use geany..

if u don't use already. lightest ide ever!

if u don't want an ide .. use scite - best programming editor.

xfce "set as desktop" and random desktop background wallpaper option

now these two options were what i missed much in my xfce desktop. so i tried to google and came up with a trick solution.

as u can easily google out "killall -USR1 xfdesktop" works as charm for changing the desktop bg from the list of images (set in the desktop settings wizard. so here's what i did-

1. set as desktop context menu - put this in a new custom action of thunar

====================================
Name: Set as Desktop
Command: echo '# xfce backdrop list\n%f'>$HOME/.config/xfce4/desktop/backdrops.list;killall -USR1 xfdesktop
File pattern: *
Appears if selection contains: Image Files
====================================

Note: u can also put it into mirage custom actions - if u use mirage as ur image viewer. btw, mirage is a very light weight decent image viewer much better than eog etc...

2. script for choosing random wallpaper in xfce: this script was actually written for gnome by someone else (David Loschavio, Steven Ingelgem). I modified it for xfce.

====================================
#!/bin/bash
# script: change_backgrounds.sh - bash version
# version 2007.3.7
# description: randomly replace gnome background with one from a directory
# credits: David Loschiavo [http://www.djlosch.com], Steven Van Ingelgem, Sudhanshu [http://home.iitk.ac.in/~sudhansh]
# license: GPL
# change bg_path to ur wallpapers folder. the subfolders are automatically added.

bg_path="/media/D/XTRA/wallpapers"
extensions="jpg png gif jpeg JPG GIF PNG"
temp_bg_list=/tmp/bg_change_list

rm -f $temp_bg_list

for extension in $extensions
do
find $bg_path -iregex ".*.$extension" "$temp_bg_list"
done

cnt=`wc -l "$temp_bg_list" | cut -f1 -d" "`
all_bgs=`echo \`expr $RANDOM % $cnt\``

selected_bg=`head -n$all_bgs "$temp_bg_list" | tail -n1`
echo "Changed desktop to: $selected_bg"

# use the follwing command if u want the script for gnome.
#gconftool-2 -t string -s /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename "$selected_bg"

echo -e "# xfce backdrop list\n$selected_bg">$HOME/.config/xfce4/desktop/backdrops.list
killall -USR1 xfdesktop

exit 0
=====================================

so just copy this into a bash executable file (say .ranbg.sh). make the file executable (chmod a+x .ranbg.sh) and run it whenever u need to get a new wallpaper. u can put it in ur sttartup applications to get a new wallpaper on every logon.

howzzat!!
njoi!

Ok! so here's more

just came across google notebook. appears to be a handy tool. but alas! no seamonkey support. will check it and give some reviews soon.

powered by performancing firefox

xpde

now this is what we call a white elephant and more specifically, "hathi ke dant , khane ke aur dkhane ke aur".
it is a desktp manager claimed to be very close to xp. it is indeed except that it refuses to run any of the launch icons. the xp gui has been totally copied along with start menu etc.. but of no use. cudnt start my computer or notepad or any of my previous installed apps through their destop launchers. wtf!

just too too bad! they only get the points for the presetation - take a look at their screenshots .. and faq - see the questions - trying to become studs!

now what..

since exaile has gone bad .. i was thinking to try some more music managers/players.
came across a good one - jajuka! sounds more like an arabic geanie. neways its a java based app with good features and gui. the only problem - is a bit resourceful like other java apps (viz. azureus). but it surely is worth giving a try.

tried many others but nothing intriguing enough to write about.

Next: exaile

well! there's already been a lot of buzz about it. i have been using it since two months or so. had tweaked it to use proxy settings. if u too want to tweak it mail me at sudhansh@iitk.ac.in.
the latest version(0.2.9) seems to be somewhat buggy. it doesnt show the wiki infos and lyrics. waiting for a bugfix release.

Seamonkey

A very sweet net suite. Much better than the mozilla/netscape you used earlier. Though I love firefox, but I do not use it merely because it takes a hell lot of time to start (I don't know why :O). Same for thunderbird on my box. Hence I had to turn to this seamonkey last year in summers. Since then it has been my favorite. And since the last 1.1 release it has literally been awesome. There are now more extensions, lot better themes and many more features. Currently I am using "seafox" theme with some cool/essential extensions like switchproxy, adblockplus, stumble upon, extension uninstaller (yeah u need to have an extension for this :( ), cooliris, webpage css tabs, cutemenus, multizilla, monkeymenu, imagezoom etc.
after this i don't have to turn back to firefox. the only thing which i miss is performancing (the ultimate blog tool) - and thats one of the main reasons of my being inactive on my blogs ;).
may god bless me by making those developers port it for seamonkey!
amen.