Conky Weather Program in Bash Script - Conkywx 0.7.8 Released

NOTE:
For latest version of Conky Weather Program conkywx please look here


Weather Information for Conky - or as some may say Conky Weather Program

Many changes and updates - Refer to the conkywx wiki for more information.

Additions:

• Conkywx Weather Program Assistant - typing conkywx or conkywx -h or conkywx -v will launch this assistant - forceupdate and debug have been moved here.
• use_template_cleanup - in conkywx.conf
• custom_time_format - in conkywx.conf
• 16 New Elements which include 14 Trends, Abbreviated Moon Phase output text and METAR Information.
• Cleaned up conkywx output in case no Internet connectivity for all elements
  

NOTE:

• As many users are using various conky variants - conky is no longer a dependency but however - conky is still required. Please ensure conky - in what ever form - is infact installed. 
• To reduce duplication of effort - conkywx man page now has basic information and has a link to the wiki which is normally being updated real time as changes to conkywx are being made.
• On Arch Linux the new conkywx.conf will be saved as /etc/conkywx/conkywx.conf.pacnew - review the changes and update your conkywx.conf
• If you are using Gnome 3 - own_window_type in the *conkyrc.sh needs to be changed to normal
• In some cases to have conky restart automatically you may need to give a sleep 30 - delay in your conky-start script
• *conkyrc.sh files are configured on XFCE 4.10 with compiz + emerald - you may need to tweak conkyrc examples for your DE

There is a wiki page conkywx wiki

If you are using Arch linux visit this AUR page https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=59931

If you are using Debian based Distro - Ubuntu, CrunchBang, Mint etc Download ver 0.7.8

If you are using RPM based distro - Fedora, CentOS, Suse etc Download ver 0.7.8

There is also a Stand Alone version you can run in your home directory Download ver 0.7.8_sa

For this stand alone version you will need to copy the fonts in to the ~/.fonts directory. It is a hidden folder in your home directory. Use the conky-restart.sh file to get it going or see how it works and integrate into your existing conky setup.

People - feedback from you would be great ;-)

Conky Weather Program in Bash Script - Conkywx 0.7.5 Released

NOTE:
For latest version of Conky Weather Program conkywx please look here


Weather Information for Conky - or as some may say Conky Weather Program

Changes in Conkywx.conf - config file for conkywx - The Conky Weather Program

• copy of config file /etc/conkywx/conkywx.conf file can be made at $HOME/.config/conkywx - this will then be the user's default conkywx.conf used.

Options in config file

• pc_what_case 
• use_pcondition_blacklist
• pcondition_blacklist
• Arrows to use for forecast trends
• enable_new_version_check

New Arrow Font

• A new arrow font has been added.
• New elements for the arrow display are added, FCTTF, FCTPF - these will show arrows for pressure and temp trends

Refer to the conkywx wiki for more information.

Bugs killed

• Under cirtain conditions conkywx would not refresh
• xml fix for conditions where Units_downloaded was IM

NOTE:

• As many users are using various conky variants - conky is no longer a dependency but however - conky is still required. Please ensure conky - in what ever form - is infact installed. 
• To reduce duplication of effort - conkywx man page now has basic information and has a link to the wiki which is normally being updated real time as changes to conkywx are being made.
• On Arch Linux the new conkywx.conf will be saved as /etc/conkywx/conkywx.conf.pacnew - review the changes and update your conkywx.conf
• If you are using Gnome 3 - own_window_type in the *conkyrc.sh needs to be changed to normal
• In some cases to have conky restart automatically you may need to give a sleep 30 - delay in your conky-start script
• *conkyrc.sh files are configured on XFCE 4.10 with compiz + emerald - you may need to tweak conkyrc examples for your DE

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There is a wiki page conkywx wiki

If you are using Arch linux visit this AUR page https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=59931

If you are using Debian based Distro - Ubuntu, CrunchBang, Mint etc Download ver 0.7.5

If you are using RPM based distro - Fedora, CentOS, Suse etc Download ver 0.7.5

There is also a Stand Alone version you can run in your home directory Download ver 0.7.5_sa

For this stand alone version you will need to copy the fonts in to the ~/.fonts directory. It is a hidden folder in your home directory. Use the conky-restart.sh file to get it going or see how it works and integrate into your existing conky setup.

People - feedback from you would be great ;-)

Conkywx Conky Weather Script 0.7.4 Released

Weather Information for Conky - or as some may say Conky Weather Script

NOTE:
For latest version of Conky Weather Program conkywx please look here

• config file validations - exit if given file does not exist no fall back to default
• version check download file timestamp issue corrected
• check for internet now handled by wget not ping
• config file additions - show_lowercase_ampm
• config file additions - show_degsym_fc_temp
• use_xml issues fixed where even if set to 0 - would still download the default data
• Removed show_short_cond_text scattered from blacklist
• additional option -b which works same as --debug
• fixed --debug information to show config file used and xml_ID info.

NOTE:

• On Arch Linux the new conkywx.conf will be saved as /etc/conkywx/conkywx.conf.pacnew - review the changes and update your conkywx.conf
• If you are using Gnome 3 - own_window_type in the *conkyrc.sh needs to be changed to normal
• *conkyrc.sh files are configured on XFCE 4.10 with compiz + emerald - you may need to tweak conkyrc examples for your DE

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There is a wiki which is same as the conkywx man page conkywx wiki

If you are using Arch linux visit this AUR page https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=59931

If you are using Debian based Distro - Ubuntu, CrunchBang, Mint etc Download ver 0.7.4

If you are using RPM based distro - Fedora, CentOS, Suse etc Download ver 0.7.4

There is also a Stand Alone version you can run in your home directory Download ver 0.7.4_sa

For this stand alone version you will need to copy the fonts in to the ~/.fonts directory. It is a hidden folder in your home directory. Use the conky-restart.sh file to get it going or see how it works and integrate into your existing conky setup.

People - feedback from you would be great ;-)

Conkywx Conky Weather Script 0.7.3 Released

NOTE:
For latest version of Conky Weather Program conkywx please look here



Weather Information for Conky - or as some may say Conky Weather Script

• Units_downloaded is reintroduced in the conkywx.conf
• Feels Like temp corrected for Locales where download is in IMperial units
• show_short_cond_text - New option introduced in conkywx.conf 
• automatically checks for new conkywx version every 24 hours and displays popup notification

| | 



There is a wiki which is same as the conkywx man page conkywx wiki

If you are using Arch linux visit this AUR page https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=59931

If you are using Debian based Distro - Ubuntu, CrunchBang, Mint etc Download ver 0.7.3

If you are using RPM based distro - Fedora, CentOS, Suse etc Download ver 0.7.3

There is also a Stand Alone version you can run in your home directory Download ver 0.7.3

For this stand alone version you will need to copy the fonts in to the ~/.fonts directory. It is a hidden folder in your home directory. Use the conky-restart.sh file to get it going or see how it works and integrate into your existing conky setup.

People - feedback from you would be great ;-)

Conkywx Conky Weather Script 0.7.2 Released

Weather for Conky

NOTE:
For latest version of Conky Weather Program conkywx please look here


Bug Fixes and code cleanup


| | 



There is a wiki which is same as the conkywx man page conkywx wiki

If you are using Arch linux visit this AUR page https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=59931

If you are using Debian based Distro - Ubuntu, CrunchBang, Mint etc Download ver 0.7.2

If you are using RPM based distro - Fedora, CentOS, Suse etc Download ver 0.7.2

This was packaged on Fedora 17 - Gnome 3.4.

If you are using  Gnome and have no conky display then this code should help.

The challenge here was  that "own_window_type override" does not work - you need to set it "own_window_type normal". this can be done from the command line using the terminal -

$ cd /usr/share/conkywx/examples/
$ sudo find . -name "wx*rc.sh" -exec sed -i 's`own_window_type override`own_window_type normal`g' {} \;

There is also a Stand Alone version you can run in your home directory Download ver 0.7.2

For this stand alone version you will need to copy the fonts in to the ~/.fonts directory. It is a hidden folder in your home directory. Use the conky-restart.sh file to get it going or see how it works and integrate into your existing conky setup.

People - feedback from you would be great ;-)

Conky Weather Script Conkywx ver 0.7.1 released

NOTE:
For latest version of Conky Weather Program conkywx please look here


Many changes and updates.

1. checks for internet connectivity
2. checks for data integrity if URL and Location were correct
3. makes data backup in case unable to update - shows you last data
4. new option -f or forceupdate - overrides minimum fetch time
5.  --dump option now gives more information in the header explaining how to read the file
6. more informative output on the command line in case of errors

|

There is a wiki which is same as the conkywx man page conkywx wiki

If you are using Arch linux visit this AUR page https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=59931

If you are using Debian based Distro - Ubuntu, CrunchBang, Mint etc Download ver 0.7.1

If you are using RPM based distro - Fedora, CentOS, Suse etc Download ver 0.7.1

This was packed on Fedora 17 - Gnome 3.4.

If you are using  Gnome and have no display then this code should help.

The challenge here was  that "own_window_type override" does not work - you need to set it "own_window_type normal". this can be done from the command line using the terminal -

$ cd /usr/share/conkywx/examples/
$ sudo find . -name "wx*rc.sh" -exec sed -i 's`own_window_type override`own_window_type normal`g' {} \;

There is also a Stand Alone version you can run in your home directory Download ver 0.7.1

For this stand alone version you will need to copy the fonts in to the ~/.fonts directory. It is a hidden folder in your home directory. Use the conky-restart.sh file to get it going or see how it works and integrate into your existing conky setup.

People - feedback from you would be great ;-)

Conky Weather Script Conkywx ver 0.7.0 released

NOTE:
For latest version of Conky Weather Program conkywx please look here



Many changes and updates.

1. New back grounds added
2. New templates
3. Code changes to handle wunderground booboos
4. weather images cleaned to fix png errors
5. all templates and conkyrc have extension .sh

If you are using Arch linux visit this aur page https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=59931

If you are using Debian based Distro - Ubuntu, CrunchBang, Mint etc Download

There is also a version you can run in your home directory Download
For this stand alone version you will need to copy the fonts in to the ~/.fonts directory. It is a hidden folder in your home directory. Use the conky-restart.sh file to get it going or see how it works and integrate into your existing conky setup.

Update conkywx conky weather script

NOTE:
For latest version of Conky Weather Program conkywx please look here


Updated conkywx 0.6.5-4

Changes: 12 hour boo boo fixed

New Conky Weather Program

Here is a new weather program written in Bash

NOTE:
For latest version of Conky Weather Program conkywx please look here

Screenshots


Check for the new updates in the blog archives

Support for :

• Multiple locations
• Multiple locations can be searched for using separate config files per location
• Templates
• Use templates to have very low CPU loads
• Direct elements
• Each element can be directly called. In fact if you add a config to each element - you can have multiple locations on the same conkyrc.
• Choose the kind of units you want - Imperial or Metric
• Choose the time format 12 hour AM/PM or 24 hour clock
• Choose Font based or Image based conkyrc
• Choose popup notifications each time conky updates
• and more - see wx-readme.txt file

Why Weather Underground

• Well IMO it has the best weather information on the web.

This program does not need the use of any Keys from the website only the URL or the location code for a supported location on the planet.

Weather has become a very important factor in our lives lately and hence this program.

Google Tasks on your Desktop

Just like you can have Google Tasks on your Android Device - you can also have this as an application on your Desktop - it does not matter what operating system you are using. Arch Linux is BEST :D

Type this URL in your browser

https://mail.google.com/tasks/canvas?pli=1

This will open an interface I do not think you have seen yet ;-)

A full fledged Tasks application - you can now pin it as an App in Firefox or other browsers have a desktop link to this website.

Google Tasks on your Android Device

Very simple to get REAL Google Tasks working on your Android device.

All actions below are to be done on your Android Device:

1. Open your browser
2. In the URL type gmail.com/tasks
3. once the page opens - make a Bookmark by pressing the menu button.- lets call it Tasks
4. On the Android Desktop create a short cut 
1. Press and hold your finger on the desktop for a second
2. a popup will show you options
3. select Shortcuts
4. select Bookmark
5. Now select the bookmark you created called Tasks
5. You now have an application link on the Android desktop

When you tap on this link the Android browser will open and launch you into Google Tasks

Add notes to your email in Gmail

Have you ever wondered if you could just add or annotate a note to an email?

I just came to this point in my email usage where I had an email - which had a label reference to it but I also needed a note for myself what though had come to me when I was reading the stared email and if I could have some use for that email at a future date. I just wanted to clean up my starred labelled emails...

This is what I found he he...

Gmail "does" support Notes - but with a twist and it can be used for each and every email you wish to add notes to.  These notes get added to the conversation and if you apply a label to them such as "Notes" or something then one can search the label.

1. Create a Contact called Notes and the email address yourusername+notes@gmail.com - so if you wrote Notes in the To box you will get the email address yourusername+notes@gmail.com - this message gets added to the existing email conversation.
   
2. Create a Filter - you can called anything I have used Notes as the label name. In the To: box add yourusername+notes@gmail.com -you can also select the "skip inbox (Archive it)" option.
3. Now do the testing - choose any email and hit forward - in the To box type notes and you will get the email you saved in the contacts - use this email and send. You should shortly receive an email which is part of the original email conversation - voila and it also has a label notes attached which the filter notes had applied to it.

Thats it you have a framework to allow attaching notes to any email in Gmail.

cheers

Folding the flag : The cadet!!!

Dear Sir,

It is with regret and haste that I write this letter to you.  Regret that such a small misunderstanding could lead to the following circumstances, and haste in order that you will get this report before you form your own preconceived opinions from reports in the World Press.  For I am sure that they will tend to over dramatise the affair

We had just picked up the pilot, and the Apprentice had returned from changing the 'G' flag for the 'H', this being his first trip he was having difficulty in rolling the 'G' flag up for stowing away. I therefore proceeded to show him how.

Coming to the last part I told him to 'let go'.  The lad, although willing, is not too bright. I therefore had to repeat the order in a sharper tone.  At this moment the Chief Officer appeared from the Chartroom having been plotting the vessel's progress and thinking it was the anchors that were being referred to, repeated the 'let go order to the Third Officer on the forecastle.

The Port anchor, having been cleared away but not walked out, was promptly let go.  The effect of letting the anchor drop from the 'pipe while the vessel was proceeding at full harbour speed was too much for the windlass brake and the entire length of the Port cable was pulled out by its roots. I fear that the damage to the chain locker may be extensive.

The braking effect of the Port anchor naturally caused the vessel to sheer in that direction, right toward the swing bridge that spans a tributary to the river up which we were proceeding.

The swing bridge operator showed great presence of mind by opening the bridge for my vessel. Unfortunately he did not think to stop the vehicular traffic.  The result was that the bridge partly opened and deposited a Volkswagen, two cyclists and a cattle truck on the foredeck. My ship's company is at present rounding up the contents of the latter, which, from the noise I would say is pigs.

In his efforts to stop the progress of the vessel the Third Officer dropped the Starboard anchor too late to be of any practical use for it fell on the swing bridge operator's control cabin.

After the Port anchor was let go and the vessel started to sheer I gave a double ring Full Astern on the Engine Room telegraph and personally rang the Engine Room to order maximum astern revolutions.

I was informed that the sea temperature was 53 degrees, and asked if there was a film tonight. My reply would not act constructively to this report.

Up to now I have confined my report to the activities at the forward end of my vessel. Down at the after end they were having their own problems.  At the moment the Port anchor was let go, the Second Officer was supervising the making fast of the After Tug, and was lowering the ship's towing spring down onto the tug.  The sudden braking on the Port anchor caused the tug to 'run in' under the stern of my vessel just at the moment the propeller was answering my double ring Full Astern

The prompt action of the Second Officer in securing the inboard end of the towing spring, delayed the sinking of the tug by some minutes, thereby allowing the safe abandonment of that vessel.

It is strange, but at the very moment of letting go the port anchor there was a power cut ashore. The fact that we were passing over a 'cable area' at the time may suggest that we may have touched something on the river bed. It is perhaps lucky that the high tension cables brought down by the foremast were not live; possibly having been replaced by the underwater cable, but owing to the shoreside blackout it is impossible to say where the pylon fell.

It never fails to amaze me, the actions and behavior of foreigners during moments of minor crisis. The Pilot, for instance, is at this moment huddled in a corner of my day cabin alternately crooning to himself and crying, after consuming a bottle of Gin in a time that is worthy of inclusion
in the Guinness Book of Records. The tug Captain, on the other hand, reacted violently and had to be forcibly restrained by the Chief Steward who has him handcuffed in the ship's hospital, where he is telling me to do impossible things with my ship and my person.

I enclose the names and addresses of the drivers and insurance companies of the vehicles on my foredeck, which the Third Office collected after his somewhat hurried evacuation of the forecastle. These particulars will enable you to claim for the damage that they did to the railings of number one hold.

I am closing this preliminary report for I am finding it difficult to concentrate with the sound of police sirens and their flashing lights.

It is sad to think that had the Apprentice realised that there is no need to fly Pilot
flags after dark, none of this would have happened.

For weekly Accountability Report I will assign the following Casualty Numbers T/750101 to T/750199 inclusive.

Yours truly

Making sense of your email on Gmail - Take Control!!

Many moons back I had written about using multiple emails forwarding from one to the another etc to handle spam - well that is now done very well by Gmail. So out went Thunderbird [Mozilla email client] - it is still a fantastic product so long as only you use your desktop PC.

So you use Gmail and have been doing so for a while or have just started - never mind - there is always a starting point.

You should also be using Firefox or Google Chrome web browser - it has sooo many addons for Firefox. Chrome - as it is also known as Chromium - the source from which Chrome is compiled - also has addons.

I came across this fantastic addon - ActiveInbox - it uses labels to help you manage your email.

What is missing???

Google calender integration into gmail allowing me to put dates or flow control on my email - apparently the ActiveInbox Plus - the advanced version has it - but at a cost ;-).

cheers

SixthSense - a wearable gestural interface (MIT Media Lab)

SixthSense - a wearable gestural interface (MIT Media Lab): "'SixthSense' is a wearable gestural interface that augments the physical world around us with digital information and lets us use natural hand gestures to interact with that information.

Sending email to yourself on Gmail

Normally we send emails to ourself by just using yourid @ gmail.com.

But this does not send you a copy - you just have a sent message.

I just found that if you send the mail with an email address such as youremailid+self@gmial.com - yes just add "+self" and you get an email sent you as well.

cheers

Adding an Action menu / service menu in kde4

Gnome has a much better way of handling bash scripts though once you get a hang of KDE was of doing things - it works out just fine.

We will use the last post for setting a wallpaper ans make it work in dolphin / konquerer file managers Action menu ;-)

1. Make a new folder called ServiceMenus - normaly it does not exist by default
   
   mkdir /home/user/.kde4/share/kde4/services/ServiceMenus
    
2. create a text file with .desktop extension
3. copy the following text into it using the text editor of your choosing - I like nano or kate.
   
   [Desktop Entry]
   Encoding=UTF-8
   ServiceTypes=KonqPopupMenu/Plugin,image/*
   TryExec=/home/user/bin/scripts/conwall.sh
   Type=Service
   Actions=chwall;
   TryExec=/home/user/bin/scripts/conwall.sh
   
   [Desktop Action chwall]
   Name=Change wallpaper
   Icon=ksplash
   Exec=/home/user/bin/scripts/conwall.sh %f
   
4. change the user with the account name of the user.
5. right click on any image in the above file managers and you should see "Change wallpaper" option in  the Action menu.

Please post comments if there are any questions...

KDE 4.5.2 changing Wallpaper / background

This is for Arch Linux but should be usable on other distributions as well..

Changing wallpaper on the latest KDE is just a right lick and choosing "Desktop Settings"... but what if you had conky running and you wanted to change the wallpaper / background using command line - like from a batch file - that is a problem.

Shall detail running conky in another post ...

Things to have installed - KDE 4.5.2, eterm

Here we create a folder "walls" in home folder and another called "gamma" in walls - as I have all my wallpapers in walls folder - you can modify as you please. The gamma folder holds the copy of the same wallpaper as the one used except we use convert [from imagemagick] to darken the image.

#!/bin/bash

fileext=`echo "$1"|awk -F . '{print $NF}'`;

filename=$(basename "$1" "$fileext");

out_file="$filename"gamma."$fileext";

rm ~/walls/gamma/*;

cd ~/walls/gamma;

convert "$1" -gamma 0.7,0.7,0.7 "$out_file";

kwriteconfig --file plasma-desktop-appletsrc --group Containments --group 1 --group Wallpaper --group image --key wallpaper "$1";

kquitapp plasma-desktop;

sleep 1;

plasma-desktop ;

~/bin/fbsetbg "$out_file";

The listed file is linked below and fbsetbg is a script file from fluxbox to set your wallpaper. 

conwall.sh

fbsetbg

Back after such a looong time

A lot has happened since 2004 and now.

Have loads of stuff to share - from technology to networking ....

Open Source - What a concept!!

FREE - Open Source - Software.[remember - open source does not mean it has to be FREE - depends on licensing]

Office Productivity
Replacement - openoffice.org - replaces MS Office suit of applications with very small foot print. - test it and you shall know. It has word, excel and powerpoint replacements. File format can be any ms office version or openoffice's own xml compressed form. 1 mb file typically saves to 80 kb in my experience.

Drawing module is very extensive - MS should be doing catch up for many years to come. Please note - MS offering is very good but Openoffice is better. Small size - 60 mb, under 200 mb full install. Best of all it is FREE. and available for nearly all operating systems. It also has a built in flash generator for presentations and pdf generator for all applications.

Free PDF Generator
You need 2 applications for this operation. Ghostscript and FreePDFXP.  I have given same link as you get the downlink for both from the freepdfxp site. this also allows you to encrypt your pdf files.

Music
Ogg Vorbis. Yes - that is the name - Ogg Vorbis is a completely open, patent-free, professional audio encoding and streaming technology with all the benefits of Open Source.

If you think this is bad - a FREE player "Oggplay" is also available for Symbian OS - used in mobile phones. So if you use Nokia 6600, Siemens SX-1 or any similar product - you can download it free and play fantastic Ogg files [about 1/3rd the size of a good MP3 compress + it is free]. To put it in perspective a 3 hour recording gives a digital quality compress of only 60 mb. A similar compress on MP3 would be about 180 mb, in WMA windows media about 80 to 90 mb. So a 512 mb MMC [a flash memory card used in smart phones and cameras etc] would give you 24 hours play time - though at lower bit rates you can stretch that.

Video
XviD. Does DivX ring a bell? XviD is a continuation of Project Mayo and aims to develop a high quality open-source MPEG-4 codec. As you may already know, XviD comes from the same open-source project that was the basis for DivX 4.x/5.x, but instead of going all commercial, XviD remains open-source. The quality of the codec is extremely good, and encoding speed is very fast as well, a full size hindi movie DVD encodes to about 350 mb - fantastic image display.

What ever is listed by me has actually been tested by me and used regularly.

ciao