• Xsan

    Xsan: Video Formats and Bandwidth

    As many environments will use multiple formats it is important to define the required bandwidth for various formats.  By lowering or increasing your format you will have the capacity to have more or less streams concurrently running against your SAN respectively: Standard Definition MiniDV, DVCAM, and DVCPRO – 3.6MBps DVCPRO 50 – 7.7MBps Uncompressed SD (8-bit) – 20MBps Uncompressed SD (10-bit) – 27MBps Compressed High Definition DVCPRO HD – 5.8MBps to 14MBps Apple ProRes 422 – 5.25 to 27.5 MBps Redcode RAW (24fps) – 28 MBps Uncompressed High Definition 720p 24fps – 46MBps 720p 30fps – 50MBps 720p 60fps – 100MBps 1080 24p (8-bit) – 98MBps 1080i (8-bit) – 120MBps…

  • Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server

    Mac OS X: Setting a Software Update Server without Open Directory

    Setting up a Software Update Server if you are using Open Directory is a fairly simple task.  Just open Workgroup Manager, connect to an OD server or the appropriate Directory Service and then click on the computer or computer group you would like to edit the software update information for and then click on Preferences.  Then click on Software Update and type in the appropriate URL.  But what if the system is not managed using Open Directory.  Well, that’s when you would use ARD to send out the following command or run it on your GM at imaging time: defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate CatalogURL “http://server:8088/”;

  • Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security

    SANS Course on Mac OS X Security

    I originally posted this at http://www.318.com/TechJournal The SANS Institute recently released a course by Charles Edge (er, me) on Mac OS X Security Fundamentals. The course is described in the following manner: “SANS is the leader in Information Security. This course on securing Mac OS X is the fastest way and most comprehensive way to get up to speed on applying the principals of the information security industry to the Mac. Written and taught by one of the security veterans of the Mac community, this course covers how real world security concepts are applied to the Mac with real world examples from the Mac community. The course offers a balanced…

  • personal

    Pork Barrel Spending

    I no longer want to hear that any politician is for or against something based on how they voted on a specific bill.  Why?  Because all of the bills have far too many little (or big) things attached to them that could be looked at as having nothing to do with the bill…

  • Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server

    Mac OS X: Changing to a Custom Search Path with dscl

    The Search Path in Mac OS X client can be used to define where your system can search for directory services information, whether local or shared.  To set the search path manually you will first need to switch from LSPSearchPath to CSPSearchPath for your Search Policy.  To do so use the following command: sudo dscl /Search -change / SearchPolicy dsAttrTypeStandard:LSPSearchPath dsAttrTypeStandard:CSPSearchPath If you were to want to switch back to a local policy you would just run the following command: sudo dscl /Search -change / SearchPolicy dsAttrTypeStandard:CSPSearchPath dsAttrTypeStandard:LSPSearchPath

  • Mac OS X,  Windows XP

    Using Trash for Storage

    I’m not sure why this keeps coming up, but you don’t want to use your trash (whether for Entourage, Outlook, Mac OS X or the Recycle Bin in Windows) as a place to store files, emails or anything else you’d be bummed out about loosing.  Keep in mind that trash can be taken away at any given moment…

  • Travel

    On the Road: Logan

    Note to self: E1B.  That’s the terminal and gate you want.  No waiting, no lines, no nothing.  Perfect.  If you’re flying out of Logan E1 is where you want to come out of.  Only 3 gates down there and they have their own security checkpoint!!!

  • Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server

    Updating Firmware on Servers

    I’m often asked what I think of upgrading the firmware on servers and storage.  My answer there, if it’s a production box and it isn’t broken then don’t fix it…  What if you’re upgrading the firmware on a RAID or RAID card and the device becomes unresponsive?  There’s usually a reason to upgrade, but if you are not experiencing problems then why risk a potential outage if you do not need to?

  • Mac OS X Server

    Mac OS X Server: Another MCX

    So the the last article talked about an Apple-based preference.  But then I thought it might make sense to talk about pushing out one that’s non-Apple.  Let’s look at the Name in the Settings from Microsoft Office.  For this, Click on the + sign in Workgroup Manager, then browse to a user account -> Library -> Preferences -> Microsoft -> Office 2008 -> Microsoft Office 2008 Settings.plist.  Then change Manage imported preferences to Always.  Now double-click on Microsoft Office 2008 Settings and open up that disclosure triangle for Always.  Change the string for the 1000 value to be what you want the name to be.  Then save and test.  Fun…