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Christiana Ferris User is Offline

Posts:3

08/09/2006 10:08 AM	Alert
How do I install my Birder's Diary software from my PC onto my new MacBook Pro? The Mac doesn't recognize the Birder's Diary CD I have.

jjones

Posts:5332 Veteran Member

08/09/2006 10:19 AM	Alert
Hi Christiana, When you say it doesn't recognize the CD - what do you mean? What happens when you put the CD into the MacBook? Are MacBooks supposed to be able to read CDroms made for Windows systems? Obviously, I am a bit clueless about MACBooks. Jeff

Birder's Diary Technical Support

jkboone

Posts:15

08/09/2006 10:32 AM	Alert
Jeff, The MacBook can run Windows, but Christiana will have to run bootcamp on her Macintosh in order to install windows so that she can run BD. The instructions for bootcamp are here; http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/. There is also a company Parallels that runs a windows virtual machine, the cost of that software is $80. Their website is: http://www.parallels.com/ The Mac doesn't have MS Access, which is why you'd need Windows or a sufficient emulator. jon

jjones

Posts:5332 Veteran Member

08/09/2006 10:35 AM	Alert
Jon, Thanks very much for the assist on this. This is exactly one reason why Forums are a much better support tool that individual emails sent to me. Jeff

Birder's Diary Technical Support

jkboone

Posts:15

08/09/2006 10:40 AM	Alert
No worries Jeff, Just hope the advice helps. jon

Christiana Ferris User is Offline

Posts:3

08/09/2006 10:49 AM	Alert
That's what I was afraid of - that Birder's Diary doesn't come in a MAC version. But thanks for the info on Boot Camp. I'll check it out.

jjones

Posts:5332 Veteran Member

08/09/2006 10:52 AM	Alert
Posted By Christiana Ferris on 08/09/2006 10:49 AM That's what I was afraid of - that Birder's Diary doesn't come in a MAC version. But thanks for the info on Boot Camp. I'll check it out. Correct. It does not currently come in a MAC version. However, the possibility for that is under review. Jeff

Birder's Diary Technical Support

Christiana Ferris User is Offline

Posts:3

08/09/2006 10:58 AM	Alert
Thanks for the clarification, Jeff. In the meantime I'll look into a work-around.

bullwinkle User is Offline

Posts:4

04/24/2008 4:16 PM	Alert
Hi Jeff, Myu son Brian is a pro on writing programs for the Mac. Give him a "call" to discuss. His email is brians99@bellsouth.net. He can take a program from the PC and write it into Mac. He once had a discussion with Pete Th. about this but at the time Pete wasn't ready for this. By the way does Clement's 2008 take the place of the ABA/AOU 2008. If not when will they be ready? Best regards, Werner PS you can respong to me if you wish on my home email address. Thanks.

jjones

Posts:5332 Veteran Member

04/24/2008 5:04 PM	Alert
Hi Werner, Thanks much for the info. My stance on MAC is that it doesn't make much sense to develop (a huge task) a native MAC version of Diary and then maintain and support it. Windows applications run very nicely on MAC using emulation software (I hear the most good things about Parallels) and that Diary runs perfectly on it. The cost to me in both development and support simply put that out of range at this time. Concerning your question on Clements and AOU/ABA. There are many taxonomic authorities out there for different regions of the world. Clements is not a replacement for ABA or AOU. They do not agree in all aspects with each other. We try to offer one all-encompassing World-wide taxonomic list for birders, and then one for regional authorities so that users can produce reports and life lists in accordance with those local authorities. Diary does a 99.9% auto-matching across tax lists for the user. For the worldwide list, we use Clements as it seems to be the most accurate and up-to-date list in use. And the fact that it has been adopted by Cornell adds ever more authority to it. I hope this answers your questions. Let me know if I can provide more. Thanks again, Jeff

Birder's Diary Technical Support

Vireo

Posts:66

04/24/2008 11:28 PM	Alert
As has been pointed out before in this forum, there are two ways of running BD on the Mac, either by using Bootcamp which is part of Leopard or by purchasing a separate program such as Parallels, which creates a virtual machine that allows you to run either Windows XP or Windows Vista (and thus any Windows program such as BD) on the Mac. Bootcamp will boot into either Windows or Mac OSX but not both at the same time. If you want to switch from running BD to to a Mac Program or vice versa, you have to reboot into the appropriate operating system. The big advantage of Parallels, which in my mind justifies the $80 price, is that you can run both Windows and Mac programs concurrently in separate windows. I have been running BD on Windows Vista using Parallels, and BD works just as well as it does on my Windows Vista or Windows XP machines. Parallels is simply an amazing program. I have never used Bootcamp, so I have no idea how well that would work. The existence of Parallels in my view means that there is no need to develop BD for the Mac.

jjones

Posts:5332 Veteran Member

04/25/2008 9:44 AM	Alert
Thanks Lars. It is great to get some info and opinions from a MAC user. That further supports my reasoning as well for not developing a native MAC version of BD. Jeff

Birder's Diary Technical Support

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