webcollage(6x)
NAME
webcollage - decorate the screen with random images from the web
SYNOPSIS
webcollage [-display host:display.screen] [-root] [-window-id id] [-verbose] [-timeout secs] [-delay secs] [-background bg] [-no-output] [-urls-only] [-imagemap filename-base] [-size WxH] [-opacity ratio] [-filter command] [-filter2 command] [-http-proxy host[:port]] [-dictionary dictionary-file] [-driftnet [cmd]] [-directory dir] [-fps]
DESCRIPTION
The webcollage program pulls random image off of the World Wide Web and scatters them on the root window. One satisfied customer described it as "a nonstop pop culture brainbath." This program finds its images by doing random web searches, and extracting images from the returned pages. webcollage is written in perl(1) and requires Perl 5. It will be an order of magnitude faster if you also have the webcollage-helper program installed (a GDK/JPEG image compositor), but webcollage works without it as well. webcollage can be used in conjunction with the driftnet(1) program (the Unix equivalent of EtherPEG) to snoop images from traffic on your local subnet, instead of getting images from search engines.
OPTIONS
webcollage accepts the following options:
-root Draw on the root window. This option is mandatory, if output
is being produced: drawing to a window other than the root
window is not yet supported.
Images are placed on the root window by using one of the
xscreensaver-getimage(1), chbg(1), xv(1), xli(1), or
xloadimage(1) programs (whichever is available.)
-window-id id
Draw to the indicated window instead; this only works if the
xscreensaver-getimage(1) program is installed.
-verbose or -v
Print diagnostics to stderr. Multiple -v switches increase the
amount of output. -v will print out the URLs of the images,
and where they were placed; -vv will print out any warnings,
and all URLs being loaded; -vvv will print information on what
URLs were rejected; and so on.
-timeout seconds
How long to wait for a URL to complete before giving up on it
and moving on to the next one. Default 30 seconds.
-delay seconds
How long to sleep between images. Default 2 seconds.
(Remember that this program probably spends a lot of time
waiting for the network.)
-background color-or-ppm
What to use for the background onto which images are pasted.
This may be a color name, a hexadecimal RGB specification in
the form '#rrggbb', or the name of a PPM file.
-size WxH
Normally, the output image will be made to be the size of the
screen (or target window.) This lets you specify the desired
size.
-opacity ratio
How transparently to paste the images together, with 0.0
meaning "completely transparent" and 1.0 meaning "opaque."
Default 0.85. A value of around 0.3 will produce an
interestingly blurry image after a while.
-no-output
If this option is specified, then no composite output image
will be generated. This is only useful when used in
conjunction with -verbose.
-urls-only
If this option is specified, then no composite output image
will be generated: instead, a list of image URLs will be
printed on stdout.
-imagemap filename-base
If this option is specified, then instead of writing an image
to the root window, two files will be created: "base.html" and
"base.jpg". The JPEG will be the collage; the HTML file will
include that image, and an image-map making the sub-images be
linked to the pages on which they were found (just like
http://www.jwz.org/webcollage/.)
-filter command
Filter all source images through this command. The command
must take a PPM file on stdin, and write a new PPM file to
stdout. One good choice for a filter would be:
webcollage -root -filter 'vidwhacker -stdin -stdout'
-filter2 command
Filter the composite image through this command. The -filter
option applies to the sub-images; the -filter2 applies to the
final, full-screen image.
-http-proxy host:port
If you must go through a proxy to connect to the web, you can
specify it with this option, or with the $http_proxy or
$HTTP_PROXY environment variables.
-dictionary file
Webcollage normally looks at the system's default spell-check
dictionary to generate words to feed into the search engines.
You can specify an alternate dictionary with this option.
Note that by default, webcollage searches for images using
several different methods, not all of which involve dictionary
words, so using a "topical" dictionary file will not, in
itself, be as effective as you might be hoping.
-driftnet [ args ]
driftnet(1) is a program that snoops your local ethernet for
packets that look like they might be image files. It can be
used in conjunction with webcollage to generate a collage of
what other people on your network are looking at, instead of a
search-engine collage. If you have driftnet installed on your
$PATH, just use the -driftnet option. You can also specify the
location of the program like this:
-driftnet /path/to/driftnet
or, you can provide extra arguments like this:
-driftnet '/path/to/driftnet -extra -args'
Driftnet version 0.1.5 or later is required. Note that the
driftnet program requires root access, so you'll have to make
driftnet be setuid-root for this to work. Please exercise
caution.
-directory dir
Instead of searching the web for images, use the contents of
the given directory.
-fps Display the current frame rate and CPU load (MacOS only).
ENVIRONMENT
DISPLAY to get the default host and display number.
XENVIRONMENT
to get the name of a resource file that overrides the global
resources stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER property.
http_proxy or HTTP_PROXY
to get the default HTTP proxy host and port.
FILES AND URLS
/usr/dict/words, /usr/share/lib/dict/words, or /usr/share/dict/words to
find the random words to feed to certain search engines.
http://www.altavista.com/image/randomlink,
http://random.yahoo.com/fast/ryl,
http://www.livejournal.com/stats/latest-img.bml, and
http://www.google.com/ to find random web pages.
BOOBIES
The Internet being what it is, absolutely anything might show up in the collage including -- quite possibly -- pornography, or even nudity.
BUGS
Animating GIFs are not supported: only the first frame will be used.
UPGRADES
The latest version of webcollage can be found as a part of xscreensaver, at http://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/, or on the WebCollage page at http://www.jwz.org/webcollage/. DriftNet: http://www.ex-parrot.com/~chris/driftnet/
SEE ALSO
X(1), xscreensaver(1), xli(1), xv(1), xloadimage(1), ppmmake(1), giftopnm(1), pnmpaste(1), pnmscale(1), djpeg(1), cjpeg(1), xdpyinfo(1), perl(1), vidwhacker(6x), dadadodo(1), driftnet(1) EtherPEG, EtherPeek
COPYRIGHT
Copyright 1998-2005 by Jamie Zawinski. Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell this software and its documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation. No representations are made about the suitability of this software for any purpose. It is provided "as is" without express or implied warranty.
AUTHOR
Jamie Zawinski <[email protected]>, 24-May-1998.
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