osx

OSX comes with a very powerful synchronisation server that powers the iSync processes. Apple lock this down and force users to pay a .Mac subscription in order to get Mac to Mac sync functionality. MySync from Mild Mannered Industries looks like it will be able to unlock the power of the sync engine for non .Mac subscribers. At the moment the software is in Beta and free to test (though there are still some bugs). I would like to see it integrate into iSync a little more.

At the moment I am learning Ruby on Rails (I must say it is very impressive). Unfortunately getting it setup in OSX Tiger was not as straightforward as one would hope.
Although Apple have included Ruby with Tiger there are a few things that do not work right.
For my own future reference (and for anyone else that is interested) this is how I got it working with MySQL correctly on OSX Tiger and MySQL's own OSX binaries.

Follow the install intructions found here:
Rolling with Ruby on Rails on Mac OS X Tiger

Once installed open a Terminal window and enter the following:

sudo sh
(enter the admin password)
 
curl -O rufy.com/fix-ruby-tiger.sh; sh fix-ruby-tiger.sh
 
gem install mysql -- --with-mysql-lib=/usr/local/lib/mysql --with-mysql-include=/usr/local/include
 
exit

I do a lot of typing and programming so taking my hands off the keyboard to launch or switch to an application can become a bit of a pain. There is ALT-TAB but it only lets you cycle through already running programs, not something that is not open already. Spotlight is nice for finding weird things (like all the times you have mentioned the word banana in text documents) but it is just a little too slow for doing quick tasks like opening your favourite folders or launching an application.

Portable Firefox is now compatible with Windows and OSX which means no matter whether you are using somebody's Windows or Mac machine Firefox (and all your preferences) are close at hand. Installation is easy and takes approximately 33meg of your USB key's storage space. I am presuming this value would actually grow over time as your preferences and browser cache grows with use.

If you are the owner of an older Powerbook then iScroll is perfect for you. It provides the advanced trackpad functionality of new Powerbooks like two finger horizontal and verical scrolling and a few other tricks as well. The free utility can be downloaded from here:

iScroll2 Download Page

It has been a week since I upgraded to Tiger and its been a slightly bumpy ride (although things are smoothing out now). Initially the upgrade went well but unfortunately Mail 2.0 just would not accept any new messages. After hours of debugging I just could not get it to work so I reluctantly switched over to Thunderbird in order to email. Unfortunately in the process I managed to loose a bunch of messages which resulted in a few embarrassing emails to people asking for them to please resend. Eventually (like today) I finally realised what my problem was with Mail (iAlert was incompatible with Tiger) and with that fixed I am now back to Mail 2.0 again.

This evening Apple released the latest version of their operating system called Tiger (OS 10.4). The Apple Store in Regent Street had a massive evening devoted to Tiger so we decided to call by to checkout what was going on. I knew there would be thousands of crazed Apple fanatics but Emma held firm on the belief that there was only one and that was me.

One thing I like about Safari on the Mac is its visual appearance compared to Mozilla Firefox. My main gripe lies in the uniform way Firefox renders dropdown boxes and input buttons compared to Safari's fancy and more Mac like rendering. Firefoxy is a small tool that fixes this small problem quickly. The result is not earth shattering but it is still a big improvement over Firefox's default look and feel.

Continuing on the theme of small, free but very useful OSX software is MyMind. Mind mapping tools are fairly new to the scene but there are plenty of them about now. I have always looked at these tools and wondered why I would pay for something I can just as easily do with a pen and paper. MyMind is something special however as it is free and takes advantage of OSX's Aqua framework to create an elegant tool that is functional to boot.

A Quick MyMind Map (Click to Enlarge)

BluePhoneElite is a nice piece of free software for OSX that works in conjunction with your bluetooth enabled device to provide a host of new functionality. Bluetooth integration for most phones is provided in OSX but BluePhoneElite takes it to a new level, providing intelligent phone and SMS message management tools plus some really neat proximity features that add a new dimension to using your Mac.

BluePhoneElite in the menubar

Background Operation

BluePhoneElite runs in the background and can be configured to appear on your dock or in the menubar. I personally like the menubar as my dock is crowded at the best of times. The icon provides a convenient overview of your signal strength and battery levels. A single click on the icon provides access to all of BluePhoneElite's features via a tidy menu system.