Miscellaneous Ramblings.... - Vista

IE8 Beta Released

nospam@example.com (Colleen Velo) — Wed, 5 Mar 2008 22:38:48 -0600

Microsoft has released Internet Explorer 8 which has features aimed at competing with Safari 3. Some of the new features are WebSlices (which sounds similar to the LiveBookMarks feature in Firefox). Automatic Crash Recovery -- or ACR is another new feature (which Firefox has also had for years ).
Maybe I'll be brave enough to install in in a VM somewhere.

iTunes 7.6.1 Released

nospam@example.com (Colleen Velo) — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 18:09:27 -0600

iTunes 7.6.1 has been released. Looks like this is a fairly minor release containing some bug fixes as well as adding support for Apple TV version 2. Also, according to MacRumors, Apple has notified iTunes customers through its weekly email, that they will be offering a different $0.99 movie rental every Thursday.

IE7 and IE6: Running both versions

nospam@example.com (Colleen Velo) — Fri, 8 Feb 2008 01:59:49 -0600

Recently I have come across the need to run both IE6 and IE7 side by side in the same environment (in order to test some web pages behavior). My starting point was Windows XP SP2 with IE7 already installed. There a couple of different ways to do this. One way is to set up a separate virtual machine with IE6 installed. Another way is to download the stand-alone binary - the only drawback is that the two binaries seem to share cookies. Another slight oddity about running the IE6 StandAlone Binary, is that if you select "Help --> About Internet Explorer" it will still show the Version as 7.0 (but the binary is a IE6 one).
(For the Mac die-hards out there, an enthusiast figured out how to run IE6 under MacOSX, bypassing the need for running Parallels).

Windows XP Control Panel Keyboard Shortcuts

nospam@example.com (Colleen Velo) — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 22:28:19 -0600

For you Windows XP users, here is a handy guide of keyboard shortcuts for the Control Panel (something I had stumbled across while working on the nephew's computer this evening).

Parallels Cut-n-Paste Issue Fixed!

nospam@example.com (Colleen Velo) — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 10:28:00 -0600

For those suffering with the Parallels dreaded cut-n-paste bug, at last, a Parallels update is available for this issue (build# 5584). Several users have reported back on the forum thread that this appears to take care of the very annoying cut-n-paste problem. I have installed the update and am pleased to say that I have my cut-n-paste back between Parallels and Mac OSX apps. Yes!

Parallels Cut-n-Paste no longer working correctly....

nospam@example.com (Colleen Velo) — Sun, 6 Jan 2008 18:25:25 -0600

Just an FYI: if you haven't installed Apple's security update 2007-009, don't install it unless you want to lose your cut-n-paste functionality (otherwise known as the clipboard synchronization in the Parallels Tools Center) as well as some drag-n-drop features between OS' as well. To be more specific, you can copy text from the Parallels Guest VM to the Mac OSX, but not from Mac OSX to the Guest VM (people have reported the same problem on both Leopard and Tiger. It seems that the CoreFoundation.framework was modified with the above update and broke other Mac OSX features as well.
Evidently, the Parallels team is working hard on a update that is due out in January to fix this. In the meantime, the issue is being discussed in both the Parallels Forums and in the Apple Forums. (I am subscribed to the Parallels thread, so I'll post an update as soon as I hear anything).

Update (01/09/08): Evidently, the Parallels team has fixed this issue in-house and are in the process of QA'ing it now. ....Waiting patiently....

Update (01/18/08): At last, a Parallels update is available for this issue (build# 5584). Several users have reported back on the forum thread that this appears to take care of the very annoying cut-n-paste problem. I have installed the update and am pleased to say that I have my cut-n-paste back between Parallels and Mac OSX apps. Yes!

Parallels 3.0 Released

nospam@example.com (Colleen Velo) — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 06:41:58 -0500

Parallels officially released their 3.0 upgrade (build 5160) today, which is supposed to improve Coherence mode as well as add support for Mac OSX's "Expose" function. I went ahead and took the plunge and installed it. So far, I haven't seen a noticeable improvement in performance, but I'll gladly settle for less crashes.

Parallels 3.0 Beta Released

nospam@example.com (Colleen Velo) — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 20:20:00 -0500

Parallels Desktop 3.0 Beta has been released (and it is free upgrade to licensed users of Parallels Desktop 3). It looks like the main improvements were for Coherence mode as well as some performance improvements (possible to compete with VMWare Fusion?). For those interested, here is an more in-depth review at MacNN.

Update (9/06/07): Finally got off my duff and installed this version of Parallels. Let's hope that it is a little bit more stable then the 4560 build. I must say that so far I do like the fact that minimized Parallels apps go to the dock as well.

VMWare Fusion released

nospam@example.com (Colleen Velo) — Tue, 7 Aug 2007 16:01:21 -0500

VMWare has finally released VMWare Fusion, their competitor to Parallels for Mac. MacNN has a nice article with the VMWare Fusion product manager in which he compares VMWare Fusion to Parallels for Mac. One noticeable difference is that VMWare Fusion can support 64-bit Windows as well as supposedly support up to 8GB in a virtual machine. Another obvious plus is the ability to be able to run other VMWare created VM's on your MacBookPro.

Office 2007: De Facto For OEMs

nospam@example.com (Colleen Velo) — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 06:52:00 -0500

After June 30th 2007, OEM vendors will have to ship new systems with Office 2007, since Microsoft will no longer be supplying Office 2003 after this date.

Parallels 3.0 Installed

nospam@example.com (Colleen Velo) — Fri, 8 Jun 2007 06:37:00 -0500

Parallels Desktop 3.0 for Mac has been released and I have my copy downloaded and installed. Will be playing around with the new version over the next couple of days. Stay tuned.....

Parallels Desktop 3 for Mac Coming In June

nospam@example.com (Colleen Velo) — Sun, 3 Jun 2007 07:12:00 -0500

Parallels Desktop 3 for Mac will soon be released. Some of the highly anticipated features are support for 3D gaming, Snapshots and "SmartSelect". With the Snapshot feature, you can do Snapshots of the VM in various states to recover back from. SmartSelect lets you open up any file from Windows or Mac OS X using an application from either operating system. This feature is made to work hand in hand with the Coherence feature of Parallels. (Here is TechCrunch's take on the upcoming Parallels software).
Needless to say, I have my copy pre-ordered already.

Microsoft's Silverlight

nospam@example.com (Colleen Velo) — Sat, 5 May 2007 06:45:00 -0500

TechCrunch has an interesting article regarding Microsoft's Silverlight and why it could be the killer app for web 2.0 development.

Running OSX 10.4.9 on Your Windows Machine

nospam@example.com (Colleen Velo) — Sun, 8 Apr 2007 10:14:27 -0500

A handy guide to installing Mac OSX 10.4.9 and dual-booting it with Windows Vista on your Windows machine (of course, it states clearly that this guide is for informational purposes only).
Enjoy!

Windows Vista: Compatibility Update

nospam@example.com (Colleen Velo) — Sun, 1 Apr 2007 05:53:00 -0500

Microsoft has issued a new compatibility update for anyone upgrading to Windows Vista.
On a somewhat related note, it appears people are running into problems with having to re-validate their copy of Windows Vista when applying the NVidia Serial ATA controller update. Reading through the forum thread, it looks like Microsoft is aware of the problem and is working on it.