Suzannem's Web Projects

[new: 5 July 2008] [7-5-08] I haven't got around to trying this link someone sent a half year ago, but maybe you will: try out a Neko Yahoo Widget.
[new: 30 April 2010] [new: 30 April 2010] [4-30-10] I also have not tried these. Someone rebuilt the Neko for three types of operating systems. All of these links are directly to the zip files. The new (64 bit) Windows; DEC Alpha, and MIPS.
[new: 30 April 2010] [new: 30 April 2010] [4-30-10] Someone else tracked down David Harvey's Neko for Windows downloads (actually, its a mirror, the original has disappeared).
(I haven't actually used a Neko in years, aside from quick tries. Thanks to the people who sent the links.)

A Neko kitty hi! collection     (to neko library directory, to other links)

 
neko kitty In my old diskettes, I recently ran across an old neko.exe for Windows 3.0. I was surprised that it works on Windows Me. I remember having tried to find it on the Web with no luck, so here is a zip of it: neko.zip. It is Version 1.0, 1991. It is freeware. You can use "Settings" to make the cat move slower. (In 1991, computers were slower and the initial settings make it too fast for us today.) It is only 46K (24K, zipped).

animated image
(animated image)

If you've never seen the Neko program in action, it is very simple: the kitty, 'Neko,' follows your mouse around until the mouse leaves the window, at which point Neko shortly falls asleep. If the mouse comes back on the window, Neko wakes up! Sometimes it's fun to keep a little Neko window up while working in other, non-maximized, windows.

"Neko" means "cat" in Japanese. Neko was originally written by Masayuki Koba and later modified by Tatsuya Kato. Then Dara T. Khani made a version for MS Windows.

While looking for links for this page, I found out that David Harvey made a freeware version for Win 95 and up, with interesting improvements! Unfortunately when geocities went down, Harvey didn't seem to move his site elsewhere, but someone mirrored it.

I made an orange tabby image library for the new program. This tabby looks much like the animation above, except the back paws are orange, not white.

Frustrated by the often crypic names of the image libraries, and the lack of a directory of any sort for them, I made a Directory of the Neko Image Libraries.


Link:
David Harvey's site has more recent downloads than Version 1.0 and you can even get the source code (C++). (That link is a copy of the old site -- the current host guy emailed me that it is a copy. Also, they could not get the FAQ and more-info pages in time. Thanks for hosting it!)
Note: the images zip on this site is of ICL files, which are files the recent program can use. That is, the images are not images you can put on a Web page. The latest version (at David Harvey's site) self-extracts and includes the ICL files. His site also has a zip of the ICL files, but it is only needed if you don't use the self-extracting one.

Here is a neko on a web page! You can even put more than one on this page and they show how you can code your own web page to add a neko. The page also has a few links. (http://webneko.net)

 


That's it!

And here is a Neko Yahoo Widget. I don't know what a Yahoo Widget is, but apparently that is a Neko. (http://widgets.yahoo.com/gallery/view.php?widget=42931)

 

28 June 2010