I currently use a Mac. Yes I do. But I’ve used Windows my whole life. I have my gripes about Windows, but I’m not arrogant, nor am I a fanboy. I know that most games are made exclusively for Windows and it doesn’t take a genius (or a fanboy for that matter) to figure out why. Windows XP has actually become quite a stable OS after all the service packs and the 7 years it’s been out. And even though the primary partition on my MacBook is OS X, I have Boot Camp and Windows XP installed for some programs that I just can’t run in OS X.

Like what? Like TVU Player. You see I don’t have cable TV and I’m a guy who likes to watch international live soccer (football) matches. When I was still only using Windows (about a year ago) I set out to find a way to watch these matches online. I knew about live TV channel streaming websites/applications but most of them had limited channels and usually not the ones I wanted (NASA TV isn’t really all that exciting after all). Somehow, I came to know of TVU Networks’ TVU Player, a sort of revolutionary global online streaming TV channel software. What a mouthful. And TVU had the channels and live games that I wanted to watch so badly, albeit having to stay up in the wee hours watching them (time zone differences) was still rather… um… tiring.

So I was happy and everything was cool. And then, after 1 or 2 years of wanting one, I bought a Mac. I instantly fell in love with Mac OS X for its simplicity, stability and power as an operating system. The applications that I most often used (except games) were all available on OS X in one way or another so that wasn’t really an issue for me. In fact, a couple of programs that I often used on Windows had no equivalents on the Mac. That is, anti-virus programs… OK sorry, that was a bit mean to all you Windows users. We all know why us Mac users don’t have to deal with viruses, so I’ll stop. And then, there were a number of Mac-only programs that I quite liked and which didn’t have equally powerful Windows counterparts. The iLife suite for example (although I barely have a use for it now), Adium, Delicious Library and Leopard’s Time Machine.

But the Mac had nothing like TVU Player. I perused Google for hours looking for a Mac alternative but to no avail. And this was all happening while the English Premier League was in full swing. Fortunately for me, there was Boot Camp. Not only would Boot Camp allow me to watch my live football games but I would also be able to play FIFA 07 (and later 08) on my laptop instead of on the home desktop PC. So I installed Windows XP on my MacBook and literally had “the best of both worlds”.

Recently, I discovered VMware Fusion. This small application allows you to “seamlessly run Windows, Linux and other PC operating systems on your Intel-based Mac.” And the program does what it claims very well. I won’t bore you with the features and instead “show off” a bit here in a more graphical manner (more pictures after the break).

TVU Player owns, now on Mac too thanks to VMware Fusion

Continue reading ‘Macs do Windows even better with VMware Fusion’

I went to the “We Will Rock You” musical/concert here in Hong Kong on May 27th and it was awesome to say the least. I’m quite a big fan of Queen (and a lot of older music in general) so it was natural that I would go to a musical with music by Queen.

It was also an interesting thing for me that the lead role in the musical/concert was Mig Ayesa, one of the final three competitors on the show “Rockstar INXS” which I watched almost religiously around 2003 or 2004. To be honest, he was my favorite out of all the other competitors.

As for the musical itself, everything in it was based on Queen material. The names, events, etc. were all taken from Queen music lyrics. My guess is that the musical is meant to be a comedy of sorts and if it was it lived up to its genre. The music was played by a live band hidden from the audience’s view until the end of the show. The set designs, lighting and costumes were all very beautiful. And most importantly, the acting and singing was spectacular although I do think Mig Ayesa (Galileo) could do away with the American accent he butchered up in the show.

The producers of the show even managed to add some local flavor to the show by mentioning famous sights and songs from Hong Kong, thereby making for a more comedic evening.

The show will keep playing in Hong Kong throughout June and I recommend any local Queen or rock fan to watch it. It’s well worth the money.