TheNitai

Since MacOS X Lion (10.7.x) we are “blessed” by the general option that documents we have worked on the last time are automatically opened the next time we start up an application.

While we can argue if that is a boon or not, I personally don’t like this “feature”. Especially, when the last opened document has had errors or crashed the application.

Today, I was not able to open a document in BBedit and it crashed completely. But sure enough, the next time I opened BBedit again it tried to open the same file again, resulting in crashing again.

After some trial and error I figured that holding down the shift key during the startup of BBedit it will disable loading of previous documents. I hope this helps someone else out there.

Yes, I know there are ways to disable this globally. But in case one does not want to disable this feature globally.

Oracle recently released the latest MySQL 5.5.x versions. Despite of having tones of fixes and supposedly running much faster and (finally) making InnoDB the default storage engine, it is always good to keep up to date with latest releases.

But, as in the past, MaxOS X users always have to battle with getting it run correctly on their platform of choice. With this release it is no difference. This time, we are hit by permission issues and wrong path settings that prohibits MySQL to start at all and also to make it automatically startup during boot time.

Fixing startup

After installing the preference pane, you should be able to simply click the button to start/stop the MySQL server. Point is that “it should”, but it wont. This is due to a wrong path setting in the startup file. In order to make it work you have to edit a file. Jump into your favorites tool (no, it is not iTunes), but the Terminal application and enter:

nano /usr/local/mysql/support-files/mysql.server

(Nano is a editor in your shell, you can also use “vi” or “emacs”, but I guess “nano” is easy to use)

Then hit “ctrl + W” (for search) and enter “basedir=”, then hit Enter”. This will search for the string entered. Once found, change it to:

basedir=/usr/local/mysql

Once changed, hit “ctrl + W” again and search for “mysqld_pid_file_path=$datadir/`hostname`.pid” and change it to:

mysqld_pid_file_path=$datadir/`/bin/hostname`.pid

After these two changes simply press “ctrl + X” and enter “y” and then enter. This will save the changes you just made and will close the editor.

Fixing Startupitem

During reboot you might have seen the error message:

“Insecure Startup Item disabled. /Library/StartupItems/MySQLCOM has not been started because it does not have the proper security settings.”

This is because the StartUpItem has been installed with the improper permission settings. This can simply be solved with the following commands you have to enter in the terminal:

chown -R root:wheel /Library/StartupItems/MySQLCOM

That’s it. After next reboot the MySQL server will startup as expected and you will also be able to start/stop the server from the preference panel.

Right, so here is the scope. I’ve been a MacOS X user for many years, not that I have been a fanatic one but I simply used what works best for me. In any case, I own 3 Mac Mini’s and mostly got a new MacBook Pro every year. I also converted quite a lot of people over the Mac. Recently, I’ve even got a iPhone (well, 1 1/2 years ago) after many years of using a BlackBerry. I have to say, the “Apple way” has worked very well for me.

That being said, I have always followed how Linux has been developing, especially on the desktop side (all of our servers run Linux). Actually, with Ubuntu 8, I seriously was thinking of using Linux on the desktop, but back then some application were missing. Later with Ubuntu 9, I took another try, but it still wasn’t ready for me. Now, with Ubuntu 10, the distro is not only very mature, but also, the applications I need are mostly up to date and work well for me.

So, today I set out to see if I will be able to replace my workplace which is based on MacOS X to Linux Ubuntu. My current setup is a MacBook Pro 15″ as my main machine hooked up to a 23″ Cinema screen. I was thinking to replace this setup with a desktop machine and have a netbook (the Asus EeePC 1201PN looks very sweat) as well. Since I still have a older MacMini lying around I set out to get Ubuntu 10 running on it.

Installing Ubuntu on a MacMini

Installing Ubuntu 10 on the MacMini was easy and surprisingly Ubuntu found every bit of hardware, it even found my Bluetooth Logitech Mouse within seconds.WIFI, Ethernet and external hard drives were also found without problems. For those wondering how to install Ubuntu on MacMini all you have to do is to partition your drives with BootCamp, insert the Ubuntu CD and then reboot the Mac (hold down the ALT key). Select the “Window” partition and it will start up from the Ubuntu CD and will start to install it.

So, how is it working with Ubuntu 10?

What can I say, except that the people over at Canonical (the company behind Ubuntu) has fulfilled the promise to bring the best Linux experience to the desktop. I have had no driver problems, could immediately connect to the WIFI network and installing new software even easier then on the Mac.

But we already knew that Ubuntu is good, right? So the real thing for me is to see if I can get my workspace going under Ubuntu. In short, this means that all my applications and workflow will be available and doable with Ubuntu. Thus the rest of this blog post and part two and maybe even part three will be about finding and using the equalivant of of the Linux app to the Mac ones.

I won’t go into the obvious applications that are the same on each operating system like browsers or file explorer systems. The good thing to know is that Firefox and Google Chrome and all their extensions work the same under any operating system. One thing I noted so far, is that Firefox does not seam to have the memory leak problems like the one on the Mac.

Eclipse

I’ve used Eclipse for a long time and recently switched to Coda on the Mac, since Eclipse just eat away all the RAM I had and even crashed many times a day. I’m happy to see that Eclipse under Linux is rock solid and I can use my favorite development environment again.

Mail / Calendar / Contacts / iCal / Address Book

This is a no brainer for me, since I have been using Google Apps for some time and thus my Mail and Calendar already resides in the cloud I can simply continue using my browser without any OS worries. I never used Mail.app (instead used the Browser or Mailplane) and used Spanning Sync for keeping iCal and my Address Book in sync with Google Apps. Since, I don’t like any Mail apps or Calendar under Linux I simply opted to use the browser for Mail, Calendar and Address Book (this will keep it in sync with the iPhone/Android).

Word / Excel / Powerpoint

Right, so much has been said, about using OpenOffice instead of iWork or Microsoft Office. In my testing I have to say that OpenOffice 3.x works fine, but maybe it is just me or does OpenOffice on Linux look like Word 98? Feels like flying back in time… I have to say, that I haven’t tested this part in depth and so I can’t really give any verdict on this.

I have some other apps I need to work with like Aperture, TextExpander, 1Password, etc. and will write on these on the second part.

I hope this helps anyone that is wanting to switch over to Ubuntu. I haven’t made up my mind, if I should switch full time to Ubuntu. At the current state, the MacOS X with its Unix root feels like the grown up Linux, just more polished and with all the apps in the right place.

Please let me know your thoughts in the comment section.

Recently over at the website of our open source Digital Asset Management company Razuna Ltd., we published a desktop application that was build with Adobe AIR.

Now, while we could easily link to the AIR application, which all end with an extension of “.air”, within the web page it would prompt the user to install the application only under FireFox (both Windows and MacOS X), but users with Safari or Internet Explorer where prompted to download a “.zip” file.

In order to fix this, we had to change the mime type configuration of the web server itself. Now, we figured that there are different solution to this, depending on your web server;

For Apache

Adding the mime type for .air extensions with Apache requires you edit the file “/etc/mime.types” (on RedHat/CentOS) and adding the line:

application/vnd.adobe.air-application-installer-package+zip     .air

Make sure to reboot Apache to apply the changes.

For Tomcat

Adding mime types for your Tomcat installation requires you to edit the file “tomcat/conf/web.xml” and adding a new “mime-mapping” like;

<mime-mapping>
<extension>air</extension>
<mime-type>application/vnd.adobe.air-application-installer-package+zip</mime-type>
</mime-mapping>

Make sure to restart Tomcat to apply the change.

Using .htaccess

If you can’t access the server config files or you simply don’t want to, then the other option is to simply add the mime type to your .htaccess file.  Add the following line to it;

AddType application/vnd.adobe.air-application-installer-package+zip .air

Save it and you should be all set to make it possible to launch the Adobe AIR installer ones your .air file is downloaded.

Usually, I’m a happy camper with my MacOS X and with the built in applications (not that I use them a lot, but when I do I like how well they are built and “feel”). The only application I use a lot of the built in applications is Apple Mail.

Lately, Apple Mail, has been acting up a lot. As such, that when it tried to sync with my mail server it just hang up and sucked in all available CPU and my MacBook was heating up like anything. The only remedy was to Force Quit Apple Mail (if you don’t know, just press the “Apple Key (cmd) & Alt (option) & Esc and you get a handy dialog to force quit any running application).

How I got my Apple Mail running healthy again? Here are the following steps I did;

1. Repair Permissions
   Actually, repairing permission should be done at least once a month. It just keeps your system healthy and rules out any problems. What “Repair Permissions” does, is to simply correct all permissions on files that system owns and needs to run smoothly. To repair permissions lunch the Disk Utility application, select your startup disk and click on “Repair Permissions”.
2. Remove the cache files of Apple Mail
   If you see a problem with syncing and updating the cache directory within Mail it could be that the cache files are corrupt. Go to your home Library folder, then to the Mail folder and remove the “DefaultCounts”, “Envelope Index” and the “LSMMap” files. Some have reported that removing the “MessageUidsAlreadyDownloaded3″ as well. So you will have to experiment a bit.

The next time you start up Apple Mail it should ask you to reimport all messages and it will rebuilt the index. Hopefully, you are back up and all is well.

I am a big MacOS X fan (not to be mistaken with a fanatic Apple follower) and just love my new MacBook Pro. First I thought, that the glossy screen is a major headache, but to be honest the crisp screen and the ease on the eyes makes up with seeing myself sometimes in the screen.

But what is a Operating System without applications that make live and work with it a pleasure? So, here is a list of applications I have come to love and could not imagine a day without it.

LaunchBar

LaunchBar is by far the best application I have come across in all the years of using MacOS X for lunching Applications. I have been a using DragThing for many years before I found LaunchBar. Where as DragThing lets you organize your Applications in Drawers and with a simple click launching them, LaunchBar let’s you work more in a “find and launch” approach.

LaunchBar scans your whole drive and creates a index of all available documents, applications, music, videos and just about everything. You then simply call up a “bar” and start typing the document or the application you want.

But where DragThing and other tools are simply Application launchers, LaunchBar lets you interact with your system in any way. Say, you need to search on Google you simply start typing “goo” and a search template shows up. Enter the search term and LaunchBar passes the query to your default browser and you get the results in your browser. The real benefit is that you can do this from about everywhere in your Mac. Say you are in Apple Mail and want to open a website. Instead of going over to Firefox, then open a new page and enetering the URL, you use LaunchBar, type “.” (dot) and type the address.

Or how many times do you have to send a attachment by eMail? Doing so with LaunchBar is a peace of cake. Chose the file in your finder (or even find the file in LaunchBar), hit “tab” and type the “mail” (for Apple Mail) then hit Enter. LaunchBar will open a new mail message in Apple Mail and has added the chosen file as an attachment already.

I like to work on my Mac, I don’t want to waste time. Thus LaunchBar is just about the best, you can do to save money and time.

PathFinder

The Finder of MaxOS X has seen some major improvements in the last releases. Nevertheless there are some things that are a hassle to do. Just think of copying or moving a file to another folder. With the current Finder you would have to open two windows, start dragging the file, see that you hit the right window, navigate to the folder, etc. What a pain!

PathFinder comes to the rescue. With PathFinder you will not only get a very slick Finder replacement, but one that features Tabs (multiple finder windows in one window), a Dual Pane File Browser (remember Norton Commander on Windows:-) ), Cut & Paste in the File Browser and among other things a very handy “Drop Stack”.

With the Drop Stack alone you will be able to drag and drop a folder or file to the Drop Stack, grab some other files or folder, drag them again to the Drop Stack and then choose where you want to copy or move them.

Path Finder is on par with all the features that the Finder offers, comes with QuickLook, Spotlight search panel, SVN support, FTP and Shell browser built in and much more.

The developers are super fast with replying and the tools just works. What else do you want?

Yojimbo

Just like about everyone, I got tonnes of information that I want to keep. URLs I like to archive for later consumption or snippets of information. Say you want store all your serial numbers or passwords in one place or travel information, ideas, images or whatever. Most use FireFox for storing bookmarks, or then a web archive, others use folders full of information, but imagine you have one convenient place to go to and get all you need.

Welcome Yojimbo to your Application foler. Yojimbo is the small but brilliant information keeper for all your information.

The latest version brings MobileMe access to Yojimbo that allows you to sync your information to more then one Mac and you can sync Notes with a addon. Sure if you really need synching and a mobile client then Yojimbo is not your first choice.

I personally, love Yojimbo because it is just simple, easy to use and there is nothing to learn. Just use it.

NetNewsWire

If you follow a lot of blogs then there is nothing better then a dedicated RSS-Reader. My favorite RSS-Reader is NetNewsWire. In the past, one had to buy a license for it, but it is now free to use. Actually, my favorite feature is to be able to have my read/unread status on my BlackBerry with the NetNewsWire mobile client. Also, one has a slick web interface, which again syncs with the mobile and the desktop client.

Skitch

Showing someone what you mean in a image is better then describing it. I guess the makers of Skitch had this in mind when they created one of the best screen shot utilities for the Mac. With Skitch you are able to annotate your image with circles or arrows, write text that stands out, resize and crop and best of all simply drag and drop the image to your desired destination or application.

Adium

AdiumX is for Mac users what TrillianPro is for Windows users, that is a free instant messaging application which can connect to AIM, MSN, Yahoo, GTalk, FaceBook Chat and many other messaging protocol. Actually if you are on any of these networks you should use AdiumX, because you then only need to have one application open for all your instant messaging networks.

That’s it. This is the list of the applications I can not live without. Well, let’s say this is the list apart from the Apple’s own fine applications that I daily use. In the past I have used Entourage a lot, but now mainly live in Apple Mail. Same goes with Word and Excel, they are mainly replaced with Pages and Numbers. Not to speak of the presentation ware PowerPoint which now totally replaced by Keynote. I think Keynote alone is the most appealing reason to consider to get iWork.