FTP is a strange beast. For a protocol that predates the web’s http, it’s amazing how often today it doesn’t work. I use Panic’s Transmit most often, and Panic do good work.

Sometimes though, Transmit fails, for no good reason. When it does, I usually revert back to the command line ftp program in the Terminal. It’s archaic, but I learnt to use it at university many moons ago and I’m glad to have the option.

If that fails too, I smell a rat. This protocol should have been perfected by now, and somehow someone’s either sent me the wrong login details or is using a non-standard server. It’s happened twice now.

So, the workaround: use the Finder. It’s basic, but it connected without any problems, instead of weird error messages. Remember the Finder next time ftp falls over.

Let’s feed Google.

Setting up MySQL + phpMyAdmin + a CMS on Mac OS X 10.4.4 and up? #2002 error? Ah…

MySQL AB :: MySQL Forums :: Database Administration :: Re: #2002 – The server is not responding

“Re: #2002 – The server is not responding

Posted by: Geoff Ellis (IP Logged)
Date: March 08, 2006 05:27AM

To the people on Mac OS X 10.4.4 and up

During the 10.4.4 OS update, Apple have changed where PHP looks for the MySQL socket file.

You can correct this by:

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

Good Luck
Geoff”

Go Geoff!

So I’ve finally reworked my mother’s website: Rian Anderson | The Odd Ball Knit Book, mostly about the book I designed for her last year. (Online ordering coming soon!) Take a peek, tell me if it’s broken in IE6 (it really shouldn’t be, but I haven’t yet made it to a PC to test it on) and vote on what the background image should be, rather than the flat dark grey I stuck in during development and haven’t shifted yet. Probably subtly wooly.

Oh, and by “vote” I mean… leave comments here.

SL Forums – Disguised voice chat

Since I’m bleathering on the forums, thought I’d spread the bleather here:

SL Forums – Disguised voice chat: “Love SL. The one thing which really gets to me is the time it can take to ‘talk’ through a keyboard. Simply speaking is much faster; I could type for an hour or speak the same content in ten minutes. Skype-like functionality could revolutionise SL.

Obviously, anonymity has to be part of the SL experience, but that’s possible. If you have a Mac, try Garageband — it allows live voice changing effects to be applied, including gender changing and other modfications.

It probably wouldn’t be feasible everywhere, at least at first, but it would make a big difference in the long run. It could also bring a great many new residents — why just call someone when you can meet them in SL for a virtual drink instead?

Thoughts?”