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As Patrick Altoft recently pointed out, Google has rolled out an astonishing number of search products in the past 90 days. 40 to be exact. Releasing just a handful of new products over the course of a year would be enough for most companies to pat themselves on the back – but what Google is accomplishing here is almost frightening.
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Everyone has heard a story about a lost job, broken relationship or other disaster brought about by ignorance of privacy settings on various social networking sites.  Recently Facebook decided to make some changes to their privacy policies that in effect urged users to share everything with everyone despite the prevalence of these kinds of stories. More »

Data gets lost; it’s not an “if” but more “when”, followed by “now what do I do”. If you’re like most businesses, you have a backup plan in place, and it’s similar to one of these:

1. Your server(s) backup your data. If it isn’t on the server, it doesn’t get backed up. Your users are instructed to save their files to the server.
2. Your server(s) back up, and your client machines are also backed up by the server via a backup client running on each machine.
3. Your client machines automatically store their information on the server (via Remote Home Synchronization, or similar)

Now these are all fine methods for achieving a backup (some better than others), but it leaves out a possible group of individuals More »

If you’re like most IT professionals, you have a gaggle of unfinished projects, and perhaps even have your boss breathing down your neck because his or her email isn’t working quite right, or customers are complaining about the company website. Maybe you’re behind getting the backup system procedures documented, or haven’t gotten the Administrative Assistant a second screen so they have more screen real estate, or how about those server upgrades that you keep putting off?

Here are few options people commonly use; I know that I myself have tried them all over the years, with varying degrees of success: More »

I think I’ve put together just short of 1.6 Zillion quotes for XServe’s and Mac Pro’s for Iris Professional Services, and one of the common “mistakes” I see people making when trying to spec their own Configure To Order machines is the inclusion of an Apple RAID card. By “mistake”, I mean that people will include a RAID card when they don’t really know what it does or may not need it for what they want to do. I thought that this would be a good opportunity to contrast the Hardware RAID card against the Software RAID functionality provided standard within the Mac OS X Disk Utility. More »

Apple’s AppleCare blurb:

“Every Mac, iPod, iPhone, and display comes with complimentary telephone technical support for 90 days after your purchase and a one-year limited warranty. The AppleCare Protection Plan extends your service coverage and gives you one-stop service and support from Apple experts.

AppleCare extends your service and support coverage to three years from the date you purchased your hardware by providing global repair coverage for all included hardware and accessories through convenient service options.”

AppleCare is a product that most businesses purchase for their computers to begin with.  It’s kind of a no brainer for a business.  After all, what’s not to love about having hardware and telephone support for your computer for three years from the date of purchase?  Well, for some smaller businesses, upstarts and consumers, it’s the cost. More »

Mac OS X Server builds on well-known and powerful unix tools, tools which are at your full disposal if you understand how they work.  One of these is the FreeRADIUS server included with 10.5 and 10.6 Server.

As is typical of Mac OS X Server, Server Admin makes it easy to add Apple base stations to authenticate against Open Directory using RADIUS.  But what if you want to use the RADIUS server for other devices?  Most decent managed switches and routers can authenticate to RADIUS.  Wouldn’t it be great to have them authenticate against Open Directory?  Read on. More »

The Mighty Drobo

Standard storage RAIDs are nice.  They provide a decent option for large storage pools, fast data access and drive failure protection.  But what if you don’t need the fastest data access possible, or can’t afford a large storage pool right away?  RAIDS can be costly, and don’t allow for easy scalability once they are setup. That’s where the Drobo comes in.

Data Robotics Inc. looked at the shortcomings with traditional RAID systems, and decided to build a product to overcome them.  On June 5, 2007 they introduced what they referred to as “the first fully automated storage robot designed to ensure that data is always protected, storage capacity is unlimited and is exceptionally easy to expand.”  Essentially, a RAID which can be expanded dynamically and in a non-destructive manner. More »

Search engine optimization is, fundamentally, a process. Understanding all of the challenges and opportunities facing your website (and tactical changes one can implement) is rooted in the all-powerful website review.

The importance of SEO site reviews
Consider building a house. If you wanted to create your dream home you’d need to know a little about the plot it would be built on, the availability and cost of materials, your mortgage and financing options, the most efficient construction schedule, how to negotiate a construction contract, etc. before you ever stepped into the world of building a home. More »

When learning how to write software, one of the first bad habits people tend to develop is to ignore compiler warnings. This is understandable since the warnings tend to be numerous and tedious, particularly to an inexperienced developer. Compounding this behavior is the fact that – despite profuse warnings – the code will still build, and often times appear to run correctly. So if the project runs what’s the point in going back and silencing the warnings? More »