Category Archives: Featured

Importing a MySQL database into Apache Solr Part I

By Jon | Published: June 2, 2011
This is a tutorial for getting started with Apache Solr enterprise search with PHP and MySQL on Unix/Linux or Mac OS X.  Most of the information I have found is rather incomplete or full of erros so I wanted to share how I have successfully used Solr in a number of different applications.  I’m going [...]
Also posted in MySQL, PHP, Solr | Tagged , , , | 29 Comments

MacBook Pro Keyboard Intermittent Problems Solution

By Jon | Published: March 5, 2011
The older non-unibody MacBook Pro is a solid computer for a mobile warrior.  Over several years of use though many users have started experiencing an annoying problem where their macbook pro keyboard and trackpad experience intermittent problems where they stop responding.  This problem typically starts with a few seconds of non-responsiveness, but will grow over [...]
Also posted in Apple | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Page loading speed and SEO

By Jon | Published: December 10, 2010
There is a lot of SEO magic tricks available out there.  Some really meaningful ones and a lot of black magic ones that are never a good idea.  SEO Doctor firefox plugin is a great one to help identify SEO changes you can make on your pages.  I highly suggest reading the Googles whitepaper on [...]
Also posted in Google, SEO | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Magento thoughts, strengths, weaknesses, best practices, when to use

By Jon | Published: October 14, 2010
I have a lot more to post about Magento in the near future, but I wanted to spend a bit of time just giving some general feedback and what considerations to take into account when assessing whether it's the right solution for you or your client. I am by no means a Magento expert, but after implementing it for a couple small business clients I've seen some of the strengths and pitfalls of using it, both for them as well as a developer/consultant.
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Let Apple Xcode FileMerge save your life

By Jon | Published: September 20, 2010
A while back I had a Magento upgrade go horribly wrong for no apparent reason.  The upgrader conveniently didn’t install a lot of necessary files and for whatever reason no matter how many times I reverted to a backup I ended up the same place.  Neither the frontend or the backend worked correctly.  This happens [...]
Also posted in OS X | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Got com.apple.quarantine problems?

By Jon | Published: September 16, 2010
Today after uploading a WP site to my server I received a pretty strange error that I hadn’t seen before. Mac OS X  2��ATTRV(D��-�-com.apple.quarantineq/0000;4c9151bf;Firefox;|org.mozilla.firefox Well after a bit of digging around I found this…. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3662 Turns out that in 10.5 or 10.6 whenever a file is downloaded into the Download folder is is marked [...]
Also posted in OS X, Wordpress | Tagged , | 3 Comments