LOLZ! My friend Isaac came up with a hilarious quote today, based off a famous pieces of scripture:

“No man can serve two APIs: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve Cocoa and Win32.” - Jobs 4:20

‘Course credit due, I’d like to say I inspired the scripture reference by mentioning, “is this the inspired word of Jobs?”

Filed under: All Things Apple, Development
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I’ve had to set up PHP and MySQL on two mac’s now, and found these brief set of instructions on setting up PHP and MySQL on Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) to be so helpful, that I’m going to reprint them here as a mirror to his instructions. Thanks to MyMacinations.com for providing such helpful instructions!

And now… his instructions on setting up PHP and MySQL on Apache 2 for Mac Leopard:
===========================

Leopard brings one big change to web developers working with Apache, PHP and Mysql on the Mac. Apache 2 comes with Leopard along with PHP 5.

Here is what to do to restore a test environment.

First, you need to enable PHP.

Apache’s .conf file moved from /private/etc/httpd/httpd.conf to /private/etc/apache2/httpd.conf

Open this file with your favorite text editor and uncomment the line:

# LoadModule php5_module libexec/apache2/libphp5.so

You don’t need to add the mime type for php, because it’s already done for you under leopard. The last line in the .conf file is:

Include /private/etc/apache2/other/*.conf

The “other” directory contains a .conf file for php5. That takes care of the mime type and the index.php configuration for php sites.

If you develop multiple sites and you need virtual hosting functionality, scroll down to the end of the .conf file and uncomment the following:

# Include /private/etc/apache2/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf

That’s all the modification that I had to make to to the httpd.conf file.

Next, you’ll need to setup whatever virtual hosts you have in the virtual hosts file /private/etc/apache2/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf

For example, for each line that you set up in your hosts file like so:

beta-site-1.com 127.0.0.1

You need to make an entry in the httpd-vhosts.conf file like so:

ServerName beta-site-1.com
ServerAlias www.beta-site-1.com
ServerAdmin webmaster@beta-site-1.com

DocumentRoot “/Library/WebServer/beta-site-1″
ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ “/Library/WebServer/beta-site-1/cgi-bin”

Options FollowSymLinks MultiViews Includes
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
Allow from all

One good thing is that the “upgrade” install of Leopard does not mess with your hosts file, so whatever virtual domains you may have set up won’t be affected.

If you had Mysql installed previously, good news too, Leopard’s installer won’t touch it. I found mysqld running just like before the upgrade.

One thing changed with Leopard is the socket for Mysql. It moved to /private/tmp, so you may need to configure your php.ini file to point it to the new location.

To do so, open the file “/private/etc/php.ini”, (if no such file exists, then make a copy of “/private/etc/php.ini.default” naming it “php.ini”) and edit that.

You have two lines to modify:

mysql.default_socket =

becomes:

mysql.default_socket = /private/tmp/mysql.sock

and mysqli.default_socket =

becomes:

mysqli.default_socket = /private/tmp/mysql.sock

of course, from the sharing pref pane, stop the server and restart it and voila!

===================

Filed under: All Things Apple, Development, Websites
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Well my holiday weekend wasn’t as fruitful as I’d hoped with regard to music — I just didn’t have much for creative inspiration, and it ended up becoming a time to just putz around with my new keyboard. Tonight, however, I managed to put together a little 2:50 piece featuring the Steinway, flute, three-piece strings, and a little hint of organ to spice things up. (Who’d ever think of an organ as an instrument to spice things up anyway?)

So enough talk — download tonight’s experiment. I tried to pay more close attention to execution on the strings and flute, so they’d sound a bit more convincing. Let’s face it, it’s hard to make strings and woodwinds sound convincing on a keyboard — it requires a great deal of skill and patience to pull it off. I have a long way to go before I could ever manage that. But regardless, enjoy.

Filed under: All Things Apple, Music, Recording
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Seeing my buddy answer the survey “How addicted to Apple are you?”, I just had to respond to the survey as well and double-check my addiction level in comparison with his. Being a late-comer to the game, I’d say I’ve got a healthy addiction:

74%How Addicted to Apple Are You?

Filed under: All Things Apple
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So I have had my eye on a few MIDI controllers on eBay for the past week or so, since M-Audio has been EXTREMELY slow with any sort of Leopard-friendly drivers. This morning I happened to glance at a few options on the Guitar Center (a.k.a. “Satan”) website at my options for MIDI controllers. One controller in particular was the Korg K61 USB MIDI controller, but it was priced at $179.99 — a bit much for what I can afford to pay for. I did have about $120 that I saved up for in my budget, so I was prepared to get the smaller 49-key version at $99.

Well, when I arrived at Guitar Center (a.k.a. “the music store that drives out any healthy competition”), I noticed that their K61 was on sale… we’re talking big time on sale…

…for $99.00…

So I bought the controller and will get a chance to mess with it over this long, holiday weekend. I’ll be sure to post my thoughts about how well it responds and interacts with GarageBand.

I’ve always been a huge fan of Korg keyboards. I know that I just can’t go wrong with them, and am almost certain I won’t have any compatibility problems with the latest operating system from Apple.

Filed under: All Things Apple, Gear, Music
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Tomorrow, it will have been three weeks since Apple released their new operating system Leopard to the public — OS X 10.5 — and it was no small event. Apple had been shouting from the hilltops of Apple.com since June, that they were nearly finished with Leopard. That means that software and hardware developers should have had access to the operating system guts to begin working on driver updates for the new operating system.

Now five months after Apple made that announcement, “pro” audio hardware manufacturer M-Audio continues to drive their reputation further into the ground with a blanket statement (*cough* lazy excuses *cough*) for why they have yet to release updated drivers for their products for the new Mac operating system. This statement released by M-Audio said:

Due to the nature of software and driver development, we are not able to provide exact dates for when specific drivers will become available—but please rest assured that supporting Leopard is a top priority for us. As soon as Leopard drivers or updates for any product become available, our Web site will be immediately updated to reflect this.

In other words, they have no clue as to when we can expect our audio devices to function.

Frankly, I’m tired of going back to M-Audio’s website and checking for updates — after three weeks of checking for updates and seeing nothing new (at all), I’m beginning to think that M-Audio would rather keep its customers in the dark than thoroughly informed. If it was really going to take this long to get some simple updates to their drivers, they should have set up an e-mail listserv or subscription to be notified when said drivers are available.

I don’t know about the rest of their products, but even the simple MIDISPORT 1×1 MIDI controller is not functioning in Leopard. I honestly can’t imagine what has changed with how Apple handles USB and MIDI interfacing — not a whole lot by my guestimation. When I look through all of the 300+ new OSX features, I don’t see anything that indicates a change in how USB or MIDI is handled.

So I hope M-Audio pulls up its bootstraps and gets a release out soon or I’m going to have to leave behind my M-Audio days in favor of a pro audio company that stays current on operating systems updates and doesn’t rely on telling the end user what to do…

…If you choose to install Leopard on your system before your M-Audio product has been qualified for use with the new OS, please be aware that your M-Audio device may not function properly…

Let’s get it in gear M-Audio.

Filed under: All Things Apple, Gear, Music
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Strange title, I know. That’s pretty much the events that surround this weekend — first the big release of Apple’s new operating system, the “Leopard” brand of OS X; and secondly an update about our house.

Leopard

Along with a few other blokes, I picked up the new release of Leopard this past Friday and went through the mostly uneventful upgrade. Although the DVD verification step took forever — long enough to shave my head, take a shower, and do a few other things around the house [and yes, I really did do those things while waiting for the DVD to verify itself] — the process of upgrading wasn’t painful at all…at least at the start of things.

The features that Apple boasted about — Spaces, Time Machine, the new Finder, and a number of other features — are pretty nice. I do have to say, that with all the hype that has been going on apple.com over the past several months, I just wasn’t as impressed as I thought I might be.

Cover Flow
I’ve given Cover Flow a try and have to say that for photos, it’s nice. It’s a nice way to breeze through a voluminous array of photos to find the right one — probably the same for some other files as well. But what kinda trips me up about it is the file navigation below it. It’s the typical expand/contract, accordion-style directory structure browsing. Personally, I’ve come to like the paned method of sifting through deep layers of folders. It just seems to work quicker for me. I’d love to see them give you options of customizing the Cover Flow directory browsing. Give me more options. I like options.

In addition, Quick Look (a feature that allows you to browse your documents) ought to have a feature that allows you to “quick look” through a folder in Cover Flow. Currently it doesn’t offer that sort of feature.

The Desktop
…is pretty nice, but nothing dramatic has changed. I don’t really care for the fanned out display, especially when you have a ton of things to fan through — and you can’t. What’d be slick is being able to scroll through that fan with your mouse scroller ball. Can we say “feature request?”

Time Machine
Haven’t used it. Can’t imagine using it until it’s too late. But it’s enabled anyway.

Mail
I tried it in tandem with Gmail’s IMAP capability that they just announced and hated it. It labeled my deleted item instead of just deleting them or throwing them into the trash folder. Plus, I’ve become accustomed to doing things directly within Gmail and its way of displaying things. I can’t say that I’ll ever go back to using a traditional mail application since I’ve started using Gmail.

Because I have volumes of mail in my inbox (over 2000 messages), it was a burden to have Mail sync up with all that mail. Not to mention I just didn’t care for the interface within the conversation view of things. I much prefer Gmail’s way of formatting conversations, allowing me to expand and contract instances in a conversation, rather than having to do all this double-clicking nonsense. Sorry Mail lovers…I just have no love for it.

iChat
Ewww. After having used Adium for the past several months, I can’t imagine using iChat instead. The bubble formatting of discussions is annoying, and the interface isn’t all that customizable. I do like that they support Gtalk now, but until they open it up to Yahoo and MSN protocols AND give me some chat formatting options OTHER than the annoying bubbles, I’m sticking with Adium.

Spaces
A nice idea, and I’m glad they integrated it. However (why am I starting to sound like I didn’t care for the Leopard upgrade?), if I’m working in one space and I have an IM notification in another, I can’t get notified in any of my spaces except the one that has the IM client running in it. A small detail, I know, but a big enough deal. But the ease of customizing your various spaces is nice. I’ll give them props for that. But for now, I’m just not THAT big of a multi-tasker yet to justify the need for more than one desktop space…yet.

Safari
One word…Firefox. I use it and only use Safari if I have to.

I haven’t used Boot Camp or the parental controls yet, so I can’t speak to those things.

On the whole, Leopard’s nice and has a few nice features and changes, but I’m just not so sure that I’m going to rush right out the next time Apple comes out with an upgrade to the OS. Leopard is worth waiting for the next update release.

OH…and I’ll have you know that you have to re-set up your printers, and my M-Audio MIDIMAN USB MIDI device doesn’t work now for whatever reason. I tried the latest drivers and it’s not working.

House stuff

Just a quick update on our house situation…we’re taking it off the market because it just hasn’t been getting any action; and we want to pay off our 20% mortgage before buying again. The irony is that this weekend we’ve had three requests for showings… even AFTER telling the real estate company that we want to pull our house off the market.

Filed under: All Things Apple, Applications, General, Home Ownership
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