From VirtualBox (back) to VMware Fusion

I'm posting this mostly because I wanted to share an issue I had with VirtualBox 3.1.x running on my Mac.

For much of 2009, I ran an instance of WindowsXP as a guest OS via VirtualBox on my Mac. My guest OS serves two purposes: testing sites in Windows browsers and running an instance of SQL Server 2008 for a long-term project on which I am working. Because I need to connect to the SQL Server instance on the guest OS from my Mac, I use Bridged Networking, which allows my office's network to assign a unique IP address to the guest OS.

Until November, VirtualBox was absolutely awesome (fast, lighter weight than VMWare and Parallels). Unfortunately, since the releases of VirtualBox 3.1.0 in November 2009 and version 3.1.2 in December 2009, I have experienced regular issues with VirtualBox dropping the network connection in my guest OS.

Basically, within 10-60 minutes of starting the guest OS, the network connection would be dropped. This resulted in my not being able to connect to my datasources from ColdFusion, ping my guest OS from Terminal, or even access the Internet from a browser within my guest OS. If this happened once a day, I'd have been fine with the "headache" of restarting Windows to reconnect. But it didn't happen once a day. It was just about every #$^&$@* hour.

I spent a significant amount of time this week trying to address the issue with VirtualBox. I reinstalled, tweaked every preference I could, tried alternate network drivers, and scoured the web and various forums. No luck across the board. So ...

With head hung low, I navigated over to the VMware site and downloaded an upgrade to VMware Fusion 3 (before using VirtualBox, I owned Fusion 2). While it was the typical pain in the ass to install Windows XP and the myriad security updates and such, I have to say that I have been quite impressed by the new version of VMware Fusion.

The Unity mode, which was useless for me in version 2, kicks ass in version 3. It seamlessly integrates into my Mac OS, making it incredibly easy for me run SQL Server Management Studio and other Windows-specific applications (i.e., browsers) from my Mac's task/menu bar. I have not experienced one glitch with any application while running in Unity and love that I can fire up Internet Explorer for browser testing without ever having to look at a Windows interface ... except for the IE interface, of course :).

Additionally, the VM itself starts up so much faster than previous versions and, while the VMware footprint is larger than that of VirtualBox, the application and my guest OS run smoothly and efficiently.

While I would prefer to have an open source solution for my VM requirements, Fusion 3 is an excellent piece of software. If an open source alternative isn't in your budget and you absolutely must buy your virtualization software, VMware Fusion is definitely worth a look.

Posted via web from Craig Kaminsky's posterous

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There will not be a beta for Flash Professional CS5 (Adobe Flash Platform Blog)

There will not be a beta for Flash Professional CS5

Posted by Adrian Ludwig on December 17, 2009 9:30 AM

Adobe is no longer planning to release a public beta of Adobe Flash Professional CS5. This is a change from the plan that we announced in October at Adobe MAX 2009.

Since the original announcement we have seen a ton of interest in Flash Professional CS5 and the included Packager for iPhone. Developers in the pre-release program continue to provide great feedback and take advantage of the new features. We've also seen a number of new applications built using ActionScript 3 and delivered to the App Store.

We are changing our plans in reaction to this strong positive feedback. We want to make sure that we can provide the earliest possible delivery of the final software to the large number of designers and developers interested in Flash Professional CS5 and the included Packager for iPhone.

We understand that some people will be disappointed. Many of us were looking forward to a beta. But in the end, we think that what is most important is to get the release version completed and in your hands as quickly as possible.

via blogs.adobe.com

I'm not normally one to share such articles on my blog but this one sort of got to me.

Disclaimer: I don't use Flash Professional often. I do a good bit of Flex work, so I use Flex/Flash Builder. Additionally, While I'd be upset not to have the Flash Builder public beta, it doesn't matter to me personally if Adobe holds a CS5 public beta for Flash Professional or not.

So, why the post/share? It's this line:
"we think that what is most important is to get the release version completed and in your hands as quickly as possible"

Really?! So, you think we'd prefer that you build some hunk of shit software that's full of bugs because it didn't get fully tested and flushed out by the insanely active and eager Flash community?

Has Adobe really lost that much of it's "brain" power ... or are they simply hiding the truth?

I don't know about any of you, but, I'd prefer the release version to come a little later if that means the community can take part in a public beta and help improve and fine-tune the project.

Posted via web from Craig Kaminsky's posterous

ColdFusion Builder. Minor Annoyance and Fix

Over the past week, since switching from using ColdFusion Builder as a plug-in to the stand-alone version, I've noticed that every time I started ColdFusion Builder, the application window would maximize across my screen. This drives me nuts because my main computer has a large screen and high display resolution ... I don't need that much ColdFusion when I code :).

I looked throughout the preferences for a setting but found none. I also ran some obligatory forum and web searches but, still, didn't find anything useful ... hence this post.

Manually Set the Stand-alone Version of ColdFusion Builder's (read: Eclipse's) Application Properties.

Start ColdFusion Builder.
Set the application window to the width and height you'd like to keep.
Close ColdFusion Builder.
Open your workspace directory (on my Mac, the default went to /Users/<username>/Documents/Adobe ColdFusion Builder workspace/).
Show your hidden files (if necessary, which it is for me on my Mac!).
Open the .metadata folder.
Open the .plugins folder.
Open the org.eclipse.ui.workbench folder.
Open the workbench.xml file.
Edit line 4 (that's the line number in my file but, more importantly, the line contains an XML element with the following: window height="1055" maximized="true" width="1824" x="33" y="47").
Change this element by either removing the maximized attribute altogether or change it's value to false (i.e., window height="1055" maximized="false" width="1824" x="33" y="47").
Save the file.
Open ColdFusion Builder.

You should now be able to maintain your desired window's width.

NOTE: This issue may only be on the Mac (or maybe it's not an issue at all!). I don't have another machine on which I can test ColdFusion Builder. And I have filed it as a bug with Adobe, just in case!

Posted via web from Craig Kaminsky's posterous

From VirtualBox (back) to VMware Fusion

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There will not be a beta for Flash Professional CS5 (Adobe Flash Platform Blog)

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ColdFusion Builder. Minor Annoyance and Fix

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Craig Kaminsky