So, just got ColdFusion 8 working on my Mac Mini running an upgraded version of Leopard (from Tiger). Below are the steps I took. As I said before it’s basically Geoff’s guide with a couple more reboots!

1. Install Apple XCode Tools from Leopard DVD<br>
2. Restart<br>
3. Install ColdFusion 8<br>

Multi-server, developer edition
ColdFusion 8 Document and Start ColdFusion on system init both checked
Installed to /Applications/JRun4
Web Servers
- Apache
- Configuration Directory: /etc/apache2
- Server Binary: /usr/sbin/httpd
- Server Control Script: /usr/sbin/apachectl
CFIDE installed to default documents folder which is /Library/Webserver/Documents

4. Complete wizard ignoring web server startup and connector failure messages
5. Restart
6. Compile the new connector

cd /Applications/JRun4/lib
unzip -d src wsconfig.jar
cd src/connectors/src
apxs -c -Wc,-arch -Wc,x86_64 -Wl,-arch -Wl,x86_64 -n jrun22 mod_jrun22.c jrun_maptable_impl.c jrun_property.c jrun_session.c platform.c jrun_mutex.c jrun_proxy.c jrun_utils.c
apxs -i -n jrun22 -S LIBEXECDIR=/Applications/JRun4/lib/src/connectors/src/ mod_jrun22.la
strip mod_jrun22.so

7. Check the connector with wsconfig

cd /Applications/JRun4/lib/
sudo java -jar wsconfig.jar

8. Delete the current connector and put your fresh shiny new one in

rm /Applications/JRun4/lib/wsconfig/1/mod_jrun22.so
cp /Applications/JRun4/lib/src/connectors/src/mod_jrun22.so /Application/JRun4/lib/wsconfig/1/mod_jrun22.so
9. Restart<br>
10. Start CF<br>

sudo /Applications/JRun4/bin/jrun -start cfusion

11. Kick apache

sudo apachectl restart

12. Browse to localhost/CFIDE/administrator/index.cfm (unless you’ve already added index.cfm as a default doc)<br>
13. Go to bed feeling happy.

I changed over to using Aptana from Eclipse a while ago now and haven’t looked back. It works fine with CFEclipse, subclipse and also has the benefit of built in CSS/JS support and optional AIR, PHP and Rails plugins.

Anyway, they’ve just released version 1 and also a slightly more feature filled “Pro” version.

Having read many articles and endured much swearing this morning I finally got CF8 running with apache 2.2.6 on Leopard with my Macbook.

For information it’s a Intel Core 2 Macbook which had a completely clean, erase and install version of Leopard on.

I’ve writing a guide to the steps I took for reference but I was following this guide by Geoff Bowers (thanks!) and also reading comments on Mark Drew’s post. Going to try on my Mac Mini tonight which is an upgraded version of Leopard from Tiger.

If you’re trying access Leopard via RealVNC on a Windows box make sure in before you try and connect you go into Options > Misc and check the “Only use protocol version 3.3″ box otherwise you won’t actually be able to connect.

Logged into to Gmail this morning, as you do, to be greeted by a nice big red message flash at the top of my window:

Firebug is known to make Google Mail slow unless it is configured correctly. Fix this Hide

Clicking on the “Fix this” link takes you to a support page detailing how to make some changes aimed to improve performance.

I have to say I’ve not really noticed any performance issues and I have had Firebug running for some time!

[Edit]

Interestingly I’ve just disabled Firebug on the mail.google.com domain and reloaded my inbox and it’s noticeably quicker. When I click on a conversation it loads instantly whereas with Firebug on I used to get a “loading” delay. Based on what I know Firebug does and how Gmail works it’s not surprising but, it’s interesting that Google are telling user’s to disable it.

Finished installing, well upgrading my new Mac Mini from Tiger to Leopard. Took about an hour an was painless.

One issue with the last.fm player not working but after a quick scoot over to the forums Robert’s your Mother’s brother and there’s a fixed version.

I have to say inital impressions, awesome! It looks great. I could very much be becoming a full MAC convert.

All hail the shiny white hardware gods!

If you’ve upgraded to Winamp 5.5 and are a last.fm user you may have noticed it doesn’t scrobble correctly.

It’s a know issue and you can download this new plugin from last.fm to fix it. I think looking at the forums it should go to their auto updater this week.

…WinampPluginSetup_2.0.47.0.exe

www.freestressball.co.uk/

I’ve seen a lot of Captcha (Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart) graphics on sites now-a-days, some of which are quite hard to read.

One alternative, and don’t get me wrong it’s not better because it’s still text however it will make it a bit harder for bots to spam you, is to ask a question and have the user give the answer.

In this example I’ll ask the question:

<blockquote>What is two added with four? Please enter the answer as a number.</blockquote>

Below is a very basic ColdFusion page with that example.

<!--- store the numbers as words in a list, could also been and array --->
<cfset numberWords = "one,two,three,four,five,six,seven,eight,nine,ten">
<!--- get two numbers --->
<cfset n1 = randrange(1,10)>
<cfset n2 = randrange(1,10)>
<!--- calculate the total --->
<cfset nt = n1 + n2>
<!--- hash that value so it can't be seen in the source --->
<cfset nh = hash(nt)>
<cfoutput>
What is #listGetAt(numberWords,n1)# added to #listGetAt(numberWords,n2)#?
</cfoutput>
<form name="frm" method="post" action="captcha.cfm">
<!--- store the hash value in the form --->
<input type="hidden" name="hashvalue" value="<cfoutput>#nh#</cfoutput>">
<input type="text" name="answer">
<input type="submit">
</form>
<!--- hash the user's answer and compare to the passed hashed value --->
<cfif isDefined("form.answer")>
<cfif hash(form.answer) neq form.hashvalue>
<p>Nope</p>
<cfelse>
<p>Yay!</p>
</cfif>
</cfif>

Hopefully that might help someone!

Then read on. The company I work for, Rawnet are hiring a mid-senior level developer. The job spec and details are currently listed over on LinkedIn.