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Karmic Win pt. 6, Gnome-do & Twitter

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2009-11-11-202755Yesterday, we discussed using the new “UbuntuOne” cloud service, and integrating it into numerous apps on Karmic.

A while back, I discovered the Avant Window Navigator, a Mac-style docking program (available through the USC). Matt McKimmy had commented on that post, mentioning the program Gnome-Do.

At that time, I had checked out Gnome-Do, found it interesting but was still infatuated with my fancy Mac-esque dock, so I never really got around to using it.

This time though, Gnome-Do came pre-loaded with the Karmic installation, and I decided to give it a shot for a while. Browsing through the preferences, I noticed some plugins and integration tools that I hadn’t noticed the first time around; or maybe they just weren’t offered, not really sure.

Gnome-Do, written to function sort of like “Quicksilver” on Macs, is a genius little app that does it all. My favorite aspect of it so far is its integration with Twitter though.

Installing / Running Gnome-Do

If you just installed Karmic, you should already have Gnome-Do loaded. It looks like this:

gnome-do-ubuntu-desktopIf you have a keyboard with that old “Windows logo” (located between the Alt and Ctrl keys, in Ubuntu, it’s called “Super”) press that button and the spacebar at the same time. Assuming Gnome-Do is loaded, that should pop it up. If you STILL don’t see it, open up the Ubuntu Software Center (Applications -> Ubuntu Software Center) and search for “Gnome-Do”.

If you know that Gnome-Do is installed, but it doesn’t pop up when you press Super+Space, try running it from the applications menu (Applications->Accessories->Gnome Do) .

Configuring Gnome-Do

Gnome-Do-GeneralPrefsOnce you have successfully loaded up the Gnome-Do app, you may notice a little arrow in the top-right corner of the window (it’s visible in that picture above). Clicking on that will bring up some options; select “Preferences”.

This first preferences window has some really basic options. In this screenshot, I have “Start Gnome-Do at login” checked so that Gnome-Do will always be ready for me. I also have “Quiet Mode” checked so that I don’t need to exit out of it right away.

This is totally up to you — it’s a pretty lightweight application, so if you did want it to always run, you’re not going to suffer heavily for it.

Gnome-Do-KeyboardPrefsThe second tab, Keyboard, offers some options for configuring your keyboard shortcuts. If you dislike the Super+Space activator, this is where you would change it.

There are many other customizations possible with keyboard shortcuts; I still haven’t learned what all of them do yet, so as you use it, this may be a screen you visit and re-visit occasionally over time.

The third tab, Plugins, is where all the really cool stuff starts.

Gnome-Do-PluginsPrefsThis screen has so many options, I couldn’t show them all in one screencap. And there’s more than just this list. Shown in the screencap is the official “Universe” list, but there’s also a community supported list, with even more options.

Essentially what these plugins do is create a conduit between Gnome-Do and your applications by specifying commonly-used actions and associating the keywords for those actions (eg. “open”, “play”, “run”) with the behind-the-scenes commands necessary for those actions to happen.

For example, with the Rhythmbox plugin activated, typing “play” causes the second box to load up a list of my CDs, which I can scroll through with the up/down arrows. I can also play videos with the same keyword.

Some plugins that I use:

  • Gnome Dictionary
  • Gnome Calculator
  • Google Calendar
  • Google Contacts
  • Google Docs
  • Rhythmbox
  • TinyURL
  • Tomboy (see yesterday’s post for Tomboy awesomness)
  • Microblogging (Twitter)

That last one is especially cool.

At first, I thought it was simply a means to post to twitter. You configure the plugin with your credentials, and then just type anything at all — after a few words it will specify “post to twitter” as your action. Hit enter and immediately tweets.

What was especially cool about this plugin is that it also DISPLAYS your incoming tweets, as they happen! A tiny alert box appears in the topright, containing both the username, icon, and tweet text of the tweet. I’ve long looked for a lightweight app that would allow me a very modest interface with my Twitter account without requiring a bunch of pointless bells & whistles (Tweetdeck is cool, but has a huge screen footprint to really maximize its use). I just want to send and receive tweets. And Gnome-Do does it.

In the “Community Plugins” category, which I have not really played with yet, there are some interesting picks:

  • AptURL Package installer — allows you to install APT packages via your gnome-do interface
  • del.icio.us tag search – search your tags
  • flickr – upload your photos to flickr (I gotta check THIS one out…)
  • Google Maps & Google Search – ’nuff said.
  • Remember the Milk – for those of you with iPhones, you can get the RTM iPhone app, the RTM Gnome-Do app, and have some sweet integration going on!
  • Youtube – search youtube “favorites, subscriptions, uploaded videos and more”

Lots of cool stuff.

I’m still getting the hang of using it — there’s a small learning curve with determining which keywords are necessary for which actions, but it’s so predictable that I have a feeling a veteran Gnome-Do user (Matt?) will have a series of quick keystrokes for accomplishing certain actions. (“Search” [down, down, tab, down, enter], for example)

Up Next

Next post, which is probably going to be Saturday, since I’m going to be at the IU PAGR conference all day tomorrow, will be about getting DirectX set up for gaming. I’ve covered this in passing before, but I’ll go into more depth this time.


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