Optical Illusion: Make Your Computer's Download Progress Bar Dilate Time

I just added a software upgrade to my Mac, and for the Nth time was suckered into one of my reluctant pastimes: staring at that progress bar. Yet it turns out that with a trick or two, that icon can make time seem like its flying.

We've got Chris Harrison, a PhD student at Carnegie Mellon University and an expert in human-computer interaction, to thank for this little gem: According to Chris, with the slightest bunch of graphical tweaks, a download progress bar can be made to seem like it's...