rectalogic

See my previous post on a different 3D rig design, and a discussion of how to postprocess the videos in QuickTime Pro. I decided to build a Steadicam to help reduce jerkiness when recording while walking. I used the design from steadycam.org. This steadicam works with any camera with a tripod mount. So to mount two stereoscopic cameras, I found an 8" doorjamb striker plate that had two holes 6.5cm apart and a third hole for mounting on the steadicam.

My iPhone app, PhotoCloth, is finally available in the app store. PhotoCloth can turn any photo into a realistic 3D interactive cloth simulation. See demo videos and appstore link here.

I like to compose and read email with a fixed width font. Gmail now supports reading a message with a fixed width font using the Show in fixed width font option - but you have to do that on each message as you read it. If you use Firefox, you can create a user stylesheet that is domain specific to force all non-HTML messages and the message composition textarea to display in fixed width. The user stylesheet should contain:

@-moz-document domain(mail.google.com) {
    /* GMail messages and textarea should use fixed-width font */
    textarea.dV, div.ii.gt {
        font-family: MonoSpace !important;
        font-size: 9pt !important;
    }
}

Place the stylesheet (on MacOS) under your Firefox profile directory e.g. ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/XXXXXXXX.default/chrome/userContent.css

VMWare Fusion 2.0 beta2 supports virtualizing Mac OS X Server as a guest OS. If you try to install a Leopard Client guest, you get an error

The guest operating system is not Mac OS X Server.

However, if you create an ISO/CDR image from your Leopard install DVD, mount it then do

touch "/Volumes/Mac OS X Install DVD/System/Library/CoreServices/ServerVersion.plist"

then unmount it, you can now use that image to install Leopard Client into VMWare with no complaints. After you install, reboot VMWare from the install DVD ISO again, run Terminal and

touch "/Volumes/Macintosh HD/System/Library/CoreServices/ServerVersion.plist"

then reboot from the HD. This probably violates your license agreement so don't do it, I certainly wouldn't.

Update: You can automate the deletion and creation of the ServerVersion.plist file using a LaunchDaemon. Put the following xml in a new file /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.rectalogic.vmware.plist

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN"
    "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.rectalogic.vmware</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
            <string>/bin/bash</string>
            <string>-c</string>
            <string>/bin/rm -f /System/Library/CoreServices/ServerVersion.plist; trap "/usr/bin/touch /System/Library/CoreServices/ServerVersion.plist; exit" SIGINT SIGTERM SIGHUP; sleep 999999 &amp; wait $!</string>
    </array>
    <key>KeepAlive</key>
    <true/>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

Then run

sudo launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.rectalogic.vmware.plist

Now when you login ServerVersion.plist will be deleted, when you shutdown it will be recreated ready for the next reboot.

Alternative approach: An alternative approach discussed in the comments is to hack VMWare to disable the check for server.

sudo bash
cd "/Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/isoimages"
mkdir original
mv darwin.iso tools-key.pub *.sig original
perl -n -p -e 's/ServerVersion.plist/SystemVersion.plist/g' > darwin.iso
openssl genrsa -out tools-priv.pem 2048
openssl rsa -in tools-priv.pem -pubout -out tools-key.pub
openssl dgst -sha1 -sign tools-priv.pem > darwin.iso.sig
for A in *.iso ; do openssl dgst -sha1 -sign tools-priv.pem < $A > $A.sig ; done
exit

VMWare Fusion 3.0: Fusion 3.0 uses EFI instead of BIOS by default. After creating a new VM and before booting it from the install DVD/ISO, edit the *.vmx file and remove/comment out the firmware="efi" line. VMWare will then use the hacked boot image from darwin.iso.