Meeting Notes - Mar 20, 2002

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


What's New by James Reynolds

Software Notes
Adobe Photoshop 7.0, native on Mac OS X will ship in the second quarter of 2002. Upgrade price $149.

New Hardware
The Dual 1-GHz Power Mac G4 ($2,699), the 933 MHz Power Mac G4 ($2,069), and the 800 MHz Power Mac G4 ($1,439) are now available.

Retail News
  • Apple Reports First Quarter Profit of $38 Million but revenue was slightly lower than expected.
  • Advance sales of the new iMac were huge, with numbers that have not been seen since the release of the original iMac.
Other Problems
Some external devices (especially if they have their own power supply and don't have a grounded plug) put too much voltage through the FireWire port, causing FireWire ports to fry on the CPU or external device such as DV Cameras (speakers were the culprit in one instance).

Cool Stuff
WWDC 2002 May 6-10 in San Jose, CA Student Scholarship available (must sign up as a student ADC member--costs $99). "

2002 Volume Purchase
It is time to start thinking about this year's volume purchase. If you are interested in taking part, please contact Richard Glaser here.

Mac OS X Deployment
Student Computing Mac Support has begun to deploy of Mac OS X in limited numbers. To see our deployment plan, please visit our Deployment Pages at http://www.macos.utah.edu or please click here.

James' entire presentation including a complete list of new software since February, new G4 hardware specifications, Apple retail news, and other Apple related topics can be found on the main Mac Managers web site at: http://www.macos.utah.edu or you can click here.

Apple DVD Region Support - Region Free DVD Conversion by Mikio Moriyasu

Established by the DVD industry, "Regions" identify the origin of a DVD video disc and restrict its playback to that point of origin. This control over where and how a DVD may be played makes it very difficult to view DVD's from one country in another. Only two possibilities exist for the person who wishes to view foreign DVD's - buy a specially equipped "Region Free" DVD player, or convert an existing DVD drive into “Region Free” DVD player.

Mikio's presentation was based on a research project that examined the feasibility of converting the DVD equipped Macs located in the Marriott Library Multimedia Center into Region Free DVD players for educational use. The results have been documented in a series of web pages discussing DVD Region Settings, the obstacles involved in Region Free conversion, and an evaluation of set of Region Free conversion tools. The pages can be found on the main Mac Managers Website at: http://www.macos.utah.edu or please click here.

Micromat Drive 10 by Scott Doenges

The makers of TechTool Pro have developed one of the first comprehensive disk utilities for Mac OS X.

Known as Drive 10, it is based on TechTool Pro's time-tested routines but uses all new protocols developed exclusively for OS X to scan and repair the numerous structures that are necessary for proper volume operation. If problems are found, Drive 10, in a short period of time, will build a new set of volume structures rather than patching the old ones. This is the surest and safest method of recovering your valuable data.

Scott's complete presentation which also includes an examination of all of Drive 10's various diagnostics can be found on the main Mac Managers Website at: http://www.macos.utah.edu or you can click here.

MacAnalysis By James Reynolds

MacAnalysis is a security auditing and cracker prevention application that uses more than 1300 known vulnerabilities to crack a server and give a detailed report of issues that it detects.

Using a regularly updated database that keeps track of vulnerabilities, ManAnalysis can perform tests such as NSlookup, System Information, NetStat, Finger, Whois, ReverseIP, Port Scan, Services Scan, Name Scan, Traceroute, Looking Glass Features, OS Fingerprinting, POP3/SMTP/FTP Brute Force, Nph-Browser, and Proxy Support.

James' complete presentation includes operational requirements, a comprehensive list of recognized daemons as of 3/19/02, and a brief look at MacAnalysis' operation, can be found on the main Mac Managers Website at: http://www.macos.utah.edu or you can click here.

Apple Remote Desktop By Larry Anderson

Apple Remote Desktop is a system management solution designed to give users to ability to oversee the operation of Mac systems from anywhere on a network or remotely across the Internet. With real-time screen sharing, it can distribute software, verify and repair hard disks, generate and receive reports on the status of software, and rename systems all from a central location over both wired and wireless networks.

Features
  • Apple Remote Desktop (ADR) was developed for OS X and will work with client machines running either OS 9 or OS X.
  • ADR is similar in operation to Apple Network Assistant but "This one actually works"
  • It provides administrators with a wealth of detailed information about a given client including data not commonly reported by similar applications such as Monitor resolution, OS version, IP version and so on. The information reported is similar to that given by the Apple System Profiler.
  • Users can view or control activity of the machine.
  • Users can share screens with other machines.
  • Users can open and share folders and files.
  • Administrators can give permissions to client machines.
  • Administrators can lock screen to get users’ attentions or they can send messages to them.
  • The split screen allows users to observe more than one machine at a time.
Current Key Issues
  • Airport limitations - Users cannot share screens if the administrator and client machines are using same Airport.
  • Users conducting updates and/or restores cannot connect to active system folders.
  • Users cannot update the entire system image, only certain folders.
  • There is no "Scheduling" feature in the initial release version. This will be remedied with the next update.
Operational Performance
  • Users working off prerelease versions have noticed that Netopia Timbuktu Pro has slightly greater functionality. More testing needs to be done on the final version to see if this is actually the case.
  • Users working off prerelease versions report that file sharing to a machine running OS 9.x was slower than compared to sharing via Timbuktu. Others have reported that it is faster. More testing is required.
Operational Scope
  • Even though an administrator using OS 9 or OS X can work on a machine running OS 9 or OS X, the actual OS 9 AND OS X client packages are different.
  • Apple Remote Desktop is not intended to be used to rebuild or restore machines from the ground up like RevRdist. It is largely designed to be a management tool.
Current Status
Apple Remote Desktop is now available for purchase at www.apple.com. It is also shipping to stores now.

Cost
There are two Apple Remote Desktop packages available:
  • 1-Administrator, 10-Client Edition for $299.
  • 1-Administrator, Unlimited-Client Edition for $499.
The second version will let administrators manages up to 5000 Macs at a time, in groups of up to 250 computers.

The one downside is users who need more than one administrator license must purchase them as part of one of the above packages. They are not sold individually.

If you have any questions regarding Apple Remote Desktop or any other Apple or Apple related products, feel free to contact Larry Anderson at larry@apple.com.

Kerberos Authentication By Mike Kimball

Kerberos is an authentication protocol developed by MIT that provides security on physically insecure networks. It essentially allows users to validate their identity to a server or other computer system whereby they can have access to that computer's services. It also protects password information transmitted over the network by using a standard encryption-based authentication technique.

Mike's presentation was based on a larger, more detailed evaluation project he is currently working on as part of Student Computing Mac Support's transition to Mac OS X. Eventually, a series of web pages documenting this project and covering operational requirements, client machine integration, deployment strategies, and resources will be made available at the main Mac Managers Website at: http://www.macos.utah.edu or you can click here.

Other Issues

A few additional issues were brought up during the course of the meeting:
  • With the upcoming volume purchase, there was concern about purchasing iMacs. Because they are essentially "all-in-one" devices, one attendee was worried about what to do if a staff Mac goes in for repairs. His concern was what is he going to replace it with in the short term. There was some discussion of having Bookstore Services supply a "loaner" unit.
  • There were concerns expressed about the durability of the flat screen displays in a public lab environment which led to discussions about purchasing extended warrantee coverage for these machines.
  • One attendee asked about Mac printing to a Windows based server. As this is basically how printing is managed in the MMC, he was shown its operation.
  • FireWire drives - What are people’s experience with them. Attendees reported that VST has been pretty good and that Lacie's is a good "high capacity" model.
  • If there is a topic you would like to see discussed at a future Mac Managers Meeting, please let us know here.