LibraryThing Mac Screensaver
At the end of our Week of Code, Chris and I put together the RSS feed and directions you need to turn the built-in Mac OS X screensaver into a LibraryThing Screen Saver.
To do it you'll need to grab the following URL: http://www.librarything.com/labs-screensaver.php?userid=timspalding and change "timspalding" to your user name (public users only, of course). Then watch the video.
Update: Does anyone know of an easy way to make a Windows one?
To do it you'll need to grab the following URL: http://www.librarything.com/labs-screensaver.php?userid=timspalding and change "timspalding" to your user name (public users only, of course). Then watch the video.
Update: Does anyone know of an easy way to make a Windows one?
Labels: mac, new feature, osx, screensavers
posted by Tim at 2:13 AM
43 Comments:
That's awesome. I have a new favorite screensaver, beating out the classic BSOD screensaver. Well done.
Pretty!
Now do one for Windows, pretty please! :)
I don't have a Mac but that's a pretty sweet idea.
Mac user here. This owns.
When I change then follow the link, I find no video to watch, but instead my covers displayed vertically.
:( I do have a mac..
Can't get the RSS page to show up in the list of feeds… Boo!
Any chance ya'll will do one for Windows?? Please!!
This is awesome! Thanks!
Oh no. . . a siren constantly calling me back into the depths of LT! How could you. . .
This is a great idea. Thanks a lot!
Nice! Set it up on my machine, and blogged about it to spread the word. Thanks!
Mine is not validating -- any hints?
Visual C# 2005 Express (free from Microsoft's website) came with a RSS Screensaver Starter Kit that's about 80% of what you need if you don't mind writing it in C#:
http://www.microsoft.com/express/2005/download/default.aspx
Beyond that, a Windows screensaver is not too far removed from a normal Windows .exe. The big thing is that there are a set of standard command line options that expected to be responded too. I believe you should be able to search for them without too much difficulty.
@kath:
Copy the link above and paste it into your screensaver settings box for an RSS feed. (click on the video above to see detailed instructions). Just clicking on the link above or entering it in your URL bar will just get you the RSS feed of images that powers the screensaver.
If you can't view the video above then let us know.
Here are some instructions for Ubuntu.
For Windows, I've tried using the Google Photos screensaver installed with either the Google Pack or Picasa (which is how I have it) but it doesn't like the RSS feed. In part, I can't quite figure out how the screensaver is pulling the pictures from the feed (it's a picky thing, doesn't like Flickr rss feeds without a format tag at the end and won't pick up an ordinary comic feed either).
Tim, any plans/ideas for a LibraryThing widget (for Mac's Dashboard)?
Clearly I don't have a recent-enough version of OS X -- I have 10.4.11 -- because my System Preferences doesn't have the handy MobileMe option, and the RSS option only lets you choose from an existing selection of feeds. Tanj!
I'm in the same boat as jemeisen, I guess. Any alternative?
jmeisen--I've got the same version of OSX. The best I can figure out is that the RSS feed list is coming from Safari. I tried opening Safari and bookmarking the link Tim says to use, but while it showed up on my RSS feed list back on my screensaver options at first, it wasn't actually *working*--and then it disappeared.
However, if you go to your profile page and add the RSS feed for your recently added books (I used XML, not sure if it makes a difference) to Safari, you *can* use the RSS Visualizer to make a screensaver that includes the descriptions of your recently added books.
I know, it's not as fun, but at least it's LT on your screensaver.
But bottom line is in order to add an RSS feed for the RSS Visualizer, you need to go through and bookmark it in Safari, which is a bit of a pain, but doable.
Also? I don't really know about these things, just experimenting, so if anyone else has better ideas, please let me know!
love love this feature. thanks!
okay
got it and love it.. you are genius!
Thank you
k
Very neat! Gotta improve the quality of some of my covers, though! Thanks! And to think it was developed for the Mac FIRST! My kind of guys!
I really like this. Thanks a lot.
Works really well.
To those Windows users I say "Get a Mac".
It's a much nicer platform.
Does this only work on a specific Mac OS X platform? I'm on Mac 10.4.11, and the options under screen saver for me don't look like that. The MobileMe and RSS doesn't exist. I have RSS Visualizer as an option, but there isn't anywhere I can add a new feed. Any ideas?
Why can't I get the RSS feed to work on my google or yahoo pages? If I can get the feed to work on those types of websites then I have a windows quick-fix program for RSS feeds.
I need to know the .RSS in order to get it to work
For PC users:
I made a yahoo pipe to covert the mac screensaver to a input compatible with the Google Photos screensaver.
You need to use this url:
http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.run?_id=BMHmChES3hGUXfOC3nBDOQ&_render=rss<userid=timspalding
and replace the user id by their yours.
The URL should be added on the "Photos from public sites" section of the google photos screenshot settings.
Enjoy!!!
Awesome job gczobel!!!
any idea how to get the "< img..." writing to go way?
@molly
On the google screensaver you can disable captions... I tried to change the "< img" tab with the book name but the pages on librarything cannot be fetched from yahoo pipes.
Very Cool! I love this!!!
I'm having the same problem many others are having. My version of Mac does not want to recognize the RSS feed created and disappears after I leave the site. I have successfully used the RSS feeds from librarything as screen savers. So please, PLEASE, make an RSS feed of book covers.
How very cool, but this isn't working for me. I can hit the php/feed in Firefox and Safari, but no joy as a screensaver. Mac OS 10.5.6.
http://www.librarything.com/labs-screensaver.php?userid=kpmartin
Anything I can try?
I love it....it is just too cool seeing the books come on the screen.
THANK YOU.
BTW, this is Meadowmist that made the anonymous comment...it wouldn't let me log in.
Any Suggestions?
Do we have to be logged on to Library Thing to have the book screen saver enabled?
Love the screen saver, but last week it started showing some odd behavior that comes and goes intermittently.
Usually it works great, but sometimes it gets stuck on 3 covers, showing them over and over again. Sometimes it's the same covers from session to session, other times the 3 covers change from one session to the next. Either way, it shows 3 covers, then back to the first and starts the 3 over again. Any ideas?
Thanks!
Rich
I love it. Thanks!
What does it mean when the same 2 books keep cycling through my screen?
Everything was working fine earlier today, but now the same 2 books are coming up repeatedly.
Any ideas?
I followed the directions but it didn't work for me :( the screensaver area just says "your selected subscriptions have no pictures..."
update: Since lastnight I restarted my computer and now the screensaver is working just fine. Yay!
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