10.4: See the RSS Visualizer screensaver in black

More Mac Sites:
Macworld
MacUser
iPhone Central

Pick of the Week - Nov 10 [Show all picks]
Path Finder 5 - A feature-laden Finder replacement

12,000 hints and counting!

Fri, Apr 29 2005 at 9:01PM PDT • Contributed by: Anonymous

I love the way the RSS Visualizer screen saver looks, especially on my TV. The only thing I don't like about it is the blue background. So I opened it up in Quartz Composer (it's damn cool they offered it up that way), and I changed the background to black. It looks much cleaner now. Here's a link to the file. Enjoy!

[robg adds: If you haven't had the chance to play with Quartz Composer yet, it's worth the time. It's an amazingly useful little program. I was playing around with a macosxhints' RSS screensaver in it, and I was impressed at how (relatively) simple it was to figure out the basics. You'll have to install XCode to get it, but (in my opinion) it's worth the effort.]

•

Currently 0.00 / 5
1
2
3
4
5

(0 votes cast)

[27,525 views]

Hint Options

10.4: See the RSS Visualizer screensaver in black | 20 comments | Create New Account

Click here to return to the '10.4: See the RSS Visualizer screensaver in black' hint

The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.

10.4: See the RSS Visualizer screensaver in black
Authored by: justinph on Fri, Apr 29 2005 at 10:25PM PDT

Quartz Composer is formerly known as Pixelshox Studio. Apple scarfed up the guy working on it about a year and a half ago, and apparently this is what he's been working on.

Damn glad it made a comeback. It's the best live video composition app around.

If you're looking for a little tutorial on it, VJCentral has one that relates to Pixelshox. It should still apply to Quartz Composer, though the screenshots will be different.

10.4: See the RSS Visualizer screensaver in black
Authored by: tekun on Sat, Apr 30 2005 at 11:57AM PDT

I downloaded the RSS Visualizer file and I open it in Quartz Composer how to I save it into the System Preferences so I could have the blue and the black backgrounds to choose from in the Screen Savers options. thank you.

10.4: See the RSS Visualizer screensaver in black
Authored by: dave@mmu on Sat, Apr 30 2005 at 12:53PM PDT

I'd have to agree with Rob, it's a great bit of software... in about 15 mins, a complete novice like me created a custom RSS News reader screensaver that reads from the BBC News UK RSS feed.. amazing!
If anyone wants it, it's free of course and available at:
http://www.artdes.mmu.ac.uk/daves/BBCNewsRSS.qtz.zip
Amazing!
Dave
PS, in fact i'm such a beginner i couldn't figure out how to make the link above active! d'oh!

---
Dave L

10.4: See the RSS Visualizer screensaver in black
Authored by: nsheldon on Tue, May 3 2005 at 6:48PM PDT

I've created a modified version of the RSS Visualizer that not only makes the background dark but responds to audio input from a built-in mic (so it won't work on Mac minis or PowerMacs without editing). Audio input causes the background to flash like lightning. The louder the sound, the brighter (and longer) the lightning. It can be downloaded at http://www.nathansheldon.com/files/rss_visualizer_lightning.zip.

10.4: See the RSS Visualizer screensaver in black
Authored by: dave@mmu on Thu, May 5 2005 at 12:55PM PDT

Eh! I got published on Apple!
Check out
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/icons_screensavers/bbcnewsukrssscreensaver.html
Not too shabby for 15mins of effort!
Dave

---
Dave L

Multiple feeds
Authored by: Lewisham on Sat, Apr 30 2005 at 3:02PM PDT

So has anyone figured out how to take multiple feeds in?

That would be amazing :)

Multiple feeds
Authored by: dave@mmu on Sun, May 1 2005 at 5:23AM PDT

no i tried it.. the format that Safari uses for multiple sites doesn't work for some reason. Maybe it's the way it parses the URL string further down the line. Well anyway that little hurdle was just too tall for me! I'm sure some boffin will sort that one.
For info, the syntax for multiple site is:
feeds:RSS%20Feeds&macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/rss_2.0&newsrss.bbc.co.uk/rss/newsonline_uk_edition/front_page/rss.xml&www.itv-f1.com/rss/latest
Dave

---
Dave L

Multiple feeds (changing feeds)
Authored by: ovrdrvn on Fri, May 6 2005 at 4:15PM PDT

Accoring to the literature, the RSS screensaver should point to Apple's site and pushing options in the prefs should give you some more hard coded options. I ONLY have Max OS X Hints (not that that is anything to frown upon) but I swear I didn't put this there....anyone want to help crack the mystery?

Available feeds
Authored by: sierratarn on Sun, May 8 2005 at 12:41AM PDT

When I looked at it it listed the RSS feeds I had bookmarked in Safari. I'm guessing that's where the Mac OS X Hints option comes from.

Available feeds
Authored by: sierratarn on Sun, May 8 2005 at 12:41AM PDT

When I looked at it it listed the RSS feeds I had bookmarked in Safari. I'm guessing that's where the Mac OS X Hints option comes from.

Multiple feeds
Authored by: davidas on Sat, May 7 2005 at 4:10PM PDT

Here, here!

---
David Smith

Multiple feeds
Authored by: db_the_dba on Thu, Oct 19 2006 at 1:04PM PDT

Hi -- Someone has already figured it out and did a Great job!!

You can download it here:

http://web.mac.com/devarshi/iWeb/Miscellanea/Technobabble/C1CCBC3D-C924-4A73-B624-2B0C3B89226E.html

This is an enhancement on the RSS Visualizer

It does:
1) Any # of feeds
2) Allows you to limit the number of Feed Items Displayed

It works great!!!!

Multiple feeds
Authored by: db_the_dba on Thu, Oct 19 2006 at 1:05PM PDT

10.4: See the RSS Visualizer screensaver in black
Authored by: roger69 on Mon, May 2 2005 at 4:42PM PDT

Okay, I got the file, I can open it in Quartz Composer.
How do I get it into the System Preferences for a screensaver?

Roger

10.4: See the RSS Visualizer screensaver in black
Authored by: dave@mmu on Tue, May 3 2005 at 4:03AM PDT

save the file into your ~/Library/Screensavers directory..

---
Dave L

10.4: See the RSS Visualizer screensaver in black
Authored by: ijksail on Sat, Jul 23 2005 at 9:36AM PDT

On my 10.4.2 install the screen savers are found in:

/System/Library/Screen Savers

10.4: See the RSS Visualizer screensaver in black
Authored by: dpcoffin on Sun, May 8 2005 at 4:09PM PDT

Just drag any .qtz composition into your Screen Savers folder in the Library and it'll appear in the Screen Saver System Preferences window and will work as a screen saver. Another cool tip: If there's some parameter of your composition you'd like to be able to adjust occasionally under Options... in the saver prefs, just "publish" it: In QC, control-click on the patch icon with the parameter you want to tweak in the Editor window, select Published Inputs, and then select the parameter you want a slider for from that list. Save the comp, and that parameter will appear as a slider when you click on Options...

10.4: See the RSS Visualizer screensaver in black
Authored by: KenaiTheMacFan on Mon, Jun 13 2005 at 6:47PM PDT

How exactly do I turn it black???

---
Ian

10.4: See the RSS Visualizer screensaver in black
Authored by: Malesca on Wed, Dec 20 2006 at 5:24PM PST

Seems the link has rotted.

Another black version here, along with info on how to modify the colors: http://henrik.nyh.se/2006/12/21/customizing-the-colors-of-the-rss-visualizer-screen-saver/

10.4: See the RSS Visualizer screensaver in black
Authored by: Malesca on Wed, Dec 20 2006 at 5:44PM PST

Oops, accidentally commented at the wrong level. Again:

Seems the link has rotted.

Another black version here, along with info on how to modify the colors: http://henrik.nyh.se/2006/12/21/customizing-the-colors-of-the-rss-visualizer-screen-saver/

Search

From our Sponsor...

User Functions

Don't have an account yet? Sign up as a New User
Lost your password?

What's New:

Hints

3 new Hints in the last 24 hours

Comments last 2 days

Links last 2 weeks

No recent new links

What's New in the Forums?

The Editor's Corner...

Here are some of my (robg) other projects...

•	The Robservatory My blog - Macs, tech, etc.
•	Mac OS X Power Hound The best of Hints in print
•	Inside iWork An iWork training DVD
•	Macworld Column, features, online...

Hints by Topic

News from Macworld

The macosxhints Poll

iPad_poll_#1

Other polls | 7,002 votes | 76 comments

Visit other IDG sites: