![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.gratuitousscience.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/cover_4342132462005.jpg\" "\\"cover_4342132462005\\"")
<\/a>\nMade by these guys:<\/p>\n
Once I got the DVD, I followed along with my plan, which was to use AcidRip to make an avi file, then use Sound Converter to get a high-quality mp3 file from the avi.<\/p>\n I used this here laptop that I’m using now for that.\u00a0 Well, at least, I TRIED to use it.\u00a0 AcidRip works and all that jazz, but I was having a problem.\u00a0 You see, I used LXDE as my desktop environment on this thing.\u00a0 And even though I had the fucking thing disabled, the XScreensaver would kick in.\u00a0 And because this is a laptop, the screensaver would “lock me out” and stop all processes that were ongoing.<\/p>\n So when I started AcidRip and went to bed, Xscreensaver kicked in and stopped AcidRip dead in its tracks.\u00a0 I should have simply uninstalled Xscreensaver… which is what I did later on, but that didn’t occur to me.<\/p>\n What I did instead was to boot into Xfce.\u00a0 This is an Xubuntu installation after all.\u00a0 I ran AcidRip in Xfce no problem.\u00a0 It worked overnight and gave me that video file I could use to make the mp3s.<\/p>\n And while I was in Xcfe, I reminisced.\u00a0 I fondly remembered the things I truly liked about it and decided to see if I could get some funkier themes present for when I booted into it next time.<\/p>\n This is the point in our fairy tale in which the dragon enters.<\/p>\n Had I had more patience and better luck with Google, I would have been able to boot back into my LXDE session (which I could still do) and edit some file or files to remove “Wildbush” from Xfce and make the window manager some other choice.\u00a0 But I didnt.<\/p>\n I decided to just reinstall Xubuntu.\u00a0 There’s no data I need to save on this computer, just functionality.\u00a0 So 1 hour later, I had my fresh Xubuntu installation just itching for me to change it up and customize it.\u00a0 It went from this:<\/p>\n One thing that I like now that I actually didn’t care for before is window compositing.\u00a0 That’s the fancy schmancy term for “snazzy effects” AKA “eye candy”.\u00a0 I’m not going overboard here with rotating cubes and warble and wobble and bobble effects… no.\u00a0 I just like a little transparency in the window frame now.\u00a0 You can see the effect in those screenshots above.\u00a0 That’s the “TechniX 2” theme with “Nostromo 2” icons and a window theme called “LiNsta Black Flat”.\u00a0 All are available from Xfce-Look.org<\/a>, so feel free to head over there if you run Xfce.\u00a0 I think they’ll work in LXDE too.<\/p>\n But for gods’ sake stay away from Wildbush!<\/p>\n<\/a>
\n“Pressure Points” by Camel.\u00a0 A live performance which I shall get onto my iPod as a bunch of mp3s soon.\u00a0 The DVD was imported from a foreign land, but the CD version was fricken impossible to find.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nWhile I was scrolling through a list of window managers to use, I selected one called “Wildbush”.\u00a0 Now, while in the Xfce settings manager, if you click on a different window manager, Xfce starts using it right away.\u00a0 And thus, because of a very nasty bug, my Xfce session crashed immediately and kicked me to the login screen.\u00a0 But this dragon<\/span> bug was nastier even than that… I was completely unable to log into my Xfce session at all.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\nTo this:<\/p>\n<\/a>
\n<\/a>
\nThose screenshots include Windows XP running in VirtualBox, which I did later.\u00a0 But the main work was done quickly.\u00a0 I installed the restricted extras that allow me to watch and rip DVDs and play other non-free media formats.<\/p>\n