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.
--
| 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 |
|
|
