quick tip

GTK+2 Ambiance and Radiance feature properly-assigned shadows, but, by design, they are differently allocated, meaning, the menus' shadows are smaller than nautilus'.

The reason is that Ambiance and Radiance have in their configuration files different shadow-ing, but, fortunately, this is quite easy to adjust.

CompizCpnfig Settings Manager-->Window Decoration lets you adjust the shadow's radius (its size), opacity (the shadow strength), but Ambiance and Radiance can't be affected by this method.

There are situations when folks need to install Ubuntu (with codecs, Ubuntu restricted extras, favorite media player, updates, etc) on an offline computer, and, although there are many apps capable of doing this tasks, one can be successful with just a memory stick, CD, etc and just one terminal command.

Zeitgeist does a wonderful job at tracking recent events, most used files, if we choose to install it in Karmic, Lucid, Maverick or enjoy it by default in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal.

But, hey, what shall I do if I browse some private files and intend to keep it private and far away from other people that access my computer ?

This can be done with just one terminal command (you need to delete the activity.sqlite, zeitgeist database):

rm ~/.local/share/zeitgeist/activity.sqlite

then

Did you ever had any visual problems with a KDE application in a GNOME environment?
I do as I often use Kdenlive and tooltips, menus, etc look very ... not nice.
There is a solution, a quite easy one.
You just have to install "SystemSettings" (is in Ubuntu Software Center), launch it from System/Preferences/System Settings and tweak it as you desire under Application Appearance:

There are many ways to test the internet connection speed like speedtest.net (in a browser), system monitor, etc but nload is one of the best.
Why? Because is lightweight (it runs in a terminal, so almost nothing cpu usage), real-time (system monitor has a 2,3 seconds delay) and 1 command to install ( just type sudo apt-get install nload into a terminal), easy to launch (type in terminal nload) and shows enough information (incoming/outgoing -current, average, min/max, total).

Docky is great but we want to make it better!
Do you want to change the default anchor icon with, for instance, the Ubuntu logo from Faenza icon theme with just one terminal command (no need for gconf-editor)?

If you have Faenza icon theme installed on your machine just type this into the terminal:

sudo cp /usr/share/icons/Faenza/places/scalable/distributor-logo-ubuntu.svg /usr/share/icons/Faenza/apps/scalable/docky.svg

and restart docky.

Do you want to shutdown the computer after a movie download, a video conversion is over, etc with just one terminal command?

Enter this:
+120= power off the computer after 120 minutes, change according to your needs

sudo shutdown -P +120

sudo shutdown -h 8:00

8:00= power off the computer at 8:00

How de we stop this commands (if they are in progress)?

sudo shutdown -c