Pragmatic Revelations » Mac OS X

Regulus – My new (Lion) iMac

Adrian Hoe — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 06:37:13 +0000

It has been my tradition to name my computers and mobile devices after the name of a moon, planet or star. This time is no exception.

The new OSX operating system 10.7, code-named Lion, was officially released by Apple, Inc. on July 20, 2011. In astrology, it was just two days before the Sun begins occupying Leo from July 22 to August 22. And I ordered my iMac and received it before the Sun leaves Leo.

In astronomy, Regulus or Alpha Leonis is the brightest star in Leo constellation. In Chinese, it is known as 轩辕十四, the Fourteenth Star of Xuanyuan. Regulus is also one of the brightest stars in the night sky. Together, with Eta Leonis (a fourth-magnitude star), they mark the lion’s heart.

My new 27″ iMac is a top range CTO model and will be the power horse for my works which include software development, some photography and design works. It is also the most powerful personal computer I have ever owned/purchased. Thus, Regulus is the best and most beautiful name for my new iMac.

Pluto will be passed down to my wife and kids after the data has been completely migrated to Regulus and a stable working environment is established.

Android is a dirty phone

Adrian Hoe — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 04:24:30 +0000

Android has been regarded as a savior to those who hate to be controlled and tied down by Apple’s strictly guarded iPhone. It is also one of the competitors closest to iPhone. While Apple’s latest iPhone 4 has a new feature called “FaceTime”, the Android on the other hand gets Sex.

FaceTime is a feature to make video call from iPhone 4 to iPhone 4 over Wi-Fi. No special account or screen name is required to make video calls. Therefore, users can forget about Skype and Apple’s iChat AV. Certainly, FaceTime is a great aide for people with hearing impairment and mute to communicate using sign language.

There are plenty of sex/porn apps for Android devices. There is even an adult-exclusive app store called MiKandi to cater such need. Now the store has reached a new milestone, introducing the first live adult web-cam streaming app for mobile devices called Sex Live Chat. You can read the story here. With live sex chat, you can watch the party on the other side engaged in some actions, and vice versa, if you like to. I will let your imagination run wild.

It is pathetic for a brilliant mobile platform to resort to sexual elements to promote its use. This greatly contrasts with Apple’s iDevices where you can find a wild variety of education apps along with useful business and productivity apps, etc, more than you can imagine.

As a parent, I will invest in iDevices for my kids and never an Android device. The latter is well analogized to the pest in our household.

iOS 4.0.1

Adrian Hoe — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 05:05:57 +0000

Yesterday, Apple released iOS 4 update, which was one day before its press conference. The iOS 4.0.1 has obviously made the signal bar look taller. According to various media and blogs, the update is reportedly to have new software (new formula) to calculate the signal strength and to display it more accurately. Read here and here.

The above screenshot shows the signal bar on my iPhone 3GS with iOS 4. By comparing with the screenshot below, it is obvious that the signal bar (especially bar 1 and 2) has become taller.

At the same location (my desk), I covered the back of my iPhone 3GS with my palm, the signal would drop 1 to 3 bars after about 22 seconds. After updating to iOS 4.0.1, I repeated the test. The signal bar would reduce 1 bar after more than 25 seconds.

Well, this is a very low tech test and is not accountable to conclude that the new software in iOS 4.0.1 has displayed the signal strength more accurately. Anyway, there is a huge difference before and after.

Catching HTML bugs with Safari 5

Adrian Hoe — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 00:45:28 +0000

A bug in a seemingly harmless HTML code had been bugging me for almost 2 weeks. I was sort of yanking my hair while trying to trace the bug which messed up the HTML page. The debugging task was even harder because I work on a HTML template with an extension .THTML. The template does not only contain standard HTML but also tags which are only recognized by AWS (Ada Web Server) . This template file is parsed by the web application (I am developing), which has AWS library, before it is dispatched as raw HTML code to a browser.

In my design, I break down the HTML template into header, body and footer so that I can reuse the common codes in header and footer. That means, all the body templates are without tag. This missing tag disables the syntax-coloring feature of code editor, leading to a more laborious code reading.

Before this, I had gone through every line of html source code in the template file umpteen times. This “obscure” bug, if not removed, would throw a monkey wrench in my works. I browsed the Internet and read articles in hope that I would get some clues. So, I was reading a few articles about Extensions in Safari 5. Extensions are not really impressive to me as I do not need to add missing functionalities to my browser. Safari itself is more than enough for my daily browsing activities. Somehow, my curiosity had driven me to enable the Develop menu in Safari 5. After activating it, I noticed some debugging tools in the menu. I enabled the web inspector by selecting Show Web Inspector in the Develop menu (Figure 1) then navigated to the web page I wanted to debug. To use these debugging tools, the Develop menu must first be activated. Here is a simple guide to enabling the menu.

Figure 1

Safari 5 immediately detected two error messages as shown in Figure 2. These two errors were easily corrected. After removing these unmatched tags, my web page still did not show up properly with the intended layout.

Figure 2

Then I selected the Elements tab and it showed me the page source in debugging mode as shown in Figure 3. I instantly spotted the

tag which was supposed to be in the

tag.

Figure 3

I clicked on the little grey triangles in the left pane to expand the

tag and the

Enable Develop menu in Safari 5

Adrian Hoe — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 04:09:17 +0000

One of the new features for Safari 5 is the Develop mode. It allows web developers to debug HTML code on Safari. Before you can use this feature, you must enable the Develop menu first. Here’s how you can do it:

Click on Safari menu and select Preferences. In the preferences window, select the Advanced tab and then click the checkbox for Show Develop menu in menu bar.

The Develop menu will then appear in Safari menu bar. Select Show Web Inspector to inspect your HTML code. You can also activate extensions support by selecting Enable Extensions in Develop menu. Extensions let you add those missing features.

Increase your productivity with iPhone apps

Adrian Hoe — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 04:26:16 +0000

My first PDA was PalmPilot Professional (photo to right) produced by U.S. Robotics (later as Palm, Inc.). I bought it in 1998 but I did not use it often due to limited apps. My use was restricted to Calendar, Address and Todo. It was a huge hassle to purchase apps for PalmPilot because there was no single app store like Apple’s App Store. Commercial apps for Palm Pilot at that time were hard to come by. The device went dead during a flight from KLIA to Taipei transit via Singapore on September 11, 2001. I guess it was fried by ESD (electrostatic discharge) while I walked on the carpeted corridor in Changi airport terminal.

Two years later, I bought a Sharp Zaurus SL-5500. It ran Zaurus and OPIE GUI environment. The Zaurus SL-5500 was Sharp’s first PDA to run Linux. Linux was the main reason I chose Zaurus. It was fast and colorful (at that time). It came with a couple of useful apps and desktop sync software. Syncing to a desktop running on Linux was good. After using it for a few months, some commercial apps which I bought, began to crash more often after I updated the operating system. I gave it up after a few attempts to restore the original operating system. Here is the photo of Zaurus (I managed to find its charger) with iPhone lying beside it. Well look at its size! The iPhone 3GS is half the thickness of Zaurus.

The other drawback of the Zaurus is its retractable physical keyboard. The keys are too small for my fingers and typing is real pain. So, BlackBerry with physical keyboard is totally out of the game. Here is the picture of Zaurus with its keyboard and iPhone with the virtual-touch keyboard for comparison:

I was tempted by HP and Toshiba but, hey, they ran on Windows. No way! In early 2008. I purchased a 2nd generation, 32GB iPod Touch. I was immediately captured by its charms. In December 2009, I got a 32GB iPhone 3GS. My response was: “Damn! I should have gotten it earlier.”

Both PalmPilot and Zaurus need stylus to tap on their screens. If you lose your stylus, you need to buy a new one. iPhone is more convenient because everything is manipulated with your fingers. Apple’s innovative multi-touch screen gives more user experience and more operability to the device.

All I can say, I have never used other PDAs like I use my iPhone. I mostly use my iPhone in my work (especially) and for fun during leisure (social networking, music, games and etc.) Here are some apps I use to boost my productivity while I am on the move and even at my desk.

Paymo is a free online time tracking and billing service. With a small fee, user can upgrade the service for unlimited users and invoices. I use Paymo to track my time spent on various projects and business/work related activities. The Paymo free iPhone app works in both online and offline mode. When I am out to support my clients, and/or having business or technical meeting and discussion, I can easily track my time with this tiny useful app.

With design based on the concepts and techniques described in David Allen’s book, “Getting Things Done”, OmniFocus for iPhone is a powerful to-do app that let you stay focused in whatever you are doing or trying to complete. The app is priced at $19.99 which is a little bit on the high side. I was hesitating for a while because of the price. After using it, I will say, “Save your money for OmniFocus and forget about other to-do apps.” Before this, I was using Things and I am still using it. The only reason I want to keep Things is that it allows assigning teammates to your tasks. OmniFocus is more comprehensive than Things and it let you stay focused in getting your jobs done, which is most important. Besides, you can sync your data via MobileMe, Bonjour, WebDAV server or locally mounted disk on your Mac. Personally, I think it is worth the investment.

Things is an easy-to-use to-do app priced at $9.99. It’s a good alternative to OmniFocus if you are on a tight budget. The price tag of $9.99 is considered quite high especially there are some free to-do apps, but to do a good job, Things will be above average. Unlike OmniFocus, syncing can only be done with a WiFi at your local area network where your Mac is running the desktop version of Things. One feature which I don’t like is its ability to assign more than one tag to your tasks. Too many tags confuse me.

Evernote is a free online service which let you save your ideas in the form of texts, voice memos or photos. You can save a web clip or PDF. Syncing between multiple devices and Macs over the Internet is a breeze. I use it while I am writing computer codes to note down what I have done and new ideas that come along. You can tag your documents for easy retrieval later. If you would like to enjoy a larger storage and monthly usage bandwidth, you can upgrade the service to Evernote Premium for $5 a month or $45 a year. Evernote is a good companion for notetaking while you are working, engaged in meetings and discussion and even at leisure.

Invoice2Go allows me to issue invoices on the go without a notebook or desktop computer. With it, I no longer need to go back to office to issue invoices. It saves me a lot of time from traveling back and forth between office and clients. Just email the invoices to your clients and you can make the delivery right away. For only $9.99, it saves you time and gasoline.

Dropbox is a free online storage service. You can take any file with you on your iPhone to meetings. Your co-workers or clients can drop files to your Dropbox and you can pick them up anytime, anywhere on your iDevice or Mac, provided they are connected to the Internet. It also allows you to share your files on Facebook or Twitter via link. By getting your friend to sign up you can earn 250MB of extra free disk space (up to 8GB) for every new account created. Click here to sign up.

Flash of the titans

Adrian Hoe — Mon, 10 May 2010 05:22:21 +0000

Apple’s decision for not to implement Adobe’s Flash into iPhone OS has turned Adobe-Apple relationship sour. In an open letter from Steve Job, he has written clearly about Flash’s weaknesses and a firm stance against Adobe’s Flash. I absolutely agree with Steve based on my experience with Flash. I would say: “Flash is nice to look at, but is a nightmare to have it!”

A week or two before Apple published Job’s open letter, I learned about an open source Flash project called Gnash from Twit. You can listen to the podcast here.

I really don’t believe in develop-once-deploy-everywhere development concept. I am more a native application guy because I only believe in native performance without relying on third party software components to run the applications. My experience with Tweedeck served as a wonderful example.

Tweetdeck was developed using Adobe’s AIR and Flash technology and is a develop-once-deploy-everywhere kind of application. Its user interface on the Mac really sucks. It looks more like a Windows application rather than Mac’s native Cocoa application. One thing annoyed me was that I had to upgrade Adobe’s AIR whenever it became available. I feel happier for not running Tweetdeck now.

A Java application has its downsides as well. It too depends on Sun’s JVM (Java Virtual Machine). Java has never become an implementation language in my software development career. Only recently when I began to involve in web application development, I have to work with JavaScript. The experience is awful, in my experience.

It is understood why Adobe is so furious about Apple’s decision not to allow Flash on its mobile platform. The reason is obvious: Adobe loses its grip on Apple’s mobile devices and has been discounted in Apple’s mobile computing gameplay. But Apple is not an easy-to-squeeze apple, it is huge and capable.

Apple has been working on an open web standard HTML5 and Apple’s own version of Flash, Gianduia. With HTML5, Apple’s computing platform becomes even more open, unlike otherwise as Adobe claimed. Both are exciting new technologies which I would like to implement to the web application I am developing.

I will write more about HTML5 and Gianduia when I have found time to research more about these two.

Dropbox – The magical USB drive

Adrian Hoe — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 01:52:48 +0000

Dropbox, the magical USB drive, let’s you transfer files among computers without the need of a physical USB drive or DVD or emailing. Dropbox on Mac is the latest and coolest file sharing technology made available today.

I have been using Apple’s iDisk to sync and share files among my computers, iPod Touch (iPhone) and as well as clients and co-workers. Two days ago, I discovered Dropbox and I now find it easier to use than iDisk and it is faster! It is free for a 2GB storage or upgrade with a small monthly fee.

One cool feature of Dropbox is that when someone drops you a file in your folder, Dropbox notifies you using Growl. iDisk lacks this notification feature and usually the file arrives silently unless the sender texts or emails you.

Dropbox can work offline. Dropbox on Mac will sync your files and folders to your local hard disks and allows you to access later even when offline. The sync is done automatically.

I used to copy some files on my USB drive and take them to my clients. Now I no longer need to bring anything. Just use my client’s Internet browser to access my Dropbox and viola! The files will be transfered to my client’s Mac.

Of course, there are many ways to use Dropbox for your productivity. For example, taking your lecture notes to the lecture hall without carrying anything at all, not even USB pen drive. There are some other ways of using Dropbox, read here. But that’s not all. Please tell me if you find any other use of it.

Automated backup

Adrian Hoe — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 04:48:34 +0000

Since August 18, my software development work has been picking up its pace and I have checked in more works more often, at least five times on single productive day. Ever since, I have been manually backing up Subversion directory using tar. My project server is fornax.

Fornax is a 6-year old PC running Ubuntu. It wasn’t working properly due to the cooling fan in its power supply unit. Until about two weeks ago, I replaced the old fan. I am not very confident about the replacement because it is a third party part and the replacement isn’t as good as expected, but it works. I have to shut it down every night before going to bed.

So, the last thing before I go to bed is to backup the svn directory and then shutdown the server. I am quite fed up with this extra manual works. Last night, before going to bed, I decided to automate this process. And I did it this morning.

I wrote a simple bash shell script to do the backup. I cron it so that the process will start automatically at 2300 hours and then shutdown.


#!/bin/bash

BACKUPFILE=/tmp/backups/svn-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz

rm /tmp/backups/svn-*.gz
tar -cj /svn > $BACKUPFILE
for COMPUTER in host1 host2
do
   scp $BACKUPFILE user@$COMPUTER:Desktop/
done
/sbin/shutdown -h +5

UPDATE (05/10/2009): I setup a password-less ssh login so that no password is required for scp (secured copy). Now, after the backup, the backup file will be copied automatically to two other computers for safe keeping.

iPhone 3.0 Software Update

Adrian Hoe — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 16:26:21 +0000

A couple of weeks ago, the iPhone 3.0 software update was official launched. I connected my iPod Touch to iTunes 8.2 and clicked Update. Unfortunately, iTunes said that the update wasn’t available at iTunes Malaysia store. I wasn’t very happy with the service Apple has provided. The update was supposed to be free but it would cost me US$9.95 to upgrade my iPod Touch to iPhone 3.0.

Here’s the screenshots (click to enlarge):

On this page, it says “iPhone 3.0 Software Update for iPod Touch – Already have an iPhone? Update it with new features, free.

On the other page, it says “Download software update. Only US$9.95.”

On the page found at Singapore site, it says “Buy now for $9.95″

I hate misleading advertisement. I checked various websites and found out that iPhone owners are entitled for free update but the iPod Touch owners are not. What the ….

I am not going to pay for the f&$@*?# update so I searched the web. I found one blogger from Sarawak has written a blog entry about this. I also found some links to download the free iPhone 3.0 here.

It seems like, according to dzimonotion, Apple has mistaken published a free upgrade for download but the link has been taken down later. Someone was quick enough to discover that and downloaded the free upgrade and sharing it now.

You can download the iPhone 3.0 free upgrade here or here is a torrent link.

After downloading, connect your iPod Touch and option click the Update button in iTunes (8.2 or later). Look for a .ipsw file and select. The upgrade will begin immediately. The upgrading process will take a while. Do not disconnect your iPod Touch. When the upgrading process is completed, your iPod Touch will reboot. Enjoy!

Now, I can connect a bluetooth stereo headset (I don’t have one now), I can do copy-cut-paste, etc. Check the Apple website for new features in iPhone 3.0 Update.

Not too long ago, I wrote an article about Apple’s business practice, Is Apple Dirty? Why iPhone owners are entitled for free upgrade? Why iPod Touch owners are not? Now, you judge.

Backup your Mac with AppleScript

Adrian Hoe — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 15:45:50 +0000

All programmers are lazy. They want to automate tasks as much as they can. Because of this uniquely great habit, they have developed countless of useful software.

Ok. I am lazy. I have been using rsync to sync folders I am working on between my Macs. I have been using command line scripts in Terminal for almost two years and finally I have gotten lazy over the task.

The thing is, I need to execute the scripts in Terminal every time I want to synch my folders. Of course, I could simply use cron to automate the tasks at specific time but I ran the risk to cause havoc between the folders on different Macs. It is best not to cron the task.

So, I learned up AppleScript and after a ten-minute hack, I wrote a nice AppleScripts to do the job. It is quick and dirty.

set debug to false

with timeout of (30 * 60) seconds
	tell application "Terminal"
		set Window_Title to "Sync Documents"
		set Rsync_Cmd to "rsync -acrtv --delete
			/Users/username/Documents/
			username@xxx:Documents"
		set output_doc to do shell script Rsync_Cmd
		choose from list paragraphs of output_doc with prompt
			"Result:" with title Window_Title with empty
			selection allowed
	end tell
end timeout

Copy the script to ~/Library/Scripts/Applications/Finder and save it as “sync documents.scpt”. Then launch Script Editor to edit username to your login name and xxx to your Mac IP address or computer name. This script will sync your Documents folder under your user home directory. To execute this AppleScript, at Finder, click on the script icon on the menu bar and select the script to launch.

rsync uses ssh. If you have not setup a password-less ssh login, you will need ssh-askpass in /usr/libexec. Unfortunately, it does not ship with Mac OS X. You can get it at Joe Mocker’s weblog.

Miranda

Adrian Hoe — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 12:42:46 +0000

Finally, I have got an idea what name to give to my iPod Touch. It was named “Adrian Hoe’s iPod Touch” to make things simple. The hardest part was to find a name which implies its usefulness.

I have several reasons to buy an iPod Touch but I am not going to talk about them here. One most ostensible use of it is that I am no longer required to lug my MacBook (code-named Uranus) everywhere I go. Since it replaces the function of Uranus when it is not with me, I name my iPod Touch, Miranda, one of the five moons of Uranus. Miranda is the inner most and smallest moon of Uranus and is also referred to Uranus V.

A hot Sunny affair

Adrian Hoe — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 19:03:59 +0000

I have been hesitating for another hot Sunny affair since the last one about three years ago. This is just another one I have been longing since then. The recent eclipse of Sun resurrects my overwhelming but sleeping desire. Although this happened near the time when Sun is setting, but it is never too late to do it again because Sunset is beautiful and romantic.

Will Sun set and never rise again? Here is my encounter of the hot Sunny affair.

In October 2006, I installed Solaris 10 on an Intel box code-named, Pyxis1 (I love to name my computers after the name of a planet, a star or a constellation). The installation was successful but I could not get it to configured to work correctly. Some of the configuration would disappear every time I restarted the server. I could not find the reasons and I was on tight schedule to get the server up and running. I replaced Solaris 10 with Debian and eventually with Ubuntu. Read the story here.

Solaris 10, in my opinion, is by far a better and more robust operating system than Linux. The fallback was the lack of installation information on older machines. That’s the bottom line of the configuration problem I had three years ago.

Last May, I began the virtualization of my MacBook and I had Ubuntu installed and ran parallel with Mac OS X. I tried to install Solaris 10 on VMware Fusion. Installation was successful but I never got it to boot after the installation. Again, I gave up and went on with Ubuntu.

On Sunday, I upgraded VMware Fusion 1.1.3 to 2.0.2 and read about successful installation of OpenSolaris on Mac. I decided to give it another try.

OpenSolaris is a community-driven open source version of Solaris. Solaris is a proprietary UNIX operating system by Sun Microsystems. Sun plays an active role in open source software such as OpenOffice, MySQL and OpenSolaris.

VMware Fusion 2.x has many major improvements. One obvious change is the Virtual Machine Library window. It shows you the snapshots of your virtual machines.

The Virtual Machine Library window showing the snapshots of OpenSolaris and Windows XP

Ok, ok. I have a Windows XP installed. For those who know I have ditched all Windows since 1998, I have some inevitable reasons. First, I need it to support my clients on some hardware and software configurations. Second, I needed it to support my Garmin GPS device. And thirdly, I need it for some non-appealing reasons. I have it installed to avoid having the need to hunt for a Windows desktop for some petty simple jobs. I used the Windows virtual machine under 10 times since last May. Simple put it, I just need it to get some simple jobs done, otherwise it is just a piece of shit occupying 5GB of disk space on my MacBook.

Installation of OpenSolaris was quite pleasant and simple (although it took about half hour). During the installation, I was surprised to learn that OpenSolaris has something called Time Slider which is an automated backup software similar to Apple’s Time Machine.

My hardware configuration:

MacBook White, 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
2GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM
160GB hard disk
Mac OS X 10.5.6

My virtual machine configuration:

VMware Fusion 2.0.2
2 virtual CPU, 720MB RAM
15GB hard disk space

Installation screen showing Time Slider

I will never need Time Slider on my Mac Book but I may need it after I switch from Ubuntu to OpenSolaris on Pyxis1. Until then, I am unable to tell if Time Slider is as good as Time Machine.

There are a few patches and manual installation after the first boot to solve some problems:

The sound is not working.
No networking (you may not experience this).
The Apple’s menu bar is not appearing when virtual machine is running in full screen mode.
Need some packages from OpenSolaris repository in order to get the Ada compiler working (for Ada programmers only).

OpenSolaris running at full screen on MacBook White.

First thing after restarting from installation is to install VMware Tools. At window mode, click on the Virtual Machine menu bar and select Install VMware Tools. A CD icon will appear on the OpenSolaris desktop. Open it and copy the zipped file to the desktop then extract and follow the steps below:

# cd Desktop/vmware-tools-distrib
# ./vmware-install.pl

OpenSolaris virtual machine running in window mode

After installing VMware Tools, you will be able to access to Mac OS X menu bar when virtual machine is running full screen mode. Move the mouse pointer to top of the screen and the menu bar will drop down.

If the two networking icons on the top right do not show green badge as in the screenshot below, then make sure your Virtual Machine Network Settings is connected and set to NAT (share the Mac’s network connection). The network should also work in Bridged mode. Also make sure the OpenSolaris network interface is connected to e1000g0 and is active.

Two networking status icons with green badge

Otherwise, click on System > Administration > Network to set it to auto configure. Your network should be up and running.

Next is to activate the sound. Download OSS (Open Sound System) driver at http://4front-tech.com/download.cgi and install it as follow:

# pkgadd -d oss-solaris-v4.0-123-i386.pkg
# osstest

After the installation, run osstest to test the sound system. You will hear a tune playing on your speakers. You may need to reboot your system to allow the driver to properly load.

There are a few more packages to be downloaded and installed from OpenSolaris.org repository. To install gcc4ada from BlastWave, you will need SUNWgnu-libiconv and SUNWarc. Start Package Manager to download and install them from OpenSolaris repository. If you need source code management, you will need SUNWsvn as well.

The OpenSolaris repository does not have Ada compiler (gccada) and only supports gcc 3.4.3. You will have to install Ada compiler from another repository at Blastwave.

To download and install software packages from Blastwave, you need pkgutil. Download and install pkgutil and other necessary packages by following the instruction at Blastwave site. You can obtain a list of software packages that you need from Blastwave. After installing pkgutil, you may want to include /opt/csw/bin to your path.

If you need an Ada 2005 compiler, then download and install gcc4ada:

# pkgutil --install gcc4ada

Include /opt/csw/gcc/bin to your path and the Ada compiler is ready. I checked out a project from my svn repository and compiled. Viola! I am happy with the performance which I find is better than Ubuntu and any other Linux distros. One drawback of OpenSolaris or Solaris is the limited software packages. There are more than a thousand ready-built software packages to download in every Linux distros. That means you will have to build some of the software you need on Solaris (and OpenSolaris).

I removed and re-installed OpenSolaris yesterday after I found some broken links due to not following the instructions correctly. Always read installation instructions from various sources carefully before installing. I find the trouble is worthy otherwise I will not have a clear summarized steps to write about here.

With the recent IBM’s announcement to acquire Sun Microsystems, I hope Sun will not be cannibalized after the acquisition. And I hope that Sun is not setting but if it must, it will rise again. OpenSolaris and UltraSPARC processors are one of the leading technologies available.

I hope to find time on a weekend to install OpenSolaris on the Sun Blade 100. It is still running Solaris 9 since 2003.

Is Apple dirty?

Adrian Hoe — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 18:00:45 +0000

I have been Apple Mac user since 2003 after ditching Microsoft Windows in 1998. Mac OS X is real UNIX operating system comparing to Linux which is UNIX-like. Thanks to Apple for spending quite a substantially huge amount of money to license the UNIX operating system. Ever since I had an iBook, I am getting more entangled with Mac. I shifted all my web browsing, emails, calendar, contact, photos, video, and even software development to Mac platform. Although I am still running Linux on Intel boxes and SPARC Solaris, I have become totally dependent and obsessed with Mac. I would crave for a Mac if I were to work on non-Mac.

Why?

There are numeral reasons for that:

All Macs work straight out of their boxes. No configuration, no installation of sort. Gadgets like MiniDV cameras just work by connecting to any Mac with a FireWire cable, basically any well known brands of digital cameras will work straight out of their boxes with any Mac without installing any drivers (iPhoto), calendar and contact will sync with any supported cell phones and many more.
Friendly and stunning user interface make it easy to work on Mac.
Colors and graphics are superb on Mac. Nothing comes close to it.
The damn Mac just works without crashing the entire system (although sometimes they do but negligible) comparing to other systems running Windows and Linux.
Applications running on Mac are very easy to use and always come with great features and usability.
and the list goes on and on….

In plain simple words, Macs get your jobs done.

The other two compelling reasons are Apple’s brilliant packaging and product finishing which give value for money kind of feeling. The packaging boxes are usually compact and slim, using less material and they are environmental friendly. As long as the product design and finishing are concerned, no other PC manufacturer can rival Apple’s ingenious design.

Apple is notoriously well known for its secrecy. Apple was also the largest participant in Macworld Expo and Conference as well as several other similar trade show. Last December, Apple abruptly announced that it would stop participating in future events. Macworld 2009 which was held in January this year was Apple’s last participation.

By tradition, Apple would announce upcoming product release. Users would usually stop buying Apple’s until they got an idea of what was coming along and would wait until a new product was available. This hurt Apple’s business prior to every expos and conferences. The change of strategy will leave speculation high up in the stake.

The new aluminum MacBook lacks of FireWire port is under fire by many MacBook and especially MiniDV tape camcorder users. Without the FireWire port, it becomes not possible to transfer video from MiniDV tape camcorders.

The lack of FireWire port also disable the FireWire disk mode which is quite useful to salvage the contents of hard disk if there is any problem to boot. By connecting MacBook via FireWire, user is able to transfer data from one Mac to another.

New DV camcorders support USB for transferring video images, responded Steve Jobs to unhappy new aluminum MacBook users. Indeed, all new DV camcorders (with built-in hard disk or flash storage media) support only USB for transferring video. But there are still many old MiniDV tape camcorder users like me wanting to be able to transfer from an old MiniDV tape camcorder. My Panasonic MiniDV tape camcorder which only supports FireWire is still in excellent working condition and I have no intention to change a new camcorder. I have no intention to “upgrade” my white MacBook to the all new aluminum MacBook either.

Apple has been deleting all posts (about lack of FireWire in new aluminum MacBook) in its forum. You can read about users complaining in other forums here and here.

The all new aluminum MacBook is something nice to have but not must have. To a seasoned Mac user like me who is cautious in choosing my Mac, it does not have any better contribution to my computing other than its stylish outlook, the new multi-touch-buttonless-smooth-glass trackpad.

Although it sports 2GB of DDR3 SDRAM, the price which differenced by $300 (RM1,100 in Malaysia) between 2.0GHz aluminum and white MacBook does not worth the performance per dollar. There is also a difference of 40GB between both models and other technical specifications are identical. With the extra $300 (or RM1,100), you can upgrade the 120GB hard disk drive to 250GB or 320GB plus AppleCare Protection Plan. If you top up about $100 (or RM390), you can upgrade your 2GB DDR2 SDRAM to 4GB in the white MacBook and it still will run as fast as the aluminum MacBook with original spec.

Let’s come back to the lack of FireWire port in new aluminum MacBook. All white and previous MacBook have built-in FireWire 400 port while the MacBook Pro series supports FireWire 800. FireWire 400 can transfer data between devices at 100, 200 and 400 Mbit/s half-duplex data rates. The actual data transfer rate is slightly lower, for example, at 98.304, 196.608, and 393.216 Mbit/s respectively.

Data transfer over FireWire 400 interfaces generally outperforms similar transfer over USB2.0 interfaces though it nominally runs at signaling rate at 480Mbit/s, slightly higher than FireWire 400.

The FireWire enables remote control (play, rewind, etc.) of connected camcorder/device. With the exclusion of FireWire support on latest digital camcorders, remote control of the devices becomes not possible.

Again, why does Apple discontinue FireWire support on the new aluminum MacBook? Is it an oversight or plainly to cut costs?

Does it indicate Apple’s intention to move MacBook users for video capability to higher and more expensive hardware such as MacBook Pro? The speculation is not without fundamental analysis. The argument for getting a USB-FireWire converter or even upgrade to newer digital camcorder does not justify dollars spent. Why should one spend extra money for extra gadget? Why should a person throw away a still working old camcorder just for a USB connection?

With the economic downturn, Apple is no exception to be affected by this world financial crisis. In the last week or two, Apple slashed prices and spiked up the specs to lure buyers. The white MacBook is there to stay to help ramping up Apple’s sales. How long will it be before Apple sends the white MacBook to EOL (End Of Life)? Definitely not within these few weeks. Three months later?

Another trend you can see or forecast is the new Mac OS X Snow Leopard will be released sometime around June or September, as we can already see that Apple has rolled out all new models from its arsenal. By then, Apple would have sold many Mac and those new Mac owners would be rushing to upgrade to the new Snow Leopard optimized for dual/quad core processors, unleashing more powerful multi-core processing power horse. Apple will cash in again for the upgrade. If you are not in urgent need to buy a Mac or upgrade or replace a Mac, do wait till Snow Leopard is released. It will be worth the wait.

Talking about Mac OS X upgrade, my iBook came with Jaguar. When Panther was released about a year later, everybody was rushing for the upgrade. I waited until Tiger was released and unfortunately, my iBook died not long after I gave it a Tiger. When I purchased my other Macs, they came with Tiger. I acquired a Leopard upgrade at someone’s disposal. I wanted the Time Machine feature to safe guard my data after my iBook was dead. I had sleepless nights worrying about my data and thank God that my data was safe.

If you are in need of a lower cost MacBook with FireWire capability, do grab the white MacBook now because we have no idea when Apple will pull the plug.

Apple’s marketing and sales strategy exploit human psychology very well. Trend and new state-of-the-art hardware will make heads turn. Apple understands that perfectly well and it uses this intuitive human behavior to cash in. New and unseasoned Apple users, oftentimes teenagers, who are not giving a thought and are not following up Apple’s strategic plan will likely fall prey to coughing out hard-earned dollars for the new cool leading edge hardware to impress people around them.

Is Apple playing dirty tricks to feed its share holders? You judge for yourselves. Apple is no doubt the world most profiting computer company with very happy investors. So, if you ever need to buy a Mac now, do consider the facts and justify your needs and dollars wisely.

Discover your iPod touch

Adrian Hoe — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 18:30:18 +0000

One of my most desired applications on iPod touch is to be able to take PDF and source code anywhere I go for discussion without taking a MacBook with me. The good thing about iPod touch is its ability to sneak into my shirt pocket or in a carrying pouch on my belt. Sometimes taking a MacBook along just for the purpose of viewing a PDF or some source code is deemed to be cumbersome. One obvious problem is that I have to carry my MacBook in the bag anywhere I go, for example, shopping. It is risky to leave the MacBook in the trunk. Many theft cases have been reported.

Discover is the best application that allows me to wirelessly transfer my files to iPod touch and view it. It is free and secured. Unlike other free applications of the same class, Discover is only limited to physical storage available on your iPod touch. It supports many file formats such as PDF, Office document formats (which I don’t use), and Unicode support (C/C++, Objective-C and more). Unfortunately, it does not recognize Ada source files. I hope BBase will support Ada in coming release.

Download Discover from iTunes store and install into iPod touch. Just launch Discover and connect (using any WebDAV enabled browser) to iPod touch with the IP address provided on the iPod screen. You can setup secured access with passwords to protect your iPod touch from unauthorized access.

iPod Touch

Adrian Hoe — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 14:57:56 +0000

I received my 2nd generation iPod Touch 16GB today. I tried to make unboxing video but the result was not as good as I expected. Sorry guys. May be next time.

After I took it out from the box, I put it on screen protector film and soft silicon skin right away. I have heard and read about scratching screen, drops and oily finger marks on iPod Touch and iPhone. I think it is good to protect my investment.

I have an iPod nano which my sister gave me more than a year ago. I seldom use it but most often I use it to listen to podcasts and some music. The reason for me to acquire an iPod Touch is to explore some ideas and to develop some useful software for it.

iPod Touch is a very powerful device besides music and video playing. It is in fact a powerful PDA for many applications in my opinion.

Apple TV playlist

Adrian Hoe — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 11:59:57 +0000

I have installed an Apple TV at my client’s office waiting area. His purpose is to educate his patients while they are waiting for their consultation. That is a brilliant idea as we had long and boring waiting experience when LA was consulting him.

The idea is to design different programs with advertisements and messages interleaved among documentary and his own educational videos for playback on different days of the week. And the most important thing is to allow the doctor himself to easily update his educational videos and advertisements anytime as he wishes from his new 24″ iMac.

After I installed Apple TV a few days ago, I realized it did not have movie playlist. After Googling for a while, I wasn’t alone. Here is a blog entry with the same problem. And I found out the Apple TV Software Update 2.3 allows movie playlist in iTunes to be seen on Apple TV. I downloaded the 2.3 update this afternoon, and after I activated the movie playlist in Apple TV settings, it is now able to play the movies in the playlist as desired.

I pondered why Apple did not ship Apple TV with new software update 2.3. It was released in November 2008. About the Apple TV software update can be found here.

Another ultimate experience

Adrian Hoe — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 15:53:59 +0000

When LA birthed Richie, I was there with her almost the whole day in the labor room. That was the first awesome experience in my life. About three years ago, when LA birthed Nik, I was there with her in the operating theatre (OT). That was another more wonderful day in my whole life. I could hear her doctor cut open her lower abdomen (Caesarean section).

Almost a month after Nik was born, I suffered from retina detachment and had to undergo a surgery to repair it. That was myself experiencing the first surgery of my life. The experience was really awesome and I had some mixed feeling.

This afternoon, I had to test out some equipment in the OT while the doctor was performing laparoscopic surgery. Like the second experience, I had to put on the surgical gown and mask before entering the OT. Only this time I was with the doctor.

That's me in surgical clothing

Although the laparoscopic surgery was not invasive, it was thrilling enough to witness the live performance before my own eyes. At least, it has proven I have a strong stomach up to this level.

Back to the serious stuff. The purpose of the test was to make sure the process could be streamlined with Mac computers. Before this, the doctor’s assistant would have to push a rather big and clumsy caddy with PC, a LCD monitor and some other equipment from consultation suite to OT prior to every surgery. By using a Mac, they would no longer need the chunky caddy. A MacBook snugged nicely into a carrying bag together with the little device would perform the tasks.

The following photos showed the chunky caddy and my MacBook.

Chunky caddy and the Potato Computer (PC)

The sleek and sexy MacBook

A good head start

Adrian Hoe — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 15:46:31 +0000

Happy New Year 2009 buddies!

It seems like a good head start for me. Everything I planned for today seems to be smooth sailing although I am having one problem which I do not know why it happens. I guess I will need to toy with it and/or hack it to learn why it isn’t behaving as it supposed to be. If everything is running perfect before end of this month, I will acquire an iPod Touch to proceed further. This will be my first wish on this very first day of 2009.

Finder hang in Leopard

Adrian Hoe — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 13:49:37 +0000

When I returned home this evening, LA told me her applications had hung. I checked and found not only that, the Finder was not responsive too. I had no choice but to power off and to restart the Mac Mini again. This had also affected my user account. The Finder had failed to launch after login and the Dock did not appear as well. But fortunately root user account was not badly affected.

I Googled and found some articles and solutions here, here and here. I exhausted all the methods and I did not have DivXNetworks and ApplicationEnhancer.bundle in the directories mentioned in these links. I decided to go my own way.

What I did was to delete everything that was related to DivX. Since I did not have DivXNetworks, so I removed DivX folders in “/Library/Application Support” and “~/Library/Application Support” and also the DivX programs in Applications.

After the deletion, Finder still could not launch properly. I launched Console.app to examine system logs and found some errors in cache files com.apple.LaunchedServices*. I removed everything with com.apple.LaunchedServices in /Library/Caches.

Viola! Everything is back to normal again. DivX is a third party enhancement software and is not very stable. It seems like DivX has messed up with the system caches and somehow prevented Finder to launch.

I have spent two and half hours mingling with this problem. I hope my experience will save some of your time if you have the same problem as mine. I am going to take my supper.

Good luck!

Snow Leopard

Adrian Hoe — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 03:31:55 +0000

The Snow Leopard (Uncia uncia) sometimes known as ounce is a large cat native to mountain ranges in Central Asia from Afghanistan to Lake Baikal and Eastern Tibet. Snow Leopard normally weights 35kg to 55kg and slightly smaller than Leopard.

Apple’s Mac OS X Snow Leopard is the next version of the world most advanced operating system with a smaller footprint compared to its predecessor, Leopard. Snow Leopard will take full advantage of 64-bit and multi-core technology to the height.

Since Apple introduced Mac OS X in 2001, thousands of new features have been implemented and introduced. In Leopard, the ability to take advantage of multi-core and 64-bit addressing have opened up new dimension in desktop computing. Virtualization becomes possible. New features such as Time Machine automatically backup the Mac hard disk without user knowing.

Snow Leopard, to be released a year from now, is going to be smaller than Leopard but more powerful. Snow Leopard dramatically reduces the foot print on hard disk, using less disk space, freeing them for more music, photos and videos.

Snow Leopard fully makes use of 64-bit addressing to increase the RAM size to the theoretically 16TB, 500 times more than what is possible today. “Grand Central” a new set of technologies built into Snow Leopard brings unrivaled multi-core support and capabilities to Mac OS X. More cores, not faster clock speed, drives performance faster in today’s modern processors. Grand Central takes full advantage by making all of Mac OS X multicore aware and optimizing it for allocating tasks across multiple cores and processors. The result: more powerful applications at faster speed.

HOWTO – Clone your Mac OS X hard drive

Adrian Hoe — Thu, 22 May 2008 04:16:49 +0000

First of all, why do I need to clone the hard drive? Good question though. Here are a few possible answers:

I have too much money to spend for a spare hard drive to clone my Mac hard drive.
I want to have a bootable external hard drive, installing on an external USB hard drive is not possible.
I want to upgrade my Mac’s hard drive, and I don’t want to do the installations and setup all over again

Obviously number 3 is my answer. I acquired a bigger capacity hard drive to upgrade my current 120GB hard drive in my MacBook. After some Googling around, I found an answer.

There is an Apple utility program called Apple restore or asr located in /usr/sbin. Connect your external USB hard drive and format it using Disk Utility. Open the Terminal in Applications -> Utilities. Type the following command line into the Terminal to copy your hard drive over your external drive.

% sudo asr -source /Volumes/OSX BOOT VOLUME NAME/ -target /Volumes/TARGET VOLUME NAME/

Replace “OSX BOOT VOLUME NAME” and “TARGET VOLUME NAME” with actual volume names. asr will take quite some time to copy the contents of hard drive to external hard drive. Get a cuppa, pop in your iPod earphone and relax.

When asr completes the execution, it will print a message:

asr: did not copy blessed information to target, which may have missing or out-of-date blessed folder information.

Then, bless your target drive with this:

% sudo bless -folder /Volumes/TARGET VOLUME NAME/System/Library/CoreServices

Now, the hard drive is bootable. Restart your Mac and hold down “option” key. A screen will appear allowing to choose which volume to boot from.

Another happy new Mac user

Adrian Hoe — Wed, 21 May 2008 08:19:26 +0000

To follow up my article, “Am I a Mac advocate?”

Just came back from a business meeting which I delivered an Apple MacBook to a customer. She is a mutual fund manager and is totally new to Apple. The moment she took out her new MacBook from the box, her impression was “Wow! It is so beautiful, sleek and … “, something words could not describe.

I spent some hours to guide her using a Mac and she caught on quite well. She was most impressed when I showed her how I could help her using her Mac via iChat. Totally amazed, how iChat could allow her to share her screen to me and I could guide her to use her Mac and some applications over the Internet.

Another happy Mac user.

Am I a Mac advocate?

Adrian Hoe — Tue, 20 May 2008 16:33:02 +0000

Yes, I am!

I started to use an Apple iBook with Mac OS X five years ago. And ever since then, I do my daily works like emailing, web browsing, IM/Skype, appointment, todo, word processing, spreadsheet and almost everything on Mac. Today, I am a total Mac advocate and I also develop software for Mac. Most of the Mac applications I worked on are easily ported to any UNIX systems such as Linux and Solaris or vice versa.

I have switched many people from Windows to Mac. I have helped businesses to switch from Windows to Mac. And the result? They are happy Mac users and I am a happy Mac advocate. Supporting customers in Mac is ever easier and hassle free compare to Windows. Supporting Linux and Solaris mostly as a server together with server applications cannot be compared in that way because the application area and environment are totally different.

Although the initial investment is higher comparing to any other Wintel (Windows and Intel) PC, Mac gives you awesome user experience you can never enjoy with Wintel. The end result, ROI or Return of Investment is higher.

Read my other article about Mac in business here.

Virtualization – Installing Ubuntu Linux with VMware on MacBook

Adrian Hoe — Wed, 14 May 2008 05:40:46 +0000

I have successfully installed 64-bit Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) Linux on my Mac Book. Out of my expectation, the installation was rather quick and easy compared to installing Solaris 10. I had tried installing Solaris 10 on my Mac Book. Solaris installation was successful but I couldn’t boot into it. I wondered why.

My Mac Book sports an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.16GHz with 2GB RAM and 160GB hard drive. I am too skeptical to have 2 physical partitions on my hard drive. Thanks to VMWare Fusion, I can create virtual partition with it. After I have installed VMware Fusion 1.1.1, I created a Ubuntu-64-bit virtual partition and installed Ubuntu from the ISO disk image. With VMware Fusion, I can install directly from the disk image without having to burn a CD or DVD.

Since my Mac Book is codenamed Uranus, I called my Ubuntu on Mac Book, Uranus-Zeta. The idea is from the ζ-ring of Uranus

Like Linux, Mac OS X is a UNIX like operating system. Why do I need Linux? Well, there are a number of reasons. One being you can and another to learn new things. But these are not the reasons to motivate me. Being a software developer developing cross-platform software, I do tests on multiple platforms. Having Linux to run on my MacBook means I can develop and test my software on both Mac OS X and Linux environment without switching to my Linux/Solaris boxes. Another important reason is that I see the needs to support my clients on Linux arise and soon Solaris. Having the ability to run three different operating systems on one machine can be productive and versatile for me.

The other obvious reason is that I have a Core 2 Duo. Meaning I am having two 64-bit CPUs in one processor. It will be a waste of resources if I don’t utilize the computing power I already have. Assigning each CPU to run different operating systems and tasks is called virtualization.

With VMware Fusion, I can run Linux and Solaris side-by-side with Mac OS X without the need to boot into anyone of them at one time. This is a great feature when supporting clients in Mac OS X, Linux and Solaris.

Here are some screen shots (click to enlarge) of Uranus-Zeta:

Time Machine

Adrian Hoe — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 15:20:17 +0000

I finally got a 160GB hard drive to upgrade my MacBook. I took out the original Apple’s 120GB, put it in an external enclosure and connected it to Pluto (Mac Mini) via USB. Since I already have a 30GB hard drive (code named Nix, a small moon of Pluto) as a backup for doing file to file backup on Pluto, it is quite troublesome to do file to file backup on regular basis. The result is I seldom do backup.

This 120GB hard drive was formatted to become Time Machine hard drive. I named it Charon. Charon is a larger moon of Pluto compare to Nix. The moment I configured Charon to be used as Time Machine’s hard drive, the backup began immediately.

Time Machine is an innovative backup application in Leopard (Mac OS 10.5). The initial backup took quite a long time to complete. After it started, I went to bed as recommended by many users in Mac forums. I don’t actually know how long it took to backup.

After the first backup, the following backup is incremental. Time Machine stores hourly backups for the past 24 hours, daily backups for the past month and weekly backups until hard drive is full. After a few hours of running, I have got some hourly backup. I tried to restoring some files which I purposely modified. The restoration is really easy.

Charon is a more affordable alternative to Apple’s Time Capsule which is selling at the price tag of RM1,199 for 500GB capacity. Of course, it comes with WIFI and USB port for network printing. I already have a WIFI router at home so getting a Time Capsule will render my current hardware redundant. After all, Time Capsule is more expensive than having Charon. 160GB hard drive costs me RM230 and the external enclosure RM75. Total is RM305. About 70% more affordable than Time Capsule. But after using Time Machine, I find Time Capsule will be a good investment for convenience and data safety. So start making more money and start saving for a Time Capsule.

Tunnel X from Gutsy to Leopard

Adrian Hoe — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:08:41 +0000

I have been tunneling X from Linux to Tiger for almost two years without any problems and happy with it. After upgrading to Leopard, a disaster struck me. I was unable to access my Linux applications on my Ubuntu box. I used to do it with Tiger without any problems. When I ssh tunnel X from Gutsy to Leopard, I had keyboard problem. When I pressed some keys on the keyboard, I got numbers and some weird characters like close windows and minimize windows.

The problem lies within Apple’s new X11 in Leopard. The keyboard is not properly mapped after establishing the X tunnel. After searching the web and Ubuntu forum, I found a solution:


% ssh -X username@gutsy
% xmodmap -pke > ~/.keymap
% gnome-panel 1>/dev/null 2>/dev/null & xmodmap ~/.keymap

Just do xmodmap map once will do. After that, ssh into Ubuntu and invoke gnome-panel.

Nokia 6300

Adrian Hoe — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 14:59:11 +0000

It has been a week since I lost my Sony Ericsson K700i. Choosing a cellphone is always a chaotic headache. So many models! I had been a Nokia fan before I switched to Sony Ericsson 3 years ago. The most important feature I wanted for my phone is the Bluetooth sync feature which allows me to sync my Calendar, To-do, Address with Mac OS X. That was the main reason I chose K700i.

Another criteria is that I want a phone to look like a phone. The 6300 has got a classic phone look after Nokia releases so many garbage. Deciding on a model is never easy. I listened to many live user experience from friends and relatives and even youngsters who own phones as a hobby. Reading comparison and comments on Internet is never as good as listening to real people talking straight out of their minds.

Apple’s iSync and Nokia do not support this model for syncing via Bluetooth. I did some research and found the 6300 is using Nokia’s Series 40 software and there are many similar phones have been supported. I need to do a hack to iSync so I referred to the following sites:

Koos Kasper.nl: How to iSync a Nokia 6300
dabgotra.com: Nokia 6300, iSync, and Contact Photos…

By following Koos’ hacks, I managed to setup Bluetooth link and iSync away in less than 2 minutes. Now, my 6300 is populated with so much data from my Calendar, To-do and Contact. I have yet to try dabgotra’s hacks to iSync contact with photos.

I lost my cell phone

Adrian Hoe — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 15:26:37 +0000

I had to go to one of my client’s outlet at Sentral Melaka to service their IP camera. When I arrived at the outlet, I received an SMS from LA followed by a phone call from Richard. He asked me lot of questions about his insurance claim and also to thank me for providing assistance and information about his insurance claim. I remembered clearly I put my Sony Ericsson K700i which I bought in 2005.

I was a Nokia user before switching to SE because I read about how seamlessly SE K700i syncs with Apple’s Mac OS X applications via Bluetooth. The SE K700i is a very nice phone with many features I love about. One of them is K700i can be used as a remote control for Apple’s Keynote presentation software. The control is via Bluetooth as well.

Soon when I realized it was not in my waist pouch, I quickly dialed the number using another phone. The phone had been switched off. Total silence. It’s gone! A phone which has been my friend for almost 3 years is now gone.

I went back to the outlet after taking Dmitry from school and the staffs told me they didn’t see it. Disappointed.

Safari 3

Adrian Hoe — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 16:20:54 +0000

I updated to Safari 3 two days ago. It is included in the free 10.4.11 (Tiger) software update. Although it is still in Beta, it is already usable and it has got many features which I like.

Movable tabs – It is sometime a need to rearrange the tabs according to the tasks I am working with on the browser. When I was too tangled up with web projects and web browsing, I used to like Firefox as it allows to rearrange tabs.
Reopen all windows from last session – This is another handy features which you can reopen web pages where you left off after say, you accidentally closed the browser. Again, I don’t need Firefox anymore.

Rendering of Chinese characters on Safari is the most superb. No web browser can beat Safari. This is another great reason why I still stick with Safari.

Leopard unleashed!

Adrian Hoe — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 14:46:18 +0000

Apple has unleashed Leopard (Mac OS 10.5) last week. It’s an awesome operating system beating all other OS flat out! New features such as time machine, desktop space, interoperability with Apple Mail and many more.

Time Machine is a repository with version control system to keep track all the changes to your files and directories. When you plug in a FireWire hard disk, Leopard will automatically version all your files and directories onto the external hard disk. You are able to go back in time to look for a file (or directory), which you have deleted or modified, and to restore them.

Desktop Space gives you more desktop spaces to organize your works on the screen. It makes switching from task to task simple and easy with a click of the mouse.

It will be a nice upgrade but if you are developing software with Ada, unfortunately, you have to wait for a while. Ada does not come with xcode yet. The folks at MacAda is still working on a stable and working version of Ada compiler.

Safari vs. Firefox

Adrian Hoe — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 07:10:07 +0000

Last November I blogged about Firefox 2 here. I love Firefox but it is too buggy and slow in execution. Safari remains as my main choice of web browser. When inputting Chinese character, I will definitely for sure to use Safari. Its Chinese support is superb compared to Firefox. In Firefox, some of the Chinese characters cannot be displayed properly. Safari now supports inline spell checking. Although, I still use Firefox once in a while for some reasons, Safari remains my favorite web browser.

HOWTO – Building GtkAda project with xcode

Adrian Hoe — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 03:35:43 +0000

My current project (here) requires to develop a GUI application for displaying some JPEG images. I intended to develop a native Mac OS X GUI application using Carbon or Cocoa. Since there is no Cocoa binding in Ada, I narrowed down my option to Carbon. I hit on the wall of frustration where Carbon binding on MacAda.org is very old and supports only gnat-3.3 and PPC (I hope I am not wrong on this).

I have to turn to Gtk+ which will require GtkAda and X11 on Mac OS X. I compiled my test code written for GtkAda very well on console. But when I imported the codes into xcode project, it did not compile. I got the following errors:

error: "gtk.ads" must be recompiled ("a-except.ads" has been modified)
error: "gdk.ads" must be recompiled ("a-except.ads" has been modified)
error: "glib.adb" must be recompiled ("a-except.ads" has been modified)
error: "glib-object.adb" must be recompiled ("a-except.ads" has been modified)
error: "glib-type_conversion_hooks.adb" must be recompiled ("a-except.ads" has been modified)
error: "gtkada.ads" must be recompiled ("system.ads" has been modified)
error: "gtkada-bindings.adb" must be recompiled ("a-except.ads" has been modified)
error: "gtkada-c.adb" must be recompiled ("system.ads" has been modified)
...

I sought help from GNAT-OSX mailing list (September 2007 archive), but to no avail. I spent many days investigating the cause but to find out that gtkada source codes would be compiled and produced .ali and .o files in the build directory when I used gnatmake to build my GtkAda application.

$ gnatmake testproject.adb `gtkada-config`

To build a GtkAda project in xcode, follow the instructions below:

In the project browser, under the Group & Files column, locate Targets and the your project name. Right click your project name and select Add Link Binary With Libraries. Select GtkAda libraries from /opt/local/lib/gtkada and necessary libraries from /opt/local/lib.
Select your project name and click on the Info button. In Build tab, select Search Paths under Collection. Include /opt/local/include/gtkada in Header Search Paths. Also include /opt/local/lib and /opt/local/lib/gtkada in Library Search Paths.
Select Source in your project. Select Add to Project … in Project menu. Include all the GtkAda source files in /opt/local/include/gtkada.

HOWTO – Installing gnat-4.3 on Mac OS X

Adrian Hoe — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 15:15:24 +0000

Perhaps someone has written this before but it seems no where to be found. So I just write a simple HOWTO about installing gnat-4.3 on Mac OS X.

My installation is on MacBook 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo running Mac OS 10.4.10 with Xcode 2.4.1. Pre-requisition is to have Xcode installed before installing gnat-4.3.

Go to MacAda.org to download gnat-4.3 and other necessary tools. Launch the installation in the disk image.

Make the following softlinks:


$ ln -s /usr/local/ada-4.3/bin/gcc /usr/bin/gcc-4.3
$ ln -s /usr/local/ada-4.3/bin/g++ /usr/bin/g++-4.3

Launch gcc_select:
```
$ sudo gcc_select 4.3
```

Ubuntu Feisty Fawn

Adrian Hoe — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 15:37:33 +0000

A few months ago, when fornax‘s hard disk was dead, I upgraded it from 40GB to 160GB and installed Debian Etch. Debian Etch has once again boosted my confidence about Linux. The graphical desktop was working up to my expectation. It could support up to 1280 x 1024 resolution! Upgrading Debian is easier compared to other Linux distros like SuSE, RedHat and etc. Actually, I quite like Debian to power fornax as an alternative development platform and also for some general purpose computing and testing purposes. I did not blog about my Debian installation a few months ago. I should blog about Ubuntu installation to record my experience.

Today, after some months, reinstalled fornax again with Ubuntu 7.04, code named Feisty Fawn. The UI is even more superb than Debian. Everything has been nicely done and packaged. To my surprised, I can run KDE applications from Gnome’s menu. This could not be done in Debian and some other Linux. How nice!

As the matter of fact, I did not like Gnome very much because KDE applications would not appear in Gome’s menu. Ubuntu has changed my perceptual experience about Gnome and once again Linux!

I find Ubuntu has more human touch than any other Linux distros. I also find that Ubuntu is very closely competitive with Mac OS X!

Really, I have download Ubuntu’s alternate install CD in June but I had never had a good reason to install Ubuntu over Debian. This morning, I had to install and configure many software, for instance, Subversion, apache and many other software development tools; it gave me a good reason to install Ubuntu. Not because Debian did not have all these software packages (Ubuntu is based on Debian), it was because I had to do most of the tasks which were almost like installing a fresh system.

Ubuntu’s installation is easier than Debian and faster. I had it up and running in less than 20 minutes!

Now, fornax has once again become my Linux development platform as well as SCM (Source Code Management) server. Oh! I run ktorrent for downloading movies as well. It really flies and sucking all the bandwidth. I have to stopped ktorrent whenever I want to work on Internet.

Adrenaline Hack

Adrian Hoe — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 06:39:21 +0000

Wow! I’ve done it! Yes! Yes! Yes!

After a successful hack to receive a server-push JPEG stream from a video server (more story here), the next challenge for me was to display the JPEG in a GUI window.

I have been trying to get Carbon binding to work with gnat 4.3 on xcode but I am forced to abandon it for a while. I switched my target to GtkAda which will require X11 on Mac OS X. One plus side is that my application will be platform independent if I use Gtk/GtkAda. That means my application can be compiled and run on Linux, Solaris and Windows with the platform-independent GUI. More business may be and hopefully.

I was working to get GtkAda to work on my Mac since yesterday but I had corrupted some of the files I installed with Fink. Fortunately, I have a backup (actually I copied) on my MacBook but I guess I won’t need it anymore since the Gtk+2 and GtkAda are working on my Mac Mini. I will delete the copy on my MacBook later and install it with the working Gtk+/GtkAda.

I spent the entire morning and noon to write a single window, stripped down application to display the JPEG image I downloaded using the application I worked on earlier. I could not get the result. After many hours of hacking, I finally got it to work!

It is so rewarding to see it happens and I have got a good dose of adrenaline today. The feeling is difficult to describe. So it is difficult for other people to feel the excitement and the rewarding state of mind I am into.

The next challenge is to write an experimental application to continuously receive multiple streams of JPEG images and display them in multiple frames in a window, the last and toughest task with parallelism involving socket and GUI. After this, comes the serious software development by integrating all these experimental applications into a nice GUI application.

A Petition To Apple

Adrian Hoe — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 02:42:23 +0000

I have been on and off using Ada (gnat) on Mac OS X. The folks at MacAda.org are doing a great job. Thanks to Jim Hoppers, Andrew Reynolds, Mike Feldman and others.

It has been years since Apple rolled out Xcode, an integrated development environment. Xcode is heavily centered around Objective C and Cocoa. MacAda.org, a group of Ada enthusiasts, took on a NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement) with Apple and integrate Ada, based on gnat, into Xcode. This is very encouraging for developers who develop on Ada to switch to Mac.

I have been developing some Ada standard tools (console applications without GUI) on Mac with Xcode. I am kind of on and off of Ada on the Mac. Every each time when I come back with a project with Ada on the Mac, I will find inconsistencies and between Ada and Xcode.

The support of Ada-Carbon is really hard to follow up with. Even the MacAda’s website does not provide enough information and a proper link to the Carbon binding. The easiest way to develop a GUI application using Ada on Mac is using GtkAda. But getting GtkAda built and installed will require tremendously arduous work to build and install Gtk+ first. And running the GtkAda application will require X11 and of course Gtk+. The application will not be Mac native application.

I (and many others too) would love to see Apple really makes serious consideration to incorporate Ada into Xcode as a de facto standard. Here’s the list:

Makes Ada comes with Apple’s Xcode so that there will be a consistency with every updates from Apple and not from 3rd party website such as MacAda.
Enable Xcode to create Cocoa and Carbon projects with Ada bindings.
Support Core Data Application project using Ada.

Any Mac Ada developers who wish to add to the list, please feel free to post your comments. Thank you!

Server-Push JPEG Stream

Adrian Hoe — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 15:46:24 +0000

I am working on a video server project since last week. This project is to develop a client software running on Mac OS X to control a video server and to retrieve streams of JPEG images from it. And of course, I am going to develop with Ada together with AWS (Ada Web Server).

Up to this point, I am able to connect to the video server with AWS and retrieve a stream of JPEG images from the video server. I have been able to manually extract JPEG images from the stream identified by SOI (0xFFD8) and EOI (0xFFD9). But some of the images extracted from the stream are not recognized as JPEG file while some images appeared to be corrupted. I am totally puzzled by this behavior.

Could it be the size of the stream buffer (512 bytes) causing the corruption? Could it be the output of the received stream to a disk file delay the receiving process?

Here’s a snip of my Ada code:


     ...
     Data         : Ada.Streams.Stream_Element_Array (1 .. 512);
     ...
     loop
        AWS.CLient.Read_Some (Connection, Data, Offset);
        exit when Offset < Data'First or Count > 512_000;
        Ada.Streams.Stream_IO.Write (File_Handler, Data);
        Count := Count + Integer (Offset);
     end loop;
     ...

It is quite fun spending entire day hacking the server-push stream and the JPEG images. It has been a long time since my last hacking. Welcome back to the reality!

My first experience with Mac Book

Adrian Hoe — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 22:20:49 +0000

Yesterday I took Uranus out to work. This was the first time I really worked on the new Mac Book after hours of installation, testing and playing.

The Mac Book sports a 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 1GB memory, 120GB hard disk, 13-inch wide screen, double-layer super drive, 1 firewire, 2 USB, bluetooth, Wi-Fi 802.11G and wired Ethernet.

It runs some applications a little slower with 1GB of memory comparing on Pluto (Mac Mini) with 2GB of memory. Otherwise, performance is quite good with fast responsive.

The only setback is the 13-inch cinema type wide screen clear LCD display. It is difficult to read the screen when use in a bright area. The reflective clear surface of the LCD makes reflection uneasy to the eye. At dim light area, the screen looks crystal clear and crispy. The screen is also a little too small to my eyes, especially after my eye surgery (because of retinal detachment and cataract) with some defective vision (perfect straight line is seen crooked). Otherwise, the LCD is a good form factor for a notebook computer to snug tightly and comfortably in your arm or in a backpack. Compare with the Apple G3 iBook I previous owned, I preferred the 14-inch LCD to this 13-inch wide-screen. But I guess it will be comfortable for me after sometimes of adaptation.

The Firewire transfer during the first initial setup does not copy the entire hard disk from an old Mac. Many programs which I used daily were not copied. One of them is the indispensable X11. I had to install it from the installation CD. The others were Xcode and its supporting packages.

The sound system is really below my expectation. Its speakers are carefully conceal at the air vent at the back (the LCD hinge). The volume it generates is really too low and the sound can hardly be heard in a noisy environment even I have increased the volume to maximum. At 4 bar below maximum, the sound appears to be a little “sizzling”. Not so good for multimedia presentation in a noisy environment.

Overall, I am happy with the new Mac Book. I have again reclaimed my computing mobility after 11 months since my previous iBook died. Again a formidable road warrior who likes to work 20,000 feet above sea levels.

Uranus goes live!

Adrian Hoe — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 23:07:45 +0000

Uranus is my new Apple Mac Book! Named after the 7th planet in our solar system.

This morning, I took the new Mac Book out of her packaging. She was wrapped with a thin and tight cloth-like material. I plugged in the power supply to charge the battery. At 07:07:07 on 07/07/07, I pushed the power button and she came alive. Booting up with excitement. Then, I started the first round of data exchange, copying applications, user’s accounts and files, preferences and all other files from Pluto, the Mac Mini, to Uranus.

After making a copy (almost a mirror copy) of the data, the installation of Mac OS X was completed on Uranus and I started to logged in.

Then I started 2nd round of exchange, connecting to the Internet to update the Mac OS X on Uranus (she comes with 10.4.9 and I have to update to 10.4.10). After downloaded some files, the updates were installed and Uranus was restarted.

Then I started the 3rd round of exchange. Setting up rsync so that I can sync my data between Uranus and Pluto. When I need to go out with Uranus, I can sync files from Pluto to Uranus and bring along the latest files with me. After I worked on some files on the go with Uranus, I can sync back to Pluto when I am home.

The 4th round of exchange was to setup remote links to the other Linux and Solaris boxes.

The 5th round was to install some software which was not copied to Uranus in the 1st round of exchange.

The 6th round was to reload some files archived earlier which were not found on Pluto.

The 7th round was to make a copy of both hard disk to a USB hard disk using rsync.

Exhausted after 7 hours of setting up and testing.

MacOSForge

Adrian Hoe — Thu, 24 May 2007 04:14:10 +0000

I came to know about MacOSForge from Apple’s website a few months ago but this site was not completely up yet. Yesterday, I received an email about MacOSForge from a friend of mine. I was very excited to see MacOSForge to take off.

MacOSForge is Apple’s initiative to create an open source software development community for Mac OS X. Well done Apple!

I hope I would have some projects and more time to contribute to MacOSForge. Perhaps I can make a recipe on how to toast an Apple pie.

Peculiar behavior of Sed

Adrian Hoe — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 19:02:22 +0000

What is Sed?

Sed is the ultimate stream editor. If that sounds strange, picture a stream flowing through a pipe. Okay, you can’t see a stream if it’s inside a pipe. That’s what I get for attempting a flowing analogy. You want literature, read James Joyce.

Anyhow, sed is a marvelous utility. Unfortunately, most people never learn its real power. The language is very simple, but the documentation is terrible. The Solaris on-line manual pages for sed are five pages long, and two of those pages describe the 34 different errors you can get. A program that spends as much space documenting the errors than it does documenting the language has a serious learning curve.

You can read more about Sed here.

My project uses a thick binding of PostgreSQL/MySQL called APQ. APQ is a project by Warren and I helped to host it at my server. See my post here. The configure and make process are not really stable which I think is due to various version of MySQL and the Linux tools such as sed.

To build APQ, first, two MySQL include files, errmsg.h and mysqld_error.h need to be parsed. These files contain MySQL error codes and they need to be parsed and translated into Ada syntax. This translated Ada code will be inserted into apq_mysql.ads.

However, this parsing and translation process are not working correctly as they supposed to be. When I look into this problem, I found a peculiar abnormality. The parser uses sed. When I built APQ on Mac OS X, FC5 and Solaris (Intel), the result in apq_mysql.ads is not consistent on these different OS.

After I upgraded to Mac OS X 10.4.9, the parser refused to work with some error messages which I think caused by sed. I was mingling with the configure script until this hour. Suddenly, something struck my mind. Why do I need to mingle with configure? The problem is the parsing and it deserves the highest priority. The build configuration does not perform a thorough check of the environment but it still works fine at this point. So, I moved my priority to write a parser in Ada to solve the parsing problem. This light shed on me at this whee hour in the morning and I was really too tire to continue working on the parser.

Apple wireless keyboard

Adrian Hoe — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 17:44:58 +0000

I bought an Apple wireless keyboard on Monday. It is a real beauty and works seamlessly with Mac Mini Bluetooth.

The keys are crisp and there is no sticky key. The white keyboard is pleasant to look at but it can be a real hassle to clean. I tried to look for a keyboard cover which is made of silicon and molded according to the keyboard but seems like it is selling like a hot cake.

With this keyboard, typing is absolute pleasure. I was using a keyboard from one of my Compaq PC and the feeling is not comparable.

The installation and setup is a breeze. Just pop in 4 AA batteries. The power switch is located at the bottom of the keyboard. Switch it on for the first time and click Set up Bluetooth Device and in a few seconds, you will be prompted to enter pairing code on the wireless keyboard. As soon as you press Enter, you are on your way enjoying the keyboard. To conserve batteries, it will be a hassle to switch the keyboard on and off. It will be nice if the power switch is conveniently located at either side or at the back of the keyboard.

Building wget for Mac OS X

Adrian Hoe — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 02:56:41 +0000

wget is a very useful utility. It can retrieve files from the web using http or ftp protocols. Unfortunately, it does not come natively in Mac OS X. I had occassionally tried to use wget to download some html pages from some websites a few months ago but wget just wasn’t there. I was kind of lazy to download and compile the source until today, when I needed to download some 50 files from a website. I needed wget badly.

It took me not more than 5 minutes to download, build and install. I downloaded the latest and stable version 1.10.2 on Mac OS X 10.4.8.

Download the source from http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/wget/
Unpack the tarball tar xzvf wget-1.10.2.tar.gz
This creates a directory wget-1.10.2. Change the working directory to it: cd wget-1.10.2
Configure the build: ./configure
Build: make
Install: sudo make install
wget should now be in /usr/local/bin

Cocoa Bindings and Core Data Workshop

Adrian Hoe — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 10:00:51 +0000

The workshop was conducted by Leon at Apple Malaysia office at Bukit Damansara today. It was a really nice and productive workshop. I had experience in C/C++ long time ago then I moved to Ada sometime in 1995. I was first exposed to Objective-C during this workshop. Although I am not really interested in C and other C-derived languages, I do find Objective-C better than C++. Objective-C is a message passing object-oriented language. I develop applications on Carbon with Ada bindings. Cocoa is a object oriented native framework of Mac OS X build on Carbon which is procedural native framework in comparison.

The workshop at Apple Malaysia.

Leon (light blue) helping Peter to solve problems.

That’s me working on Cocoa and Objective-C.

K.K. Chan (with eye glass) gets his hands on Cocoa.

Chris (front) from DevSIG.

Brian from SuavéWare.

Leon, thanks for the productive workshop. I look forward to more Cocoa workshop particularly MySQL framework in Cocoa. More photos here.

First hand on Objective-C and Cocoa

Adrian Hoe — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 08:15:02 +0000

I am attending the Cocoa Bindings and Core Data Workshop at Apple Malaysia. This is the first time I look at Objective-C which is a superset of C. Objective-C is object-oriented. I personally find that Objective-C is safer than C++ at the first look but it is essentially still C which inherits all the unsafe features and properties of C.

On the other hand, Cocoa is really powerful and flexible to develop GUI application on Mac OS X. The only drawback is that there is no Ada binding for Cocoa. And I still very much prefer Ada than C and any C-derived languages.

Right at this moment, I am still keeping my option open as Cocoa is quite nice to use in developing GUI applications for Mac OS X.

A quick search on Google and I find a project on Google Code. The project seems not taking to any height. The project can be found here.

Seashore

Adrian Hoe — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 11:18:48 +0000

Seashore is a graphics tool for Mac OS X. It is an open source image editor based on Gimp and does not require X11. It runs natively on Mac OS X Cocoa. Seashore is also a stripped down version of Gimp without script-fu. One obvious advantage of Seashore is that it loads quicker than Gimp. Download Seashore here.

Compare to Gimp, Seashore runs much slower on and uses more CPU resources than Gimp. I prefer Gimp because of its speediness and scripts. Script-fu is also known as macros as in Windows but is more powerful than macros. Script-fu is based on an interpreting language called Scheme. You can do all kinds of things with script-fu and will probably use it for automating things that:

you want to do frequently.
are really complicated and difficult to remember.

You can do a whole lot with script-fu. The scripts that come with Gimp are quite useful and can be handy at times.

Download Gimp here.

Mac Mini USB port hangs!

Adrian Hoe — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 23:02:53 +0000

I tried to connect a USB card reader via an USB extension (1 to 1 port) which was connected to one of the USB port on Pluto. The power light on the reader came on and I inserted a CF card into the reader. The light on on the card slot did not turn on. I tried many times and still could not mount my CF card.

I unplugged the USB extension and connect the card reader directly to USB port and it was still unmountable. I unplugged the optical mouse from another USB port and plugged it into the troubled port. The red LED of the optical mouse did not turn on. I tried with a keyboard and had no response on the keyboard.

Finally, I decided to restart Pluto. After the restart, the troubled USB port works again. I wonder what caused the USB port to hang. Is it the USB extension? Is it a software glitch? I sure hope that it is not a hardware problem.

Cease development on SGI’s IRIX

Adrian Hoe — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 15:50:37 +0000

After a 30 minutes discussion with my co-workers, we have unanimously decided to cease all development on SGI’s IRIX. We began developing applications on SGI’s IRIX about 5 years ago because of demands in 3-D graphics visualization. We used Ada to implement our 3-D visualization solutions.

With today’s availability of powerful microprocessor such as AMD and Intel 64-bit processor, SGI’s hardware has become too expensive too invest and maintain. Another reason is the difficulty to find tools such as gnat Ada compiler. The download site usually provides out of date version that makes maintaining the consistency of compiler versions across other platforms difficult.

This decision should have been made long time ago. A lot of time and resources had been wasted in maintaining existing software and development of new applications. Our clients’ decisions to migrate to Opteron and Mac OS X based platforms have also contributed to this decision. We expect zero or next to zero porting problem because we are using portable technologies such as Ada, GTK+, GtkAda and OpenGL. This decision enables our development to focus on both Opteron (Solaris and Linux) and Mac OS X platforms.

Firefox 2

Adrian Hoe — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 11:10:50 +0000

Mozilla has released the long awaited Firefox 2 web browser. Firefox 2 is a major upgrade to its popular and acclaimed free, open source web browser. I just finished downloading and installing Firefox 2 on my Mac OS X, Linux and Solaris 10 x86 machines. I noticed improvement in performance, speed and user interface compared to version 1.x.

Firefox 2 has made web browsing easier and delivered best online experience. On Mac, I use both Safari and Firefox for my browsing. Unfortunately, Safari is not really working together with WordPress. For example, I lose all the editing functions when I write my post. The editing functions panel is not displayed in Safari. In the contrary, Firefox 2 displays the editing functions panel and I am able to access these functions by clicking on the icons. Firefox 2 allows me to easily write my posts.

I have not been using any Microsoft products since I completely ditched Microsoft in 1998. The only product that I had on my Mac was IE, Microsoft’s web browser. In terms of performance, speed and security, IE really sucks. I have deleted IE on my Macs and replaced with Firefox.

Mozilla makes improvements to the user interface, security tools and options for customization, combine to deliver rich, engaging, safer and more productive web browsing experience for all.

One feature I like most in Firefox is its ability to view background image and page info. These are valuable tools for web development. Another feature I use most is displaying my browsing history in the sidebar which allows me to browse my history side-by-side with web pages.

Tabbed browsing has become a de facto standard feature in most modern web browser. Mozilla has changed the user interface of tab and allowed moving tab to any position you like so that you can arrange the pages you are browsing according to your priority. Another plus for Firefox 2 which makes web browsing more productive. Apple’s Safari does not allow moving the tab.

Another good selling point of Firefox 2 over Apple’s Safari is the built-in spell checker in input fields. Firefox 2 will underline misspelling inline and is very useful for blogging. With Firefox’s built-in spell checker, there is absolutely no necessity to install additional plugins for blogging tools such as WordPress.

Although Apple’s Safari is also a nice web browser, it still needs some patch up to be on par with Firefox 2. The only best feature in Safari is its excellent support of international character encoding. Apple has done a great job not only in Safari but in Mac OS X and applications as the whole.

So much on the features that I like most and often use. I will let you to discover Firefox 2 yourselves.