Download video. This is the most compelling and well-presented treatise I have yet seen on the subject.

If you have a website I encourage you to add the Hello Bar to your site to help raise awareness and show your opposition to PIPA.

do shell script "defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-apps -array-add
      '{tile-data={}; tile-type=\"spacer-tile\";}' && killall Dock"

do shell script "defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-others -array-add
      '{tile-data={}; tile-type=\"spacer-tile\";}' && killall Dock"

do shell script "cp $HOME/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist $HOME/
      Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock_.plist"

do shell script "cp $HOME/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock_.plist $HOME/
      Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist; killall Dock"

do shell script "defaults write com.apple.dock contents-immutable -bool Yes;
      killall Dock"

do shell script "defaults write com.apple.dock contents-immutable -bool No;
      killall Dock"

Download PDF: MacAttack – (Un)Locking the Dock

I have used the free version for simple operations like remotely helping a friend configure or install something on their computer Linux to Linux, Windows to Windows, and cross-platform. Now the usefulness of TeamViewer increases with the release of the free TeamViewer App for Android.

Download APK
or
Android Market

Of course i like it because it’s free. Of course i like it because it’s cross-platform. What i really like the most is that it works really well. I expected the graphics to be choppy or the response to be slow, but it wasn’t so. One thing that does take a bit to get used to is the fact that the cursor is the focal point and, therefore, moving it to the edge of the screen advances the display in that direction. This as opposed to the typical smartphone thinking where you flick the page up to get to the bottom. With the TeamViewer app you move to the bottom to scroll down. Makes perfect sense. The zoom slider helps here as well.

The mouse control is excellent. You move the cursor with one finger and it works nicely. Tapping with one finger emulates a single left-click, while a two-finger tap emulates a right-click. I found it to be quite intuitive and very responsive.

TeamViewer and the TeamViewer App are free for personal use. Check it out.

First, copy the firefox.desktop file from /usr/share/applications:

cp /usr/share/applications/firefox.desktop ~/.local/share/applications

Now open the file in a text editor, such as gedit:

gedit ~/.local/share/applications/firefox.desktop

You should see something like this (I edited out the long list of languages):

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Name=Firefox Web Browser
Comment=Browse the World Wide Web
GenericName=Web Browser
Exec=firefox %u
Terminal=false
X-MultipleArgs=false
Type=Application
Icon=firefox
Categories=GNOME;GTK;Network;WebBrowser;
MimeType=text/html;text/xml;application/xhtml+xml;application/xml;application/vnd.mozilla.xul+xml;application/rss+xml;application/rdf+xml;image/gif;image/jpeg;image/png;x-scheme-handler/http;x-scheme-handler/https;x-scheme-handler/ftp;x-scheme-handler/chrome;
StartupWMClass=Firefox
StartupNotify=true
X-Ayatana-Desktop-Shortcuts=NewWindow;

[NewWindow Shortcut Group]
Name=Open a New Window
Exec=firefox -new-window about:blank
TargetEnvironment=Unity

Add names for the shortcuts to the end of this line:

X-Ayatana-Desktop-Shortcuts=NewWindow;

Such as:

X-Ayatana-Desktop-Shortcuts=NewWindow;TweakBlog;

Now add the block for the shortcut to the end of the file:

[TweakBlog Shortcut Group]
Name=Tweak Blog
Exec=firefox -new-window 'http://brett-marshall.blogspot.com/'
TargetEnvironment=Unity

Append whatever shortcut names you like to the end of the “X-Ayatana-Desktop-Shortcuts” line and add the relevant blocks to the end of the file.

That’s it. Log out and back in to use your new shortcuts.

First, a screenshot of my desktop:

The wallpaper can be found here:Wallpaper
and the icon set here:Icons

What can I say? i like monochrome…it matches everything!

I wanted to add an entry to the Unity Launcher Home / File Browser icon which would give me this:

The Unity Launcher items are configured through standard .desktop files. These files originate in /usr/share/applications. The customize them, copy the file you want, such as nautilus-computer.desktop, to ~/.local/share/applications with this command:

cp /usr/share/applications/nautilus-computer.desktop ~/.local/share/applications/

Now open the file at ~/.local/share/applications/nautilus-computer.desktop with an editor like gedit:

gedit ~/.local/share/applications/nautilus-computer.desktop

You should see something like this:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Computer
Comment=Browse all local and remote disks and folders accessible from this computer
TryExec=nautilus
Exec=nautilus --no-desktop computer:
Icon=computer
Terminal=false
StartupNotify=true
Type=Application
Categories=GNOME;GTK;Core;
OnlyShowIn=GNOME;
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Bugzilla=GNOME
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Product=nautilus
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Component=general
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Version=2.32.2
X-Ubuntu-Gettext-Domain=nautilus

What I did was to add an entry for this to my nautilus.desktop file to create a Shortcut Group sub-item in the Home launcher:

There is a good list of Custom Unity launchers and Quicklists at AskUbuntu.com. Building on instructions I found there, I added the nautilus-computer entry to my nautilus.desktop file, which now looks like this:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Folders
Comment=Open your folders
TryExec=nautilus
Exec=nautilus --no-desktop
Icon=user-home
Terminal=false
StartupNotify=true
Type=Application
Categories=GNOME;GTK;Core;
OnlyShowIn=GNOME;Unity;
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Bugzilla=GNOME
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Product=nautilus
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Component=general
X-Ubuntu-Gettext-Domain=nautilus

X-Ayatana-Desktop-Shortcuts=Computer;Videos;Documents;Music;Pictures;Downloads;Root
Name[en_US]=Folders

[Computer Shortcut Group]
Name=Computer
Exec=nautilus --no-desktop computer:
TargetEnvironment=Unity

[Videos Shortcut Group]
Name=Videos
Exec=nautilus Videos
TargetEnvironment=Unity

[Documents Shortcut Group]
Name=Documents
Exec=nautilus Documents
TargetEnvironment=Unity

[Music Shortcut Group]
Name=Music
Exec=nautilus Music
TargetEnvironment=Unity

[Pictures Shortcut Group]
Name=Pictures
Exec=nautilus Pictures
TargetEnvironment=Unity

[Downloads Shortcut Group]
Name=Downloads
Exec=nautilus Downloads
TargetEnvironment=Unity

[Root Shortcut Group]
Name=Root Browser
Exec=gksu nautilus
TargetEnvironment=Unity

…and that’s pretty much it.

Additionally, a quick way to add an icon to the launcher is to open an application (by using Alt+F2 and typing the command, or hitting the Super key and searching for it, or hitting Super and then clicking “More Apps –> Installed”), and then right-clicking the icon when it appears in the launcher. You will get a menu like this:

…which adds a check mark and makes it stick.

Enjoy Unity!

P.S. In case you’re interested, here’s my conkyrc file. Right-click and Save Link As…

I’ll do a proper post on conky soon.

The basic idea is to use javascript and css to provide functionality and style to make your web site/ web app emulate the typical Android behavior and tailor the display to the mobile device. While this may (or may not) seem very useful, there’s more to the story.

The book also goes into detail describing how to launch your “app” from the home screen, store data locally on the phone, and operate in offline mode. Further, the author demonstrates the use of an open source project called PhoneGap to allow your web app to access the device hardware and features such as geolocation, accelerometer, sound, and vibration.

In a nutshell, PhoneGap works as a “wrapper” by abstracting the relevant API’s for iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Palm, Symbian, and Windows Mobile, and producing an native-compatible app for the target platform…without writing platform-specific code.

It’s a pretty neat concept that allows for a great deal of flexibility and “cross-platform” exposure for a web app.

Description

If you know HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, you already have the tools you need to develop Android applications. This hands-on book shows you how to use these open source web standards to design and build apps that can be adapted for any Android device — without having to use Java.

You’ll learn how to create an Android-friendly web app on the platform of your choice, and then convert it to a native Android app with the free PhoneGap framework. Discover why device-agnostic mobile apps are the wave of the future, and start building apps that offer greater flexibility and a broader reach.

* Learn the basics for making a web page look great on the Android web browser
* Convert a website into a web application, complete with progress indicators and more
* Add animation with jQTouch to make your web app look and feel like a native Android app
* Take advantage of client-side data storage with apps that run even when the Android device is offline
* Use PhoneGap to hook into advanced Android features — including the accelerometer, geolocation, and alerts
* Test and debug your app on the Web under load with real users, and then submit the finished product to the Android Market

Instantiating Colors in Android

A recent Android project for my Mobile Application Development class required us to draw 2d shapes and make a design. Android provides 12 Color constants for general use. The constructor for the Color object takes an int as a parameter. I wanted to draw some shapes in the appropriate “Android Green” (#a4c639), but the solution was not instantly obvious to me.

int droidGreen = 0xFFA4C639;
Paint paint = new Paint();
paint.setStyle(Paint.Style.FILL);
paint.setColor(AndroidGreen);
canvas.drawCircle(130, 90, 30, paint);

The first method will certainly work, but it is not the most flexible. What if you do that to draw 56 shapes and then want to change the color to HoneyDew or something? A better solution would be to add a central resource and access that resource each time you want to use that color. Then if you want a different color on those shapes you simply change the color value one time in the resource file and you’re done. Android makes this very easy.

Create a new XML file in your project’s /res folder. The wizard in Eclipse can help you with this:

EDIT: resource files cannot have upper-case letters in the name. The filename in the screenshot should be colors.xml.

The syntax for the file should be something like:

<resources>
   <color name="AndroidGreen">#a4c639</color>
</resources>

Now you can access that color resource and draw your circle like this:

Paint paint = new Paint();
paint.setStyle(Paint.Style.FILL);
paint.setColor(R.color.AndroidGreen);
canvas.drawCircle(130, 90, 30, paint);

More resources:
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/graphics/Color.html
http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/resources/available-resources.html