JLB Enterprises, LLC Blog

Game over

2010-08-09T16:53:00.000-07:00

Dear reader,

I will be shutting down this blog since JLB Enterprises, LLC has ceased to exist. Thank you for your interest and support along the years.

Regards,
JL Brunet
Ex-owner, JLB Enterprises, LLC
August 2010

Search Your Evernote Notebook with Chrome or Launchbar

2010-02-21T22:33:00.001-08:00

Search Your Evernote Notebook with Chrome [Evernote]

[JLB] Can also be used with any command launcher such as the often forgotten Launchbar on Mac. You will simply be required to enter your login information the first time the Evernote query is sent by your browser.

If you're a fan of universal memory service Evernote, but can't or won't run its desktop software for quick access, the service suggests making Evernote.com easy to search from the address bar.

Evernote's team explains the process in the video above, but it's also easy to describe in text. Right-click on Chrome's address/OmniBar, select Edit Search Engines, and hit the Add button in the next dialog. From there, enter these results into the three fields:

Name: Evernote

Keyword: Evernote.com

URL: http://www.evernote.com/search?q=%s

If you've spent a good deal of time with Evernote.com, or read our power user's guide to Chrome, you might have already figured this one out. If not, it's a nice little convenience.

Searching through Evernote with Google Chrome [Evernote Blogcast]

From: http://lifehacker.com

Learn Basic Color Theory for Better Designs [Design]

2010-02-12T21:05:00.001-08:00

Learn Basic Color Theory for Better Designs [Design]

Whether you're putting together a portfolio web site or just slapping together some slides, knowing how colors affect the minds of your audience makes your message more appealing. Smashing magazine offers a post that serves as Color Psychology 101 for would-be designers.

Beyond explaining which colors work as 'warm' and 'cool,' how primaries play off secondary colors, and offering lots of keen examples of every kind of color design, Smashing's post offers some clues on how colors are perceived when images are translated to mental impressions. Here's a little primer on orange that caught me unawares:

Orange is a very vibrant and energetic color. In its muted forms, it can be associated with the earth and with autumn. Because of its association with the changing seasons, orange can represent change and movement in general.

Because orange is associated with the fruit of the same name, it can be associated with health and vitality. In designs, orange commands attention without being as overpowering as red. It's often considered more friendly and inviting, and less in-your-face.

Hit the link for a deeper read. While you've got your monocle and draft paper out, tell us what color schemes you like, and which have never appealed to you, in the comments.

Color Theory for Designers, Part 1: The Meaning of Color [Smashing Magazine via The Red Ferret Journal]

From: http://lifehacker.com

Yahoo OneConnect Brings Free SMS to Your iPhone [Featured IPhone Download]

2008-09-10T23:10:00.001-07:00

Here is a LifeHacker article, for those of you looking for a all-in-1 solution. I will personally stick to my modest needs and iPhone Facebook/Twiterrific applications.

Yahoo OneConnect Brings Free SMS to Your iPhone [Featured IPhone Download]:

iPhone/iPod touch only: Yahoo OneConnect is a free application that brings a handful of communication and social networking tools to your iPhone or iPod touch. Off the bat, the most notable thing about OneConnect is that it supports sending SMS messages to contacts in your Yahoo Address Book (provided you have a phone number in their contact card). That means you can text all day long from your iPhone (or iPod touch, if you have a Wi-Fi connection) without taking any texts away from your meager AT&T SMS plan.

The app's Pulse feature also supports a ton of social networking sites, from Facebook and Flickr to MySpace and Twitter. (Oh yeah, it works with Yahoo Messenger contacts, too.) It connects to and retrieves contacts from every single service, and you can update your status on all supported services from one box. Aside from all the functionality, it's also one of the more slick apps we've seen. OneConnect is a free download from the iTunes App Store, requires a Yahoo account to use.

(Via Lifehacker.)

AutoHotkey - how didn't I use this before?

2008-03-17T07:44:00.001-07:00

AutoHotkey is a Windows scriptable utility that lets you automate the launching of programs, websites URLs, access to files and folders, and repetitive keyboard entries.

It's awesome, and if you work like me most of the time on Windows, will save you a lot of time!

GrandCentral: one number for all your phones!!

2008-03-05T20:33:00.001-08:00

GrandCentral: The New Way to Use Your Phones: I love this new phone service. Lets you use a unique phone number for multiple phones, and offers a great number of smart functionalities. Try it and let me know what you think! Of course, it's FREE!

OpenDNS: SpeedUp Your Internet Connection

2008-01-26T02:00:00.001-08:00

I have just switched to OpenDNS at home and yes! Their DNS is really fast!!! Big change from Pacbell AT&T dinosaurs. I have not yet gone through all the functionalities that are literraly offered, but I could instantaneously feel a gain in speed. Well I am close to one of their centers here in Palo Alto too. Definitely something to try, and very easy to implement.

OpenDNS: SpeedUp Your Internet Connection | MakeUseOf.com

OpenDNS provides a safer, faster, smarter and more reliable way to navigate the Internet. It’s free, easy-to-setup and requires absolutely no download. Basically, OpenDNS lets you speed-up the website detection and loading process which is normally handled by your ISP (Internet Service Provider).

User Testimonial: ‘I can’t say Thank You enough for providing OpenDNS. We had problems with the Bellsouth DNS servers. After switching to OpenDNS everything just works.’ More testimonials
OpenDNS Features
Speeds-up your internet connection.
Warns of phishing threats and adult sites.
Track / Monitor network activity: See what sites are being visited, block adult websites, etc.
Integrated spell-checking tool.
Works on Windows, Mac, Linux...."

(Via makeuseof.com.)

"12 Learnings From My First Turn As Startup CEO" by Jason Goldberg

2008-01-17T14:41:00.001-08:00

Excellent post about startup strategy. Keep reading!

12 Learnings From My First Turn As Startup CEO - socialmedian: "In December 2003 I decided to take the plunge and quit my corporate job to start a new company from scratch. Believe it or not, it was an easy decision. I had an idea and a certainty that there was a valuable company to be built around it. That company was Jobster, where I served as CEO until January 2008 when I helped recruit my successor, transitioned to vice-chairman of the board of directors, and turned my attention to starting a new company.

Back in December 2003 I had no reasonable idea of what was ahead ... what i did have was passion for the idea of Jobster and for the pursuit of starting and growing a business.

I learned many valuable lessons at Jobster which I will take with me as I start my next company and my next and my next.

Here are some of the key learnings that I hope will benefit many..."

ImageWell & Marsedit

2008-01-16T20:49:00.001-08:00

I am trying this tiny little ImageWell program to quickly create and send images. I tried it for an hour, then decided to buy the license, since these are 20 Canadian Dollars well invested. I liked the ease of use and configure of ImageWell almost immediately.

So here is an example of picture, quickly made using (1) Photo Booth application that you get with Leopard and created that nice background (2) ImageWell to crop, shadow and resize the original picture.

Nothing fancy, but takes a couple of minutes to create pictures. I'll look more into the additional features provided with the license, and will update this post. By the way, I am also using MarsEdit for my blogs. It's really nice!

I read there's also a blogging plugin with my favorite text editor - TextMate - but I have not been able to figure out yet how it works; so I decided to go ahead and give MarsEdit authors some of my money. Have you tried?

How to squeeze the best out of FREE NetNewsWire - Ode to Apple

2008-01-14T12:22:00.001-08:00

Good article about blog reading, and setup. NetNewsWire is great! I still use the online Google Reader, but am getting back to a local RSS reader as well. NetNewsWire is a slick one. Running Intel and VMware Fusion, I can use NetNewsWire when either working on my Windows or my Mac interface. That makes things more appealing since most of my work needs Windows and I still want to be able to read some feeds sometimes during the day....

I just hope that making NetNewsWire free doesn't mean that its support and upgrades will disappear.

How to squeeze the best out of FREE NetNewsWire - Ode to Apple: "Ode to AppleDedicated to Apple - Mac, iPhone, iPod, iTunes, Quicktime, Apple TV and all the awesome softwares for the Apple Mac.

A day before Newsgator made their RSS Suite totally FREE, Amit did a review of Newsgator’s FeedDemon (Windows RSS Feed Reader), which got me thinking about NetNewsWire. Let me give you a brief about my RSS Feed Reader usage before suggesting ‘How to squeeze the best out of FREE NetNewsWire’.

I have been using RSS Feed Readers in a way or the other ever since the hay days of the blogging revolution in the early 2000s. While on Windows, I graduated to a full fledged RSS Reader with Nick Bradbury’s FeedDemon ever since its very early days. Bradbury Software, Nick’s company that made FeedDemon was acquired by NewsGator Technologies in May 2005 (I think Nick works with Newsgator at present). "

How to Command Respect

2008-01-10T15:29:00.001-08:00

I found this post useful; we're not always aware of how others perceive us beyond the quality of our work itself. Many things participate in the idea of what others think about you and me: body language, odor, voice!.... It's good to work a little in improving these things. Nothing works better than rehearsals and self-consciousness. It's not really (for me at least) about mirror sessions or tape recording, nor becoming obsessed to a point where you feel embarrassed and afraid of your next move - "should I uncross my legs?" LOL - that post is worth reading.

How to Command Respect: "

Some people are always listened to. What they say matter, and everyone pays attention whenever they speak.

Why is that so? There's an air of authority about their every words and actions, which helps them in getting their point across, when others would not even be heard.

In short, they are who you and I would call ‘Natural Leaders.'

I am not one of those people – I wasn't born super-confident – so I took some time to study man and women who naturally command respect, in order to learn their secrets and get the results I wanted in my own life.

The experiment has worked well: today my behavior has changed - though I'm still me - and I have finally been offered the job I had been wanting for the last three years.

I should come clean with you – I haven't discovered any secrets… – only well known habits which increase their effectiveness exponentially when applied all together.

If you are not a ‘Natural Leader', the good news is that a confident behavior can be learned: read the tips below and start immediately to practice those which feel ok with you. Results will soon follow...

Posture

- Stand tall: keeping your shoulders pushed back will lend you an air of confidence.

- Spread your weight evenly on both feet instead of leaning only on one.

- Try standing with your arms crossed behind your back. Your shoulders will get pulled back automatically.

- Don't stand with your hands on your hips if you don't want to come across as confrontational.

- Don't lean against walls or tables. You'll appear tired and lazy.

What are you looking at?

- Look directly at the person you are talking to in order to exude confidence. If you turn away from the person you're talking to in the middle of the conversation, you'll show you're not interested.

- Look straight in front of you: looking down might be interpreted as shyness, looking slightly upward could be perceived as arrogance. Finally, if you wear glasses, don't look over the rim. It makes you look condescending.

- Don't look at your watch unless you want to appear as if you're in a rush.

- Don't rub your eyes with your hands: it signals disbelief at the situation.

- Keeping your eyes on the door will show that you're ready to leave the room.

When you are sitting…

- Sit straight so that your shoulders almost touch the back of your chair.

- Rest your hands on the arms of your chair, place them on your knees, or fold them on your lap so that they are not a distraction.

- Make sure your chair is positioned so you're facing the person you're talking to. This will show that you're engaged in what they are saying.

- Lean slightly forward to appear interested in a conversation and stress what you're saying.

- Don't tilt your chair back so that it's standing on two legs. This shows a very casual, laid back attitude and does not earn you respect. You also run the risk of looking silly when you accidentally fall backwards.

- Stretching your legs out shows you're too relaxed and may also invade others' personal space.

- Never put your feet up on the desk in front of you. You don't want to come across as condescending.

Head and Face

- Tilting your head to one side during a conversation shows you're interested and thinking about what's being said.

- Be sure to nod your head so the person you're speaking with knows you're listening and interested.

- A blank face conveys either disinterest or a lack of understanding.

What are you doing with your hands?

- If seated, place your hands on armrest or on your laps ; if standing still, try holding your hands behind your back. Break such standard position whenever needed, and then return to it as soon as you can.
- Open, face-up palms signal honesty and straightforwardness.

- Gesturing with your arms can help you making a point, but doing it excessively can became distracting.

- Make sure your palms are clean and dry. Sweaty palms indicate nervousness and are a turn off for most people.

- Never point at someone, be it the person talking to you or anyone else in the room. It's rude.

- Don't scratch your head. You'll come across as being unsure of yourself.

- Don't tap your fingers on a table or arms of a chair; you'll seem anxious.

- Don't run your fingers through your hair. It shows frustration.

- Never bite your nails. It will make you seem nervous.

- Don't fidget with objects lying on the table in front of you.

- Don't sit with your palms on your cheeks. It shows you're deep in thought about something else.

- Do not wipe your palms on your clothing. Use a handkerchief instead.

- Don't play or fidget with your mobile phone when someone's talking to you. It shows avoidance and a lack of interest.

- Don't touch your nose, play with your hair, or rub your eyes when you're being asked for an honest answer. They're all signs that say you're lying.

- Keep your fingernails clean. Close cropped nails show you're neat and orderly, but if you prefer to wear them long, make sure they're groomed neatly.

Last but not Least…

- If the situation calls for paperwork, be sure to keep your papers in order with easy access to avoid looking disorganized.

- Removing your tie, top button, or jacket to indicate you're getting comfortable in your surroundings.

- Open doors and allow others to walk before you.

- Cough and sneeze into your hands or a handkerchief, not into the face of the people around you.

- Additionally, try videotaping your actions so you can find out where you're going wrong. I know, it sound weird, but it is amazingly effective.

- Look good. You don't have to be conventionally handsome or beautiful; it's enough to dress neatly in clothes that suit both you and the occasion.

- Smell good. Use deodorant and perfume, but go easy on it. You don't want to overpower the room with your scent.

- Wear footwear that allows you to walk comfortably to avoid making a fool of yourself.

- Avoid revealing, dirty or wrinkled clothing.

- And finally, remember to smile. Smiles are contagious :-)

Adapted from www.insidecrm.com/blog
"

(Via Even Happier.)

50 Ways To Increase Your Productivity - lifehack.org

2007-05-29T09:54:00.000-07:00

I am quite adept to lists; this one (50 ways to increase your productivity) is, I believe, a really good one. Among the listed items, I have these ones that I really value since they work for me: take breaks, love what you do, use background music, complete most dreaded things in the morning, use a text editor like WriteRoom on the mac to avoid visual distractions, keep a notebook and pen handy, plan your meals, step away from the computer, write a daily to-do list, exercise, turn off TV, learn to say "No", use a calendar, get up real early, reward yourself, speed read, hibernate your Windows station.

What are your own best tricks to get organized? Have you read Allen's book "Getting Things Done?" and what's your opinions about a formal methodology? What are the tools you use personnaly that made a difference in your productivity?

Note Taking and Hands-Free Messaging

2007-04-11T13:15:00.000-07:00

The whole world of information is getting better day after day. Try Jott.com, and you'll get a new very cool way to enter information, via a phone number. Speed dial yourself something important, and forget it. The transcribed message will get straight into your email mailbox, ready for processing. We love it!

So far the service is totally free --- till when?

Hivelogic - The Narrative - Building Ruby, Rails, Subversion, Mongrel, and MySQL on Mac OS X

2007-03-29T20:54:00.000-07:00

Hivelogic - The Narrative - Building Ruby, Rails, Subversion, Mongrel, and MySQL on Mac OS X: This is a great alternative to the simplistic Locomotive. I see Locomotive as a quick way to run Rails applications you want to evaluate, but this tutorial goes much further. It walk you through the installation of each component, whiich will make you feel a tad smarter at the end. The installation took quite some time on my G5 but was a great insight. And I could upgrade to the latest just by using the curl -l ftp:/each_website/each_path/* wisely. Great springboard to Ruby on Rails. Also the usage of Textmate in this development environment is precious, but that'll likely be another blog entry.

Taking My Gmail Offline

2007-03-21T12:55:00.000-07:00

Went through an interesting article about GMail email storage and privacy and security concerns. What's the best and most secure way to keep all your emails? Is it to leave them on the GMail server or take a local copy? Well, talking about my own experience, local copies are good as long as the hard disks last and we all know they don't.

But still, read on, it's goood stuff... Taking My Gmail Offline

Micro Persuasion: Turn Gmail Into Your Personal Nerve Center

2007-03-15T23:04:00.000-07:00

Micro Persuasion: Turn Gmail Into Your Personal Nerve Center

Excellent article about the extensive usage of GMail. These last years have seen so many products becoming mature and moving users from pc-based data to internet-based data. That was a concept we were envisioning one decade ago as Sci-Fi when here and now, it is happening. Great stuff.

Apache - mod_rewrite not working

2007-01-25T09:34:00.000-08:00

Here's a pretty trivial case I faced; the resolution is interesting:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteLogLevel 3
RewriteLog /path_to_log/rewrite.log
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} /somestring
RewriteRule ^/(.*)$ http://some.server.com/somestring/$1 [R]

If RewriteCond trigger /somestring conflicts with some tomcat JKMount setup (or other trigger like for instance WebLogic), make sure that the mod_rewrite library gets loaded AFTER mod_jk library.

How to filter out Spam on the Mac?

2006-11-13T16:24:00.000-08:00

I have been using OSX Mail application since years now, I have been activating the Junk filter also since all that time, and, as much as I can recall, I have been happy with it... a long time ago. But these last years, as the spam got really out of hand, I ended up using up most of my email-reading time in email-deleting and email-searching. Piles of junk at the door every morning, every night. Piles and piles. I tried to define additional rules to kind of nail this terrible thing. With no real success. I understand a few reasons why spammers can still spam us: they spoof other people email addresses, they set many random words in the email bodies, and use images as spam contents. All this is very annoying.

Then I discovered, now a few days ago, SpamSieve for the Mac. This plugin takes the same training approach, where you are the one defining the good emails and the spam emails. It then builds a Corpus, which is a list of words, appended at each new email qualification, and associated with a probability for each word to be part of a spam email. Then this probability can be used to move automatically an email to a Spam folder - when greater than 75%. Between 50 and 75% you will have to choose and tell SpamSieve which is which. Everything that comes out with a probaility lower than 50% will remain in your mailbox or go to whichever folder your other Mail rules define.

That's the principle, roughly. What makes SpamSieve appealing to me is:

its simplicity to operate and make changes in configuration
its speed of execution
its apparent efficiency

I am running a 30-days trial version for the moment, but will definitely purchase a license if the program is as good as it already seems. Will keep you posted on this.

Note taking, information processing

2006-11-07T12:45:00.000-08:00

We daily face lots and lots of information. What computers were supposed to manage for us in fact flood back to us perpetually as a virtual boomerang. The information flows non-stop. When at your desk, facing your mail program, news reader, internet browser, you're already filled with information. Stuff for which you need to take rapid decisions. From which you also generate action, like spreadsheets or emails.

We need tools to handle these heaps. So store, sort, make searchable. To create other actions. Just to keep up and still be productive. Be faster, as fast as the flows towards us. I have been looking for a long time for these, which would increase my productivity, and my overall performance in the work field.

Here is what I have found:

Microsoft OneNote on Windows is quite the best I could find overall. To create 1-click away notes and screen captures it's a great tool. The way you organize everything within that program makes things easy to look back in. Also the way all external documents (emails, files..) can be dropped to create explicit links. Dearly missing on Mac.... Commercial.
For the Mac I just discovered Yojimbo. Not as good as OneNote but usable, still. More on this later. Shareware.
QuickSilver on the Mac also. Dearly missing on Windows :-) Allows you to operate many tasks with a few keystrokes. From google searches to running programs or email people or (again) set new events in iCal. Freeware.
TypeIt4Me on the Mac: set text snippets (essentially used in emails for me, but could be anything else) through predefined key sequences. Takes away the load of repetitive typing. Shareware.

To make OSX look and feel consistent: UNO!

2006-11-07T09:33:00.000-08:00

For those of us who ever "switched", we know that OSX is a great (if not the greatest) and sexiest OS around. There's a little caveat though: for some reasons the design of the interface windows has been taking multiple routes that sometimes make it a bit difficult to the eye. To remediate this problem, interacto.net came up with UNO. This freeware safely changes the look and feel of all applications, into a UNO style, that I personnaly like very much. Try it!

Apache - how to load balance across multiple hosts (using mod_rewrite)

2006-10-13T09:14:00.000-07:00

Here is a nice way to load balance requests using Apache and mod_rewrite.

All it takes is a text file with the different targeted servers, and a "load balancer instance" getting the initial requests. This is a nice way to create sticky sessions to different load-balanced back-ends.

RewriteEngine on

RewriteLogLevel 3
RewriteLog /var/opt/logs/rewrite.log

RewriteMap servers rnd:/opt/apache/servers.txt
RewriteRule ^/(.*) https://${servers:mylist}/$1 [R,L]

with servers.txt:
mylist server1.mydomain.com|server2.mydomain.com|server3.mydomain.com

NewsFire news reader

2006-08-20T17:41:00.000-07:00

NewsFire a the best news reader for the mac. I have used both NetNewsWire for mac and the bloglines website, but now that I've tried NewsFire, I must tell that it's for me the easiest and most practical tool to remain on the top of the many news I collect.

Also if you purchase NewsFire this week end, you will get Inquisitor free! Yes, the author will send you a free license.

How to overwrite a php.ini setup

2006-06-21T16:20:00.000-07:00

Often ISP's don't let people change a php.ini setup. Nevertheless, you can programatically change some of the setup.

This can be really useful, for instance to disable the display of some useless warning messages:

ini_set("display_errors","Off");
(... do some stuff here ...)
ini_restore('display_errors');

As you could see here, the error messages were then re-enabled.

Apache - Reverse Proxy to a backend server running https, warning message

2006-05-12T16:18:00.000-07:00

If you ever set some https reverse proxy server to hit a backend through https as well, i.e. set something like (in Apache):

ProxyPass /abc https://abc.somewhere.com

You will likely get some browser warning complaining that the names don't match. To prevent this, simply request your backend SSL certificate with a subject alternative name = your proxy server SSL name, along with your backend common name (here abc.somewhere.com). Then users won't get warnings in their browser.

QuickSilver!

2006-05-04T17:53:00.000-07:00

I wrote an earlier blog about LaunchBar and Butler, as the most necessary binaries there is on the Mac. I am rarely an early adopter of new tools and usually the first experience is not very positive. You know, we already have it all, right?

Well, I re-discovered QuickSilver a couple of days ago; I was prepared to a little learning curve, and decided to go through a couple of tutorials that night, to help get to the sugar cream layer directly. To sample the great stuff. I did, and I now I LOVE IT!

I love it so much that I simply decided to get rid (i.e. not launch automatically at login anymore) of LaunchBar (had been my sweet sweet friend since years) and my recent adoption (Butler). It's great! It's amazing!! More than anything I had encountered before. Was a paing to work on XP earlier, now it it HELL!

QuickSilver probably is what can be best (or at least close) for human keyboard/screen ergonomy. It emcompasses keyboard shortcuts, spell guesses (not as good as LaunchBar I think, though), contextual menus, notepad interactions (great to have the possibility to type some text on the fly BEFORE picking the program that will use it, whether it's a calculator, a text editor, a browser, a mail program, etc etc). It also offers a shelf, persistent place where you can store all kinds of things (text strips, files, images....) and use them later. Also of course all the buffers are kept (could be hundreds). Also it interfaces very well with iTunes, so any other binary which controls songs and volume were removed. I keep a simple DashBoard widget to keep the album covers visible, and rate the tunes on the fly. Also QS allows to browse and play the tunes.

Many plugins are already available, making this free engine a marvel. I'll likely get back on this at later time. Without programming you can still create your own tools (macros?) to add functions and help in common tasks.

Apple and the world of developers who adhered to this platform, makes the rest of them (the computers) gray, conform, boring, difficult. Elegance and simplicity, again.

Playing tunes wirelessly all around the house?

2006-05-04T17:20:00.000-07:00

YES! Incidently I discovered that iTunes can now play on my Airport at the same time as it blows from my G5!!! I can buy a couple of more Airports later on, hook them up with speakers, and PARTY!!!! Music everywhere! Hiya!!!

Reference here

Butler on Mac OSX

2006-04-13T08:28:00.000-07:00

At first I didn't really look into it. After all, having the excellent LaunchBar and SpotLight tools handy was making me really happy already. Butler seemed like just another goodie in my menu bar, one among the multitude of tools that try to complement each other, without really making your life that easy at all.

Then I started playing with Butler. First of all, yes, it's a great interface to configure, with a good help section too. The kind of quality we love, and it's even free...

So I played with it, making most of my setups (directories, applications, web bookmarks, even keystrokes macros for my Mail application) invisible from the Finder interface. And I defined some shortcuts to activate all these. Plus shortcuts to rate iTunes songs!

It worked so far very nicely! Sometimes I noticed some delay in the initial caching of Butler, but this will be likely tuned later. Butler is becoming my favorite tool to gain speed in my work. Does what an expensive QuickKeys does. Probably not the most sophisticated of its category but it's really, really great!

Apache 2.x Weblogic on HPUX

2006-04-13T08:19:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, when Apache proxies to a WebLogic server, if the application has an issue and fails in releasing threads (typically you would see in the logs some threads struck and some "Out of Memory" errors), it can have a direct effect on Apache itself. Some child process will top CPU till restarted. Restarting Apache can solve the issue, WebLogic releasing its threads and becoming healthy again.

A fine tuning of Apache and the way the processes and threads are configured is also necessary:
- Apache KeepAlive On (to minimize the number of connections for the same client)
- Apache MaxClients and ThreatdPerChild (one thread = 1 connection)
- TCP parameter tcp_conn_request_max must be set
- TCP parameter tcp_keep_alive_interval (not to have too many sockets in TIME_WAIT state)
- WebLogic managed servers can be allocated some threads with increment (example: start with 25, increment by 5 till 50)

But again the root cause may likely be the WebLogic application itself. So looking into the WebLogic logs is necessary to get the whole picture.

Voice recognition and dictation

2006-02-27T22:50:00.000-08:00

I have started to use some recognition software on my Mac. In the hope to make the mac get dictation: emails, proposals, you name it. It's a little difficult to train the software to learn and recognize my speech. And the program is a bit buggy, it stopped responding a couple of time. Also it forces you to use SpeakPad (a little notepad) to do your dictations, before copying them in other programs. But these are still details if the software works. And in fact it does. I believe that perseverance will make the difference. My choice went for IBM Viavoice software, which was not too expensive. I do hope that it will allow me to SAVE TIME, altogether. If it doesn't there won't be any real use. Time will tell.

Python and MySQL on MacOS X "Tiger"

2006-02-27T22:41:00.000-08:00

Started developing in Python/MySQL on MacOS X "Tiger". From a web developer perspective it's a great change from PHP. Many Python features (besides its very clear formatting) are really appealing. Planning to start with some litle web development, then (hopefully, as time allows me) move towards some more serious business. MacPython (http://wiki.python.org/moin/MacPython) helped me greatly to deploy the necessary packages. And I could use the MySQLdb package very easliy. More to come on this.

How to play a random tune in MacOSX?

2006-01-11T16:17:00.000-08:00

Here is a little script to play a random tune in MACOSX. I have enjoyed it since years.

Set this script as an executable, and run it interactively (you will need to put a .command extension to run it from the Finder). I use it as an alarm for the morning. How cool is that.

You will need to configure ONLY the path to the directory where all your music files reside. I use Korn Shell (ksh) as a personal preference but this script should work w/o or w/ very slight alterations. Why do I use QuickTime at the end instead of iTunes? Because I wanted to play ONE file only.

To run it from the terminal window type: ./playRandom.command

Your comments are welcome. We can come up with a more sophisticated version.

#!/bin/ksh
# enter here the path to your music directory:
f='/Volumes/yourDisk/yourMusicDirectory'

# temp file:
l='/tmp/musicList.tmp'
if [[ ! -e $f ]]; then
echo Sorry, $f is not accessible.
exit 1
fi

r=$RANDOM
find $f -name *.mp3 > $l # list of mp3 from f root folder
t=`wc -l $l |awk '{print $1}'` # how many titles?
if [[ $t -eq 0 ]]; then
echo Sorry, no title found.
exit 0
fi

echo "Random = $r , nb titles = $t"
# takes modulo:
# remainer of division of random number by number of mp3 files
n=`bc << eof 
($r % $t)+ 1 
eof 
`  
echo "number is $n"  
c="sed -n '${n},${n}p' $l" 
# gets this line number modulo to play 
title=`/bin/ksh -c "$c"` 
echo "+++++ Playing $title +++++" 
open -a "QuickTime Player.app" "$title" & 
rm $l

How to push your best pictures online using iPhoto and Flickr in less than 15 minutes

2006-01-11T15:46:00.000-08:00

So there you are, the cab just dropped you at the house and you're already connecting your digital camera to your computer to get a quick additional shot at these amazing memories. Of course you want to share them on the fly, too!

Preparation:

get a free account at flickr.com
get the little flickr plugin for iPhoto - I use FlickrExport by Connected Flow, free and working great
load your pictures in iPhoto

Now here is what you just need to do:

rotate the pictures
rate the pictures, give some 3 and 4 stars to the best ones
sort your album by rating, highest rate first.
select the highest rated pictures, export them to flickr, voila!

Just bear in mind that the upload to Flickr is limited to 20Mb/mo in the free version. Pro version is a must once you're addicted.

Have fun, and share!

MACOSX Apache 2.0.52 update

2005-12-22T22:22:00.000-08:00

I had gone back and forth between Apache 1.3.28 and 2.0 installations, staying stuck since too long with 1.3 version. Mainly because I use this webserver for business and it needs to remain available if I don't want to have business hickups. Although I have been installing and configuring so many instances of Apache web servers in the past (mostly on HP-UX and Linux) I am still intimidated when it comes to macs. Also I had tried multiple MacOSX Apache 2/MySQL/PHP bundles, and that didn't work for me, since that somehow conflicted with existing components. In fact as soon as we're back in the 100% GUI-driven syndrome, I don't get it. Wander in the internals.

Tonight I thought I should try it again. And I did. First I got Apache 2.0.52 package right from Apple website. I decided to deploy only what I needed to really upgrade, which would be Apache and PHP. Once well deployed and tested on separate port, I needed to have a couple of little things to set:

- PHP 5 load module - with a shiver about my existing code, developed in PHP 4. Same great Liyanage stuff, that guy's been around since a long time and still delivers great stuff. Little tweaks needed, but not that much.

- Name Virtual Hosts (see my other post on that)
- protected directories in my sites
- startup script (/Library/StartupItems)
- webserver user/group and privileges, session cache files permissions
- logs locations were changed
- Apache2 System Preference, which is quite nice to use (although I am a shell user by necessity)

I had absolutly no issue with the MySQL database connectivity, which is totally external to the Apache/PHP combo.

This upgrade was the oportunity to move from an old configuration file to a new one, since Apache 2 has its own specifics. There ares still litte details I didn't test yet, like some wap wml modules for cell phones, and my overal PHP 4 code.... Good thing is, the response is excellent; at least as good as my old Apache server.

I could have done it quicker, I guess. Overall it was completed in around two hours.

Dynamic IP address & multiple websites with Apache

2005-12-22T16:34:00.000-08:00

port forwarding

dyndns.org IP sending

Of course many of us know already dyndns.org website, which has been offering since years the possibility to get a domain name for free. For instance my private domain is theblackcat.dyndns.org. Since I don't have a static IP address at home, but the dynamic IP address provided by my dear ISP, I use dyndns.org. All I do is send to dyndns.org my IP address, on a regular basis. Uh in fact I used to, but since my router can do the job in my back, I let it handle it. I also tell it to handle wildcards so any subdomain will also be routed to me. More about that feature later...

I have Apache running on my G5. Nothing fancy, I tell my router to reroute all trafic coming on port 80, to my G5. So basically at this point I have a webserver behind a router, getting requests on port 80 for the default host, through a NAT router. Please note that in order to make sure that the port forwarding rule always works you will need to tell the router to associate the internal IP address 192.168.0.2 (in my example) to your web server's physical MAC address. If you don't do that and restart all your network, the NAT router will have all the bandwidth to address local addresses randomly, kinda first come first serverd. You don't want that. You need to harden the IP address of your web server, for the web services. If you have other components running on some other machines (say, a VNC service you need to access remotely) same rule, you'll need to give that other server a local IP address that doesn't change.

What happens when you hit: http://theblackcat.dyndns.org ? Dyndns.org name server tells your ISP where to route theblackcat.dyndns.org requests, and the router sends the requests on port 80 to that webserver behind it. Now, what if I don't have only this main family website, but also a myriad of other little web sites, on that machine?

Let's say I have customer XYZ to set up and test on my home server before putting the application on his/her ISP. My router will get these, I know that from a simple nslookup:

$ nslookup xyz.theblackcat.dyndns.org
Non-authoritative answer:
xyz.theblackcat.dyndns.org canonical name = theblackcat.dyndns.org.
Name: theblackcat.dyndns.org
Address: aa.bb.cc.dd

So it will work, the requests will be routed to my dynamic address and come to my computer. I will need to set a xyz.theblackcat.dyndns.org as a name virtual host in apache.

I will need to:

1) Activate the name virtual host in Apache:

NameVirtualHost 192.168.0.2

2) set this new virtual host by name

<VirtualHost 192.168.0.2>
ServerName xyz.theblackcat.dyndns.org
DocumentRoot /path/to/xyz/document/root
</VirtualHost>

3) Restart Apache web server. Voila! Http://xyz.theblackcat.dyndns.org requests will go through the internet to my router (dyndns.org IP address resolution), from the router to the computer (static route + port forwarding), and from the computer to the right subdomain document root (apache listener and name virtual host).

You can have many Name Virtual Hosts listening to the same IP address (my G5 IP address) and Port (80) and still it will work! In the past I used to route customers to different ports (ex: http://theblackcat.dyndns.org:789), but this way is much more secure and cleaner.

You could carry your laptop over the world, with all these nice websites sleeping inside, and still have your dyndns.org name following you. Still be online. You might need to add some little dyndns.org client to send the new IP addresses in the case you're not behind a nice NAT router which performs it for you, to have your IP Address sent. Either way, easy and reliable. Be aware that if your laptop is off, unplugged, people will get nasty looking TCP errors. You might want to use a cheap provider an set a little dynamic page to test your web server and tell user "Sorry - please come back soon!" -- That's easy, another story I'll tell you another day...

14 MacOSX essential applications

2005-12-22T15:29:00.000-08:00

Of course when it comes to macs and great applications, I can't omit what Apple is giving us for free ( iTunes iPhoto iMovie iDVD Safari Mail)... There are also the sedentary 800 pounds gorrillas that I use all the time in my business and leisure, from Adobe (photoshop, illustrator, acrobat) and from Microsoft (Excel, Word, Powerpoint)...

Besides, here are the applications that I use, mainly from shareware or freeware origin. There are equivalent products out there, but at some point I decided to stick to these:

GraphicConverter: helped me hundreds of times in the past 10 years. It's still a reference in the Mac world
Proteus (instant messenger on steroids, setting )
iPulse: nice looking monitor for my G5, my favorite skin being "The Eye"
Acquisition: cool peer to peer software, non invasive
Launchbar: I know Tiger now has it. Launchbar must have saved me hundreds of hours
Synchronize!Pro: I love this backup program
Firefox: I use it a bit more than Safari. I merely use IE at all
TextWrangler: best text editor for free. Little brother of BBedit
HandBrake: to rip your DVDs
MacJanitor: to cleanup your mac of the mess left behind; a healthy habit
VLC: to play all kinds of movies files formats
Transmit: to cover all my FTP needs. I never editi usually in a ftp utility. But with this one, when it comes to quick fixes or short release cycles, it's really great. Allows you to edit with your favorite text editor. Plenty of power tools (like synchronization) that I 'd rather NOT use :)
FinderPop: sounds familiar? great Finder utility to map volumes from any place. Now ported on MacOSX. It's like meeting an old friend.
DiskWarrior: I was about to forget this last one, although it's one of the best utilities to salvage disks and corrupted files structures. Succeeded where all others failed. A must!

That's about all I have in my Applications folder. I will write another post at a later date about my internal prefered open source. Buy choosing Unix BSD, Apple grasped many jewels.

What's in my MACOSX menu bar?

2005-12-22T14:32:00.000-08:00

I have always been a fan of apple menus. In order of appearance we have (left from right):

BackLight: an amazing desktop utility that allows us to play any ScreenSaver we have (like the great SaveHollywood which allows you to play movies as screen savers) - associating BackLight and SaveHollywood plays movies as desktop backgrounds. Added to that you can of course choose the opacity of the effects. Sweet!
ByteController: very sweet iTunes controller. In fact the thing is, I merely use the menu bar options, mais I LOVE the keyboard shortcuts that allow me to control iTunes pause (cmd-alt-space), skip (cmd-right, cmd-left) and volume (cmd-up cmd-down arrows) buttons, while keeping on typing other things
SpiritedAway: allowing me to hide idle application automatically and define exceptions
Yahoo! Widget Engine: allowing me to have all my Yahoo! data (calendar, notes, address book...) directly on my desktop, keeping my data always up to date.
GeekTool: listing on my desktop sets of logs when need be (nice to monitor a webserver, among other things)
Stuffit icon (useful)
Displays control panel (useful)
Sound controller (useful)
Applescript icon: to access library scripts quickly (merely used)
Users menu: for quick switch
MenuCalendarClock: great little utility; I use personnaly the freeware version which is realy enough for my usage

There's a great blog (at hicksdesign) to remain updated and try apple menu programs.

MacOSX sysctl.conf issue and resolution

2005-12-22T10:13:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I decided to tweak my MacOSX (10.3.9) to supposedly speed up network transfers on my G5. I created /etc/sysctl.conf file and entered configuration based on some tip found on macoshints.com website to speed up Samba transfers. Not that I am unhappy with my setup, it's just I like to try new things and unleash hidden powers!

net.inet.tcp.mssdflt=1460
net.inet.tcp.sendspace=262144
net.inet.tcp.recvspace=262144
net.inet.udp.recvspace=74848
net.inet.udp.maxdgram=65535
net.inet.tcp.rfc1323=1
net.inet.tcp.newreno=1
net.inet.tcp.always_keepalive=1
net.inet.tcp.keepidle=3600
net.inet.tcp.keepintvl=150
net.inet.tcp.slowstart_flightsize=4
net.inet.tcp.strict_rfc1948=1
net.inet.tcp.delayed_ack=1

Indeed on MacOS if that /etc/sysctl.conf file is missing, since it's BSD distribution it's still looked at and picked up by /etc/rc bootup script, which sets all its data values using sysctl. Very powerful. So curious of this finding and excited by possible gain of speed, I went on and rebooted..... That's when the problem arised..... The system got sluggggiiiissssshhhhhhh. Started with network file server (NFS) load, till login screen ... that I never saw.....

Of course I had no bootup CD at hand, to undo my change. So much like me! I knew I had to to boot in Single User mode but I couldn't remember the bootup keys combination. So I felpt stuck, despaired, and angry at myself.

Lucky me I had another computer plugged in my router, to hook up to the internet! Kissed my Lucky Star... I could now boot and get the root prompt. I saw my /etc/sysctl.conf file, but there was no way to either delete it, or edit it! Sigh! The system complained that the system file was read only, but I was root with root privileges! A config file held by a process maybe? never heard of that before! It took me time, anger and more reading to figure that I needed to manually mount the volume in read/write mode. What I did. That was it! I could delete the culprit and reboot at blazing speed.

So what needed to happen:
- reboot computer in single user mode (press Command-s while booting)
- mount main volume in read/write mode (mount -uw /)
- remove /etc/sysctl.conf file (rm /etc/sysctl.conf)
- reboot

Here are the actions I felt at that time I should have taken before:
- print out / learn bootup commands
- burn a MACOSX bootup CD in case I need to jumpstart my G5 externally
- not simply change configurations unless really necessary and well understood, or a backup plan in place
- learn more about MacOSX bootup sequence. There's an excellent page on that.
- learn more about tcp/ip / kernel intricacies

Simple precautions. Computers are toys to toy with. But when they break we realize they are more than that. Now I feel more confident and will probably play around some more, once I feel comfortable.

The portable desktop

2005-12-22T10:06:00.000-08:00

I have always wanted to carry my desktop wherever I go. But without PDAs or a stuffed wallet. PDA's looked cool during the www bubble, but hey, most of us went back to basic necessities.... I want to be able to travel light and free, but yet carry my essentials with me: a piece of shell script I wrote, some login information, some bookmark, many things... Well, there is finally a major breakthrough, after walking in the desert for so long and talking to demons: the Yahoo Widgets! I hear you already: widgets arent't new! we have everything! we have Tiger! We have it all! Uh ... no, not really. There's always an invisible ombilical cord that ties us to a machine. And when this machine is away or simply dies, we die too.

Well, I hadn't given up. Experience and patience paid off. I tried many things many times. As a mac user for instance I could synchronize my Yahoo calendar / notepad / address book with my MS Outlook, and my PDA. After weeks of synchronizations, after multiple overwrites, multiple duplications, deletions, multiple purchases of utilities which would supposedly simplify --- I gave up. Till now. Finally again, I have Yahoo Widgets. I carry my desktop with me wherever I go, wherever I have the Widgets installed. I just need to enter my login information and get the widgets updated w/ my latest information (my calendar, my notes, my address book, my to-do's). I can see and edit my information, in one only place.

Okay I was lucky. I have a Yahoo/SBC account that I have been using in years. So I am specific, still. But the point that I am trying to demonstrate is, we are all moving towards a seemless portable desktop. A fluid access to our information.

Another revelation was del.icio.us bookmarks, very recently. There's been tons of things written on it, really a lot of buzz. A blog convinced me to go over the so-simple (ugly?) user interface and try to finally use it. Once passed the first mitigated impression, you start building your bookmarks and keywords. By clicking around you discover others and their keywords and bookmarks. That's that social bookmarking! What a great and simple idea! Now, you are carrying your bookmarks around with you, you also have them categorized in a very special way that works for you. You are also discovering new places of value on the web! Right there a click away. We all use Google, but del.icio.us is different from raw - yes possibly elaborate - search. This is your own repository of information. You can crawl del.icio.us by key word and get to some very pertinent information, without any Googling.

You can also have del.icio.us work for you by setting some inbox key words and wait for it to suggest new findings based on these words...... Not finding over zillions of web cached pages, but over bookmarks that people considered of value. That's a human filter. By making your lists available to others, you also share your discoveries. Or advertise for yourself by inducing the Buzz. Read "The Several Habits of Wildly Successful del.icio.us Users" from Slacker Manager, for additional thoughts.

Another little habit that became tremendously important for me, has been to gather all my RSS feeds online, with Bloglines.... I tried alternatives before and after Bloglines, bought some newsreader for my mac: NetNewsWire, said to be the best of its kind on mac. Since I have multiple computers to use, again, I was in the maze of syncs that would not really work.

The combination of these three tools today brings my destop wherever I go. My eferences, my libraries. I am less tied to one computer anymore. All my information is online, accessible, centralized yet distributed. Whatever happens to my computer, I am in touch with my stuff, with the things that matter to me and my business. How free!