Mac@Work : The Ultimate Business Machine

The
Ultimate
Business Machine

Technology, business
and innovation.

And, not least, about
the Mac.

Weblog • Archive • Cutedge

by: Bernard Teo

Thu 07 Aug 2003

Sendmail SMTP-AUTH

Category : Technology/smtp-suth.txt

I'm just re-surfacing after diving into the murky depths of the beast. For there is no other name for sendmail. It's a beast of a system.

But I'm amazed I could even compile sendmail from source. So, now I've got a version of sendmail with smtp-auth that works. And I know how to put that in, in place of the stock sendmail version that comes with OS X, and also how to take it out.

And I also know enough how to put in Postfix, swap out sendmail, and do the reverse.

And, I can confirm that the version of the pop server I bundle with Sendmail Enabler does SSL. I'm still having some problems with the Airport Extreme Base Station, but it works beautifully when it's sitting behind the original base station. If I can figure out how to set up the certification stuff with just one click, you can pull your mail down from the POP server under SSL

So, a summary. Even though I can do smtp-auth, I'm wondering what's the point? It was meant to make sure that people on the move can always get back to the home server to send out mail, because that's what smtp-auth does - it authenticates the user before authorising the user to send mail. But, if you make authentication a requirement (otherwise it makes no sense to have it), it creates a downside - this server can now only send mail out. Another mail server that is trying to send mail to this server probably won't know how to authenticate itself to this server. So you end up having to set up two servers, one for sending out mail and another for receiving mail.

But with Sendmail Enabler, people on the move can enable sendmail on their PowerBooks to send mail out themselves. They only need to go to their home server to receive their in-coming mail. For added security, this takes place under SSL so that all the communication is encrypted. They've always had to authenticate themselves anyway when they're retrieving mail.

So, I believe that's the optimal solution. Freed from the need to act as a relay for roaming users, the home server can be set up with the tightest of security, including a variety of strategies for blocking spam. Also, you get a freer hand to tie the workings of the mail server with back-office e-commerce applications - there are variety of hooks in sendmail to do that - since most of the users are sending mail out directly from their own workstations.

I had a concern that Sendmail Enabler could have made it even easier for spammers to equip themselves with their own spamming engine. But, if you free your mail server from having to relay anything from outside your local network, you cut off one source of free bandwith for the spammers. You can't stop them from trying, but at least they're being pushed back to use their own bandwidth. You can, however, put in all the blocks you can muster to kick them out before they can even come into your network. And you can do it better if you don't have to make allowances now and then to let in one of your own guys to use the mail relay. If this works, Sendmail Enabler could have changed the rules of the game - at least for the Mac-speaking world.

Posted at 4:48AM UTC | permalink

Sat 02 Aug 2003

"It's stuff like this that makes us love OS X"

Category : Commentary/geeklove.txt

Nice words from the O'Reilly MacDevCenter. Thanks, whoever wrote that. Just as the slash-dotters were packing up and leaving us alone... It's an interesting phenomena this, watching the successive waves coming down and pounding on the server - first when Jon Udell wrote about Sendmail Enabler, then when Slash Dot picked up on it, and now this. It gives new meaning to the surfing metaphor.

But it's Cocoa that makes us love OS X. Just wrapped up our exploration of Cocoa using Java. We've got most of the interface elements covered - tables, data source, outline views, notification, sheets, drawers, and alerts. Plus the backend - access to MySQL and Oracle, and web services. Just one more - how do you interface with the Unix command line the way you can with AppleScript Studio? It'll be nice to load in a MySQL database on the fly, making it all work invisibly for the user.

We're not trying to be funny, using Java instead of Objective-C. After years of seeing the Mac thrown out of one database after another, we've now got JDBC on the Mac, and access to all the databases we've ever wanted. And you can use 80% of the code you've written for a web server application. Write once, deploy many, and re-write only the user interface. Objective-C may be nice but you don't get to use a Tomcat or J-Boss. And, it's a point that's often overlooked, you've got a better chance of avoiding getting thrown out by corporate IT departments (just because you use a Mac!) if you come in with the Java/Open Source stuff. It's hard stuff to swallow, but I believe it's worth it if it keeps the Mac relevant to businesses. Being marginalised is just one step away from the Death Spiral. Or have we forgotten that?

Posted at 12:45AM UTC | permalink

Wed 30 Jul 2003

The brick only wants to get laid

Category : Commentary/brick.txt

I've always thought that that was the answer to the question posed by the American architect Louis Kahn, "What does the brick want?" But, of course, the studious will say that he merely meant that we should understand the nature of the material we're working with, as well as the situation we find ourselves. If we feel the brick straining to be an arch, we should build the arch.

That's the same way with software design. It's quite possible, if you care enough, to feel the way the design wants to be. So you keep whittling away at it, pruning away the things that are merely ornamental, until all you're left with are the things that really matter - in the case of the One-Click Sendmail Enabler, it's that single field and that single button.

If you zoom out a bit, you see the same thing happening around that product. I built this little thing for myself, but I thought I'd share it, source code and all. You know, Linus Torvalds and Linux. But the market is saying "we want support". "More documentation, please. Docs should be written as if the user is a complete newb, examples all the way", says one entry at versiontracker.

Now, how do you support that? But, you know Louie Kahn? Go with the flow. If that's what the brick wants, build it the way it wants. Build the support, answer the queries, improve the product, release frequently, and see what else people need. Will it pay? I don't know. We'll start with a PayPal donation button and see how it goes. Hang on for the ride.

Posted at 3:11PM UTC | permalink

Mon 28 Jul 2003

Biz Stone, Genius

Category : Commentary/bizstone.txt

While going through the server logs, I occasionally come across interesting sites that, somehow, contained a reference to our site.

Here's one - Biz Stone, Genius - "Yes, my name is Biz. If I have to live with it, so do you." So it starts, and he's a lot of fun to read. Highly recommended. If you're wondering why people bother to write weblogs, go read some of his essays, like "The Blogging Revolution - An Early Exploration of Blogging", or "Keeping a Professional Blog - it'll change your life".

Here's another interesting item. Last Saturday, he mentioned his visit to the Peabody Essex Museum where they actually transported an entire Chinese house from somewhere near Shanghai, through the Panama Canal, and reconstructed it in Salem, Massachusetts. This is an astounding idea, when you think of the scale and painstaking reconstruction needed. They mean to exhibit "beautiful and captivating works of art in the world in which they were created". It seems like this is just one of twenty-three other historic houses in the Peabody Essex collection.

One day, after I've created the Ultimate Business Machine that will make money for me even when I'm not working, I want to be a guide at the Asian Civilisations Museum. That is something that I've been really wanting to do.

Posted at 11:16AM UTC | permalink

Turning Night to Day

Category : Commentary/nightandday.txt

I'm reaching a point where I'm aware that sleep is just a nap we take at night. Late in the night, when mails start coming in about Sendmail Enabler, I make a mental note that it is quite likely that the day has just begun for the sender. So I avoid writing a reply. There's an impedance mismatch here (like we used to say when we mixed and matched our stereo systems). I'm out of juice and these guys are just raring to go.

So you go to sleep, knowing that it's daylight where these people (who have somehow intersected with your life) are.

And just last night I was working on a Mac 5000 km away like it was sitting right in front of me. I was thinking, Unix is good.

And I think we must be the first generation in the history of the world to ever work on this scale.

Posted at 11:13AM UTC | permalink

Fri 25 Jul 2003

Cocoa Notification works in Java

Category : Commentary/notificationjava.txt

At my wit's end, I created a fresh project just to see if there were other side effects that prevented the Cocoa notification feature from working in Java. I'm happy to say, it now works.

So it means that there was probably something wrong with my project files. I had taken a short cut and duplicated a nib file just to create another that was a bit different. I searched Google and read that you could get a corrupted nib file this way. That seems far too fragile, so I'll have to check it further. But right now, I'm happy to keep on moving.

If you're into programming Cocoa using Java, rather than Objective-C, there's a web site WhiningDog.net that has quite a few sample code. Thanks, you guys at WhiningDog.

So, right now, I've got table views, outline views, and notification working in Java. On to drawers, next.

Posted at 4:37PM UTC | permalink

Smart Host

Category : Technology/smartHost.txt

I received a request from Hunter King to include a "smart host" feature in Sendmail Enabler. According to the James Duncan Davidson article on MacDevCenter, it requires the addition of just one line to the /etc/mail/config.mc file to make this work.

Looks easy enough. So I did that. But I couldn't test it. So I've sent it back to Hunter for testing. If it does, it'll be in the next release.

Other requests are not so easy to do (yet). For example, do SMTP-AUTH, POP before SMTP, ESMTP, Postfix. I would love to do all these. But the great dampener is that Sendmail seems to have been dropped from Panther. They've got Postfix there, but not enabled. Perhaps there'll be a Postfix Enabler.

I'm going to do a more full featured DNS setup next, then I'll see what I need to know about all those SMTP stuff. But right now, I wish I can make the notification feature work in Cocoa when I code in Java. I've got lots of Objective-C examples, but I'm tearing my hair out making this work in Java.

Back to work.

Posted at 10:43AM UTC | permalink

Tue 22 Jul 2003

About Hits and How Artists Work

Category : Commentary/hits.txt

Do you know how many people read Jon Udell's weblog at InfoWorld (Jon's Radio)? I believe it's a huge lot, judging by the number of people who hit the Sendmail Enabler page after he wrote about his experience using it. Thanks, Jon, if you ever read this. That, and other nice notes like that, have made it all worthwhile.

I guess that's the kind of high Steve Jobs and the people at Apple feel when they launched something that has been well received. It's addictive. And you want to work towards topping it.

I remember reading in Business Week or Fortune a criticism (perennial aren't they?) of Apple's business model - that they're dependent on a string of hits. One barren quarter and they're sunk. It's like, we're all business here. The only model worth emulating is that of the Microsoft money machine.

But if you do software, you may get an inkling that the business is closer to the chorus line than the production line on the factory floor.

I've just been loaned a book, "Artful Making - What managers need to know about how artists work" by Rob Austin and Lee Devin. From the blurb : "Despite years of trying, businesses have still not learned how to innovate reliably under deadlines. Collaborative artists, however, do it all the time - few business deadlines are as inflexible as opening night for a theatre company, for example. Today's knowledge-based, project-focused businesses can learn powerful lessons from artists about improvisation, innovation, and leadership."

"Collaborative artists" - that's closer to my experience of the mood surrounding good software development teams. You see the acceptance of uncertainty, the creativity to improvise solutions, and the readiness to make the tradeoffs that will keep you close to the deadlines.

This is a much more fun way of working. I believe there's nothing inherently wrong about working towards making hits. If you think back, ask yourself which company of the two, Apple or Microsoft, had invariably delivered OS updates when they said they would? The answer shows which model actually works.

Posted at 3:55PM UTC | permalink

Mon 21 Jul 2003

The World Wide Web

Category : Commentary/www.txt

I like looking through our server logs and finding a new site that refers to ours. New ones include Macintosh Paranoia, Prisoner of the Mind, iMacGuru, and Apfelgerüchte.

I love looking at the unfamiliar text but, of course, not being able to read Japanese, German, or even Chinese, I can't tell whether it's for the good or the bad. But I think I really see the world as this huge globe (around which the sun shines its torch) when I flip through these sites.

Posted at 8:51AM UTC | permalink

Sun 20 Jul 2003

Geometric Progression

Category : Commentary/geometricprogression.txt

I put Sendmail Enabler up on versiontracker.com on Sunday. Around midnight, I had confirmation that it had been listed. I went to sleep and woke up to find almost a thousand downloads had occured.

To put this in perspective, there was one download of Sendmail Enabler in the first three months (by a guy called Hari). Then Google picked it up and I had a hundred downloads in one month.

When I put it up on MacUpdate, I had a thousand downloads in one week. Finally, on Version Tracker, I get a thousand downloads in 12 hours. (At last count, it was 1553 at Version Tracker vs 1212 at MacUpdate).

I'm hooked. I'm hard at work porting our accounting system from 4D to Cocoa using Java and MySQL. There seems to be a shortage of accounting/personal finance management software for the Mac. Could this take off, too? It'll be fun to find out.

Posted at 4:06PM UTC | permalink

Fri 18 Jul 2003

Going Round The World

Category : Commentary/roundtheworld.txt

I found a user interface bug in Sendmail Enabler and used this chance to figure out what happens when you need to release an updated version on MacUpdate.

I'm impressed with the speed in which you can turn this thing around. I started working on the bug fix at around 9.30 pm and, by midnight, having completed a triple round of testing, I was ready to re-submit it to MacUpdate. (It was a stupid bug; though it's free, you still want it to be perfect).

The re-submission process was remarkably easy - if you take care to keep to your side of the bargain by checking that the download links are correct and writing the description in neat clear English. Mess up and you only have yourself to blame. But, do it right, and your changes are up in a matter of minutes. The system works and it's so neat. You get back what you put in but there's no free lunch.

I wish more users will understand this principle about technology. Too many people just want to be spoon-fed ("but what if I forget to update this or that, can your system somehow prompt me?"). Hey, we're all adults. That's never going to work.

I love this mode of operations. It dis-intermediates all the in-between elements that add no value. You save on making physical disks, shrink-wrapped boxes, hard-copy manuals. In fact, you save a whole lot of the earth. You don't need to negotiate with software distributors, or fight for space in computer superstores. You save on shipping. You just ship the bits and they get sucked in wherever they're needed.

Look at the economics. You cut a huge chunk of the costs out of making and distributing software. So you can sell it much cheaper than ever before. You can make a free "lite" version that is useful enough for people to use. Yet you can try out different price points for a more full-featured product until you reach a level that can sustain further investment on the product. You can do this with a very small team of developers. Yet you can use technology (like bulletin boards and mailing lists) to support your users and keep them in a dialogue, so you will know what they will like, so you can continue to make what they will buy.

When you can keep the overheads down, even a market (supposedly small) like the Mac can give you enough volume to do worthwhile work. And you're performing on a world stage right from day one. That's the exciting part.

The world is in flux. Always. Nothing remains still. Next time you read technology writers who write with great certainty, ask yourself how much they've immersed themselves in the slip stream. Maybe it's just as well they write what they write. It's great, the dusty confusion they generate. You get a better view when you're lower at the ground.

There's a multiplier effect at work when you put stuff out in places like MacUpdate or Version Tracker. I've noticed that other sites have picked up on the links, and they've kept up-to-date even with the bug fix releases (wonder how they do that). Examples are faq-mac.com, download.com, and even a Japanese weblog, here. See what I mean about going round the world?

Posted at 2:09PM UTC | permalink

Wed 16 Jul 2003

Bluetooth will set you free (or, at least, I think so)

Category : Technology/bluetoothadaptor.txt

I was so impressed with the potential of iSync that I swiped my wife's Sony Ericsson T68i, the one with Bluetooth built-in (she liked my Motorola V66 more anyway), and added a Bluetooth USB adaptor to my iBook.

Since I had my address book and calendar all set up on my iBook, it took less than five minutes to get them all transferred to the T68i. That's reaping the immediate benefit of iSync.

But there's more. Now that I've got Bluetooth, I'm able to send and receive SMS messages directly from my address book application. I know that I'm going to have a lot of use for this (in my other life hawking real estate), especially if I can figure out how to send to a group of numbers all at once.

Then there's the ability to use the T68i as a wireless modem to connect to the Internet. Now, wherever I am, I can read my mail (so long as I have the iBook and T68i with me, and that's most of the time). That's freedom.

I am still having trouble downloading pages to a web browser while using the Bluetooth modem connection. I need to fix this and I'd love to figure out, also, how to fax things out.

But I've seen the way Bluetooth on OS X had progressed since its first preview release (by scanning Google for past articles) and I can imagine that it'll quickly get even better (especially with fax capabilities built-in in Panther).

A final bonus : I downloaded a demo of the Salling Clicker (formerly known as the Sony Ericsson Clicker). What fun this is, controlling my Mac from my handphone. There's tremendous potential here. I'm sure I can figure out more use for it. I'm going to try Romeo (a free alternative) next. I want to know how everything works, yet life is so short.

Speaking of the Salling Clicker, I noticed that it had 26,000 downloads on versiontracker and 4,000 on MacUpdate, making about 30,000 in all. At $10 per copy, that's US$300,000 for Jonas Salling (its developer) minus expenses, since a year ot two ago. Great work, if you can get it. I don't understand all those technology writers, always parroting each other by questioning the viability of the Mac market. Maybe they're just not curious enough to go look and think for themselves for a change. Anyone remember "Lemmings"? Anyway, my Sendmail Enabler has reached 600 downloads. At $10 a pop, that's US$6000 for me. I can dream, can't I?

Posted at 3:59PM UTC | permalink