At work we use
OpenVPN for secure VPN communications. As a Mac user however support for OpenVPN has been limited since the
TunnelBlick project became abandoned around two years ago.
A few days ago however I discovered
Viscosity developed by the Australian company
Spark Labs, which is a remarkably good front end to OpenVPN. Viscosity can even import Tunnelblick or Windows OpenVPN configurations so you will get up and running in no time. To top it all, it also has a good looking and useful traffic graph!
And the price? Free! Can’t beat that.
I have used it for a few days now and it has worked flawlessly with Subversion and SMB requests over the network connection. Highly recommended! I would have bought it if they had charged for it.
Viscosity homepage
Today we’d like to announce the next generation of our JavaScript engine - SquirrelFish Extreme (or SFX for short). SquirrelFish Extreme uses more advanced techniques, including fast native code generation, to deliver even more JavaScript performance.
From
webkit.org
After Google Chrome
blew most of the competition away with it’s extreme JavaScript performance, it was just a matter of time before the other browsers would step up to meet the new competition.
SquirrelFish Extreme, the JavaScript engine of the next version of Safari, seems like it’s on a good way to match Google Chrome in performance.
VMware Fusion 2, a free, downloadable upgrade for all VMware Fusion 1.x customers, adds over 100 new features and enhancements.
From the
Official WMware Blog
Today VMware Fusion 2 was released and is available for immediate download. Features include:
- More Seamless with Unity 2.0: Application Sharing, Link Handling, Mirrored Folders, Driverless Printing, True Multiple Display Support, and Custom Keyboard Mapping
- Safer Windows on Mac experience with AutoProtect automated snapshots and a 12-month complimentary subscription to McAfee VirusScan Plus security software for Windows XP and Vista
- More Power with DirectX 9.0c with Shader Model 2 3D graphics, 1080p HD video playback, Multiple Snapshots, 4-way vSMP, and Better Linux Support (Unity & Easy Install)
- More Mac-like, More Mac-friendly with all new Welcome Screen, Virtual Machine Library and Virtual Machine Settings, Cover Flow and Quick Look integration, and Apple Help
- Finally, Mac OS X Leopard Server now is supported in a virtual machine on Mac hardware
For me, the biggest advantage with VMware Fusion 2 is the ability to start Fusion in Unity or Full screen mode. Previously Fusion was always started windowed, which never really made it feel like you were actually running Windows applications integrated in your Mac environment. I still use Office 2007 instead of Office 2008 so this upgrade was most welcome!
Download it from vmware.com
So, the Apple event came and went. Steve Jobs is looking thinner than ever, and I couldn’t help to think that he felt a bit like an “old guy” when he was peeking over his glasses trying to hit the right song on the new iPod Nano. The contrast in appearance between Steve Jobs (53 years) and Steve Ballmer (52 years) is increasing for each year now. If I didn’t know that they are of equal age I would never have guessed it. Anyway, Steve is still an icon and he still keeps on delivering truly amazing stuff. And I hope he will continue to do so for at least another ten years.
I guess that what Apple delivered was pretty good. Two new iPods, an update to the iPod classic, and iTunes 8. But still it’s always disappointing when something you hope is going to be delivered is not. Copy & Paste for the iPhone for example. Maybe they will add it in 2009, but then Microsoft will have caught up fairly well on the UI front with Windows Mobile 7.
Still, the new
iPod Nano looks nice. I especially like the curved display. I want one, but don’t need one. So yet again Apple has apparently done all the right things when it comes to product design and packaging.
Coda, Panic’s integrated HTML editor and FTP client has reached version 1.5. Among the news are built-in Subversion support, find across files, and that the Web Preview can now preview local PHP files (didn’t work properly for me though).
I like the concept of
Coda. It’s built for all the people using a text editor and an FTP client to edit their web pages, to have both those tool in one greatly designed package. I bought
Coda since I really do want to (at least try to) code all my web pages by hand, and I also got inspired by their slogan “grow beautiful code”. I haven’t abandoned Dreamweaver CS3 yet though, but maybe Coda 1.5 is enough to make me at least try to grow beautiful HTML code.
A quick comparison of the two new Subversion version control clients for Mac OS X. I had my eye on Versions as it sat in private beta. Now it’s gone public at about the same time Cornerstone has burst onto the scene.
From
Cornerstone vs. Versions at jadeohlhauser
If you need a source code version control client for Mac OSX, this review might provide you with a good start of choosing a Subversion client.
The Portable Document Format (PDF), undeniably one of the most commonly used formats for electronic documents, is now accessible as an ISO International Standard - ISO 32000-1.
From
ISO - News - PDF format becomes ISO standard
Three days ago Adobe PDF became an official ISO standard. Now what does that mean in practice? Hopefully more competition on the PDF reader frontier, because recent community reports on Adobe Reader 9 are not so positive, to put it mildly.
Here are some Adobe Reader 9 experiences worth reading:
For starters, version 8 was a 22 MB download. Version 9 is a mere 33 MB — a whole major version up, and not even twice as big. The default download includes a 19 MB eBay Desktop program, for all your “faster searching, smarter bidding” needs. So tempting … but I opted out.
From
microBlog
Decompressing is powered by who? Why do I care? Ads on the installer?
From
Gus Mueller’s weblog
Resolves an issue with saving and reopening Adobe Creative Suite 3 files on a remote server.
From
About the Mac OS X 10.5.4 update
I usually wait a week or so before installing an OS X update, but this is one update I’ll install right away.
