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I remembered a couple of other Mac programs I use pretty regularly. Add these to my other list of Mac software:

I recently decided to switch to VMware on my Mac for hosting my Windows installation. I started off with the VM disk image on my MacBook hard disk. I have a MacBook Pro with a 7200 rpm 200 GB hard disk. The performance of the VM was not ideal. Obviously there is disk contention between Mac OS and VWware. But I hesitated to move the file over to an external drive because I didn't feel an external disk would perform any better. But I went ahead and put it to the test.

I am an enterprise application architect. My daily professional work consists of creating architectural documents and writing code in C# using the .NET Framework. But I do all of this on a MacBook Pro using a Parallels virtual machine or, in now rare occasions, the Boot Camp instance. I run Windows Vista Ultimate in the VM. But I only work in Windows when I have to. Even my documentation work is all done on the Mac side now. Here are the Mac applications I use regularly:

I posted an article on CharlesSieg.com about my wife's new Mac Pro.

I find it ironic in the extreme that probably the best Windows computer in the world is Apple's Mac Pro workstation. For $2,799 base, you get (2) Intel 64-bit Xeon CPUs, each with 4 cores, 8 memory slots expandable to 32 GB total memory with 2 GB installed, and a bunch of other stuff.

I was talking to Primeaux today and was curious about how many CPU cores he has running in his household. I believe he counted to 20. Now, that's not surprising, considering he's a parallel and distributed kind of guy. My own count, though, isn't far off. 2 cores for my MacBook Pro and 2 core for Ahu's MacBook Pro. 8 cores for the new Mac Pro. 2 more cores for the iMac in the kitchen. 1 core for the Windows box I still have hooked up in the basement in case my Mac isn't cooperating and I have a World of Warcraft raid to be in. Right there, that's a total of 15 cores. We haven't come to a conclusion yet with regard to whether the 9 cores in my Playstation 3 count or not. Heh.

CharlesSieg.com has finally taken the plunge and moved on to a "modern" blogging platform. Prior to today, the website was hosted in Narrative, a blogging platform designed, written, and supported by me. That is, until the last year has been so busy that there hasn't been any support. So, hence, the move to WordPress, the #1 blogging platform in the world. I'm already enjoying the great post editing support and the many beautiful themes. I should be posting more often now.

All of my websites are in the process of migrating away from my homegrown blogging software - Exposition / Narrative / Rendition - in favor of the latest version of WordPress. The reason? Simply put, I am much more interested in blogging than the building of blogging software. I originally created Narrative because there wasn't a good blogging package for ASP.NET. Now, almost 6 years later, while I still work as a .NET architect, I spend all of my time on a Mac, which means I have access to a LAMP stack, etc. Anyway, you'll see a lot of changes here due to the conversion, the first of which is that comments are now open on all posts going forward.

I ordered a new MacBook Pro last week, the day the new hardware refresh was released. Actually, I spent a bunch of time running around to Apple stores to see if anyone had one in stock but no one did so I had to order mine custom from the Apple store.

After yesterday's announcement of the new Apple iTunes movie rental service, the stock of Blockbuster tanked 17%. The end is near for those ubiquitous blue and gold stores. Personally, I loathe Blockbuster. Looking for a movie at Blockbuster is right up there with standing in line at airport security in terms of fun for me. I tried out the iTunes movie rentals last night. It took a few minutes to actually find any rentable movies (only 1,000 titles were available on day 1) but after I figured it out, it was trivial. I already canceled my Netflix subscription. Their stock dropped almost 4%. I'm also probably going to go buy an Apple TV tonight as well. That little device has finally become a compelling purchase. Awesome stuff, Apple!