[macintologist]

My university is currently constructing a new building and has a webcam with a jpg pic that updates every few minutes. I want to download that .jpg file once a day and have it saved into a folder and named according to the date it was taken.

http://www.lawrence.edu/graphics/pho...mpuscenter.jpg

That's the jpg file. Is there any app that might be able to schedule this? This is something I want to do everyday for the next 18 months.

[peeb]

This sounds like a problem for Automator. Use Safari -> Download url etc.

[mduell]

Or if you're command line savvy, use cron to schedule it and curl to download it.

[macintologist]

Hmm, I think I'll try out the Automator. Another question, what's the best app to use to take a sequence of thousands of pics and make them into an actual movie, where for example you have a movie that is 30fps, and each frame represents one of those pics, so you get one second representing 30 days!

[macintologist]

EUREKA!

My first ever actual use of Automator! What a sweet app!

So this is how I did it. I made a new calendar in iCal called "takepic". I set an event to occur every day at noon (and end whenever, like 12:05, and the event is also called "takepic". I set it to open a file every time the event occurs, the file being a workflow app created in Automator. The Automator workflow just downloads the file in question, and then I use the Finder set of commands in Automator to append the year/month/day creation date of the file.

This will be running every day for the next 18 months The building is supposed to be done December 2008.

[Sherman Homan]

Automator is really quite amazing.

[peeb]

Well done! It's really cool when you get the hang of it! Please post if you figure out how to do the animation.

[macintologist]

Originally Posted by peeb 

Well done! It's really cool when you get the hang of it! Please post if you figure out how to do the animation.

I figured that one out too! In Quicktime Play go to File -> Open Image Sequence...

Totally never knew that feature was there. It's so easy!

[macintologist]

Originally Posted by peeb 

Well done! It's really cool when you get the hang of it! Please post if you figure out how to do the animation.

I will proudly bump this thread a year and a half from now to show you the finished product

[JKT]

Note, I would check that iCal will wake your Mac at the assigned time to take the picture - my guess would be that it won't do this and will instead run the action the next time you wake the Mac. IOW, you might not get the desired result through use of iCal unless you leave your Mac constantly awake.

You might need to use some Terminal or AppleScript magic to send a wake event prior to the assigned period that you want the Automator action to run at... this is beyond my knowledge but people gifted in the art of the CLI or AppleScript should be able to help out.

[macintologist]

My iMac is awake 24/7 so it's not a problem.

[macintologist]

Check out what I have so far

YouTube - Lawrence University Campus Center Progress

[Nodnarb]

that's pretty cool.

should be very impressive when it's all complete.

[SSharon]

I was going to suggest applescript but I see you have what you need.
Don't forget to back up the pics!

[macintologist]

Originally Posted by SSharon 

I was going to suggest applescript but I see you have what you need.
Don't forget to back up the pics!

Heh yea actually whenever I want to take what I have and make it into a Quicktime image sequence I use a separate Automator script to copy all the pics I've collected into another folder, and rename them sequentially as pic0001 pic0002 pic0003 etc because Image Sequence in Quicktime Player is really picky about how sequential the files are named.