For those who have been waiting for a time when Entourage uses less bandwidth, has enhanced support for EWS features and well, works better, the time has come. The beta came and went and we waiting. And the wait is now over. Entourage Web Services Edition is now available for download. You only really need this if you have an Exchange Server 2007 environment and can support EWS.
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Backup Exec for Mac OS X
The Backup Exec agent is fairly similar between Mac OS X and Linux. The binaries get installed into /opt/VRTSralus/bin. Here, you can run the following command to start the remote agent: ./VRTSralus.init start Once started you need to add the system into Backup Exec and then use that to kick off your Backup Exec jobs. The user starting the application will need access to the full file system, so in many cases it is run as root. But at some point you may encounter errors, which is where many look at Backup Exec as a bit of a black box. It’s not. You can use the beremote binary to interface…
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On the Road: Sprint SmartView
When I’m on the road, I use a Sprint Sierra card. I used to pay for Internet access in my room, fish around for Wi-fi networks, etc. But no more. Now, when I’m at the airport, in the hotel or even when I’m at home and both of my Internet connections go down (sadly, it happens) I’m able to use my laptop and be online. Right now, I’m using the Compass 597 from Sierra, which has a top speed of 3.1 Mbps down or 1.8 Mbps up. I look forward to the day when I can upgrade to the Sierra USB 306/307, which actually bumps that top speed to 21…
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CPAN
Getting through all of the dependencies for certain Perl modules can be hairy. To give you a sense of how complex perl can be, here’s a small fact: CPAN has over nine thousand perl modules listed. Keeping track of module dependencies can be a real pain. Fortunately, there’s a simple solution…CPAN.pm CPAN.pm is a PERL module that automates the whole process of downloading, unpacking, compiling and packaging modules. For example, if I wanted to install a module called Colors::Yellow, I would type: perl -MCPAN -e ‘install Colors::Yellow’ That’s it. The CPAN.pm would automatically figure dependancies, download the appropriate modules, and install them. If you want more information on using the…
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Reading Address Book from the Command Line
There isn’t an easy-to-use command line interface to the Address Book. You can use AppleScript with it, but not necessarily the command line. This isn’t to say there isn’t an AddressBook framework waiting for someone to use it. Well, Scott Stevenson posted a tool on his blog, Theocacao. This tool is pretty rudimentary but can be useful for a few basic tasks, and provides a nice framework for the development of a larger tool. Basically, abtool has one positional parameter – a search string. Using that it will look for a pattern in the name. It doesn’t search any of the other fields, use wildcards, nor allow for changing of…
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Command Line ALF on Mac OS X
Mac OS X 10.5 and Mac OS X 10.6 have a multitude of ways to keep data from coming or going from a system. The traditional way is to use ipfw, although this isn’t the default way in 10.5 and above. Instead, you are meant to use the Application Layer Firewall (we’ll call it ALF for short), which is what you configure from the Security System Preference pane. You can enable the firewall simply enough by using the defaults command to augment the /Library/Preferences/com.apple.alf.plist file, setting the globalstate key to an integer of 1: defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.alf globalstate -int 1 You can also configure the firewall from the command line.…
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Deployment Considerations for OpenOffice.org 3.0.1
A number of school districts and companies around the country are currently looking at buying the next version of Microsoft Office and a surprising number of school districts are starting to shift towards OpenOffice.org. However, there is not as much traction on the corporate side of the fence. So what does it mean to switch to OpenOffice? To me it’s all about training. OpenOffice is able to do almost everything that Office can do. It’s mature in the 3 release and it’s of course, open source and therefore doesn’t require you to purchase it. However, OpenOffice is a drastic change for some users. Sometimes features are in different places or…
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NetFlix and the Mac
So I was a tad bit offended when NetFlix started to support the Xbox before supporting the Mac. But it’s all OK. You can now watch bad movies while on the road. Just log into NetFlix, find a movie that has a Play button and click on it. If you don’t already have the Silverlight Plug-in installed it will ask you to do so and you’ll be ready to rock and roll. Enjoy.
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A Great Article on Sandbox by Beau
In all versions of OS X previous to Leopard, access control restrictions were limited to a security model referred to as Discretionary Access Controls (DAC). The most visible form of DAC in OS X is in it’s implementation of the POSIX file-system security model, which establishes identity-based restrictions on an object in the form of a subject’s user or group membership. Similarly Access Control Lists are a form of discretionary control, though they are far more extensible and discrete then the POSIX model. In such models, newly created objects or processes inherit their access rights based upon those of the creating subject, so that any spawned objects are not granted…
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Writing Shell Scripts
There’s usually a few different steps in the learning process for writing shell scripts. The first is to figure out how to just do simple things, like write hello world to the screen. The second is to start using a series of commands. The third seems to be using variables. The fourth is to start using libraries to reuse your scripts. The next is to take variables to the next level, variabalizing everything. Where are you at with this?