Parallels is starting to really become a brilliant solution to running Windows on a Mac with little sacrifice, in fact it is becoming a ‘best of both worlds’ solution. This is great because we are finding Mac hardware to be both fast and reliable (and repair is easy).

The newly released Parallels Beta v.3036 has some great features, including windows apps intermingling with mac apps on screen and Parallels access to your BootCamp partition. And a heck of a lot more. Warning, it is a fresh new beta and there are bugs!

Also, the Parallels Transporter program is bundled. This very savvy program allows you to put an agent on a PC and convert the entire thing into a Parallels Virtual Machine that you can then run on your Mac.

Links: Review at GIGO (thorough), Review at AWLN

I’ll admit up front that I’m enthralled by this new web application. Not necessarily for what it can do today (though it is pretty awesome today) but for what the potential is.

Wesabe is a personal finance web app that makes Quicken look like a stuffy old paper ledger. It combines social/community networking (a la Flickr) with personal finance and provides three main tools to help you understand your finances, save money, and reach financial goals. These features are called in Wesabe; tags, tips, and goals. Tags are the by now familiar and reassuring system of labeling that ties in to others similar labels and leverages information, ie, I can see for my ‘books’ tag what others top merchants are and their ranking, what people spend on average, and what tips folks have. Tips are ways to save money that folks write up to share with others - all based on a tag. Goals are what you write to set yourself financial, uh, goals. They are shared and overlapped and available for discussion.

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As readers will know from past posts, the IT team took a trip to NYC a few months ago and were fortunate to be able to dine at Union Square Cafe, one of the restaurants started by Danny Meyer. It was a wonderful experience.

I have just finished reading his book, Setting the Table, and want to recommend it for anyone interested in understanding service/hospitality and the entrepreneural experience. It’s all from Danny’s experience and is a fast and casual read.

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