simple todo list
Isaac4given
1. wait for a slightly regular, but also slightly randomized period of
time
2. use AWT to take a screen shot of the entire screen
3. create an email attachment directly from the screen shot (without
using a disk file.)
4. read a target email address from configurations
5. send an email message to the configured address containing the
screen shot attachment
NOTE: send the email message directly from an embedded SMTP server
(the "Aspirin" server.)
do not contact and external smtp server to send the message.
ALSO: if there's an error, write it to an error log.
6. Repeat :-)
What do people think of this plan?
Isaac4given
The Basic Principle: First of all, does the idea of witl, itself, have
any value at all? What do you think? Yes, I, personally, believe that
witl, at least as the major parts of it were planned and designed, is
a good idea for a computer program.
There are many ways for people to track and show others the types of
things they're doing online. Why would we use frequent, spontaneous
screen shots? 2 Reasons:
1. Because a Picture is Worth 1,000 Words.
I really don't think there's anything quite like seeing exactly what's
going on with your own eyes. You could monitor somebody's computer
usage many different ways, but I think all of those other ways just
wouldn't be the same and seeing the same thing the computer user is
seeing.
2. Because We Can.
With the explosion of high capacity web and email access today, there
are even ways that I don't feel are too difficult, to send, store, and
review, huge numbers of screen shot pictures. This project is mainly
for the education and experience of developing. We've started it, and
I like to finish things we've started.
1. the interval between screen shots:
we want witl to be as close as possible to a "zero configuration"
program. we can't get around specifying a target email address, but
we'd like to get around any other configuration we can, by just
supplying "intelligent defaults" rather than options to setup. what do
people think about predetermining the range of time to wait between
taking screen shots? (the exact time will be randomized within the
range.)
2. using awt to take screenshots
does anybody know of any other way to take a screenshot from within
Java, besides using the awt? does anybody have any details about
disadvantages the awt might have?
3. which would be more complex?
A. saving a screen shot to a file on a disk, and then attaching the
file to an outgoing email, or,
B. converting the screen shot so that it can be attached to an email
message without using a file?
We initially had witl working with method A, just using common code
for saving screen shots and sending email with attachments.
We even had a code submission that worked with method B, but we never
got the Free and Open Source LGPL license attached to that code (so we
can't accept into this project.)
And about a couple of other points:
Performance: We should probably use PNG instead of JPEG, to cut down
on the email length. As it is, witl requires a high capacity email
receiver, like gmail, which would offer easy-to-setup automatic mail-
sorting filters, gigabytes of diskspace, and the ability to choose
which messages to load based on a list of new messages, instead of
just trying to download all of the messages at the same time. Witl
also requires the email receiver to have broadband web access. can
anybody think of ways to minimize the email download delays, or
anything like that? maybe it could use a "digest email" which would
just send all the screenshots, for a length of time, say 1 day, in the
same email message?
Ideology: I don't believe you can write computer software to force
people to be Holy. Witl won't keep people from doing bad stuff with
their computers. The idea would be for witl to help people who WANT a
tool like it, in order to help themselves be honest to other people
about what they're usually looking at on their computer screens.
Thanks for discussing.