May 2010
1 post
Adobe [hearts] Apple →
One word, “Dumb!”
April 2010
2 posts
Character Sets and MySQL command line client
FYI… if connecting to a MySQL database using the MySQL command line client (tool) where the database collation / character-set is set to utf8_general_ci / UTF-8, you need to issue a
SET NAMES 'utf8';
command prior to running any queries so that any special characters show up correctly.
Refer to the MySQL Reference Manual, section 9.1.4. Connection Character Sets and Collations and...
Character Sets and PHP Follow Up
Following up to my Feb 23, 2010 post on difficulties with charaster sets I’ve yet run into another example of how this can mess you up.
In PHP, I was using curl to fetch a page from a remote web server and then extract some data using regex and then inserting it into a MySQL database. The issue that I encountered was that my database was in was in UTF-8 but the text being retrieved from...
February 2010
2 posts
Ah, Language, isn't it wonderful. If you're not a...
Well I’ve spent a good part of the day reading the MySQL manual pages for Language support… and I’ve got to say, life would be so much simpler if everyone only wrote, spoke and used English… I know that’s not a very global attitude, but really, when you get into things like multilingual support (i.e., Unicode) in applications, programming languages, databases, web...
Did I mention my new blog? →
I’ve posted some new articles lately, check out:
Do you call it a Title or a Series
What Comic Book Cataloging software do you use?
How do you handle annuals from a cataloging perspective?
January 2010
1 post
Comic Book UPC Database →
As some of you may know or may not know I’m a IT guy that works for Motorola and I like to code for fun in my free time. And some of you may also know (or not) I’m a comic book nut… so my latest hobby is thinking up cool things I could code up to help comic book junkies like myself.
Well the other day I had an idea for a new web site that hopefully will help collectors get their...
November 2009
2 posts
Finding the original photo file in the iPhoto...
Using iPhoto’s SQLite3 database you can get the relative path to the original photo in the iPhoto library for any image in the sqPhotoInfo table. To do so you must join from the sqPhotoInfo table to the sqFileImage table and finally to the sqFileInfo table.
select pi.primaryKey, pi.archiveFilename, fl.relativepath
from SqPhotoInfo as pi
join SqFileImage as fi on pi.primaryKey =...
Date Format used in iPhotoMain.db database
Not sure how many of you know that iPhoto uses SQLite3 as its database engine. You can access the database files by right clicking on ~/username/Pictures/iPhoto Library and selecting Show Package Contents. Once you have displayed the package, the SQLite3 datbase files are:
iPhotoMain.db
iPhotoAux.db
face.db
face_blob.db
The main database file, as you might have guessed, is the...
June 2009
10 posts
March 2009
10 posts
February 2009
14 posts
Xcode - Changing the Default Company Name
If you use Xcode to create your source code file, you’ll notice that it nicely places a comment block at the top of the file for you that contains the file name, project name, author, creation date and a copy write notice that contains your company name.
By default it takes the company name from your address book entry. But if this does not suit your tastes and would like to change it, but...
If my PC workspace was an airline ...
Macintosh Airline
All the stewards, stewardesses, captains, baggage handlers and ticket agents look the same, act the same and talk the same. Every time you ask questions about details you are told you don’t need to know, don’t want to know and that everything will be done for you, so just shut up.
Windows Airline
The airport terminal is nice and colorful, with friendly stewards and...
Code Igniter PHP framework →
If you want to write code in PHP but don’t want to put much effort into it, then this is the php framework for you!
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Looking for this book “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” By, Philip K. Dick ISBN: 1568658559 at Amazon
This book was the inspiration for Blade Runner.
Setting Environment Variables for your GUI →
RCEnvironment is a Mac OS X 10.1 or higher preference pane that allows a user to edit their ~/.MacOSX/environment.plist file. This file is simply a property list of keys and values that the login system will read and load into the process environment of all applications that are launched when the user logs in. These variables are the same as environment variables that can be created in a command...
Controlling Bash At Startup →
The OS X files that get loaded when you log in via terminal:
/etc/profile
/etc/bashrc
~/.bash_profile
~/.bashrc
Also see: man source
ComCast Adds new Internet Speeds →
Now with speeds up to 50 Mbps down ComCast finally has a half way decent offering. The high end package Extreme is $142.95 a month will still be too pricey for most, but the next package down, Ultra isn’t too bad. 30 Mbps down and 5 Mbps up for $65.95 a month.
AT&T U-Verse is here →
Over the weekend friends of mine had AT&T’s U-Verse TV/Phone/Internet package installed at their house. Needless to say it kicks some serious butt.
AT&T U-Verse delivers digital television over your ethernet network to each of your TVs. Each TV gets a little AT&T cable box and has a ethernet connection on the back. There is 1 central DVR for the whole house - you can record on...
Got an Apple TV →
Then you need to get yourself a Patch Stick so you can watch any content you want to on your Apple TV, not just what Steve & Co think you should.
“I’m going to wipe my nose under your seat!”
– Things over heard in the car on the way home from sledding
MacTracker - get info on any Mac
Check out this nifty program that helps you figure out what Mac you have and its specs.
“Mactracker provides detailed information on every Apple Macintosh computer ever made, including items such as processor speed, memory, optical drives, graphic cards, supported Mac OS versions, and expansion options. Also included is information on Apple mice, keyboards, displays, printers, scanners,...
That damn annoying U3 Software on thumb drives →
I had bought the Kingston 2GB DataTravler U3 enabled ‘Smart’ Drive… a usb thumb drive. It was so annoying! First of all I didn’t buy the drive for the U3 features, I bought it because it was cheep. Second I use a Mac so the crappy U3 software won’t even work. Third the U3 software got corrupted and gave me an error message every time I plugged the drive in on my...
How to speed up your internet connection! →
You’ve got to try this, it really works! I let this run about 20 minutes each day and I swear to God my connection is faster!
January 2009
1 post
July 2008
6 posts
GUI to Manage Mac OS X Access Control Lists →
Sandbox is a Mac OS C GUI utility that allows you to manage and view the ACL (Access Control Lists) for your files. The software’s author, Michael Watson, has done an excellent job with the interface and it better than using the command line.
Disk Inventory X - clean up your Mac Hard Drive →
This is a totally useful, visual Mac OS X tool for helping you determine what is taking so much freaking space on your hard drive!
Credit goes to Mostly Lisa for bringing this to my attention on her Flickr photo stream. Thanks Lisa!
pbcopy & pbpaste Mac OS X Terminal Commands →
Two Mac OS X Terminal commands that I didn’t know I couldn’t live without! pbcopy takes the standard input and places it in the specified pasteboard. If no pasteboard is specified, the general pasteboard will be used by default. pbpaste removes the data from the pasteboard and writes it to the standard output.
LixlPixel webFinder - Column Views for the rest of... →
This one is for web developers, specifically ones targeting the Safari browser (Mac OS or Windows). It’s an Mac OS X Finder like column view that allows you dynamically display hierarchical data in a column view (also know as a horrizontal tree view). See it in action at the web link above or visit the developer’s web site at: http://lixlpixel.org/
Check out Pastie - the internet's clip board →
This web site seams pretty cool and its free (donation ware). Pastie allows you to paste in some text and then get a URL so that you can have others view it later. Be sure to check out the Pastie Why page to learn more. There’s also some more advanced features and automation, so check out the Pastie Help page.
Gravatar →
Found this cool web site that allows you to set up your online avatar once and have it used globally… not sure how it works get, but supposed its supported by WordPress and GitHub. Check it out and Let me know what you think.