Conky-Faenza theme -


Styled in the vein if, but not identical to, mac widget iStat-Pro it provides a tidy and attractive way to keep an eye on system vitals, such as CPU, without needing to resort to a desktop full of screenlets or a run-of-the-mill Conky output.
The setup ships with six themes including Ambiance ( which is set as default), Elementary and Sonar.
The default configuartion will likely serve most people well but you can, naturally, tweak it to your hearts content by editing the .conkyrc file in your home folder.
Download @ gnome-look.org

Install

Got conky installed? No? Click here or search the Software Centre for ‘Conky’.
Once done extract the contents of the conky-faenza archive to your home folder and proceed to run ‘conky’ from either the terminal or via ALT+F2.
Refer to the ‘Read Me’ included for further tweaks and customization options.

Five Facebook apps for the Ubuntu desktop


Today our compendium of computing curiosities commonly called ‘OMG! 5!’ sees us poke around in the software drawers of everyone’s favourite social network Facebook and sees us find five  Facebook-only notification applications for use on your Ubuntu desktop.

Facebook RSS Notifier

A tool simple in its aim: you whack in your Facebook notification feed and, at an interval definable by you, it checks what’s new and alerts you accordingly.
It makes use of a standard GNOME tray icon and the resulting ‘notification window’ is far from bling-beauty, but its easy to set up and even easier to use.

Download

A .deb file is provided on the projects’ Sourceforge page.

Replace the icon

It’s a shame the tool doesn’t use an Indicator Applet rather than the increasingly defunct and démodé trappings of a regular applet. Nevertheless  you can manually replace the default icon with one of your own choosing; replacements should be dropped in
/usr/share/facebook-rss/pixs/

Score

RSS-Facebook-Noifier can only rustle up two Zuckerburgs – it’s functional but could be a lot better than it is.
ZuckerburgZuckerburg

Wallbox

The name is a rather incongruously named entry compared to other notification applets in this list – all of which sneak the words ‘face’ and ‘book’ into their titles -  but Wallbox stands as the most capable of them all
Not only does it ‘notify’ you of updates but you can respond, like and even update your status direct from the desktop.
Truly a power-facebook users dream desktop tool.

Download

Installation is made easy using the Wallbox PPA: -
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ronmi/wallbox
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install wallbox
The application is installed in ‘Applications > Internet ‘ sub-menu.

Score

Wallbox gets four Zuckerburgs out of five for features, but loses one point for the lack of clear branding.
ZuckerburgZuckerburgZuckerburgZuckerburg

Facebook Notify

Facebook notify has Ubuntu users catered for with support for native notification out of the box.
Alerts supported : -
  • One of your friends changes their status, profile picture, or profile details
  • You receive a friend request, event or group invitation
  • Someone writes on one of your friends walls
  • One of your friends is tagged in a photo

Download

Before downloading do check that all required dependencies are installed;
sudo aptitude install python-webkit python-simplejson
Then proceed to download Facebook Notify using the link beneath:
Extract the archive and move the resulting folder to somewhere ‘safe’.
Enter the folder and double click on ‘facebook-notify.py‘, choosing ‘Run’ when prompted. The Facebook icon will appear in your system tray. Left-click on this to login and start receiving alerts!

Score

Facebook Notify gets 3 Zuckerburgs: it’s neat, tidy and a great notifier.
ZuckerburgZuckerburgZuckerburg

Facebook Screenlet

If you’re looking for something much smaller and much less annoying than the above then consider a Facebook notification ‘screenlet’ (desktop widgets for Linux) such as the, very obviously named, ‘Facebook Notifier Screenlet’.
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It doesn’t do much else other than display notifications but clicked notifications do open directly in your browser which saves time. As for extras you’ll need to look elsewhere – but with a screenlet you don’t need much else right?

Score

It does what it claims to and not a jot more. For that it earns a duo of Zuckerburgs.
image9image9

Gwibber

Finally no list would be complete without mentioning the one application available on Ubuntu by default that can do all of the above and more: Gwibber.
This you can find under Applications > Internet > Gwibber Social Client. Authorize Facebook for use with it and away you go.
It allows you to receive notifications via the Messaging Menu, respond to alerts, post status updates etc.

Score

It’s integrated into the desktop and there by default. Ease of use and availability scores Gwibber a full house of five Zuckerburgs.

Force All Websites To Use The Ubuntu Font


Love the new Ubuntu font so much that you want every website to use it? Say hello to the following plucky Chrome extension which offers to do just that
We recently featured a bookmarklet (small javascript tool that sits in your bookmarks bar) which offered to do the same on a manual basis. This extension goes one ste further by forcibly implementing it on every website. The results range from pretty to, well, not so pretty. Fixed-width fonts don’t become fixed-width anymore, and if you have Chrome syncing your extensions with a Windows machine it’ll mess up there too.

Download

MurrinaPolymer GTK 2.x Theme/Style Ubuntu




This light gray GTK theme aims to be clean and easy to our poor eyes.
The colour scheme can be changed trough gnome-appearance-properties.
It has RGBA support; some widgets (buttons, text field, scrollbars) have remained opaque to improve readibility.

Recommended Emerald Theme: Vetro Affumicato http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/Vetro+Affumicato?content=126638

Recommended Metacity Theme: Vetro Affumicato Basic http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php?content=133801




Maximising Screen Space In Ubuntu

Squashed for screen space? Whilst my desktop has 1440×900 glorious pixels to fill my netbook sadly doesn’t.
As such I tend to run all my apps max­i­mized on my netbook, I noticed that by removing the title bar from app windows could free up some much needed room – but how do you go about doing it?
Ubuntu Netbook Edition of past shipped with two tools designed specifically for this purpose: Maximus & Window picker applet.

Window picker applet & Maximus

These two are an awesome combination, and because of the pickers’ ‘window switching’ feature it allows you to completely dispel with a bottom panel entirely!

There are drawbacks. Maximus automatically maximizes every window; this can be seen as a boon or a bane but since you can unmaxmize windows if you so wish it  shouldn’t get in the way of your workflow to any great extent.
Depending on the screen width you might find the picker gets cramped with too many windows open.

Installing

Both are ready waiting to be installed in Ubuntu – no PPA or .deb files needed. Just search for ‘Maximus’ and ‘Window Picker’ in Synaptic or click here and here to launch install via the Ubuntu Software Centre.

Using

For Maximus to work as intended you will need to add it to your list of start-up applications. To do this head to ‘System > Preferences > Start-up Applications’. Click the ‘Add’ button and enter ‘maximus’ as both name and command.
Add the Window Picker to your top panel the traditional way: right click on some empty panel space, choose ‘Add’. In the Applet list that appears double click on  ‘Window Picker Applet’.
Finally, move the applet to your desired position.

Window Applets

Another popular choice is gnome panel app ‘Window Applets’. Similar to how Ubuntu Unity handles maximized windows it embeds Window controls in the panel itself for maximised applications.
Window Applets can be installed from the following PPA.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tsbarnes/misc
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install gnome-window-applets
Add it to your top panel by right clicking on some empty space, choosing ‘Add’ then selecting ‘Window Applets’ from the applet list. Move to your desired position.

Compiz

Removing the ‘title’ bar can also be achieved using Compiz, but without being used in conjunction with a capable window switching tool it can get tricky (read: annoying) to effectively manage open windows.
It does give a slick, seamless effect to your desktop, as this screenshot by reader DanielRM shows.
xkssn7
If you’re still game you can find out how to add the simple ‘rule’ using the CompizConfig Settings Manager @ this link.
All methods listed here retain window controls/title bars for non-maximized applications.

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