Published on
29/10/2008 in
geek.
Hey, did you hear? Someone’s giving away software! Free as in blowjobs (an act for which the Germans apparently have 500 words). Actually, by now it’s all done. Sorry slow-pokes.
The motivations for the giveaway are vaguely political and not too interesting, but the outcome is that I didn’t have to pay for CrossOver Mac Pro, a piece of software based on Wine that lets Mac users run Windows software far faster (and some degree less robustly) than the more traditional virtual machine solution.
Faster, you say? How much faster?
Do you have Office 2008 for Mac? How long does it take to load up a copy of Word? On my 2.4Ghz MacBook Pro it takes 22 seconds from clicking the icon to being able to type text. That’s not awful, I suppose, though quite slow compared to Word 2007 on a 2.4Ghz Windows machine.
Speaking of Word 2007, loading it through Crossover takes a mere 10 seconds until I can type. That includes the time it takes for Crossover itself to launch.
Hell, if it wasn’t free I’d have bought it!
Published on
28/10/2008 in
links.
Finally! I had no idea how much I needed this.
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Published on
20/10/2008 in
links.
I could do with a new suit… viable alternative?
Person #1: New suit? Person #2: No, I got cancer. –Broadway Alsome | Thumbs up | Thumbs down | Link · Email · Quote this! · Del.icio.us · Posted 2008-10-20…
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Published on
20/10/2008 in
links.
I could do with a new suit… viable alternative?
Person #1: New suit? Person #2: No, I got cancer. –Broadway Alsome | Thumbs up | Thumbs down | Link · Email · Quote this! · Del.icio.us · Posted 2008-10-20…
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Published on
18/10/2008 in
geek.
I don’t generally do how-tos, so you know I’m pretty proud of this. It’s pretty much just for Jack though… maybe for Matt too? I can’t think of anyone else I know who might actually have a dedicated torrent box. I’m so proud I’m posting it here anyway – maybe others will find it useful?
Step 1. Get some dyndns going on and some NAT loopback so that you can use an address like greatbignerd.dyndns.org to log into your server whether you’re at home or out and about.
Step 2. Set up your ssh keys so this will work automatically without having to store your password in a plain text applescript file. If you’re running Leopard then this is a good guide
Step 3. Grab yourself the script and put it in /Library/Scripts/Folder Action Scripts
Step 4. Edit the script, replacing User@Host 
ath with settings that make sense to you. My torrent client, the excellent Transmission, is set to watch ~/Downloads/NetNewsWire Enclosures/ for new torrents because I get many torrents from scraping RSS feeds, so I would replace Path with ~/Downloads/NetNewsWire\\ Enclosures (remember that double-slash to escape spaces, kids!)
Step 5. Assign a Folder Action to your downloads folder by right-clicking it and maybe going to “more” in the contextual menu. Folder actions are all buried under “more” in Leopard, for some reason – in Tiger they’re right up there in front.
Quick thought: instead of an iPod connection in your car, for a device you sync and carry around to all sorts of places (including but not limited to your car), what about an AppleTV like device that keeps all your music and joins your house’s WiFi to sync while the car’s parked outside? People have been putting ATV’s in cars for a while now, I wonder how they’re getting on with it.
This would give you the benefits of an in-car iPod – your music and playlists in your car. And none of the disbenefits – faffing around plugging said device in at the start of each trip and remembering to sync.
Major problems are that it would be more expensive, especially if you already have an iPod, and need building in by the car’s manufacturer. I guess you could have a head-unit that does this? I have no idea. Also, if you care about such things, it would not take into account updated last-listened dates for songs you’d listened to on you iPod since you last synced with your main PC. Not sure how much that matters if you only generally listen to music in the car though.