Top 10 Box Office Movies Wallpaper Generator

IMPloader is a script that fetches the posters for the top 10 Box Office movies of the week and automatically generates a wallpaper. You can customize how many images are used (but there's a maximum of 10), the style (black, white and polaroid), width and height of the wallpaper and border of the images.

Here are two examples of wallpapers generated using IMPloader:

Usage

To use it, you'll need Ruby and Imagemagick. Install these packages in Ubuntu using the following commands:

sudo apt-get install ruby imagemagick

Then, download the script from Gnome Look and extract it on your desktop.

Now you'll have to run the script - the first time is for generating the config file:

cd ~/Desktop/118501-Desktop
./imploader.rb

This will create a new config file under ~/.imploaderrc. Open it with gedit:

gedit ~/.imploaderrc

Here you can customize everything about your wallpaper. The config file is well documented so I'll not get into details. If you do not edit the "TEMPPATH" variable inside the config file, the new wallpaper will be created on your desktop (and it will be called collage.jpg).

Once you're done with the config file, run the script again and it should generate the wallpaper:

./imploader.rb

If you want the wallpaper updated once a day you can add a cron-job for this or simply add the imploader.rb script to your startup applications to generate a new wallpaper each time your computer starts.

Want more cool wallpapers? Check these out:

• Create A Wallpaper Based On Your last.fm Music Profile
• Earth On Carbon Fiber Automatically Updating Wallpaper
• Realtime Sunlight Wallpaper Sets Your Wallpaper To An Image Of Earth's Sunlight/Darkness
• Install Wallpaper Clocks In Ubuntu
• Automatic NASA Astronomy Wallpaper [Linux]

Install SubtitleEditor 0.38.0 In Ubuntu Lucid Or Maverick

Subtitle Editor is a GTK tool to edit subtitles. It can be used for new subtitles or as a tool to transform, edit, correct and refine existing subtitle. This program also shows sound waves, which makes it easier to synchronise subtitles to voices.

SubtitleEditor 0.38.0 was released about two weeks ago and it includes many bug fixes such as:

• Fix sort subtitles
• Opening SEP project wont open a Keyframes file automatically
• Subtitles in MicroDVD format don't display correct
• Scale option doesn't work correctly with frame-based subtitles
• Broken character count (column translation)
• Unable to set subtitle times after importing plain text
• Fix English errors

The new version also comes with speed improvements and movie fps dectection.

To provide an easy way to install SubtitleEditor 0.38.0 in Ubuntu Maverick and Lucid, we've backported the Natty package and uploaded it to the WebUpd8 PPA. Install Subtitle Editor 0.38.0 in Ubuntu Maverick or Lucid using the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install subtitleeditor

Image via Subtitle Editor.

PhotoFilmStrip 1.4.0 (Stable) Released With A New User Interface, Customizable Aspect Ratio, More

PhotoFilmStrip is an application for Windows and Linux that you can use to create a movie (slideshow) from images. It uses the "Ken Burns" effect for the pictures transitions and you can also add music and captions to your images. You can further customize the video by setting the duration time for each image, the transition and transition time and additionally, the effect (sepia or black and white). The video can be rendered in VCD, SVCD, DVD or FULL-HD (1920x1080).

PhotoFilmStrip 1.4.0 was released yesterday, bringing (some of these features were already available in the unstable version like you can read in our PhotoFilmStrip review) a new user interface, customizable aspect ratio (16:9, 4:3 und 3:2), copy and paste for motion positions, Flash-Video renderer, a new transition (roll), better audio support, keyboard shortcuts and more.

Download PhotoFilmStrip 1.4.0 (includes .deb file).

Thanks to LFFL for the news!

A fun game for movie buffs who happen to use Linux

With the Oscar fever running high, there is towering expectations all around for all the Oscar nominees. So it was only a matter of time before someone jumped into the fray and created a game featuring all the movies, directors and actors nominated for the Oscar award. The beauty of the game is that it is played exclusively in YouTube - the popular video sharing site of Google.

The game titled "2009 Oscar Interactive Photo Hunt" is simple to play. You will be shown two nearly identical photos (there is just one subtle difference) of the people and movie stills associated with the Oscar Awards and you have to find the difference between the two images. You get 30 seconds to spot the difference and click on it. Once you click on the part you feel is different, you are taken to another YouTube video depending upon whether it is the correct answer or not.

There is only one rule... No pausing of the video at any stage is allowed. There are 30 levels in the game. The first 14 levels are quite easy. But from the 15th level, the solution gets more and more elusive. A fabulous idea, great game surrounding the Oscar theme and intelligent use of a popular free service. The game has been developed by DailyFill.com. To start playing the game, watch the following video and do as you are directed.

If you are unable to watch the preceding YouTube video, in all probability you do not have Flash player plugin installed on your machine. Read the following article to install flash player plugin in Linux.

The unique relationship between Hollywood Movies and Linux

Quite often, we speculate about Linux grabbing a major share of the desktop PC market. But it seems the film industry are heavy users of Linux, and applications that run on Linux which include both open source and closed source custom made software. Take the popular hollywood movie 'Scooby Doo' for instance. It was created at Rhythm and Hues studio and the whole movie was rendered and touched up using custom made software which ran on Linux.

And the fact that Linux played a part in the making of this movie is not an accident. Rather, it is more becoming the norm. If you do a search on the net, you will find many more hollywood movies which are made using applications which run on Linux.

Robin Rowe, a writer and software designer working at Hollywood has put together a collection of software - both open source and proprietary - which is being used by various movie studios to touch up the movies. Robin is also the lead developer of the free software project CinePaint (formerly known as Film Gimp) which - quoting from the site - is a collection of free open source software tools for deep paint manipulation and image processing. CinePaint is used for motion picture frame-by-frame retouching, dirt removal, wire rig removal, render repair, background plates, and 3d model textures. It's been used on many feature films, including The Last Samurai where it was used to add flying arrows. It's also being used by pro photographers who need greater color fidelity than is available in other tools.