Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
> ____/ Mark Kent on Friday 21 September 2007 10:06 : \____
>
>> The Ghost In The Machine <ewill@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
>>> In comp.os.linux.advocacy, Ofc. Michael Clayton
>>><clayton@xxxxxxxx>
>>> wrote
>>> on Thu, 20 Sep 2007 13:05:44 -0400
>>><46f29c6a$0$25455$88260bb3@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
>>>>
>>>> "The Ghost In The Machine" <ewill@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>>>> news:8ljas4-3ch.ln1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>>>> In comp.os.linux.advocacy, Mark Kent
>>>>> <mark.kent@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>>>>> wrote
>>>>> on Thu, 20 Sep 2007 14:47:08 +0100
>>>>> <s7aas4-339.ln1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
>>>>>> Mr. Doug Hoel <dhoel@xxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> "Mark Kent" <mark.kent@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>>>>>>> news:frn1s4-pa3.ln1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>>>>>>> graeme <www.rillion.net@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
>>>>>>>>> MS released a Vista Ultimate "Extra" called DreamScene - it loops a
>>>>>>>>> movie
>>>>>>>>> for wallpaper.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> http://tinyurl.com/2lcvwm
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> It must be frustrating working for Microsoft now, where really, all you
>>>>>>>> get to do is copy what's already out there.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> You mean how this animated desktop that was just released (or possibly
>>>>>>> released in 2002) is a cheap knock-off of Active Desktop which Microsoft
>>>>>>> released in 1997.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Yet another example of OSS "innovation" where they shamelessly copy
>>>>>>> existing
>>>>>>> Microsoft technology. I just can't wait to see the next version of
>>>>>>> open-office where OSS will "innovate" the ribbon bar that MS-Office 2007
>>>>>>> has.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> 1997? X-windows-system had a changeable root-window years before that.
>>>>>> It must be frustrating working for Microsoft, where all you get to do is
>>>>>> copy what's out there.
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Erm...what exactly does this mean?
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> It means he's trying to move the goal-posts once again. This big [NEWS]
>>>> article was about some completely useless feature where desktop wallpaper
>>>> can be animated. About as useful as all those stupid animated icons on
>>>> websites. But I digress.
>>>
>>> Windows has already innovated this in 1995-1996 -- Active
>>> Backdrop or Active Background, as you mention below.
>>> The animation could be implemented in a number of ways,
>>> though I'm not sure when Flash was first available.
>>>
>>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Desktop
>>>
>>> stipulates that Windows continues to innovate by replacing
>>> Active Desktop with Windows Sidebar. There is also
>>> a Channel Definition Format. There is also a search form
>>> provided by Wiki that can go directly to the Vista desktop.
>>>
>>> Linux does not have this capability.
>>> Gnome does not have this capability.
>>> KDE does not have this capability.
>>> Motif does not have this capability.
>>> X Intrinsics does not have this capability.
>>> X does not have this capability. [*]
>>>
>>
>> The claim was regarding playing videos in the background in Windows
>> Vista. It's been possible to render images in the X root window for as
>> long as I can remember, just like this:
>>
>> $ display -window root animage.jpeg
>>
>> So, in order to display a video in the root window, you split it into
>> jpegs, store them in a directory (here called ~/pix), and then do this:
>>
>> $ for i in ~/pix/*; do display -window root $i; done
>>
>> This will display video in the root window at the fastest frame-rate
>> which the machine can render. To keep the speed up, you use the lowest
>> resolution jpegs, and you can tailor display's rendering methods to make
>> them as quick as possible.
>>
>> As I said above, it must be dreadful being at Microsoft trying to copy
>> this stuff years after it's been available on linux.
>>
>> Similarly, if you want to render web pages, then use wget to get the
>> pages, htmldoc to convert to pdfs, convert to make jpegs out of them,
>> and the script above to render them on the root window. You do this:
>>
>> $ wget -p --convert-links www.bt.com
>> $ htmldoc --continuous -f index.pdf index.html
>> $ display -window root index.pdf
>>
>> And there you have it. Put it in a script, update it every however you
>> like, or crontab it, or whatever you want. You have a "live" or
>> "active" desktop.
>>
>> Here's a "real" example, put this in a text file call "active-destop":
>>
>> cd ~/liveweb
>> rm -r news.bbc.co.uk
>> wget -p --convert-links news.bbc.co.uk
>> cd news.bbc.co.uk
>> htmldoc --continuous -f index.pdf index.html
>> display -window root index.pdf
>>
>> Make the directory called ~/liveweb, and store this baby script in it.
>> do:
>>
>> $ sh active-desktop
>>
>> And lo, you'll have the BBC news front page as your root window. If you
>> want to update it every so often, start it with this command line (you
>> need to be in the directory ~/liveweb for it to work!)
>>
>> $ while true; do sh ./active-desktop; sleep 120; done
>>
>> This will update the page every 2 minutes, thus you have a real active
>> desktop.
>>
>> The wonderful thing with the whole unix design is that it's modularity
>> and flexibility allows you to do pretty much anything. If you want to
>> get really cute, you could write a baby script which plays a jpeg-based
>> video animation on your root window for 5 minutes, and then displays a
>> web page for a few minutes, and so on. All this, using standard tools,
>> without even needing to start up a compiler.
>>
>> Obviously, programmes like htmldoc and wget have all manner of options
>> which can be used to optimise the rendering. I leave you to read the
>> man pages as you wish.
>
> You can use the versatile ImageMagick library to achieve a lot more. Here's my
> 10-minutes cron:
>
> #!/bin/sh
>
> export DISPLAY=:0.0
> # set display (to make cron job work)
>
>
> ###################################
> # Get current virtual desktop
>
> import -window root ~/public_html/screen-temp.jpeg
> # capture display
> mogrify -resize 25% -border 3 ~/public_html/screen-temp.jpeg
> # save to temporary file so as to avoid full-sized
> # image from being public for a second
> convert ~/public_html/screen-temp.jpeg -font Bookman-DemiItalic -pointsize
> 20 -fill gray -stro
> ke white -draw "text 40,20 '`date` - schestowitz.com'"
> ~/public_html/screen-temp.jpeg
> convert ~/public_html/screen-temp.jpeg -font Bookman-DemiItalic -pointsize
> 20 -fill darkblue -
> stroke blue -draw "text 42,22 '`date` - schestowitz.com'"
> ~/public_html/screen-temp.jpeg
> cp ~/public_html/screen.jpeg ~/public_html/screen-previous.jpeg
> # save the previous screenshot
> mv ~/public_html/screen-temp.jpeg ~/public_html/screen.jpeg
> # below are bits that write information to a simple text file
>
>
> ###################################
> # Grab pager with 8 virtual desktops
>
> import -window root -crop 1085x200+2738+1270 ~/public_html/pager-temp.jpeg
> # save to temporary file (unneeded)
> mogrify -resize 75% -border 3 ~/public_html/pager-temp.jpeg
> convert ~/public_html/pager-temp.jpeg -font Bookman-DemiItalic -pointsize
> 16 -fill black -stro
> ke black -draw "text 205,18 '`date` - schestowitz.com'"
> ~/public_html/pager-temp.jpeg
> convert ~/public_html/pager-temp.jpeg -font Bookman-DemiItalic -pointsize
> 16 -fill white -stro
> ke blue -draw "text 206,19 '`date` - schestowitz.com'"
> ~/public_html/pager-temp.jpeg
> cp ~/public_html/pager.jpeg ~/public_html/pager-previous.jpeg
> # save the previous pager screenshot
> mv ~/public_html/pager-temp.jpeg ~/public_html/pager.jpeg
> # below are bits that write information to a simple text file
A good set of stuff! Note thought that "display" above *is* part of
imagemagick!
while true
do {
cd ~/liveweb
rm -r news.bbc.co.uk
wget -p --convert-links news.bbc.co.uk
cd news.bbc.co.uk
htmldoc --right 20 --left 20 --size 720x900 --no-compression --fontsize 16 --charset iso8859-1 --embedfonts --fontspacing 1.2 --bodycolor grey --textfont times --bodyfont helvetica --header 0 --footer 0 --format pdf13 --jpeg 0 --color --webpage -f index.pdf index.html
convert index.pdf index.jpg
montage index-{0,1}.jpg -frame 10 -geometry 720x900+5+5 montage.jpg
display -window root montage.jpg
}
sleep 120
done
This puts the two pages of the BBC news site onto my desktop root
window, side by side, with some nice borders around them. It's quite
neat!
--
| Mark Kent -- mark at ellandroad dot demon dot co dot uk |
| Cola faq: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/linux/advocacy/faq-and-primer/ |
| Cola trolls: http://colatrolls.blogspot.com/ |
| My (new) blog: http://www.thereisnomagic.org |
|
|
