RSS Desktop

I was tired of useless pictures hanging around my desktop so i decided to turn my desktop into a constantly updating RSS bullitin board.

I just loaded a shot of my my background as a game too(JT's blocks from Yahoo)!

I have also included the full HTML with JavaScript and better screen shots in the .zip file.

Step 1: Create the HTML document.

You're going to have to make an HTML file. The easiest way to get results is with tables. Decide how many feeds you are going to have and create a table with an appropriate number of rows and columns. Also, set the width and height of the table to meet your needs. I set it to according to my screen resolution.

Comments

[kmichaels]

I really would like to have this on my desktop I love the idea of having all that right on my desktop however I know nothing of how to do do it, I have read your instructions over and over again and I can't make heads or tails of it except that it looks real cool and I knoow I want it. ;) Thanks for your help

[kmichaels]

I use windows vista so if someone a whole lot smarter then me can find a way to do this with vista that would be AWESOME! you may even be able to market it if you can make an installer program for it. so that it would be easy for people like me who don't have the smarts that it takes to wright code :D

[budabob07]

Also, you could use Rainmeter for RSS feeds (and a whole lot of other things), but cool tutorial

[za-experimenter]

The address you give is not valid anymore. Like JayDugger says, try feed2js.
The exact new address for what you want is;

http://feed2js.org/index.php?s=build.

[spinach_dip]

(removed by author or community request)

[Annas890]

I agree...but without the swears :)

[dombeef]

What did he say?

[Rawns]

So wanted to do this but HTML desktop support was removed in Vista! :'( Nice idea though. :)

[alexh934]

not in vista ultimate it worked for me

[Padlock]

Too bad I have Vista. Here's mine I made, and I also put together another file that opened it up in a pop-up that was 100 x 800, and then made it close it self with the "javascript:window.close()" function.

[wannabetrumpt]

would it be possible for me to set the links for email so that when I click the email it opens my outlook box? I have gmail and rss feed to desktop, but I want to go to outlook rather the www.gmail.com. Anyway to do this? Maybe have it hyper a .bat file or something?

[wannabetrumpt]

hmm... can't add gmail since it requires validation in order to read. Is it possible for gmail to reconize the feed or for me to reroute the feed through something that is valid?

[wannabetrumpt]

ok solved my problem. the required input for a GMail or any other autenticated feed (to my knowledge) is https://USERNAME:[e-mail]/gmail/feed/atom

just change the address to the feed address of the particular feed you want. Hope this works for all!

[wee_man]

i cool idea would be to put music runing on the destop with a stop button
the code would be

<bgsound src="http://yoursite.com/musicfilename.wma" loop="1" autostart="true"> etc or any of the other codes

[rocks]

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[rocks]

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[rocks]

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[Virta]

Is there a way to make the background transparent? For example in most of your screen shots the background is black. How can I make it transparent so I can see my wallpaper? Thanks in advance.

[Toshibi]

You could do it with css. You would put all of it into a div and then set the properties on that DIV, like with the background property.

[Virta]

Hah. Forgot about CSS, well thanks a bunch.

[TheMadScientist]

am I totally insane or do those last two posts sound like you're attempting to imbed counter strike: source into your desktop background...? :D wow, wouldn't that be awesome, imbed secondary desktops (like a second monitor that you can slide your mouse onto) into your desktop background... can anyone think of a way to take the monitor feed from the windows multi-monitor tool and imbed it?

[Virta]

No CSS as in cascade style sheet not counter strike

[TheMadScientist]

need information on the second topic of that post, i'm fully aware that it means cascading style sheet, just making a joke...

[Virta]

my bad.

[evilflame2]

i actually have linerider and this other game called boxhead set as my desktop background

you download the .swfs and just embed them into html.

then you can play them whenever you want

[F-zero]

Post an instructable for it, I'm interested.

[evilflame2]

you just replace his html in step 1 with something like this

<embed src="FILEPATH FOR SWF GAME" quality="low" bgcolor="#ffffff"
width="1100" height="500"
name="mymoviename" align="bottom" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"
pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer">
</embed>

then skip steps 2,3 and everything else is the same.

mabye someone else would like to make this instructable, i really don't have experience with this website. i am used to video screen capture tutorials. if i make one i will post the link

[Uru Wolf]

Why low quality? lol.

[F-zero]

oh ok, cool, thanks.

[hiflyer]

you should check out http://www.samurize.com/

super, super powerful desktop gadget maker ;)

[beam]

great idea man, doing now

[a_d777]

RSS is great....But, are you able to use the wireless sniffer in Cain & Abel?? And can you get Orkut passwords from the Box revealer in Internet Explorer??? I Cant!!! Help me in that, if you can!

[Coffee bean]

Well have you ever heard of Game Maker 6.0. I would like to put a game I made using that program on my desktop. P.S Glad someone reconizes my icon!(-:

[evilflame2]

if you can put your game on a website, then you can put it on your desktop

[voltagex]

Those programs normally make a special kind of EXE file - not web content. It may be possible to put that on your desktop but I doubt it. Keep going with your game making - try Flash, try another programming language like Python - keep learning!

[Coffee bean]

yes but sadly have put money together to buy flash

[bluenightweasel]

the pirate bay is your friend

[Coffee bean]

indeed it is

[binnie]

*cough* download it *cough* (but you didnt hear it from me)

[pheer]

i'm having issues with the code i'm assuming...... i set it like you say to but it appears on the right side of the screen with scrollbars....i've tried changing the resolution in the file but that doesnt work, any ideas?