campins V1.17 by Stuart Halliday
=================================
http://www.quantumsoft.co.uk/campins/

FIRST THINGS FIRST
==================
First unarchive these files. They may not work otherwise.
That is, select all the files and place them in a (preferably) empty
directory on your hardrive.

I suggest creating a directory called CamPins and place *all* these
files into it. Some Scripts have longnames (> 10 characters) so watch out
for this if your computer can't handle this.

It's okay to rename the Scripts if you want.

If you've used pre-v1.16 CamPins before, delete *all* the old ones.
Since V1.16 its had major changes.


Install the !System application you'll see in this archive.
To do this double-click on !Boot.
Click on 'System' in the !Boot Configuration panel.
Drag the !System to the 'System Merge' panel and click on the 'Merge' icon.
It automatically adds the tiny module 'SharedULib' to your !System so that
the cURL module we use in Campins can work correctly.
You only need to do this once and you can delete this supplied !System
afterwards.

Quit all your applications, except those you need to remain on the Internet.
I recommend you do this the first time you try them. Because if an error occurs
or they crash your machine then you've not lost any work.
If you are satisfied the scripts work then you can run your apps as normal.


WHAT DO THESE SCRIPT FILES DO?
==============================
These are TaskObey script files.
That is they are designed to perform a number of small tasks whilst not
stopping you working on something else in the background.

If you double click on one of these TaskObey script files your computer
tries to download an image from a site on the Internet and then places this
image onto your Pinboard as a Sprite.

Some of these scripts grab an image from a webcam site.
Some of these scripts grab an web (html) page first and then download an
image referred to by that page. Clever.

Webcam?
A webcam is a web site were a camera is pointing at an object
somewhere in the World and places that image every few minutes
onto the Internet for you to see.

By using one of these scripts it is now possible to simply bypass using a Web
browser and place the image directly onto your pinboard.

So double click away....

A description of what each Script does is given further down this text file.

One point.
----------
Some of these script try to download large images. If you've just got a
56K modem then these images will take a while to download. Some may take over
ten minutes.


PERFORMING REGULAR PICTURE CHANGES USING !ALARM
===============================================
People will no doubt wish to repeatingly fetch images. Here is how to do so.
If you were to setup !Alarm with one of these scripts in !Alarm then you
could, via a '10 min repeating Alarm'  for example and it will update the
image for you.

To set up !Alarm you click on the 'Alarms....', then click MENU and choose
'Set new alarm'. Then drag and drop one of the scripts onto the first line in
the Message box and leave the Task alarm option ON.
Set it to a Repeating Alarm and choose your time period.
Save your new alarms.

Me, I use !Keystroke to do this fetching. Much easier.
http://www.quantumsoft.co.uk/


I'VE CLICKED ON IT AND NOTHING SEEMS TO BE HAPPENING
====================================================
Look in your Task Manager window, when you run one of these scripts a
'Task Obey' application entry appears in the top section called
'Application tasks'. This is the script downloading the image.

(If you want to stop it. Just perform a Mouse MENU over the name,
choose the "Task 'Task Obey' =>" option and click on 'Quit').

The speed in which this fetching happens to take place is of course
determined by the speed of your Internet connection.
Some of the scripts I've used here try to download a large image.
The 'PickfromList' script in particular downloads images well over
1MB in some cases and 56K modem users should be patient.

Once the image is fetched you will see that the hourglass with appear,
though you can still carry on working, this is ChangeFSI converting
the image into a format suitable to display on the Pinboard.

If nothing appears to be happening, perhaps your ISP makes you use a
'web proxy' to access the Web? See below for details on how to get around this.


I'VE CLICKED ON A SCRIPT AND I GET AN ERROR
-------------------------------------------
This error could be due to the URL the script uses on the Internet becoming
obsolete. If others work then thats most likely the problem.
Try again in a few days time as often a company removes a site for maintenance.

If you try and run two scripts at the same time then you may get open
file errors.

Please report errors to me. But quote the error numbers that may be produced
by the script this is important.


HOW TO SAVE THE IMAGES DOWNLOADED
=================================
Every time an image is downloaded by a script it could get saved as 'Image' in
the campin.resources directory and converted to a Sprite for placing on the
Pinboard. This sprite is called 'Sprite' and also can be found in the resources
directory. However these files are overwritten every time a script is called.

So to save it, the script needs to copy it somewhere else.

To do this I've made, as an example, the Dilbert Script do this (by default
though it is turned off).
It now saves the Sprite with the name 'sprHHMMSS' (where HHMMSS is the
current Hours, Minutes and Seconds it was run) in the
campin.resource.saved directory.

The bottom 2 lines of this script show how this is done:

SETEVAL hhmmss  ("<SYS$TIME>" LEFT 2) + (("<SYS$TIME>" LEFT 5) RIGHT 2) + ("<SYS$TIME>" RIGHT 2)
COPY campin:Sprite campin:saved.spr<hhmmss> ~V~CFN

so you can copy those lines into any of the other scripts if you wish to
also save them.

Please note: People using pre-RISC OS 4 will have limit of 77 files in this
directory.

You may notice that the COPY command is actually '|COPY' in the Script.
The | character at the start disables that line. So remove the | to turn it on.


Note: Taking copies of Internet images for long term storage probably will be
considered copyright theft by the owners of the images.


MY ISP MAKES ME USE A WEB PROXY SO I CAN'T DOWNLOAD ANY IMAGES!
===============================================================
This is rare, but it happens.
To make the script work you need the name of the web proxy your ISP has
supplied you.
This will something like: http://www.web-proxy.isp.com:8080/

You then need to add this line to the cURL line in each script.

For example the AndyCapp script uses:

<campin$dir>.curl http://www.unitedmedia.com/creators/andycapp/index.html -o today -s

so you use
<campin$dir>.curl http://www.unitedmedia.com/creators/andycapp/index.html -o today -s -x http://www.web-proxy.isp.com:8080/


HISTORY
================================

V1.17
-----
Not a huge amount.
I've added a few and deleted some obsolete ones.
Added more images to the List file used by script PickfromList.
Added a RND program so scripts can generate random numbers (see the
Dinosaurs scripts).


V1.16
-----
*Major* changes from V1.15.
Due to users of RISC OS 4.02 having trouble with my scripts I've added more
error checking to ensure the Image downloaded did in fact download 100%.

Now, if it doesn't then a dummy image with the words 'Image did not download'
will be displayed.
You will also get a Task Window popping up with a message or two.
Hopefully this message is meaningful. Remember the Internet is a ever-changing
medium and it is not always reliable.

The Resize program has gone and been replaced by Camchk.

I've also gone back to using the DIR command instead of PREFIX.
This is because not everyone has this PREFIX command in their OS and
I was getting lots of people contacting me and *not* reading this text file
which explained the problem.
If you need to use the PREFIX command then please feel free to change DIR to
PREFIX in the scripts yourself. :-)

I've enclosed an updated version of Curl (7.9.2) that now supports writing
information of the download process to RISC OS variables. If you've got a old
copy of Curl in your library directory (ie inside !Boot) then please ensure
its at least this version too. If you don't then, these scripts will not work.

CFSI has been updated to add the variables ChangeFSI$X and ChangeFSI$Y.
This is the Width and Height of the graphic image fed to it. Useful.

I'm using the DO command instead of launching a seperate Obey file called Script.
Thanks to Mike Curtis for this tip.

If you want to know more, drop me an email.


V1.15
-----
Discovered that the TIF files in the PickfromList didn't always work.
Altered 'Resize' to work correctly with TIF files and altered CFSI program
to write two system variables when used.
These are <ChangeFSI$X> and <ChangeFSI$Y>. ie they return the height/width of
the graphic file as the ImageSize program doesn't know about TIF files sadly.

DailyBabe script deleted as web site has gone. 

V1.14
-----
Added the line:
Set campin$path <campin$dir>.
to each script to ensure people didn't need to add it themselves when adding
the ability to save the images the scripts download. 

Updated a few of the babe scripts that had changed URL.
 


V1.13
-----
Updated the Resources.List file and weeded out the non-working ones.

Added a couple of new scripts and fixed a number of bugs in some old ones.

New:
DailyCartoon - Cartoon strip updated daily.
DailySennen  - High quality Cam of a coast in Cornwall, UK. Updated daily.
PCandPixel   - Popular cartoon strip updated daily.
Wiz_of_ID    - Popular cartoon strip updated daily.


V1.12
-----
With thanks from many users of CamPins I've corrected a few errors that had
appeared in a couple of scripts and added an extra one. 

OldFaithful, the YellowStone Geyser script is back.

I stopped using the *DIR command and swapped to using *PREFIX in the scripts.

I've expanded the Help text to cover a few points people have queried about.
1) How to save the images
2) How to configure the scripts if your ISP forces
you to use a Web Proxy to do your web surfing. See below for details.
3) How to read other shares.



V1.11b
------
Fixed a few minor problems with RandomBabe script and added the
TyneBridge Script.


V1.10 to V1.11
--------------
Added 'Landscapes' which are pictures from my own web site.
Added the 'Babes' scripts which some people asked me for.
Updated the supplied cURL to 7.9.2.

Added ONLINETEST script.
If you run this then it tests your access to the Internet by trying to
download 3 popular home pages across the World.


V1.04 to V1.10?
--------------
I went back to using cURL to fetch images as its previous bugs have
supposingly been fixed by the latest GCC complier and 'cURL' is more powerful
than 'wget' as it can upload files and handle forms, etc.
It's less memory hungry too.


REQUIREMENTS
============
*RISC OS 3.7 or better I think. It works best on RISC OS SELECT (4.29).
*Some files have longnames so watch out for this if you can't handle these.
*At least 2MB of free memory plus enough to hold a Pinboard image.
*An Internet connection. The faster the better.


Note1:
Users of pre-RISCOS 3.7 may find they need the DDEUtil module which can be used
instead of the command DIR in my scripts.
The DDEUtil module is supplied as standard with RISC OS 3.7/+ I believe.
If you don't have this module in !Boot you can install the freeware version of
ddeutil which is available from
http://www.cheepnis.demon.co.uk/acorn/dde_zip


Note2:
If you've downloaded the new 32bit modules update from RISCOS ltd
then you could try ensuring that the new Taskwindow module 0.62 is loaded.
As this speeds up the desktop when using TaskObey Scripts.
But it's not essential.

Note3:
Users of RISC OS SELECT will finds that the multitasking of your desktop is
much more responsive than non-SELECT users whilst running these scripts.
Another good reason to buy it.  :-))



TWEAKING THE SCRIPTS
====================

The interesting thing which happens is that after the image is downloaded,
ChangeFSI, the famous and excellent free image processor program, can be used
to alter the image in various diferent ways. Mainly reduce image in size,
sharpen it, etc.
This allows us to tinker with the image. :-)

These scripts use my special version of ChangeFSI (supplied). I call it CFSI.
So you can use its commands to alter the image before it is made into a sprite.
You can make it bigger, smaller, sharpen it, rotate, brighten, darken.
See the !ChangeFSI document FSIuse for more details on this.

You can also turn off the Hourglass that appears when the image is being
converted to a Sprite.

Look for a line like:

Set ChangeFSI$Hourglass On

and alter it On or Off


LICENSE
=======
This software is FREEWARE.
Parts may be  Stuart Halliday 2001,2002
This software is supplied "as seen"; no warranty, express or implied, of the
merchantability of this software or its fitness for any particular purpose
is given. Under no circumstances shall Quantum Software, the author, or any
provider or distributor of this software, be liable for any damage, loss of
profits or electronic data or any indirect or consequential loss arising out
of the use of this software or for the users inability to use this software
correctly.


CREDITS:
=======

ChangeFSI - is copyright Acorn/Pace. Author Sophie Wilson.
cURL      - V7.9.2 RISC OS port Michael Curtis mdc@ihug.co.nz
            http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~jamjars/
            UNIX Original http://curl.haxx.se/
rand      - V1.5 GPL by Erik Greenwald. RISC OS Port by iain truskett
            http://koschei.midnightrealm.org/code/riscos/
Djpeg     - Independent JPEG Group's DJPEG, version 6a
             1996, Thomas G. Lane


AUTHOR OF CamPins
====================
QUANTUM SOFTWARE - Stuart Halliday

35 PINEWOOD PARK
LIVINGSTON
EH54 8NN
SCOTLAND
stuart@quantumsoft.co.uk
http://www.quantumsoft.co.uk/files/internet/


FOOTNOTES - TECHNICAL - NONESSENTIAL
====================================
I use a Desktop screen resolution of 1280x1024. You may not be.
If you're using a smaller screen size then you may have to adjust the scaling
factor of the ChangeFSI (CFSI) line in the Scripts so the picture is not
made too big for your Pinboard.


The Script 'PickfromList' or 'Landscapes' uses a wee program of mine called
'Camchk' that tries to resize the image to fit on the Pinboard for you
automatically.

It takes as a parameter the image file which has been downloaded.

ie campin:camchk <filepath to sprite> for example

It then calculates the correct scale down for the size of screen and places the
scaling factor in a system variable called <scale>.

So if you're always changing screen sizes or don't use 1280x1024 as a desktop
size place <scale> instead of the ?:? in the CFSI line of a script.

'Camchk' also works out if you're using a 256 colour screen or a higher colour
screen. Then it allow you to alter the colour depth of Sprite produced by CFSI to
suit. You do this by using the system variable <col> instead of say '28r'.

Note, Camchk only tries to make larger images than the current Desktop size fit
down into the size of your pinboard. So if you use it for small images the scale
factor will come out at scale 1:1 as small images scaled up look awful.

Tip: Use the <scale> phrase instead of 10:7 in the ChangeFSI line if you're
using a smaller desktop mode than 1280x1024.

Camchk also sets the variable <bkd> to either -C or -T. That is Centre or Tile so
you can make the Backdrop command auto tile or centre your sprite.
So small sprites are tiled whilst large sprites are centered.

See the Script 'PickfromList' or 'Landscapes' for an example of this use.

Camchk also requires that the Curl command in the Script that downloads the actual
Image file to also use the '--env' option.
This returns the file size that is suppose to be downloaded and Camchk compares
this to the file size of 'Image' that was downloaded.
If they don't match then the Image file has not downloaded 100%. When this happens,
the Image and Sprite file is replaced with a Sprite called 'failed' which shows
the words 'Image did not download'.



LIST OF THE SCRIPTS
====================
Any previous scripts now not listed have been deleted probably because that
site has removed their service.

All tested working as of 2002-10-12

AndyCapp
--------
A daily cartoon.


ARMShares
---------
Updated Hourly.
A example of grabbing a graphic of 'ARM Holdings' daily share price from Yahoos site.
To alter this to show any share, you need its 'Share Symbol' name.
So go to http://finance.yahoo.com/l look up the symbol and type over
'arm.l' in the script.
For example, ECI Telecom is symbol 'ECIL' so enter ecil instead of arm.l



BBCeurope_ISObars
-----------------
Daily.
BBCs pressure chart of Europe.
If you know about isobars then you can get a clearer idea of what the weather is
going to be like.


BBCeurope_weather
-----------------
Daily.
Traditional weather image of Europe with clouds and temperature symbols.


BBCuk_weather
-------------
Daily.
Traditional weather image of the UK with clouds and temperature symbols.


BC
--
A daily cartoon of a Stone Age man.


BetterHalf
----------
A daily cartoon of married life.


BFriends
--------
A daily cartoon of friends.


CalvinHobbs
-----------
A daily cartoon of a boy and his Tiger.

DailyAstro
-----------
A daily large image from NASA.
Interesting and educational too.

DailyBabe2 and DailyBikini
---------------------------
A daily image of a woman in a Bikini.
Requests by various people for some reason.


DailyCartoon
------------
A daily funny cartoon by Randy Glasbergen.


DailyNatGeo
-----------
A daily 1024x768 image from the archive of the National Geographic Society.
Interesting and educational too.


DailyOverlookL
--------------
A large daily image from around the world.


DailyOverlookS
--------------
A smaller (800x600) daily image from around the world.


DailyPet
--------
A daily image of a Pet.


DailySennen
-----------
A daily picture of a beautiful cove of the coast of Cornwall, England.


Dilbert
-------
A daily cartoon of a man and his work.


Dinosaur
--------
A random picture of dinosaurs from the archives of the Natural History
Museum in London.


DoctorFun
---------
A daily cartoon of a Doctors look at life.
Subject tends to vary.


Edinburgh
-------
Updated every 1 minute.
A webcam of lots of different views of Edinburgh. Voted best city in Europe!
Okay my home town.... :-)
Awful webcam though.


FTSE100_5d
----------
Updated every 30mins.
The UK FTSE 100 graph over 5 days.

Garfield
--------
Daily cartoon of a famous cat.


Glasgow
-------
Updated every 2 minutes.
A webcam of Glasgow citys George Square.


GuineaPigs
----------
Updated every 5 mins.
A view of several Guinea Pigs living in the USA.
Bizarre I know.


HagarHorr
---------
A daily cartoon of a Viking.


Lakelandcam
-----------
A daily image from the Lake District of England.


Landscapes
----------
Over 200 great pictures of the sky and landscapes around the world.
My Favourite.


LochNess
--------
Ten different views of Loch Ness updated every 15 secs.


Marmaduke
---------
A daily cartoon of a large dog.


Marvin
------
A daily cartoon of a baby.


MBusiness
---------
A daily cartoon of a Mean Business.


Meteosat-V
----------
Image of the earth. Used by the Weather people.


NASA-ISS
--------
Updated every 2 mins.
Current view showing where in the World the
International Space Station can be seen from.


NASA_Views
----------
Updated every 5mins.
15 views of live views around NASAs buildings and the Space Shuttle.
Switched off from time to time if the Military are at work.
Catch people at work!


NewYork
-------
Webcam of a New York city street corner.


NOAA16vis
---------
Latest (usually daily) high resolution (large, 500K?) image of Europe from the
NOAA 16 satellite. This one uses visible light and the countries are usually
marked out in red.


OldFaithf
---------
YellowStone National Park in the USA have a famous Geyser that you can watch
erupt.


ONLINETEST
----------
Tests your connection to see how your Internet access is performing.
See notes above.


PCandPixel
----------
A daily cartoon of a computer user and his cat. 


Peanuts
-------
A daily cartoon of the famous boy and his dog.


PickfromList
------------
This one uses a list of over 440 URLs in file resources.list
and picks one from random to show you.
NASA (old & new, big and small), arm patches, moonshots, X-Planes,
lots of nice earth landscapes and weather images.


Radio2
------
Daily webcam of the DJs of BBC Radio 2.


RandomBabe
----------
A random picture of a woman.


Ripleys
-------
A daily cartoon of amazing facts.


SharePrice
----------
Current view of the FTSE 100 index from Yahoo.
You can easily alter this to show any Share. 


Spiderman
---------
A daily cartoon of a man once bitten by a spider.


Tiger1 & Tiger2
---------------
Catch pictures of Tigers.
Each script displays 5 cams each.


TyneBridge
----------
Flips between two cams of Tyneside bridge


UKtemp
------
Current view of the temperture of the UK


UsrFriendly
-----------
A daily cartoon of people in IT Support.


Weather_Europe_infrared2
------------------------
Current Infrared image of UK and Europe.


Weather_Europe_IsoBars
----------------------
Weather map showing the latest isobars, temperature and wind over Europe.


Wiz_of_ID
---------
A daily cartoon of a medieval land hopefully far far away.  

end



