Tools

With the upgrade to Snow Leopard, I took the opportunity to make my MacBook Pro, a better development machine. This meant creating a Web server environment which matches my production shared hosting environment. Far easier said then done. I started with MAMP. I wanted to have a complete server environment that is well supported by the community and was easy to maintain. I felt that MAMP met these goals better than going with the native OS X web environment. Apple hasn’t been the best at offering the latest stable release of Apache, MySQL (in fact, not supported at all) and PHP. MAMP offered all three plus PHPMyAdmin (handy at times) and a smattering of additional goodness. ...

A couple of plugs for stuff I use: Eizo ColorEdge CG243W - Great new monitor that is accurate, a nice size and a joy to use. As I stated earlier, it inspired me to get back into photography. I like it, I like it a lot. colormunki - in order to properly use the Eizo or any high end color monitor, one must calibrate it. It seems the best way to do this is to use Eizo’s software and a calibrator such as the colormunki. I’m a bit miffed in the x-rite, the supplier of the munki, has yet to release software for Snow Leopard. Turns out that Eizo’s software, Color Navigator, works great with the munki. I like the device, it is easy to use and clearly well-designed. And when xrite releases the new software, I’ll also be able to use the device to calibrate my printer. nice. ( AND!!, buy by 12/31 and get $50 rebate) ...

CSS Animations. It sounds neat and it doesn’t sound like “blinking cursor”. It sounds useful, like rounded corners. I’ve got some time this weekend…. mmmmm. If you use Safari 4, stay tuned.

Not much to see here. I’m testing a fix for my blog. Keep moving, keep moving.

Recently, I spent a fair amount of time re-organizing my films on WRP. I had a few goals: Bring my site into the 21st Century, so quit using a js script to open a new window to display the movie. So, how are all the cool kids doing it? YouTube and Vimeo. No thanks, color me old school and not into “insert your video site of choice that displays your video in horrendous quality along with bizillion ads.” ...

TextMate — The Missing Editor for Mac OS X. Oh, Textmate, how do I live without you? I’ve tried, oh, I’ve been tempted by the others; Espresso, Coda. You’ve been a mainstay for many years after convincing me that BBEdit had lost its way. And every time a new combo editor/FTP client/fry pan comes along, I try it. I’ve always come back… Highly recommended, one of my favorite tools.