• Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server

    Open Source Voting Systems & the Mac

    To date, I don’t choose to publish my own political views. But no matter whether you are liberal, conservative or one of the various mixtures of the two, you will agree that making sure that every vote counts is integral to a successful democracy. And making sure that every vote counts in many ways starts with counting the votes, a job we have entrusted to a select number of voting system manufacturers. Computerized voting systems have not traditionally lived up to how well other information technology innovations have been able to impact traditionally non-computerized environments. The Help America Vote Act, passed in 2002 was supposed to help propel the initiative…

  • Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Ubuntu,  Unix

    Piping Commands

    The pipe (|) character is used to combine multiple commands. A pipe is a temporary storage place where the output of one command is stored and then passed as the input for a second command. Pipes are used to run more than two commands from the same command line.  The sort command is used to sort data. When you run the ls –l command, you will see a listing of the files in a directory with each file shown on a separate line. When you use a pipe after the command and then sort your results, you will sort the data listed on the screen by the list command. The…

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

    Likewise Open 5.3 Supports Snow Leopard

    Likewise 5.3 supports Snow Leopard at 32 or 64 bit! Likewise Open 5.3 is open source software that can be used to bind Mac OS X, Linux & Unix to Active Directory. Likewise Enterprise (which is not open source) starts with the Open client but allows leveraging Workgroup Manager or Active Directory Users & Computers to manage policies. If you haven’t already, check it out at www.likewise.com.

  • Mac OS X

    iWork 09 Update 3

    Software Update just informed me that iWork 09 Update 3 is available. For 66.1MB you get: Fixes to compatibility issues and stability Reducing file size of images that have Instant Alpha applied Managing file size when inserting some movies Working with dates and durations in the Chart Data Editor in Keynote and Pages Exporting to CSV from Numbers when using table categories Improvements to comment notification and security in iWork.com Beta. Run Software Update to get it now.

  • Mac OS X,  Mass Deployment,  Unix

    New Eggplant Now Available

    Eggplant has released an update of their regression testing platform. And to make things easier for us, they’ve introduced Linux support, allowing you to regression test even more systems than before using a single, streamlined interface. This update also introduces support for Mac OS X 10.6. http://www.testplant.com/news_and_events/#recent_news

  • Business,  Home Automation,  Mac OS X

    Houseport Z-Wave for Mac Finally Available!!

    I’m a geek, I can’t help it. The Houseport USB Z-Wave Adapter can control 230 devices, set the level of lights that have dimmers, time lighting controls and garage door openers and maintain the actual Z-Wave mesh network. So how could I not be interested?!?! The Wayne Dalton Houseport software and Z-Wave adapter were announced some time ago. Betas went out and got our appetites wet. I have been sitting by my phone waiting for them to call and tell me I can buy it for months! Now, you can finally buy the Houseport software and adapter at http://www.smarthomeusa.com/ShopByManufacturer/Wayne-Dalton/Item/WDUSB-10MAC/ and you can download the manual at http://www.smarthomeusa.com/Products/WDUSB-10MAC/manuals/USB-MAC.pdf. The PC version…

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

    A Stranger In A Strange Land…

    Pickled herring, salted licorice, sports I don’t comprehend and a language I don’t speak. At the outset, Sweden seemed like a place that I just wasn’t going to fit in. But certain foods can become an acquired taste (if you stay away from Burger King and McDonalds) and oddly enough, the people out here speak English better than I do. But best of all there is a Mac Systems Administrative community here in Northern Europe that comes together at MacSysAdmin; one that is filled with the same challenges that we all face. It’s a community, like many around the world, filled with a quest for more knowledge on the platform…