random jottings...

two monitors, two operating systems!

Sat, 02 Jan 2010 16:06:34 +0000

I have been using Parallels Desktop on my Mac for a few years now when I need to run WinXP. Recently I read about Sun’s VirtualBox and thought of giving it a try. Couple of nights ago I installed the app (its way smaller in size than the Parallels), and then Installed OpenSolaris OS on it. It runs like a charm. No problem in installation and it actualy uses a lot less resources than Parallels does. I have yet to install WinXP on VB to see if it works just as good as in Parallels but with less resource use obviously. In fact I did try to install XP but everytime I got some error in loading installation CD. I have yet to figure out the solution. Seems like lots of other people are getting the same problem though! The error I’m getting is this:

Fatal: no bootable medium found! System Halted

Anyway, I am happy to be able to run solaris though. It works excellent in ‘seamless’ mode on my second monitor! Click on the image for the larger version.

Tagged: mac os x, opensolaris, software, technology, virtualbox, vmware

Redundant folders on Gmail/Googlemail – any ideas?

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 19:17:28 +0000

First a couple of screengrabs to show what I am ranting about below

Suddenly all my Google Apps email accounts have started showing additional (and largely redundant) labels (folders on my IMAP), and I have no idea why. I am guessing its because they call Gmail Googlemail in the UK, but then they could just have changed the existing root folder name from Gmail to Googlemail rather than creating an extra root folder called Googlemail under which I see a set of labels (which obviously become folders on IMAP) that are basically redundant – like Sent Mail, Drafts, Spam etc. These labels are redundant because the default labels/folders for sent mails is still set to be [Gmail]/Sent Mail and default for draft emails set to be [Gmail]/Drafts and so on. So these [Google Mail]/Sent Mail, [Google Mail]/Drafts and so on are redundant and annoying really, especially on my Apple Mail. I have of course tried to delete these labels, they can be deleted but they appear again few minutes after, I guess automatically created by the system! The only solution now is to make them ‘hidden’ on IMAP but only the labels/folders are hidden but the root folder [Google Mail] still shows up in Apple Mail’s list of IMAP folders…

Tagged: email, gmail, gmail labels, googlemail, imap, online, technology

WPtouch plugin – your blog for iphone/ipod touch

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 07:33:55 +0000

Read about it on twitter and now have installed it on my other blog, here – can’t do on this one as it runs on wordpress.com. I was never as much excited about any plugin as I was to see this work on my ipod touch, its really very cool. Gives an entirely new dimension to your blog, and probably will reach whole new audience too! Use your iphone/ipod touch’s browser to open this link and you’ll know what I mean. Below are some screenshots from my ipod touch.

poison fruit

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:01:36 +0000

A fruit you must know of very well before you try! Saw the word while reading Small Island by Andrea Levy, and looked it up!

Noun: ackee
|’aˌkee| |a’kee|
Red pear-shaped tropical fruit with poisonous seeds; flesh is poisonous when unripe or overripe
= akee

Tagged: dictionary, tropical fruit, word

myBlogEdit

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 23:00:22 +0000

Not that I’ve been updating my blogs too often these days (I do have genuine enough reasons for that) but still, ever since I upgraded to Snow Leopard, my preferred blog editor, ecto, has stopped working, it opens and within a few seconds it crashes. I tried clean reinstalling but to no avail. When I have posted a few entries recently, those have been using ScribeFire add-on on firefox, which, by the way is excellent. However, I prefer using non-browser blogging clients, those that blend well with the OS and provide easy way to resize and upload images. I saw this half-price offer on myBlogEdit on macZOT! so I thought I should give it a try before I decide to splash out 10 bucks on it, which already looks a good deal as I play around with this blogging client! And to complete the text, here is a picture I took a couple of weeks ago…

Castle Howard just outside York on a dull day!

Tagged: blog, blog editors, blogging, online, technology

Dell sucks big time…

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 18:34:03 +0000

Okay, here is the story. I ordered a bundle that was on sale at Dell’s UK Web site on Sunday 6 Sept. I placed an order and checked out using my debit card, received order confirmation email with the order number. I was looking forward to receiving my order within a few days. Then after two days, I receive an email (below) telling me that my order was cancelled because they made a pricing error. Well, I didn’t know it was a pricing error, in fact, it wasn’t that cheap to be considered a pricing error (it was listed as 50% off from the RRP!). I thought you were supposed to respect the price that is displayed and at which you allow your customers to place an order. They send the email as if I made a mistake by placing an order when they had their apparent pricing error. I’m really annoyed with Dell now. And after enquiring, they tell me its their policy and I should have read the terms. What the heck!?! I’ll think many times now before buying anything from Dell, that’s for sure. And looking at the forums (including Dell’s own forums) it seems it’s not just me what has been treated like this by Dell.

Tagged: dell, online shopping, pricing error

extending screen real estate on mac os

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 09:53:28 +0000

As I was struggling to make my paper write-ups more efficient, especially in cutting the time wasted in tabbing through numerous open windows and applications (common culprits being, MS Word, Bookends or Endnote, Papers, Skim, SPSS, Pathfinder – not to mention Mail and Skype!), I decided what I needed was an additional monitor which gave me more desktop real estate and allowed me to view at least 2 or three applications windows side-by-side. I also remembered this Randy Pausch lecture on time management and his take on multiple monitors. So, I ordered a Samsung LCD from ebuyer, okay its only 19″ but I have a small desk at home and the monitor was on sale too! As soon as I got it and plugged it in, I though it would just extend my laptop monitor towards the side, which it did (and luckily for me, I placed my new monitor on the right side – the default side a mac seems to extend its display!).

However, what I was hoping was the top menu bar to extend all the way to my new monitor so I could get extended menu bar real estate too. Well, how wrong I was. And after Googling for hours and searching all the mac forums that I frequent, I couldn’t find any tips or tricks to extend that menu bar – nothing! I know I can mirror it (by mirroring the main laptop display), but that’s a waste of external monitor as far as I’m concerned. I don’t know why no one has come up with a program that let you extend the menu bar!?! Anyway, what I did come across was a cool little application called DejaMenu, which gives all the menu items from the application you are running as a context menu on the press of a hot-key combination. At least this is much better than having to move mouse all the way to the main screen to get to the menus. I’m using DejaMenu now and I can’t thank the creator enough for this wonderful application. Thank you!
And please someone make an application that lets us extend the main menu bar.

Tagged: external displays, mac os, monitors, technology

Twitter goes down!

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 14:58:56 +0000

After having failed to update my Twitter account from my mobile and iPod touch, I checked the page on the browser, which failed to load as well. So the Twitter is well and truly down, the latest one line update on Twitter blog is that they are “defending against denial-of-service attack”. Lets hope it doesn’t last long and it comes back soon. Twitter is the only social network site I use nowadays, so I feel crippled in my cyberspace!

Tagged: microblogging, online, social networks, twitter

Blogging from ipod touch

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 18:49:35 +0000

This is going to be a very short entry. For I’m typing this up on my iPod touch tapping my fingers on the touch screen. Although the screen is very responsive and the predictive input seem to improve as I type along, it’s still a pain to tap fingers for long. Anyway, I found this cool wordpress app for free so thought I should give it a try, and I’m impressed at how easy it was to set up and start blogging. Now I’ll see if I can connect my Bluetooth keyboard with this thing and type fast! But this is cool in itself !!!

Tagged: blogging, ipod touch, mobile blogging, technology, wordpress

flickr activities…

Fri, 29 May 2009 16:37:51 +0000

added a new set of macros

Tagged: Life in York, photography, technology