MAMP hang after OSX unclean shutdown

Mats Hellman — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 19:41:46 +0000

Today we had a power outage and after a few hours when power finally came back on I tried to get my development tools up again, everything was fine except for MAMP. It seems MAMP isn’t able to delete it’s PID files after something like this so it just flashed and shut down. This is because it thinks it’s already running even if it’s not.

Anyway, MAMP uses it’s own Application folder to store the pid files and the fix for this is really simple. Open your terminal and

iMac:~ cd /Applications/MAMP/Library/logs

iMac:~ rm httpd.pid

iMac:~ cd /Applications/MAMP/tmp/mysql

iMac:~ rm mysql.pid

After deleting the PID files MAMP should start just fine again.

My software picks for OS X

Mats Hellman — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:05:32 +0000

As some of you might know I’m not a Windows only user. I do use an iMac at home for all my design and photo work. I also love the simplicity of OS X. It does what you expect it to and it does it well. This is probably why I feel the need to post some of the software’s I as a 1+ year Apple user have found useful.

I’m sure there are plenty more out there and if you whish to ad something to my list please do so in the comments.

I also want to point out that not all of them are free. Some cost, but as most programs for OS X they cost under 100 USD so it’s really not a big deal. The list is in no particular order.

Adium

Adium is an Instant Messaging program that handles, well almost any protocol. Instead of using a different client for my ICQ, MSN, GoogleTalk etc account I can use Adium and get everything in one client.

The design is good and it works as most OS X software’s. Without a hitch.

http://adium.im

Quicksilver

This is one of my all time favorite programs for my Mac. I just hit CMD+Space and start typing the name of the program I want to fire up. No more moving the mouse to the dock or going trough menus and folder. It’s really fast and easy to use.

http://www.blacktree.com

Coda

This is probably the best editor for PHP, SQL, Perl etc I’ve ever used. It’s not free but you can download their fully functional evaluation version from the website. It does just about everything you need from your editor. It handles your SVN and there are plenty of plugins available.

If you are designing websites in OS X and haven’t tried Coda you just have to take a look.

http://www.panic.com/coda/

TextExpander

Do you find yourself typing the same text often? How about the skeleton of a XHTML page? Or filling out forms with your address and email? TextExpander is really a life saver. I’m counting hours in saved time because of this small application I keep running in the background on my Mac. I actually can’t see myself living without it anymore.

All you need to configure are keywords to trigger the expansion. Be sure to use something you don’t type normally. mmail for mail, nname for name and so on.

http://www.smileonmymac.com/TextExpander/

VLC Media Player

This is my media player of choice to my Mac. It plays anything. I’ve never had to go codec hunting since I started using VLC.

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

DropBox

This little piece of software helps me share some files between my work pc, iMac, Home PC and even my iPhone. The free version let’s you sync 2Gb, yes 2Gb of files between your devices. It’s incredibly easy to use. All you need is to register for an account and start synchronizing. You’ll get a folder on your Mac,PC and iPhone you can drop documents or files in and they will sync between all devices. Easy as 1,2,3

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

FreeMind

FreeMind is a great mind-mapping program. I don’t use it for the original mind-mapping, I tend to use it to sketch websites to get something to work from. It’s free and it does exactly what I expect it to.

It’s also available for other architectures so if your not using OSX take a look at their webpage.

http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

If you have anything you want to ad to the list please let me know. As I said I’m in my second year of using my Mac so there are programs I still need to find. One of them being a replacement for Windows Live Writer. Anyway, hope you had some use of this list.

Correct way to set up OpenVPN client on Mac OSX

Mats Hellman — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 20:51:12 +0000

I recently bought a MacBook Pro and I’ve been using it a lot at work. It does have some annoyances I might never get used to but overall it’s a really great laptop computer.

Anyway we use OpenVPN at work and Tunnelblick is THE client for OpenVPN connections in Mac OSX. I had some resolving problems and found out that some programs don’t even use /etc/resolv.conf like they do in most *NIX operating systems I’ve used. So googling around I found this great article about it and thought I’d post it here in case I need it again. Also it might come handy for someone else.

So checkout the article at http://www.mccambridge.org/blog/2007/10/correct-way-to-set-up-openvpn-client-on-mac-os-x/

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