Category: How-To (Page 5 of 7)

Enable AVI, FLV and DivX encoding in Podcast Producer

January 31, 2009 / Chris Brewer / 2 Comments

Podcast Capture icon Excited at the prospect of using Flip Ultra and Flip Mino cameras and uploading the video via Podcast Producer, I was disappointed to discover that both Flip cameras wrap their video in AVI files, and use the 3ivx codec, effectively thwarting my Podcast Producer plans. Videos uploaded via the Podcast Capture utility resulted in audio-only posts to the wiki/blog server.

That highlights one common complaint I’ve made and heard about Podcast Producer — that it demonstrates it’s heritage with a decided bias for Apple-endorsed wrappers and codecs (read: QuickTime).

In my quest to use these fantastic(ly inexpensive-but-handy) Flip video cameras, I recently found out that simply adding a QuickTime plugin to Mac OS X 10.5 server provides the capability to transcode far more file formats and encodings than the stock installation of Podcast Producer allows: AVI, FLV, 3ivx, DivX, MS-MPEG4 v1 & v2, Flash Video, Indeo 1 & 2, to name a few!

The solution is drop dead simple (as any Mac OS X endeavor ought to be): Continue reading

Add Google Maps iframe & YouTube embed to Apple Wiki Server

January 21, 2009 / Chris Brewer / 2 Comments

Apple’s Teams Wiki Server supports very few HTML tags out of the box, in order to keep things simple. But, like Any Good Unix Ought To, Mac OS X Server gives you the ability to manipulated things, such as adding iframe, embed, param, and object tags to the Wiki/Blog server. Here’s how: Continue reading

Handy regex / preg_match for ZIP codes, phone numbers, states, SSN, URLs, and email addresses

November 28, 2008 / Chris Brewer / 1 Comment

Here is a handy collection of regular expressions, for use with PHP preg_match. If you need to check for properly formatted US states (two letters), US ZIP codes, US phone numbers, US Social Security Numbers, URLs for web sites, and properly formatted email addresses, read on: Continue reading

Clear DNS cache on Mac OS X

November 10, 2008 / Chris Brewer / 1 Comment

Changing domains around on your web server can leave you with a local DNS cache that doesn’t match your domain’s new settings. Flush your DNS cache on Mac OS X 10.5 by issuing the following command:

dscacheutil -flushcache

Edit 5/19/2014: OS X Mavericks has a slightly different method for clearing the DNS cache.

Debugging web sites in Safari

October 23, 2008 / Chris Brewer / 0 Comments

Sure, Firefox has a great plug-in architecture that has created a rich ecosystem of third-party add-ons, but Safari’s got a halfway decent development debugging environment as well. Here’s how to enable it: Continue reading

Install GD for PHP on Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard

October 8, 2008 / Chris Brewer / 93 Comments

So, you need GD for your killer PHP web app, and you’re running Mac OS X 10.5? A quick look shows that GD doesn’t ship with Leopard. No worries. It’s pretty simple to install.

Set up Screen Sharing (VNC) via command line on Mac OS X remotely using SSH

April 8, 2008 / Chris Brewer / 10 Comments

Locked out of a Mac because Remote Desktop has suddenly taken a crap on you? Want to remotely enable Screen Sharing (Apple’s fancy name for VNC)? Well, as long as you have SSH active, you can enable Screen Sharing on Mac OS X 10.5 by following these easy instructions.

Restore 30 second commercial skip to your Motorola DCT 6416 DVR

March 28, 2008 / Chris Brewer / 1 Comment

Want to fast forward 30 seconds at a time (commercial skip) on your Motorola 6416, 6412, or 6408 DVR? I’ve got a Motorola DCT 6416 DVR, which is used by Insight Cable here in Northern Kentucky and elsewhere, and by Comcast elsewhere. Both cable companies have kowtowed to the networks on this issue, disabling the feature. Fear not! The days those annoying ads that interrupt the TV shows you’ve already paid for are over! Continue reading

Mute system audio when increasing/decreasing volume

November 26, 2007 / Chris Brewer / 2 Comments

Here’s a cool tip from The Distant Librarian on how to silence the audio feedback you get when using the keyboard to increase or decrease the volume in Mac OS X.

Hold down the shift key while depressing the volume keys will silence the auditory feedback while raising and lowering the volume, but still show the visual cue.

Other cool tricks:

Hold down option while clicking one of the sound keys to access the Sound system preferences.

Get more granular volume control by holding down shift-option while clicking one of the sound keys to increase/decrease volume in 1/4 the normal increments. Normal, the Mac provides 16 volume levels. Holding down shift-option gives you 64 increments.

Screencasting on Mac OS X: What you need to get the job done

November 13, 2007 / Chris Brewer / 7 Comments

Your choices for screen capture on Mac OS X are increasing, both in quantity and quality. Screen capture and screen casting is cake using these low-cost (and sometimes free) applications:

Category: How-To (Page 5 of 7)

Enable AVI, FLV and DivX encoding in Podcast Producer

Add Google Maps iframe & YouTube embed to Apple Wiki Server

Handy regex / preg_match for ZIP codes, phone numbers, states, SSN, URLs, and email addresses

Clear DNS cache on Mac OS X

Debugging web sites in Safari

Install GD for PHP on Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard

Restore 30 second commercial skip to your Motorola DCT 6416 DVR

Mute system audio when increasing/decreasing volume

Other cool tricks:

Screencasting on Mac OS X: What you need to get the job done

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