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Updating emesene

By
July 31, 2010
guide, software

For those wondering how to update emesene without downloading the whole package again, there is an easy way of doing it.

You will need git installed!

  1. Install emesene using the correct package for your system
  2. Open Terminal and run: 
    cd /Applications/emesene.app/Contents/Resources/ && rm -rf emesene
git clone https://github.com/emesene/emesene.git
cd emesene
git submodule init
git submodule update
  3. Open up emesene/emesene/emesene.py and add the following lines under where it says “import sys”: 
    #Add to sys.path so Python can find gtk
sys.path.append("/Applications/emesene.app/Contents/Resources/gtk/inst/lib/python2.7/site-packages")
sys.path.append("/Applications/emesene.app/Contents/Resources/gtk/inst/lib/python2.7/site-packages/gtk-2.0")
sys.path.append("/Applications/emesene.app/Contents/Resources/gtk/inst/lib/python2.6/site-packages")
sys.path.append("/Applications/emesene.app/Contents/Resources/gtk/inst/lib/python2.6/site-packages/gtk-2.0")
  4. Open up /Applications/emesene.app/Contents/script and change the second from last line so it reads “cd $workdir/emesene/emesene”

To update emesene run:

cd /Applications/emesene.app/Contents/Resources/emesene && git pull

Note: each time you run a git pull you will have to repeat step 3

emesene 2

By
June 6, 2010
software
5 Comments

As many of you probably already know, emesene 2 is under heavy development by the whole of the emesene team. Currently they have come a long way and the client works very well. However they still have lots of features to add and code to polish.

Anyway to the point, it works well on OSX.

Screenshots:

emesene 2 menu bar

emesene 2 contact list

emesene 2 login window

emesene 2 chat window

If you want to try it, download the Snow Leopard installer from the emesene page here and the replace the emesene app in the applications folder with this.

To update to the latest revisions, pull them from GitHub. Instructions can be found on the emesene website.

REMEMBER: This software is still in the alpha/beta stage and it may damage your system.

emesene osx three months on

By
May 17, 2010
software

Three months ago, i successfully got emesene running on my Snow Leopard install. Since then i have learnt a lot and managed to improve emesene for mac users.

Since February i have:

  • Created both a Leopard and Snow Leopard Installer for emesene
  • Added a much more native theme
  • Removed the need for Python site-packages
  • Removed the need for a .plist file in Snow Leopard
  • Improved the unistaller (uses platypus)
  • DMG now has a background
  • Fixed an annoying .config permissons problem
  • Created a README
  • Can now close emesene by clicking the icon and selecting quit

Screenshots:

emesene about update

emesene login window update

emesene contact list update

emesene chat window update

emesene full update

All of the builds can be found here.

Getting emesene up and running on OSX

By
February 3, 2010
guide, software
12 Comments

Note: This guide is pretty outdated, use at your own risk

Over the last few days i became interested in emesene, a WLM client for Windows and Linux. But soon i noticed it was written in Python, meaning it probably could be run on OSX. After searching around several forums and by using some trial and error i came up with this guide.

These instructions assume you are using Snow Leopard

Hint: use command shift and g in finder and then copy the files path to get there quickly

  1. Download http://www.daimi.au.dk/%7Emadsk/files/MacPyGTK_SnowLeopard_091809.dmg, this is PyGTK which is needed for the GUI
  2. Once downloaded, copy the contents of the dmg to /Developer, if the folder does not exist create it
  3. Copy the contents of /Developer/MacPyGTK/inst/lib/python2.6/site-packages/ to /Library/Python/2.6/site-packages/
  4. Open up terminal and run this command: 
    defaults write com.apple.versioner.python Prefer-32-Bit -bool yes
  5. Download emesene from http://www.emesene.org/download.html (you want source tarball) and extract it. Then run either controller.py or emesene script

Currently emesene does not have any entries in the menu bar (file, edit etc) and currently the windows name is Python, but a more native version is in the works by a emesene forum member.

Update:

To save the hassle, i have created installers for Leopard and Snow Leopard, just run it and emesene will be installed.

Grab them here.

Installer:

emesene installer

Login Window:

emesene login window

Contact List:

emesene contact list

Chat Window:

emesene chat window

Shutup iTunes

By
October 10, 2009
software
1 Comment

If you use Spotify and you have made the leap to Snow Leopard, you would have probably noticed if you use the play/pause keys iTunes will open. Well not any more

An Apple Discussion member (andrew pz) put together the following script:

Open up a terminal window and paste each line separately after each other.

cd /Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS
sudo mv iTunes iTunesX
sudo curl -O iTunes http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~app26/itunes/iTunes
sudo chmod uog+x iTunes

You’ll have to type your password after the second step. Hope this helps some people. I will not be held responsible for any damage caused to your system.

Spotify

Hopefully Apple will fix this annoyance with an update, but until then this should work nicely.

The full support thread can be read here.

Update: Spotify now supports the play and pause keys natively!

Snow Leopard Review

By
September 5, 2009
software, views
2 Comments

I recently upgraded my Macbook to Snow Leopard (10.6) and i must say i am definitely impressed with the speed boost i have received and i have recovered over 30 gigs of disk space.

Installation

Pretty straightforward and was installing with a few clicks. The install took 45 minutes for a fresh install, so would probably be quicker if you were upgrading from leopard or tiger.

Most of my applications worked fine, with the exception of Live Mesh, Audio Hijack and Peerguardian. i also had trouble with Dreamweaver, but i fixed that with some help from the adobe forums. At the moment my printer does not work but Apple have promised an update soon.

New Features

Expose

Expose in Snow leopard in much easier to use and much more organised.

Finder

The Finder has been rewritten in Cocoa so is much more responsive and stable. You can now adjust icon size from within Finder and you can “Put Back” deleted trash items.

Quicktime X

Quicktime X adds screen recording and easy publishing to the already good Quicktime player.

Spotify: The Alternative To Music Piracy?

By
February 6, 2009
polictics, software
10 Comments

I found out about this amazing piece of software last month and i must say i have used it every day since.

Spotify lets you listen to (nearly) any track you can think off without downloading or waiting for the tracks to buffer.

I believe spotify is exactly what the music industry needs; the majority of people listen to music in their home so not being able to download the song is not a problem. If people have no need to download the music people will not result to P2P to “steal” the music, thus the music industry will not lose as much money.

So come on all you record labels get your music on spotify.

Spotify is available on Mac, Windows and Linux under wine. At the moment it is invite only but i signed up and got an invite quickly and i also have 10 codes to give away. So if you want one leave your email in the comments.

UPDATE: Spotify no longer needs invite codes