heres what worked today, and see older post for more links
to setup mamp etc
http://bitbob.com/mac-web-development-made-easy
how to install wordpress for localhost
note, I didnt use the 8888 mentioned, and just altered the settings slightly till they worked to bring up the mamp page for installing dbs
http://jayrobinson.org/2009/08/10/setting-up-your-mac-for-local-development-using-coda-wordpress-mamp/