When we’re deploying Mac OS X there are a number of things that invariably end up being discussed. One of these is customizing the login window, where you type in your username and password. This might be swapping out the background of the screen, adding text or even changing out the Apple logo. To change out the background of the loginwindow, you can specify a new location. By default the location is stored in /System/Library/CoreServices as DefaultDesktop.jpg. You could replace this image or the preferred method would more than likely be to choose your image and then alter the /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow.plist, editing the key for DesktopPicture. For example, we can use…
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Google Latitude Added to whoami
I have added a Google Latitude embedded image that shows where I am at. You can find it on the whoami page of this site. Nice technology. For more on it see the little article I did for the 318 TechJournal this morning.
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Hackintosh on EFI-X
Considering building a Hackintosh? There are a number of methods out there that I can’t say I’m in love with. But one method I do like is using EFI-X, provided you’re happy with the supported motherboards, mostly from Gigabyte. EFI-X is a hardware based EFI emulator, which allows you to run more natively as a Mac OS X computer. Oh, and if you build a Hackintosh, don’t forget to buy a legitimate copy of Mac OS X or Mac OS X Server to run it on.
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Facebook and Privacy
A friend sent me an article the other day about Facebook, where the author had an almost chilling reception to Facebook’s privacy policy/terms of use. In fact, last week alone I got at minimum three such emails asking what “a security guy” thought and since the new privacy policy was put into place I’ve gotten no less than 30 or 40 requests/invitations to join various groups that seem to have serious issues with this policy (btw – not all “security guys” wear tin foil hats). Someone once told me not to put anything in writing (or on film) that I didn’t want my grandmother to see. The obvious extension of…
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OpenSolaris 2009.06 First Impressions
OpenSolaris 2009.06 is the next generation of the OpenSolaris, the Open Source Solaris that has become the testing ground for new features bound for Sun’s popular Solaris Operating System. The latest version of OpenSolaris sports a number of new features that environments both large and small are sure to find interesting, most of which have to do with more streamlined ways of managing disk, network and other resources – both in virtualization environments and with the operating system itself. First up is package management (using the tool appropriately called Package Manager). It’s now easier to install software managed/compiled by the OpenSolaris community. The packaging environment for OpenSolaris can now access…
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Alice in Wonderland Trailer
Tim Burton + Johnny Depp + Alice in Wonderland = Great Potential
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RSA Makes a Case for iPhone in the Enterprise
Tired of carrying around that RSA SecurID token thingie from 1994, all beige and chewed on routinely by kids and dogs alike? RSA now has an iPhone app for that. Using the SecurID token you can have the exact same functionality using the iPhone that you would otherwise have to use a keychain dongle for. If you’re like me and have been trying to reduce the items you carry on your person for a long time this is a fantastic new option. And in a way, RSA is just helping to make a case for using an iPhone in highly secured Enterprise environments (not that they’re not helping to make…
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Creating a Master DeployStudio Image
Once you’ve completed the setup of a DeployStudio server you’re going to want to use it to start imaging systems. In most cases you’ll want to start off with DeployStudio Admin, found with it’s brethren in /Applications/Utilities. When you first open DeployStudio Admin, you’ll be asked for a server address, username and password. Go ahead and log in as one of the (or the) user that you setup as an administrative account during installation, enter the address of the server (followed by the port you used with the DeployStudio Assistant – you can always rerun the assistant if you need to). By default the connection information should be available in…
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Mac OS X Directory Services Plug-ins
In a number of contexts, we hear about directory services plug-ins. A directory services plug-in is a way for a Mac OS X computer to leverage the DirectoryServices daemon to obtain account information (be it authentication or policy information) from a server. This might be an Active Directory server that uses the Active Directory Plug-in or an Open Directory server that uses LDAP. You disable plug-ins that you don’t need and enable plug-ins (ie Active Directory plug-in or third party plug-ins) that you need in order to access directory services of various types. These plug-ins are developed in the form of .dsplug files. The default plug-ins that Apple includes with…
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Using Microsoft Document Connection on a Mac
Microsoft released Service Pack 2 to Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac earlier this week. Once you have installed Service Pack 2 you may notice the new Open from Document Connection File menu item for office applications, or you may notice the new application called Microsoft Document Connection located in your /Applications/Microsoft Office 2008 folder. These are all part of Microsoft’s overall Software+Services strategy: provide a cloud type of environment that is able to sustain the software that you purchase from them. In this case it could be a private document storage “cloud” running on a SharePoint server or it could be a more public environment running in the Office Live…