Sunday 19 December 2010

Mono theme icon for ktorrent

Yesterday I talk about associating magnet links in Ubuntu and I mention that my favorite torrent downloaded is ktorrent, but one thing that ktorrent is missing is the mono icon for the appindicator in ubuntu.

I'm not a designer of even close but yesterday I spend a few minutes fixing this annoyance of mine for a while. Now, all my icons in the appindicator are looking nice...


To install it, just download the image below and save it as "ktorrent.png". Now open the terminal and enter:
$ sudo mv /usr/share/icons/hicolor/22x22/apps/ktorrent.png ktorrent_backup.png
$ sudo mv ~/Downloads/ktorrent.png /usr/share/icons/hicolor/22x22/apps
Next time you start ktorrent the appindicator icon will be changed.

Make Gmail the default mail application

It always annoys me went I press a link and I get evolution mail client opening up. If you are like me and only uses web base mail clients and particularly you use Gmail this may be of help

Gnome Gmail does just that for you. It add support for making Gmail the default mail application for the Gnome desktop.

Once you install it make sure you go to:

System > Preferences > Preferred Applications

And choose Gmail as you default "Mail Reader"

Associate magnet links to any application on Ubuntu

This is one of those things that I've meaning to do for a while. This will work with any torrent client that supports magnet links. I use ktorrent which for me is the best out there.

Enter this into the terminal:
$ gconftool-2 -t string -s /desktop/gnome/url-handlers/magnet/command "ktorrent %i -caption "%c" %u"
Change what is comas with your preferred torrent client.
$ gconftool-2 -s /desktop/gnome/url-handlers/magnet/needs_terminal false -t bool
$ gconftool-2 -t bool -s /desktop/gnome/url-handlers/magnet/enabled true

If you entered the above correcly you will end up with a new entry in gconf-editor like so:


Remember that mangnet links take a little longer to start downloading, just be patient.

Dropbox Icons for Ubuntu

A couple of days ago dropbox released their new version 1.0.10 to the public with lots of improvements and changes. Read more about it here.

One of the changes is the integration with appindicator with Ubuntu Maverick but they forgot to include the mono icon them for it. So here is the link for it.

Friday 19 November 2010

Enabling "Aero Snap" in Ubuntu 10.04 LTS

Nothing else to say everything is on the video:




Remember to install wmctrl which is needed to make this work:
$ sudo apt-get install wmctrl
Here are the command lines:

Command line 0:
wmctrl -r :ACTIVE: -b remove,maximized_vert,maximized_horz && WIDTH=`xdpyinfo | grep 'dimensions:' | cut -f 2 -d ':' | cut -f 1 -d 'x'` && HALF=$(($WIDTH/2)) && wmctrl -r :ACTIVE: -b add,maximized_vert && wmctrl -r :ACTIVE: -e 0,0,0,$HALF,-1

Command line 1:
wmctrl -r :ACTIVE: -b remove,maximized_vert,maximized_horz && WIDTH=`xdpyinfo | grep 'dimensions:' | cut -f 2 -d ':' | cut -f 1 -d 'x'` && HALF=$(($WIDTH/2)) && wmctrl -r :ACTIVE: -b add,maximized_vert && wmctrl -r :ACTIVE: -e 0,$HALF,0,$HALF,-1

Command line 2:
wmctrl -r :ACTIVE: -b add,maximized_vert,maximized_horz

Command line 3:
wmctrl -r :ACTIVE: -b remove,maximized_vert,maximized_horz

Add color to Bash prompt symbols

This is actually pretty simple. The trick behind is to add this line into "$HOME/.bashrc".

In the terminal:

$ sudo gedit ~/.bashrc

And enter this lines at the end of the file or anywhere really.

# Add color to Bash prompt symbols
PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[\033[01;32m\]\u@\h\[\033[00m\]:\[\033[01;34m\]\w\[\033[00m\]\$ '
Save the file and close the terminal. Next time you restart the terminal the bash will be in a different color.

Monday 15 November 2010

Transcoder - Video converter

Transcoder is a video converter for Linux using GTK+ as GUI toolkit and ffmpeg as backend.

It is distributed under the GNU General Public License.



In current version:
A double click on a list item will show information about an input file.
FAAD is the default AAC decoder now.
There is a GOP size option.
3gp video format, h263 video codec, and AMR audio codec support for mobile phones.
A deinterlace option.
A subtitle codec option.
AMD-64 support.
New aspect ratio values.
Default bitrate options for video and audio streams
The transcoder will look for ffmpeg in /usr/bin and in /usr/local/bin if it is not found in the working directory.
The minimal version for GTK+ is 2.16.
A HQ x264 profile with mobile phones support.
Other small changes and bugfixes.

Monday 8 November 2010

Nautilus Easy Union ( Windows 7 libraries )

http://www.webupd8.org/2010/11/display-multiple-folders-content-in-one.html

https://launchpad.net/nautilus-easy-unionfs

Saturday 6 November 2010

Ease – Slick Presentation app that makes Impress look less than impressive

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2010/11/ease-clutter-presentation-app-linux-ubuntu/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+d0od+(Omg!+Ubuntu!)

http://www.ease-project.org/index.html

Wednesday 3 November 2010

Easily get Wine apps to match your GTK theme

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2010/10/easily-get-wine-apps-to-match-your-gtk-theme/

Automatically Import All Missing Launchpad PPA GPG Keys [Ubuntu .deb]

http://www.webupd8.org/2010/05/automatically-import-all-missing.html

Monday 4 October 2010

Popper - email notification

You can find Popper in Launchpad

How to read Ext3/Ext4 linux partition from windows 7

Original post by UbuntuGeek

Sunday 29 August 2010

AppImaghe Thumbnailer

Read more about it here

Sunday 15 August 2010

Record Ubuntu Desktop

This is something I always wanted to do but never had enough time to setup.

Follow the instructions on this post in OMG!Ubuntu

****************** UPDATE ****************

As a reply in OMG!Ubuntu they have posted this other alternative to the above

Wednesday 28 July 2010

Debreate - Debian package maker

The first time I've tried to make a debian package it took me 3 days straight to learn how. Now, that I know how I find it very easy but still a few steps one has to make. This tool will definitely help to speed things up.

Download Debreate

Original post from webup8

Saturday 10 July 2010

Access Hulu from Outside the U.S. Without a Proxy Server

After the US have taken down some of the tv streaming sites, it came to me as good news when I saw this post in LifeHacker about accessing Hulu from outside the US without any proxy server, is easy to setup and it just works.

great news !!!!

Tuesday 29 June 2010

Sync Google Chromium Extensions with your Google Account

just enter: "-enable-sync-extensions" to the command. Then go to tools>synced...>Customized and checked the extension option. That's all

Add the option to the launcher in your main menu or any other launcher you may have any where else (panel, docky, etc).

Original post

Thursday 17 June 2010

Unclutter - Hide your mouse pointer when idle

Sometimes the greates ideas are the simplest ideas!!!

sudo apt-get install unclutter

to set a different idle time:

unclutter -idle 2

or any amount of time you like.

Original post from OMG!Ubuntu

Sunday 13 June 2010

BURG - The new GRUB

super cool!!! read more OMG!Ubuntu

************UPDATE************

Cool dark theme with install script

http://sworiginal.deviantart.com/art/Dark-Shine-BURG-168869916

******************************
***********2nd UPDATE*********

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2010/07/burg-boot-loader-installation-themeing.html

***********3rd UPDATE*********

http://www.webupd8.org/2010/10/install-and-configure-burg-in-ubuntu.html
ps - if you have lots of kernels, I would recomend removing them with Ubuntu tweak before using this.

Monday 7 June 2010

Nautilus-Elementary now with toolbar editor

It's been a while since I used Elementary but I like what they are doing with it. I specially like the new toolbar editor.

Install:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:am-monkeyd/nautilus-elementary-ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

Read more at OMG!Ubuntu!

Guake terminal

I recently discovered Guake. Guake is a drop-down terminal Quake style, it can be activated by just pressing F12 and then It will disapear as soon as you press somewhere else. I find Guake quite useful on my netbook.

Install:

sudo apt-get install guake

After you installed it, add to you start-up applications and you are ready to go. I changed the bacground color to the Lucid Lynx purple and it looks fantastic.

Wednesday 2 June 2010

Control more than one computer with the same keyboard and mouse, Synergy-plus

I find this one quite handy when I have my laptop beside my computer and I'm able to control both without having to move things around.

Synergy+ (synergy-plus) lets you easily share a single mouse and keyboard between multiple computers with different operating systems, without special hardware. All you need is a LAN connection. It's intended for users with multiple computers, where each system uses its own display. It's a little like having a 2nd or a 3rd desktop...

Synergy-plus PPA

Another alternative is x2x

Here is my configuration:

synergy.conf (saved in my home directory)


section: screens
carles-pc:
heepie-laptop:
end

section: links
carles-pc:
right = heepie-laptop
heepie-laptop:
left = carles-pc
end

To launch it from the server

$ synergys -f --config synergy.conf

To launch it from the client

$ synergyc --name heepie-laptop 192.168.1.2

The 192.168.1.2 is the IP of the server. To set it up at the start use -f the make it verbose and stick to the terminal. Make sure the add the entry on the firewall.

Watch anything with Specto

Specto is a desktop application that will watch configurable events (such as website updates, emails, file and folder changes, system processes, etc) and then trigger notifications.

For example, Specto can watch a website for updates (or a syndication feed, or an image, etc), and notify you when there is activity (otherwise, Specto will just stay out of the way). This changes the way you work, because you can be informed of events instead of having to look out for them. Better than clicking the refresh button on Caturdays, huh?

Specto is free and open source software distributed under the GNU GPL license.

Specto is also available from the repositories

Original post from Wepupd8

Monday 31 May 2010

Rapid Photo Donloader

Rapid Photo Downloader for Linux is written by a photographer for professional and amateur photographers. Its goal is to be the best photo and video downloader for the Linux Desktop. It is free software, released under the GNU GPL license.

Here is the original post from UbuntuGeek

Steps to install Rapid Photo Downloader:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:dlynch3/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install rapid-photo-downloader

Thursday 27 May 2010

Google Analytics Opt-Out Extension Keeps Your Data Out of Google's Tracking Service

To provide website visitors with more choice about how their data is collected by Google Analytics, we have developed the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on. The add-on communicates with the Google Analytics JavaScript (ga.js) to indicate that information about the website visit should not be sent to Google Analytics.

Google Analytics Opt-out Add-on (by Google)

Saving vertical space with Ubuntu Lucid

This post was inpired by another post from webupd8 but this time I kinda made my own little twist to it.

Ok, first I'll start from the beginning before I get all mixed up. I always been interested on saving vertical space as I own a 12" netbook. I already made some reference on saving vertical space with Firefox on this post. This post is more like a sum of different post I seen and I adopted what I thought it suited my needs. Of course everyone is going to make their own version of it, but for what it's worth here is mine.


      1.- For start I remove the bottom panel in Ubuntu only using the top panel to display everything I need. This is great for saving vertical space but at the same time it leads to some compromises of the amount of things you can display on the top panel.

      2.- Removing the date/temperature from been always visible on the top panel may save you some horizontal space for displaying other things but of course this is more of a personal choise, some people may want to have those visible all the time.

      3.- We will need to switch between windows, add to the panel the window list. I also use this to see the window title. I know there are other applications that will show the window title like window title and namebar applets (more about that on this post) but like I said I'm doing my own version. And I don't think there is a need for window title when is already displayed in the window list and I think this is enough at least for me.

      4.- Next step is to remove the window title and add some buttons to the panel for maximized windows, and there is a little application that those all that. The easiest way to install it is through this PPA, in this PPA there are also namebar and window title that I already mention. Just install the gnome-window-applets and then add the window buttons to the panel. I added mine to the very left of the panel to keep with the consistency Ubuntu look. Here is the Ambience theme for the window button applet that I got from this post

      To have the window buttons work with Chromium I recommend setting the "use system title bar and borders" option in chromium and the setting from window button will take care of the rest. 

      Make sure you check the option "Hide compiz decorations for maximzed windows" under preferences, behaviors tab in the window buttons applet.

      5.- And my last tip would be to remove the Ubuntu menu and install the LinuxMint main menu instead. You can install it from the webupd8 PPA which I already posted about. The LinuxMint main menu will save you horizontal space for displaying all the things we need to display and it's a great menu. I got my icon from "/usr/share/icons/ubuntu-mono-dark/actions/16" folder.

      ***EDIT*** 6.- I'm just going to add one more tip here about saving horizontal space by removing you name from the memenu by typing this on the terminal:

      gconftool -s /system/indicator/me/display --type int 0

      You also edit it by typing "gconf-editor" into the terminal and then going to "system->indicator->me" and changing the display value to "0".
      The valid values are:
      0 - No name 1 - with name 2 - default

      Original Post

Wednesday 26 May 2010

How to install Sopcast 0.4 in Ubuntu Lucid

I don't want to take the credit but yet again but here is another post from webupd8.

I always had trouble installing Sopcast in Ubuntu but not any more, the installation was simple and easy.

Battery Status 0.1

I'm gonna continue with another post and tip I got from webupd8 yet again. Here is their original post, and here is the battery status webpage also available from webupd8.

If you are using a laptop/netbook is a good one to have.

Webupd8 ppa

Webupd8 I think is a great webside and they are doing a great job, and I already posted a few post from them. I'm just doing a recap of my interesting ones for my own.

I already saw the ppa from Webupd8 available through Ubuntu Tweak but I never knew what was on it and I never really took the time to look into it until recently, is interesting to know.

Ubuntu Start

I have been quite busy for the last while with exams, etc. and I haven't posted anything in a few days but I have a few things to post about. So, I'm gonna get cracking...

I came across at Ubuntu Start which is a script that will help you get started with a fresh install of Ubuntu Lucid.

It's a great idea and I hope it gets better and with options as the app evolve.

Ubuntu Start

Sunday 9 May 2010

Command-Line Tips

Two days ago a read this post in Net.tutplus.com, about the CLI. It's always good to know your way around the CLI in Linux based systems. You never know when you gonna need it next. I liked the tip of using tab to finish commands in the terminal, I didn't know, quite handy.

I would like to add a couple more tips:

  • The first one is not a tip but a refrase of one of the tips in the named post. Just to say that the command "~" is the address of your home directory and it can be used to change, copy or anything.
    cd ~
    cp ~
    And you can also use it like that
    cd ~/Documents/somethingelse/etc/
  • And another tip a friend told me is you can use ctrl+alt+f1 to access the comand line, you can use from f1 to f6 for the command line, and f7 to go back to GUI
  • If you want to kill all the processes:
    killall
  • Kill an rogue application using it’s name. Instead of hunting around the System Monitor to kill a rogue application, just killall it
    killall app_name
  • But sometimes is just better to kill what ever is messing with you system, in that case use:
    top
    Look for the process in particular and then use:
    kill 5689 (the number of the Id of the process)
  • If you like using top, install htop is a better version of top.
    sudo apt-get install htop
    To start it just type:
    htop
  • Ever entered a command but left off the ‘sudo’ ? Instead of typing the entire thing again, or back-arrowing to the start, just type the following to run the previous command as root.
    sudo !!
  • 2 commands I'm always using and I always forget:
    tocompress: tar -czf nametarfile.tar.gz namefolder
    toextract: tar xvzf tarfile.tar.gz

Reclaim vertical space with Firefox 3.6

Not so long ago a saw this post on Dotnetwizard.net where I picked up a couple of good tips on saving vertical space, quite handy if you are using a neetbook or small laptop. I always hate the way if you are not careful firefox eats lots of space with toolbars and other crap.

My other two suggestions on top of the Dotnetwizard.net, are:

  • Tiny menu Replace the standard menu bar with a tiny menu popup.
  • The other is not an addon but for network tweaks you could also install Swiftfox

Script To Close Dropbox After The Synchronization Is Done [Linux]

Today I have been very busy and I didn't have time to post about this earlier but webup8 has posted a brilliant post on how to close the Dropbox once synchronization finishes and applying a crontab you can have running at intervals.

I'm not going to say anything else, follow the link is all there. And have a look also on the link it supplies about the original post in ubuntuforums.

Monday 3 May 2010

How to install ted in ubuntu lucid 10.04

Ted is an acronym for torrent episode downloader. Is a nice application which as the name suggest it downloads the torrents for the episode you select and it does a rather good job of it. It also tells you when the next episode will air, etc. Ted is programmed in java and it's a stand alone application, but if you want to install it in Ubuntu and run it in your startup applications here are the steps:

First of all download ted from here

Extract and copy the folder name "tedv09715" into your home folder and rename it ".tedv09715" to make it invisible. Once you do that and refresh nautilus you won't be able to see the folder anymore, if you want to see the hidden folder go the "view" in nautilus and click "show hidden folder" option. Browse for that folder again and double click it, inside should be another folder named "tedv09715 2" double click and inside should be the "ted.jar" we are looking for. Right click on "ted.jar" and choose properties, go to the third tab "permissions" and check the "Allow execute file as program".

Once you have done that we will add a menu option in gnome, to do this go the System->preferences->Main menu. First in left side "menus" choose internet and then select new item on the right side.

Enter:

Name: ted

command: java -jar /home/yourusername/.tedv09715/tedv09715\ 2/ted.jar

comment: torrent episode downloader

For the icon browse to ted folder "/home/yourusername/.tedv09715/tedv09715\ 2/" and select the "winicon.ico"

To add ted in the startup menu, go to System->Preferences->Startup Applications, select "add" and enter the same options as in the menu option.

Here is ted wiki for anyhelp.

How to install electricsheep screen saver in Ubuntu Lucid 10.04

Electricsheep screensaver is in Ubuntus repositories. To install:

sudo apt-get install electricsheep

But for some reason it didn't work for me. Well, electripsheep was installed and run just fine. Even gnome-screensaver detected the screensaver and run a preview, but went the time came to run as a screensaver it just showed a black screen.

So, after trying a few things, what actually worked for me was. I uninstall gnome-screensaver and install xscreensaver instead from synaptic, then I started xscreensaver from the menu, system->preferences->screensaver

But xscreensaver didn't show electricsheep on the menu, I didn't know how to make it show up and I'm sure there are better ways to do this, but I just took the first screensaver option that was there for me, which was the antspotlight and click settings, once the window with the settings came up click the advance tab and in the command line delete what is there and write down "electricsheep" instead...

After that xscreensaver will detect electricsheep, and it will be in on the option in the screensavers list.

http://electricsheep.org/

Saturday 1 May 2010

How to fix boot logo in Ubuntu lucid 10.04 (splash screen)

Since I started using Ubuntu Lucid the logo in the splash screen always look kinda ugly to me but I never gave it to much thought, until today when I saw this article today in softpedia. Now the Ubuntu logo looks goods during boot, I'll posted here for future reference like everything else.

Terminal:

sudo apt-get install v86d
gksu gedit /etc/default/grub
- Replace the following line (line number 9):
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
with this one:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nomodeset video=uvesafb:mode_option=1280x1024-24,mtrr=3,scroll=ywrap"
- Replace the following line (line number 18):
#GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480
with this one:
GRUB_GFXMODE=1280x1024
Back in terminal:
gksu gedit /etc/initramfs-tools/modules
When the text window appears, add the following line at the end of the file:
uvesafb mode_option=1280x1024-24 mtrr=3 scroll=ywrap
Back in terminal:
echo FRAMEBUFFER=y | sudo tee /etc/initramfs-tools/conf.d/splash
sudo update-grub2
sudo update-initramfs -u

Friday 30 April 2010

How to play vcd in Ubuntu Lucid 10.04

It may not be the best solution, but after trying a few things the only thing that seemed to work is through mplayer.

First install mplayer by typing in the terminal:

sudo apt-get install mplayer

Once you have mplayer install play the vcd by typing one of these commands until one of those works:

mplayer vcd://2

mplayer vcd://1

mplayer vcd://


Hope this works.

I also tried but it didn't seemed to work for me (I post them just in case it helps somebody)

Trying to play the .dat file in the cd with totem or vlc.
Installing gxine didn't work either

Enable Ctrl-Alt-Backspace in Ubuntu 10.04(Lucid Lynx)

* Select “System”->”Preferences”->”Keyboard”

* Select the “Layouts” tab and click on the “Layout Options” button.

* Select “Key sequence to kill the X server” and enable “Control + Alt + Backspace”.

Sunday 25 April 2010

How to install sun-java6 in Ubuntu Lucid 10.4

Once you know how is actually quite easy... The simplest way to do this is through the repositories.

Got to System->Administration->Software Sources, then go the second tap "Other Software" and check the "http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu" option. Once yo close the window, it will refresh the repositories. Now you can go to synaptic and install it there.

If you want the latest and don't want to wait for the repositories to get updated follow this link...

Oracle (Sun) Java JRE

it is the easiest follow tutorial you will get out there...

************UPDATE**************

Ubuntu PPA

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:sun-java-community-team/sun-java6

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install sun-jav

Thursday 22 April 2010

Remove anchor icon from docky

In OMG! today was posted this tip:

Did you know that very recently Docky added the option to remove the Anchor icon from the dock? Oh yes!

OMG! reader kiwisoup e-mailed me over some instructions that I thought i’d paste here: -

* Press ALT + F2
* Type command “gconf-editor" and hit enter/return
* Navigate to "apps/docky-2/docky/items/DockyItem" in the gconf-editor
* Uncheck "ShowDockyItem"
* Restart Docky

Et voilà! Anchor free Docky!

Terminal way
If you're lazy and want to do this via the terminal you can do so using the following commands. (Thanks to commenter dRewsus)

this command will turn the icon off:

* gconftool-2 --type Boolean --set /apps/docky-2/Docky/Items/DockyItem/ShowDockyItem False


this will turn it back on:

* gconftool-2 --type Boolean --set /apps/docky-2/Docky/Items/DockyItem/ShowDockyItem True

Remember that you will need to restart Docky to see the changes.

Granola - Make your PC environmentally friendly

What it used to be MicroMiser, now has changed to Granola and looking much better...

Granola is software that improves the energy efficiency of your PC or laptop.

Check it out at: http://grano.la/

I personally still need to prove that is actually works, but is definitely interesting especially for saving on battery live for laptops...

Monday 19 April 2010

Equalizer for Pulse Audio

There’s a really cool equalizer for Pulse Audio which can be installed by adding a repository. Its a system wide equalizer hence no matter what media player you use, you will be able to utilise this setting.



How to install:



Open the Terminal (Accessories > Terminal) and type in the following:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:psyke83/ppa
Next type the following in the Terminal:

sudo apt-get update
Finally, type the following (in the Terminal of course)

sudo apt-get install pulseaudio-equalizer
Thats it. You can access the Pulse Audio Equalizer from the Sounds & Video menu.

********************UPDATE******************
PPA not working for Maverick

https://launchpad.net/~psyke83/+archive/ppa/+packages

Sunday 18 April 2010

Music Players

As you may know, this is not your normal blog. It is just a way to store thing I may find interesting on the internet for future reference. I welcome readers if they find equally interesting the things I'm posting and I'll offer help if needed with anything I post.

As a music lover I always keep an eye for music players. I still think that Amarok 2 is the best thing around and still improving every time, but they still haven't implemented things from the old Amarok into the new one, I still hope they do some day. But my hopes are sleeping away as they don't seem to be interested on them and the time is passing. I'm talking such things as be able to browse the music by added today, yesterday, last week, etc. I thought that was a good feature. Anyway, the reason I'm posting today is to talk about a couple of other music players. I always keep an eye open for new contenders in the market. Especially for cross-platform ones, and in the last while I came across a couple of interesting one.

The first one is Clementine, a cross platform music player based in Amarok 1.4, I've already giving it a go and it is in its early stages and missing a lot of features that Amarok had, but I think what I has it does it well, definitely one to watch in the future if they continue the way they are going.

The second one is aTunes, even though I hate the name and I hate Itunes this is not a copy of Itunes, is totally different. They are going by version 2 and it looks very good. I haven't tried yet, but I'll definitely will in the near future.

Saturday 17 April 2010

Conky - A light weight system monitor

Right until now I was using a system monitor widget from screenlets as my system monitor. But today I discovered a pretty cool system monitor. It's really customizable, you can setit up to show just about anything you want and just the way you want it; from color, fonts, ...

Get conky from Ubuntu repository:
sudo apt-get install conky
To make conky work with compiz:
sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Go to this section:
Section "Module"
And add this line:
Load "dbe"

I've plain around for a while to make my conky to look just the way I wanted. I'll add the script to save you the trouble. Copy and paste the code below in a file called ".conkyrc" using gedit in your home directory (in the root of your home direcotory "~/.conkyrc").


# Conky, a system monitor, based on torsmo
#
# Any original code is licensed under the BSD license
#
# All code written is licensed under the GPL
#
# Please see COPYING for details
#
# Copyright (c) 2010, Carles Sentis
# All rights reserved.
#
# This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
# the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
# (at your option) any later version.
#
# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
# GNU General Public License for more details.
# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
# along with this program. If not, see .
#

double_buffer yes
alignment top_right
background no
border_width 1
cpu_avg_samples 2
default_color white
default_outline_color white
default_shade_color white
draw_borders no
draw_graph_borders yes
draw_outline no
draw_shades no
use_xft yes
xftfont DejaVu Sans Mono:size=12
gap_x 5
gap_y 60
minimum_size 410 5
net_avg_samples 2
no_buffers yes
out_to_console no
out_to_stderr no
extra_newline no

# Create own window instead of using desktop (required in nautilus)
own_window yes
#own_window_class Conky
own_window_type normal
own_window_hints undecorated, below, sticky, skip_taskbar, skip_pager
own_window_transparent yes

stippled_borders 0
update_interval 2.0
uppercase no
use_spacer none
show_graph_scale no
show_graph_range no

TEXT
${color #ddaa00}$nodename${alignr}${time %T}
${alignr}Uptime: $uptime
${alignr}linux-$kernel
$hr
${color grey}Frequency (in MHz):$color $freq
${color grey}Frequency (in GHz):$color $freq_g
${color grey}RAM Usage:$color $mem/$memmax - $memperc% ${membar 4}
${color grey}Swap Usage:$color $swap/$swapmax - $swapperc% ${swapbar 4}
${color grey}Temp: CPU $color${acpitemp}C${color grey} - Nvidia $color${nvidia temp}C
${color grey}CPU Usage:

${offset 40}CPU1${color #ddaa00} ${cpugauge cpu1 30,70}
${offset 115}${color }${cpu cpu1}
${offset 40}${color grey}${cpugraph cpu0 30,355 00000 ddaa00 -t}

${color grey}Processes:$color $processes ${color grey}Running:$color $running_processes

${offset 40}${color slate grey}Highest CPU: PID CPU%
${offset 40}${color #ddaa00} ${top name 1} ${top pid 1}${top cpu 1}
${offset 40}${color lightgrey} ${top name 2} ${top pid 2}${top cpu 2}
${offset 40}${color lightgrey} ${top name 3} ${top pid 3}${top cpu 3}
${offset 40}${color lightgrey} ${top name 4} ${top pid 4}${top cpu 4}

${offset 40}${color slate grey}Highest MEM: PID MEM%
${offset 40}${color #ddaa00} ${top_mem name 1} ${top_mem pid 1}${top_mem mem 1}
${offset 40}${color lightgrey} ${top_mem name 2} ${top_mem pid 2}${top_mem mem 2}
${offset 40}${color lightgrey} ${top_mem name 3} ${top_mem pid 3}${top_mem mem 3}
${offset 40}${color lightgrey} ${top_mem name 4} ${top_mem pid 4}${top_mem mem 4}
$hr
${color grey}File systems:

${offset 40}${color slate grey}ROOT: ${color }${fs_free /}/${fs_size /} ${fs_bar 4 /}
${offset 40}${color slate grey}HOME: ${color }${fs_free /home}/${fs_size /home} ${fs_bar 4 /home}
$hr
${color grey}Networking:

${offset 40}${color grey}Down:$color ${downspeed eth0} ${color grey}Up:$color ${upspeed eth0}
${offset 40}${downspeedgraph eth0 30,170 00000 ddaa00 -t} ${upspeedgraph eth0 30,170 00000 ddaa00 -t}
${offset 40}${color slate grey}Address: ${color }${addr eth0}
${offset 40}${color slate grey}TCP Connections: ${color }${tcp_portmon 1 65535 count}
$hr
${color grey}Other:

${offset 40}${color }Volume: $mixer%

Wednesday 14 April 2010

Prey - Now with Wifi geolocalization support on Prey 0.3.7!

I was just thinking today about writing about Prey and just went I'm about to open my blog I get an e-mail talking about the new version of Prey 0.3.7.

Prey is a lightweight application that will help you track and find your laptop if it ever gets stolen. It works in all operating systems and not only is it Open Source but also completely free.

Here is a link about the new super cool features on prey, it's a short read but very interesting:

http://preyproject.com/blog/2010/03/prey-0-3-7-now-locate-your-computer

Other ways just go to http://preyproject.com

Tuesday 13 April 2010

GoogSysTray

I just heard about this cool application GoogSysTray, to keep you up to date with all your google apps. Did I mention is cross platform too?

Googsystray is a system tray app for Google Voice, GMail, Google Calendar, Google Reader, and Google Wave. It notifies on new messages, alerts, etc., and provides basic services quickly.

If you go under view all files, there's a deb package:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/googsystray/

Monday 12 April 2010

Get counted

I recently read that the number of Linux user has increased in the last few years. Ubuntu alone has ground from 8 million to 12 million in the last 2 years. But all this figures are estimates and there's isn't a conclusive way on proving how many people actually use Linux, or where,...

So, Go to http://counter.li.org/ and register in and you can even install a script which will update the web side on your use. Good for statistic, demographics, etc.

Lets go and get counted

Thursday 8 April 2010

DamnVid - Video Download tool

DamnVid is a cross-platform application to download and convert videos from your hard drive or from dozens of video sharing websites like YouTube, Dailymotion, Veoh, Metacafe, etc. Basically, it's a video downloader and converter that sucks less.

What is Damnvid?
  • A video converter, first and foremost. It makes use of the wonderful FFmpeg library, used in other software like VLC Media Player or Google Chrome.
  • A video downloader. While DamnVid can convert local video files just fine, it can also download video streams from most video sharing websites. But what gives it the edge over other video downloaders and converters is that not only it does both the downloading and the converting, but it does them at the same time: it converts as it downloads, making the whole process much faster.
  • A cross-platform software that sucks less.
http://code.google.com/p/damnvid/

important - There is no support for lucid yet!!!

******************UPDATED********************************

Here is a link to the Ubuntu PPA

Monday 5 April 2010

Completely removing wine

Removing wine completely from Ubuntu:

$ sudo apt-get --purge remove wine
$ sudo apt-get autoremove
$ sudo rm -r ~/.wine

You can remove the following files but not necessary:

/usr/share/app-install/desktop/wine.desktop
/usr/share/app-install/desktop/wineconfig.desktop
/usr/share/app-install/desktop/winefish.desktop
/usr/share/app-install/icons/_usr_share_pixmaps_winefish-icon.png
/usr/share/python-support/guidance-backends/wineread.py
/usr/share/python-support/guidance-backends/winewrite.py
/var/lib/python-support/python2.5/wineread.py
/var/lib/python-support/python2.5/wineread.pyc
/var/lib/python-support/python2.5/winewrite.py
/var/lib/python-support/python2.5/winewrite.pyc

Never use rm if you don't know what you are doing

I don't know why the menus still there in gnome but everything else has been remove. If you don't want to see the menus go to System -> Preferences -> Main Menu and remove it from there.

If later you want to reinstall wine first renable the menu in gnome by going to /home/username/.config/menus you should find a file - applications.menu . Inside should be similar to this:

<!DOCTYPE Menu
  PUBLIC '-//freedesktop//DTD Menu 1.0//EN'
  'http://standards.freedesktop.org/menu-spec/menu-1.0.dtd'>
<Menu>
    <Name>Applications</Name>
    <MergeFile type="parent">/etc/xdg/menus/applications.menu</MergeFile>
    <Menu>
        <Name>wine-wine</Name>
        <Deleted/>
    </Menu>
</Menu>

If so delete the file. (if there's more than the wine entry I'd try just removing the wine ref.) There may be other wine related .menus in the applications-merged folder, delete them also. Now you can reinstall wine.

Sunday 4 April 2010

Gedit Plugins

I always knew gedit had plugins but I never really gave it much thought until today. If you are a developer, been web or app this may be quite interesting to you.

Install by synaptic gedit-plugins and go to edit -> preferences and the plugins tab.

Here is the gedit plugins page: http://live.gnome.org/Gedit/Plugins

The plugin that really caught my attention was the embedded terminal plugin, quite useful. One window less to have open and you see the code and terminal side by side. To be able to see the terminal just make sure you have the view -> bottom pane option enable in gedit to see the terminal.

Change Amarok 2 theme colors under Gnome (Ubuntu)

Yesterday I was wondering if it was at all possible to change the Amarok theme colors from gnome in Ubuntu. And after a little search I found out that not only it was possible but quite easy also. Here is the steps to take:

Open the ternimal and copy/paste:

First you need to install the systems setting native of kde

$ sudo apt-get install systemsettings kdebase-workspace-bin

make sure is compiled correcly

$ kbuildsycoca4 --noincremental

Don't worry if you get errors

$ systemsettings 

Get-flash-videos - A command line program to download flash videos

Download videos from various Flash-based video hosting sites, without having to use the Flash player. Handy for saving videos for watching offline, and means you don't have to keep upgrading Flash for sites that insist on a newer version of the player.

You can check project home page

My First Post

This is an idea I has for a while now and I'm glad to see that finally I got the energy to start this blog. I think this was the harder part. I hope this blog is more for a personal use only but I'm hopping that anyone coming around here will find a little help...