Size: Choose from small (80x80),
medium (160x160), large (320x320), and huge (640x640). You
can also change the size by dragging your mouse near the edge
of the clock. Tip: the best size for viewing
details of the map is large (320x320), though this is probably
too large for regular background use.
View: There are a couple of
pre-configured views in EarthClock. After choosing a view,
EarthClock will contact the responding website and attempt
to retrieve the image, so you have to wait for a couple of
seconds for it to update (depending on your connection). Short
instructions on how to create your own view are in the readme.txt.
Skin: Self-explanatory. Instructions
on how to create your own skins are in the readme.txt.
Refresh: Force refresh background
image from internet. You shouldn't have to use this option,
because it happens automatically every 10 minutes.
Options: View and change options/preferences.
See below for explanation.
About: Read some info about EarthClock and
how it was created.
Exit: Stop execution.
Options:
General:
Load EarthClock at startup: Windows only. Load EarthClock when
Windows starts up.
Always on top: Never hide clock behind other windows.
Polling interval: Timespan between refreshment of background
image.
Check online for new version at startup: When EarthClock
starts up, contact the EarthClock website to see if a new
version is available. Highly recommended.
Show log: Advanced users only; show the system log. When
it is opened, click on 'Details' to see the complete log.
Views:
Add: Add a new view.
Edit: Edit selected view.
Delete: Delete a view.
Website: Open a browser and go directly to the views section
of the EarthClock website.
Connection:
Generally, the options here haven't been tested very well. It
appears Python overrides these settings sometimes, and uses Windows
Internet configuration settings instead.
Use proxy: If you're behind a proxy, you should check this
button
Proxy address: Address of your proxy, starting with http://
Proxy port: Port of your proxy (usually 8080)
Name / Password: [todo] these don't work yet.
Graphics:
These settings affect performance. Tweak to your liking and watch
processor usage change considerably.
Draw clock: Draw the clock. You may not realise it, but
drawing the clock is the most expensive operation EarthClock
performs. Disabling this option will almost eliminate CPU
usage.
Fancy / Basic: Not implemented yet.
Draw seconds: In the process of drawing the clock, drawing
the seconds is the bottleneck. Disabling this will get you
considerably better performance, while still enjoying the
benefits of the clock.
Filtering: Choose which filtering. The slower modes will
give you nicer graphics, but the fast mode will increase
performance. Play with these settings to see what I mean.
Draw overlay: Draw the semi-transparent overlay. Disabling
this will give you some performance increasement, but not
much.
Skins:
Install: Install a skin you've downloaded. The installer
will check if all the neccessary files are in the skin-pack,
and unzip the skin in the correct location.
Delete: Deletes a skin from your harddisk.
Website: Open a browser and go directly to the skins section
of the EarthClock site.
EarthClock may show unexpected behaviour, or not
work altogether,if you're behind a proxy. Python
will automatically copy Windows proxy settings, so you may be
lucky. It doesn't seem to work behind a Microsoft NTLM proxy.
If you want it to work behind that, you may be able to set a
friendlier local proxy to mediate the draconian NTLM challenge/response.
I don't intend to put NTLM support in EarthClock, so you're really
on your own.
If EarthClock, for one reason or another, fails
in connecting, retrieving, or any other operation regarding Internet
connectivity, it will give a generic error message.
If a previous version of EarthClock is running
while executing the EarthClock installer, the installer will
fail with a non user-friendly error message.
