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Show HN: ANSI-Saver – A macOS Screensaver

61 points

5 hours ago

| 7 comments

Hi, I've been working on something I've been thinking for long time but since I had no experience with macOS screen savers I always posponed. Now thanks to Claude I was able to create a screensaver that scroll ANSI files while your computer is idle.

It allow to use local ANS files or packs directly from 16colo.rs.

Repo: https://github.com/lardissone/ansi-saver

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ynac

3 hours ago

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You're inspiring me to attempt a rescue of my last BBS (MajorBBS system) from 1991-1993. It had some great ANSI room and section screens. It was run from a single 1GB(!!) drive that cost us $1000. We had email, a couple stores (one of the first online book stores) and store-n-forward mail systems, maybe finger and telnet(?). Unfortunately, a neighbor got stoned, had a cigarette in bed and burned up his house and ours. Nobody hurt, but the BBS wasn't backed up offsite.

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lardissone

3 hours ago

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Beautiful! No backups at all of something? Sorry for your house burnt.

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ynac

2 hours ago

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It was a weird time frame. My partner was living in the house, and I was moving to Seattle. The backup was pretty much inches from the system itself. Not the last time I learned that lesson. But, the original SCSI drive did survive, even if the machines and desk and couches, etc. were all ruined. With HTML coming along we didn't rebuild. It's still seems like such a huge loss not having entities like BBSs on the internet. Just like the loss of IRC and other basic systems / plumbing of the capital I Internet. Yeah, they needed upgrades, but that's what IETF, RFC, and scrappy hackers are for. <sigh> Loving on the ANSI!

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primaryobjects

2 hours ago

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This would be great with an option to draw each ANSI line by line with pixels drawn left to right. The same way it was experienced over dialup.

The options could be baud rates: 56k, 14.4, 2400

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lardissone

2 hours ago

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Sounds like a great idea.

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retlehs

3 hours ago

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This is really great work, I’m installing this immediately once I’m back on my machine

My terminal loads ANSI each time it opens, but requires downloading artpacks first: https://github.com/retlehs/ansimotd

I also like how your README suggests specific packs to grab

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lardissone

3 hours ago

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Added a demo video and an explaining post on my own site: https://leandroardissone.com/posts/ansi-saver

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pimlottc

1 hour ago

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Minor nit: I kept trying to tap the text to open the video before I realized I had to tap the image.

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lardissone

1 hour ago

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ah, good catch.

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binaryturtle

4 hours ago

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Those are some intense system requirements.

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lardissone

3 hours ago

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Ah, yes, I’m not able to test in Intel Macs. Will try to make it available to lower macOS versions at least.

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xp84

3 hours ago

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You might find some volunteers here willing to make Intel builds :)

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lardissone

3 hours ago

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it's open source, anyone can help with it, I'm happy to merge PRs

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lardissone

2 hours ago

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Just added support to macOS Sequoia.

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adambb

3 hours ago

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(unintentional) satire? almost a meditation on the seemingly inevitable bloat of software

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user3939382

4 hours ago

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As someone with a flying toasters tie, I can’t wait to try this.

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jcynix

2 hours ago

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Ah, yes, After Dark, with the "Lunatic Fringe" module, which was fun (and was a time sink ;-0). And what I would like to see again is the "Stained Glass" module which produced phantastic visual effects when tuned a bit.

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conception

3 hours ago

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On an aside, I’ve gotten After Dark to work on Windows 10 with some effort. Haven’t tried 11 yet.

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superultra

3 hours ago

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Tahoe only? Yikes!

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lardissone

2 hours ago

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I just pushed a new version with support to macOS Sequoia.