I really like the idea behind microformats. I started using hcards and XFN at some point in the past and have really enjoyed how handy they are. A microformat for music would definitely be nice. I want to link to different kinds of music sites all the time and I don’t particularly like linking to a Google search result or an Amazon store page. I was considering helping with the microformat, but I already have my hand in too many things.
When I was using Jaguar, I performed some detailed steps to get Apache, MySQL (and phpMyAdmin), and PHP running on my system so I could test some things locally on my computer. Now that I am running Tiger, I was looking for an easier solution. Enter MAMP. MAMP is a great solution, but I wish you could put it somewhere other than the main Applications folder (the one accesible by all Mac OS X users). I’ve read that it can be done, but I wonder how much of a headache it is. One nice thing in these local testing environments is messing with virtual host settings. I found a tutorial on how to mildly secure MAMP using .htpasswd and .htaccess. Showing hidden files on Mac OS X is generally a good idea in this case.
[Update 2006-08-26] The MySQL user and password is root.
A while ago I switched from Apple Mail.app to Mozilla Thunderbird. I switched partly because I had a bad experience with Mail.app when I upgraded from Mac OS 10.2.8 to 10.4. I have been using Thunderbird since then and have had good results. One of the things I don’t like is its support for vCard in its Address Book. It looks like they need, and are requesting, some help in getting vCard to work with it. I look forward to that day. I do use Apple’s Address Book.app and I would love to see integration with that as well.
I really would like to be able to add the Trash to the Mac OS X Sidebar, but I really wish there was a shortcut to show the Trash. I look down in the Dock and there is my Trash can and I think to myself, “What’s in there?” With the movement of the mouse and a click I can see, but I would like to be able to make a keyboard shortcut for it to be quicker. Yes, I look through the trash.
I got a little change in my pocket goin’ jingle-ingle-ing1
It seems like I am consistently trying to figure out how to manage loose change.
I try to empty my pockets every night, but I often forget. Inevitably, some change is left in my pocket, my clothes get washed, and it turns up in the washer or dryer. If I do remember to take it out, then where do I put it? At home, I used to have a ceramic tray that I kept change in, but now I am using an empty measuring cup. For my office, I have considered buying a coin tray or self-counting coin holder.
I also keep, or temporarily put, change in several other places, including the ashtrays of my vehicles (which I don’t use because I don’t smoke), the consoles of my vehicles, on my desk, and on my bathroom countertop. I occasionally use a spring loaded coin holder that I purchased years ago, and it manages to keep change pretty organized. Some vehicles are even equipped with similar coin holders, but you could always make one for yours.
Carrying change can be a challenge in and of itself. Some spring loaded coin holders can be too bulky for pockets. I have never really liked the idea of a change purse, not because it may appear feminine, but because it didn’t seem very organized. I’ve recently come across the Chawly Changer. The design seems sleek and easy to fit in one’s pocket. These would make great stocking stuffers. Another problem with my current spring loaded model is that it doesn’t have a place for pennies and so they end up getting left around in all kinds of places. As much as we may prefer nickels, dimes, and quarters, the penny seems to be staying around.
When it comes to handling change, I have never minded counting it out and rolling it, but I can understand why people like automated coin counting machines like CoinStar. For a cheaper version that doesn’t take out a percentage, I would recommend the Roto Sorter. I got one at a CVS pharmacy for $10 USD and was surprised at how well it worked. It comes with its own kind of coin counting tubes and makes wrapping coins an easy thing. You can pick up a bag of coin wrappers from your local large-chain office supply stores. If you prefer easy coin wrapping, you may want to consider the Twist-n-crimp. It takes flat-ended coin wrappers and crimps them for you, making them into the cartridge or shotgun shell type wrappers that are much easier to drop coins into. There are probably some tricks to make the flat-ended version easier, but I don’t know them yet.
So, I am thinking of using a Chawly Changer for carrying change around in my pocket (it’s slim and holds pennies), the spring loaded one for my vehicle (large capacity, better than loose change in my ashtray), and a coin tray or Roto Sorter for home (easy coin rolling that doesn’t get its own cut).
Where to buy spring loaded coin holders:
* Walgreens
* Volvo
* Ace Hardware
I have seem some others styles too:
* slot style
* antique
* cup coin holder
* pentagon
1From the song Keep Your Hands to Yourself, written by Dan Baird of the Georgia Satellites
2006-08-07: I don’t remember when or how I found it, but the ChangeCard seems pretty interesting.
I feel like I am back where it all began. Last year I posted a proposed email plan. The plan involved the use of a catchall email address, which is looked down upon by many because of its misuse and potential for spam overload. The plan has proved useful, but somewhat burdensome. I essentially have to keep a list of all the spoof emails I give out because they are often used as the login for the accounts I have created.
I am at a point where I don’t think I want to use a catchall account anymore. One reason is that I have started to receive emails to addresses I have never given out (e.g. info@example.com, sales@example.com). I have heard of using a whitelist and I really like this idea. I would prefer to add a bunch of email aliases to a simple text file and have those aliases forwarded to one email. I may just have to learn how to control SpamAssassin, which is automatically installed on TextDrive accounts. Another option could be to try the Tagged Message Delivery Agent (TMDA), another way of whitelisting, recommended by other TextDrive members. I will try to give you an update on what I decide.
I have been working as a substitute teacher for my local county school system for the past couple of months. I worked as a sub a few years ago. Back then subs were allowed to use school computers to access the internet. When you apply for the job you have to sign a paper that basically says that you will not abuse this privilege. When I started working this year I quickly found out that I couldn’t logon to any of the computers. Access requires a username and password. I asked around and found out that substitute teachers are not assigned a username and so can’t get on their computers. To get around this I bring my own laptop and plugin an ethernet cord directly in the wall. This allows me to connect without a username and password.
Regardless of whether I am using a school computer or not, all of the internet access is governed by censorware. I completely understand this. For one thing, they don’t want the kids being approached by child predators. Among many other things, they also don’t want kids to:
In addition to this, they dont want kids connecting to social networks like MySpace, LiveJournal, or Xanga. That may include reading blogs (almost any url combination including the word blog is blocked). I am not going to get into my feeling about these restrictions on student surfing, but it probably goes without saying that many of the kids feel all the censorship is a bad thing.
To get around these measures I have learned that some kids consider using various measures to bypass the blocking. They would probably try things like open proxy servers or live CDs. Some don’t mind the blocking, but I think that they feel they are overblocked too. Many of them don’t really care about remaining anonymous, they just want to go where they want.
Many popular sites are even aware that they are blocked and recommend ways to get around it. This is definitely an interesting subject. If you are considering using an open proxy server be aware that they are frowned upon by many sites, including Wikipedia.
I decided to take the plunge and find out why so many people keep raving about Quicksilver. So I downloaded Quicksilverβ48 (QS.3758.dmg) and have started to give it a spin. It has a very sleek installation process. It seems like I could do a lot with it once I get the hang of it.
I downloaded a recommended plug-in, the Safari.app Module for bookmarks and history. I left the hot key (activation key) as ctrl+spacebar (^Space), but I may change that. I then toyed with the Preferences and decided to install the Firefox/Mozilla Module, the Image Manipulation Actions (β), and the Text Manipulation Actions. The default plug-ins seem to be the Bezel Interface, Hotkey Triggers, and the Primer Interface, although I have no idea what those do.
Then it was on to try, the now free, TextWrangler. I had tried BBEdit years ago, but I just couldn’t get used to it. When I switched from Windows to Mac OS X I tried desperately to find an equivalent to Chami.com’s HTML-Kit. Having tried all kinds of software I settled on using Apple’s TextEdit.app. As many of you know, TextEdit.app is not an extremely powerful text editor. Recently I needed something as simple as line numbers and TextEdit just can’t do that. Now that TextWrangler is free I decided to give Bare Bones a second chance.
I visited the site and downloaded the latest copy of TextWrangler 2 (TextWrangler_2.1.1.dmg). Looks like it was put together back on 20051128. I decided to skip registration and install the current command line tools. Then it was on to the Preference to play. Under Editor Defaults I turned off Auto-Indent and turned on Show Invisibles and Show Spaces. I don’t know why, but I like seeing everything. Under Software Update, I decided to turn off Check Automatically for updates. Again, I’m not sure why, but I don’t like third-party apps doing things in the background. Then it was on to Text Files: Saving to switch the Default Text Encoding from Western (Mac OS Roman) to Unicode (UTF-8). Someone convinced me years ago that Unicode was better and I have been sticking to it ever since.
After I got going I wanted to try out one of my favorite key sequences in TextEdit (or any Mac program), the Command-`. All of a sudden I get a dialog box that says:
I set it to the default behavior, but it still won’t work. I don’t like that. [Update 20060326: Oops. I realized that by default TextWrangler keeps everything within the same window. When I chose to open each document in a separate window the shortcut worked fine.] After that I went over to Text Status Display and turned on Show Tab Stops and Show Line Numbers.
I will probably update this post if I decide to post about my experience with the programs. I am really fickle when it comes to applications and these may not last long.
Recently I have been making some web tutorials for a church. I have been meaning to create the tutorials for ages now. I had the idea that I wanted to create screencasts for several of the tutorials. Because I mostly use a Mac, I immediately started looking for a program to do this on Mac OS X. I was looking for something free, but didn’t really find anything. I came across Snapz Pro X. It looks great and gets wonderful reviews, but I’m broke. I looked some more. I saw that CamStudio was free and available for Windows. The family has a Windows machine downstairs and I thought I would take this free alternative.
I created the screencasts in CamStudio, which creates .avi files. It also has a .avi to .swf converter so the file sizes aren’t so large and can display via a Flash plugin. The recordings were OK, not great, but good enough. I think they would have been better on a faster machine. The screencasts were uploaded to their server and I was ready to finish the project.
The church I was making the tutorials for has a WordPress installation. It creates an .htaccess file to manage some things. I wanted to create a directory for the tutorials/screencasts, that has nothing to do with WordPress. I created the directory and placed another .htaccess file within it. Thanks to a handy tutorial, I also created a .htpasswd to password protect the directory. I had copied and pasted the information for the .htaccess file from the tutorial to MS Notepad, saved it, and uploaded it to the new directory. I then used the htpasswd command to create the .htpasswd file.
Well, when I went to take a look at the index.htm file I had placed within the directory I got a 500 error. When I removed the .htaccess file from the directory, the index.htm file showed up just fine.
Thinking that this was a WordPress problem that had to do with the .htaccess file that WordPress creates, I immediately started looking at their forums to find a solution. I came across a recent post and thought I had found someone with a similar situation. I was convinced it was a WordPress issue. Now all I had to do was wait for someone to find a solution.
I talked to someone on the WordPress IRC channel and they thought I should look at my error logs. Sounded like a good idea. The host had disabled Apache error logs by default and I had to go turn them on. Once I turned them on I kept waiting for the error_log file to refresh. There was an error_log in my ~/logs/ directory, but it was nearly a year old.
I kept saving the changes to the Log Files page and it would never refresh the error_log. I decided to click this link at the top that said Apply Changes and delete the existing error_log file in the ~/logs/ directory. After a few minutes the new error_log was in there. I don’t really know what did it. It could have been the Apply Changes link, deleting the old error_log file, or just waiting enough time for the original setting to take affect. When I checked the new error_log it contained a line that said:
/users/home/username/public_html/tutorials/.htaccess: AuthUserFile takes 1-2 arguments
I was starting to wonder if it was a problem with the .htaccess file. I decided to Google those words and came across a forum post on macosxhints.com that said that it could be that the .htaccess file doesn’t have Unix-style line endings. I decided to open the .htaccess file in Apple’s TextEdit.app and redo the line breaks after each line. I saved the file, uploaded it and refreshed my browser. That was it!
Since I have recently installed Mac OS 10.4.4, last night I decided to give some widgets a try. Here are some that I have tried and a brief description why I deleted it or kept it.
[Update 2006-05] - Installed the Stop-It!.wdgt - a nice timer