Hey all,

It's very possible that it slipped my mind to post in system about me removing scribbld2 from the server rotation as it had some bad hardware. In the near future I'll be replacing the hard. I've been monitoring the server logs and graphs over the last month or so and it shouldn't make that much of a difference, even during peak usage times. At least I am hoping so! There's one thing that apparently didn't get done and it was to remove BOTH scirbbld2 entries from the DNS records, so at times people would try to connect to it, and it would go very slowly if at all. I do apologize for that, this morning I've been able to surf the site and it's been much zippier now that the DNS entry has been removed. I do hope the same goes for you, feedback welcome!

In other news, it snowed a little bit on the way to my consulting job the other day...not cool, too cold!! The job was really easy, mostly just going over some questions and some documentation. Then I had a few call backs, I did get paid yesterday which was great! Then I stopped at Small Dog, picked up an AppleTV 160GB for my consulting job in NH next week. Also stopped at my parents house and picked up the stuff Craig shipped up (another magazine for my assault rifle, an unjamming rod and the RIS slides). For some reason Apple sent me another APP certificate along with a pin, dunno why haha

So I basically hacked apart the AppleTV in an effort to remove the airport card, thus completely disabling the WiFi in the unit. Very very simple to do, they're really easy to ope. You just have to make sure you CAREFULLY remove the rubber bottom, or you'll destroy it. But yeah, got that done, and let the guy know that it was definitely doable.

Played some more GTAIV, it's a lot of fun, I love how real it's getting to be, I did a couple missions, and then I messed around and pissed off the cops :) Also played some Call of Duty 4, did pretty good, getting closer to level 44 haha I believe I've got the Desert Eagle unlocked, so I've got to upgrade my classes to use that instead.

Read some more of my Zombie Surival book last night, getting into what weapons are good and which sucks, apparently SMGs, and assault rifles are no good, but bolt lever rifles are...and .22s suck haha

So today, I'm helping Keith move 21 bags of mulch, will have to borrow emilie's truck to get the job done, but it'll be cool. Then I am going to pull apart the 160GB AppleTV I got yesterday (I pulled apart my own yesterday) and do it up, save time for onsite stuff. but that's about all I have to do today, I am getting my stuff from AirsoftGI from UPS< should be here shortly, another Classic Army MA15A4, some BBs, helmet, charger, batteries and a couple of other things...I am pissed it took so long, I ordered on the 22nd of April and it's just getting here now, although that's about a week, I wanted it sooner!

Oh yeh, I finally got my PSP hacked! I just played Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, which I haven't played since umm, maybe 1999 hahah or whenever it came out. I love that game so much, it brings back some crazy memories! I also got a bunch of other games on there, and they seem to work, except Driver, but I'll figure that out! Mad thanks to PSPCrazy and confining.

Alright, over and out! Have a nice day everyone!

This past weekend, I got to try out some of the new features that come in Mac OS X Leopard Server. First lets back up a bit to Tiger Server.

OS X Tiger Server is the first piece of server software I've used from Apple. I come from the world of Linux where most of the configuration is done by hand, you have to edit your own application configuration files. There's no pretty GUI or buttons to click on. Tiger Server saved a lot of time because all I had to do was type a few things in, click 'Go' and I could have a very resourceful server. In just a matter of minutes, I could be running a web server, file server, DNS server, VPN server and more! Apple really made Tiger Server easy to setup and manage. Thy provided some really great tools too.

With Leopard Server they've made it even EASIER to setup and manage. I think Apple has really extended the potential of Leopard server, they making is so Leopard Server has a place in the home as well as large companies. They continue to provide some really awesome tools to manage it and it includes loads of new and cool features.

When I setup Leopard Server, I did a fresh install (no upgrade) so I am not sure if some of the things I am talking about will apply to people who choose to upgrade from Leopard Server.

Upon boot up after you install Leopard server you can choose what type of server you want. There are three options, Standard, Workgroup or Advanced. Each of the three types just had a bit different configuration in which services it uses and sets up for you. While I think this is great for people who like things done for them, I prefer to configure each service by hand (I guess that's the Linux-side of me coming out). People who really just want the easiest way to manage their server should probably choose either the Standard or Workgroup configurations. This will also allow you to use some of the new and nifty tools that Apple has included with Leopard Server. Unfortunately when you use the Advanced server type you loose the ability to use some of those tools (you can still use Server Admin, Workgroup Manager and command line utilities though). I am torn between letting Apple do all of the hard stuff so I can use the new tools (using the Workgroup server type) or just using the Advanced server type and handling everything myself. I'm still deciding but I have to say I think it's great Apple is making their server software usable by most anyone with some experience in computer and networking.

So after choosing the type of server you want, Apple will go about and work its magic, setting up the services and configuring them for you.

For my tests I choose the Workgroup type, so I got the iCal service, web server, iChat service, Mail service, Time Machine backup service, the Open Directory service and a few others. I have a feeling most people will choose the Workgroup type, because it includes a lot of services while still being able to easily manage it.

One of the new management applications that comes with Leopard Server is called Server Preferences. It looks very similar to System Preferences, but it allows you to easily manage the services on your server. Over the last 2-3 years I've gotten very used to using Server Admin and Workgroup Manager to manage all my services and users, so if I choose to use the Workgroup server type on my live server, I'll have to get use to doing everything through the Server Preferences application. It's definitely a great tool for people who are new too OS X Server.

A few of the things that I am really looking forward to actually using is the wiki server, the iCal server and possibly the Time Machine service.

I run a couple wikis (think of Wikipedia.org but on a much smaller scale) so I would love to move them into this service. I have a few shared calendars that need to actually be editable by more then just one person, so the iCal server will surely help with that problem.

The last thing, Time Machine backup service sounds really interesting but at this point I don't know enough about how it works to rely on that as my only backup service. It sounds really great that client machines can backup to the server rather then a local disk. It saves me from having to buy multiple external drives for each client, instead I can just point them to the server and use that as my backup location. I guess I'll just have to do some testing!

In the few days I spent playing with Leopard server, I have to say that I am really impressed with how easy Apple has made it for someone to setup and manage a fully featured server. They include some great tools and some really new and much welcomed features.

Here's a few PDF files that I found quite useful when setting up Leopard Server, check them out cause they're very useful.

Getting Started with OS X Leopard Server
Installation Setup & Worksheet