Splash of Style...Macs, Photography, Design, and other Passions

Accidentally Deleted my Windows XP Virtual Machine in Fusion

January 18, 2009 by debbie T | Mac Software • Windows on the Mac

Yikes, while messing around with an install of the Windows 7 beta in VMware Fusion, I accidentally deleted my Windows XP virtual machine.

Luckily, I didn’t empty my trash right away, and I noticed my mistake right away. So, I dragged the trashed file back into my “Virtual Machines” folder in documents, re-started VMware, and oops, it didn’t display in the list of my virtual machines. I couldn’t “import” the file either.

I right-clicked on the file in Finder, and noticed the “open with” command. hmm, maybe I could simply open the file? So, I double-clicked the file in Finder, and yay, it started it in VMware Fusion, and it was indeed now added to the list of my Virtual Machines. phew.

So, if you accidentally delete one of your virtual machines in error, just drag it back to your Virtual Machines folder and double click the file in Finder. Easy peasy!

Disconnecting Windows in VMware Fusion

January 15, 2009 by debbie T | Internet • Mac Software • Windows on the Mac • Wireless

Since I am not running any anti-virus or anti-malware programs while using Windows XP in VMware Fusion, I don’t want Windows to connect to the Internet. It’s very easy to toggle my network connection in Fusion.

Click the little “double arrow” icon in the bottom toolbar in Fusion. Choose to Connect or Disconnect from the network. Very easy.

fusion-wifi

Windows Joy

January 15, 2009 by debbie T | Mac Software • Windows on the Mac

Well my Macbook Pro finally came home last Friday afternoon. Gawd, I missed that machine.

Anyway, I was planning on reinstalling Mac OS X and starting “from scratch” but decided I just didn’t want to fiddle with the bother of a new installation, so I restored my Super Duper bootable backup. So much easier.

So, what does all this have to do with Windows? I am getting to that. I treated myself to a copy of Vmware Fusion so I was excited to install my copy of Windows XP. It was fairly easy and fast to install Windows XP in Fusion.

wow! What a difference from Bootcamp! I love that I don’t have to keep restarting to move back and forth from Mac OS X to Windows. It actually made using Windows more enjoyable!! Can you believe it!

Since I heard SimCity was released for the iPhone/iPod, I have been dying to play my old Sim games. So I installed the old SimTower and SimCity 2000 – both worked wonderfully in Fusion. So exciting!

I decided not to run any Anti-virus or malware protection software in Windows. I don’t need to connect to the Internet very often, and when I do, it will mainly be to update Windows. What a dream it is to run Windows without any annoying anti-virus programs!

So now, guess what? As I am writing this, I am downloading the Windows 7 beta. Ha! Talk about crazy!

I am curious to see what older apps will run on it. Especially since the main reason I am running Windows is Microsoft Money (version 2002). It will be interesting.

MacRabbit Espresso Public Beta

December 30, 2008 by debbie T | CSS • Mac Software • Web Design • Web Development • XHTML

Wheee! yay, finally!

MacRabbit is now offering a public beta for their new code editor named “Espresso”

Oh I wish I could play. My Macbook Pro is staying at Applecare Hospital, and I don’t know if I will be getting it back soon.

It is something I have been looking forward to for awhile though. It looks really great, I can’t wait to check it out on my MBP!

http://macrabbit.com/espresso/

Aperture 2: The Adjustments Panel

November 20, 2008 by debbie T | Aperture 2 • Art and Graphics • Digital Photography • Mac Software

This tutorial takes you through a few of the customizations and options of the Adjustments panel. Keep in mind, the Adjustments panel has a set of menus, and each tool has its own menu as well.

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Camera Raw Bundle 2.3 released

November 6, 2008 by debbie T | Aperture 2 • Art and Graphics • Digital Photography • iPhoto • Mac Software

Hopefully this version (check software update) will fix all the ongoing problems, such as importing in Aperture.

http://splashofstyle.com/archives/2008/09/25/aperture-2-crashing-when-importing-from-compact-flash-cards/#comment-18483

I will probably hold off for a day or two before installing. Just to get my backups in order. It looks like there could be further issues.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8404756

update 2008-11-8: Installed the update yesterday, and so far so good. No problems w/ importing photos and/or editing.

Aperture 2 – Changing Image Date & Time

October 26, 2008 by debbie T | Aperture 2 • Art and Graphics • Digital Photography • Mac Software

UPDATED 2008-11-22:

So, you have a photo in Aperture 2, and you need the date (and/or time) adjusted. It’s actually pretty easy once you know where Aperture has hidden the option! See further below for info on changing multiple images.

From the Metadata Menu

Select the photo, choose Metadata>Adjust Date & Time from the menu.

from-the-metadata-menu.png

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Aperture 2 Projects Import and Export

October 24, 2008 by debbie T | Aperture 2 • Art and Graphics • Digital Photography • Mac Software

I tried a quick experiment tonight with Aperture 2. I wanted to see how Aperture’s project import and export worked and if photos would be duplicated if the same project was imported.

  1. First, I exported a small project from my Aperture 2 library.
  2. I launched a new test Aperture library and imported the project.
  3. I checked to make sure that it was imported into the Aperture library, and not referenced. All looked good.
  4. Back to my original library, I made some editing adjustments to one photo in the project, then exported the project as a new name.
  5. Launched my test library and imported the 2nd project. It imported as a brand new project, with no notations of duplicated data.
  6. I thought maybe it was due to the different project name, so I went back to my main library, and exported the project as the original name.
  7. In my test library, I imported the 3rd project, and it added it as a new project with (1) in the project name, again with no indication of duplicated files.

So, this means that if you like to work on projects on different computers, you will have to be careful with importing. I was sort of expecting (hoping) Aperture would “merge” the two projects together, updating any editing adjustments or meta data to all the files, instead of creating a new project all together.

Aperture 2 Open Projects in Multiple Tabs

October 21, 2008 by debbie T | Aperture 2 • Art and Graphics • Digital Photography • Mac Software

Oh I love this, and I just found it by accident.

I had an open project, and noticed that somehow there was a tab at the top of my browser workspace. hmm, how did that get there?

I Googled “aperture 2 multiple tabs” and found out that you can command + click on a project to open it in a tab.

I am constantly switching from one project to another, and it’s annoying to keep switching from the meta or adjustments to project mode to choose a new project.

This will be so much more efficient to have all the projects I need open at once. Yeah, I suppose I will still have to click the tab to switch the project, but it’s still quicker than switching to projects mode, then scrolling to find my project.

Links:

  1. Inside Aperture: Opening Multiple Projects
  2. Safari Books Online (Preview)

How to Search in Aperture 2

October 15, 2008 by debbie T | Aperture 2 • Art and Graphics • Digital Photography • Mac Software

My friend Allison from the Nosillacast podcast emailed me, asking about searching for a specific file name in Aperture 2. I thought it was simple enough because I do it all the time, but when I received her reply asking WHERE is the search, I realized, AH HA! you have to be in a specific view mode to see the search box.

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