Mac@Work : The Ultimate Business Machine

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Weblog • Archive • Cutedge

by: Bernard Teo

Tue 18 Oct 2005

WebMon at MPG

Category : Technology/WebMonMPG.txt

I was wondering why there so many hits coming in from the Apple site. This is WebMon's page at the Macintosh Product Guide :

P.S. : A PFE Update. I've added mail queue management, virtual alias domains support, the ability to keep multiple Smart Hosts, and keychain support to MailServe, which is the next version of Postfix Enabler. There'll be a beta version to try out soon.

Posted at 9:15AM UTC | permalink

Sun 09 Oct 2005

Care to show me your work?

Category : Technology/MacAtWorkShowCase.txt

WebMon and DNS Enabler have been doing quite well, and for this I'm very thankful. I'm wondering how people are doing and what they're building with these tools, including Postfix Enabler or Luca.

If anybody is willing to send me links about how they're doing, using Macs for their businesses, and especially if the tools here have been of use, I would love to feature them in these pages. Just send me a note.

I'm also getting an impression that the Mac Mini is a very popular machine among the people who're setting up their own servers. I love the Mac Mini. It's been performing beautifully and quietly.

Posted at 10:33AM UTC | permalink

IP over Firewire

Category : Technology/IPoverFirewire.txt

While debugging WebMon today, I found that SSL doesn't work between two machines, a client and server, when they're connected across a firewire cable.

My two iBooks sensed each other immediately when they were connected via firewire. Using their Bonjour (previously known as Rendezvous) xxx.local names, I can connect from one to the other via SSH and HTTP, but not HTTPs.

That's interesting. Connect two Macs via a simple ethernet cable and it just works (no cross-over cable needed). Connect two Macs via a firewire cable and it (almost) just works. Did somebody at Apple miss this? I'll come back and explore this when I get the time.

Posted at 10:17AM UTC | permalink

Fri 07 Oct 2005

MailServe?

Category : Technology/MailServe.txt

I'm quite a bit further along in my update of Postfix Enabler. It's going to include :

a) IPv6 support for UW's POP and IMAP
b) Fetchmail support
c) a way to specify RBL sites
d) alternate port numbers for SMTP
e) enforce SSL for both SMTP client and server communications
f) unlimited mailbox sizes (because with Fetchmail the mailbox can get big)
g) and, a way to list and manage the mail queue

plus maybe a few other things, like Postfix's virtual table so that we can at least provide some support for virtual domains and virtual users.

Still no support for maildirs, I'm afraid. That will need another round of updates to see if there is life beyond UW/IMAP.

I'm thinking of calling it MailServe to get a better handle on what this project is trying to do. I'm thinking of pricing it at 19.99, with current Postfix Enabler users being able to upgrade for 9.99? Pricing is such an art. Right now, I'm deep in the bowels, programming that beast - so further thought on this will have to wait. But I did want to do both art and science, didn't I? So, I shouldn't be complaining. It's been a good life.

Posted at 6:08AM UTC | permalink

WebMon 2.0.1

Category : Technology/WebMon201.txt

I've just updated WebMon to 2.0.1 because I realised that auto-listing of server directories is turned on, in OS X's Apache, by default. This may cause the contents of WebDav folders to be listed in the browser, if someone happens to load the WebDav URL in the browser rather than in the Finder (which is where we need to go to to work with WebDav folders, using the Finder's Go->Connect to Server menu).

Sorry to have overlooked this. But it's patched now. It can be downloaded from here.

Posted at 4:11AM UTC | permalink

Fri 23 Sep 2005

Ora et Labora

Category : Commentary/oraetlabora.txt

Talking about a labour of love.

The corner shophouse had been vacant for a while. I passed it this afternoon. I've been seeing people moving in. Now they're putting a new coat of paint. They looked Japanese or mainland Chinese, but I recognised neither in their speech. So I asked. The lady said they're Koreans. They're starting a Korean bakery. I said, that sounds like fun.

Tonight, I was coming back after driving Hai Hwee home and saw them, still working.

The place was well lit and the lady was sitting on a stool, while the guys were putting up the partitions. Cream coloured plastering. Nice. They're still hard at work. The lady looks like she's seeing exactly how the bakery will look and willing it into being.

And I was thinking, please God, please don't be cruel with them. So much hope. And optimism. I hope they don't get disappointed.

Ora et Labora. That was the motto of the school I went to. Work and Pray. Or, more accurately, Pray and Work. I think I understand so much better now what that all means.

Posted at 2:40PM UTC | permalink

WebMon and DNS Enabler

Category : Technology/WebMonDNSEnablerReleased.txt

I've released WebMon and DNS Enabler as commercial software, priced at $15 each. I hope they do well and keep us going and allow us to develop Luca, in turn. I hope $15 is not too much. They've been a labour of love.

Posted at 1:44PM UTC | permalink

Wed 21 Sep 2005

The Mac Mini as Server

Category : Technology/MacMiniAsServer.txt

I switched over to a Mac Mini as the server for this web site yesterday. It's the 80 GB, 512 MB RAM, 1.42 GHz version, with the Combo drive, Airport Extreme, Bluetooth, and a built-to-order modem.

I've just tested that Tiger's built-in shared fax feature works. That's why I wanted that modem. We can fax through the Mini from anywhere in the house. And I've checked that I do get all in-coming faxes forwarded to me via e-mail, too.

The Mini has been running great. It's so quiet, and it's about one-tenth or one-twentieth the size of the old G4 PowerMac that it replaces, so it'll probably also consume a lot less power.

The Mini is running OS X Tiger 10.4.2 with all the security updates. I wanted to see how fast I could set things up and move everything over. Mail was the easiest, probably because Postfix Enabler has been used so much that it should just work by now. Same with DNS Enabler. And WebMon had PHP, SSL, and WebDav set up in seconds. So, basically, most of the services that I'm running - web, mail, DNS, FTP, WebDav, shared iCal calendars, the fax server, the PHP-based PayPal interface - they were all set up in minutes.

It took a bit more time to copy the IMAP folders over. And the MySQL database containing the user names and serial numbers for Postfix Enabler.

We actually had a payment coming in from Eddy Martinez the minute (literally seconds after) the Mini took over as the server, and that was pretty amazing. I had to check with Eddy that he did receive his serial number because I coudn't believe that it didn't get messed up. But he did.

We did hit one problem, though - I found that SSL doesn't start up automatically on reboot for the Apache web server - I have to manually stop and start Apache for SSL support to take effect. This didn't happen with Panther, so it's probably something to do with Tiger, and it'll be something to look into.

The performance of the Mac Mini is good. So good that I suspect it was causing us some new timing problems with our PayPal interface. We've had to do some re-programming to sort that out. So that was what actually consumed most of the time in the migration.

I love this Mini. It's great value for money. It's the way to go for small businesses.

We've now bought two new iBooks and this Mac Mini. Seems like Apple's hardware sales numbers are looking good for this quarter.

Posted at 3:12PM UTC | permalink

Sun 18 Sep 2005

Icons and Ideas

Category : Technology/icons.txt

I've created these icons for Luca, WebMon, and DNS Enabler respectively :

That's a branch from my frangipani tree you see in the Luca icon. I'm amazed by the way Nature works. Flowers will bloom and they die but they're replaced, almost effortlessly, by new ones. Same with leaves and branches. A business should bloom the way Nature does in the garden. That regal, regenerative vigour - that's what Luca's icon is paying homage to. WebMon's icon just shows the WebMon window peeking out the OS X monitor. And DNS Enabler is about creating a map of your domain names.

It's good to get back to using Photoshop and Illustrator after all these years. I got my break as an independent "free-agent" ten years ago by teaching all those long-haired graphic artists Photoshop, QuarkXPress, and Freehand.

I used to sit outside that AppleCentre (Tricom, at Gateway, long dead but fondly remembered) and think, wow, I just made a couple of thousand dollars today. Just by talking. Just like magic.

Nowadays, it's not that easy to get these kind of returns. But that was how I managed to hire my wife, Bee Khim, and then Hai Hwee, and a couple of other people out of the company we all last worked for - with the proceeds from the Photoshop/Freehand training as the seed.

It's to say, if you're ever out of a job, don't panic. It's possible to turn ideas into real income. Just dig deep into yourself and pull them out.

Posted at 3:54PM UTC | permalink

Sat 10 Sep 2005

A book to be savoured

Category : Commentary/bestbook.txt

I've just finished The Cliff Walk. It's the best book I've read this year, by far.

I had steady work right through the winter, and by spring I no longer thought of being a college professor. I just concentrated on the work in front of me. All my life I had thought that if you worked hard you would be rewarded. If you worked your ass off, there would be some reward for you. But now I knew that the reward was just the chance to work your ass off.

Don J. Snyder - The Cliff Walk

If you do get to read it, try not to pre-judge the author. Denial is more than just a river in Egypt. It runs like a raging torrent through everyone of us.

Posted at 7:04AM UTC | permalink

Fri 09 Sep 2005

Pricing for DNS Enabler and WebMon

Category : Technology/pricing.txt

I've been asked what I would be charging for WebMon and DNS Enabler. I think it won't be more than $15 - when I'm sure that all the bugs have been wrung out, and that they'll be slick and smooth.

I've been wrestling with the idea of pricing for a long time. On one hand, I'm cognizant of the fact that, on the surface, I seem to be "merely" turning on or off settings for pre-existing software, and free open source software at that.

So the pricing has to reflect my acknowledgement that many other people had built the sofware that delivered those values in the first place - people like Wietse Venema for Postfix and all those Open Source contributors at the Apache, PHP, WebDav, and BIND projects, etc.

Yet, it has been really hard work building these "enablers" - supporting them and taking responsibility for fixing things whenever Apple breaks stuff with their updates.

So I think there's a level I can reasonably charge that reflects the value that I add. I need to stick my neck out and say that I am giving good value for money, and that I may have succeeded in making something that is powerful easily available, that would otherwise not be realisable.

(I'm tempted to add, all those detractors at Version Tracker be damned, but that would be rude.)

And I do really want to give good value. I believe that the Mac had been the best computing platform, for businesses of any scale, for years. (Really, in spite of Apple's abject disinterest in the enterprise). So I want to make good stuff that are priced low enough to get a huge amount of use. Hopefully, huge enough to overturn the myth that Macs are not good enough for businesses. And for people who've been retrenched, or otherwise turned out of the large organisations, the Mac could be their best bet in plugging themselves back into the power grid. (No IT department? No problem. We're going to do even do better on our own.) I know we've got tools that can help, but they've got to be made cheap enough, and be robust enough, for the masses to use.

And yet profits are good. It's the money that is coming in for Postfix Enabler that has encouraged me to go on building DNS Enabler and WebMon. I'm hoping that these can help us support the continued development of Luca Accounting, in their turn.

Posted at 3:04PM UTC | permalink

Postfix Enabler version 2

Category : Technology/PFEv2.txt

Okay, I'm ready to do the next version of Postfix Enabler. This is what I'm trying to fit into it :

Mail queue management, RBL sites, SMTP authentication over SSL between mail servers, enforce SSL for SMTP authentication, alternate port numbers to contact the mail server, default mynetworks_style to "host" (i.e., allow mail to be relayed only if it originated from the server or if it has been smtp-authenticated) and let the user choose to relax that restriction to include mail from any machine on the same subnet, and support for Fetchmail.

I'm sure there could be more if I can find time to go thru all the Postfix-related mail again. But these are what I'll start with.

But I really want to find another name for it. Ideas? Should I start a forum? If I do I'll do an FAQ that will summarise all the mail that I usually get, so I don't have to keep saying them again and again (click the red cross, no it doesn't work with Server, yes you don't have to keep Postfix Enabler running, it'll work across reboots, etc..)

Posted at 1:12PM UTC | permalink