Monday, April 30, 2007
Usual oatmeal breakfast. I had been having a problem in which our MacBook purchased in 2006 would fail to disply external video through a DVI-to-VGA adapter to a VGA projector in Boot Camp running Windows XP SP2. The F7 function key (Fn+F7) failed to cycle through video output options as expected. If I restarted in OS X, F7 worked as expected. If I then started Parallels with a Win XP SP2 virtual machine, I would automatically get external video even as full screen—no F7 key required. The solution in Boot Camp 1.2 is in the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator Driver for Mobile control panel (take a deep breath first: Start > Control Panel > Display > Settings > Advanced > Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator Driver for Mobile > Graphics Properties). In the Display Devices tab, set the Multiple Display option to Intel(R) Dual Display Clone, set Primary to Notebook, set Secondary to Monitor. Select Apply. Select the Display Settings tab. Set the screen resolution for Notebook to 1024 x 768, then set color quality to 32-bit. I could not find a way for this panel to let me run the display clone setting so that the notebook is the native 1280 x 800 and the external monitor is 1024 x 768—that would be nice. Error "You are unable to log in to account [accountname] at this time" was solved by starting OS X, deleting the user account, restarting OS X, then readding it. Installed Parallels update. Reconfigured Parallels to use the Boot Camp partition for Windows XP. Visited James at his new office in Dentistry. Gave him an Abita root beer. Lunch with James at Chow: James had a rock cod sandwich (the sandwich special), I had seafood wonton soup—very filling. Student awards ceremony at Millberry Union. This was the first time this event had a buffet with table seating, thanks to a generous sponsor. Salad, bread and butter, (basmati?), asparagus, eggplant, chicken boobs, platter of assorted finger desserts: petit fours, cookies, chocolates, etc. I ran the slideshow. The event went very well due to careful planning. I do not envy Cindy the burden of this event—she did a great job this year, perhaps the best year ever. Printed reports for the SCC wireless survey; we have a meeting tomorrow. Home late.