Launching a Virtualbox Guest from OS X as an App

I've been using Virtualbox quite a bit lately now that I have my new MacBook Pro for work.  I have the disk space and I need access to Windows for a variety of things.

Anyway, I quickly tired of opening the Virtualbox Application just to launch the machine I needed (it's nearly always the same one even though I have many). So, I poked around in Google and found this great bit of instruction from Mark Bockenstedt.

Basically, you just have to create a script in Script Editor and save it as an Application. Then change the icon (if you want) and drag it to the dock. Here is all the code for the script.

  do shell script "vboxmanage startvm Ubuntu"

Very simple, very easy.

Microsoft Security Advisory (977544): Vulnerabilities in SMB Could Allow Denial of Service

What a surprise... Ok, I was kinda surprised. I guess this is why we have firewalls.

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Microsoft Security Advisory (977544): Vulnerabilities in SMB Could Allow Denial of Service: "Revision Note: V1.0 (November 13, 2009): Advisory published.Summary: Microsoft is investigating new public reports of a possible denial of service vulnerability in the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol. This vulnerability cannot be used to take control of or install malicious software on a user’s system. However, Microsoft is aware that detailed exploit code has been published for the vulnerability. Microsoft is not currently aware of active attacks that use this exploit code or of customer impact at this time. Microsoft is actively monitoring this situation to keep customers informed and to provide customer guidance as necessary."

Google Autocomplete

Recently I started seeing a lot of these and it intrigued me. So I tried my own and discovered how easy (and addicting) it can be. I quickly discovered there is a blog dedicated to Google Autocompelete (AutocompleteMe.com).

Microsoft Steady State

For years I have replied upon the Faronic's product, DeepFreeze, for supporting public computer labs. Recently I found Microsoft Steady State and it looks promising. One of the problems I recently ran into with DeepFreeze was the lack of interaction with the operating system. This can be good in some cases but bad in others. I am hoping that Microsoft has solved some of these issues Steady State seeing as they have pretty good access to the code. Hopefully I can post some results here when I get the chance.

Online Charts and Diagrams

Lovely Charts is a great online resource for creating a number of quality online flowcharts, network diagrams and the like. The free account allows you to save one project on the site. You can still create new projects and save/export them as much as you like. You can only save one though. If you update your account (for a very reasonable fee) you can save many projects and edit them online.

It's a very useful tool for those of us who rarely dabble in the art of network diagrams and flowcharts but sometimes need a graphic to support an idea to upper management. Let's face it, Visio just isn't worth it and there are few substitutes. This is a great one.