[CR]The ultimate cycling screen saver... [mostly OT]

...is one you put together yourself. I have a modest collection of over 400 cycling photos (many, maybe most? with classic content), and run a little photo viewing/editing program called VuePrint (http://www.hamrick.com/) that has a great screensaver feature - and lots of other great features too. (There are probably other programs that can do a lot of this too, but VuePrint is the one I know) VuePrint is free to try, and $40 to buy if you like it. See below for more on VuePrint if you're interested. I have no connection to the company that sells it, just a happy customer

If you want to grab my collection of photos as a start or addition to your own, feel free. This offer is for CR members only please - don't go advertising it on the web (not that you would!) It's at http://bulgier.net/pics/bike/ and also at ftp://bulgier.net/bikepix/ (Downloading them *all* is only really an option for people with fast internet connections - it's about 45 megabytes. But you can pick and choose too.)

The main advantage of the second, FTP link, is: with most good FTP clients, you can just select all the folders at once, and download 'em all with just a mouse click or two. I believe, on the website, you'd just have to open each photo one by one and save it - and repeat 400 times. (Someone let me know if there's an easier way.) There are several good free or shareware FTP clients; all the big shareware sites have a selection. "WS_FTP" is the one I know best (doesn't mean it's the best one...), available at: http://www.tucows.com/preview/195137.html My FTP site is limited to 4 users at a time, because you're using the same DSL pipeline that I use for browsing, e-mailing etc. In the unlikely event of more than 4 people trying to get on at once, you'll get a message saying try again later.

Sorry my website is so basic, no thumbnail pics, just a file listing - I'm no webmaster. I also need to apologize in advance for any copyrighted material that may have snuck in there - I will immediately take anything down if the owner asks me to. I collected them from various web sources for my own use, and I hope it's OK to share 'em with my friends for non-commercial use. _________________________________________

About VuePrint: It can crop, rotate, resize and other basics, though for serious photo editing you'll want something more full-featured, PaintShopPro perhaps. But VuePrint shines at displaying photos, so I recommend letting it be your default viewer for jpegs.

The things I like best about it are:

(*)How small and fast it is - double-click a jpeg and it opens seemingly instantly (especially compared to Internet Explorer, the Windows default viewer for photos, a real pig to load just to view a photo). The installer you download is under a megabyte.

(*)The way it scales larger photos down to the window size, so there are no scrollbars - you can see the whole thing in whatever size window you want. Left-click anywhere on the photo to zoom in, right-click to zoom out.

(*)The way you can go through all the photos in a folder with just the spacebar -- <backspace> takes you to the previous file. Having to use the "File/Open" dialog boxes each time (as in most other programs) is a real pain in comparison.

(*)The screensaver and slideshow features - just point it at a folder and it'll show the contents of it (including subfolders), with the delay and transition effects you choose. I use random effects, so each transition uses a different kind of fade-in.

OK, it's just a computer program, but I'd have to say it does enhance my enjoyment of bikes in a small way. I sure hope this was at least somewhat helpful to someone out there.

Cheers,

Mark Bulgier
Seattle, Wa
USA