indicator-brightness: A Display Screen Brightness Controlling Applet for Ubuntu Unity Desktop

Ubuntu developers made a desktop module of their own called Unity (although it still uses a lot of Gnome classic desktop "portions" such as Nautilus, Gconf, etc). Anyhow, because of the way the desktop is designed + to make things more efficient (according to them), the desktop is based on an application protocol called "application indicators" which has quite of A history to itself, already :) too.

Although I won't go into details since it ain't the purpose of this article. But the point is... Unity desktop has a top panel, which is similar to the Gnome classic desktop version but you cannot add any applets to it (which makes sense since it has to be kept "clean", otherwise it won't have enough room to draw the menus, etc).

So, if you use a Laptop or a Netbook then having the ability to change the brightness easily can come quite handy since it's one of those hardware devices that eat your battery-life. Thus, making manual adjustments do make a difference.

Ahh finally! :)...

But the problem is, even though Gnome has an applet of its own for a long time now, but since Unity's dash is locked by default we just can't add those applets. So our only hope is to find an applet that uses the Ubuntu's "application indicators" protocol which runs in the system tray area (obviously).

Luckily thanks to a sensible dude from Codevanrohde.nl (or maybe a gal, I don't know! :D) now we have one!. It's an excellent little applet that lets us change brightness settings in Unity desktop with ease!.

Once you click on its icon, it'll display (as with the above screenshot) the brightness settings using numbers. The current brightness level is "marked" using a dot and just choose a higher or a lower number... as easy as that, it lets us directly access the monitor/display brightness.

Although it's designed for the Unity desktop, still you can use it in Gnome too because it runs in the system tray area. You can install this "indicator-brightness" in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal by first downloading it from here and then simply double click on it and follow your on-screen instructions from the Ubuntu Software Center (yikes!).

You can make it to automatically start on each desktop startup by first,

1. Press "Alt" + "F2" keys and enter the below command and press enter.

gnome-session-properties 

2. Then from the new window, click on the "Add" button and use the below information to fill it.

*. Name: indicator-brightness
*. Command: /opt/indicator-brightness/indicator-brightness.py
*. Comment: your ex-girlfriend's name (kidding :D... this is optional)

That's it.

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How to Install the Stack Exchange Network Applet (StackApplet) in Ubuntu?

If you're a part of the Stack Exchange Network and already trying to keep up with all the questions and answers like crazy ;-)... which probably ain't the most easiest job in the world at all.

But yes, you can manage your accounts within the SEN network with ease but you'll always have to keep an eye on the web browser to know whether you've been asked of something (yikes! :P) or anyone is in need of your expert advice, etc.

Wouldn't it be nice if you could find some sort of a desktop notification type applet that lets you see/manage the SEN network accounts and other related informations such as...

I don't use SEN actually, but since I thought it would be handy to show-off what it can do for you guys (no no, I didn't register ;-) ), so I took this image from its official page...

*. Display multiple accounts (of course).

*. Automatically updates you about:

Reputation changes (John, this time I'm gonna kick your butt man! :P), comments and answers.

*. Runs in the background (system tray area) and uses the Ubuntu's new Applicationindicator protocol.

*. "Preference" window by using which you can configure (add/remove) your individual Stack Exchange Network accounts.

*. Change the update interval.

*. Launch it automatically on your desktop log-in.

*. Two themes (light and dark). 

*. Automatic detection of associated accounts.

Well, it's a serious app ;-)...

You can install the StackApplet in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 11.10 and 10.10 by using the below command in your Terminal window.

sudo apt-get install stackapplet

After the installation is over, you can launch it from: "Applications" -> "Accessories" -> "StackApplet"

OR

Press "Alt" + "F2" keys and just copy and paste the below command and press enter.

python /usr/share/stackapplet/stackapplet.py

That's it.

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How to add the Classic Applications Menu in Ubuntu 11.04 Unity Desktop Panel?

The Unity desktop is the all new, original Canonical (well inspired by many others, especially Mac OSX, its true -;)) desktop interface officially available through the Ubuntu 11.04 Release. If your GPU doesn't support advanced 3D OpenGL rendering via Compiz then Ubuntu does give you the ability to run the 2D version of Unity (written in Qt) which closely resembles the original desktop's features.

Anyhow, one of the main changes with the introduction of the Unity desktop is the main panel becomes the "menu-bar" of the running applications (borrowed from Apple) thus, unlike with the classical Gnome panel where you could add application shortcuts, etc the only possibility with the Unity panel is installing applets that runs in the notification area thus "revealing" themselves as shortcut icons.

And also because of the new desktop GUI now we don't have the classical "application menu-bar" (similar to MS Windows start-menu, not really :D) by using which we can launch all the installed programs in GNU/Linux. Although we can launch apps via the Unity's dash but yet for all you GNU/Linux Geeks who're familiar with the classical menu-bar... well it certainly has its values.

What's up! ;-)...

Did you know that there is an experimental (eeeh ;-)) indicator applet called ClassicMenu Indicator (developed by a sensible dude) that does exactly that!.

Yep, once installed, it'll display itself as an icon near the "notification" area (the area where your clock, date, etc settings appear) which lets you access the original classical application menu in the Unity desktop interface!.

You can easily install the Classic-Menu Indicator applet in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal by using the its PPA channel. As usual, open your GNU/Linux terminal and enter the below commands.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:diesch/testing

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install classicmenu-indicator

From now on, as you can see with the first screenshot, now you can enjoy the old-fashioned classical menu in the Ubuntu Unity desktop!.

After the installation completes, just press "Alt" + "F2" keys and in the box, search for "classicmenu" and as with the above screenshot, Unity should "reveal" you this awesome little app!. Good luck.

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Install CPU-Fire Applet in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal

Although we have several applets for managing and displaying the CPU usage in GNU/Linux (Gnome desktop specifically). But almost all of them use the same boring "standard" methods such as bars, etc while displaying the CPU usage :/.

For a change, would you like to have an applet (a small application/plugin which uses the already existing desktop environment such as Gnome or Qt-KDE, etc) that displays "fires" as a way of resembling the CPU usage!. Yep, it's pretty cool :). It's called CPU-Fire Applet.

The more flames there are the more your CPU is being used. It's pretty simple. Although onlike with others such as the Syspeek where you can guess the amount/percentage of the CPU is being used (rough values) without having to completely open the application with CPU-Fire, it may not be that easy to "read" the rough values, but I like it :D.

"My CPU's on fire with passionate lo..." what! :P

Main features...

*. Change the size.

*. Change update interval and the sensitivity (will add more flames even for a small CPU usage change).

*. Bring your mouse hover over the icon and it'll display a live updating CPU-usage (continuously - as long as the hover is there). 

You can install CPU-Fire applet in Ubuntu 11.04 (should work in 10.10 and 10.04) by entering the below command in your Terminal.

sudo apt-get install cpufire-applet

Once installed (only for Gnome classic desktop), right click on your panel and choose "Add to Panel". In the applets list you should see the CPU-Fire (around the top ones). Just click on it and it'll be added to the panel. You might need to log-out or restart the Laptop/PC if the applet is not in the "list". Enjoy it. 

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Install Touchpad Indicator in Ubuntu - More Control Over Your GNU/Linux Laptop!

Touch pad is a standard input device that comes with all the Laptops. But even after considering its advantageous, most would still prefer the old mouse (including me :) ). The reason is simple... by using the conventional mouse, I can move my mouse pointer much better that with the Laptop's touch-pad.

But we can't always "avoid" using it... so sometimes we have nothing but to use the Touch-pad. Since it's touch sensitive... sometimes when you type... if you accidentally touch the pad then the mouse pointer would dance bit here and there, especially if you're not a touch typist, then most of the time you won't be looking at your screen while typing so you'd just type few words to realize that they simply didn't get insert into the text editor because your mouse pointer was elsewhere >:( , bugger can be pretty annoying, sometimes :).

In those cases, wouldn't it be nice if you could automatically or easily disable your Touch pad whenever you plug-in your Mouse?. That's exactly what the TouchPad indicator does. It's a simple applet that runs from the background and lets you enable/disable your GNU/Linux Laptop's touch-pad with ease (either by a shortcut or automatic disabling when a "mouse" is detected). 

If you use Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal or 10.10 then you can install Touchpad Indicator by entering the below command in your Terminal.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:atareao/atareao
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install touchpad-indicator

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