Running Windows 7 Beta from Mac OS X using Sun Microsystems' xVM

In fact though the title of this tiny article tells (or yells?) Windows 7 Beta on Mac. The procedure is kind of generic and can be used for any other supported guest OS' as well.

There are brilliant articles on this including the step-by-step kind of ones with screen-captures for example http://weblogs.java.net/blog/aditya_dada/archive/2009/02/using_suns_virt_1.html.

Actually if one knows the basics its a very simple and straight forward procedure. Here I'll try to capture the steps involved.

1. Download Sun Microsystems' virtual machine for the respective OS. In this case I tried for Mac.
2. Install the Virtual Machine on the host operating system. i.e. the OS that hosts the "guest" or other operating system. In this case Mac OS X is the host and Windows 7 Beta is the guest.
3. Download the beta/release of your guest OS if you've not done that before or keep the CD/DVD ready if you already have a licensed one. I presume and advise that you are going to use only legal software. If you choose any Open Source software then you are encouraged to do so.
4. Start the "Virtual Machine" application and walk through the installation steps of the "Virtual Machine Wizard" and voila you'll have guest OS installed and is available in an application window.

Try it. You'll love it. Hope you liked the sample captures on top left of this article :)

Notepad++ nice options; Searching for more information on specific text

As shown in the screen-capture. There are some nice options under the "Run" top-level menu of Notepad++, to search for a "selected text" or the "current word" in Google/Wikipedia etc.,

If there is a file-name in the current text like c:\SomePath\blah.txt just by selecting the full-path and hitting Alt+F5 we can open the file in Notepad++.

Notepad++

I wanted an editor that is very easy to use, feature-rich and with a short learning curve. I wanted the focus to be on the actual work rather than learning how to do it on a specific word-processing application (not quite possible always). My friend was already using this application then and recommended me. Ever from that day, whatever be the Windows box I get to work with, I wanted Notepad++ on it before I start. It has also become the first of my articles about technology stuff.

It has everything that a developer would need. The plug-ins are increasing and are simply amazing. It is open source and is available under GNU GPL version 2 (or later). You can start the fun by downloading it from http://sourceforge.net/projects/notepad-plus/

I saw some interesting variants like "Notepad++ Portable Edition", "Notepad Scratchpad", "Secured Notepad++", and "Notepad X". I'll try to write about some cool features in this editor with some examples.