Mac Tip: VMware to help ease the XP conversion pain

If you just bought your first Mac and you cannot stand booting into Boot Camp to use XP or Vista, try VMWare Fusion. It lists at $80 (but can be found for cheaper at Amazon.com for now) and can run your Windows while you are running OS X. It is fast, simple, and seamless.

You need to go to www.vmware.com, go to the Products Tab, then Products Index, then scroll down to VMWare Fusion, download and install it, and then follow the steps to install your paid copy of XP or Vista within the player. Fusion is a virtual machine that tricks Windows into thinking it is on its computer system.

Why do you need it? It allows you slowly release Windows grip from your psyche. You can reinstall all of your Win apps on it and use them for a bit...or forever...and buy Mac versions someday. It is more secure because it "sand boxes" Windows and disables viruses or malware to jump from the virtual machine to the OS X.

Among other settings, you get to set how much hard drive space you want it to have, how much RAM it will allocate for Windows, and also if you want to share the OS X hard drive. I recommend a full 20 gigs for your Windows install within VMWare. For the RAM it depends on how much RAM you have on your Mac. For 2 gigs of RAM on your Mac then use 1 gig for VMWare and if you have 4 gigs of RAM on your Mac then use 2 gigs for VMWare. While VMWare is open and running, it will allocate the RAM entirely which gives you less to use for Mac applications. I recommend read-only setting for sharing with the OS X hard drive. You don't want this version of Windows writing to your Mac. If you enable read/write, then a virus or malware could potentially infect files outside of VMWare.

Hope this helps and makes sense. Comment or email if you need help.

Really? No kidding?

What the hell? It may be hard to see but his head is pasted over Uncle Sam's (click to enlarge). Wow. Ballsy.

Jawbone Review

Image care of blog.treonauts.com

About 6 months ago I scrapped my Jabra BT200 bluetooth headset because of poor call quality, poor battery life, and frustration related to the connection process each time I cranked up bluetooth on my phone. I had the Jabra for almost 2 years and considered it extremely comfortable and easy to use. It was fairly unassuming in a world of people who seem to love to flaunt their bluetooth headset and their inability to TAKE IT OUT OF THEIR EAR AND PUT IT IN THEIR POCKET. sorry. I thought handsfree was for driving or multi-tasking...not walking in the mall or eating at a restaurant.

I did some web searching for quality reviews of headsets and stumbled upon the following: http://blog.treonauts.com/2007/03/treo_bluetooth_.html review of the jawbone. First I must state that the Jawbone is made by Aliph at http://www.jawbone.com/. The makers have gone to great lengths to create a headset that is easy to use, stylish, and one of the best noise reduction bluetooth units on te market. I will first send you to this video so that you fully understand what I am raving about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-VIdnrij7M. I have tested this unit with a vacuum cleaner on, right beside me and the headset is so successful in cancelling noise and improving the sound of your voice that my mother could hear me clearly and I could barely hear her over the vacuum cleaner.

I realize I am not doing a good job at reviewing this headset, however I think the attached links speak for themselves. Personally, with the included ear accessories, the unit is very comfortable. The wrap around piece is poorly made and breaks easy. Both my father and my ear pieces broke through light use. I will note that typically I can wear the headset with few issues. I cannot swing my head side to side or up/down without the ear hook thing but typically does well in driving and walking conditions. Aliph has come out with a new model which is smaller than the unit I purchased. The units use very low profile, hidden buttons to turn the unit on/pair/mute/volume/noise cancelling. The charger is USB or plugs into a wall jack and is lightweight and easy to take on trips with you. It charges quickly and holds a charge for adequate talk/standby time. See Andrew's Treonaut review for more details.

I strongly recommend you look into this product if you are in the market for a bluetooth headset. Don't forget you can get it almost half off on eBay. For weight, looks, and funtionality (and the fact that my dad can use it successfully), the headset is a great buy.

Leo and the TWiT Army!

I need to formally endorse Leo Laporte here on the blog.  For those who don't know him, he has been in TV, radio, and print for years in the world of tech.  He currently has two websites...www.leoville.com and www.twit.tv.  Leoville is much more tuned to his lower tech listeners and twit.tv is his netcast/netcast network.  

He once worked for ZDTV, soon to be TechTV where I came across him on the Screen Savers.  TechTV fell apart unfortunately after being bought by G4.  I actually wished I could work for TechTV and too bad I wasn't ambitious enough.  Currently TWiT is working to revive the old TechTV mantra.  Between Revision3.com and TWiT.tv, we will get there soon enough.  The two sites consist of a great collection of geeks, dorks, nerds, hackers, and cool folks put a plethera of outstanding and crappy video and audio netcasts/vidcasts.

Also go to Leoville.com and check out Leo's cool live stream when he is doing a show.  He has just built up a new studio, just as Revision3 did recently, and is prepping to go a bit more professional.  This is going to be the new media soon, and I hope Leo and the TWiT army reap the benefits.  

Sorry...have to go.  Will add more later.

Tuckers? It really should be called Suckers

To be honest, I really thought this place was going to be great.

When TK's brother got married, the spread they had there was great. When he mentioned that we were going to the restaurant section of where his brother had his wedding, after a smart-assed comment, I thought, Holy crap, the food is expensive, but it's going to be really good. I still have foodie dreams about their portabella pastries.

I checked on the internet, and it looked like this place was going to be a typical, high-end Dallas foodie place, with really complex but wonderful dishes. I got there late, and sampled a bit of the wine ($23 a bottle, REALLY?) and convinced TK that we should get a goat-cheese with roasted pine nuts appetizer.

I should have known we were in trouble when it came out. It wasn't that good, and TK and I were the only people at the table that were eating it. I decided to forgo the quail and go for something easier, which was the Kobe Beef Hamburger (at $16 a pop, I thought, what the hell? It'll be good, it's Kobe beef, and it's cheaper than some hamburgers that I've gotten at Twisted Root).

When I finally got my burger, it was raw in the middle. And I don't mean raw like it was undercooked. I mean raw like steak tartar raw. I tried to power through it, but I'm a man who likes his meat cooked, usually overdone rather than under. I got halfway through, and had to give up.

A little note about myself. I don't EVER send food back. I don't care how nice the place is, I've had friends who worked in restaurants, I've seen Waiting, and I read Waiter Rant. I DON'T EVER SEND FOOD BACK. I might bitch and complain, but I'll never send the food back, only to have it come back to me, out of my sight for a few minutes. They could have stink-palmed it, for all I know.

If the food was a problem, that would be one thing. But the service was awful too. At one point, our waiter walked over to where we were, waiting for him to bring us the check, looked at us, saw that we were done with no plates and empty water glasses, and walked away. Without asking if we needed anything. In a place that's $35 a plate, that's unacceptable. Yes, I still tipped over 15%. Why? Because I'm retarded and I feel bad for waiters. Why? I have no idea. They make way more money than I do.

All in all, I won't be going back to Tuckers anytime soon. I'd rather go to Snuffers, which sounds the same, but has excellent food. Their marinated chicken strips are the best ever, and they have the best...THE BEST...cheese fries in the world. Try them out.

I think everyone else at the table had a good meal, but I spent the rest of the night with stomach aches, not able to sleep, and got to watch my entire meal in reverse the next morning. It's safe to say, Tuckers is not on my top ten lists. Now, I wish I had argued more for Sushi Zushi.