/dev/random

I had a very busy week trying to implement a feature and this week will be more of the same. Tomorrow morning I have a conference call at 9AM.
I curse the person at Netscape who invented proxy auto configuration. You can’t simply read & parse a .pac file - you need a javascript interpreter to [...]

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Parallels Workstation just keeps getting better. The latest version finally adds USB support and the full screen mode works nicely.
SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: “Parallels Workstation beta 5″, url: “http://mcdevzone.com/2006/04/26/parallels-workstation-beta-5/” });

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I’ve eliminated the WordPress installation at psp.macmegasite.com and moved that content to the main site. I added a PSP category & redirected psp.macmegasite.com to http://www.macmegasite.com/psp which will display the same content as the old PSP site. This will make it easier to add content and allow PSP content to be searched as part of the [...]

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I’ve been running beta 4 of Parallels Workstation since it was released yesterday and haven’t seen a single kernel panic. With beta 3, I would have at least two before noon. Sound works great in beta 4 and fullscreen mode works OK on my iMac, although it’s ugly on the MacBook Pro because it switches [...]

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While using my iMac today I had a very strange network failure, which I attributed to Parallels Workstation at first.
Built-in Ethernet suddenly lost its IP address and would no longer connect. All attempts to obtain an IP address failed. In the network setup panel I noticed a new port, vi2, which is Parallels’ bridged [...]

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I’ve noticed for several days that my DirecTV DVR’s time is off by two minutes causing all recordings to start 2 minutes late. From checking DirecTV’s forums, it looks like other people are having the same problem. Rebooting the DVR reset it to the correct time, but within 15 minutes it was back to the [...]

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I just had my third Kernel Panic on my iMac today, all related to using a VPN connection in Parallels Workstation. This doesn’t happen on my MacBook Pro using the same Windows VM.

Mon Apr 17 15:16:02 2006
panic(cpu 1 caller 0×0019CAEF): Unresolved kernel trap (CPU 1, Type 14=page fault), registers:
CR0: 0×8001003b, CR2: 0×2e2f1000, CR3: 0×00d3a000, CR4: [...]

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Cody spends most of the day outdoors now, but he’ll come in when I call him, usually to eat and then he’ll be whining at the door until I let him out again. I always make sure I get him in to stay before it gets dark.
Today he started getting a little too adventurous. Until [...]

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I ran some benchmarks on Windows XP running in Parallels Workstation using PassMark PerformanceTest 6.0. It completely blows away a Dell Dimension 8200. You can see the results here.
SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: “Parallels Workstation Benchmarks”, url: “http://mcdevzone.com/2006/04/14/parallels-workstation-benchmarks/” });

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I spent much of today installing & setting up Windows XP on my Mac with Parallels Workstation. I finally got it pretty much the way I want it, so I can use Outlook & a custom database application through a VPN connection while being able to connect to local file servers and print locally. I [...]

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Today I picked the first eggplant from my garden and had eggplant parmesan for dinner, plus a salad with fresh lettuce & tomato. It was great. A small garden like this isn’t enough to pick dinner every day, but I get an occasional treat. So far I picked 8 tomatoes, 1 eggplant, 1 bell pepper, [...]

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Beta 2 of Parallels Workstation is available. It fixes the kernel panic I’ve seen a few times related to networking.
SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: “Parallels Workstation Beta 2″, url: “http://mcdevzone.com/2006/04/08/parallels-workstation-beta-2/” });

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Mom dies after 911 call treated as prank: “A 5-year-old boy called 911 to report that his mother had collapsed in their apartment, but an operator told him he should not be playing on the phone, and she died before help arrived.” (Via Newsvine - Get Smarter Here.)
This 911 operator should be fired immediately. Any [...]

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I tried Parallels Workstation today and it’s exactly what I’ve been looking for: true virtualization for Intel Macs. I’m now running Windows 2000 & Debian Linux on my MacBook Pro. I ordered Windows XP Home Edition so I don’t have to use the Dell installation disk. Windows runs almost as fast in Parallels as it [...]

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I tried TextMate today and I got hooked immediately. I’ve always been a BBEdit user, but I found that TextMate has a lot of nice unique features. I especially like the source code folding feature, which lets you collapse functions and other sections of code. I ended up buying it within an hour of trying [...]

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I tried using Apple’s Boot Camp to install Windows XP on my iMac with mixed results. I wasted a few hours and ended up removing the Windows partition.
The only Windows installation CD I have is a Dell-specific one, which also happens to be SP1 (Boot Camp requires SP2). I was able to get Windows XP [...]

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Cody’s getting to be quite an outdoor cat. Every day he stares at the door and meows until I let him out & he stays out most of the day. He usually stays around my building and will come when I call him. I make sure he comes in before I go away. He seems [...]

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I added a Procmail rule which accidentally deleted *ALL* of my incoming email since late Friday. I was attempting to block any spam with a From: address of [%from%] which I’ve been seeing from some spammers with misconfigured software. So any email I received since Friday went straight to /dev/null.
SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: “Procmail screw-up”, url: “http://mcdevzone.com/2006/04/03/procmail-screw-up/” [...]

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