Parallels to VMware - my experience

As part of my move from 10.4.11 to 10.5.3 I switched from Parallels (Windows 2000 VM running Office 2003 and MindManager to VMWare Fusion (updated 5/30 for 10.5.3). Here's how it went.

1. Uninstall Parallels prior to the OS update. Don't delete the VM files (Win2K.pvs and W2k.hdd on my disk).
2. Update OS.
3. Download latest version of VMWare Fusion (not the beta though). You need to be a registered user to do this.
4. Install VMWare Fusion.
   
5. Download beta version of VMware Importer tool and install (requires Fusion be installed).
6. Find the Parallels files - Win2K.pvs and W2k.hdd. Drop the PVS file on the importer. The importer then converts the 3.1 GB Parallels file to a 3.4 GB (10% larger) single file stored in a Virtual Machine folder in current_user/Documents. (After I'd finished the entire install, however, the VM file was 4.4 GB, a 33% increase.)
   
7. I double clicked on Win2K (my VM name) and Windows 2000 SP4 launched. Fusion shows an inline reminder to install the VM tools, but after a LONG startup and restart (for Win2K this is a new machine) Fusion installed them automatically. I saw a Windows dialog requesting help with an unrecognized device -- ignore those and let the Fusion tools install and Win2K restart.
8. Shutdown Win2K after this initial install (good practice after initial config), in future just suspend it.
   

After the conversion and setup Win2K SP4 goes from shutdown to running in 30 seconds on my MacBook. Much faster than XP, much less Vista! Of course one would usually suspend the OS when done, not do a shutdown.

Uninstall Palm Desktop for OS X - Of course Palm's directions are wrong.

I'm continuing my post 10.5.3 house cleaning. This evening I noticed my login items list still included 'transport manager', which is part of the Palm HotSync framework for OS X.

I've probably bought at least a dozen PalmOS devices for Emily and I, but the platform died years ago. I've been keeping my personal Palm environment on life support pending iPhone 2.0, but there's no need for any remnants outside of my XP box.

Time for the rebranded version of Claris Organizer, better known as Palm Desktop for OS X to go.

My search for information on uninstalling Palm Desktop for OS X immediately turned up this Palm kb article.

...In the top left corner of the window, click on the dropdown menu and select UNINSTALL. Directly beneath this menu, place a check to select Palm Desktop software...

I went through that procedure, and, surprise, there's no uninstaller.

So I went back and looked for the 2nd result in the search:

Palm Desktop 4.2.1 Rev D for Mac - Download

...Uninstalling Palm Desktop

The installer for Palm Desktop 4.2.1 Rev D does not include an uninstall function. To uninstall Palm Desktop, open your Mac's Applications folder, and drag and drop the Palm folder to the trash. If Palm Desktop is in the Dock, drag its icon off the Dock...

Of course they couldn't have updated their support article -- there's probably nobody left with the password to their kb server.

I deleted the folder. Transport Manager remained as a 'ghost' in one user's login, but there was no file; it was a dangling reference. I removed it. Aside from the Hot Sync conduits, perhaps left deliberately, there wasn't a lot to clean up.

One more step towards extubation ...

OS X 10.5: Apple engineers need more children

I needed to upgrade to 10.5.3 sooner or later (I suspect the iPhone may need 10.5.3 - at least at launch time), but I'd intended to wait until it was absolutely necessary*.

I installed last night because I was enthused about one feature that promised to be of immediate value to us -- time limited child use.

Naturally, it doesn't work quite as well as I'd hoped ...

Be the best you can be: Time limited computer access

.. Since my original post I installed 10.5.1 and upgraded to 10.5.3. I discovered the shortest possible setting for time limited computer access is 30 minutes (per day).

I need a range where the low end is 10 minutes.

Sigh. Apple engineers need more children.

I also don't recommend regular people install an OS X update to an existing system until the DVDs actually ship with 10.5.3 or later. My install experience was unsettling...

Sigh. No Apple engineer should be allowed to work on parental controls unless they at least one child between the ages of 3 and 13.

I wonder if anyone has a hack to change the low end setting.

--

* Even 10.5.3, the 1/2 GB patch, has significant video issues on some relatively recent machines. Apple OS updates are also very expensive, since they may require replacing a range of software and peripherals. I'm still testing which of my things work with 10.5.3, I know that some apps that broke with 10.5.0 will more or less work with 10.5.3. One nice thing about 10.5.3 is it feels "smoother" on my Intel MacBook than 10.4.11. So it's not all bad.

Upgrading to OS X 10.5.1: LaunchDaemons

I try. Really, I try.

I knew 10.5.0 had severe quality problems. I waited until 10.5.3 was out, though the install DVD was still 10.5.1. I even cleaned up prior to installation [1].

Then I did an 'archive and install' ... Oops. I thought the installer would ask me what type of install I was doing. It didn't. Guess I should have read the manual. I ended up unwittingly doing a regular update install. (Yech.)

The install sucked down another 5GB by the way.

So I had an ominous premonition when I was done. Justified.

After installation I tried to log in to my Administrator account, with user name 'Admin'.

My password didn't work.

An empty password didn't work.

I was locked out! My other accounts worked, just not the admin account.

Google sent me directly to the fix ...

Mac OS X 10.5: Unable to log in after an upgrade install

... You may not be able to log in with a user account that has a password of 8 or more characters and was originally created in Mac OS X 10.2.8 or earlier, after performing an upgrade installation of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard (the default installation type)...

... launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DirectoryServices.plist...

So at least this was a well known bug.

I caught it because when I bought my MacBook, I used the firewire migration service to migrate the settings from my iBook to the MacBook. I never had 10.2.8 on the MacBook (it wouldn't have installed anyway), but the iBook started with 10.1. So the glitch was transferred to the MacBook.

A little booby trap, just waiting to detonate when I installed 10.5.1.

Fixing the bug required entering some reasonably convoluted unix commands. The last step in the series resets the admin password. [2]

Yes, as has been known for some time, anyone with access to your machine can reset your admin password, though they won't have access to the admin keychain. (Since I reset the password to the old password, I still have access to the admin keychain).

Now I've installed 10.5.3.

More on that later.

If you haven't updated to 10.5, I'd suggest waiting until Apple starts shipping DVDs with 10.5.3. "Leopard" was a really buggy OS update, a kind of mini-Vista.

[1] Cleanup

1. Uninstall Parallels 2.5.
2. Check for Input Managers and remove them (l found smart crash reporter.)
3. Remove contextual menu items
4. Remove Preference Panes
5. Repeat for both admin and my primary account.
6. Do a safe boot (hold shift on start) to run maintenance checks.
7. Delete all apps I suspect won't work with 10.5.1 or that I don't often use.
   
8. Reboot into admin

[2] I suspect that if one has encrypted one's home directory, then one would be, technically speaking, screwed.

Update 6/17/11: Years later my iMac started handing at startup. It passed hardware tests, I couldn't find an easy fix, so I archived and installed. Right. That's why I'm back.

The horrid Apple fix worked again. This time though I created a fresh administrator account before I upgraded to 10.5.8. I'll delete the old, contaminated account. Should have done that years ago.

How to uninstall Parallels Desktop for OS X

Uninstall is not an OS X strength.

It's not quite as bad as OS/2, where nothing could be uninstalled, but it's not good. (Note to self: this was a bad sign about how finished OS/2 was. Don't forget this.) Perfectly behaved apps can be simply deleted, but those are less common that one would imagine. Even Apple apps aren't all that well behaved.

Applications like Parallels Desktop and VMWare Fusion are particularly worrisome. You know these things are messing with the deep OS.

The good news is that there is an uninstaller -- it's in the DMG file. The bad news is that it's surprisingly hard to find out about this. Google failed completely, and it took several searches through the Parallels kb to find this article (VMWare Fusion was marginally better at providing the same info):

KB #5027 - What is the recommended policy of updating to Mac OS X Leopard with Parallels Desktop installed?

... Please uninstall Parallels Desktop from Mac OS Tiger using the program's Uninstaller script located in the distribution package (.dmg or CD) before running Leopard update. Keep in mind that you should use Uninstaller of the same program version you have installed or newer, using Uninstaller from the outdated package may cause unexpected issues with removing the program. The uninstall procedure doesn't affect your existing Virtual Machines.

BTW, this is the first place I read that you should uninstall Parallels before upgrading to 10.5. I'm battered enough to routinely clean out complex things before an OS update, but I suspect that most Parallels users, geeky as they are, missed this.

Yes, I am now moving to 10.5. It's not just that 10.5.3 finally came out, it's also that I really want the parental time-limited access controls.

With 10.5.3 I'm switching to VMWare Fusion -- mostly because the people I read like it better. I've already noticed, however, that Fusion is much pickier about Windows OSs than Parallels. It won't work with older versions of Windows 2000, for example. A point for Parallels I've not seen mentioned elsewhere, but since I've already bought Fusion I'm going to give it a try.

Gmail search operators: OR, in:anywhere and others

Gmail's search operators are resemble those of Windows Desktop Search. I suppose we're heading towards some kind of convergence.

The interesting ones are:

• to: (obvious)
• has:attachment (more useful than one might think)
• in:anywhere (when it might be in spam filter or trash)
• after: and before: (dates are yyyy/mm/dd - my favorite date format!)
• OR: yes, Google has introduced the Boolean OR. At long last ...

Why you really do have to apply those patches immediately ...

Or abandon #$!$%%$ Flash and XP ...

Slashdot | Adobe Flash Zero-Day Attack Underway

...Security researchers have found evidence of a previously unknown Adobe Flash vulnerability being exploited in the wild. The zero-day flaw has been added to the Chinese version of the MPack exploit kit and there are signs that the exploits are being injected into third-party sites to redirect targets to malware-laden servers. From the article: 'Continued investigation reveals this issue is fairly widespread. Malicious code is being injected into other third-party domains (approximately 20,000 web pages) most likely through SQL-injection attacks. The code then redirects users to sites hosting malicious Flash files exploiting this issue..

It doesn't suffice to restrict browsing to "quality" sites. If those sites are hacked, then traffic can be redirected to a site where the a specially crafted .SWF file launches the exploit and attacks your machine. Antiviral software won't help either -- at least until it's patched and updated (too late).

Keeping up with these patches is a slow, onerous task -- particularly on a slow booting XP machine (forget Vista!).

The easiest defense is to use a Mac. Even though Flash on OS X is vulnerable, it's doubtful that the injected malware will work, particularly if you run in standard user mode (nobody who reads this blog would be foolish enough to run OS X as an admin).

Eliminating Flash, a notorious source of vulnerabilities, is the next option to consider. I'd really like to see Apple do their own Flash interpreter. (QuickTime is about as bad, but at least that gets patched through Apple's updater.)

Unsharp mask: how to use it

I've never seen this explained -- despite years of my sharpening images! These directions are for a generic unsharp mask too, Aperture has additional options.

Photojojo » Unsharp Mask: How Do You Actually Use That Thing?

... Step 1: View the image at 100%. Set the radius between 1 and 3. Set the amount between 300 and 500. Set the threshold at 0.

This will look like crap. But you’re going to fix it in a minute, so don’t worry.

Slide the radius level up until you start to see nasty halos forming, then back it off a bit. It’s OK if it looks a little bit harsh at this point.

Step 2: Change the image view to 50%. Adjust the amount until it looks grainy and oversharpened, than back it down a little.

Since web images need a fairly high amount of sharpening (in the 300 to 500 range), our example here isn’t quite as dramatic as we’d like. We made the “after” image a little soft so you can see what’s going on at this stage.

Step 3: Move the threshold slider up until the low-contrast areas look smooth, but you can still see fine details...

... Photography Jam has a good set of starting points for different kinds of pictures. We liked their all-purpose and web settings, but there are lots more on their site.

All-purpose sharpening: amount=85, radius=1, threshold=4
Sharpening for the web: amount=400, radius=0.3, threshold=0...

I'm going to add this site to my feed list.

Make Firefox 3 beta accept the Windows Live Writer Blog This extension

Update 8/20/08: See the last update for the new way to do this.

I can't get the changes I've made to WLW's rfd file, per Joe Cheng's (WLW engineering) blog, to do anything. I'm hoping Joe will have some advice, but, in any case, the illustrious WLW team is promising an update to the "Blog Ths in Windows Live Writer" Add-on. I might just wait for that.

I ended up installing the Firefox Nightly Tester Tools add-on. Then I removed all non-compatible add-ons except for WLW (note I'd already uninstalled Google Web Accelerator), then I clicked the over-ride compatibility button in the test tools options. That worked.

Update 5/27: Joe Cheng's (WLW engineering) blog has a post about a finer grained workaround. Joe also promises to update the extension soon. I continue to be amazed that the WLW team is supporting Firefox use. (Tip via Brandon T. I subscribe to Joe's blog, so I should have caught his posting. I need to check out Bloglines and see if I've somehow lost his feed ...)

Update 8/18/08: At the end of July Joe updated his post. Note the renaming install.rdf trick to force Firefox to refresh its version. The advice now works, but it's also becoming obvious that Microsoft manage understands the value of WLW, and is no longer interested in maintaining a plug-in that supports Mozilla Firefox.

I know what's wrong with Google Calendar sync

But when I tried to report it, and thus answer their problems, I got this message:

Oops!: "Something bad happened. Don't worry, though. The Spreadsheets Team has been notified and we'll get right on it."

I suspect the log I uploaded was too long -- I have about 1300 events in my calendar.

Google calendar sync engineers messed up recurring events that extend across a daylight savings time transition. Google keeps the absolute time the same for entire length of the recurring event, so the local time shifts on one or the other side of the DST transition.

I hope they've figured this out on their own, because their feedback mechanism is broken too.

Incidentally, while solving this one, I discovered a few other bugs.

1. If you delete an email account from Outlook 2003, all appointments have a dangling reference to the missing identity. Google Calendar Sync can't handle the dangling reference. The fix is to create a new email account, then start and quite Outlook a few times. It clears the dangling reference.
2. If a sync fails due to bug #1 Google Calendar Sync's local cache is still udpated. So future attempts to sync even after fixing bug #1 don't work because GCS thinks nothing has changed. You need to delete all the local data stored in Application Data (see initial reporting link for the path).

So I found 3 bugs, each significant.

Too bad I can't tell Google!

Google knows Google Calendar Sync is broken

Google should stop the Google Outlook Calendar Sync "beta" and regroup, but at least they've recognized it's truly broken:

New way to report Google Calendar Sync issues - Users - Troubleshooting | Google Groups:

.... To help us continue our investigations into some of the Google Calendar Sync issues we’re aware of, please fill out the info in the form provided below...

Reporting form
http://spreadsheets.google.comviewform?key=p6j_DPbvdPlCl4unmYPKZeA

They created the urgent feedback form on 4/16 and added notes on 4/25. They request submission of the log, but apparently that's been problematic.

How to get the Google Calendar Sync log file

...C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Google Calendar Sync\logs...

In my case recurring events are being synced with a 1 hour delay. In other words, it's a time zone problem. Time zones are a nightmare, as a friend said we should really all change to sidereal time.

Google groups posts demonstrate a very wide range of problems with sync, all of which seem time zone related.

No matter how gnarly time zone problems are, my sympathy for Google is limited. They need to pull the "beta".

What does Google think of your site?

Precede your URL with "http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=" to find out what Google thinks of your site.

For example:

• http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=http://www.faughnan.com
• http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=http://notes.kateva.org
• http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=http://tech.kateva.org

Nothing of interest on mine ...

Sun xVM VirtualBox: free VM for OS X windows work

Via TUAW. It's a free OpenSource app now maintained by Sun. It won't have the support of VMWare Fusion (current leader) or Parallels (contender), but it includes an RDP server for remote access to VMs and it's supposed to support "any x86 based OS" on Windows (least interesting), Solaris (of course), Linux or OS X.

I think this would make most sense for someone with a copy of Windows 2000 who wants to run Microsoft Office 2003 and one or two other compliant apps. (Disabling net access for the VM seems adviseable, though Win2K is probably not a major OS target any more. Who knows, it might now be safer on the net than XP, especially if, like me, you run XP without antiviral software). [1]

That would be me, except I already have a license to VMWare Fusion. If I didn't, I'd try this.

[1] Because the antiviral software causes more problems for me than the viruses. I use Firefox with NoScript, stick to good neighborhoods, and use XP as little as possible.

Google Spreadsheet gotcha: beware open editing

I don't think this is obvious, so I'll toss out a warning.

Google Spreadsheets can be shared for viewing (only) at the worksheet (tab) level. This is an advanced option after you click on the share button.

That's fine, but there's a trick here.

The Spreadsheet security model applies to the spreadsheet, not the worksheet. So if you have standard account-limited editing sharing the worksheet behaves as expected.

The catch comes if you enable the new "anyone can edit" option. This works when you can keep the URL a secret.

If you're sharing a worksheet, however, you're exposing the URL.

The combination of sharing a worksheet and open editing means anyone viewing the worksheet will be able to edit the entire spreadsheet if they click on the 'edit if you have privileges' link.

Google should make the security and sharing models both worksheet specific. Until then, be careful!

Three Apple support articles

Three Apple support articles worth scanning ...

• Archive and Install explained: read the tips and scan the list of what's moved. Apple recommends a file system repair first. The option is not available on update CDs.
  
• File sharing: Claims only public folders are shared. I thought 10.5 allowed sharing the shared folder too (I don't have 10.5 yet).
  
• Resetting sync services: I just know I'll need this one day. Nobody has sufficient respect, or even fear, of synchronization.