Safe desktop pets...

It may sound rediculous, but I really enjoyed having the desktop pet. I had a calico cat, i believe it was by meowmix (?).. anyway, it had spyware, so i had to get rid of it, sadly.. it was very cute and entertaining ! I've found other similar items with the same results, they all contain at least vicious ADS, and you disable the ads and the pet won't work anymore..

Does anyone know where I can find a simple KITTYCAT for crissakes !!

I am not advanced enough of a scripter to make one of my own, yet. I would not really know where to begin, and to figure it out by trial and error, could take weeks or months and I still might not achieve what i have in mind..

also my nieces and nephews would be thrilled to the ceiling if they could interact a bit with a cat or dog on the desktop.

 

I know that the Yahoo Widgets! suite is VERY resource heavy, but they have a bee widget pet thingy that my cousin has and loves like a real pet. I haven't really tried it myself, but here's the link to that:

http://widgets.yahoo.com/gallery/view.php?widget=38518

 

sosaiso,

thankyou for the response and the link, I am going to look now..

cheers

 

Don't try this!!! And if you do it's your fault, not mine.

Spybot Search & Destroy has a function for some spyware/adware supported software. What it does is delete the spyware/adware components of the software & replace it with innocent dummy files.

Again don't try this. Probably won't work & could render your OS unusable.

 

zapjb,

lol, excellent tact ! that is great..covering one's arse is far underrated IMHO.

I remember seeing a thing about that in a thread in S&D. I am planning a reformat soon anyways, so all important files have been backed up.

However, I doubt if I could find that cute cat again, as it was about 1999 when I had it.

Thanks for the reply, and I'll definetely "Never" try such a thing !

 

Have a look: http://www.screen-mates.co.uk/directory/links.php?action=popular

 

thanks Tommy,
I am looking around there... appreciate the link.. I do see some familiar stuff like Oska and virtual felix, I seem to remember felix containing ads before, but that was 6 years ago, maybe they have become hip.

I did find a possibility on nationalgeogrphic.com for a Siberian Tiger. It's on the kids site, so I would certainly hope it's ad free. we'll see.

cheers all and thanks for replying..!

 

Keep me informed if you find a adware and malware free 'nice' pat. Perhaps i will give it a try also.

 

Tommy, I will do that..
I'm glad I'm not the only one who likes these toys...and eventually I will create one myself, but it's a ways off..

 

anybody tried stardock's desktop pet?

 

I went and looked Dina, wow it's ugly.. imo. and they want $10 ... ... for that ugly thing. lol. Stardock has some really cool stuff, though. So if you think it's cute, I can think of alot worse people to support than Stardock, and it is probably ad free..

 

Mogwai!

 

lol i dont use it jst a sgstion

 

I reported this kind of animal abuse to the "World Society for the Protection of Animals" (WSPA).

 

ErikAlbert

which kind of abuse ? Do you mean you reported bundling of malware to the (WSPA)? If so, that's a very well intentioned route to take if nothing else.. I can't imagine how they might begin to do anything about it though.. spyware and adware bundlers will always find loopholes in the law or work around laws in other ways...anyway, that is much more abusive to us humans .. so maybe I missed your meaning..


Mogwai! lol. a ten dollar stardock gremlin thingy.. sorry Dina.. I think it is really funny.

 

An abuse of non-sexual nature. You can't infect animals with viruses and malwares. Also digital animals have rights.

Peter is right. I'm joking.

 

lol ErikAlbert gotya

 

geez, I feel dumb, I really thought you were serious, ErikAlbert... Maybe I need to get out more.

 

Don't you worry about it. The SWI-forum fooled me once too.
And it's indeed a pity, that nice things like desktop pets are screwed by malware writers. I fully agree with you on that.

 

Maybe if you put Felix in with the desktop mogwai and let it eat out of the garbage can....

Ok, to be OT, here's a big list. I don't know them well enough to say anything, but the list does at least caution you when there's lot of ads. Not all of them are what you're looking for, but it looks pretty comprehensive.
http://www.virtualpet.com/vp/links/links.htm

 

Found one. And this guy has some other neat freeware on his site.

http://www.mazzic.net/software.html
Copyright © Ilpo Parviainen

1 of 3 programs in GADGETS V1.0

WAZZDOG V1.0
--------------------

WAZZDOG is a cute little doggie always trying to
escape from the downright corner of the screen.
Life goes on by hunting cats on the screen until
it's time to take a nap...

There's no main window, only a tray icon (doghouse),
dog itself and the occasional cats for hunting. You
can call the dog back home (if not sleeping) by
left-clicking the tray icon and exit the program
by right-clicking the icon.

You can start multiple WAZZDOG instances repeatedly
in order to get your screen full of action ---
your CPU is the limit

Credits also to J Planeta (for sounds etc).

 

Notok, that would be worth $10, for sure.. it's actually a bit ironic, I am re-testing Felix right now, but I have not installed his food yet...

zapjb ; this looks very cool, I will check it imediately..

i will discuss my research (I am going to get out more, I promise)

the tiger at nat'lgeographic is really 20 minutes of "learning about big cats". so, unless you are a newbie to big cats, this is a waste of 20 minutes. You don't even see "your tiger" until the end of the 20 minute clicking spree you go on in order to "set up your zoo", and then it's over.. sure, you can leave the page open and stare at the tiger for as long as you wish, but it will not do anything, and it is gone when you leave the page.

Felix himself doesn't seem to cantain any potentially unwanted software, but there are 5 seperate installs for food, toys, kitten, mischief, & more mischief... THIS is suspicious to me.. why they couldn't make 1 install for the whole package is beyond me, I can think of a few malicious reasons (like purposely keeping you at their website longer, or "part" files that, while seperate, will not be recognised as malware), but no legitimate sensical reason except that it gives the user an option not to use one or more of those... I really doubt anyone would skip these as they are small download sizes, and a user is to assume felix unhappy without his stuff, right? after installing just felix, I ran SpybotS&D, Ewido, NOD32, IceSword & ProcessHunter
Real-time protection is Tea-timer, ProcGuard, Spywareblaster... if something made it through, then Purina has more in mind than petfood sales, which I wouldn't put past a stick these days..

 

zapjb,

thank you indeed, these are very cool, I will probably get lost in this Mazzic, too. a nice "early windows" feel, uncluttered. this kind of site is becoming way too scarce. Ecellent find zap!

 

You are very welcome. I'm impressed with this software as well. So small, light, no install, no registry changes. And that ZeeView displays some jpg better than Windows.