Mac@Work : The Ultimate Business Machine

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Weblog • Archive • Cutedge

by: Bernard Teo

Sat 10 Sep 2005

A book to be savoured

Category : Commentary/bestbook.txt

I've just finished The Cliff Walk. It's the best book I've read this year, by far.

I had steady work right through the winter, and by spring I no longer thought of being a college professor. I just concentrated on the work in front of me. All my life I had thought that if you worked hard you would be rewarded. If you worked your ass off, there would be some reward for you. But now I knew that the reward was just the chance to work your ass off.

Don J. Snyder - The Cliff Walk

If you do get to read it, try not to pre-judge the author. Denial is more than just a river in Egypt. It runs like a raging torrent through everyone of us.

Posted at 7:04AM UTC | permalink

Fri 09 Sep 2005

Pricing for DNS Enabler and WebMon

Category : Technology/pricing.txt

I've been asked what I would be charging for WebMon and DNS Enabler. I think it won't be more than $15 - when I'm sure that all the bugs have been wrung out, and that they'll be slick and smooth.

I've been wrestling with the idea of pricing for a long time. On one hand, I'm cognizant of the fact that, on the surface, I seem to be "merely" turning on or off settings for pre-existing software, and free open source software at that.

So the pricing has to reflect my acknowledgement that many other people had built the sofware that delivered those values in the first place - people like Wietse Venema for Postfix and all those Open Source contributors at the Apache, PHP, WebDav, and BIND projects, etc.

Yet, it has been really hard work building these "enablers" - supporting them and taking responsibility for fixing things whenever Apple breaks stuff with their updates.

So I think there's a level I can reasonably charge that reflects the value that I add. I need to stick my neck out and say that I am giving good value for money, and that I may have succeeded in making something that is powerful easily available, that would otherwise not be realisable.

(I'm tempted to add, all those detractors at Version Tracker be damned, but that would be rude.)

And I do really want to give good value. I believe that the Mac had been the best computing platform, for businesses of any scale, for years. (Really, in spite of Apple's abject disinterest in the enterprise). So I want to make good stuff that are priced low enough to get a huge amount of use. Hopefully, huge enough to overturn the myth that Macs are not good enough for businesses. And for people who've been retrenched, or otherwise turned out of the large organisations, the Mac could be their best bet in plugging themselves back into the power grid. (No IT department? No problem. We're going to do even do better on our own.) I know we've got tools that can help, but they've got to be made cheap enough, and be robust enough, for the masses to use.

And yet profits are good. It's the money that is coming in for Postfix Enabler that has encouraged me to go on building DNS Enabler and WebMon. I'm hoping that these can help us support the continued development of Luca Accounting, in their turn.

Posted at 3:04PM UTC | permalink

Postfix Enabler version 2

Category : Technology/PFEv2.txt

Okay, I'm ready to do the next version of Postfix Enabler. This is what I'm trying to fit into it :

Mail queue management, RBL sites, SMTP authentication over SSL between mail servers, enforce SSL for SMTP authentication, alternate port numbers to contact the mail server, default mynetworks_style to "host" (i.e., allow mail to be relayed only if it originated from the server or if it has been smtp-authenticated) and let the user choose to relax that restriction to include mail from any machine on the same subnet, and support for Fetchmail.

I'm sure there could be more if I can find time to go thru all the Postfix-related mail again. But these are what I'll start with.

But I really want to find another name for it. Ideas? Should I start a forum? If I do I'll do an FAQ that will summarise all the mail that I usually get, so I don't have to keep saying them again and again (click the red cross, no it doesn't work with Server, yes you don't have to keep Postfix Enabler running, it'll work across reboots, etc..)

Posted at 1:12PM UTC | permalink

The Cliff Walk

Category : Commentary/CliffWalk.txt

I ought to be working. But I came across this book, The Cliff Walk (about a literature professor who's lost his job, who couldn't find another one even after a year, and how he's finding his way back as an unskilled labourer). I can't stop reading it.

"In all the jobs I had held across the years, from the first, picking vegetables when I was thirteen, I had never been fired. My first reaction was that some mistake has been made. They got the wrong guy. They don't know that Colleen has just finished making curtains for the house and painting the kids' rooms and we've just drained our savings account of its last nine thousand dollars to replace the cast iron pipes with copper and to strip the basement of asbestos. They got the wrong guy. They don't know that we've got a new baby coming, and that my father has a brain tumour that is taking over his life.

"But when it came to telling Colleen I had been fired, I never could seem to find the right time, or the right room in our house. There was always her with her pregnant belly and her faith in me, and there was me with my pink slip."

I read the reviews on Amazon - "Why didn't he have a sense of urgency, why did he cast all his hopes on finding another teaching job, why didn't he let his wife work?" - I think some of the complacency in the tone of some of the reviewers would disappear if they, themselves, were out of a job for some time. Because all these are just theory. In real life, you're like a frog being slowly boiled alive, and it takes all your strength just to wake up and jump out of the way.

I remember this guy, Bruce Whitred, that I met, who feels that we ought to live our life to the full, like it's a canvas on which we create the best that we can be - if only to show thanks to our Creator for having given us our life. But what if we're out of a job? And that there is nothing more important now than having the money? Do these ideals go out the window? Or do they get strengthened because they're being put to the test?

I think I can understand why the author, Don Snyder, didn't want his wife to find a job, why it can take him so long to find his way, and much else also of what I've been reading. The family becomes the one remaining constant when all else is changing, and you need to build your life back from it.

I think this is going to be an important theme in the years ahead. Losing a job, joining the "free agent nation". How do we accept the hand that we're dealt and still find the belief to be the best that we can be?

Posted at 12:27AM UTC | permalink

Tue 06 Sep 2005

Updates ! We have updates

Category : Technology/UpdateFlurry.txt

There are updates to DNS Enabler, WebMon, and Luca. They're all out.

DNS Enabler adds support for setting up backup, slave name servers (which I haven't yet described how to use, but never mind, there's always tomorrow).

WebMon's WebDav folder now works like a .Mac iDisk.

And Luca gets a bug fix.

Me? I need to sleep now.

Posted at 5:41PM UTC | permalink

Sat 03 Sep 2005

DNS Enabler will work on OS X Server

Category : Technology/DNSEnablerForOSXServer.txt

Just a note about DNS Enabler and OS X Server. Yes it will work on Server.

This is not like Postfix Enabler, which couldn't work on Server because Server is wired to Cyrus for IMAP and POP while Postfix Enabler uses UW/IMAP and I'm afraid (no, I'm sure) I will mess things up for a Server mail user.

OS X Server is short of a good DNS set-up tool. So I'll be happy if DNS Enabler proves to be useful to all those Xserve administrators out there.

I'll have a new release of DNS Enabler with support for setting up slave backup name servers by tomorrow. It's almost done.

Posted at 4:43AM UTC | permalink

Wed 31 Aug 2005

"Now, sir, this register makes the entries."

Category : Technology/LucaObjC.txt

"This, Mr. Merchant, is a National Cash Register of the most approved pattern.

"To appreciate what a help it would be to you, we must see what things you do in your store of which you keep a record. I think the ordinary daily transactions with your customers may be arranged in five classes, thus:

1. You sell goods for cash.
2. You sell goods for credit.
3. You receive cash on account.
4. You pay out cash.
5. You change a coin or bill.

"Am I right?

"Now, sir, this register makes the entries. The indication of the transaction shows through this glass. The amount of the last recorded transaction is always visible, and the records are made by pressing the keys."

- "The Birth of a Salesman" - Walter A. Friedman

A National Cash Register nowadays is hard to find. You can use Luca instead to make all the entries. Luca 2.0 is out. It's totally rewritten in Objective-C and uses an embedded SQLite database. No more messing around with MySQL and Java. Download and use the trial version today.

Posted at 7:33AM UTC | permalink

Sun 28 Aug 2005

DNS Enabler and Slave Name Servers

Category : Technology/slaveNameServer.txt

I'm almost done with this. This is DNS Enabler setting up a slave (secondary) name server :

Everything works exactly the same as before except that the radio button allows you to indicate that this is going to be a back-up (slave) name server that reads its zone data from a primary (master) name server.

Hit the Run DNS button and this slave will keep itself synchronised with the master, updating its zone data files whenever the master changes.

Neat. If your primary name server goes down, there's still this backup.

Except that the slave saves the zone data in the "shortened" $ORIGIN format, below, and I've been using the "long" (probably archaic) format up to now.

So I've had to re-write a large chunk of code to parse the data in this $ORIGIN alternate format. I decided I might as well as standardise on this one format when I'm writing out the zone files for the primary name server. That's why it's taking a little bit longer than I thought. But it's better for the long run.

I can't wait to get this over with to get back to Postfix Enabler Part 2 (or whatever it's going to be called).

Next week, we'll also have the SQLite/Objective-C version of Luca ready. (Luca rhymes with lucre. Apt for an accounting system? Hopefully not in a pejorative way.)

It's only 1/8th the size of the current Java/MySQL-based version, yet with all of the same features. In fact, it may work even better. Is Objective-C more productive than Java? I'm starting to believe this is so.

DNS, Web, Mail, and an accounting/financial management system that integrates with all these. They form the foundation of every modern-day business system. We're going to make the Mac the ultimate business machine by the time we're through. Or die trying? In any case, it won't be for want of trying.

Posted at 2:14PM UTC | permalink

Sat 27 Aug 2005

Immortality

Category : Commentary/immortality.txt

I was returning the car so my wife could use it. I was listening to Jim Croce ("I've Got A Name", "Lover's Cross", "Operator" from the Photographs and Memories album,

Photographs and memories
Christmas cards you sent to me
All that I have are these
To remember you

and also John Denver ("Sunshine on My Shoulders"), Minnie Riperton ("Lovin' you"), and Andy Gibb ("Our Love - Don't throw it all away")

This happy room
Would be a lonely place when you are gone
And I won't even have your shoulders for the crying on

- from my iTunes collection.

One short trip. So much great music. All these people are gone. But their music lives on. Fresh, like when I was sixteen. (Am I growing old or what?)

Like the pine trees lining the winding road
I've got a name, I've got a name
Like the singing bird and the croaking toad
I've got a name, I've got a name
And I carry it with me like my daddy did
But I'm living the dream that he kept hid

Posted at 6:24AM UTC | permalink

My New iBook G4

Category : Commentary/iBookG4.txt

This is my new iBook. You can be sure that iTunes was the first thing that went over - even before the project files, DNS Enabler and all that. Shows what is more important ;-)

But seriously, with WebMon, DNS Enabler, and Postfix Enabler, I've got my complete development environment set up in five minutes. Mail server, PHP, SSL, remote access to my main server - they all work, fresh out of the box. I used to email Hai Hwee (what're those Unix commands needed to set up auto-login in SSH?) because I never bothered to remember them. Not any more.

Posted at 6:23AM UTC | permalink

Wed 24 Aug 2005

Work in Progress

Category : Commentary/wip.txt

For DNS Enabler, I'm going to include the ability to set up a secondary (slave) DNS Server.

I was going to add to DNS Enabler the ability to notify slave name servers (when something changed on the master server) when I realised that BIND 9 (that OS X uses) does that automatically. So the time would be better spent doing something that sets up those secondary name servers themselves.

For Postfix Enabler, I'm going to do these : mail queue management, RBL sites (though I hate it when they block mail from dynamically assigned IP addresses so I won't suggest those that do), SMTP authentication over SSL between mail servers, enforce SSL for SMTP authentication, alternate port numbers to contact the mail server, default mynetworks_style to "host" (i.e., allow mail to be relayed only if it originated from the server or if it has been smtp-authenticated) and let the user choose to relax that restriction to include mail from any machine on the same subnet, and also support for Fetchmail.

Posted at 2:57AM UTC | permalink

PFE works in Bangalore

Category : Commentary/bangalore.txt

I got this mail from Tom Gilb. "Thank you it works right away here in bangalore at Sheraton hotel and they could not figure out how to get my mail out after 3 days!"

It feels good to get stuff like that.

Bangalore. I'd like to go where all those Postfix Enabler bits are going. One day soon, when the kid's able to take all the walking, we'll get on the road again.

Posted at 2:24AM UTC | permalink