Meeting Notes - Jan 16, 2002

By: Mikio Moriyasu - Revised: 2006-10-05 devin

Section Links

What's New
Software Installation Part II - Migrating
NetBoot Overview
iPhoto Overview
MacWorld Conference & Expo 2002
Other Issues

What's New by James Reynolds

James' entire presentation including a complete list of new software as well as images of the new hardware introduced at MacWorld Conference & Expo 2002 can be found on the main Mac Managers Website at: http://www.macos.utah.edu. To visit this site right away, please click here.

Software Notes

Mac OS X default boot on new Macs now. Mac OS 9 will still be available via Classic and directly with a restart.
Internet Explorer and Outlook crashes. See www.macfixit.com for details.
Thursby Software will not support MacSOHO with Windows XP. Solution is to upgrade to DAVE or install NetBEUI on XP. http://www.microsoft.com/WINDOWSXP/
pro/using/itpro/networking/netbeui.asp

New Hardware
THE NEW iMac

$1,199.00
700MHz PowerPC G4
256K L2 cache @ 700 MHz
128MB SDRAM
40GB Ultra ATA drive
10/100BASE-T Ethernet
56K internal modem
AirPort ready
Discounted from $1,299 retail price
Shipping in March

$1,399.00
700MHz PowerPC G4
256K L2 cache @ 700 MHz
256MB SDRAM
40GB Ultra ATA drive
10/100BASE-T Ethernet
56K internal modem
Airport ready
Apple Pro Speakers
Discounted from $1,499 retail price
Shipping in February

$1,699.00
800MHz PowerPC G4
256K L2 cache @ 800 MHz
256MB SDRAM
60GB Ultra ATA drive
10/100BASE-T Ethernet
56K internal modem
Airport ready
Apple Pro Speakers
Discounted from $1,799 retail price
Shipping in January

Other notes:

15-inch viewable flat panel at a max of 1024x768 resolution.
Apple says to carry it by the neck. Read more.
Security: Kensington slot, special screw kit for the bottom (to prevent theft of extra RAM or Airport card). Read more.
Ports: Pro Speaker Jack, Standard Headphone, 2 FireWire, Gigabit Ethernet, Modem, 3 USB, VGA Video

Old iMac education prices:

$699 500MHz G3 w/ CD-ROM
$899 600MHz G3 w/ CD-RW

NEW iBook AND CONFIGURATIONS.

$1,099 12.1-inch TFT XGA display 500MHz PowerPC G3 System bus @ 66MHz 256K L2 cache @ 500MHz 128MB SDRAM memory 15GB Ultra ATA drive Airport Ready Up to 5 hr. battery life Only 4.9 pounds Discounted from $1,199 retail price	$1,191 12.1-inch TFT XGA display 500MHz PowerPC G3 System bus @ 66MHz 256K L2 cache @ 500MHz 128MB SDRAM memory 15GB Ultra ATA drive Airport Ready Up to 5 hr. battery life Only 4.9 pounds Discounted from $1,299 retail price
$1,399 12.1-inch TFT XGA display 600MHz PowerPC G3 System bus @ 100MHz 256K L2 cache @ 600MHz 128MB SDRAM memory 20GB Ultra ATA drive Airport Ready Up to 5 hr. battery life Only 4.9 pounds Discounted from $1,499 retail price	$1,699 14.1-inch TFT XGA display 600MHz PowerPC G3 System bus @ 100MHz 256K L2 cache @ 600MHz 256MB SDRAM memory 20GB Ultra ATA drive Airport Ready Up to 6 hr. battery life Only 5.9 pounds Discounted from $1,799 retail price

Hardware Notes

G4 slowdown with the following configuration:

1.5 GB RAM
File Sharing enabled
ATM and/or ATM Deluxe 4.6+ installed.

Search www.macfixit.com for details.
Post office irradiation and Flash cards. Read more
Record companies breaking the law with copy-proof CD's? Read more

Retail News

Jobs earns $1.00 for the year of 2001, receives $90-million gift from Apple: a jet.
Apple stores face loss (9-11 big player). Only the iBook saw sales rise. Read more - Read more - Read more
Maine signs $37.2 million contract for 4 years to supply iBooks to all 7th and 8th grade students and teachers. Read more

Software Installation Part II: Migrating by Mike Kimball

Mike's complete presentation can be found on the main Mac Managers Website at: http://www.macos.utah.edu. To visit this site right away, please click here.

Introduction
Part II continues where he Mike left off at the end of last month's meeting presentation on Software Installation - Tracking. It examined utilities that help Mac administrators migrate a System, either to a new Mac OS version, or to newer/upgraded hardware.

Disk First Aid
Disk First Aid (current version 8.6.1) is a basic Apple hard drive utility which examines selected volumes for directory problems. In most cases it does a good job, but sometimes users may see the error "problems were found but Disk First Aid can't repair them".

DiskWarrior
DiskWarrior 2.1 does a bit more than Disk First Aid. It repairs "all" directory problems, and provides detailed info on problems it encounters, giving you the option of repairing before going ahead.

We most often use it on machines with the flashing System startup icon - previously we would have to hose the machine and reinstall, but 99% of the time now, we can repair the machine with DiskWarrior and then simply run RevRdist. Occasionally we have had success fixing "clicking" Zip disks as well (temporarily).

Resorceror
Resorceror is a good resource editor and observer. It can compare two files for any differences especially at the resource level.

This was very useful during the OS 9.2.2 update, when Mike found most System Folder components are identical from one machine to another (only the System file was different).

Drive Setup
Drive Setup (current version 2.0.7) is a formatting utility. Sometimes you have to blow away the whole drive and start from scratch (like right out of the box - we have had problems with RevRdist hanging when run on the pre-installed System, so instead of wasting the time, we just initialize the hard drive, then install the minimal System, then go from there). Or, you may just want to update the disk driver (from Functions menu).

Conflict Catcher
Conflict Catcher 8.1 does a lot of cool things for managing the System. The Conflict Catcher window has options like Sets (i.e. of startup items in Control Panels, Extensions, etc), Groups, Conflict Testing and Reporting.

Conflict Catcher does one more useful function for migrating to new hardware or OS versions - the Clean Install System Merge. Most Mac managers are aware that it is often necessary to do a clean install of the Mac OS, such as when upgrading the hardware (CPU, hard disk), updating the OS to a new version (such as with major changes from an 8.x version to the latest 9.x), or even just to fix a corrupted System Folder on a server or single-user stand-alone machine. The idea is, once the upgrade or update is done, all of the machine's configurations of software will be the same as before, while all System Components will either remain identical or be updated (and out-of-date items can be pruned away). Clean Install System Merge will take care of all the components and even display a list of items that you can double-check (it indicates items added and items replaced). This function will even integrate customizations made to the System file itself (such as system sounds, etc). Basically you could do all this manually, but it takes much longer and you may not have success with some pref files that store licensing information.

Clean-Install Assistant
Another utility that helps with the task of moving System files from one System Folder to another, is Clean-Install Assistant (1.5.2). Mike hasn't tested this personally but the software is free for personal use (shareware), and has very good reviews. More info available at VersionTracker.com.

Additional Information
More info about these utilities (and many others) is available through VersionTracker.com.

Netboot Overview by Scott Doenges

Scott's complete presentation which also includes a detailed overview of Macintosh Manager can be found on the main Mac Managers Website at: http://www.macos.utah.edu. To visit this site right away, please click here.

What is NetBoot?
NetBoot is a powerful and versatile tool for Macintosh network administrators. It allows you to boot any Macintosh except the very first iMac from a network volume rather than from the local drive. This makes it particularly easy to administer a large group of machines, since they all use the same "NetBoot HD" disk image as their startup disk.

Apple's NetBoot is based on the Linux Netboot "diskless workstation" idea. It is possible to boot Mac clients from a Linux Netboot server (assuming you know how to set it up properly).

System Requirements
NetBoot Admin Server:

Mac OS X Server 10.x

PowerMac G3 or G4 with a 400 MHz or faster processor.

256 MB RAM recommended.

Two or more 9 GB drives (multiple drives allow NetBoot to more efficiently allocate resources).

Gigabit Ethernet; four-port 100Base-T recommended.

A Server with this configuration could easily support 50 NetBoot clients. The number of clients that a server can support will vary depending on Ethernet speeds, machine speeds, etc.

NetBoot Clients:

Mac OS 9.x

iMac, iBook, PowerMac G3 (Blue), PowerMac G4, G4 Cube, FireWire Powerbook, or PowerBook G4.

minimum of 64 MB RAM.

Currently, NetBoot only supports OS 9.x client machines.

Pricing
NetBoot 2 is part of the Mac OS X Server package, which costs $249 for a 10-user license, or $499 for an unlimited license. More information on Mac OS X Server can be found here.

Software Components
Server:

Mac OS X Server Admin - the Server Admin app allows you to run File and Web services as well as set up DHCP entries for NetBoot clients.
Macintosh Manager - NetBoot amounts to very little without the additional use of the Macintosh Manager server/application. Mac Manager allows you to create complex sets of rules for different NetBoot users/computers.

Client:

Extensions - there are a handful of extensions that you need to have on the NetBoot HD disk image which your clients boot up from.

Installation
If you bought a Server from Apple, NetBoot is already installed and ready to use.

If you'd like to install NetBoot on your own OS X Server, you could encounter problems. Scott discovered that NetBoot is very picky about which version you use with which version of Mac OS X Server. He tried to install NetBoot 2.0 on OS X Server 10.0.3, and without success. Eventually, the only way Scott was able to get it to install properly was to update OS X to 10.1.1, then run the full installer of NetBoot 2.0.2.

Note that if you don't have or don't want to buy a Mac OS X Server, a Linux Netboot server could be used to Netboot your Mac clients (assuming you know how to set it up properly).

NetBoot is very poorly documented. The NetBoot section of the OS X Admin Guide consists of 10 pages of vague instructions and unclear installation steps, with almost no actual guide on setting up NetBoot HD images or any of the other functions NetBoot supports.

A PDF called "Inside NetBooting", which has much more detailed information than the PDF that comes with the OS X Server, is available here.

Set-Up
Once you have the Mac OS X Server up and running and you've installed NetBoot, all you have to do to enable it is turn on the DHCP/NetBoot service in the Server Admin application. You'll also need to set up a range of IP addresses for your DHCP/NetBoot server to hand out to its clients.

Unfortunately there is no way to assign an IP to a particular hardware address in the Server Admin app. This caused problems for Scott because unknown PCs in the same subnet kept grabbing the IPs being offered by the Mac OS X DHCP Server. This intern prevented his NetBoot clients from getting IPs and starting up properly. Supposedly the NetBoot server reserves an IP for a Mac once it's connected to the server, but he found this not to be the case - PCs grab the IP if the NetBoot client is shut off. Possible solutions to this would be to use a DHCP Server that supports static IP assignments (to ensure that the same machine always gets the same IP), or make sure that you only use DHCP on machines that you want to be NetBoot clients.

Once you've got your IP range entered in, all you need to do is start up a client and hold down the "N" key. This will cause your client to boot up from the pre-installed OS 9.1 disk image that comes with NetBoot 2 (I believe NetBoot 1 came with an 8.6 image, which will not work with G4s).

While booted off of the NetBoot image on a client computer, you can log in as an Admin and use the "NetBoot Desktop Admin" application to install software and OS upgrades onto the NetBoot HD disk image.

NetBoot Links
Macintosh NetBoot links:

http://www.macfixit.com/reports/macosxs-netboot.shtml
http://www.apple.com/education/hed/aua0202/iowa/

Information about NetBooting Macs from a Linux server:

http://www.gwc.org.uk/~ali/nb/
http://mike.passwall.com/macnc/

Macintosh Manager
NetBoot by itself really doesn't amount to much without the additional use of Macintosh Manager, a Server Admin application that gives Admins advanced options to control any number of different machines and user accounts. Click here for a detailed overview of Macintosh Manager.

iPhoto Overview By James Reynolds

James' complete presentation will eventually be available on the main Mac Managers Website at: http://www.macos.utah.edu. For an excellent iPhoto tutorial, see Apple's main webpage and view the QuickTime movies they have created to show how to use certain features.

What is iPhoto?
iPhoto is Apple's software to manage digital camera content. Much like iTunes, iDVD, and iMovie, iPhoto makes it easy to manage digital devices. iPhoto imports the content off of a digital camera, stores it on your computer, allows you to crop your images, and publish images either on the internet, print it on your own printer, or send it to a photo publishing shop.

iPhoto is free but available only on Mac OS X. The installer can be downloaded from Apple's webpage, is about 13 MB, and is delivered as a package installer.

Modes
iPhoto has 5 "modes": Import, Organize, Edit, Book, and Share. The following sections discuss the basic features of each mode.

Import - Imports images from digital camera and flash card readers in this mode. It is also possible to import images saved on the hard disk with the "File" menu --> "Import". The progress of an import is shown in the import mode. Imports can be stopped.

To see a brief list of digital camera brands that are supported by iPhoto, please visit Apple's webpage for compatible models and the latest information.

Organize - In this mode, you can "organize" your images into "rolls" and "albums". It is also possible to "arrange photos" by selecting the "Edit" menu --> "Arrange Photos". However, the only choices are "Roll", "Date", and "Manual". It is not possible to sort images by file size, image size, and other image information.

The creation, attachment, and editing of Keywords and Titles is also controlled in this mode.

Edit - In this mode, you can crop, reduce red-eye, convert to black and white, and rotate images 90 degrees.

Cropping and redeye reduction is done by selecting an area and then clicking the "Crop" or "Redeye" button. Redeye reduction actually just reduces the color red, so users should be make sure that only the pupil is edited.

Book - In this mode, you can create a photo album using any one of six layouts: Catalog, Classic, Picture Book, Portfolio, Story Book, or Year Book.

Basically, users have control over the number of images on a page, and any accompanying text. Page layout is all managed by the application. The text consists of the image title and comments added in the"organize" mode. The image order is also the same as what you specified in the "organize" mode.

You can print this to your own printer, send it to Apple to print (in the share mode), or you can save it as a pdf (print it, in "Output options" select "save as a pdf" or preview it).

Share - In this mode, you can print, order prints or books, upload the files and auto-generate a webpage on an iDisk account, or export it (as a file, a webpage, or QuickTime).

You can also use the share mode to start a screen saver with music. To change the music played, open the preferences and make the change there.

Other Features
iPhoto supports AppleScript. Apple provides several stock scripts that will do some cool things.

"Make Audio Card" combines an mp3 and an image into a QuickTime movie.
"Make Audio Slideshow" combines an mp3 and multiple images into a quicktime movie.
"Mail iPhoto Images" mails the photo using Mail.app

Cool Features

Can save a book as a PDF (however, so far I can not get it oriented correctly).
No save command for editing, that means there is no destructive editing ("Revert to Original" in file menu).

Note, duplicates can not be reverted to an original state. The state at the time of duplication is the original.

Also, this is probably the reason that iPhoto duplicates files when they are imported and stores them in its own folder like iMovie, rather than just use the originals like iTunes does.

Needs Improvement
While working with iPhoto, James came up with this list of fixes to problems that he encountered as well as general improvements that he feels will place it on par with the quality of Apple's other digital hub applications:

Import

Must import ALL photos. Image Capture.app allows you to pick and choose.

Organize

Reveal files in Finder - requires an AppleScript but it should just be a file menu item (like iTunes).

Can not sort images by file size or image size.

Edit

No contrast, brightness, color adjustment.
It would be nice to have variable rotation, not just 90 degrees.

Book

Could not change the page orientation for the book. As a result, users can only print in landscape.

Homepage publishing dialog box has weird undo behavior. Most notable is that it doesn't work right!
Couldn't enable 1-click ordering even though I had the correct Apple ID and password.

Other

The window will not drag to the top of the screen on a second monitor. It tries to leave room for the menu bar that happens to be on the other monitor. Pressing the maximize button fixes this.
Unbearably slow on James' G4/450 dual processor when he was working with over 1000 images.
For the slide show, iPhoto should use iTunes to play the music. Perhaps even sync the two. Put an option in iTunes that uses iPhoto for visuals. And best of all, have the System Prefs for Screen Saver use iPhoto and iTunes.

Links

www.apple.com/iphoto/
www.apple.com/iphoto/compatibility/ - list of compatible cameras, flash card readers, and printers.
www.apple.com/applescript/iphoto/ - AppleScripts.
itools.mac.com/1/hpcontest.html - iPhoto contest (1-8-2002 to 1-27-2002)
www.dcresource.com/specials/iPhoto/ - iPhoto tutorial

MacWorld Conference & Expo 2002 By Richard Glaser

Richard attended this years' MacWorld as part of a team of 25 individuals across the country who are working on the migration to and deployment of Mac OS X in academic lab environments. He was one of six panelists who discussed the current progress of the group as well as answered audience questions.

The focus of their conference panel was the website http://www.macosxlabs.org. This site is one of the key collaborating tools for the 20 UEF (University Executive Forum) schools working on pilot labs as part of the overall migration/deployment project. As such, it is designed to provide documentation regarding Mac OS X subjects that are not all that well documented. Here is a quick breakdown of the main features of the site:

Topics - Outlines the issues surrounding the deployment of Mac OS X in large lab settings.
Forum - This section allow interested individuals to subscribe so that they can give feedback to both the group and Apple. This feature will become available in February. Until then, you can leave feedback via the website or through Richard here and he will forward it to the rest of the group.
Tools -This database lists Windows, Unix/Linux, Mac OS 9.x or earlier, and Mac OS X utilities that can be used to manage labs.
Pilot Labs - This section gives the Web Pages for 10 to 15 schools that are well into deploying Mac OS X. For example, the University of Colorado is setting up a big CS labs. Their page presents their specific needs, problems, and the strategies they will be using to implement OS X.
Documentation - This section features documentation on OS X deployment related topics such as:
- How to integrate OS X into existing lab infrastructure including information on directory services, login authentication, and printing.
- How to configure Lab machines including information on the initial installation, HD maintenance, and how to set up a kiosk environment how do set idle time firmware security
- Lab Security with information on firmware, file system, and overall network security.
- University of Michigan's RSync Development.
Future topics will include:

How to set up special purpose labs
Storage and backup options

Participants - Lists who is involved in the group.
Resources - This section lists other sources of information related to Mac OS X, as well as sources for applications or utilities useful for the deployment of OS X in a lab environment.

Other Issues

A few additional issues were brought up during the course of the meeting:

Bits and Pieces from MacWord:

Sassafras has a new version of KeyServer for OS X which features better overall functionality.
Backup is still waiting on the Apple IOKit before it can finish development of Retrospect for OS X.
Apple is still developing the necessary support components required for SoftRaid.
Mac OS X version 10.2 is being developed and distributed as an "Education Specific" update. Apple want to to have OS X as the primary in educational institutions by fall of this year. As a result, March is about the time to launch 10.2, have users essentially test it, and then give feedback.

As mentioned in the section above, the University of Michigan is developing RSync for OS X - There is a download link on the http://www.macosxlabs.org but there is no documentation and only limited support. RSync's basic operation is similar to that of RevRdist in that the users home is compared to and then made to mirror a master image. It is simpler than using ASR. The developer welcomes user feedback to aid in its development.
Apple is interested in finding innovative uses for the iPod. As a result, it is donating iPods to academic institutions who have ideas they would like to test out. For example, the iPod could be used by students to download and then play back recorded lectures or listening assignments that have been converted to MP3's. The students would then have the freedom to listen to them anytime or anywhere outside of the traditional listening lab environment. For additional information, please contact Richard Glaser here.
The U of U Office of Site Licensing (OSL) has simplified it's purchase/registration form. It is now one page and does not ask for extraneous information.
FileMaker Pro for Mac OS X is now available through OSL.
NetCom is supporting VPN Client for Mac OS X. As a result, Users will need an NetCom account in order to use it. Please note that support for Mac OS 9.x is still in development. For more details, email Craig Bennion at
Mikio Moriyasu's presentation on making your Mac DVD drive Region Free was postponed. It has been rescheduled for a future Mac Manager's meeting.
Once a final decision has been made as to whether or not there will be a Mac Manager's meeting in February, the information will be posted at http://www.macos.utah.edu. Please be aware that it will most likely be canceled in which case the next meeting will be held on the third Wednesday in March.
If there is a topic you would like to see discussed at a future Mac Managers Meeting, please contact us here.