ProTools Optimization for MacBook Pro

My projects are getting larger in ProTools 9 and my MacBook Pro was starting to strain a bit. (2.93 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 8 GB ram 1067 MHz DDR3 on Mac OS X Version 10.6.8). Here’s info to optimize your Mac laptop for Digidesign Pro Tools 9. Probably works for optimization with ProTools 8 and below and other Mac computers as well.

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Steps to Secure VBulletin

Since 2001 I’ve run online discussion forums. PhpBB was my first software but they had a major software exploitation back in December 2004 that brought down my forum network. The release of Phpbb 2 and 3 seemed to alleviate a lot of the problems, but in the meantime I switched many forums over to VBulletin.

I haven’t had my phpBB 2.x sites hacked but have had several hacks on VBulletin. They seem to have increased in 2011 with an almost monthly hack on one of my forums. Normally just kids having fun and reading instructions on how to hack using the latest software vulnerability in VBulletin 4.x. But in July 2011, for the first time, I had a hacker use one of my websites as a phishing site.

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Canon 5D Mark II and iMovie 09

I just love my Canon 5D Mark II camera that I bought a few months ago. But there are issues with the footage being jerky when using IMovie 09. I haven’t quite had the time to jump into using Final Cut yet, so until then you can use a free program called MPEG Streamclip to fix the video stuttering.

There’s a great article here that will explain exactly what do to:
http://thedigitalstory.com/2009/04/managing_canon_5d_ma.html

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VBulletin Create Search Table

This took me quite a while to find. Here is the query to use in MySql to create the search table in VBulletin. To find the code to create other tables in VBulletin database go to your VB upload files to: install/mysql-schema.php

This was in response to an INVALID SQL error in VB 4.0 where “domainname” is the name of your website url:
MySQL Error   : Table ‘domainname.search’ doesn’t exist
Error Number  : 1146

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VBulletin 4.0 Settings

A collection of my changed VBulletin 4.0 settings. I’m posting this so I can remember the changes as I go along that may be helpful to other people. Maybe other VB owners have better, or additional suggestions, they can let me know about. (hint, hint: leave a comment please!)

Just released on December 21, 2009 – the new VB4 has received mixed reviews. Members of my communities also are mixed on their appreciation. We’ll give it some time to settle and see how it goes with the new CMS. I run forums on both VB and PhpBB.

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Real Estate Agents on Facebook

My new pet peeve is real estate agents on Facebook. They become everyone’s friend by going through your friends list and then spam you. Bah humbug.

I just received another friend request with “any friend of s0-and-so is a friend of mine!” and I think: Mmmm…I bet this person sells real estate. Sure enough they do; with real estate links and comments all over their page. And all their status updates are about the current market. Thanks for ruining Facebook.

So let’s say that YOU are a real estate agent and you haven’t totally alienated every single person in your community yet; here’s tips on marketing on Facebook so you can piss EVERYONE off. Way to go!

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Netgear Router Setup on Mac

Add this to my list of stupid tech problems that wasted my time. This one about SIX hours. 

The Netgear router comes with an installation CD for PC only. If installing on a Mac you need to do it manually. I even tried using my VMFusion side with Microsoft XP to install but would not work.

The secret? Clear the cache on your Safari browser! For me it was that simple. Then I was able to connect directly to the router for setup. I hope this helps someone else save many hours.