318 has open sourced our mergeSafBookmarks python script. This tool can read in a pair of property lists and merge them into a single resultant bookmarks file for Safari. This takes a lot of the work out of pushing bookmarks to existing users as part of your deployment. You can find it here:
http://mergebookmarks.sourceforge.net
Note: The script also looks at existing bookmarks and doesn’t merge in duplicates.
318 has decided to open source our ASR Setup Tool under GPLv3. The tool can now be found at http://asrsetup.sourceforge.net. The ASR Setup Tool is built as a wrapper for the asr command line suite from Apple. The description from SourceForge:
Developed by 318 Inc., ASR Setup Toll is an application for setting up Apple Software Restore (“ASR”). In the context of the ASR Setup Tool, ASR is used for setting up a multicast stream that can then be leveraged for imaging Mac OS X computers.
We hope you enjoy!
Using the Google Apps Connector for BlackBerry means that your Blackberry users can keep using the mobile platform that they love, with Google Apps. The Google Apps Connector allows users to access mail, calendar and contacts using the built-in applications for doing so rather than needing a 3rd party application. The Google Apps Connector plugs into BlackBerry Enterprise Server and connects from your organization to Google, handing off the traffic destined to handhelds through Research In Motion in much the same way that Blackberry Enterprise Server for Exchange works.
The 1.5 version of the Google Apps connector for Blackberry has now been released. This update brings maturity, additional capacity and overall performance enhancements. But most importantly, it can be run on 64-bit operating systems. You can also now use BlackBerry Professional with the Google Apps Connector for BlackBerry Enterprise Server.
If your organization is considering a move to Google Apps, contact 318 now and we can help to plan the transition; whether from Exchange or Lotus Notes or even good ‘ole postfix, 318 is here to help!
For those considering a migration for Snow Leopard or those who have already moved into Snow Leopard, you will be interested to know that Apple has released the 10.6.2 update that has been in progress for some time. Updates and issue resolutions that are included (from Apple):
- an issue that might cause your system to logout unexpectedly
- a graphics distortion in Safari Top Sites
- Spotlight search results not showing Exchange contacts
- a problem that prevented authenticating as an administrative user
- issues when using NTFS and WebDAV file servers
- the reliability of menu extras
- an issue with the 4-finger swipe gesture
- an issue that causes Mail to quit unexpectedly when setting up an Exchange server Address Book becoming unresponsive when editing
- a problem adding images to contacts in Address Book
- an issue that prevented opening files downloaded from the Internet
- Safari plug-in reliability
- general reliability improvements for iWork, iLife, Aperture, Final Cut Studio, MobileMe, and iDisk
- an issue that caused data to be deleted when using a guest account
Mac OS X 10.6.2 represents Apple coming another step to making Snow Leopard ready for mass integration in most any environment. If you have not already done so, consider contacting your 318 representative now to start planning for your migration!
318 is proud to announce that we will have 3 speakers doing a total of 4 sessions at the upcoming MacWorld Conference & Expo in San Francisco in February. Speakers will be Beau Hunter, Zack Smith and Charles Edge.
We will also be announcing some events as the conference gets closer. If you are planning to attend then you can sign up here. We hope to see you there!
Firefox has a number of preferences. Not all are available in the GUI. To access these preferences, you can simply open Firefox and type the following in the address bar:
about: config
This will allow you to customize preferences, whether or not they’re otherwise known, line by line. These can then be copied between users, by inserting lines into the preferences file.
Like with most applications on Mac OS X, the preferences for Firefox can be deployed en masse. It is a bit more complicated than deploying preferences for some other applications. The reason for this is that the path to the preference file isn’t the same for all users. The file is located in the ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles directory. It is an 8 character string followed by .default. For example, lzwntwo9.default. In this folder is a file called prefs.js, which contains all of the preferences for Firefox. For example, the following line will disable the check for whether you wish Firefox to be the default web browser for a user:
user_pref(“browser.shell.checkDefaultBrowser”, false);
Once you know what preferences you’d like to push out there are two options to do so (there might be more, but these are the two we’ve used):
Now you can insert (or replace) the line that makes up the specific preference. This isn’t nearly as clean as using defaults to push out Safari preferences. But it does provide a way to push out Firefox preferences, be it as a file drop to replace the preferences in the application bundle or as a line edit to alter settings of an existing users browser.
In Tiger and below you used NetInfo Manager to enable and disable the root account in Mac OS X. However, in Leopard and above you use the Directory Utility. But you can also use the command line. In /usr/sbin there is a handy little tool called dsenableroot. To use it, simply open up Terminal.app and type dsenableroot. It will then prompt you for your password. Provided you type that correctly it will then prompt you for the password you desire the root account to have twice. Assuming the target passwords match, at this point you should see something similar to the following in your secure.log file:
Apr 6 09:38 client162 com.apple.SecurityServer[22]: checkpw() succeeded, creating credential for user root
dsenableroot -u Mike -p WyomingKnott -r TANSTAAFL!
dsenableroot -d -u Mike -p WyomingKnott
dsenableroot -appleversion
dsenableroot, Apple Computer, Inc., Version 112
The dock should have the applications you commonly need to get to. However, some simply want it to show them the applications that are open. You can do this by running the following command:
defaults write com.apple.dock static-only -bool TRUE
Once run, reboot, or just restart your dock with the following command:
killall Dock
To undo it:
defaults write com.apple.dock static-only -bool FALSE
Shadows make our screen shots look better. But we can’t always use them. There are times when we need to go ahead and disable them due to some reason or another. If you need to disable the shadows on screen captures, you can do so using the following command:
defaults write com.apple.screencapture disable-shadow -bool true
To then enable the shadows, you would use the following command:
defaults write com.apple.screencapture disable-shadow -bool false
Performing replication between physical locations is always an interesting task. Perhaps you’re only using your second location for a hot/cold site or maybe it’s a full blown branch office. In many cases, file replication can be achieved with no scripting, using off the shelf products such as Retrospect or even Carbon Copy Cloner. Other times, the needs are more granular and you may choose to script a solutions, as is often done using rsync.
However, a number of customers have found these solutions to leave something to be desired. Enter File Replication Pro. File Replication Pro allows administrators to replicate data between two locations in a variety of fashions and across a variety of operating systems in a highly configurable manner. Furthermore, File Replication Pro provides delta synchronization rather than full file copies, which means that you’re only pushing changes to files and not the full file over your replication medium, greatly reducing required bandwidth. File Replication Pro is also multi-platform (built on Java), allowing administrators to synchronize Sun, Windows, Mac OS X, etc.
If you struggle with File Replication issues, then we can help. Whatever the medium may be, give us a call and we can help you to determine the best solution for your needs!