Improving Virtual PC 6 Performance
I suppose it's a bit late to point this out, but I have found a way to make Virtual PC 6 run faster.
Alien Technology
I have been to an alien world and seen advanced technology that makes
PCs look foolish and pathetic. It was an amazing journey and I am
still trying to believe that I really saw what I think I saw.
Of course I'm talking about opening up my Apple
PowerMac G4 and installing some hardware. I've been building my
own PCs for years and years, but part of the reason I moved to Macs
was to stop wasting my time on that stuff. You can spend hours and
hours putting a PC together, and what do you have at the end? It's
just a PC. I can spend zero time putting a Mac together, and what do
I get at the end? A personal computer that is at least as good as any
PC, but I also get a bunch of hours to spend doing something
meaningful, rather than futzing with hardware. What follows is my
analysis of some things that are wrong with wintel PC boxes, now that
I have compared them to the blissfully simple Apple boxes.
Live Web Cam
I got a web camera up from the house. It's only working when I happen to be logged in, but it works well enough. I'll probably take down the page when it stops snowing. The neighborhood is not much fun to look at when it isn't snowing.
You can actually get a Mac Mini for free, sort of
Get yourself a free Mac Mini.
This company is giving away free Mac Minis as an enticement to do referral-based marketing. The idea is that you go there, sign up for some offer, and then send other people there. If you send 10 friends there who all sign up for offers, you get the Mac Mini.
Cool stuff
- Many of the offers can be canceled with no real expense or commitment. You either get your trial fees refunded, or you cancel before they charge you or something.
- Your friends who sign up to help you can all get free computers, too. They just have to find 10 friends of their own. It's not like you have to get them to do stuff that won't benefit them.
- The companies that are being advertised are mainstream companies you've heard of, most of the time. Stuff like the Discover Card, GM credit card, Colombia House DVDs, eFax, etc. You're not doing a trial with a fly-by-night company.
I was pretty skeptical. I read this guy's page about the Free iPod offer (from the same company) and it made it seem much more legit.
Fixing an external display refresh rate problem
I use a Dell 1226H External display with my PowerBook G4. Apparently the negotiation between the video card and the monitor didn't go very well. The monitor offered a weird refresh rate, but could not actually support that rate when I selected it. I solved this problem, but only after a few unintuitive steps.