Against my better judgement I decided to installed Windows Vista SP1 RC1 on my VMware Fusion instance of Vista Ultimate. I say against my better judgement because I might have to uninstall before installing the final release as has been the case with earlier betas and release candidates from Microsoft. Also, according the Microsoft there are additional steps with the Release Candidate that won’t be in the final release so it will take longer. I decide to go with the getting the update through Windows Update. But before I do [...] Read the rest »
OS X Leopard Time Machine Notes
I had occasion to use the services of Leopard’s Time Machine backup over the weekend and decided to post some quick notes. None of this is bad, it just might be good to know what to expect going in. Large Restore After corrupting my local iTunes library (through a stupid mistake) while trying to get it to work off of a Windows Home Server I decided to go the restore route rather than try to fix the problem and miss something. I knew it would work and I could go [...] Read the rest »
Tip: Avoiding OSX’s .DS_Store Files on Windows Shares
This tip applies to OS X when accessing a remote file system of various types (SMB, NFS, etc…). I was reminded of it while exploring my Windows Home Server. Mac OS X will create a .DS_Store file in each directory when accessed through Finder (and in some other cases). These are hidden from OS X but can be visible under Windows. They have the hidden attribute but Windows can easily be set to display hidden files. To prevent these files from being created open terminal and run: defaults write com.apple.desktopservices [...] Read the rest »
Dec. 16th: This Week’s News & Links
This no Trail Log this week since everything that’s happened has already been posted or soon will be. Here’s some news & links that caught my attention this week. Download details: Windows Vista SP1 Guides for IT Professionals – Microsoft has posted info about Vista SP1 including a list of changes/fixes, an overview and deployment guide. Enough here to kill a weekend. FOSSwire » Unix/Linux Command Cheat Sheet – One pager of Linux commands. Jungle Disk » Blog Archive » Jungle Disk for Windows Home Server 1.02a released – Jungle [...] Read the rest »
Apple Updates QuickTime and GarageBand
Apple sent a couple of updates to my Macs. Once for QuickTime and one for GarageBand. QuickTime 7.3.1 is available through Apple automatic update and a standalone download in four different versions. One for Windows, one for Panther, one for Tiger and one for Leopard. The QuickTime update contains three security fixes. All three vulnerabilities could allow arbitrary code execution. While not a security update, GarageBand 4.1.1 was also released. It has the terse description: "This update improves overall stability and addresses issues with file export to iPhone." I watched [...] Read the rest »
Windows Home Server vs. OpenDNS vs. Apple
My HP MediaSmart Server arrived the other day and I got around to hooking it up last night. It was a night of frustration and a lot of swearing at WHS and other computer devices. But then this morning the light bulb went off, there was an easy solution, and the problem was unrelated to Windows Home Server. I’ll start with the solution and work back. The problem I was experiencing was that the installation of the Server Connector Software couldn’t find the HP MediaSmart Server. I use OpenDNS and [...] Read the rest »
Security Quest #13: Microsoft Patch Tuesday
Yesterday was patch Tuesday for December and Microsoft released seven security bulletins. There weren’t any Office updates but there were updates for all supported OS’s – Windows 2000 Professional SP4 to Windows XP SP2, and Windows Vista – along with updates for Internet Explorer 6 and IE 7. All the updates are available through Automatic Updates or the Microsoft web site. Microsoft has said that exploits for the IE vulnerabilities are already being used. Click the bulletin number to go directly to the MS bulletin. I do not mention server [...] Read the rest »
Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) on VMware Fusion
I installed Ubuntu 7.04 under Parallels back in April and upgraded it recently. I run VMware Fusion on my MacBook which I was traveling with over Thanksgiving so I decided to install Ubuntu 7.10 under VMware to compare with Parallels. I’m running VMware Fusion 1.1, which is the latest version, on OS X 10.5.1 which is also the latest version. I downloaded the Ubuntu 7.10 ISO file from ubuntu.com and started the Create New Virtual Machine wizard in VMware Fusion. The installation is straight-forward and the wizard is self-explanatory so [...] Read the rest »
The OS Quest Trail Log #17: A Virtual Week
This week was almost all about Virtual Machines on the Quest. Parallels released a couple of beta updates and eventually the final production release this week. My biggest complaint about Parallels was that the Windows task bar appears in every space even when Parallels is assigned to one space. But the more I used Parallels the less this was a problem. Not because I didn’t mind the task bar, but because I’m not using coherence mode. I run my VMs one of two ways, either full screen in the Space [...] Read the rest »
Upgrade to Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) on Parallels
The upgrade to Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) couldn’t have been any easier. I’m still using a nearly default installation of Ubuntu 7.04 so I just went into Update Manager and made sure I installed all the waiting updates. Then I rebooted Ubuntu just to be safe. I reran Update Manager and installed the waiting 7.10 update. Click the thumbnail to the left to see the Update Manager screen, it shows both the waiting update and the upgrade to Ubuntu 7.10. I still have two annoying issues with the VM, although [...] Read the rest »