• Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server

    Mac OS X: Groups with Leading Underscores

    Have you noticed all those groups in Mac OS X with names that start with an underscore (_)?  What do they mean?  Well, that’s just the naming convention in 10.5 for service accounts.  So in most flavors of *nix you would have an lpadmin group but in OS X you now have _lpadmin instead.  Nothing sinister or weird, just a naming convention.

  • Mac OS X Server,  Xsan

    Keyspan Serial Adapter

    When you’re doing Xsan deployments you often run into situations where a serial adapter comes in handy.  It might be the serial port on an Xserve, a Promise Vtrak, an Xserve RAID, a managed switch, a Fibre Channel switch or a UPS but it seems like it’s just a super useful little thing to have.  Now, since the MacBook and MacBook pro do not have serial ports that leaves you hanging a little.  So, this little guy comes in pretty handy: http://www.keyspan.com/products/usa19hs/