This tutorial will get a server up and running that works with Symfony and allow you to access your projects from http://ProjectName.localhost/

Configure Server

• Download the latest version of MAMP. This can take a while.
• Install MAMP
• Allow MAMP’s copy of PHP, PEAR, and MySQL to run from the terminal:

sudo mv /usr/bin/php /usr/bin/php-old
sudo ln -s /Applications/MAMP/bin/php5/bin/php /usr/bin/php
sudo mv /usr/bin/pear /usr/bin/pear-old
sudo ln -s /Applications/MAMP/bin/php5/bin/pear /usr/bin/pear
sudo mv /usr/bin/mysql /usr/bin/mysql-old
sudo ln -s /Applications/MAMP/Library/bin/mysql /usr/bin/mysql

• Symfony can use a lot of memory in the development environment, so you need to edit /Applications/MAMP/conf/php5/php.ini to allow it scripts to use more memory. I changed mine from 8M to 200M.

memory_limit = 200M ;

Set up your project

Either grab a fresh project from the Symfony website or start from your own existing project.

To make sure your project is secure (even if your server isn’t publicly accessible), put the Symfony project files outside your webroot (/Applications/MAMP/htdocs). I put mine in ~/workspace/ProjectName.

Set up a subdomain for this project

To make your project accessible from http://YourProject.localhost/ you must edit your Apache config file.

For the first project you ever add, put this code at the end of /Applications/MAMP/conf/apache/httpd.conf

# Be sure to only have this line once in your configuration
NameVirtualHost 127.0.0.1:80
Listen 127.0.0.1:80

For each project you create, add this section of code with paths modified to reflect the location of your code.

<VirtualHost 127.0.0.1:80>
  ServerName YOUR_PROJECT_NAME.localhost
  DocumentRoot "/Users/YOUR_USER_NAME/workspace/YOUR_PROJECT_NAME/web"
  DirectoryIndex index.php
  <Directory "/Users/YOUR_USER_NAME/workspace/YOUR_PROJECT_NAME/web">
    AllowOverride All
    Allow from All
  </Directory>
 
  Alias /sf /Users/YOUR_USER_NAME/workspace/YOUR_PROJECT_NAME/lib/vendor/symfony/data/web/sf
  <Directory "/Users/YOUR_USER_NAME/workspace/YOUR_PROJECT_NAME/lib/vendor/symfony/data/web/sf">
    AllowOverride All
    Allow from All
  </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

For each project, you must also edit the /etc/hosts file and add this line to the end:

127.0.0.1       YOUR_PROJECT_NAME.localhost

Now use the MAMP control panel to restart Apache.

Database

Note: This section doesn’t apply to those with a fresh project generated by Symfony

If you’re working on a pre-existing project, you need to load in any existing database tables.

Open the file ~/workspace/YOUR_PROJECT_NAME/config/databases.yml and look for a section like this:

all:
  propel:
    class: sfPropelDatabase
    param:
      classname: PropelPDO
      dsn: 'mysql:host=localhost;dbname=DATABASE_NAME'
      username: USERNAME
      password: PASSWORD
      encoding: utf8
      persistent: true
      pooling: true

Use phpMyAdmin (located at http://localhost/MAMP/) to create a user with that password. You also need to create a database with that name and assign the user to it.

Now you need to create all the tables for this project and load in any fixtures. Use the terminal to browse to the root of your project directly and run the following commands:

php symfony propel:build-sql
php symfony propel:insert-sql --no-confirmation
php symfony propel:build-all-load --no-confirmation
php symfony cache:clear

NetBeans and Xdebug

I use NetBeans PHP distribution with Xdebug for step-by-step debug support. There is a fantastic tutorial to set up both using MAMP.

The only part of that tutorial that didn’t work was the way php.ini was configured.

First, comment out these lines at the end of /Applications/MAMP/conf/php5/php.ini (by placing a semicolon at the beginning of the line):

[Zend]
;zend_optimizer.optimization_level=15
;zend_extension_manager.optimizer=/Applications/MAMP/bin/php5/zend/lib/Optimizer-3.3.3
;zend_optimizer.version=3.3.3
;zend_extension=/Applications/MAMP/bin/php5/zend/lib/ZendExtensionManager.so

Now add the following lines to the end of the file instead of the ones mentioned in the tutorial:

; Xdebug config for Mac OS X and NetBeans IDE
zend_extension=/Applications/MAMP/bin/php5/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20050922/xdebug.so
xdebug.default_enable = On 
xdebug.remote_enable=1
xdebug.remote_handler=dbgp
xdebug.remote_mode=req
xdebug.remote_host=127.0.0.1
xdebug.remote_port=9000
xdebug.idekey=netbeans-xdebug
xdebug.remote_log = /tmp/xdebug.log

Also I just skipped the MySQL Administrator program because I prefer to use phpMyAdmin (which comes with MAMP).

Finally, I can’t use normal NetBeans breakpoints to halt the code. I have to place xdebug_break(); on the line that I want it to break on. This is slightly annoying, but having the power of a full debugger is certainly worth this small inconvenience.

Extras:

• Learn how to start MAMP silently (without the control panel window)
• Very detailed guide to setting MAMP up on OS X
• Supercharge your MAMP Environment

Conclusion

You should now be able to access your project from http://YourProject.localhost/

If you’re new to Symfony, here are some resources that will help you out:

• The Definitive Guide to Symfony
• Jobeet Tutorial - A step-by-step tutorial for a real-world project
• Symfony API

If you have any suggestions for improving this tutorial or if you are having any trouble with it, please leave a comment below. Thanks!

I recently started working my way into the world of the PHP framework Symfony. While following the superb Jobeet tutorial, I encountered an error involving PDO_MYSQL and Mac OS X. I spent an hour trying to trace down the problem and another hour finding a solution. And as always, when something takes me too long to solve, I write a guide for it!

The setup

I tried to run this command while following the Jobeet tutorial:

php symfony propel:insert-sql

The error

>> schema    converting "/Users/eyeRmonkey/w...obeet/config/schema.yml" to XML
>> schema    putting /Users/eyeRmonkey/works...eet/config/generated-schema.xml
>> propel    Running "insert-sql" phing task
Execution of target "insert-sql" failed for the following reason: /Users/eyeRmonkey/workspace/jobeet/lib/vendor/symfony/lib/plugins/sfPropelPlugin/lib/vendor/propel-generator/build-propel.xml:275:1:  [wrapped: could not find driver]
    [phing] /Users/eyeRmonkey/workspace/jobeet/lib/vendor/symfony/lib/plugins/sfPropelPlugin/lib/vendor/propel-generator/build-propel.xml:275:1:  [wrapped: could not find driver]
 
  Some problems occurred when executing the task:                                                   
    build-propel.xml:275:1:  [wrapped: could not find driver]                                       
    If the exception message is not clear enough, read the output of the task for more information

The root problem

The distribution of PHP that comes with OS X doesn’t have the pdo_mysql.so library loaded. You can determine this by looking at output from php -m.

The solution

After much searching, I finally discovered the proper way to compile the pdo_mysql.so library. This all assumes that you have PHP and MySQL installed the same way I do. (source)

Compiling PDO_MYSQL:

1. Download PDO_MYSQL
2. Run the following commands (replacing x.x.x with the version of PDO_MYSQL that you downloaded)

cd ~/Downloads/PDO_MYSQL-x.x.x/PDO_MYSQL-x.x.x
phpize
./configure '--with-pdo-mysql=shared,/usr/local/mysql'
make
sudo make install

Updating your PHP configuration:
Now add the following two lines to the file /etc/php.ini under the “Dynamic Extensions” section:

extension_dir = "/usr/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20060613"
extension=pdo_mysql.so

Save the file and you’re done.

The conclusion

Many people had this problem. It shouldn’t take hours of detailed searching to find a solution. Back to Symfony!

NOTE: shell.uoregon.edu is now sftp.uoregon.edu

Ever wanted to have your own webpage at http://uoregon.edu/~YourDuckID? Ever wanted to setup a clean-looking, easy-to-maintain website for a student group your are associated with? Well now the whole process is a snap! Every University of Oregon student is given space to set up their own website.

It’s a fairly complex process to set up all the necessary tools (PHP and MySQL) manually, so I wrote a program to do it for you (mostly) automatically! All you need to do is login to your uoregon.edu account and follow a couple simple instructions.

Why WordPress?

WordPress is tool that lets you create, design and maintain a website without knowing anything about computers or the internet. Anyone can do it! It is meant to be a tool for bloggers, but it functions perfectly for those who just want a normal website.

WordPress can be as simple or as powerful as you need it to be. In my opinion, it is the perfect tool for student groups because of how often management changes. With WordPress, anyone can pick it up and make any changes without any knowledge on how to create websites. The real power of WordPress is that you can create/edit pages from a web interface using an WYSIWYG (visual) editor. You can see a demo of this web interface here (username: admin // password: demo).

Other features:

• Customizable themes so you can easily style your website and give it it’s own distinct look.
• Amazing plugins to let you add any kind of functionality to your website (e.g. adding a contact form to your site).
• Multi-user enivronment so you can add other bloggers/editors to help you edit the website. This is especially useful for student groups with a lot of contributors.

Getting Started

Before you can complete these instructions you will need a program that let’s you access the files on your sftp.uoregon.edu account. Accessing this account is called “SSHing” into it. This is fairly simple for Mac OS X users, but is a bit more complicated if you are using Windows.

Windows Users

Note: If you own a Mac, skip to the next section called “Mac Users”.

First, you need to download and install a program called PuTTY (or just download v0.60 directly).

Once it is installed, run it and follow these steps.

Enter sftp.uoregon.edu under the host field. It should look the image to the right.

Press OK. You should get a message saying there is a “Security Alert”. Just press Yes.

Now you’re almost ready to go. Just enter your Duck ID (the same one you use to login to your email and blackboard) and your password. If you’re doing this for a student account, the process is exactly the same, but with the username/password that you would use to login your groups email address. It should look like this:

You’re ready to move on! Go on down to the “Running the Script” section below.

Mac Users

Mac OS X users have it much easier because the program you need is already installed.

You just need to run the Terminal application. The quickest way to get it it is by using the searching for it using the search box (Spotlight) in the top right corner of the screen.

Once that program is up and running you just need to use your Duck ID (the same one you use to login to your email and blackboard) and your password. If you’re doing this for a student account, the process is exactly the same, but with the username/password that you would use to login your groups email address. Here’s what it looks like when I use my Duck ID (jblancha) and password:

Running the Script

Now that you have SSH’ed into you account, you’re ready to run the script!

Type each of the following commands in and press enter after each line. The first command will take a couple moments to run, so don’t type the next one until it is done.

wget http://auzigog.com/perm/wordpress_shell.sh
chmod 0755 wordpress_shell.sh
./wordpress_shell.sh

The last command will run the script I wrote to do all the work for you.

The first thing you need to do is type n and press enter to indicate that you are not an advanced user. Now you should see a bunch of lines being output to the screen.

*** Do you want to install MySQL using the 'mysql_install_db' command? You should do this ONE TIME ONLY
Are you an advanced user who needs the MySQL passwords later? [y/n]: n
// Creating .htaccess in your public_html directory (/home6/spanst/public_html) so all files ending in .php will execute
// Creating php.cgi in your home directory (/home6/spanst) so all files ending in .php will execute
// Generating a port number (between 5000 and 6000) to run MySQL from
// For reference, the port number that MySQL is running on is: 5430
// Making a MySQL configuration file for your account
// Installing the MySQL database. This may take a few moments...
// Setting a root password for wordpress
// Creating a username and password for wordpress
// Configuring a cron job to ensure the MySQL Daemon doesn't go down
// Downloading and placing wordpress files. This may take a moment....
// Creating public_html/wp-content/uploads for uploaded images/files
// Configuring wordpress
 
// Here is some stuff you can ignore if you don't know what it is:
    PORT: 5430
    MySQL 'root' account password: ########
    MySQL 'wordpressuser' account password: ########
    MySQL database for wordpress: wordpressdb
    MySQL host for connections: sftp.uoregon.edu:5430
 
SUCCESSS! Visit http://uoregon.edu/~spanst to finish the installation of your blog!
 Note: Please remove index.html from your ~/public_html folder so that WordPress can actually work

Note: Please write down the four lines that start with MySQL in case you or someone else ever needs those passwords to fix things down the road.

As the script indicates, you’re done! You can now visit http://uoregon.edu/~YourDuckID/ to give your blog a name. When it asks you for an email address, be sure to use a real one because it that is where your username and password will be sent.

To login to the control panel (where you edit pages and blog posts), go to http://uoregon.edu/~YourDuckID/wp-admin/.

There’s some more information below that you might find helpful, but you’re basically done! If you’ve successfully used this script, please leave a comment below so I know that people are finding it useful. Spread the word to other individuals and groups so everyone can create a useful website!

Extending WordPress

You’re done with the important part. If you want to customize WordPress, here are some suggestions.

• Install a theme to give your site its own look. Check out my favorite themes. (Instructions)
• In the control panel, go to Settings → Permalinks → Select “Day and Name” → Save Changes
• Add a contact form to your site
• Add other authors/editors to your site by going to the control panel and Users → Add New
• Setup Akismet to block spam comments on your blog posts

If you need any other help in working with WordPress, check out their support site.

Good luck! Please leave a comment below if you have any comments or questions!

What the heck did the script do?

If you’re not a big nerd, just scroll down to the comments section. If you’re a more technical user and are curious what happened, here’s an overview. You can find very detailed instructions for all of this on my wiki.

1. Use a .htaccess file to redirect all .php requests to a CGI script
2. Use the CGI script to make sure all .php files are run under PHP5 (instead of being served as text files
3. Install a copy of MySQL for your account on a specific port number.
4. Create a MySQL database for WordPress
5. Set up a cron job to make sure MySQL comes back up if the server ever restarts
6. Download and unzip the latest version of WordPress
7. Automatically edit your WordPress config file with all the information it has just generated

Credits

The only reason I was able to figure out this process in the first place was because of the following people

• Micro’s guide to MySQL on shell - Not the best instructions in the world, but absolutely necessary.
• Easy PHP on shell - Tristan at the EMU marketing department made most of this possible with his instructions for getting PHP files to run properly (instead of being served as text files). Tristan actually wrote a WordPress installation guide similar to this one last month.
• Justin McCraw - Helped me remember the simplest set of steps to get this done
• Bruce and Spencer at the UO for helping with specific issues I had along the way

The method I explain here gives you access to the MediaWiki API class as opposed to the standard MediaWiki rendering class. Most of this code came from MediaWiki’s api.php which you can find in MediaWiki 1.13.

Here’s what the API output will look like for the Foobar page on Wikipedia (in XML).

I spent quite a bit of time poking around in the MediaWiki /includes directory and trying different hack-ish methods before this page that had exactly what I needed! It did need updating, but I was happy to oblige. I even had this whole post written up using a sloppier approach before finding the FauxRequest class that I explain below.

The code

Let’s start with the sample code, then go over the details.

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$mediawiki_root = '/Users/eyeRmonkey/www/mediawiki-test';
putenv("MW_INSTALL_PATH=$mediawiki_root");
// Initialise common code
require ($mediawiki_root . '/includes/WebStart.php');
 
class MediaWikiAPIWrapper {
	public function make_fake_request($params) {
		$request = new FauxRequest($params, true);
 
		$api = new ApiMain($request);
 
		// Process data & use an output buffer to capture the resutls
		$api->execute();
		$result = $api->getResult();
		$data = &$result->getData();
 
		return $data;
	}
}

Initializing

The first matter of business is lines 1 through 4. These need to be called outside of any function or class. I spent some time trying to figure out why none of MediaWiki’s global variables were showing up in print_r($GLOBALS) before thinking to require_once() it outside of any functions. Duh. Make sure you get the path to your MediaWiki installation root correct (no trailing slash, obviously).

Most of the work get’s done on line 4. This get’s all the code ready for a standard API call from the web. This whole approach is meant to be used by an extension, so we need to play catchup by initializing the core MediaWiki code.

Faking the Request

The good folks at MediaWiki were are kind enough to provide us with a class specifically meant for faking an API request! Joy! It’s called FauxRequest and it extends the WebRequest object that is used by default for API calls. The FauxRequest class takes an array of keys and values that represent what would’ve been passed in the URL.

The API manual has more information on formats and different queries you can make to the API.

Here is what your $params array might look like to grab the Main Page:

$data = array(
		'action' => 'parse',
		'page' => 'Main_Page'
	);

Running the API

Lines 10 through 15 create an instance of the API and pass in our FauxRequest object to get things rolling!

The $data array will hold all of the information that you would get from a format=php API call. As always, you could use print_r() to display the Array for debugging purposes.

That’s it!

mod_rewrite Issues

On my wiki, the .htaccess mod_rewrite rules that I have seem to be preventing the API from functioning totally correctly. A workaround I discovered is to use the following API call: /api.php?action=parse&title=Main_Page&text={{:Main_Page}}. This works by asking the API to translate the text parameter into rendered text. The {{:Main_Page}} says that the text is actually a transclusion-ed page. It’s definitely a hack, but it works on servers with weird rewrite rules for pretty URLs.

Further reading

• API: Query Properties
• API: Expanding templates and rendering - Relevant to the transclusion workaround.

Features

• Brings iTunes to the front if it isn’t already the front window
• Highlights the track that is currently playing (if one is playing)
• If iTunes is already the front window, this script will hide the window (similar to using ⌘H

Steps

1. Make sure Quicksilver is installed.
2. Copy the code below into a text file.
3. Save that file in a directory (preferably somewhere in your home directory). Mine is saved at /Users/auzigog/Apple Scripts/showplayingtrack.scpt.
4. Open quicksilver by pressing your hot key (likely ⌘L) and press the arrow in the top right to open the menu. Select Triggers
5. Press the + button to add a new hot key.
   1. Into the first box, type ~/Apple Scripts/showplayingtrack.scpt (modify this if you saved it somewhere else).
   2. Press save
6. Assign a hot key
   1. Select the item you just added and double-click the area that says “none”.
   2. Put your curson in the “Hot Key” box and press the keys you want to use to trigger this script. I chose ^⌘L (Ctrl + Apple + L) to mimic the built in iTunes command

You’re done!

That’s it! Leave a comment if you find this helpful!

The code

on run
	tell application "iTunes"
		if frontmost is true then
			tell application "System Events"
				set app_name to name of the first process whose frontmost is true
				set visible of process app_name to false
			end tell
		else
			set frontmost to true
			if player state is playing then
				reveal current track
			end if
		end if
	end tell
end run

Please add a comment if you have any suggestions for improvement.

Apache

Apache comes with Leopard. Enable it by going to System Preferences > Sharing > check “Web Sharing”

Edit /etc/apache2/httpd.conf in your favorite text editor.
To change your root web directory from the default (/Library/WebServer/Documents), Modify your DocumentRoot on line 163:

DocumentRoot "/Users/yourUserNameHere/workspace"

… and change your Directory settings near line 190:

<Directory "/Users/yourUserNameHere/workspace">
    ...
    AllowOverride All
    ...
</Directory>

To activate the PHP module, uncomment this near line 114:

LoadModule php5_module libexec/apache2/libphp5.so

… and add this near line 383 to make Apache handle .php files:

AddType application/x-httpd-php .php

MySQL

Download and install MySQL. Install the MySQLStartupItem.pkg package as well. Go to System Preferences > MySQL, start MySQL and check the box to “Automatically Start MySQL Server on Startup”.

Change the MySQL root password:

$ mysqladmin -u root password NEWPASSWORD

Fix permissions for root account

$ mysql -u root -p

mysql> GRANT all on *.* to 'root'@'%' identified BY 'NEWPASSWORD';

Fix the missing mysql.sock file:

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

PHP

PHP is already installed at /user/bin/php.

Create a configuration file:

$ sudo cp /etc/php.ini.default /etc/php.ini

phpMyAdmin

Download phpMyAdmin and extract it to ~/workspace/pma. Rename config.sample.inc.php to config.inc.php and open it in a text editor.

Near line 17, change your blowfish secret.

PEAR

$ curl http://pear.php.net/go-pear > go-pear.php
$ sudo php -q go-pear.php
$ sudo mkdir /usr/bin/pear

In the installer, choose to edit option and change it to /usr/bin/pear

Edit line 469 in /etc/php.ini to add PEAR to PHP’s include path:

include_path = ".:/usr/bin/pear"

Sources

Guides I used to get this all straightened out

• OS X Apache, MySQL, PHP guide
• OS X PHP/PEAR guide

You can find more information about my setup on my hackintosh v2 wiki page. If you want to see every step I went through to get this system working, check out that page.

What To Expect

This guide will let you install OS X Leopard 10.5.6 from the retail disk (straight from Apple!). You’ll have a system with full functionality and minimal hacking.

I have not tested this setup extensively since I got it working, so I make no guaranty about it’s stability. The way I went about it isn’t the cleanest, but it works. I’m hoping weaksauce12 will release a Universal OSx86 Installer plug-in for this board in the near future. Keep an eye out on my blog for another post involving that installation.

Hardware

Here is the hardware I used. You can poke around the InsanelyMac forums to find instructions for your own system.
Same hardware I used in version 1, except with a new motherboard. The motherboard is the most important factor in a hackintosh as long as you have an Intel processor and an NVIDIA video card.

• Motherboard - GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P (newegg)
• Processor - Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 Conroe 2.33GHz (newegg)
• Video Card - EVGA GeForce 7600GT 256MB 128-bit PCI Express x16 (newegg)
• RAM - CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin 800 (PC2 6400) (newegg)
• DVD - SAMSUNG 20X DVD±R SATA (newegg)
• Power Supply - COOLER MASTER eXtreme Power Plus 460W (newegg)
• Case - COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower (newegg)

Required Goodies

Here is what you’ll need to complete this guide.

• Retail Leopard install disk

  Note: Please purchase the CD and support the Apple developers!

• Download the handy UD3P-package I compiled for this motherboard. See “Credits” section below for all the original content in the package.

Preparation

• Burn grub-dfe.iso to a CD. Disco is a handy app for doing this.
• Put the UD3P-package onto a USB flash drive.

Steps

1. Boot with GRUB-DFE boot cd.
   1. At the “fake darwin” screen it will say have a prompt that says “Boot:”. Switch out the boot cd for retail leopard.
   2. When prompted for a 2-digit hex number, press “fe” to boot to the Leopard CD.

   Note: I used retail verison 10.5.0, but any retail disk should work.

2. Once you’re in the installer, format your drive (Utilities > Disk Utility). Make sure the partition type is set to GUID.
   1. Install OS X normally.
   2. When installation is done, restart (you might have to do this forcefully) and place the boot cd back in.
   3. Boot to the boot CD as before.
   4. This time when you’re prompted for a 2-digit hex number, enter “80″ to boot to your hard drive.
3. Follow the on-screen steps to complete the Leopard installation
   1. When prompted to register, press CTRL+Q and select “skip”
   2. When you create your account, keep in mind you can only have each username once. If you plan to migrate files from a previous OS X installation, pick a different “Name” and “Short Name”
   3. Once this is done, it should load you into OS X.
4. Install all updates (including 10.5.6) from Software Update. Restart when directed to.
   1. Boot from the GRUB-DFE disk again.
   2. Use -v at the real Darwin screen so you have verbose output. The update should apply itself during the boot process. When you see “MACH Reboot”, go ahead and forcefully restart the computer.
   3. Boot from the GRUB-DFE disk yet again.
   4. Keep installing updates and restarting until there are no updates left in Software Update.
5. Run Chameleon_DFE_for_Hard_Disk.dmg (located in the UD3P-package) (Note: I don’t think this step is completely necessary since we install PC_EFI v9 later, but it definitely doesn’t hurt to do it anyway).
   1. Drag all the files in the “Kexts for Chameleon” folder into the “Extra Contents” shortcut in Chameleon’s .dmg.
   2. Run Chameleon_DFE_for_Hard_Disk.pkg to install the bootloader.
   3. Reboot with the boot CD. Use -x to boot into safe mode
6. Use Universal OSx86 Installer
   1. Select the following options:
      • Do OSx86_Essentials as motherboard
      • Boot timeout to 5
      • Native resolution to 1920×1200
      • Install PC_EFI v9 Chameleon
      • Apply Ethernet EFI String (Time Machine Fix)
      • Apply EFI String for video card (I selected NVIDIA DeForce 7600FT 256MB for my card)
      • Click “Add extra kexts” and select all the files in the “Kexts for Uinstaller” folder.
   2. Eject boot CD.
   3. Restart
7. Everything should be working!!

Finishing up

1. System Preferences > Sound > Output > Switch it to “internal speakers”
2. Disable sleep and the “turn off monitor” features. For me, every time it went to sleep or turned off my monitor, it would come back with a blue screen.
3. Migration Assistant
   1. When selecting parts you want to restore, make sure you do not select Applications or Library. Restoring the Library folder could ruin all the work you’ve done to get your system running.
   2. Press Transfer and let it go to work
   3. You can start installing applications while you wait. I have a helpful list here. Some programs might not expect to be installed on one account (your current one) and then be used on another account (the on you’re transferring), so use with caution.
4. Fix drive icons if you wish

That’s all!

You should have a working system at this point. Please add a comment below if this worked for you or if it broke everything or if you just love me. Please share your own experience if it wasn’t based on my guide. Thanks to everyone at InsanelyMac for creating an awesome community of hackintosh-ers!

Bonus:
XBench Results (with hardisk): 135.72
XBench Results (without hardisk): 201.97

Credits

• Adapted heavily from basshead’s blog, the thread (for the EP45-UD3R board), and weaksauce12’s amazing guide (for the P45-DS3L board)
• Universal OSx86 Installer (Uinstaller.app) - Please donate to PCWiz for the incredible amount of work he has put into this application.
• Chameleon DFE for Hard disk
• grub-dfe.iso (download)

  An alternative is to use the boot-132 “modified kexts” ISO (download)

• .zip for audio kext

While reading an article on The Thirteen Tipping Points of global warming for my environmental studies class, I took notice of one hypothetical solution to make people more active in combating global warming: A public lottery.

The article starts by informing readers that democratic, cooperative species tend to survive through the millennium. This is contrary to some economic theory which suggests that humans will only ever act in their own self-interest.

It also cites a game theory experiment in which greater success is obtained by the group as a whole when all participants can see how much each player is contributing to the communal “pot”:

A recent study hints at the evolution of altruism. A team of Swiss and American mathematicians and population biologists ran a variant of game theory known as a public goods game, in which players contribute money to a common pot that an experimenter doubles, divides evenly, and returns to the players. In ordinary play, if all players contribute all their money, everyone wins big. If one player cheats, everyone wins small. If an altruist and a cheater go head-to-head, the cheater wins consistently. This paradox is known as the Tragedy of the Commons.

But in the new computer variant, population dynamics were introduced into the game. Players were divided into small groups that played among themselves. Each player eventually “reproduced” in proportion to the payoff received from play—thereby passing her cooperator or cheater strategy to her offspring. Mutations and dispersions were introduced, creating a shifting population of individuals divided into groups of changing sizes and allegiances.

After 100,000 generations, the results were surprising. Rather than succumbing to the cheaters, the
cooperators overwhelmed them.

Drawing on this evidence, the article presents an intriguing possible solution that would encourage humans to be more active in preventing further global warming:

How might we get these messages across? Imagine a lottery funding advertising about he fiery monster, the Lilliputian arrows, the neighborhood dangers. Ideally these advertisements would be big and splashy and persistent enough to awaken us from our slumber in the televised lagoon.

Instead of a ticket, we’d buy a web listing displaying our commitment to the battle as well as our marksmanship rating: a number reflecting how much money we’d donated, the efficiency of our car, home, appliances. The highest-rated players would earn high-visibility web pages. Low-rated players could improve their ratings by following a list of lifestyle amendments. The higher our rating, the greater our chances in the lottery. Every week someone would win.

Would we play?

An interesting scenario to say the last. It has some obvious holes, but might have the potential to create real change if somehow implemented on a large scale.

I just finished watching a documentary called The Corporation, an intriguing look at the modern day exploits of global corporations. I wanted to quickly mention a couple points that I found particularly interesting:

• For all legal purposes, corporations are considered a person
• Being a person, corporations are allowed to give campaign constitutions because it is free speech
• Before 1987, the patent office clearly stated that it was not legal to patent any living thing. After a misguided supreme court ruling stating that a bacteria looked more like a chemical than a bug, a corporation was allowed to copyright that bacteria. The ruling now states that you can patent any living thing in the world except a full birth human being.

The end of the documentary gives a list of things we can do to remedy the issues that are posed by modern corporations:

• End corporate personhood
• Put people before profit
• Build economic democracy
• Use full-cost accounting
• Stop corporate welfare
• Localize ownership
• Support unions
• 3 strikes for corporations
• Be an active shareholder
• Jail corporate criminals
• Strength regulatory systems
• Get corporations out of schools
• Make trade fair
• Run corporations from politics
• Use local democratic power
• Support independent media
• Internalize externalities
• Buy local
• Work for worker rights
• Jam corporate culture
• Ride a bike

I think this is a fantastic list of things that people can do to fix some of the broken aspects of corporations.

I hope everyone has a chance to watch the documentary. I’d love to hear any comments anyone has on the film or about corporations in general.

Seize the moment of excited curiosity on any subject to solve your doubts; for if you let it pass, the desire may never return, and you may remain in ignorance.
-William Wirt

Ever since I first ran across this jewel of advice, I have always made an effort to apply it to my life. Whenever my interest in a certain subject flares, I make a point to explore it before my focus has a chance to shift elsewhere.

As of late, my excitement and curiosity have revolved around photography. I bought a Nikon D40 in June and have since only put it to good use on occasion. Since I purchased it, I’ve had a nagging sense that my photos weren’t turning out as interesting or “professional looking” as those taken by my friends who are amateur photographers. Part of this has to do with the fact that I’m not always as creative as I’d like. I also knew the source of my displeasure wasn’t the fact that I have an entry-level Nikon, because I’ve been told time and time again that the camera doesn’t matter.

Photo by Will Foster

It wasn’t until recently (while browsing Will Foster’s Flickr gallery) that I realized what my photos were missing: light. In retrospect, it seems so obvious. After all, in it’s simplest form, a photograph is just the capturing of light. All I’ve ever used is my D40’s pop-up flash (which leads to harsh lighting and harsh shadows in photographs). It had never occurred to me that a hot-shoe flash (or an off camera flash) could dramatically improve the quality of my photos.

After doing some research, I went out and bought a Nikon SB-600 Speedlight. The difference in my photos was noticeable right away. Below is a comparison of the D40’s pop-up flash and the SB-600. My roommate, Ryan, was happy to stand in for this experiment. The photo on the left was taken using the built-in pop-up flash on the D40. To the right we have a the remarkable results using the SB-600. The key to the second photo was that I angeled the flash head to bounce off the ceiling and then to Ryan. If you look at the larger version, you can really see the natural shading and definition on his face. An off camera flash (or two) could’ve produced even better results!

The day after I bought the speedlight, Will wrote a retrospective new years blog, in which, he mentioned a site called Strobist. I decided to check out the site, and after an hour or two, I finally came out of my trance of amazement. The site was packed to the brim with useful information for a photographer on a budget. The mantra as Strobist can be found at the top of every page on the site: Less Gear. More Brain. Better Light.

The Strobist community certainly takes these words to heart. They have entire series of courses designed to help you get your an inexpensive, off camera lighting system so you can get creative with your photos. I’m working my way through their Lighting 101 series right now. I ordered an “eBay trigger” so I can start wirelessly triggering my flashes. I’m already started preparing all my friends for the amount of modeling that I’ll be forcing them to partake in once those triggers arrive.

After my interest in photography was reignited, I started pillaging through my dad’s old gear which had been sitting in his closet for an eternity. I ended swiping an SB-15, an umbrella and a stand for the umbrella. I also ordered an extra flash trigger from eBay so I could fire the SB-15 remotely also.

I’m now on my way to doing some cool things with my photography. I plan on reading Strobist and other photography blogs on a regular basis. I also hope to be at the next Portland Strobist Photo Shoot. I’m also looking into building a DIY flash ring.

What have been some turning points in your photographic journey? Or more generally, what have you been excited about recently that you made a point to pursue?