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Need a way to remotely change desktop picture
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lothar56
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Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Iowa State Univesity
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Mar 25, 2006, 08:20 PM
 
Alright, I've been working on this for a while and I can't quite figure it out. The goal is to be able to let whoever wants to change the desktop picture on my powerbook pictureframe do it over the internet. It's a powerbook 5300cs-100MHz/16MB of RAM with a 3Com PCMCIA ethernet card that I just got working. It's currently running 9.0.4, but i'm downloading the 9.1 updater right now.
One thing I thought of was using a program like DP Autochanger. It can automatically grab a picture from a web address and set it as the desktop. It checks every minute for a new picture, so my idea was to use my own web server (Beige G3-G4/450, 10.4.5) and have a file called desktop.jpg which could be easily replaced by anyone using a PHP uploader. The PB would then look to that one address each minute and update the desktop. But I couldn't get that working, and I'd rather there be some kind of alert when there is a new picture put up. Any suggestions?
iBook G4-1.33/768 || B&W G3-450/640 || Beige G3-G4 450/352 || Beige G3-400/256 in Classic case || Beige G3-300/256 || PB 5300cs Pictureframe 100/24
     
lothar56  (op)
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Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Iowa State Univesity
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Mar 25, 2006, 09:00 PM
 
Update: I got DP autochanger to select pictures from a folder on the network drive that gets mounted at startup. The problem is I want the user to be able to choose a single desktop picture for it to display. I also have to access the server directly to put the picture there, I can't get a PHP uploader figured out (Please check my thread in Web Developer if you can help!)
Any ideas?
iBook G4-1.33/768 || B&W G3-450/640 || Beige G3-G4 450/352 || Beige G3-400/256 in Classic case || Beige G3-300/256 || PB 5300cs Pictureframe 100/24
     
CharlesS
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Join Date: Dec 2000
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Mar 25, 2006, 11:51 PM
 
You could SSH in and try this command:

osascript -e 'tell application "Finder" to set the desktop picture to POSIX file "/foo/bar.jpg"'

Ticking sound coming from a .pkg package? Don't let the .bom go off! Inspect it first with Pacifist. Macworld - five mice!
     
lothar56  (op)
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Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Iowa State Univesity
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Mar 26, 2006, 03:42 AM
 
I don't know how to SSH in, and does that work in OS9? BTW I'm still needing help getting this to work...I'm open to any ideas.
iBook G4-1.33/768 || B&W G3-450/640 || Beige G3-G4 450/352 || Beige G3-400/256 in Classic case || Beige G3-300/256 || PB 5300cs Pictureframe 100/24
     
Spliff
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Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: Canaduh
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Mar 26, 2006, 05:41 AM
 
ChangeDesktop can do it, I think. Check the "Network" tab in the ChangeDesktop preferences. Lots of options there.

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/6705
     
   
 
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