Today, thanks to the amazing advances of the Apple OS over the years and other Apple software offerings, I don’t have a single need to run a Windows app on my Mac. However, I realize many people do — they have a work reason, perhaps, to run Outlook, one of the Windows versions of Microsoft Office, or Internet Explorer, or other apps that just don’t (for some crazy reason) yet have a Mac version. I’ve been running the same Mac version of MS Office now for more than a decade; it works fine. (So, I can’t say I run a completely Microsoft-free environment; just a Windows-free one.) I also realize there’s another big universe of Mac users out there who want to run Windows on their machines: gamers. We’re not talking a work reason here (I don’t think!), but this is a big market. There are many more games available for the Windows platform than for Mac — though that is changing somewhat, since so many game apps are continually being introduced for the Mac iOS — that is, for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. (And the new “GameCenter” in Mac iOS 4.1, due next week, moves Apple even further into the games market.)

But why I am writing about running Windows on a Mac when I don’t have a need myself, and I’m certainly not a gamer? Well, before I tell you about “CrossOver Mac,” here’s why: I had a personal experience recently helping my daughter.  She’s also a longtime Mac user, but she needed to run a single Windows app for her business, which was required by a government agency she had to deal with. So, I told her, sure, I’d help her figure out how she could do that. I of course knew about two programs designed to do that, called “Parallels” and “VMware Fusion,” either of which we could buy (for about $80, I think).  And I told her I could help her get one of those installed on her Macbook. But we really didn’t like the idea of spending even that much money to run one little Windows app, maybe once a month — plus a friend, Steve Borsch, told me Windows doesn’t really run all that snappy with those programs, anyway.

But I was starting to think about buying one of those programs when another local friend, Gary Doan, said, “Wait, what about Boot Camp? That won’t cost you anything.” Apple started bundling that program with OS 10.5 and now 10.6, and you just need the original install disk to fire that up. Yes, plus a bonafide version of Windows, with an install disk — and we would have had to buy that. Cheapest I could find: an OEM version of 32-bit Windows 7 for $110 at our local Micro Center (closest thing we have to Fry’s here in MN). You can’t even buy Windows XP anymore, I learned, so that was not a cheaper option. That, combined with an onerous 14-page manual that Apple said you must print out and have by your side as you go through the detailed Boot Camp installation and configuration process, was making me start to think, screw this. Then I learned my daughter’s Macbook only has a half a gig of RAM, and would need at least 1G to run OS 10.6, which I wanted to upgrade her to, and preferably 2G. That would have cost me at least another $60, even if I installed the memory myself, which I really didn’t want to do. I thought, wait a minute, we’re getting close to $200 here — for something we really don’t want to do! Plus untold hours of my time screwing around to get it running.

Long story short: I found a brand-new HP Mini netbook on sale for $269 at OfficeMax (thanks to a friend’s tip), and I had a $30 off coupon! I told her I’d gladly pay for half of that. I figured I was coming out way ahead, considering I wouldn’t have to invest any time at all if we went with this option.  Plus, she wanted a second computer anyway, just for email and web use on another floor of her house, and the HP Mini came with built-in wifi capability, so it was a pretty cheap option for that. Now, we’re both happy.

Which brings me to the subject of my post: there’s a much simpler way to run Windows on an Intel Mac — and it might just work for you.  I wish I’d have known about it a week or two earlier, and I could have saved even more time (and money).  It’s a product called CrossOver Mac, from the playfully named CodeWeavers, based in St. Paul, MN.

CrossOver Mac integrates seamlessly with Mac OSX. There’s no need to boot a separate Windows partition, or move files back and forth between two separate environments. It lets you work natively in Mac OSX — you run your Windows apps directly in OSX and save all your work files there as well. And here’s a key point: running just one operating system means faster performance as well. (Yes, that means better than Parallels and VMware Fusion.) Running on OSX also means that even if you’re running virus-prone applications like Outlook and Internet Explorer, you’re completely protected. But here’s the best thing of all, you need no Windows OS license! That’s right: you don’t need spend that additional money; you just pay for the very reasonably priced CrossOver program.

It comes in two versions: Standard at $39.95 and Pro at $69.95, and both are of course downloadable. And, yes, there’s a free trial. The system requirements to run CrossOver are really pretty simple.  And check out the list of supported Windows apps near the bottom of the product page — all the major ones you would expect.  But what if you want to use a Windows app that isn’t listed in their database? Does that mean that it won’t run under CrossOver? Here’s what CodeWeavers says: “Not necessarily. Many applications work perfectly under CrossOver without any modification whatsoever. However, we may simply not be aware of them. So, just because an application isn’t in our database doesn’t mean that your application won’t run. You might consider downloading the trial version of CrossOver to see if your application works. And if it does, please consider submitting it so that it makes it into the database.”

For more resources and links on CrossOver Mac, check out this nice video, and the company’s online  Support Forums are quite active.  You can also follow CodeWeavers on Facebook or on Twitter.

I learned at a recent business seminar at my local Apple Store that CrossOver Mac is available in pretty much every one of Apple’s stores. You may have to ask a staff member for it, since they may store it in the back room, but it’s there, according to James Ramey, the company’s head of sales, who gave a talk at the seminar. The title on his business card:  “Minister of Greed”… hah!  You have to admire a company with some seriously good products, but also a sense of humor — and not afraid to put it out there. Check out this news release they put out a few weeks ago:

CodeWeavers CEO Names Himself “Employee of the Month” for 175th Consecutive Month
Software Developer CodeWeavers Leader Calls Feat “Jack Welchian” as He Awards Himself Honorary Plaque

The only Codeweavers press release funnier than this one was from July of 2009:

Codeweavers to Overtake Microsoft by 2018
Current Sales Trend Indicates Gadfly Open Source Developers Will Be Nation’s Largest Provider of Windows Technology; Microsoft Imperiled CodeWeavers Offers to Buy Microsoft Campus “On Credit”

The company manages this unique approach to publicity under the guidance of Minneapolis PR firm Haberman & Associates, one of the best (and most unsung) here in the Twin Cities. As a marketing advisor to tech firms, I take my hat off to them.

And I thank CodeWeavers for helping massive numbers of people (me included) to avoid buying Windows.

One more thing: I forgot to mention CrossOver Mac is based on the Wine Project. Thank your local Linux geek for that!  Also note that CodeWeavers has two other very popular products: “CrossOver Games” and “CrossOver Linux.”

(Note:  This post appeared first at Tech~Surf~Blog.)

MN Company Lets You Run Windows Apps on a Mac – the Easy Way is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

His most recent work comes from his own Zachstronaut, which he describes as a “web rocket-lab” site to showcase his love for the internet and gaming as well as his experiments. The result of that work is his internet game Infiltration.

Infiltration was built in response to blog Boing Boing‘s call for games to be developed that were inspired by “chip music“. (You can vote for Infiltration through today, 7/15). Most likely very familiar to gamer cycles but not far beyond, chip music is inspired by early video game soundtracks. Think Asteroids, Pac Man and a host of Nintendo games. Grab a Casio keyboard and hang on…

Johnson, a fan of this unique musical genre, has spent more than his fair share of time listening to chip music and envisioning the game activity that it might accompany. A User Experience developer at Worrell, he says, “Video games contributed to shaping my entire career in computers.” It was clearly a natural for him to develop a chip music inspired game.

Indie game developer game designs tend to be very simplistic, with an almost nostalgic look and feel. “Part of the design is a nod to the old school music but it’s probably more about the amount of time and money indie game developers have to spend on the games.” He goes on to note, “It took nine people a year to write Pac Man, I wrote this in about 30 hours.”

Johnson also saw an opportunity to advance his passion for open programming. “I wanted to make a game that didn’t need a plugin.” Hence the use of Javascript, allowing the ability to play the game directly from your browser. “Javascript and browser based games offer a very low barrier of entry.” notes Johnson.

The use of coding language like Javascript and HTML5 is on the rise as many see the use of Flash diminishing. “I don’t hate Flash, but it’s obvious it is going the way of the Dodo.” according to Johnson referencing the ownership and closed nature of the language. “I always bet on the openess of  web.” When developing the game and entering the Boing Boing contest (Did I mention you could vote for his game through 7/16.) Zach thought that the use of Javascript would allow him to be more unique and give him an upper hand. But “The use of Javascript was more prevalent than I thought…which is good.” Nearly half the games submitted use it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhvupyRdR5I

The design of the game and the participation in the contest serves Johnson in number of ways. First and foremost, it’s a hobby. It also clearly promotes his programming skills and many projects while allowing him to share his passion for open web design. In addition, while he could have spent much more time on the game he appreciates the short-term goal. “The competition set a deadline. Otherwise I can spend a lot of time on it. I need to make a game I need to get done.”

Where does he see this indie game developer movement going? “There are plenty of applications from entertainment to art to even civil engagement. Imagine someone demonstrating the need for better routing of traffic through a game.” He also notes a very basic result. “If I can make little tidbits of joy for someone, that’s great.”

The Joy of Infiltration Champions Open Game Development is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

In the article, Anderson chronicles the age of “open source, custom-fabricated, DIY product design.” He profiles a fascinating startup called Local Motors of Wareham, Mass., and another one called TechShop of Menlo Park, Calif. (which I first heard of when I met the founder at a DEMO Alumni Reception in Palo Alto in August 2007).

“The tools of factory production, from electronics assembly to 3D printing, are now available to individuals, in batches as small as a single unit.”

Yep, a lot of this is driven by 3D printers, which you’ll remember, if you’ve been reading Minnov8 lately, is a product category well represented in Minnesota by Stratasys — which has come a long way from its startup days here in the 1980s.  See this post by Steve Borsch from January 21, about the company’s partnership with HP that caused its stock to rocket 44% in one day.  But the WIRED article talks about sub-$1000 printers, a part of the market in which Stratsys does not have an offering. As Steve mentioned in his post the other day, a main player in the low-priced sector of the 3D printer market is the open-source company MakerBot.  But, according to this PC World article, 3D Printing Coming to the Desktop, the HP-Stratasys models, though small enough to sit on a desktop, are priced just shy of $15,000.  Sure, the talk about this HP partnership is the promise of prices dropping with volume.  But one has to wonder…

Is a once-promising, emerging Minnesota technology pioneer looking at the possibility of having its lunch eaten by an open-source disruptor like MakerBot?

That question may take years to play out.  We can only hope that Stratasys management, surely feeling its oats now after the HP deal, is up to the task.  Meantime, the promise of “custom-fabricated DIY design” brings much hope to Minnesota’s still healthy small manufacturing sector, which has remained relatively stable despite the recent recession.  For more about this important part of our state’s economy, check out the site of an organization called Enterprise Minnesota, and the latest issue of its magazine.

Another connection to the DIY product design and manufacturing movement here in Minnesota is a locally connected TV show called MAKEzine.  This is a national series from MAKE magazine, Twin Cities Public Television, and American Public Television. According to the web site, “It celebrates ‘Makers’ – the inventors, artists, geeks, and just plain everyday folks who mix new and old technology to create new-fangled marvels.” The series is sponsored by Minnesota’s own Geek Squad, a business unit of Twin Cities-based Best Buy.

I asked a local startup founder, one I knew had experience with both software and hardware development, for his reaction to this WIRED cover story.  Matt Bauer is the founder of PedalBrain (www.pedalbrain.com): “I own one of Stratasys’s desktop printers. I evaluated MakerBot’s offering and there isn’t any comparison,” he said. “The uPrint from Stratasys completely destroys the MakerBot in every category except price. For that additional cost, though, I don’t have to worry about the uPrint working. It can run nearly 24/7 without anyone taking care of it. The same can’t be said for the MakerBot.”  So, how does he see the battle for this product category playing out? “I’m sure this gap will close, and I see Stratasys getting the win. It’s much easier coming down in cost than going up in technology.”

‘The New Industrial Revolution’ and Minnesota is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

If you are a person who will somehow be interacting in the process of creating a website, but won’t actually be doing the coding or development of it, and are a copywriter, graphic designer, illustrator, art director, creative director, or project manager, then you’ll find the $149 fee for this full day session incredibly beneficial.

I interviewed Ivan so you can hear him describe the day and also so you can gain some insight in to the strategic reasons why you must pay attention to what’s happening on the web, and how this session would enable you to learn in ways you might not expect.

• Date: September 17, 2009
• Time: 9:00am
• To learn more and to register: http://ten7i.com/seminar

Web Design Workshop/Seminar for Creatives is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

I’m personally aware of over 40 projects here in flyover country that are not only leveraging — but are wholly reliant on — MySQL. To make matters worse (and admittedly selfish on my part) our company uses MySQL across all our web properties. To see that megalith Oracle purchased Sun Microsystems today for $7.4 billion sent chills down my spine and left me with a nasty taste of cottonmouth.

Sure, there are a few of those Oracle fanboys out there that will say this deal means Java will get more technical attention than it’s been paid for years. Still, I liken this acquisition to a story I saw in a documentary called Flow: For the Love of Water. A segment in this movie shows corporate giant Nestle setting up a bottling plant in Michigan and stealing away millions of gallons of water from a stream running through that community, putting it in bottles, and then selling it back to local residents.

It no secret that I’m a capitalist, and that I believe that money is the root of all that is productive. My problem with what Nestle did is that they took what was already free and a universal right – clean and fresh water – and sold that under the auspices of having actually produced something. I too fear this will be the case with Oracle and MySQL.

MySQL has over 10 million installations around the world and it is the productive man’s database management system. MySQL occurs naturally and freely in nature. People take it and turn it into something meaningful. It was provided under GPL and its current form represents the untold contributions and real-world use cases of thousands and thousands of people. Now are we to expect Oracle to come, bottle it up, and sell it back to us?

This transaction only happened today, so I don’t want to be too quick to jump to conclusions. That said, you would sure think that a guy as smart as Larry Ellison would have made a community statement to appease me. I mean gosh, this guy has all the water he could ever dream of and now I find him standing over MY WATER holding a big-ass straw in his hand.

What do you think?

Oracle Drinks Up Sun: MySQL Questions Remain… is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

CommunityEngine is a complete, white-label social network app wrapped up as a Ruby on Rails plugin making it easy to integrate forums, blogs, and user profiles into an existing web application or a stand-alone application. Like many weblog engines, the look and feel of each CommunityEngine can be completely customized.

“I envision somebody doing a theme that makes [CommunityEngine] act more like a social network, a theme that makes it act more like a blog, a theme that makes it act more like a group blog, or a newspaper. So you can pick and choose.” – Bruno Bornsztein

One of the first community contributions to the CommunityEngine code was l18n internationalization support, promptly encouraging a number of non-US-based CommunityEngine-based sites.

“The biggest benefit [to open-sourcing CommunityEngine] is making the code-base stronger…I can now launch a Curbly site in Spanish. I’ve been wanting to do that for a long time.” – Bruno Bornsztein

For more about CommunityEngine listen to my podcast conversation with Bruno.

CommunityEngine: Open Source Social Network Application is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

If one had any doubt about the intensity of our state’s information technology and Internet community, one only had to be anywhere inside the U’s Coffman Union on Saturday for the third annual Minnebar “unconference” (part of an international phenomenon called Barcamp). To say the joint was a-jumpin’ simply does not suffice. And numbers alone don’t tell the story (though attendance was an event record at 430). Rather, it was the intensity of energy through the entire day that could only impress one about this somewhat quiet, and definitely underrated, sector of Minnesota’s economy.

I was there for at least 12 hours of the event — yes, it went on that long, and no one was complaining — and I can surely say that even the most skeptical of attendees who sacrificed part of their spring weekend were impressed with what they experienced, and left beaming with an elevated sense of pride in the industry they’re a part of. One needs only to scan the voluminous talk that went on in real-time — thanks to the magic of Twitter, and all archived here — to see that something big was happening in the Gopher state on this rainy fishing-opener Saturday. (In fact, Minnebar was ranked during the day as one of the top-five conversations going on in the entire, global “Twitterverse.”)

Speaking of Gopher, that’s when the Internet industry really started here — back in the early ’90s with the invention of the browser by that name. It flourished for a few years, but, alas, was disrupted by a little thing called Netscape (first called Mosaic), and soon was relegated to just a note in history. But our state’s involvement in Internet development began thriving in the ’90s and has continued in many ways ever since.

The industry has some notable local companies, who collectively employ thousands, such as Digital River, Internet Broadcasting, and Dow Jones’ local operations (which began life as BigCharts and was soon acquired by MarketWatch), not to speak of Minnesota being home to top-50 ecommerce destinations like BestBuy.com, Target.com, and ShopNBC. But the core of Minnesota’s Internet industry are the developers, designers, engineers and other technologists, marketers, and entrepreneurs who gathered on Saturday at Minnebar, and the many hundreds of smaller entities many of them work for, not to speak of the countless new startups and products they’re building, or just beginning to plot in their minds.

What did the attendees do all day, throughout the many meeting rooms of the wonderful new Coffman Union? Well, the event was organized by two volunteer developers named Ben Edwards and Luke Francl (and anyone they could get to help them), and it featured no less than 40 sessions, all proposed and led by attendees themselves, on a wide variety of technical, design, business, and marketing topics, as we identified in this blog last week here. Several sponsors, who picked up the tab for everything, included the U of M’s Software Engineering Center (the venue sponsor), Split Rock Partners, SwarmCast, FindLaw, SierraBravo, and ipHouse. Probably the biggest highlight of the day was the noon panel on The State of Technology in Minnesota (see our previous post for the audio link). But it became apparent as the day progressed that it was really the networking — the interchange between the attendees — that was surpassing even knowledge-sharing as most valuable benefit for most of the attendees.

Some Key Takeaways

As someone who attends many of these local gatherings, and reports on several national Internet industry events as well each year, I can truly say I was impressed with the impact this event had — on so many levels. As I thought about it over the weekend, I realized I left with not only a much-renewed excitement for Minnesota’s Internet technology and software community, but many great takeaways. Here are some of them:

• Networking is something our community needs more of, getting out from behind the keyboard and meeting people, mixing it up. One panelist talked about the need for more “dense networks” as something Minnesota’s tech community can learn from Silicon Valley. (And I say that means local, national, and social networking — everything.)

• We may focus too much here in Minnesota on our own state/region. We must remember we’re really in a global market, and must constantly strive to be world class — not just to emulate other, better known tech regions in the U.S. We need to benchmark against the best, wherever they may be, and that can be anywhere, to build great companies here in our state.

• There’s a real pride here in Minnesota. Techies love it here, and don’t want to leave! Many who did previously have returned. This is a strength that we can very definitely build on.

• We need to do more to connect the outstanding technology students on the East Bank with the great business students at the Carlson School on the West Bank.

Minnesota’s Internet Tech Crowd Flexes Its Muscle is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

They come to talk shop, learn, share tips, listen to presentations on the latest tech developments and tools, share war stories, listen to startup pitches, and (of course) take notes, blog, and Twitter about all the proceedings on the laptops and smart phones they never seem to have far from their sides.

The nice thing is, especially for the many self-employed among them, is that it’s all free — breakfast, lunch, a closing reception, even a free event t-shirt, and, best of all, more wi-fi bandwidth they they can possibly consume in one day — all courtesy of a bevy of sponsors that covet the attention of this highly influential and hard-to-reach group. The sponsors for this year’s event include VC firm Split Rock Partners, ipHouse, Swarmcast, SierraBravo, FindLaw, and the U of M’s Software Engineering Center (which is a special venue sponsor).

The original organizers of Minnebar — and its companion events called Minnedemo, which are evening gatherings that happen the other three quarters of the year — include three Twin Cities developer/entrepreneurs by the names of Dan Grigsby, Ben Edwards, and Luke Francl. (Edwards and Francl planned the ’08 edition of Minnebar.) The April ’07 event, held in St. Paul, had the distinction of being the largest Barcamp ever held in the U.S. to that date.

Something For Everybody

Sessions at this year’s events — all suggested by and conducted by the attendees themselves, many of them forming into panels, include such topics as these:

• The 7 Deadly Sins of Startup Marketing

• Scaling High-Traffic Web Sites

• Blogging for Benjamins: How To Turn Your Topical Blog Into Cash

• Communication For Geeks: How to Influence Your Boss, Your Customers, and Your Team

• From Programming to Profit: Skills To Pay The Bills

• Merb 1.0: Ruby on Rails that Scales

• The Mathematical Foundations of Music

• Enterprise Information Mashups: Web 2.0 + SOA + Data Visualization

• Distributed Teamwork: Managing Virtual Development Teams

• And much more…

A Soapbox for Pitching New Ideas

Minnebar even has a “Lightning Talks” session that gives anyone the opportunity to sign up to give a five-minute demo or presentation, whether it be a new technical idea or business concept, or perhaps you’re an existing startup that wants to update the attendees on your latest progress or product introductions. Anyone who wants to sign up for a Lightning Talk pitch may simply to go to the event wiki site, specifically to the Minnebar Sessions page, and look for the email link to apply. Or, to sign up for a full session (which can be 15-30 minutes or more), have your session title and description ready, then hit Edit Page and enter that information. Just be aware that time is running short, as the organizers will need to cut things off soon to publish the full schedule for Saturday’s event.

To simply sign up to attend (pre-registration is not necessary, but certainly recommended), just go to that same Minnebar wiki page, click on Edit Page at the top, and enter your name and company name or link at the bottom.

I’ll be at the event, along with the entire Minnov8 team of contributors, reporting on all the action. Watch our blogs or Twitter pages (as identified in the bios in the “About Minnov8″ tab at the top), if you can’t make it. For example, I’ll be posting at www.twitter.com/graemethickins throughout the day. But nothing beats being there in person! This is one fun, high-energy event, and really a must-attend if you’re involved in any way in Minnesota’s Internet or software industry. So, we hope to see you there!

UPDATE (5/5/08):  Forgot to mention!  Minnebar’s organizers have also mentioned there may be a “pre-event mixer” either this Thursday or Friday.  Keep watching the Minnebar site for details on where and when…

‘Minnebar’ Becoming Top Event for State’s Internet/Software Developers and Entrepreneurs is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.

“Independent artists, who have a geek friend, could install [DJ Edna] on an extra computer in their basement, and run it that way, with no fees. ” – Thomas Bohambach, founder, DJ Edna.    

Full control means, DJ Edna will support any licensing or pricing structure the artist wants to release their work under. Plus, like any polite open-source project, DJ Edna is easily customizable for integration into WordPress, Gallery, and other projects.DJ Edna is currently behind The Skullcranes and Spirit of Salt. For those interested in using DJ Edna for their creative catalog, there’s a DJ Edna wiki with installation instructions in addition, Thomas provides set up, consulting, and hosting services.For more on DJ Edna, listen to my podcast interview with Thomas [mp3]

DJ Edna – The Open Source Music and Art Catalog Engine is a post from: Minnov8 and published under a Creative Commons license.