Back around Thanksgiving I installed Ubuntu, Fedora and Mandriva Linux virtual machines on VMware Fusion. This article has the screen shots from the Mandriva install. I’m running VMware Fusion 1.1 on my MacBook running Leopard. Mandriva officially calls it’s free Linux Mandriva Linux One 2008. The VMware portion of the setup was straight-forward since Mandriva is included as one of the available guest OS’s in the setup wizard. The screen shots from the VMware wizard are shown below. (Click the any thumbnail for the full size image.) When [...] Read the rest »
The OS Quest Trail Log #18: Year End Edition
Another year comes to a close faster than expected. I supposed to do a year end wrap-up or predictions post but I won’t. I’ll stick to the program and just talk about recent stuff. Plenty of wrap-ups and predictions elsewhere. Microsoft released Windows XP SP3 RC1 and after my success installing the Vista SP1 Release Candidate I decided to give it a try. I wasn’t so lucky with this update. During the install it told me it couldn’t copy a file. While trying to research the problem I received some [...] Read the rest »
Installing Ubuntu 7.10 Server Under Parallels
I wanted to install Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) Server as a virtual machine under Parallels on my iMac. Server has a couple of differences from the desktop version. The first is that the Graphical User Interface (GUI) isn’t installed which is my primary reason for wanting it over the desktop version. It’s all command line. The second, and the one I didn’t really consider until the troubles began is that there’s a different kernel. Really, the different kernel is the major difference since the GUI could be installed on the [...] Read the rest »
Seagate FreeAgent Go 80GB USB External Drive
I was in Staples before Christmas and they had the Seagate FreeAgent Go external drives on sale. I’ve never bought a 2.5″ external drive before because of concerns over reliability. But at about fifty cents a gig and the small size I decided to get the 80GB version. The small size would make it easier to carry and use with my MacBook. The five year warranty assuages my reliability concerns a bit. The 2.5″ 5400rpm drive is 4.8 x 0.7 x 3.9 inches in size and weighs less than 5 [...] Read the rest »
Windows Home Server May Corrupt Some Files
I knew I was liking Windows Home Server (WHS) too much. Microsoft has posted knowledge base article 946676 which describes a potential file corruption issue with WHS. Affected software includes: Windows Vista Photo Gallery Windows Live Photo Gallery Microsoft Office OneNote 2007 Microsoft Office OneNote 2003 Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 Microsoft Money 2007 SyncToy 2.0 beta Intuit Quicken and QuickBooks may be affected Torrent applications may be affected The cause is a terse: This issue may occur because of a recently discovered problem with Windows Home Server shared folders and [...] Read the rest »
Security Quest #15: Links & Numbers
Not much happening this holiday week so just some spam numbers and links. Spam Counts My primary mailbox (which manages multiple addresses) didn’t get any new spam messages and the 30-day count is down to four from last week’s seven. My more public GMail address received a bunch of spam messages this past week, all of which was filtered by GMail. The thirty day count jumped to 176, up from 154 messages last week. This site’s spam comment count jumped to 7,414, up 73 from last week. All were caught [...] Read the rest »
Weekend Links: December 23, 2007
No Trail log this weekend, just some links that caught my attention. AppleInsider.com: Mac OS X 10.5.2 to deliver sprawling list of fixes for Leopard – The first rumors I’ve seen about what to expect with OS X 10.5.2 which is expected in early 2008. ArsTechnica.com: First look: Firefox 3 beta 2 officially released – Ars looks at Firefox 3 beta 3. They summarize "Overall, it’s another very impressive release that reflects the rapidly-growing robustness of Firefox 3." ArsTechnica.com: Hands on with the new online version of OpenOffice.org – OpenOffice.org [...] Read the rest »
Apple Updates Security Update 2007-009
Apple released Security Update 2007-009 v1.1 which resolves an issue Safari has with certain web sites. This update replaces the original update. If you installed the original update this will install over it and require a reboot. The update is available through Automatic Update or as a direct download. I haven’t experienced any actual Safari crashes, just some intermittent connectivity or website problems problems. I had one gray screen of death when Safari was running but that hasn’t returned since, even before this this update. So, it’s hard for me [...] Read the rest »
Security Quest #14: Apple Releases Security Patches
Apple released Security Update 2007-009 for OS X 10.4.11 Tiger and OS X 10.5.1 Leopard on Monday. The Apple support article lists 41 vulnerabilities that were patched. Patched components include Core Foundation, CUPS, Flash Player Plug-in, Launch Services, perl, python, Quick Look, ruby, Safari, Samba, Shockwave Plug-in, and Spin Tracer. The update requires a reboot. The Leopard update was a 35.4MB download on my Intel Macs through Apple Automatic Update. It’s also available as a 35.6MB standalone download. There are two versions for Tiger. The PPC version is a 15.9MB [...] Read the rest »
Centrally Managed iTunes Library on Windows Home Server
I decided to move my iTunes Library to a shared folder on my Windows Home Server. The HP MediaSmart Server does come with the ability to stream songs to any computer running iTunes on your home network. But this only provides streaming ability, which I can already do from my iMac. I wanted to be able to manage the library from any Mac, not run multiple iTunes simultaneously. This does not provide the ability run multiple copies of iTunes at the same time, rather it allows the library to be [...] Read the rest »
