

Entertain users with your progress bar - andreyf
http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/progress_bars

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Harkins
One reason no ones does this is that a game company (3D0?) got a patent in the
last 90s on playing a game (I know their game was PSX) while waiting through a
loading screen. It was broadly-written enough that they forced a Linux distro
(Red Hat?) to remove a game (tetris?) that you could play while waiting on
your initial system install. Sorry I can't recall proper particulars or dig up
links, anybody remember more precisely?

~~~
lupin_sansei
I remember some Commodore 64 games that let you play Space Invaders while the
game was loading off tape:
[http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=151312&cid=126...](http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=151312&cid=12693198)

~~~
stcredzero
When I was a kid, I saw a disk copy program on Apple II's at camp that let you
play pong while copying disks. (So the counselors wouldn't know you were
pirating games.)

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md81544
"Imagine a progress bar that involved Dogbert using a mallet to pound the
Pointy-Haired Boss into the ground" - I'm sorry Scott, but this just smacks
too much of the hugely-reviled clippy. Treating your users like idiots might
amuse a few, but will completely alienate the rest. Those of us with an IQ
greater than a handful of salt might take the time (while the regular progress
bar is creeping up) to do something else, more productive. Like read HN :)

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stcredzero
The old Defender game would be perfect for playing inside of a horizontal
progress bar. Instead of having a radar display, you could just have the whole
planet inside the progress bar, just like you have Defender in the favicon of
this website.

[http://www.p01.org/releases/DHTML_contests/files/DEFENDER_of...](http://www.p01.org/releases/DHTML_contests/files/DEFENDER_of_the_favicon/)

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jdoliner
First post, broken patents again. What about a little program that immediately
connected you to a chat session with other people who were waiting for load
bars.

~~~
rkowalick
"...And Jimmy, that's the story of how your mom and I first met."

