- January 2006 (1)
- January 2007 (1)
- July 2007 (8)
- August 2007 (3)
- September 2007 (3)
- October 2007 (2)
- November 2007 (3)
- January 2008 (5)
- February 2008 (4)
- March 2008 (1)
- April 2008 (5)
- June 2008 (3)
- July 2008 (2)
- August 2008 (1)
- September 2008 (6)
- November 2008 (3)
- December 2008 (1)
- January 2009 (4)
- March 2009 (1)
- April 2009 (14)
- May 2009 (9)
- June 2009 (7)
- July 2009 (6)
- August 2009 (4)
- September 2009 (4)
- October 2009 (2)
- November 2009 (23)
- December 2009 (23)
- January 2010 (4)
- February 2010 (3)
- March 2010 (2)
- May 2010 (3)
- July 2010 (4)
September 2009
Building Emacs from Source for Mac OS X
Sat, 09/12/2009 - 17:29 | by KrisThere are a few binary Emacs packages for OS X floating around out there, but I always build it myself from the sources. This usually results in an Emacs that works the way I expect, rather than the way some "helpful" distributor thinks it ought to work.
I'll assume you have the developer tools and CVS installed, and know how to open Terminal and type some commands. Here are the commands you need to type:
cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.savannah.gnu.org:/sources/emacs co emacs
cd emacs
./configure --with-ns
make install
When this is complete, you'll end up with Emacs.app in the nextstep subdirectory of the emacs directory. You can run Emacs.app from there, or copy it to your Applications directory.
The iTunes UI Sucks
Tue, 09/08/2009 - 06:13 | by KrisI like most of Apple's products, but iTunes is a very dark corner of the Mac universe.
For example, here is what you have to do to download updates to your iPhone apps:
- Click the Applications link in the upper-left corner of the navigation pane.
- Move the mouse over to the lower-right corner and click the tiny, tiny Check for updates button.
- Move the mouse to the upper-right corner and click the Download All Free Updates button.
Three steps, requiring moving the mouse pointer all the way across the screen between each. There is no automatic-update feature.
There is probably some way to write an AppleScript to automate this, but AppleScript sucks too.
Do a web search for "iTunes sucks", and you'll find a lot more examples.
To paraphrase Bjarne Stroustrup: There is software everyone complains about, and software nobody uses. One could chalk up the iTunes hate to the simple fact that so many people are forced to use it whether they like it or not. But iTunes really does suck. I wish Apple would do a complete re-design of its UI, and make it act like an Apple product.
We Loves the Preciousss
Wed, 09/02/2009 - 06:41 | by KrisIt's not always easy to be an Apple fanboy: read "In Nomine Jobs, et Woz, et Spiritus Schiller" by Merlin Mann
I've installed Snow Leopard on my old 13-inch white Macbook (which I don't use for anything important). I've had no problems with it, but I'm going to wait a month or two before upgrading the Macs that I rely on. I want to wait until Apple releases a patch or two, and I need to let some dinosaurs catch up.
Snow Leopard is a nice upgrade which is definitely worth the thirty bucks, but for most users, it doesn't provide any benefits that justify the pain of being an early adopter.
UPDATE: Have installed Snow Leopard on my work laptop. No problems, except that my HAL 9000 screensaver doesn't work anymore.
Menubar Countdown 1.2 Works with Snow Leopard
Tue, 09/01/2009 - 21:49 | by KrisMenubar Countdown, my Mac OS X countdown timer application, has been tested with 10.6 Snow Leopard, and it seems to work just fine.
(But if anyone finds otherwise, please let me know.)