Winnowill is legion, and contains multitudes

[annathepiper]

I pretty much took it easy this weekend, and worked on more tweaks to Winnowill; this was about all that I had energy for, and it was a relief to not have to do anything pressing. (I'm sad that I didn't get to go down to Rustycon with solarbird, especially since she was well received with her big flute and the pieces she played, but oh well life's like that; hopefully I'll be up for Conflikt.)

This weekend's task: getting the Windows virtual machine installed. Yeah yeah yeah, Windows haters, shouldn't pollute the machine with Windows, etc., etc. I still need to run Money until I find a suitable native Mac-side alternative. And I still need to be able to VPN in to work, and have no word yet on when that'll actually work in Leopard.

Surprisingly, though, I have to give Borg credit where credit is due. The install of XP I wanted to do was with what I'm pretty sure was the copy I'd originally bought to go on my Compaq laptop, ages ago. That machine is now run down enough to be effectively useless; Dara wants to play with wiping it and seeing if she can make it a dual boot Tandy/Commodore 64 box. ;) That frees up the XP license for me. Problem was, when I tried to activate the install on the Mac, it bitched at me (quite correctly) that that activation key had been used too many times.

So I called the activation number, explained that I wanted to re-use a previously purchased copy of XP on a new system (and that the old system is effectively dead), and the phone tech person set me right up. Asked me for a validation number which I read off the dialogue in front of me, she read me back a number which I typed in, I hit go, and whee, it worked! Surprisingly quick and painless.

Once that was done, I promptly verified that I could connect to the VPN at work and remote to my work machine, which I could, with decent performance.

I got Money installed and confirmed I was able to re-open my Money data file off the old laptop. I also, for giggles and grins, installed Paint Shop Pro and Word, Excel, and Outlook from the Windows Office 2003 set I have--the Office apps since the test versions of Mac Office 2004 and iWork 2008 on this system were about to expire, and because I dislike that the current Mac port of OpenOffice has to launch X11 to run. They're working on a native Mac port, but it ain't ready yet, and I still need to write something in the meantime. So since running the virtual machine doesn't seem to be a huge hit on my system resources, I'll just run the Office apps from within that until I get Mac Office 2008. That'll have to do.

This will also at least in the meantime hopefully streamline the whole process of re-organizing my mail as well since I was able to copy over the Outlook .pst file off of Newstar. Now I can at least do all this mail juggling on one system.

And it amuses me to run one OS inside another, too. If I had a Linux VM running inside the Windows one, that'd be kind of like turducken.

Meanwhile, I have to note that it is a very odd sensation to have a sunburn on my underarm. That is a portion of the body not normally meant to be sunburned, and it's getting rather distracting and a little painful. I'm going to have to ask the doctor and the duty nurse about bumping up to some heavier duty cream for the last two weeks of zapping.

And I just reached Minas Tirith. Now I'm on my way to the Morannon, to help Aragorn lay the smackdown on some dead guys. This should be fun.

Miles since the 7th: 14.1
Miles out of Hobbiton: 2584.5
Miles out of Minas Tirith: 5.5
Miles to the Morannon: 132.5

Comments

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

If I had a Linux VM running inside the Windows one, that'd be kind of like turducken.

No, that would be duckturpenguin. OS/X is an odd duck (with the microkernel), Windoze is a real turkey, and Linux... :) :) :)

And frankly, if you have to run Windows, that's probably the safest way to run it, is with "standard" virtual drivers behind a nice Unix-based firewall on the Mac... that and taking a backup (and having it work) should be dead easy as long as the VM is "powered off"...

Which VM mechanism are you using?

And good luck with that zappy thang... *hugs very gently*

[annathepiper]

Parallels is the VM mechanism of choice on OS/X these days, it seems, and it's working quite well on my laptop. There's a surprising amount of integration between the host OS and the VM one, too, which pleased me. For example, if I launch an app within the VM, the icon for it can show up on the OS/X doc. And you can set it up so that you can open Mac-side files with Windows apps and vice versa. When I have the VM active there's a slight drag in performance, but not enough to render the machine unusable.

So, yeah, I'm happy with this software purchase. I decided to go this route since BootCamp would require me to reboot the box every time I wanted to change OSes, and that struck me as annoying. But this seems to be worth the $80 I plunked down for it.

And hee, duckturpenguin.... hee!

[kissare.livejournal.com]

It IS obnoxious to have to reboot the box every time I want to switch back and forth. Unfortunately my silly game wouldn't work well in parallels. But I LOVE the turducken thing... and for the several-dozenth time, I have read a post of yours and thought, "that is the cutest and/or coolest fitness 'program' in the universe." This time I decided to say it out loud.

[annathepiper]

Why thank you. ^_^

TANDY IS DANDY BUT LIQUOR IS QUICKER

[solarbird]

Not "Tandy." TRS-80. Model I. The emulators are out there. It would be awesome, by which I mean awesomely stupid.

Re: TANDY IS DANDY BUT LIQUOR IS QUICKER

[waysofseeing.livejournal.com]

You will not have achieved true Zen elder hardware enlightenment until you have created a triple boot box with your Commodore 64, TRS-80, and Osborne II CP/M emulators.

I suspect Kai Kaltenbach has one of these in his basement.

Re: TANDY IS DANDY BUT LIQUOR IS QUICKER

[angharads-house.livejournal.com]

FORTRAN running on a CP/M card too, perhaps? (she dodges and runs, seeking shelter more from raindrops than from the threat of suddenly-hurled eight-inche floppies)

Re: TANDY IS DANDY BUT LIQUOR IS QUICKER

[solarbird]

I'm going for retro, not steampunk.

Re: TANDY IS DANDY BUT LIQUOR IS QUICKER

[annathepiper]

... and besides, we don't have the parts for a proper steampunk laptop. Not that that wouldn't be bitchin' cool, but. ;)

Re: TANDY IS DANDY BUT LIQUOR IS QUICKER

[(Anonymous)]

Ouch -- that was a direct hit!

/e/
Scientific Advisor, Research and Development Section,
Steam Locomotive Programme

Re: TANDY IS DANDY BUT LIQUOR IS QUICKER

[annathepiper]

Oops. I stand corrected. Or 'lay down on the couch corrected'. Or something. *^_^*;;

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

YAY MINAS TIRITH! *cheers you wildly*!

[annathepiper]

Why thank you. ^_^

Checking the numbers, looks like I'm only a couple hops away from finishing this up. Next time through I'll have to do Frodo's path so I can go to Mount DOOM!

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

I went to Mount DOOM! first. Now I'm backtracking all over Middle Earth. :) Eventually I will have done everybody's journeys *to* Minas Tirith, and then I'll head back to Bag End. But that's several years away, at the rate I'm going. :)

[annathepiper]

And plenty of time in which to do a lot of decent walking, too. Go you!