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TextMate 2.0

Jeff Owens — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 00:19:38 +0000

TextMate users have been waiting for the 2.0 release of their beloved text editor for over 5 years. Hints that it was 90% complete and full of exciting features kept fans anxiously waiting. Today, Allan Odgaard has finally released a “public alpha” of TextMate 2.0. It is currently available to anyone who has a TextMate license.

After having played with the editor for a bit, I have to say I really like the changes. Some notable changes are:

Project drawer – replaced with a file browser sidebar, it includes SCM-badging.
Search in project – merged with regular find dialog.
Folder specific settings – variables and settings can now be set on a folder basis.
Themes – you can now change font and font sizes per scope.
Snippets – new syntax for pop-up menus.
Session restore – now restores the full session including unsaved changes.

iCloud iFail

Jeff Owens — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 16:19:59 +0000

Yesterday Apple released iOS 5.0 and iCloud into the wild. Big, software releases of this nature are bound to have some issues, as millions of users upgrade their existing accounts that include email, contacts, and calendars.

Today, my iCloud email is down. I have no email access from the website www.icloud.com, or from computers and iOS devices. The annoying thing is that in my Mail app, it keeps pestering me to enter my password for iCloud. Once I do, it rejects it and asks again. It kind of reminds me of the Seinfeld skit with Kramer acting as Movie Phone.

Hello, and Welcome to Movie Phone. If you know the name of the movie you’d like to see, press one.

PAUSE

Using your touchtone keypad, please enter the first three letters of the movie title now.

PAUSE

You’ve selected, Agent Zero? If that’s correct, press one.

PAUSE

You’ve selected, Brown Eyed Girl? If this is correct, press one.

PAUSE

Why don’t you just tell me the name of the movie you selected.

Installing Ubuntu Server With Guest Additions Inside VirtualBox

Jeff Owens — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 00:58:24 +0000

What We Are Using

Host: OSX Lion

VirtualBox: 4.1.0

Guest: Ubuntu Server 11.04 (Natty Narwhal)

I'm assuming you have installed VirtualBox and the VirtualBox Extension Pack from here:

http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

Download Ubuntu Server 11.04 making sure you select 32 bit from the drop down:

http://www.ubuntu.com/download/server/download

Go ahead and install the VM into VirtualBox by select New and following the prompts, it will ask you for the location of the ISO you just downloaded to get started. After starting your new VM and following the prompts, make sure you install SSH server (checkbox) and write down the name of your VM, your username and password.

After creating the Ubuntu guest with SSH server installed, turn the guest OS completely off.

Go to terminal on your Mac (OSX) and type in the following replacing "Narwhal" with whatever you named your guest Ubuntu OS in VirtualBox.:

PLAIN TEXT

CODE:

VBoxManage modifyvm "Narwhal" --natpf1 "guestssh,tcp,,2222,,22"

Start the Ubuntu guest OS.

Make sure your SSH service is running:

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CODE:

sudo /etc/init.d/ssh start

From your Mac (OSX) terminal SSH into your guest like this:

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CODE:

ssh -p 2222 deploy@127.0.0.1 (replace deploy with whatever username you created when installing Ubuntu)

Adding Shared Folders

From your Mac (OSX) terminal window that is SSH'd into your Guest Ubuntu VM run the following:

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CODE:

sudo apt-get install dkms build-essential linux-headers-generic

Go to the VirtualBox Devices menu and select "Install Guest Additions"

From your Mac (OSX) terminal window that is SSH'd into your Guest Ubuntu VM type the following:

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CODE:

sudo mount /dev/scd0 /media/cdrom
cd /media/cdrom
ls -la
sudo sh ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run --nox11

Don't worry if you see something that says "Installing the Window System drivers …fail!". It fails because we aren't using a GUI.

Now shut down your Ubuntu VM like so:

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CODE:

sudo shutdown -h now

Go to VirtualBox and select your VM and go into its settings. Find the tab that says "Shared Folders" and click on the green folder icon with the plus sign. Click on the drop-down arrow and select some folder on your Mac you want to share. Select the auto-mount check box. Click OK twice and start up your Ubuntu VM. From your Mac (OSX) terminal ssh into your guest as before and type the following:

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CODE:

sudo -i
cd /media
ls -la
cd /media/sf_
ls -la

See your files? Your done!

One Spark

Jeff Owens — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 03:20:10 +0000

I first heard Gabe Dixon's music when watching the movie The Proposal with Sandra Bullock. The single Find My Way had good vocals and keyboard and I was immediately attracted to it. After finding out that Gabe Dixon wrote the music, played the keyboard, and sang the vocals I immediately purchased his first album The Gabe Dixon Band and was duly impressed. Gabe is a throwback to a bygone error where musicians had skills and could sing without auto-tune. No wonder Sir Paul McCarty asked Gabe to play keyboard on his Driving Rain album and asked him to tour.

One Spark marks Gabe's first solo album effort. Though more of a pop album, there is much here to be admired. The solid lyrics and melodic material Gabe is rightly known for are here in abundance. Though Gabe's keyboard takes a back-seat in this effort, the collaboration with artists such as Alison Kraus and Starsailor's James Walsh has produced a solid album.

Amazing iPhone 4 Movie

Jeff Owens — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 14:00:24 +0000

I purchased the new iPhone 4 and have been enjoying the new camera capabilities. Check out what professionals are doing with the new iPhone in this video clip...amazing stuff.

Family iPad

Jeff Owens — Fri, 07 May 2010 11:30:13 +0000

I've been considering purchasing an iPad, and have been thinking about how we might use it in my family. I ran across an interesting blog post by Chuck Hollis, CTO of EMC Corporation. Entitled, "What iPads Did To My Family", it pushed me over the tipping point. Off to the Apple store.

Starship Enterprise Actually Flies

Jeff Owens — Thu, 06 May 2010 01:18:55 +0000

Yes, it's the Enterprise in flight. Full speed ahead number one! Makes me want to build one myself.

The State of Web Development

Jeff Owens — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 17:14:52 +0000

Though not a strictly scientific survey, the results of Web Direction's web developer survey provide insights into what the current trends are for 2010.

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

Android Running on the iPhone!

Jeff Owens — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 20:02:44 +0000

David Wong has successfully got Google Android running on an iPhone. This requires a jailbroken iPhone with openiboot and Android .img files.

Using SSH to Safely Surf With Free WiFi

Jeff Owens — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 04:25:58 +0000

If you are like me, you take advantage of free WiFi hotspots where ever you can find them. Unfortunately it is possible for thieves to also be on that WiFi hotspot.

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!