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by: Bernard Teo

Wed 12 Nov 2003

POP, IMAP, and SSL

Category : Technology/popIMAPssl.txt

I realise, from the mail that I'm getting, that there are people out there monitoring the progress of all these experimentation (on Panther).

So here's an update. I've got both POP and IMAP working and they also work over SSL. We just tried this out and it's so fun. The word that comes to mind is - magical.

On Mail.app, we can now give users a have a choice of going to the server via POP or IMAP. So you can explain the pros and cons of doing either and let them decide. Then, if they are wary about people snooping over their passwords or the content of their messages, they can turn on SSL.

If you're using a self-signed certificate, you'll get a message on Mail.app warning that the cert is not verified by a known root certification authority. But that's OK - it'll still do its job of encrypting the two-way communication. But this warning will appear each time you restart Mail.app and it starts accessing the server. So, you may decide to turn off SSL mode and go back to normal unencrypted mode until you really feel you need it. The key word is Choice.

But, of course, if you want, you can always buy a real cert from places like Verisign and it'll all work very well.

So, it's on to SMTP-AUTH. If that works, everything will be just splendid.

Posted at 3:32AM UTC | permalink

Sun 09 Nov 2003

Qpopper

Category : Technology/qpopper.txt

I was determined not to use qpopper. I think I did it. I went back to trying UW-IMAP which has a Panther-friendly release. It's the power of adversity, really. Now I've got POP and IMAP, instead of just POP. I'll let it run for a day or two and then I'll take out qpopper from Postfix Enabler. It's much ado about nothing really. But it's no fun having a "License Breached" headline screaming out over your product, even though that doesn't seem to be the case, here.

It's nice and quiet now. My kid's sick but I'm enjoying this book I found yesterday about life in old Shanghai. I don't think we'll get back on versiontracker. It's too quarrelsome. I've taken out the 10 bucks price that some people had trouble with. We've just made it donation-ware. Guess what? We're now getting more than ten bucks. We should have done it all along. If you're looking for Mac software, try MacShareware.net. It looks a saner place, there.

Posted at 11:51AM UTC | permalink

QPopper License Agreement

Category : Commentary/free.txt

I've been told that I may be in breach of the qpopper license agreement. I've read it.

It says, "If a party agrees to these terms and conditions, such party may copy and use Qpopper for any purpose, and distribute unmodified complete copies of Qpopper to any third party provided that such third party must agree to these terms and conditions prior to any use of Qpopper."

I haven't modified any part of the qpopper source. In the spirit of the letter, I feel that this does not preclude anyone from bundling an unmodifed binary into their product, shareware or otherwise.

If there is any breach, I think it would be in not knowing where and how to place the reqiured notices. I'll try to improve on this. But if anyone has any input, I would be willing to work on it.

In any case, I've taken Postfix Enabler off versiontracker. It's too much bother. I'm surprised that anybody would take issue with pricing it at 10 bucks. Only 0.3 % of the people who used Sendmail Enabler ever paid. That's about the kind of return Postfix Enabler is following. That's human nature. It's a fully functional working version whether you pay or not. So the overwhelming majority of people just don't pay.

But I felt that it was better to say upfront that it's shareware. You're paying for the convenience and the design and the idea, not (my goodness) Postfix or sendmail. It's better to say it's shareware, rather than free and then ask for people to send over gifts. Nothing is ever free. Somebody pays something at the end, even if it's not the direct beneficiary. But if this is so contentious, I've left it for people to decide what it's worth.

But over and above all these hot air, people have been remarkably nice and encouraging on the whole. Look, Mac users, don't keep fighting each other if you want the platform to grow. Don't look at the immediate needs. Look at the bigger picture.

Posted at 5:43AM UTC | permalink

Version Tracker

Category : Commentary/vt.txt

It's always a harrowing experience releasing stuff on Version Tracker. It's like standing for an election. Some people will love you, but you can always count on some haranguing from the crowd.

I think a lot of the people who contribute opinions miss the point. This wasn't done for them. This was done for the people who want stuff done the Mac way. The value is in the design.

Postfix Enabler arose out of Sendmail Enabler, which arose out of a tutorial I wrote outlining the steps needed to set up a fully-functioning mail server. I took the steps further and wrote a Unix shell script, and then a whole Mac-way interface because I can see why fiddling with the command line won't work for the majority of end users.

But you need to see further. Postfix Enabler is designed as a vehicle to send over even more capabilities to an average user.

For example, Apple's stock Postfix binaries don't support SMTP-AUTH. Why is SMTP-AUTH good? For one thing, it'll give the server the capability to authenticate an in-coming connection before agreeing to relay the mail out, even though the in-coming connection is outside the local network and would otherwise be blocked from relaying.

Now why do we need this when we can send mail out our PowerBooks anyway, bypassing any central server? This is because we need to see a bigger picture.

If our objective is to see more Macs used in businesses, we need to prepare for the objections. The roving SMTP solution, while fine for the Mac crowd, cuts no ice with the IT Manager mind set. If fact, it's even more proof of the madness and naivety of Mac users, calling into mind the associations with free love and flower power.

Just one word - SECURITY - to the ear of the business owner, and it will cut the Mac initiative at the knee.

XServe, I hear you say. But if you're fighting the Mac-PC war, the last thing you want is to start the fight, openly, at the server-end. The IS mindset knows that losing the server is the beginning of the end. They've used this tactic often enough to hobble the Mac and then get rid of it.

I believe running a full-fletched Internet server on a low-end, throw away machine, like the old iMacs, is the new Trojan horse. It costs next to nothing, which makes it appealing for small businesses. And you make so simple, even a business owner can hit one button and have it running. And it's a first-class server, equal to anything the IT manager can set up on a PC. Just see the PC guy set up SMTP-AUTH, or IMAP, or everything over SSL.

Actually, all these goodies are just a couple of steps of experimentation away. I think Panther has a better foundation to make all these work, as compared to Jaguar. Now how do you deliver the capability? Writing the steps, and asking people to edit config files using tools like pico - it doesn't scale.

Postfix Enabler has been constructed as a delivery vehicle, so that we can replace only the Apple binaries that we need and put them them back again when we don't. And it will orchestrate the whole series of configurations. Plus, give out visual cues about which services are on and which are not.

Actually I don't think it's worth doing this just to sell it for 10 bucks. But it'll be worth real money for us in terms of competitive advantage. I think we'll still press on.

Posted at 3:36AM UTC | permalink

Thu 06 Nov 2003

Favourite Panther Killer Feature

Category : Technology/pantherFax.txt

Built-in Fax. That's my favourite. Do you know you can hook one Mac running Panther to a phone line and share the Fax modem you've turned on there with other Macs on the network?

Now, everybody on our network can fax stuff out their Mac, without needing to mess around with the phone line.

I remember how much pain our client had with their PC solution for group fax. That was an unholy mess. Apple's solution is even better than Page Sender. Definitely more elegant. But, of course, Apple's engineers have the advantage of controlling the whole widget.

On Panther, scanners can also be shared. We'll set this up next when we have the time. It'll really form the basis of a very productive workflow for an office environment. Isn't this The Ultimate Business Machine, or what?

Posted at 4:56PM UTC | permalink

Eating our own dog food

Category : Commentary/dogfood.txt

We've upgraded our server to run Panther. And it has its mail server turned on using Postfix Enabler. No matter what they say about Postfix being easier to set up than sendmail from the command line, nothing beats being able to do it with one click.

This is running on an old Graphite (G3) iMac. We swapped this in so that we can clean up and upgrade our G4 which we've been using as the server.

And I've just got Postfix Enabler listed on MacUpdate. So this little iMac is starting to take some pounding (30+ downloads in five minutes). If it holds up, it proves a point that there is life in those old iMacs. You can always use them as servers because all these server stuff work in the background without a GUI, and they don't need much in terms of processor speed, which is different from the convenional wisdom, XServes and all.

Posted at 4:37PM UTC | permalink

Wed 05 Nov 2003

Postfix Enabler Update

Category : Technology/PE_Update_103.txt

The system should now work for Macs that have been simply upgraded, rather than via a clean install. Also, while making the system work for people who are setting up a fully functioning mail server with POP capability, I introduced a bug which made the system stop working for people who are only using it to send mail out. This has been corrected. Hopefully it all works OK now. The latest version is numbered 1.0.3.

Posted at 5:09PM UTC | permalink

Mon 03 Nov 2003

Finding Nemo and AppleScript Studio

Category : Commentary/nemo.txt

AppleScript Studio is a great tool to use to study user-interface design. I love the way Cocoa makes the "sheets" come out of a window, when you need to throw up a dialog for the user to respond to.

It's not just the attention Apple paid into animating the way the sheet pushes out of the window and plops down in front of the user. It's also very functional because you don't get dialogue boxes popping up all over the place to add to the clutter. It sticks to its relevant window. And you get to do something else with the program, while you decide what to do with the dialogue box - unlike the pre-OS X days when everything screeches to a halt until you dismiss the dialogue box.

My kid was watching Finding Nemo on the VCD while I was adding a sheet to a window in Postfix Enabler. Pixar and Apple. They share a lot more in common than just the CEO. I wonder what drives people like Jim Carlton to write such a "hatchet job" of a book like his "Apple: The Inside Story of Intrigue, Egomania, and Business Blunders". Am I being a "cultist" when I see beauty out of all these things? I think it's possible to root for Apple without loving the company or even liking many of the people who work for the company. May the joy continue to flow.

Posted at 4:34PM UTC | permalink

WebserveMonitor

Category : Technology/WebServeMonitor.txt

I wrote something that will pull my web server log into a Cocoa front-end, that I call WebServeMonitor. I can see that I'm still getting the usual hits on the Sendmail Enabler page but it's already outnumbered by those hitting Postfix Enabler.

Besides letting those who paid for Sendmail Enabler know they can now download Postfix Enabler for free, I've only sent it out to the people who've been asking for it the last couple of months - a case of squeaky wheels getting the grease. I wasn't sure there was even a need for Postfix Enabler, in the first place.

It's interesting to study how information diffuses over the web. I like looking through the web server log to see where and in which context our stuff's been mentioned. It's been strange to see something I wrote here coming back at me in the midst of all that look to be Spanish.

Anyway, I've put in something that may allow Postfix Enabler to work also on Macs that had been simply upgraded from Jaguar, rather than having been clean installed, or archived and installed.

My friend Yezdi is aupposed to try this out but he's still incommunicado, and it's time to turn in. I've put this version on the web page because it should do no harm. If it works, it will be great.

Posted at 4:13PM UTC | permalink

Sun 02 Nov 2003

Postfix Enabler 1.0.1

Category : Technology/postfixenabler101.txt

Updated Postfix Enabler to include the POP server. It's now equivalent in features to Sendmail Enabler 1.1.3. I think it's now justifiable to price it back at $9.95.

I've added the ability to turn on and off the SMTP and POP server separately, and giving the application enough intelligence to indicate to the user whether either or both are active

A couple more things to work on - to see how I can patch things so that it will work on upgraded Panther machines, rather than just those that had been archived and installed, or clean installed. And to see if I can make SMTP-AUTH work by making the least amount of changes to the Apple-installed binaries.

Posted at 2:07AM UTC | permalink

Thu 30 Oct 2003

POP3 on Panther works again

Category : Technology/qpopperPanther.txt

I've got the POP server working again on Panther, using qpopper, thanks to this link - http://www.kung-foo.tv/blog/archives/000654.php - at "kung-foo.tv - chaotic intransient prose bursts". Thanks, man.

I'll work on including this in Postfix Enabler. I'd like to get UW-IMAP working again on Panther and I may now understand enough to give this another shot.

Posted at 2:47PM UTC | permalink

Mon 27 Oct 2003

Postfix Enabler - Soft Launch

Category : Commentary/postfixenablerannounce.txt

I've got the Postfix Enabler download page up. If you've been looking for it to be released, you can download it now.

This version 1.0 release does not include the pop server. It will only enable the smtp capability that is provided by Postfix on Panther. But enough people have said that they only need that, so here goes. Enjoy! as they used to say.

I'm just doing a soft launch in case there are any bugs. No announcements on versiontracker until I'm sure it does even the little that it's doing now very well.

I didn't feel that we could charge US$9.95 for it because it's not that difficult to turn on Postfix manually, using the command line. but it's still hard work and there's the inevitable deluge of support calls that is going to come. So it's going to be $5.95.

Come on. Pay the shareware fee, guys. (But Postfix Enabler is free for those who paid for Sendmail Enabler. You know who you are! Thanks.)

Posted at 8:42AM UTC | permalink