Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with Virtual

Need a Virtual Server

cg1 — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 10:59:17 -0800

I am looking for a a virtual server - sitting somewhere in the cloud that can hold around 150 GB of information. I am thinking of Box.net - does anyone know of something better? Thanks!

Help my computer become strict and overbearing.

mammary16 — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:56:34 -0800

I'm looking for special task-scheduling software, and am looking for suggestions. Lately I've been setting small daily goals for myself - twenty minutes to study Esperanto, twenty minutes to learn a song on guitar, twenty minutes to perform a discrete work task, etc., and am really starting to believe that the less time I give myself for a task the better I perform.

I remember studying for the GRE, and the software I used included a "virtual proctor", instructing me at different points to end or begin a section. Does something like that exist for everyday life?

As such, I'm looking for a program which I can use to micro-schedule my day, with special alarms at specific times (1:10, 1:20, 1:50), etc. Ideally, the alarms would also display the task to be performed. Even better, I'd like something that reads aloud the text I've entered for that alarm. That way, a computer voice could cue me for my next task!

I've seen a few examples of this sort of thing online, but I thought I'd ask you all if you have a particular program you like, isn't very demanding on system resources, and (possibly) has the extra functions I've mentioned above.

Thanks!

How Do I Promote My YA Fantasy Novel?

musofire — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 08:33:51 -0800

I want to promote my Young Adult fantasy novel about Morgan le Fay on the web. The biggest audience should be young women and libraries; Wiccans, medieval re-enactors and King Arthur fans would dig it, too (I hope). How can I best promote the book myself? What sites and blogs should I contact? Are author's tours effective? What should I definitely put my efforts into and what's not worth my time? I've written a fantasy novel about the childhood of Morgan le Fay which is coming out next year. My publisher probably doesn't have huge resources for promoting the book, and I want to do my part.

I've thought of doing a virtual author's tour, contacting blogs and websites for (a) young adult readers (b) Wiccans (c) medieval fans (d) King Arthur fans. What are the blogs and websites I shouldn't miss?

Also, here in Canada, publishers can get grant money to send authors on real live book tours. If I hit four or five major cities, how can I get the maximum buzz out of being physically there? It's not worth traveling to Calgary to sell ten books, unless I can leverage that somehow into radio interviews or ... what?

I'll work up some sort of website about the book and about Morgan le Fay, of course. What sort of content might be the most interesting to readers?

What have I missed?

Softwarefilter: Free Citrix Windows based style solution for running a legacy program?

unvivid — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 17:00:41 -0800

Help me find a temporary stopgap for legacy software? Long version: I've been tasked with upgrading our base computer image at my new job (XP Pro 32bit SP3). The new image works fine for 99% of my user base however, one department has an "old" (circa 1999) vb6 application with:

Custom DLL's
An installer that does not work inside of XP SP2+3

The application was built in the 95/98 era and was hacked into place on the former image (XP Pro SP2) by the tech I replaced (OT: He left under good circumstances, helluva tech but unfortunately he is not available as a resource to me).

I was able to get the software running initially with use of process mon and alot of blurry eye work. Unfortunately a good portion of the functions inside are not working due to the installer failing to register files properly and XP saying "eff" to various registry writes. I finally hit a brick wall today and am unable to progress any further.

The application itself is SQL based. I've already sent a request to our dev team for a new interface. This however is going to take time on a project that is already behind (new guy rescue?). And for the curious, I was dropped into this as a stopgap with minimal information. No bashing me for lack of preparation please. I've been at this company for less than 2 months and am still discovering legacy apps that no one in IT seems to remember/know about on a daily basis.

Short version:
I am looking for some free Windows based software I can load on a couple of the old boxes that would let people launch the program ala Citrix style. My Google-Fu is failing me and I haven't been able to find anything that fit the bill. I am unable to install the legacy app so I
need something that can be installed in place preferably.

Barring this, I am crazily thinking about setting up a couple of the old working boxes and using AutoHotkey + RDP + Concurrent terminal services patch to fill the gap until the new interface can be coded.

As always, any input from the collective mind is very much appreciated.

Virtual Desktop Manager for OS X

namespan — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 11:57:17 -0800

Is there an actively developed virtual desktop manager for OS X that lets you assign windows and documents (rather than applications) to different desktops? Spaces apparently only lets you assign an entire application to a space, which I suppose is OK if all of your different projects break down across application lines, but fails if you might have spreadsheets or textfiles for each activity you're interested in. I've poked at a few others (like VirtueDesktop) but they either seem to not have made it past the trial project phase or seem to have been dropped from active development when Spaces was announced. Is there any competition for Apple here?

How do I go about finding out how many servers (as a function of number of users) I will need to host my web application?

tomargue — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 01:33:39 -0800

I'm putting together a business model for my web application. As part of my expenditure, I need to estimate how many servers I need as a function of number of users. What's a good first step to finding this out? Depending on whether my application can support 100 concurrent users or 10,000 concurrent users, this will vastly change my estimates of server costs. I guess, in general, the number of concurrent users per virtual server will change dramatically depending on the type of web application[1], so I was wondering what the steps are to estimate number of servers required (presuming I can make a good guess of how many users will be online at any one time).

The first step I tried was load-testing my application to see how many users a single server can handle. My application is a GWT application (running on a GlassFish server) and I have actually been having a bit of trouble doing a load test due, in part, to the way GWT handles AJAX. That is, I tried jmeter, but ran into problems in the way jmeter encodes Content-Types. I was thinking if there was an easier way.

I was thinking about estimating the session size for each user then dividing Virtual Machine memory by that amount. But then, I'd also need an estimate on the CPU usage, too.

Maybe the numbers of users per virtual server doesn't change too much from web application to web application...and a "rule of thumb" exists: e.g., 1,000 concurrent users per server, or something like that. My gut instinct says such a rule doesn't exist...

[1] For those who are interested in the details, my web application is an online file manager and general life-organizer that uses hierarchical labels. At its most basic level it allows you to make to-do lists quickly: this would mean that the data exchanged between the client and server is minimal: text. But I've made it so you can also upload files, e.g., music files, and play them online: streaming data would be resource-intensive and probably hard to make a theoretical guess. That's why I'm thinking that load testing under a variety of conditions is the only true way to estimate number of concurrent users. In which case, any suggestions on how to load test GWT applications would be highly appreciated.

Am I on the right track? If anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear.

Adding virtual guest participants to a physical meetup

jeffmacintyre — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 09:04:28 -0800

Best way to add virtual guests to a physical meetup? No, I'm not looking for a simple conf calling solution here; angling for something better and more leading edge.

I'm wondering whether there is some apt web app, videoconference or SIP solution for easily adding virtual guests to a physical meetup?

We don't have a location yet so it's still possible that we could get the technical infrastructure in place to make this happen, between phone lines, wifi, VOIP/SIP, etc. Surely this has been solved before by someone far more intrepid than myself.

Lucrative work-from-home offer or just another scam?

Acey — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 08:46:35 -0800

Lucrative work-from-home opportunity or obvious scam? I applied for a job described only as "data entry clerks", and received a reply detailing the job description. Now I need your help determining whether or not this is genuine.

The company is named "virtual solutions", which as you can imagine, is a vague and indeterminate search term. I believe this is the company, as it fits the description. The brief says, "You will be required to input data into the necessary fields on the forms which is usually but not limited to the following information; name, address, title, description, heading, telephone etc, from these you will acquire orders which you will then need to process and once processed you will be credited."

They say that you will be paid via PPPay at a rate of £10 per order. But that you must first pony up £10.61 for an "information products package" which includes "processing fees and training costs" and allows them "to separate those who are honest, trustworthy and hard working from those who are not". They stress that they are legitimate and that you must reply within 48 hrs.

All this stinks of scam to me (their email address is @live.com, for Christsake) , but I'm sure there are others out there who have tried these things. There is still a possibility that it is genuine, albeit overstated. Anyway, if you've dealt with something similar in the past or know anyone who has, I'd like to hear about it.

Thanks in advance!

Can I get high availability with a modest budget?

flabdablet — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 21:34:11 -0800

How can I set up the virtual server environment I want, using as much open source and as little proprietary software as possible? I'm the technician / sysadmin at a primary school, which will be updating its on-campus server boxes early next year.

Both our existing boxes run Windows Server 2003. Admin1.admin.local runs SQL Server Express and the school administrative database and serves files to four admin workstations; curricserver.curric.local is pretty much a pure file server for 70 classroom workstations, making extensive use of NTFS permissions to manage access control. All workstations run Windows XP.

Admin1 is the PDC for admin.local (10.145.172.0/23), and curricserver is the PDC for curric.local (10.129.172.0/23). An upstream-managed router connects both subnets to the Internet, and also allows admin.local hosts to send UDP datagrams and establish TCP connections to curric.local, though not the other way around. No broadcast traffic transits the router. The router's link to the admin.local subnet is ten mbits/s, which is fine for internet but sucks for cross-subnet file serving.

Admin1 and curricserver each have a UPS. I use external USB drives for backup. I am pretty happy with the way each of the servers is currently set up.

Next year, we'll also be replacing our existing MS Access-based student reports package with a new web-based one from the same company. I have no reason to believe that this will go well. The company recommends hosting this thing on a dedicated box, which will basically be running SQL Server Express and IIS and not much else. I have no wish to install IIS on either admin1 or curricserver, so I'm happy to agree with them.

Now, rather than buy three new boxes and a new UPS and another set of backup drives next year, I'd rather buy two new boxes with i7's and loads of RAM, run a Linux on them with something like Heartbeat in it, and create the three W2k3 servers I need virtually.

It seems to me that doing this would allow me to (a) keep using the same virtual servers year after year after year, while updating the underlying Heartbeat cluster as often as necessary to suit the school's hardware management policy (b) avoid single points of failure for all servers (c) centralize my backup task (d) use solid Unix system administration tools for disk snapshot and backup management instead of whatever some random commercial vendor claims to have invented this year (e) save the school some money (f) easily bypass the upstream-managed router's connection between our two subnets, allowing me to set up the same safe one-way routing policy at gigabit speeds.

Questions:

1. Is this idea Wrong in any important respect? I haven't had much hands-on VM experience, but I have enough Windows expertise to migrate our existing server setups to other hardware (even virtual hardware), probably without needing to do a Windows reinstall, a long enough beard and enough open source happy drink to see the project through, and the intention to document it thoroughly enough to stop it turning all white-elephant for the next guy.

2. Will Heartbeat in fact let me set up three VM's that will normally run on Tweedledum but reboot themselves automagically on Tweedledee if Tweedledum dies?

3. Which VM environments will let me put a Windows VM in charge of a physical network adapter, so I can serve files from a Windows VM over gigabit Ethernet without undue performance penalty?

4. Am I correct in assuming that I want N+2 physical network adapters in each physical box (one for each of N virtual machines to connect to an appropriate network switch, plus one to do a point-to-point link for DRBD, plus one to talk to the host OS via an appropriate network switch? Or, since the virtual replacement for admin1 is only going to be talking to four workstations, do I actually need a dedicated physical network adapter for that VM?

5. Is there any good technical reason for my visceral unwillingness to install IIS on anything except its own dedicated (physical or virtual) box?

6. What's the obvious question I've completely forgotten to ask?

Ubuntu + Virtual Box + ??? = profit

erifneerg — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 10:57:37 -0800

Is it wise to setup Ubuntu for my parents virtual box for ie? So I'm basicly sick and tired of getting phone calls from my parents asking me why there computer isn't work or why it's soo slow. The only thing really stoping me from putting ubuntu is the fact my father need IE (activeX to be exact) for work. Would Virtual Box with IE be more of headache then the current setup?

Need timely replacement for web-based screen-sharing software.

mrmojoflying — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 10:44:56 -0800

I need help finding a replacement service for the very recently defunct Convenos, a web-based meeting application for use with PCs. Long story short, I need to replace my Convenos service by the end of the week to finish a few remaining virtual research interviews. If anyone has used or knows about a similar service, I would be very obliged to hear about it. The important parameters:

-It must allow me to remotely view a research participant's desktop live.

-It needs audio, or to be able to concurrently run Skype.

-The project demands crisp visual fidelity, which excludes using web-cams.

-It should be relatively inexpensive (i.e. no stand-alone software purchase, year-long subscriptions, etc.). I paid $30/month USD for Convenos, which was ideal.

-I need it this week or my primary research may never be put to rest.

Need suggestions in finding call forwarding/virtual phone number service

DerekTheGeek — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 20:55:42 -0800

I am looking for a call forwarding service. I would like to have a single phone number that would not change. I would then like to forward any calls to this number to multiple phones simultaneously. No call screening needed, just have whichever phone picks up the call first take the call. I would also like the service I choose to handle voicemail so that I could deactivate voicemail on the “destination” phones and just have one voice-mail box. Perhaps explaining my situation might help …

I have a PDA phone that I like quite a bit (let’s call it phone A), however there is one problem. The cellular provider that Phone A is sold through does not have the best coverage in some of the areas that I travel to. There is another cellular provider that has better and more complete cellular coverage in my area; however it is impossible to use Phone A on this network. I would like to carry a second phone (let’s call it Phone B) that works on the network with more coverage for those times when I am going to be in areas where Phone A does not have coverage. By having a single number that rings through to both phones I can be pretty sure I won’t miss a call. I would only need to turn phone B on when Phone A is out of coverage (about 20% of the time).
There are many services out there. That’s why I was hoping to get some feedback from the “hive” and perhaps some suggestions. Here is some data about my usage that might help.

1. I receive anywhere between 500 to 700 minutes a month in calls.
2. I do not have the need to make or receive calls outside the United States.
3. I would like my phone number to also be able to receive faxes in addition to forwarding voice calls.
4. I need to have all “destination” phones ring at the same time. Not in sequence as the caller might hang up by the time it rings on the second “destination” phone.

Well I know that’s a lot of info to post, but I wanted to explain the context in which I would be using this solution. Here are some services I have looked at in case others are interested in the same thing.

1. RingCentral.com
2. MakeJustOneCall.com
3. My1Voice.com
4. GotVMail.com
5. InnoPort.com

I have also found that several of the VOIP providers (Vonage, ViaTalk, PhonePower, etc ...) offer these services as a package when someone installs a VOIP phone in their home; however, I am not sure if I could still use these services if I didn’t have a VOIP phone installed at my residence. I only use my cell phone and have no need for a VOIP phone at home. Thanks everyone!

Recommendations for finding good virtual employment

device55 — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 17:40:16 -0800

I'd like to work for a virtual company, or work virtually for a real company. My wife and I are likely to be moving in the next year, and likely to be moving again shortly thereafter, within maybe 2 to 4 years.

I work in web/software development, and we'll be likely relocating from Portland, OR to Des Moines, IA.

Working virtually for a company seems like an ideal scenario - I could build a (virtual) relationship with (virtual) colleagues and perhaps enjoy some non-virtual benefits like health insurance and be more stable than hunting down wild freelance.

Beyond going to CareerBuilder.com and clicking "telecommuting jobs only", what are some recommendations for finding good virtual employment?

What's the best way to create a video tour to teach people how to navigate/use a web site?

juliplease — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 12:37:35 -0800

What's the best way to create a video tour to teach people how to navigate/use a web site? I'd like to put a video on the site that walks people through it and basically acts as a virtual "Introduction and How To". It would be extra-great if we could easily edit/add to the video content.

Have you done it before? Is there a great software to do this that you love? Any other tips before I get started?

How do I efficiently set up a mom-and-pop storefront website using HTML/CSS?

Roach — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 08:43:04 -0800

What is the best way to set up a virtual storefront website for a mom-and-pop outfit in the business of selling hand-painted porcelain dolls and ceramics? I have been offered the chance to set up a website for a woman whose artwork and statuary I love. I had made an agreement with myself not to take on any more web projects, as I have numerous irons in the fire already and proper follow-through has been my watchword this past year. However, the almost-70 y/o woman who makes this art has a very dear place in my heart, and she and her son have been very convincing as to why they would like me to do this for/with them.

I have worked in IT in various flavors for 15 years and have been doing flat-HTML by hand since 1996 and know HTML/CSS fairly well. I'm not proficient at coding in any of the newer, fancier, DHTML technologies, but am totally comfortable with using and modifying preexisting "widgets" in pages I build.

The online catalog will initially consist of 150 or so items in 12 or so categories. They currently exist in the form of an Ebay store, but Ruth and her son wish to transition to an in-house website for a variety of reasons.

I am looking for guidance on the best, and most time-economical, way to build this thing in a way that will make it easy for the son to add items and modify descriptions. He has some basic HTML knowledge. I am thinking of modifying an existing HTML/CSS template to fit their needs, but am curious if there are any technologies out there that will simplify things for me now, and for him later, in the realm of pre-packaged catalog-type widgets, but that use standards-compliant code.

Any other suggestions on ways to do this cleanly, professionally, and without relying on any whiz-bang new technology that the son won't be able to get past down the line would be most appreciated.

Thanks!

Why aren't there universal 32->64 bit driver translator/emulators?

Mokusatsu — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 15:37:56 -0800

Why aren't there universal 32->64 bit driver translator/emulators? 64 bit versions of Windows require 64 bit drivers for printers, scanners and other devices. Many people upgrading to a 64 bit computer have had to retire perfectly good hardware simply because of lack of 64 bit drivers.

One way around this is to set up a 32 bit guest OS in a virtual machine and then run your devices from the guest OS, i.e. you can install your printer on a VMWare (or other type) virtual machine with XP or Vista 32 bit (or perhaps a Linux distro) and transfer your files to the guest OS when you want to print them.

Clearly the virtual machine is able to pass on commands to the device either via the host OS, or bypassing it altogether. This seems to me to be a proof of concept for a universal driver translator.

My question is, would a 64 bit emulator program doing essentially the same job as the 32 bit virtual machine be possible? Basically it would be a virtual machine with a stripped down OS that does nothing more than run 32 bit drivers on a 64 bit host.

If it is possible, how come such a program hasn't been written yet?

I'd willingly pay $100 for such software instead of updating my hardware, because running a full blown 32 bit guest OS purely to scan or print things is a bit of a hassle. I'm sure thousands of people would, and the existence of such software would remove one of the major objections people have to getting a 64 bit OS.

Linux allows this mobo 2x RAM XP shows; can I VM XP and split it?

penciltopper — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 11:15:27 -0800

Would this OS/RAM/VM trick work, you think? Linux seems to allow this PC mobo double the RAM XP shows as possible; can I VM XP on a Linux host and split the RAM between the two? When under Windows, a RAM compatibility scan says the max installable is 2gb. Run the same scan (the Crucial Memory scanner) under Ubuntu, max comes out as 4gb instead. Makes me believe there's a difference between the mobo and XP's capabilities.

I'd like to have a 2gb RAM Ubuntu system and a 2gb RAM XP system to switch back and forth between, while they're running simultaneously (so dual-boot is out). 2 separate boxes with a KVM switch would be awkward due to space constraints, etc.

So if I installed Ubuntu as the OS, put in 4gb RAM, then set up an XP virtual machine running in VMware, can I assign the XP VM 2gb and leave 2gb for Ubuntu? Anything tricky about that, or that I should watch out for?

A little new for me to mix the 3 things, I also haven't done any complex memory assigning before. I've got little enough hair left that I'd prefer not to pull any more out trying to get this to work, so I figured I'd ask the smartest people I know before I get into it. Thanks, MeFites!

Technologies in use within your organization?

bleucube — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 02:33:36 -0800

What technology do you used at your work place to communicate between workers / organizational members? Bonus points if you're on a Virtual Team. I need to collect some information for a school paper. I'm not sure who to turn to, so you're my only hope hive mind.

With your answer to the above question, please include (Short Answers are acceptable):

1. Company Name (can be left blank or make one up)

2. Which technologies have employees/ work teams in this organization used to help them in reaching a decision or accomplishing tasks?

3. Which technologies are available to these organizations (whether or not problem-solving groups are using them)? Do the technologies include the use of telecommuting by members?

4. If cost were not a consideration, which technologies would members of work teams or of these organizations in general prefer and believe would be an asset to meet complete tasks and meet goals?

Make my OneNote dreams come true...

boubelium — Wed, 07 May 2008 21:42:31 -0800

Will VMWare Fusion allow me to run Microsoft OneNote smoothly? I have been wanting to trash my windows based Dell Dullspiron laptop for some time and get a Mac Powerbook. However, I love Microsoft's OneNote and it has kept me tethered to Windows (and yes I've looked at the Mac OneNote substitutes and they aren't what I want). I was complaining about this to a friend who mentioned that I can have the best of both worlds by running OneNote with VMware Fusion. From looking at the VMware web site and a few youtube videos of it in action, I must say it seems to fit the bill.

However, I would love to get some feedback from Mac users on OneNote in VMware. How is the stability? Will it significantly slow down my machine (I typically have excel, onenote, firefox, and a pdf reader open at any given time)? Any other things I ought to be wary of?

Virtual machine / disk image deployment?

bartleby — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 17:00:39 -0800

Moving towards virtual machines for IT support at a business, and I have some questions. I'm seeing some needs to move towards this field, but don't know where to start learning about it. I'd like to have a "quiver" of images/virtual machines that are at least the basic starting points, and have a way of working on them virtually, then deploying them onto heterogenous hardware (no way to get identical workstation hardware for all, so something like Ghost would never work).

I want to be able to image/virtualize the servers as a fail-safe measure (if a server physically dies, we can limp along with a virtual version piggybacked on some other server until that image can be deployed to a replacement). I'd like to do the same for workstations, having the ability to recofigure or deploy new software to a standard disk image/VM, then deploy that image to multiple workstations instead of doing it one-by one. It would help as a "clean install" every once in a while too.

1) assuming I have sufficient processor/RAM/other hardware, can I run 2 servers simultaneously (let's say a Server2003 server and an Exchange server) as virtual machines on the same piece of hardware, without any noticeable change in performance or extra maintenance/overhead?

2) can I (easily) take a disk image, turn it into a virtual machine, install programs, etc to it, then turn it back into a disk image that I can re-deploy?

I'd like to build a company "stock" image of the standard software, etc., then use Acronis True image to image it, keep that image as a virtual machine to maintain/update, then use Acronis SnapDeploy to load that stock image onto new/repaired PCs.
That must be doable, no?

3) Whats my best combo of software that plays nice? I'll want to virtualize Server2003 and XP Pro machines. I want to use Acronis to do my imaging, because their SnapDeploy product says it's capable of deploying a homogenous image to heterogeous hardware (so I don't have to have a separate image/VM for every different model PC in the organization). VMware seems like it's going to work best for working with the images themselves, and it doesn't seem to care if it's running on Linux or Windows,so I can save some dough by building a linux box just for managing this process.

Oh, and this is important - I'm interested in deploying disk images onto workstation HD's.
I'M NOT INTERESTED in having end users work using virtual machines. That would solve a lot of my problems, but it's just not going to happen in this organization.

Please tell me if I'm thinking about this all wrong, or if there's some other/simpler way to do this.

pop-up in my periphery...

Joe Rocket — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 13:07:00 -0800

Aumented Realityfilter- Please, Me-Fites give me your examples of films/video clips of humans with built-in H.U.D.s...? I've been wracking my brain to find a particular futuristic film i've seen in the last 5 years where the lead character (?) is walking down a street, and experiences a sort of pop-up advert and communication through their in-built heads up display. Any films/clips in this vein would be appreciated.

Wikipedia 3D

badstone — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 18:59:13 -0800

I am looking for examples of 3D virtual environments created in a Wikipedia-like manner. I am investigating the use of VR for collaborative, scholarly work. Some projects on my radar include Discover Babylon (FAS), Rome Reborn (Univ. of Virginia), Amazonian Carnival (Michigan State), and River City (Harvard). Likewise, there are a variety of Second Life environments in this vein.

What are other good examples of this sort of work? Specifically, I'm most interested in environments with a sort of Wikipedia model for authoring content - where models and simulations are developed and modified continuously by a community, not just one group and not in one go.

webkinz site problems?

rudy26 — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 13:06:24 -0800

my daughter has received a webkinz for her birthday, and I am having difficulty registering her webkinz on the website. Has anyone else experienced problems with this process? Any advice?

Where can I find Virtual Reality hardware?

Savvas — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 04:05:19 -0800

Where can I find Virtual Reality goggles or something similar? When I was little, I got to play on a Virtual Reality machine. It was basically a round platform with a headset and glove, and it projected you into a very basic, blockish world with a pterodactyl flying around that you had to shoot with your little gun. It was great fun, and I'd like to recreate that in the comfort of my own home.

What I'm trying to find is some sort of approximation of a similar thing, some kind of hardware I can plug into my PC and play very simple or complex or whatever games on, with proper 3D simulation instead of just playing a video on two screens next to your eyes.

If it helps, I live in Australia, and money is no object.

Virtual Windows

Lord_Pall — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 06:55:46 -0800

How do I make fake windows? So I'm moving to Finland. It's dark most of the time during the winter.

I want to rig up dawn/dusk simulator style things to fake my body out.

Ideally, it would look like these
Any pointers as to how to do this?

Any pointers to DIY lightboxes/dawn simulators? I'd love to have the whole house lighting system run by this stuff...