Why on earth would you want to invert your colors on your Mac? Well, what if you’re on an airplane, it’s a night flight and you’re looking at something that has a lot of white space. You might be able to decrease the brightness on your screen, but sometimes that may not even work. If that’s the case, you can essentially make a negative of your screen. Here’s how to do it:

Just press Ctrl-Option-Cmd-8 on your keyboard. This will change it back as well.

Here’s what my home page usually looks like:

This is it’s negative:

Changing your icons allows you to change the look and feel of your system. It mainly changes the standard icons to something new.

The first place to look for icons would be gnome-look.org. Click icon on the left. Or just click here. Search around for something that you like.

I like to keep my system looking dark since it doesn’t hurt my eyes too much. With my background being a night picture of London, it was only fitting for me to choose an icon theme that was mainly black. My favorite set is called black-white 2 gloss.

Once you’ve found your icon set, you will need to download it. I usually download everything to my desktop just so that I can find it easily, but that is up to you.

Your file should be a .tar file so you will need to extract it first. This can be done by right clicking the folder and selecting Extract Here. A new folder will have been created, this folder will be used in the next step.

To install the theme you will need to go to System -> Preferences -> Appearance

You should see something like this:

To install your new theme, highlight custom by clicking the custom box (top left) then click install (bottom right). This will open up a directory so just navigate to where ever you downloaded your file.

You will need to choose the file that was created when you extracted the original downloaded file. Once you’ve selected it, it will install and you should have new icons.

Don’t like it? Download some new ones and try each one out. If you can’t find anything you like and want to change it back to the original Ubuntu look, go to the appearance box (in the screenshot above) and scroll down and click ‘human’, then click close.

Did you change your icons? What icon set did you choose?

Changing your theme allows you to change the look and feel of your system. It mainly changes the standard icons to something new.

The first place to look for themes would be gnome-look.org. Click icon on the left. Or just click here. Search around for something that you like.

I like to keep my system looking dark since it doesn’t hurt my eyes too much. With my background being a night picture of London, it was only fitting for me to choose an icon theme that was mainly black. My favorite set is called black-white 2 gloss.

Once you’ve found your icon set, you will need to download it. I usually download everything to my desktop just so that I can find it easily, but that is up to you.

Your file should be a .tar file so you will need to extract it first. This can be done by right clicking the folder and selecting Extract Here. A new folder will have been created, this folder will be used in the next step.

To install the theme you will need to go to System -> Preferences -> Appearance

You should see something like this:

To install your new theme, highlight custom by clicking the custom box (top left) then click install (bottom right). This will open up a directory so just navigate to where ever you downloaded your file.

You will need to choose the file that was created when you extracted the original downloaded file. Once you’ve selected it, it will install and you should have new icons.

Don’t like it? Download some new ones and try each one out. If you can’t find anything you like and want to change it back to the original Ubuntu look, go to the appearance box (in the screenshot above) and scroll down and click ‘human’, then click close.

Did you change your theme? What icon set did you choose?

When Microsoft first released Windows Vista, there was talk of fading out XP.  As word got out about the problems with Vista, some people decided to stay with XP for a little while longer.  Microsoft heard such and uproar about fading out XP that they decided to push back the end-of-sales date.  Well, that day has finally come.

On June 30th, 2008, Microsoft will stop selling Windows XP.  This means that you will no longer be able to buy XP as a stand-alone product at a store or from major PC manufacturers like Dell and HP.

Of course it will take months for places like Dell and HP to sell all the copies of XP in their inventory.

If you refuse to upgrade to Windows Vista and want to get your hands on a copy of XP, you might be in luck.  Local PC makers known as “system builders” will continue to sell computers with XP pre-installed until January 2009.  Also, ultra-low cost PCs (ULCPC) will still be allowed to carry Windows XP Home Edition until June 2010.

If you are worried about Windows XP support, you still have some time before it runs out.  Microsoft will stop supporting XP in April 2009.  If you have pay for Microsoft “Extended” support, you will be covered through 2014.

For more information:
The Future of Windows XP
Microsoft Support Cycle

Do you wish Microsoft would have delayed the end-of-sales for XP just one more time??? Let us know in the comments.

If you are used to using Windows, you probably have a favorite font.  Even if you use Open Office, you still need to have Microsoft fonts installed so that when you open documents created in Word they will look right.

Also, most web pages are created with Microsoft fonts in mind. So, if you have Microsoft fonts installed, web pages will look the way they were intended to.

To install the fonts make sure you have the multiverse repositories enabled.  To do this, click System -> Administration -> Software Sources.  When the window appears, make sure there is a check mark beside all of the repositories except “Source code”

Once you have done this, type the following code in the terminal to update the available software:

sudo apt-get update

When the update is finished, run the following code to install the Microsoft fonts:

sudo apt-get install cabextract gsfonts-other msttcorefonts t1-xfree86-nonfree ttf-f500 ttf-isabella ttf-larabie-deco ttf-larabie-straight ttf-larabie-uncommon ttf-staypuft ttf-summersby ttf-ubuntu-title ttf-xfree86-nonfree xfonts-artwiz xfonts-intl-european

You may need to restart your computer for all of the fonts to be active.

What is your favorite Microsoft font? Let us know in the comments.