I keep a small micro-SD card with a bunch ISOs and VM templates for ready use (using a niftyDrive). As a result I need a minimal Windows 7 install that I can use as a VM template. The goal: Windows 7 fully patched, with Bitdefender and Chrome installed. Here’s the steps I used to create …
Author Archives: sandro
Little Niceties on the Macintosh
I’m pleased to find that even after 10 years of Mac OS X, and over 20 years of using the Mac, but I can still be surprised by the small touches. This last month I discovered a couple of little features of the Mac that make using it ever so slightly nicer. None of these …
Bicycle Myths
I’ve been cycling for years, and over time I’ve become a pretty decent wrench as well as an avid fan of vintage cycling gear. Over the years I’ve seen multiple fads, bad ideas, and misconceptions float among novice cyclists. Inevitably, these people have a bad experience on their bike and end up parking it in …
Installing Java 14 JDK and JavaFX for IntelliJ
Kim’s New Wristwatch
I’m a tiny bit of a wristwatch fan, and I have a couple of decent watches. This has made Kim a little unhappy, and not just because it’s one more thing I can collect (though that’s an issue too). It’s that there doesn’t seem to be much selection of “cool” watches for women. By “cool”, …
Boxer & Pro Pinball: Big Race
I’ve been getting some older games working again courtesy of Boxer. Boxer allows modern Macs to run games from the DOS era with a minimum of fuss. I happen to have a few programs left over from that era since some mac games included the DOS versions, and some I just bought for my (infrequent) …
the “Riot Act”
With all the evictions of the Occupy movement lately, I was thinking about the Riot Act. While I have occasionally been “read the Riot Act”, I had never actually read the Riot Act. To wit: Our Sovereign Lord the King chargeth and commandeth all persons, being assembled, immediately to disperse themselves, and peaceably to depart …
Microsoft: too greedy to get out of their own way.
So I just started up my Xbox 360 for the first time in 6 months to try out the new Metro UI and media features. First stop, the Netflix app. After downloading the app and starting it up, I get told I need an Xbox Live Gold account to use Netflix. Now I have a …
Continue reading “Microsoft: too greedy to get out of their own way.”
Bicycle Living Room?
Our living room as bike parking lot. Notice that we have 6 bikes in the photo and only 4 family members (and that’s not even counting the 3 more at my house). That little purple bike in the foreground needs to go, and I have one of the bikes at my place up on Craigslist …
Bicycle Content
The coming days should bring some updates to the blog. Bicycles are big in our house at the moment, so I’m going to start posting the related household news. Both kids received bicycles for their birthdays this year. Much happiness and a bunch of riding ensued. This has naturally led to more riding for Kim …