Posts Tagged ‘leopard’

Stupid Computer Trick — VNC Echo

Friday, May 16th, 2008

At work I’m messing around with setting up a new machine running Leopard… I was having trouble figuring out how best to access network shares and a helpful guy on the Apple Support Discussions Board pointed me to the Columns View in a Finder Window. When you click on the icon for a machine on the network that has file and Apple Remote Desktop (ARD) screen sharing enabled, you get two buttons; Connect As… and Share Screen…

Now while I was setting up the Leopard machine, I had it sitting in the opposite corner of my cubicle with a standard mouse & keyboard attached, and was getting some wrist pain from that, so I set up ARD screen sharing through VNC on the Leopard machine so I could control it from my PowerBook or the PC. I also have ARD screen sharing through VNC set up on my PowerBook, so…

When I finally figured out to look for the Connect As… button in the the Columns View, of course my first thought when I saw that Share Screen… button was, “Hmmm. What does that do?” So being the geek that I am I clicked it, it asked for my password, and up popped a view of my PowerBook screen. Inside that was a view of the Leopard screen, and inside that was a view of my PowerBook screen, and inside that… You get the idea. Very cool indeed!

Oh, and I almost forgot… I’m controlling my PowerBook through my Lenovo PC via Synergy and QuickSynergy (my post on that here). So it’s Lenovo — PowerBook — Leopard on Intel — PowerBook — Leopard on Intel — PowerBook — Leopard on Intel — ad infinitum…

vnc_ard_echo_sm.jpg
(click on the image for a full-size screenshot)

Vine Viewer is able to record movies of what’s going on, and once I figure out how to get the file size down a ways (right now it’s full-resolution, and 240MB) I’ll post it, just for fun.

Update: Here it is. Enjoy!

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Posted in Computers, Fun!, Geek | Comments Closed

Psystar — On Its Way!

Sunday, May 4th, 2008

Yes indeed, it’s really happening. On Wednesday I got a confirmation email from Psystar with a valid UPS tracking number. It’ll be delivered by May 5 (feliz Cinco de Mayo!)

confirmation_480px.jpg

Huzzah!

As cool as that is, I’m certainly not the first to get one; several people have already received the machines they ordered, and one guy sent video and photos to Gizmodo. It’s been a bit funny — yet sobering — reading through posts and comments on Gizmodo; the initial posts were pretty skeptical in nature, and only fueled my own skepticism, but now the tone has changed to disdain for those silly enough to actually purchase one of the machines. Many of the comments are tainted with a base hatred of anything Mac, which is to be expected from that crowd.

I knew up front that buying this machine would be a shot in the dark, and bought it with a Plan B that would put the purchased OS and hardware to work in different roles in the event that they couldn’t be effectively used together. Another article at Gizmodo has a good list of reasons to avoid buying a Mac OS machine from Psystar, and although many of their reasons are very valid, I had considered most of them before buying. The one that will keep this machine out of graphics production is the inability to use Software Update, and the inability to do a reinstall. Oh well. On to Plan B.

But then the reported noise level issue may make even Plan B unworkable, so a Plan C may be needed — putting the hardware into a server role of some sort, or swapping out fans or power supply. But then again, it seems that Psystar is reacting fairly rapidly to customer concerns, so it may well be that this won’t be an issue with mine.

We’ll see.

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Posted in Computers, Psystar Open | Comments Closed

“Get ’em While They’re Hot”

Thursday, April 24th, 2008

There’s a new post on Psystar’s website this morning, which includes a video of their “triplets”; three of their Open Computers, each running a different OS. One running Windows XP, another running Ubuntu, and a third running Leopard. This marks the first time the Psystar geeks have actually given us a peek at OS X running on one of their machines, albeit way too brief to draw any conclusions about how well it works.

psystar_leopard.jpg

News flash: I emailed Rudy yesterday asking for an update on the ship date for the machine I ordered, and got two responses back. The first was time stamped 1:13PM yesterday, but didn’t show in my inbox until this morning:

We would like to inform you that due to the high demand for Open Computing Products, our White Cases are currently out of stock. We can equip your Open Computer with a black case with no delay, or you can keep your order for a White Case, however there will be a delay of at least 15 days.

We apologize for the inconvenience. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact us at Support@psystar.com

Sincerely,

The PSYSTAR Support Team
www.Psystar.com
888-456-7801

Of course I ordered the white box; I don’t know why. It used to be that most all PC’s were in boring beige boxes; these days beige has been supplanted by black, so white is a good alternative to set it apart. I guess. Or maybe it had something to do with the time Toby W. gave me a hard time about that BEST ColorStation we had at CCL that was running on a funky looking black Proliant box, and he thought it was an Apple machine… Whatever.

But then the second message, time stamped 8:21AM, gave a little more encouragement:

We are pleased to inform you that your open computer is currently in the build stage, and is scheduled to be shipped out on monday. You will receive a tracking number with your shipment. Thank you for your patience.
Thank you,
PSYSTAR Support Team
www.psystar.com 305-356-6666

Woohoo! That is most definitely good news!

The email messages and the video give me great hope today that I might actually get my hands on one of these machines, and soon. Here’s hopin’!

And still, there has not been word one from Apple about the whole situation. That is what is truly weird about all of this.

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Posted in Psystar Open | Comments Closed