It looks like phpMyAdmin doesn’t include a way to see how much space takes the MySQL database. I found that a bit weird, but hey, if phpMyAdmin doesn’t do it, let’s cut to the chase and go SQL!
The most straightforward way to get your database size from phpMyAdmin is the following SQL query:
SELECT table_schema "Data Base Name", sum( data_length + index_length ) / 1024 / 1024 "Data Base Size in MB" FROM information_schema.TABLES GROUP BY table_schema ;
Originally from the MySQL forums.
If you want to listen to your music library on the go, you can tunnel iTunes through SSH in a few easy steps.
First of all, you have to enable sharing in iTunes: iTunes > Preferences > Sharing > Share my library on my local network.
This will announce your library on your local network using multicast DNS, provided by Apple’s implementation of zeroconf: Bonjour. The library can then be accessed on port 3689 of the computer mDNS announced.
Hence, to access your local library on a distant network, we will implement two things: ssh tunneling of port 3689 for the data to be transmitted, and mDNS announcement of the library on the new network so iTunes is aware of where to get it.
We will assume:
– local = where me & my laptop are
– remote = where iTunes is (=server).
We will tunnel port 3689 of the remote computer to a port of your choice on your local computer:
ssh -N florent@myServer -L 3690:localhost:3689 -f
-L is the standard syntax for SSH tunneling. man ssh tells us the three arguments stands for port:host:hostport; as in “send data received at my own port to the hostport of said host“. Here for example, it means: tunnel all data received on my port 3690 to this SSH connection’s localhost (myServer) on its port 3689.
Feel free to change 3690 to the port of your choice, replace florent@myServer by your own login/host combination, and add a -p if you use a non-standard port for SSH (which is a Good Thing(tm)!).
The -f argument means the SSH tunnel will stay in the background. Finally, -N tells SSH not to execute a command on the remote side (i.e. launch a terminal on the server), meaning we will only use this connection to forward data.
We will use this command to declare the new library:
dns-sd -P iTunesServer _daap._tcp local 3690 localhost.local 127.0.0.1 &
This command sets up a DNS proxy (-P) called iTunesServer, retransmitting DAAP announcements, on the local domain, on port 3690 of host localhost.local (at address 127.0.0.1).
You should get the following output from dns-sd:
Registering Service iTunesServer._daap._tcp.local host localhost.local port 3690 0:24:30.140 Got a reply for service iTunesServer._daap._tcp.local.: Name now registered and active 0:24:30.140 Got a reply for record localhost.local: Name now registered and active
Note that this will only advertise the library on your own computer. If you want other computers on your network to see the library you’re tunneling to, use the following command, where ComputerName is the Bonjour name of your computer (set in System Preferences > Sharing > Computer Name):
dns-sd -P iTunesServer _daap._tcp . 3690 ComputerName.local ComputerName.local &
Annd your library will show up in iTunes!
Playback can be a bit choppy if your server’s upload or laptop’s download is low, but it usually should be okay – MP3 and AAC yields great results around 192 to 320 kbps, equivalent to an average 25 to 40 kB/s transfer rate.
Note that this method also allows you to use a password (set up in iTunes) to protect your shared libraries.
Applications on Mac OS typically include a lot of stuff most people won’t use daily, especially translations in foreign languages and builds for different architectures (x86, x86_64, PPC and PPC 64 bits).
A handful of utilities exist to trim down applications. I personally use Trimmit, a free-as-in-beer software that gives excellent results, as long as it’s used carefully.
For example, let’s take the latest version of iTunes (v9.1) under Snow Leopard.
This is the default install:
A simple cleanup of foreign languages and compression of TIFF files shrinks iTunes into this more reasonable app:
Trimmit already cut iTunes size by nearly two thirds (!), and iTunes works flawlessly.
That’s about the best results I’ve had with Trimmit, because things get ugly if you want to squeeze it too far.
Still want to push things more? Okay, let’s keep only the x86 binaries:
That’s another 17MB trimmed… But this manipulation breaks iTunes code signature. Which will -if you run OS X firewall, like everyone should- trigger a message asking you if you want to allow iTunes to connect to Internet each time you run it.
Still seem a bit big? Well let’s check every option in Trimmit and go for it.
That’s 100kB more freed, but now iTunes crashes at startup. Seems that “useless files” aren’t that useless after all.
It’s important to keep in mind that Trimmit doesn’t work well with any applications.
You should be particularly careful (read: do not try) with Adobe applications and other applications on the blacklist. But overall, the extra space can be a very good thing, especially on small partitions and/or on SSDs.
I don’t like the default icon for Preview.app in OS X.
The sight of that child, giving me this creepy grin, sitting here in the Dock while I’m browsing pictures, is just weird.
There are two ways to make him go away.
I call this method the hard way because it involves having another .icns file (the filetype for OS X icons), and navigating through folders supposed to be hidden. But it doesn’t matter, you’re a hardcore user!
Right-click Preview.app and click “Show Package Contents”.
Navigate to Contents/Resources.
Replace Preview.icns with the icon of your choice.
This method allows you to replace an icon with another application’s icon.
Open the information panel of said other application (Cmd+i in the Finder).
Click on the big icon at top-left (not the one in the menu bar).
It will appear highlighted:
Enter Cmd+c to copy it.
Open Preview.app’s information panel.
Click on the icon:
Enter Cmd+v.
Voilà !
Another advantage of this second method is that it also works for disks, folders, and about any file.
You can find a lot of great icons at InterfaceLift (though it doesn’t seem to be updated very often). The icon I used to replace the child is part of the Aqua Neue set.
Version 0.8 of Seitunes is here!
Apart from finishing implementing the core functions, I focused on code clarity and performance enhancements.
All major Applescript interactions with iTunes now go through separate C functions instead of “oh hey just do it here in main()” as before. These functions act as wrappers to access iTunes, and can be re-used for any other project. I could even put them in a separate file and call it a library :)
Seitunes used to refresh data (artist, song, volume, shuffle, playlist) all the time, with Applescript, to get data directly from iTunes itself. I reduced the number of interactions and reduced the calls to iTunes.
For example, the “+” key used to tell iTunes to increase the volume, then call Applescript to refresh all data, including the new Volume value. Now it just tell iTunes to increase Volume, computes the new Volume value to display and goes along with it.
I kept refresh mandatory for the iTunes status in case anything goes wrong (playlist ended, etc).
Refresh is also forced when changing songs – obviously we don’t want to wait 3 seconds to see the song we just changed.
Of course it creates a problem when a song ends by itself. If we never refresh automatically, we can’t display up-to-date data.
I solved this by adding a “decay” counter that forces a refresh if the data is more than 3 seconds old.
All of this seem to have a positive effect: Seitunes now feels as snappy and reactive as directly using iTunes.
> Quit iTunes
> Toggle shuffle
> Display current playlist
> Less Applescript errors (yay!)
Actually there shouldn’t be any Applescript error left (and yes that’s a feature!).