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VMware has recently updated the VMware Thinstall page and is now offering a download of what they call “Project North Star” - a Thinstall product.
Also not that there is a thinstalled version of Firefox available for download from the same page.
Through Dianne Green didn’t speak a whole lot about Thinstall at VMworld today, it’s good to see VMware at least touch on it a bit as the appvirt vendors are keen to find out what sort of developments are to come.
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If you’re now using Firefox 2.0, you’ve probably already noticed that tabs now have close buttons by default, instead of having a single tab close button on the far right-hand side of the toolbar. If you preferred the older behaviour, simply navigate to the “about:config” page (type it in like a URL or webpage address), and find the section marked “browser.tabs.closebuttons”. Double-click on this entry, and set the value to 3 to display a single close button at the end of the tab strip (Firefox 1.x behavior).
Alternatively, you can set the value to 0 to display a close button on the active tab only, 1 to display close buttons on all tabs (Default), and set it to “2 to not display any close buttons at all.
taken from the about:config page at MozillaZine
A parting tip: To close the current tab using your keyboard, press CTRL+W. If you close a tab by mistake, just head to History > Recently Closed Tabs, and you can resume work from there (alternatively, you can use the arcane keyboard combo CTRL+SHIFT+T).
If you prefer using your mouse and want an even faster way about it - try the middle-mouse click (that’s typically a scroll button). When you click the scroll on any tab it instantly closes the tab for you. I have been using this method quite a bit lately. Though it seemed quite alien at first, I quickly got used to it and it’s now a major part of my Firefox 2 workflow.
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OK, so everyone is very excited about Firefox 2. I’m excited, your excited, all the social networks are ablaze.
But development does not stop at whole numbers, and the testing must go on - which is how we got here.
So I’m testing Firefox 3 (Minefield). That’s right, I won’t be outdone. I must run the most unstable software. Well at least on the test boxes. So currently the Vista, Leopard, and Edgy boxes are running “firefox-3.0a1″.
The first things you will notice are the graphics - everything has a nice sheen to it (in fact, looks just like Firefox 2!), while remaining true to the normal Firefox UI. Also of note is the fact that favorites are now run using a SQLite3 database. For the full list of features, head on over to the Burning Edge page.
Firefox 3.0a1 Toolbar
New Tabs in Firefox 3.0a1 Minefield
As far as I can tell this is just as stable as Bon Echo was (that’s right - was stable for me), with inline spell-checking and some other fancy goodies.That’s all for now, some more screenshots from other platforms (other than Windows XP of course) and crash reports as they happen
Note: of course this is somewhat tongue-in-cheek. I’m sorry for the Mozilla devs. We all need to stop worrying about the cutting edge and appreciate what we have - fantastic browsers! Opera, Safari, IE7 and Firefox are all great, really.
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Prototype.js is a very popular AJAX framework used when building dynamic websites. You will find Prototype in most Ruby on Rails projects as it is included by default, and for good reason; Prototype.js is a great library that includes a lot of functionality.
Unfortunately it is rather large in size, weighing in at roughly 50KB.
Although many have managed to reduce the file size of Prototype by paring down the code and gzipping the file, we’re going to use an additional tool to approach the problem, one from the Mozilla foundation that appears to work very well - Rhino.
(Oh, in the interest of full disclosure, I am a Java fanboy, having studied at a university that got a lot of Sun funding back in the day. I hope you can see past that and check out this Javascipt hack, I really do.)
An informative quote from the Mozilla page for the Rhino project goes like this:
“Rhino is an open-source implementation of JavaScript written entirely in Java. It is typically embedded into Java applications to provide scripting to end users.”
Alright then, so what you have is a Java bytecode version of Javascript that will work in most browsers.
Sounds interesting, let’s see what we can do with Protoype.js!
I decided early on to use a Rhino tool that I found on the Dojo site that allows me to compile Javascript and make it Rhino compatible. The page give you a brief walkthrough and some examples on how to use the tool, so I won’t need to cover that here in detail.
So we compile our Prototype Javascript file, let’s see what our results are then, shall we?
Before: 47445
After Rhino: 32716
After Rhino and gzip: 9454
So it’s at about 9KB now!
In order to utilize the new file, upload it to the directory that houses your original Prototype javascript file, then any instances of prototype.js in your code to prototype.jgz (zipped javascript).
You’ll also want to change your .htaccess file so that you handle the new script properly by typing pico (or nano or vi or what-have you) .htaccess:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ".*Safari.*" [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP:Accept-Encoding} !gzip
RewriteRule (.*)\.jgz$ $1\.js [L]
AddType "text/javascript;charset=UTF-8" .jgz
AddEncoding gzip .jgz
You’ll notice here that we’re doing user agent detection for Safari. When I did my testing it seemed to be spotty, so what we’re doing is falling back to javascript if we see that the user is using Safari. We’re still compatible, and the code works everywhere else.
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More and more people are turning to virtualization these days. One of the main reasons is in order to test pre-release, beta, or alpha software. When it comes to Linux, the operating systems are in a state of constant flux so there’s always something new to test. People routinely want to test beta versions of KDE and Gnome and other desktops before comitting, or simply want to see what features are in development.
We’d previously written an article about installing Ubuntu 6.10 Edgy Eft Knot 2 (it IS a long name) on a Mac Mini, so to do the same would be batty. Instead, this guide covers testing the newest Ubuntu 6.10 Edgy Eft Knot 3 on Windows XP using free (as in beer) virtualization. This guide would also apply to anyone testing on various flavours as well, as long as they can run our free virtualization software: VMWare Server 1.01.
Setting up the Ubuntu virtual machine in VMWare server is very easy (click the pictures for larger versions):
Connect to your local VMWare Server installation if you run it locally, or connect to your remote VMWare Server.
We’ll select “typical” for this virtual machine as VMWare Server includes a configuration for Ubuntu already.
And, speaking of which, here it is! Make sure to select the plain “Ubuntu” option, unless you are running a 64bit host, and downloaded the 64bit version of Edgy Eft knot 3.
Name your virtual machine and select the location. The defaults should be fine here but feel free to tinker.
I typically use bridged networking, but for added obfuscation you can use NAT (which creates a virtual network based on your host’s network connection). You could also select host-only if you only want to be able to contact the host operating system. In fact, if you really wanted to make sure the machine is isolated from the wiki wikid web, don it with a nice tinfoil hat and disable networking completely. Ubuntu won’t be happy, but it looks pretty nice in a tinfoil hat.
8 GB of diskspace is fine for testing.You’re not going to be leeching full seasons of Lost… at least we hope so.
Since we opted to allocate diskspace now, VMWare Server will start creating the 8GB file. This can take some time depending on your computer’s hardware. In my case this took a few minutes - I use SATA2 NCQ hard drives and have 2GB of RAM. Your mileage may vary.
You now have a default virtual machine set up, but it will need some slight tweaking in order to install Edgy Eft Knot 3 as fast as possible. Click on “edit virtual machine settings” and remove the floppy drive - we don’t need it. Set the memory to at least 512MB, but it really depends on your total amount. Since I have 2GB total RAM on my host I select 1GB normally. Edit the CDROM settings and point it at your Ubuntu Edgy Eft Knot 3 CD image. Click “OK” - we’re set for lift off.
Press start and drool over the new llivecd boot screen. Note the reflection on the logo. How original.
Now we’re at another original boot screen - the progress loader. Note the gradient progressbar, and the Crystal-esque Ubuntu logo. Reminds us of 3 years ago, doesn’t it precious? Yes, yes it does.
We’ve landed at the desktop. You may stop here if all you wanted was a secure browsing solution with no cookies and passwords to worry about. Should we wish to continue, our mission involves double-clicking that obvious “install” icon. Let’s go for it.
This is an easy 6 step process. Step 1 - select your language.
Step 2 - Select your location or timezone.
Step 3 - Select your keyboard layout. I normally recommend you test the layout just in case. We’ve typed in “blandname” here for demonstration purposes. You may wish to try typing “Ubuntu”, but nothing else lest ye be stricken down.
Step 4 - Identify yourself. This information will be used later in life to incriminate you. Be choosy with naming and passwords. Harry MacDonald that means you! Try typing in something other than your real name here - it works, I promise.
Step 5 - We’ve pre-allocated our diskpace, so no need to worry about this one. Just click the “forward” button.
Step 6 - There really isn’t a step 6. The Ubuntu team has decided to waste our time by confirming the already tedious and easy task. Onward, ho!
Installing - took me 30 minutes. It may take you an eternity, but with hardware prices where thet are, I seriously doubt it will take you long to be rolling with a virtual Edgy Eft install.
The eternity has passed, and we’re going to reboot. Don’t forget to disable or otherwise change the CDROM settings so you don’t end up installing again - that would be embarassing, right?
There you have it - the pretty login screen. Note those options. XDMCP looks very intriguing doesn’t it? We’ll get to that later…
And presto! What have we got here? Firefox 2.0b1 - Bon Echo Beta 1! Try it out and see what you think, I’m impressed so far to be honest.
So that’s it, you now have a working Ubuntu 6.10 Edgy Eft Knot 3 test virtual machine (edit: let’s make the name longer). And it weren’t hard neither! When Knot 4 comes out you’ll be able to do it in your sleep. If not, well we’ll see you searching for it again.
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This is more of a teaser, but my dream has come true! Ruby on Rails is now installed by default on Apple Mac OS X 10.5 Beta (Leopard WWDC edition). Getting it up and running is really a snap.
Here’s the quick and dirty way to make a sample Rails environment and start the server.
Firstly, open the Terminal application. You know the scary black window with white text. Well actually it could even be white with black text - your mileage may vary (mine is black with green, for example).
Anyway, we’re wasting time - this is quick and dirty right? Otherwise I would be talking about chunky bacon.
In Terminal, type:
rails example
You’ll be met with a nice list of scrolling lines and when it’s done your “example” Rails application will have been initialised.
And that’s pretty well it!
Moving on, we want to see something tangible to prove to ourselves just how flippin’ impressive this really is, and why you knew when you saw that Apple Developper Connection article about Rails you knew good things were to come.
In Terminal, once more, sweating profusely now, we type:
cd example
ruby script/server
This runs the server for us. Once it has been set up, you can safely minimize the Terminal, and fire up Safari, Firefox, Camino, iCab, heck even Internet Explorer. We’re navigating ourselves to: 127.0.0.1:3000
Here’s what we find there (click the thumbnail to enlarge the screenshot):
The nitty-gritty (no dirt band):
- Ruby version - 1.8.4
- RubyGems Version - 0.9.0
- Rails version - 1.1.2
- Active Record version - 1.14.2
- Action Pack version - 1.12.1
- Action Web Service version - 1.1.2
- Action Mailer Version - 1.2.1
- Active Support version - 1.3.1
It’s set up in a development environment by default (where you want it), using the sqlite3 database adapter (pretty typical).
Next time we’ll show you how to update these and run irb. Until then feel free to vote in our poll and support us!
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This quick guide will get you started backing up your CDs on you PowerPC Mac, or even your spanking new Intel MacBook Pro!
I recently downloaded and installed a wonderful application called Max from Sbooth software. Max is absolutely free, and not only that, but it’s also open source (OSS) and a universal binary.
Max reminds me quite a bit of EAC which is my favorite audio CD backup program when running Windows. In fact, one of the few things I had always longed to do on my G4 Mac Mini was backup some of my audio CDs for use with my iPod Mini.
Now I know that iTunes will rip CDs to MP3, but it doesn’t offer too much in terms in functionality. For exmaple, if you have a scratched CD, iTunes will often have problems with the file. iTunes also only converts one file at a time, making the process quite slow. Of course, Max can both copy from scratched audio CDs, as well as rip multiple tracks at once if you have multiple cores or processors such as the Mac Pro or the dual G4 and G5 workstations. With these computers iTunes is simply wasting your time and giving you bad quality files. Did I mention Max supports lossless formats? I could go on and on. Let’s get ripping!
First you’ll want to download the files from SourceForge (SourceForge is a great source of Open Source programs). Click on this link to download the latest Max release for OS X
Getting Started
Once you’ve downloaded the Max archive, installation is a snap (like most other Mac software). If you used Safari, FireFox or Opera, the file will have decompressed (expanded) to your desktop already. Even on Leopard it does the same thing. Double click on the Max folder and drag the Max application file (the one that looks like a blank CD with “Max” written on it with a red marker). We’re going to drag this file into the applications folder on your main hardware for easy access later. Once you’ve done this, you may also want to drag the file from there to your toolbar for later use.
OK, time to run Max for the first time. Are you liking the name “Max” yet? It reminds me of “Macs”.
Double-click on the icon for Max in your application folder, or single-click on the dock icon. Max will start up magically at your command and is now ready to backup your CDs in multitudinous formats. Huzzah.
To select which output formats will be generated:
1. Open the Formats section of the Preferences and double-click the desired format from the list of available formats
2. Edit the encoder settings, if desired
To create audio files from compact discs:
1. Insert the compact disc
2. Select the correct album information from that retrieved, if prompted to do so
3. If desired, download album art by selecting Download Album Art… from the Compact Disc menu
4. Click the Select All button
5. Click the Encode icon in the toolbar
6. The encoded files will be placed in your Music folder
To convert existing audio files to other formats:
1. Drag the files you would like to convert to the Converter window
⁃ Alternatively, select Convert Files… from the File menu
2. The converted files will be placed in your Music folder
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