philosopher DOT dog

Cross Platform PHP Development With Or Without An IDE

2012-01-28T23:33:00.000-05:00

PHPstorm 3.x

I have a confession. I love a good text editor. At the moment I'm on two platforms: Windows 7 and OS X Lion. I would prefer to use a cross platform solution for web development. That makes most sense. I also love Textmate. But recently I've been flirting with Sublime Text 2, which takes a lot of inspiration from Textmate. But it's cross platform, and pretty awesome.

I'm into PHP development and I've gotten to the point where I need a development tool that can handle proper PHP debugging. I've spent a couple of days reading things on the net and trying various solutions. So far I've checked out Netbeans 7.1, PHPstorm 3.0, Komodo Edit, and Eclipse PTD. I've played with some of these before, but never for a sustained time. All of these IDE's are butt ugly in my opinion. I guess I'm picky. I know, you can get used to ugly coding environments with time. I used to love Windows XP at one time, after all. I'm not going to go into too many details here, but I found that Netbeans 7.1 and Komodo were better than Eclipse. But I think of the IDE's out there for PHP it's hard to beat PHPstorm 3.x. It reminds me of visual studio in a lot of ways, except snappier.

Anyhow, I would really rather use a good text editor. So I decided to look around for a solution. I noticed that Notepad ++ has a plugin that can turn it into a PHP debugger! I know. Notepad ++ is a nice text editor. My main reason for shying away from it is that it's Windows only.

Sublime Text 2.x

I did find a little debugger that runs xdebug and works as a standalone debugger. I haven't tested it extensively, but it looks like a possible solution if you want to use Sublime or another text editor. Of course, it's not going to have all of the tools that you'll find in PHPstorm, for instance.

On the Mac side, I think there are more options, thanx to MacGDBp, which is a standalone debugger for PHP. There are an number of solutions that people have written about using MacGDBp and Textmate.

So, I think I'm going to work with Sublime Text and PHPstorm as my main tools, since both are cross platform, both are in active development, and both are brilliant development tools. I also like the idea that when I need to jump on a Linux box I can brings these tools with me.

Mac OS X's Finder: The Most Important Tweak to Make Search Function

2011-09-27T13:54:00.001-04:00

Apple has made some decisions with Finder that some users might find a bit annoying. So, for instance, if you just open Finder and you hit command + F you get this window by default:

This is a completely useless result. On my Mac the search in fact chokes because so many results are found. This is almost always not what you want in a search result. So, you have to follow these steps to solve the issue and bring some sanity to Finder.

First, you need to change "search the current folder" setting in the Finder advanced preferences.

Next when you wish to search for something use the shortcut command + shift + F. This will set the scope of your search to the current folder you are in, and will set the criterion to "file name". Your search window should now look like the image below. Finally, Finder's search can actually return results that are helpful! Let me know if you have any favourite Finder tips.

Earth Day: Vandana Shiva and Maude Barlow

2011-04-26T13:19:00.001-04:00

I just wanted to draw your attention to a very inspiring talk by two amazing human beings: Vandana Shiva and Maude Barlow. This is a Democracy Now Earth Day special. In the discussion they both claim that the only way humans will survive is for us to recognize the intrinsic worth of the nonhuman world. They speak about this in terms of the rights of nature. I spent a number of years reading the philosophical literature on this issue, and despite what many foolish academics have argued, the idea of recognizing the intrinsic worth of the natural world is key to moving past the current silliness that environmentalism has become. Rather than this being a strange and foreign view, as many Westerners seem to believe, Vandana Shiva notes that this is actually the dominant view among non-industrial people around the world. Anyhow, check out the video clip and post your thoughts below. http://www.democracynow.org/2011/4/22/earth_day_special_vandana_shiva_and

Firefox 4 on OS X--No PDF Support!!!

2011-03-25T12:50:00.003-04:00

Thought I would just post some quick thoughts on the new Firefox 4. I installed it today on my Macbook Pro i7 in OS X (10.6.7). I made sure I didn't write over my Firefox 3 install. It was a lot of fiddling to install all my addons. My first impressions are that it's definitely snappier. However, I ran into a couple of very serious problems within minutes that make Firefox 4 a nonstarter for now for serious Mac users.

Firstly, there's no support for OS X's built in PDF rendering from within Firefox 4. In Firefox 3 there has been a work around with the addon Firefox PDF Plugin for OS X. However, this has not been updated and I could not get it working in Firefox 4. I also couldn't find a work around for this problem. Huge crisis! Using Adobe Reader is obviously a non-option. The other problem I have is that after installing all my addons and finally getting 1password installed, the thing now crashes at startup! Piece of crap. I now have to start it in safe mode or whatever. I think it will be easier to just leave this build alone until folks figure out how to view PDF files within the browser using built in support. I can't believe we're still at this stage on the Mac platform. Proper PDF support is not optional. I know Windows users are used to bad PDF support, but OS X has great PDF support baked in. Why on earth wouldn't the folks developing Firefox not hook into this feature is simply incomprehensible. Another annoyance with Firefox on OS X is that it ignores keyboard shortcut changes. Firefox is a pretty big piece of crap on OS X even before this update, but it is essential for webdevelopment. Safari, Chrome, even Opera are better options for any other task. Too bad. What do you think of the new Firefox 4?

Domain Registry of Canada SCAM

2011-02-24T10:53:00.000-05:00

The letter starts out with the words "As a courtesy to domain name holders...". If you got a letter in the mail that looks like this one I posted do not pay these crooks. Shred it. This is obviously a scam to try to get your to switch from your current domain registrar, in my case it was GoDaddy, to this company at hugely inflated prices. The document has the look of a Canadian Government document, designed to fool the unsuspecting person. If you don't look carefully you may be fooled by this document into thinking that you are about to lose your domain name unless you fork over some exorbitant sum of money. The scam is widely reported all over the internet. What's surprising is that such a business is permitted to operate without government shutting it down. The government is apparently aware of it Competition Bureau.

Never Use Toilet Paper Again: Save a Fortune & Live More Hygienically

2011-02-19T11:46:00.001-05:00

You probably use $50 in toilet paper a year, even if you buy the cheap stuff! Times that by the number of people in your family and it can add up fast. I recently installed a bidet on two of my toilets and it's so much better than wiping with paper. I ordered mine from Hydrojet for $25 plus shipping to Canada, which was around $5 USPS. I'm happy with this brand so far and recommend it. It took all of 5 minutes to install. I can't believe I didn't think of this 30 years ago; I would have saved $1500 in toilet paper if I had! So no more carrying big bundles of toilet paper home from the store; no more storing the stuff. It's way more civilized, cleaner and hygienic. Finally, I can count myself among those who isn't wiping his butt on the trees of the world. Brilliant.

Troubleshooting Air Video and/or StreamToMe Connection on OS X

2011-02-19T11:10:00.001-05:00

Screen Shot Of Culprit

I thought I'd post a quick suggestion for anyone trying to figure out why they are having problems connecting an iOS device to Air Video or StreamToMe with the servers running in OS X. For me Air Video would not connect using the default settings but would only work with "Enable access from internet" set, which seemed strange. I know it wasn't my network because I have another Mac that streams video just fine using bonjour and the default settings. StreamToMe on the other hand couldn't find the running server on my iPad. So I knew something was wrong with my network setup.

Anyhow, start by checking the obvious things, like making sure that your firewall isn't set to stealth mode, and making sure your firewall isn't set to block all incoming connections. Also, make sure that Air Video and ServeToMe are listed in the firewall and all incoming connections is enabled for these entries. This is standard troubleshooting stuff that you should do first.

Now if this doesn't solve the problem go into your Airport Network settings. What I found was that I had set up a profile for connecting to my ISP directly through the modem. This profile was still active in my network settings and was causing my connection to crap out with Air Video and StreamToMe. So if this is your problem you are in luck. Simply right click on the entry in your network settings and inactivate it. As soon as I did this I had no problem connecting to either Air Video or StreamToMe. Hope this helps you.

Wabi-Sabi & the Reverence for Imperfection

2010-03-22T19:17:00.003-04:00

Perfectionism is, at the very least, a recipe for discontent--one I'm all too familiar with. I spent more years than I care to admit as a doctorate student trying to perfect a dissertation and in the process making myself, and those around me, crazy. Perhaps this is why I find the concept of Wabi-Sabi so refreshing. It feels like a home-coming.

I like to contrast Wabi-sabi with perfectionism, even if that's not the best contrast. It's important to notice that perfectionism isn't just an attribute of individuals, but also of cultures. Looking around the Modern West, I see obsessive perfectionism right at the heart of our collective identity. We pride ourselves in it and look down on more "relaxed" cultures, even if it's no longer fashionable to call them "primitive". To say that the Modern West has something to prove is an understatement. We've stepped in to fill the job of the old Christian God, and we're collectively scrambling to bone up for the job, for which we are a bit under-qualified. Perhaps this is part of the reason we're so obsessed with all things productivity related.

Anyhow, in a recent moment of release from dissertation hell, I was doing a bit of casual reading at the local public library, when I came across the concept "Wabi-sabi"; it's the great antidote to perfectionism and modernism, while avoiding a return to the caves or trees (like primitivism). I'd love to tell you a bit more about this fascinating idea.

We know that the Ancient Greeks, from whom we borrowed the odd idea, were very impressed by perfection. Think, for instance, of their sculpture of the perfect male physique, which they designed with mathematical proportions. In fact, Plato, perhaps the greatest thinker in the Western Tradition, was so obsessed with perfection that he posited a perfect world beyond space and time, from which this imperfect world is a rather sloppy instantiation. Plato's ideas influenced the dominant Christian culture of the West, and we can see much of its residue in our obsession with perfection, newness and the slickness of youth, in everything from our geometric cities, to the perfect little cyber worlds most of us now spend most of our waking lives in.

Wabi-sabi, in contrast, is a position not just more accepting of the way things in fact are, but a position that reveres this realm, filled, as it is, with imperfection. Wabi-sabi honours simplicity, the rustic, the unfinished, the random, the asymmetric, the transient, the timeworn, the flawed, the locally made, the humble, the irregular, the organic, the idiosyncratic, the textured, the degradable, the degraded. It appreciates the beauty in the transient, aged, and in the frailty of things.

Things are wabi-sabi, but so are states of mind and states of the world. Wabi-sabi accepts impermanence; it accepts death.

Wabi-sabi is such a relief; it feels liberating to me. It suggests that we no longer have to be perfect. We no longer have to worry about always getting things right, since wabi-sabi accepts the impossibility and utter futility of perfection.

Modernism's obsession with newness and progress is not only arrogant and dismissive of traditional folk-ways, but it's actually a threat to life, beauty, and true freedom. Wabi-sabi gives us a framework for grasping all of this.

I like the concept of Wabi-sabi because it sums up many other thoughts and movements that oppose the modernist bent. If you think of, for instance, the slow food movement, or the local food movement, even the organic food movement, then you are thinking of an aspect of Wabi-sabi. We have lots of movements in the West now that oppose the alienation of modern technology, like television, and promote connecting with the land, with animals, with friends. We also find advocates for voluntary simplicity, for a return to traditional crafts. So, we see Wabi-sabi is a familiar idea, but it's a single concept that captures the whole spirit of a returning to things that worked, to wholesomeness, to authenticity, and away from the modernist rush to make everything new and perfect.

Brew the Best Cup of Loose Tea Ever, Effortlessly

2009-12-11T18:37:00.018-05:00

I'm a serious tea junkie and what better time to cozy up to a mug of tea than the winter. I only really drink loose tea. These days my favourite teas are Japanese Green Tea (usually Bancha), Tulsi Tea (Organic India), and Sage Leaf Tea. I do occasionally brew Camomile and Mint. I usually use organic leaves, but if the Green Tea is Japanese I will make exceptions.

I've been brewing tea for a long time. I don't drink coffee because I can't handle the caffeine. Even decaf is too much. Besides I love tea. I went through a Yerba Mate stage. I loved it, but ultimately I found my body didn't take to the stuff.

I've brewed tea in all sorts of ways. My favourite ways up until recently were to brew it 1) in a bodum, 2) in a Japanese cast tea pot, or 3) brew it in a glass mug with a stainless strainer (the kind you buy at Japanese shops). Forget about tea balls, etc. because loose tea needs to be able to float freely.

I recently discovered the best way to brew tea for individual servings and thought I'd share the technique. It involves buying a double walled, insulated glass cup made by Bodum. It's called the Bodum Pavina Double-Wall Thermo Cup. Two of these cups came with a Bodum press we bought and sat in the cupboard for a long time until we discovered that a tea stainer I had fit perfectly. Shortly after that discovery I haven't been able to drink tea in anything else. Your tea just floats in the inner layer of glass. They are light and durable--made of borosilicate glass.

These cups keep the tea hot but they remain just pleasantly warm to the touch. Brewing tea in glass is the superior way, of course, as any serious tea drinker knows. Besides not adding any weird flavours or toxins to the brew, glass allows you to see what you're drinking in contrast to old school mugs. The tea looks incredible in these cups, which adds to the tea "experience".

The other thing you need is a stainless strainer. The one I have is from a Cast Iron Japanese tea pot. You can mail order them online pretty easily if you don't have access to a Japanese shop. Leave a comment and I can help you find one. It should fit perfectly into the cup. I'm using the 12 ounce Bodum cup and the 3 inch strainer fits perfectly.

Just put your loose tea into the strainer and brew your tea. If it's a good quality Green Tea then let the boiled kettle sit for at least five minutes before pouring the water. Green Tea doesn't like boiling water; it will get bitter and ruin the brew. Also, I like about a two minute first infusion. I usually use the same tea for 3 infusions. You can leave each one a bit longer than the first, up to about 5 minutes. Always use filtered water. Tap water, even good tap water, has too many impurities that will negatively affect your tea.

Please leave a comment and tell me your favourite brewing method or favourite tea.

Macbook Pro 2.26 Ghz 13 Inch: Brief Review

2009-12-11T17:59:00.012-05:00

Thought I'd do a quick post on my impressions of the June 2009 release of the Macbook Pro 13" entry level configuration. I sold my 2.4 Ghz late 2008 Macbook Unibody in order to finance this purchase. I had updated the stock drive on the previous machine to a 500 GB Seagate. So the update was painless. I just moved the drive over and swapped out the RAM for the 4 GBS I had.

The 2009 Macbook Pro I find feels more solid without that flimsy battery hatch on the 2008 machine. The display is also light years ahead in terms of viewing angles, color and the general look of images, text and webpages. The battery is obviously superior. I found it charged much faster after running it down for the first calibration. Obviously the addition of the extra ports, like SD and Firewire are an added bonus.

Personally, I'm inclined to just update every 12 months and sell the old machine. These machines hold their value so well and so far the updates have been worth the few hundred it cost me to update. I personally wouldn't waste my money on the higher configuration. The entry level machine holds its value much better, and there's no real world difference between the processor speeds. Also, I had Apple Care on the 2008 and it really isn't worth it in terms of resale, although I bought mine pretty cheap on eBay.

I'm loving this new machine. Apple is on a serious roll with the Macbook Pro. There isn't a computer out there in this price point that comes anywhere close to it. I give it 5 puppies.

How to speed up Apple's Magic Mouse: MouseZoom

2009-12-03T23:22:00.007-05:00

I love the new Magic Mouse. Some people say that the clicking is a bit stiff, and so it is. But I can live with it. I like the way it feels. Coming from a PC, I like a fast mouse. But even with the Magic Mouse cranked to full speed I find it a bit slow for my liking. Enter MouseZoom. It hasn't been updated in a while, but it works great under Snow Leopard. It gives you the ability to get some more speed from the Magic Mouse. Sweet. Download the utility here.

Gmail PDF Viewer... Give Me A Break!

2009-05-28T23:21:00.003-04:00

Have you noticed that gmail now has built in PDF viewing? It's great news for anyone stuck using Adobe. But, for Mac users who have Preview, this is a big annoyance. For starters the viewer's print link doesn't work in either Safari or Firefox! What a huge pain. I have to download my mail using mail.app to deal with pdf files now.

A brief review of Safari 4 Beta: Possibly the world's best browser?

2009-05-16T21:45:00.018-04:00

I'm a recent convert to OS X. I've been a Firefox guy. Gotta love all those plugins! Although you can get Firefox 3.x looking pretty cool on OS X with the GrApple Delicious theme, it isn't integrated with services, which is a pain. Anyhow, I thought I'd give Safari and Camino a whirl. I checked out Camino and it's great too, but I find it a bit limited for my needs in its current iteration, and a bit slow (even 2.x beta). So, I started playing around with Safari 4 beta.

My initial toying with Safari exposed a couple of problems for my setup straight off. Some pages seemed to be choking. I fixed this finally by turning IPV6 off in my airport settings.

I have to say this browser is absolutely blisteringly fast in Leopard. Way faster than any Greco based browser.

Also, I'm a minimalist. I love the fact that I can visually just have tabs at the top and nothing else; if I want to open a url I just hit command+l, searches are command+alt+f. Once I hit enter the Toolbar disappears again. No distracting bars or icons.

3 finger swipe works to gesture back and forth on the Macbook, or you can use the (shift) delete key.

I've got Preview opening pdfs inline. Simply brilliant and nothing adobe is putting out can come close.

I'm using Glimmerblocker to block ads, and I'm using the delicious bookmarklets (which are automatically assigned cmd+1 through cmd+9) to do my bookmarking.

I'd love to be able to block flash, but so far no reasonable plugin exists for this. Otherwise, I have to say that I don't miss most of the plugins I've been relying on in Firefox. There's an incredible polish and zen like simplicity that makes you want to use this browser all the time.

I can't speak for the Windows version, but under OS X this browser is the best I've seen. I think it may very well be the best browser ever written! Play around with it and let me know what you think.

In my next post I'm going to show how I make Mac Word 2008 into a distraction free word processor.

Use Steel Reinforced Epoxy Putty to Stop Thieves From Stealing Your Bike Parts

2009-03-19T17:13:00.013-04:00

Losing your bike to a low-life thief sucks; losing your bike parts comes pretty close. Personally, I recommend the New York U lock by Kryptonite, if you harbour any thoughts of hanging on to your bike in the big city. Lock it to something that can't be cut or easily broken; remove the front wheel and lock it to the back wheel and frame; old school. If you don't want to remove your front wheel, then use secure stays, like Pinheads, or get used to living without your front wheel. Use the smallest lock possible. The New York Standard (SD) is a good side, unless you're a messenger. Avoid cables or chains; even the best of them can be easily cut with the right bolt cutters; they're generally a waste of time and money. Carry an extra quick release stay in case someone takes the one from your front wheel. Replace quick release back stays with something less removable.

Anyhow, I didn't really want to write about how to lock a bike. What I'm interested in presupposes you already know how. What I'm interested in is securing your bike from thieves who know they can't take the whole bike (since you locked it as suggested above); so, they're willing to take whatever parts they can easily remove, but you're about to make things not easy for them.

Thieves will steal anything that has an allen key hole in it. You can spend big bucks and get the Pinhead headset, seatpost and wheel stay locking system, but, besides being expensive and a nuisance, that still leaves lots of parts to take, including your handle bars.

Lots of people recommend filling the allen keyholes with glue. The question is "what sort of glue". Some people say "wood glue". But forget it. That stuff will run all over the place, make a mess, and it's too easy to chip out. Avoid silicon, which is also easily removed with your bare fingers, if easier to apply.

What I suggest is that you get an epoxy that is meant for filling steel! There are a number of products around that do this. I used a Steel Reinforced Epoxy Putty. The brand I used was Tech Steel, but there are lots of other makers. You can find it in a well stocked hardware store. Nobody is going to steal your parts unless they have all day to do it, because this stuff isn't coming out easily. Make sure you don't put it on your brakes or anything you need to adjust regularly. Steel Reinforced Epoxy Putty is pretty cheap ($6-$7). It dries into a grey putty that looks a bit like a dental filling. Anyhow, it's a very cool solution that I wanted to pass on. Be safe!

IBM Model M Keyboard & OS X 10.5.x

2008-12-01T16:00:00.000-05:00

I just got a new Macbook Aluminum unibody. I'm loving this machine so much. But when I'm at home, I like to plug into a 24 inch screen and I love to type on the IBM Model M keyboard, probably the best keyboard ever built. I have 3 of them. Anyhow, I did some googling around to try to find a solution to remapping the Mac Command key to the right control key on the M. Most of the key remapper programs out there do not appear to support OS X 10.5.x or Leopard. Anyhow, I found a little program called PCKeyboardHack that did the trick. It allowed me to map the right control key to the Mac Command key. Obviously you could go into the preferences -> keyboard & mouse and under "modifier keys" you could map the cap locks key to command for all keyboards. Personally, I use that key. So, that wasn't a solution for me. Anyhow, download PCKeyboardHack here if you think it might be useful to you.

Copernic Desktop Search 3.0 Home (Free) Version gone to the dogs!!

2008-09-06T11:38:00.006-04:00

I loved Copernic Desktop Search v2.3. It was better than Google, or Windows, or even X1. Anyhow, they've just released version 3.0 and they've taken back what has been given for free in previous versions. No more search as you type, or saving searches, for instance. And the biggie is that they're making the free version adware! Absolute Nonsense! Anyhow, I would suggest finding version 2.3 on one of those old version download sites and downloading that until something better comes along. Copernic, you're on the wrong track. Taking back features in an upgrade is pretty bad practice. Obviously greed is overtaking common sense. Why not just make the Pro version so much better that previous Home version users will gladly shell out the $50? It puts a bad taste in user's mouths and makes you not want to go Pro even if you might otherwise have. Anyhow, sticking with version 2.3 until something better comes along. Copernic Desktop Search 3.0 Review

Your electronics can be re-used; So, don't cut the cords!

2008-09-01T11:48:00.003-04:00

I was walking along the street the other day and saw an old vcr. My girlfriend is looking for one. So, I stopped to investigate. On closer inspection I noticed that the person who threw it out had cut the power cord off, rendering it all but unusable! Why on earth do people do this? I've never understood this. I can also recall seeing an iMac on the street one day. It looked in perfect condition, but someone had cut the power cable from the machine, again rendering it all but useless. What a shame. What are people thinking exactly? Is this malice? Or are they worried someone will hurt themselves? It seems completely senseless and wasteful. Please spread the word.

Another thing I've noticed is that whenever people throw away appliances, like fridges and stoves they ruin the machine by prying the door off of it. Now, if you're old enough, you might recall the advertisements on the TV about not disposing of a fridge with a door in tact. But this was because those old fridges had a latch that locked and couldn't be opened from the inside. So, if a child climbed in and closed the door behind them they might die inside. Indeed, this happened a few times and got the media into a frenzy. But we don't have fridges like that any more. And stoves never were air tight nor do their doors lock shut, unless they are some sort of industrial stove. So, please don't pry the door off of your appliances. You see this even with driers and washing machines. This means nobody can re-use them and they will end up in land fill, which is wasteful and is frankly quite irresponsible. Even if we're not careful about our own consumption, at least we can not ruin our electronics preventing someone else from making use of it once we're finished with it.

My next post is going to be on disposable highlighter (hiliter) pens. I can't believe we throw these away. There are alternatives.

How to fix Service Control Manager Error 7000 Win Common module service failed to start

2008-07-25T16:38:00.005-04:00

This is a bit of a technical post that I wanted to just put out there in case someone else was having this issue. Anyhow, it's an error that shows up in the XP Event Viewer with the following details listed above:

Service Control Manager Error ID 7000

The Win Common module service failed to start due to the following error: The system cannot find the path specified.

So, here's how you fix it. It seems that Service Control Manager is trying to load a service module called Win Common. This is probably referring to something that was removed from my HD and so is generating this error. What I did was to run HiJackThis using the /ihatewhitelists mode. You can look up how to do this by googling it. I then found the service entry referring to this problem and removed it. Simple as that. Apparently these Service Control Manager Errors can be a nightmare. I hope you solve it.

Ajahn Brahm on Creating a House of Peace, that is, the House of the Mind

2008-07-12T11:38:00.001-04:00

Why I hate Lifehacker.com

2008-07-07T17:31:00.003-04:00

Lifehacker.com is one of those sites that I have permanently blocked. The problem I find is that it's so addictive, especially if you take to posting on the site. I found I was just checking the thing all the time for the latest software releases and tips. It makes you feel so empty. So, I blocked it, and firewalled my mind against it. It's a time leech. That's my 2 cents on Lifehacker. Steve's tip is to block Lifehacker.com and get your life back. I personally use Leechblock, which is a Firefox Addon to block it. Love the addon. You can read all about it on Lifehacker.com or not.