Mac OSX is now up to 51% with Windows at 41% and Linux trailing at 4%. The JavaScript framework jQuery continues to outpace all others at an impressive 78% adoption.

Firefox is still the browser of choice at 54% with Safari at 20% and Chrome 17%. IE and Opera are close to being irrelevant.

It’s interesting to note the adoption curve for HTML5, CSS3 and font linking. It appears that many developers are already using the latest web technologies to a limited extent.

Linux dominates all other operating systems at 62% for running web development servers with Apache the preferred web server at 69%. Of the developers who use backend frameworks, Ruby on Rails heads the list at 14%.

The database of choice is still MySQL at 70% with Microsoft SQLServer PostgreSQL and Oracle all trailing far back.

Are you considering using some of the latest new methods and technologies in your web development?

“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.” — Seneca

Before I show you one way to surf securely when using an open wireless network on a Mac, here are some steps that can help to keep you safe:

1. Turn your software firewall on. This goes for Mac or PC.
2. If you have access to a VPN (Virtual Private Network), use it when connecting on any open wireless network!
3. If you plan on checking your web based email make sure that you are connected over an SSL connection before entering your user credentials.
4. Check with the hotspot owner to make sure you know the name of their legitimate SSID.
5. Beware of fake SSID names such as “Free Public WiFi”.

The method below requires you to have access to a server with SSH installed and a Mac.

Open the Terminal application and type in the following:

ssh -D 8080 -f -C -q -N yourusername@yourserver.com

If your ssh server uses a different port than the default, you can add it like this (-p 7778):

ssh -D 8080 -f -C -q -N -p 7778 yourusername@yourserver.com

If you are prompted for a password enter it. The SSH tunnel should now be working. Next we will setup the SOCKS proxy. Open System Preferences / Network / Advanced / Proxies. Check the box next to “Socks Proxy” and set the “SOCKS Proxy server” text boxes to localhost : 8080. You should now be good to go.

To make sure you are setup correctly, go to a site like What’s My IP and make sure the IP address displayed matches your servers IP address. Happy surfing!

I have the checkbox that reads “Put the hard disk(s) to sleep whenever possible” unchecked. I also have the “Computer sleep” settings pointing to “Never”. This way my drive is always available. If I know I’m finished using my iMac and I’m not going to be using it, and I want to change the settings so that it will go to sleep, then I unmount/eject my external hard drive and turn it off. This way my iMac can comfortably go to sleep and wake up without losing the connection to the external drive. After the iMac is awake, I reconnect the external drive and it automatically mounts the drive. I then turn the “Computer sleep” mode to “Never” again.

It is a little bit of a hassle, but since I’ve adopted this workflow with my 1.5 Terra-byte Firewire drive, I’ve had no issues. Do you have any better or different solutions? Post them in the comments.

Music fans rejoice, today Google is rolling out a new music search feature that allows you to discover music through an audio preview feature. Type in the name or part of a name from a song and Google will find it and offer you an audio preview.

They have partnered with MySpace, Lala, Pandora, iMeem and Rhapsody to license these musical previews. With Google’s search algorithms combined with their new content partners, searching for music online just got a whole lot easier. They plan to roll out this feature across the U.S. in the next couple of days. Try it out, and let me know what you think.

I have to admit upfront that I’ve had a Mint.com account for a very long time and never used it. Every time I went to enter my account information something made me pause.

“What am I thinking? I am really going to trust them with all of my money?”

When a technology journalist I like to follow mentioned that he finally entered his account information because his security concerns had finally been met, I thought I would finally take the plunge. Then, suddenly out of nowhere, Intuit decides to buy Mint.com.

This turn of events has made me pause once more. What exactly will the purchase mean for Mint.com? Many in the blogosphere who like Mint predict it’s the beginning of it’s demise. They don’t like Intuit’s website and think the same people will bring their terrible ideas to Mint.

The founder of Mint.com, Aaron Patzer, wrote in a blog post that this:

“could bring Mint.com’s unique approach to personal financial management to millions more consumers and small businesses.”

The interesting thing to note is that both the Windows and Mac updates to Intuit’s desktop Quicken software is about to ship and won’t get to see any of Aaron’s “unique approach”. Indeed, Intuit publicist Scott Gulbransen has confirmed as much.

So…I’m back where I was, interested in Mint’s online service (I think I’d love the iPhone app), but afraid to take the plunge.

Do you use Quicken Online or Mint? How do you think this will affect you?

But before we plop the DVD into our Mac, we have to do some preparatory work. Make sure you’ve checked to see that all of your critical applications that you use are compatible with Snow Leopard. You can find a compatibility list here.

Next you will need an external hard drive that you’ve successfully connected to your Mac. It should have enough space to do a complete backup.

NOTE: You should always do a complete backup of your Mac before doing a clean install. The word “clean” is used in this tutorial because we are going to format our hard drive, wiping it clean of everything. Unless you don’t care about losing all your data, back it up! I use SuperDuper to create a bootable image of my entire system, but a TimeMachine backup would work as well.

Now write down or take screenshots of your connected network settings (Ethernet, AirPort, or both). The settings can be found under “System Preferences/Network”. Since we will be wiping the hard drive and the external hard drive, you will need to either print the settings out or save them to an external USB thumb-drive.

So first things first:

1. Backup your entire machine with TimeMachine, SuperDuper, or some other method to an external hard drive.
2. If your backup is bootable, SuperDuper’s is by default, try it now. Click on “System Preferences” and then double-click on “Startup Disk” near the bottom. Select your external hard drive and click “Restart…”. If you can log back into your Mac then you are good to go. Once logged in, complete the same procedure again, this time selecting your Macintosh HD and before clicking “Restart…”.
3. Now the fun begins! Put your Snow Leopard DVD into your computer. Make sure no external hard drive or device is connected to your computer.
4. Go to the Apple Menu and select “Restart…” When the computer begins to reboot press and hold down the “c” key on your keyboard. An Apple logo will appear and then you should see a spinning icon. When the spinning icon shows up you can let go of the key.
   
   
5. After a minute or so you should see a Snow Leopard screen appear asking you to pick your language. English is the default. Select your language and hit “Enter”.
6. After another minute you should see a screen appear that says Welcome to OS X Snow Leopard. Go to the Utilities menu and select Disk Utility. You should see your hard drive over on the left-hand side of the window. Click on it once to select it. Now, click on the “Erase” tab. Make sure the Format drop-down box is set to “Mac OS Extended (journaled)”. Click on the “Name” text box and name your new hard drive. Click on the third button on the bottom right that says “Erase”. Snow Leopard will ask you if you are sure. You did back everything up right??? If so, go ahead.
   
   
   
7. Quit the Disk Utility program. Click “Continue” to install Mac OS X. Agree to the terms and select your newly formatted hard drive.
8. Click on the “Customize” button on the lower left. Make sure you add “Rosetta”. This will enable you to run applications compiled for the PowerPC family of processors under Snow Leopard. Go ahead and continue the install. You will eventually be prompted to provide your Country and type of Keyboard. Fill both of those in and continue.
9. When you get to the screen that says “Do You Already Own a Mac?” select the “Do no transfer my information now” radio button. You can always transfer your data later using the built in Migration Assistant program which is found under the Applications/Utilities folder. Now would be a good time to get a drink, because after you hit the “Continue” button it will appear as if the Snow Leopard install has hung-up, because nothing seems to change. However, this is not the case, just finish your drink and patiently wait.
10. The next window to appear is called “Your Internet Connection”. Select “Using DHCP” for the TCP/IP Connection Type. Follow the prompts to fill in your Apple ID and Registration information. After you’ve filled out their “A Few More Questions” form and created your user account, you are almost done!
11. Quick, go comb your hair or put on a hat or something, because now Apple will want to take your picture for your user account. Or you can always just pick an icon from the list and change it later. Select your Time Zone, set the date and time, and your install is
    

    done!

12. For extra geek points. When the “Mac OS X Install DVD” appears on the desktop, double-click on Optional Installs. Install the Xcode.mpkg. If your into programming this will install all of the gcc libraries you will need if you are interested in compiling binaries, or wanting to look at Cocoa.
13. Enjoy your new cat.