kyofu

kde 4.5 - using dual monitor wallpapers in a slideshow

KDE 4.5 does not support spreading a single wallpaper image across dual monitors. Initially, I attempted splitting the wide (3840x1080) images in half, then using KDE’s slideshow to have them both change at the same time; unfortunately, KDE’s slideshow pulls images in a random order.

Eventually I found a solution. Set each KDE desktop to slideshow, pointed at a folder which contains one image. This ensures that the desktop attempts to refresh its background at whatever frequency you set that for. I then wrote a script to select a random image out of a directory of dual monitor backgrounds, cut the image in half, and save the left and right halves to the above “slideshow” directories, overwriting the image that was currently in place. The script runs in my crontab every ten minutes. The KDE desktop refreshes the background every five minutes, so I get a new background sometime around ten minutes.

Now, I can grab images at my leisure from dualmonitorbackgrounds.com and have them automatically split and handled by my slideshow by simply dropping them into a particular directory. Magic!

Here’s the script:

#!/bin/bash

# some setup
WPD=$HOME/.kde/share/wallpapers/dm # directory of wide (3840x1080) images
WWPD=$WPD/tmp # location to store split images
OLWPD=”$WPD/L_USE” # directory the left image should be placed into
ORWPD=”$WPD/R_USE” # directory the right image should be placed into

# select random wallpaper file from WPD
RFN=`/bin/ls -1 “$WPD” | sort —random-sort | grep “.jpg$” | head -1`;
RFP=`readlink —canonicalize “$WPD/$RFN”`;

# split vertical into WWPD
convert $RFP -crop 50%x100% +repage $WWPD/wp_%d.jpg;
CONVERSION_RESULT=`echo $?`;

if [ $CONVERSION_RESULT -eq 0 ]; then
# move left (0) into OLWPD
mv $WWPD/wp_0.jpg $OLWPD/wp.jpg;

# move right (1) into ORWPD
mv $WWPD/wp_1.jpg $ORWPD/wp.jpg;
else
echo “Conversion Failed ($CONVERSION_RESULT)”;
exit 1;
fi;

exit 0;

Which language?

iamgabeaudick:

Found this on a forum. In response to the question “Which programming language should I learn first?” - one user responds:

Depends.

To program in an expressive and powerful language: Python
To get a website up quickly: PHP
To mingle with programmers who call themselves “rockstars”: Ruby.
To really learn to program: C.
To achieve enlightenment: Scheme.
To feel depressed: SQL
To drop a chromosome: Microsoft Visual Basic
To get a guaranteed, mediocre, but well paying job writing financial applications in a cubicle under fluorescent lights: Java.
To do the same thing with certifications and letters after your name: C#
To achieve a magical sense of childlike wonder that you have a hard time differentiating from megalomania: Objective C

I could go on… but I’m not feeling hateful enough today.

you aren’t understanding me

…and then we’ll sit at opposing ends of a fourteen-foot (mahogany?) table in some conference room that doesn’t exist and we’ll discuss the game plan, the strategy, the slogan/motto/brainwash and they’ll periodically bring us coffee and bagels and catered lunches.

We’ll scratch empty poetry on yellow legal pads, pretending to pay attention. ‘MEETING ADJOURNED’ I’ll scream every fourth hour and you’ll nod and frown and nod and point to stupid pie-charts and graphs that illustrate the impact of written words having absolutely nothing to do with everything on how I relate to the world.

De-analyze/don’t read too deep. The meaning has been transposed to more important elements.

Only backwards

You can’t write that down, she tells me. Or everybody will know. But I do it anyway; Write it down in big fat Sharpie (R? TM?) Permanent Marker on the vestibule (? Maybe just a hall?) wall. And I sign it in only slightly smaller characters, with that disctinctive half-cursive SCO combination I hate but have resigned myself to accepting as my signature.

For good measure, I add my phone number. Only backwards.

fireland:

Fuck art.

Awesome.

But what religion are you *really*?

sarahb:

turtalia:

This is good clean fun — a quiz that asks you 20 questions and tells you what religions you most closely allign with.

be warned: Belief-O-Matic™ assumes no legal liability for the ultimate fate of your soul.

here are my top 10:

1. Theravada Buddhism (100%) 2. Unitarian Universalism (97%) 3. Mahayana Buddhism (95%) 4. Liberal Quakers (88%) 5. Neo-Pagan (84%) 6. New Age (79%) 7. Secular Humanism (73%) 8. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (72%) 9. Taoism (67%) 10. Jainism (65%)

This was interesting. I think of myself as agnostic and sometimes atheist, but according to this, if I were a religion, I’d be 100% Unitarian Universalist. So basically same diff.

How intriguing. I’ve always thought I was simply ‘agnostic/atheist’ but it turns out I’m actually a secular humanist. Very much a secular humanist.

Why do you think it is the governments job to keep you safe from…

distorte:

Why do you think it is the governments job to keep you safe from terrorists and not the governments job to keep you safe from illness? I just don’t get this.

In my opinion, terrorists are typically the enemy of a state. Illnesses rarely target victims based on culture, geography, et cetera.

Found whilst packing

Bottom desk drawer. Locked. Key long since lost. Post-makeshift-crowbar nets: A broken (cleanly in half) pencil next to a barely legible post-it note reading: NO no no no, the mouse could not have written that letter (No idea what this means, though it is clearly in my (or some approximation of my) handwriting).

-_- (via pics_for_all)

4yrs later… and still no idea who ‘yes motion ideal’ is…

ymi.diaryland.com