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Nautilus Actions Adding New Functions to Nautilus Right Click Menu has Never been this Easy!

Gnome desktop didnt used to like this simple you know. Apparently it used to come with a huge list of features and configuration options which were cleaned up about 80-90% when the made the switch to the Gnome 2+ back in the day (around 2000-2001 I think).

These days its pretty much simple and it has been heavily criticized by many + by myself too (apparently someone called Linus Torvalds was one of them :)). Although I wrote that post few months ago but apparently, the disappointment came from the experiences that I had in the past few years (since I decided to stick-with GNU/Linux).

But the point is that, at lest in the recent years it seems that the developers has come up with their own versions of little "solutions" in order to fix some of those "missing" features in Gnome desktop (ahh, the power of Open-Source software :D).

Anyhow, if youre just like me having a continuous "hate and love" relationship with the Nautilus file manager and trying to find a way out of that too simple right-click menu and thinking if theres a way that you can add functions of your own to that with ease?... well my friend, you sure can do that!.

There is apparently an application called "Nautilus-Actions" which is I think A Nautilus script (they are like "addo-ons" which expands the features of Nautilus via their API).

And I gotta say folks, after playing it with like 5-10 minutes, seriously if you know your way around GNU/Linux commands (trust me, I know very very little about em commands, still learning just like you) then this is one heck of an application that can totally change how Nautilus behave!.

Main features...

Hi!, my name is "awesome" ;-)...

*. Add/remove new menus to the Nautilus file manager right click menu.

*. Add/remove the appropriate commands.

*. Use Mimetypes:

For instance, say that you wanted the command "Mplayer" to be displayed once you right click on a multimedia file extension ".mkv", then you can use this feature to associate the command for that file-type only.

*. Include/Exclude folders:

Say that you wanted the menu to only display once you right-click in a certain location in Nautilus, then this is the feature that you can use for that.

*. Display the menu on selected objects or on empty spaces (or them both).

*. Import/Export pre-configured scripts.

These are very little of its features. But Ill give you an example which would help to understand it much easier (I was addressing the newbies only, for the underdogs: respect!, respect! :) ).

Lets install it...

You can install the "Nautilus-Actions" app in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 10.10 and 10.04 by using the below command.

sudo apt-get install nautilus-actions

Now once installed you should be able to launch it via the main desktop menu or by using the below command after pressing "Alt" + "F2" keys on your keyboard.

nautilus-actions-config-tool

You can obtain a huge list of pre-configured scripts from this page if you like too. 

But how to add a program "shortcut" of your own?

Well, although I totally dont want to, but lets say that I wanted to launch the "Totem" media player using nautilus right-click menu. Okay then, after launching the app you should see a window similar to the first screenshot.

1. Under the "Action" tab: in the sub heading "Nautilus item" youll see two check-mark boxes. The first one is enabled by default which makes sure that the new menu item will only appear when you select something in Natilus and right-click on it.

But if you want the menu-item to be displayed only when you right-click on an empty space, then remove the check-mark on the first one and add a check-mark on the second one that says "Display item in location context Menu".

If you put a check mark on that which says: "Display item in the toolbar", then itll also appear in your Nautilus tool-bar too!...

2. Now, youll see another  sub heading called "Context-label". Now as shown below, just replace the text in that box with "Open Totem" (you can add any name here since this is just the display name thatll be shown in the new menu).


3. Under "Tooltip" (above screenshot): type whatever the text you want (which is optional) and obviously itll show a nice tooltip description about that menu-item.

4. Under "Icon": you can choose an icon to be displayed with the menu. But for performance issues, I humbly advice you to try not to use icons.

Associating the menu with the actual command...

5. Now, click on the next tab called "Command". Under the sub-heading "path" just enter the below command (since were trying to Totem player) and leave other options alone.

totem

As mentioned above, you can use other tabs to set things such as making the menu-item visible in a certain location, etc ... but if youre totally new to this, then both the "Action" and "Command" tabs are the ones that we need.

6. Now just click on its menu and go to: "File" -> "Save" and close the application (this is important, otherwise in my case, Nautilus failed to update the settings).


7. To make these changes apply to Nautilus we have to restart it.

For that use the below command (beware: before running make sure you have closed or completed any processes related to Nautilus such as file-copy, etc otherwise theyll be terminated!).

nautilus -q

Thats it! and below is a screenshot of my Nautilus after adding both Totem and Gedit (Gnomes text editor) to the right-click menu.


Not just Totem, as long as you know the appropriate command name of the application that you want to add, you can add any application to the Nautilus file managers right-click menu + you can even add other advanced features such as "refresh" command for instance as well.

But how the heck can I find actual command for a given program?

Well, for knowing the actual command-name of the installed applications, as long as they show-up in your main desktop Menu, theres a simple trick that we can use.

In the recent years, Gnome came with a separate application called "alacarte" which lets us easily add/remove applications in the main application menu. Not only that, by using this app we can easily figure-out the name and the actual command associated with it which helps to launch the program itself too.

So, just put the below command in after pressing "Alt" + "F2".

alacarte

Now, from its main window, navigate to any sub-menu and locate your program, and then simply double click on the icon (I just double clicked the "Ubuntu Software Center" icon) which should reveal the "properties" of the application.

See that selected text, yup, thats the secret formula :P...

Now under the sub heading "Command", the text in that field is the location + the command of that application that you just double clicked. For instance, if we want to manually launch the Ubuntu software center, then we should use the command...

/usr/bin/software-center %u 

OR

software-center %u

Since "/user/bin" actually the location which will be recognized automatically by Ubuntu (or in GNU/Linux in general), most of the time, you can ignore the "/usr/bin" part.

Wraping-up...

So if you want to easily customize the Nautilus file management utilitys menu (for fun and adding some efficiency, hopefully :D), then first figure-out its "actual command" and then open the awesome Nautilus-Actions utility and after filling the other fields, under the command section, simply copy and paste, make your changes and youre good to go.

Well, thats about it. If you have questions just ask. Enjoy it :).

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No system images installed for this target–AVD

Got a question from a friend. Asking why the AVD – Android Virtual Device- cannot be created. ( TQvm Amat Aj for the question )

Solution : This is due to the system image for the target machine is not available. open the SDK manager and download the right system image. Notice the none of the System Image is installed. Check one (ARM/Intel/MIPS) and start the download. ARM is common for most phone, Intel claim it’s faster for the emulator. From my observation, both are the same.

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mystery items guess what I was doing this evening

If you do want to guess just look at the picture, do not read on. Dont read on too quickly anyway. I will give some clues now and gradually reveal the mystery of the strange objects.

Some items are not used for the main activity.

the bottle has a tiny bit of wine and some cider vinegar inside. it has cellophane on top with a small hole in it. guess what it is.

The pencils are there because it is back to school time. Daire was back today at 10. the girls are back tomorrow.

the binoculars are there from the weekend. when the tall ships left Dublin we could see them from outside our house. northerly ish wind so they went out (east) without sail, then out up sail and quickly disappeared out of sight skirting coast.

the half-eaten bar is from when we cycled on metals from DunLaoghaire to Dalkey. Kate bladed.

the music is from song by Fun: Tonight we are young. recorder just for tootling. was playing along with guitar chords and piano chords/melody/beat-notes. Maeve knows all the starting verses words off!

the things used in main activity were ... in order of most useless-ness ...
a chisel
a penknife (now cleaned and sharpened with file)
drill bits
a rock
a hammer
a file
a tin box with white stuff inside, guess what that is.
a small metal looking block and blade

the rock is quartzy granite,quite a hard rock, lots of that kind here and in wicklow hills.

inside the box there is cotton wool mixed with some vaseline. for cleaning baby bottoms? but we dont have babies any more.

the chisel and penknife dont work. The penknife is stainless steel.

one drill bit for drilling metal gives a small spark if hit against the rock.

there is a faint burney smell.

the hammer and file give good sparks when hit at an angle against the rock. bits of rock flake off with the hammer though, watch out for eyes!

the little metal block is magnesium with a small ?high-carbon? steel rod on one side. this rod gives good sparks if scraped on the rock.

the little blade chained to rock is some kind of flint. Im not sure if it is real rock flint or something else. when scraped against the rod sparks are generated. when scraped against hammer or file not much happens.

the quartz in rock and flint are harder than the steel. when hit against sharp rock tiny shards of metal scrape off and are ignited by friction.

hot metal sparks are good for starting fires with.

the magnesium is scraped making some magnesium dust. that collects at top of rod. scraping top of rod gives nice hot/strong magnesium sparks as well as steel sparks.

vaseline is petroleum-jelly and it is flammable. cotton wool and vaseline is good tinder.

I was making sparks and fire.

lay out some kindling ready to take fire. lay out some tinder (cotton wool). spark into the tinder. if you get it to flame to add the kindling. build and enjoy fire. if practicing lighting fires put it out then do it again. I made about 8 little fires. fun. the girls liked it!

What is the bottle? It is a trap for fruit flies. A bowl with vinegar inside and cellophane on top works too and you can see the flies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flint
"Flint is a hard, sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz,^[1][2] categorized as a variety of chert."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steel
"Steel is an alloy made by combining iron and other elements, the most common of these being carbon. When carbon is used, its content in the steel is between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight"

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Paint this gorgeous disco inspired portrait

You’d be very world-weary indeed if your first reaction when looking at this portrait wasn’t ‘wow’. Knockout digital portraiture at this level takes skill, craft and patience – and here, Neville d’Souza guides you step by step through the painstaking process of creating this gorgeous portrait from scratch in Photoshop.

You’ll learn how to plan and pull off truly stunning digital paintings, covering everything from choosing your colour palette to the intricate layering and detailed brush work that make this portrait such a many-faceted, hyperrealistic treat.

You’ll also learn tips for painting faces – in particular, for creating those incredible eyes and lips from scratch, using only reference photos.

So be patient, and be detailed – and remember, it’s far easier to undo or put right any errors you might make than it is when using traditional art supplies – so be a little bold too.

Step 1
First, pick your colour palette: select the base colours, and then separate the colour palette for each element. This way you can pick a sample and play with its light and dark values.

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Step 2
We need a custom brush for the hair. Draw a round shape (not a perfect circle) and select Edit > Define Brush Preset. In the Brushes Presets palette, go to the Brush Shape menu and set the spacing to 25%. In the Scattering menu, tick Both Axes and set this to 585%. Tick Smoothing and in Other Dynamics, set the Flow Jitter to 47%.

Step 3
Open a new document and give it a background colour, then use your custom brush to block out the hair’s basic shape, varying the size, colour and transparency of the rings slightly. Use the Burn tool to darken some areas more, then add a layer mask as shown.
Next, duplicate the hair layer, set the blending mode to Multiply, and add a new layer mask, this time as a radial gradient.

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Step 4
Duplicate the first hair layer again and move this to the top of the layer stack, adding a layer mask as shown: this gives us a soft highlight. Duplicate this layer, move it under the other three hair layers, set the blending mode to Multiply and the Fill to 82%. Later we’ll be putting the face between these hair layers.
Then copy the left side of the hair, paste it onto a new layer, set its blending mode to Multiply and shift it halfway to the right. Do the same for the right-hand side of the hair, shifting it to the left.

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Step 5
Darken some of the areas of the back of the hair using the Burn tool, set to Midtones and exposure of 50%. Group together the layers of the back of the hair, and the front of the hair, then set a gradient layer mask for the back of the hair. Finally, blend the hair slightly so that the individual ringlets aren’t as visible.

Step 6
Draw the outline of the face and shoulders (you might find it easier to draw half and then reflect it), then move it to between the front hair and back hair groups.
Darken the neck area, add some soft pink reflections around the edges of her face, and some golden light bounce on her shoulders. This is looking a bit full-on; we’ll need to tone it down a bit.

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Step 7
Blend the yellow tone into her skin a little more, and add some gentle shading for the collarbone. Then add some yellow lighting on her shoulder tip – but don’t go all the way to her jawline, or even her neck, as this could be distracting. Add some rim lighting on the jawline toward her chin – but not too much. Darken the area towards her ears, mainly for the subtle hair shadow and to add depth. Treat the eye socket and lower lip areas the same way.

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Step 8
Block out the lips in a rich, deep shade, then add a nice pink tone with a good amount of saturation. Paint in a black shape for the mouth opening, and start adding in highlights, varying the opacity of your painting.

Step 9
Paint pastel highlights on the lower lip, and darken the area closer to the mouth opening. Continue to build up the highlights, adding them on the top lip: getting the teeny bits of reflection and shine is a challenge. I used a small hard brush in plain white and had to play around a lot so the shapes didn’t look like cutouts. Add a generous amount of yellow, to show bounce and reflection.

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Step 10
Now for the nose. Start off with a soft peach tone for the opening – once we add a dark red tone over it we can easily fade it off with the eraser and let it blend in with the underlying colour. Round off the nose shape with a pink shadow and faint outlining – the Smudge tool at a low setting (about 55%) is your friend here.

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Step 11
Define the area with sharper lines, more smudging and orange shadows – experimenting with coloured shadows works wonders! Shape out the nose tip and paint in the shadows between the nose and upper lip area, then add a very subtle yellow tone for bounce.

Step 12
Be prepared to spend a lot of time and effort on the eyes. The trick is to build them up gradually. Start with a few simple pastel outlines, and work up the skin folds and the upper and lower eyelid sections.

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Step 13
Still working around the upper eyelid and with the inner eye section, gradually introduce a good amount of bluish-purple and navy blue tones over the upper eyelid and lower eyelid. Then move on to a few highlight streaks to define the shape even more.

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Step 14 
 Now let’s tackle the eyeball: start by blocking it in, then gradually build up the iris, adding in the different shades of brown, green and muddy yellow, with a hint of dark blue. Define the fleshy section more with blobs of white and pink. Try playing with the softness value of the brush, flicking backwards and forward between hard and softer brushes. Then add the pupil.

Step 15
Give the pupil a light reflection, then let’s get to work on the eyelashes – again, pay very close attention to your reference photos to make these look as realistic as possible. Use the Pen tool for the basic shape, then use a hard brush for the inner line work and some highlights. Once complete, add shadows and a dark purple lining for the upper and lower eyelids.

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Step 16
Now for the eyebrows. Create a basic shape using the Pen tool, then use the Smudge tool – alternating between 70% and 90% – and work your way in and out of the brow area. Set the layer’s blending mode to Overlay with a 50% fill and create a layer mask as shown here. Duplicate the layer.
Paint another eyebrow using the same technique, adding darker streaks. Set this layer’s blending mode to Linear Burn with 25% fill. Duplicate this layer, set the blending mode to Linear Dodge with 100% fill. Copy and flip to form the other eye, making some tiny adjustments to the eyelashes so the eyes aren’t completely symmetrical.

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Step 17
Now for some makeup. Block in an orange shape and then change the layer’s blending mode to Overlay. For the reflection on her nose, use a soft brush and smudge it carefully.
Add highlights to her forehead, chin and upper lip area, then move and do the same to the shoulders, collar bone, neck and cleavage.

Step 18
Add the teeth, creating the shapes with the Pen tool. It’s important not to get them either too white or too dark – experiment. Add in tiny specks of white to form the reflections. The aim is to create a subtle element that blends in with the rest of the image, without attracting attention.

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Step 19
Now for some colour markings: here, I roughly painted a shape across her cheek, then set the layer blending mode to Linear Burn with a 50% fill. Add some washes of creamy yellow across her chest and shoulders, again setting the blending mode to Linear Burn, with a 35% fill.

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Step 20
The final stage is really up to you: Photoshop’s adjustment layers feature is a powerful tool – you can keep experimenting for hours and keep getting awesome and very different results. For a classically early-1980s blur, try using a Shape Blur filter with a radius of 20 pixels and a circular frame of the blur. Here, I’ve made the whole image less pink with a Curves Adjustment layer.

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