i have a spare laptop that has been collecting dust for a while now and i haven’t been able to figure out how to make it useful. but over the weekend, i have finally found a good cause for it.

the ultimate testing machine has a bunch of VMs on it.
1) Windows XP w/ IE 6
2) Windows XP w/ IE 7
3) Windows XP w/ IE 8
4) Windows Vista w/ IE 7
5) Windows Vista w/ IE 8
6) Fedora Core 11

all windows VMs also have Firefox 2.0, Firefox 3.0, Firefox 3.5, Safari, Chrome, and Opera.

the host OS is Mac OS X, where I have installed Safari, Firefox, and Opera. so if there’s a browser/OS config i want to test, i think i have the popular platforms covered. now, if there was only an easy way to have different versions of flash installed…i guess i can 2x the number of VMs i have…

• Been waking up early – haven't adjusted from camping schedule yet. How to get back toy normal schedule? #
• Found out that vmware fusion doesn't support vista sp2. No wonder my boot camp partition won't start up anymore. Should I stay w/ sp1? #
• I know it doesn't look good but it was delicious. Smores with chocolate chip cookies instead of Graham crackers. http://twitpic.com/fbbex #
• Tea era or verde tea? Always a tough choice. http://twitpic.com/fd3jo #
• Koda wearing his booties. http://twitpic.com/fe9fi #
• Trying out el taco de oro taco truck. Is the restaurant next door any better? http://twitpic.com/fhb4h #
• BEST $5 I have ever spent. EVER! It's only 5 minutes away, I'm going here more often. Are the burritos any good? http://twitpic.com/fhjsi #
• Tacos from lunch were so good yesterday that I made tacos for dinner. Am mow thinking about eating tacos for breakfast. Too much? #
• checked epinions on a whim & found that i had $200+ in eroyalties credit, so i had them mail me a check. what to do with newfound wealth? #
• Yeah these menus aren't overwhelmingly large. http://twitpic.com/fq4xw #
• Me: It is too hot to be walking the dog. Dog: it is too hot to be leashed to you. Set me free so I can find shade. #

is windows 7 really the name that microsoft is going with? and can anyone else remember what all the versions were? does anyone remember windows 1.0-3.0? i don’t think i ever used it. i do remember using a windows run-time and i think then windows 3.1. anyway, i wonder how the windows 7 name came about…

i decided to give windows 7 a whirl. i am using my windows partition primarily as a gaming partition, but there could be a few programs that i might need to run while on the mac side. that being said, i wanted to make sure that if i did set up a boot camp partition for windows that i would be able to boot it as a VM.

there were a couple of hiccups trying to get the VM to work, but it turns out that vmware doesn’t play nice when you try to reinstall windows on your boot camp partition. clear out all of the previously installed stuff and it worked great.

it’s been a while since i wrote an epinion, but on a whim, i decided to login and check out my profile. it turns out that i am a “popular author” and i’m in the top 1000 epinion writers. i found out that i’m actually #737. considering my lack of activity for the last several years, i wonder if that means that the epinion writing population is really, really tiny or if i am really that popular. i sort of suspect that it isn’t the latter. =P

what it probably means is that there are lots of contributors who don’t contribute a lot so they don’t get as many hits as others who tend to write more epinions.

btw, i also wrote a new review on the canon 85mm f/1.2L in case you were looking to drop a few thousand dollars on a lens…

there’s probably something wrong with just how much joy i get from eating a taco from a taco truck, but today i ventured over to the very often recommended el taco de oro taco truck to sample some of their tacos. let me tell you…fantastic.

i’m tempted to go there again tomorrow to try a burrito in their sit down restaurant, but these tacos were tasty. small, but for $1.25 each, they were great little explosions of flavor.

i’ve never found much reason to go to alviso, but now there is a solid reason.

el taco de oro
5210 n 1st st
alviso, ca 95002

if you are anywhere in the area, go check it out!

• Just bumped into brad at pearl tea. He recognized me by my car. Didn't think an accord was that unique. #
• Punctuate this: that that is is that that is not is not #
• listening to green day's _know your enemy_ album. heard 21 guns & loved it. thought it might be GD, but thought it was too mellow 4 them. #
• err listening to green day's latest album _21st century breakdown_ #
• giving plain white t's _big bad world_ a listen. so far so good. i never listened to their first album, maybe i should. #
• I  specialty's cookies http://twitpic.com/eduyx #
• specialty's beef & blue sandwich. 580 calories. i still cannot believe that cheesecake factory slice is over 1500. #
• I really need a haircut. http://twitpic.com/em8j1 #
• I think it has been almost three months since my last haircut. Tried to go thru the whole summer w/o a haircut. http://twitpic.com/emslw #
• Koda and i are breaking for lunch at dos coyotes. New sac location. http://twitpic.com/er0bp #
• Dude that is a lot of salsa at the salsa bar at dos coyotes. http://twitpic.com/er40a #
• Oh crap it's starting to rain and it's 6am and we are camping. #

i need a haircut…bad. since i’ve gotten married, i haven’t had to go out to get my haircut in a long, long time, but now that christi is very pregnant, i don’t think she can reach over to cut my hair anymore. this means that i have to go out to get my hair cut by someone.

the last time i paid someone to cut my hair, it was years ago and i have since moved. i don’t know where to go anymore. i think i will just have to find a barber somewhere and just tell them to go at it. i’ve been trying to put it off for as long as i can, but it is so annoyingly long now that it is really hard for me to deal with it.

it’s definitely a problem when my bangs are long enough that they can touch the tip of my nose. usually, they barely touch my eyebrows!

• Trying to find a good burrito near work. http://yfrog.com/58maywedj #
• sitting in a conference room that is almost as hot as it is outside, but the rest of the office is nice and cool…what is going on here? #
• it's amazing that #WeLoveYouMiley is a trending topic and most of the tweets have nothing else in it. btw, #WeLoveYouMiley ! =P #
• office almost ran out of diet coke, but a shipment came in just in the nick of time. #
• 36.98GB of 97.22GB backed up. it's going to be a long night… #
• Mexican food or Hawaiian BBQ? Decisions, decisions! #
• time machine backup is done, now trying to do a superduper backup. it's an all backup evening for me. #
• just found out on FACEBOOK that my wife cut all her hair and my love for her off. FACEBOOK is how i find out!? =P #
• getting sleepy…it's not even 10 yet! #
• Koda, go get the ducks! http://yfrog.com/0iragdj #
• Dog that stick is still attached to that bush! http://twitpic.com/doeb0 #
• Koda loves the percolation ponds http://twitpic.com/doix2 #
• I think the ape is out to get me. http://twitpic.com/ds9jw #
• Have a weird froyo craving. What is going on? #
• Walking the dog, trying to discourage him from eating passing pedestrians. http://twitpic.com/dxixp #
• That CAN'T be per slice, right? Right?! http://twitpic.com/dyhyl #

people are calling it sympathy cravings, but i had two very strange cravings today. the first was froyo which is weird because i never crave froyo. i only tolerate froyo, but don’t usually go out of my way to get it.

maybe what got me craving it is that @cafeyolicious followed me yesterday and i decided to try out their BOGO (Buy One, Get One Free) offer. just mention twitter and they say that you buy one and you get one free. it’s really more like BOSOGOF (Buy One, Sort Of Get One Free). i bought a small froyo with 1 topping and they gave me 1 mini froyo with 1 topping. still, not a bad deal compared to other froyo shops, but still a little misleading…

the froyo was decent, but the selection of fruit was small. the chopped mangoes looked sad, but the blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries all looked good.

the other craving i am having is sushi. i really, really want some good sushi, but am sad that i won’t be able to indulge in sushi at home for a while.

it always starts like this:
1) buy a camcorder.
2) make videos.

and i thought i would be done there. but once i started to make videos, i realized a few things:
problem: audio quality with the built-in mic is awful.
solution: buy an external mic.

problem: camcorder’s hot shoe mount is not standard.
solution: buy a mini shoe=> standard shoe adapter.

problem: video quality is great, but is really shaky and dizzy to look at.
solution: buy some kind of steadying device. buy a manfrotto modosteady.

so what started off as an already largish $600 camcorder purchase became a $600 camcorder + $100 external mic + $30 hot shoe adapter + $100 modosteady purchase.

man, it is never easy, is it? these home videos better look awesome!