After working with Ben for almost eight years he had decided to move on. I wanted to wish Ben all the luck in the world. We had a great time working together for many years…as he put up with my on again off again relationship with Mac OS X Server and I put up with his “not as funny as he thought” videos and comics We also had a good time playing Carmageddon 2, Diablo, Diablo II and Quake 3 Arena. We did do some great work in between all the games and great music (I got him out of the “ambient” music mode and opened the door to electronica, DJs, etc). We did do a kick ass job of putting together a really sweet Mac OS X/Mac OS X Server server set up using Apache, MySQL, PHP, WebObjects complete with failover. Best of luck and thanks for the good times.

When I took over doing support while we look for someone to replace our network admin, I was excited, for a moment, about playing with Mac OS X Server. For a quick moment. The first thing I know, I get a phone call from a remote user who cannot reach the server with ftp. I fire up Workgroup Manager and Server Admin to make sure the user’s account is active, and that ftp is in fact running, and that the firewall is not blocking any of the ftp ports. Everything is a go. I reset the password, and think that was the problem. I ask the user (on the phone) to try and log in, but no luck. I then bust out Cyberduck (my new favorite FTP client..thanks Ken!) and try to connect. No go. “Server shut down” Wild. I stop and start the service a few times, look at the logs…everything looks fine. I start to remember how much I love Mac OS X Server. Don’t worry, I am sure “it will be fixed in 10.4″. Right.

At this point I decided to … [more]

I have been looking for good Mac (not MAC) OS and UNIX training opportunities and think I finally came up with the missing piece, Big Nerd Ranch. Over the years, I have looked for good training for Mac OS X/Mac OS X Server, Apache, PHP, and other web technologies, but have often come up empty handed or less than satisfied. So if you are looking for some decent training, here is what I would recommend:

Hands on training for Mac OS client or Mac OS X Server and want to get certified: http://training.apple.com/
Hands on training for UNIX or advanced Mac OS X:http://www.bignerdranch.com/
Web based UNIX/Linux training: http://oreilly.useractive.com/courses/sysadmin.php3
Web tutorials on HTML, XML, SOAP, XSL, SQL, etc: W3Schools (where I learned XTHML and CSS)

[tags]Apple, training, Big Nerd Ranch[/tags]

http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/But-Macs-Are-Slower-Right-36964.html

I have finally reached the point in my career where I need certification. Back in the Mac OS 7-9 days there was no certification programs for us Mac geeks, but now we face job competition with all the UNIX geeks too. Apple now offers certification, but after taking a class on Mac OS X Server for 5 days, I left feeling pretty let down. I know how to add users, and I am pretty comfortable to all the services. What I needed was something more in-depth. That was 3 years ago. Now I am working to get my "Linux/Unix System Administration Certificate" from O'Reilly/the University of Illinois. As technical as I am, I was not sure how much I would like taking classes via the web, but the more time I put in, the more I enjoy it.

O'Reilly and the U of I offer a few certifications that I would recommend anyone who like me, has the skills, but no certification to "prove" it.
[tags]UNIX, Linux, certification, O'Reilly[/tags]

Thanks to a friend that is always pointing out cool apps...I recently started using GeekTool. There are 3 modes to GeekTool...file mode, shell mode, and image mode. I use GeekTool for a few things...file mode to tail my web acces log on my web server, and image mode to load the gauge graphic for XGrid@Stanford. You can also use shell mode to run scripts or UNIX commands to monitor processes or get information on your computers/servers. It is definately a cool tool and I recommend it!

I like to keep my finger on the pulse with Apple products as well as with their documentation. Apple makes this easy with offering mailing lists that are dedicated to all their products. If you want to keep up specifically with all new and changed documentation, Apple has a great list for you: Daily Knowledge Base changes.

Apple's description of the list:
"The Daily Knowledge Base changes mailing list announces new and modified documents in the AppleCare Knowledge Base. Each e-mail contains the titles of new and modified documents with links to them. E-mail from this list may also contain hints and tips to get the most out of your Apple products with links to Apple Discussions, Customer Installable Parts, custom support pages, and more."

So if you want to make sure you keep up to date, subscribe to the list, it is low volume and very helpful!