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Virtualization Software

As much as I’d like to use Mac OS X for everything, there are just some things that are not (yet) available on the Mac. This includes firmware updates for my Garmin Forerunner 305, mapping software for my iQue 3600, etc. In addition, certain websites just don’t work on my browsers. With the switch to Intel, it was only a matter of time before companies started developing virtualization software for the Mac; this is different than emulation as the instruction set isn’t emulated and goes right to the processor resulting in excellent performance. Recently Apple announced Boot Camp with isn’t virtualization software, but allows an Intel based Mac to dual boot into Windows. This isn’t very interesting to me as I only need to pop into Windows once in awhile and if I have to reboot, might as well just boot my Windows machine that I control via Windows Remote Desktop. Right after Apple announced Boot Camp, a product called
Parallels was released. I installed the trial on the Intel iMac I have on my desk, installed Fedora Core 5 and was amazed at the performance. I then installed Windows XP, but since I have an OEM version for my Dell, I can’t activate it on another CPU and fully test it. However, they’re offering a pre-order price of $39.99 vs. $49.99, so I couldn’t pass this up. Even at $49.99, it is a bargain. However, now I need to find an inexpensive copy of the full Windows XP so that I don’t have to use my Windows machine. (Right now Parallels doesn’t handle USB devices attached to the Mac, but if the speed at which they’re putting out betas is any indication, I think that by the time I get my MacBook Pro, that will be worked out.)

While I don’t want to run Windows, at least this software will allow me to run it easily without having to start my Windows machine (which also means that I’ll be able to use it when I’m away from home).

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Spoiled by EVDO

For the last year, I’ve had an EVDO wireless card on Sprint (Sierra Wireless AirCard 580). I use it occasionally when I travel (I don’t travel all that much) and it comes in handy. When I was in San Francisco for MacWorld, the hotel’s WiFi had such poor speed, I shared my connection with a co-worker. I haven’t used 1xRTT in such a long time, I forgot how slow it was. When we got to Kona in Hawaii, I pulled out the card to use it to get some info on stuff to do. Turns out, all we get is 1xRTT which almost seems painfully slow. I’ve definitely been spoiled by the high speed of EVDO (1xEVDO to be specific, faster EVDO is coming). When I get my MacBook Pro, hopefully a USB or ExpressCard EVDO modem will be available as I don’t know what I’d do without it.

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How did I survive without GPS navigation?

When I was growing up, my dad taught me to read a map, so I’ve never had a problem navigating to an unknown location. With the advent of GPS navigation units, is there a need to learn how to read a map? Possibly, but it is significantly diminished.

Several years ago, I got a Garmin iQue 3600 to test compatibility with our product and started using it for navigation around town. I soon started depending on it for getting to places I didn’t know. I had to send the unit to a co-worker and soon realized that I couldn’t get along with out it. After looking at a few alternatives, I determined that the device was the lowest priced portable GPS navigation system I could find. Last night we arrived in Hawaii for our vacation and I had already put in the address for where we were staying. It was very dark and the signage wasn’t very good, but the iQue got us close to our destination without incident (the street addresses seem a little weird and the exact address wasn’t in the device). It took us on what I’ve now determined to be an odd route, but it got us where we needed to go. I also entered a few other addresses and it, as usual, has performed flawlessly. I’m not sure what I’d do without it.

(It now seems that I’m a Garmin household with the Forerunner and the iQue 3600; I even convinced my dad to get an iQue 3600.)

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Audiobooks, do they get a bad rap?

NewLostLightMM.jpgWhen I first heard about Audible.com and other companies capitalizing on audiobooks that have been around for years for those that have difficulty seeing and for those that drive a lot (typically), I didn’t think much of it as I thought books should be read. I’ve always associated audiobooks with older people and could never see myself listening to one. A few weeks ago, my wife and I were at a party and I was talking to a fellow runner. She said that she listened to audiobooks while running and that got me thinking. Somehow I had collected The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Lost Light from audible through some free promotion. I loaded both books on my iPod, and was almost instantly hooked. I wanted to run even more to keep listening to the books. Now I’m on a quest to find more audiobooks either from the library or through audible.

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Product Reviews – is there any value?

Product reviews have been commonplace in magazines, newspapers, on TV, etc. With the increased popularity of the Internet, everyone seems to write reviews on varying topics from products to movies. I’ve even written a review. With all these reviews out there, is there any value to them? That’s, of course, a matter of opinion. Each reviewer has a bias, knows certain facts, has likes and dislikes, and maybe even an axe or two to grind. When I buy things, I typically read a lot of reviews that are all across the board; someone may not like a company because an employee was mean to them, or they could have had a bad experience with a piece of software (one that may only have happened on their machine), or on the other side, the reviewer may have met the author of a piece of software personally and felt a connection.

Years ago (about 10), one of my products was put head to head against a competing product. Both products were decent and the reviewer indicated the strengths and weaknesses of both. In the end, the reviewer said that they were evenly matched; however, the reviewer said this because a feature that my product had, the other product lacked, but the company that made the competing product promised it in a future update. This update never materialized and the reviewer, in my opinion, did a disservice to his readers by reviewing a promise and not what a customer could actually purchase and use. I’m still a bit bitter about this and makes me think even more about reviews I read. Reviews give me an idea of what other people think, but that really doesn’t help me. I need to form my own opinions of a product.

Movie reviews are extremely common and I sometimes glance at them before seeing a movie. My wife and I like the same types of movies, usually action/mystery or comedy (she has a wider range of movie likes than me that includes romance), so we see action movies more than any other type of movie (we don’t watch movies all that often). Before we went to see Firewall, I had looked at the reviews. It got pretty mediocre reviews at best. We both enjoyed the movie. It might not have all the things that Ebert and Roeper think make a great movie, but to us, it was worth the time and money to see the movie (TIP: Costco sells movie tickets for AMC Theatres; 2 for $15 which saves up to $2.50 per ticket).

In another case, I’ve seen reviews of products where the reviewer gave it bad marks because it didn’t do exactly what he wanted it to do; the product never said it would do it, but that didn’t matter.

Product reviews, from software to video cameras, to books to movies won’t be going away anytime soon, but I’d hope that people form their own opinions and don’t just make a buy/watch decision based on what someone else believes.

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Holy crap!

I was sitting at my desk around 8:45 AM and heard a loud sound. I thought it was an earthquake, but the floor didn’t shake. I checked the earthquake maps and didn’t see anything. I then searched the house to see if someone was in the house, but luckily didn’t find anyone. Then I spoke with my dad later and he said he heard the same thing; we concluded we heard it at the same time (he’s about 30 minutes from me), so I poked around and found an article about it. Not sure if it really was a sonic boom, but it really scared me and the dog. I think it is the military; of course they’ll never tell us anything.

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Apple’s Transition to Intel Revisited

I wrote awhile back on how moving an application from PowerPC to Intel isn’t as easy as Steve Jobs has indicated. This topic has come up again and I’m a bit offended by what one author has said in a recent article where the author basically says that developers that have been using Xcode and have programmed in Cocoa have a relatively easy transition moving code. This may be true for simple applications, but doesn’t reflect the reality of many applications out there. In one of the programs I’ve been working on for the last few years, we developed it using Xcode and used Cocoa throughout (OK, one slight component still has to be in Codewarrior as it needs to be CFM). One engineer spent several months making things work on Intel; the main reason is that the application talks to an external device over USB. Any application that talks to an external device is far more complicated than outsiders think. In addition, we have taken, what I consider an extraordinary step, in supporting third party plugins that weren’t designed for Intel. Apple says that users should run applications that require third party plugins in Rosetta by forcing it in the Finder. I find that this is unacceptable to have to run a universal application under Rosetta just so that plugins can run as I want the speed of the universal application. So, additional work was required to get this to work seamlessly (I’m still amazed at how well this works) which most applications don’t have to handle. (In this particular case, it is unlikely that most of the third party plugins we support will be made universal any time soon, so waiting for them to become universal is unrealistic.)

I got my first universal application running in about 5 minutes as the application has no external dependencies (no third party plugins or devices). A lot of applications fall into this category, but end users can’t just say that developers don’t care or aren’t doing enough to move applications to Intel as users don’t know the circumstances around application development. Even if a developer has followed Apple’s lead to switch to Xcode and Cocoa, it doesn’t mean they can put a universal application together in a few hours. As I’ll be ordering a MacBook Pro in a few weeks, I’d love to see all my applications running as universal applications, but the reality is that the smaller applications and many shareware titles will be coming much sooner than the big titles such as Microsoft Word.

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New Video Camera

Last week I went to use my Canon ZR85 video camera to record our dog doing something wacky. When I turned it on, instead of an image on the screen, I saw lines. After futzing around with it, I came to the conclusion that the CCD was busted as playback worked fine. We’re going on vacation soon and I know that my wife will want video of it, so I started research into a new camera. I don’t use the video camera all that much, so I didn’t want anything real fancy and didn’t want the bottom of the barrel. I went to Circuit City to look around, looked online, and settled on a Panasonic PV-GS36 that I bought at Costco for $279 (there was a coupon this week). For the price, I don’t think I could beat it. It has similar specs to the Canon I’m replacing, but I must say that the user interface (via a joystick) is far superior to anything else I’ve seen. It seems to have everything I want and we’ll see how well it does. I hate that we’re a disposable society, but getting my Canon repaired would probably be a minimum of $100 to look at it and then the cost of parts. Then I’d only get a 30 or 90 day warranty on the repairs.

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Signed up for the Marathon

I know that I said I wouldn’t pay the $4.95 extortion fee for signing up online, but thanks to a post on SlickDeals, I used a $15 off coupon which saved me $10.05 even after paying the fee. I guess I no longer have a choice, but to run this marathon!

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Free checking

I see that Washington Mutual is offering Free Checking. This is interesting because they’ve been offering it for years; when I moved back to San Diego in 1999, I went to Washington Mutual to get their free checking, but closed my account within days because it wasn’t completely free. I had to pay for checks, something that wasn’t disclosed to me. That annoyed me and so I opened a new account at Bank of America, a bank I’ve been dealing with for years (Oregon and California branches weren’t really linked at the time, so I had to close my Oregon account and open a California account). So now, it looks like Washington Mutual is offering free checks. How nice of them to finally make correct their misleading advertising.