In the Macintosh world, virtualization is an alternative to dual-booting. Instead of using Boot Camp on an Intel-based Macintosh computer, you can save yourself the hassle of having to reboot to change Operating Systems by using use Parallels Desktop or VMware Fusion for Mac to run Windows or Linux on the Mac. These products allow Macintosh users to run software which would normally only be available on other Operating Systems.

In one interesting case I’ve read about, Tanker Bob, a “Windows Mobile guru”, decided not to upgrade from Windows XP to Vista. Instead he installed Kubuntu Linux on his desktop PC, and ran Windows XP Pro within VMware Workstation for Linux. That was his way of running the Windows applications he needed (and which did not have Linux counterparts) in a Linux environment.

Other Windows users run VMware for Windows on Windows Vista so that they can run Windows XP on Vista. Of course you an do it the other way around, but frankly I wouldn’t buy Windows Vista – I’d rather get it with a new PC if I really have to.

With the free VMware Player for Windows (there is also a Linux version), you can download “virtual appliances” which can be as simple as a pre-installed Linux distribution, and try them in Windows without changing your Windows setup – one of the safest ways to try Linux.

Yikes! The tax deadline looms in another six weeks. That only leaves a mere five weeks for worrying about it and one more week for actually getting your taxes pulled together.

Perhaps it’s time to consider ordering some tax software. In a previous post I covered a bit about Intuit’s tax program. In this rundown I’ll share what people think about H&R’s entry.

When you’re buying tax software, you have to make sure you’re getting what you expect. If you intend to file federal taxes, as well as state taxes and do that by e-filing, you’ll want TaxCut 2007 Premium Federal + State +E-file.

As with the Intuit product, you answer a series of questions and the software fills it into the correct spots.

JonChilds1 says this about his use of the software: “For two years I have been using TaxCut Premium for preparing my tax returns. I find that anyone could follow the simple directions given and be successful in accurately preparing their tax returns. I like the fact that everything necessary is provided in the purchase price. I can prepare both my federal and state returns and then have the prepaid option of filing electronically. I wholeheartedly endorse H & R Block TaxCut products.”

According to reviewer theroots from Michigan, the software also includes one item Intuit doesn’t offer: The chance to get access to an H&R Block tax advisor.

dwah from Oregon has a few nits to pick: “Although TaxCut attempts to determine the areas where I need to enter information, I find that I could enter much of it faster directly on the forms (e.g., dividends, interest, business expenses). TaxCut allows direct entry — if you can find the right worksheet related to the form — but it doesn’t check off the interview for that topic. Therefore, when you return to the interview, it goes right back to the topic you’ve completed elsewhere… My biggest gripe about the program is that it so emphasizes the interview that it is difficult to navigate through the forms. Further, it is impossible to have more than one form open at a time, so you can’t make entries on, say, a depreciation worksheet, and see how that is affecting your Schedule C or 1040…”

emclouth from Michican likes the feature that lets users “print personal copies of the forms and a summary page to remind you which items to send and where to send them.”

It sounds to me like TaxCut has the edge this year. Now that that decision is out of the way, it’s time for me to go watch How to Look Good Naked while worrying about getting my taxes done. After all, I only have six weeks left!

Four or five years ago I could have easily have called this Blog Entry “Palm or Windows Mobile?”, and not cause confusion about whether I was writing about smartphones. The PDA may be past its peak, but it is not dead, as everyone from the Economist (in late 2003) to a CNET editor (in early 2005) predicted. Handheld computers are not thriving though, and it is no longer just smartphones which compete for consumer attention. Retail stores have many models of portable GPS devices on display instead of PDAs. After all, people need to know where they are going and how to get there. Notebooks and high-end media players are also competitors. Interestingly enough, budget notebooks are now priced lower than some of the high end Sony Clies were. A new Dell Axim X51v, released in December 2005, still costs as much as a budget laptop.

PDAs have long offered some GPS capabilities, one of the earliest being the GPS springboard module for the HandSpring Visor Palm handhelds. Now HP offers a Pocket PC which happens to be a GPS, the HP iPAQ rx5915 and a GPS which may not be a Pocket PC, the HP iPAQ 310 GPS.

Yet I still use a handheld with no GPS capabilities, although I also have a Windows Mobile smartphone and an iPod. Somehow I’m still attached to my electronic brain.

It’s tax time! You have a little more than six weeks to get your highly personal details regarding topics we don’t discuss with anybody else in the world off to the fine folks who competently staff the IRS. (Hey, I don’t want them giving me any special attention…) Most people I know don’t trust their ability to follow the always-clear instructions from the Internal Revenue Service in filling out the forms — they prefer to have an intermediary handle that for them. Often, this intermediary takes the form of inexpensive software that goes by the name of Intuit and H&R Block.

Today, I’ll tell you a bit about Intuit. Later, I’ll cover H&R Block.

Intuit TurboTax Deluxe 2007 will cost you far less than using an accountant, as long as your tax situation is fairly basic. What’s basic? You have W2 income with standard deductions, such as mortgage interest, donations and education outlay. You’ll need to upgrade to the Premium edition if you have investment income, and you’ll want TurboTax Home and Business if you have a complicated business setup.

To use the software, you answer mostly simple questions. It’ll ask you how your life has changed in the last year. Added a new kid to the crop? Purchased a home? Changed your job? Your responses modify what questions you’ll be answering throughout the program.

The Deluxe version covers 350 potential deductions, including charitable donations and medical expenses. If you used TurboTax last year, it’ll transfer that data over so that you don’t have to repeat yourself. A handy yet frightening audit-risk meter shows you just how risky your tax decisions are and how to reduce your risk of audit. This version also includes a single state tax return as well, which you download after you’ve purchased the software.

If you’re on Windows, you need to be running 2000 SP4, XP or Vista with administrative rights. If you’re on a Mac, you’ll need Mac OS X (10.4) or higher.

Be forewarned. As many of the reviewers on PriceGrabber.com say, once you lock into TurboTax, Intuit considers you a captive member of its community. Each year you’ll probably find yourself paying just a bit more for the new version of the software than you paid the year before. Of course, I can’t really think of anything in life I’m paying less for now than I did a year ago, can you?

Also, you’ll be paying a fee of $17.95 for e-filing each return (federal and state separately) when you choose a CD-based product. The company doesn’t charge this fee when you go directly to them to buy the online service (where you fill out the form online rather than on your computer). In either case, the advantage is that you’ll presumably get your refund earlier.

Earlier this year I wrote about the Sandisk Sansa Connect in “Wireless Music” . I must admit to being quite tempted to get one of these little MP3 Players, especially after reading that the firmware had been updated and video playback capability had been added – the 2.2 inch 320 x 240 resolution screen is definitely good enough for video. Video playback support as well as subscription music from Yahoo Music on a high-quality device with a microSD slot which supports both microSD (up to 2GB) and microSDHC (4GB and higher) cards is a good deal.

Then I read that Yahoo was selling it’s music subscription service to Rhapsody, and that the wireless features of the device (with the exception of the LaunchCast internet radio) would probably no longer be supported from July 2008. That could explain some of the good price breaks on the Sansa Connect. If this happens it would be just another media player.

The Sansa Connect did however win the Best of CES award in the MP3 player category in 2007 when it was announced, so this is still a good media player. If you are deciding whether or not to buy this media player, then the possible loss of the ability to update subscription music wirelessly with the Yahoo Music To Go service should be taken into consideration and also determine the amount you would be prepared to pay for a disconnected Sansa Connect.

I’m no gamer, but when I had the chance to try out one of Pyramat’s gaming seats at the Consumer Electronics Show, afterwards, something inside me said, Yes, I want one.

What could a middle-aged hack who prefers standing at the keyboard do with one of these floor chairs? Well, for one, I think it would look truly stylin’ on the new bamboo flooring we’ve just installed. For another, sometimes you just wanna sit. So why not do it in comfort and get some great lumbar support at the same time?

The 3500 Wireless model includes speakers and subwoofter with a volume control, a wireless transmitter, a handy mesh pocket for holding accessories (OK, they say it’s for an iPod, but I’d probably use it for my digital recorder — what a great way to listen to those phone interviews I need to refer to for my latest writing assignment!), and it comes with a built-in rechargeable battery so you don’t to run unsightly cords just to keep the chair powered up.

And it rocks — not in the metaphorical sense (as in, “That Kathy Griffin really rocks!”), but in the literal sense, as in what your typical game-playing grandma does when she’s diving into BioShock.

If you prefer colors aside from black, another model — the G-Flex — comes in blue or pink. Surely, Martha Stewart would approve.

Virtualization was one of the buzzwords of last year, but it is more than just a buzzword. VMware had a successful IPO last year, and they have a pretty solid set of virtualization products, among them VMware Workstation. Microsoft is also serious about virtualization. They made their Virtual PC product free, and have released a Virtual Server (VMware has 2 or 3 flavors of Virtual Server). Then there are Parallels and VMware Fusion for the Mac.

So what is virtualization? In its simplest form it is creating a Virtual Computer using software, which runs on a physical computer. I’m using the term Virtual Computer instead of Virtual Machine as Virtual Machine can mean something totally different in Windows. This Virtual Computer uses some elements of the physical computer, like RAM, optical drives, network cards and hard drive space to make the virtual computer. When an Operating System is installed on the Virtual Computer, it thinks it is being installed on a physical computer. In fact, the process of setting up Windows XP for example, is almost exactly the same on a Virtual Computer as on a physical computer. When software is installed on the Virtual Computer’s Operating System, it generally doesn’t know the difference.

The benefits of this are numerous. For software testing it is a great tool, as you can rollback any changes made to the Virtual Computer. Multiple different operating Systems can be run on one Physical Machine, which then has to have sufficient disk space and extra RAM. For example if I need to run a program which only runs on Windows 98, instead of having a physical machine dedicated to this, it can run in a Virtual Computer running Windows 98 on a Windows XP desktop.

The real benefits of virtualization are when multiple physical servers are consolidated onto one physical server which then runs multiple virtual servers.

Multiuser computing is nothing new. It’s been around for decades. The idea is that a single central processing unit can serve multiple users, each of them working on their own monitors, keyboards and mice. After all, the typical CPU mostly sits there, awaiting the brains in our fingers to tell it what we want it to do next. I assure you, if a CPU had opposable thumbs, they’d be twiddling a lot.

NComputing’s X300 lets you share one PC among seven users. Where would this be useful? In a home environment where more than one family member at a time needs to have access to computing power. In a small office, where computers aren’t what people sit in front of all day, but when they need to get onto one, they need it now. Educational environments where budget is tight but the need is great. In other words, each of those people doesn’t need his or her own computer, just a display, keyboard and mouse. These days, those components are relative bargains.

The X300 works on both Windows and Linux systems. To set it up, you install a PCI card and virtualization software onto the computer that’s to be shared. Then you connect access devices to the PCI card with cables that you get in the box. Finally, you plug in a user’s monitor, keyboard and mouse to each access device. That gives you room for four users. To get the full seven, you add a second X300 kit.

And, yes, each user can do multi-media and run their own sets of software applications in their own space on the virtual desktop.

I can almost hear some people shudder at the thought of buying a new notebook running Windows XP. Fortunately the Toshiba Portege R500-S500 series of ultraportable laptops also has the R500-S5002 model which is pre-loaded with Windows Vista Business Edition. For those of us who wish to avoid Vista, the R500-S5002X model is pre-loaded with Windows XP Pro.

The CNET.com review of this ultraportable laptop says:
“Toshiba’s much-anticipated Portege R500 may be the best ultraportable laptop available right now”.

Weighing in at 2.4 pounds, with a size of 11.1 inches wide by 8.5 inches deep by 1 inch in height, this is no toy. The most amazing thing about it is that it features a DVD writer,
which is very rare for ultraportable laptops.

An ultralow-voltage 1.2 GHz Core 2 Duo CPU is complemented by an integrated Mobile Intel Express 950GM graphics card. The 1GB of RAM should have Windows XP Pro running quite nicely. The 12.1 inch TFT active matrix screen has a maximum resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels. Add to that a 120GB hard drive, not bad for an ultraportable, and this is a pretty capable laptop. Naturally it includes wired 10/100 Ethernet, and 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g and 802.11n wireless as well as Bluetooth. To prevent others from using the notebook there is a fingerprint reader.

For expansion options, it has 3 USB 2.0 ports, PC Card, Firewire port, and an SD card reader.

This is not a dilemma I shall face in my near lifetime, but perhaps it is one you already face: how to view the videos you’ve downloaded to your iPod, SansaView or Microsoft Zune in comfort. Face it, there’s something irretrievably uncool about squinting like the sun is in your face just to catch the final episode of last season’s 24 on a screen that’s too small for your eyeballs.

Myvu has the solution: They’re called personal media viewers, and they resemble hyper-techie, Bono-fashionable sunglasses with built-in earbuds.

The myvu viewer takes the output signal from a portable media player or other device and projects a floating image onto the lenses that the user can see around — providing an interesting viewing experience for “on-the-go” people. The viewer includes a rechargeable battery for up to four hours of viewing time.

New models include the myvu shades and myvu crystal.

The next time you see a well-outfitted teenager bumping into planter boxes in a shopping mall, don’t think to yourself, “Oh, that poor kid must be having horrendous growth spurts that leave him incapable of knowing where his legs end and his feet begin.” Think to yourself, “I wonder what he’s watching.”