phpMyAdmin #2002 mysql.sock

On Mac OS X if you encounter #2002 error when you install phpMyAdmin


Tips From:
http://harrylove.org/2008/11/03/mysql-error-2002-with-phpmyadmin-on-mac-os-x-105-leopard


Open the terminal

sudo mkdir /var/mysql

sudo ln -s /tmp/mysql.sock /var/mysql/mysql.sock

Reload the login page and login

Cocoa Things

Couple of cocoa stuff:

Cocoa Bindings:
way of making object interact with each other. Triggers event when one of the interface object's state changes so other objects can catch that change and update itself. It can update multiple things without creating a button/actions. You can choose how they talk to each other. pretty easy once you learn it.


Framework
System > Library > Frameworks

RME Fireface 800 techniques

I use fireface interface and I find this one to be really cool.
Sound quality is superb.

what's interesting is their software mixer. I know lot of people dislikes software-ness but there are more advantages than disadvantages.

first you have presets. and You can toggle presets 1-8 by doing Option + preset number (probably alt + # on PC)
I have so far 3 types that I use
1. Listening/Monitoring - one with good volume setting for whatever you want to do
2. mute monitor for Recording purpose
3. one for listening back direct signal (yes you can do this if you turn up those faders for mixers.)

secondly MIDI control
you can use your motorized controller, or midi keyboard, etc to control faders.. even when the software is in the background...
it doesn't have monitor fader on the outside but you can actually add them. and for all of them. every single inputs can have different monitoring levels. (like when you don't need much of anything other than kick and snare in the headphone mic.

submixes..
you can create submixes.... it works like a mixer.

Very cool. good in studio and works amazingly LIVE

Korg Kaoss Pad 3

Finally, I've bought myself a Kaoss Pad!

i've been wanting this for years but just kept delaying it just because I had to buy lots of other sample oriented things. Well this stuff is amazing. Everyone knows it has been. But I have to say THIS IS AMAZING.

This is not stuff you make music with but this makes your bad music sound like a cool music. Even if you didn't know how to use it. If you can connect it and use touch pad.

I have been thinking this stuff takes a while to learn but it's quite easy. If you've used Delay, Filters, and stuff like that you know how to use it already.

One thing that took me a while (10 tries or so) to learn was how to resample properly.
Sampling is easy you just have to press sampling button then Bank to record to. Resampling is supposed to record output.. but if you do it like you would sample you will always miss the first beat or two..

so the solution to this was you keep playing samples then you press resample (or shift + sampling) when the moment is right.
in other words you have to be looping whatever you want to combine and you have to have at least one bank open for resampling. So technically you have 3 banks + 1 bank for resampling. and you can keep overdubbing to make whatever you want to (harmonies or drum patterns or whatever.)

hmm... i wish there were more buttons.
but now a days you have computers and you can use SooperLooper or other loop utilities if you want to go crazy.

php installation on leopard PEAR Smarty

I've upgraded to Leopard finally and I've ran into some problems upon running php PEAR and Smarty so i will list them and also their solutions.


1. Apache 2 user web site permission or access issue
This basically was the default configuration issue on leopard & apache 2.
Unlike tiger systems, you have to add username.conf or local.conf to gain access to user account on the web server.
It's is confusing that apple does this. but don't trust those words and ip addresses you see on the web sharing page on SystemPreference app.

and then add those Directory deny etc etc thing you do

after that for php you'll have to edit httpd.conf
just remove sharp from the line on php5 module.

2. PEAR
go-pear.php tutorial you see when you search for leopard pear installation works but bit wrong.
It tells you to include usr/share/pear even though the author is installing on some other directory...
well let PEAR installer handle all those directory (because it asks you if you want to change the include_path)
if you've installed PEAR on whatever directory that's the directory you need as the include path. You'll see capital PEAR folder somewhere and inside you'll see HTML, DB and things like that. that's the directory you need to include.

3 Smarty
download file from the website includes all documents. what you need to "cp" are inside the lib folder inside Smarty folder. don't follow direction as is.

4 PHP include_path
It's sometimes better to keep them as global include and when you want to do this would you install it on PEAR directory? you probably wouldn't want to do that. Then what you can do is to set multiple include_path directory.
private/etc/php.ini is the file you want to edit and look for include_path

when you want multiple include_path on mac system you cannot do : and another directory
instead do :: (two colons) between two directories.

for example,
usr/local/::usr/bin


all these you might need root level access to your system.

that's probably enough to remind myself of what to do next time I install so I won't have to waste couple hours struggling with it. hope this helps.

Pro Tools Tips - Short cut keys - changing modes

That you can change modes and tools on Pro Tools with function keys is a common thing by now but there was on more that's not usually covered..

if you didn't know:
f1 - f4: select modes
f5 - f10: tools - pressing the same one twice will trigger next one down the list for those tools with options.
f6+f7 pressed together: Smart tool

that's good but there is one more to it.
You can press ESC and ~ to change them also... basically it selects next tool including smart tool.

Tilda or ~ or ` (key that's one below ESC) key will switch between Edit Modes.

and ESC will select next tool.

Unlike web browser it won't select one before even if you pressed shift key (shift + tab to go back to previous text field/tab stop in most browsers) but this is pretty useful when you are still thinking which one to press.

You won't have to look at the keyboard and that can make you more productive.
Try it out.

Sea Cable - internet secret

I guess these handle large part of our internet connection. Seems like 70% and some large percentage of internet connection was down in Egypt, India, and some other countries just because some ship damaged the cable.

well i dont' know how they are going to fix it but hope they will come back up soon.

you can look at the maps here


SeaCable


another thing I was astonished by this news was that its bandwidth...

more than 7 trillion bps

i can't really tell how fast that is.. but that's what you need to make this "Internet" thing happen.
hats off to engineers who figured this out...

Design tips: Photoshop brushes

When you don't have that creativity to create some artistic shapes, eye catchy images, there are lot of things you can do but maybe there are some people who just get stuck... (well, sometimes i'm one of them so don't feel bad)

I just want to tell you about this amazing web site

Brusheezy

it's got bunch of cool, amazing brushes for FREE.

If you use these with those little design tricks you should be able to create those colorful, artistic, eye catching images that you see all over TV (MTV, etc), Web in no time.