My Quest For A Black iPod Classic Icon

I like eyecandy. My last post was about the ubuntu studio theme. Now ubuntu studio provides the user with a generic icon for removable media player devices which is pretty sweet, but I wanted a black ipod classic icon like the one you have in mac. So I began my search, which didn’t take all too long. Here’s the link: http://good–fella.deviantart.com/art/iPod-classic-black-67337482. You can get one for the silver ipod Classic here: http://good–fella.deviantart.com/art/iPod-classic-64380426.

Now once you’ve downloaded the file to your desktop or wherever, extract it (right-click>Extract Here). Next, plug in your iPod. Right-click it when it appears on your desktop and go to properties. Click the boring, generic icon you have, and browse to the folder you just extracted. Select the .png file and you’re done.

I’ve found that the icon is a bit small, so you can right-click and select stretch icon and drag to resize it.

Install ubuntu Studio Theme

There are a few hundred thousand themes to choose from out there for linux users. My favourite theme is called ubuntu studio. This is similar to the default human theme, albeit much darker and easier on the eyes. To download it, open terminal and type the following commands:

sudo apt-get install ubuntustudio-gdm-theme

sudo apt-get ubuntustudio-icon-theme

sudo apt-get ubuntustudio-theme

sudo apt-get ubuntustudio-wallpapers

Now, go to System>Preferences>Appearance, and select ubuntu Studio, and watch as your desktop gets transformed. New icons, new wallpapers, BLACK!

Getting Compiz Fusion to Work with nvidia Graphics

With Windows Vista, Microsoft introduced Aero with much fanfare. Aero was a slicker version of the old interface. It added transparency and special effects like Flip3d, which is like a cooler alt-tab that lets you switch windows in 3d. The whole world was left open-mouthed at Aero’s amazing features… not. It sure looked pretty, but the hardware requirements were sky-high at the time, and it had all been done before.

Yeah, meet Compiz Fusion. Compiz is a compositing window manager available for Linux. It really doesn’t matter what that means, what matters is this:

Now Compiz Fusion comes with ubuntu Hardy, so as long as you meet the minimum requirements, which are very, very low, you can enable it. Of course, as with a lot of things in Linux, it’s not as simple as it seems, especially if you have a nvidia 7300LE graphics card (not sure about ATI and Intel, though). So here’s a little walkthrough:

1. Just to see if it works out of the box, you can click System>Preference>Apperarance, and go to the Visual Effects tab. Try chnaging the level of effects. If this works, great.

2. If not, go to System>Administration>Software Sources and in the first tab, make sure everything is ticked. By doing this, you’re allowing ubuntu to download proprietary (non-open-source) software.

3. Go to Application>Add/Remove click the drop-down menu and change it to All available applications. Search for “nvidia” in the bar. Check “NVidia binary X.Org driver (‘new’ driver)”, and click apply changes. Do step 1, and you should be all set.