Read on for a quick tip on using screen instead of zterm for serial line communications.

Managing Software Update with Open Directory is a nice feature of v10.4 Server, but trying to automate the delivery over those updates is a little cumbersome. Some users have set up a cron job to periodically execute the softwareupdate command-line utility. Doing so can present some issues like updates that require a restart, missed updates because the client was powered off during the scheduled execution, as well the question about applying updates while a user is currently logged into the client.

I’m not sure if this is already known news but it was news to me when I discovered it a month ago.

You CAN manage ‘byhost’ settings in 10.4.

Read on for more…

Yes, we’re sure the questions will start flooding in so we’ve opened… the iPod FM Tuner Forum…OK, so it’s not that, it’s the x86 Forum – for discussing all those issues specifically relating to the new machines and the ongoing transition to an all Intel-based product line. Who wants to go first?

So, what’s the deal with 10.4.4?
Well for a start it’s the OS for the new Intel chip machines – everything from the OS to all included applications run natively – no rosetta required. But what else? Read on for some highlights:

So, amid the major announcements of 10.4.4, iLife 06 and a new version of iWork something interesting was mentioned…something about Intel…

Its a new year (coming) and it has been a long time since I did an update of OSXPASS. I hadn’t made changes pre-Tiger hoping that Apple would come up with a solution and include it with Tiger. But, alas, that didn’t happen. So, I am embarking on doing an updated version of OSXPASS. This email is a request for comment and feedback. I’d like any information that might help guide me in the next version. And, if anyone has experienced problems, noted any security concerns, etc I’d like to hear about it. (I have thick skin.)

The sudo (superuser do) command is a very useful and powerful part of the OS X unix underpinnings. It gives the ability for certain users to execute some or all commands as root while logging these activities providing a clear bread-trail of who did what to the machine.

By default only an administrative user can use sudo on any OS X machine, but with some modification of the sudoers file, you can grant specific machines and/or users access to sudo some or all of their commands.

Read on for more…

The gist of it is this: there will be no Tiger edition of my book.

The Panther version took me a year and a half to write. I’ve been working on the tiger version less than a year, and it was projected to be 30% longer. For some reason timelines this time around were shorter, and the choice came down to sacrificing depth or canceling the project. I chose the latter. I proposed a third option, but it didn’t fly:

Apple has a team of tech writers and their docs still lack depth and in many cases understanding of how this technology is deployed in IT-centric markets. (ie command usage statements that don’t add much understanding and don’t highlight the command’s most typical usage). Therefor I think that any sort of in-depth documentation of Mac OS X or Mac OS X Server should really be a team effort. What I wanted to see was a Mac OS X IT Bookshelf from O’Reilly, with contributions from some of the more cognizant thinkers in various aspects of Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server System Administration. This bookshelf would cover Mac OS X Server, Mac OS X, XSan, etc all at the same level my book was written that.

As a less aggressive goal I also offered to break up the book into several titles (each section into its own book). In either case, O’Reilly didn’t perceive demand. I don’t understand that decision, but they’re within their rights to make it.

Tiger includes a nicely-integrated Jabber server, but for those of us who have not yet upgraded, here’s the trick to getting jabberd running on Panther.