Installing PHP 5.3 with mysqlnd on Mac OS X with MacPorts

by Ryan Parman • July 11, 2009 • Code, Software, Tutorials • 10 comments

Historically, I’ve always preferred to use Apple’s built-in Apache 2.2 and PHP 5.x that comes with Leopard. However, after trying to compile PHP 5.3 from scratch and connect it with Apache, I decided to just use the MacPorts installer instead. That did mean giving up control of a finely-tuned Apache installation, but in the end, I think I’ve ended up with a better localhost system.

Run Internet Explorer 6 (or IE7, or IE8) images in VirtualBox on Mac OS X

by Ryan Parman • June 30, 2009 • Software, Tutorials • 1 comments

These days I’m looking to save money anywhere I can. How about you? Whereas VMWare Fusion (as awesome as it is) runs around $80 USD per copy, Sun’s VirtualBox is a free, open-source product for virtualization that runs on Mac OS X, Linux, and Windows.

If you’ve not yet read the related post, “Run Internet Explorer 6 (or IE7, or IE8) images in VMWare Fusion on Mac OS X,” you should. This is a follow up on how to take those virtual machines (which we’ve already done a lot of work on), and convert them for use VirtualBox.

Those kids and their Wiis

by Ryan Parman • April 26, 2009 • Family Life • No comments

I remember back to the late 80′s when I would play Super Mario Bros. with my friends. The one defining aspect of playing that game back then was that I would try to make Mario jump by jerking my controller up in the air. Of course this didn’t do anything, but it was just a [...]

Introducing DOMBuilder

by Ryan Parman • February 27, 2009 • Code, Projects • 3 comments

I hate the DOM. Actually, I take that back. I love the DOM, but I hate the fact that generating DOM nodes in JavaScript is so verbose and unintuitive. You need to construct a new element, then add properties, then construct a child element, then add properties, then append the child to the parent, and [...]

25 random things about me

by Ryan Parman • February 1, 2009 • Just for Fun • 4 comments

Rules: Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it’s because I want to know more about you.

Run Internet Explorer 6 (or IE7, or IE8) images in VMware Fusion on Mac OS X

by Ryan Parman • January 7, 2009 • Browsers, Software, Tutorials • 21 comments

By now, most front-end web developers have heard of the Standalone Internet Explorers (Wikipedia article). Although these are incredibly useful, they’ve always been hacky at best.

Because of that, we need to go the long way. We’ll download the “officially sanctioned” VirtualPC images containing a time-limited version of Windows XP SP3 and Internet Explorer 6.0, and then we’ll convert these images to the kind that work with VMware Fusion (which works on Mac OS X). This should only need to be done every 3 or 4 months when the images expire.

Tarzan 2.0 is finally here!

by Ryan Parman • December 10, 2008 • Projects • No comments

After 18 months of ongoing development, I am proud to announce the immediate availability of Tarzan 2.0! The Tarzan platform has complete support for six different AWS services (S3, CloudFront, EC2, SimpleDB, SQS, and Amazon Associates) and has been built from the ground-up to be fast, memory-efficient, easy to use, and easy to build on [...]

Loving my new iPhone 3G!

by Ryan Parman • November 2, 2008 • Apple, Design, Technology • No comments

Recently, I became the owner of a shiny new black, 16GB iPhone 3G. I’ve had a BlackBerry Pearl (8100) for the past 2 years, and the iPhone is a significantly better device for me. Here’s why. For starters, I’m an avid Mac user. I’ve spent many years on Mac and Windows systems, and I overwhelmingly [...]