Software

Well, I didn't have any updates since I left work on Thursday for two reasons:

1. I stopped off at a friends house to give her the Christmas gift I picked up for her only expecting to be there a half hour to an hour. I was there from about 5:45pm 'til 9:00pm, I never got to BestBuy to pick up the keyboard/mouse.
2. I took work off on Friday to drive down to New Hampshire to see my new niece (and nephew, sister, and brother in law), and also exchange Christmas gifts with them. I picked up the keyboard and mouse while in New Hampshire (no sales tax) but didn't bring my laptop or Mac Mini with me, so I finally got it set up today.

Okay, well, either every single Macintosh lover I've met in person is extremely incompetent at describing things in full detail (that actually matter), or Mac OSX makes things so easy that people go all up in arms if something doesn't work as expected, and get extremely confused.

The keyboard and mouse worked flawlessly right out-of-the-box as a standard mouse and keyboard. It was all I wanted. I knew I needed to use the USB dongle regardless of the Mac Mini's internal Bluetooth or not...so the reviews weren't completely useless, but here I was thinking I needed to spend another $15 on ControllerMate and I really didn't. The mouse is as smooth as can be, too -- and I'm using it on my multicolored bed spread (because I'm cheap like that).

As an aside, the Macintosh automatically detected my 42" 1080p LCD TV as a 42" LCD monitor and also knew it was capable of 1080p resolution. It's kinda fun watching the HiDef Apple trailers now. Too bad I'm listening to the sound through the internal Mac Mini speaker.

"Read More" for the picture of the Mac Mini, 42" LCD, and my "desk" at home.

Continue reading "Happy New Year"

Posted by Brendon Kozlowski

According to Apple's new advertisement campaign, specifically the ad where "everything just kind of works with a Mac", I suspected that I'd have no problems when looking for a wireless keyboard and mouse combo for my new Mac Mini (first attempt at using the Mac OS, I figured it'd be good to add to my resume, and I also just enjoy learning new things -- no, I don't own an iPod, though I might buy a Nano purely for the ability to use the Nike+iPod functionality). So the Mac Mini comes with Bluetooth, and I needed more than a six foot (~1.8m) distance between myself and the computer as I plan on using my LCD TV as the monitor; that mean that standard wireless keyboards/mice won't work as their distance is averaging around 6', I needed something more like 12'. Bluetooth has a minimum distance of approximately 30', some advertise as ranging up to 100' distances.

...anyways...

So I start looking around for a keyboard that I might like. Nothing too expensive, I don't do all that "media function key button" stuff, I just want a standard keyboard that would hopefully have a above the Enter/Return key, and the two-column three-row set of keys above the arrow keys. Logitech's Cordless MX Duo would have been almost (I can't remember if it was Bluetooth capable or not, if it was then it really would have been) perfect...but they no longer make it, and it's virtually impossible to find for sale. So I kept looking, and looking, and looking. Keyboard/mice combos are pretty expensive these days! And some of them don't even have a base station recharger! Ridiculous!

Come to find out from reviews that many wireless keyboards (or mice) just do not work right out of the box with a Mac. Oh, and if you want to connect it -at all-, you'd better be ready to forget the internal bluetooth and use the USB dongle. As it is, to get certain things to work with the Mac, you need third party software that you either have to pay for, create yourself (with third party software), or go on a scavenger hunt. Oh, and then if you happen to have a NEW system that has not been booted once yet (ala mine), how do you install these drivers and/or pieces of software to get your non-wired devices to work? Right, find a spare USB keyboard. Luckily I actually have one - I'm not big on spare parts if it's just for my own stuff.

So, I now have to pay $15 extra, after getting a keyboard/mouse combo that I decided on because I had 4 requirements that didn't fit into Apple's plan:

1. I don't want Apple's Bluetooth keyboard.
2. I'd like to get a combo pack (keyboard & mouse).
3. I want a mouse charger so I don't have to continually buy batteries.
4. I need it to reach at least 12' (3.5m), thus the bluetooth - most cordless seem to advertise only a 6' reach...

I'll be going out to purchase my keyboard and mouse within the next hour or two and attempt getting it working over the weekend. I'll update things with my progress here. I hadn't posted any new blog entries lately because of all the unnecessary (at least it should be) research on getting standard devices (albeit over a non-standard, as far as drivers are concerned, protocol) to work on an OS. Other than this, I've been trying to work on an automatic image resizing script using someone else's class library. It should be quite easy to do once I finally decide how I want it to work.

Posted by Brendon Kozlowski

Just a note to all those people using Grisoft's AVG Free (a free anti-virus software): they'll be discontinuing the 7.1.x version sometime (slated) in January 2007. Version 7.5.x will be taking its place, and will still offer a free version. I'm updating my father's right now and figured I'd just make a topic about it for the heck of it.

Grisoft's Free Website Section

Avast: a popular alternative to Grisoft

Posted by Brendon Kozlowski

Before I forget all about it, I figure I might as well post some informative links over an experiment I did a few weeks ago... My sister was having a problem installing some software on her computer that was made using some version of an InstallShield installer that was having serious incompatibility issues with her Windows system setup. I used LogMeIn Free to attempt to diagnose the problem and solve it, getting the software to install. I saw the error and had absolutely no idea how to solve it. The only similar problem that someone experienced (that I could find) was over a year old and had to do with a DreamWeaver install which only affected a few people and was fixed with a new version of the installer. I tried installing the software on my computer and it worked flawlessly.

In comes two packages to help with a solution (I think, she has yet to try it after all my research and work, haha): Sandboxie, and (of course) NSIS.

Continue reading "NSIS: Nullsoft Scriptable Installation System"

Posted by Brendon Kozlowski

Setting up Apache, MySQL, and PHP/Perl on your own personal Windows' based machine? Don't really know how to do it? Worried about security? I'm not really much of an enthusiast over pre-made packages that auto-install all 4 (and, actually more) software packages on to your local computer for development purposes, but this one actually seems really, really nice. I can't take the full credit for finding this, as someone else pointed me to it as I was trying to help them install these packages individually, but the features seem really, really nice:

- The security of your server is one of our #1 concerns and with that, we tend to set every single default setting as if your server will be used in production.
- Other security measures we take is that we update our package with every new release of PHP, MySQL, Perl, phpMyAdmin, and the Apache HTTPd Server.
- Supports plugins
- Web-Based administration page (Alpha)
- SSL Support OUT OF THE BOX

Plugins:
- FTP (x2)
- Java servlet engine(s) (Resin and/or Tomcat)
- PHP4 downgrade
- ActivePython (I didn't even know this existed ... time for a new download)
- Stunnel
- Admin Panel and Web-Based Admin
- Zend Optimizer (future plan)

I would suggest this to anyone just starting out now that I've seen it. If it didn't use Apache 2.0, I might even use it myself.

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