Downloading flash videos in Linux was already not too difficult, but thanks to flashrip, it has gotten very easy. Here is a little demo how it works:

Once installed, you basically use one click to get a video preview and then a prompt with the filename to save the file. The script works by looking into the newest flash files in your /tmp folder, and creates a hardlink to the save destination. When the video has fully loaded, you can close the browser window. The temp file will get deleted, and the linked copy will remain.

Installing flashrip

Open a terminal like gnome-terminal or konsole, and run these commands:

wget http://martin.ankerl.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/flashrip.sh
chmod 755 flashrip.sh
sudo mv flashrip.sh /usr/local/bin

Now all thats left to do is to create a link in your gnome panel for ease of use: Right click the gnome panel, “Add to panel…”, choose “Custom Application Launcher…”. Choose a proper name, and a command like this:

/usr/local/bin/flashrip.sh /home/manker/Videos

For the command, replace the second parameter with the default location where you want to save the ripped videos (you have to use the full path here!)

I have tested this in Ubuntu, but it should work on any linux where gnome is installed.

Have fun!

This is a new release of the compact theme, based on the original Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid) theme. It was created by Jan Suhr almost a month ago, based on my little howto.

I have now two versions of the theme: one with normal icon sizes, and one with the smaller 16×16 icons for even more compactness. Here is a comparison animation of the standard Human theme vs. the compact theme:

You can download the themes here:

• HumanCompact-8.10.tar.bz2
• HumanCompactSmallIcons-8.10.tar.bz2

Download and Installation

1. Save the theme to your computer.
2. Open the gnome’s appearence dialog with System > Preferences > Appearance.
3. Drag and drop the downloaded file into the Theme tab of the appearance dialog. If you get an error message “Can’t move directory over directory”, you have already installed a theme with the same name. To be able to reinstall it, remove the directory ~/.themes/Human Compact or ~/.themes/Human Compact Small Icons.
4. Choose “Apply new theme” in the popup dialog.

Most changes will occur immediately, but for e.g. the icon sizes it is best to log out and log in again. When you change the theme, you can get the Human Compact theme back by clicking on Customize, and then selecting Human Compact.

Any question, praise or flames? please post them!

Install for root (e.g. Synaptic)

Some readers asked how to get this to work for applications that run as root (e.g. synaptic), so here it is: simply copy the copy the theme file into the root’s home directory, like this (exchange username with your own name):

sudo cp /home/username/.themes/Human\ Compact/gtk-2.0/gtkrc /root/.gtkrc-2.0

Afterwards synaptic uses the human compact theme.

Older Themes

Here is some information about the original compact themes I have created:

• How to Make a Human Compact Theme
• Human Compact Theme (for Ubuntu 8.04)
• Clearlooks Compact Theme (for Ubuntu 8.04)

Thanks to the overwhelming success of the Clearlooks Compact Theme and demand from several users I have now created a Human Compact theme. Basically it features the same compactness as Clearlooks Compact, but the look & feel of the Ubuntu Human theme. So, if you want compactness and did not like the cold blue look of clearlooks, this is for you. It should also work well with the Eee pc, there even is a nice tutorial here.

UPDATE: Human Compact Theme for Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) is available!

Comparison

Move your mouse over the image to see the difference of a save dialog between Ubuntu’s 8.04 Human, and Human Compact. Buttons and spacing is much smaller which results in a lot more free space for the actual content. See for yourself:

Here are some other screenshots. The eclipse window uses 800×480 resolution, which is the same as the eee pc has.

Download and Installation

1. Save the file HumanCompact.tar.bz2 to your computer.
2. Open the gnome’s appearence dialog with System > Preferences > Appearance.
3. Drag and drop the downloaded file into the Theme tab of the appearance dialog.
4. Choose “Apply new theme” in the popup dialog.

Most changes will occur immediately, but for e.g. the icon sizes it is best to log out and log in again. When you change the theme, you can get the Human Compact theme back by clicking on Customize, and then selecting Human Compact.

Any question, praise or flames? please post them!

Install for root (e.g. Synaptic)

Some readers asked how to get this to work for applications that run as root (e.g. synaptic), so here it is: simply copy the copy the theme file into the root’s home directory, like this (exchange username with your own name):

sudo cp /home/username/.themes/Human\ Compact/gtk-2.0/gtkrc /root/.gtkrc-2.0

Afterwards synaptic uses the human compact theme.

I have just updated the Netvibes (iGoogle, Apple Dashboard, Opera, Windows Live) search widgets with some Javascript voodoo. See my previous post for more info about these widgets. You can try them inline here:

Even though there is not much about this search, I have done quite a bit of user interface tweaks to make them easier to use. Here are the new features:

Remember Latest Selection

When you use e.g. the Open Source Search, the previously used operating system (selected by clicking on the button) is automatically used when you just enter the search term end press Return. The selection is highlighted with bold text.

Select Text On Click

Clicking into the text field automatically selects the whole text, so it is easier to reuse the textfield. I have also entered a default value, because from the webanalyzer logs I found out that many people just click on the buttons without entering any text, so now it should be more obvious how this thing works.

No Textfield Changes

The previous version added a text like more:Linux into the search box that was used by the custom search. This clutter is now hidden from the user.

I think the widgets are much more useful now. If you like them, add them to Netvibes, iGoogle, Apple Dashboard, Opera, Windows Live, or Windows Vista here:

• Open Source Software Search Widget
• Java Developer Kit Documentation Widget

I think the widgets are now much more useful. Post if you have any problems!

Netvibes has recently released a very cool update on their Widget API (see Ginger and UWA). It is now possible to create widgets that can be used in iGoogle, Apple Dashboard, Opera, Windows Live, Windows Vista, and of course Netvibes itself. I have just created two widgets for the two search engines Open Source Software and Java Developer Kit (JDK) Documentation which I believe are extremely convenient, but try for yourself!

Try Them

For example, enter Word and click Linux to find open source alternatives for your favorite operating system. The widget remembers what your choice, and the next time you use the search you just have to enter the search term and press enter to search with the same operating system again.

Type concurrent and click 6.0 in the JDK search to find out about the concurrency package in JDK 1.6.0.

Add Them

You can add the engines to Netvibes, iGoogle, Apple Dashboard, Opera, Windows Live, or Windows Vista here:

• Open Source Software Search Widget
• Java Developer Kit Documentation Widget

Are the widgets useful to you? Please tell me!