One of my projects is an alternative to Mac OS X built-in RSS Visualizer also based on Quartz Composer 4.0 intented to use as screen saver. This one is an combination of Javascript and screensaver protocal conformance in QC. I extended the default functionalities and added some new features.

Highlights

  • define more than one RSS feed
  • shows the corresponding article image
  • customize the style of the snippet containg the articles
  • display duration based on your reading speed
Screensaver in action

Usage

As you know it from the original one just hit the enter key to open up Safari with the whole article. Furthermore there is preference pane to customize the RSSalizer.

Screensaver preferences

The parameters are defined as follows:

  • Words per minute specifies your average reading speed. You need to adjust this since the display duration is based on the word count and your reading speed.
  • Feed #1-#5 specifies which RSS feeds to download but you can define even more feeds by seperating the address field by semicolons.
  • Article Fore-/BackColor is for the appearance of an article.
  • BG-Image Location sets the background image supported protocols: http, file, ftp.

Video

Download

Requirements

  • Mac OS X 10.6 or greater
  • 1GHz or faster PowerPC or Intel Core processor
  • 1GB or more of RAM

How to install

Copy the file to /Library/Screen Savers/ or just use this Automator script