![\"Screen-shot-2010-05-25-at-10.04.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/Screen-shot-2010-05-25-at-10.04.jpg\" "\\"Screen-shot-2010-05-25-at-10.04.jpg\\"")
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You are looking at a modern miracle. In the upper left hand corner is the ubiquitous Apple Computer symbol. This is a 17″ Macbook computer running Windows and Mac programs at the same<\/em> time.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We are using a program called Fusion to run the Windows part of the show. With Fusion we made a disc image of our communications PC. This is an exact copy, including our engineering and CAD design programs along with communications and navigation software. We knew from our recent trip to New Zealand that the engineering software worked, but were dubious about the Fusion’s ability to connect to the Iridium sat phone, Icom SSB radio, and Pactor modem.<\/p>\n Yesterday afternoon with the last of our chores completed we plugged in the USB connection which leads from the Edgeport serial\/USB \u00a0converter. We clicked on an icon at the bottom of the Fusion Windows box which connected the Edgeport, and began testing.<\/p>\n The Nav software was first with an automatic connection to the GPS. We then tried SailMail and were connected to both Icom SSB and Pactor modem, and thence to the SailMail station in Belgium. The final test was using UUPlus software to dial the Iridium sat phone. It worked as well.<\/p>\n Had we started with a new PC, and had to make all these connections manually, we would have spent half a day or more. These ease with which we were able to clone the old PC and then install it on the Mac was worth the extra cost of the Apple hardware.<\/p>\n You may be wondering why even bother with the Mac? In our case, we need it for high definition video editing (Final Cut Pro) and prefer it for photos (Photoshop CS5 + Light Room). It is also much easier to network the Macs than we have found with PCs (which may be a sign of our computer illiteracy).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"