Archive for the 'Windows' Category
I first saw this nice little trick a year or so ago. A fellow admin and friend of mine, Tommy, used a Bluetooth® headset to automatically lock his Windows machine whenever he stepped away from his computer and his headset was no longer in range of his PC’s Bluetooth® dongle. I don’t remember how I stumbled upon this blog post yesterday, but I am glad I did. This post shows you how to implement a similar solution using an application called Proximity and some AppleScripts to achieve the same result.
The cool thing about this solutions for the Mac is that the events that are triggered when the specified Bluetooth® device enters and leaves the Mac’s Bluetooth® proximity are AppleScripts. AppleScripts allow you to easily program for the Mac. AppleScripts are pretty much the same thing as shell scripts for any other operating system and command line environment, like batch scripts for Windows and Bash or C Shell scripts for Unix based and derived operating systems like Linux and FreeBSD. Basically, with a solution like this, you aren’t tied to the developer’s ideas of what should happen when you step away from your machine. The ball is totally in your court and your goal is only limited by your creativity and your programming ability.
I have had my 30 GB Video iPod for a while and have been using my MacBook since late 2006. I bought my iPod at WalMart and it came formatted for a Windows machine. This was fine and all when I used a Windows machine and FreeBSD because I could read and write to the iPod with no problems as well as update the iPod via my Windows PC (yes, I have one… I’m sorry…). However, since I have been using my MacBook full time I haven’t been able to update my iPod’s software from 1.2 to 1.2.1 because it was formatted for Windows, I was too lazy to boot up my Windows machine, and I was honestly a little afraid to click on the “Restore” button within iTunes for fear of hosing my iPod.
Today, while working at a remote disaster recovery location, I had a few minutes to spare while a server booted up and recognized some new tape drives to press that “Restore” button within iTunes. I was scared, yes, but I did it. I clicked it! As soon as I did, iTunes told me that all of my music would be deleted from the iPod and the iPod would be returned to the factory settings. I accepted this and told iTunes to continue with the restore. As it was wiping my iPod it also upgraded my iPod to the latest version of the iPod software, version 1.2.1, and obviously, formatted the iPod with a Macintosh file system.
Now, as software updates are released for the iPod I don’t have to feel left behind due to laziness and fear any longer. I always use my Mac and can just update it inside iTunes at the click of a button. I’m glad I “made the switch” to Macintosh, both in my normal computing environment (i.e. my laptop) and in my iPod file system.
Until next time…
First of all, let me just ask, is it 11:54PM or 10:54PM… My mind and body can’t tell. The time change last night appears to have taken place already on all of my physical clocks, computers, etc., but my mind hasn’t really caught on yet. Just to be safe I have ironed my clothes for tomorrow and have already shaved my head and face. I don’t expect that my alarm going off at 6:35AM (5:35AM “my time”) tomorrow morning will have a very nice effect on me and I just might get up a little late… We’ll see.
I should also let everyone know (you know who all 3.234 of you are) that I didn’t ever get around to creating my giant poster (or was it a huge poster?) this weekend. I ended up doing some things around the house, working on a couple of projects for FS, and went to work today with Chris.
Last night, while playing World of Warcraft, I installed the latest version of Microsoft’s Windows operating system, Windows Vista Ultimate. Since I am a Mac “fanboy” now, I installed Vista on my MacBook using Parallels Desktop for Mac. Running the latest and greatest offering in the Windows realm on a virtual machine (VM) may seem crazy, but let me tell you, it runs great!
In order to install Vista in a VM on my Mac, I had to first install Windows XP because the version I have of Vista Ultimate is an upgrade version. The Vista installer has to be run from within the operating system you are upgrading. No more booting to the upgrade CD, showing it a full version CD and giving it a product key. Now it has to be installed from within the OS you’re upgrading. Oh, well. I installed another licensed version of Windows XP into a VM and as soon as the install was completed, popped the Vista DVD in and was on my way.
When installing Vista, make sure you have at least 16GB of disk space available for the OS to install itself and some room left over for installing applications and patches/updates. It is pretty beefy, but overall the install went very smoothly. I was impressed that the OS installed so painlessly in Parallels. Nice!
So, now to do some testing. I have little experience with Vista at this point and since it is the latest and greatest from Microsoft, I figure I should become familiar with it. You never know, Windows XP could be EOL‘d tomorrow and everyone would be forced to move to Vista or never receive another update for their OS. It has happened before, it could happen tomorrow, I’m just saying…
Again, while my experience with Vista is limited, I can tell you this about running Vista in a VM with Parallels: No Fancy 3D Eye Candy. All of the really nifty, 3D, Mac-like features Vista includes require DirectX 9.0 or greater. Either Parallels doesn’t have support for it or the video card in my MacBook can’t get down like that. Either way, the OS looks great and I am only missing eye candy, which I already get plenty of from my Mac. Everything else appears to work flawlessly.
Until next time…
Sorry, Katt Williams…
Since I have been using my Canon Digital Rebel XTi, I have also been increasing my use of the Flickr web site and services. I have upgraded my account to a pro account and have been uploading some of my photos that I have taken recently to my Flickr page. I have also been creating what Flickr calls “Photo Sets“. Photo Sets are basically ways to organize your photos into groups so all of your photos with similar subjects are in one place for viewing. I have been thoroughly impressed with the Flickr service for some time now and now that I am using extended functionality, they’re not letting me down there either.
Flickr Updates
