So yesterday I managed to install Leopard on my laptop only to discover that using a 9GB partition wasn't such a great idea since it seems Apple is just as guilty of trial-ware as Microsoft is. So this morning I'm reloading Leopard again but that's not the "Ah Ha!" moment.
Currently I'm working on a Toshiba Satellite 2805-S402 laptop with a 700mhz P3 and 384M of ram. I plugged it into a 19" flat panel but the best I'm able to get on the screen resolution is 1280x1024. This is a real problem for me since I'm used to something like a 5280x1200 resolution across my 3 screens. To say I'm running out of desktop space is an understatement.
I realized the problem was that icons and text were just too large so I started poking around. In Fedora 7 you can change the fonts dpi and that was my "Ah Ha!" moment. Going to System->Preferences->Look and Feel->Font and then clicking on the Details button gets you to the Font rendering details. Lowering the resolution from 96 to 85 makes all the difference.
Now it's hard to believe that I was working on this laptop regularly back in 2004 and 2005 before I bought the faster P4. Today I have a 1 year old Centrino Duo 2.2Ghz w/ 2GB of ram and I'm already looking at a Dell m1330 Core Duo 2.6Ghz with 4GB of ram to be my next traveling computer as it only weights 4 pounds. Oh how great technology is!
Friday, February 22, 2008
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Running Mac OSX on an HP dv8000
The other day I started looking at running Mac OS X in a Virtual Machine under VMware. Well getting 10.4 (tiger) to work was pretty simple as there were already VM images out there so it was really nothing more than finding the torrent and downloading. Unfortunately it is a little slow and clunky but it should work OK for testing a web site in Safari 2.5 but what about the new OS X Leopard and Safari 3?
Well today I started experimenting with loading Leopard into a VM on my Centrino Duo HP Pavillion dv8000 laptop. I didn't get very far with the Kalyway 10.5.1 ISO so I tried the iATKOS 1.0ir2 ISO and got a little farther but I never managed to make it to the initial welcome screen of the installer. So I had to make a choice, give up and live with Tiger or do a bare metal install...
Of course I went with the bare metal install on an old disk that I had. I went with iATKOS first because it was a newer disk and had a few more things already done for me. The only problem is that I didn't understand all the options so it was too confusing and the install didn't work out. Then I tried the Kalyway ISO and it worked like a champ. Upon reboot I had sound but no network. I decided to load the Kalyway 10.5.2 update in hopes that it would fix my network issue. No such luck.
I decided to work on getting Grub to manage my multiboot situation and after a little effort I had it working. So now I'm able to boot into Fedora 7 for Linux, and reboot into OS X Leopard.
Next was the network. I found a post talking about using a USB network dongle and since I happened to have a Linksys USB200M I thought I'd give it a try. After installing an incorrect kext file I discovered that Leopard should natively support the adapter. Of course since I'm new to OS X I ended up reinstalling the os. Along the way I discovered that I have to use my powered USB hub for USB stuff as the the other USB ports on the laptop don't seem to work. Odd......
With Leopard reinstalled I inserted my Linksys and things worked. Hooray! So then I downloaded an ext2 application which allows me to read my Linux drives. I opted to mount them read only as to avoid possible data corruption. Once I was able to see my Linux home directory I snagged my firebox bookmarks and dropped them in the right folder. Now I have the same Firefox bookmarks in both OSes. I think I might write a little script to sync them every time I boot into Mac.
Now if I can only get dual or triple screens working as well as the wifi or on-board nic I'll be good to go.
Well today I started experimenting with loading Leopard into a VM on my Centrino Duo HP Pavillion dv8000 laptop. I didn't get very far with the Kalyway 10.5.1 ISO so I tried the iATKOS 1.0ir2 ISO and got a little farther but I never managed to make it to the initial welcome screen of the installer. So I had to make a choice, give up and live with Tiger or do a bare metal install...
Of course I went with the bare metal install on an old disk that I had. I went with iATKOS first because it was a newer disk and had a few more things already done for me. The only problem is that I didn't understand all the options so it was too confusing and the install didn't work out. Then I tried the Kalyway ISO and it worked like a champ. Upon reboot I had sound but no network. I decided to load the Kalyway 10.5.2 update in hopes that it would fix my network issue. No such luck.
I decided to work on getting Grub to manage my multiboot situation and after a little effort I had it working. So now I'm able to boot into Fedora 7 for Linux, and reboot into OS X Leopard.
Next was the network. I found a post talking about using a USB network dongle and since I happened to have a Linksys USB200M I thought I'd give it a try. After installing an incorrect kext file I discovered that Leopard should natively support the adapter. Of course since I'm new to OS X I ended up reinstalling the os. Along the way I discovered that I have to use my powered USB hub for USB stuff as the the other USB ports on the laptop don't seem to work. Odd......
With Leopard reinstalled I inserted my Linksys and things worked. Hooray! So then I downloaded an ext2 application which allows me to read my Linux drives. I opted to mount them read only as to avoid possible data corruption. Once I was able to see my Linux home directory I snagged my firebox bookmarks and dropped them in the right folder. Now I have the same Firefox bookmarks in both OSes. I think I might write a little script to sync them every time I boot into Mac.
Now if I can only get dual or triple screens working as well as the wifi or on-board nic I'll be good to go.
Saturday, February 02, 2008
I must be getting old
or society is just losing it's compassion and respect for others...
This morning Reagan and I went to see Rambo in the AMC 24 in Sugar Land. The last few times we've gone to see movies we've had problems with people carrying on conversations during the movie. Some how asking them to please take their conversations outside is offensive to them and we're viewed as the rude people. Go figure....
Well today wasn't any different. We sat 3/4 of the way up the theater just to house left of center. This is the best seats we could get as two men were setting in the optimum spot on the row. So the movie starts and sure enough these two start yapping up a storm providing commentary about the movie. I lean over and ask politely that they wait until after the movie to discuss it or take it outside. I'm told that I picked where I sat and I could move if I didn't like it.
Reagan also had words with another movie patron about noise. The person behind us was talking on his cell phone. Of course when she talked to him he seemed to listened and stopped talking on the phone. It must have been her kind and gentle approach.
So my question is this, have I gotten old and intolerant of others or are people just becoming more self absorbed and disregarding those around them. I'd like to think I'm getting old and intolerant but I fear it's a problem with society more than me.
I guess we'll be going shopping for a new home theater set up soon. With the ridiculous price for movie tickets and food plus the rudeness of our fellow man, it seems that buying an elaborate home theater is actually a bargain. Not to mention you can have intermission when nature calls...
This morning Reagan and I went to see Rambo in the AMC 24 in Sugar Land. The last few times we've gone to see movies we've had problems with people carrying on conversations during the movie. Some how asking them to please take their conversations outside is offensive to them and we're viewed as the rude people. Go figure....
Well today wasn't any different. We sat 3/4 of the way up the theater just to house left of center. This is the best seats we could get as two men were setting in the optimum spot on the row. So the movie starts and sure enough these two start yapping up a storm providing commentary about the movie. I lean over and ask politely that they wait until after the movie to discuss it or take it outside. I'm told that I picked where I sat and I could move if I didn't like it.
Reagan also had words with another movie patron about noise. The person behind us was talking on his cell phone. Of course when she talked to him he seemed to listened and stopped talking on the phone. It must have been her kind and gentle approach.
So my question is this, have I gotten old and intolerant of others or are people just becoming more self absorbed and disregarding those around them. I'd like to think I'm getting old and intolerant but I fear it's a problem with society more than me.
I guess we'll be going shopping for a new home theater set up soon. With the ridiculous price for movie tickets and food plus the rudeness of our fellow man, it seems that buying an elaborate home theater is actually a bargain. Not to mention you can have intermission when nature calls...
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