What to do after installing ubuntu ?

I have been using linux since the days of Fedore Core 3. I finally settled on Ubuntu because it appeared easier to learn than fedora, and just a few commands are enough to manage the OS. I have tried Fiesty Fawn, and now I am using Hardy Heron.
Here I list some of the best softwares which I found useful for me. These are not part of the OS included in the installation CD. Also, I have not arranged them in any order, it is just a random numbering.

1. Cheese : This is a webcam utility and works very well on ubuntu. There are options for both video and image capturing. Also there are some cool effects which can be applied over the captured image and video.
Cheeze can be downloaded here

2. Azureus : The default torrent client in Gnome is transmission, which doesn't seems to have any rich features. I found azureus better than utorrent, which I use in windows. But this requires Java to be installed in the system.
Azureus can be downloaded through : sudo apt-get install azureus

3. Empathy Instant Messenger : Google supports Open Source projects, but many of its own products dont run on linux. Gtalk is something whihc all of us miss on ubuntu. We can use gtalk account in Pidgin,Kopete but the feature of voice talk is not available using google account on any of these. Empathy is one great IM in linux which supports voice chat over gmail.
Use the guide here to install empathy

4. Skype : For video chat in ubuntu, yahoo has not released any linux counterpart. I have build Gyache on ubuntu, but it still doesn't work :(
Skype is a good alternative for both audio and video chat.
Download skype here

5. Pidgin : Supports a host of chat protocols. All in one IM.
Download it here.

6. Avidemux : This is the best and easiest video converting tool, suitable for newbies.
This can be installed :sudo apt-get install avidemux

7. VLC Media Player : This media player plays most of the video formats out there. And has got audio equaliser, which is missing in many audio/video players available for linux.
Can be installed using : sudo apt-get install vlc

8. NTFS configuration utility : For accessing Windows partition with write permissions.
Install it using : sudo apt-get install ntfs-3g

9. Gmount-iso : Using this .iso CD image files can be mounted and you can save the cost of burning a blank CD.
Install it using : sudo apt-get install gmountiso

10. Desktop Effects : For enabling desktop effects, install the linux drivers of your graphics card. For my nvidia 8400 Go, I downloaded the installer from Nvidia site. Run this installer from command terminal (Ctrl+F1), after shutting down gdm ( sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop).
After the installation is complete, enable desktop effects from
System -> Preferences - > Appearance - > Visual Effects - > Extra

11. Wine : If you miss windows application, then you can try running them on ubuntu using wine. Wine is a windows simulation program on linux.
Install wine through : sudo apt-get install wine

There are some other worth mentioning like Adobe Acrobat Reader, Ubuntu-tweak, Real Player, Mplayer, Opera web browser, Emerald Themes, Compiz-Settings-Manager, Google Earth etc.

Ultimate flash menu themes for W850i

Hi friends,
Sometimes back I watched a video on youtube, which showed some awesome flash menu themes running on W850i . The guy on the video showed 11 themes , some of which already come with W850i and some require burning night oil. I was spellbound after watching that video and wanted all those themes on my cell. I was prepared for some sweating nights.
Earlier I had one Motorola L7, which required me a hell of research on internet for additional themes to be put on the phone memory. So I knew this wont be an easy job. After long hours of googling and yahooing, searching on forums and where not, I got the recipe.

The bad news is that this method is based on brute force hacking of the phone, and it works only with those W850i which have CID49 , I mean older models . For checking the CID version installed on your phone download the Da Vinci software from here

To check ur CID, follow the steps :

i) Turn off your phone
ii) plug the cable to PC usb port
iii) Hold 'C' button on the cell and plug the usb cable to phone

The software will automatically read and display the phone details, which I guess you wont be able to make out because they are too technical. Just look for 'CID' and take a sigh of relief if it comes out to be 49. If it is 49 then you may continue reading this blog for complete process of uploading themes. If it is CID51 or CID52 then don't loose hope, the problem is that it doesn't come for free. You will have to register here,which costs 10 Euros + , andyou may then follow the process in this forum.

First of all lets have an idea what you are going to do with your cell, and all the theory behind it.
The themes which we generally download in .thm format are nothing but sort of an archive containing some images and one .xml file. The images are the ones which you see as your wallpaper,menus etc. and the xml file binds them together so that proper image is used at proper place.

Now how these flash menu come into picture ?
W850i supports flash menus to make the animations more beautiful and appealing. By default it comes with some inbuilt flash menus like mine came with Female_line,grouped and the default menu. .thm files actually use these flash menu files located in the phone memory, and this is specified in the .xml file, which I mentioned above.
So the idea is to upload these .swf menu files into the phone memory and use them in themes (by editing the .xml file ,offcourse)
But the problem is that the phone memory, or you may call it the phone OS memory, is not writeable. Users don't have access to write anything into the phone memory. So how to upload the .swf files ?
Well .. thanks to hackers !! They have come out with some brute force hacking which penetrates into your phone's memory and put these files over there. But since it is 'brute force', which means try all possible permutations and combinations until you succeed, hence it is a time taking process. And it depends on luck also, it may take anywhere between 30 minutes to 5 hours :O


Procedure :
Completely charge up your phone, before attempting this exercise.
I have a collection of 17 best flash menu ( I rejected some because they weren't so cool ) which I have uploaded on my cell. I have also modified 17 .thm files to work with these flash menus. So all the hard work has been done for you. Just download them here
The zip file contains :
a) 17 theme files
b) 17 flash menus
c) PhoneXS , the software which will do the real job

i) Extract the zip file anywhere you wish.
Dont move any files anywhere. The .swf files have been placed according to the file structure in the cell. You can upload the themes from 'Final themes' folder to your cell after a successful upload of the menus.

ii) Run PhoneXS, click on start
Now turn off the phone, hold 'C' and connect to the PC through USB cord.
PhoneXS will automatically detect the connected phone



iii) Click on FSX (radio button) and then click start
The program starts the hacking in a while. It took three hours on my cell once and 2 hours at other time. So just relax and watch while PhoneXS does its job
The log file for my upload is also there in the same directory, which you may look in case of any confusion.

If the program fails, or displays some error message, you will again have to follow steps (ii) and (iii) until the operation completes successfully.


Themes Editing
Now that you have uploaded some cool flash menu to your cell, its time to enjoy the stuff.
I have edited 17 themes and added all the uploaded menu in each of them. So you can just use these themes in your phone. Or if you want to use these menu in your favorite themes then go as follows :
i) You will need two softwares : Tugzip and XML marker
Download and install them

ii) Any theme you want to change, just rename it from .thm to .tar ( in case you are unable to change the file extension, go to windows explorer -> Tools -> Folder Options -> View and uncheck the box 'Hide extension for known file types' )

iii) Now right click the renamed tar file and "extract to .\xyz " where xyz is name of theme
A folder named xyz will be created in the current directory and all the files will be extracted into it.

iv) Open Theme.xml with XML marker and look for this line :
<Desktop_style type="File" source="Active_desktop_black.swf"/>
If this line is not there put it just under this line :
<Desktop Color="0x000000"/>
In place of Active_desktop_black.swf , use any other .swf file (from the list of files uploaded to your phone) and then save Theme.xml
Now select all the files in this folder (Ctrl + A) and right click on any of the file.
On the right click menu select 'Add to..." and in the Format select "TAR" and save it. Rename the .tar file to .thm and transfer to your phone.

Njoy !!



NOTE : I have taken all care to explain in detail all the necessary steps. The above procedure worked like breeze in my cell and will work on most of W850i.