Top Ten OS X Screensavers — Rigged or just Biased?
Andy on Aug 1st 2006
For those who don’t know, I’m a partner at Order N Development. We do a lot of contract work, and among those contracts is doing the Mac porting of SereneScreen’s Marine Aquarium.
Recently I came across the blog of one Phill Ryu, who attempted to rank the ten best screensavers for Mac OS X. I say “attempt”, because obviously he failed. Despite all the hard work I put into it (well, technically it was Jim who did the “work”), Marine Aquarium was only ranked number two.
Clearly this contest was rigged from the start. The upstart “Fenêtres Volantes” took first place with its cheap French name and obvious payoff. I’m no expert, but there’s no telling how much money was made by the author off this so-called “freeware”, whatever that means.
This called for an investigation. I dug into the past of this Phill Ryu, if that’s his real name, and discovered he has a blog and likes to rank screensavers. It was obviously a cover for something far more sinister. What, I don’t know, because I lost interest after seeing all that shiny plastic over at MacThemes. I’m not sure who runs that site, but maybe they should be the ones ranking screensavers. They sure do know what looks like plastic.
I also take offense to the characterization of Marine Aquarium in the review. Its hardly “an oldie” as Phill suggests. I mean, you don’t hear geriatric radio stations playing The Marine Aquarium, do you? I thought not. Its usually something by The Beatles or Elvis. Phill also suggests that you cannot “touch” Marine Aquarium. Hooey. I caress my monitor all the time when its running. The fish like that. It reminds them of the time they were in the dentist’s office.
Finally, Phill implies that $20 is a steep price to pay for a screensaver. Oh, like all the other guys give it away for free? psh. Listen, Phill, web site hosting isn’t free, and I have to have some place to mock your hard work. So there.
(BTW, if you do decide to buy Marine Aquarium, please do it from our website. I get more money that way.)
Filed in Order N | 10 responses so far
jojo Aug 3rd 2006 at 12:52 pm 1
electric sheep 4 life!
Anonymous Aug 3rd 2006 at 11:58 pm 2
> Finally, Phill implies that $20 is a steep price to pay for a screensaver.
$20 for a screensaver is a waste of money.
Michael Babin Aug 4th 2006 at 01:13 pm 3
Anything posted anonymously is a waste of storage space and electricity.
Ranjeet Sodhi Aug 30th 2006 at 03:30 pm 4
I personally would never pay for a screen saver; especially given that Mac OS X already comes pre-installed with a large number of very nice screen savers. Additionally, there are a larger number of really good screen savers to be had for free.
I am sure you put a lot of work into the screen saver you designed, and are entitled to charge whatever amount you deem appropriate. That said, the market typically decides if the price for a product is right or wrong (they simply don’t buy things that they consider are expensive). To some you screen saver may be worth the price, to many others it isn’t (Please note: this isn’t a dig at the author of this screen saver).
Tim Andersen Dec 6th 2006 at 11:19 pm 5
I am with you on this Andy. I wouldn’t use half of the screen savers that Phill listed if you paid me to. Well done on marine aquarium! How about an updated version some time with some other sea creatures to mesmerize us.
Max Dec 26th 2006 at 04:20 pm 6
you made a whole post to rip on another post for being biased? did you notice that you ended your post with a blatant advertisement for your readers to BUY a screensaver from YOU? what a joke.
CoffeeBuzzard Jan 6th 2007 at 05:10 am 7
Hey, so I just found out that the big scary Angler Fish in Finding Nemo was a girl fish! No Kidding!! The boy Angler Fish is just this tiny little thing that sneaks up on the Big Girl Angler Fish, bites her, hangs on and then freakin’ melts into her over time! No kidding! Then when the Big Girl Angler Fish is ready to have little Baby Angler Fish, the little nub of what’s left of the Boy Angler Fish is ready and waiting with it’s … genetic material!! WhoooAAAHow!! Shew.
Put that in Marine Aquarium and I’ll pay you $22.75.
Roger Crullen Feb 18th 2007 at 07:36 am 8
dude, you sound like you’re in a lover’s quarrel with Phil. your attack on Phil’s comment that the aquarium screensaver is an oldie is just pure nonsense, your argument totally childish.
Aaron May 28th 2007 at 11:09 pm 9
I love how nobody has a sense of sarcasm.
alex Sep 3rd 2007 at 03:12 am 10
This whole screensaver business is mafia controlled–always has been. X-Screensavers, which is so clear the best, was left completely off “The List”–if that doesn’t prove CIA cover-up, then i don’t know what does.