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No image sorry

I am thinking about making an xml/flash thing that sits on the bottom right corner of your desktop and provides you with pictures from the messageboard (updated every X number of seconds). Would people use this or would I be wasting my time? :)

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CranberryArmadillo, Thu 4 Sep 2003, 15:00, archived)

wouldn't that be incredibly difficult to do?

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Sunshine Elephant, Thu 4 Sep 2003, 15:01, archived)

No its incredibly easy :)

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CranberryArmadillo, Thu 4 Sep 2003, 15:03, archived)

Not really

people have made screensavers and allsorts which work in a similar way. Witness the xml challenge in the newsletter a few weeks back. I probably wouldn't use it though, as I have the board open for most of the day anyhow.

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supermoore: HUNG, Thu 4 Sep 2003, 15:03, archived)

not really

1 border-less popup window
javascript/flash to read the b3ta xml feeds
all you need to do is parse each new thread for the presence of <img> tags

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Red wine and cheese., Thu 4 Sep 2003, 15:03, archived)

not really.

probably an rss/xml parser out there for flash
read image - load it - display it.

you could do this as a cgi script too

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tef, Thu 4 Sep 2003, 15:03, archived)

can be done client-side

using javascript and the lovely <XML> tag
edit: or server-side static pages, if you don't want to sap b3ta's bandwidth

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Red wine and cheese., Thu 4 Sep 2003, 15:05, archived)

the problem with b3ta when ti comes to bandwidth

is that reloading all of the old posts on the board sucks up bandwidth and it's a bit of a waste.

it's a bit like threaded irc what we've got here.

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tef, Thu 4 Sep 2003, 15:13, archived)

if you can get it to work fine

i'm sure people would use it at work

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SarahRatt, Thu 4 Sep 2003, 15:02, archived)

sorry

(WouldSwapABearForATiger, Thu 4 Sep 2003, 15:02, archived)

ack you've got the problem iof refereing urls

so some of them might come up with nicked from b3ta...

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tef, Thu 4 Sep 2003, 15:03, archived)

I guess I will just try and see!

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CranberryArmadillo, Thu 4 Sep 2003, 15:04, archived)

reading peps tag

what i'd do personally. is read it every 30 minutes and email people the new pics.

that would make them viral a bit :D

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tef, Thu 4 Sep 2003, 15:06, archived)

please don't -

automated stuff like this, 'every x number of seconds', sucks our bandwidth, you'll kill the board... it's been done before with a board auto refresh.
Nice idea though.

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pep, Thu 4 Sep 2003, 15:03, archived)

thing is

do the rss feeds support 304? /tech

i.e it goes has it changed since X?
it goes no bugger off.

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tef, Thu 4 Sep 2003, 15:05, archived)

one way to save bandwidth

is for people who want to write clients for b3ta.
go, give us the new posts since
....

technically it could be done in javascript

(iiiiiiish)

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tef, Thu 4 Sep 2003, 15:08, archived)

it would only make a difference

between 5am and 8 am, when no bugger posts anyway ;)

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rogan, Thu 4 Sep 2003, 15:12, archived)

well, people refresh the page for one new post or

10 new posts. or son...

instead of gettnig the 50 or so on the page per refresh, they get 10. much nicer.

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tef, Thu 4 Sep 2003, 15:14, archived)

ah, sorry

I thought you meant a count of the new posts...

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rogan, Thu 4 Sep 2003, 15:16, archived)

i coherent no!

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tef, Thu 4 Sep 2003, 15:21, archived)

I guess

you know about the RSS feeds? have a look in one of the recent newsletters if you want to see some other people's attempts (not quite the same thing as you're planning)

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rogan, Thu 4 Sep 2003, 15:04, archived)

so that'd mean

you could see all the cool b3ta pics, but you wouldn't be busy reading comments, so you could do real work too!!

where's the point in that?

(bblgoose, Thu 4 Sep 2003, 15:04, archived)