In response to the article on Slashdot:

Patents aggravate me sometimes, especially when it comes to software. I just hope they (Apple) are doing it from preventing other companies like Creative from coming up with the patent first and suing Apple (even I thought that was dumb of Creative to patent the iPod-like interface and sue Apple, who came up with it relatively first. I have since then banned from ever buying a Creative product again) . But if they’re in the hopes of suing other companies instead of making the software open to others, then consider my investment in Apple to be no longer

Been gone for awhile, and figure it was time for an update

In my trip to Dubai, UAE (pix); I purchased the Nokia 6120 (something I cannot find here in the states), and am loving it!

The pros (and there are alot):

• super small (pocket friendly)
• 3.5G quadband
• very nice QVGA screen
• dual cameras
• a real loud loudspeaker
• latest symbian available
• usable and coherent mp3 player (unlike LG’s)
• super fast browser (based on apple/safari’s webkit)
• j2me love (i’ve got a ton of apps already installed and all work flawlessly)
  - gmail
  - yahoo go
  - google maps
  - opera mini
  - shozu
• all the great things about nokia that i’ve always loved (gui design, profiles, contact lists, groups)
• new blackberry/winmobile like front menu (list of favorite apps to show)
• mac connectivity (got my stuff sync’d and working no problem)

Cons:

• haven’t figured out the application limitations on the phone yet, but it seems like i can’t run more than 3 or 4 j2me apps at the same time (especially if all of them are trying to use the network)
• camera is great during the day…sucks at night and flash seems to make everything blue
• no good FREE all inclusive (aim, msn, yahoo, jabber) client. so far i’ve tried out
  trutap (no jabber)
  gizmo (no jabber)
  fring (ugly and missing some features)
  eqo mobile (nice, but i don’t like how every time i send a message it states what application i’m using and telling the other person to download it)
  palringo (can only get on jabber; aim, yahoo and msn dont seem to work)
  ebuddy (probably one of the best looking, but missing jabber…although it has gtalk, but i don’t use gtalk…and i can only log into one screen name per service at a time)
  nimbuzz (another good one that i probably use the most, but it randomly shuts down on me with no warning)
• would love sms threading (tired of having to go through txts from 2 or 3 days ago)
• i think thats it…

I’ll update with anything else I do find.

933 days up and running, with no errors or downtime
i’d love to see proof of a windows server to even run 1/10th of that. then i’ll keep my mouth shut

for you mac users that use Mail.app, i found this (through digg) that will help speed up the application.

Here is a brief instruction on what to do (copied from that site):

1. Quit Mail.

2. Open Terminal.

3. Type the following:

cd ~/Library/Mail
sqlite3 Envelope\ Index

An sqlite> prompt will appear.

At that prompt, type vacuum subjects;.

After a short delay, the prompt will return. Type Control-D to exit.

4. Restart Mail and enjoy the extra speed.

UPDATE:
apparently this works too…
sqlite3 ~/Library/Mail/Envelope Index vacuum index;

One of the biggest issues I had since owning a mac was the inability to tab through items in a form on a webpage.

Text boxes would tab through no problem, but what about the Pulldowns, checkboxes, and submit buttons?

What about the OK and Cancel buttons you get on a Mac Popup???

I resorted to using the mouse for this until i was explaining one thing to another friend in the System Preferences, and tucked away in a spot i would never think to look at held the option to change and make this possible…

System Preferences >> Keyboard & Mouse >> Keyboard Shortcuts

i originally thought this was just a fault of the os x system and never bothered to look for a remedy. now that i’ve found it, i’ve been a form tabbing maniac again (lame, i know, but it’s true).

first open up .bash_profile from your favorite editor. fastest way to do it from the terminal command line is:

$ vi ~/.bash_profile

copy and paste the code below if you like. it includes an explanation of each line
.bash_profile

#enables color in the terminal bash shell export
CLICOLOR=1
#sets up the color scheme for list export
LSCOLORS=gxfxcxdxbxegedabagacad
#sets up the prompt color (currently a green similar to linux terminal)
export PS1='\[\033[01;32m\]\u@\h\[\033[00m\]:\[\033[01;36m\]\w\[\033[00m\]\$ '
#enables color for iTerm
export TERM=xterm-color
#sets up proper alias commands when called
alias ls='ls -G'
alias ll='ls -hl'

C/P’d from MacOsXHints.com:

The colors can be set with the LSCOLORS variable. The color designators are as follows:

a black
b red
c green
d brown
e blue
f magenta
g cyan
h light grey
A bold black, usually shows up as dark grey
B bold red
C bold green
D bold brown, usually shows up as yellow
E bold blue
F bold magenta
G bold cyan
H bold light grey; looks like bright white
x default foreground or background

Note that the above are standard ANSI colors. The actual display may differ depending on the color capabilities of the terminal in use. The order of the attributes in the LSCOLORS variable is as follows:

1. directory
2. symbolic link
3. socket
4. pipe
5. executable
6. block special
7. character special
8. executable with setuid bit set
9. executable with setgid bit set
10. directory writable to others, with sticky bit
11. directory writable to others, without sticky bit

They are set in pairs, foreground (f) then background (b), i.e. fbfbfbfbfbfbfbfbfbfbfb for all 11 settings. The default is exfxcxdxbxegedabagacad, i.e. blue foreground and default background for regular directories, black foreground and red background for setuid executables, etc.

simple…i know, but you’d be surprised how many ppl don’t know this.

Terminal:

$ rm -rf directory

Python:

>>> shutil.rmtree("/some/dir")

can definitely come in handy

First Enable Apache:

• System Preferences > Sharing
• Check ‘Personal Web Sharing’

Then edit httpd.conf

• sudo vi /etc/httpd/httpd.conf
• locate these lines and remove the hashes in front:

#LoadModule php4_module
#AddModule mod_php4.c
#AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
#AddType application/x-httpd-php-source .phps

Download and install MySQL for the Mac (10.3, 10.4, etc)

• http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/5.0.html
• Type this into the terminal:

$ sudo ln -s /usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql /usr/local/bin/mysql
$ mysql -u root mysql

• Then set a password (changing “NewPw”, of course):

> update user set Password=password('NewPw‘) where User=’root’;
> flush privileges;

How to fix Warning: mysql_connect(): Can’t connect to local MySQL server through socket ‘/var/mysql/mysql.sock’
Apparently, OS X Tiger doesn’t allow for PHP MySQL connection out of the box. You get this: Warning: mysql_connect(): Can’t connect to local MySQL server through socket ‘/var/mysql/mysql.sock’
/etc/php.ini(.default) looks for mysql.sock in the wrong place… two options are to make a symbolic link from the right place to the socket…

$ sudo mkdir /var/mysql
$ sudo ln -s /private/tmp/mysql.sock /var/mysql/mysql.sock

Or you can update your php.ini (.default) by finding “mysql.default_socket” and setting it to equal /private/tmp/mysql.sock and then restart apache with “apachectl graceful“