Filed under: Software, Education, Odds and ends, Freeware
OSXplanet: Live Desktop
When we recently mentioned the release of EarthDesk 4.0 from xeric design, many of the commenters suggested we check out the OSXplanet Project. OSXplanet is a Cocoa port of the Open Source program Xplanet and like EarthDesk puts a "live" picture of the earth on your Desktop. However, like Xplanet, OSXplanet can also display other planets in the solar system (though perforce with not quite as much live data). You can choose from a variety of map projections, see cloud formations, mark cities on the map (and even center the view on one of them), track storms, view earthquakes and volcanoes, and even some satellites (as I write this, the International Space Station seems to be about over Chicago). Surprisingly, it doesn't even require too big of a memory hit (I'm at about 54MB real).OSXplanet is a free download though its author (who is all of 17 years old) requests donations ($20 suggested).
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
mithras said 10:25AM on 2-22-2007
Whoops, the download seems to have gone 404.
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Cromo said 10:38AM on 2-22-2007
yep i got 404 error too.
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Cromo said 10:40AM on 2-22-2007
http://mac.softpedia.com/progDownload/OSXplanet-Download-6204.html
Found a link.
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Xof said 12:12PM on 2-22-2007
"I was born in Seoul, South Korea in 1988."
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jonas said 12:21PM on 2-22-2007
http://web.tiscali.it/osxplanet/osxplanet/OSXplanet1.0.1.dmg
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Greg said 1:22PM on 2-22-2007
1988 would make him 18.
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Me said 2:36PM on 2-22-2007
Wow, this'll be cool.
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(01) said 3:30PM on 2-22-2007
Are there any apps like this that will work with virtual desktops, specifically were there are different wallpapers on the desktops? That's the only thins really preventing me from using these...
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Allan L. said 5:21PM on 2-22-2007
#6 you forgot about the international dateline. ;P
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Atticablues said 11:32AM on 2-23-2007
This is a neat idea, and a great start, but I should mention that this program has *completely* fucked up my Cube. I hate to point fingers, but I've never had any of these issues until I just installed this program. Video started freezing, then nothing but blackness, and now I can't even get past the Gray Apple startup screen. 4 Kernal Panics and counting. Install at your own risk.
As an FYI, I am running 10.4.8 on a 1.7GhZ Sonnet G4 with a GeForce 5200.
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Jason said 1:29PM on 2-23-2007
So far so good on my MBP. I think this is an awesome idea. My only issue is that I can't seem to get any of the updates (cloud, satellites, etc.) to update properly. Although I have an active internet connection I'm still getting a "failed" message next to the update information. Anyone else having similar issues?
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John Perry said 2:09AM on 3-04-2007
Please help, someone. I downloaded this OSXplanet monster, and most times it won't let my iMac boot; that idiotic little globe just sits there winking malevolently. When it does consent to load as wallpaper, I can't find any way to access controls or options for it, and when I found a "quit" button it didn't quit. How do i get rid of this pest?
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