By default, screenshots are pretty big on a retina display on an El Capitan machine. Like about 4 times the size they should be. I haven’t found a defaults key I can use yet to reduce them, so I’ve been using this little screenshotting app called RetinaCapture, available at https://gumroad.com/l/retinacapture. Basically, when you’re running it, you just open it up and click on the Window button. There, you can select a window to screenshot. Once you’ve selected the window, you’ll be prompted to save it somewhere with a name. I don’t love having to use any 3rd party apps for my screenshotting workflow. Screens get resized for books and so I’m…
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Dark Knight Mode In El Capitan Server
In case your Mac just isn’t emo enough for ya’, Apple’s provided us a cool little new feature in Yosemite called dark mode. No, this won’t cause Hellboy to leap forth from your MacBook Air. Well, maybe he’ll visit your MacBook Pro, but I haven’t tested that so please don’t quote me on that. Instead, you’ll get the nice new dark menu bar: But that’s not all folks! Your dock will also get all dark and gothy! To turn it on, just open the General System Preference pane and check the box for “Use dark menu bar and Dock”. Enjoy! Oh, and if that’s not emo enough for you feel…
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Reset The Server App When It’s Unresponsive
The Server 5 app that installs on Yosemite and El Capitan is great. But when you go making changes to some things, you’re just going to cause problems, sometimes something as simple as just upgrading to the latest and greatest version of Server… I know, you’ve been told that host name changes and IP changes are all kinds of OK at this point; “look, Charles, there’s a button!” Well, go ahead, click it. Don’t mind me, you might just be alright. But then again, you might not if you’re running Open Directory, Profile Manager, or a few other services… When it works it’s a thing of beauty. But when it doesn’t, you might…
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Configure Alerts In OS X Server 5
OS X Server 5, running on El Capitan or Yosemite, comes with a few new alerting options previously unavailable in versions of OS X. The alerts are sent to administrators via servermgrd and configured in the 5th version of the Server app. To configure alerts on the server, open the Server app and then click on Alerts in the Server app sidebar. Next, click on the Delivery tab. At the Delivery screen, click on the Edit button for Email Addresses and enter every email address that should receive alerts sent from the server. Then click on the Edit button for Push Notifications. Here, check the box for each administrator of the server. The…
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Setup The Contacts Server In OS X Server 5
OS X has an application called Contacts. OS X Server 5, running on Yosemite or El Capitan, has a service called Contacts. While the names might imply very different things that they do, you’ll be super-surprised that the two are designed to work with one another. The Contacts service is based on CardDAV, a protocol for storing contact information on the web, retrievable and digestible by client computers. However, there is a layer of Postgres-based obfuscation between the Contacts service and CardDAV. The Contacts service is also a conduit with which to read information from LDAP and display that information in the Contacts client, which is in a way similar to how the…
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Manage the VPN Service in Mac OS X Server 5
OS X Server has long had a VPN service that can be run. The server is capable of running the two most commonly used VPN protocols: PPTP and L2TP. The L2TP protocol is always in use, but the server can run both concurrently. You should use L2TP when at all possible. Sure, “All the great themes have been used up and turned into theme parks.” But security is a theme that it never hurts to keep in the forefront of your mind. If you were thinking of exposing the other services in OS X Server to the Internet without having users connect to a VPN service then you should think again,…
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Setup DNS Server Running OS X Server 5
Under the hood, OS X Server has a number of substantial changes; however, at first the Server app (Server 5) appears to have had very few changes. The changes in the Server app were far more substantial in the El Capitan version (and Yosemite for that matter) of OS X Server. All of the options from OS X are still there and using the new command line interface for managing the service, there are far more options than ever before. The DNS service in OS X Server, as with previous versions, is based on bind 9 (BIND 9.9.7-P2 to be exact). This is very much compatible with practically every DNS server in…
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Enable Push Notifications In OS X Server 5
Push Notifications can be used in most every service that OS X Server 5 (for El Capitan and Yosemite) can run. Any service that requiring Push Notifications will often provide the ability to setup APNS during the configuration of the service. But at this point, I usually just set up Push Notifications when I setup a new server. To enable Push Notifications for services, you’ll first need to have a valid AppleID. Once you have an AppleID, open the Server app and then click on the name of the server. Then click on the Settings screen and click on the checkbox for Notifications. At the Settings screen for your server, click on…
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Setup DHCP In OS X Server 5
DHCP, or Dynamic Host Control Protocol, is the service used to hand out IP addresses and other network settings by network appliances and servers. The DHCP Server built into OS X Server 5, installed on El Capitan or Yosemite is easy-to-use and fast. It’s pretty transparent, just as DHCP services should be. To install the service, open the Server app and then click on the Show button beside Advanced in the server sidebar. Then click on DHCP. At the DHCP screen, you’ll see two tabs: Settings, used for managing the service and Clients, used to see leases in use by computers that obtain IP address information from the server. You’ll…
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How SMBs Can Easily and Economically Manage Apple Devices In Small Biz Daily
I had an article in Small Biz Daily on managing Apple devices in Small Businesses. Check it out if that’s your kind of thing, at http://www.smallbizdaily.com/22366/smbs-can-easily-economically-manage-apple-devices/.