Install Emays Conky On Ubuntu 12.10/12.04/Linux Mint 13

In this tutorial, we will help you install an amazing conky theme named Emays that will beautify your desktop. This desklet will display time, date, and some system information. Here is a screenshot of it:

If you haven't already installed Conky on your system, then run this command:

sudo apt-get install conky-all

Emays Conky Installation

Open the terminal and run these commands:

mkdir -p ~/.emays && cd ~/.emays 

wget http://goo.gl/mw4rF -O emays_conky.zip

unzip -q ema*.zip

Install now fonts with this command:

mkdir -p ~/.fonts

cp ~/.emays/Emays/Fonts/* ~/.fonts

To start Emays Conky, run this command:

conky -c ~/.emays/Emays/Conkyrc/conkyrc

Configuration

To change the position of the desklet on your desktop, edit this file:

gedit ~/.emays/Emays/Conkyrc/conkyrc 

Change now this line:

alignment top_left

To any of these options:

• alignment top_right
• alignment bottom_left
• alignment bottom_right

Save your file and exit.

Emays Conky Removal

Via the terminal, run these commands:

rm -rf ~/.emays

rm -rf ~/.fonts/AMAZB*.TTF

rm -rf ~/.fonts/Janda*.ttf

Install Hi-Lights 2.7 Icon Theme From PPA In Ubuntu 12.10/12.04/Linux Mint 13 (Maya)

In this tutorial we will see how to install the Hi-Lights icon theme from PPA under Ubuntu/Linux Mint. Here are some screenshots for this icon theme:

The PPA is compatible with these Linux distributions:

• Ubuntu 12.10/12.04/11.10
• Linux Mint 13 (Maya)

Hi-Lights 2.7 Installation

Open the terminal and install Hi-Lights with these commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:upubuntu-com/icons

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install hilights-icons

To enable it from the terminal, issue this command:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface icon-theme 'Hi-Lights'

Credits for this icon theme go here.

CRUX 2.8

Matt Housh has announced the release of CRUX 2.8, a small, independent and customisable Linux distribution designed for more advanced Linux users: "The CRUX team would like to announce that CRUX 2.8 x86 has been released." What's new? "Toolchain updates - CRUX 2.8 includes glibc 2.16.0, GCC 4.7.2 and Binutils 2.22; Linux kernel 3.5.4; the ISO image is processed with isohybrid and is suitable for burning on a CD and putting on a USB drive; important libraries have been updated to new major versions which are not ABI compatible with the old versions, we strongly advise against manually updating to CRUX 2.8 via ports, since these changes will temporarily break the system; the oldest kernel supported by glibc is 2.6.39; module-init-tools has been replaced by kmod; some deprecated video drivers have been removed from X.Org (radeonhd, i128, mach64, tdfx, voodoo)...." See the release notes for more details. Download the installation CD image: crux-2.8.iso (254MB, MD5).

Enable ‘Notify OSD’ when Hovering Over ‘indicator-sound’ icon and Scrolling

True, I’ve had many issues with ‘PulseAudio’ with my previous, old, laptop. But it is working really well under the Vostro V131 notebook, and this time, I have no plans of getting rid of it .
Anyway, though ‘PulseAudio’ is a separate project, Ubuntu developers too have done a lot of work integrating ‘PulseAudio’ into the OS and making it user friendly.
Take ‘indicator-sound’ icon for example. It lets you access a lot of ‘PulseAudio’ sound server related options to easily getting access to some utilities that use it (such as ‘Rhythmbox’) etc. Plus, they have also integrated it with Ubuntu’s built-in notification message system (‘Notify OSD’), for indicating some of its events as well.
Speaking of its user-friendliness, though I discovered it quite recently, there is a simple ‘trick’ that you can use to easily up/down the volume in ‘PulseAudio’.

For example, let’s say that you had ‘Rhythmbox’ playing something from the background while browsing the web, and wanted to quickly lower the volume, without ever touching neither ‘Rhythmbox’ nor the ‘indicator-sound’ icon (clicking) that resides in the system tray area.
For those of you who have not heard, then all you have to do is, simply put your mouse pointer over the ‘indicator-sound’ icon, then use the scroll wheel, and the volume will go up or down.
Now, as the volumes changes, the ‘indicator-icon’ does display the levels using the built-in, ‘three, half-circular-lines’. Still, it does not indicate subtle or small changes.
Luckily though, we can use a small trick, that enables the default ‘Notify OSD’ volume level indicator (the one that shows up when you change the volume levels using your keyboard) for this ‘event’ too, as it includes these subtle changes.
If interested, you can use the below command in your Terminal for enabling it.

gsettings set com.canonical.indicator.sound show-notify-osd-on-scroll true

That’s it (no need to logout or restart the computer).
Note: This surely works in Ubuntu 12.10, might also work in 12.04 LTS too, not sure about other versions though.

Skype 6 released

Skype 6 is now available for download. Whats new in this version?
Microsoft and Facebook Account Integration
IM friends on Messenger
Now Skype in Thai, Croatian, Slovenian, Serbian, Catalan and Slovak (total languages Skype supports to 38)
Visual user interface refresh
Removal of online user count
Display previously created profile pictures
Improved telemetry

Download Skype 6

ROSA Desktop 2012 Beta

Konstantin Kochereshkin has announced that the first beta build of ROSA Desktop 2012, a Linux distribution targeting desktop users with leading-edge features, wide range of system customisation options and a large variety of applications, is ready for testing: "The ROSA team is pleased to announce a beta version of ROSA Desktop 2012 operating system. The system is ready for testing on a wide range of desktop and mobile devices. The work on ROSA Desktop 2012 is coming to an end. Developers have 'frozen' the main repository, performed mass rebuild of system packages to ensure their compatibility (using our own development and build system - ABF) and fixed several compatibility issues found earlier." Read the rest of the release announcement for information on new features and bug fixes, as well as a video demonstration. Download: ROSA.2012.Desktop.Beta1.i586.iso (1,441MB, MD5, torrent), ROSA.2012.Desktop.Beta1.x86_64.iso (1,483MB, MD5, torrent).