If you use Windows, you've had it happen. Your machine just stops responding to much of anything, often even the mouse. You wave the mouse around a bit, hit a few keys on the keyboard: nothing. A few seconds later, all of those motions happen at once on the screen.

Other times, you manage to hit CTRL-ALT-DEL and see why it slowed down and there, staring you in the face is something like Firefox, chewing up 100% of the CPU time. For an app like that, it's not too bad as it will let up soon enough, but this kind of runaway monopolization of CPU time can get in the way of getting things done if you run lots of stuff simultaneously.

Enter Process Tamer. This little app, from the same folks who brought you my chosen screenshot solution, watches for anything that tries to peg the CPU and steps in. It lowers the runaway process' priority, which lets everything else kick back in. Later, it looks to see if said process is now behaving itself and restores it to its previous priority level.

I've been running it for a couple of weeks now and find myself just on the verge of irritation with slowdowns only to see the little notice in the system tray that it took care of it.

Photo: Josef F. Stuefer

Last July, I set forth a vision. I asked you to imagine with me a world where candles smelled, not of lavender or gardenia, but of pipe tobacco, leather and other more masculine scents.

I, as always, being full of hot air, did nothing about it. However, my post ended up being part of another man's journey to retain his manly identity while burning scented wax. He went beyond the half-baked idea that I put forth and actually started a business selling just this thing. The idea is now fully baked.

Brett Williams and associates are now selling Mandles, candles for men. In their own words:

All of our Mandles are hand produced by us to ensure that each candle isn't too damn girly. One rule of thumb: If a woman really, really likes the scent, we don't make it.

Their candles come in one color: white. They come in a metal tin that you can use to store manly stuff like bolts or ammunition when the candle is gone. And, they don't use frilly labels. Just smells in a can.

Long time readers of this site know that I've pursued dual boot and Linux workstation setups in the past. I often need to work on a Unix-based system for development, but pretty much always need access to Windows workstations as well. The net result has left me with a WinXP workstation/server and a Debian workstation/server on my desk and other servers as necessary.

However, what I've wanted all along is to have Linux right on my true primary workstation: my laptop. I tried several times to get Linux to cooperate with my previous laptop, going as far as paying for an "expert" to install it. That resulted in his insistance that 1024×768, stretched to 1280×800 wasn't, in fact stretched, but the way that the fonts were "supposed" to work. Given that I specifically requested that the *native* resolution, built-in 802.11g card and a few other things needed to work in order for it to be a success, the failure of those first 2 things to work left me quickly erasing the effort.

Enter VMWare. I'm not sure when the last time I messed with VMWare was, but I do know that the useful versions weren't free at the time. Last week, I was messing with Qemu to try and get a simple way to have a clean Win2K machine at my beck and call for some Windows specific things that have proven difficult on machines being used for other things. I wanted a way to just grab a clean machine and get going, mess things up and start over without spending 4 hours reinstalling Windows.

Qemu definitely still looks like it will do the job, but in the process, I checked out VMWare again. Their Player will play any virtual machine that's already created, but recently they made their *Server* free as well, which lets yo u create your own virtual machines easily. I downloaded it and got the free installation key and sat down to set some stuff up.

I created a Windows virtual machine that had sound, USB, CD access, bridged ethernet (actually gets its own IP address from my local network) and 256MB of RAM. I shoved a Win2K CD into the drive and booted my new virtual machine. There, in a little 800×600 window was my new Windows machine, installing Win2K.

A few hours later, I had a completely patched Win2K machine that I've since archived (and will keep updated/patched). I've used it a bit and am really finding this way of working with Windows handy. But, what about Linux?

Well, I grabbed an ISO of Ubuntu Linux and burned it to CD. I usually use Debian when I need Linux, because of the apt package management, which makes keeping the thing patched, much easier. When I noticed that Ubuntu also uses apt, I decided to give that a whirl.

So, I created another virtual machine, using most of the same settings and shoved the Ubuntu CD into the drive and booted the VM up. It led me through the standard installer screens (still not too terribly user-friendly), and was thrilled to not only be asked what resolutions I wanted to use, but to see widescreen resolutions in the list. I finished the install and clicked the fullscreen button.

Lo and behold, I have a fullscreen Linux workstation on my laptop. It has wireless access. It has USB access. It has sound. And, it's not stretching the display. I do believe I will be using this little virtual workstation on the job as an easy way to completely customize my environment without messing with "official" setups. In some companies, getting admin access is harder than nearly anything else, making writing software a difficult task. On the virtual machine, however, I have complete control and can set up whatever I need without messing their precious Windows workstation.

If you'd like to do this yourself, you just need VMWare's Player or Server, this config setup/virtual machine, and an Ubuntu CD. Insert the CD and boot up the virtual machine. It will read the CD and get going.

A couple of days ago, I was sent a link to RSSBus and got a downloaded copy. I'm just starting to mess with it, but my geeky sense is tingling. This is going to be REALLY cool.

The general idea is exactly the kind of black box I've been talking about for a few months, where web services, RSS content, etc. are fed in and mashed up feeds and other outputs come out the other end.

The name hints at the concept in hardware of the buses that are used to channel data through a central place. Your motherboard's bus moves data from one component to another and this does the same with web data.

Built-in components for things like Amazon searches, FTP upload/download, and even hooks into the Asterisk telecom software offer a tantalizing array of possibilities and the ability to add on to it mean that it's likely to get pretty freaking cool by the time it's out of beta.

This is the mashup toolbox that previous attempts have *wanted* to be. Rather than going for lowest common denominator simplicity (which results in the same 10 mashups over and over again), they went for real power. That usually results in better solutions, but takes longer. And, I'm all in favor of a slow roasted solution that can't be beat over yet another fast food rehash.

I look forward to seeing where this goes.

Garrick Van Buren and I have been talking about doing a regular technology podcast for a while now (since we sat down to talk about attention). Last week we finally got around to, well . . . still talking, but with microphones involved and the result is Episode 1 of The Glass is Too Big, the podcast, ready to abuse your headphones.

We talk about device convergence and why the whole idea is a red herring (and why it bugs me). More of the conversation will be coming as Episode 2 and will deal with business models in digital content.

The Glass is Too Big, Episode 1 Show Notes
Episode 1 MP3
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