The bug allows a guest operating system (that’s the OS running inside the virtual machine) to execute code on the host operating system (the OS running the actual virtualization program). Kostya created a short video that shows just how this works. In the video, a Windows XP guest operating system launches the Calculator application in Vista, the host operating system.
The fix is simple… VMWare has already done the patch. Just go to http://www.vmware.com/mac and upgrade to version 2.0.4.
Has this ever happened to you?
Even though Leopard ships with Boot Camp, lots of Mac users still get their virtual groove on with VMware Fusion, and its super-slick window display tool Unity. Today VMware announced Fusion 1.1, an upgrade that sports some cool new features and improvements.
So here’s the latest conversation coming from a restaurant in Cupertino – take it for what it’s worth. With the release of Leopard, Apple is going to change the iMac to include a second drive bay. If you purchase Apple Procare with your iMac, you can also purchase a second drive and Vista and Apple will install and configure everything so you can go out the door with a dual-booting iMac, all supported by Apple.
I’m curious to see if this rumor has any truth to it. It should would be another nail in the coffin for me ever buying a non-apple PC ever again if it is.
Chris Pirillo’s website has a great breakdown of Leopard vs Vista where he shows overall why Leopard is a better OS than vista.
Mac OS X Leopard vs Microsoft Windows Vista
While the article IS interesting what really caught me off guard was this comment from one of his readers:
Don Mitchell – September 1, 2007 @ 11:01 am
Apple is great at design, but not especially good at operating system kernels. They gave up on their in-house OS and fell back on UNIX, an operating system that is woefully obsolete today.
This is, without doubt, one of the most idiotic statements I have ever read, bar none. All companies today use Unix in one form or another – HP/UX, Linux, Solaris – the list goes on. Unix is the operating system of business. Windows tried with their monolithic NT-based kernel and are losing ground every day.
But Mr. Mitchell continues his rampant idiocy:
The perfect PC would have an Apple UI and shell, with the Windows NT kernel and DirectX for advanced 3D graphics and games. NTs kernel is still considerably more advanced than any version of UNIX, with kernel threads, fibers, events, completion ports, asynchronous I/O, multiple heaps, and a collection of concurrency control features. Some of these features have been kludged into UNIX in recent years, but it was never designed to do these things.
The PC should also be an open hardware platform like the Windows PC is, but the Mac is not. I should be able to select from different competing hardware vendors, or pull out my nVidia graphics card and install an ATI card if I so desire.
This guy has obviously drank the Microsoft Kool-aid for FAR too long. His only concern above is “advanced 3D graphics and games”. Mr. Mitchell, go back to ITT Tech and demand your money back NOW. The education you got there was not worth the paper your worthless diploma was printed on.
Got a Mac? Need to run Windows? You can always use Bootcamp… But how about Linux? That’s a bigger challenge. However with virtualization you can install either and run them along side OS/X. Currently there are 3 virtualization tools:
Low End Mac has a couple of articles that show all three. They’re worth a read:
The United States has planned a change to its DST observance beginning in 2007. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 mandates that DST will start on the second Sunday in March and end on the first Sunday in November. In 2007, the start and stop dates will be March 11 and November 4, respectively. These dates are different from previous DST start and stop dates. In 2006, the dates were the first Sunday in April (April 2, 2006) and the last Sunday in October (October 29, 2006).
As a Java developer, should you care? Absolutely. This affects the JVM because it compensates for DST in various countries and older JVMs’ information about DST is going to be incorrect. If you haven’t started auditing your systems for DST-readiness you should start. If you are running the most recent JVMs for Java you’ll be covered:
More information on the JVM updates can be found here: http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/Intl/USDST/
If you have installed WebLogic 8.1 SP6 or newer you’re covered if you’re using the Sun JVM because 1.4.2_11 is included with the update.
Keep in mind that your OS may or may not be ready for the DST change, Microsoft OS users are not.. yet.
For Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), Windows Server 2003, and Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1), Microsoft will release a single global time zone update which will include changes for the United States DST change. This time zone update will also include changes for other related DST changes and time zone behavior and settings that will take place in 2007 or have taken place since these versions of Windows were originally released. It will include some changes that have previously been released as individual hotfixes (such as the Sri Lanka change in time zone offset) or have been individually documented in prior Knowledge Base articles. These updated time zone definitions will also ship with Windows Vista.
OK, Windows isn’t all *that* bad. At least XP turned out OK. But now, if Vista is their future, this could be bad. Just read about the joke that went into making a 9 (yes, nine) step process just to shutdown Windows Vista.
From Moblog – The Windows Shutdown crapfest :
The most frustrating year of those seven was the year I spent working on Windows Vista, which was called Longhorn at the time.
…In Windows, [the central repository approach for source management] model breaks down simply because there are far too many developers to access one central repository — among other problems, the infrastructure just won’t support it. So Windows has a tree of repositories: developers check in to the nodes, and periodically the changes in the nodes are integrated up one level in the hierarchy. At a different periodicity, changes are integrated down the tree from the root to the nodes. In Windows, the node I was working on was 4 levels removed from the root. The periodicity of integration decayed exponentially and unpredictably as you approached the root so it ended up that it took between 1 and 3 months for my code to get to the root node, and some multiple of that for it to reach the other nodes.
I can see why this guy went to Google.
[Originally Posted 29-Sep-2004]
I don’t know why, but Microsoft hid Netmeeting in it’s Windows XP product. I don’t think malice was really intended, because it was hidden like an easter egg (not the software type – the hard boiled type). If malice was intended, it would have been outright removed from the product.
Anyway, after digging around I found the following steps to bring the hidden Netmeeting product out of your Windows XP installation..
Then you should have Netmeeting available to you.
[Originally Posted 20-July-2004]
Microsoft has been trying to put a stop to the Lindows Linux distribution because the name, according to them, represents Trademark infringement:
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,39020381,2101619,00.htm
Well, Microsoft is losing that battle. So what did they do? They bought the Lindows name from Lindows (who now goes by the far better name Linspire) for US$20 Million:
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/linuxunix/0,39020390,39161016,00.htm