Topic: 180 Stunning National Geographic Wallpapers [2010-2011] 1600 X 1200

[Amker]

180 Stunning National Geographic Wallpapers [2010-2011] 1600 X 1200




Download: http://www.zumodrive.com/share/fz90ZjU5Yz

Mirror download: http://www.flickr.com/groups/devnullius/


--- edited by Admin ---

[devnullius]

Would be great if we could make a dynamic rss theme for windows 7 from this. 180 pics shouldn't bore that soon... ; )

devnullius

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[devnullius]

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/window-on-windows/how-do-i-use-rss-to-create-a-dynamic-windows-7-desktop-wallpaper-slideshow/2681

[Amker]

Good idea and what you say that you try? Honestly I do not know it.

[devnullius]

Ok, I'll put some stuff together. All is set in motion. Be patient?



Devvie


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Cuisvis hominis est errare, nullius nisi insipientis in errore persevare
——
All spelling mistakes are my own and may only be distributed under the GNU General Public License! – (© 95-1 by Coredump; 2-011 by DevNullius)

[Samker]

@Amker

Nice Wallpapers.  



@Devnullius

Hope you'll success with this "SlideShow"... I'm sure it'll be very popular download here at SCF.  

[devnullius]

POST-EDIT: YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THE SETTINGS FOR John's BGS HERE:
http://min.us/m8JpoY2Fd

OR enjoy & read on... ; )

Peace - Devvie.

-->

Ok... I've made a few attempts to automatically create an RSS feed, synchronized from a folder on my computer to 'some' service provder.

Without paying money, I did not find a valid solution. I still have tabs open to do this. Many combinations possible :>

Luckily, today, on my other computer I stumbled upon a program which, in some sense, does this and better!

Found here: http://www.labnol.org/software/windows-7-themes-for-xp-and-vista/11205/ , I was pointed to the program John's Background Switcher (http://johnsadventures.com/software/backgroundswitcher/).

This is a nifty little program and actually better than the default dynamic themes offered by Microsoft (btw, I tested their RSS feeds with this program - won't work).

It's better because it does not have the Win 7 bugs. It can import backgrounds not only from an RSS feed, but also from;
Folders containing pictures on your computer such as ‘My Pictures’
Flickr photo sharing
Facebook
Vladstudio wallpapers
Any Media RSS feed – choose pictures from sites like DeviantArt, Photobucket, LOLCats and Zooomr amongst many others!
Phanfare web albums
smugmug photo galleries
Picasa Web Albums
Webshots
Google Image Search
Bing Image Search
Yahoo! image search

So... To get you started... I used Bing Image search for two searches:
national geographic -logo -cover
and
national geographic backgrounds

Another search, this time for Google:
("national geographic" OR "national geografic") -logo -cover wallpapers backgrounds -screenshots .
And this Google search:
sky (sun-rise OR sun-set)  -logo -cover wallpapers -screenshots
Both with custom size: 1600x1200. One can chose the colour too!

Then I added the following public Flickr albums (mostly if not all, non-official)
dngw/pool (top 500)
ngwildlife (top 500)
ngng (top 500)
in_the_style_of_national_geographic (top 500)
31239948@N00 (top 500)
ngmanimallovers (top 500)
548973@N24 (top 500)
nationalgeographic (top 500)

(add after fixed "www.flickr.com/groups/")

You can easily see one can make an infinite high-res photo collage for their background, with all kinds of nice options. Try for example the following Google search:
sky (sun-rise OR sun-set) wallpapers

In general; overhead seems low. Just started testing, but already loving it. No crashes yet.

This is a far better way to bring your own dynamic themes to Windows XP and Vista - and I think I'll even install it on my Windows 7 boxes ;p


So - mission accomplished, pretty please?

Oh - and for the people seeking the original wallpapers offered here... Being that megaupload has been taken down, illegally I think, it's kinda lucky I have a backup online: http://www.zumodrive.com/share/fz90ZjU5Yz . Sadly, it's not an all-in-one download. BUT if you join Zumodrive (http://www.zumodrive.com/referrals/dir/23JMGM4Mm) you will copy it in no time to your computer. Check it out?

Luckily, I also transferred all 180 photos to flickr. You can use it as follows, with John's Background Changer... Add Flickr... Specific person... devnullius. Then, you can chose for the following set: "180 Stunning National Geographic Wallpapers [2010-2011] 1600 X 1200". Again, mission accomplished and just in case, an untested RSS feed too - one might want to test it for dynamic Windows 7 themes: http://api.flickr.com/services/feeds/photoset.gne?set=72157626955692834&nsid=64028303@N04&lang=en-us. This can be converted to support Media RSS 2.0. The following URL's are the result:
http://www.devtacular.com/utilities/atomtorss/?url=http%3a%2f%2fapi.flickr.com%2fservices%2ffeeds%2fphotoset.gne%3fset%3d72157626955692834%26nsid%3d64028303%40N04%26lang%3den-us
and even
http://atom2rss.semiologic.com/?atom=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.flickr.com%2Fservices%2Ffeeds%2Fphotoset.gne%3Fset%3D72157626955692834%26nsid%3D64028303%40N04%26lang%3Den-us.
Flickr itself also offers RSS 2.0 format URL: http://api.flickr.com/services/feeds/groups_pool.gne?id=1946652@N22&lang=en-us&format=rss_200
Would these RSS's work with Win 7? I guess not - test for yourself ;p

Another disadvantage with RSS feeds... It only shows the last 20 and I do not update often...

For your interest, one more program: http://flickrsync.codeplex.com/ - it syncs your folders to Flickr. Flickrsync is worth checking out.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/devnullius/ now live too. For now, it only contains these 180 backgrounds. I don't know how this will be in the long run. Adding my set is best solution, for now ; )

Over & Out, I guess...? Long live John's Background Changer!

Peace! : )

Devvie



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Cuisvis hominis est errare, nullius nisi insipientis in errore persevare
——
All spelling mistakes are my own and may only be distributed under the GNU General Public License! – (© 95-1 by Coredump; 2-012 by DevNullius)

[Samker]

Great job pal.

Also, this is an excellent App "John's Background Switcher": http://johnsadventures.com/software/backgroundswitcher/

Thanks,

Samker


P.S.

Oh - and for the people seeking the original wallpapers offered here... Being that megaupload has been taken down, illegally I think, it's kinda lucky I have a backup online: http://www.zumodrive.com/share/fz90ZjU5Yz . Sadly, it's not an all-in-one download.

I'll change Amker's link with yours...


P.P.S.

FYI, Megaupload case: http://scforum.info/index.php/topic,7396.0.html

[devnullius]

Rigorously been testing my above (by edit already fine-tuned) searches...

Running on 1280x800, some things I did not like while watching my feeds...

I'll (re-)edit my changes below, with reasons, for your interest. Fine-tune how you like : )

- Zeroth thing, I changed all resolutions (when possible) to 1600x1200 for Bing/Google searches (more, undoubtedly, to follow). Why? Because lower resolutions gave too much 'garbage' (from Disney backgrounds to I dunno what ;p). Upgrading to 1600x1200 fixed this. But it introduced another problem: pictures with people / objects / animals on it sometimes are not  displayed in the best manner. Meaning their heads are 'gone' on lower resolutions like mine. So... Many of my changes to above setup, will be focused on getting the best experience with lower-than-1600x1200 resolutions. If you are running 1600x1200 - please (un)check items carefully - for it might not be necessary for you!

- First thing, I removed the following Flickr feed:
31239948@N00 (top 500)
Reason? I was looking at other peoples holiday photos - no need for some "Nigga' at the beach with his 'Chick'"-photos ;ppp

- Secondly, I disabled (!) the following Flickr feed:
dngw/pool
Reason? Too many variations in quality - meaning, it also contains 'scans' from NG magazines - including nasty borders. On lower resolutions this might still be an interesting feed, but even on 1280x800 I need better, meaning bigger ;)...

- ngwildlife Flickr feed
Info: MIGHT show 'horrible' pictures, meaning snake-with-mouse, stuff like that. Nothing gore - but still, might be of influence to some. In general: NICE animal pictures! Especially when you are into birds. Few odd-balls, but nothing to remove it, unless you are purist. For now, I keep it disabled though. Few pictures too big for 1280x800, Contains humans, some of them are cut off due to 1280x1024.

- ngng
A lot like ngwildlife above, but a little better suited for 1280x1024. Contains humans, but most of them are in focus and interesting. Also a few odd-balls, but less than ngwildlife. Enable if you are looking for some extra variation.

- nganimallovers
All ok. Keeper. Only disable of you INSIST on highest-res photos. Contains more than just animals.

- 548973@N24
Keeper. Mostly landscapes, many Northern Lights photos. Not many animals, even fewer people. Theme is Iceland.

- nationalgeographic
Very diverse. Keeper.

- in_the_style_of_national_geographic
I really wished I could keep it enabled, but being a purist, after a long long doubt, I decided to turn it off. Why? Just for a few pictures mainly. I don't like protesting people on my background, nor accidents. Also, one or two holiday pictures turned up. But besides this, it really contains good photographs and I'll miss those :s

Some general remarks about Google Search & Bing Search. BUT first, to fit the topic of this thread perfectly, just add the following Google Search in John's BS:
site:photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photo-of-the-day/
(settings: normal or big pictures)

In it's simplicity, Bing has the prettiest results. Only drawback: no search operators possible for Bing! So once you tamed the Google Beast, the Google search gives the best results. Takes some tweaking tough! Also, in general, Bing & Google searches should be set to 1600x1200 to weed out a lot of garbage.

I'll reply in a new post some searches I'm now actively using. Above search is your best bet... The rest is extra ; )

Peace!

devnullius

[Samker]

Devvie, thanks for helpful "update"...