NAME
    FlickrWidgt FAQ - Frequently Anticipated Questions

SYNOPSIS
    A man walks into a bar...

DESCRIPTION
    Frequently Anticipated Questions.

QUESTIONS
  What is this thing?
    FlickrWidgt is a simple program that periodically asks the Flickr
    servers for a random photograph and displays it in a window on your
    ddesktop.

  What does it do?
    Mostly, it just sits on your desktop and displays images. If the gods
    are smiling, you'll see something you like.

    You can also click to view individual photos in your web browser,
    'favorite' them on the your Flickr account, or post them to your
    del.icio.us account.

  How do I use it?
    Just double click the application to get started.

  Why is it so big?
    The application is so big because it is not written as an application
    "native" to any one operating system. Rather it is written using a set
    of libraries, called 'wxWidget', for the GUI bits and a programming
    language called 'Python' for the code-y bits.

    Each piece can be installed separately on different operating systems
    (Windows, MacOS X, Linux, BSD, etc.) which means I can write the
    application on one type of machine and have it Just Work (tm) on
    another.

    The relatively large size of the application happens when it is
    "bundled" up into a single binary executable. This means all the
    necessary pieces required to make it run are gathered up into one place
    and then boiled down to a single file that a user can run without having
    to install anything but the application itself. The down-side is that
    this process requires adding a lot functionality that would normally be
    handled by the operating system in a "native" application.

    From a developer's point of view, that's a pretty great feature and a
    worth while trade-of. From a user's point of view, it is (hopefully) not
    an issue as both diskspace and bandwidth are becoming cheaper and more
    prevalent.

  Do I need to install Python to use it?
    No.

    You can just double click the application and it will work. The only
    difference it that it may take a little longer to start than other
    applications.

  Will this work with Konfabulator, now Yahoo! Widgets?
    No.

    The very first "widget" that I wrote was the Mirror Project Random Image
    Widget. Eventually, I decided that I would write a similar application
    for Flickr and the two programs could share the same underlying code-y
    bits.

    Since then Yahoo! bought Konfabulator and renamed it Yahoo! Widgets. I
    may eventually rename the application to avoid any further confusion.

  Can I filter the images the application displays?
    Not yet.

    Many photographs on Flickr are tagged with descriptive labels. These
    could be checked, before an image is displayed, against a list of
    user-defined tags to skip. If there's a match the application would
    silently move on and ask for another photo.

    It is probably a feature that will be added but I am still thinking it
    through.

  Is there a Windows version?
    Not yet, but there will be.

    A Windows binary is the next thing on the list, pending any newly
    reported bugs. I have a Windows machine for doing the work; I just need
    to finish setting it up and work out any OS-specific bugs.

    Once the Windows version is finished, I will bless the FlickrWidgt as
    version 1.0 final.

  Is the source code available?
    Sort of, kind of.

    The source code for the FlickrWidgt is not available, at the moment. The
    code for the underlying libraries that implements most of the
    functionality is.

VERSION
    $Id: FAQ.pod,v 1.3 2005/12/31 16:32:55 asc Exp $

DATE
    $Date: 2005/12/31 16:32:55 $

AUTHOR
    Aaron Straup Cope

SEE ALSO
    http://aaronland.info/python/ImageWidget/

    http://aaronland.info/python/ImageWidgetDeliciousTool/

    http://aaronland.info/python/ImageWidgetSpeechTool/

    http://aaronland.info/python/MirrorProjectWidget/

    http://www.mirrorproject.com/widget/