Showing posts with label mac. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mac. Show all posts

Thursday, 28 January 2016

IBDP Computer Science IA

Important information about the
IBDP Computer Science Internal Assessment

Screencasting & File Requirements

Mac:
Windows:
Ensure that your screencast is about 5 minutes long, and in MP4, MOV, M4V format;
Maximum size 500 MB

Formatting of work for IBDP Computer Science IA

  • Arial font size 12 (where the language / script supports it)
  • Double-line spacing
  • Numbered pages
  • Portrait orientation (rather than landscape) – except where it is necessary to accommodate a specific item such as a graph or illustration
  • DOC, DOCX, PDF or RTF

Monday, 27 June 2011

Firefox 5 Released



Yes, Firefox 5 is out! Download it here, unless you are using Ubuntu 11.04.

If you are a running Natty Narwhal, all you need to do is run the Update Manager, and that's it!


Sources:
Mozilla
Softpedia

Saturday, 23 April 2011

Python 2.7 Mac OS X uninstall

The complete list is documented at http://bugs.python.org/issue7107. The following steps are done inside a terminal session and assume you know how to use the command line. All the terminal command lines below are single lines, even if they appear as two lines in your web browser or this blog post.

To completely remove Python 2.7 from my Mac OS X 10.6:

Remove the entry from the PATH variable by reverting my .bash_profile, edit or delete the file:
nano .bash_profile (remove the PATH lines added by the Python installer, they are commented, so you'll se them easily)
Remove the Python 2.7 framework:
sudo rm -rf /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7
Remove the Python 2.7 applications directory
sudo rm -rf "/Applications/Python 2.7"
Remove the symbolic that point back to the 2.7 framework in /usr/local/bin:
Find them with the following ls command, then remove with sudo rm -rf like in the previous steps.
ls -l /usr/local/bin | grep '../Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7'
In my case, I typed the following commands following the output of the previous ls line:
cd /usr/local/bin 
sudo rm -rf 2to3 idle idle2.7 pydoc pydoc2.7 python python-32 python-config pythonw pythonw-32 smtpd.py smtpd2.7.py


Information taken from:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3819449/how-to-uninstall-python-2-7-on-a-mac-os-x-10-6-4
Credits to the users listed there, especially Ned, who answered the question in such a clear and concise way.

Python on Macs


If you need or want to install and use the latest versions of Python (2.7.1 and 3.2 at the time of writing this post) on Mac OS X, please make sure you read the following web page that contains essential information on what do download and install in order to have a better experience.

http://www.python.org/download/mac/tcltk/

In a nutshell:

"Important
Do not use IDLE or tkinter with the Python 3.2 64-bit/32-bit installer for Mac OS X 10.6 unless you can install ActiveTcl 8.5. Otherwise use the 3.2 32-bit-only installer instead.

Do not use IDLE or Tkinter with the Python 2.7.1 64-bit/32-bit installer for Mac OS X 10.6. Install the 2.7.1 32-bit-only installer instead.

Do not use IDLE or Tkinter with the Apple-supplied Python 2.6.1 in Mac OS X 10.6. Install a newer version of Python 2.6 or later.

Python's integrated development environment, IDLE, and the tkinter GUI toolkit it uses, depend on the Tk GUI toolkit which is not part of Python itself. For best results, it is important that the proper release of Tcl/Tk is installed on your machine." (IDLE and tkinter with Tcl/Tk on Mac OS X)

Thursday, 30 December 2010

Flash for 64 bit Linux

Short post. If you're using a Linux distro for the x64 (x86-64) architecture, this page from Adobe Labs has all the info and istructions you need to install it.

I've tried it and works very fast! So far, haven't had any problems with it.


The way I've done it is to extract the libflashplayer.so from the file (i.e. flashplayer10_2_p3_64bit_linux_111710.tar.gz, just right click on it and choose 'Extract here') and then move it to the /usr/lib64/mozilla/plugins/ folder via the following terminal commands:
cd ~/Downloads
sudo cp libflashplayer.so /usr/lib64/mozilla/plugins/
Of course this is assuming you downloaded the file to your home folder's Downloads folder (the usual case). If you're using Konqueror, you may need to add the Flash plugin by going to Settings>Configure Konqueror>Plugins (last item), then select the Plugins tab, and click on the "Scans for plugins" button.

*Notes*
  • The Adobe Labs link was updated as the preview of  the 64-bit Adobe Flash Player Square is now available for Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows).
  • More information is available at this Ubuntu Documentation page (removal of non-64 bit Flash plugins, alternative way of installing it, and such)

Hope this helps.

Sunday, 8 November 2009

Day 1 with Snow Leopard

Let me start by saying that I'm a fan of clean installs, so don't expect to find any information about upgrading issues here.

So, what you'll find here is a summary of how I've set up Snow Leopard from scratch.

Make Leopard boot in 64 bit mode
For selected Macs models only*, you can enable this. By default, all Macs except Xserves (server machines) boot in 32 bit mode.

*Which models?
Open the Terminal and type the following:
ioreg -l -p IODeviceTree | grep firmware-abi
If you get the following output, you're all set to go. Otherwise, skip this section.
| | "firmware-abi" = <"EFI64">
OK, you're happy. You got the EFI64 message (that means your Extensible Firmware Interface is 64 bit) and (still inside the Terminal, type:
sudo nano /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist
Type in your password when asked. A handy text editor will open a configuration file. Carefully, change it so it looks like this:
Kernel
mach_kernel
Kernel Flags
arch=x86_64
So, the idea is to insert the line
arch=x86_64
Right after the "Kernel Flags" section. Press control and X simultaneously, then Y, then return. Now we're done. Restart, then open the Terminal again, and type:
uname -a
If you get something like the following, the magic worked! Congrats!
Darwin xxxxxxx 10.1.2 Darwin Kernel Version 10.1.2: Wed Sep 9 23:09:02 PDT 2009; root:xnu-1486.1.8~1/RELEASE_X86_64 x86_64

2D Dock
Yes, we'll be using the Terminal utility again. Open it, and type
defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean YES
killall Dock
To set the Dock to a 2D look, or
defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean NO
killall Dock
To (re)set it to the 3D glassy look. I prefer 2D myself because it's easier to see which apps are open (the little dot).

Install MS Office 2008 without Rosetta
Rosetta provide PowerPC support for Intel Macs, and is not installed by default in Snow Leopard. I find a waste of space and time to install it, so... Guess what! Terminal again. I open it at login, as you may guess.

Obviously, you need to insert the MS Office 2008 DVD into your Mac's optical drive. After that, type inside the Terminal the following:
sudo installer -package /Volumes/Microsoft\ Office\ 2008/Office\ Installer.mpkg/ -target /
Type in your password, and wait. Wait! It takes a while, even on your shiny new Snow Leopard Mac or your recently upgraded system. You will get the familiar prompt back once the installation is done. No nags, no questions asked, just an old fashioned, straightforward install.

Don't run anything yet. First, download and install all available updates first. Just go to http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.mspx to fetch them, then install them.

Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0
Nothing. You don't have to do anything. It's one of my favourite applications... I would recommend you, however, to run the Adobe Updater before you run any Adobe application. In the case of a default Elements 6.0 installation, you can find it in
Applications > Utilities > Adobe Utilities > Adobe Updater
or similar. Sometimes there's a number after updater showing the version of the utility (i.e. 4, 5)

Best luck and enjoy your Mac!

Thursday, 22 October 2009

Windows 7

Let's start the game all over again...

Microsoft just released its Windows 7 Operating System, so obviously I've started digging for information before making the financial commitment of spending my hard earned money yet again on a Microsoft OS.

What I found out:
Vista left me a really bad aftertaste... Paying too much money for software that does not meet essential expectations regarding stability, efficiency, compatibility...

I have tried the Windows 7 Release Candidate, and it is indeed better than Vista, but my position is that Microsoft would almost redeem itself by charging a reasonable price for the upgrade (like Apple, for example), or why not offer it as a service pack?

It's up to you, dear reader, but I just can't part with so much money... again.

I'll be in the Apple Mac OS X camp and eagerly waiting for Ubuntu 9.10, thank you very much.


Monday, 10 August 2009

Annoying Firefox settings

I'm a Firefox fan, but there is a setting I always change. It annoys me when it saves everything to the Desktop by default. I prefer to be asked, so I can organise my files properly.

These are the simple steps to change FF's default settings:

Go to Firefox > Preferences

and then, under the Main tab,













click on "Always ask me where to save files"

Sunday, 25 January 2009

New to Mac OS X

At work I've been exposed to Macs, so I've had to learn how to use them.

The purpose of this post isn't to review or criticise the platform or the OS, but to help you if you're new to Apple Macs and OS X, like I once was.

Hope you will find these links useful. I was trying to find Mac OS X version 10.4 "Tiger" resources, but there are links to Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard" as well.

(videos)

(tutorials, text+images)

Optimise Windows 10/11

How to optimise your Windows setup Just in case you need it. If you want a safe and conservative approach, just disable the background apps ...