Digital Rants

I took the long way when migrating from VMWare Server 1/2 to VirtualBox. There is a simpler way!
All VirtualBox needs is a disk image file, and although it works with VMDK images straight away, I prefer to convert them to the VDI format.

For the following to work, you need command line/shell access and VirtualBox executables are in the search path (obviously you need to install VirtualBox in the first place). The following is done with VirtualBox 3 Beta 1:

1. Important: From VMWare Server, start your virtual machines and uninstall VMWare toolbox!
2. Locate the main VMDK file you want converted. It's usually a XML file, or a binary
   file with a XML header.
3. From the command line, CD to the location of that file. Say the VMWare disk image to convert is Root_Disk.vmdk.
4. Run the following command to convert to VDI:
   VBoxManage clonehd Root_Disk.vmdk Root_Disk.vdi
5. That's it! If you're in Linux, the VDI file will be created under ~/.VirtualBox/Harddisks/.
6. Add that to your media manager and create the virtual machine as you normally would.

That's all you need, and I hope this will save people lots of time migrating from VMWare.

Folks with OCD, or folks who likes to show off. Thinking shelves of BD is equivalent to shelves of books?

Why is it a good idea to horde BD movies anyway? Are there that many movies worth paying for? Do you buy 'em coz its cheap, or because the movie is good? With all the content protection crap on these media, what's the point? What's the point of buying a movie that you are only going to watch once in a blue moon?

The only reason I can think of is over compensating. Yes its a lame excuse, but that's the only rational excuse I can think of.

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The firmware for the A950 is clearly unfinished. There are bugs with WiseLink pro and the "Just Scan" option not sticking is simply idiotic! Display playback isues!

What's the response from Samsung Australia for my grief?

Thank you for contacting Samsung Customer Care.

We can feed back your comments, the only option fior samsung australia is to await any firmware that is issued to us, and then post it,, that is the only option we have available. No other option.

Take care and have a nice day.

Samsung support is probably not even based in Australia! So this brand (if you can even call it that) effectively is just a importer/reseller in this country.

Take it what you will. I will never get any TV from Korea ever again. Pushing new products (hopefully they finished it this time) and abandoning old customers in the lurch. Not the kind of company I am willing to put my money down to.

With so few manufacturers left it means I have no company to turn to replace this TV years down the road. My next TV will probably be from China. But I'm thinking about projection! And something that can really do playback 24fps properly...

Pity. I really like the calibration options on the Samsungs..

Update: Changed slightly to reflect points from beta 2.

I like beta software. It basically tells me how competent and polished the development team is. And how good the team is managed. Readers of my blog will no doubt remember the scathing review (link) I had with the beta/release candidate/final of VMWare Server 2.

VMWare Server is my first foray into virtualisation. It was a free product and I was godsmacked when I tried it. Imagine the possibilities - run all your machines in a virtualised environment and the ability to redeploy easily from machine to machine. Alas it was not meant to be. VMWare has grown too big and too slow. Everything is designed wrong - VMWare cannot keep up with the rapid development of the Linux kernel (requiring third party patches); disk I/O is excruciating slow (forcing the CPU into IO_WAIT states).

It's time to move on, and on the spur of the moment, I decided on VirtualBox 3.0 beta.

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Do not like VMWare now. Am trying to migrate to VirtualBox. Will post instructions (gathered from Internet) if this is a success!

The server will be very slow in the meantime as I'm converting the virtual disks for migration.

I guess the placards of "Protect us or protect yourself" banners the police folks were holding in support of mandatory sentencing still holds strong in my memory. Police training and proper support+backup is unnecessary, the law will hold the law un-abiding back!

Then comes the pay dispute where they alert drivers of speed cameras. Effectively taking the stand that speed cameras are a means to raise state revenues. Put flashing lights at every danger spot and the silly WA drivers will no doubt slow down and rubber neck to see what the fuss was all about. yes, that's just how stupid we all are unfortunately.

The icing on the cake? How about hiring security guards to protect 'em? To be fair, nobody wants to perform guard duty. But take several deep breaths and absorb this new world - that the police source needs to outsource for protection.

Morale within the force must be at all time low for things to develop to this stage. If I have the money, I'd definitely hire private guards instead of depending on my tax funded police force. After all, the police themselves are doing it. They cannot even protect their own!

Underinvestment of core resources. The governments have become bureaucrats and lack any capacity of govern. WA has become part of the United States.

Although defeated via a referendum 4 years ago, extended trading hours might still work its way into WA.

A bill was introduced on 17th June 2009. If passed without amendments this will be law, i.e. free to operate until 9pm. What about 24hrs? Will stores like 7-11 move into WA? Will Aldi finally move into WA?

The good I think is this will potentially create more employment in the retail sector. Surely the employers don't expect their workers to work longer hours?

The bad obviously is the retailers will normalise and open late. E.g. from 11am to 9pm. This is really bad for me as a morning person. I personally don't think this bill will improve competition at all. And it appears Sunday trading is still banned, which really isn't helping things at all.

Another case of governance for the sake of governing. More red tape.

Cost of everything has gone up or about to - Bus, Compulsory Third Party Insurance, Health Insurance, Car Insurance, fuel, strata rates, council rates, electricity, water. Even bank rates for mortgages and loans.

Policemen has gotten their 4%+ a year pay rise. Nurses and teachers will no doubt do the same. Politicians will also want a fair share for the work they do.

Everybody just wants more and more, leaving me screwed.

Anybody else seeing a problem here? Will we all go broke?