Need some help please....Mac user...

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Linux works but what about macs?

Of course. If any given Mac user can manage to get Windows XP running in any kind of virtual machine, then they can run the MathCAD Explorer just as I did. Linux has nothing to do with it.

If you are willing to run Windows in a virtual machine, what is the objection to running it on hardware designed for it?

Quite simply; I hate Windows. With a passion. It only deserves to be run in a VM for the odd occasions that I actually need to run Windows for something (which is about 2 or 3 times a year). Installing it on one of my PCs would be a waste of a perfectly good PC. Even my daughters and wife run Linux.

For the record, I am not much more fond of OS X (hence, my 8 hour ownership of a Mac).

I don't want to get into a mac vs pc discussion here but, there are a lot of science and engineering tools on the pc that are not available on the mac.

The "this vs. that" discussion was sort of inevitable in this thread, and I am sorry for stirring the pot. There are many topics that I have slowly learned to avoid discussing (politics, religion, philosophy, etc.) however OS choice is one I love to get into. Again, I am sorry.

For science and engineering tools, you should look at what is available for Linux. You might be surprised. ;)
 
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Quite simply; I hate Windows.

The "this vs. that" discussion was sort of inevitable in this thread, and I am sorry for stirring the pot. There are many topics that I have slowly learned to avoid discussing (politics, religion, philosophy, etc.) however OS choice is one I love to get into. Again, I am sorry.

For science and engineering tools, you should look at what is available for Linux. You might be surprised. ;)

Oh, I know Linux has science apps, I did Linux starting way back with Slackware v1 and have built and programmed parallel computational clusters with Linux and Windows. Android is just highly polished Linux and i am using an android tablet to write this. I just have such a large vested interest in software packages that it is tough to break the chain with Windows. To be fair, the latest version of Windows 7 x64 professional as deployed in the enterprise works very smoothly and I have not had a single blue screen or lock up since I got my new machine in September (quite a feat for Windows). I was looking for a good virtual windows machine on Android and have not yet found it.
 
yeah, what's with the MS hate? It is a great system if you purchase decent hardware. Apple basically forces you to buy in to a top tier product. Go spend that 2k on a PC and it will not fail you! Everyone seems to buy those 300-600 dollar POS pc's.. and 100 of that goes to ms, so you're spending pennies on the hardware.
For the record, I run linux for my primary workstation w/ a win7vm w/ virtualbox Works perfectly, out of the box. No special config, no troubles.

I use windows 7 and 8 on various other boxes in my house, as well as an exchange server, all work perfectly, never any trouble. I've also got various macs. (I run anIT company, gotta use 'em all) I honestly experience more problems w/ old macs than I do old pc's. and really.. the MS hating is SOOOO 10 years ago.... get over it, people.
 
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I have used XP bootcamp for Woofer Tester 3 (Dayton), Omnimic and Room Analyzer II
Would they work in Virtual box? As we have both and app running and it also need to access some hardware throgh the USB port...

I worked part time IT support, my G4/400 upgraded to 1.2 GHz was running Seti and F@H 24/7 for 10 years is still working old Dell Pentium III also refused to give up, harddisk broke regardless of OS.
 
Previously I had Vista running in bootcamp, AND Parallels could have access to the partition as well. So I could both boot as a pure PC, or use the virtual machine concept.

Unfortunately one day Vista (that horrendous piece of sh*t) completely froze during an update and I never bothered re-installing it.

I have now winisd and a few calculation spreadsheets on my work laptop, a PC.
 
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i prefer to use virtual machines and WINE because natively, windows programs are fairly memory and hardware heavy. My desktop system had an accident with a leak so i'm using an 8yr old Lenovo thinkpad right now with some fairly poor hardware (celeron M 2ghz, 1gb ddr ram, ancient hard drive). This laptop just wouldn't handle windows with everything running on it, especially with the need to run anti-virus on a windows machine.

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
 
Gafhenderson,
What flavor and version of Linux are you running with Wine? Looks like you have a Russian version of Mathcad going there! :)
X

Xubuntu on this one.

Yeah I bought what I thought was a good copy 2nd hand on eBay with English language. Turned out it only had German, Russian etc on it. The licence also doesn't work for the English downloaded version.... I was less than happy so struggled on with the Russian.
 
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waiting for the other shoe to drop:

what issues, and where would you "place the blame"?

I find the Dayton rather ... temperamental. I can measure a driver, get values, remeasure, and sometimes get different values. The differences typically aren't huge, but they aren't the case of being a 1/10th or 1/100th out either. I don't blame the Mac, or Parallels, because I don't have any other inconsistencies from devices using the USB ports.
 
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I find the Dayton rather ... temperamental. I can measure a driver, get values, remeasure, and sometimes get different values. The differences typically aren't huge, but they aren't the case of being a 1/10th or 1/100th out either. I don't blame the Mac, or Parallels, because I don't have any other inconsistencies from devices using the USB ports.

I rely on realtime performace and have never been able to get a virtual OS to perform properly.

The issues you describe are due to the virtual machine having some delay accessing the ports in real time. If you run it natively and it still happens then you have some hardware conflict that needs sorting out.
 
Have you noticed what parameters are consistent and what is not.

My guesstimate is that
Most consistent: Pure electrical values like Re and Le
Least consistent: Mechanical like Vas
Intermediary: Values calculated from interacting mechanical and electrical values like Qt.

How picky are you with calibration (everytime or once in while?)
Do you note inconsistencies like different sound levels of the sweep from time to time or random spikes in the graphs?
 
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Have you noticed what parameters are consistent and what is not.

My guesstimate is that
Most consistent: Pure electrical values like Re and Le
Least consistent: Mechanical like Vas
Intermediary: Values calculated from interacting mechanical and electrical values like Qt.

How picky are you with calibration (everytime or once in while?)
Do you note inconsistencies like different sound levels of the sweep from time to time or random spikes in the graphs?

Calibrate each time. There are inconsistencies in sound levels, graphs tend to be smooth. i have measured some coils, and even then there are inconsistencies in values .... not huge, but still variances.
 
You folks are making this all too hard. Don't mess with a VM on Mac. Yes, Virtualbox with a Windows XP install will work, but all that just for WinISD or DOSBOX? Meh.

Use Winebottler. It will do no-questions-asked install WINE on your mac and then allow you to run the WinISD install application, too.... When winebottler is done, you'll have WinISD encapsulated inside of a Mac app. No fuss, no configuration, nothing!

WineBottler | Run Windows-based Programs on a Mac
 
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