I learned something new today and thought you should try it out.
To find out or determine your button layout/number run the following in the command line:
xev
A nice little screen will pop up. Experiment!
Gmail Notifier is a Linux alternative for the notifier program released by Google, it is written in Python and provides an attractive and simple way to check for new mail messages.
Gmail Notifier works with Google Apps accounts but when you try to access your inbox it goes to the gmail website and not your domain’s URL.
For those that don’t have Gmail Notifier installed you can find more information about it and install/download it at their website. For the lazy Linix users (you Ubuntu users), you can find it in the package manager (Applications -> Add/Remove…), go to apt:gmail-notify in a web browser, or run the following in the command line:
sudo apt-get install gmail-notify
After installation of gmail-notify run the following in the command line:
cd /usr/lib/gmail-notify sudo gedit notifier.py
I used gedit to modify my file but you are free to use whatever text editor you like.
Next find the following code:
def gotourl( self, wg=None): print "----------" print "launching browser "+self.options['browserpath']+" http://mail.google.com/" os.system(self.options['browserpath']+" http://mail.google.com/ &")
Replace it with
def gotourl( self, wg=None): print "----------" print "launching browser "+self.options['browserpath']+" https://mail.google.com/a/SITE.COM" os.system(self.options['browserpath']+" https://mail.google.com/a/SITE.COM &")
And that is all you need to do! Restart gmail-notify and the changes should be made. Now if only Gmail Notifier included this by default and let you manage multiple accounts at the same time.
AllTray, which can be found in the Synaptic (System -> Administation – > Synaptice Package Manager) is an application that docks applications and programs to the system tray. This can be useful when you have a program that you always run and don’t want minimized or closed (FireFox, Calculator, etc;). AllTray has a GUI and is very user friendly. However, more and more programs are having the option to dock it to the tray since Linux is become more main-stream.
Gimp 2.6 just came out. It is an improvement over 2.4 but bugs still need to be fixed.
Anyways, run the following to remove Wilber (the fox) where the toolbox menubar used to be:
echo "(toolbox-wilber no)" >> ~/.gimp-2.6/gimprc
in the command line.
The creators don’t like this, but the image is a waste of space.
Here is the second installment of Command Line Fun.
This easter egg is pretty old but still cool/wierd.
aptitude -v moo in the command line, keep adding v’sHere is the first installment of Command Line fun.
apt-get moo in the command line.The command line doesn’t look scary any more!
If you have ever seen a screenshot of an ubuntu desktop created by a linux expert chances are it had a command line interface on the desktop. To put the terminal on your desktop is really easy.
Open Terminal. Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal
In Terminal go to Edit -> Profiles…
Click on ‘New‘
In ‘Profile name:‘ type DesktopConsole *NOTE: This is a very important; this will be reference later
‘Base on:‘ should then be set to Default
Create
In the ‘General‘ tab uncheck Show menubar by default in new terminals
In the ‘Title and Command‘ tab change ‘Initial title:‘ to transparentdesktopterminal *NOTE: This is a very important; this will be reference later
You can edit the options in the ‘Color’ tab on your own. I unchecked ‘Use colors from system theme‘ and changed ‘Built-in scheme:‘ to Gray on Black
In the ‘Effects‘ clicked on ‘Transparent background‘ and dragged the ‘Shade transparent or image background:‘ scroll bar to about 40%
In the ‘Scrolling‘ tab set ‘Scrollbar is:‘ to Disabled
There is no need to change anything in the ‘Compatibility‘ tab.
Close the ‘Editing Profile “DesktopConsole”‘ window and the ‘Profiles‘ window. Leave Terminal up and running though.
First we need to install devilspie. We can do this in the already open Terminal window.
Run sudo apt-get install devilspie
Next we are going to make a devilspie directory (folder) in our home directory. It will be hidden. We will then make a DesktopConsole.ds file which will contain the configuration files.
mkdir ~/.devilspie
gedit ~/.devilspie/DesktopConsole.ds
In the DesktopConsole.ds file copy and paste the following code:
(if
(matches (window_name) "transparentdesktopterminal")
(begin
(set_workspace 4)
(below)
(undecorate)
(skip_pager)
(skip_tasklist)
(wintype "utility")
(geometry "450x350+795+605")
)
)
The only part of the code you will have to change is the geometry. This will change for each screen resolution. I have a screen resolution of 1280 x 1024 and my terminal is located in the bottom right corner. Here is the explanation of the geometry code.
(geometry "WIDTHxHEIGHT+HORIZONTAL_OFFSET+VERTICAL_OFFSET")
3. Set it up!
We now have to set up the newly created Terminal to run on startup.
Open Sessions. System -> Preferences -> Sessions
Click ‘Add‘
Under ‘Name:‘ type devilspie (Transparent Terminal)
Under ‘Command:‘ type devilspie
Under ‘Comment:‘ type Makes the transparent terminal work
Click ‘Add‘ again
Under ‘Name:‘ type Transparent Terminal
Under ‘Command:‘ type gnome-terminal --window-with-profile=DesktopConsole *Note: double dashes before window
Under ‘Comment:‘ type A transparent terminal on the desktop
Make sure devilspie (Transparent Terminal) runs before Transparent Terminal. Restart your computer and you should have a beautiful terminal on your desktop. Ctrl + Alt + Backspace
Play around with your settings and color to create a beautiful and elegant desktop. Please take a look at the devilspie wiki for more commands for the ultimate in customization.
Bonus! Want to put Finch, the text-based messaging client based off of Pidgin, on your desktop? Follow the above instructions but name the window FinchConsoleWindow and add the following to your sessions: gnome-terminal --window-with-profile=FinchConsoleWindow -x "finch". Edit your devilspie or create a new one to match the new names.
KeePass is a free, open-source, light-weight and easy-to-use password manager. I use this application all the time; It helps me make stronger passwords. If you can’t make your own hard-to-remember-but-very-secure-passoword, 
then KeyPass has an auto-generate feature which is very customizable, fast and easy to use. It is also very easy to manage your multitude of passwords – with sub-folders, groups, and handy-sorting. To top all of this off KeyPass can be used in Windows, Linux and Mac! The Linux and Mac version is called KeePassX because it is an unofficial port; you can find KeePassX in Add/Remove in Ubuntu. Don’t worry about people viewing your passwords because the database is always encrypted either with AES (alias Rijndael) or Twofish encryption algorithm using a 256 bit key. You can also hide almost all the KeyPass information under asterisks.
KeePass is a must use for computer users who use several passwords for several websites or utilities that want to be secure.
The future is now. There is no excuse for every family not to have a computer with internet access. Children in thi
rd-world-countries can enjoy technology if you donate $100 to One Laptop per Child (OLPC). There are other options too. There is the nimbus cloud computer that is almost 100% free – all you have to do is pay $9.99 for shipping. However you can only buy the nimbus in the States and you may have to put up with advertisements. Others may be more interested in the Eee PC by Asus for as little as $300. Most restaurants now have free WiFi so users now have the internet at their fingertips. Home users are also opening up their routers to share the goodness with networks like FON.
How is it possible to have all this technology available and offer it for so little money? Linux. You will never see a Windows or Mac computer being sold for next to nothing. Thank you Linux for providing the world with internet.
If you are 
using Windows XP or Vista and have Linux you may be wondering where your Linux partition is. Most likely it is not showing up in My Computer. This is because most Linux partitions are formated in Ext2/3. Windows does not recognize this type of file system. If you have a floppy/thumb drive that is formatted in this way, it too will not show up.
The solution is FS-Driver. Installation is very simple. Download then run the executable in Windows. The set-up menu (above) should look very similar to your operating system’s own partition manager. Select your partition and drive letter and then you will see your Linux drive in My Computer. I suggest that if you have a separate partition for /home that you just use that.
twodayslate 