July 04, 2005

The Macromedia Developer Relations podcast gets added to iTunes

Finally. The Macromedia Developer Relations podcast is now available in iTunes. Go to Podcasts > Technology > Developers. To learn more about iTunes support for podcasts, see Apple's podcast homepage.

How many people out there listen to podcasts? Do you iTunes, or something else? (I'm wavering back and forth between iTunes and Shrook right now.) And what podcasts do you listen to regularly? I'm flying to New York tomorrow for Flashforward, so I'd like to stock up on some podcasts for the flight.

Posted by cantrell at 10:38 AM. Link | Comments (2) | References

June 29, 2005

Developer Relations Podcast in iTunes

I finally got the Macromedia Developer Relations Podcast submitted to iTunes. The documentation Apple provides for the special iTunes meta-data tags has some inconsistencies, and I found at least one major bug in their submission process, so it took several hours for me to finally get it submitted. In case you're having problems, as well, it seems you can't add iTunes category tags at the channel level (even though the docs say you can). For some reason, if you use bogus or incorrect categories, the feed is accepted (but the categories ignored), but if you use real and current categories, you get back an error saying that the iTunes Store is experiencing technical difficulties, and to try again later. The work around seems to be to remove the category tags at the channel level altogether (they seem to work at the item level), and just pick a category and sub-category through the feed submission interface.

Anyway, the feed hasn't shown up yet. After you submit your feed, it tells you that it may not show up right away, and it might need to be reviewed or something, so I'm not sure how long that will take. If anyone notices that it has been added, please drop me a comment. It's in the category "Technology" under the subcategory "Developers".

In other news, I'm about to move yet again, so I'm going to be offline most likely until next week. This is the third time I've blogged about moving in about 2.5 years, which isn't a good sign. I'm staying in San Francisco, but moving from a rental into a house that I bought, so hopefully I'll actually plant some roots and stay in one place for a while.

Off to finish packing...

Posted by cantrell at 12:20 PM. Link | Comments (2) | References

May 25, 2005

Thousands of Shared iCal Calendars

I made a post yesterday about how you can use iCal to subscribe to new movie releases. Sean Corfield mentioned that he is subscribed to US and Indian holiday calendars, which got me wondering what other calendars were available out there. Apparently there are thousands. It looks like the two big repositories are the Apple iCal Library, and iCalShare. Very cool stuff. I'm now subscribed to US holidays (I never know when it's a holiday, and I sometimes go to work when Macromedia is closed), and a video game related calendar.

Is there something similar out there for Outlook users? Yesterday, Dan mentioned WinDates which looks like a good solution, although personally, I would recommend just switching to a Mac. :)

Posted by cantrell at 10:42 AM. Link | Comments (5) | References

May 24, 2005

Subscribe to New Movie Releases

Not through RSS, but through Apple iCal. I picked up this tip today when getting caught up on my Jason Kottke reading. Open iCal, go to Calendar > Subscribe, and paste in this URL. You will never miss another movie release again.

Speaking of movie releases, I snuck away last week to see Revenge of the Sith. I am a huge episode IV through VI fan, and a huge critic of episodes I and II, but episode III was actually pretty good. The love scenes are laughable, and there were a couple of other scenes that actually made the audience groan (literally), but for the most part, I really enjoyed it. Have you seen it yet? If so, what did you think? If not, what are you waiting for?

Posted by cantrell at 11:23 AM. Link | Comments (7) | References

February 23, 2005

Apple Updates iPods

Apple has just made some changes to their growing family of iPods. You can now get a 6GB iPod mini for $249, and a 30GB iPod photo for $349. Looks like they have all their bases covered at this point.

How many people out there don't have an iPod. If not, what are you using?

Posted by cantrell at 12:31 PM. Link | Comments (11) | References

October 13, 2004

Cool OS X Trick For Us Poor Spellers

I don't know what kind of readership overlap there is between my blog and What Do I Know, but yesterday, Todd Dominey blogged a very cool trick he picked up from Ars Technica. Basically, inside of any Cocoa application, you can hit F5 or Option-Esc to get a list of spelling suggestions. How cool is that? Totally undocumented, and totally useful.

Posted by cantrell at 11:17 AM. Link | Comments (0) | References

July 19, 2004

New iPods

Another new generation of iPods with:

20GB for $299, and 40GB for $399. I think I'm two generations behind now. If only the minis had more capacity (or were less expensive), I'd go for one of those. What kind of iPod do you have?

Posted by cantrell at 10:58 AM. Link | Comments (10) | References

June 21, 2004

iPods Integrate With BMWs

Apple announces the "first seamless integration of iPod and automobile". If you own a BMW 3 Series, X3, X5, Z4 Roadster or a Mini, for just $149, you can integrate your iPod with your car. Connect your iPod to your car's sound system via a cable in the glove box, and not only can you control it with the buttons on the steering wheel, but it will also be powered by the car rather than using its own battery.

Why BMW, and not Jeep?!

Posted by cantrell at 06:53 PM. Link | Comments (6) | References

May 25, 2004

OS X Vulnerability Not Patched

According to this CNET article, the security patch that Apple released last week to fix what is being called the Safari vulnerability (inappropriately named since every browser I tested is vulnerable) has failed to fully fix the issue. According to the article, "the biggest problem is that there seems to be no easy solution."

According to an Unsanity spokesperson, "there's lots of overlap between useful applications of this functionality and malicious ones, meaning that Apple can't easily fix this without removing useful features from its operating system and from existing apps."

While it's true that it may be tricky to address the issue the OS level, patching the browser is pretty straightforward. I guess the problem is that Apple can't patch all the browsers you have installed on your machine, so they feel they need to fix it at a lower level, which is fair enough. In the meantime, don't wait around. There are several fixes out there, the easiest of which is posted right here on this weblog (as long as you are using Firefox, or don't mind switching to it).

Posted by cantrell at 09:02 PM. Link | Comments (0) | References

May 20, 2004

It's Not Just Safari That's Vulnerable

By now, I'm sure most Mac users are aware of the significant Safari security vulnerability which allows the "disk" and "help" protocols to be used in concert to execute arbitrary code on your machine after being automatically downloaded from any arbitrary website. In fact, the "disk" protocol is not even necessary; you can simply use the "help" protocol to execute commands which clicking on this link demonstrates (don't worry -- it will just run the uptime command, but I think it makes a pretty potent point).

So far, Safari has been taking all the heat, but this morning, I discovered that Firefox is vulnerable, as well. Since I use Firefox rather than Safari, I thought I could click on an example of the exploit, and simply download the code for inspection, however imagine my surprise when the code actually executed! (Firefox users, click on the link above to verify.) I immediately set out to find a way to protect Firefox from such attacks.

The solution I came up with seems to work perfectly so far, only takes a few seconds to implement, and doesn't require installing any third-party software as other solutions I've seen do:

  1. Go to /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/chrome
  2. Open all.js in any text editor, though preferably vim. :)
  3. Search for the term "protocol-handler".

  4. Under the two lines addressing "mailto" and "news", add the following lines of code:

    pref("network.protocol-handler.external.help" , false); // disable help protocol
    pref("network.protocol-handler.external.disk" , false); // disable disk protocol

  5. Restart Firefox.
  6. Open up this blog entry again and notice that the link to the example exploit no longer works. I have checked three different example exploits (two of which use meta refresh tags rather than direct links), and none of them worked once the code above had been inserted.

Please pass this information along to other Mac/Firefox users. If you're a Safari user, now is a good time to switch to a secure version of Firefox. If you find any issues with this change, simply back it out and let me know, though so far, it seems to work perfectly.

Note that this fix has only been tested with version .8 of Firefox.

Posted by cantrell at 01:01 PM. Link | Comments (7) | References

May 07, 2004

Cool Bluetooth Toy

I installed this very cool little Bluetooth utility today called BluePhoneMenu, and it works perfectly. As long as my cell phone is in range and Bluetooth is enabled, the utility reports signal strength, battery life, and shows a call log. When the phone rings, the screen flashes, and a windows pops up with the number and, if possible, the name of the caller. The app will check the Phone Book application for matches, and can even be configured to pause iTunes so you can take the call in peace. Very fun application.

Posted by cantrell at 06:18 PM. Link | Comments (3) | References

February 17, 2004

Running JRun and ColdFusion with Java 1.4.2 on OS X

NOTE: The solution below is neither supported nor endorsed by Macromedia. Use at your own risk!

Most of you running JRun/CF on OS X are aware of the fact that we have been stuck with Java 1.3.1 while everyone else has gotten the benefit of newer versions of Java. For reasons unknown (at least to me), editing your jvm.config file and changing java.home to point to a newer version of Java did not work. Fortunately, there is another way. CD into JRun's lib directory, and type the following command:

java -jar ./jrun.jar -start default

I have the process scripted. Below is the meat of my "start.sh" script:


#!/bin/bash

JRUN_HOME="/home/cantrell/Unix/JRun4"
LOG_HOME="${JRUN_HOME}/logs"
java -jar ${JRUN_HOME}/lib/jrun.jar -start default admin \
     1>$LOG_HOME/default-out.log 2>$LOG_HOME/default-err.log

Unfortunately I have found that I have to start the admin server along with the default server in order to affect the JVM's classpath (I need to add drivers for PostgreSQL). For some reason, using the -cp flag hasn't worked. Still looking into that.

Anyway, once again, this is not a supported configuration, and if you choose to try it, you are doing so at your own risk.

Posted by cantrell at 12:36 PM. Link | Comments (2) | References

February 12, 2004

Flash and the Apple iSight

Someone asked me recently if the iSight works with Flash, and the answer is that it works great. You may have have to update your Flash setting, however. If you are finding that your iSight isn't working with Flash, right-click on any Flash movie and choose "Settings...", then click on the camera icon. Choose "IIDC FireWire Video" from the menu. You can also use the iSight for audio by clicking on the microphone icon and choosing "iSight". I tested it with a Flash Communication Server application, and the it worked great. Now we just need to change the Flash camera icon from the spherical Logitech-like form factor to the slim, lithe, cylindrical look of the iSight.

Mac and iSight users, be warned. I've have had two OS crashes during video chatting (with Scott Fegette) using iChat AV Public Beta 1.2 v151, and two other OS crashes that I have not been able to pin on anything in particular yet. When I upgraded to Panther, I started using iChat AV (in conjunction with Proteus) and an iSight, so it's hard to say what is causing the crashes, but I'm in the process of narrowing it down now. Any suggestions?

Posted by cantrell at 01:17 PM. Link | Comments (2) | References

December 03, 2003

Network Time and OS X

I'm not sure why it is that computers are so lousy at keeping track of time, but it drives me crazy. Both my alarm clock and my watch synchronize with an atomic clock in Colorado multiple times a day to ensure they are as accurate as possible (to the naked eye, they are exactly accurate), meanwhile the clock on all my computers (including my PDAs) are free wander aimlessly. Well, no more. I discovered the other day that you can configure OS X to synchronize with a network time server by going into System Preferences -> Date & Time -> Network Time, then checking the "Use a network time server" checkbox. Now my computer and my watch are never more than one second apart (for some reason, Apple's time server is about one second slow), and my PDA gets its time from the computer.

Now I have to find some other excuse for always being late.

Posted by cantrell at 11:45 AM. Link | Comments (8) | References

October 22, 2003

Apple Introduces G4 iBooks

Right after introducing iTunes for Windows, Apple has rolled out a new line of iBooks. My very first Mac was an iBook which I loved, except for the performance. Man, was it slow. Back in those days (when OS X first came out and couldn't even be used to burn a CD yet), the iBooks had a better form-factor than the Powerbooks. Recently, the Powerbooks have undergone a much-needed redesign, however, and are finally the perfect laptops (for Mac users, of course). The new iBooks are attractive, though, if you need something small, light, and relatively inexpensive.

Posted by cantrell at 12:22 PM. Link | Comments (0) | References

September 16, 2003

OT - New Hardware From Apple

I try to keep my weblog pretty relevant, but sometimes I can't resist the occasional off-topic post, especially when it has to do with Apple. In case you haven't heard, Apple released a new line of PowerBooks this morning, along with new iPods (20GB and 40GB) and a new wireless (Bluetooth) keyboard and mouse.

The PowerBooks are what really caught my eye. They have finally released an updated 15" model with all of the benefits of the new 17" and 12" models. 15" PowerBook users can now get built-in Bluetooth, a backlit keyboard, FireWire 800, USB 2.0, and an improved form-factor that shifts all the ports to the side rather than the back. Of course, you can also get a 1.25GHz PowerPC chip, which is a pretty significant (and much-needed) speed boost.

I'm a 15" fan myself. I like the 12" model, but the resolution is only 1024x768, which is fine for traveling, but seems a little small for everyday use. The 17" model is very impressive and would be great for everyday use, but seems a little big for traveling (you are hard-pressed to open up anything larger than a Gameboy Advance on a JetBlue flight). Anyway, they are all cool, and all tempting since I'm using an "old" 15" PowerBook, which, until this morning, was top of the line. It's amazing how quickly the world can change overnight.

What's your development machine of choice?

Posted by cantrell at 01:17 PM. Link | Comments (12) | References

August 18, 2003

Using ColdFusion with Java 1.4.1 on OS X

JRun and ColdFusion MX 6.1 work just fine with JRun on OS X using Java 1.3.1, which is good, since, as far as I can tell, there's no way to get it to work with the newest installation of Java, which is Java 1.4.1 (if you know of a way, please let me know). If you are not intermingling Java and ColdFusion too much, it's a great setup, but what do you do when you need the combination of ColdFusion MX 6.1 and Java 1.4.1 and OS X? According to Sean Corfield, the answer is Jakarta Tomcat. I installed Tomcat this morning, and so far, so good. If you need access to 1.4.1 and you are working with ColdFusion MX 6.1 on OS X, Tomcat currently appears to be your best option. Macromedia even provides a set of ColdFusion installation instructions for Tomcat.

Posted by cantrell at 01:46 PM. Link | Comments (7) | References

May 05, 2003

Macromedia and Apple Team Up Over Studio MX

From Macromedia's webliste:

"For a limited time, Macromedia is making Studio MX available to purchasers of new Apple Macintosh computers for $399 when they are purchased together at the same time. "

You can find details on Apple's site here:

http://www.apple.com/promo/macromedia/

Details on Macromedia's site here:

http://www.macromedia.com/go/mac

Story on CNET here:

http://rss.com.com/2100-1025-998667.html

Posted by cantrell at 10:45 AM. Link | Comments (0) | References

April 28, 2003

Apple Releases Very Cool New iPods

Very cool. Check it out:

Details here:

http://www.apple.com/ipod/

Posted by cantrell at 06:08 PM. Link | Comments (2) | References

April 04, 2003

Informal, Unscientific Poll

I would like to conduct an informal, unscientific poll to see how many people out there would be interested in deploying production systems on Macs. My informal, unscientific questions are:


  1. Who among you is currently running production systems on Macs? What kinds of Macs are you using (hardware and software)?

  2. Who would like to be using OS X in production, but can't afford the hardware?

  3. Who would like to be using OS X in production, but can't due to lack of software support? What software in particular?

  4. What else would you like to say for or against Macs in production?


Feel free to email me directly (cantrell@macromedia.com) or post your comments here.

Posted by cantrell at 11:39 AM. Link | Comments (10) | References

February 09, 2003

Down and Out with a Disk Failure

My machine had been getting slower and slower. Operations were taking longer and longer. I was spending more and more time watching the colorful pinwheel spin while mail was written to files and my browser read and wrote to its cache. Then apps starting freezing in such a way that they couldn't be killed (either with "Force Quit" or kill -9). Every now and then I would have to power-cycle the machine, then finally, it didn't come back up.

I'm not sure what happened, but I suspect my disk had become hopelessly fragmented from the amount of mail that I get which was causing the machine to hang during file IO operations. All it took was for me to turn it off one time at the wrong moment to create an "invalid sibling link" for which there is no recovery on OS X except to rebuild. I tried Disk Utility and I tried fsck. In fact, I discovered that Disk Utility is just GUI for fsck. Anyway, neither worked.

Fortunately, I had a second Mac around, and through firewire tricks and network access to the hosed machine, I was able to recover all my data. It took two full days, but I got back up and running. Now I own a 100GB external firewire drive, and I have vowed to never get lazy about backups again.

The lesson I learned here is that although OS X is like Unix, it isn't Unix, and in particular, it isn't Linux. At least in terms of the file system. By default, OS X uses HFS plus rather than a Unix file system, and apparently HFS plus has the potential to become very fragmented. I have also learned that Macs were not designed to take the amount of file abuse I tend to dish out as there are no good utilities out there (yet) for disk recovery and maintenance (unless you have classic installed, which I didn't and still don't). Fortunately, there are some coming.

I am going to try reinstalling OS X on my old machine, but this time, with a Unix filesystem rather than HFS plus. I have no idea what will happen, but it should be interesting. (Anyone out there tried this yet?) If nothing else, I should a truly case-sensitive Mac. The other solution might be to run OS X server. Presumably it is more robust than the standard edition.

Posted by cantrell at 07:27 PM. Link | Comments (1) | References

January 10, 2003

Some Tips on Installing JRun 4 and CFMX on OS X

Where is java_home? I can't find the Java binary!

Most people shouldn't actually need to know where it is. Open up the terminal and just type "java". If you see some usage instructions printed out, you are all set. Type "jar" and you should see something similar. Continue with the installation instructions and just leave out the "java_home" portion. In other words, the following command will work (assuming you are in the same directory as your jar file):

% java -jar coldfusion-j2ee-java.jar -i gui

(Don't actually type the "%". That represents your command prompt.) If, on the other hand, you see a "command not found" message, don't worry. Try typing this, instead:

% /usr/bin/java

and 

% /usr/bin/jar

Now you should see the usage information. If it still doesn't work, however, type this:

% locate java | grep bin

This command will show you where any file called "java" is located in a directory with the word "bin" in it. If this doesn't work for you, you better just email me.

The files "java" and "jar" aren't actually located in /usr/bin -- they are symbolically linked from another directory. Although you don't need to know this, in case you are curious, the actual files are located here:

/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Commands/

By the way, symbolic links (commonly referred to as "soft links") are a very convenient way to make files appear as though they are in different directories than they actually are (or even multiple directories). They are similar to shortcuts on Windows. To learn more, type "man ln" at the command prompt.

What am I supposed to do with this file called "index.cgi"?

If you downloaded a file called index.cgi from Macromedia's website, I'm guessing you are using Internet Explorer. "index.cgi" is the name of the program on Macromedia's server than initiates the download, and IE mistakes that for the name of the file being downloaded. Not to worry. Just rename it by your favorite renaming process to whatever the documentation tells you it should be named.

If you have other FAQs, email me, and I'll post answers.

Posted by cantrell at 01:13 PM. Link | Comments (0) | References

January 07, 2003

Macromedia Announces CFMX and JRun for Mac OS X!

Yes, it's all true. Macromedia is releasing JRun 4 and ColdFusion MX for J2EE Application Servers for Mac OS X today. Below we see an enthralled audience of future ColdFusion developers learn how straightforward and powerful ColdFusion is during the CFMX portion of the DMX presentation (picture courtesy of Matt Brown). Here are some relevant links:

Press Release:

http://www.macromedia.com/macromedia/proom/pr/2003/jrun_osx.html

Download Page:
http://www.macromedia.com/software/servers/macintosh/

Installation Instructions:
http://www.macromedia.com/support/coldfusion/j2ee/cfmx-mac-onjrunandtomcat.html

DesDev Article:
http://www.macromedia.com/desdev/logged_in/ccantrell_macosx.html

Please note that the following ColdFusion MX features are not supported by the OS X version:

Nobody gives a more exciting keynotes than Steve Jobs (except Kevin Lynch, Rob Burgess and Jeremy Allaire, of course). Send me your ideas on what you think will be unveiled by Steve Jobs at Macworld (hardware or software), and the first two people to get it right will win a free DRK CD. I only have two to give away, so get your guesses in quickly. (I was guessing iSync 1.0 and a new version iCal, but those have already been announced.) I will announce winners here on the 8th or 9th.

Posted by cantrell at 09:12 PM. Link | Comments (0) | References

January 06, 2003

First Day of Macworld!

Fellow Mac Fanatics, the 6th is the first day of the 2003 Macworld Conference and Expo in San Francisco. I was hoping to attend this year, but unfortunately I will not be able to make it. In order to try to capture some of the excitement of being there, however, I have put together a small Macworld contest. See the post for January 7th for details.

Posted by cantrell at 12:52 AM. Link | Comments (1) | References