. Please inform me if my information is incorrect.
How do I install ScreenDæmon?
Simply drag the files "ScreenDæmon Controls" and "ScreenDæmon" to your System Folder, and reboot your Mac. "ScreenDæmon Controls" lives in your Control Panels folder, and "ScreenDæmon" lives in your Extensions folder. Under System 7.0 and later, if you drag the files to your System Folder icon, they'll be put in the right places.
How do I configure ScreenDæmon?
Just open "ScreenDæmon Controls" and change the settings to your liking. The control panel window should look something like this:
The controls should be pretty self-explanatory.
The "ScreenDæmon On" checkbox lets you turn ScreenDæmon on and off. If you turn ScreenDæmon off, it will no longer fade your screen when the specified amount of idle time has passed.
The "Show Startup Icon" checkbox lets you determine whether or not ScreenDæmon will display its icon when your Macintosh starts. Note that if ScreenDæmon encounters an error as it is starting up, it will display the appropriate error icon regardless of this setting.
The "Idle Minutes Before Sleep" box lets you set the number of idle minutes that must pass before ScreenDæmon will fade your screen. You may either click on the arrows to change the setting or type it in directly.
The two boxes on the right side of the window let you control which corners will be used to either immediately make the screen fade, or to keep the screen from fading even after the specified amount of idle time has passed.
If you place your cursor in the corner specified by the top box, then the screen will fade immediately. If you place the cursor in the corner specified by the bottom box, then the screen will not be allowed to fade. This is useful in situations where you are doing a lot of reading and you don't want the screen to fade while you're trying to read.
How much does ScreenDæmon cost?
ScreenDæmon is free of charge. You're enocuraged to give ScreenDæmon away to your friends, and you may post it on bulletin boards and online services. ScreenDæmon may be included on CD-ROMs. (A complimentary copy of the CD-ROM would be very much appreciated.)
If you want to send me a donation, I'll gladly accept it. My mailing address is listed below.
Should I run Apple's EnergySaver software alongside ScreenDæmon?
Yes. If your monitor supports the EnergyStar standard, the you should use Apple's EnergySaver software, or a third-party equivalent, in addition to ScreenDæmon. I am currently working on a program which will work side-by-side with any modern screensaver to provide EnergyStar and backlighting control. It will be free, and when it's done, I suggest that you use it in preference to EnergySaver.
How does ScreenDæmon work?
ScreenDæmon runs as a tightly-coupled combination of INIT and background dæmon. The INIT provides Gestalt services and patches one trap globally (SystemEvent()). The background dæmon does the work of checking to see if the screen should be faded or awakened. The background dæmon runs only twice a second, and is highly optimised, so it takes very little processor time.
Both the INIT code and the background dæmon share global data, which is kept by the INIT code.
ScreenDæmon makes use of the wonderful, free GammaFade library by Matt Slot. It should be available on all the big FTP sites. The GammaFade library makes gamma fading completely painless.
I don't intend to distribute ScreenDæmon's source code. If you want to see how a screensaver operates, I suggest that you look at Basic Black's source code, which is included, free of charge, with the Basic Black package. Basic Black demonstrates a neat method of communication between a control panel and a system patch, which you may like. Additionally, it is based on an INIT shell that does not make use of any assembly language or 68K-specific registers. If you want a basic background dæmon shell, write to me and I'll send you the simple, basic, no-frills shell that ScreenDæmon makes use of.
How can I contact you?
If you have questions or a bug report, you can reach me a number of ways. Communication via electronic mail is my preferred method, but if you don't have access to electronic mail, then you may write to me at:
Mason L. Bliss
18 Beach st.
Middleborough, MA 02346
USA
If you have email access, then you can write to me at:
mason@acheron.middleboro.ma.us on the Internet or Mason Bliss @ 1:109/370.6 on FidoNet.
The Fine Print
SCREENDÆMON IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE AUTHOR, MASON L. BLISS, SHALL NOT BE HELD LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER ARISING FROM THE USE OF, MIS-USE OF, OR INABILITY TO USE THIS SOFTWARE.
