We’re looking for a replacement for the Mac RDP client.  We have one client whose clock is off no matter what in Outlook.  Using a Windows PC is not an option for various reasons.  Using parallels isn’t really an option.  This was tried and it created more calls for us than using something more native to OS X.  This user is on an x86 Macbook Pro laptop.  She has limited technical skills.  We are trying to make her life easier and simplify the process for her to connect to the terminal server farm where all of their data lives.  RDP6 for Mac (Remote Desktop Connection 2) is the best solution we have so far, but it still sometimes has issues with the timezone for her.  Lastly, using Entourage 2004/2008 or Mail is also not an option – the business owner does not want any local data to reside on any PC due to security concerns.

What we want to do is run the Windows binary of RDP5 or RDP6 on a Mac or more easily run the Linux rdesktop command with a GUI wraper.  I run this tool frequently from the command line or the GUI wrapper in Ubuntu or other distros and it works great.

Can someone with an Intel Mac try this:  http://desktopecho.com/iMKS/ and let me know how easy it is to setup and use?  It replaces TSClientX, an opensource GUI wrapper of the opensource RDP client.  TSClientX was awesome – a GUI wrapper to rdesktop.  Unfortunately it isn’t supported in 10.5 and the 10.5.5 or 10.5.4 update broke it (changes to the x11 environment I believe).  We want to see how easy it is to setup and use RDP, either the Linux tool or the Windows binary for RDP5 or RDP6.

The other thing we’d like to try is WINE:  http://wiki.winehq.org/MacOSX with a walkthrough here:  http://davidbaumgold.com/tutorials/wine-mac/.

The last time I looked, the Windows RDP5 binary worked.  RDP6 was not.  This may have changed as that was six months ago.

We have tried CoRD – http://cord.sourceforge.net/ – but it feels slower than Microsoft’s RDP method or rdesktop.

Windows Users,
I am running XP Pro in Parallels on my Mac for occasional uses that require it. I’ve been using Parallels “free” Kasperky subscription, which is now coming to an end. For what I use it, I don’t want to pony up $60 per year for something like that. My two questions are 1) Do I really need to run an app like that (I assume the answer is a resounding “yes”) and 2) What is a low cost/no cost alternative to Kaspersky? Please advise. Thanks!

OK… not really. But I wanted to share with you all a new web conferencing tool that I discovered. Patrick and I tested it the other day and we were relatively impressed. It is an Open Source solution which any geek can get behind. It’s called Dimdim.

This service, like many web conferencing services allows you to share your desktop with others. Dimdim also also allows you to share PPT and PDF’s right within the web conference which is nice. You can use the annotation tools to mark-up the ppt or PDF that you are reviewing as well which comes in handy. You can use the Whiteboard within dimdim to collaboratively share ideas or to highlight things as well.

Dimdim also has VOIP built into the service as well along with video. The video service is not included in the free version but the voice is. You can have up to 4 people I believe all with voice at the same time in the dimdim web conference. The things I liked the best were the ease of use and the nice GUI. A lot of these web conferencing tools today are powerful but don’t allow the user to manage them well and don’t give the user or the participants anything good to look at. And… it’s cross platform. There is no plugin to install when using this tool because it uses Flash to power itself. Pretty cool.

Go check them out if you are currently looking for a web conferencing tool. They have a couple different flavors of their service, one of which is of course free. And if you really want to geek out, since it’s open source you can take the entire application, download it and install it on your own server to use. Pretty cool stuff.

Any one know of a tool that does the following:

1. Allows a PC (host) to control a Mac (client)
2. Is very easy to use by an end user (especially on the client side)
3. Is inexpensive/free
4. Has to be able to work through firewalls and other security measures you see in a home office
We are seeing more users with Macs and I’m interested in finding a tool that works through the cloud that is very easy to use by them. Everything at the shop is running Windows, but if there is a great Mac to Mac tool, I’d be interested in learning more as well.

It looks like our friends at Now have finally heard the customer base and are trying to finally release a new version of Now Up To Date and Contact labeled NightHawk. For those of us using it, there seems to be hope that all of the ballast of the old code base will be shed in order to boost performance and reliability. I would certainly appreciate it. The big question remaining is whether or not Now can beat other vendors to the punch. I am most excited to see how Apple will stack up with their suite of products, as I anticipate major updates to Mail, iCal, and AddressBook in light of the iPhone this year. Your thoughts?

I thought this would be worth mentioning -  especially in light of last night’s (Geekgather) conversations about Parallels and VMware. CodeWeavers just released 1.0 of CrossOver for Mac. It features some niceties like launching Win apps from the Dock or from Mail (attachments).

Geeks,
I am offering up my Roku Soundbridges. I have 3 M1000 and they are all for sale. All of them are equipped with wireless networking cards. I have one wall mount as well. Feel free to spread the word.
I put one up on eBay. Follow the jump to more details. I look forward to seeing you at the next GG.

David Pogue of the NY Times has an interesting opinion piece about what working in IT really means
and brings up a lot of discussion about Macs vs PCs and why, generally speaking, corporate IT continues to stay with Microsoft strategies instead of moving towards more open source models or Macs. The comments to this piece are equally interesting to read although there was a strong-biased towards Mac which may have had to do with Pogue being very much a Mac user. He does use Windows although it is primarily for Dragon Naturally Speaking, a Windows-only product for translating the spoken word into text on a screen.

That’s right, live streaming ASCII straight to your terminal. I’m probably ruining my chances of actually seeing this by posting it. I can’t imagine that they’re prepared for too much traffic. Who can pass up “The best, most ridiculous, most redundant graphical implementation of ASCII!?”

telnet ascii-wm.net 2006

Of course, there's always: http://www.asciimation.co.nz/

OK, I have not posted here in a while, largely due to my overwhelming personal life. Therefore, I thought that I would make this post a good one. This is especially for all of you who have been wanting to get old tech up and running and doing more than just web surfing.

I have an old IBM Thinkpad X21. It is thin and light (3.1 pounds) has a 20 gig drive, 700MHz PIII, 12.1 inch 1024×768 screen and decent battery life. I even have a docking station for it that, among other things, allows it to basically become a desktop system. It is a great little machine as PC’s go and, because of it’s size, very portable. But it is also probably pushing the limits for a usable installation of Windows. What better opportunity to give it a little Linux love.

Now, I know many of you are asking, “Hey Patrick, you are a Mac guy with a Powerbook. Why do you need a Linux laptop?” Well, here is the deal. As many of you know, I am living between two houses right now and will be for a little while longer. I am getting tired of dragging my machine back and forth between the two places. Having this one set up permanently at the new house will save me a bunch of hassle.

Many of you are aware of Ubuntu. It is quickly becoming one of the more popular Linux distros and for good reason. It is easy to install, has a wide range of hardware support, is very easy to use and has great community support. With a new version recently released (6.06 LTS) there could not be a better time to give it a spin around the old hardware block. It also is very efficient in use of disk space because the base install includes (almost) everything you need and nothing you don’t. But, do notice that little “a” word there – almost.

The fact of the matter is that while Ubuntu will give you a web browser (Firefox), e-mail client (Evolution), chat (Gaim), office suite (Open Office) – you get the idea – but there are a lot of things it leaves out. For instance you need a bunch of codecs for playing video, a lot of fonts to render web pages correctly, a decent media player, DVD encryption decoding… A whole bunch of stuff for making a machine for everyday use. There are many reasons, legal and otherwise, for leaving these out that takes too long to get into right now. Here are a couple of resources that really helped me get all of these things and more after the install.

Prepping Dapper for Everyday Use – This was a great starting point for everything from configuring the look and feel of the desktop to installing MS like fonts (It is a Windows world after all). It is written from the perspective of a beginner Ubuntu user and has just a few things to tweak it here and there.

Windows to Ubuntu Transition Guide – Even if you are not a Windows user this is hands down the best guide I have come across so far for turning Ubuntu into a highly usable everyday system. The single best item in the article is a pointer to a package of scripts called Automatix. Automatix basically does all of the work for you and downloads, installs and handles all the dependencies for just about everything one would need. This includes Acrobat Reader, VLC, every codec for any multimedia you will ever need and much, much more.

Because of this I now have a great little everyday machine that is fast and portable and capable of doing almost anything I could ask of it. I hope this helps any of my fellow geeks out there who have given Linux a try and been less than impressed, left wanting more or did not have the skills needed to get stuff working.