MagpieMagpie is a collection of programs which I use to fetch shiny attractive objects from the Internet and feed them to the screen saver programs on my computers. To date, Magpie is used only by me for my personal use, and I have not yet published the source. I mention it here because those of you who publish on the web may have seen it show up in your logs as a user-agent (see Caution below.) If and when I write a front-end GUI, and clean up the components, I will publish the source here. Magpie:
Of course, anyone with a web browser and a graphics conversion program could do this themselves. The trick is to automate the process to produce dependable results at no unusual cost to anyone. The objective of producing screensaver displays is to provide a succession of interesting images which do not interrupt the user's flow of work. That is, the images must rarely be real attention-getters, but they must often be worth looking at. For example, web cam images can be retrieved at regular intervals. Users become familiar with the scene, just as they do with the view outside their office window. When the view is displayed, they can note any changes without actually interrupting their work. Properly done this opens up and enriches your world. While walking past a computer displaying the screensaver images, I enjoy seeing the Eiffel Tower illuminated in reddish lights at dusk, or noting that the Friday's store in Times Square closes for Yom Kippur, or seeing that a Wyoming ranch is getting its first snowfall of the year. For interest, one can add Pictures of the Day from various web sites that publish such things, or newspaper headlines from the dozens of newspapers that publish web editions. With Magpie, a computer can always provide you with information and entertainment. It is important to respect copyright on published material, and to avoid harmful unintended use (such as frequent downloads from a web cam.) If you are a publisher and feel there is a problem with Magpie visiting your site, please write to me at magpie@michael-dawson.com. |
