Our entries this month are:

• mrpeachy, with four different configs (!):
  1. Entry #1:
     Details here: [link]
     
  2. Entry #2:
     Details here: [link]
     
  3. Entry #3:
     Details here: [link]
     
  4. Entry #4:
     Details here: [link]
     
• LG, with the following config:
  Details here: [link]
  
• wlourf, with the following config:
  "The main part for this contest is the bloody heart and the breathing heart. The rest is for fun and for experiments!"
  Details here: [link]
  
• djyoung4, with the following config:
  Details here: [link]
  

Voting ends at the end of next Sunday, 7th March, so get your votes in quick!
Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

(Please note, as with all developmental software, you should be wary of testing pre-release versions, as they are likely to be buggy and possibly incomplete!)

Currently, the latest Conky release candidate version is 1.8.0_rc2, which incorporates (amongst other things):

• Support for ARGB transparency (aka "real" transparency, as opposed to "pseudo" transparency)
• Lua/Cairo support for the Cairo text extents structure, allowing advanced text manipulation in Lua/Cairo

The following screenshots were created with 1.8.0_rc2, using Lua/Cairo to draw the widgets:


Want to have a go with the latest developmental version? Let us know how you get on!

But huzzah! February also brings with it the February Conky of the Month Competition! I thought long and hard about this one, didn't want to give in to the obvious cliche, but in the end, it just had to be...St. Valentine's Day!!! And then I reconsidered, for fear of boxing in all of y'all's creativity, so we'll go with: ST. VALENTINE'S DAY/MASSACRE. So it has to be about Valentine's Day, whether you love it, or hate it! As per usual, you can use any tips & tricks you want, including external scripts and whatever else you can think of, but please pay particular attention to:

1. Visual composition
2. Conky innovation
3. Adherence to theme

The closing date for this month's competition is the end of the month, and the winner will be announced Mid-March.

To submit your Conky for consideration, please write a comment on this post, linking to a screenshot, preferably with details (.conkyrc and/or any scripts you've used). I would recommend that you either write a post on your own blog and link to that, or post on a forum and link to that (so that we can get your picture and details all at once). Alternately, you may wish to link to an image-hosting website like Picasa, Flickr or Imageshack (for your image) and post a separate link to something like pastebin for your configs. There is a private Conky pastebin available at conky.pastebin.com if you so desire.

Finally, a couple of wallpapers to help you get inspired:

wlourf has been a French Ubuntu user for the past three years and has recently jumped the Gnome ship for Openbox, which was when he first got interested in Conky. He writes a blog of his Conky scripts, and also maintains a gallery on DeviantArt.

Congrats again, wlourf, and as for the rest of you: I hope to see your entries to February's competition!

This month we have a new feature: a public poll, so everyone can vote on who they think deserves to win. Remember, we are looking for three things:

1. Visual composition
2. Conky innovation
3. Adherence to theme

...or maybe just which one you think is the coolest. The poll will be closed at the end of the month, and I'll announce the winner and next month's competition on the 1st of February.

Our two entries this month are:

• mobilediesel, with the "remind" calendar:
  "I guess I’ll go ahead and enter this thing. links to screenshots and scripts:[link]
  and link to how I set up remind to work with my calendar: [link]
  Current screenshot is here: [link]"



• wlourf, with the "wheel calendar":
  "Hello,
  I enter this context too ! I’m beginner with Lua scripts but I like the results we can obtain.
  So, my calendar script is located here : [link]
  and some screenshots here : [link]"

Please vote for your favourite:
Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

I can finally announce that the winner of December 2009's Conky of the Month competition is...

(Drum roll, please!)

...dmillerct!

dmillerct won points for his simple and effective configuration, for using the Conky Rings to create colourful pie charts, and for excellent adherence to the "Winter Holidays" theme! Honourable mention goes to arzali, who only just missed out on the top spot.

The winning conky file is located here; the .zip file contains his .conkyrc, rings.lua file and a screenshot for your reference.

A short bio about the author: "I am a 31 year old IT professional. I was born in the US but I hold dual citizenship with the other being of Croatia. I go back there often as possible and plan to retire there. I currently live in southern Connecticut. I am not married but might as well be, I have an incredible girlfriend of 6 years and two cats (one of them is quite fat, like 15kilos fat). My hobbies include Conky and racing sailboats in long island sound. I also like farming, gardening and drinking copious amounts of alcohol with my mates."

He also notes: "I am running this on an EeePC so my resolution is only 1024x600."

Congratulations, dmillerct, and for the rest of you: don't forget to enter January's CotM Competition, Calendars!

Thanks to everyone who entered, and the winner will be announced shortly.

In the meantime, I am pleased to announce the theme for next month's competition: CALENDARS! As it's a new year, I'd like to see everyone's take on a Conky calendar. (Thanks to Bruce, editor at Conky Hardcore!, for the suggestion.) The closing date, again, will be the 15th of January. Selection criteria are as in the original CotM post.

Get Conkying!

I am pleased to announce that in addition to the fame and glory that comes with being featured on the Conky Blog, we will also be offering a $50 Amazon Gift Card to this month's winner!

So go and get your Conky on...Enter by posting a comment on the original post.

And as a result, Graham has kindly featured Conky as his "Discovery of the Week" on the TuxRadar podcast!

If you would like to listen, you can download the podcast from the TuxRadar website. Further reading is on the Linux Format website, and if you are in the UK, I highly recommend picking up an issue of the print magazine!

Starting today, each month the Conky Blog will hold a CotM competition, with submissions based on a theme. An overall winner will be selected based on the following three criteria:

1. Visual Composition: This could be quite broad; if your Conky is purely functional, it might be the ease with which key system stats can be read. But if your Conky is designed to be eye candy, it might be the integration into your desktop or the visual completeness of your config.
2. Conky Innovation: Have you used Conky in a new and wonderful way? Have you uncovered a rarely-seen but incredibly useful variable and implemented it? This is to recognise users who push the boundaries of what Conky can do, or seek ways to make their configs simpler.
3. Adherence to the theme: Pretty self-explanatory. This will be how well your config expresses the theme of the month. This may be in the Conky itself, or in the entire desktop screenshot.

The winning Conky will be featured on our blog, with a little bio of the author!

This month's theme: Winter Holidays.
Deadline: 15th December.

To submit your Conky for consideration, please write a comment on this post, linking to a screenshot, preferably with details (.conkyrc and/or any scripts you've used). I would recommend that you either write a post on your own blog and link to that, or post on a forum and link to that (so that we can get your picture and details all at once). Alternately, you may wish to link to an image-hosting website like Picasa, Flickr or Imageshack (for your image) and post a separate link to something like pastebin for your configs. There is a private Conky pastebin available at conky.pastebin.com if you so desire.

The winner will be announced at the end of December.

And here's a screenie to get you going:

(Wallpaper from here.)

Happy Conkying!

The fine print: Please be sure that if you submit an image with wallpaper or other non-Conky visual elements showing (e.g. custom icons, fonts, etc.) that you are able to attribute as much of it as possible.