Installing CouchDB

I installed CouchDB from source. This requires the Leopard development tools (Xcode) and MacPorts. I expect all developers to have Xcode installed and most developers to have MacPorts installed, so I won’t detail those steps here.

First, install CouchDB’s dependencies using MacPorts:

sudo port install icu erlang spidermonkey

Download CouchDB and extract it. This is standard configure, make, make install territory here:

./configure
make && sudo make install

Wasn’t that easy?

Creating a couchdb System Account

Find a user number that is available. To see a list of what numbers are already in use, run:

dscl . -list /Users UniqueID | awk '{print $2}' | sort -n

Now find a group number that is available. To see a list of what numbers are already in use, run:

dscl . -list /Groups PrimaryGroupID | awk '{print $2}' | sort -n

On my system, number 103 was available for both a user number and a group number. The rest of this article assumes you are using 103 as well.

The following commands create the group and the user and set the user’s home directory to the CouchDB lib folder.

sudo dseditgroup -o create -i 103 -r "CouchDB Users" couchdb
sudu dscl . -create /Users/couchdb
sudu dscl . -create /Users/couchdb UniqueID 103
sudu dscl . -create /Users/couchdb UserShell /bin/bash
sudu dscl . -create /Users/couchdb RealName "CouchDB Administrator"
sudu dscl . -create /Users/couchdb NFSHomeDirectory \
        /usr/local/var/lib/couchdb
sudu dscl . -create /Users/couchdb PrimaryGroupID 103
sudu dscl . -create /Users/couchdb Password *

Finally, we give the couchdb user ownership of the CouchDB lib and log directories:

sudo chown -R couchdb:couchdb /usr/local/var/<strong>lib</strong>/couchdb
sudo chown -R couchdb:couchdb /usr/local/var/<strong>log</strong>/couchdb

DONE! Now you can launch CouchDB as the couchdb user instead of root.

sudo -u couchdb couchdb

Running as a Service

To control CouchDB using launchctl, I needed to add the appropriate PATH information to CouchDB’s Launch Daemon plist so that gawk is found. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a solution to edit the plist in-place as a privileged user, so I copied the file to the /var/tmp directory without root privileges so that I could update the copy.

Creating a copy of the plist and opening it for editing is done by:

cp /usr/local/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.apache.couchdb.plist \
        /var/tmp/org.apache.couchdb.plist
open /var/tmp/org.apache.couchdb.plist

In the Property List Editor that opens, follow this steps:

1. Open Root → EnvironmentVariables
2. Click on Add Child
3. Name: PATH
4. Value: /bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin
5. File → Save
6. Quit Property List Editor

Then copy the updated plist over the original plist:

sudo cp /var/tmp/org.apache.couchdb.plist \
        /usr/local/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.apache.couchdb.plist 

Now CouchDB can be controlled and monitored by the standard Leopard daemon manager:

sudo launchctl load \
        /usr/local/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.apache.couchdb.plist 

Launch CouchDB on Startup

To automatically launch on start up, run

sudo ln -s /usr/local/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.apache.couchdb.plist \
        /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.apache.couchdb.plist

Congratulations! You have CouchDB running as a system service that will start when you boot your Mac. Let the fun commence.

I’d Like to Thank the Academy…

I’d like to thank the following sites and resources for providing me enough information to piece together the process:

• CouchDB Source Code: README
• SysAdmin’s Chronicles: Creating a System Account in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard
• evang.eli.st: Installing Postgres 8.2 on Leopard

I particularly recommend the evang.eli.st article, as it explains the dscl command, which may be an unfamiliar account management tool.

I should point out that evang.eli.st also has a complete write-up on how to install CouchDB on OSX. That walk-through is almost a year old, though, and entails editing the Makefile—which doesn’t sit well with me. However, where Leopard departs from standard UNIX behavior, I cease being an aficionado, so his tweaks may be important in ways I haven’t yet discovered.

Why do I use a Mac? I can’t imagine that I would have these memories of the last two months of Elena’s life if we used anything else. That may not convince you either. But tomorrow is the second anniversary of my little girl’s death and I will have movies to watch and pictures to look at.

I can’t think of a better reason. Amy and I share our condolences and wish your family the best.

In October, I started on Jeff Johnson’s GUI Bloopers 2.0. Due to the “cookbook”-esque layout of the content, I had been delightfully jumping around the book as time and interest permitted. Today I decided to read the book properly from the beginning. That led to me read pages 28-29 about how imposing arbitrary restrictions is a Bad Thing™. Johnson provides these examples of arbitrary restrictions that some software imposes on its users:

• limiting person names to 16 characters
• allowing table rows to be sorted by at most 3 columns
• providing Undo for only the last three actions
• requiring a fax number in all address book entries even though some users don’t have fax machines

Okay. I understand why limitations like those exist in software applications, but I also understand how they can seem arbitrary and counterproductive to users. Reading on, I got to page 34 where Johnson references Alan Cooper.

He [Alan Cooper] points out that programmers are trained to handle all cases that can arise in a software system and so often spend inordinate amounts of time and effort designing GUIs that cover low probability cases as well as higher probability ones.

Low probability cases like… persons with more than 16 characters in their names? sorting tables by more than three columns? This is the crux of the problem: An unsupported “low probability case” for one user is an “arbitrary restriction” to another user.

It’s unfair to complain about programmers spending time on “low probability cases” and then complain that your low probabality case wasn’t implemented. (Sorting on more than three columns? Seriously? If you have those kinds of needs, maybe you shouldn’t be using an Excel sheet as a database. Just a thought.)

So the second thing that happened is that we got a shiny new MacBook. Today I compiled LaszloMail on a co-worker’s desktop G5, and the shiny Intel thing. Ready?

• G5 (dual 2ghz, 1 gig RAM), OpenLaszlo 3.2: 32 seconds
• MacBook Pro (dual core 2ghz, 2 gig RAM), OpenLaszlo 3.2: 17 seconds

Hot damn!

You said it.

Okay, the term “benchmark” might be too strong. I ran one of my favorite applets on the 15″ MacBook Pro while at an Apple Store today. I took screen shots of the results to compare to the performance of my own PowerBook. The applet is a 3D visualization of a KohonenSelf-Organizing Map. The Kohonen Map is a type of neural network used to automatically group similar inputs and provide visiualization of large quantities of data. Another interesting application of the Kohonen Map is to solve very large TSP-type problems.
Anyway, this applet is interesting because it has simple 3D graphics, lots of floating point and integer math, and possibly a good amount of object allocation and garbage collection. I don’t know if the applet is multi-threaded, though, but by the results I would guess that it is not. Thus, this is a highly imperfect comparison between the PPC and Intel Macs.

System specs:
PPC: 17″ 1.33GHz PowerBook with 1.0GB RAM
Intel: 15″ 2.0GHz MacBook Pro with 1.5GB RAM

Raw Results:
PPC:

Intel:

Numbers:
PPC: 1107 learning cycles in 138.697 seconds (7.981 learning cycles / second)
Intel: 1100 learning cycles in 62.514 seconds (17.62 learning cycles / second)

X-Factor:
The MacBook Pro is 2.2x faster than my PowerBook on Java performance. Assuming that the applet is single-threaded, the MacBook’s JVM 1.47x more efficient per CPU clock cycle.

I’d like to also note that the applet’s 3D animation was much smoother on the MacBook than it was on my PowerBook.

I was shocked until I read Jonathan’s summary again: Bottom-line, on top: Don’t use Backup 3. Use SuperDuper or Retrospect. Jonathan, and the horror stories to which he links, were trying to use Backup.app as a replacement for disk backup solutions. One of the stories is from a dismayed user who was having difficulty using Backup.app to recover his entire hard drive. I just shook my head in bewilderment.

From the moment I first opened Backup.app, it was obvious to me that the application is a file backup solution. I call it “my mother’s backup solution”: it’s a convenience for people who don’t want to lose all of their documents if the worst should befall their computers. It archives sets of files—and relatively small ones, at that. The default file sets are iLife files, personal data (Address Book, iCal, Stickies, and keychains), and iTunes purchases (opposed to all iTunes music). Creating custom backup sets is pretty painless and the user can choose from a quick list of non-scary items like “Excel Documents” and “Mail Messages and Settings” instead of drilling to folders.

Recognizing the intended use of Backup.app for frequent backup of small-ish file sets, I use it to backup my personal settings daily to iDisk, and my mail and documents daily to my iPod and weekly to DVDs. I also use it for monthly backup of my iTunes purchases monthly to DVD—just in case. Mostly, I use it as a safety net for the time in between my monthly backups with SuperDuper!.

(I only backup monthly with SuperDuper! because I use a laptop and its a total hassle to hook up the external 3.5″ Firewire drive all the way over there in the other room. I’m only half kidding—backups have to be convenient and unobtrusive for end users to employ them with any regularity.)

So, my bottom line is: Use Backup.app. It’s an excellent compliment to SuperDuper!

Digital SRL camera maintenance.

I’ve owned a Pentax *st DS for about 6 months now and it’s time I learn the standard maintenance procedures for it. Also, while I’m generally familiar with SLR concepts from my photography classes in high school and college, I’m interested in improving my shots. Thus, I’ve purchased Mastering Digital SLR Photography Understanding Exposure: How to Shoot Great Photographs with a Film or Digital Camera and I’m working my way through them.

Family Tree.

I’m trying to trace my family tree as far back as I can go. I haven’t done any work on this in a long time. I’m using Ancestry.com to perform the searches and Mac Family Tree to store the information. However, I’m looking to switch my software to Heredis Mac X.2 because of the cleaner interface and the ability to export to the common interchange formats.

FileMaker Pro 8.

I’ve found the need for a desktop database. I will be using FileMaker to create and maintain a membership and contact database for one of the organizations to which I belong. I trick to this is not the database, it’s leveraging the tool to create good forms and reports. I want to use the output for creating mailing list labels and the like.

Rules Engines

I’m just starting to look at Drools to create an agent for monitoring a resilient server infrastructure and diagnosing common problems. The goal is to provide a tool for support teams that gives them detailed insights regarding the health and availability of the infrastructure and is able to recognize failure patterns and recommend actions for resolution.

Machine Learning.

I’m still very interested in neural networks and online learning. Wicked Cool Java has some good links to projects in the area of creating intelligent agents. And I’ve been doing some reading on my own.

Newsletters.

I used Apple’s Pages application to create a newsletter for an organization to which I belong. I’ve created a Pages template that I’ll eventually share for others to build from. I’m still tweaking the layout and content distribution based on feedback from the membership.

Private Pilot License

And, of course, I’m learning to fly.

In other news, here is a dump of the topics on which I want to blog when I get the time:

• Backup 3 vs. SuperDuper! (responding to the debate here and here)
• DoubleTake photo stitching (I like it a lot)
• Graphic Converter does not handle Automator nicely for RAW formats
• Dell 3100cn networked, PostScript, color laser printer (I like it a lot)
• potrace rastor-to-vector program (fantastic for B&W)
• disclabel is painfully slow to use – unusage, actually
• Yojimbo (I have it, I don’t understand it’s value, but I didn’t understand QuickSilver for a long time, either and now I can’t work without it)
• ImageMagick (doesn’t handle Pentax PEF raw files

Finally, a list of what I want to see in Pages:

• automatic em-dash, en-dash ; or easy access to them
• When a paragraph is started right of an image around which it flows, it should still be indented

If Swift Publisher does these two things and has nice templates, I’ll switch in a heartbeat.

I tried lots of tactics to recover Mail.app. Removing the Preferences file (~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist) fixed the issue, but I lost all of my Mailboxes, which was unacceptable. I run Mail.app with the preview pane expanded, and the timing of the crash suggested that it may be related to rendering the default highlighted email message. I tried to locate the specific preferences controlling the default highlighted message, but was unsuccessful.

I then formulated various Google queries until I had created one that got me a useful answer. Holding down the Shift key while launching Mail.app suppresses the Preview feature (no messages are highlighted by default). When I launched Mail.app in this way, it did not crash. When I clicked on the suspect message with the preview pane extended, the application crashed. Clicking on other messages did not crash the application. Thus, I solved the problem by launching Mail.app while holding the Shift key, hid the preview pane, selected the message, deleted it, and emptied the Deleted messages.

I then setup Backup.app (from my .Mac membership) with a daily backup plan for Mail.app to ~/Backups/ and a weekly plan to CD or DVD. The plans include:
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist
~/Library/Mail/
~/Library/Mail Downloads/

I hope this information helps others.