title: Simple Gnome Panel Applet in Python
body: <p>When I'm on the train to work I connect my netbook to my Nexus One's wifi hotspot. As I go through a tunnel my phone obviously loses it's 3G connection and takes a while to re-establish once the train emerges. But the netbook wifi logo stays constant as it's still connected to the phone itself.</p>
  
  <p>I've written a little python program that attempts to ping a server and thus decides if internet is available (feel free to suggest a method of detecting internet connection that would be either quicker or use less bandwidth as I am capped per month).</p>
  
  <p>My question is: how can I create an applet for GNOME Panel 2.30.2 in Python, to graphically display this status, so I can decide when to continue clicking links and expecting internet to work.</p>
  
  <p>I got this <a href="http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=496185#3" rel="noreferrer">example</a> with a panel button to work but would like an icon that changes depending on the situation.</p>
  
  <p>I've used Python for a few years haven't but coded gnome before. I'm using the ubuntu desktop edition as my login rather than unity, on 10.04.</p>