Create an auto-updating desktop image
Jul 14, '03 10:21:00AM
Contributed by: charlesb
This hint will make your desktop update automatically with any web image you like; the example uses the latest weather maps.
- Create the directory ~/Desktop/Weather.
- Open System preferences, select Desktop. Under the collections popup list, navigate to
the Weather folder. Select Center for the image position, then set the "Change picture" pop-up to every five minutes.
- Create this perl script:
#!/usr/bin/perl
while(1){
# download radar image (this command works for any URL)
# NOTE: Enter the next three lines as ONE line -- do not
# add any spaces when combining the lines (ie no
# spaces after the slashes!).
system ("curl http://weather.noaa.gov/radar/images/
DS.p19r0/SI.klwx/latest.gif >~/Desktop/Weather/
latest.gif");
sleep(300);
}
Don't forget to use UNIX line breaks and after you save it, open the Terminal, navigate to
the directory the script resides in (I used ~/Desktop/Weather), and do chmod +x getweather to make the script executable.
- Launch the script by typing ./getweather &
You're done.
The perl script fetches an image from the NOAA doppler radar site (For the Washington, D.C. area in this case, but choose whatever you like). The script then sleeps for 5 minutes (300 seconds) and then fetches the image again, overwriting the original. At the same time, the Desktop sytem preferences updates the desktop every 5 minutes, which will always keep the image current on your screen. You can use other images; try any web cam you like, of course!
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