The Geek Blog

Another great comic from Joyoftech

2007-06-13T12:16:00.000+01:00

Flowers in our balcony

2007-06-07T11:24:00.001+01:00

Install Windows Vista on an iMac

2007-03-03T14:32:00.000+01:00

I installed Windows Vista on my iMac yesterday. There are some difficulties, but the results in the end are pretty impresive. Now let me answer the most obvious question first. Why should someone install Vista on an iMac ?. Hardcore Mac fans may not like it. I am big fan of Mac, but that doesn't mean I should keep a closed mind. As someone working in the IT field, I guess it makes sense to try out new things. More on my review of Vista later. Lets get in to the installation procedure now.

There are two solutions available. One is using 'Parallels Desktop for Mac'. I would'nt recommend this as Parelles not support Vista properly just yet. You can expect it with their next release. I choose the method using Bootcamp.

What you need : Bootcamp 1.1.2, Windows Vista installtion disc.(genuine or not , thats up to you :-))).

After u install bootcamp, start the bootcamp assistant. It will instruct you to create a driver CD for windows. You will need it later so go ahead and do it. The next step is creating a windows parition. This may bring some errors if you have some huge files (>1 GB) on your harddrive. Bootcamp may tell u the partition can't be done as it can't move some files. The solution is to remove those huge files if u don't need them or back it up on a DVD or an external harddrive. This is a bootcamp problem, so don't hate Vista for it. :-)) If u continue to get the same error, then u can also try a defragmentation using iDefrag.

I created a 25GB partition. Vista needs about 9-9.5 GB. After creating the partition, Vista will ask you to proceed with the installation. It's not a good idea to use a wireless keyboard and mouse as Bluetooth does not work out of the box. Use a USB keyboard and mouse instead. Put in the Vista installation disc, wait for it to mount and proceed. iMac will reboot and it starts the Vista Setup. If at this point, your iMac does not recognize your installation disc then reboot your Mac and press 'Alt' during the boot up process. It will read from the disc and start the installation.

I am not going to explain the vista installation process as it is really simple and straight forward. Not much user interaction is needed so you may as well go for a coffee :-). It took me about 30 minutes. Once the installation is finished, it will guide u through some settings (creating a user name and analysing your machine for performance etc). That's it!!!. You have now Vista on your iMac including Aero and networking. Here is a picture.

Most of your devices works except some. This will depend on the kind of iMac you have. But it can be solved. I am assuming you are familiar with Windows OS. These devices were marked with conflict on mine.

Apple Built in iSight.
Bluetooth.
Audio.

This is where the driver CD you created comes handy. Create a folder on your Desktop. Name it what ever you want. For eg:-"Drivers". Copy the file "Install Macintosh Drivers for Windows XP.exe" in to this directory. Now launch the command line by typing 'cmd' on to the search box on the start menu and click on the result. Do the following.

CD Desktop/Drivers
"Install Macintosh Drivers for Windows XP" /A /v

Accept the security dialog. This will extract the drivers in to the directory "Drivers". Launch the "Device Manager"by using the search box. Click on the conflicting devices and choose update driver. Navigate to the drivers directory and then to the directory "Macintosh Drivers for Windows XP 1.1.2". Remember to select the option "include sub directories". This will resolve the conflicting devices. You may have to play with Bluetooth a bit longer but eventually it works. Once it does, you can use your bluetooth keyboard and mouse. The only remaining device I had was "Performance Counters". It doesn't matter I guess. Everything else works fine. Well Done !!! You have a flying Windows Vista on your iMac now. Here are some screenshots.

Which version of visa would u like to buy?

2007-01-29T10:44:00.000+01:00

This is so funny.....

Pathway - Explore Wikipedia in a new perspective

2007-01-19T10:28:00.000+01:00

Being a hard core user of Wikipedia, one of the biggest problems I experienced is that sometimes you get lost. You keep on exploring and at some point, you don't know how you reached the current page. It would remind you of those late night parties. You wake up and you don't know how the hell you are back in your apartment. Now this problem is solved. There is a program called Pathway which deals with this problem. It's only for Mac's. well I guess windows users don't need it anyway as they are quite used to get lost in their OS itself and more over in the clumsy Microsoft Word. I will share you my experience of using this app. When u start searching, a graphical node is created for your search. The program automatically finds all the related articles and presents a network like interface. You can switch to any other node, which would be a related article and the software automatically creates a connection line, thus creating a network representation of your search. When u click on each node, you can see it in a built in browser. Here are some screenshots.

You can save the the network u created and later restore it to continue your journey. It has also Spotlight Integration so searching with in a document is a piece of cake. At the moment English, French, German,Dutch & Spanish are supported. It's created by a Belgian student, Dennis Lorson. Great program Dennis, way to go !!!!.

The feature list you can find here.
You can download it from here.

Insel Mainau

2006-11-18T12:25:00.000+01:00

Paris

2006-11-18T09:56:00.000+01:00

Glass pyramid - Louvre, Paris

Eifel Tower - Paris

Paris - a view from Eifel Tower

Eifel Tower - at night

Calling a .NET DLL from Visual Basic 6.0

2006-05-15T09:07:00.000+01:00

Ok..Last days at work I had to create a C# DLL which could be accessed from Visual Basic 6.0. I guess you can find a lot about COM Interop in .NET from a lot of websites. I just want to put it very simple here by explaining how I did it.

So first step is ofcourse creating the C# DLL. I will create a small function to say "Hello World"

Here is the code...

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

namespace CSharpLib
{
[ComVisible(true)]
[ClassInterface(ClassInterfaceType.AutoDual)]
[Guid("8197A85A-5A85-43dc-8A9B-92E3D6E8882A")]

public class CSharpLib
{
public CSharpLib() {}
public string SayHello()
{
return "Hello World";
}
}
}

As the code is pretty straight forward, I am not going to explain it. You can create the Guid using Tools -> Create Guid from the IDE Menu. Go to project properties -> Build and check the option "Register for COM Interop". Now build the project and you can see that the compiler creates two files in the putput directory. One is the DLL file and the the other is the TLB (type library) file.

Now start a new Visual Basic project go to Project -> references and you should see the new COM class in the list. Add this to your project and there you go !!!. You can use it now in your code whatever way you want. For eg:-

Dim ob as new CSharpLib.CSharpLib
Messagebox(ob.SayHello())

There are also other ways to do it... This is just one way !!!

THE FIRST BLOG

2006-05-12T13:52:00.000+01:00

Here is my first ever Blog Post...I was thinking about bloging since quite some time..but as it is always with me..I am too lazy to start doing something...whenever I thought about it, I choose instead to lay on the couch watching some movies....but as the germans say "endlich!!!" (finally!!!).

So What do I intend to post here? I don't know...whatever comes into my mind...I don't know if someone is ever gonna spend time reading this..anyway...I consider myself a geek, so you can always expect some geek stuff here...some new gadget I found interesting..some new technology and so on...

You can also expect my thoughts on some movies, books or some place I visited...and I guess some pictures as well..... and since I am a software engineer by profession I would also post something I find useful for others in that direction like some code snippets or so...

Well.. It's Friday...so all I wanna say is TGIF (Thank God It's Friday)...