mdmc

Mac OS X Server 10.5.3

Diego Iaconelli — Sat, 31 May 2008 22:22:58 +0000

On May 30th, Apple released Mac OS X Server 10.5.3 - a long awaiting, and highly anticipated update to the Mac OS X Server product line. Some of the most important points addressed:

-Addresses an issue that could cause the AppleFileServer process to stop accepting connections while consuming most of the available CPU time on the server.

-Addresses an issue that could cause the Apple File Service refuse new connections after DirectoryService becomes unresponsive, and improves stability of DirectoryService.

These two issues alone were one of the biggest, causing no end of headache with Portable Home Directory users, and causing many people, myself included, to roll back to more stable 10.4.x Server installations. SInce the advent of 10.5.3, however, a great many people are now able to roll forward to 10.5.x installs again, and active testing is once again starting up.

Of course, not all is as it should be. While unsupported by many applications, such as the Adobe CS Suite, many users are at home working on files directly from network shares. However, from 10.5.3 onwards, Mac OS Client has issues with writing partial files back over network shares. The result of this, is that users are making changes to CS documents, saving as normal, and finding their work corrupted. As it stands, the issue affects both Server and Client .3 and the current work around is to Save As when writing files back. This causes the application to write an entire copy of the file, rather than just the changes.

While understandable that this is a somewhat hackish work around, it must also be remembered that the applications affected have never touted, nor encouraged, files to be worked on live on network mounted shares. However, given that Apple’s installed user base tends to centre around graphics and design professionals, it is unlikely that many will see this as anything other than Apple’s fault.

More news as it becomes available.

Flight AA99

Diego Iaconelli — Tue, 20 May 2008 21:40:57 +0000

The man in 41C yawns, and leans back in his seat. The lights are down, the display from the laptop lights his face, and blinks off the rim of his glasses. A stack of papers sits on his desk, and a scribbled note on the back of an Apple Store Repair confirmation stands out in red ink against the grey Helvetica of the Terms and Conditions.

He calls his calendar up on the screen of the computer and fiddles with the date range, and titles the event. “AA99 To Chicago” stands out as the first entry of the day. Get there for going on ten am local, and a five hour lay over at O’Hare. Not ideal, but it’s preferable to the otherwise mad sprint to the other end of the airport, And that’s not forgetting the joy of Immigration Control.

41C checks his booking, and selects the seat for his flight out. The seat is free. And now, confirmed. Our hero adds the seating plan to his calendar and syncs. Flight booked. Tickets sorted. Passport found.

Six weeks to go…

Microsoft Sends Letter to Yahoo! Board of Directors

Diego Iaconelli — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 12:42:28 +0000

Yesterday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer wrote a stinging letter to the Yahoo! Board of Directors. Some of you may remember, back in January, there were rumblings of Microsoft’s intentions to buy Yahoo! - this was put into motion on the 31st of that month as Microsoft sent this letter that set the cat amongst the pigeons. The next day, MSFT issues an official press release and the rest of the world gets invited to the party.

Now, more than two months later, Yahoo! has responded with little more than a press release telling Redmond to go fuck itself. And Microsoft is getting impatient.

It has now been more than two months since we made our proposal to acquire Yahoo! at a 62% premium to its closing price on January 31, 2008, the day prior to our announcement. Our goal in making such a generous offer was to create the basis for a speedy and ultimately friendly transaction. Despite this, the pace of the last two months has been anything but speedy.

As John Gruber said,

This is the white collar equivalent of Steve Ballmer showing up at Yahoo’s door with a baseball bat in his hand.

Like many others, I eagerly await Yahoo!’s response. This is going to get interesting.

I saw the news today, oh boy

Diego Iaconelli — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 22:39:24 +0000

Reading the BBC on my late evening rounds, I caught the very sad news that Neil Aspinall passed away earlier today at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Neil, commonly called the fifth Beatle, was until last sumer, Chief Executive of Apple Corps, the Beatle’s music label. Aspinall was the driving force behind the Beatle’s sales after the band split, and also was pivotal in ensuring that the 1987 release of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band on CD (the band’s first CD release, and a massive rework of the original Mono recording) was surrounded by a media and publicity frenzy.

In the time I spent working with Apple Corps, the few times I dealt with Neil were all wonderful. Likewise, working with his wife Suzy was always a pleasure, and I would look forward to the calls. Neil will be missed, but his influence on one of the greatest musical acts of our time will not be forgotten.

Between this, and the passing of Geoffrey Quinn (alias Paul Raymond, another former employer) it’s been a sad month. Here’s to hoping that the next is somewhat more cheery.

Flight AA 3676

Diego Iaconelli — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 14:34:27 +0000

The man from 41C stood on the platform, and looked up at the dirty orange LED display. The wind and drizzle made a light haze of colour around the sign, and turned the reading of “18:02 to East Grinstead” resemble something more akin to “18:85 to Bast Grlnstead”. The sky grew darker, and people poured out of the Tube station after the crush on the Victoria Line an hour before. 41C tucked the end of his scarf into the top of his overcoat, and walked slowly up the platform, bundled up as though in the depths of a Midwestern winter, with the top of his head and nose peeking out of the roll top of the woolen sweater. He reaches into his pocket as he pushes the button to open the door, and pulls out his mp3 playing phone^[i], and wiggles the ends of the headphones into his ears as he walks into the carriage. He finds a seat, and kicks up his walking boot covered feet onto the hot air vent under the little table by the window. Bag by his side, he pulls out the newspaper for the day, and a bottle of water.
The train, late as always, pulls out of Victoria, and rumbles through the City and a snail’s pace, heading southwest from Victoria to Croydon and Clapham, passing the towers of Battersea. The working lights shine up the chimney stacks, and makes the dirty white paintwork burn brightly in the early evening rain. The phone bleeps softly in his ears, and he reads a message about runways and sheriffs. The man from 41C sits back and thinks of the girl on Flight AA 3676. He wonders how it’ll go, and where she’ll end up. And where, in a few months, he’ll be. 41C leans back and listens to the clatter of the carriage over the rails, and the rain on the windows. The train rolls on into the evening, and the dirty orange of the station fades away. It’s time for another journey.

an iPhone, but it sounds silly in the context of the story

Delirium Tremens

Diego Iaconelli — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 01:19:29 +0000

Not the delicious Belgian Pale Ale, but actual, honest to God rumblings of the ground. At +53° 19′ 15.60″, -0° 18′ 50.40″ 00:56:46.0 UTC there was a distinct rumble as the ground jolted about, and again, a few minutes later, there was a mild aftershock. Initial reports peg the quake at a pretty sedate 5.3, but it was still enough to wake me here in London, a good 150 odd miles away.

More as the BBC reports it in the morning. Edit, Auntie just put a small snippet up. No doubt, it’ll be updated as more information comes to light.

iTunes Live - AIR Studios London

Diego Iaconelli — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 22:21:02 +0000

I’ve no time now to go into the specifics, but right now, I’m in Studio One of AIR listening to a live set from KT Tunstall and Billy Bragg.

All I can say is that this is one of the best musical experiences of my life, ever. It’s right up there with Sigur Rós. More later.

Photographic Intent

Diego Iaconelli — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 17:58:13 +0000

My birthday, having passed on Monday, I decided to treat myself to a new toy. After years out in the cold with film SLR cameras, I’ve finally moved on and bought myself a new SLR, a Digital SLR. Specifically, a Nikon D80 - the object of my desire for the last eighteen months. So, while I get to grips with the camera, I’ll also be managing my pictures for once and moving from iPhoto (where I have been for a scant few weeks, after a move from Finder windows and large icons) to Aperture 2 in order to better take advantage of RAW images and cataloguing. Thankfully, Aperture now also works far far better with iLife than the previous incarnation, syncing to AppleTV and my iPhone for displaying my new fancy pictures on both big and small screens without hassle.

Look out in the future for a few pictures to start making their way back into posts here, and trips to to actually have pictures with them.

Mac OS X 10.5.2

Diego Iaconelli — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 23:16:38 +0000

This evening, the long anticipated Mac OS X 10.5.2 update dropped from Cupertino’s Software Update Servers. Available in two flavours, for Server and Client, the Combo updates apply to both PPC and Intel systems. As always, remember to perform a full backup, and try to run the Combo update, rather than Delta.

The Client update is available here with release notes here. Likewise, the Server update is here with the (spartan) release notes here.

Additionally, after 10.5.2 installs, you’ll have the option to grab the Leopard Graphics Update - just try not to get lost reading the release notes. It’s a real bother that Apple doesn’t see fit to include more detailed information on their updates. It’s really something that should be addressed. Maybe in a future update…

Busy Bees

Diego Iaconelli — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 19:24:24 +0000

Busy doesn’t quite cover my last week. I’ve been doing nothing but waking up, going to work, and then passing out when I get home. Hopefully the next week ahead should give me some time to recover to some small degree. I’ve been a busy bee. Today (coincidentally my birthday) is the first day I’ve had to rest up properly in about two weeks.

Wednesday saw us being evacuated from work for three hours, after some poor unfortunate soul get himself electrocuted after drilling through a power line and a gas main.

And then on Saturday, Camden Market went and caught fire. Most of the market has made it out without too much damage, but around forty odd stalls and a fair few homes have been reduced to shells. I’ve not been to Camden in the best part of a year or more now, but I expect it’s going to feel rather different next time I step off the Northern Line.