Comment 5 for bug 1248672

For everybody who needs to set a proxy right now, try this (based on: http://askubuntu.com/questions/144968/set-variable-in-desktop-file):

cp /usr/share/applications/extras-variety.desktop ~/.local/share/applications/
gedit ~/.local/share/applications/extras-variety.desktop

Find the line
Exec=/opt/extras.ubuntu.com/variety/bin/variety %U

and change it to:
Exec=env HTTP_PROXY=1.1.1.1 HTTPS_PROXY=1.1.1.1 /opt/extras.ubuntu.com/variety/bin/variety %U

Change the IPs above to point to the correct proxies. Save.

Make the same change to the Exec line in ~/.config/autostart/variety.desktop

This should ensure that Variety runs with the proper proxies set regardless of the time it is launched. Please report on your success here.