Every time I see the control in the upper left of each Dashboard gramplet, the wrench make me think it will pop-up a configuration/settings dialog. However, the roll-over hint then reminds me to “drag to move; click to detach”
A “wrench on a document” icon just doesn’t convey the function.
Wouldn’t a pushpin 🖈 be more intuitive? And there are unicode symbols that we could use instead of an icon.
Or maybe the clunkiness of 3 button gadgets could be replaced with a single black triangle ▼ toggle? Where press and hold pops up a menu with the container controls. Or maybe the controls could be hidden until the Gramplet is selected/rolled-over?
Agree with you that the icon looks as if it would invoke settings for the gramplet. IMO the issue is that because the widget serves two purposes (1) drag to move and (2) click to detach, it is hard to unambiguously represent it with one standard icon.
What if the functionality was split into two? Not sure if GTK supports this metaphor, but in some Windows applications if a window is draggable, selecting it displays a pattern across the title bar indicating that something can be done there (drag). Even if there isn’t a title bar pattern, the cursor could change to a “move” cursor when the title bar is clicked on to give the feedback that it’s in drag mode. Then the only function remaining, i.e. dock/float or attach/detach button could be represented by a pin icon as you suggested.
While we’re on the topic, the tooltip for removing a gramplet says “Click to delete gramplet from view” - would “remove” be better?
🖈 
be more intuitive? And there are unicode symbols that we could use instead of an icon.
▼ toggle? Where press and hold pops up a menu with the container controls. Or maybe the controls could be hidden until the Gramplet is selected/rolled-over?