unknownpleasures(6x) XScreenSaver manual unknownpleasures(6x)
NAME
unknownpleasures - a waterfall graph of the signal from pulsar PSR
B1919+21.
SYNOPSIS
unknownpleasures [-display host:display.screen] [-visual visual] [-win-
dow] [-root] [-delay number] [-count number] [-speed number] [-resolu-
tion number] [-amplitude number] [-noise number] [-mask file] [-no-or-
tho] [-buzz] [-wireframe] [-fps]
DESCRIPTION
PSR B1919+21 (AKA CP 1919) was the first pulsar ever discovered: a
spinning neutron star emitting a periodic lighthouse-like beacon. An
illustration of the signal received from it was published in Scientific
American in 1971, and later in The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Astronomy
in 1977, where it was seen by Stephen Morris, the drummer of Joy Divi-
sion, and was consequently appropriated by Peter Saville for the cover
of the band's album "Unknown Pleasures".
OPTIONS
-visual visual
Specify which visual to use. Legal values are the name of a
visual class, or the id number (decimal or hex) of a specific
visual.
-window Draw on a newly-created window. This is the default.
-root Draw on the root window.
-delay number
Per-frame delay, in microseconds. Default: 30000 (0.03 sec-
onds).
-speed number
Animation speed. 2 for twice as fast, 0.5 for half as fast.
-count number
Scanlines (vertical resolution). Default: 80.
-resolution number
Horizontal Resolution, Default: 100.
-amplitude number
Height of the waves, 0 - 1.0. Default: 0.13.
-noise number
How noisy the signal is. 2 for twice as noisy, 0.5 for half as
noisy.
-mask file
Use the given image file as a clipping mask against the data.
A high contrast image of around 256x256 works best. Signal
peaks appear in the dark areas.
-ortho | -no-ortho
Whether to use an orthographic projection.
-buzz | -no-buzz
Whether each line should seethe with noise.
-wireframe | -no-wireframe
Render in wireframe instead of solid.
-fps | -no-fps
Whether to show a frames-per-second display at the bottom of
the screen.
ENVIRONMENT
DISPLAY to get the default host and display number.
XENVIRONMENT
to get the name of a resource file that overrides the global
resources stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER property.
SEE ALSO
X(1), xscreensaver(1)
COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 2013-2018 by Jamie Zawinski. Permission to use, copy, mod-
ify, distribute, and sell this software and its documentation for any
purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided that the above copy-
right notice appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice
and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation. No rep-
resentations are made about the suitability of this software for any
purpose. It is provided "as is" without express or implied warranty.
AUTHOR
Jamie Zawinski.
X Version 11 5.45 (08-Dec-2020) unknownpleasures(6x)
Generated by dwww version 1.14 on Mon Aug 3 10:58:07 CEST 2026.