In praise of the Leopard mosaic photo screensaver

[For everyone who wanted a video of this screensaver, here you go.]

It was important enough to make the 'Sparta' list, but I hadn't checked out the new mosaic mode for photo screensavers in Leopard until today — and now I'm wondering where this has been all my life. An infinite outward zoom, creating a Photomosaic-like image that you half-squint to recognize, until... whoomp! It resolves into a picture of one of your pets/kids/scenic byways. Absolutely hypnotic, to the point that when you finally look away the screen still appears to grow and swell for a few seconds more. Put it on a big screen or HDTV and it's a conversation stopper.

Some years ago, when I was working at LIFE, the cover image for the 60th anniversary issue of the magazine was a photomosaic of Marilyn Monroe, produced by Robert Silvers of MIT. LIFE paid Silvers a steep fee to produce the image, and now we have similar capabilities in a screensaver. We truly are living in the future.

Update: Comments hint that you may not be able to run this screensaver unless you have iPhoto '08 installed; if you discover otherwise let us know.

Thanks Rich