The TV in the kitchen is wired up to the MythTV box (which sits in a closet in another room). If the TV is left on after a recorded show ends, the MythTV menus are not so pretty to look at. The standard “Pictures folder” screensaver is nice, but I got tired of manually copying and managing pictures on the Myth box. Why not use Flickr as the automated source of the pictures?
I poked around for “flickr screensaver linux” on Google and was a bit disappointed. Most of the results a) discuss Mac- or Windows-only solutions, b) link to programs that no longer exist, or c) are more complicated than what I need.
Well, it is Linux … time to roll my own. Maybe this solution is so obvious that no one bothered to document it, but this is what I came up with. Maybe it will save time for someone else. Besides, I need a new post to break in the new theme on this blog. 😉
The basic formula: RSS feed from Flickr + podcast downloader + cron + “Pictures folder” screensaver.
Read on for the details …
