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Weblog • Archive • Cutedge

by: Bernard Teo

Sat 06 Mar 2010

MailServe Snow 4.1.4

Category : Technology/MailServeSnow4dot1dot4.txt

I've updated MailServe Snow to 4.1.4, so that it can also handle 2048 bit length SSL keys.

On top of that, I've also added a new custom Procmail settings button to the Spam panel.

MailServe Snow uses Procmail to integrate Postfix, Dovecot and SpamBayes to implement spam filtering. With version 4.1.4, the user can now set up custom Procmail directives to be processed before or after the default procmail directives for handling spam filering.

The default procmailrc can also be edited and there's a button to revert the directives back to their default state if, for some reason, the user's custom edits fail to work.

Download the latest MailServe 4.1.4 now.

I have a new version of DNS Enabler Snow to be released next. Plus a new companion app, DNS Agent. They will work in concert to allow client machines on dynamic IP addresses to update the DNS server whenever their IP addresses change. With this, users can now set up their own dynamic DNS service, much like dyndns.com.

Actually, I've made DNS Agent able to also update dyndns.com so that I can now use my own app instead of DNSUpdate. It seems to be working well on my live site but I'll need to test it for a few days more.

Plus, I'm also working (with my friend, Hai Hwee) on the iPhone and the iPad simulator to port Maven (which will soon be renamed) and Luca to these platforms. So lots of work. More work, less talk, more reading, and more time with the family - that comes pretty close to paradise on earth, at least for me.

Posted at 4:31AM UTC | permalink

WebMon Snow 4.0.5 Released

Category : Technology/WebMonSnow4dot0dot5.txt

I've updated WebMon Snow to 4.0.5.

From this version, on WebMon Snow will create SSL test certs and cert requests at a default 2048 bits instead of the previous 1024 bit standard.

There is a movement towards supporting only 2048 bit length keys by Certificate Issuers and browser makers by December 31st 2010 and this is to prepare for it.

According to the GoDaddy link that I quoted, above, "It is estimated that the computer power required to break 1024-bit length secure certificate private keys will exist by 2011."

But it seems like it's already been broken yesterday. (See "RSA 1024-bit private key encryption cracked").

So, right on time. And I'll be updating MailServe Snow, too.

Posted at 1:49AM UTC | permalink

Fri 29 Jan 2010

MailServe Snow 4.1.3 Released

Category : Technology/MailServe4dot1dot3Released.txt

I've released MailServe Snow 4.1.3.

It includes a few new features. I've added the ability to create and delete mail users from within MailServe, and decide if the user should be hidden from the Login Window and whether he has the full complement of the standard OS X home folder or a minimal home folder to store only the IMAP folders.

The administrator can also decide for this user if his spam mail will be deleted right away or continue to collected in the spam folder.

Dovecot has been updated to the latest version 1.2.10.

Fetchmail was updated by Apple to 6.3.11 via the latest software updates, and this version has a much less chatty log and so the Fetchmail log has been merged with the Postfix and Dovecot log in the MailServe Log Panel.

Finally, there used to be a 16K limit to the size of the Aliases field (and all other similar fields). This limit has been removed and they can now contain as much information as the mail admin wants.

This is a release that includes a substantial amount of code changes, plus a lot of tweaks that the user don't see underneath - unless I left some bugs and, of course, hell may then break loose. But I've tested as much as I can and I've been using it on my live server for a week now. Hope that I've done enough.

This is really the time to put in the new features - when Snow Leopard has already settled in for a while. It would have been unwise to attempt all these when Snow Leopard just came out. So it's a bit of an inversion (in terms of business practice) from what the users would have expected. But this is dictated by the realities of living at the cutting edge of technology. I think this works. (And I'm now going to work on a major new feature addition to DNS Enabler Snow, though there's a new toy - the iPad simulator - that's calling out its siren song.)

Posted at 3:38AM UTC | permalink

Wed 27 Jan 2010

Dovecot 1.2.10

Category : Technology/Dovecot1dot2dot10.txt

Dovecot 1.2.10 is out, so I've updated the latest test version of MailServe Snow 4.1.3 to include it.

I might also be able to include a feature that'll allow the user to set up his own custom procmail recipes, in addition to the one that's set up for the SpamBayes junk-mail filtering to work.

This is going to be a pretty significant update.

Posted at 8:42AM UTC | permalink

Mon 25 Jan 2010

Dovecot 1.2.9

Category : Technology/Dovecot1dot2dot9.txt

I forgot to mention that the latest (testing-stage) MailServe Snow 4.1.3 also includes the latest Dovecot 1.2.9 release.

But you'll need to save your MailServe config and then do a de-install of MailServe so that MailServe can then replace it with the new version of Dovecot when you start up all the services again.

I'm starting on a new version of DNS Enabler for Snow Leopard that will hopefully make it able to support dynamic DNS updates from client machines that are on dynamic IP addresses.

Posted at 12:50AM UTC | permalink

Sat 23 Jan 2010

MailServe Snow 4.1.3

Category : Technology/MailServeSnow4dot1dot3.txt

There is now a new 4.1.3 version of MailServe Snow (as yet unreleased). I've added the ability to create new OS X users from within MailServe.

The administrator has the option to create standard OS X users (with the full complement of folders inside their home folder) or ones with only a minimal home folder (to contain only the IMAP folders) and these latter type of users are hidden in the OS X login window.

It needs more testing before I'll release it. I'm using it now on my live server.

There's one more new feature - the ability to indicate that spam for a specific user should be sent straight to the black hole, via /dev/null, with just one click. I've used this to make sure that my son Brendan never ever gets to see the spam/junk/filth that was heading his way (or at least the ones that were filtered off by SpamBayes - a few still get through unfortunately).

Because the users thus created who have a minimal home folder do not appear in the login users list, they will also not show up in Systems Preferences' Accounts pane. So, how do we delete them when necessary? I've given the mail administrator the ability to delete users but, to be safe, MailServe will not delete admin-level users.

Current MailServe Snow users who would like to try it can just contact me and I'll send the copy over.

Posted at 10:52AM UTC | permalink

Mon 18 Jan 2010

Designing Software Cinematically

Category : Commentary/Story.txt

Actually there's one book I'd like to recommend that software developers read (okay, only if you also love movies) and that's Robert McKee's "Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting".

Long ago in the '80s, Brenda Laurel made the analogy that designing computer systems is a lot like figuring out the manifold activities that go towards putting together a play. That was in her book, "Computers as Theatre" which, though rather dated by now, is still a classic. And one can argue that with the Internet, YouTube and all, its time has come.

So, if you're of such a persuasion, you can find much of relevance in Robert McKee's exhortation to tell good stories always. For in telling good stories, you pare away at the details, so that what you have left is all that you need to keep the viewer on the message.

Where computer-systems design and story-telling diverges is when after you've set up a sense of expectation (via the layout of the "scene"), in computer-systems you must go on to fulfill the expectations, but in a play, the playwright often does just the opposite, building suspense and creating the drama that keeps the audience transfixed.

But the point is, the principal creative activity in both endeavours is the setting up of the scene (because in computer-systems, if you create in the user the right expectations, he will already know what to do, and you save yourself the bother of having to write a thick user guide). And the principles are quite similar in both cases, which shouldn't be surprising if you're a software designer who also loves watching movies.

Just one more thing. Reading the book, you'll enjoy movies a lot more because Robert McKee deconstructs famous scenes from e.g., Casablanca and also one from Chinatown, which struck me because, watch this. In the scene the detective slaps the woman, saying, "You're lying. Tell me who she is!". "She's my daughter." Slap. "She's my sister." Slap. "She's my daughter." Slap. "She's my daughter. And my sister!" Slaps. Then the horror, as the truth dawns on the detective (and also on us, the audience).

Now watch how Steve Jobs uses this technique, in the launch of the iPhone. "We're launching three products today. An iPod. A phone. And an Internet communicator. An iPod, a phone. Are you getting it?" And the crowd goes wild.

Posted at 1:50AM UTC | permalink

Sun 17 Jan 2010

The Apple Licensing Myth

Category : Technology/AppleLicensingMyth.txt

Glad to see that Jean-Louis is still a fan. What's with the Apple Licensing Myth? Let's hear it from one who should know.

P.S.: Jean-Louis Gassée lost out to Steve Jobs when Apple chose NeXT instead of his Be to build what became Mac OS X. Yet he's generous in his assessment of what Steve Jobs had done to turn around Apple. Unlike most business failures, Apple's problems in the John Sculley / Mike Spindler eras weren't in the strategy. The "build the whole widget" idea really does work. The problem was in the execution and also, in some small part, due to the fact that Apple was way ahead of its time.

Posted at 11:32PM UTC | permalink

WebMon Snow 4.0.4

Category : Technology/WebMonSnow4dot0dot4.txt

I've just released WebMon for Snow Leopard 4.0.4 with two new features. WebMon now allows Server Aliases to be changed, rather than be set to the default *.domain, so that server admins can easily set up sites with sub-domains.

Also WebMon now allows Custom Apache Directives to be set for each hosted domain (called Domain-Specific Directives), on top of the ones that are set for the server as a whole (called the Server-Specific Directives).

And I've re-arranged the GUI so that, as the user's eye moves down the window, his mind concentrates first on the domain-specific settings before moving on to the increasingly server-specific. (Or at least that's what I hope will happen.)

P.S.: I'm now working on some enhancements to MailServe Snow. I hope to be able to release them by next weekend or the one after. Then I'll work on one new feature for DNS Enabler Snow.

Posted at 4:17AM UTC | permalink

PostgreSQL Installer

Category : Technology/PostgresInstaller.txt

This is Hai Hwee's PostgreSQL installer. It's almost done and will include a Preference Pane.

There's a Postgres installer for OS X at the Postgres site but it doesn't work very well. It changes some memory settings on the Mac, requires a reboot (always a sign that things are not quite right), and the Mac will refuse to go to sleep on its own after that. So we need our own installer.

So now, knowing how the OS X installer and preference pane work, we can easily make installers for custom builds of MySQL and PostgreSQL.

Between Maven and these installers, there's just one missing piece - something in Maven that will allow us to create database users and their access rights quickly and in a consistent way across the two databases. Once we have that done, it will be very easy to set up new database-driven web sites with just a few quick clicks. We should be able to get there soon.

Posted at 4:15AM UTC | permalink

Mon 04 Jan 2010

Twitter, Facebook, and the Blog

Category : Technology/TwitterFacebook.txt

I'm exploring the social media tools - Facebook and Twitter - figuring out how they work and how I can make use of them.

I've had an entry on Facebook for some time, but I've just come back to it.

I think it's also the iPhone. I've set the iPhone up so I can see incoming messages on SMS, email, Facebook, and Twitter, and I can respond accordingly.

My tweets appear automatically on FaceBook and on this blog.

And I can send my photos from the iPhone to either Twitter or Facebook. So the mechanisms are all pretty slick.

If I can update my blog from my iPhone, I'm all set. But I want to use my own tool and I think I know how. It just needs time.

For a start, I'm going to use Twitter to give quick updates to Hai Hwee on what I'm working on. This way, she doesn't always need to make the long commute over to my place.

If I become a convert to this way of life, you'll hear it here.

P.S.: Thanks, Chih Chao, Clarence & Shoop for turning me on to this. It's like drinking water from a fire hose. But I'm drinking deep.

Posted at 9:47AM UTC | permalink

Thu 10 Dec 2009

Maven for both Leopard and Snow Leopard

Category : Technology/MavenForBothLeopards.txt

The best thing about getting Hai Hwee back working with me full time on Luca and Maven is that both apps can get moving a lot faster again.

One immediate effect - she's done a separate build for Maven on Leopard (because I'm still getting people coming over looking for Maven.zip) so we can keep the Snow Leopard-specific technolgies to Maven on Snow Leopard (MavenSnow.zip).

Then we'll go back to improving Luca with all the things we've thought of doing, like concurrent processing to take advantage of the multiple processors in our modern-day Macs, and concurrent database access with deadlock prevention for those people using Luca with MySQL and PostgreSQL.

Hai Hwee's Snow Leopard-native build for Luca is coming along quite well. And as we improve the database access code, we'll generalise them so that it'll work in Maven and, one day, we may be able to make the database access APIs that we use in Maven (to access three or even more different database systems with one common piece of code) available for other people to use.

And we'll make these database-access stuff work on the iPhone. I've had this working for a year now and I've faithfully kept that prototype working through all the stupid iPhone SDK updates that kept breaking it because I didn't have to energy to dive in further, until now.