Is My Mac’s SuperDrive Dead?

Dec 02

ClaudeHardware, How-To , , 2 Comments

For the last couple of weeks I’ve been unable to burn DVDs on my MacBook Pro. I insert a blank disc whenever the SuperDrive prompts for one, it then checks and checks for about a minute before ejecting the disc. At first I thought this was related to the type of disc I was using, TDK DVD-R 1-16x 4.7GB, but they burned just fine on my wife’s slightly older iMac.

Have you reset your PRAM and NVRAM lately?

After a bit of Googling for a fairly recent and verifiable solution I decided to reset the machine’s parameter random access memory (PRAM) and nonvolatile RAM (NVRAM) as suggested by some folks and Apple’s technical support site. It works!

Try this before you declare your SuperDrive dead and go out and buy a new one.

Force a URL to Use HTTPS

Feb 28

ClaudeHow-To, Protocol, Security , , , , , 2 Comments

Today I came across some old ColdFusion & Mach-II (1.0) code where a plugin was used to force HTTPS. I assume the original developer decided to go with this solution because the target environment was Windows and Internet Information Server.

The task becomes a lot easier under Apache. So I threw away the plugin code and added the following rule to the Apache configuration:

<directory "/public_html/mysite.com">
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !=on
RewriteRule ^(.*) https://%{HTTP_HOST}/$1	[R,L]
</directory>

The directive above can be placed inside a VirtualHost or Directory directives, but this usually requires access to the Apache server configuration, which is not typically possible in a shared hosting environment — in that case, the rule can be added to the .htaccess file.

Alternatively we could have used the SSLRequireSSL Apache (2.x) directive, but this would only block access to the non HTTPS address. In our case we want to automatically redirect the users instead of displaying an error message.

iTunes Crashes During Sync Post 2.2.1 Upgrade – FIX

Feb 03

ClaudeHardware, How-To , , , , , , 1 Comment

ITunes began crashing on Super Bowl Sunday after I upgraded my iPod Touch to the latest firmware, version 2.2.1 — Since then I have reinstalled iTunes, did a factory restore of the iPod to no avail.

A few minutes ago I was looking through the Apple discussion groups and came across this fix by Jeff McCord. It is a simple one when you think about it:

  1. Deauthorize your computer
  2. Authorize it again
  3. Visit the App Store and “Buy” a free app
  4. Sync up

I am a happy camper again. All my music, movies, videos and audio books are back!

Build Your First Ext-JS in Under an Hour

Oct 09

ClaudeExt JS, Framework, How-To, Presentation , , , No Comments

The Visual Ajax User Group is hosting a webinar with Aaron Conran, Sr. Architect Ext-JS on Thursday, October 16th, 2008.

Hands-On Ext is a fast-paced session in which we will build an Ext application in less than an hour. This session demonstrates how to get started using Ext JS and how quickly you can put together a simple application from scratch. Learn how to utilize Ext’s high-level UI widgets like GridPanel, TabPanel and FormPanel instead of re-inventing the wheel.

In this session you learn how to:

  • Create an application from scratch with Ext JS
  • Utilize Ext’s high-level UI widgets, such as GridPanel, TabPanel and FormPanel.

Sign up now.

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