This evening, I plugged my iPhone into my computer and when iTunes opened, it informed me there was an update available. I like to keep my software up-to-date, so I started to download the OS update. Big mistake.

The download itself took a short while but when it was ready, I tried to install it. Back in February I updated to version 3.1.3 and more recently, I updated to iOS 4 and had no problems. This time, the update bar on my phone got to about a quarter full and then it just stopped. I thought it might be because it was a large update so I left it for over an hour. When I returned to my desk, it hadn’t moved. That’s when I started to panic.

Obviously, I couldn’t eject my iPhone because it thought it was still updating so I just removed the USB cable. I reset it a couple of times and tried again. The update bar froze. I reset it once more. Guess what? It froze. I’d read reports on the web that some people had “bricked”* their iPhones during the update process.

Apple doesn’t have any offical way of letting you downgrade the OS on the iPhone so I couldn’t get back to iOS 4. After a bit of googling, I found a way of perhaps fixing the phone (which by this point was demanding that I plug it into iTunes to restore it…but that didn’t work!).

Anyway, if you’re having problems, first of all, disconnect your phone and reset it (hold the button at the top and the home button at the same time for a few seconds) and make sure you’ve closed iTunes.

Secondly, try removing the iOS 4.0.1 update (the file may have been corrupted when it was downloading). To do this navigate to-

• Documents and Settings\\Application Data\Apple Computer\iTunes\iPhone Software Updates (Windows)
• Library/iTunes/iPhone Software Updates (Mac)

When you’re in the right directory, there should be a file with the extension .ipsw. Delete this. Now reconnect the phone, open iTunes and try to restore it again. Deleting the .ipsw file forces iTunes to re-download it. This time it should work (it did for me).

Of course, you could just not install the iOS 4.0.1 update

*This is the word the cool kids use to describe an iPhone which is farked. I’d never heard of the term until tonight. Clearly I’m not cool enough.

  

Yesterday evening, I decided that I wanted to try and install both ColdFusion and XAMPP on my MacBook, to try to get them working in conjunction with each other. I hit a few stumbling blocks along the way which were frustrating so I thought I’d write a quick guide so others could also attempt to install them. Before you start, there’s one thing to keep in mind (and it may seem a bit obvious), but you must have administrator rights as you will need to enter the password during the installation process.

Right, first things first, you’ll need to download a copy of XAMPP OS X and ColdFusion 9 (I’m a student so I use the developer edition). I’m aware that OS X does come with it’s own version of Apache however, I always used XAMPP on Windows and I wanted to continue with it.

1. Install XAMPP in the usual way- it’s really just a case of hitting next. If in doubt, follow the instructions on the XAMPP website

2. Now onto ColdFusion. Download the developer edition, unzip it and click on the installer.

3. The installer should load. Again at this stage, it’s a case of clicking “ok” and “next” to accept terms and conditions.

4. When prompted for a serial number (which you won’t have), check the box which says you are using the developer edition.

5. Then on the next screen, select the server configuration option. After that, you will be asked whether you already have a version of ColdFusion running on your machine. For an easy(ish) install ensure you don’t have an old version lurking about.

6. You will then be asked where you would like to install ColdFusion. Choose whatever you like but I found it easier to leave the default path- “/Applications/ColdFusion9″.

7. After this, you will need to configure the connector. Enter the details below:

• Web Server: Apache

• Config. Dir: /Applications/xampp/etc

• Dir and file name of server binary: /Applications/xampp/xamppfiles/bin/httpd

• Dir and file name of server control script: /Applications/xampp/xamppfiles/bin/apachectl

8. Hit next. You will then be asked where you would like to place the CFIDE folder. I put mine in /Applications/xampp/xamppfiles/htdocs but had an issue where the file permissions didn’t allow me to write anything to the directory. Set the file permissions to read and write. You can do this by navigating to the appropriate folder in Finder, right clicking on it, choosing “Get Info” and editing the “Sharing and Permissions” option which is towards the bottom of the screen.

9. Once you’ve done this, you will be prompted to enter an administrator password for the CFIDE.

10. The next screen asks if you want to set a password for RDS. Off the top of my head, I’m not really sure what that is (can’t even remember if the installer explains it) but I just ignored it and didn’t set a password. After this, it should install.

Ideally, the ColdFusion administration login should then appear, prompting you for the password you previously created. On entering it, the install should complete and bam, everything should work. If it does, then great, go get a cup of tea. if it doesn’t, get a cup of tea anyway- you’re going to be sitting in front of your computer for a little longer.

In my case, whenever i tried to open a .cfm file, my browser tried to save it, meaning that it didn’t know how to render it into a webpage. “Easy fix” I thought. If something like this happens, you may need to tell Apache it’s ok and that these files can be opened. Navigate to /Applications/xampp/xamppfiles/etc/httpd.conf. Make a back-up of this file just in case anything goes horribly, horribly wrong. Find the line that says DirectoryIndex and has something like index.php index.html beside it. Add index.cfm. This may solve your problem (if you’re having a problem that is).

I then decided to check out the ColdFusion connector log which can be found at /Applications/ColdFusion9/ConnectorInstall0.txt. In here, I discovered the connector hadn’t been created!

To recreate it, go to /Applications/ColdFusion9/ColdFusion Launcher. Hit the Webserver Connector Utility and enter the same information as provided in step 7. You will need to hit Advanced to enter all the info. The only checkbox which you must tick is the one which says to configure the webserver for ColdFusion9 applications. Once you hit ok, your httpd.conf file for XAMPP will have been edited. At around line 500 or so, you will see code which says something like-

# JRun Settings
LoadModule jrun_module /Applications/ColdFusion9/runtime/lib/wsconfig/1/mod_jrun22.so

Don’t worry, this is good. Try and start Apache in the XAMPP control panel. Bet it still doesn’t work? Bet it comes up with an error saying that it cannot load mod_jrun22.so into the server (or something like that). Chances are, ColdFusion is still trying to use the wrong type of connector. I don’t know why it does it- it’s annoying. Anyway, the right version of the connector is sitting on your computer- you’re almost there….

Navigate to Applications/ColdFusion9/runtime/lib/ and copy and paste the wsconfig.jar to your desktop. Open it using the archiving utility and there should be a folder called “connectors”. Inside this, there is one called “apache”. Open it. Here’s all the correct connectors. If you are using a MacBook Pro, choose the intel-macosx folder. Within that, there’s a prebuilt folder and finally inside it, here are the appropriate files! Copy the mod_jrun22.so file. Put the file into the /Applications/ColdFusion9/runtime/lib/wsconfig/1/mod_jrun22.so directory, overwriting the old one. Try starting Apache now. It should work. At this stage, you should then be able to complete the installation by following the steps for the CFIDE login in your browser.

So, XAMPP and ColdFusion will be able to work in harmony with each other. Cool, huh? It’s ok, you can thank me later

A guide which was particularly helpful at the early stages can be found at the following link- How I installed ColdFusion 8 on Mac OS X by Renaun Erickson

  

Well folks, the rumours you’ve heard are true.  I have indeed purchased a 13″ Macbook Pro.  You know what?  I friggin’ love it.

Since 2007, I’d been using a Dell Inspiron 1501 which I wasn’t especially happy with overall.  I had problems from the beginning: when I tried to connect to a wireless network in Windows Vista, I was presented with the Blue Screen of Death.  That’s something that shouldn’t have happened.  In addition to this, it seemed that the laptop (with 2GB of RAM and a dual-core processor) was incapable of running Netbeans and iTunes at the same time.  That’s something my old Acer from 2004 can *still* do.  Also, the sound was rubbish and the graphics driver caused a problem in that it constantly polled the keyboard, stealing focus and making anything you were typing lag.

Exasperated, I spent hours on the phone with tech support, culminating with me almost having a total meltdown (they are the most frustrating people to talk to).  After being passed to 4 different people, I got even more angry (not like me) and stated that if they didn’t send me a copy of Windows XP, I’d effectively bought a very expensive paperweight.  That seemed to do the trick.  Even after I installed XP, the computer still had problems, particularly with the keyboard stealing focus and entering a mysterious keypress once per second.  No one really knows what’s going on with that but there are many other Inspiron users with the same experience.

Anyway, enough of the old and on to the new!  So yes, I now have my MacBook Pro.  I’ll admit, I was a little nervous about getting it, wondering if I’d like it,  Mac OS X is totally new to me- I’ve been a Windows user since 1998/1999 so I thought it would be a major, scary change for me.  As it turns out, it’s not that much of a change.  OS X is very easy to use and makes the installation of programs simple.  It’s got a great GUI and I’ve found it pretty easy to navigate.  I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to use all the programs I use on Windows.  Again, that seem to be a bit of a myth- I’m quite happily using the majority of the same programs.

I have to make a quick mention of the way the MacBook is designed.  The multi-touch touchpad- two fingers to scroll, move fingers towards/away from each other to zoom in/out, touch the bottom right of the touchpad to right click.  All very nice.  The backlit keyboard is very cool too- sometimes I like to work with the main light off and the aquarium light on.  Now I won’t have to strain my eyes to see what I’m doing.  Oh, and the battery life- hours and hours and hours.  I’ve said it before and i’ll say it again: I love it!

So it sounds like I’m an Apple fangirl.  Let the jibes begin now

  

Yes, I caved. I bought another iPod.

Why? Well, I think iPod Mini’s look cool, my old nano just isn’t big enough and this was only £30 off of eBay, including postage. Plus, look at the condition it’s in- it’s immaculate!

I still want to try and fix my kind of broken 20GB 4th Gen iPod though because it’s the first one I ever owned.

  

All is not well in Lynsay Land.  You see, I’ve had a really irritating problem…

I absolutely adore my 4th generation, 20GB iPod.  Really.  It’s one of my prized possessions.  I have to travel everyday and that wee gadget has kept me company on many a stressful train journey since 2005.  Honestly, it’s one of the best things ever.

Guess what?  It’s screwed.

I have never dropped it or damaged it in any way but, I was listening to it a few days ago in the garden and it crapped out.  Started skipping then died.  I plugged it into the computer and it said it was corrupt.  Tried to restore it (using the latest version of iTunes) but the restore process keeps freezing.  I’ve tried resetting it and that hasn’t worked either.

I stuck the iPod into diagnostics mode and the hdd tests seem ok (plus the hdd sounds fine- no clicking or anything so that’s good).  When I plug it into a computer, it shows a removable device with a size of 0kb (and therefore gives an error when you try to format it- it doesn’t think there is anything there that needs formatting).

There was a small glimmer of hope last night when I plugged it into my old computer.  For once, the iPod showed up in iTunes (as “Lynsay’s iPod”).  I even managed to play a song off it (which proves the hdd is definitely ok).  Stupidly, I unplugged it and tried plugging it in again and of course, it broke again.  Really I should just have formatted it.

I spoke to my cousin and he thinks it’s the hard drive controller.  That may mean a new logic board.  *cries*

Never mind, I purchased a 2GB iPod nano on eBay this afternoon.  Got it at a good price so here’s hoping it works properly.  It’s not really a replacement.  Just a substitute ’til I get my old one on the road again, which I’m sure is possible.