Better performance with Compiz Fusion in a VirtualBox VM on Windows 7

First some background.... my previous entries about VMware and VirtualBox:

Compiz Fusion and VMware Workstation 7 not playing nice:
http://orsontyrell.blogspot.com/2009/11/compiz-fusion-and-vmware-workstation-7.html

Compiz Fusion and Virtual Box 3.10 playing together:
http://orsontyrell.blogspot.com/2009/11/compiz-fusion-and-virtual-box-310.html

Today I'm seeing some great performance improvements with the latest version of VirtualBox, version 3.1.2.  Specifically I'm now satisfied with the performance of Compiz Fusion running in a VM on Windows 7.  Previous I'd see delays in the menuing system or delays when typing in a terminal window, but now the windowing performance is fine. 

After upgrading to VirtualBox 3.1.2, I upgraded the VirtualBox Guest Additions on an existing VM, and I also tested a new VM.  In both instances (an Ubuntu VM and a Linux Mint VM) I saw the same performance improvements.

Halo Reach: this is not the media you're looking for, move along.

The CES 2010 Keynote Address is available online. Great, except it's not.  At around the 1 hour mark, Microsoft's President of Entertainment and Devices Division Robbie Bach mentions the latest episode in the Halo saga.  Instead of showing the video presented at CES, the viewer is greated with the screenshot below:

Why not show the video?
or Why not just cut the video out all together?
Why leave it on the screen to linger for over two minutes, all the while playing crappy elevator music? 

Oh and sure, when the video feed returns, we're greeted with the audiance's applause of what they just saw...  thanks Bungie.

[UPDATE]
uggh... and they do it again with Microsoft's own Gameroom Arcade...

MP3 to M4B: free, quick, and easy audiobook coversion for your iPhone

Quick?
Maybe, maybe not.  Depends on your hardware.

Why M4B?
MP3 is nice for songs, but if you have a long audio book in MP3 form, it may be 10, 20, 30+ individual MP3 files.  M4B lumps them all in one.  M4A is similar to M4B, but it doesn't offer bookmarking(remembering playback location) which is a necessity when listening to a long audiobook.  Sure, in some instances an app will remember the playback location of both MP3 and M4A, but as the file size increase so does the chance loosing your location.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M4b

So why not just throw everything in iTunes and use a playlist?
In my experience, the iPod app for the iPhone sucks.  Plan and simple.  Everytime I charge my iPhone via the computer's USB port, the iPhone looses it current playback location.  I've run into similar instances when syncinging.  So what the solution?  I've found an audiobook player app with some good features, and most importantly it doesn't loose it's playback location.  The app even supports background playback (the only non-Apple app I've come accross that does this).  The app is called Bookmark http://bookmarkapp.com/ , Bookmark Blog http://bookmarkapp.wordpress.com/

And now let's start with some apps that I've tried, but for one reason or another haven't had much success:

• Audiobook Maker version 0.1b for Mac OSX - http://audiobookmaker.sourceforge.net/ - A free MP3 to AAC app.  For me, this app is hit and miss.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it crashes, and sometimes I just get the spinning beachball.  The good news is it's open source if anyone wants to pick it up, unfortunately the app was last updated Dec 03, 2005 (http://sourceforge.net/projects/audiobookmaker/files/).  Maybe it's incompatibilities with Snow Leopard, I don't know.
• MP3 to iPod Audio Book Converter version 0.18 for Windows - http://freeipodsoftware.com/ - Another free all-in-one type app.  And again, it's hit and miss with conversions.  I tend to have better success when running it on XP, unfortunately most of my PCs have moved to Windows 7.  When running under Win 7 I tend to run into a Java error at the start of the conversion process. 

A successful 3-step process:

1. MP3 files to M4A files - using Format Factory version 2.20 - http://www.formatoz.com/ - This free app converts all kinds kinds of media.  If you have a large number of files to convert it has a great queuing system.  Just drop them in the queue and let it crank away.  Out comes the M4A files.
2. M4A files to a single chaptered M4B - using Chapter and Verse version 1.3.3.5 - http://lodensoftware.com/chapter-and-verse/ - Another free app.  Creating the M4B is rather simple, just add the M4A files, make any necessary meta data changes (Author, Title, Album Art, etc), then click the Build Audiobook button.  Individual files are converted to chapter breaks in the single M4B file, but with the Bookmark app this isn't really neccessary.  
3. Drop the M4B into iTunes and BAM!  your done.  If you don't want to use iTunes, you can use CopyTrans Manager http://www.copytrans.net/