You’ve most probably read loads about the iPod/iPhone/iPad so I won’t waste your time. My main problem with the iPhone/iPad is the price. At the current price, I wouldn’t buy one. I also wouldn’t buy a new Apple MacBook when I can get a Dell laptop for half the price. But saying that I have a Macbook provided by where I work and I own a secondhand G4 PowerBook.

As many people can testify, the price is irrelevant, it about what you get and how it works. It about the usability experience, the apps, music, eBooks, games, etc… Yes, there are new smart phone and tablet devices that are cheaper. Some have more features but they haven’t got the infrastructure and they lack the usability factor. The Apple devices are about being trendy and simplicity. They are so easy to use. I’ve seen people who struggled with a basic Nokia at ease on iPhone.

Lets face it Apple entered the mobile in 2007 and they now have 28 percent of the smart phone market share. Many commentators rubbished Apple aims but look at them now. I guess that this market share will peak at about 30ish%. The Android OS will also grow to a similar level taking market share from Symbian OS and Windows Mobile OS.

Many commentators have also rubbished the iPad for it lack of features. This hasn’t stopped it selling. My other gripe with the iPad is the lack of Flash. Apple need to resolve their problems with Adobe fast because it will effect sales. I would definitely buy one if Flash was sorted and I could justify the cost. I would have many uses for it. For example, general Internet browsing at home, remote control my main PC or Mac for more serious tacks, reading eBooks, music, games, remote controlling digital mixing consoles (Sound Engineering – my other job), etc…

My Nokia smart phone is up for renewal new month and I’ll most probably get an Android OS phone. I just can’t justify £40+ a month for a iPhone 4. But it doesn’t matter because I’ve got access to one.

1: Stop SUS

2: Download http://swscan.apple.com/content/meta/mirror-config-1.plist and copy it to /usr/share/swupd/html/content/meta/mirror-config-1.plist

3: Change it to look like this:

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC “-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN” “http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd”>
<plist version=”1.0″>
<dict>
<key>PrimaryCatalog</key>
<string>http://swscan.apple.com/content/catalogs/index.sucatalog</string>
<key>CatalogsList</key>
<array>
<string>http://swscan.apple.com/content/catalogs/index.sucatalog</string>
<string>http://swscan.apple.com/content/catalogs/others/index-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog</string>
<string>http://swscan.apple.com/content/catalogs/others/index-leopard-snowleopard.merged-1.sucatalog</string>
</array>
</dict>
</plist>

4: Edit /etc/swupd/swupd.plist and change the metaIndexURL entry to look like this:

<key>metaIndexURL</key>
<string>http://myserver.com:8088/content/meta/mirror-config-1.plist</string>
<key>portToUse</key>

5: Start SUS and wait for it to download the catalog files and to generate the local versions thereof.

6: Once it has generated the local catalog files add some symlinks like this:

cd /usr/share/swupd/html
ln -s /usr/share/swupd/html/content/catalogs/index.sucatalog .
ln -s /usr/share/swupd/html/content/catalogs/others/index-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog .
ln -s /usr/share/swupd/html/content/catalogs/others/index-leopard-snowleopard.merged-1.sucatalog .

7: Just in case restart SUS

8: Wait for SUS to download all the updates

9: On your 10.6 client go in the Finder to /Library/Preferences and open com.apple.SoftwareUpdate.plist. Change the CatalogURL entry to point to http://myserver.com:8088/index-leopard-snowleopard.merged-1.sucatalog

10: Launch Software Update on your 10.6 client and be happy

It should behave like a 10.6 server now as it is serving the catalog files according to the 10.6 server documentation as described on page 89 here: http://images.apple.com/server/macosx/docs/System_Imaging_and_SW_Update_Admin_v10.6.pdf

The Exchange improvements are well overdue as the current Entourage is a disaster with slow synchronisation, corrupting databases, inability to save custom distribution group, etc… Bringing back Visual Basic for Applications will also resolve the headache of not being able to use macro enabled Excel spreadsheets in a mixed Mac/PC workgroup.

As a network administrator, I welcome this but it may have repercussions. For example, you have a bunch of Quark files without extension names on an SMB share in the AppleDouble format created by a 10.4 client. By default a 10.6 client wouldn’t be able to read the Quark files because it doesn’t read the AppleDouble dot underscore file and there are no extension names. Therefore, Apple have made it easy to re-enable the feature. This is possible be editing the nsmb.conf file.

To disable named streams as a default for your Mac OS X client user account

Execute these two commands in Terminal:

echo "[default]" >>  ~/Library/Preferences/nsmb.conf
echo "streams=no" >> ~/Library/Preferences/nsmb.conf

To disable named streams as a default for all Mac OS X client user accounts on a Mac

Log in to Mac OS X with an admin user account if you aren’t already logged in as an admin, then execute these two commands in Terminal:

echo "[default]" | sudo tee -a /etc/nsmb.conf
echo "streams=no" | sudo tee -a /etc/nsmb.conf

See the man page on nsmb.conf for more details about how to configure it.

To re-enable streams on 10.6 or to enable it on 10.5 change streams=no to streams=yes

Quark Xpress 7 crashes when printing with 10.6 and is generally unstable. Quark doesn’t like printing documents using the binary data format. If prefers using ASCII. See http://forums.quark.com/t/22523.aspx. The best fix for this problem is to change the picture data option to ASCII. You may get the error message: “Page could contain EPS pictures which include binary data. OK to continue?” but it does work and Quark is more stable. However, Quark still crashes randomly so users need to save their work regularly. Unfortunately, the only real solution available for Quark running on 10.6 is to use Quark 8. See http://forums.quark.com/t/21811.aspx.

Canon has only updated a few of their printer drivers to fully work with 10.6. They have updated all of the PPDs, but these only give limited printing functionally. See http://www.canon.co.uk/Operating_System_Drivers/mac_os_compatibility_office.asp. The older 10.5 compatible drivers will install but they won’t work, an error message occurs “The printer software was installed incorrectly. Please reinstall the printer’s software or contact the manufacturer for assistance.”. Using a PPD will work, but there no secure printing option and limited ability for proper tray selection, double printing etc… Fortunately, I discovered a work around for the fiery RIP enabled devices. EFI have released a printer driver update which modifies the CUPS permissions on Mac OS X 10.6.

Microsoft Powerpoint 2008 with SP2 is unusable on 10.6. Typing and keystrokes lag behind about of 5 seconds before appearing on screen. Moving between slides is very slow and Powerpoint often freezes. There currently isn’t any solution for this problem. I’m hoping that the next Microsoft Office update will fix this, or possibly the new Apple update 10.6.3.

Very Simple Website

You really don’t need me to build your very simple website or blog. You can build it up yourself.

• Use a Facebook page or a Google local business centre page instead.
• Use a Blogger.com or Wordpress.com blog page

I generally try not to get involved building very simple websites unless it’s part of a promotion campaign that I’m working on.

Websites I Build

A website will has 5 or more pages. It may use dynamic content. It may utilise blogging platform software (Wordpress.org) and it may have a very simple e-commence element. It will be built from a template or by creating a unique design.

There are a wide range of template options available that can be completely customised. Elements are redesigned, removed or added too until the ideal design is achieved. However, a uniquely designed website stands out and looks original, but it will take longer to build and it will be more expensive.

Blogging Platform Software

Blogging platforms are web based tools for building blogs and websites. The most popular blogging platforms are Blogger.com, Wordpress.com and Wordpress.org.

Blogger.com and WordPress.com provide the platform and hosting for free. There is limited control over the look and feel as it uses theme templates which cannot be edited. Wordpress.org provides the platform for free but hosting must be provided. The main advantage of using Wordpress.org is the option to customise anything. See Wordpress com vs Wordpress.org for more information.

What You Need to Do

Decide what you want and start generating your content.

• Have a look at existing websites for ideas on content and navigation.
• Use an online guide for writing content – see Writing for the Web and Blog Writing Guide.
• Decide what pages you what and what you want on them.
• Start writing the content (for a blog, write the content for the about and contact page)

If you do this, I’ll get involved, as I know you’re serious about building a website.

]]> http://www.cool-ade.co.uk/build-me-a-website/feed 1 http://www.cool-ade.co.uk/mac-security-report-2009 http://www.cool-ade.co.uk/mac-security-report-2009#comments Tue, 26 Jan 2010 13:16:48 +0000 admin http://www.cool-ade.co.uk/?p=339 Macintosh Security Company Intego, the developers of VirusBarrier have released a report on Mac and iPhone security for 2009.

The report focuses on various Trojan horse attacks, malware found in Torrent application downloads, attacks on jailbroken iPhones, Mac OS X vulnerabilities and third party vulnerabilities.

The following excerpt is taken from the report: -

Many of these operating system vulnerabilities pave the way for unseen malware attacks. Some of them are such that merely visiting a booby-trapped web page can compromise a Mac. This underscores the importance of security software that protects not only from malware but also from web threats and the many other kinds of menaces that target Macs. It also highlights the need to keep software up-to-date. Both for Mac OS X and for third-party software, users should make sure that they have the latest versions of their software, since some programs—such as Adobe Reader, commonly used to view PDF files—are easy to attack with known exploits circulating in the wild.

The report is available from http://blog.intego.com/2010/01/25/the-year-in-mac-security-2009/

My name is Adrian and this website acts as the online presence for my career in computing. It gives me a platform to share knowledge, to express views and showcase work. See the about page for more information.

As I’ve just launched the website, content is pretty sparse. Hopefully, this will improve over the next few months as I start blogging and move over content from elsewhere.

Rather than design this website from the ground up, I have decided to modify the GlossyBlue Wordpress theme by N.Design Studio. This is because I want to focus on the content first. At some point, if I get time, I’ll redesign the site with my own design.

To disable support for ADS for all shares in a cluster, edit the file /etc/mcp/override/smbd.xml and add the following text to the file immediately after any line that begins </add-tag>:

This has to be done via the command line so you will need to SSH into the isilon cluster. Once you have made this change, wait 60 seconds for it to propagate to all nodes in your cluster, then run following command to restart all SMB connections to the cluster, in order to take advantage of this change:

If the change made to the global smbd.xml file doesn’t work, edit the file /etc/mcp/override/smbd_shares.xml and add the following entry <field name=”ignore named streams” value=”yes”></field> into the individual share. See the example below: -

Once again when you have made this change, wait 60 seconds for it to propagate to all nodes in your cluster, then run following command to restart all SMB connections to the cluster, in order to take advantage of this change:

Please DO NOT atempt this if you are not familar with the command line environment.

See http://www.mozilla.org/projects/netlib/integrated-auth.html for the specifics on how it works.

Launch Firefox.  In the URL Field type about:config

Look for the following three preference names:

• network.automatic-ntlm-auth.trusted-uris
• network.negotiate-auth.delegation-uris
• network.negotiate-auth.trusted-uris.

Double click on each preference name and add ‘http://yourwebsite-1, http://yourwebsite-2, yourActiveDirectoryDomainName’ to its value field. You can add more sites as required.

Close the about:config windows and the following entries will be written into your prefs.js file which resides in the the Firefox User Profile directory:

• user_pref(”network.automatic-ntlm-auth.trusted-uris”, “http://yourwebsite-1, http://yourwebsite-2, yourADdomain”);
• user_pref(”network.negotiate-auth.delegation-uris”, “http://yourwebsite-1, http://yourwebsite-2, yourADdomain.com”);
• user_pref(”network.negotiate-auth.trusted-uris”, “http://yourwebsite-1, http://yourwebsite-2, yourADdomain.com”

You have now configured Firefox to use Integrated Authentication on your network.