Then, I’ve found Conky. I’ll never turn back.

This is the best system monitor I have ever experienced. It is highly customizable, all you have to do is modify the Conky config file. There’s a lot of widgets/variables to use, such as system monitoring tools (CPU, RAM, SWAP, Hard Drive, etc), batteries capacity, networking, and more. And best of all, it is very, very easy to create your own widgets. If you know any programming language such as Python, Perl, or even a simple Shell Scripts, then you’re off to create your own.

Installing Conky are easy as executing command below in the terminal:
$ sudo apt-get install conky

Next, create your Conky config file. Here is my config file I’m currently using.

Then, execute command below to run Conky. Put it in your startup so that it will be running each time you boot-up your computer:
$ conky -c <path_to_my_conky_config>.conf

Below are what my desktop currently looks like with Conky:

Conky Desktop

In there I’ve created my own GMail notifier, Google Reader notifier and local TV guide, all using Python. You will find more ideas, screen shots and scripts to use with Conky on Ubuntu Forum.

Cheers.

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From Tim Golden’s Python Stuff:

Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) is Microsoft’s implementation of Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM), an industry initiative to provide a Common Information Model (CIM) for pretty much any information about a computer system.

Executing remote program using WMI needs the win32 extensions from Mark Hammond. Below are one of the sample code that I’ve used on a 32-bit target machine:

c = wmi.WMI ('my_remote_windows_machine')
process_id, result = c.Win32_Process.Create (CommandLine="Notepad.exe")
    for process in c.Win32_Process (ProcessId=process_id):
        returnvalue = str(process.ProcessId) + " " + str(process.Name)

    if result == 0:
        returnvalue = "Process started successfully: %s" % returnvalue
    else:
        raise RuntimeError, "Problem creating process: %s" % str(result)
    print returnvalue

However, when it comes to 64-bit target machines, I’m getting errors below:

  File "C:\Python26\lib\wmi.py", line 1181, in connect
    return _wmi_namespace (obj, find_classes)
  File "C:\Python26\lib\wmi.py", line 821, in __init__
    self.classes.update (self.subclasses_of ())
  File "C:\Python26\lib\wmi.py", line 843, in subclasses_of
    for c in self._namespace.SubclassesOf (root):
  File "C:\Python26\Lib\site-packages\win32com\client\util.py", line 84, in next

    return _get_good_object_(self._iter_.next(), resultCLSID = self.resultCLSID)

The solution:

c = wmi.WMI ('my_remote_windows_machine', find_classes=False)
process_id, result = c.Win32_Process.Create (CommandLine="Notepad.exe")
    for process in c.Win32_Process (ProcessId=process_id):
        returnvalue = str(process.ProcessId) + " " + str(process.Name)

    if result == 0:
        returnvalue = "Process started successfully: %s" % returnvalue
    else:
        raise RuntimeError, "Problem creating process: %s" % str(result)
    print returnvalue

Notice the extra parameter find_classes=False when instantiating the WMI object.
Some of the good examples on WMI in Python:
Tim Golden’s Python Stuff
WMI Cookbook

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Before this my encounter with Python is merely just a few samples, consists of some web forms and web pages, using mod_python configured on Apache running on my headless CentOS box (VM actually). Run a few queries against MySQL using MySQLdb module, returns a few results, display it on the web apps, and that’s it! The experience is limited, but enough to learn it’s syntax and flow.

Now I’m developing actual program in Python at work. (Finally, something to add to my resume ). It’s more of a client-server application, but involves a lot of components and API’s to get around with. I’ve been using win32api’s, win32net, Windows Services, WMI for remote execution, etc, etc. At times I felt my head is going to explode. But, it’s fun! At least I have something to wake up every morning to.

Wiki:

Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language. Its design philosophy emphasizes programmer productivity and code readability. Python’s core syntax and semantics are minimalistic, while the standard library is large and comprehensive. Its use of whitespace as block delimiters is unusual among popular programming languages.

Python supports multiple programming paradigms (primarily object oriented, imperative, and functional) and features a fully dynamic type system and automatic memory management, similar to Perl, Ruby, Scheme, and Tcl. Like other dynamic languages, Python is often used as a scripting language.

Useful Links For Python:
Python Tutorials (Lots of tutorial, from beginners to advanced)
code.activestate.com (My favorite. Lots of actual running source codes)
Python 101 Cheat Sheet

IDE of Choice:
Komodo IDE
Komodo Edit (Free)
Aptana Pydev (Free)

Organizations using Python: Yahoo Maps, Yahoo Groups, Google, YouTube

Any experience or opinions on Python? What your IDE of choice? For those who’re interested, expect more post regarding Python soon. Source codes, samples and more.

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