Compiling mongo.so for use with MAMP

So I had a little bit of trouble getting the latest version of the PHP driver for MongoDB (1.3.2) to use with MAMP. The PHP documentation's direction for MAMP users is to go to https://github.com/mongodb/mongo-php-driver/downloads and download the latest OSX driver for your PHP version (I'm using 5.3.6), which happens to be 1.0.1.1 from two years ago. Unfortunately the documentation on php.net for MongoDB has been updated, and if you aren't using the latest driver, you might be getting errors indicating that some classes don't exist.

Other instructions indicate you can just run

sudo pecl install mongo

Or

sudo pecl upgrade mongo

But this seemed to be for those using the XAMPP Developer Package. I was having trouble compiling an updated mongo.so file because my MAMP php installation was missing the necessary header files. I would get this error:

fatal error: 'php.h' file not found
#include <php .h>
         ^
1 error generated.
make: *** [php_mongo.lo] Error 1
ERROR: `make' failed

I noticed when it tried to run phpize it couldn't find any of these:

grep: /Applications/MAMP/bin/php/php5.3.6/include/php/main/php.h: No such file or directory

grep: /Applications/MAMP/bin/php/php5.3.6/include/php/Zend/zend_modules.h: No such file or directory

grep: /Applications/MAMP/bin/php/php5.3.6/include/php/Zend/zend_extensions.h: No such file or directory

So I ran locate on them, and they did exist in Xcode:

/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/usr/include/php/main/php.h

/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6.sdk/usr/include/php/Zend/zend.h

I tried copying the whole /include/php directory to my php directory in MAMP. I had to make an include folder in /Applications/MAMP/bin/php/php5.3.6/

cp -r /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.7.sdk/usr/include/php /Applications/MAMP/bin/php/php5.3.6/include

When I ran 'sudo pecl upgrade mongo' it completed. I just had to restart apache/mysql and phpinfo() showed I was now using the 1.3.2 MongoDB driver.

Beery Eyed

I used to write about beer occasionally in this space. I have heard hundreds, nay, thousands of complaints about how those posts have disappeared. Well they're not gone, they've just moved. I decided to launch a beer site! BeeryEyed.com is where you can find them. I'm still working on format and what not, but you can go there to read about how I enjoy beer. Hopefully there will be more things to check out in the future.

Charlie Sheen Is My Hero

I never knew this, but Charlie Sheen is out of his mind. Or is he? I always figured he just loved to party harder than anyone on Earth. Either way he's hitting the peak of his career giving sensational interviews to every media outlet in existence. People will be quoting him for a while with all the material he's spewed. The best part is that it's all about winning, and nobody wins like Charlie Sheen.

Juliet, Naked

This was the first book I've read by Nick Hornby. I have seen only one movie based on one of his books, High Fidelity, and really liked it, so after additional recommendation I thought I'd give one of his books a try. Juliet, Naked centers around Annie, Duncan and Tucker Crowe and their intertwining relationships. Tucker wrote an album, Juliet, in the 80s and promptly quit his tour to lead a reclusive life. The album earned him a cult following of which Duncan is the ring leader and he dragged Annie along with him. All of them have regrets about life over the last 15 to 20 years and the book deals with the struggles of never getting that time back.

Duncan is a character I can love to hate. A pretentious know-it-all devotee to Crowe, he spends his life trying to dissect every element of Tucker's life. He goes as far as traveling to America to visit all the places significant to the production of Juliet, marveling at a urinal which he believes played a significant role in the abrupt end of Crowe's career. When he isn't examining his bootleg albums, he's analyzing theories on the Internet about Crowe's personal life. This isn't wrong in and of itself, necessarily, it's more that his opinions and interpretations are, to him, fact, as he is the expert and nobody would know better than him.

All in all, it's a humorous, and sometimes touching story about people trying to figure out how their own lives have passed them by without having done anything of true significance, what they should or could have done differently to avoid it, and how to make up for time lost. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, it reads quickly, it revolves around music, and the characters are all flawed, but possess redeeming qualities. I'll give it a 4 out of 5 and put more of Hornby's books on my list of "To read."

You Shall Know Our Velocity! (Updated for Sacrament)

Maggie's parents gave this hardcover edition to me for Christmas, which was pretty exciting. I didn't ask for this book specifically, just books by Dave Eggers, but I'm glad I got this one. I was told there was some addition made to the paperback, I'll have to look into that because I'm told it changes the story quite a bit.

I just finished this, and it was a hard one to put down, unlike Never Let Me Go. I read this in sort of a glum, monotone voice from the narrator, Will. I'm not sure if that was accurate of me, but Will always seems lost in thought and the real world rarely excited him, like he was just an observer, or maybe nothing understood him or his situation.

Eggers made it easy for me to relate to Will, always having conversations with other people or objects in his head. I like the idea of the spontaneous world traveling, though under the circumstances it was rather sad.

I'm Not A Connoisseur: Bota Box Cabernet Sauvignon

Maggie bought this fine boxed wine, which she hardly enjoyed. I, on the other hand, thought for wine in a box that it was pretty drinkable.

I don't know how seriously I should take this wine, but it was about $18 for 3 liters, which it says is about the equivalent of four bottles of wine. I would say that's a pretty good deal. Not to mention the box is recyclable.

The vintage was 2009, which is remarkable. Don't ask me why. There do seem to be, what come off as, some higher quality boxed wines these days. At least better than the Franzia I drank at times in college because it was sad, funny and cheap.

Freelance Whales: Enzymes

The Freelance Whales, who released their full album Weathervanes way back in April, have put out a new song called "Enzymes" working with Emery Dobyns. I probably would never have known about this had he not tweeted and then have been retweeted by the group themselves. The track is definitely worth checking out. It's a little more haunting than their previous work, but that's not a bad thing. You can find more information at the Green Label Sound website, along with many other tracks. New songs are always fun, but I'm definitely anticipating a new album from them. Sadly, that probably won't come for quite a while.

Facebook Takes 'Anonymous' out of Web Browsing

What Facebook Can Give Back To The Web

I enjoy Facebook and would be happy spending a quarter of my Web life there, if I could leave Facebook for the other 75%. But even if I log out completely, most of the Web’s most popular sites are tied to Facebook, through Share or Like or Connect buttons. Facebook is not just another Web site: it is a service that “Facebookizes” every Web site it touches, making me bring all of my friends with me, like luggage. It’s disconcerting being on a Web site that I’m used to browsing anonymously, and seeing my friends’ faces there. And so I have a holiday wish: Facebook, let me dance if I want to, let me leave my friends behind.

Boomsday: Stupid title, fun book

I've been doing a lot more reading than I ever have at any point in my life. I'm not sure why, maybe it's because I'm getting older and whatever I used to do (video games) doesn't have the same allure. Well I still play video games, but fewer of them less often. Anyway, I just finished this wacky book about a PR rep who is passionate about the problem Baby Boomers bring to social security. She blogs about some heinous solution to issues it causes for younger generations and her senator buddy decides to give it a run in Congress. They call it a "meta" issue and that's really what the book is, because it obviously would never happen, and that kind of sticks out the whole way through which took a little bit away from the overall impact.

I give it a 3.5 out of 5 for its high entertainment value. It's a quick read with good dialog and over-the-top personalities with silly names. The situations, such as the whole bill being put into discussion, were sometimes a little too ridiculous, but they did make for a fun read as long as you're not too serious about realism. Satire, I believe is what this would be. The way this book is written, it's easy to see how it could be put into a movie, much like his book that I haven't read "Thank You For Smoking."

Paying for social security sucks for sure because I won't see any of it, and this book isn't going to get discussion on the issue moving, but it's really out of my hands. There's a lot of criticism and controversy on it, and for good reason. I watched a movie not too long ago, I.O.U.S.A. that touches on the issues of funding social security, and they're not pretty. Among other things, this country is in a load of trouble. I have a theory that we'll be owned by China within the next 20 years, if we're not all dead by then that is. I'm sure North Korea is going to use some nuclear arms against their southern neighbors and there will be some nasty fallout. I'll sit here and not look forward to that.

My friend count is linked to my small amygdala?

Friend Count Linked to the Size of a Certain Body Part? [STUDY]

"It’s all in the size of your amygdalae, small almond-shaped portions of the brain nestled within the temporal lobe, say scientists who conducted the study using 58 participants. They concluded that the amygdala’s size can predict just how social anyone will be, regardless of age or gender.

"Could it be that all our extensive Facebooking and Twittering is causing our brains to evolve further? On the other hand, perhaps correlation doesn’t necessarily mean causation. After all, another study showed we’re only capable of handling 150 Facebook friend  anyway"

I guess this means I have a small amygdala. Maybe my brain has advanced beyond complex social structures to be disgusted by them. I don't handle 150 Facebook friends. In fact, I really don't handle Facebook at all. I pay more attention to Twitter, where I can follow personalities who cover topics I'm interested in, such as the Royals, Missouri Tigers, or just sports columnists such as the good man Joe Posnanski and the fiery Gregg Doyel. It's not that Twitter is better, it's just better for me... more inoffensively selective. Anyway, read the whole article.

I'm Not A Connoisseur: Middle Sister Mischief Maker

Scroll down to listen to Fleet Foxes - Ragged Wood before you read. The last half is the best part, but it wouldn't be worth it without listening the whole way through.

Rating: 74/100

Tonight I'm taking down some of a bottle of Middle Sister Mischief Maker, which is a Cabernet Sauvignon* from California. Middle Sister is specifically from Santa Rosa. I somewhat regret buying this wine as it seems a little emasculating. Unfortunately I try to keep my price point at about $10 a bottle, because I'm cheap. As a result, when I buy at my very local liquor shop, the selection becomes very limited. I do however enjoy Cabernet Sauvignon, so I'll just ignore the femininity of the label and get on to the wine.

Never Let Me Go Left Me Wanting

After reading such raving reviews, and seeing phrases like "Edge-of-your-seat mystery," I suppose I was going into this expecting Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro to be a gripping read. That's not what I got at all. It's about some kids brought up in a boarding school, and slowly and methodically more and more details are revealed by the author. Very methodically.

I wouldn't say I struggled to get through this, because I read it relatively quickly relative to myself. I thought it was a little too drawn out. The beginning was quite slow and there wasn't any quick connection to the characters, but overall Ishiguro did a good job of introducing a new element at just the right time to keep you reading. By "just the right time" I really mean if it was any later, I would have been pretty frustrated.

I kept reading though and by the end of the book it feels as if you grew up with the characters and it was a more rewarding experience than I would have guessed I would have had after the first 50 pages or so. I suppose would give this about a 3 of 5. Honestly though, it wasn't much mystery as to what was going on, and it really didn't seem that profound. It was a decent read, and left me touched by what these characters endured, but not to any notable power.

I'm Not a Connoisseur: Ironstone Old Vine Zinfandel

Rating: 84/100

I'm Not A Connoisseur: The Velvet Devil

Rating: 50/100

As The Tomato Grows

Tomatoes. What are they? Fruit? Botanically. Vegetable? Culinarily. Delicious? Absolutely. Sliced on a plate with a little bit of salt and pepper, they make a tremendous light snack. It is something you can feel good about. So why not grow and harvest your own? Well that is exactly what Maggie wanted to do. And so we did. Since we don't have a good place to grow them, we tried the hanging growers. We got a couple of tomato plants from Whole Foods and a few bags of soil and went to work. My pick was named "Jaga." Maggie's was "Big Rainbow." Planting was a little bit of a chore, but we eventually got them situated in the potters and hung them on a couple of screws that were already drilled into the beam on the ceiling of our patio. Then we played the waiting game.

A Wedding And Then Some

Maggie's friend Patti got married this past weekend. We made a nice little trip up there to witness the occasion. The destination was a little town, Wheaton, Illinois, about 40 minutes to an hour from downtown Chicago. It didn't start off so well.

Simon The Cat

We had a cat. A cat named Simon. Simon the cat, to some. He was a temporary resident. A favor to Maggie's friend while her house recovered from mold irradication, mold to which she was deathly allergic. For two weeks though, he was ours.

What Goes On Behind These Walls?

Sitting On A Porch

I am on my phone, writing a blog post just for fun. It looks like it's about to rain. The sun isn't quite down yet, and it's quite a nice evening.

Maggie lit a citronella candle and we're not sure if it works or not. It must be proof that there are no bugs right now, but that could just as easily be because it's about to rain. She says it's the citronella.

Our tomato plants are getting quite big, and there are some flowers, but no signs of any fruit yet. She's fascinated with the fireflies. They're everywhere.

We have a critter living in our ceiling. It makes scratching noises every evening. It sounds like claws, but it's unclear how big or what kind of animal it is. She is worried that it will invade our home when maintenance comes to tear out our ceiling to fix the leak above the bedroom. I don't believe this will happen. Will I have to kill something else? I'll call him Marco.

I'm Sure It's Been Done A Thousand Times