osx

Boxee. My new favorite Internet Media Player

If you haven’t heard of boxee it is an open source application that puts a frontend over the media we stream over the internet. Think of it as your Tivo interface with the recorded programs folder replaced by the content offered by last.fm, and hulu. Another way to look at it would be what Apple TV should have been. Awesome!

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The Pros and Cons of Linux, Windows, and OSX

From time to time I am asked which operating system is the best in my opinion. This is a tough question to answer as there is no definitive answer. All your choices have their technical merits but, you really shouldn’t select an operating system based solely on its technical merits. You should instead select one […]

Linux unscathed at the PWN 2 OWN contest

The Macbook air went down quick in only 2 minutes on the first day of the competition. Windows Vista SP1 went down on the last day after 2 days of intense work. The only OS left standing (drum role please) LINUX. Reportedly, participants reportedly were not prepared to deal with the […]

OSX boot options.

Like Windows, OSX has a number of options you can invoke at startup. One example of this would be holding down “c” during the boot up sequence in order to boot from a CD. That is just one example. I thought I should list the rest for my “OSX noob” friends.

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The Logitech diNovo Mini does work in OSX and Nokia N800

The title should read
“Does work in OSX, with the Nokia N800, and, wait for it, Linux.” At least Ubuntu.

Well I just received my Logitech diNovo Mini from Amazon this afternoon and I’ve had just enough time to run a few test.

First I tried it with the Nokia N800. Once I got over the hurdle of the passcode (enter any passcode on the N800’s keyboard pair settings and then type it in on the diNovo) I was all set on the N800. Of course the Nokia N800 (being a touch screen device) doesn’t have a mouse cursor per say but, the menu mode of the diNovo Mini lets you navigate just fine. That coupled with the keyboard shortcuts proved to be quite useful. The keyboard shortcuts on the N800 do have to be tweaked a bit from their defaults given the key layout on the diNovo but, this is not all that hard.

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How to listen to Sirius online radio with Linux or OSX.

I never thought I would actually pay for radio until a co-worker of mine signed up for Sirius satellite radio when Howard Stern made the switch to Sirius. Now, Howard Stern I could care less about but, this gave me my first extended exposer to the music channels. Every afternoon, for weeks, I would hear a great song off an album I had long forgotten, on the Alt Nation channel, wafting over the cube wall. I was just about sold.

The only problem remaining was reception. My co-worker sat next to a window and was having reception problems despite Sirius having a land based repeater in our market. I’m located closer to the center of the building so using a satellite radio probably wasn’t going to work. So I waited. Sirius offered online streaming but it was only a 32k stream. Not going to work for me.

Finally, Sirius started offering near CD quality streams but, only offered a Windows based player in a browser. I love my tunes but, not enough to switch back to Windows. So the hunt was on to find a way to stream Sirius online to Linux or OSX. If you want to try Sirus for three day for free sign up here.

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How to install WordPress on OSX using MAMP to make life easier.

Disclaimer:
A lot of the people asking me how to install WordPress on OSX have new babies. I’d like to apologize up front to the rest of the internet for bringing more new baby sites to the internet and thus hindering the speed at which we all can download music. Sorry.
How to install WordPress on OSX using MAMP

Since starting this web site I’ve gotten a lot of questions about how easy it is to use WordPress. The answer is it couldn’t be easier but, I would recommend that you setup a development environment first so you can test everything. That led to a second set of questions from all my friends that use OSX. How do I setup a test environment on my Mac? I know that the Apache web server is included in OSX but I can’t figure out MySQL or PHP. It’s true that OSX comes with Apache, and you could use it, but there is a much simpler way. Use MAMP.

MAMP stands for Mac, Apache, MySQL, and PHP. You have probably heard of LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP) which is the standard web development platform on the internet. There is also WAMP; Windows, Apache, so on and so forth. One more acronym, WIMP; Windows, IIS (Internet Information Server. The default Windows web server), MySQL, and PHP. I’m so clever. You also might be thinking that I’m not very clever because I felt the need to explain what IIS was. In either case, I don’t care and you are probably correct.

All these acronyms provide all the necessary components to run WordPress locally on your given platform. In this case, the wonderful OSX.

Anyway, read on to learn how to install WordPress on OSX using MAMP.

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How to disable that annoying startup sound on your Mac.

Does anyone know why every operating system needs an annoying startup sound? My guess is it is included to scare the crap out of the cat. I could be wrong. Anyways here is how you get rid of it on your Mac.

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The definitive guide to remote controlling your PC.

We have all been there. Its late at night and you are beat from a day of answering questions and solving problems for your coworkers. All you want to do is watch T.V. and goto bed. Then the phone rings and it is either a family member or friend who just blew up their computer downloading the latest holiday screen saver which wiped out something they need ASAP. For your sake I hope it was a cocktail recipe. Anyway, instead of trying to teach them where the My Computer icon is or the intricacies of regedit over the phone, wouldn’t be easier to take control of their system remotely and just fix it yourself. That way you can get back to your Bay Watch rerun faster. Read on for the definitive guide to remote controlling your PC.

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How to remove 3 gigs of crap from OSX.

Sometimes I think that Apple is trying to compete with Microsoft on code bloat. The advantage of OSX is that we can remove the bloat without breaking the system. What if I told you that you could recover up to 3 gigs of space in under 3 minutes. You would say heck yes Mike. Tell me how…

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