Ubuntu / Linux news and application reviews.

Unity Privacy Indicator: Quickly Enable Or Disable Dash Online Search Results Or Zeitgeist Logging

| Date: February 11, 2013 | View Comments | Tags: appindicator, dash, internet, linux, online, privacy, ubuntu, unity, zeitgeist

ubuntu privacy indicator

Privacy Indicator is an Ubuntu AppIndicator especially created to control some privacy aspects of Unity.

The AppIndicator can be used to enable or disable:
  • Dash online search results;
  • Zeitgeist logging (so when you disable this, all files you access won't be logged by Zeitgeist and thus, will not show up in Dash or any other applications that make use of Zeitgeist);
  • show real name on the Unity panel.
After a recent update, the indicator can also clear the Zeitgeist log and recent files (from the new Nautilus 3.6 sidebar, etc.).

    Bridge: New Zeitgeist-Powered Related Activities Indicator

    | Date: June 25, 2012 | View Comments | Tags: appindicator, bridge, linux, ubuntu, zeitgeist

    bridge indicator

    Bridge is a cool new indicator developed by David Callé (who's also behind some great Unity lenses and scopes), that uses Zeitgeist to provide quick access to documents, files and websites related to your current activity.

    Gedit Dash: New Tab Gedit Plugin Powered By Zeitgeist

    | Date: November 04, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: gedit, gedit dash, linux, plugins, ubuntu, zeitgeist

    Seif has released Gedit Dash 0.1, a plugin for Gedit that uses Zeitgeist to display recently or most used items in new Gedit tabs. You can search both recently and most used items and also, the plugin generates previews which "try to jump directly to some code or text from your work".

    Here are a few screenshots:

    Gedit Dash Zeitgeist

    GNOME Shell Zeitgeist Extension Updated With Integrated Shell Search, More

    | Date: October 06, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: gnome shell, gnome shell extensions, linux, ubuntu, zeitgeist

    Quick update: GNOME Shell Zeitgeist extension was updated recently and it now integrates with the standard GNOME Shell search, meaning GNOME Shell will list the Journal items in the regular search under the Activities Overview.

    Zeitgeist Extension For GNOME Shell

    | Date: October 03, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: gnome 3, gnome shell, gnome shell extensions, linux, ubuntu, zeitgeist

    GNOME Shell Zeitgeist

    A Zeitgeist extension for GNOME Shell has been released today. The extension is based on the work of GSoC student Akshay Gupta (kitallis) and it requires GNOME Shell 3.2.

    GNOME Shell Activity Journal (With Zeitgeist) Videos

    | Date: June 21, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: gnome 3, gnome activity journal, gnome shell, mockups, zeitgeist

    Akshay Gupta, a GSoC student, has posted some very interesting videos in which he shows the current progress of integrating Activity Journal (powered by Zeitgeist) into GNOME Shell:

    Zeitgeist Activity Log Manager Now Available In A PPA

    | Date: May 17, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: activity log manager, linux, ubuntu, zeitgeist

    Activity Log Manager

    A quick update: Activity Log Manager, the application that lets you delete your Zeitgeist history or blacklist applications from being tracked by Zeitgeist is now available in the Zeitgeist PPA.

    Keep Files From Showing Up In Unity (Dash) Or Other Programs That Use Zeitgeist With Activity Log Manager

    | Date: May 16, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: activity log manager, dash, gnome shell, linux, privacy, ubuntu, unity, zeitgeist

    Activity Log Manager (previously called "Zeitgeist Global Privacy" or "History Manager") is a new GUI tool that allows you to tweak the Zeitgeist history.



    What's Zeitgeist?

    "Zeitgeist logs user's activities and notifications (files opened, websites visited, conversations hold with other people, etc.) and makes the relevant information available to other applications". Starting with Ubuntu 11.04, Zeitgeist is installed by default in Ubuntu and is used by the new Unity menu called "Dash" (Applications / Files Places) as well as other applications such as Synapse, Sezen, Avant Window Navigator, DockBarX, Docky, Cairo Dock, Gnome Activity Journal and more. It will also be used in Gnome Shell.



    Activity Log Manager

    Activity Log Manager lets you delete part of the Zeitgeist history, blacklist some applications or prevent logging certain types of files as well as blacklist folders. This is useful if you want to keep some recent files from showing up in Dash (in Unity) or maybe just to exclude some private files or folders and so on.


    Here are a few Zeitgeist Activity Log Manager screenshots with all the available options:

    Activity Log Manager Zeitgeist
    (Deleting Zeitgeist history)

    Zeitgeist Is Finally Getting Options To Blacklist Applications, Files, Folders And Clear History

    | Date: April 16, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: linux, privacy, ubuntu, unity, zeitgeist

    Zeitgeist is finally getting a long awaited feature: deleting part of the Zeitgeist history (last hour, day or week and so on), blacklisting an application, a file type or a folder. That means you'll be able to blacklist your "highly confidential" (read: porn) files from ever showing up in any application that uses Zeitgeist (Unity, Synapse and so on).

    All this will be possible thanks to a new application called "Zeitgeist Global Privacy" which is currently in development - here are some screenshots:

    Synapse (Launcher) 0.2.4 Released With New Plugins

    | Date: February 23, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: launcher, linux, synapse, ubuntu, zeitgeist

    Synapse launcher

    Synapse, the cool new semantic launcher for Linux written in Vala and powered by Zeitgeist reached version 0.2.4 codename "Anandamide". This version brings new plugins: calculator, Launchpad plugin (find bugs and branches on Launchpad), Pastebin, Imgur (upload images) and a selection plugin (allows you to execute actions on currently selected text).

    The new version also brings multiple fixes to the Zeitgeist searches, copy to clipboard action, UI fixes and speedups and other bug fixes.

    Gnome Activity Journal 0.6.0 Released With Xchat Support, More

    | Date: January 28, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: file browser, gnome activity journal, ubuntu, zeitgeist

    Gnome Activity Journal

    Gnome Activity Journal - a semantic file browser based on Zeitgeist - has been updated to version 0.6.0, adding quite a few new features.

    Gnome Activity 0.6.0 comes with Xchat and Bazaar version control support, drag and drop for tree view and bookmark/pin area as well as some eyecandy tweaks like a welcome screen, usability tweaks, path's label is now clickable and more.

    Zeitgeist For Gnome Shell Goes Public [Video]

    | Date: January 26, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: gnome shell, zeitgeist

    Seif posted a video with Zeitgeist + Gnome Shell in action, which you can view below:



    The code is now available for anyone who wants to try it out - for now there's no GIT branch or such and instead, you must download an archive and replace the ~/gnome-shell/source/gnome-shell/js folder with the js folder from this archive. You can downloaded it from HERE.

    [via Seif]

    How To Clear The Zeitgeist History [Quick Tip]

    | Date: December 03, 2010 | View Comments | Tags: gnome, gnome activity journal, linux, privacy, synapse, tips n tricks, ubuntu, unity, zeitgeist

    Synapse history cleared

    I've seen this question asked many times so here's how to clear the Zeitgeist history. To reset the Zeitgeist history, open a terminal and copy/paste the following commands:

    rm ~/.local/share/zeitgeist/activity.sqlite
zeitgeist-daemon --replace

    That will only clear the history, but will not stop Zeitgeist (so the files you access after running the above commands will still be tracked by Zeitgeist).

    Gnome Shell And Zeitgeist

    | Date: December 03, 2010 | View Comments | Tags: gnome shell, linux, unity, zeitgeist

    Gnome Shell and Unity may have started on separate paths, but they are definitely heading to the same direction. Seif Lotfy has just posted a screenshot (not mockup!) of his current work: Zeitgeist and Gnome Shell:

    Gnome Shell - Zeitgeist



    For comparison, this is how Unity in Ubuntu 10.10 looks:

    Unity Ubuntu 10.10


    Install Gnome Activity Journal 0.5.0 In Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx

    | Date: September 14, 2010 | View Comments | Tags: file browser, gnome activity journal, linux, ubuntu, zeitgeist

    Gnome Activity Journal 0.5.0

    GNOME Activity Journal (GAJ) is a tool for easily browsing and finding files on your computer. It keeps a chronological journal of all file activity and supports tagging and establishing relationships between groups of files.

    Gnome Activity Journal 0.5.0 was just uploaded to Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat official repositories and since the Zeitgeist PPA still provides Gnome Activity Journal 0.3.4.1, I've built the Maverick GAJ 0.5 for Ubuntu 10.04 so you can use it in Lucid already.

    The Sezen Applet Is Ready For Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat [PPA]

    | Date: August 24, 2010 | View Comments | Tags: applet, linux, sezen applet, ubuntu, zeitgeist

    sezen applet

    The Sezen Applet is finally ready for Ubuntu Maverick! This wasn't possible until now due to a bug, but you can now install the Sezen GNOME panel applet from our Unstable / Unreleased / Backports PPA.

    Sezen Applet is the integration of Sezen - the new Unity like activity browser which uses Zeitgeist to browse files based on their last access time -, into the GNOME panel.

    DockBarX 0.39.6 With Easy AWN Integration, AWN Lucido, Sezen Applet, Indicator Keylock Updates [PPA]

    | Date: July 18, 2010 | View Comments | Tags: appindicator, avant window navigator, awn, awn lucido, dockbarx, indicator keylock, linux, sezen, sezen applet, ubuntu, zeitgeist

    I was away for 2 days and there were a lot of updates since then so I decided to make a post which includes them all. Read on!

    The Sezen Applet Finally Starts To Look Like The Firefox Location Bar

    | Date: July 15, 2010 | View Comments | Tags: gnome, linux, sezen, ubuntu, zeitgeist

    sezen applet firefox location bar

    Back when we posted about the Sezen applet, we told you it would look like the Firefox location bar at some point. Well, a recent update makes the Sezen applet look just like this. But unfortunately, you cannot install it from the PPA yet because Launchpad estimates it will start building the packages in 2-3 days.

    Install Sezen Applet update manually from .deb files (Ubuntu 10.04 - 32bit only)


    Sezen Applet Updated, Categories Now Displayed Horizontally

    | Date: July 07, 2010 | View Comments | Tags: applet, gnome panel, linux, sezen, ubuntu, zeitgeist

    sezen applet

    Just a small update: I've uploaded a new BZR build of the Sezen Applet to our Unreleased / Git builds PPA. If you install the Sezen Applet from our PPA, all you have to do is run:
    sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

    And then restart the GNOME Panel:
    killall gnome-panel



    If not, see the instructions in our initial post.


    New in this Sezen Applet build:
    • Sezen Applet will now show up as "Find" on the panel instead of "Library"
    • The categories are now displayed horizontally for less ugliness and better usability
    • The code has been synced with the stand-alone Sezen app

    Latest Avant Window Navigator Gets Zeitgeist, Lucido Updates

    | Date: July 06, 2010 | View Comments | Tags: avant window navigator, awn lucido, dock, linux, ubuntu, zeitgeist

    Avant Window Navigator in the AWN testing PPA got the Zeitgeist applet demoed a few months back. But only starting today you can finally use the Zeitgeist applet with AWN - through Zeitgeist integration was already available through DockBarX -, but the official Zeitgeist applet is amazing: you activate a window (it doesn't work with all the applications but try a browser, text editor and so on) and then clicking Zeitgeist (called "Related") applet displays the most recently used files as well as frequently used files.

    For example, here are the files related to Firefox (Minefield 3.7):

    zeitgeist avant window navigator

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