I will be now blogging via
wordpress. This is just a matter of convenience for myself. Please update your bookmarks /
RSS feeds.
New blog address:
http://csaborio.wordpress.com/
Sending files can sometimes be a bit pesky. Depending on the size limit set by your SMTP server, you will usually end up splitting the file in smaller chunks or following
some other method. There are various compression mechanisms out there that work OK, such as zip or rar. Lately, I have found a new compression format called 7z.
I have been compressing archives and the level of compression of 7z (especially with word files that have embedded images) is amazing. I was able to compress a 24 Mb word file to 4 MB in less than 5 seconds. I really don't know if RAR offers the same (or better) compression ratio, but AFAIK, there is no RAR compression solution for OS X.
7z has various clients available for lots of platforms out there. My personal for OS X is
7zX. Download one of them and give them a try, you might save a byte or two.
Ever had this happen to you?:
I think this is the most annoying message that Windows has (OS X has one similar which is not very useful in letting you know what the problem is). IMHO, I think that if the OS is informing you about an attempt to delete a file that has a handler open, it should be smart enough to tell you one thing: which is the application/process using it!!!
Fear not, as there is a workaround for this. Unlocker is a (free) utility that will give you this info. Once installed, it is a contextual menu:
Unlocker will then present you with a dialog that will let you deal with the situation:
One less Windows nuisance to worry about. Credit where credit is due: Stephen was the person who referenced me to this program.
For all things related to software migration, be sure to visit Artinsoft's website. For training in Visual Basic to C# migrations, Visual Basic to VB.Net, Virtualization, and 64-bit training check our training web page.
I use CoRD for multiple desktops on OS X - it works like a charm. But what about Windows users, what can they use? After reading a bit on
Dugie's Perspective, I read about
MuRD (multiple remote desktops), which does exactly this trick.
Further reading on his blog points out to vXCopy, which is like xcopy on sterorids (which was like the copy command on steroids).
I haven't tested any of the two, but I am sure the Virtualization crew at the upcoming Munich event will put vXCopy to the test when copying VMs through the network.
Following on my previous post, I have finished installing Vista on Paralles. There were various things I had to do to succesully finish the upgrade:
- Expand the size of my virtual disk to at least 15 GB. The Vista installer will expand various files and needs this space
- Increase the memory size of the VM to 512
- Upgrade to the latest version of Parallels and use the menu that allows Vista in believing that the machine is OK to install Vista:
First off, all my applications worked after the upgrade, I was very impressed about this fact. On the other hand (I don't know if this is a Vista or Parallels issue), things are kind of slow. Windows XP running with 256 MB of RAM ran a lot faster than Vista with 512 MB of RAM. It seems like my CPU usage is higher when using Vista under Parallels.
These issues have me revert to Windows XP, which I will keep using until an upgrade for either Vista or Parallels that address this issue is released.
One of the things I really like about OS X is that it has a built-in PDF Viewer. What's so special about this PDF viewer? I think what I like the most is the fact that it is not bloated. Adobe's Acrobat reader can take a while to launch, installing takes around 20 MB of downloads, and on older machines can really perform poorly.
I stumbled upon Sumatra PDF over the weekend, and I think it is a great replacemente for Adobe's Reader in Windows. I think you cannot beat Sumatra, especially when it comes to the price (free!)
Do you know of any other PDF readers that are fast & lighteweight?
There are many ways to post blogs. You can use the web interface that most blog applications (blogger, community server, wordpress, etc.) offer. This can be very cumbersome and if you hit back by mistake on your browser, then all that you have typed can be gone in a matter of seconds.
I have recently stumbled on some (free) tools that will allow you to blog like a pro. The first one is called Live Writer Beta and is made by Microsoft - I found out about this from Volker's blog today. So far it has been very stable and is very easy to use. It is basically the same thing as using Word. This will get you covered as far as blogging goes, but if you want to add images and such (something our Community Server blog currently does not offer) you will need additional software.
To insert images, get the Flickr4Writer plugin, which will allow you insert images on your blog that are linked from Flickr account:
I am currently uploading my images to flickr using this (OS X) widget, I am pretty sure there is something similar for Vista if you look around (drop me a line if you find one).
Happy Blogging!
It’s been almost 5 months since I brought a black MacBook to work. At first I thought it was not such a good idea due to the incompatibilities I could face. So far the experience has not been a bad one, and I can run most of the software I need without having to strive against slow performance or incompatibilities. With the exception of screwing up some of Jose’s powerpoint slide animations, I don’t think there has been mayor damage done.
The following compromises a list of the software that any individual looking for to work in a Windows environment should have on their list:
Parallels: If you must run Windows on OS X, then you need Parallels. It’s performance is superb and it will allow you to run a Virtualialzied Windows with a little performance hit. This blog I am writing as of now is under BlogJet using a copy of WindowsXP. I also run Office 2007, Firefox, Messenger, Project, and Visual Source Safe (watch out Parallels, someone is lurking in the dark)
Crossover: it allows you to run Windows binaries without having to run Windows. It is based on the Wine project and so far I have been able to run Office 2007 and Internet Explorer 6 without having to run Windows. Still on early beta stages but nonetheless quite impressive.
TSClient: I mentioned this on an earlier post. It has become my default RDC client, extremely fast.
NeoOffice: a port of OpenOffice but does not require x11 on your system. It runs faster than Microsoft Office for Mac on my MacBook. Until there is a universal binary for Office, I am using this one for Office productivity.
And finally, if all else fails (as is the case of running VTune on a VM), I can always boot into Windows natively using BootCamp. Fortunately, thanks to the great programs above, this is something that is happening less often every time.