CakePHP localhost database fails with MAMP

If you are using MAMP with CakePHP and specify your MySQL server to be at localhost:8889, it will fail. I have seen a few workarouds online that advise you to use the MAMP MySQL socket file, however these seem more complex than they need to be.

Instead of using localhost, just use 127.0.0.1. This fixed the problem for me.

I am running Leopard. Just so you know.

New Registrar. Old Candy.

I made the switch from Yahoo! to GoDaddy. It became official just last week. Everything seems to be working as expected.

I really want to find Satellite Wafers. I feel like I need them right now.

My refrigerator keeps making this annoying buzzing sound.

Why would anyone read this?

$34.95!

After July 7th, I doubt that I will any longer own wangdangler.com.  Apparently Yahoo! just upped their domain costs from ~<$10 to $34.95. 

For that much, no thank you.

Updated Ta-da Lists Widget

UPDATE: Keegan Jones has released an update to the widget so that it now works with the Ta-da Lists upgrades.  You can download it here

I have been hooked on Ta-da Lists for some time now. I have been using this OSX Dashboard widget for the past few months until it magically stopped working one day. It stopped working because 37Signals updated the way that their pages work. Most likely so that Ta-da Lists can be better than ever.

After a week or two of living without Ta-da Lists on my Dashboard, I decided to spend an hour or two fixing the Widget. My updated and (hopefully) working version can be found here.

A few notes:

• I am not the person who originally created this widget.
• This widget may not work 100% of the time. It is untested. So far it has been working for me for two days without problems but I can’t guarantee anything.
• If the original authors were to release an update to this widget (>1.2) use that one instead of mine.
• Some parts of the edited code (specifically addition of new tasks) isn’t very efficient and I hope to rewrite it once I get some spare time.

Facebook Apps = Bad

Read the article

http://arstechnica.com/guides/tweaks/detecting-and-fighting-greyware.ars

Will Code for Free T-Shirts

What can I say? I love free t-shirts.

Story Boarding With Post-It Notes

One thing that I have taken away from my last co-op (internship) was an excessive use of Post-it notes.  All over my desk is now written phone numbers and contact information, to-do lists, feature requests, and bug reports.  Okay, the bug reports should be in Trac, but sometimes I get lazy… maybe they are just reminders to put the bug in Trac later on.  They are reminders; that sounds better.

Before my co-op I rarely used post-it notes.  I didn’t think that they would serve me in any way.  Plus, they are too expensive for a college student like me to keep buying.  However, after round after round of job interviews, I’ve gotten lots of complimentary post-it notes marked up with company names and logos.  Sweet!

Not feeling like erasing my white board, and seeing as how I have so much free desk space, I put two and two together and viola Post-It Story Boarding.  Note that this isn’t story boarding as in movies, more like GUI’s, features, and requirements.  Software Story Boarding.  Each post-it gets its own GUI, or feature and following list of requirements.  Then, each post-it can be effortlessly moved around the desk.  You can even draw arrows between the notes for a stronger sense of coupling.

If working in the object-oriented world, each post-it can represent a specific class in UML, who needs Visio anyway?

It is also nice because I can put books, tablets, laptops, what have you on top of the post-it’s and continue my work later.  I think of it as OS X Dashboard… but in real life.   It also looks cool, at least that’s what I tell myself.

reCAPTCHA

As I was perusing the government converter box website, I found reCAPTCHA. It is a CAPTCHA mechanism made by CMU. Not only is it free to use on your site, it is also accessible to blind individuals through the use of a somewhat distorted sound file.

I have seen audible CAPTCHAs in the past, but none that were free or looked this clean.  Also, not only does reCAPTCHA prevent spam on your sites, it also helps to digitize old books that cannot be read by OCR.  What a brilliant idea!

Vista and ‘My Documents’

Moving between XP at work and Vista at home, I oftentimes find myself trying to get into the “My Documents” folder on my Vista machine. However, on Vista, it has been renamed just Documents.

On a quick side note, I do like the way the user directories are structured under Vista. It is much more Unix-y than XP.

So today, I was using Vista and had to run a quick Java command from within the Documents folder. I opened up a command window which started with the current directory being my home directory. Stuck in my XP ways, I typed “cd my” then hit tab for auto-complete. cd “My Documents” appeared. I hit enter, current directory was now My Documents. Wait a minute! I thought there was no more My Documents folder?

Typing “dir” results in a File Not Found being returned. I tried to create a new file within the My Documents using edit, but that failed saying it could not create the file. There is no “My Documents” folder in my home directory.

I did find, however, that, from the command line, creating folders in this mysterious “My Documents” folder will actually create those folders in the Documents folder. Is this perhaps some sort of symlink to help older applications work with the new home directory structure?

Has anyone else seen this type of behavior?  I would assume it is pretty much common knowledge to most Vista aficionados.

The Bee Movie: I’ve had enough!

I was initially excited about Jerry Seinfeld’s new movie.  After seeing this trailer I was pretty optimistic.  Then, things got out of control.

First you have the endless array of regular commercials from the movie.  Then, you have the “Bee Movie Shorts” during NBC’s Thursday night lineup.  If that wasn’t bad enough then you have Seinfeld on 30 Rock shamelessly promoting the movie.  Not to mention promotion through the HP commercials.

I love Jerry Seinfeld’s comedy.  Both stand-up and the TV series.  But the promotion of the Bee Movie has just gone way too far.  I would like to watch an hour of TV without having to see a commercial for the movie.