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Weblog • Archive • Cutedge

by: Bernard Teo

Tue 04 Apr 2006

OS X 10.4.6

Category : Commentary/OSX10dot4dot6.txt

We've updated all our systems to 10.4.6, out today, including our Mac Mini server and our Intel iMac Core Duo.

Things look like they're all still okay - SMTP, POP, IMAP, SSL, Apache, WebDAV, PHP, DNS, etc.

So it's safe to update.

Posted at 11:37AM UTC | permalink

Taking Care of Windows

Category : Technology/WebMon2dot1dot2.txt

I've updated WebMon so that Windows Explorer users who access our SSL-encrypted pages will not need to set the "Use TLS 1.0" option from the Tools/Internet Options menu.

Like, how would anybody know to do that? Imagine explaining this to grandma. Better to work a little bit harder at our end. Better still if people would just use a Mac.

WebMon 2.1.2 is now out.

Posted at 8:17AM UTC | permalink

Live In Harmony

Category : Commentary/LiveInHarmony.txt

I enjoyed this message from Luke Mazzeri :

Thanks for your quick response, my whole family's email is on this iMac - (My wife and I have a family of eight =)

I did not discover what caused it, or what the problem wound up being, but...I did recover...after all the tweaking and experimenting...

Anyway - thanks again for a GREAT program and also being willing to offer suggestions to self-inflicted mayhem...

Live In Harmony,
Luke Mazzeri

p.s. Thanks for setting me and my family free from ISP-controlled email
p.p.s. Long Live Apple!

Yes, long live Apple.
And cheers, Apple, belatedly, on your 30th birthday.

Posted at 6:42AM UTC | permalink

Sun 02 Apr 2006

Live Strong

Category : Commentary/LiveStrong.txt

I hate Windows and all that it stands for with a vengeance. But I resolved long ago that, if we want to be able to go on using our Macs in business, we've got to be able to handle all that Windows will throw at us without breaking into a sweat.

That's how we've been able to hang on to our PowerBooks through some bleak years working with Windows-centric client companies, some of whom were happily using Macs till some "consultant" or IT manager came to throw them out.

I've seen them all - Richard Ellis, AGF, among others, and most painful of all, Motorola - home of the PowerPC and 68000 chip. And IT managers gleefully selling off perfectly usable, even brand-new Macs for 20 bucks.

It's a question of attitude. I wouldn't do this - ethnic cleansing for the machines. Even if we could do it, "forward migration" as somebody calls it, and move a company from PCs to Macs, I would still find use for the PCs, and use them till they really die. It's about conservation, and cutting down on waste - not least about the waste of the human spirit.

That's why although I'll still work on Windows, it's all "aridity and disenchantment" - there's nothing noble behind that spirit.

I borrow "Live Strong" from, of course, Lance Armstrong, multiple Tour de France winner, whose books (love him or loathe him) make very interesting reading. There's another one I've just finished - Lance Armstrong's War by Daniel Coyle - exhilarating reading for a sports fan or cycling buff.

Posted at 12:02PM UTC | permalink

WebDAV and Windows XP - A Solution

Category : Technology/WebDAVandWindowsXP.txt

We've found a solution for setting Windows XP to access a WebDAV folder. Thanks to Stephen Cranfill and Chiang Hai Hwee who sent me the solution within two hours of each other :

--- Stephen Cranfill :

I ran across this today and it works!! http://dav.lyra.org/pipermail/dav-dev/2002-July/003772.html. One note: this doesn't seem to work if you use the standard "map network drive" command. Instead, I had to use the "add network place" wizard and it it worked. Stupid Windows!

--- Chiang Hai Hwee :

I can duplicate the problem with Windows XP Home Edition SP2. But there's a solution for this, and it also solves for SP1. And, sorry, you may have wasted your time changing the WebMon code. Here's how to get in, without the need to create the additional DOMAIN/Username:

1. Go to My Network Places, and Add Network Place. In the location, type the port after the domain, e.g. http://cutedgesystems.com:80/dav2

2. Enter the usual username and password combination, i.e. username=webdav, password=xxxx :

Note: It's a known issue that the authentication dialog will appear more than once, each time you connect, open a folder, or edit a file. Check the "Remember my password" option will cut down on this.

I've tried with cutedgesystems/dav, where we didn't create the additional Windows user, and it also works. The reason for adding the port number is to force Windows XP to use the "Microsoft Data Access Internet Publishing Provider DAV 1.1" mechanism (used by Windows 2000) instead of "Microsoft-WebDAV-MiniRedir/5.1.2600", which disables Basic Authentication.

I got the solution from http://ulihansen.kicks-ass.net/aero/webdav/. Tried the other client solutions, but seems only adding port number works. Xtremely Painful!

Now, a couple of other Windows notes :

This should also work for Windows 2000 clients, but Windows 2000 doesn't really need the port number. The WebDAV user name and password are entered the same way as for the Mac clients.

If you have SSL turned on at the server, you can enter the URL like this : https://domainName/dav (i.e., with https, you don't need to enter the port number - how inconsistent - there's not enough life times to keep all these straight.) The user name and password, plus all the subsequent WebDAV communications, will then be sent encrypted.

If you cannot access the server via https, you need to go to Internet Explorer's Tools/Internet Options menu, and under the Advaned tab, under the Security section, turn on "Use TLS 1.0".

Windows does really make you work. It's totally inconsistent and largely illogical. It doesn't try even one bit to conform to open, non-Microsoft, Internet standards - "embrace and extend" being more important than playing nice with the neighbours. It tries to be too smart, remembering URL, user name and password combinations when you don't want it to, even when they are wrong, and ends up tripping the user.

It reminds me of how corporate IT departments work - layers of managers and project leaders throwing ideas for features, often without a grasp of the issues or the trade-offs, hoping to impress the superiors or whoever is listening in to the project reviews, and passing all these to one little poorly-paid outsourced programmer to code everything but the kitchen sink.

I've released WebMon 2.1.1 - the code is unchanged - I've reverted all my planned changes since they're not needed now, but I kept the new help panel for Windows clients.

Posted at 10:31AM UTC | permalink

Thu 30 Mar 2006

Windows XP - Xtremely Painful

Category : Technology/XPWebDAV.txt

I've been trying to get Windows XP to work with the WebDAV folders created by WebMon. WebDAV works very well when accessed from the Mac's Finder, as well as from Windows 2000. But XP is a pain. I thought I had it solved and readied a version of WebMon to include support for XP :

But out of four people testing it, two are now OK but the other two still have problems acessing WebDAV from XP. So this is going to be held back.

The problem is that Windows XP has a broken WebDAV client implementation and we have to go through some hoops to get this to work. Even when it works, it still exhibits some ugly niggling issues. (Windows 2000 works, Windows XP is broken - so they seem to have gone backwards).

This gets me thinking about "Mac marginalisation" - the tendency of IT departments everywhere to ignore support for the Mac. Well, if they're working with Windows, it's no wonder they are always exhausted and have little time or interest in anything else. Throw Windows out of the window, and you free up a lot more space to do the more meaningful things in life.

Secondly, it's all about attitude. I don't care about Windows. But we do want to see things "just work", at least for the things within our control. So we'll just soldier on and see if we can find a breakthrough.

Posted at 3:00PM UTC | permalink

XMail and other AppleScript OSAX's

Category : Technology/lestang.txt

Jean-Baptiste LE STANG wrote to me today about a problem authenticating with the SASLDB database, using the CRAM-MD5 mechanism that Postfix Enabler enabled, from an AppleScript OSAX (Scripting Addition) that he's writing.

This has since been resolved.

But he has an interesting site, with tools that some people who come to my site may also be interested in.

So, I point you on to : http://lestang.org/ and hope you'll learn something new, as I have today.

Posted at 7:22AM UTC | permalink

Thu 23 Mar 2006

MailServe 2.1.2

Category : Technology/MailServe2dot1dot2.txt

I've released MailServe 2.1.2. It contains support for the Via parameter for Fetchmail, and a new Traditional and Simplifed Chinese Localisation.

Actually, I've also updated Postfix Enabler 1.2, silently, with both a Traditional and Simplifed Chinese Localisation. Didn't think it was worth changing the version number for. But what I hope to have is for every one of our applications to have a Chinese localisation. Will Luca ever hope to replace the abacus in a Chinese business man's heart? Will have to find a Sinicised name for Luca, then.

There was also a couple of interface bugs at MailServe's Monitor panel. The log monitor table shows an extraneous empty last column when the window is enlarged. (This looks like an Interface Builder bug but we've found a way around it). Thanks to Patricio Mason from Santiago, Chile, who reported this problem, and the next. Saludos, Patricio.

Also, the Mail Queue table didn't work right in certain situations. The problem was that the mail queue output is generated by the system in a variety of ways, depending on the problem found during delivery. Sometimes you get a Remarks/Details line about the problem with the mail delivery, and sometimes you don't. And sometimes a few destinations are coalesced into one queue ID and sometimes they're split with one queue ID for each destination.

So, we've got to test for as many permutations as we know about. It works OK now for those that we do know of - at least for now.

So MailServe 2.1.2 is out and I'm preparing another update for WebMon next.

I'm adding the ability to set up multiple WebDAV folders to WebMon. And to choose whether to turn on auto-listing of directories. It's almost done.

Posted at 2:45AM UTC | permalink

Tue 21 Mar 2006

WebMon 2.0.7 Released

Category : Technology/WebMon2dot0dot7.txt

I've updated WebMon (ver 2.0.7) to contain an updated IPaddress-to-country mapping database, good as at 16h March 2006.

MailServe - I have an update to MailServe, ver 2.1.2, coming. It'll contain support for the Via parameter for Fetchmail, a new Traditional and Simplifed Chinese Localisation (visions of 1 billion customers? that'll be a long time coming, but still, it's good for the soul to do something for the mother tongue), and a user interface bug fix for the log monitor table (seems like we've found a new bug with Interface Builder).

Posted at 6:52AM UTC | permalink

Sun 19 Mar 2006

MailServe Interface Error

Category : Technology/MailServe2dot1dot1.txt

Dale Stanbrough reported a user interface problem with MailServe :

This occurred after I've implemented a split view for that panel, so I think the problem must be due to something I did or didn't do in my split view implementation. Sure enough. I've managed to fix it, in version 2.1.1.

Also, David Bean requested the inclusion of a "via" parameter for Fetchmail in MailServe. I'm looking into it and will try to put that in.

Posted at 7:52AM UTC | permalink

Thu 16 Mar 2006

Round Robin

Category : Technology/RoundRobin.txt

I've tested that I could use DNS Enabler to set up something like this (focus on the box outlined in red):

This is called a round-robin arrangement. Three machines - 10.0.1.240, 245 and 250 are all given the domain name "another.domain", and all store the same content.

Now what happens is, when a hit comes in for "another.domain", the name server will channel the request to be served by the machine on address 10.0.1.240.

Then, when another hit comes in for "another.domain", the name server will channel it to 10.0.1.245 next. When a third hit comes in, it gets channeled to 10.0.1.250. Finally, when a fourth hit comes in, the name server sends it back to 10.0.1.240, and around it goes again.

The end result is that the load for the domain "another.domain" gets distributed across three different servers. If you have a database, you need to abstract it out to a different machine that all three servers access. But in this way, you can upsize your operations by adding more servers as your business expands.

So, our tools are all coming together nicely.

Posted at 4:34PM UTC | permalink

Wed 15 Mar 2006

Postfix Enabler 1.2

Category : Technology/PFE1dot2.txt

I've released the Universal Binary version of Postfix Enabler. It's version 1.2 and includes support for the Keychain. The POP and IMAP executables are also Universal Binaries and should work well on an Intel-based Mac server. Hope this will make people who run their server on the new Intel Mac Mini really happy.

It includes a new Spanish localisation by Pablo Rodriguez and an updated German localisation by Stefan Hartmann. We're not sure if we should release our home-made Japanese localisation, so we'll keep it for the moment.

Posted at 8:53AM UTC | permalink