Category: utilities
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Reclaiming an ancient PocketPC as a web browser
Cleaning out the attic closet recently, I came across an ancient Casio PocketPC that I must have bought six or seven years ago, the Cassiopeia E-115. It’s a cute little device featuring a smallish, color touch-screen and compact flash card slot. My son was immediately interested in reclaiming it but we couldn’t get it to…
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Test bed Leopard upgrade reveals some issues
Well, the UPS man finally brought my family pack upgrade copy of Mac OS X 10.5 aka Leopard. As I mentioned the other day, I have no immediate plans to install it on either of my main systems, the 24″ iMac or 15″ MacBook Pro, known respectively as “Gigantico” and “Lunar Excursion Module” or LEM…
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Blogoshpere’s Vista verdict? Blech. VmWare Fusion? Yum.
Apparently I’m not alone in finding Windows Vista a less than compelling upgrade over XP. Bloggers all over, including more than a few on my daily or weekly reading list like Philip Greenspun and Joe Wilcox, seem to be finding the same irritating flaws. Those pro reviewer reviews that come out on the first day…
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Blaspheming in the temple of the Mac: Boot Camp
Ah, the crazy things we do to play a silly computer game known as Civilization, or in this case Sid Meier’s Civilization IV: Beyond The Sword expansion. Each and every version of Civ comes out first for Windows and some months later for Macs. And so, each and every time, I have to obtain, borrow…
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Calling all comparers – time for virtual showdown
Software developer Paul Lefebvre has a tidy comparison up on his blog between VMware’s Fusion and competitor Parallels Desktop. Both products let owners of Intel-based Macs run other operating systems like Windows XP or Linux. I’ve been messing around with Fusion for a few months now and it’s very impressive. One cool feature absent from…
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Not all EMI content available sans DRM yet
With one day left in the month of May, Apple and record label EMI made good on their promise to start selling higher-quality digital music without annoying copying limits (so-called digital rights management, or DRM, technology). The new files are $1.29 each although buying a whole album of these “iTunes Plus” files doesn’t cost any…
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Solving Tivo download issues
I’ve tried a variety of programs to get TV shows off our Tivo and onto my iPod, mainly so the kids can watch some of their favorites while traveling. The Tivo, which sits in our bedroom far from the nearest wireless access point, was connected to the Internet and our home net via a Netgear…
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He marched in the animals, two by two
…And he called out as they came through Hey Lord, I’ve got green alligators and long-necked geese Some humpty backed camels and some chimpanzees Some cats and rats and elephants, but Lord, I’m so forlorn I just can’t find no unicorns. Ah, the Irish Rovers and The Unicorn Song. Brings back fond memories of rainy…
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Cool new snapshot feature in Fusion
I’ve been messing around with VMWare’s Fusion software that lets you run virtual machines under OS X. In my case, it’s Windows 2000 which is good enough to run Outlook 2003 and Sony’s horrible digital recorder software. Today I installed the latest and greatest beta version and it has a cool new feature. At the…