Hostname and (Apple) Mail Server Dependencies

My Mac Mini with OSX Server had this thing that the hostname (as displayed in the Terminal app) would change after a reboot. Something that annoyed me tremendously. Thankfully there are several (Terminal) commands to change the hostname (back) to its 'original name'.

Since I wanted to change my hostname PERMANENTLY, I used the following command:

sudo scutil –set HostName new_hostname

This worked perfectly. Or so I thought.

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Microsoft Internet Explorer and IP Addresses in Certificate SAN

A fairy long title, but it describes exactly what this post is about. Once again a post about a Microsoft product and the way it works (or rather doesn't work) with your average Internet standard.

This week I was busy with RADIUS, 802.1x, PKI and the protection of websites with SSL encryption. For the implementation of 802.1x, I needed a PKI environment, so I used the Microsoft Certificate Services for that purpose. Along the way, I needed an SSL certificate for an internal website, but this particular website needed to work properly based on different FQDN's and or IP addresses without throwing warining or errors regarding the SSL connection.

The way to do this is to add Subject Alternative Names (SAN) to the certificate. This enables you to access the website in different ways, e.g.;

• Access a webmail host from the internet based on its official FQDN (https://webmail.somedomain.com)
• Access the same webmail host from the inside of the corporate lan based on its internal name (https://webmail.acme.local)
• And access the host from legacy DNS-unaware software on its IP address (https://192.168.1.254)

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Where can I find the iTunesHelper App?

The iTunesHelper application is used to automatically detect iPod's/iPad's and iPhones, when you connect these to your Mac. The application launches iTunes, and (if configured) synchronizes stuff. Very handy, but it can be quite annoying.

E.g. I have an iMac (main 'PC' around the house), and a MacBook. All the synchronization stuff is done on my iMac, and I don't sync anything on my MacBook. But when I attach my iPhone to my MacBook for Internet access (tethering), it launches iTunes and wants to synchronize with an empty iTunes. Something I definitelly don't want.

This feature can be turned off by removing the iTunesHelper application entry from the Login Items in your account settings, but turning it back on is something completely different. I accidentally removed it from my iMac, which wasn't supposed to happen....

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Torrents and Usenet Downloading with an iPhone

No idea if this is a new feature introduced with a newer version of Dropbox, but it is possible to download nzb and torrent files through the Mobile Safari app.

What you need is the following (for a complete downloading system):

• A Dropbox account (the 2GB version is free!!!!)
• A torrent application with the possibility of using a so-called watch-folder (e.g. Vuze)
• An usenet application with a watch-folder capability (e.g. SabNZBd+)
• An iPhone with the Dropbox app.

First you need to setup Dropbox. This is the easiest part. Just create two folders called 'NZB' and 'Torrent'. These folders will contain the downloaded torrent and nzb files.

After that you need to configure the Vuze and/or NZB download application to use a watch-folder.
I use these apps on my Mac Mini server. So it's operational 24/7.

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Exploring the Grounds Around the Office

Today was one of those days with a typical dutch sky; blue with clouds (and the occasional raindrop). Perfect conditions for doing some (HDR) photography. Location: Papendorp, Utrecht.

This location has lots of really great buildings, and the funny part is that I go there (almost) every week on my way to work for the last three years......

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Install KatzEye Focusing Screen in Nikon D300

Focussing manually has it's advantages. First, the number of potential lenses for your body sky-rockets. There are numerous old and new extraordinary good MANUAL FOCUS lenses available for the modern DSLR. Examples are lenses by Voigtlander, Carl Zeiss, and the old Nikon (Ai-S) lenses. The problem is that most of the modern cameras lack a decent (visual) indicator for when your object is in focus. My Nikon D300 has a small indicator (a dot) in the viewfinder which notifies you when you've got focus. But when you shoot with large apertures (e.g. f/2, f/1.8, f/1.4 or f/1.2) on MF lenses you have to keep track of your composition (through the viewfinder), and watch the 'in-focus' indicator. Something I find very hard to do. I allways seem to miss at least one of them. Missing composition is easy to fix in post-processing, but fixing focus can't be done.

Thankfully, there's a solution to this problem; Katz Eye Optics. These guys offer old-skool focusing screens for the modern digital SLR's. All you have to do is replace the focusing screen with theirs. You can do this yourself, or your camera brand service-center should be able to do it for you (at additional cost). I did it myself though, and ran into a problem (of course). But more on that later...

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Google Apps Harassment / Spam

My mailbox receives e-mails from Google on a daily basis. All these e-mails are regarding the 'upgrade' of MY Google Apps account. The problem is, I don't have a Google Apps account. I have a Google Analytics account for some of my websites (this being one of them).

At first they say you have an account.

Google Apps Spam

And when you try to login to that account, they say that I don't have an account.

So explain this; why do I get upgrade e-mails for something I don't have?

A typical example of using existing database information for luring people into getting other services.

Why I Should Buy a Leica M9

Updated on Tuesday, June 7, 2011 at 21:01 by Willem

Since the Leica still lingers in my head, these videos aren't really helping. Thankfully, my bank account isn't cooperating at this moment.

Or so is this blogpost (by the same author).

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Jamiroquai @ Ahoy Rotterdam

This Wednesday, Jamiroquai played @ the sold out Ahoy in Rotterdam (Netherlands). At first it was uncertain if he could perform, since they had to cancel their german performance due to Jay Kay's flu the evening before.

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Adding Custom Logfile to OS X (Server) Log Rotation

The earlier posts on my logging experiences didn't include the logrotation solution I used on my OS X Server.

When you create a new logfile (and have syslog fill that file up), you're gonna run into a lack of space sooner or later. This happens because the syslog server keeps writing data to that file, and the system doesn't 'recognize' (read: isn't configured) the file for logrotation. So, you need to tell the logrotation process to include the new logfile (and what to do with it).

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