I'm currently using Mac OS x 10.5 and originally had these scripts while using 10.4 (thus I haven't tested them on any earlier versions).

Normally when you want to map (mount) to a Windows shared network drive you have to click on the word "Go" in the finder menu, choose "Connect to Server..." (propeller-K), and use SMB to mount to a Windows shared server.

Example:

However, I have several shares I use on my network (a NAS that uses SMB) and I prefer to have my shares connect automatically on startup. So I use the following script to map to my drives (using Apple's Script Editor).

From there I can either add all the drive mappings I want to that one script, or save them as individual scripts (the way I usually do it). Then I save the script as an application (make sure to uncheck "Startup Screen", unless you want that extra step).

Finally I add the applications to my startup (System Preferences --> Accounts --> Highlight the account --> Login Items (tab) --> Then I add the applications to the list.

On some occasions (for some reason), when my machine starts up not all of the mappings will connect (giving an error that the destination was unreachable). I haven't figured out why yet, but it only happens occasionally, so I've been living with it (to fix it I just manually click the application again and I'm in).

There are plenty of other methods to get this to work, but I haven't had much luck with others yet (I'm still a bit new to Mac and *nix). If someone else out there has a great idea (or a better one), feel free to let me know.

Yesterday I received my copy of Microsoft Office 2008 (Home Edition) from Amazon. So far I'm really liking it (the video tutorials on Lynda were very helpful to me in getting up to speed).

The printer I use (Canon MP830) is not networkable, thus I needed to purchase a network print server that supported a Mac (I'm currently using the D-Link DPR-1260. Although it supports multi-function printers (including my printer) it only supports "printing" from Macs (unfortunately I didn't find that out until after installing the device... the box just said Mac OS X supported)). When I upgraded to OS X 10.5, Apple pre-installed the Gutenprint printer drivers, which allowed me to finally print to my printer without a problem. Although it doesn't support all of the features of the printer (actually, hardly any features... not even draft printing) it at least had a few important features like duplexing (or what Apple calls "Two-Sided" printing). So far, every program I've tested on my Mac has had great success... until I installed MS Office 2008. From Office I can only print (with little-to-no feature options).

The solution? It was easier than I thought. When you're ready to print, choose "print" from the "file" menu. Then hit the "Preview" button (which loads up Preview). Now you'll be able to have all of your print features again.

As an aside: During my trials, I tried upgrading the Gutenprint printer drivers to the latest version (which claim they fix some bugs and add more printer support... at this time I upgraded from 5.1.3 (Leopard default) to 5.1.6). Although it didn't address my issues I thought people might like to know I am not having problems using the new versions. The only thing I should point out is that when the new version installed, it deleted my current printer from the "Print & Fax" settings in System Preferences. Although it only took me a moment to setup I was glad that I wrote down the settings before I started the upgrade :). Still, had I known that it wouldn't have addressed my issue, I wouldn't have bothered (if it's not broke, don't fix it).

The sessions and speaker lists were published tonight on the cf.Objective() conference website. The topics listed there are amazing and I'm excited to once again be a part of it.

This will be my third year speaking at the conference and I couldn't be more excited. I'll be speaking on one topic: Introduction to FarCry 4.1. The new version of FarCry, estimated to be released in early next spring (northern hemisphere :) ), promises to be an exciting release with great features. It is rumored that the final release version will be renumbered to 5.0 (instead of 4.1) due to it's major build modifications.

On the Official Google Webmaster Central Blog, Google announced a new feature called Video Sitemaps.

Video Sitemaps-an extension of the Sitemap Protocol that helps make your videos more searchable via Google Video Search

I played with it for a couple minutes and it looks pretty cool (I sense maybe a few more features for it coming... we'll see :) ).

As the blog states: To get started, create a Video Sitemap, sign into Google Webmaster Tools, and add the Video Sitemap to your account.

Okay, this really isn't as difficult as many are making it out to be. It took me 5 minutes (once I knew what to do). Essentially all you need to do is replace one file (mod_jrun22.so).

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A few months ago I made the plunge and bought a MBP. I've been slowly converting over my apps and configurations from my PC to my Mac (learning as I go) and couldn't be happier.

I'm so pleased with it that I've been preaching to family members to get one for their next computer upgrade. I even bought a new iMac this weekend for the new family computer at home (waited until Leopard was released).

I decided to upgrade my MBP to Leopard (knowing full well that CF8 is not yet fully supported (I still have my PC laptop here as well and all of my projects are in SVN, so its not a big deal to use that until a CF8 patch is out or I decide to use a workaround (see comments on that page)).

I have several programs that don't quite work correctly (but I researched them before upgrading, so I'm not surprised and can live with them as-is until they are updated).

My overall impression so far is that I'm very pleased:

• Spaces is excellent. Sure I've used similar mutli-desktop programs for the PC since the late 90's, but its nice to have something like this built into the OS and officially supported.
• Time Machine works great (although I have a feeling I may still do nightly image backups on my NAS until I've done enough testing to make sure Time Machine is backing up everything (ie. my Apache configs, etc).
• And Boot Camp runs great (I was already using the Beta, so I only needed to update the drivers in Windows) and also loads well from VMWare Fusion (note: If using VMware Fusion 1.0, there is a new release of 1.1 Beta to support Leopard. Just keep in mind that its beta (although its working great for me so far)).

I'll be speaking at the Boston CFUG tonight about FarCry 4.0 (6:00pm ET). If interested and you're in the area stop by to see what's new in FarCry (Sorry, it will not be broadcast via Breeze/Connect).

Head on over to the Daemonite blog to get your hands on the latest release of the FarCry training course in PDF format.

Now released under the Creative Commons license for personal use, readers will have can indulge themselves in 122 pages of FarCry goodness.

After working on the FarCry CFImage plugin for ColdFusion 8 I decided to try something fun. I wanted to see if I could generate a Pacman image in less than 5 minutes.

While doing it I was reminded of the days when ASCII art was fun (for me). Thus the title "ColdFusion Art" (I couldn't combine "CF" and "Art" together without too many childish jokes coming to mind :)).

I'd love to see what others can do with CF8's new image functionality. Can you make ColdFusion Art? ...A cartoon perhaps (hopefully one better than mine :) )? Maybe a comic strip? I don't care if it's based off of your favorite video game or a childhood cartoon memory, but I think it would be a lot of fun to see what people come up with (even if it has no real value).

I don't know about you, but the new image tools in CF8 have really gotten me excited enough to try new things.