I’m having some trouble with a Macbook that I use as my primary computer. I also have a Windows XP machine that I use to share my gigs of music, photos, and other files.

I use iTunes to listen to music on the server over a Windows file share. When I’m using an ethernet connection to the network, I can listen to the music for hours without a problem.

But whenever I’m using a wireless connection, the share drops out after about two minutes on the Mac. I can manually click a song to reestablish the connection, and it works for another two or three minutes before crapping out again.

Is there any way to force OSX to keep a share open permanently when connected to a wireless network?

There’s lots of ways right now to extend the web outside of a traditional web browser. Whether you call them gadgets or widgets, web-enabled desktop mini-apps can be a powerful way to bridge the divide between your users’ machines and your Internet applications.

With all the gadget platforms out there, it can be tough to sift through the options. But in reality, most of the gadget engines are nothing more than glorified web page renderers. If you know HTML and you’re comfortable with JavaScript, you’re already well on your way to churning out your own custom gadgets.

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I took the easy way out when I set up my MacBook and installed ColdFusion on a virtual XP machine using Parallels.

I’ve been meaning to take the time to get things running natively. And thanks to Matt Woodward’s setup guide, that will be a lot easier now.

iTunes doesn’t do a great job of syncing its library with the file system. If you access your music or movies from a shared network folder, it can be a pain keeping each computer aware of the available files. Add an album to the folder from one computer, and you’ve got to import the songs into every other computer’s iTunes.

There’s a Windows utility out there that syncs iTunes to a file folder called iTunes Library Updater. It works really well, and it has both GUI and command line modes.

Unless you’ve figured out a way to get .Net running on OS X, that’s not much help for Mac users. Luckily, you can use Automator to get the job done. Just open up a new workflow. Add a “Find Folder Items” task to find all files in your media folder created in the last few days or weeks. Then add an iTunes “Add Files to Playlist” task pointing to the “Library” playlist. The Finder results will be piped into your playlist.

According to my quick test, already existing library files (and their rating & play count info) seem to remain untouched by iTunes. But I would back up your library before you try this out.

It just took roughly 2 minutes to setup my work VPN and messaging client on my Macbook. Vista and I need a day apart.

Following the news from MacWorld last week, everybody seems pumped over the iPhone.

Eh, it looks like a neat enough gadget. I don’t really like touchscreens though, and the price is steep for Cingular’s inferior EDGE network speed. Anyway, I’m tied to a Verizon contract for years, so it’s a moot point for me.

The Airport Extreme update, on the other hand, caught my attention. The latest edition features a USB port capable of supporting a shared printer and a shared hard drive.

This could be a cool, low power replacement for the always-on server I’m using at home to store music and other files right now.

I’ve been a loyal Windows user since I was in grade school. My job is mainly a Microsoft shop. I cut my programming teeth coding in ASP and .Net. I’m addicted to Outlook & OneNote for my personal email, task tracking and calendaring. Apparently at some point, I sold my soul to Bill Gates.

A few months ago I took a leap and bought an Intel based MacBook. I was attracted by the laptop’s power and small size. But the deciding factor was Parallels, which lets me return to Windows whenever I crave a Microsoft fix.

I’ve been very happy with my MacBook, but there have been some drawbacks to the switch.

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