Ban Conky

dura · 2012-09-27 18:03:07

It has come to my attention that Conky- a system monitor that pins itself to users' desktop- has highly addictive properties and that users of such Conky find themselves sitting alone for hours editing and developing long scripts. Often, these users may not eat for days, nor clean themselves, because their addiction to Conky is so strong. I have some experience of this, and have seen my musculature dwindle as only my arms have been used. It also seems that #! is a central meeting place for users of Conky, supporting a forum of poor Conky users who produce many threads of considerable length devoted to their addiction, and that the organization itself ships an operating system that automatically introduces Conky into the lives of unexpecting computer enthusiasts.

I think it is time a serious discussion was had about the merits and downfalls of Conky, and whether its use should be banned under the Addictive Substances Act.

Yours Sincerely,

d!

Last edited by dura (2012-09-27 18:05:43)

mariannemarlow · 2012-09-27 18:27:19

It'd be addictive to me too if I was any good at this stuff smile

snowpine · 2012-09-27 18:42:22

Hate conky. It was the first thing I disabled in my #! days. (actually, tablaunch was worse, if any of the old-timers remember that!)

mariannemarlow · 2012-09-27 18:50:10

NOOOOO you can't hate conky!
It checks my gmail from mon amour pour moi!

snowpine · 2012-09-27 18:55:31

mariannemarlow wrote:

NOOOOO you can't hate conky!
It checks my gmail from mon amour pour moi!

He never sends me anything, therefore.... no need for conky.

mariannemarlow · 2012-09-27 19:06:38

I'll have to have a word with him about that wink

Iranon · 2012-09-27 20:36:30

If you find you spend nights glued to the screen, furiously tweaking your conky until you're weak and bleary-eyed it has probably turned into an addiction. In moderation, it's a perfectly natural and healthy activity.

mrpeachy · 2012-09-27 20:40:58

^ it is true that "furiously tweaking your conky" can cause blindness

zalew · 2012-09-27 20:42:18

the next evolution of opensource software must be the developers paying you for the time you spend tweaking.

rizzo · 2012-09-27 20:59:21

moved to General Chat smile

VastOne · 2012-09-28 00:02:06

For most of us, we get to a sane point of 'just what we need' in Conky and leave it alone.

There are others here who are pure genius in the development of Conky and I for one am damned glad to have them.

mrpeachy
falldown
arclance
TeoBigusGeekus
Iwfitz
dk75
and Sector11

Thank You!

Sector11 · 2012-09-28 02:50:57

mrpeachy wrote:

^ it is true that "furiously tweaking your conky" can cause blindness

GREAT! I'll tweak my conky until I need trifocals! lol

@ D!

Did you know there is a 1 Step Program for conky addicts?

We admitted we were powerless over conky - and LOVE IT!

Conky is NOT the problem, it starts with Linux!

Most distros have you installing new upgrades every six months! Even Windows users have to reintall their OS on 'blue screen occasions', probably more often than 'once in a blue moon' but that doesn't count, we're talking Linux. And that addiction leads to:

distro hopping
themeing
trying different desktops
trying different window managers
and a multitude of 'trying' this and that.

Linux is about personalization and customization and Conky is the leader of the pack!

Let's face it. Any other OS is ... well you use it! 'Linux' is addictive, exciting, creative, and what better way to show that off but with conky! Then along comes a distro you love to hate, it's boring, it never goes CRUNCH or BANG unless you make it do that, funny enough it's called CrunchBang. It just works - and because of that; more time to tweak!

@ Snowpine - so sad to hear, I'll email you, will that help?

@ VastOne - define 'sane' - using conky 2 ways for 18 different music apps is sane? Who runs 18 music apps?

@ zalew - someone paying me? Not it it meant they could tell me what to do, how to do it and when (usually yesterday) they wanted it done by. I do conky because I enjoy it!

@ Iranon - I agree with moderation! Bathroom and meal breaks are a must. Sleep is optional!

@ D! - again - I'm addicted to breathing too, and have NO intention of stopping soon! After all, air is an addictive substance. Now having said that, the best laid plans of mice and men ...

Last edited by Sector11 (2012-09-28 02:52:40)

pidsley · 2012-09-28 03:46:13

mrpeachy wrote:

^ it is true that "furiously tweaking your conky" can cause blindness

This might need to be my new sig.

rizzo · 2012-09-28 04:01:17

I wouldn't use the word hate but I'm with snowpine on this one. Conky gets the chop pretty quick on my machines unless its a build put together for support purposes.

I lost count of the number of hours I spent tweaking it when I first discovered it. In the end after trying all the fancy configs just a simple one suited my needs and then i was left wondering if I really needed it at all. At this point it was pointed to the chopping block.

That said, CrunchBang wouldn't be the same without it and it the endless hours of tweaking and resource sharing would be one of the best things about these forums smile I know we are often referenced in other forums as a place to come and ask questions about conky. Long may it live in the default builds:)

rizzo · 2012-09-28 04:03:25

pidsley wrote:

This might need to be my new sig.

lol +1 smile

lwfitz · 2012-09-28 04:43:11

VastOne wrote:

For most of us, we get to a sane point of 'just what we need' in Conky and leave it alone.
There are others here who are pure genius in the development of Conky and I for one am damned glad to have them.
mrpeachy
falldown
arclance
TeoBigusGeekus
Iwfitz
dk75
and Sector11
Thank You!

Wow my name is right in the middle of my heros..........

*tear*

Is there a big a** gold cup I can hold up over my head?

Theres 100+ self help / 12 step groups, Im sure a conky group would fit in there somewhere :-D.
As far as whether my feelings go, I love conky. It gives me the ability to add a little bling to my desktop and change it exactly how I like it without having to use stock widgets.
Plus I get to learn something new every time I tweak any of my configs.

dura · 2012-09-28 11:26:23

This thread was moved to general chat rather than comments and suggestions. I think that suggests a more general conspiracy, perhaps lead by CrunchBang members.

I feel the draw of conky this morning. Lua is seducing me. Combined, they can be deadly.

Sector11 · 2012-09-28 11:33:50

d! wrote:

This thread was moved to general chat rather than comments and suggestions. I think that suggests a more general conspiracy, perhaps lead by CrunchBang members.
I feel the draw of conky this morning. Lua is seducing me. Combined, they can be deadly.

Desktop threatening maybe, deadly ... naaa, I wouldn't go that far. If it was the insurance companies would have a policy for it. big_smile

dura · 2012-09-28 11:35:43

You may find me on the conky thread again. I feel the need to set up one of the interactive conkys over the weekend. I want some colourful bar graphs. I admit it, this was all a call for help all along.

Last edited by dura (2012-09-28 11:38:50)

Sector11 · 2012-09-28 12:57:56

d! wrote:

You may find me on the conky thread again. I feel the need to set up one of the interactive conkys over the weekend. I want some colourful bar graphs. I admit it, this was all a call for help all along.

Like I said: A 1 Step Program for conky addicts.

We admitted we were powerless over conky - and LOVE IT!

Hear the sound of hoof beats, the whinnying of horses - that the sound of the conkystadors coming to your aid. lol lol

================
On another note ....

I understand people that deep-six conky totally. But for this user conky is the only think I know a little about in the Linux world that I and can help with. With the other stuff - I can 'tweak' things but I can't 'build them'. Bash, python, LUA and others - all mysterious gobble-de-gook to me.

Do I really NEED to know the CPU temps?
* All those years before conky - I didn't know. (see below)
Do I need to know if there is email?
* Checking for email when I am ready or have time to respond tells me.
Do I need the weather on my desktop?
* A link to a weather site does that.

However

Do I want icons across the bottom of my screen that get bigger when I move my mouse over them?
Do I want a cow talking to me in my terminal?
Do I want a fortune popping up on my screen every 10, 15, 30 minutes
Do I want popups telling me I mounted a plug-in drive when I just plugged it in and it popped up in my file manager?
Do I want shadows around everything?
Do I want cubes rotating on my desktop?
* OK, that last one isn't really a #! thing but you get my point.

Then there is:

I have a forgetful memory - really bad with birthdays and anniversaries.
* conky lets me know.
I have a need to know the forecast for the next week or so
* conky does that without having to open a browser
* Plus I'm interested in the weather and my wife likes it.
CPU and internal temps have become important since I didn't take into account the ash from a volcano last year for the internal cleaning cycle.
* Ended up choking the fans in the computer frying my AMD Athlon CPU.
* Got a new mobo, an AMD Athlon II X3 and more RAM but at a time we really couldn't afford it.
* what was a 6 month cycle is now a 3 month cycle
* I was more focused on the fact it caused some serious breathing problems for me, touch and go there for a while, and I'm on a nebulizer now.
* I set my max limits low in conky just to be sure.

Gotta LOVE LINUX - it's all about options and you get to have it your way!

Ladies and gentlemen, start your computers and have an awesome day!

cJones · 2012-09-28 14:37:56

VastOne wrote:

For most of us, we get to a sane point of 'just what we need' in Conky and leave it alone.

Yeah as much as I loved playing with my conky when I first got #!, I haven't changed anything serious for a very long time. Although occasionally I write up a second one for kicks, it doesn't stick around for long.

mikhou · 2012-09-28 16:20:58

I've actually come to the same conclusion as snowpine and omns. I played and tweaked it to death at first, but I found that I never even looked at it anymore so (while it's still installed) I removed it from autostart.

mikhou

dura · 2012-09-28 16:49:47

Sector 11 wrote:

CPU and internal temps have become important since I didn't take into account the ash from a volcano last year for the internal cleaning cycle.
* Ended up choking the fans in the computer frying my AMD Athlon CPU.
* Got a new mobo, an AMD Athlon II X3 and more RAM but at a time we really couldn't afford it.
* what was a 6 month cycle is now a 3 month cycle
* I was more focused on the fact it caused some serious breathing problems for me, touch and go there for a while, and I'm on a nebulizer now.
* I set my max limits low in conky just to be sure.

It seems I may have been wrong. In this case Conky is not deadly but, in fact, a potential life saver.

Sector11 · 2012-09-28 17:54:08

d! wrote:

It seems I may have been wrong. In this case Conky is not deadly but, in fact, a potential life saver.

Well $$$$ saver maybe not sure about life. big_smile
I've actually tried for years to make a simple one liner... but I keep adding things and it never works out that way.

I went through the "windowed" stage which is really a nice idea. It started with OpenBox Tip by arpinux.

Basically create a link on OpenBox to start the conky, and remove the "undecorated" from:

own_window_hints

Conky now opens and closes like any other app. big_smile That really cleans up a desktop. I'd be left with:

tint2.

dura · 2012-09-28 18:31:49

I love how http://smxi.org/ is presented in a conky format. smile

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#1 2012-09-27 18:03:07

Ban Conky

#2 2012-09-27 18:27:19

Re: Ban Conky

#3 2012-09-27 18:42:22

Re: Ban Conky

#4 2012-09-27 18:50:10

Re: Ban Conky

#5 2012-09-27 18:55:31

Re: Ban Conky

#6 2012-09-27 19:06:38

Re: Ban Conky

#7 2012-09-27 20:36:30

Re: Ban Conky

#8 2012-09-27 20:40:58

Re: Ban Conky

#9 2012-09-27 20:42:18

Re: Ban Conky

#10 2012-09-27 20:59:21

Re: Ban Conky

#11 2012-09-28 00:02:06

Re: Ban Conky

#12 2012-09-28 02:50:57

Re: Ban Conky

#13 2012-09-28 03:46:13

Re: Ban Conky

#14 2012-09-28 04:01:17

Re: Ban Conky

#15 2012-09-28 04:03:25

Re: Ban Conky

#16 2012-09-28 04:43:11

Re: Ban Conky

#17 2012-09-28 11:26:23

Re: Ban Conky

#18 2012-09-28 11:33:50

Re: Ban Conky

#19 2012-09-28 11:35:43

Re: Ban Conky

#20 2012-09-28 12:57:56

Re: Ban Conky

#21 2012-09-28 14:37:56

Re: Ban Conky

#22 2012-09-28 16:20:58

Re: Ban Conky

#23 2012-09-28 16:49:47

Re: Ban Conky

#24 2012-09-28 17:54:08

Re: Ban Conky

#25 2012-09-28 18:31:49

Re: Ban Conky

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