GENERAL MEETING NOTES
Date of
meeting: July 19, 2010
Location: Pima
County Medical Society
USEFUL
GADGETS AND DEVICES
A Hauppauge WinTV
HVR 950Q USB TV tuner was presented by Dennis McCormick.
See
and
http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_hvr950q.html
and
http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11313856
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A Linksys WMP300N Wi-Fi PCI Adapter for extended range Wi-Fi
access was presented by Francis and Liz.
See
http://www.amazon.com/Cisco-Linksys-Wireless-N-PCI-Adapter-WMP300N/dp/B000FDDUXG
and
http://www.linksysbycisco.com/EU/en/products/WMP300N
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An iMicro 3.5 IDE
& SATA to USB external hard drive enclosure was presented by Ken Sandock.
See
http://imicro.com/item.php?item=IMBS35G-BK
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An Action Star Printer Sharing Switch was
presented by Ken Sandock.
See
http://www.actionstar.net/product.asp?catid=6
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Ken Sandock presented "Double Killer--free edition" which
is a free software utility for searching for duplicate data files on your
computer.
See
http://bigbangenterprises.de/en/doublekiller/
VIRTUAL
DEVICES & COMPUTERS
The above
items are real, take up space, and cost you money.
Francis and
Liz presented some virtual devices that are free and more of an intellectual
challenge that actual physical devices:
Connectify</a>"
is a free wireless access point that you can use to provide firewalled
Wi-Fi Internet access to real computers near you.
See
and
http://www.aztcs.org/meeting_notes/winhardsig/connectify/connectify.html
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The "Vice
Emulator" provides you with a free virtual "Commodore 64"
computer inside your Windows, Linux, or Macintosh computer.
See
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"Oracle
VirtualBox" provides you with a
the ability to run virtual machine computers (DOS, Windows, and Linux)
inside your existing Windows or Linux Computer.
See
and
http://aztcs.org/meeting_notes/winhardsig/virtualbox/virtualbox.pdf
and
http://aztcs.org/meeting_notes/linuxsig/ubuntuintovirtualbox/ubuntuintovirtualbox.htm
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"VMware Player 3" provides you with the ability to run
virtual computers (DOS, Windows, and Linux) inside your existing Windows or
Linux Computer. It also provides you with a configurable virtual
router/firewall/Ethernet switch so that you can do file and printer sharing
between virtual machine computers and between virtual machine computers and the
host operating system.
See
http://www.vmware.com/products/player/
COMPARISON
BETWEEN "VIRTUALBOX" AND "VMWARE PLAYER"
Both
Oracle's free "VirtualBox 3" and VMware's
free "VMware Player 3" let you to host
Linux, DOS, and Windows operating systems as "virtual machines"
inside "Windows" or "Linux".
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Both Oracle "VirtualBox 3" and "VMware Player 3"; let you create/install virtual
machines, which are also known as "guest operating systems".
Past versions of "VMware Player" did
not have this capability.
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(VMware also offers a free virtual machine system called "VMware Server".
"VMware Server" only runs reliably on the server
versions of Windows and Linux.
In 2009,
Francis tried to run "VMware Server 2" on a
Windows Vista Home computer
and it
overwhelmed this computer, resulting in unrecoverable Windows registry
corruption.)
**************************
"VMware Player 3" gives you more reliable control over
USB-attached devices than "VirtualBox 3"
(With
"VirtualBox 3", you often have to insert a
USB device such as a flash drive multiple times before a virtual machine guest
recognizes it.)
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Oracle
"VirtualBox" allows you to create
"virtual hard drives" on demand while "VMware
Player.." does not.<br
/>
In Oracle
"VirtualBox.." you
can create a new "virtual hard drive" at any time using the
"Virtual Media Manager" applet.
In "VMware.." you are allowed to
create a single virtual hard drive at the time that you create a new virtual
machine/operating system.)
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With "VMware Player 3", we are able to do file and printer
sharing between virtual machines. (We have been unable to do so with "VirtualBox 3".)
With "VMware Player 3", we are able to do file and printer
sharing between a virtual machine and the host operating system. (We have also
been able to do so with "VirtualBox 3" but
it is not as reliable or consistent as these same capabilities in "VMware Player 3".
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Some
additional comparisons between "VMware Player.." and "VirtualBox"
can be found at:
http://www.sysprobs.com/virtualbox-316-vmware-player-3-desktop-virtualization-software
and
http://www.techairlines.com/2010/01/08/virtualbox-3-1-2-vs-vmware-player-3-0-first-class-flyer/
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