Filed under: Hacks
A dynamic screensaver, DIY style
Glenn Franxman at HackerMojo just put up a Python script that makes pictures pulled from MetroPulse into a screensaver. It's a mere 17 lines of code (which you can easily modify without knowing Python) that run as a cron job, downloading the images into the directory that you specify for the "Choose Folder..." screensaver.
It's a simple, fun way to keep your screensaver interesting using a minimum of tools. There have been similar applications for services like Flickr, such as FlickrSavr or the screensaver that comes with 1001, but the simplicity of just updating the pictures in the screensaver folder is appealing. And a screensaver seems like a perfect application for my previous ideas involving mdfind and sips. By using the simple method Glenn applies in his Python script, and making a few modifications to the "Spotlight Gallery" Perl script, you could make your screen display the last 20 or so images added to your own system. That could truly be a practical use for the idea, depending, of course, on where the most recent images on your system come from. Yes, my mind just went there.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
mentalsticks said 8:16AM on 4-06-2008
Sorry, but you can't just link to that 2005 TUAW post without providing a mirror to Josh's funny pic mentioned in the comments. That's just mean.
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Bruce said 3:49PM on 4-06-2008
can this be modified to pull the photo each day off topleftpixel.com and use those for a screen saver???
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Sameer Ahuja said 4:11PM on 4-06-2008
Dave Winer's FlickrFan is another (awesome) tool that does pretty much the same - loads images from RSS feeds and stores them within the pictures folder. It comes pre-installed with a couple of image feeds from news agencies, and is highly configurable. http://flickrfan.org/
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Curious Stranger said 5:51PM on 4-06-2008
Or you could just use the already-existing ability to generate screen-savers from RSS feeds. Just point the ".Mac and RSS" screen saver options at an RSS feed containing pictures (like this one: http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.run?_id=7PPCBS3O3BG6HDlI9IS63A&_render=rss) and you're done. Select ".Mac and RSS" under Pictures on the Screen Saver preference pane, click options, click + and "Add RSS feed".
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Samuel said 1:56PM on 4-09-2008
I am looking for a simple screen saver that will display a webpage full screen, does anybody know the code for this or if one exsists already_
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