I’m here at Radford Studios, part of the CBS Studio City group, hanging with my Mac nerd pals at MacDayLA. I’m actually on the panels today as an expert (whoduhthunk?) and I’m giving Q&A session on virtualizing Windows on the Mac. The first guy to come to my table at breakfast asked me, “Why would anyone want to run Windows when they have a Mac?” I told him that not all developers had “gotten it” just yet. Its rather sad, really. Considering the fact that Microsoft is spiralilng downward in the ranks of quality (let’s just say they don’t have a long way to fall). It seems like 4 of every 5 people I speak to today (no, they’re not all Mac users) have one or more significant complaints about Vista.

It seems that overall people are getting sick of Microsoft and Microsoft isn’t taking notice. People are tired of the high fees for software, the limitations of being held within the Microsoft universe, the glitches and security problems, and the lack of responsiveness from the Redmond corporation. This frustration is being shown in greater numbers of sales of Mac laptop and desktop systems and more and more people moving from Windows to Mac OS X. PC World magazine declared the MacBook Pro as the best laptop on which to run Windows Vista! None of this bodes well for Microsoft and Ballmer’s not doing much to change that perception.

As usual, time will tell the tale. Right now I’m listening to Scott Bourne, a fantastic photographer and a very funny speaker.

written by Tyler Regas

You can find all of the details at Certless. I have an event calendar over there, so I figured I’d use it! Sue me! Here’s the event data and here’s the MacDayLA site.

[UPDATE] I, Tyler Regas, the maestro of mayhem, will be presenting at this MacDayLA. I will be hosting breakfast and lunch discussions regarding OS virtualization on Mac OS X. I’ll be talking about using Apple’s Boot Camp, discussing rEFIt, and looking at Parallels and VMware’s ridiculously cool Fusion. If anyone is interested, we can also discuss the new Mac OS X server virtualization technologies coming out from Parallels.

written by Tyler Regas

I’ll start by offering my apologies. The ModBook has been in play for some time now and I have failed to get one, despite the fact that their offices are located mere miles away from ours! So, at MacDayLA who else do I come across but Axiotron and their slick ModBook. I sat down and spent some time with the ModBook with Sigthor from Axiotron’s marketing department. One interesting tidbit, the founder and creator of the ModBook is Andreas Haas, the last director of operations for Apple Europe’s Newton division. Yeah. The guy has a thing for handhelds and handwriting recognition. Continue reading »

written by Tyler Regas

Well, I’ve arrived and I’m in the Features session where people in the audience are asking questions of some Mac gurus. I ducked out when they started a digital photography session. I take bad pictures and I’m proud of it. I don’t need my family history to look like a feature in Time Magazine. I moved over to the TableTalk sessions and sat down with Jim Lee of Tropical Software. They make the TopXNotes notepad application for Mac OS X. Jim gave me the demo and I’m impressed. I’ll wrap that up by saying you need to take a look at it. Its a very powerful tool and it has features I’ve never seen before. I’m going to get a copy, as well. Just with its functionality I can really start to organize things (and maybe get reviews out in a timely manner!). [Editor's Note: I've fixed the link, thanks to an observant reader! -Ed.]

written by Tyler Regas

I know, I know. There’s been very little to post about and we’re behind in our reviews. However, today is MacDayLA in Los Angeles and I will he heading out there to schmooze with fellow Mac heads, look at some new gear, and take in some information. For more details on the MacDayLA event, check it out here. I’ll be posting on the event later on. Oh, and no, I will not be posting about the FCC bandwidth auction until the embargo has been lifted and I can report on all of it.

written by Tyler Regas

If you were to throw a rock in Los Angeles, you’d likely hit a video game store. Unfortunately, it would either be a GameStop, EB Games, or one of a handful of National video game chain stores. Of course, they’d call the cops on you. There are, however, a few remaining stalwarts run by those who love video games. One such hardy soul is Reflex Gamer in the Little Tokyo Shopping Mall (3rd and Alameda) in Little Tokyo just Southeast of Downtown Los Angeles. From my conversation with Vance I found that they will be treating domestic games and imports with equal importance, so this will be a fine outlet for hard to find titles from Japan and Korea. What makes it even cooler to check it out is that its neighbor is Japan Arcade, a small, clean, and dynamic arcade which carries Japanese coin-op machines we don’t see here in the US. Most games run for one or two tokens, though the larger dance and music systems and the Initial D games run four tokens.

written by Tyler Regas