• iPhone,  Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security,  Mass Deployment

    List of Safe Complex Characters for Passwords

    A number of systems require you to use complex characters in passwords and passcodes. Here is a list of characters that can be used, along with the name and the associated unicode:    (Space) U+0020 ! (Exclamation) U+0021 ” (Double quotes) U+0022 # (Number sign) U+0023 $ (Dollar sign) U+0024 % (Percent) U+0025 & (Ampersand) U+0026 ‘  (Single quotes) U+0027 ( (Left parenthesis) U+0028 ) (Right parenthesis) U+0029 * (Asterisk) U+002A + (Plus) U+002B , (Comma) U+002C – (Minus sign) U+002D . (Period) U+002E / (Slash) U+002F : (Colon) U+003A ; (Semicolon) U+003B < (Less than sign) U+003C (not allowed in all systems) = (Equal sign) U+003D > (Greater than sign) U+003E (not allowed in all systems)…

  • Apple TV,  iPhone,  Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  precache

    Precache Now Supports AppleTV

    Precache, available at https://github.com/krypted/precache, is a script that populates the cache on an OS X Caching server for Apple updates. The initial release supported iOS. The script now also supports caching the latest update for an AppleTV. To use that, there’s no need to include an argument for AppleTV. Instead, you would simply  run the script followed by the model identifier, as follows: sudo python precache.py AppleTV5,4

  • Apple TV,  Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security

    The AppleTV Software Update Feed

    AppleTVs automatically update. They do so using a process similar to how iOS updates, but instead of looking at the feed I posted in https://krypted.com//mac-security/how-the-os-x-caching-server-caches-updates/, they look at http://mesu.apple.com/assets/tv/com_apple_MobileAsset_SoftwareUpdate/com_apple_MobileAsset_SoftwareUpdate.xml. The AppleTV feed is similar to that available for iOS updates, with each dictionary having roughly the same data: <key>ActualMinimumSystemPartition</key> <integer>1482</integer> <key>Build</key> <string>13Y6234</string> <key>InstallationSize</key> <string>0</string> <key>MinimumSystemPartition</key> <integer>1534</integer> <key>OSVersion</key> <string>9.2</string> <key>ReleaseType</key> <string>Beta</string> <key>SUDocumentationID</key> <string>PreRelease</string> <key>SUInstallTonightEnabled</key> <true/> <key>SUMultiPassEnabled</key> <true/> <key>SUProductSystemName</key> <string>iOS</string> <key>SUPublisher</key> <string>Apple Inc.</string> <key>SupportedDeviceModels</key> <array> <string>J42dAP</string> </array> <key>SupportedDevices</key> <array> <string>AppleTV5,3</string> </array> <key>SystemPartitionPadding</key> <dict> <key>1024</key> <integer>1280</integer> <key>128</key> <integer>1280</integer> <key>16</key> <integer>160</integer> <key>256</key> <integer>1280</integer> <key>32</key> <integer>320</integer> <key>512</key> <integer>1280</integer> <key>64</key> <integer>640</integer> <key>768</key> <integer>1280</integer> <key>8</key> <integer>80</integer> </dict> <key>_CompressionAlgorithm</key> <string>zip</string> <key>_DownloadSize</key> <integer>856434408</integer> <key>_EventRecordingServiceURL</key> <string>https://xp.apple.com/report</string> <key>_IsZipStreamable</key> <true/> <key>_Measurement</key> <data>cm8k41In38EOJEj20IwJp5Suskw=</data>…

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

    Automatically Cache Updates To Your OS X Server

    A little while back, I did a little writeup on how the OS X Caching Server caches updates at https://krypted.com//mac-security/how-the-os-x-caching-server-caches-updates/. The goal was to reverse engineer parts of how it worked for a couple of different reasons. The first was to get updates for devices to cache to my caching server prior to 15 people coming in before it’s cached and having caching it down on their own. So here’s a little script I call precache. It’s a little script that can be used to cache available Apple updates into an OS X Server that is running the Caching Service. To use, run the script followed by the name of…

  • personal,  public speaking

    20 Things To Do In Austin While Attending ACES

    Things to Do In Austin In May Diverse, fun and infused with culture, Austin is the capital of Texas and home to a prosperous community and a wide variety of culture, from the world class cuisine in the many fine restaurants, the growing population of infamous tech companies, the summer festivals and creative atmosphere, to the magnificent country music in what is also referred to as the Live music capital of the world (although Nashville, Athens, and other cities might have some arguing of that point). Here are some great things to do when you visit Austin:  Austin City Limits I grew up seeing acts including Willie Nelson, Little Feat,…

  • iPhone,  Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security,  Mass Deployment

    Run A Caching Server On A Computer Without Ethernet

    I do a lot of testing on MacBook Airs and the latest MacBooks. Neither have a built-in Ethernet port and I try not to travel with one. But, when you enable the Caching Server service in OS X on a machine without an active Ethernet connection, the AssetCache will report an error of the following: Wireless portable computer not supported The cause is pretty obvious, but bypassable because of how the sanity check was built. Simply run the following: sudo serveradmin settings caching:Interface = en0 Now try again. Enjoy. PS: Since people always jump on the article where I talk about how to do things that shouldn’t be done in…

  • Articles and Books,  iPhone,  Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security

    Migrating Objects From Active Directory To Apple School Manager

    Apple School Manager is a portal used to create classes, import students, manage Managed Apple IDs, and link all these things together. You can use a Student Information System (SIS) to create these classes, import students, etc. But, only if you have a SIS with an API that Apple links to. If you don’t, you’ll need to import data using csv files. And you’ll need to import four csv files: Classes, Instructors, Staff, and of course Students. Many schools will already have this data in Active Directory or another LDAP-based solution. Here, we’ll look at getting the information out of Active Directory and into csv. The LDIFDE utility exports and imports objects from…

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

    Get the OS X Server Version

    You can find the version of the Server app that an OS X Server is running using the serveradmin command. To do so, run the serveradmin command followed by the -version option: sudo /Applications/Server.app/Contents/ServerRoot/usr/sbin/serveradmin --version The output would be as follows: Version 15S5127