Ubuntu has a open source code(under GPL) and rich variety of applications to choose from.
The user/developer community is also very large and responsive.
With such environment an itch to dabble in and customize things is tempting.
It was Screenlets that has got me started in this dabbling.
Screenlets allow you to make a floating accessories or widgets on your desktop.
The things that can be done with the Screenlets are endless. For instance, I use Radio Screenlet to listen to BBC News while a weather screenlet gives upto-minute information of the weather outside.
These widgets are based on Screenlet class library (Python GTK based).
Today I modified the ClearWeather Screenlet (Version 0.5 by Whise). The new features are :
1. Updated the screen for more crisp display
2. Added "Update Interval" field. The user can specify the interval for fetching latest XML feed. In the original version it was fixed to 5 minutes.
3. Screenlet now shows a detailed information on mouse over
The updated version can be found here.
Here is a screen shot:
Screenlet manager (ALT-F2 -> screenlets) can install the new version from this tar.gz archive automatically.
If you do not want that, you may simply drop the ClearWeather.py in the ClearWeather Screenlet directory.
Enjoy!