Forget Bootcamp and Parallels… it’s time to show you one of the coolest things I’ve learned and I need to give ALL the credit to Josh at Macgasm for this awesome tip! You can either watch my video below to show just how easy it is to create a “virtual box” (AKA a 2nd computer on your Mac) to run Windows XP or you can check out Macgasm’s step-by-step instructions on their blog here.

This is a FREE and pretty easy way to literally run a FULL VERSION Windows XP on your Macbook and you can literally switch between the two with one click of your Mighty Mouse! It’s truly amazing. I’m still in awe that few people only know about this!

I know this video is a bit longer than most, but trust me… just watch it and I promise you, you’ll be installing this ASAP. The only thing you need to do is have a Windows XP install disc (CD) and you’re ready to go!

Oh yeah, make sure you download Sun’s xVM Virtual Box here (it’s free!)

Watch the video in HD by clicking here or where it says HD on the video below…

Easy Way To Run Windows XP on Mac (HD Version) from Jeff McCord on Vimeo.

Mac OS X has some really awesome features, as most of you know.  However, I just came upon a new way to make a screensaver that really impressed me.  I want to thank MacMost for this awesome tip.  I will show you how to create a photocast in Flickr and then push that photocast feed into your OS X screensaver.

What is a photocast?  It’s a RSS feed with any tag(s) you want which will then pull all Flickr photos worldwide with the tag(s) you ask for.

In the example I have below (the video), I created a Flickr photocast with the tag of ocean.  A website called Photocastr will automatically create your photocast feed.  It’s really easy.  Once I created my photocast feed (the most 50 recent Flickr photos with the tag “ocean”), I then insert the feed into iPhoto which causes iPhoto to subscribe to the photocast.

After about 3 to 5 minutes, iPhoto pulls all the Flickr photos and then I open System Preferences up and click on Desktop/Screensaver.  I then scroll down and voila!  My Flickr “Ocean” Photocast feed is in my screensaver and now I have a really cool photo screensaver (I chose the “mosaic” option) that displays the 50 most recent ocean-tagged Flickr photos.

Here’s a quick demo to show you how easy it is and how cool the screensaver can be!  Enjoy!

Choose Full Screen for an easier view… please note, it “grayed” out only on the first 3 seconds of the video, it will correct as soon as you start watching.

For weeks now, I’ve been wishing and hoping I could find a way to get the Woopra desktop client installed on my Macbook. As most of you know, you have to have version 1.6 Java Virtual Machine to run Woopra. Well, last night, I figured it out!

For those who don’t know what Woopra is, feel free to click here to learn more.

While I was researching other websites that explained how to install Woopra on a Mac, everything that I was reading was still not allowing it to work on mine. I then came across a wonderful website that provided an additional step and voila: it works!

From my understanding, this only works on Intel Macs running Tiger or Leopard!!!

Please feel free to add a comment or email me if these instructions do not make sense.

(1) Download the Woopra Desktop Client here. Once you’ve downloaded it, COPY THE INSTALL IMAGE TO YOUR DESKTOP (in other words, copy the .dmg file to your computer). After you’ve copied this to your desktop, right-click your mouse on the Woopra Install image. You will then click on “Show Package Contents”. Open the file under the contents folder titled Info.plist. In your text-editor, you will need to change the following:

Under the line <key>JVMVersion</key> change “<string>1.3+</string>” to “<string>1.6+</string>” (w/o the parenthesis)

Once you’ve changed this key, save the Info.plist and you’re done with that (for now). DO NOT ATTEMPT TO INSTALL WOOPRA JUST YET. THERE’S MORE TO DO.

(2) As of yesterday, you can download the correct Java version directly from Apple - it’s super easy. Go here to download the file. (I was just informed of this today, after I already installed Woopra. I guess Apple just released the version of Java that we’ve been needing for Woopra yesterday.)

(4) Install the new Java software. After you install, though, there’s one more step (this is where I kept getting caught up). You have to tell your Mac to begin using this version of Java rather than the other, previously installed versions of Java OR Woopra will not install correctly and you’ll get errors. To do this, on your Mac, go to Applications->Utilities->Java->Java Preferences.

(5) On the General tab, under Java Applet Runtime Settings, select “Java SE 6″. You will then re-arrange the list of Java versions so that Java SE 6 is the top item. Click Save. I PERSONALLY REBOOTED MY MACBOOK BEFORE I COMPLETED STEP #6!!!

(6) Now, you should be able to install Woopra on your Mac. It worked just fine for me! I’d love to hear your comments and let me know if this helped you!

Feel free to leave a comment below if you need help or email me here.