blanketfort

[software - eyecandy] - the Really Slick Screensavers collection

Jugglesaver (in the settings, set the "change frequency" slider to Often)

Go Screensaver

the electric sheep screen-saver, a distributed-computing project, for generating abstract morphing fractal animations, by scott draves.

Folding@Home, distributed-computing project, not as pretty, but helps science!

and then, some pseudoscreensavers (you have to start and exit these manually):

Noah's AcidWarp, a real classic.
and the more basic classic, plasma (zip of my copy, cant find source online)

Drivey: a road slightly less travelled

scott draves also makes bomb visual music, an ultra lo-fi industrial eyeache. think tv-snow, with occasional epilepsy, and virii-like wriggling organisms.

BallDroppings, not a saver at all, but once you've setup/played with it for a few minutes, you could leave it running ;)

[firefox + thunderbird] - i just moved from using the mozilla suite, to firefox & thunderbird, and have a few recommendations for extensions, to get them performing more like mozilla/opera. and just look at all that empty screenspace!
also suggested is to download my user.js, and place it in your profile directory.
finally, download these searchplugins, and put them here

[software] - Switch Sound Format Converter turns anything into wav or mp3. freeware. very handy.

[software] - If you run windows, you Need to download these 2 anti-spyware programs. Spybot-S&D (download) and Ad-Aware (download). Before scanning, use each programs update option to get the latest signature files, then scan, using SpyBot first. You'll probably be surprised at what they find.

[software] - The first thing you should do, when installing a new program, is to go read through the entire settings/options/preferences menu. This will give you a rough idea of what the program is capable of, and help put a few pieces of terminology in context. You can change anything that you understand, leave everything else at defaults. Also go through the various dropdown menus. You're likely to find options that make the program work better for you, and to learn a lot.

[web] - TypePad: About. looks a thing of beauty. you know you want one. (if you don't have a website yet, this would be a great way to start)

[software] - (last updated jan 2010)
these are the few firefox extensions i recommend. stable and intelligent. i use them all.
[firefox + thunderbird-

[RECOMMENDED]
[f] - DictionarySearch - add to the right-click contextmenu searches (Wikipedia, etc)
[f] - customize google - add links to yahoo, flickr, wayback machine, etc. + adds anonymity, + more. (+ wikipedia-mirror filter)

[OPTIONAL]
[f] - All-in-One Sidebar - sidebar popout
[f] - FireGestures - mouse gestures
[f] - Screengrab - full page screenshots
[f] - permit cookies - disable cookies, then whitelist single sites with alt-c
[t] - email notification randomizer - plays sound files from a directory (I use merriam-webster.com pronunciations)
[t] - allow empty subject in emails - tiny fix

[Webdesign]
[f] - web developer extension - lots and lots of tools
[f] - colorzilla - colorpick from webpages, and a useful palette.

[text-to-speech] - Hawking-esque downloadable. Online state-of-the-art demo

[software] - Dave's Quick Search Taskbar Toolbar Deskbar. marvellous tiny utility. have been using for months. xml and js and gpl goodness!

[mess-o-links] - I decided to get up-to-date on what napster alternatives there are out there, and the whys and wherefores of selecting amongst them (what features they have/lack, what the privacy/security concerns currently are, etc).
intro: There's this article from aug '01 at webmonkey, which offers a little history, doesnt really like any of the contenders (says morpheus and limewire were the best of the bunch), warns against the horrors of audiogalaxy (which you shouldnt be using anyway, its spyware), and offers some coherent explanations for why none compare to the peak of napster's time (page 3). Even better is this sept '01 article at infoanarchy.
Comprehensive lists and some reviews can be found at infoanarchy (best info source) (recent roundup in bottom paragraph of article), open-nap, nonap (overly simplified), zeropaid (dubious quality) (recent comments), and of course google.
The results? Things are still in (rapid) development. Options for the discerning audio connoisseur who misses the golden age of napster are still disheartening (nothing yet offers as much speed and selection as it once did). The best of the current bunch are: Winmx (open-nap network); Gnucleus, Gnotella and Limewire (gnutella network); and the independants Filetopia, and Freenet look promising. However, with upcoming new releases for many of these, i'm going to resist temptation for another few months, and get back to the things that i'm meant to be doing. *cough*.

Graphical User Interface Timeline

Internet-based Distributed Computing Projects - Active Projects. List and descriptions and links thereof. From seti@home and folding@home, to electric sheep and golem@home.