hey guys i wrote this script, heavily modified but based off of Four Loves Four's script. It uses a file to store the last IM pidgin receives. This works well with conky as you can see in this screenshot.


fullsized: http://treefire.wetfish.net/current.png

In the top right you can see the last IM i receieved. it was my friend redheron (screenname: banesbirth) sending me the IM "bears". In this screenshot the colour of the text is red, but the colour rotates between very contrasting colours to make sure that when you get a new IM you notice it! This eliminates the need to have a stupid noise, or some kind of icon that fucks up your dock all the time by changing colour or shooting a chat bubble out or something.



   big{Usage}
download, untar with tar xvvf getlastim-[version].tar.gz, put in your scripts folder
edit getlastim.py

line 6:       message = message, 0:10
Replace, 0:10 with, 0:x, where x is the number of characters you want per message (minus one)

line 27:    file = '~/.misc/lastim'
Replace what is inside the single quotes with the file you want this script to use

Add the script to your startup script. In GNOME, System > Preferences > Sessions > Startup Programs, add command, then find the script. In KDE, put the script in ~/.kde/Autostart. If you use some other WM, do whatever. ~/.xinit?

   Using with Conky
Add the following to your .conkyrc:

${execpi 1 cat /path/to/file}