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Abstruse Goose: Biologists
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Troll Slayer
Software Engineering Explained
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Posts Tagged ‘Software’
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Friday, June 5th, 2009What Software Do You Use to Manage Your DVD Collection?
Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008Over the past couple of years I’ve been building up my DVD collection. It’s now passed the respectable mark of 300 DVD’s. I used to use an Access database on my Windows machine to manage my collection, but since I’ve moved over to Mac, the database has fallen a bit behind.
I suppose I could create a MySQL database and do up a simple web-based front end, but that’s a bit more work than I want to put in. So the question is, what Mac software would you recommend for managing a DVD collection?
Why I’m Not Upgrading to WordPress 2.3
Tuesday, September 25th, 2007WordPress 2.3 has just been released, but I’m not going to be installing it just yet. Partly because not all the plugins that I use are compatible with the new version. But mainly for some reason, the authors feel the need to include an “update service” that sends information back to WordPress.org. This update service sends information such as you blog URL, the version of the various plugins installed, server variables etc. Why they need this information is difficult to fathom, but until I know exactly why they need all this data, I won’t be using it.
Important Update
After further research, including comments from Matt at WordPress, I am retracting my initial comments above. I do not have a problem with WordPress sending my Blog URL, after all I post it myself whenever I’m commenting on another Blog, and I ping several Blog Aggregators when I post a new comment. In relation to the plugin versions being sent to WordPress, I can understand the need in order to ensure that the current version is checked against the latest version. However, I still will not be upgrading to 2.3 until such a time as all the plugins I use are compatible with 2.3.
Syncing a Windows Mobile Smartphone with Mac OS X
Monday, September 24th, 2007When choosing a smartphone you have two OS options: Symbian and Windows Mobile. Nokia and Sony Ericsson use the Symbian OS, while HP, Toshiba, HTC and Samsung use Windows Mobile on their phones. No matter which OS your phone uses, chances are that the synchronisation software provided with the phone will be Windows only. So, if like me you’re a Mac user, how do you sync your phone with your Mac?
If you’re lucky, Apples iSync will recognise your device, in which case you’re pretty much good to go straight out of the box. However, if you have a smartphone that isn’t recognised by iSync, who’ll have to splash out on a 3rd party solution.
I recently purchased the HTC S710, which unfortunately, it isn’t recognised by iSync. After a quick Google search, I came across “The Missing Sync for Windows Mobile“. Missing Sync allows you to sync via your Network, Bluetooth or USB. Providing plugins for your Contacts, iCal, and all your multimedia content, Missing Sync has all the bases covered. If you have Microsoft Entourage installed, it will also provide a conduit to sync your data directly with Microsofts attempt at a PIM for the Mac OS.
Setting up your device is straightforward and I was up and running within minutes of downloading the program.
Costing $39.95 for download, or $49.95 for the CD version, it’s certainly worth it if you have to sync your smartphone with your Mac.
iPhone Sim Unlocked – Twice in One Day
Friday, August 24th, 2007Various media outlets are reporting that the iPhone has been cracked to allow any SIM card to be used.
First some back story, when Apple released the iPhone, they did so in the US only and with the condition that coverage was provided by AT&T. To ensure this, the iPhone was locked to prevent SIM cards from other mobile providers being used in the phone.
Since the initial release there have been plenty of attempts to circumvent the SIM lock on the iPhone. Today there were two announcements made in relation to the SIM lock being cracked. The first involves a hardware crack and the second involves a software update. Apparently the hardware hack takes about an hour to complete, while the software update takes a couple of minutes.
So what’s the fuss about? Half the planet went pretty much insane when it was released. But because the iPhone is SIM Locked, it can only be used in the US. With an unlocked iPhone it can be used anywhere in the world, and within the US, it can used with any provider.
Setting Up Apache, PHP, MySQL – The Easy Way
Monday, August 20th, 2007I’ve been experimenting with Content Management Systems recently, and after some research, I’ve decided to use Joomla for my next couple of projects. The idea is that I don’t need to spend as much time writing code, and I can get a website up and running quickly. In order to get more experience with of Joomla I decided to install it on my MacBook.
In order to use Joomla, you need three things: Apache, PHP and MySQL. Individually, these are easy enough to install, but getting them to work together can be a bit of a headache. Config files need to be edited, file permissions need to be changed, servers need to be started and restarted, and it can be a bit daunting, not to say time consuming.
That’s where MAMP comes in. An acronym for Mac, Apache, MySQL, PHP, it’s a collection of all these programs in one handy installer that does all the work for you. It took a couple of minutes to download and about 30 seconds to install. Once installed you have a full Apache server, MySQL server and PHP 4 and PHP 5 installation. Better still, it doesn’t interfere with any other Apache, MySQL, or PHP installations you may have running, and it’s controllable from a handy Dashboard Widget.
Once MAMP is installed and running, it’s just a matter of downloading the package and installing Joomla. A simple browser-based installer guides you through the setup, and within minutes I was up and running. The only issue I came across was that the permissions of the Joomla folder had to be updated to allow the installation. It was just a matter of selecting the folder, holding Option-I and changing the permissions for “Others”. Done and dusted.
For those of you not on the Mac platform there are also versions for Windows, Linux, and Solaris available, along with a Joomla Standalone Server (Windows based).
ATI Driver Flaw Exposes Vista Kernel to Attack
Saturday, August 11th, 2007Security researchers have discovered a flaw with an ATI driver that allows unsigned and potentially dangerous code to be installed and loaded into the Vista kernel.
In order to increase security and to protect against attack, Microsoft have introduced a new driver signing requirement in Vista. By requiring that drivers are signed, Microsoft hoped that this would ensure that only drivers which were verified as being clean and compatible with Vista could be installed.
ATI duly had their drivers signed by VeriSign so that they could be installed on a Windows Vista system. Unfortunately, their was a flaw in one of the drivers. Apparently the flaw was originally intended as a shortcut in the driver that allowed ATI developers to load modules into the driver for testing. When the driver was released, either no-one thought to remove the shortcut or ATI forgot about it.
In order to close the hole, ATI will have to patch the flaw in their driver, have it signed with a new certificate, roll-out the update via Windows Update, then have the original signing authority revoke the original certificate. It’s not a straightforward process and it’s by no means foolproof either.
Sherlock
Wednesday, August 8th, 2007I’ve been spending a lot of time getting to know my Mac. Coming from a Windows background, I’m more au fait with Windows utilities, settings, and setup.
Because I’m so new to Mac OS X, I spend a lot of time looking up ways to do things with my Mac that to longtime users seem simple. Until now this research involved a lot of time on Google and a lot of time just playing with different programs and utilities, just looking at what they do. One of the programs that I discovered recently is Sherlock.
Sherlock is basically a search interface connected to several different internet sites. Within Sherlock, these connections are called channels. So there is an Internet Channel, an Ebay Channel and an AppleCare Channel among others.
From my point of view, the most useful has to be the AppleCare Channel. This allows you to search the Apple database for articles on all aspects of your Mac. Think of it as the Apple version of the Microsoft Knowledge Base. So far it’s proven invaluable in finding out about my Mac, what I can do, and how I can do it.
As Sherlock aggregates various online resources, you do need an Internet connection. But once you are online, it’s definitely worth using. There’s a wealth of information available out there, it’s just a matter of getting to it.
Offline Web Applications
Thursday, May 31st, 2007Everyone is buzzing about Web 2.0. For the ordinary Joe Soap, Web 2.0 doesn’t mean a whole lot. It’s hard to define for the end user, the end user who just wants to send email, watch some youTube videos, and browse their favourite websites.
I think the one thing that the ordinary user can understand is the concept of Web Applications. Instead of installing an entire Office Suite on their computer, the user can just go to their preferred office site and run the application within their browser. This is Web 2.0 at work. No need to worry about upgrades, or paying for programs that won’t be used. As long as you have an Interent connection, you can work. Sounds easy, and from the end user point of view it is. There is a catch. What happens when there is no Internet connection available? How do you work?
Google are hoping to provide an answer to that question with the introduction of Google Gears. Google Gears allows website designers to make the applications they create available to the end user even when the user cannot visit the website.
Gears is basically a database and server that lives on the users hard-drive. The server stands in for the webs-server when the computer is off-line, and the the database stores whatever information is required. While the concept may be simple, the implementation is not. It takes a lot of time and effort to make something like this work. Used in association with Google Docs and Spreadsheets, this technology could prove to be a major competitor for Microsoft Office.
Along with the technical coding difficulties there are also security considerations that need to be looked at. Using a common method for allowing remote applications to access your hard-drive opens a whole can of worms. For example, it’s going to take a lot of work to ensure that the data stored on your computer from one website is not accessible by another application on another site.
From the limited amount of security information that is available on the Google Gears site, it does look that a lot of thought has gone into the security model, but until this is tested in the real world, it’s hard to know it will be sufficient to protect the end user. It will be interesting to see how this works out.
Spike Lee to Make Exclusive Video for Babelgum
Friday, May 11th, 2007It looks like Babelgum is beginning to live up to it’s promises to provide quality programming. Apparently they have signed Spike Lee to produce an exclusive video called “Jesus Children of America”.