Dean wants the religious to stay out of politics

Newsmax.com is reporting a heartfelt story about Howard Dean's remarks requesting churches to decide between tax-exempt status or getting involved in politics. Dean's comments were made during an interview Wednesday with Christian Science Monitor.

Perhaps Dean has forgotten that American was founded on religious freedom – the ability to select any religion or none at all. Most liberal Democrats would like to change this definition to the absence of religion from the public sector.

I certainly hope that Dean would also convince a lot of other non-profit groups to stay out of politics. I can think of a few real juicy ones.

Launching CF on the MacBook

Here is how I am currently launching CF on the MacBook:

I created a shell command to do the launch like this:

#!/bin/sh
JRUN_HOME="/Applications/Development/JRun4"
LOG_HOME="${JRUN_HOME}/logs"
cd ${JRUN_HOME}/lib
java -jar jrun.jar -start cfusion
	1>$LOG_HOME/cfusion-out.log 2>$LOG_HOME/cfusion-err.log

save it as something like launchCF.command and then via terminal cd to the folder you placed it in and type chmod a+x launchCF.command

You should be able to execute it from Finder now. It shows two windows the terminal and the jrunx.kernal.jrun window

Warning—Installing the 4/17 Apple Java Update Kills Coldfusion Server (Again)!

I'll let you know when/if I can fix it.

UPDATE: If you have installed the Java 5 installation update then you will have to perform these steps to get ColdFusion/Jrun to launch again.

WARNING: I have no idea what future problems this might cause but hopefully this whole process is a temporary workaround anyway.

Installation Steps:

1. In Terminal, cd to /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions
2. Type: sudo unlink CurrentJDK and press Enter
3. You will be prompted for your password – enter it
4. Type sudo ln -s 1.4.2 CurrentJDK and press Enter (that is lowercase LN after sudo)
5. Check your new default Java version by typing java -version
6. Close all your terminal windows and relaunch CF

UPDATE (READ THIS FIRST):
Mark Andrachek posted the following in a comment on another post and I am currently using this approach…Thanks Mark!!!
Also, rather than changing my JVM for the system, I modified my jvm.config file for JRUN to point to the 1.4.2 bin and Library directories, and created a symlink, /usr/bin/java142 to the 1.4.2 interpreter. Then replace

java -jar jrun.jar -start cfusion

with

java142 -jar jrun.jar -start cfusion

McAfee’s Gone Wild!

If any of you are using the CHS McAfee virus software at home like I am you may want to check on something.  About a week ago, some programs on my machine quit working, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, etc with no explanation.  Come to find out last night that McAfee recently released an updater with an overaggressive virus signature that matched a couple hundred legitimate program files (exes and dlls mostly).  Anyway, they have a program that restores all the files in your quarantine directory back to their original location and then you should get the latest updater and run it again.

 

The virus name was W95/CTX and here is a link to the info and clean up program

http://us.mcafee.com/virusInfo/default.asp?id=description&virus_k=138884

 

Have fun!

CFMX7 on MacBook (Instructions)

Well it took some help from a comment by Mark Drew on Sean Corfield's Blog but I think I have nailed running CFMX 7 on my MacBook. Here are the steps I followed starting from ground zero.

1. Install CFMX 7 and you must select the on top of JRun option (multi-server), I selected to use the built in web server and not install any web server connectors (may try to hook this up later). If you already have JRun installed then you can use the WAR/EAR install option. See Mark Drew's Post on that.

2. User the Terminal app to navigate to your install location + /lib (mine was /applications/development/jrun4/lib)

3. Run java -jar jrun.jar -start cfusion

4. Browse to http://127.0.0.1:8300/CFIDE/administrator/index.cfm – TADA!

Thanks Mark and Sean for your tips!

Strike One and Two for the MacBook

So I picked up the MacBook today from the Genius bar and they gave me a chance to look at it at the store. It was pretty hard to tell with all the people talking and music playing so I packed it up and brought her home. Well its been about 20 min. and they have already hit two strikes. Strike One: The noises are still there. So far both the brightness noise and squeaky screen have manifested. The brightness hum is perhaps quieter than before and you can only really hear it when it is silent in the room. The squeaky screen noise is another story. I hadn't heard it in a couple of weeks so its hard to say louder vs. quieter, but I will say that it came and went fairly quickly. In fact while I am writing this it is not present.

Strike Two: Fire in the hole! She still gets 'perty' warm when on the lap so I guess this is considered normal. I also think I understand why almost every other laptop manufacturer uses plastic cases. Still I would trade how solid this thing feels for the warmth. Besides, its probably good birth control.

So the final test will be the wireless connection from the upstairs TV room. I'll post the results as soon as I have it!

MacBook No?

Well my macbook is on its return flight from Houston, Texas with repair status unknown. The support site says it was "repaired". It has been gone since late last week and it took a little bit of convincing for the Genius bar dude to send it off but eventually he did and here we are today.

Let me start with the fact that I love my Macbook. Everything about it (that works) is first-class! The display is incredible, the performance excellent, and coming over to the dark side has been only a minor adjustment. Still, for 2 large, you want 100% perfection right? Mine had 3 issues when it left Charlotte, NC. First, there's the humming noise when the display is set to anything but full-brightness. The annoying high-pitched whine that it used to make has not come back since I installed 10.4.6. That noise made you want to stab your ears out! If it ever comes back, this thing will be on eBay faster than you can spell "Hello Vista"! Second, the thing gets pretty hot to handle! I was told by a Genius that it is not a "lap top" but rather a "portable" and that I should not use it on my lap. Still, you would hope that you could surf the web while watching TV right??? You can if you like your leg hairs crispy :-) Finally, the airport express card likes to drop connections at its convenience even when the machine has not moved. I can go from 3 bars to 0 instantly and the only way to restore the connection is to turn the airport off and then back on. Really annoying even when surfing the web. If I was ever doing anything really important I would probably get pretty pissed off! What good is a 4-way iChat video conference if I keep dropping out of the conference? Can you hear me now?
So I guess we'll see what the fine folks in support have to say as their way of thanking me for being an early adopter of the MacBook Pro!!!

I’m Back!

So here I am in Charlotte, NC for the 3rd time in my life, coding away in ColdFusion and Java, integrating software systems, drinking brew and hanging with my beautiful wife and soon to be 2 year old son! Life is so good that I look both ways at intersections and check my mail for white powder. I suppose I get my paranoia from my mom who is personally being hunted by Saddam’s operatives right now, but, I’ll save that story for a slow blogging day.

So this blog is my view of the world. I’ll try to keep it entertaining to whoever stumbles on it but you can count on a few things: technology (mainly gadgets and Mac stuff), coding (mainly ColdFusion, Java and other web stuff), politics (mainly right-winged), religion (mainly Protestant), and family (mainly mine).

Stay tuned for more about me and check out my bookmarks for my always useful delicious account and more…

Here’s to happy blogging!