Products Affected
Lion Server, Mac OS X Server 10.6

Mac OS X clients running versions 10.4, 10.5,10.6 or OS X Lion can all use the same URL to connect to a Software Update Server running Mac OS X Server v10.6.7 or later. Before following the steps in this article, you must do the following:

Update your Software Update Server to Mac OS X Server v10.6.7 or later.
Stop and start the Software Update service using Server Admin.
See additional instructions for hosting Lion updates in Hosting Lion Updates on Snow Leopard Server
Managed Client X

To manage access to Software Update servers:

In Workgroup Manager, click Preferences.
Make sure the correct directory is selected and you are authenticated. To switch directories, click the globe icon. If you are not authenticated, click the lock and enter the name and password of a directory administrator.
Select a computer group.
Click Software Update.
Set the management setting to Always.
Specify a URL such as this (substituting your Software Update Server’s fully qualified host name for su.domain_name.com):

http://su.domain_name.com:8088/index.sucatalog

Click Apply Now.
Unmanaged Clients

To point unmanaged clients (clients not being managed with MCX) to a Software Update server:

On the unmanaged client, open Terminal.
Enter the following command (substituting your Software Update Server’s fully qualified host name for su.domain_name.com):
defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate CatalogURL http://su.domain_name.com:8088/index.sucatalog
You can verify your change using the following command:

defaults read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate CatalogURL
To point the unmanaged client computer back to the Apple Software Update server, use the following command:

defaults delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate CatalogURL

Traveling users with laptops or handheld computers will inevitably want files on the home network; you just can’t bring everything with you. This is where the beauty of the Windows XP Professional computer connected to an always-on connection, such as DSL or cable modem, shines. That always-on link can be used to accept incoming VPN connections and allow your mobile users to access shared folders and files on your private network.

In this article, I’ll explain how to configure a Windows XP Professional computer to accept incoming VPN connections and discuss some tips on improving the remote access experience for the VPN client computer user.

Windows XP’s all-in-one VPN solution
Windows XP Professional is designed as the one-stop solution for the SOHO, taking all the usability features available to Windows Me users and adding the powerful networking features available in Windows 2000. The combination lets you create the ideal remote access solution for the SOHO.

The Windows XP Professional remote access server capabilities are very similar to those available in Windows 2000 Professional. A Windows XP computer can accept a single incoming connection on each interface that can accept a connection. For example, a Windows XP machine can accept incoming connections on each of the following interfaces:

• Dial-up modem serial interface
• Infrared interface
• Parallel port interface
• VPN interface

While it’s unlikely, a Windows XP Professional machine with the above configuration could conceivably accept up to four simultaneous RAS connections. However, the typical configuration consists of a single RAS client connection, either through a dial-up modem interface or a VPN interface.

Create an incoming connection with the New Connection Wizard
Like Windows 2000 Professional, Windows XP Professional includes a New Connection Wizard. I’ll show you how to use the New Connection Wizard to create the new VPN server interface. In this example, I’ll assume the Windows XP Professional machine is not a member of a Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000 domain. The machine has two network interface cards; one is directly connected to the Internet, and the other is connected to the internal LAN. In addition, the external interface of the machine is configured for Internet Connection Sharing (ICS). While ICS changes the IP address of the LAN interface of the ICS computer to 192.168.0.1 through 16, it’s easy to change the IP address to one that fits the existing network environment. The IP address of the LAN interface of the ICS computer was changed to 10.0.0.1 through 24 to fix the preexisting network configuration.

How to create the VPN server interface, step-by-step

1. Click Start | Control Panel.
2. In the Control Panel, open the Network Connections applet.
3. In the Network Connections window (see Figure A), open the New Connection Wizard.

Figure A

The Network Connections window

Figure B

Figure C

Configuring XP to accept incoming connections

Figure D

Note that you are not presented with any of the network interfaces on the computer.

Figure E

Figure F

Any user that isn’t selected won’t be able to initiate an incoming connection.

Figure G

Configuring TCP/IP properties

Figure H

Granting LAN access to callers

After the Incoming Connection is complete, right-click on the connection in the Network Connections window and select the Properties command (see Figure I).

Figure I

Accessing the properties of the VPN server link

Figure J VPN clients will only call the external IP address of the Windows XP Professional VPN server.

Figure K

If both machines had machine certificates from the same Certification Authority installed, an L2TP/IPSec VPN link could have been negotiated.

In the unlikely event that the SOHO has multiple network segments, the routing table on the Windows XP VPN server needs to be configured with paths to the various internal network IDs. You can use the ROUTE ADD command to create these routing table entries.

Small networks that use a Windows XP Professional machine for a VPN server probably won’t have network services such as WINS or DNS. If name resolution on the private network is an issue for the VPN client, then you should create a LMHOSTS file, a simple text file that contains name and IP address mappings. For example, the following line could represent an entry in an LMHOSTS file:

10.0.0.2 DEFIANT

The VPN client must be configured with an IP address or host name for the Windows XP Professional VPN server. If the Windows XP Professional client has a dedicated link to the Internet and a static IP address, you can use that IP address in the VPN client configuration interface. However, if the Windows XP Professional VPN server is assigned an IP address via DHCP, you’ll have to use an Internet host name and a method of registering the host name dynamically. A couple of services you might want to look into are TZO and DYNDNS. Both of these services will let you dynamically register a computer’s IP address into the public DNS database.

Conclusion
Windows XP Professional provides simple VPN server capabilities that let you connect single VPN clients to your internal network, one at a time. If the Windows XP Professional computer has a dedicated connection to the Internet, you can connect to that computer from virtually anywhere in the world using a VPN link. The VPN server setup is simple and can accept calls from any Windows PPTP or L2TP/IPSec client.

Reference

SourceTec

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The biggest hurdle to many would-be developers is a complete lack of knowledge of where to even start! How are Mac apps created? What skills are required? Where do I go to learn these skills? Today we’ll find out!

Be Ready to Learn a Lot

Mac applications are complicated beasts made up of many elements and thus require many different skill sets. Just take a look at any great application and you can see right away that a certain level of interface design proficiency will be necessary. You’ll be able to leverage core UI features but those will only take you so far, to accomplish anything fancy and custom-looking you’ll have to venture out on your own. Even with the core UI, interface layout is a complex science. If you screw up the usability component of your app, you’ll fall short on one of the main criteria for judging apps.

Further, the interface is just what sits on top, under that is the real heart of the application: the code. Learning to program is incredibly intimidating for most people. Fortunately, though it’s difficult, many people underestimate themselves and find that it’s not quite as impossible as they had imagined. You don’t need to be a genius to program a basic Mac app, only time and practice coupled with the right knowledge and set of tools.

With this in mind, let’s take a look at two of the main things that you’ll need to learn to create your own Mac applications and some resources that you can check out for learning them.

Cocoa and Objective-C

Cocoa’s Model-View-Controller Design Pattern

This is going to get pretty technical pretty fast so bear with me. Most Mac applications are built using Objective-C, an object-oriented programming language. Objective-C is the primary way to leverage one of Apple’s primary OS X APIs (Application Programming Interface): Cocoa.

So, just to make sure we’re clear: Cocoa is the API, which is a set of rules, standards, frameworks, etc. to help you build Mac applications, and Objective-C is the language that you use for that API.

One other thing that you should know about Objective-C is that it is basically an extension of C, another popular programming language. If you already know C, you are primed to learn Objective-C.

Online Resources for Learning Objective-C

There are quite a few sites that will teach you Objective-C completely free. If you are a self-driven person, these resources are definitely the place to start.

Cocoa Dev Central: Intro to C
Before you dive into Objective-C, it’s helpful to get a solid understanding of C. Cocoa Dev Central has an awesome walkthrough that will teach you the specific areas of C that are relevant to working with Cocoa. In other words, this tutorial is specifically targeted for people looking to take their first step in learning to program Mac applications.

Apple’s Intro to Objective-C
It’s always a good idea to go straight to the source. Apple has a ton of support for both new and experienced developers and really seeks to make the entire process as easy as possible. This guide will serve as a basic introduction to Objective-C and Cocoa application frameworks. Also be sure to check out Apple’s thorough Getting Started Guides, which cover a range of topics for new developers.

Cocoa Dev Central: Learn Objective-C
Cocoa Dev Central, the same folks who wrote the intro to C above also have a super basic introduction to Objective-C. If you’re already familiar with other programming languages, this might be a good place to start.

Books for Learning Objective-C

If you really want to get into Mac programming, you often can’t beat the in-depth instruction that you’ll get from a good old printed book. Here are a couple that we recommend.

Cocoa and Objective-C: Up and Running: Foundations of Mac, iPhone, and iPod Touch programming
O’Reilly is one of the first publishers I look to for any technical topic, be it web design or programming. As you would expect, they have an awesome book for those looking to get started in Mac and iPhone development that covers the basics of both Cocoa and Objective-C.

Learn Objective-C on the Mac
This book serves as a solid starting point for anyone completely new to programming. Other manuals tend to assume that you’re already a developer who is picking up a new language but this guide starts from scratch and will help you learn the basics of development in general.

Xcode

Xcode

As I mentioned above, the good folks at Apple are all about providing developers with the tools that they need to create amazing applications. Xcode is the main focus of this venture and serves as a suite of tools and utilities that you will use through every step of the application-building process, from planning interface layouts to writing and compiling code.

Xcode is a free download, but you have to join the Developer Program to get it, which will run you $99 per year. Alternatively, you can grab it in the Mac App Store for only $4.99.

Online Resources for Learning Xcode

Xcode 4 User Guide
One of the main components of the Xcode suite is the Xcode IDE, where you will do much of your programming. This is Apple’s official guide for getting started with the newest iteration, Xcode 4.

Lynda.com
Lynda.com is my absolute favorite resource for online video training. They have in-depth tutorials for just about every creative and technical topic you can name. The subscriptions don’t come cheap, but they’re worth every penny. Lynda has a complete series on developing for the Mac and iPhone. It covers, Objective-C, Xcode, getting your app to the App Store and more. If you’re looking for one place to go and learn it all, this is it.

Books for Learning Xcode

You’ll find that most of the Objective-C books actually cover Xcode so this section might be a little redundant, but there are in fact several dedicated Xcode books. Here are a couple you can check out.

Xcode 4 (Developer Reference)
When learning anything technical, it’s crucial to make sure that you’re using an up-to-date guide. Unfortunately, there aren’t that many books out yet dedicated to the new Xcode 4. This book is freshly released and takes you step-by-step through the process of developing for OS X with Xcode.

Xcode 4 Unleashed (Coming Soon)
The “Unleashed” series is quite popular and the books are well-known for their excellent coverage of their topics. This book hasn’t hit shelves yet but it’s available for pre-orders right now.

Conclusion

Utilizing Cocoa, Objective-C and Xcode are what you would consider the main-stream path to developing custom Mac applications. Most of the applications that really have that famous “Mac feel” have been developed using these tools.

However, it’s important to keep in mind that there are in fact several methods for developing Mac applications so if these just aren’t resonating with you, keep looking. For instance, if you’re looking to build something that works well across several platforms, check out Titanium, which enables rapid development of native mobile, desktop, and tablet applications using web technologies like HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

Leave a comment below and let us know whether or not you’re interested in developing Mac applications or are already a developer. What resources have you found to be helpful for beginners?

Reference

- Turntable
- Vinyl LP
- Audio Input Cable
- Audacity (free, http://audacity.sourceforge.net )
- Adequate space on your hard drive

We didn’t live through the heyday of vinyl, but we do own a few LPs. The recording industry is currently trying to figure out if we have the right to “own” digital copies of our records. While they work on that, we’re going to quietly show you how to digitize old LPs and cassette tapes. Just don’t put the resulting files on a peer-to-peer network!

Connect Your Turntable to Your Mac

First, you need to connect your turntable to your Mac. Most Macs have an audio input jack, like the one on our eMac:

Not the most intuitive symbol for audio input.

Not all Macs have audio input jacks. If your Mac doesn’t have one, look into a third-party solution like Griffin’s iMic.

Of course, you’ll need a cable to connect the record player to your Mac. It’s not advisable to connect a record player directly to your Mac – you know, for the lower sound quality reasons. You can use the headphone jack on a receiver with a phono port, or you can use another suitable pre-amp. A headphone jack and a long enough cord like this will do the trick with a receiver or a tape deck.

After you plug everything in, you’re ready to rock and roll!

Configure Your System Preferences

1. Now that your Mac can hear the recording, we need to make it listen. From the Apple menu, select System Preferences, and then select Sound.
2. If you have an iMac, eMac or Apple portable, set the input to Microphone and run your finger over your Mac’s built-in mic. (The mic looks like a little hole in your case.) This will make the input level indicator go crazy.Note that the blue Input Level bar is at maximum.

   When we begin recording, a “crazy” Input Level bar will be a very bad thing. Set the sensitivity of your audio input by adjusting the Input Volume slider – set it right in the middle.

3. Finally, select Line In as the device for sound input. Close the System Preferences.Your Mac is now ready to listen to your record player!

Getting started with Audacity and LAME

Your Mac is ready to listen, but now we need to make it understand. We’ll use Audacity, a wonderful free and open source digital audio editor. It’s like Quicktime Pro for audio, but on steroids. There are a few Mac applications dedicated to ripping analog audio, but Audacity is free, and we like open source software.

1. Audacity is available at Sourceforge.net along with a bunch of other open source projects. Go ahead and download it. And, as long as we’re shooting through the Internets, we should pick up a copy of the LAME codec from SpaghettiCode.org. We’ll use this to compress our songs into the highly compatible MP3 format.
2. Once you’ve clicked the appropriate “Download” hyperlinks, you should have an Audacity folder somewhere on your hard disk. If you’re using Safari, the easiest way to find it is to click to the magnifying glass in your download window.
3. Audacity and LAME should be in the same place. Copy LAME into the Audacity folder, and send the whole thing to the Applications folder. (That is, unless you like having programs all over the place.)
4. With the record player connected to your Mac, launch Audacity.Like most powerful programs, Audacity can be daunting to a beginner. But since we’re just using it to make a recording, the learning curve is tolerable and there’s relatively little set-up.
5. Let’s configure Audacity’s preferences. From the Audacity menu, select Preferences.
6. Select the Audio I/O tab. Make sure that your line-in is the recording source by selecting Built-In Input from the Device menu.
7. Select the File Formats tab. You should use AIFF (Apple/SGI 32 bit float) for uncompressed audio and, while we’re here, we can make use of the LAME library we downloaded earlier.Click Find Library and point Audacity to the LAME library, which should be in your Audacity folder if you closely followed our instructions.

With that completed, Audacity can compress audio into the MP3 format. It might be a good idea to bump up the default MP3 bit rate if you’re an audiophile or if you have room for higher quality music.

Preparation and the Recording Process

To get a quality recording, you’ll need to prevent clipping the sound waves. “Clipping” literally means removing parts of the sound wave because of improper loudness from the source material.

Note that the peaks of the waves are flattened abruptly, or “clipped.”

1. To prevent this problem, let’s run some test audio through Audacity. Play a recording or radio station through your receiver or tape deck. We wouldn’t recommend using a vinyl record for this, since it will require resetting the needle. With the source playing, switch over to Audacity and click the record button.The record button looks like a standard record button on a VCR or tape deck.
2. Blue lines will show up in two rectangles. The rectangles are called the tracks – you’ll have left and right audio for a stereo signal. The lines represent the loudness of the source. You want a nice clean wave with the highest highs and lowest lows near, but not outside, the track.If you’re getting some clipping, adjust the volume on the source.
3. On the opposite side of the spectrum, you could have a very small wave that will make a very quiet digital sound file.If this is the case, carefully turn up the volume or increase the sensitivity of the line-in. Clipping is much worse than low signal input, but do try to get a strong signal for the sake of your effort and audio.

Once you’re reasonably happy with the sound levels you’re getting, it’s time for the real thing. Stop the audio and close any and all test tracks, just like you would a window.

1. With no audio signal being transmitted to your Mac, hit the record button in Audacity to create a lead-in. As quickly as you wish and can, start playing your record.Note: Audacity creates uncompressed audio files from its source material and these files can take up a large amount of real estate on your hard drive. It’s essential to have an adequate amount of space on your primary disk or a second dedicated data drive before starting to record. As a rule of thumb, think of thirty seconds of audio as four uncompressed megabytes of data. This equates to about a half a gigabyte per uncompressed album.
2. Sit back and let the record play through. When the first side ends, click Stop in Audacity. Now for a little insurance. Save your progress by selecting Save Project As… in the File menu, just like you would save a file in any other program. You’ll get a warning, but just click OK.This will create a .aup file and a data folder (in the format: Example_data) in the same directory. The .aup file will let you edit your recording later, and the data folder holds (surprise!) all the audio data.

Defining and Exporting Tracks

1. Now that we have our audio, we need to be able to see it in its entirety. Audacity has a zoom tool in its toolbar, just like an image viewer (i.e., Preview). Zoom out until you can see your whole wave.The selection tool in the upper left-hand of the tool bar; the zoom in the lower right.
2. The default tool that Audacity gives you is the selection tool, which looks an awful lot like the text selection cursor from a word processing program. Obviously, a pause between tracks has no sound and will be represented in the wave form by a flat line. Use the selection tool like you’re selecting a line of text and highlight your first song. It’s nice to know how long each song is, just in case there’s a “quiet moment” in a song. (Don’t be fooled!)
3. After highlighting a song, select Add Label at Selection from the Project menu. A label track appears under the stereo tracks. You can enter the name of the song, or any other text that will help keep you organized, in the label track.Ceci n’est pas un son. (Art humor.)
4. Define and label all the tracks, and then select Export Multiple from the File menu. Choose either uncompressed aiff format or teensy mp3. Or even the open source Oog Vorbis format if you like. (But it won’t play on your iPod.) Numbering consecutively will help keep your tracks in order. Just add a convenient File name prefix such as the album title.
5. Open your new audio files with iTunes, edit the ID3 tags if you like, and burn like any other audio CD.

Whew! You’re Finished

These files will not be of the same quality as a ripped CD, or a file from the iTunes Store. Most analog audio signals have minor imperfections, such as normalization issues and pops, clicks and scratches in the case of a vinyl LP. Audacity can fix these issues, but it’s more of an art than a science. Audacity has a variety of filters that can be used to fix these imperfections, but these are advanced techniques. We’ve spent enough time on the basics alone! There are other programs that can remove sonic “dirt.” And iTunes has a normalize feature. But who can resist the warmth of vinyl converted to a digital audio file?

Reference

If you’d like to see S5 in action, go ahead and run through the introductory slide show (also available as a 186KB ZIP archive, the size of which is due to the presence of several images in the slide show). Feel free to try any of the features. For example, you can hit the space bar to advance to the next slide. Or use the right arrow, the down arrow, hit Return… any of these will work. The other features will be explained in, or else demonstrated by, the slide show itself.

here is another that is similar

Reference Site

Lion comes with a newer version of X11. So you need to download and add a small file called.Xmodmap; otherwise Lion uses different key codes and your keyboard outputs gobbledygook!Download it and follow the instructions below.

Note, due to the strange name of this file (it’s part of OS X’s Unix legacy), you will need to move it to your home folder using Terminal; Finder won’t let you. Launch Applications » Utilities » Terminal and enter:

mv ~/Downloads/Xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap

Please be very careful with your case, upper and lower: the case must match exactly. It might be easier to copy and paste. Don’t forget to press Enter to run the command. Note, ~ stands for your home folder in Unix-speak; mv is short for move. Relaunch Watchtower Library and you should find that your keyboard is working normally again.

This fix applies to Watchtower Library for Mac version 1.3 and Lion OS X 10.7. I am currently working towards releasing version 2.0 of Watchtower Library for Mac which builds in its own complete version of X11 and associated software components, and has no external dependencies; so will not be affected so easily by different versions of OS X.

For more information go here

WordPress Global Translator

There are no additional options available at the moment, but if you want to add a bunch of users in one go, this will do it for you quickly.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/csv-user-import/