While hanging out in Chicago this past Friday, I decided to check out the line at the Michigan Avenue Apple Store in anticipation of the dramatic 6pm launch of the iPhone. It was nuts: cops on Segways, restaurants handing out free food, and a line that stretched around the entire block.
I tried taking a few pictures on my crappy cellphone, but realized that I could probably get better results from the iSight in my MacBook Pro. So I ended up walking around, holding my machine up and attempting to capture the general pandemonium.
Around 6:15, I went across the street to a Starbucks to see what kind of stuff I’d managed to get, and quickly spliced it together into a little video in iMovie.
When I came out, everyone in line had already gotten phones, and I could finally wander into the store to try out some of the demo units on display.
I guess my thoughts echo those of mostreviews. Really nice flashy interface, and my few minutes of trying to type ‘doomlaser.com’ into the touch screen made me want to destroy it.
So awhile back I was thinking, “You know what would be funny? A screen saver that fakes a kernel panic!”
For those of you who might never have seen one, a kernel panic is basically the most shocking crash that you can get on a Mac. It’s Apple’s equivalent to the famed Blue Screen of Death.
What a great way to play a prank on someone, or frighten yourself.
So here is the end result, a harmless screen saver that faithfully emulates the horrifying experience of a kernel panic. It comes complete with a misleading Quartz Composer Preview so that the effect is all the more terrifying.
Update: KPSaver is now 64-bit and compatible with Mac OS X 10.6 and above. Legacy users can download the old version here.
Since then, Doomlaser has stayed intentionally small, hands-on, and oriented toward experimentation at the edges of games and tools, including recent exploration of neural-network-driven workflows for game systems and creative software.
