Re: Timelapsed backgrounds

[Brian Nitz <Brian Nitz Sun COM>]

It sounds like an interesting idea.  One thing I wonder about with 
anything that changes the screen synchronized to a clock is if it can be 
randomized somewhat so that it wouldn't cause a network storm in cases 
where all thin client screens attached to a single server are set to 
goatse at precisely 12:00a.m.

I wouldn't want the screens to change frequently in a thin client 
environment and I would want to be able to disable this feature as well 
as any fade-out effects.

Thomas H.P. Andersen wrote:
> Desktop backgrounds are boring. Even though it's damn easy to change
>   
I would like the capability of having different virtual desktops have 
different backgrounds.  People have been asking for that feature since 
GNOME 1.4.

> the background few people I know do it regularly. (Mine usually only
> change when some jerk comes by and decides my new background should be
> goatse :-) ) Having the background change subtly over time sounds like
> a very nice feature to me.
>
> Here is a slightly extreme idea. How about a dbus interface for
> changing the background? I guess all it should take is a path to an
> image and fade the background to it.
>   
I think background image setting belongs in gconf (or whatever 
configuration manager you're using)  That way system administration 
tools which are designed to set user desktop parameters don't require a 
special case for desktop background.  For example, in low-bandwidth thin 
client environments, it's sometimes useful to force all user desktop 
backgrounds to something low bandwidth.  Also in a secure or medical 
environment you might want to set the screens of all employees of a 
certain level (DR, top secret gurumeister...) to a particular background. 


> I actually thought about this the other day as I wanted to have my IM
> application change the background to the person I'm talking to. I like
> pictures of family and friends as my background but I just never get
> around to changing it. There is also an application to fetch
> interesting flickr pictures and put them as background as well. Having
> an easy interface to change it might spark even more innovative ideas
> too.
>
>
> On 26 Sep 2007 17:35:21 +0200, Soeren Sandmann <sandmann daimi au dk> wrote:
>   
> > "Sanford Armstrong" <sanfordarmstrong gmail com> writes:
> >
> >     
> > > This sounds really cool!  Is there any support for for changing the
> > > background at a specific time of day?  That way you could show morning
> > > images in the morning, evening images in the evening, etc.
> > >       
> > Yes, this is exactly the intention.
> >
> >     
> > > I don't see how you could guarantee that with durations (as in the
> > > sample XML file), unless you always logged in at the same time every
> > > day.  ;-)
> > >       
> > The slides.xml file has:
> >
> > <starttime>
> > <year>2007</year>
> > <month>8</month>
> > <day>28</day>
> > <hour>12</hour>
> > <minute>21</minute>
> > <second>23</second>
> > </starttime>
> >
> > which means the first slide would be shown at that time. If the sum of
> > durations is 24 hours, then the cycle would start over at the same
> > time every day.
> >
> >
> >
> > Soren
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> >
> >     
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