Archive for July, 2007

Floating SystemTray in Parallels Coherence

Tuesday, July 31st, 2007

Particularly for those of us running parallels across multiple monitors, here is a method of creating a floating Windows SystemTray using Geoshell:

For those of you not running parallels across multiple monitors and who are wondering what the problem is, parallels doesn’t reallly ‘do’ multiple monitors properly. It just resized the windows desktop across all monitors. I’m using parallels 2.5ish, but they still haven’t implemented proper multi-monitor support in 3.0 - it does make me wonder how well they’ll cope with Spaces when 10.5 is finally released. Anyway, it means that the Task bar is spread across both monitors which is a) ugly as sin and b) a right pain, hiding the system tray if, like me, your monitors are on different horizontal baselines.

I’m assuming you can edit the registry. If you don’t know how to do that, I wouldn’t recommend any of this. I am not responsible for you screwing up your computer.
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LotsaPretty

Tuesday, July 31st, 2007

For those not in the know, I got some new macs in at work, including a 20″ iMac for my desk.

I’m enjoying having a play and trying to get things up and running. It’s actually nice to be a user and a newcomer again.

Lotsawater is a pretty screensaver. And this guy has done other pretty things with it:

Mac or Windows? Neither, actually.

Monday, July 30th, 2007

No, I’m not talking about going linux or BSD. I’m talking about the latest version of Parallels.

Yes, I know everyone is getting sick of me talking about my imminent move over to Mac OS X. But I think people may not realise how blurry the lines between my two primary OS have become. Check out this video; the last sentence is why I’m ‘making the change’:


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Brainless Civil Servant

Monday, July 23rd, 2007

Personally, I have my own theory: the guy was probably OK before working as a Civil Servant.

Tests, please, Fab.

Start Wearing Purple. Now.

Tuesday, July 17th, 2007

Thanks to the Ladyfriend Awesome Laura and Other Tom for sharing Gogol Bordello with me.

Wanna hear some? Course you do.

Can’t imagine what he’s talking about here :)

Finally Found my Car…

Monday, July 16th, 2007

On Google Maps, that is.

Must have been when I SORNed it for six months in 2004.

Microsoft Critique

Monday, July 9th, 2007

I’m not saying I entirely agree with it, but Robert Scoble wrote an interesting post this weekend about what’s wrong with Microsoft.

I’ve been talking for about nine months about moving to apple as my main desktop OS. It’s also the main direction my career seems to be moving towards. A lot of people tend to think this means that I’m pro-apple and anti-microsoft. Funny, because most of my mac-cy friends have always thought I was pro-microsoft and anti-apple.

The truth is, both companies are doing things wrong. Scoble’s post talks about microsoft’s oversights, but apple surely has some, too. They’re wrong about their attitude to security updates, as SilentBob will tell you. I also think that in the past they’ve been less than adequately open with prospective developers - that almost put them under in the past, and it looks like they’re doing the same thing with the iPhone.

At the end of the day I’m choosing mac because it offers me the most flexibility. I can open a bash terminal on a mac. Applescript, to be frank, has been a revelation to me. These days, I can even change hard drives or add OEM memory/graphics cards. But the deal clincher? Parallels. I can run windows on a mac, but not vice versa.

I’ll be ordering my mac pro in the next two weeks.

iPhone vs MyPhone

Friday, July 6th, 2007

A week after the iPhone is launched in the states, there is a rumour of an ‘inferior’ clone on its way from china

No, not really, it’s a spoof article. But it raises a couple of interesting objections.

Being involved in a VOIP company, of course, the ones that strike home for me are the lack of voip integration for the phone’s 802.11x connection and the tight control of 3rd party software cripple the phone’s potential somewhat.

I still want one, though.

Google shows me the way

Monday, July 2nd, 2007

Google’s driving direction system’s latest tweak is AMAZING.

Go to google maps. Get some directions. Click on a point on your route and start dragging around.

Now tell me that isn’t something you’ve wanted on any route finding package in existence. Tell me that’s not perfect User Interface design. Google, baby, you’re so good I find myself just not caring about all that data mining.