July 24, 2013

212 words 1 min read

Setting up Node.JS on OSX – Quick and Easy

nodejs
Recently, I’ve gotten into learning Node.JS. Installing Node on my servers for remote development is easy enough with a wajig install nodejs, however I want to be able to work off my laptop while I’m on vacation. While it’s not quite as easy as one command, it really isn’t that hard to setup.

You can simply download and install the

NodeJS package, but getting NodeJS up and running “nicely” requires you use something like Homebrew or MacPorts. My preference is Homebrew, so the instructions reflect that:

  • Download & Install Command Line Tools for Xcode
  • Install Homebrew by running the following in a terminal window:
  • ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/mxcl/homebrew/go)"
  • Run brew doctor as instructed and fix any issues you might have.
  • Update your PATH variable
  • (in a terminal) nano ~/.profile
  • Add a single line that reads: export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/share/npm/bin/
  • Restart terminal window
  • brew install nodejs
  • brew install npm
  • Done! At this point you’ll have a functional Node.JS and npm environment (Yes, technically you don’t need npm — but that is like running Debian/Ubuntu without apt-get… why would you?). While you’re at it, you might consider adding Bower ( npm install bower ) for your frontends needs. Now go forth and Javascript! (Really never thought I’d ever say that again after the mid 90s)
    • bower homebrew javascript mac macports node.js nodejs npm osx

    Securing your Apple adapters in conference rooms

    February 28, 2013

    Modern IT is an increasingly Mac-friendly endeavor. One of the major annoyances (in my book) with Macs is the use of adapters and dongles. It isn’t so much that adapters are required, it’s that in shared spaces (such as conference rooms) you need to have them easily accessible AND removable, but not-easily wandered off with. This last requirement is the most troublesome for me because people seem to love to go wandering off with VGA and network adapters from conference rooms. They may have dozens of the damn things back at their desk (because I readily provide them to my users), but they’ll accidentally walk off with another. I found a solution to securing all types of Apple adapters in our conference rooms, and it costs about about $0.10 USD.

    Making a bootable USB drive of OS X Mountain Lion

    July 25, 2012

    As of this morning, OSX 10.8 “Mountain Lion” is out. It’s a whopping $19.99 on the App Store and a couple hour download (depending on your internet connection). If you’ve got multiple machines to install, or just like to be prepared, you can make a bootable USB thumb drive of Mountain Lion. It’s really easy, in fact it is the exact same process as making USB drives for 10.7.

    Taking Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin for a spin

    May 10, 2012

    It’s been about 2 weeks since Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise Pangolin) has been released and I figured it was about time to take it for a spin. I reformatted my Dell Latitude E4200 (which was running Linux Mint 12 KDE) and installed the 64 bit desktop edition. I thought I was done with this entire Unity/Gnome 3 debacle and off to KDE forever, turns out that might have been premature.