I love me some eye candy that is actually useful. Conky falls into this category for me. In the olden days it was either gkrellm or a WindowMaker plugin. I have spent some time getting the conky setup EXACTLY how I want it. The results are posted below:

Install:
sudo aptitude install conky lm-sensors hddtemp python-feedparser

Extract this file to ~/.bin and make executable. Edit the files for weather.yahoo.com
Conky Scripts

Extract this file to ~/.fonts
Conky Fonts

Extract this file to ~/.conkyrc Be sure to edit the Gmail username for example
Conky RC