WebCollage screensaver

You must be 18 years or older to read this post. NOT SAFE FOR WORK.

I upgraded to gutsy recently. One thing I don't like about ubuntu is that (unlike gentoo) your options for screensavers are severely limited. In Gentoo, you can select 1 screensaver, or random screensavers of your choice. In Ubuntu, however, you only have two options: 1 screensaver OR random screensavers (where you can't select WHICH random--it picks a random screensaver from the whole lot).

I guess that Ubuntu released a bunch of new screensavers with their release of Gutsy. Every now and then I'd see a new one that I'd either like or dislike. However, one stood out from the rest: WebCollage.

WebCollage randomly picks pictures from the internet and displays them as a collage. It's a cool idea, but we all know that 75% of the internet is porn. This screensaver is NOT SAFE FOR WORK.

You must be 18 years or older to read this post

I wish I was kidding. My screen timed out, faded to screensaver, and I looked up from my math homework in curiosity of what screensaver it would pick (perhaps a new one?). Yep, a random picture popped up. It was a picture I had never seen before. I became more intrigued. A bit later, another picture--and another. I figured it was pulling random pictures up off the internet, and I liked that idea--it's cool, right?

Well, after about 4 pictures, the porn began. It was kinda nice--I mean, the girl had a fine set of--eyes. I looked back at my roommate to see if he had noticed. Nope. My curiosity grew. I kept looking. As I stared at the partially porn-filled laptop, I began to wonder how something like this could get out into a release by a pseudo-respectable organization like Ubuntu. It doesn't make logical sense. Ladies and gentlemen, Ubuntu is NOT safe for work 🙁

I did a test. I was curious as to just how often porn appears with this screensaver. I ran the screensaver 10 times and allowed 10 images to appear each time. I recorded whether or not it was "Porn" (image including the genitals) or "Sexual" (anything that you wouldn't want your boss to see on your screen) or "Everything Else."

Well, it appears that this screensaver will present porn 8% of the time, and it will present something you don't want your boss to see 19% of the time. Perhaps it's not THAT bad, but it seems like it's a lot more when you freak at the first sign of a nice blonde's--err--hair.

Here's what the unedited (ergo, 18+ and not safe for work) screensaver looks like. I just took screenshots after 10 or so images from the trials outlined above:

I can't decide if I like it or not. Either way, I'm going to have to disable this screensaver from my ubuntu work computer on Monday :-/

Michael Altfield

Hi, I’m Michael Altfield. I write articles about opsec, privacy, and devops ➡

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