<link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/</link>
<atom:link href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/index.rss" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
+ <item>
+ <title>Sharing images with friends and family using RSS and EXIF/XMP metadata</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sharing_images_with_friends_and_family_using_RSS_and_EXIF_XMP_metadata.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sharing_images_with_friends_and_family_using_RSS_and_EXIF_XMP_metadata.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Tue, 31 Jul 2018 23:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description><p>For a while now, I have looked for a sensible way to share images
+with my family using a self hosted solution, as it is unacceptable to
+place images from my personal life under the control of strangers
+working for data hoarders like Google or Dropbox. The last few days I
+have drafted an approach that might work out, and I would like to
+share it with you. I would like to publish images on a server under
+my control, and point some Internet connected display units using some
+free and open standard to the images I published. As my primary
+language is not limited to ASCII, I need to store metadata using
+UTF-8. Many years ago, I hoped to find a digital photo frame capable
+of reading a RSS feed with image references (aka using the
+&lt;enclosure&gt; RSS tag), but was unable to find a current supplier
+of such frames. In the end I gave up that approach.</p>
+
+<p>Some months ago, I discovered that
+<a href="https://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/">XScreensaver</a> is able to
+read images from a RSS feed, and used it to set up a screen saver on
+my home info screen, showing images from the Daily images feed from
+NASA. This proved to work well. More recently I discovered that
+<a href="https://kodi.tv">Kodi</a> (both using
+<a href="https://www.openelec.tv/">OpenELEC</a> and
+<a href="https://libreelec.tv">LibreELEC</a>) provide the
+<a href="https://github.com/grinsted/script.screensaver.feedreader">Feedreader</a>
+screen saver capable of reading a RSS feed with images and news. For
+fun, I used it this summer to test Kodi on my parents TV by hooking up
+a Raspberry PI unit with LibreELEC, and wanted to provide them with a
+screen saver showing selected pictures from my selection.</p>
+
+<p>Armed with motivation and a test photo frame, I set out to generate
+a RSS feed for the Kodi instance. I adjusted my <a
+href="https://freedombox.org/">Freedombox</a> instance, created
+/var/www/html/privatepictures/, wrote a small Perl script to extract
+title and description metadata from the photo files and generate the
+RSS file. I ended up using Perl instead of python, as the
+libimage-exiftool-perl Debian package seemed to handle the EXIF/XMP
+tags I ended up using, while python3-exif did not. The relevant EXIF
+tags only support ASCII, so I had to find better alternatives. XMP
+seem to have the support I need.</p>
+
+<p>I am a bit unsure which EXIF/XMP tags to use, as I would like to
+use tags that can be easily added/updated using normal free software
+photo managing software. I ended up using the tags set using this
+exiftool command, as these tags can also be set using digiKam:</p>
+
+<blockquote><pre>
+exiftool -headline='The RSS image title' \
+ -description='The RSS image description.' \
+ -subject+=for-family photo.jpeg
+</pre></blockquote>
+
+<p>I initially tried the "-title" and "keyword" tags, but they were
+invisible in digiKam, so I changed to "-headline" and "-subject". I
+use the keyword/subject 'for-family' to flag that the photo should be
+shared with my family. Images with this keyword set are located and
+copied into my Freedombox for the RSS generating script to find.</p>
+
+<p>Are there better ways to do this? Get in touch if you have better
+suggestions.</p>
+
+<p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
+activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
+<b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
<item>
<title>Simple streaming the Linux desktop to Kodi using GStreamer and RTP</title>
<link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Simple_streaming_the_Linux_desktop_to_Kodi_using_GStreamer_and_RTP.html</link>
</description>
</item>
- <item>
- <title>Self-appointed leaders of the Free World</title>
- <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Self_appointed_leaders_of_the_Free_World.html</link>
- <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Self_appointed_leaders_of_the_Free_World.html</guid>
- <pubDate>Thu, 22 Mar 2018 11:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
- <description><p>The leaders of the worlds have started to congratulate the
-re-elected Russian head of state, and this causes some criticism. I
-am though a little fascinated by a comment from USA senator John McCain,
-<a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/379339-mccain-rips-trumps-congratulatory-call-to-putin-as-insult-to-russian-people">sited
-by The Hill and others</a>:
-
-<p><blockquote>
-<p>"An American president does not lead the Free World by
-congratulating dictators on winning sham elections."</p>
-</blockquote></p>
-
-<p>While I totally agree with the senator here, the way the quote is
-phrased make me suspect that he is unaware of the simple fact that USA
-have not lead the Free World since at least before its government
-<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maher_Arar">kidnapped a
-completely innocent Canadian citizen in transit on his way home to
-Canada via John F. Kennedy International Airport in September 2002 and
-sent him to be tortured in Syria for a year</a>.</p>
-
-<p>USA might be running ahead, but the path they are taking is not the
-one taken by any Free World.</p>
-</description>
- </item>
-
</channel>
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