Works Like You Do

The more I read and hear about Vista, the more committed I become to making the MAC my home base. Vista would be the logical next step for a Windows user and no one I know can stand the problems they are having. At least the MAC works like it is supposed to work. I still find it to be in the way of getting work done but I haven’t yet resorted to using Boot Camp and working full-time in the Windows world.

I learned how to change the size of the virtual disk drive in Parallels which menas space on the Windows side is no longer a concern. I also had help setting up a true shared directory so all my files can live in one place and be accesses from either OS. It’s a bit cumbersome - the directory appears as a network resource in Windows and not a folder - but it works. I’ll need to reorganize my file structure so this is less work but it’s an encourageing start.

I still use one old DOS program. It uses function keys, including F9 and F10. Anyone using Parallels knows that the MAC and Expose use these same keys and no matter what mode you are in, they default to MAC behavior. There are workarounds for Windows, but I couldn;t find anything about DOS. Here’s what I discovered:

You can use these keys but you need to be careful. FN+CMD+F9 and FN+CMD+F10 will do the job but if you take your finger off the FN key first, Windows will respond to the CMD key and display the Windows Start menu, taking you out of the DOS window. If you just hold them down and don’t let go, it works most of the time; but if you are careful, you can get to the point where it’s relatively consistent.

So there is my first tip. For all you Neanderthals like me who insist on using a program that’s 20 years old on a computer that’s brand new, you can do it successfully!

My PC has problems. It started life as a souped up Linux machine. I traded a nice Dell tower for it and expected to have the fastest PC on the block. The only problem is that it doesn’t appear to like Windows. It was hanging so I had it completely stripped and reloaded. Now it just reboots on its own, several times in an afternoon, with no warning. It does come back up really fast so I guess that’s an improvement. As I was lamenting this, it became apparent that I need a new home PC (I don’t use my work laptop for personal use.) As I started to consider my options, what was the first thing that came to mind? Why not check out the MAC Mini? It looks cool. It doesn’t take a lot of space. I have an LCD so I don’t need a new monitor. I have external USB hard drives and don’t really need to cram a lot of extra cards into the big tower I usually have. So I looked into it and then I remembered why I never buy Apple. Cool stuff, high price. I made the mistake of looking at what a new Dell will cost. I can still get way more machine for way less money than the MAC. Too bad the hardware and technology is so cool.

Things went pretty well this week. I was able to access the on-line apps I needed for my courses and use the LCD projectors without needing to reboot. I didn’t find anything special that allowed it to work, so I’m a bit nervous about it. However, I’d say it looks like this will work.

I also discovered that if I plug in my LCD monitor (Samsung SyncMaster 191Tplus) without opening the laptop, the screen resolution is perfect (no cut off bottom and top screen to match the wide-vision aspect ratio.) This leads me to believe that I can somehow select this view instead of mirror and get to use my monitor fully.