So check it out here.  Sorry Windows users, this game is free on OS X only.

1. Installing PHP & MySQL – There are several ways to install these packages on a Mac.  You can build the source code, download installers for each or download a development bundle that already has everything setup.  If you are just using your local machine to develop on then you probably don’t need to update the PHP version on your Mac or install MySQL to the Mac’s bin directory.  There are much easier options.  They aren’t secure enough for production machines, but for your local development they will do just fine.  The easiest one is BitNami stacks.  BitNami provides a wide range of application stacks such as Wordpress, Joomla, and Drupal to name a few.  It also provides Infrastructure Stacks.  These are stacks like MAMP, WAMP, LAMP, etc.  Basically, this is a base install for M(ac) A(pache) M(ySQL)P(HP), or Windows Apache MySQL & PHP, etc.
2. Download MAMP ~63MB.  If you are developing plugins or themes for Wordpress or one of their other application stacks then you might just skip this install and download that application stack.
3. Next we need to run the bitnami-mampstack-1.2…installer.app.
4. You will just be prompted for the install location and the root password.  The only requirement is that the password is more than 6 characters.
5. When the installer is done you should now see that your install was a success.  Your web-browser will open to page http://127.0.0.1:8080/  This is your localhost address.

1. Next step is to locate where these files are coming from.  I used the default install which places all files in /Applications/mampstack-1.2-0/ .  The page you see on your success page is coming from /Applications/mampstack-1.2-0/apache2/htdocs/.  You can remove all the files from this folder and place your PHP scripts here instead.  If you haven’t used a PHP framework yet, I suggest you try out CodeIgniter.  It’s simple to use and there is a lot of documentation and support online.
2. Install CodeIgniter – Simply download Codeigniter from here. Extract the contents of CodeIgniter_xx to the folder /Applications/mampstack-1.2-0/apache2/htdocs/.  Also, it’s best practice to move the application folder from out within the system folder and to the base or the htdocs/ folder.  (Command double-click the system folder to open in a new finder window.)
3. 
4. Next it’s time to install a free PHP IDE.  Take a pick from my recent article on the top 5 free PHP IDEs on MAC. I chose to use NetBeans due to the great features, free, syntax highlighting, and code completion for libraries such as CodeIgniter.
5. Just a few quick tips.  To access your phpMyAdmin you can goto the link http://127.0.0.1:8080/phpmyadmin/. Here the username is: administrator and the password is the one you used durning the install.
6. Configure CodeIgniter – With NetBeans choose New Project -> PHP Application with Existing Sources -> Sources folder: /Applications/mampstack-1.2-0/apache2/htdocs ->Project Name: Whatever you want. -> Run As: Local Web Site -> Project URL: http://127.0.0.1:8080/ -> Index File: index.php .
7. Now everything should be setup.  Just a few tweaks to configure the database and index file.  Open application/config/ and enter in your database credentials.  Next open config and change your base url to http://127.0.0.1:8080/.

That’s it you can now visit http://127.0.0.1:8080/ and you should see your wonderful new site.  I hope this helps clear up some questions about getting started with Mac Apache MySQL PHP.  If you have any further questions please don’t hesitate to ask in the comments below. TRHFUVMUP9CQ

Synergy is a great application and a must have for those people with more than one computer at their desk. Basically, Synergy is a KVM but done through software. This means that you can use the same mouse and keyboard across all your multiple machines, even if one is windows, one is mac, and one is linux.

From the developer’s site:

Synergy lets you easily share a single mouse and keyboard between multiple computers with different operating systems, each with its own display, without special hardware. It’s intended for users with multiple computers on their desk since each system uses its own monitor(s).

Redirecting the mouse and keyboard is as simple as moving the mouse off the edge of your screen. Synergy also merges the clipboards of all the systems into one, allowing cut-and-paste between systems. Furthermore, it synchronizes screen savers so they all start and stop together and, if screen locking is enabled, only one screen requires a password to unlock them all. Learn more about how it works.

Download now.

VLC is a media player that extends support past QuickTime formats, but it also supports WMV (a typical Windows formatted media file) streams as well as a host of other formats. One of the main draws to VLC is that it is capable of playing a movie even if it is not fully downloaded. This is great for checking to see if the title of the movie is matching the content. It is also possible to see if the quality of the movie is any good before wasting time downloading it if is not.

You may recall Free Application #16. Perian, in this add-on to QuickTime we were able to extend the default media player’s capability. However, for some situations VLC still comes in handy.

Screenshots

From the developers site:

VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, …) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and variousstreaming protocols. It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network.

Supported for Windows, Mac, Linux, & more.

Download Now!

If you are a fan of Google’s other applications, such as Google SketchUp(free 3d modeling), then you are probably no stranger to application number 7. Google Earth provides a great way to go sight seeing with out getting on a plane, in your car, or leaving that comfortable spot on the sofa. There are a few things that you might not know that really make this application more fun. Well first, and of course, it’s free. That doesn’t make the app more fun, just better. The second is a key command to turn Google maps into google flight simulator. It’s a far cry from the snazzy version released by Microsoft. However, I can’t fly over Auburn University in Microsoft’s version.

The commands for the flight simulator on Google Earth are posted here.

The next thing that really makes this application shine are the easter eggs found all over earth and found in Google Earth itself. Since people have the ability to add 3d structures through the use of sketch up these easter eggs seem to be showing up everywhere. Easter eggs are hidden little pieces of fun.

Here is one example:

Other easter eggs you can find are on Google Maps, but are really fun to go to with Google Earth.
Such as Ipod Shuffle, and there are countless others. Just do a Google Search on Google Earth Easter Eggs, or Google Maps Strange Sightings.

So go ahead and start playing with Google Earth.

From the developer’s site:

Google Earth lets you fly anywhere on Earth to view satellite imagery, maps, terrain, 3D buildings and even explore galaxies in the Sky. You can explore rich geographical content, save your toured places and share with others.

If you are of a creative persuasion download SketchUp as well and contribute your building.

Download Now.

Quicksilver is usually #1 in a list of Mac software, but since the I use mostly spotlight to open applications I use quicksilver a lot less than I use to. However, it’s still a great way to interface with your applications. There is a lot of support and add-ins for the application as well. In order to understand what exactly Quicksilver does check out the YouTube Video below.

Demonstration:

From the developers site:

Quicksilver’s greatest strength, however, is not search. Any item you are able to find, drag, or otherwise pull into its universe is endowed with many potential uses. Hitting <tab> takes you to the action field, where you can use the same adaptive search to select what you would like to do. Among other things, files can be emailed, copied, compressed. Text can be modified, transmitted between programs, or searched for on the web. Some actions even support an indirect object, so you can send an item to a person, move files to another folder, or open files with a specific applications.

Download now!

What in the world is TGEmu?  Well TGEmu is a Turbo Grafx 16 Emulator (PCE).  Since the PCE is dead and it had one of the best strategy games of all time on it, Military Madness, todays download brings these two things back to harmory via emulation.  Military Madness did see a second coming in the form of Nectaris for Playstation One.  However the game is still great on PCE and now it’s free so you should check it out.  This is a two-step download:

1. Download & Install TGEmu
2. Download Military Madness and Extract It

Screenshot: Don’t judge a strategy game by its looks.

Military Madness

About TGEmu:

TGEmu features reasonably good compatibility with PC Engine HuCards. While this release does not support CD-ROM based software, this will be included in a future release. Sound emulation is supported. Also, the emulator can use Gzip compressed ROMs transparently.

According to Nintendo:

Isn’t it Okay to Download Nintendo ROMs for Games that are No Longer Distributed in the Stores or Commercially Exploited? Aren’t They Considered “Public Domain”?

No, the current availability of a game in stores is irrelevant as to its copyright status. Copyrights do not enter the public domain just because they are no longer commercially exploited or widely available. Therefore, the copyrights of games are valid even if the games are not found on store shelves, and using, copying and/or distributing those games is a copyright infringement.

Haven’t the Copyrights for Old Games Expired?

U.S. copyright laws state that copyrights owned by corporations are valid for 75 years from the date of first publication. Because video games have been around for less than three decades, the copyrights of all video games will not expire for many decades to come.

Since you cannot get the games anymore, and the true crime would be for people not to experience the masterpiece the original developers created, download at your own discretion.

Today’s great free application for Mac Os X is Growl.  Essentially, Growl is a notification service that runs quietly in the background and alerts you when specific events happen.  The messages can range from changing songs on iTunes to receiving new mail.  Other programs such as Adium integrate in with Growl to notify you when a new IM is received or a buddy logs on.  Other custom events can be created as well.  The notifications windows are beautiful and it’s a all-around great application to have.

There are a host of built in supported applications and additional plugins you can download including:

• iPhoto
• iCal
• Mail
• Xcode
• more

Azureus is a great BitTorrent Client.  That does much more than download your favorite torrents.  In case you don’t know, BitTorrent is a p2p protocol which is widely used in the distrobution of software, movies, music, and pretty much anything else.

More information on the BitTorrent Protocol can be found on wikipedia:

BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer file sharing (P2P) communications protocol. BitTorrent is a method of distributing large amounts of data widely without the original distributor incurring the entire costs of hardware, hosting, and bandwidth resources. Instead, when data is distributed using the BitTorrent protocol, each recipient supplies pieces of the data to newer recipients, reducing the cost and burden on any given individual source, providing redundancy against system problems, and reducing dependence on the original distributor.

Azureus is more than just a BitTorrent client, however.  It provides a nice user-interface for downloading media and has numerous plugins to be the only application you need to download stuff.  It does not provide the actual torrent file, for those you will need to find a BitTorrent search engine.  Such as YouTorrent.com or you can google numerous other ones.  Just remember it cost money to develop movies, music, and software, and while the cost of distributing software is practically zero there is a cost in initial development that needs to be recouped from the developer so that they will continue to produce more software.  Just a way of saying, pay for things you can afford.

From the developer’s site:

Azureus implements the BitTorrent protocol using java language and comes bundled with many invaluable features for both beginners and advanced users:

* Multiple torrent downloads

* Upload and download speed limiting, both globally and per torrent

* Advanced seeding rules

* Adjustable disk cache

* Only uses one port for all the torrents

* UPnP sets the forward on your router

* Can use a proxy, for both tracker and peer communications

* Fast resume

* Can set a default download dir and move completed files

* Can import torrents automatically from a set dir

* Highly customizable interface

* IRC plugin included for quick help

* Embedded tracker, host your own torrents, automate your shares (periodic scanning of a dir)…

* Distributed Hash Table: host on it a completely decentralised torrent and/or benefit from it when the tracker is offline.

Download now.