Archive for the 'apple' Category

OS X - how to build Apache2 and PHP5 on your mac…

Published
by
patrick
on June 12, 2007
in Internet, advice, apple and mac
. 0 Comments

This entry is not for the technologically faint of heart, which leaves out a large portion of my family and I am really showing off my geek with this entry, however, this took so much energy to accomplish that I feel the need to share it. I have been for nearly three days attempting to install Apache2 and PHP5 on my MacBook Pro. This was a task that I assumed would not be too daunting but nonetheless proved to be. All of the directions that I found make it look easy but I ran into plenty of traps along the way.

I initially started on Marc Liyanage’s page and was going to download the already built packages, but after some reading I decided that I would build the packages myself. I did ultimately use his MySQL build, however.

I did a few searches and did not come up with much but did find the following links:

1. PHPmac (very helpful!)
2. semanticpool
3. a random blog (like mine)
4. Max OSX Hints
5. laughingmeme (more helpful…)

I used part of each of these articles but ultimately what resolved my issue was a workaround on my own (can you feel the pride?). After following the instructions from article one above I was getting an error when trying to start apache. It was telling me that php5 could not find a library that it needed in mysql. When I followed the path there was an extra directory in the path. I went back and looked at my configuration and I can not figure out why the extra tree was in the path but it was. I don’t know of a good .so editor for the mac and thus I created a link to the correct path.

sudo ln -s /usr/local/mysql/lib/libmysqlclient.15.dylib /usr/local/mysql/lib/mysql/

By creating the alias for where the .so file thought the library was supposed to be to where it actually was I was able to get apache to start.

Let the programming begin…

[tags]Apache, PHP, PHP5, Apache2, OS X, Mac, Apple, Linux, Unix[/tags]

Apple II turns 30 today… Happy Birthday!

Published
by
patrick
on June 5, 2007
in apple, commentary and interesting
. 0 Comments

Today a large part of my youth turns 30. The first computer I can ever remember sitting in front of was the Apple II and later the daddy of them all, Apple IIe. Many hours were spent during the summer staring into that green screen at computer camp. Yes, I was one of those kids that went to computer camp, there I said it. Having that off my chest, what a gift I was given to be introduced to the power of computing at such a young age. Of course we did little more than draw pictures and print lists, but the experience and comfort level obtained has been invaluable. The freedom that I feel at a machine today, to experiment knowing that whatever I mess up can be undone, was forged at the keyboard of an Apple II in a friends garage. Thank you for that gift Apple, and thus a shoutout is appropriate:

10 PRINT “Happy Birthday Apple II, thanks for the gift!”
20 GOTO 10

[Tags]Apple, Apple II, Apple IIe[/tags]

Steve Jobs & Bill Gates at D5

Published
by
patrick
on May 31, 2007
in apple and phone
. 2 Comments

A historic interview with Steve Jobs and Bill Gates at D5.

HT: Paul Spoerry

[tags]Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Apple, Microsoft, D5, All Things Digital[/tags]

Kernel panics caused by new airport extreme???

Published
by
patrick
on May 13, 2007
in apple, commentary and mac
. 2 Comments

kernel panic When the new airport extreme came out I was quick to purchase one. I had a couple of reasons for my upgrade; I wanted to be able to take advantage of the new N speeds and wanted to be able to share an external drive with my daughter who is a Windows user. I have my home networked and have an Airport Express tied to my home stereo system. Both of these wireless access points are tied into a Fortigate firewall through a Netgear switch. Prior to purchasing the airport extreme, my iMac was accessing the home network wirelessly. But adding the second base station allowed me to “wire” this computer and access the network via ethernet plugged into the switch in the back of the new airport extreme. I wanted to be able to access the network faster and wanted to be able to use a Wake-on-Lan feature that I still have never gotten to work (but that is another story).
Shortly after rearranging my new network I began getting kernel panics on my iMac. I had never had one before on this machine and was very dismayed at seeing one. For those of you Mac users out there who have never seen one, it is enough to strike the fear in the heart of the most ardent Mac Addict. Though prettier than the blue screen of death on a Windows machine, they still indicate that something is terribly wrong. At first the issue was intermittent, happening maybe once a week. This went on for several weeks until one Saturday morning when I get received 4 of them within an hour, 2 on reboot. The day after that I had 8 of them, 4 on attempting to reboot. Something was wrong! Very wrong! I immediately suspected a hardware problem, which is the usual cause of these issues.
To start my trouble shooting I turned off my airport card. My thinking was that having two paths to the network and two ip addresses was causing a conflict. After another half-dozen kernel panics I figured this was not the issue. I next did a hardware test from the install cd’s provided with my iMac. I ran the test three different times and there were no hardware issues located. I felt for certain that there would be a memory problem with the machine, but none. In my reading on the issue I came across a more complete memory test than the one included with my iMac and so $1.99 later I was running memtest. I felt certain that I would find my problem, buy some new memory, and move on with my life. No such luck. I ran memtest a total of fifteen times over three nights in single user mode and could find no problems. So now what?
I am now a month into my kernel panic issue which is steadily getting worse. I took a deep breath and decided to try and remember what I had done just before the issue started. I had installed no new software. There was no new hardware in the machine. The only change I had made was plugging an ethernet cable into the machine. I decided to unplug the cable and work from the airport card again. “Holy pile of silicone Batman,” the problem went away. I worked for two weeks with no kernel panics. Whew! But you know, I really did want to speed up my connection. I wonder what would happen if I plugged the iMac into a dumb switch instead of my Airport Extreme. Taking an old switch that I had laying around I inserted it into the mix. One week later I have had no kernel panics.
I feel that I have been as fair as possible is assessing this issue and have looked at every possibility to not blame this beautiful new piece of hardware on my network. But, I have to say that I believe that there must be some issue with my Airport Extreme. I have not taken it to the genius bar because, quite frankly, I believe they will tell me I am crazy. Kernel panics are difficult issues to trace and never happen when you need them to. It is sort of like taking your car into the shop because it is making a noise. As soon as you let the mechanic listen, it stops.

I am open to any suggestions and comments from Apple but something is fishy here.

[tags]Mac, OsX, Apple, Kernel Panic, memtest, Aiport Extreme, hardware failure[/tags]

Apple iTunes Store Wishlist…

Published
by
patrick
on April 27, 2007
in advice, apple, ideas, ipod, music and productivity
. 0 Comments

Apple iTunes Music Store WishlistI have been doing this for awhile but after speaking with a friend the other day who didn’t know the trick I thought it would be worth sharing. I am a big believer in wishlists. I figure if I mark something as a want or wish, and I still want it a month or two later, it is probably worth buying. This helps to cut down on my impulsive buying. I used to maintain my wishlists on Amazon, but since the Apple Music Store opened I have been buying my tunes there. So how do you maintain a wish list on the iTunes Music Store. In iTunes create a new playlist, to do this press the plus sign in the bottom left hand corner of the screen. I call this new list “Apple Store Wishlist.” I chose this name so that it appears near the top of the list. Then go browse the iTunes music store, you can listen to 30 sec. previews of any song in the store. When you find a song or album that you like simply click and drag the preview into the newly created playlist. All of the previews are stored there until you delete them. Then when you are ready to buy the album or song simply click the “ADD SONG” button and it will go to your shopping cart. Simple, but very useful!

[tags]iTunes, Apple, Music, Wishlist, Apple Music Store[/tags]

Bring some real power to your Bluetooth Phone

Published
by
patrick
on December 10, 2006
in apple, cellular, evdo, mac, mobile, phone and productivity
. 0 Comments

BluePhoneEliteWant your screen saver to turn off when you walk in the room? What about having iTunes automatically pause and play when you leave or comeback? What about being able to send SMS messages from your computer. BluePhoneElite will allow you to do all this and more. I am dying to give this app a try but my Blackberry is not supported but many other phones are compatible. This is a must to show to your Windows friend who want to see some of the power built into a Mac.

[tags]Apple, mobile phone, phone, Mac, Bluetooth[/tags]