How to set up an active desktop in 6 lines of Shell

This is my favourite Shell script or batch file ever. It illustrates perfectly the advantages of having a programmable system.

When I was doing my postgrad work in the UK around 1995 I used to run this little Shell script to turn my desktop background into a live view of Dublin, that would run all day long.

The sun would slowly rise and set in my background, as I worked away in the foreground:

 url="http://images.ireland.com/webcam/liveview.jpg"
 file=dublin.jpg

 while true
 do
  lynx -reload -source $url > $file
  xv -root -quit -max $file
  sleep 1200
 done

O'Connell Bridge, Dublin, right now.
From Dublin City Council.
Image size 20 k.

• lynx is in /usr/local/bin/lynx

• Other ways to do HTTP command-line scripting

• Remember to insert the "sleep" command or you may get into trouble!