I'm blogging this because I can't believe the fix and I'll know i'll forget it. In short my Airport Extreme was only allowing one mac to connect at any one time. Which is seriously aggravating for me as I need files on both my macs.

After spending all my lunch reseting the base unit and trying a host of different configs which all ended up with only one machine connecting I found this thred which said that you need to plug the second machine via ethernet into the base station and then unplug it. THATS IT!!! Viola. Problem solved. Thanks Apple

I connected an Ethernet cable to my AirPort Express, and to the Mac Mini, then ran the Network Setup Assistant - System Prefs.> Network > Assist Me > Assistant. The Mini didn't connect to my network. I unplugged the Ethernet cable, and ran the Network Setup Assistant again, and while I was doing so, the Mini connected automatically.

Evidently, the mere act of plugging and unplugging the Ethernet cable was enough to refresh the whole thing.

When I plugged it in, the Mini saw a "new" network and tried to connect to it. For whatever reason it didn't, but when I unplugged the cable, the Airport Express "refreshed" the IP address, and the Mini went back into 'wireless search mode'. It found my network, connected to it automatically, then I was able to open Safari and start downloading por ... ahem, I mean, um, reading poetry blogs.

Recommended for all users running Mac OS X Leopard Apple have released their latest update. It looks like it the equivalent to a MS SP1 with what it covers but its not just bugs it also include performance increases and small tweaks like adding "list view" to stacks(I've missed that)

In short what does it update/fix?:

• Active Directory
• AirPort
• Dashboard
• Dock
• Desktop
• iCal
• iChat
• Finder
• Mail
• Networking
• Parental Controls
• Preview
• Printing
• Safari
• Login and Setup Assistant
• Time Machine
• Plus more ...

thoughtdifferent.com has captured the Apple.com's website over the last 11 years cataloging the companies software and hardware releases.

"an interactive archive of Apple's homepage since 1997"

What this site give you and a glimps into the evolution of design for site as well as showing you that like with all things Apple they know how to design. Check out the image from November 1997, before Google was really around, they dropped the text heavy sites for a main graphic and 3 subtopic homepage.

Well worth wasting some time with: thoughtdifferent.com

More for my reference, but since my backup 500Gb hard drive failed the other day I realised that the only separate copy of my iTunes library is on my iPod :)

Unlock your iPod with Senuti, a simple application that allows you to transfer songs from your iPod to your computer.

Sentui

If you don't know Mac Heist its a site that resells Mac OS X shareware and a greatly reduced price. As the site sells more bundled software they unlock/give away more licenses to more software. Also;

MacHeist donates a massive 25% of your purchase to a charity of your choice. So far, MacHeist customers are on target to raise over $300,000 for charitable causes.

The bundle of currently 13 apps sells for $49, though get 2 friends to join in like Kev did with me and that prices drops down to $33. The bundle includes Snapz Pro X which is normally $69, App Zapper currently $12.99, plus a host of other handy apps.

In total, to buy all the bundled software separately would cost you $498.60!

Paying $33 just for Snapz Pro X was worth it for me.

Mac Heist

I've recently had a stubborn folder in my Trash which I haven't been able to delete for ages due to an getting the following error message.

"The operation could not be completed because the item '{folder name here}' is locked."

After a little digging on the Apple site I've found this (and it's now here for my future reference too)

1. Open Terminal (/Applications/Utilities).
2. Type this, followed by a space: sudo chflags -R nouchg
3. Drag the folder you would like to unlock into the Terminal window.
4. Press Return.
5. Enter your password and press Return.

For further info check out http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106237

I always forget the Safari has a Debug mode for when you are developing web apps which allows the logging of JavaScript errors. To display the debug menu in Mac OS X, open the Terminal and type:

defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeDebugMenu 1

To display the debug menu in Safari 3.0 for Windows, use a text editor to add the following to the Preferences.plist file located at C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data\Apple Computer\Safari\Preferences.plist :

view plain copy to clipboard print about

  ColdFISH is developed by Jason Delmore. Source code and license information available at coldfish.riaforge.org
<key>IncludeDebugMenu</key>
<true/> 1<key>IncludeDebugMenu</key>
2<true/>

It looks like in the upgrade to Leopard I lost NetInfo Manager which was a handy tool for editing and creating HOSTS.

From http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306494

NetInfo Manager is not included with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. You can use the command line utility dscl to perform some advanced functions formerly covered by NetInfo Manager. Open Terminal and type "dscl" to access it.

So to create HOSTS with Leopard you are going to need to:

1. From finder goto /etc/
2. Find a file called hosts right-click (or command-i) to Get Info and make sure you have "Permission" to Read & Write to the file
3. Next we need to edit out Apache httpd.conf file found at /etc/apache2/ and add the following line under where it says "Listen 80"
   view plain copy to clipboard print about

     ColdFISH is developed by Jason Delmore. Source code and license information available at coldfish.riaforge.org
   NameVirtualHost 127.0.0.1 1NameVirtualHost 127.0.0.1
   
   n.b. You might want to check if it exists first
4. Then simply add your HOST information in the format of {IP Address}{tab}{host name}

This started out as response to a comment left on a previous post but I've decided to make a new entry out of it.

So what widget can I not really live/work without:

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The iPhone has landed in the UK and it's only available with o2, which is fine by me being a long time o2 customer :)

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If you don't know already, Apple's iPod range has had an overhaul, and what an overhaul it is.

First and foremost Apple introduce the new iPod on the block, the iPod Touch! In short its the iPhone without the phone bit. It comes in two models, 8GB + 16GB, with multi-touch 3.5" screen, and Wi-Fi web browsing (which means you can download music from the iTunes Wi-Fi store). All of this wrapped up with the iPhone interface for a smooth experience, this actually makes me want to update my iPod from the 4th gen photo that I have.

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Q is a Cocoa port of QEMU, a free processor emulator.

From the site:

Run Windows, Linux and a lot more Systems on your Mac. Q is a feature packed cocoa port of QEMU: Switch fast between guest PCs. Save and restart guest PCs at any stage. Easily exchange Files between Host and Guest. Q makes use of OS X most advanced technologies like openGL, quartz and coreaudio to accelerate your experience with your guest PC. Please remember: At the present state, QEMU is still considered ALPHA software.

I haven't gotten around to trying it out yet as Parallels is serving my needs fine, but it's good to know there's another option out there.

http://www.kju-app.org/kju/

Like most Mac users I've got a few Widgets on my Dashboard which I just can't live without now. The main two are the calculator and stickes.

Whats annoyed me in the past is that sometimes I want need them on the desktop for whatever reason. A quick search led me to the below terminal script that I've now been using for so long I've forgotten that this is not "normal" OS X behavior. The script enables you simple drag any widget from the dashboard and have it right there on your desktop. Then when you are done you can drag it back.

Simple write the following command into the Terminal and hit return, then logout and login again.

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It looks like Apple have been busy again.

• New thinner more powerful iMac including new wired/wireless, ultra think keyboard
• .Mac has been updated to now include 10gb backups, able to buy an extra 10gb to a total it to 20gb
• iWork has now got a spreadsheet package included, Numbers '08
• iLife has just had a host of updates to each application

I'm slowly in the middle of going through and removing all the crap that I have collected on my Mac to free up space and have came across The DeLocalizer. Which sounds cooler than it really is.

From the site:

DeLocalizer will remove all non-American English localization resource files that you request. This application is geared towards American English users, as it will not remove localization resources for American English. Users that use other languages may still use DeLocalizer to remove languages that they do not use (except, of course, American English).

For me I removed nearly all languages, kept English(UK), French and Spanish and cleared the rest which got me back over 3gb of space.

Another tool I am using is What Size, which crawls through any volume and will quickly measure the size in bytes of a given folder and all subfolders and files within it. This is handy for finding out like you iTunes folder is 25gb is size so it might be time to move it to external source!

Ok Below is a rough guide to get anyone up and going when it comes to building and installing Apache 2 from source. We're gonna do this all from the Terminal found in /Applications/Utilities/Termain.app.

Please note that '$' means new line, don't type this character If you want to know about any of the commands we make from the terminal you can always type "man + command" e.g.

If you run the above code it should tell you that

curl is a tool to transfer data from or to a server, using one of the supported protocols (HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, FTPS, GOPHER, DICT, TELNET, LDAP or FILE). The command is designed to work without user interaction.

This will also detail the options I use.

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If you have a Mac i've create a widget (my first) to keep track of all the twitters at cf.Objective()

Get it here http://www.andyjarrett.co.uk/widgets/twitter.zip

Let me know how this goes. I've created it using the beta Dashcode tools available free from Apple.

The other day I noticed my current battery capacity was around 65%, which for a MBP under a year old I was a little annoyed at. According to iStat Nano, a [excellent] system monitor widget and confirmed with Coconut Battery the maximum battery charge I could currently hold would be around 3500mAh instead of the factory default of 5500mAh.

After a quick search on the Apple site I have managed to bump it back up into the 90% region. How? Easy, I Calibrated the battery, something you should do every 2 months or so!.

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It looks like getting the iPhone out on time has taken presidence over getting Leopard out on time. Apple have announced that Leopard will not released at the WWDC 07 but instead a beta will be made available for people to take home and test.

However, iPhone contains the most sophisticated software ever shipped on a mobile device, and finishing it on time has not come without a price -- we had to borrow some key software engineering and QA resources from our Mac OS X team, and as a result we will not be able to release Leopard at our Worldwide Developers Conference in early June as planned. While Leopard's features will be complete by then, we cannot deliver the quality release that we and our customers expect from us. We now plan to show our developers a near final version of Leopard at the conference, give them a beta copy to take home so they can do their final testing, and ship Leopard in October.

While I am still trying to get TextMate to work with BlogCFC one of my tasks was 'sniff the packets' of data that TextMate was sending. This actually turned out to be an easy task to run from the terminal. You just need the command 'tcpdump'. For built-in Ethernet, type: Note: Both "en0" and "-s 0" include a zero, not the letter O. For AirPort, type:

As you are using the 'sudo' command you will need to enter your password. Once you've done that though all packet information will be saved to the 'Dumpfile.dmp' on your desktop. Once you've finished all the logging press Control-C from the Terminal.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107952