HQ real-time Earth wallpaper for Ubuntu: XPlanetFX

Forever a fan of quirky wallpapers that breaks the tradtion of static tedium we call desktop wallpaper, I was bowled over when tipped off to XplanetFX – a themeable real-time wallpaper that puts the Earth, Moon and Sun on your desktop in stunning high-quality.

The default theme

XPlanetFX is incredibly customizable, coming with a sizeable array of options and settings sure to make even the most hard-to-please tweaker feel in- control.

Download extra themes; position the ‘Earth’ anywhere you like within the wallpaper frame; enable options for realistic cloud rendering or real-time lighting; set it to auto-run on login; the list could go on.

Setting your location for accurate real-time representation of light and Earth movment is a fantastic touch, and one made a breeze thanks to the simple ‘City Selection’ menu.
Alternatively you can also set your location by placing the green cross-hair marker as near to your desired/chosen/actual location on the (I want to say War Games style) world map.

Rendering

This wonderful graphic made by the applications’ author shows off the HQ visual features present in XPlanetFX. The attention to detail present is superb; click the image below to view in better detail.

Back to the themes now and whatever your GTK+ style you’re sure to find something complimentary. Hit the ‘Search for themes online’ button to view available themes and to download in-app. Apply them by selecting them with your mouse from the main theme display window and pressing ‘Apply’.

Note: Since posting this earlier today the server containing the extra ‘themes’ has been taxed greatly by all you eager folks! If you are experiencing connection issues this is the likely reason.

Download

So it looks good but how easy is it to install? ‘Very’ is the answer, thanks to a nicely pre-packaged .deb for Ubuntu users.
Hit the link below to grab it. Double click on it to install.

Once installed launch from the ‘Applications > Accessories’ sub-menu.
Setting it as your wallpaper
The first time you run XPlanetFX you may do what I did: frantically hit the ‘apply’ button exepcting instant results only to be left a few minutes later with nothing happening. This is actually a patience issue rather than an application issue; it can take a few minutes (depending on your CPU speed) for XPlanetFX to ‘render’ your desired wallpaper and set it on your desktop.
If you find that things are going too slow try disabling some of the rendering options (such as Clouds) located at the bottom of the ‘Display’ tab in XPlanetFX’s preferences.
Resource usage
Sadly such beauty doesn’t come without a cost; XPlanetFX likes to quaff CPU and hog a bit of RAM. Neither are to any drastic extent but low-powered device users (such as those on a netbook) may find that it’s not the ideal drape to have running when sans charger.
In all XPlanetFX is the most stunning, well designed ‘animated’ wallpaper I’ve so far come across. If you can withstand the ever-so slight resource hit running it costs then my advice is to do it: it’s exceptionally well made.

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Sunnahkah Memakai Cincin bagi Laki-laki?

Ummu sabit bertanya kepada anda pertanyaan terkahir :
Bolehkah laki-laki memakai perhiasan dengan menggunakan batu mulia dan memakainya menggunakan tasbeh dan sebagainya?

Jawab:

Bagi laki-laki yang telah ada pengharaman atas mereka yaitu emas, mereka tidak boleh memakainya sebagai perhiasan. Oleh karena itu ketika nabi shalallohu ‘alaihi wasallam melihat seorang laki-laki yang ditangannnya ada cincin emas, maka beliau lepas dan bersabda:

“Apakah salah seorang diantara kalian suka untuk diberikan bara api untuk diletakkan ditangannya?” Dikatakan kepada laki-laki ini : “ambillah cincinmu dan manfaatkanlah!” Maka laki-laki inipun menjawab : “ Demi Allah aku tidak akan mengambil cincin yang telah dilepas oleh Rosulullah sholallohu ‘alaihi wasallam”

Ini menunjukkan faedah bahwa terkadang penggunaan metode yang tegas itu adalah hikmah, sehingga tidaklah mesti yang dikatakan hikmah itu harus selalu lemah lembut, terkadang sikap tegas itu bisa menjadi penuh hikmah. Oleh karena itu, dalam kejadian tersebut Nabi Shalallohu ‘alaihi wasallam menggunakan metode yang tegas dan kemudian beliau mengambil cincin itu lalu beliau melemparkannya seraya bersabda:

“Apakah salah seorang diantara kalian suka untuk diberikan bara api untuk diletakkan ditangannya?”

Namun demikian sahabat ini dapat mengambil manfaat dari cara nasehat dan ucapan nabi shalallohu ‘alaihi wasallam dan berbekas pada dirinya sendiri, dimana dia berkata:

“ Demi Allah aku tidak akan mengambil cincin yang telah dilepas oleh Rosulullah sholallohu ‘alaihi wasallam”

Jadi jelas bahwa emas itu tidak boleh dipakai untuk laki-laki, tidak boleh bagi laki-laki menggunakan emas secara mutlak.
Adapun perak telah ada berita dari Nabi sholallahu ‘alaihi wasallam bahwa beliau menggunakannya sebagai cincin. Maka tidak apa-apa memakai cincin perak, Namun permasalahannya apakah dengan demikian memakai cincin itu sunnah? Lantas ada yang mengatakan disunnahkan bagi laki-laki menggunakan cincin perak? Atukah itu cuma mubah (boleh)?

Maka yang jelas bagi kita adalah perlu perincian terhadap hukum ini. Apabila dia menggunakan cincin perak itu untuk suatu keperluan, misalnya dia menggunakannya karena dia seorang hakim atau yang diberi tugas sebagai pemberi stempel, sedangkan capnya itu dicincinya, maka ketika kondisi seperti itu memakai cincin perak itu sunnah.
Apabila dia menggunakan cincin perak itu untuk sekedar perhiasan, maka ketika itu hukumnya mubah, tidaklah dikatakan bahwa itu sunnah. Hal itu karena nabi shalallohu ‘alaihi wasallam memakai cincin perak bukan untuk perhiasan melainkan untuk suatu keperluan, dimana mereka berkata :

“wahai rosulullah mereka para penguasa diseluruh dunia itu tidak mau menerima surat kecuali diberi stempel”

Maka beliaupun membuat cincin dan dicetak disitu “Muhammad Rosullah”, “Muhammad” lalu garis, “Rasulullah” lalu garis, dan lafdzul jalalah (Allah) lalu garis. Sebagaimana telah ada riwayat akan hal itu dalam riwayat bukhari, dan hal yang demikian itu juga ada dalam riwayat Bukhari.

Bahwa nabi menjadikan kepala cincin beliau ditelapak tangan bagian dalam, kalaulah beliau hendak menjadikannya sebagai perhiasan, tentu beliau menjadikan kepala cincin itu ditelapak tangannya bagian luar. Namun beliau menjadikan kepala cincin itu ditelapak tangan bagian dalam, hal ini menunjukkan bahwa nabi shalallohu ‘alaihi wasallam memakai cincicn ini karena suatu keperluan.

Maka siapa yang ingin memakainya karena suatu keperluan maka itu sunnah, namun siapa yang ingin memakai cincin itu karena untuk perhiasan maka itu mubah, sekali lagi kita katakan bahwa itu mubah.

Kalau selain emas dan perak maka hukum asalnya adalah halal dan mubah, selama tidak adanya penyerupaan. Misalkan kalau adanya penyerupaan cincin itu adalah cincin khusus orang perempuan atau orang kafir, maka itu dilarang karena adanya penyerupaan. Namun bila tidak ada penyerupaan baik itu bentuknya pena atau tasbeh. Maka dalam hal ini hukum asalnya adalah boleh

(diketik ulang dari video tanya jawab Syaikh Saad al-Ghojlan, Marjan Production, http://sunnahkami.blogspot.com)

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Clearloook Dark Themes Ubuntu

 

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NodokaC - Metacity Theme

        

Description:

This theme is a small attempt to make one good (convenient) desktop instead of thousands beauty but... ugh,.. useless (sic! :( ) themes.

So I added colours to one of standard FC theme - Nodoka. It simply makes window buttons much MORE VISIBLE. Something alike was made in http://fedora-art.org/content/show.php/Saturglass?content=106292 and, for XFCE by me athttp://xfce-look.org/content/show.php/MicrodeckC?content=137469

Thus I present NodokaC.

I build it for myself using standard metacity xml. New button colours are given inside metacity-theme-1.xml in web-#HHHHHH format. Feel free to look in metacity-theme-1.xml and change it if you like. Search-and-replace should help you change it in every place where needed. Other colours are tuned via gtk-theme as usual.

Install: 

Download file and unpack into ~/.themes folder. Archive contains also files from original Nodoka theme for convenience. Select theme NodokaC for metacity using standard measures of distro (smth. like gnome-appearance-properties->Modify->Window->Select from the list). 

Effect is immediate (for my F10).

Changelog:

v.0.0 Original version. TODO: edit icons bitmaps to increase icons contrast and visibility.

v.0.1. Added alternate colour for "unmaximize" button (see screenshot). I edit icon bitmaps for better visibility

source UbuntuArt

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Download & Install Wallpapers !

Here are the easy steps you can take to make use of our cool wallpapers on your iPhone. The first step is to save the desired wallpaper to your Mac or PC via your favorite browser.

1. Right-click or control-click on the image you want to use.
2. Select “Save as…” and save the image to your hard drive.

• Mac users can either save the image to a folder or add it to their iPhoto library.
• PC users will want to save the wallpaper into their “My Pictures” folder.

You can then sync the iPhone with photos in iPhoto 4.0.3 or later on a Mac, or Photoshop Album 2.0 or later or Photoshop Elements 3.0 or later on a PC. Or you can sync with any folder on your computer that contains images. Connect the iPhone to your computer and do the following:

1. Launch iTunes then click the Photos tab and select “Sync photos from:”
2. From the pop-up menu, do one of the following:
3. If your using a Mac, choose iPhoto or your Pictures folder.
4. If you’re using a PC, choose Photoshop Album, Photoshop Elements, or your My Pictures folder.
5. Choose Folder, then choose any folder on your computer that has images.
6. Choose “All photos,” or choose “Selected folders” or “Selected albums” and choose the folders or albums you want to sync.

Finally on your iPhone:

1. Goto the Photos section of your camera. Browse through the albums or camera roll until you find the picture you wish to use.
2. Select the picture so it is displayed full screen.
3. Tap the icon in the lower left corner of the screen. If you don't see the icon, single tap the picture to display the menus.

4. Here you can select if you want to email the picture, save the picture as a wallpaper, or assign to a contact.

5. If you want to assign to a contact, press that button. The contact list will open and you can select the contact you wish to link to the picture.

6. Select Done to complete the process.

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Useful iPhone Shortcuts !

1. Change the Spotlight Search Result Order

The iPhone’s Spotlight Search functionality is a great improvement from early incarnations, but you can make it even more relevant to you just by tweaking the settings.

In the “Settings” menu, go to “General,” then select “Spotlight Search.” You are then presented with a list of categories. By touching the three bars icon next to each category, you can change the order of how the phone presents search results.

This feature can be an extremely useful time saver, as it prioritizes search results based on what you’re most likely to look for (e-mails, apps, contacts, etc.).


2. Lock the Screen Orientation

A great feature for anyone who reads iBooks in bed, you can now lock the screen on your iPhone to stay in the portrait orientation and avoid that annoying wobble between portrait and landscape you can get in certain situations.

To activate the lock, tap the home button twice, then scroll to the screen on the left, at which point you’ll see a square gray icon with a circular arrow on the far right. Tap this to lock the screen (you’ll see a locked icon in the top right of the display now) and unlock by tapping again.



3. Change the Display to White on Black

This one falls under the iPhone’s Accessibility features as it offers a high contrast, more easy-to-view display, but it can also be employed just to make your phone look a little different.

To make the change, head to “Settings,” then “General,” then “Accessibility” and then toggle “White on Black” to “On.”

The colors on your phone’s display are now inverted, however, the Apple magic that makes this happen must have something to do with the phone’s display, rather than a software change, as you can’t export screen grabs showing this setting. To see the effect in action, you’ll have to make do with our real-life photos.

4. Create a Homescreen Icon for Any Website

This is a really nice option for anyone who regularly visits websites that don’t offer their own app. You can easily add a one-touch shortcut for any webpage to your homescreen in the iPhone’s Safari browser.

Simply load up the site you’re interested in and then press the “+” on the bottom of the screen. Select the “Add to Home Screen” option.

You can then label it something appropriate. Now, as the screenshot below shows, there will be a shortcut icon to the site on your homescreen.

 

5. Use the Front-Facing Camera for More than FaceTime

The iPhone 4′s front-facing camera isn’t just about FaceTime. You can also use it to snap quick portrait pics (as above) and even record video of yourself.

To access the front-facing camera, go to the main camera and then hit the camera with an arrow icon on the top-right corner. This switches the view to whatever the front-facing camera sees, meaning you’ll be able to see yourself on the screen to press the shutter at the correct moment.

To toggle between capturing stills and video, it’s the same as the main camera — slide the toggle from either icon at the bottom of the phone’s screen.

6. Open and Save PDFs in iBooks

The iPhone offers handy “Quick Look” functionality for viewing PDFs, but what’s even cooler is that you can auto-save them into iBooks and then access and view them from there.

Simply press and hold on the PDF icon and you’ll see the option to “Open in iBooks.” Hit this, and the PDF will be ported over, and be available to view in the app from then on.

7. Turn iBooks Into Audio Books

Another one of the iPhone’s Accessibility options for the visually impaired, the “VoiceOver” feature is a gesture-based screen reader.

Using slightly different controls (double tap to select and three fingers to scroll), VoiceOver essentially reads aloud what is on the phone’s screen.

Aside from the obvious uses for the visually-impaired, this also means that iBooks can become audio books. To activate it, go to “Settings,” then “General,” then “Accessibility” and toggle VoiceOver to “On,” at which point you get options to tweak the settings (the speed of reading) and try out the new controls.

Once activated, if you head over to your iBooks app, VoiceOver will read your selected texts to you. It might not be something you want to employ that often, but tired eyes might appreciate having a book read to them at certain times.



8. Manually Add Pins to Maps to Mark Locations

In the iPhone’s Maps app, you can add pins which make navigating to a point or sharing your location super easy to do.

In Maps, you’ll see a blue Post-It-style note icon on the bottom-right corner. Tapping this will give you the option to drop a pin. Selecting this drops a purple pin in the map, which you can drag to exactly where you want it.

Now that you’ve placed your pin, you’ll see a label that hovers over it. This leads to even more functionality.

Clicking through on the label gives you the options to get directions to that point, from that point, and also share that location via e-mail or text message as well as bookmark it. We think this functionality could be super useful for navigating your way back to your car, or a camp site, for example.

And while we’re on the topic of Maps, here’s a bonus tip. Did you know that hitting the arrow-shaped icon on the bottom-left of your display will activate the phone’s compass and show you on the map exactly which direction you’re facing? Clever, huh?




9. Swipe to Delete

There are some handy features for deleting messages more quickly. The most common way to delete multiple messages in e-mail is to hit “Edit,” select the messages you want gone, and then hit the big, red delete button. Alternatively, you can simply swipe to bring up a delete option.

In your inbox, swipe your finger from right to left across a message and you’ll see a delete button appear. Press it and the message is toast.

Gmail users, however, may only get the option to “Archive,” so if you’re using Gmail you’ll have to tweak your settings first. To do this, go to “Settings,” “Mail, Contacts, Calendars,” “Google Mail” and then toggle the “Archive Messages” option to “Off.” This will now reveal that delete option.

This swiping trick can also be used for phone messages, Notes and more.

 

10. Add Folders to the Dock

The ability to create folders is one huge improvement brought with iOS4, and is a very popular feature when it comes to organizing and accessing apps. In using folders, there’s a neat trick that will let you have all your most-used apps on your phone’s homescreen.

To create a folder, just press and hold any app until it starts wiggling. Then, drag the app into another app that you’d like to include in the same folder. The iPhone will automatically generate a name for the folder based on its contents. You can edit this name by pressing and holding the folder icon.

Once you’ve got your folders made, if you clear something less useful out of the dock (you can only have four things in at a time) you can drag and drop your folder into the dock for super-fast access.

With clever folder creation (Work, Play, Phone, Tools, etc) you could pretty much have everything you need one tap away from the homescreen, rather than scrolling through endless screens of apps.

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