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Kernel Panic Screensaver!

doomlaser.com — The perfect prank. 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.

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  • Trioxin, on 10/12/2007, -1/+42Too cool.. kind of scary when you run it.
    • TyroPyro, on 10/12/2007, -2/+33Since the site is already crashing
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcNBofM1YK8&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Edoomlaser%2Ecom%2F%3Fp%3D12

      Link to the screen saver
      http://www.doomlaser.com/downloads/KPSaver.zip
    • magicmarc, on 10/12/2007, -18/+2Bury, bad mirror link :(.
      (but I was NOT sorry for the comment abuse...)
    • Xpoc, on 10/12/2007, -7/+3@TyroPyro

      Thanks for the link. The site is down already. Would be interesting to put this on my PC and try it on my bro, a big mac guy.
    • eyediggit, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7This reminds me of BSOD in the xscreensaver distribution. Perhaps jwz should add this one to the collection.
    • spinchange, on 10/12/2007, -0/+30you mean this isn't just an Apache 503 error screen saver?
    • ntnwwnet, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11Mirrored: http://www.nilthacker.net/KPSaver.zip
    • humperdeath, on 10/12/2007, -26/+3"A kernel panic is basically the most shocking crash that you can get on a Mac." --> I didn't think such a thing was possible on a Mac? It's crash-proof, os so I was told. Hmmmmmm.
    • winnopeg, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8Mirrored: http://winnopeg.com/dl/KPSaver.zip

      EDIT: ntnwwnet beat be to it.
    • HalFTW, on 10/12/2007, -3/+18Windows version:
      http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/Miscellaneous/BlueScreen.mspx
    • lolx, on 10/12/2007, -7/+4mirror of screensaver:

      https://s3.amazonaws.com/cdn/KPSaver.zip
    • bsolidgold, on 10/12/2007, -22/+12I'm gonna hijack this comment to say that the Kernel Panic is not unique to Mac OSes. It just so happens to be the worst thing that can happen to any Linux/Unix based OS. And for those mac fanboys who didn't know; yes, mac OS is based on Unix.

      Buried for lameness... and extreme concentration of mac fanboys.
    • crgnetworks, on 10/12/2007, -3/+12The only crash im getting is a 503.
    • macfanboi, on 10/12/2007, -15/+4Wow, that certainly warrants Digg front page!
    • cawpin, on 10/12/2007, -16/+8"It ’s Apple’s equivalent to the famed Blue Screen of Death."

      Because, you know, Apple invented Unix. WTF?
    • mistermanoli, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8ive never seen the mac death screen before... looks like its alot easier on the eyes.. and the nerves..
    • ciram, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Nice.. but I found a little bug - if your running two screens (or more, I guess), the second screen will show a skewed mirror image of the primary screen.
    • Waterrat, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3 Linux has a scary BSOD screen saver as well...And it did fool an IT friend once..She looked over at it and said:"I hate to tell you this,but something has gone terribly wrong with your computer."
    • nayr, on 10/12/2007, -9/+3I've seen only one in my life, when I plugged a homemade USB device into the keyboard. It scared the ***** out of me.

      BTW, kernel panic ≠ BSOD; the BSOD trashes your computer.
    • Ireland, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1Good job it's only a screensaver and doesn't show up on Mac's nowadays, unlike the BSOD which still likes to show its face in Windows :P
    • Brennan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7"BTW, kernel panic ≠ BSOD; the BSOD trashes your computer."

      No. And, BSOD "trashes" your computer? What the ***** is that even supposed to mean?
    • bsolidgold, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2all you mac fanboys are so naive, it's pathetic.
    • grumpyrain, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5> BTW, kernel panic ≠ BSOD; the BSOD trashes your computer.

      BSOD is indeed the Windows version of a kernel panic. Trashing the computer? BSOD makes you restart yes, but so does a kernel panic in any POSIX derivative, including Mac. They are mostly caused by faulty hardware (significantly RAM and power supply) or poorly written drivers. Any 'NT' version of Windows from 2000 onwards (2000, any breed of XP, 2003, Vista) isolates each process quite well, so unless the process is a poorly written driver, you will find it very hard to get a BSOD with hardware that is not flaky. The 9x series (95, 98, ME) did not have this isolation so it was possible for an application to cause these issues.

      > ive never seen the mac death screen before... looks like its alot easier on the eyes.. and the nerves..

      I have, it looks a lot nicer than BSOD or the console based kernel panic on most Linux breeds, but it is definately not any easier on the nerves. You are still pissed that you need to restart and cross your fingers you remembered to save.
    • DaMacGamer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5every time i see that gray bar go down my screen, i die a little inside.
    • robbh66, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@halftw

      Why would anyone want a Windows version? I used to see it all the time. It would almost be a treat to see the KP screen if my mac wasn't crashing
    • bobbknight, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Lame, Super Lame, Oh So Super Dooper Lame.
  • coldfusion1970, on 10/12/2007, -2/+21What a fantastic idea.
    Now if i can only sneak it onto my colleagues Macs at work ;-)
    • Applemacmad, on 10/12/2007, -1/+58Forget them - let's put them on all the computers in the Apple Store!
    • dogwal, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Install it on your colleagues computers, and unplug their keyboards and mice so they really get scared! Offer to fix them for a huge profit, plug in the peripherals, and get rich off their anxiety!
  • ahill7, on 10/12/2007, -1/+34how many people will hard-reboot their macs when they see this?
    • eleven, on 10/12/2007, -3/+19Hell, I was tempted to after testing the screensaver out. It's quite convincing.
    • winnopeg, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3It is. Only when it actually panics, iTunes doesn't fade out - it just stops. Still easy to fool the average user though.
  • dominasian, on 10/12/2007, -0/+47i can't wait for it (kernel panic) to actually happen when someone runs it
    it could be hours before they realize
    • mikeazorin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Kernel panic on the Mac is not an easy thing to come by after startup. It happened to me once on my Mac because my hard drive somehow got disconnected while it was still running. It is scarrry.
  • zweben, on 10/12/2007, -1/+47The fake screensaver preview is genius.
  • WMeredith, on 10/12/2007, -36/+1Service Temporarily Unavailable
    The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to maintenance downtime or capacity problems. Please try again later.
    • bmxboy661, on 10/12/2007, -2/+33well done.
      you've mastered copy and paste.
      any other tricks?
  • willbb123, on 10/12/2007, -17/+132 diggs and its already down
  • 8bit_Hero, on 10/12/2007, -51/+23Buried as inaccurate. Macs never crash /s
    • winnopeg, on 10/12/2007, -4/+19As much as I like Macs, my MacBook Pro sure does.
    • turpenine, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11they crash, but usually you can feel it about to happen or you just get home and it crashed while sleeping or something.
    • bmxboy661, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6i've had that kernal panic 3 times since i upgraded to 10.4.9, but never with 10.4.8
  • jav1231, on 10/12/2007, -12/+5"Service Temporarily Unavailable" screensaver!?
  • evilTak, on 10/12/2007, -6/+9Ancient, but still funny.
  • chuckamuck, on 10/12/2007, -21/+6Already crashed & burned. Must be running on a Mac.
  • macnerd, on 10/12/2007, -6/+10I can't wait until my coworker leaves his MacBook laying around again. I'll get some good laughs from this one.
  • korymatthew, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5wonderful...now, just how to get it installed and implemented on someone else's computer without them knowing...(;
  • DoctorX, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7I HAVE to sneak this onto my co-workers computer! Does anyone have an alternate download site?
  • tngilmore, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1its up again
  • Silthrim, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2Hrm.. i have a feeling nobody caught it lol
  • LukeSkope, on 10/12/2007, -5/+0Anybody have a mirror of just the .zip?
  • vinchBR, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5thats great!!!
    i wish this was posted over the weekend so i could play this prank on my fiancee ibook...
    she would jsut freak out =)
    • ahill7, on 10/12/2007, -0/+20And suddenly the wedding is called off.
  • airwalkery2k, on 10/12/2007, -0/+32My roommate would kill me if I put that on his mac.

    So, I think I will.
  • zacwhite, on 10/12/2007, -4/+19I wrote this screensaver (PanicSaver) quite a while ago (3 years). I keep meaning to update it and fix a ton of bugs, but I keep putting it off. This guy seems to have done a better job though. I wonder if he used my source code...

    http://zacwhite.com/software/
    http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/22916
  • ChicknBot, on 10/12/2007, -13/+1Nothing is more scarier (and frequent) than the BSOD.

    • benitojuarez, on 10/12/2007, -3/+19Only if you persist in checking out websites labeled hot midget on dolphin seck xxxxs games. Or if you're running win98 or ME.

      Ive only gotten BSODs in xp when using beta graphics drivers, guru3d.com or the one time my ram from my previous computer died. You have to try real hard to make xp bsod.
    • ChicknBot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I've never seen the BSOD in my XP, only on other people's computer... Win 98 and ME are doomed to have one at any moment.
    • bmxboy661, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1i've only seen it when i was using a hacked version of xp in parallels desktop.
      not really surprised...
  • superSLUG, on 10/12/2007, -11/+0super ghey
  • PirateChaOS, on 10/12/2007, -12/+6Macs never crash, so this must be some soft of joke. I mean seriously, everyone on digg tells me that windows is the suck, and MacOS is way better and never crashes!

    /sarcasm
  • flashywordz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7I need a REAL kernel panic screensaver, with the white on black text, not just the KP error message
  • spdorsey, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9This is DEFINITELY going on my Boss' mac.

    Oh, I love creative people!!!
  • dagr8tim, on 10/12/2007, -15/+4Buried because there is no windows version.
  • bwana, on 10/12/2007, -7/+19Ah . . since OsX came out I've wondered what a kernel panic looks like.
  • lesface, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Can't someone do a linux version?
  • Kyle660, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Somebody really dropped the ball here. I'm thinking of the havoc I could have caused had this been posted on April 1. Doing it now would just be mean.
  • Avalontor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7You are all so right about this being an Apple/Mac thing, next you'll be saying UNIX/Linux stole the kernel panic screen/fake screen innovation from Apple.
    • lengau, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10Well they did! You know those Linux/Unix people can't innovate! And don't even get me started on your "OS X is based on BSD" propaganda. It's not. Apple wrote it from scratch! They didn't take KHTML for WebCore, either.

      /sarcasm

      Anyway, as I said above, this screensaver's been available for X11 since 1998.
  • toolow, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1more like server panic.
  • powerbook86, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Haha it's actually quite funny. It previews itself as some simple 3D objects spinning around. But when it actually happens it lowers your volume and does a very convincing Kernel Panic. Too bad April Fools day has already passed. :P
  • Jeezoflip, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2hahahahhaa, ive gotten that on my mac :(
  • uownedge, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Fantastic! Definitely going to have some fun with this ;)

    We actually had a windows version of the BSOD screen saver at my previous job that we used on a regular basis whenever we had a new tech come in. It was really convincing too.

    And just a note to settle things...

    A kernel panic is not unique to OS X, but this particular display output is. A kernel panic can happen on any *nix based system though. On a Linux system, you're more likely to see a kernel panic on the console (no graphical warning). Can't say for sure what it looks like on a Sun box...in all my time working with Sun equipment, I've never had one kernel panic. I'd imagine it's about the same as a Linux system though.
  • Decimal, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11If only this screen saver could get the fans to ramp up; just like a real panic.

    Really though, this is almost as dangerous to your data as a kernel panic. The first thing most people will do when they see this is hard-reset the machine.
  • effedup, on 10/12/2007, -9/+2macs crash? *gasp*
    • dbr_onix, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5No - Why else you would need too simulate a crash?
  • AdebisiTheGamer, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0I am surprised anyone would fall for this considering Apple tells us "Macs just work"
    • JoeOReilly, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Not really my MacBook kernel panic-ed before I read this.
  • Swifti, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Ironically, the server hosting this screensaver had a kernel panic.
  • ihlemic10, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1To really mess with people: make this screen saver work in Windows. I would set it on my work computer. I used to have the BSOD screen saver but a Mcaffee update killed it...
  • KillersAreQuiet, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0Awesome
  • csnoke, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2While a kernel panic may be "Apple’s equivalent to the famed Blue Screen of Death" I've only ever seen a kernel panic once.

    So... it's not really "equivalent."
    • tdawson2012, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1That sounds like it comes from experience....
  • cpjax, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2i have had this happen to me all you have to do is restart your computer and its fine whereas with the bsod it kills your computer
  • k3nshady89, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0hoe about actually linking it to you tube?
  • mikeuram, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1I have had several macs for 4 years now, and have never seen this screen. Is this just something that a Windows fan made up to make themselves feel equal to Mac'ers? Just Kidding.
    • tdawson2012, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Well like blue screens you'll probably only see one if you are having hardware issues. My sister has really bad luck with macs, she is 3 for 3 as far as bad macs go. Her iMac is suffering from what I'm guessing is memory problems and gets panics all the time, and her macbook pro is on its second superdrive which is already showing signs of death. Since XP was released, blue screens are pretty much non existent.
  • pscytzo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Just to point out, it kills your volume when your screen comes back on, so if you are listening to iTunes that will get a tad annoying.... but otherwise its cool... now i just want a bluescreen of death for the macintosh.... :-)
    • isaiah1112, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1If you right click on the screen saver package in Finder and "Show Package Contents" you can replace the image file in "KPSaver.saver:Contents:Resources:panic_dialog.tiff " with a blue screen of death snapshot of the same name...

      http://whiteafrican.com/wp-content/blue-screen-of-death_1152.jpg -- Here is a perfect image to use... just download, convert to a tiff, name the file panic_dialog.tiff and put it into the screen saver's contents folder (You may want to resize it for your screen's resolution first!)

      DO NOT RENAME THE SCREEN SAVER PACKAGE OR THIS WILL NOT WORK!
  • shauncullen, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1The hilarious part? My Macbook has been having kernal panics regularly for the last 3 weeks. Sometimes it won't happen for a few days straight of running OS X, and then there will be three kernal panics back to back within minutes of hard rebooting from the previous ones. It's frustrating, and very un-Apple like, especially because I thought putting a fresh install of OS X fully updated would fix it, but it still keeps happening. Then I thought it was the RAM, but I put the factory sticks back in, and it still keeps happening.

    With such a sporadic and devasting problem, I don't know what to do, especially if the tech gets my macbook on one of its "good" days, the problem will never get fixed, if it even is a hardware issue and not OS X.4.9 acting stupid with a generation one macbook.

    In any case, seeing this screensaver made me want to laugh and cry at the same time.
    • astrosmash, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1It's obviously a serious hardware problem.

      /Library/Logs/panic.log keeps a history of your kernel panics. Show them that, and you'll have a shiny new MacBook soon enough.
  • benwaterworth, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1after my kernel panics last week (after installing vista via boot camp) i am once again free to enjoy this ;)
  • honesttussey, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Dugg for the car commercial he has running in the background. I love that video!
  • bigdt87, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Hahah athats great. Though my kernel errors arent quite that pretty on my ibook g4.
  • caulktel, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0You know in the last three years since I've been using OS X, I have yet to see a kernel panic, is this something you guys see all the time?
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