If you’re looking to run Windows on your Mac (without booting into BootCamp), you can surely shell out $80 for Parallels, or VMWare Fusion. They run well, and have some schnazzy features. But what if you could pocket that $80, (or put it towards your legal copy of Windows that you’re installing) and get a similar software program for free?

Yeah, duh. If it worked…

Now it does. InnoTek just put out VirtualBox for OSX Beta 3 yesterday, and it’s sweet.

No, it does not have a few of the super fancy effects that Parallels and VMWare Fusion have (coherence, etc) Beta 3 even includes “Seamless” mode, allowing to run your Windows windows “inside” OSX. It runs fast, and it runs well, and it’s free. You owe it to yourself to give it a shot–what are you waiting for?!? The worst that could happen would be that you didn’t like it, and you’d be out, oh, about $0.

Download this Free Parallels Alternative now!

Tonight, Season 4 begins, in High Definition . I’ve been waiting for this moment for SOOO long! Will you be watching?

2 Hours of action! If you haven’t been keeping up with the “intermediate” story, head on over to find815.com and work your way through it quickly. Also, over on the LOST webpage there’s a quick recap (8:15 long!) of seasons 1-3 if you’re a little bit fuzzy. (Click on “Lost recap in 8 min 15 seconds”)

(Yes, I’m originally from North Dakota. And no, these are not exaggerations)

If ‘vacation’ to you means going shopping for the weekend in
Minot, Grand Forks, or Bismarck (while the kids swim at the Comfort Inn), you
might live in North Dakota.

If parking your car for the night involves an extension cord you might live in North Dakota.

If you consider it a sport to gather your food by drilling through 8 inches of ice and sitting there all day hoping that the food will swim by, you might live in North Dakota.

If you’re proud that your state makes the national news primarily because it houses the coldest spot in the nation, you might live in North Dakota.

If you have ever refused to buy something because it’s ‘too spendy’, you might live in North Dakota.

If your local Dairy Queen is closed from November through March, you might live in North Dakota.

If someone in a store offers you assistance, and they don’t work there, you might live in North Dakota.

If your dad’s suntan stops at a line curving around the middle of his forehead, you might live in North Dakota.

If you have worn shorts and a parka at the same time, you might
live in North Dakota.

If your town has an equal number of bars and churches, you might live in North Dakota.

If you know how to correctly pronounce Minot , Bottineau, Ypsilanti, or Glen Ullin, you might live in North Dakota.

If you measure distance in hours, you might live in North Dakota

If your family vehicle is a crew cab pickup, you might live in North Dakota.

If you know several people who have hit deer more than once, you might live in North Dakota.

If you often switch from ‘heat’ to ‘A/C’ in the same day and back again, you might live in North Dakota.

If you can drive 65 mph through 2 feet of snow during a raging blizzard, without flinching, you might live in North Dakota.

If you see people wearing hunting clothes at social events, you might live in North Dakota.

If you’ve installed security lights on your house and garage and leave both unlocked, you might live in North Dakota.

If the largest traffic jam in your town centers around a high school basketball game, you might live in North Dakota.

If you carry jumper cables in your car and your girlfriend knows how to use them, you might live in North Dakota.

If your town’s Christmas lights parade is actually called the ‘Christmas Lights Parade’ rather than the ‘Holiday Lights Parade’, and everyone in the parade actually greets you with ‘Merry Christmas!’ You might live in North Dakota.

If there are 7 empty cars running in the parking lot at Wal-Mart at any given time, you might live in North Dakota.

If there are more people at work on Christmas Eve Day than on Opening Deer Season, you might live in North Dakota.

If you design your kid’s Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit, you might live in North Dakota.

If driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow, you might live in North Dakota.

If you know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter and road construction, you might live in North Dakota.

If you can identify a southern or eastern accent, you might live in North Dakota.

If you consider Medora exotic, you might live in North Dakota.

If your idea of creative landscaping is a statue of a deer next to your cottonwood, you might live in North Dakota.

If the Sunbelt to you means Bismarck , you might live in North Dakota.

If you know where the ‘banana belt’ is, you might be from North Dakota.

If a brat is something you eat, you might live in North Dakota.

If finding your misplaced car keys involves looking in the ignition, you might live in North Dakota.

If you go out to a fish fry every Friday, you might live in North Dakota.

If you find 0 degrees ‘a little chilly,’ you might live in North Dakota.

If you actually understand these observations, and you forward them to all your North Dakota friends, you must be from North Dakota!

I do some marketing work for a national toy company, so I try to keep my eye at least a little bit on what’s going down in the toy industry—a task that has been quite interesting as of late. What has been happening this year? Lead paint recalls, date rape drug toys, and chinese toys made with kerosene.

So naturally, when I heard that the W.A.T.C.H. (World against toys causing harm) group had come out with their annual 10 Worst Toys list, I had to read what was on it. Much to my suprise, I found such dangerous items as a “Rubber Band Shooter”, “Spiderman 3 New Goblin Sword”, and “Hip Hoppa”. Yes, that’s right, these are the most dangerous toys of 2007: a glorified metal finger used for flinging rubber bands at your siblings is on the WATCH’s most wanted list. And a plastic sword. And the evolution of those old pogo balls that looked like Saturn. (The Hip Hoppa now includes a pogo-stick handle).

If you ask me, this is just plain ridiculous. How are the children of tomorrow supposed to have any fun at all? If something involves moving parts or something firmer than a wet noodle, society wants warning labels and cautionary statements. I remember as a child snapping rubber bands around, and no one lost an eye. Our swords were wooden () sticks or metal () tent poles. Pogo sticks used to be legal, and you could ride your bike without a helmet if you wanted. When we got hurt, we used it as a means of getting some attention, then went back to playing.

Pain is part of life, and I’d bet we cause more problems with Purell and overly-insane safety precautions that we eliminate. If you want your kid to be totally safe these days, it seems the only place is on the couch in front of the TV.

Let’s face it, pain is part of life. Let’s do what we can to mitigate the major dangers of life, but let’s not go overboard.

Give me back the good ol’ days.

Honestly, I’m not sure where I (or my wife) got this CD from. Nevertheless, it got ripped into my iTunes Library probably over a year ago, and I never listened to it because I always assumed that it was one of my wife’s music CDs of a genre that would be less-than-appealing to me. Was I ever wrong!

I’m positively addicted to their charged Now I Sing, and the thoughtful lyrics that permeate the rest of the album. In the midst of a chapter in my life where Christian Music fails to connect with me where I am, Pocket Full of Rocks is both relevant and surprisingly easy to listen to.