Giving Up On A MAMP Stack

I've given up on trying to get a MAMP stack on my local Mac Pro. As beefy as machine as it is, it's not Linux. First, apache didn't work out of the box on OS X. Then, while working on image module, I found out that OS X's PHP doesn't come with GD. (I won't even mention my issues with ruby.)

So I'm going to spend more money on proprietary software (VirtualBox didn't work), most likely VMWare's Fusion so I can run a virtualized instance (or three) of Linux locally. It will take less time, behave the way I expect it to and be a breeze to update, thanks to apt.

Installing Ruby's MySQL Gem With MySQL Installed Via Fink

If you've installed MySQL via fink and you're going to install the MySQL gem for Ruby and you're getting something like this:

Macintosh:~ brianpuccio$ sudo gem install mysql
Building native extensions.  This could take a while...
ERROR:  Error installing mysql:
	ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension.

/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/bin/ruby extconf.rb install mysql -- --with-mysql-dir=/sw/var/mysql/
checking for mysql_query() in -lmysqlclient... no
checking for main() in -lm... yes
checking for mysql_query() in -lmysqlclient... no
checking for main() in -lz... yes
checking for mysql_query() in -lmysqlclient... no
checking for main() in -lsocket... no
checking for mysql_query() in -lmysqlclient... no
checking for main() in -lnsl... no
checking for mysql_query() in -lmysqlclient... no
*** extconf.rb failed ***
Could not create Makefile due to some reason, probably lack of
necessary libraries and/or headers.  Check the mkmf.log file for more
details.  You may need configuration options.

The command you really need is sudo gem install mysql -- --with-mysql-config=/opt/local/lib/mysql5/bin/mysql_config

Fast Programming

Thanks to neat things like simple web browsers and weblogs in 15 minutes, I have this crazy idea in my mind that I can read a book or a few wiki pages and then do the same myself. For some reason, this allure of instant gratification has caught my attention. I know that the people who did these demos is a pro and has tons more experience with the language than I do. So for now these things will made me think oooooooo, shiny but then go back to reading emails.