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Weblog • Archive • Cutedge

by: Bernard Teo

Sun 14 Oct 2012

Fetchmail & sslfingerprints

Category : Technology/sslfingerprints.txt

I'm trying to Google for how to get the sslfingerprint for imap.mail.me.com

This is so Fetchmail can pull the mail down without a bunch of warnings that the communication is in cleartext.

If I can find a way, I'll post the method here. I'd like to set up a list of sslfingerprints for commonly used mail server certificates (sort of like an FAQ), or at least a usable method that can be followed by mere mortals to set up Fetchmail.

Posted at 3:17AM UTC | permalink

WebMon 6.0.2 for Mountain Lion, including Server

Category : Technology/WebMon6dot0dot2.txt

I've just released WebMon for Mountain Lion 6.0.2. This is the first version of WebMon that will also work on Mountain Lion Server.

You can use this single version of WebMon on both Mountain Lion client and Mountain Lion Server to set up WebDav, Apache, PHP, Server-Side Includes, Exec CGI, SSL certs, etc.

P.S. : With this release, I can confirm that the latest versions of my complete set of "Enablers"—MailServe, WebMon, DNS Enabler, DNS Agent—now also work on Mountain Lion Server.

Posted at 1:26AM UTC | permalink

Fri 12 Oct 2012

MailServe for Mountain Lion 6.0.4

Category : Technology/MailServe6dot0dot4.txt

Updated MailServe for Mountain Lion to include Fetchmail 6.3.22.

If you're having trouble fetching from a site that requires SSL, you should upgrade to this bundled version. To obtain this latest version of Fetchmail, do a De-Install from MailServe 6.0.4's Help menu, and then restart all the mail services.

PS : don't forget to save your config using the File menu, so that you can re-use the saved config before you restart the mail services.

Posted at 11:22PM UTC | permalink

Liya 2.0.9 and The Long Wait at the Mac App Store

Category : Technology/Tardiness.txt

Liya 2.0.9 has finally been released at the Mac App Store, three weeks after I've submitted it for approval (from September 18th till October 11th 2012).

I have mixed feelings knowing that I'm not the only app developer hit by Apple's increasing tardiness at the Mac App Store. For one, I'm comforted that this affects the great and the small. But then, knowing that iOS apps don't have to wait much more than a week, it leaves a bad taste that Mac apps are increasingly viewed by Apple as second class citizens. That, I think, would be a grievous mistake.

Posted at 3:58PM UTC | permalink

New Versions of MailServe and WebMon Coming

Category : Technology/NewVersionsMailServeWebMon.txt

I've finished a new version of MailServe for Mountain Lion, that I should be able to release tomorrow. It includes the latest 6.3.22 build of Fetchmail.

I'm now working on a new version of WebMon for Mountain Lion. Will release more news when I get this done.

Posted at 3:41PM UTC | permalink

Wed 10 Oct 2012

Enablers on Mountain Lion Server

Category : Technology/EnablersOnMtnLion.txt

I've been working on making all my "enabler" apps work on Mountain Lion Server. If you want to track my progress, check out this Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/CutedgeSystems, where you can leave your comments and any queries you may have.

Today, I've managed to get MailServe, DNS Enabler and even WebMon working on Mountain Lion Server.

I can confirm that the current latest shipping versions of MailServe (6.0.3) and DNS Enabler (6.0.2) will work without problems on Mountain Lion Server.

Unfortunately WebMon needs some further work.

So, I'm now working on an update to WebMon so that one single version will set up the web server and WebDav for both Mountain Lion client and Mountain Lion Server. Hopefully I can get this version done by this weekend.

Posted at 10:35AM UTC | permalink

Fri 05 Oct 2012

Mountain Lion Server

Category : Technology/MLServerJourney.txt

I've finally managed to clear out a partition I can run a copy of Mountain Lion Server on. (Thanks, Tony Simek, for your encouragement :-)

I'm going to do a clean install of Mountain Lion. And then load Mountain Lion Server on top of it.

I'll document my journey through it and my findings. Right now, I've heard from our users that DNS Enabler and MailServe will work right off on Mountain Lion Server, but not, it seems, WebMon.

I'll now get direct experience myself for how my apps work on ML Server. And I'll try to fix WebMon so it will work correctly on Server.

I'm deciding whether to document my journey through Mountain Lion Server here in the weblog or on our Facebook page. I'm starting to think about moving my weblog to the Facebook page because it's easier to update Facebook from my iPhone and iPad, and now with Facebook integration baked into Mountain Lion, I'll probably be able to get screen shots of work in progress directly into Facebook as I'm working on the projects.

Also, there's the small matter of getting comments and feedback. For a long time, I've wished I had a comments and feedback mechanism on my weblog, but it's a home-made weblog and I've never had the time to go back to improve on it. So Facebook might be a better way to go. I'm going to use this Mountain Lion Server project as a test of whether the weblog or the Facebook page will prove to be a better channel for communicating the status of all my on-going projects to all our users who are interested in following the journey.

So, if you're reading this weblog, do visit Cutedge's Facebook page if you're interested in following my journey through ML Server.

Posted at 12:09AM UTC | permalink

Tue 25 Sep 2012

Xcode 4.5 for Mountain Lion 10.8.2 and iOS6

Category : Technology/Xcode4dot5.txt

I've just upgraded Xcode to version 4.5, running on Mountain Lion, and it includes the SDK for iOS6. The upgrade went well and all my apps—like Luca and Liya—compiled well.

Sometimes, when we get these upgrades, everything breaks. For example, quite often I can't build the MySQL, PostgreSQL or SQLite connectors anymore. Or I can get an error that stops me from building one of my "enablers" or installers. And so I have to spend time hunting for fixes.

But this time, all went well, and I can look forward to carry on doing the enhancements that I've planned to do.

Posted at 6:22AM UTC | permalink

Wed 19 Sep 2012

Liya on the Mac App Store

Category : Technology/Liya208OnAppStore.txt

The Mac App Store released version 2.0.8 of Liya but I'm already at 2.0.9 on the Liya web page. This is the one with the new field for entering a socket location, for when you're opening an alternate port for MySQL (or MariaDB) running on localhost.

It shows the perils of depending on the curators of the Mac App Store. I may have urgent bug fixes to rush out to our users. But it'll get on the App Store when it gets on the App Store. This time it took almost a whole month, from submission to review and release. I'll let you decide if that's way too much or not.

Posted at 8:43AM UTC | permalink

Sun 09 Sep 2012

Things I'm Working On Next

Category : Technology/NextStuffToDo.txt

A couple of things I'm working on next.

One, I know that MailServe and DNS Enabler will work on Mountain Lion Server. But not, at the moment, WebMon. So I'm going to see why WebMon for Mountain Lion won't work on Mountain Lion Server.

Two. I worked on a version of DNS Enabler once, that implements split views. But that didn't work out because I couldn't quite figure out how to design the user interface. I'm going to pick that project up again and make another attempt.

Maybe, one more thing. For years, while watching my kid grow up, I worked from my own home. I worked in semi-retirement and turned away more jobs than I can remember.

But one thing I really liked doing, was to teach Mac OS X programming. But I didn't have the space to do it—it would have been inconvenient to have people traipsing through my bedroom-converted-to-workroom.

But now I do have a proper working space—at a shop that I own, that I used to rent out. When the previous tenancy ran out, I decided to keep half the shop space for my own use, and rent the other half to a cafe. I actually like working out of Starbucks. So now, I sort of have my own personal Starbucks space. Sort of. But the thing is, for the first time in years, I have a space I can do Mac/iOS programming courses from and I'm figuring out how to get this thing started.

So, if you interested to learn how to do the things we do, just contact me and let me know what you would like to learn. Check out this page, http://cutedgesystems.com/school, which includes a link to my Facebook page (my weblog doesn't have comments—it's home-made, so I'll use Facebook to talk back to anybody who wants to leave comments). Thanks.

Posted at 4:00AM UTC | permalink

Sat 08 Sep 2012

Liya and the Mac App Store

Category : Technology/PerilOfTheAppStore.txt

It's been two weeks since I submitted Liya version 2.0.8 the Mac App Store. It's still under review.

Meanwhile I've already updated Liya to version 2.0.9 and that's available from Liya's web page.

That's the peril of being dependent on the Mac App Store. That's why a software developer always needs to have his own store front on the web.

Posted at 7:23AM UTC | permalink

Mon 03 Sep 2012

New Preference Panes for our SQL Databases

Category : Technology/NewSQLPrefPanes.txt

I've wanted to be able to run both MySQL and MariaDB databases concurrently. So, since they both can't run on the same port 3306, which is the default for both, I need to be able to allow one of them to start up on an alternate port.

So, this is our new MariaDB Pref Pane. And I've changed the MySQL and PostgreSQL Preference panes to make them work the same way.

These Pref Panes are included in each of the respective SQL installers that we've built : MySQL_Installer_For_MacOSX, MariaDB_Installer_For_MacOSX, and PostgreSQL_Installer_For_MacOSX.

I've tweaked the installers so they'll work well with the new Preference Panes.

Note: When you run MariaDB off a different port from MySQL, you also need to change the location of MariaDB's socket. Our Pref Pane does that for you (it creates a socket for MariaDB at /tmp/mariadb.sock so that it avoids clashing with MySQL's /tmp/mysql.sock).

When you access MariaDB (or MySQL for that matter because they work exactly the same way) over localhost, the client doesn't use TCP ports. Instead the client and server connect over Unix sockets.

So, if you have either MySQL or MariaDB running on a non-standard port, and you want to access it via localhost, you need a way to specify the non-standard socket location.

This necessitates a change to Liya. So Liya 2.0.9 now has a feature whereby the user can specify the socket location, as shown below :

So, all in all, I've had a rather busy week.

Posted at 12:43AM UTC | permalink