Spy Journal 3.0 Filtering the web for you

We spent 56 odd hours on this leg on Kioni

The wind was too strong to leave Yeppoon as scheduled so we had an extra 12 hours layover waiting for the tide so we could leave the marina. We walked around, ate lots of food, drank lots of coffee and took lots of photos.

It took all day but it finally happened. It seemed as if every time I took the camera down below decks whales and dolphins came by and whenever I brought it up they didn’t. And then just before sunset as I was at the helm the biggest whale of the day breached around 350 metres off the port forward quarter. I handed the helm to the skipper and raced down stairs in time to come up and snap a couple of flurry shots as it broached again. I then got onto the side of the boat as it broached off the beam – maybe only 200 metres away and snapped a beaut series of it rising and broaching. The best six sots of the sequence are below.

I flew into Hamilton island via Jetstar Airlines and the minute I hit the tarmac I felt the tropical heat. However I opted to walk the kilometre or so from the airport into the yacht marina over a small hill and carrying my bags. I was dripping by the time I got there. After wandering around for a bit and asking people who had zero idea, I ended up on the right marina arm and found Kioni, my berth for the next 7 nights.

The skipper Nick arrived at the same time as I did, and we started off by cleaning up the mess in the galley the previous crew had kindly left.

A great newsletter article from Microsoft.

We all know the routine. You’re churning through e-mails or browsing your favorite tech blog and you see that new app that is going to solve that pressing issue or promises to bring world peace to your desktop. You click the link, download the bits, and 15 minutes later you’re stumbling through the interface working out if it is really going to do everything the blurb said it would. It’s normally about this time that something else pops up, so you close the app and go and deal with another distraction.
This routine is then repeated over the next couple of months and you start to notice that your machine is not quite as responsive as it used to be. A quick glance at Add or Remove Programs and you’re scratching your head working out where all those apps came from. The process then starts of looking at each app and working out which ones to cull and which ones to keep. Fast forward a couple of hours and, various reboots later, your machine is starting to behave like its lithe old self again. The downside though is that you have just burned through a few hours and all you have to show for it is that your machine is back to where it was a few months back.
So what’s the answer? Well, like most things in life, there are a couple of solutions. The first one is to swear off trying new apps, leave your machine in its pristine state, and never install another application again. That one not working for you? How about Windows 7 with Windows Virtual PC then?
This is the combination I love. I can install an application into a virtual machine (VM). Its shortcuts are then presented in the Start menu of the host machine. When I launch the application, it appears as if it is running on the host OS, but in reality it is safely tucked away inside the sandbox of the VM. Why do I love this? Well, once I’m done testing the app, I use the undo disk feature in Windows Virtual PC to roll the VM back to its original state and it’s like it was never there. How long does it take? Minutes. So now, instead of burning hours rebuilding or repairing my machine, I have more time to search for that world peace for the desktop application.
And here’s a tip if you want to quickly build a Windows 7 VM. Head over to http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/wim2vhd and grab the handy Windows Image to Virtual Hard Disk (WIM2VHD) Converter. It will take your Windows 7 Install.wim file and convert it to a VHD in less than 10 minutes. You can then use that VHD in a new virtual machine and it will boot straight into the Windows setup process saving you even more time!

- Gordon Ryan is technologist, consultant, trainer, and Springboard Series Technical Expert Panel (STEP) member. When not traveling, he can be found living in Sydney with his 13-year-old cattle dog. When traveling, he can be found looking for quality libations.