Sync Google Calendar with your Gnome Desktop

This is pretty exciting for me. I just realized that I could sync my Ubuntu Gnome Desktop Calendar with my Google Calendar account. And also the great thing about it is that it is really easy to do.

First open your web google calendar account. On the left pane, under "My Calendar" and your email address, click 'Settings'. Then you will see the setting page. Click again your email address to get more detailed settings. On the bottom of this page you will see "Private Address". Copy the private ICAL url.
Once you have done that, open terminal and enter the following command:
$ /usr/lib/evolution-webcal/evolution-webcal YOUR_PRIVATE_ICAL_URL

Set the appropriate configuration if necessary, and you are done.

Now, to see the result, click on the Date Time info on the toolbar (above), and you should see the dates which you have activities (appointments) are marked bold. You should also see 'Appointments' list.

Enjoy managing your time and day with Google Calendar and Gnome Desktop.

Set super+l shortcut key for locking screen in gnome

The default shortcut keys to lock screen in gnome is <ctrl><alt>l (it is small caps 'L'). I do not like that shortcut and prefer to use the combination of "super key" and "l", which actually defined as <Mod4>l. The keybinding GUI setting somehow does not accept any combination of super key with other keys. So, to be able to do that, you need to use gconf-editor.
Perform the following:

run gconf-editor,
option 1, from CLI:

$ gconf-editor

option 2, from GUI:
press <Alt>F2 to get the 'run application' dialog and type in gconf-editor and click 'run'

In gconf-editor window, go to the following key location, by expanding the keys tree:

/apps/gnome_settings_daemon/keybindings

then, double click 'screensaver' key and change the value to: <Mod4>l

and you are done. Test it by pressing super key and l.

There is also feature to search the key name and value, by pressing <Ctrl>f in gconf-editor. Actually, I found the correct location of the 'screensaver' key by searching it.