Software

GoogleCL Mac OS X binary

Sat, 19 Jun 2010 01:23:05 -0400

This is a binary of GoogleCL for lazy people (including myself, since I want to install this across several computers). This is also a convenient lightweight alternative to MacPorts. It installs the binary to /usr/local/bin/google, and puts the gdata and googlecl python libraries in /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/Current/Extras/lib/python.

System requirements:
• Mac OS X 10.6*
*It might work on 10.5, but I haven’t tested it.

Files:
• GoogleCL_0.9.5.pkg

Free Flickr eXporter iPhoto Plugin (FFXporter)

Wed, 26 Dec 2007 13:14:17 -0500

FFXporter is a free iPhoto export plugin for Flickr. This provides a convenient way to upload your iPhoto descriptions, titles, keywords (tags), and ratings along with your photos. It also supports sets (yay!) and preserves GPS tags and other EXIF data. Flickr is a photo sharing service.

Files:
FFXporter0.4.4.dmg
FFXporter0.4.3.dmg
FFXporter0.4.2.dmg
FFXporter0.4.1.dmg
FFXporter0.4.0.dmg
FFXPorter0.3.1.dmg
FFXPorter0.3.0.dmg
FFXPorter0.2.2.dmg
FFXPorter0.2.1.dmg
FFXporter0.2.0.dmg
Free Flickr Export iPhoto Plugin 0.1.0.dmg

Requirements:
- iPhoto ’06 or ’08 (not currently compatible with ’05 or ’09)
- Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) or later
- Flickr account

Installation:
Step 1: Download and install the package.
Step 2: Open (or restart) iPhoto, select the photos you wish to export and choose File->Export (or ⌘-Shift-E). The plugin will show up in a tab called “FFXporter”.
Step 3: There is no step 3.

Jaap Stronks has made a nice screencast of an older version of FFXporter which shows you how to use the plugin in detail. It’s in Dutch, but you’ll get the jist of it. There’s also a great tutorial at the Switching To Mac site.

Contact:
ffx_bugme@dustin.li

Frequently Asked Questions:
Q: Free, huh?
A: Yes.
Q: *suspicious look*
A: Okay, so here’s the deal. I wrote this plug-in because I wanted to learn Cocoa (the Mac programming language of choice) and also because I didn’t want to shell out $14.95 or more for what seemed like a very simple task. I figured there are a lot of people who think like me (in fact, there are thousands of you using this), so I decided to give this away for free. Plus, I don’t want to have to support paying users since I already have enough things to do for a few years.
Q: Okay, fine. But since you’re so awesome, I want to send you money! How do I do that?
A: Cool! Send your Paypal donations to ffx_bugme@dustin.li. For other methods of money transferage, email me and we’ll work something out. You’re also welcome to check out the wishlist.
Q: Why can’t I set captions/titles/tags inside the plugin?
A: The plugin reads captions, titles, and tags from your iPhoto metadata, so I didn’t see any point in duplicating this functionality. IP2F ($14.95) and FlickrExport (£12) both support this if you really want it.
Q: Something broke!
A: Check at the bottom of this page for known issues. If it isn’t on there, please let me know about the problem...

Testimonials:
More than 12,000 users (as of June 2008)!
“Thanks for the great free add-on.” --Ryan
“Thanks again for a useful product!” --Bret
“I really like your Flickr Exporter.” --Schley
“Love your FFXporter for iPhoto...” --John
“Love your plugin, thank you very much.” --Zeb
“FFX is working well for me! Thank you for providing it!” --Dana
“Works like a charm... thanks so much!” --Johnny
“Thanks for a fantastic plug-in!” --Raymond
Web reviews: MacUpdate, Versiontracker, TUAW, Lifehacker, downloadsquad, Associated Content

Uninstalling:
If FFXporter is not working for you, please let me know what’s happening so I can fix it! (ffx_bugme@dustin.li)

The easiest way to uninstall is to run this application:
FFXporter Uninstaller.zip

If you’re a glutton for pain, there are other ways to uninstall too:
For version 0.2.3 or under, delete:
/Library/Application Support/Plugins/FFXporter.iPhotoExporter
/Library/Frameworks/ObjectiveFlickr.framework

For version 0.3.0 and over, select iPhoto and choose Get Info from the file menu in the Finder. Under the Plug-ins list, uncheck “FFXporter.iPhotoExporter”. (Actually, this just disables the plugin. You can remove it by deleting /Applications/iPhoto.app/Content/PlugIns/FFXporter.iPhotoExporter/.)

Changelog:
0.4.4 (Oct 21, 2008):
- Fixes a crash that could occur with iPhoto 5

0.4.3 (Oct 1, 2008):
- Photos are added to sets as they are uploaded instead of at completion
- Resolves Growl conflicts with other iPhoto plugins
- Other minor improvements not worth mentioning

0.4.2 (Aug 31, 2008):
- "Add photoset..." button is back by popular demand
- "Mission accomplished" no longer erroneously displayed (pun intended)

0.4.1 (Aug 23, 2008):
- Fixes a bug where the original image would be uploaded instead of the edited image
- Set lists correctly cleared when logging out

0.4.0 (Aug 03, 2008):
- Shinier, more intuitive photoset UI
- Proxy support (using settings in System Preferences)
- Tooltips for help
- Fixes rare crashes
- Support for videos (in theory)
- Growl notification support added
- Sparkle updating support added

0.3.1 (Feb 12, 2008):
- iPhoto '06 (and maybe iPhoto 4 & 5) compatibility!
- Installer checks for and deletes older installations
- Changed behavior of adding to the list of sets so that the plus button must be pressed. Previously, a return or tab would also do the trick, but the UI was sometimes causing these events to occur even when they weren't explicitly requested by the user, often causing duplicate or empty sets to be added.
- Upload status string no longer accidentally truncated (now cut with contemplative purpose).
- Doesn't try to show your alias if you don't have one.
- Yak-approved!

Known issues:
- Photo resizing only works in iPhoto '08
- Tiger fails to show that the final row of a set was deleted, but this is just cosmetic.

0.3.0 (Feb 09, 2008):
- Fixed a crash that occurred when the user has no sets
- Integrated frameworks
- Fixed handling of multi-word tags so that they're no longer split
- Tiger compatible!

0.2.3:
- No soup for you!

0.2.2 (Jan 14, 2008):
- Extremely minor documentation fixes

0.2.1 (Jan 07, 2008):
- Fixed crashes on certain systems running Leopard

0.2.0 (Jan 05, 2008):
- Support for set creation and adding photos to sets
- Misc. minor bug fixes and cleanup
- Hiding from public searches fixed
- Support for logging out (wow!)
- Updated ObjectiveFlickr

0.1.2:
- But a dream upon the shadows.

0.1.1:
- Cleaned up debug spam (/var/log/system.log)
- Replaced ObjectiveFlickr framework with unmodified version
- Shortened status strings to fit within interface elements, and modified interface elements to accomodate long status strings
- Version number synced with Info.plist
- don't open browser if no photos successfully uploaded

0.1.0 (Dec 26, 2007):
- Lots of bugs, but things basically seem to work.

Known issues:
- Conflicts with iP2F, PixelPipe Exporter, ZoomIn Exporter, Phanfare Exporter, and Zenfolio, causing an “unsupported URL” error code -1 (the workaround at this time is to uninstall the other plugins)
- Recurring crashes with iPhoto ’05 in the latest versions. 0.3.1 is the latest version known to work with iPhoto ‘05
- Photo resizing only works in iPhoto '08
- The plugin does not distinguish between photosets with the exact same name
- Still has an ugly UI; needs more kitten love
- Upload batches limited to around 220 photos

Acknowledgements:
The developer gratefully acknowledges the contributions of the following projects, all of which have cooler icons than FFXporter:

curl - Solaris 9 binary

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 06:13:30 -0500

Files
curl_solaris9_binary.tar.gz

What?
A Solaris 9 (SunOS 5.9) Sparc binary of curl.
See curl’s homepage if you don’t know what it is.

Why?
acme.gatech.edu doesn’t provide curl. I hate you, acme.

ELinks 0.11.3

Mon, 3 Dec 2007 00:17:02 -0500

Files:
ELinks_0.11.3b.dmg
ELinks_0.11.3a.dmg
ELinks_0.11.3.dmg

Revisions:
0.11.3b: updated “Run ELinks” script so that it actually works =)
Dec. 13/0.11.3a: Universal binary, 10.3+.
Dec. 05: Eliminated dependency on X11, works on Mac OS X 10.4.
Dec. 03: Man pages now install in the proper place and package allows installation on Mac OS X 10.4.

Details:
An Intel Universal binary of ELinks for Mac OS X. DarwinPorts has a package as well, but I didn’t want to install an entire packaging system just for this. This package is installed into /usr/local/ (the binary is at /usr/local/bin/elinks).

How to run ELinks for beginners:
I’ve added a script “Run ELinks” to the disk image. Double click that after installation and you’ll get a terminal with ELinks running.

More details:
ELinks is an advanced and well-established feature-rich text mode web (HTTP/FTP/...) browser. ELinks can render both frames and tables, is highly customizable and can be extended via Lua or Guile scripts. It supports colors, table rendering, background downloading, menu driven configuration interface, tabbed browsing and slim code. It even supports CSS and SSL! It’s like lynx, but better.

This package installs into /usr/local. You may wish to add /usr/local/bin to your path; you can do so by adding the following line to your ~/.bashrc: echo $PATH:/usr/local/bin.

phpBB AuthCAS authentication module

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 21:12:14 -0500

Requirements:
• Apache 2.0
• Apache2::AuthCAS
• phpBB3 (tested with RC7)

Files:
• phpBB_AuthCAS_mod.tar.gz

Details:
This is an easy way to use a Central Authentication Service (CAS) to authenticate users to phpBB. It requires AuthCAS, which is an authentication module for the Apache webserver. I used Apache2::AuthCAS, but there is also a module for Apache 1. It's actually a very simple modification to auth_apache.php, but it took me a while to figure out so I thought I'd share it.

Instructions:
• If you haven't already, install AuthCAS using the instructions given on CPAN. Configure your httpd.conf or .htaccess (, etc.) to use AuthCAS on your phpBB site. For example, I put this in my httpd.conf:
<Location /forum>
CASHost "my.cas.server.edu"
CASLoginURI "/login"
CASServiceValidateUri "/serviceValidate"
CASErrorURL "/auth_error.php"
CASDbDataSource "dbname=cas"
CASDbDriver "mysql"
CASDbUser "mycasuser"
CASDbPass "mycaspass"

AuthType Apache2::AuthCAS
AuthName "CAS"
PerlAuthenHandler Apache2::AuthCAS->authenticate
require valid-user
</Location>

• Install auth_cas.php in /includes/auth/auth_cas.php of your phpBB directory.

• Make sure you've created an account with the username that you'll login with via CAS, and grant it admin permissions. This is necessary to be able to administer phpBB after you've switched authentication methods.

• Finally, switch authentication methods in the Administrator Panel (the new one is called "Cas"). If you screw up and don't have administrator access after you've switched to Cas authentication, you can replace auth_cas.php with auth_db.php to restore the original authentication method (although you'll need to modify the function name in auth_cas.php so that it doesn't conflict with the one in auth_db.php; cas_copy_auth_db.php has the correct modifications).

Known issues:
The module uses the language strings made for the auth_apache.php module, which can be a little confusing. It's not important enough for me to change them.