Mike Cohen

Parallels vs. VMware

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I’ve written about this several times before, since I own both products. I keep giving VMware another chance because I really want to use it, but I keep going back to Parallels for several reasons.

The major reason I can’t use VMware is because it has problems with Visual Studio Team Server. I use VSTS for source control for my Mac projects at work, which means I need to share the Mac source folder to my Windows VM and have VSTS check in and out to it. Parallels is able to do it with no problems, but VMware always gives errors when checking out or downloading the latest version to a shared Mac folder, which occurs whether I use VMware shared folders or windows file sharing and mount it as a regular server. If this problem is ever fixed, I can consider using VMware.

VMware error
Uploaded with plasq‘s Skitch!

Aside from that, there are a lot of things I like about both products.

Parallels Coherence mode feels a lot more polished than VMware’s Unity. If you select Coherence as the default, Parallels will automatically switch to coherence mode when Windows boots, even when it’s displaying the login window. VMware, on the other hand, can only be switched to Unity after it’s fully booted to the Windows desktop and you’re logged in. Dragging windows in Parallels looks a lot cleaner, since exposed windows show their contents immediately. With VMware, the newly exposed window will show the remnants of the window above it until you let go, when it will be redrawn.

Parallels integration between Windows & Mac OS X is also a lot nicer. You can double-click a Windows document in the Mac finder and have it open in the appropriate Windows application under Parallels. This is the closest you can get to a native feel for Windows applications. In fact I don’t have MS Office installed under OS X; I use Office 2003 in Windows XP to open Word & Excel documents when I can’t use iWork 08.

On the other hand, VMware has less impact on the system. Parallels usually slows down my MacBook Pro (2.5 GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM) noticeably, often freezing it completely for several seconds at a time.

VMware also supports Linux much better. Parallels still doesn’t have drivers for the Ubuntu 8.04 (“Hardy Heron”), the latest version. VMware’s linux tools are also better than Parallels, since it supports sharing of Mac folders to the Linux VM, which Parallels doesn’t.

While I’m unhappy about some things with Parallels, I continue to use it because I use Windows XP a lot more than I use Linux and it works much better for me with Windows.

Things I don't care about

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These were the front page stories in today’s Sun-Sentinel:

  • Dancing with the stars
  • Miley Cyrus
  • the Dolphins’ personnel changes

None of which I care about in the least. The Dolphins’ hirings, firings, and trades was also the lead story on the evening news. I guess there’s nothing more important happening in the world. Nobody died in Iraq. Food is abundant in Haiti. The economy is booming.

McCain & Hagee

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With all of the concern about Obama’s association with Rev. Wright, almost nothing has been said about Rev. John Hagee’s endorsement of McCain.

  • Right-wing pastor John Hagee says vile, despicable things about patriotic Americans…the worst being that Catholics are part of a church that is a “great whore,” that “all Muslims have a mandate to kill Christians and Jews,” and that God damns America with hurricanes because gay Americans plan parades.
  • Oh, and Hagee says God wants us to destroy Iran ASAP.
  • John McCain actively seeks Pastor Hagee’s endorsement and gets it.
  • When John McCain accepts Hagee’s endorsement, he doesn’t include a list of the pastor’s statements that he finds unacceptable. No, my friends, he accepts the whole Hagee package with no ifs, ands, or buts.
  • When McCain finds out that Hagee thinks God damns America because of gays, Catholics, Muslims and others, McCain is shocked…shocked!  But he continues to praise Pastor Hagee and cherish his crucial endorsement.
  • Instead of turning the controversy into a teachable moment—with, say, a groundbreaking speech on religious diversity and equality for all Americans—McCain, the straight-talker, continues to weave and waffle his way through the Hagee controversy, hoping that the media will give him yet another free pass. (Most of the media comply in exchange for some excellent barbeque behind McCain’s bus.)
  • When gently—ever so gently—pressed about Hagee’s statements weeks later by journalists, a visibly agitated McCain blurts out that, hey, at least he wasn’t my pastor for twenty years!!!

I’d love to see these questions asked of John McSame in a debate:

  1. If John Hagee was your pastor for twenty years, would you have left the church over his anti-gay, anti-Muslim, anti-Catholic and America-damning comments?
  1. If yes, why do you continue to accept Hagee’s endorsement?
  1. If no, why not?

(via Daily Kos)

Five years ago on this day

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Today is the 5th birthday of the iTunes Music Store, which also means I’ve been living in this condo for exactly 5 years.

April 28, 2003 was a very hectic day for me as I sold my old condo, bought this one, and moved. I packed and moved everything from my old condo, went to one realtor’s office to sign the papers selling my old condo, and then taking the payment to another realtors office where I bought this condo using the payment from the first one for a down-payment and closing costs (for the period between those transactions, I was homeless). Finally I was able to have my stuff moved into this condo.

My old condo has changed hands several times since I moved out, their maintenance got a lot higher, and they had some serious damage from hurricane Wilma.

I knew Apple was making a big announcement that day, but I had no idea what it was and I couldn’t wait to get online to find out about it. Of course I didn’t have my DSL working yet, so that night I used a dial-up connection to read the news and posted it to MacMegasite.

On switching to a DSLR

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Dean Allen writes about his experience of switching to a Nikon DSLR after using point & shoot cameras for a long time:

I feel like someone handed a slice of hot toast spread with cultured butter after a lifetime breakfasting on Skittles and government cheese.

I can definitely relate. Using a D40x changed the way I think about photography. It feels so much more satisfying than using a point & shoot camera and it isn’t really any more difficult to use. In fact using it in full automatic mode is very similar to using a point & shoot.

Before I got the D40x, I took lots of photos, but I never really thought about the composition or technical details; I just wanted to capture the moment & memories. With a DSLR I think more about the quality and composition of the shot since I have a lot more control over it. I can still take a quick shot in auto mode or have someone who’s never used a DSLR take a picture as easily as they can with a point & shoot.

However, using full automatic mode doesn’t give you full control. The next step up from auto is the programmed automatic (P) mode, which also lets you adjust the white balance, ISO sensitivity, and change the exposure, yet it isn’t really any more difficult than full automatic.

I find that I prefer using Aperture Priority mode, since it lets me control the depth of field by specifying the aperture setting. Even this mode isn’t any more difficult, since it still produces the correct exposure by adjusting the shutter speed & ISO setting to match the chosen aperture setting.

The big win for a DSLR is the availability of raw format for photos, which allows a lot more adjustment to be done in Aperture or Photoshop to compensate for incorrect exposure and fix other problems to salvage a shot that isn’t quite perfect.

Rose

Feeding & Powncing

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My FriendFeed cocoa classes are now fully functional except including media enclosures in posts. I ended up rewriting it to use NSXMLDocument rather than PSFeed, which doesn’t involve any more code and eliminates the dependence on PubSub.

Now that that’s done, I’m digging into the Pownce API. Pownce isn’t much more complemented, but it requires an API key, which was one of the reasons I had avoided it. Fortunately the API key is no big deal. You just fill out a request form and get the key immediately; it doesn’t have to be approved if you’re just creating a key for testing.

Once I finish the Pownce code and make a less ugly demo program, I’ll release the source code.

WordPress 2.5.1

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I’ve upgraded this blog to WordPress 2.5.1, which adds several security fixes & performance improvements. This time I used WP Auto Upgrade, which was very quick but had one glitch. When it finished the update, it didn’t re-enable my plugins, so I had to re-enable them manually.

New iPhone Case

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I was sent an Artwizz SeeJacket to review at MacMegasite. I’ll probably write the review this weekend. So far it looks pretty nice, except it’s fairly thick at the top which makes it difficult to reach the power switch.

Artwizz SeeJacket for iPhone