Step 1: Open up a text editor like TextEdit, BBEdit, TextMate, etc. Place the following CSS code in the document:

.tickerActivityStories {
	height: 0;
	display: none;
}

Step 2: Save the document as a text file and name it, fb_styles.css (you can name it anything you want, just make sure it has the ‘.css’ extension.)

Step 3: Open Safari and go to Preferences/Advanced. From the Style Sheet drop down menu select ‘Other…’ and choose the fb_styles.css file. Quit Safari and then reopen it.

That’s it. The ticker should vanish from the sidebar the when you are on Facebook.

Note: This only works in Apple’s Safari browser. If your browser supports custom style sheets, then these instructions may work for you. Additionally, browser plugins exist that can do the same thing.

• upgrading to MySQL 5 (my Mac had an ancient 4.0 version since I’ve fallen for SQLite and haven’t used MySQL in a long, long time.)
• installing MySQL Workbench since the DB tool I had been using wouldn’t work with MySQL 5.x.
• installing ColdFusion on Wheels.
• making changes to my bash_profile to set the correct $PATH since I mucked it up weeks ago configuring Ruby Version Manager (RVM.)
• updating RVM to 1.2.8 (this had nothing to do with getting ColdFusion running but while I’m at the command line, might as well fix it.)

All set. I can start coding!

Not so fast. BBEdit and TextMate, my text editors of choice, don’t recognize CFML (no syntax coloring, text completion, etc.) So I next,

• fail to locate a bundle or extension that makes either editor CFML-aware*.
• install Eclipse instead.
• configure CFEclipse.

Great. But then,

• Subversion isn’t behaving so off to subversion.apache.org to RTFM.
• While skimming the Subversion packages, I end up at Apple’s Developer Tools area and discover that Xcode 4 is available today.

Xcode 4 is downloading now and I’m off to write some CFML. At five o’clock.

*A friend sent me a bundle for TextMate that added support for CFML. Thank you Louis.

Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X

Cocoa Design Patterns

Programming in Objective-C 2.0

Learning Cocoa with Objective-C

Beginning iPhone Development: Exploring the iPhone SDK

and the bible,

C Programming Language

To quote the author,

“Why not at least switch to an Apple Computer Mac? Apple’s new operating system is stable, reliable and easy to use. The applications are simple, gorgeous and work well together. And they’re here. Today. Steve Jobs must be waking up a happy man this morning.”

When all six versions of Windows Vista (yes, six versions) finally ship, I’m betting it will be at least 5 years before 25% of the US Windows market has adopted Vista.

Have you considered the hardware upgrades you might need to run Vista in all its glory? Start saving.

Apple up 1.29 to $85.58, Market Cap: $72.13B
Dell down 0.15 to $30.58, Market Cap: $71.97B

Hey, Michael, still think Apple should close shop?