• Articles and Books,  Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security,  Mass Deployment,  Network Printing,  public speaking

    MacIT Is Coming Back In July

    January 23, 2015

    MacWorld is kinda’ dead. Long live MacWorld (I cry nightly over this). But MacIT, alive and well and awesome (I hadn’t really spent any time on the floor for a long time anyway)! Here’s the email announcing the MacIT dates, which will be July 14th through 16th in Santa Clara! I’m super-stoked! 🙂 Dear MacIT constituents, Mark your calendars for MacIT 2015! I’m pleased to announce that we have secured dates for the MacIT 2015 Conference. This year’s event will be held July 14-16 at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Silicon Valley (Santa Clara, CA). Our team is hard at work to ensure the first “stand alone” MacIT is…

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  • Active Directory,  Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security,  Mass Deployment

    Destroy Open Directory Servers Using The Server App

    January 19, 2015

    You can destroy an LDAP server using the Server app (and still using slapconfig -destroyldapserver). To do so, open the Server app and click on Open Directory. Then click on the Open Directory server in the list of servers. When prompted to destroy the LDAP Master, click on Next. When asked if you’re sure, click Continue. When asked if you’re really, really sure, click Destroy. Wait.

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

    Enroll Devices Into Bushel

    January 7, 2015

    To manage a device from Bushel, it must first be added to your Bushel. The technical whiz-bang name for that process is Enrollment. We currently provide 3 ways to enroll devices into your Bushel. All three are available on the Enrollment page when you’re logged into Bushel. The first and best way to enroll devices into your Bushel is an Apple program called the Device Enrollment Program, or DEP for short. DEP is a way of tying devices to your Bushel so that they cannot be removed from the device, even if the device is wiped. Other than through DEP,  all enrollment into your Bushel is optional on the devices…

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  • Articles and Books,  Bushel,  Consulting,  Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security,  Mass Deployment,  personal

    Childproof Your Mac

    December 29, 2014

    When I put a computer in my daughters room, I soon realized I could no longer watch over her shoulder as she worked away at school games, Minecraft and of course Civilization (after all, that was my first game). So much as I wrote an article a long time ago about child-proofing an iPad, now I’m writing about child-proofing a Mac. For me, I find that child-proofing is a bit like taking my kid to McDonald’s. I said never ever ever ever would I do this and then… Well, peer pressure, ya’ll… So if I have to do it, I figure someone else might. So here’s a quick and dirty guide to doing…

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

    Show Volumes On The OS X Desktop

    December 28, 2014

    I spent a lot of time on Windows a long time ago. And one of the things I got used to was having hard drives on the desktop. And I liked it. So when Apple took them off the desktop I started running these commands on new accounts only own systems. The other day when I gave them to someone, they said I should post them. So here goes… To show removable media (cards, etc): defaults write com.apple.finder ShowRemovableMediaOnDesktop -bool true To show external hard drives (USB, Thunderbolt, firewire, etc): defaults write com.apple.finder ShowExternalHardDrivesOnDesktop -bool true To show mounted servers (AFP, SMB, NFS, etc): defaults write com.apple.finder ShowMountedServersOnDesktop -bool true…

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

    Disable Natural Scrolling With a Script

    December 23, 2014

    I guess it’s a sign of my age. But I can’t stand that whole natural scrolling thing. So I disable it as a part of my imaging process. To do so, set the com.apple.swipescrolldirection global domain to false using defaults, as follows: defaults write NSGlobalDomain com.apple.swipescrolldirection -bool false To set it back: defaults write NSGlobalDomain com.apple.swipescrolldirection -bool true

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  • Mac OS X,  Mass Deployment

    Disable The Startup Sound In OS X

    December 22, 2014

    Sometimes you have to reboot on an airplane or with someone sleeping close by. When this happens, it helps if you’ve disabled the startup sound in OS X. To do so, run the following command to set nvram with an empty SystemAudioVolume: sudo nvram SystemAudioVolume=” “

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  • Mac OS X

    Quick-Tip: Menu Items Modifier Keys In OS X

    December 2, 2014

    A modifier key is a key that when held in combination with another key, causes a unique behavior. For example, Command-c copies highlighted data to your clipboard. The Finder modifier keys are pretty well documented. But a number of menu items support modifier keys as well. For example: Click on the Dropbox item in your menu, you’ll be able to see the status of files that have sync’d as well as a cogwheel with the typical settings for an app like Dropbox. Option-click on the Dropbox menu item, you’ll see the items under the cogwheel menu. Option-click the Wi-Fi menu item to see extended Wi-Fi information. Option-click Bluetooth, you’ll see version and…

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  • personal

    What A Morning!

    November 28, 2014

    It’s a random Friday morning. I wake up ready to work and the radio on my AirPort stops working. I reset the device, do everything I know to do, but there is no SSID, no radio signal whatsoever. What to do? String a cable across the room so that it can get ripped out of a computer when the crazed, six year old invariably streaks through the office having watched Power Rangers and looking to chop me into pieces? Not a chance. I’ll just run out to the closest Apple store and grab a quick replacement. So I hop in the car and drive to the mall. What is going on…

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