How to create rotating wallpapers in Gnome
Posted by Saša Bodiroža | Filed under Linux, Programming, Scripting, Software, Ubuntu
Few days ago I found artwork suggestions for Fedora 10. I really like the wallpapers in Solar theme. They should change based on the time of the day. As I don’t think that is supported in Gnome, I wrote this little script that does the job.
To run it, a directory with wallpapers needs to be passed.
./rotate-wallpapers /path/to/wallpaper/directory/
If you want it to run in the background, you can press Alt+F2 in Gnome, and run it.
/path/to/rotate-wallpapers /path/to/wallpaper/directory/
Once it’s run, it will count the number of wallpapers in the directory (files ending in jpg, jpeg, gif, png or svg), divide 1440 by that number and use the result as a period of time on which wallpapers will be rotated. It will set the first wallpaper, and sleep until the wallpaper needs to be changed.
So, this script is pretty much specific. It will work best with the series of wallpapers that have subtle changes, such as the Solar wallpapers. But, you’re free to use it in every way you want. Good luck :)…
If you find any bugs, please post it in the comments. Thanks.
Tags: gnome, Linux, Programming, script, Scripting, Ubuntu, wallpaper
Are we a bit hypocritical?
Posted by Saša Bodiroža | Filed under Freedom, Linux, Personal, Thoughts, Ubuntu
I’m a regular on Serbian’s Ubuntu LoCo forum. Today I stumbled upon one post that got me into thinking “Are we a bit hypocritical?”. Here’s what happened…
There is one guy who messed up his system a bit with Windows and Linux installations and removals. He wanted to have both operating systems on his computer and he asked for a solution. Another guy tried to help him. The problematic part of his message was the comment “If you need help with removing Linux because you want to stay on that other OS, you’re not gonna find it here.” But why?
We, the FOSS community (or Ubuntu community in this particular case), are supposed to fight for freedom. In my opinion, that includes the freedom of choice, to let the user use whatever he or she wants. Including that other OS, which may have a lot of restrictions.
Sure, it wouldn’t be wise to just say “Remove Linux”. I’m not for that in the first place. But if there was no fix, why wouldn’t we help someone to switch back? That is what freedom of choice is all about, right? Someone might say that by not helping others to switch back to that other OS, we will make them adapt to Linux. Someone might say that it’s against its principles to help someone switch back to that other OS. But, if the only fix is the switch back, wouldn’t it be helpful to explain how to switch back.
What is my way of fight for freedom? Education. I think that is the best way to do that. Show people what freedom gives. The rest will follow.
Tags: foss, Freedom, Linux, Thoughts, Ubuntu
Wallpaper clock screenlet
Posted by Saša Bodiroža | Filed under Linux, Software
I’m a regular visitor of VladStudio’s website, run by Vlad Gerasimov, a digital artist. It is a spot to find a lot of beautiful wallpapers. Recently, he began making wallpaper clocks - dynamic wallpapers that show date, hour, minute and stuff… I liked the idea, but I wasn’t able to use them on my system, as there was a Windows-only program for it.
I checked out his site last night and was surprised when I saw that there is a Wallpaper clock screenlet for Linux 
(download).
This screenlet requires Screenlets software to be installed. Once that is done, the screenlet needs to be unpacked to ~/.screenlets/ directory, or /usr/local/share/screenlets/ (this way it will be accessible to every user on the system). New wallpaper clocks are added by unpacking .wcz archive to ~/.screenlets/WallpaperClock/wallpapers/, or /usr/local/share/screenlets/WallpaperClock/wallpapers/ (depending on the place where the screenlet is located).
Well, I hope this will be useful :). Enjoy…
Edit: This screenlet depends on python-imaging package.
Tags: clock, Linux, screenlet, Software, wallpaper, wallpaperclock
Skype for Linux 1.4 beta
Posted by Saša Bodiroža | Filed under Linux, Software, Ubuntu
The new beta version of Skype for Linux is out and it brings us the new interface. In my opinion it is simpler and less cluttered than the old one.
- The username and password fields are now part of the main window.
- The “File, View, …” menu is gone. The menu is located under the gear icon in the lower left corner.
- The tabs are removed, which resulted in dial pad and call status to open in separate windows. This seems as a more elegant solution. Call history is located under the clock icon in the upper right corner. The new events are accessed by clicking the same icon.
And it seems a bit more stable then the 1.3 series :). On the other hand, it seems there is still no video support. Though, I did get a notification of users that have a webcam set up.
The release notes are available at https://developer.skype.com/LinuxSkype/ReleaseNotes.
You know it’s Monday… (GNOME way)
Posted by Saša Bodiroža | Filed under Linux
…if GNOME is celebrating it’s 10th birthday. (yeah, it was yesterday)
GNOME and I met few years ago when I first installed Red Hat, but that didn’t last for some reasons. But, few months ago I stumbled upon Ubuntu, which made me forget Windows… I got addicted to GNOME (and Ubuntu) and it fulfills all of my needs. I hope that our relationship will last for more than next ten years :).
So, happy birthday GNOME… Wish you all the best :).
