Different ways of Running Fortune command on a Graphical Interface

While I was writing about fortune a few days ago, I kept thinking how could this software be useful to a regular user. Almost everyone works on the graphical environment and although fortune is fun, but using terminal for it might not be favoured by everyone. So, I found some cool ways to get the fortune cookies on your Desktop(through web or system apps) and on your mobile phones (through RSS feeds).

Using Libnotify

Lets begin with something I did to get the fortune cookie on the gui. I made use of the libnotify library to show them in the form of notifications. I wrote a script, placed it as a launcher which fetches a cookie everytime it is executed and shows it as a notification.

Did I say script? Well, I can assure you that I still don't know a single libnotify command, I just used the example scripts mentioned in the /usr/share/doc/python-notify/examples/(on ubuntu/debian only). And yes, the script was of python, so do install python-notify before moving on.

[shredder12]$ sudo aptitude install python-notify

[root]# yum install notify-python

All you need are basic python and copy-paste skills . Here is the basic script I made out of the example ones. It may fail on many levels, but don't judge until you can write your own ;).

#!/usr/bin/python
import pygtk
pygtk.require('2.0')
import pynotify
import sys
import os

if __name__ == '__main__':
        if not pynotify.init("Basics"):
                sys.exit(1)

        c_pipe = os.popen("fortune -c");
        cookie = c_pipe.readlines();

        summary = cookie[0][1:-2];
        string = "";

        for i in range(2,len(cookie) - 1):
            string = string + cookie[i][0:-1] + " ";

        string = string + "\n" + cookie[-1];

        uri = "file:///home/sahni/Scripts/cookie.png"

        n = pynotify.Notification(summary, string, uri);
        n.set_urgency(pynotify.URGENCY_LOW)

        if not n.show():
                print "Failed to send notification"
                sys.exit(1)

In order to get an image in the notification, do change the value of uri variable with correct address. Now, copy the code to a file, save it and change the permissions to executable

[shredder12]$ chmod a+x notify.py

Now, execute it using the following command

[shredder12]$ ./notify.py

Using the same command you can also create a launcher, click it whenever you want a notification.

Some other ways of getting the fortune cookies other than a terminal are

A simple online version of Fortune

Fortunefortoday is a small web service showing you a single fortune at time. Hit the button "get new one" to generate a new fortune. Its like an online version of fortune.

A slideshow of Fortunes

Fortunemod is also a webservice, but instead of a simple html page, its a slideshow of random fortunes. It even provides you with options to configure the slide show.

A RSS feed of Random fortunes

This is a really useful service. It provides you with the options of a configurable RSS feed of fortunes. One can even set the limit on long fortunes and use the service on mobile phone feed readers.