Open folder.

Top menu bar "View" ---> "List"

In the folder click on the "date modified" field. Clicking it again alternates
ascending/descending.

After that Wade, go to Edit (top of the screen); then Preferences: and tick the
box 'Details' then you got the layout for all time. ( BTW nothing to do with
Unity)

Nothing stopping you having your Home or Documents folder on the desktop either
if you wish, it makes access to files a little quicker.

Regarding adding program shortcuts to the top bar in 12.04 and Unity,
simple answer is you can't - the side launcher is where you drag/drop
programs and this creates the shortcut to open them.

Using 12.04 Unity , I added the Cairo Dock providing a host of addiitional
app and short-cut icons.
It really adds a lot of goodness to Ubuntu Unity.

Yep, Cairo is good but feel it sort of loses the effect when you still
need the launcher bar for some things. Would be good if all functions
of the launcher could be incorporated and then lose launcher totally.

However, Conky works just fine in Unity, and a lot of what he wants to do can
be done in Conky.

Here's the "guts" of the .conkyrc file for my desktop:
TEXT
Gord's Minty Cinnamon

${color #A548CC}Uptime:${color} ${uptime}
${color #A548CC}Kernel:${color} ${exec uname -r|cut -b1-8}
${color #A548CC}IP Address:${color} ${addr wlan0}
${color #A548CC}CPU Temp:${color} ${hwmon temp 1}C
${color #A548CC}Drive Temp:${color} ${hddtemp /dev/sda}C
${color #A548CC}Video Temp:${color} ${nvidia temp}C
${color #A548CC}Chipset Temp:${color} ${execi 8 sensors | grep temp1 | grep
low| cut -c16-17 | sed '/^$/d'} C

${color #A548CC}Phenom II:${color} ${freq_g}GHz (${cpu}%)

${color #A548CC}MEM: ${membar 3,100}${alignr}(${memperc}%)
${color}${mem} / ${memmax}
${color #A548CC}SWAP: ${swapbar 3,100}${alignr}(${swapperc}%)
${color}${swap} / ${swapmax}

${color #A548CC}ROOT: ${fs_bar 3,100 /}${alignr}(${fs_free_perc /}%)
${color}${fs_used /}/ ${fs_size /}
${color #A548CC}HOME: ${fs_bar 3,100 /home}${alignr}(${fs_free_perc /home}%)
${color}${fs_used /home}/ ${fs_size /home}