@picture
You could upload the image and then send a html embed as the email text.
@time
Look into launchd, that is the OS X service for scheduling (you make an Automator script/program and run it every day). There are also GUIs for launchd:
http://www.soma-zone.com/LaunchControl/
You could also ask in the OSX subreddit.
Try Lingon or LaunchControl
Alternatively, for a free option, check out launchd for which Lingon and LaunchControl are more or less GUI frontends.
There is a great tool you can use to make .plist files for launchd called Launch Control.
I have found this is the easiest way to craft what I need and also edit existing ones.
Validate your launchd plist with LaunchControl. The free version won't save (you'll have to move plists in and out of /Library manually), but it will highlight why it failed, if that's where it's falling.
There is this app called LaunchControl which shows the active items in launchd. You can check if sleepwatcher is running in it. Here is my launchd window. If this is active, then make sure the .sleep and .wakeup scripts are in your Home directory and the code in it exactly as given in the article.
I tried this on both my Macs and a bunch of other Macs which my friends use and it is working without a hitch everywhere. So, I don't know what else could go wrong...
Run the following in terminal to create a symbolic link to parity. That will let you run it the way you want.
ln -s /usr/local/libexec/parity /usr/local/bin/parity
You can also download LaunchControl and use it to modify the launch agent that the installer creates...
http://www.soma-zone.com/LaunchControl/
Go here, and download the program. There might be a tutorial online that shows you what to do, but I can't seem to find it right now.
But basically just unload all the services that aren;t being used, or have problems with them (invalid.)
Ah cool, thanks. Didn't think about doing it that way. I was also playing with (read: learning) launchd yesterday as I was troubleshooting some spotlight/CrashPlan issues on a client server. Used it to fire a script that creates a new text file in a hidden directory on the hour, so I can verify backups are being done properly and see how long it takes to backup new files.
I found a really helpful tool, LaunchControl [http://www.soma-zone.com/LaunchControl/] which makes the process much easier, giving you a GUI to use to create the launchd plist. The developer also upholds a principle I'm really impressed by, paying for his software on an honor basis, and he assumes his customers are honest about that. So cool.