As usual, Google delivered. I tested out a bunch of apps, and heck, even purchased my first piece of shareware, EVER.

Amongst the tools I tested out, were:

• iDefrag – disk defragment
• Monolingual – removes unused multi-language code
• Onyx – runs a bunch of system scripts and generally checks over the system
• Xslimmer – removes unused architectures from universal application packages – i.e. in my case, removed PowerPC code from apps that contain Intel code.

I can’t exactly comment on the speed difference. I *think* it’s faster, and I certainly haven’t notice the system slowing down at all. I believe the iDefrag tool made the most difference if anything. I used the iDefrag boot CD to run a compact on my Mac OS X volume, which cleared up some space, and then ran a quick defrag. iDefrag also has an optimisation mode, and a full defrag mode, but without leaving these to run overnight, I couldn’t warrant the timeout as I clearly have an addiction!!

In addition to running these tools, there’s a heap of optimisation that can be done on the command line, or by switching stuff on or off in the OS itself. I turned off the Dash Board function, although I used to use it a fair bit to check CPU usage and temperatures using iStat. I have instead made use of “GeekTool” to display this information on the desktop.

There really is alot of stuff out there if you are keen to delve deeper into tuning your Mac’s performance. This post really just aggregates this information 

• Locomotion – Speed up Mac OS X Leopard
• The X Lab – Tuning Mac OS X Performance
• GeekTool
• iDefrag

I am quite impressed really, that a notebook can handle gaming as well as this. I have the early-2009 MacBook Pro with 2.93ghz Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM and the Nvidia 9600 GPU, so it’s not really a sluggish platform.

A month or two ago I decided to re-ignite this old flame of mine, World of Warcraft, seeing as it was supported natively on the Mac. About 3GB of downloading later, I had it installed, paid my dues, and jumped on. My initial impression was slow… I had to tweak WoW a little to have it running at a decent 40fps during mob scenes, by pushing the quality to around half way/medium, with the resolution set to the MacBook Pro native of 1440×900. It seems to run pretty well…

Having played CounterStrike and Left4Dead a fair bit just before I bought my Mac, I HAD to try run it virtually on the Mac. I initially tried it out on VMWare Fusion. FAIL. I was quite disappointed to be honest. Mind you, it was running under Windows 7 RC1. But still, frame rate and general loading of the system was down right average… Heaven forbid you enter the hybrid Mac/Windows mode (whatever it’s called)….

Moving on, I have recently switched to Parallels Desktop for Mac. This seems to do the job nicely – albeit with the lack of a “transparent” graphics driver… Everything in Parallels seems nicer but. It’s easy to use, it’s quicker, and generally flows nicer. The only think that’s annoying me is the graphics part… One of the programs I use, Haltech’s ECU Manager, specifically says that it does not have a graphics driver loaded for some reason (not even the latest Direct X updates fixed it either)… And CounterStrike/Left 4 Dead fail to let you use half the features of the underlying Mac graphics platform…

My verdict on virtualised gaming on the Mac is therefore significantly siding towards epic fail. On one side of the coin, I have a platform that runs like an absolute dogs breakfast, on the other hand, something that fails to deliver graphics goodness…

I guess I’ll just have to stick with World of Warcraft!!! (unless anyone can suggest something better)

The permanent fix:

Edit the file:

/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist

Insert arch=x86_64 into the Kernel Flags field.

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC “-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN” “http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd”>
<plist version=”1.0″>
<dict>
<key>Kernel</key>
<string>mach_kernel</string>
<key>Kernel Flags</key>
<string>arch=x86_64</string>
</dict>
</plist>

via Macintosh Performance Guide: Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard: Booting the 64-bit Kernel.

I must say, I’m very happy with where it’s at. It’s no masterpiece, and it might break every rule in the web design handbook, but it looks the goods, and will do exactly what I want it to – attract more visitors, and KEEP them.

Check it out here – http://www.cruisingbrisbane.com

Watch this space.

I’ve got no idea how anyone else does templating, but I’ve devised my own little method to replace BBCode style tags embedded within HTML with little bits of code here and there. It really is nasty, but it does the job. At the moment, all it’s being used for is to create a form, which is dynamically updatable by our client so they can add new fields and new forms as required.

<?php
require_once('dbconnect.php');
 
if(isset($_POST['submit'])) {
 
	if (isset($_GET['formid'])) {
		$frmQry = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM dc_form WHERE id=".$_GET['formid']) or die(mysql_error());
		$frmData = mysql_fetch_assoc($frmQry);
		header("Location: index.php");
		echo "ok!";
		$body = print_r($_POST,true);
		mail($frmData['frmRecipient'],'customer Form Submittal',$body) or die ("Could not submit form!");
 
	} else {
 
		echo "Form ID not specified!!!";	
 
	}
 
} elseif(isset($_GET['formid'])) {	
 
	$frmQry = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM dc_form WHERE id=".$_GET['formid']) or die(mysql_error());
	$frmData = mysql_fetch_assoc($frmQry);
 
?>
 
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />
<title>company :: <? echo $frmData['frmName']; ?></title>
<link href="DC_CSS.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
</head>
 
<body>
    <h1><? echo $frmData['frmName']; ?> </h1>
	<form action="formLoad.php?formid=<? echo $_GET['formid']; ?>" method="post">
<?
	$templateQry = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM dc_formTemplates WHERE frmid=".$_GET['formid']) or die(mysql_error());
	$templateData = mysql_fetch_assoc($templateQry);
 
	$templateHTML = $templateData['templateHTML'];
 
	$fieldQry = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM dc_formFields") or die(mysql_error());
	while ($fieldData = mysql_fetch_assoc($fieldQry)) {
		$fields[$fieldData['fieldName']]['label'] = $fieldData['fieldLabel'];
		$fields[$fieldData['fieldName']]['type'] = $fieldData['fieldType'];
	}
 
	preg_match_all("/\[([:\w]+)\]/",$templateHTML,$replace);
 
	foreach ($replace[0] as $value) {
		preg_match("/\[([:\w]+)\]/",$value,$fieldName);
		$replaceThis = $value;
		$fieldName = $fieldName[1];
		if ($fieldName == 'submit') {
			$replacement = "<input type='submit' name='submit' value='Submit'>";
		} elseif (preg_match("/\[label:(\w+)\]/",$replaceThis,$labelField)) {		
			$labelField = $labelField[1];
			$replacement = "<label for='{$labelField}'>{$fields[$labelField]['label']}</label>";
		} else {	
			switch($fields[$fieldName]['type']):
				case 'text':
					$replacement = "<input type='text' name='{$fieldName}'>";
					break;
				case 'textarea':
					$replacement = "<textarea name='{$fieldName}'></textarea>";
					break;
				default:
					$replacement = "<input name='{$fieldName}' type='text'>";
			endswitch;
		}
		$templateHTML = preg_replace('/\['.$fieldName.'\]/',$replacement,$templateHTML);
	}
 
	echo $templateHTML;	
 
} else { ?>
No form selected!
<? } ?>

The template data is actually stored in the database as follows:

<table>
<tr><td>[label:clientName][clientName]</td></tr>
<tr><td>[label:zone][zone]</td></tr>
<tr><td>[label:cssc][cssc]</td></tr>
<tr><td>[label:cso][cso]</td></tr>
<tr><td>[label:date][date]</td></tr>
<tr><td>[label:behaviours][behaviours]</td></tr>
<tr><td>[label:stability][stability]</td></tr>
<tr><td>[label:selfcareskills][selfcareskills]</td></tr>
<tr><td>[label:academics][academics]</td></tr>
<tr><td>[label:intellect][intellect]</td></tr>
<tr><td>[label:familycontact][familycontact]</td></tr>
<tr><td>[label:substances][substances]</td></tr>
<tr><td>[label:health][health]</td></tr>
<tr><td>[submit]</td></tr>
</table>

I just installed the Office 2010 beta, and jumped in to my email quickly to grab a call. When I went to reply to an email, I noticed a little bar, similar to the “security” bar you get at the top of Internet Explorer, at the bottom of the email I was drafting, prompting me to install Windows Desktop Search. I clicked on that, and noticed another notification sitting there prompting me to add a social network for the contact who had sent me the email!

This looks pretty cool I must say. It looks like Outlook will have the functionality to look up your contacts Facebook status updates and what not when you receive an email from them. For home / personal use, this could be really cool. Don’t know how suitable it would be for corporate use however – I mean, who wants their boss seeing all their Facebook updates when they send an email?

http://officebeta.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/connect-to-your-favorite-social-network-using-microsoft-outlook-HA101789909.aspx

Suffice to say, my root password on my iPhone is now changed!

Oh and I love the Rick Roll effect. Personally, I would have set the ring tone to Rick Astley as well

Read more here: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/the-worm-turns-on-the-iphone-as-virus-hits/story-e6freuy9-1225795892928

Routing Protocol Selection

Testking CCSP 642-515 Exam Questions

Network Planning and Design Guide

Introduction to WAN Architectures – very handy reference…

Take for example, how to boot up a CDROM or USB drive…

Turns out, a guy named Dan Rodney has compiled a list of frequently used keyboard shortcuts for the Mac, alot of which I seemed to figure out on my own, and then the rest..

Anyways, linky-dink  here – http://www.danrodney.com/mac/index.html

Still trying to find a way to send Page Up / Page Down / Home / End using VIM over SSH in Terminal… Instead, fn+Up Arrow (aka page up) scrolls the terminal window, and fn+Left Arrow (or maybe it’s right) mangles stuff up, instead of shooting to Home / End. Maybe Putty or something similar is the answer to this…