We've seen an obscure problem for one of our servers running on 10.6.4 (Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server) which was upgraded from 10.5. When attempting to implement the iCal Email Invitations function, I found that all of the usual tricks didn't work.

Frequently, I've had issues with Windows machines accessing OS X Servers just set up with SMB sharing. It seems that the Windows client needs to allow a certain type of authentication to allow the machine to log into the OS X Server, and that setting isn't correct by default. The problem also happens for Linux servers as well, not just Mac OS X Server.

Note that by making these changes, you're making things that much less secure on the Windows side of things by allowing an older, less secure encryption method for authentication. While most of you won't care (because you're just looking for a solution for an in-house server), if you're working with a server which is publicly available (for some crazy reason), then get to know the facts before making these changes.

Here's directions on how to make that change in many of the various flavors of Windows:

One of our clients reported that Snow Leopard's iCal is slow to bring up matching invitees for a meeting, especially if you have thousands of Address Book Contacts. We did some research and this is what we found.

While it looks like Apple may need to address this in an update (10.6.3 is marginally faster than 10.6.2), but until then, here's a quick tip on how to deal with a slow iCal when you have a large address book:

1) Create the appointment, but don't click on the "Add Invitees..." like you normally would
2) Instead press Option-Cmd-A (or select "Address Panel") in the Window menu
3) Search for the contact in that window and drag and drop the name into the "Add Invitees..." area on the appointment

I just published this whitepaper for our affiliate mobile application development business, Codex Development. Here's a few pages of the text. For the entire whitepaper as a PDF, download it for free at http://www.codexdev.com/research.

On the early morning of Monday, January 4th, 2010, we corrected an error on our hosting junk mail filter which would increase the likelihood of a legitimate message being marked as junk mail.

The bug did not mean that all legitimate email was labelled as junk mail. However, it did increase the likelihood if the message also matched other rules which indicated that it "may" be junk mail.

No doubt that since the release of Snow Leopard a couple weeks ago, you've read a lot about the "Snow Leopard" experience. It's definitely faster, more responsive, and pretty compatible with everything out there, so it seems that Apple has a winner of an OS, especially for the consumers. Good for Apple.

So what about about what's good for us, the professional Mac admins and IT guys who help run businesses that run on Macs? Snow Leopard is great news for consumers, but it's another OS to deploy for us and that's hardly worth jumping up and down for.

What we're interested in is something to make our jobs easier, to simplify our infrastructure, and make our clients or businesses run smoother. That's why we're interested in Snow Leopard Server. Unlike the client, Snow Leopard Server has numerous significant and real improvements - not just to the UI, but also to core functionality. So let's go over it in detail and in depth.

Installation

Installation of OS X Snow Leopard is of course, more complicated than the client version, so please, for those of you untrained in OS X Server installs, don't think that we're saying that anyone can do it. No matter what level of simplicity Apple brings to the UI, a server install will always require planning, forethought, and experience. For those of you who are experienced, you'll find Snow Leopard server one of the easiest installations of OS X Server you've seen. Options for network configuration, services, and directory options are available as they are in the Leopard installation, but are more clearly laid out.

That seems like a strange title for one of my blog posts, especially for a tech company that doesn't have any business in Africa. Let me explain.

As we recently announced in our online newsletter, we're sponsoring Adam Mazo, filmmaker of "Reconciliations Reach," a film about Rwandans struggle with reconciliation a generation after genocide. Tech Superpowers is providing Adam and his team with essential video editing gear for his documentary once he arrives back in the states after a month-long trip to Rwanda.

Read our announcement about the collaboration.

Adam's recently posted a new blog post on the film's website with updates from his journey:

A new week, a new Apple rumour (I'm going with the UK spelling here since I'm in London). This one is about the fabled Apple Tablet, which is basically the same rehashed rumour about the Apple netbook that surfaced earlier this year.

In this version, China Times has an article (translated here) about the upcoming plans for Apple to release such a device in October.

eWeek interviewed me yesterday to find out my opinion on if these rumours were possibly going to come true.

My opinion? This rumour smells about right. Why? Because of a convergence of a number of factors: user demand, technology, and developer energy. The point where these things converge is where Apple plays best.

For years after the release of Retrospect 6, we Mac users were waiting for the new version. Originally anticipated to be Retrospect 7 and/or Retrospect X, we read about the trials and tribulations of the EMC acquisition and reorganizations, hoping and praying that the Mac version of the Retrospect wouldn't be canned altogether. The Windows world got that much more ahead on the backup game, with offsite capabilities, backup pruning, government-level encryption, and transport compression becoming common features in all backup software.

Then, a funny thing happened: Mac users just gave up on hoping for a new version. We used alternatives like Time Machine, Carbon Copy Cloner, and BRU to try to fill in where Retrospect fell flat – frequently Frankensteining backup systems to get 100% reliability. We learned to live with Retrospect's OS 9 legacy interface quirks and just bit the bullet and checked backups frequently and meticulously to get them working right.

So when Retrospect 8 finally was released earlier this year, I took my time getting to it. Not because I didn't need it, but simply because I was too busy checking all of my client's Retrospect 6 logs and reports via ARD to get around to it. EMC had simply beat my enthusiasm for what used to be a great product out of me.

That enthusiasm is back.

In a previous blog post from last year - Why you should care about the iPhone SDK, I talk about Xcode - Apple's secret weapon. You can read the previous article, typed up when iPhone 2.0 was released in 2008, to find out why I think the iPhone SDK is defining the future of Apple and the Mac platform.

Today's post is about tracking how that secret weapon is starting to energize. This is what I wrote in 2008, just about a year ago:

Uh, so Apple sells around 9 million Macs a year and now, around the same iPhones. Think of every Mac as not a Mac, but as a piece of equipment that runs programs running in Xcode.

Apple will sell close to 10 million iPhones in 18 months. Add to that all the iPod touches that they sell - millions.

Suddenly, in a matter of a year, the rate of growth of Xcode-enabled devices has doubled. Doubled - think about that. The conclusion is obvious: Apple's foray into the mobile space will result in double the number of programmers familiar with the fundamental coding environment for the Mac.

This weekend, Apple sold over 1 million iPhone 3GS units. In April, Apple released total numbers of iPhone and iPod touch users on a quarterly financial call: 37 million units, and that was before the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3.0 was released. And then there's those pesky rumours about an Apple Netbook...