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webcollage - decorate the screen with random images from the web
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[\-display \fIhost:display.screen\fP] [\-root] [\-verbose]
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[\-delay \fIsecs\fP] [\-timeout \fIsecs\fP] [\-background \fIbg\fP]
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[\-filter \fIcommand\fP] [\-filter2 \fIcommand\fP]
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[\-display \fIhost:display.screen\fP]
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[\-window\-id \fIid\fP]
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[\-timeout \fIsecs\fP]
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[\-background \fIbg\fP]
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[\-imagemap \fIfilename-base\fP]
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[\-opacity \fIratio\fP]
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[\-filter \fIcommand\fP]
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[\-filter2 \fIcommand\fP]
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[\-http\-proxy host[:port]]
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[\-dictionary \fIdictionary-file\fP]
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[\-driftnet [\fIcmd\fP]]
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The \fIwebcollage\fP program pulls random image off of the World Wide Web
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and scatters them on the root window. One satisfied customer described it
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as "a nonstop pop culture brainbath." This program finds its images by
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doing random web searches, and extracting images from the returned pages.
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It places the images on the root window by using the
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\fIwebcollage\fP is written in
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and requires Perl 5.
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It will be an order of magnitude faster if you also have
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the \fIwebcollage-helper\fP program installed (a GDK/JPEG image
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compositor), but \fIwebcollage\fP works without it as well.
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\fIwebcollage\fP can be used in conjunction with the
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program (the Unix equivalent of EtherPEG) to snoop images from traffic
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on your local subnet, instead of getting images from search engines.
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accepts the following options:
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Draw on the root window. This option is manditory: drawing to a window
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other than the root window is not yet supported.
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Draw on the root window. This option is manditory, if output is being
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produced: drawing to a window other than the root window is not yet
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Images are placed on the root window by using one of the
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.BR xscreensaver-getimage (1),
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programs (whichever is available.)
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.B \-window\-id \fIid\fP
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Draw to the indicated window instead; this only works if the
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.BR xscreensaver-getimage (1)
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.B \-verbose \fRor\fP \-v
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Print diagnostics to stderr. Multiple \fI-v\fP switches increase the
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amount of output. \fI-v\fP will print out only the URLs of the
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images; \fI-vv\fP will print all the commands being run; and \fI-vvv\fP
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will print more than you care about.
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amount of output. \fI-v\fP will print out the URLs of the images,
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and where they were placed; \fI-vv\fP will print out any warnings,
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and all URLs being loaded; \fI-vvv\fP will print information on
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what URLs were rejected; and so on.
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.B \-timeout \fIseconds\fP
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How long to wait for a URL to complete before giving up on it and
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moving on to the next one.
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.B \-delay \fIseconds\fP
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How long to sleep between images. Default 1 second. (Remember that
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How long to sleep between images. Default 2 seconds. (Remember that
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this program probably spends a lot of time waiting for the network.)
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.B \-background \fIcolor-or-ppm\fP
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a color name, a hexadecimal RGB specification in the form '#rrggbb', or
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the name of a PPM file.
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.B \-timeout \fIseconds\fP
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How long to wait for a URL to complete before giving up on it and
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moving on to the next one.
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Normally, the output image will be made to be the size of the
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screen (or target window.) This lets you specify the desired size.
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.B \-opacity \fIratio\fP
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How transparently to paste the images together, with 0.0 meaning
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"completely transparent" and 1.0 meaning "opaque." Default 0.85.
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A value of around 0.3 will produce an interestingly blurry image
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If this option is specified, then no composite output image will be
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generated. This is only useful when used in conjunction
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with \fB\-verbose\fP.
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If this option is specified, then no composite output image will be
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generated: instead, a list of image URLs will be printed on stdout.
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.B \-imagemap \fIfilename-base\fP
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If this option is specified, then instead of writing an image to the
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root window, two files will be created: "\fIbase\fP.html" and "\fIbase\fP.jpg".
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The JPEG will be the collage; the HTML file will include that image, and
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an image-map making the sub-images be linked to the pages on which they
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were found (just like \fIhttp://www.jwz.org/webcollage/\fP.)
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.B \-filter \fIcommand\fP
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Filter all source images through this command. The command must take
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If you must go through a proxy to connect to the web, you can specify it
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with this option, or with the \fB$http_proxy\fP or \fB$HTTP_PROXY\fP
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environment variables.
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.B \-dictionary \fIfile\fP
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Webcollage normally looks at the system's default spell-check dictionary
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to generate words to feed into the search engines. You can specify an
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alternate dictionary with this option.
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Note that by default, webcollage searches for images using several
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different methods, not all of which involve dictionary words, so
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using a "topical" dictionary file will not, in itself, be as effective
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as you might be hoping.
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.B \-driftnet \fI[ args ]\fP
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is a program that snoops your local ethernet for packets that look
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like they might be image files. It can be used in conjunction
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with \fIwebcollage\fP to generate a collage of what other people on
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your network are looking at, instead of a search-engine collage.
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If you have \fIdriftnet\fP installed on your $PATH, just use
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the \fI\-driftnet\fP option. You can also specify the location
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of the program like this:
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-driftnet /path/to/driftnet
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or, you can provide extra arguments like this:
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-driftnet '/path/to/driftnet -extra -args'
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Driftnet version 0.1.5 or later is required. Note that
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the \fIdriftnet\fP program requires root access, so you'll have
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to make \fIdriftnet\fP be setuid-root for this to work.
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Please exercise caution.
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.B http_proxy\fR or \fPHTTP_PROXY
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to get the default HTTP proxy host and port.
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.SH FILES AND URLS
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.I /usr/dict/words \fRor\fP /usr/share/lib/dict/words \fRor\fP /usr/share/dict/words
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To find the random words to feed to search engines.
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.I http://random.yahoo.com/bin/ryl, http://image.altavista.com/
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To find random web pages.
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.I /usr/share/lib/dict/words,\fP
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.I /usr/share/dict/words
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to find the random words to feed to certain search engines.
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\fIhttp://www.altavista.com/image/randomlink\fP,
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\fIhttp://random.yahoo.com/fast/ryl\fP,
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\fIhttp://www.livejournal.com/stats/latest-img.bml\fP, and
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\fIhttp://www.google.com/\fP
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to find random web pages.
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The Internet being what it is, absolutely anything might show up in the
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collage including -- quite possibly -- pornography, or even nudity.
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When drawing on the root window, it always uses the default colormap.
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This is actually a limitation of xv. But regardless, when using this
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program with xscreensaver, it must be given the \fBdefault-n\fP
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visual specification (see the
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manual for more details.)
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Only the GIF and JPEG image formats are supported.
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Transparent and animating GIFs are not supported.
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Too many of the images that it finds are text, not pictures. This is
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because most of the web is pictures of text. Which is pretty sad.
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Animating GIFs are not supported: only the first frame will be used.
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The latest version of webcollage can be found as a part of
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.B http://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/,
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or on the WebCollage page at
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.B http://www.jwz.org/webcollage/.
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.B http://www.ex-parrot.com/~chris/driftnet/
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.BR xscreensaver (1),
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.BR xdpyinfo (1),
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.BR vidwhacker (1),
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Copyright \(co 1998, 1999 by Jamie Zawinski. Permission to use, copy, modify,
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distribute, and sell this software and its documentation for any purpose is
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hereby granted without fee, provided that the above copyright notice appear
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Copyright \(co 1998-2005 by Jamie Zawinski. Permission to use, copy, modify,
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distribute, and sell this software and its documentation for any purpose is
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hereby granted without fee, provided that the above copyright notice appear
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in all copies and that both that copyright notice and this permission notice
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appear in supporting documentation. No representations are made about the
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appear in supporting documentation. No representations are made about the
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suitability of this software for any purpose. It is provided "as is" without
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express or implied warranty.
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Jamie Zawinski <jwz@jwz.org>, 24-May-98.
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Jamie Zawinski <jwz@jwz.org>, 24-May-1998.
added
removed
hacks/webcollage.man
