December 21, 2012 AD. Known as Time's Special Witness ™™™™™™™™™™™™
Virtual PC 2007 Service Pack 1 is now available
microsoft.com
Use Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 to run multiple operating systems at the same time on the same physical computer. Switch between virtual machines with the click of a button. Use virtual machines to run legacy applications, provide support, train users, and enhance quality assurance.
Virtual PC lets you create separate virtual machines on your Windows desktop, each of which virtualizes the hardware of a complete physical computer. Use virtual machines to run operating systems such as MS-DOS, Windows, and OS/2. You can run multiple operating systems at once on a single physical computer and switch between them as easily as switching applications—instantly, with a mouse click. Virtual PC is perfect for any scenario in which you need to support multiple operating systems, whether you use it for tech support, legacy application support, training, or just for consolidating physical computers.
Virtual PC provides a time-saving and cost-saving solution anywhere users must run multiple operating systems. Use Virtual PC in the following scenarios:
Ease Migration: Run legacy applications in a virtual machine instead of delaying the deployment of a new operating system just because of application incompatibility. Test your migration plans using virtual machines instead of actual physical computers.
Do More in Less Time: Support staff can run multiple operating systems on a single physical computer and switch between them easily. They can also restore virtual machines to their previous state almost instantly. Train students on multiple operating systems and virtual networks instead of purchasing and supporting additional computers.
Streamline Deployment: Test software on different operating systems more easily. One crashing application or operating system doesn’t affect others.
Accelerate Development: Increase quality assurance by testing and documenting your software on multiple operating systems using virtual machines. Decrease time-to-market by reducing reconfiguration time.
Configurability
After installing Virtual PC, you can configure it to suit your requirements. Virtual PC has a number of settings that control how the product interacts with the physical computer, allocates resources, and so on.
Easy installation
Virtual PC is simple to install. Any administrator can run the Virtual PC guided setup program, and installation doesn’t require a reboot. The first time Virtual PC starts, it guides you through the process of creating the first virtual machine.
Standardization
Configure and test upgrades and installations on virtual machines, and then you can deploy throughout your company a standard configuration that avoids problems caused by minor differences between hardware platforms.
Convenience
Users switch between operating systems as easily as they switch between applications. They simply click the window containing the virtual machine. They can pause individual virtual machines so they stop using CPU cycles on the physical computer. They can also save virtual machines to disk and restore them at a later time. The restoration process normally takes a few seconds—much faster than restarting the guest operating system.
Host integration
Users can copy, paste, drag, and drop between guest and host. Virtual PC provides additions that you install in a guest operating system to enable this functionality.
Physical Computer and Host Operating System Requirements
Following are the minimum system requirements for the physical computer and the host operating system:
An x86-based or an x64-based computer with a 400 MHz or faster (1 GHz recommended) processor with L2 cache. Virtual PC supports the use of AMD Athlon/Duron, Intel Celeron, Intel Pentium II, Intel Pentium III, Intel Pentium 4, Intel Core Duo, and Intel Core2 Duo processors. You can run Virtual PC on a multi-processor computer, but it utilizes one processor only.
CD-ROM or DVD drive
Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher resolution monitor recommended
Keyboard and Microsoft mouse or compatible pointing device
Host operating system: Windows Vista Business, Windows Vista Enterprise, Windows Vista Ultimate, Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition, Windows Server 2003 Standard x64 Edition, Windows XP Professional, or Windows XP Tablet PC Edition
For host disk space and memory, refer to the following table to determine the minimum required by the host operating system. This disk space is only a starting point in determining how much disk space you will need.
Guest Operating System Minimum Memory Minimum Hard-Disk Space
Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition
64 MB
500 MB
Windows Millennium Edition (Windows Me)
96 MB
2 GB
Windows 2000 Professional
96 MB
2 GB
Windows XP Home Edition
128 MB
2 GB
Windows XP Professional
128 MB
2 GB
Windows Vista Enterprise
512 MB
15 GB
Windows Vista Business
512 MB
15 GB
Windows Vista Ultimate
512 MB
15 GB
OS/2 Warp Version 4 Fix Pack 15, OS/2 Warp Convenience Pack 1, OS/2 Warp Convenience Pack 2
64 MB
500 MB
Examples
Users will run Windows 98 and Windows 2000 as guest operating systems concurrently on Windows Vista Business. The minimum memory requirement is then 512 MB + 64 MB + 96 MB = 672 MB.
Users will run Windows XP as a guest operating system on Windows Vista Ultimate. The minimum requirements is then 512 MB + 256 MB = 768 MB.
© 2008 Microsoft
microsoft.com
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Do 1.3 million people really earn their living from the auction site? ...http://www.slate.com/id/2191907/
Certain numbers have an iconic status in America's business culture. One of them is the number of people who derive income selling goods on eBay: 1.3 million. The figure has been cited by eBay executives such as former CEO Meg Whitman, speaking on 60 Minutes in March; by companies that are part of the eBay economic ecosystem; and, in late April, by presidential candidate John McCain. "Today, for example, 1.3 million people in the world make a living off eBay," he proclaimed. "Most of those are in the United States of America."
Where does this number come from? And do more than 650,000 Americans really "make a living" selling costume jewelry, baseball cards, and cameras in the world's largest swap meet?
The number can be traced to a 2006 study conducted by ACNielsen on behalf of eBay. The company surveyed eBay sellers around the globe, including 2,000 in the United States. And it concluded that "approximately 1.3 million sellers around the world use eBay as their primary or secondary source of income," with an estimated 630,239 in the United States. Take careful note of the phrasing, however: primary or secondary. That could mean 50,000 use eBay as a primary source and 1.25 million as a secondary source. Or it could mean the split is closer to 650,000-650,000.
EBay doesn't break out the numbers, but it's a safe bet the reality is closer to the former. Even the minority of sellers who meet the company's "power seller" requirements aren't coming close to "making a living" selling on eBay. To reach the lowest level, bronze sellers must rack up $12,000 in sales (sales, not profits), or move 1,200 items over the course of a year. "A bronze-level power seller isn't making a full-time living on eBay," says Cindy Shebley, who began selling on eBay in 1999. "They have to really crank it up and get into higher tiers, like titanium." Levels rise from silver ($3,000 or 300 items per month) to Titanium ($150,000 or 1,500 items per month). Shebley is a silver-level seller (mostly photography and lighting equipment) but says most her income comes "from supporting sellers as a consultant and a teacher." Shebley teaches classes and is working on a new book, How To Market an eBay Business.
A part-time seller, Shebley is nonetheless an integral part of the eBay economic ecosystem. The company itself (market capitalization of about $40 billion, 15,000 employees) is surrounded by businesses like the one run by Catherine Keener's character in The 40-Year-Old Virgin—a storefront that helped people sell things on eBay. In the real world, it seems there are almost as many businesses that will help you sell on eBay as there are items for sale on the site, from MailBoxes Etc., to UPS, to bubble-wrap manufacturers, to software developers who have created more than 12,000 eBay applications, to Paul Mladjenovic, author of Zero-Cost Marketing, teaching an online class at the Learning Annex.
EBay support has become a compelling industry because it turns out there's a lot of friction in this supposedly frictionless model. A few years ago, Doug Graham, owner of Graham & Company, an advertising firm in Great Neck, N.Y., began reselling other people's goods on eBay. In exchange for a 30 percent commission, Graham handles all the hassles. "You have to take nice photos, conduct realistic auctions, respond to e-mails, and handle shipping and packing," he says. "Each auction can take a couple of hours." Graham's eBay sales are about $150,000 a year, but this power seller isn't making an eBay living. "It's a nice profit center for a larger business."
EBay continues to attract people who would like to make a portion of their living selling. "We think there are about 600,000 sellers that use selling tools on eBay who are trying to make a buck," says J.P. O'Brien, chief executive officer of Sagefire, a Boulder, Colo., company that makes software programs that automatically download data on bought and sold items.
Of course, there's a big difference between making a buck and making a living, between a sometime-thing and a steady gig. The notion that 630,000 Americans—a number roughly equal to the population of North Dakota—are making something approaching a living wage selling on eBay is a little rich. I've been paid a few times to play the piano—it doesn't make me a professional musician.
Daniel Gross is the Moneybox columnist for Slate and the business columnist for Newsweek. You can e-mail him at moneybox@slate.com. He is the author of Pop! Why Bubbles Are Great for the Economy.
Article URL: slate.com
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