Mac Code Monkey

The rants and ravings of a Mac developer

I Love programming, Macs, the iPhone, iPad, Apps & iOS! In my spare time I like Programming in ExtJS, PHP, MySQL / SQLite3 and Apache - in other words a Real Geek's geek. I've tinkered around with programing for iOS in the not so distant past . During the day I work for Motorola Solutions in IT as BSA for our Export Compliance system JPMorgan's TradeSphere. At night I freelance program on the Mac & Web. I'm also a techie who likes Sci-Fi and Horror. Some of my favorite authors include Stephen King, William Gibson and Frank Herbert as well as his son Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson.

But my real passion is for Comic Book Collecting. My current freelance project is writing a web based application using ExtJS for collecting comics books. After I get the web application completed, I will be integrating some portion of the web application into a desktop client for the Mac through the use of web services for all data exchange & transaction. Eventually, the web site & Mac client would also include a social networking component as well as an iOS component.

I started collecting comic books as a kid when my grandfather passed away and we found my father's comic book collection when we were cleaning out my grandfather's basement. There were a number of early issues in that stash, such as Fantastic Four number one, The Amazing Spider-Man number one, number 22 of the Uncanny X-Men... and others. So needless to say, I was hooked.

After high school I stopped collecting - college, drinking and woman took priority (not necessarily in that order) over visiting the local comic book shop. Now that I have 2 kids of my own, I've gotten back into collecting.

Six Ways To Make Another Person’s Day

1. Instead of turning idle time into “me time,” use your free time to do something nice.

2. Find a person you can thank or compliment for something they did a long time ago.

3. When you act on a recommendation from someone, tell the business owner or service provider who recommended you to them.

4. Give a compliment to someone who would never expect a compliment from you .

5. Let someone know when you see that they try something different.

6. When you see someone struggling, give them hope.

3 weeks ago

Missing a 64 bit libdvdcss for HandBreak on Mac OS X?

Do you use HandBreak for Mac OS X? Do you use the 64 bit version of HandBreak? What about VLC? Do you need a 64 bit version of libdvdcss aka libdvdcss.2.dylib?

Search no further Videolan.org has been so kind to host the download of the libdvdcss 64 bit Mac OS X version of the library: http://download.videolan.org/libdvdcss/1.2.12/macosx/

The offer 2 downloads: libdvdcss.pkg which is the traditional Mac OS Package install version of the file and libdvdcss.2.dylib which you’ll need to download and copy into the appropriate directory: /usr/lib/ or /usr/local/lib/

You can read this forum thread at the HandBreak website for more info: https://forum.handbrake.fr/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=23301&p=106325&hilit=vlc#p106325

if you copy it manually to the above directyory and have issues, you might need to execute the following from the command line:

xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /usr/lib/libdvdcss.2.dylib

2 months ago

We are all accountable - Future MSI claim chowder?

While “responsible” and “accountable” are often used interchangeably, there is an important difference between the two. Responsibility relates to accomplishing tasks or objectives as assigned, while accountability relates to the ultimate outcomes of self and others combined. Being accountable means not only being responsible for something – it ultimately requires you take ownership, focus on results, and carry a collaborative style to accomplish outcomes through others. Remember… you can delegate responsibility, but you can’t delegate accountability to anyone. If someone gives you a task to do, you can assign responsibility to someone else, but you are still accountable for the outcome.

In our new operating model, we’ll continue to have responsibilities as we do today. Our partners and suppliers will be given the responsibility for how they get things done while internally we are to be more concerned with what is getting done, as we are ultimately accountable for the outcome (i.e., meeting business requirements and achieving exceptional quality).

Accountability is essential to achieving a successful organization.

There are many pieces required for IT to execute efficiently. Behind the scenes, our partners and suppliers carry many IT responsibilities. For example, Xxxx (insert name of company that you outsource your help desk to) is responsible for our IT Help Desk activities and much of our infrastructure needs while Yyyyy (insert name of company that you outsource infrastructure maintenance to) provides day-to-day support for a large percent of our applications. As we move into our new operational model, we will see our suppliers have increasing responsibility for IT tasks. Remember, to our customer, we are one IT. It’s not the Xxxx Help Desk – it’s the IT Help Desk. It’s not Yyyyy they are dealing with, it’s IT. If they have a poor experience with our vendor, or a deliverable isn’t met because our supplier didn’t deliver, it’s IT that is accountable. The good news is, when people are accountable for their results, positive effects emerge: greater accuracy of work, better response to role obligations, more vigilant problem solving, better decision making, more cooperation with co-workers, and higher team satisfaction. For IT to achieve our goals, both long- and short-term, it’s important that we all work together and share accountability. Each of us is ultimately accountable for IT – and for MSI – to reach our goals.