Recently I've installed Ubuntu from the ShipIt CD, and so far it's been great, but there some things "amiss". Thanks in advance.

Problem:
1) The tilde doesn't work. Instead, it types this (¬). Also, the double quote (") and the at sign (@) are switched on my keyboard. I have the keyboard set as "Microsoft Internet Keyboard" and the layout as "United Kingdom" if that helps. My keyboard is actually a "Microsoft Digital Media Keyboard" and it's from Australia.

Questions:
1) Is there a way to move the date/time (that's normally in the top left) to the taskbar, something like bbLeanBar, and have a right-click menu similar to the bbLean one? bbLean is basically Fluxbox for Windows, but I don't want to stop using Gnome since I want to use the Gnome-style themes.

2) Can I Rhythmnbox like Winamp? That is, is there a WindowBlinds mode? If not, how does XMMS handle?

3) Where are the default Gnome icons located?

4) Bonus points - my old bbLean config had a semi-transparent calendar on the bottom left corner of the desktop, system stats autohidden at the bottom, Winamp controls at the top right through a bbLean plugin and Winamp song name at the top right the same way. I'd appreciate any help in having the same functionality with my Ubuntu setup.

You may try to experiment with different keyboard setting by command

setxkbmap xx

where xx is a recongnized keyboard code (us, uk, ...). Perhaps it helps.
Best,
Ott