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.

I’m all about RSS Feeds. They’re convenient, they’re simple and they’re time-saving and therefore life-saving. If you don’t know what RSS is, you really need to learn about it as I promise you it will change the way you view the web.

Here’s McCord’s definition: instead of visiting a website in a browser to see the latest and greatest articles, blog posts, news, pictures/videos, all you need to do is add the website’s RSS feed into a RSS reader and you get “snippets” of new content on the site. If you’re interested in reading more, you click on the link and the RSS reader brings you to the website. If the headline doesn’t interest you, you move on and therefore don’t have to visit the site. It’s a great way to view 30 of your favorite sites in less than 10 minutes. Done and done.

Now, on to Snackr. Snackr is a RSS ticker that scrolls your RSS feeds in random order on your desktop in a beautiful, Adobe-Air display. Snackr can work on Mac OS X, Windows and Linux so it’s available (for free) to everyone. You must have Adobe Air installed in order to use Snackr, so click here if you haven’t downloaded Adobe Air yet. Once you’ve downloaded Snackr, you can customize which feeds to add, where you want the scroll bar displayed and how fast you want the ticker to move. It’s that easy.

Below is a quick video showing you my Snackr on my desktop… it’ll give you a great idea of how it works. You can download Snackr here.

http://www.vimeo.com/1159880

The latest Apple confirmations/announcements from today’s Steve Jobs’ Keynote are:

(1) iPhone 2.0 SDK - all iPhone users will be able to purchase tons of apps from iTunes via the App Store.  They displayed several games, business applications, medical applications, etc.  This will be a free update for all iPhone users in July.

(2) MobileMe - the revamped .Mac… it will include Push mail, contacts and calendar data and synced back to your iPhone over the air.  It will cost $99/year and can be upgraded for the rest of us .Mac users.

(3) Snow Leopard - As predicted, a new OS X will be released soon.  It will be previewed later today at WWDC.

(4) THE NEW iPHONE (3g) - click here for more info.

So any die-hard Appleholic knows that next week is a big week. Why? Apple has their annual WWDC meeting where Steve Jobs will announce Apple’s new products/plans/updates. I must admit, I feel like Christmas is on Monday (when Steve Jobs takes the stage). This is a big deal for all of us who love Apple. Thanks to some of the insider blogs (Engadget, Gizmodo, TUAW), here are the rumors of what’s to occur next week. Will they be right?

(1) iPhone 3G - according to many insiders, Apple will announce their 2.0 iPhone which is rumored to have GPS, 3G capability and several more features. Read more here.

(2) iPhone Applications (iPhone SDK) - for the rest of us who already have an iPhone and don’t plan on shelling out another rent payment to get a new one just yet, the iPhone SDK (Software Development Kit) is supposed to be announced. Some sites report that we will be able to purchase 3rd party applications from iTunes as early as Monday.

(3) Snow Leopard (10.6) - Several sites are reporting that Leopard 10.6 will be announced (otherwise known as Snow Leopard) which will improve speed and security for Mac’s successful Leopard operating system. Click here to read more about that.

Needless to say, next Monday will be an exciting day as will the rest of the week when the world will see what Apple is going to announce. I don’t know about you, but I’m waiting on pins and needles!

Which rumors do you think will come true? What else have you heard that Apple will announce? Leave your comments below!

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.

All right my readers, my new header graphic is up and running (thanks to Mike Cherim who did a wonderful job on the header/masthead image! Click here for his site if you need help!)

My goal pushing forward is to bring you, my readers, the moxiest information on the web. Whether that be politics, tech information, recruiting information, how to get job, life and society or just whatever is making me feel MOXIE, you’ll be the first to know!

Leave me a comment below and let me know TWO things about you: (1) Why are you moxie? What defines you as moxie? (2) What do you want to read about on this moxie blog?

Thanks friends!!!

Jeff