The best free open source Mac apps — Reality Distortion: Macs, Mac OS X, and Apple stuff – StumbleUpon. This is an amazing free tool that Microsoft is charging $20 for. I am going to try this tonight and see what it can do.

NTFS Mounter. This is an unsupported function of Snow Leopard but perhaps it will work better in Lion or Mountain Lion. Has anyone used it in Lion?

I had my first request to take down a photo tonight. It was from a photographer who asked me to take down the image, or pay for a license. Interesting point of view. I will comply to any requests to take down original material. I do not own it, and I respect their point of view.

Mac OS X Netbook Compatibility Chart. This is a nice overview of differing computer laptops that support Mac OS X natively. It is amazing how many support them. I wonder if that is a conscious decision on the part of the manufacture.

Cambridge Ring – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. I just learned this tonight. Isn’t it funny how proprietary Apple used to be and how it contributed to its lack of success? Now that they embrace HTML5, mysql, and unix, they seem to be doing better than ever.

Dell Axim – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. I had someone search for “Dell Axum” so I found this article about it. It was a pocket PC that only lasted 5 years for Dell’s sale cycle. Remarkable how often other vendors make a device and can’t make it successful.

Richard Stallman’s dissenting view on Steve Jobs – latimes.com. I think a plurality of voices is a helpful thing. I worry sometimes when we have groupthink before we intelligently discuss the issue.

Castaway depot – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This is really thoughtful. This idea and action saved many lives. I wonder how much it cost to do this?

Semmelweis reflex – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. I wonder how many lives would have been saved if people who are dedicated to science listen? It is surprising how even the most educated can’t see their biases. Isn’t one of the points of education to consider other points of view?

Open Culture. I have watched some of these videos and they are great. It is amazing what is available for free isn’t it? So many things that enrich our lives are free.

20110411_CIS_Stallman.ogv from stanford.edu – StumbleUpon. Richard Stallman gives a thought-provoking discussion of the dangers of computer technology. Probably an hour.

Cooks Source infringement controversy – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia – StumbleUpon. Find out the story on this Wiki page. Takes some guts to charge someone you steal work from.

Which Way Is America Heading? | Adbusters Culturejammer Headquarters – StumbleUpon. I wondered this myself recently. Here is how I responded:

To me, values are just a question of what kind of world do we want to live in? I don’t want to live in a world where I contribute towards its destruction.

Kindness is even more important the less it is deserved.
http://chimac.net/2011/02/10/stories-from-my-past-opportunities-for-kind…

Anarchism, Capitalism, Altruism : Why do I open source? Too many tabs – StumbleUpon. This is a good explanation why someone might choose to do Open Source products or services. I think not everything needs financial compensation and sometimes just giving is the fair thing to do.

Who uses RMVB files? Wouldn’t it be easier to just convert them?

VLC is always my first choice since I switched to MAC. VLC is good enough most of the time; however, It performs very poorly when playing my old RMVB videos, and it cannot display external subtitle file properly. MPlayer OSX Extended is superb in this territory. Work like a charm! PS: MPlayer OSX Extended is not the one in App Store. http://www.mplayerosx.ch/ … Read More

via Believe in Miracles

Lifelog – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia – StumbleUpon. To me this crosses the line of TMI. Do we really want to know that much? Apparently so.

Top 10 Usability Highs Of Mac OS – Smashing Magazine – StumbleUpon. Fantastic reasons why the Mac is nice to use. I especially like error messages like this.

I ran this on my computer today as suggested in the article. I had this prompt me for the second time for Picasa which I no longer use. They should have an easier way to disable/uninstall this.

defaults write com.google.Keystone.Agent checkInterval 0

via HOWTO: Remove Google Software Update on Mac OS X.

The right way to set up a ruby/rails environment on OS X. Nice step by step instructions. I am so pleased when people share what they know. Most people really don’t want to do the details.

Mouse rage – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia – StumbleUpon. I have never heard of this expression before. Is this more common in other parts of the US than the midwest?

via Lubith: A dead-simple tool for creating your WordPress theme – TNW Apps.

How to connect to MySQL in PHP on Mac OS X « The Missing Readme. Nice step by step. This should be on quick reference for developers.

Laptop Security – StumbleUpon. If you don’t want to use open source or commercial programs then you can use this.

Most Organizations Now Use Open Source Software According to Gartner. Pretty fast conversion. There was a day with FOSS was not acceptable in business. Now the majority of web servers are Apache. It seems clear the days of IIS are numbered. Most of the web companies have converted their customers to Apache.

Which CMS to pick ? WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Silverstripe, Radiant, Browser CMS iBCScorp.com. I have used many of these CMS and my favorite by far is WordPress.  This site uses WordPress, and there is a ton of people who can help you with it. However if you don’t like WordPress then my second choice for the average person would be Silverstripe. I used a demonstration and it was super easy. In some ways superior to WordPress. Nice article that gives you the pros/cons of all these CMS.

My experience has been that developers who have a Mac universally love it compared to having had a Windows machine to develop with in the past. I think they appreciate the fact that they can use many open source tools locally and not depend on other people for a development enviroment.

Can you imagine the following scenario.  You have spent most of your life working on the windows platform. The ability to move folders, delete directories and start services is a skill in which you have acquired from repetition and years of usage. An opportunity to learn new skills have come upon you.  Granted the years in which you have devoted to the field from certifications, degrees and employment run by greed and stupidity can only get you a … Read More

via Code Dungeon

Great detective work. This is a friendly knowledgeable Mac guy that I would be proud to work with.

Downgrading From 10.6.6 Build to 10.6.6 Released Version Scenario :If You have installed build versions 10.6.6 then once release version you wanted install the released version 10.6.6. It won’t allow you to install. It will give you a error “ The system doesn’t not meet the minimum requirements. If you update from software update server it wont show you the released update Solution : Please open the 10.6.6 Build folder and there you will see two … Read More

via Nitheesh Poojary.

How to share TrueCrypted drive for OSX and Linux with write perms – Mac OS X Hints.  So this kind of defeats the purpose of encryption.  I wouldn’t suggest this.

Apple – Support – Discussions – Old sound file format wont play in ….

1. Beavis2084 suggests this.
2. Chametzoo suggested this.  This is an open-source project.

I prefer method #1 since you don’t have to download or install anything.

OneTech Tip has addressed alternatives to Windows and Mac OSX but what about the software. There are hundreds if not thousands of software that is free to use without a cost to the user. In some cases the open sourced software is sometime better, more efficient or meets your specific needs in comparison to larger, bloated commercial software. Open Source Alternative is a great place to start if your looking for some free and open sourced software … Read More

via One Tech Tip

My Favorite Spot – Ponto Jetty (Explore)

Originally uploaded by sjs61

“No! You are the picture”!

A bountiful year for open source.  Traces the last 12 years of Open Source and how many development and popular projects are using it.  Kind of amazing when you realize it.

Hacking NetFlix : Warning: New Phishing Scam Targets Netflix Subscribers.  The deception is getting harder to detect isn’t it with this kind of forgery.  I wonder if we shouldn’t click on any links in emails to be completely safe from this kind of social engineering.

sorcer found the solution.  Thanks.

Found the solution on http://kb.mozillazine.org/Standard_diagnostic_-_Thunderbirddelete the

via Apple – Support – Discussions – Mozilla Thunderbird 3.1.7 started ….

Took lots of work to find this solution but it works! Good job NP.

Some time PPTP-Vpn not working.In system pref it shows it is connected but not able to connect to internal networks Solution: Please delete all the conents of following folder and then restart /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration … Read More

via Nitheesh Poojary.

Disk Inventory X is a disk usage utility for Mac OS X 10.3 and later. It shows the sizes of files and folders in a special graphical way called

via Disk Inventory X.

After further testing and review, I have isolated the problem to the pstops filter that’s included with CUPS 1.4.5 (and Mac OS X 10.6.5). I was incorrect in my first guess that the pictwpstops filter was involved (although I was close)!

If you’d like to fix the problem yourself before Apple does, you can. Here’s how:

PLEASE NOTE THAT:

• CUPS is open-source and free software, so the source code is published at www.cups.org.

• It is perfectly legal to replace an open-source part of Mac OS X with a different version of that part that you’ve compiled from source (or that a third party has compiled from source for you).

• Although I’ve heavily outlined the following procedure, and tested it to the best of my ability, you’re the one who will be following the directions, so you could make a mistake. As such, you assume full responsibility for anything that goes wrong (including data loss)!

Now, here’s what to do, in a nutshell:

(1) You need the Xcode Developer Tools installed (specifically, you need the gcc compiler). You can install these from your Mac OS X 10.6 Install DVD. You also must be logged-in as an administrator.

(2) Download the CUPS 1.4.4 sources from www.cups.org/software.php. (Direct link: http://cups.org/software.php?VERSION=1.4.5&FILE=cups/1.4.4/cups-1.4.4-source.tar.bz2)

(3) Expand the compressed archive in your Downloads folder – you’ll get a folder called “cups-1.4.4″ after doing so. At this point, let’s agree that the path to the “cups-1.4.4″ folder is: ~/Downloads/cups-1.4.4

(4) Open Terminal, then issue the following commands:

(4a) cd ~/Downloads/cups-1.4.4 Press return. This takes you to the directory where you’ve expanded the CUPS 1.4.4 source.

(4b) sudo ./configure –with-archflags=”-arch i386 -arch x86_64″ Press return, and enter your account password, then press return again. This begins the process of setting up the build. It will take a few seconds.

(4c) sudo make -B Press return. This will build the CUPS software. It will take a few minutes to complete.

After 4a – 4c, you’ve built CUPS 1.4.4. At this point, you have two options to proceed:

Option A – Replace all of CUPS. You can replace the entire CUPS 1.4.5 that came with Mac OS X 10.6.5 with the CUPS 1.4.4 that you just built. OR

Option B – Replace just the pstops filter. This leaves the rest of your CUPS 1.4.5 installation intact, only downgrading the pstops filter.

(5) – Option A Only: In Terminal, type: sudo make -B install and press return. This will move the just-compiled CUPS 1.4.4 pieces into their appropriate locations. Restart your computer when this finishes.

(5) – Option B Only: Issue the following commands while still in Terminal:

sudo launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.cups.cupsd.plist (This stops the CUPS printing system so that we can replace the pstops filter.)

sudo rm /usr/libexec/cups/filter/pstops (This removes the CUPS 1.4.5 version of pstops.)

sudo cp ~/Downloads/cups-1.4.4/filter/pstops /usr/libexec/cups/filter/pstops (This copies the 1.4.4 version of pstops to its appropriate location.)

sudo chown root:wheel /usr/libexec/cups/filter/pstops (This sets the owner/group on pstops correctly.)

sudo chmod 0555 /usr/libexec/cups/filter/pstop (This sets the permissions on pstops correctly.)

Reboot your computer when finished with the above.

To undo the changes you’ve made: If you’d like to undo the changes you made – either replacing all of CUPS with version 1.4.4 or just the pstops filter – you can easily do so by re-applying the Mac OS X 10.6.5 Update Combo. Link: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1324

DoNanza released today the Q3 Market Trends Report, analyzing the rivalry among CMS/Blogging platforms; overall, DoNanza shows work–from-home market is healthy and growing. According to the report, CMS professional project demand is showing extraordinary growth, most notably WordPress, Joomla and Drupal. In Q3 2010, WordPress projects in the DoNanza Universe grew by 61%, with Joomla growing at 38% and Drupal at 26%. In term of demand, WordPress i … Read More

via Phạm Ngọc Sông – Blog

Apple – Support – Discussions – Could Time Machine be filling up my ….  Some excellent troubleshooting here.

Creating and using disk quotas – Mac OS X Hints.  I haven’t had to do this but it could be useful.  Has anyone used quotas in a business environment?