Strange Aeons

New Tool: Avant Window Navigator

I have started using the Avant Window Navigator (AWN) which gives the Ubuntu desktop a great alternative to the standard window panel running along the base of the screen. AWN basically gives Linux GUIs an OSX like dock which is aesthetically more pleasing than the default in Gnome but not really any more functional. It is a good idea to make this a start up item so head to System -> Preferences -> Sessions then select "Add" from the startup programs tab. Enter a suitable title for your new startup program and enter avant-window-navigator into the command field.

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The Conky System Monitor

I made a couple of alterations to my conky configuration today. I now have sections for general system information, processor information including both current and historical readouts, memory and swap usage, hdd & file system usage, processes, network, and time and date info. The colour scheme is fairly good and fits in with the background I have used.

background yes use_xft yes xftfont 123:size=8 xftalpha 0.1 update_interval 0.5 total_run_times 0 own_window yes own_window_type override own_window_transparent yes own_window_hints undecorated,below,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager double_buffer yes minimum_size 250 5 maximum_width 400 draw_shades no draw_outline no draw_borders no draw_graph_borders no default_color gray default_shade_color red default_outline_color green alignment top_right gap_x 10 gap_y 10 no_buffers no uppercase no cpu_avg_samples 2 net_avg_samples 1 override_utf8_locale yes use_spacer right text_buffer_size 256 TEXT ${font openlogos:size=20}GNU${font Arial:size=20}${color Tan1}LINUX: ${color Ivory}$nodename${font openlogos:size=20} ${voffset -90} ${color DimGray} ${font} ${font Arial:bold:size=10}${color Tan1}SYSTEM ${color Tan1} ${hr 2} $font${color DimGray}$sysname $kernel $alignr $machine Intel Pentium D $alignr${freq_g cpu0}Ghz CPU Temp $alignr${acpitemp}C Uptime $alignr${uptime} File System $alignr${fs_type} ${font Arial:bold:size=10}${color Tan1}PROCESSORS ${color Tan1}${hr 2} $font${color DimGray}CPU0 ${cpu cpu0}% ${cpubar cpu0} ${color DimGray}${cpugraph cpu0 32,309 000000 7f8ed3} $font${color DimGray}CPU1 ${cpu cpu1}% ${cpubar cpu1} ${color DimGray}${cpugraph cpu1 32,309 000000 7f8ed3} $font${color DimGray}CPU2 ${cpu cpu2}% ${cpubar cpu2} ${color DimGray}${cpugraph cpu2 32,309 000000 7f8ed3} $font${color DimGray}CPU3 ${cpu cpu3}% ${cpubar cpu3} ${color DimGray}${cpugraph cpu3 32,309 000000 7f8ed3} ${font Arial:bold:size=10}${color Tan1}MEMORY ${color Tan1}${hr 2} $font${color DimGray}MEM $alignc $mem / $memmax $alignr $memperc% ${membar 8} $font${color DimGray}SWAP $alignc $swap / $swapmax $alignr $swapperc% ${swapbar 8} ${font Arial:bold:size=10}${color Tan1}HDD ${color Tan1}${hr 2} $font${color DimGray}/home $alignc ${fs_used /home} / ${fs_size /home} $alignr ${fs_free_perc /home}% ${fs_bar /home} ${font Arial:bold:size=10}${color Tan1}PROCESSES ${color Tan1}${hr 2} ${color DimGray}$font Total $alignr $processes $font Running $alignr $running_processes ${color DimGray}$font${top_mem name 2}${alignr}${top mem 2} % $font${top_mem name 3}${alignr}${top mem 3} % $font${top_mem name 4}${alignr}${top mem 4} % $font${top_mem name 5}${alignr}${top mem 5} % ${font Arial:bold:size=10}${color Tan2}NETWORK ${color Tan1}${hr 2} $font${color DimGray}IP on eth0 $alignr ${addr eth0} Down $alignr ${downspeed eth0} kb/s Up $alignr ${upspeed eth0} kb/s Downloaded: $alignr ${totaldown eth0} Uploaded: $alignr ${totalup eth0} ${color DimGray}${downspeedgraph eth0 32,150 000000 7f8ed3} ${color #DimGray}${upspeedgraph eth0 32,150 000000 7f8ed3} ${font Arial:bold:size=10}${color Tan2}TIME ${color Tan1}${hr 2} ${color Ivory} ${font :size=30}$alignc${time %H:%Mh} ${voffset -30}${font :bold:size=10}$alignc${time %d %b. %Y} ${font :bold:size=8}$alignc${time %A}

All of this gives me the following output on my desktop:

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My New Mail Client: Claws Mail

I finally bit the bullet and spent some time this week auditioning new mail clients. Since moving off OS X I have been using Thunderbird but never quite got to love it. It is not offensive, in fact it is pretty good, but it seemed slow, in a personal opinion, completely subjective manner. So I tried out Evolution which has been installed on all my Linux desktops because I have been using Ubuntu exclusively for the desktop since jumping to Linux full time. I had tried Evolution years ago and didn't like it much then because I have an aversion to integrated everything and the kitchen sink type software which I think is the antithesis of the Unix philosophy. I just want small robust tools, with an appropriate default feature set, that can be extended either through plug-ins or through connecting to other small tools. This search lead me to Claws Mail, a spin off project from the Sylpheed mail client, which is small, fast and feature rich. It is easily extensible through plugins and can be scripted, using filters and processing rules, to work with the full complement of Linux shell tools to do significant processing of email. The only hitch in the giddy up was that I couldn't easily incorporate my existing S/MIME certificates into Claws Mail, it does support them but the process is not currently straightforward. It was easier to just bite the bullet and create a new GPG key pair for my email account so that I can let my recipients ensure that the email that I sent is the email that has arrived because in these days of phorm we can't be too careful. I should also mention OfflineIMAP, another tool I found whilst exploring the mail client ecosystem. It makes a local offline copy of your IMAP folders so that you can make an easy backup of your IMAP stored email.

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New Tool: Avant Window Navigator

The Conky System Monitor

My New Mail Client: Claws Mail