There are more and more solutions for using Windows and Windows applications on new Intel Macs, some of those springing up seemingly almost monthly. The biggest solutions at the moment are the virtualization method (Parallel’s Workstation) that runs a compelete version of Windows on your Mac, inside of the Mac OS itself. The other is Boot Camp, provided by Apple, where you actually install Windows (XP SP2) on your computer and use that.

This other alternative is wonderful, depeneding how good they get it working. If you come from a Linux background, you’ve heard of WINE, or possibly CrossOver Office. Basically, these projects and products allow you to run certain Windows applications on Linux without having to go through the complete hassle of having Windows itself. So, Codeweavers is giving out a free 60 day trial of their software, just mind you it’s still a beta. My copy is downloading right now and I’ll report back shortly after I try a few apps with it, and of course some games!

Get CrossOver for Mac here.

I’ll be upfront and say that this episode doesn’t have the spit and shine that I would like to think come from my other ones. However, I go over some techy stuff with my external HD issues as well as review some smaller shareware apps that have hit the market in the last few weeks and warrant mentioning.

 

 Enhanced Podcast [23:38m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1823)

Well, I got hooked on another show this year and I’m not sure how I’m going to live without that.  For those that haven’t seen or heard about my newest TV obsession (and I don’t ever, ever watch TV, unless it’s Law and Order SVU) this was a big deal for me.

The season finale was awesome and I’ll be missing it until it comes back on next summer.  Be sure to check it out in the iTMS.  Also wanted to let everyone know that the season premiere for L&O SVU is going to be September 19th.  I can’t wait.

Always nice to have new and funny commercials. This one isn’t the best of the bunch, but I like the fact that PC is in a wheelchair because of his powercord incident. Funny, I just imagined him to be a desktop…..

Found via One Digital Life

Well, seems that with school getting started this last week, there was a lot of activities to take part in and lots of people to meet up with since last semester, so I’m just saying that this week’s episode is running behind.  As in I haven’t even started recording yet.  Alas, I’ll try to make up with an extra good episode however.  I hope to have it out Monday night, if not Tuedsay night at the latest.

I just ran across a complete list of those pesky Mac OS error codes and thought that I would share. Turns out that error code -36 is just an I/O Error. Go figure….

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=9805

There are links at the bottom of this page to get the rest of the codes. Pretty helpful article actually.

I’m hoping that there is someone out there reading who is a bit more knowlegable on this matter than me.  Question being, exactly how hard is it to design and produce a notebook battery that you don’t have to recall?

Apple is constantly recalling batteries from previous generation laptops, with the FCC just clearing the 15″ Macbook Pro batteries today.  Dell is constantly recalling batteries and reports of one burning down a guy’s house circulated the net a few days back.

So, how hard is it to build a battery that doesn’t explode?  Just food for thought.

Well, I went through a lot of trouble (not really, but I did make a big fuss) getting the videos separated from the audio episodes for the podcast.  However, after getting the vidcast up and online, I’ve only published one episode and they’re just aren’t that many people subscribing to it.  So, I don’t feel bad cancelling it, since there aren’t that many people watching (I have to justify it somehow).  With all that said, I simply don’t have the time to find interesting clips to through up on the feed for people to download.  I ran out of my supply that I had built-up and now there’s just nothing left.  I’ll still be posting YouTube clips that I find interesting, stuff like that, but the vidcast feed is dead.  Sorry if anyone really got their hopes up with this.  I’ll be doing site maitenance eventually and remove the traces from the sidebar and other areas.

I have to resize images all the time for use on the web. Ecto, the blogging application that I use most of the time, has a built-in feature to do this. However, for other times, it’s much easier to just resize the image and use it at 100% it’s size, and not have to worry with settings inside the application to do this work for you (or if you’re coding it in by hand).

I have an Applescript up on the Downloads page, if anyone is interested, that will automatically convert an image to a 64X64 image, assuming that you started with a square image to start with. I use this a lot for shrinking Mac icons into managable PNG images for use on the site.

For the meat of this tip however, I just discovered an easy way to convert an image’s size, with a free app that comes bundled with OS X (unfortunately not Preview). That application is the Color Sync Utility. Just use Spotlight to find that, open up your image in the app, click the button that resembles a “Zoom to Fit” button in Preview, but this is a resizer button in Color Sync Utility.

Click that button, and you can resize by percentage, width, height, etc. This is a great little workaround and gives me more flexibility than my Applescript or having to use Photoshop to accomplish the same thing. If anyone else has an easier way, I’d be glad to hear it!

I don’t often sit down and ponder if what great men before me have decided to be true, is in fact true. Evidently astromers have had quite a bit of time on their hands in the last few years, enough time to debate whether or not Pluto is indeed a planet. Time to update your textbooks, as of today, Pluto is out of the count. Just thought that I would share that little bit of info with everyone so that you’ll get that answer right the next time you’re on Jeopardy.

Found via: One Digital Life