Vermyndax vermyndax

Like others, I was having mucho trouble getting Back to my Mac working. I’m happy to say that now it works pretty reliably on many networks that I’ve tried to connect from.

I should start by saying that I do have one of the Apple-recommended routers at home… to be more specific, I have an Apple Airport Extreme 802.11n.

Since I have this router and it supports the NAT-UPnP that is needed for my home tower to open the ports, I didn’t have to do any specific forwarding. However, I did have something going on that was foiling it quite well. I had port 443 opened and forwarding to a Linux server on the local network. Turns out, that’s one of the ports that BtmM wants to use – 443/tcp and 4500/udp, to be specific. I took off the specific port mapping for 443 and it was all about the authentication at that point.

There’s one thing that’s been on my mind recently. I’m sure you’re familiar with the news that Apple has been delivering Safari by default to Windows users with iTunes installed. I think just about everyone agrees that this is committing a fairly heinous crime against your users, but let’s analyze a different take on this.

Back in June of 2007, Steve Jobs declared his intention to get “the best browser in the world” on as many Windows PC’s as he could. This declaration was reinforced at Macworld 2008 in January of this year. Mr. Jobs was hell bent on gaining market share with his browser on both major platforms. He wants that market share like, uhh, well, now.

Some of the #morphixers may find this hard to believe, but I’m not going to defend Apple on this latest round of controversy.

Trying to sell your browser by suddenly including it in the newest autoupdate procedure for Windows users was a bad move. It reeks of that “unfriendly neighbor” feel like Microsoft forcing IE4 down your throat (remember those days?) I understand the idea and the approach. It would have been one thing to make it available – checking the box by default is another thing altogether.

Do your users try to get through the day with Entourage 2004 or Entourage 2008? (Believe me when I say “get through the day.”) Do you have your domain controllers locked away behind a VPN? Are your users depressed that they cannot access GAL information from outside your iron curtain?

E’rage users should feel less enraged with this interesting Applescript. This little guy makes a shortcut key available that will use Outlook Web Access to query your GAL and return information. It was pointed out to us by a Microsoft engineer. They did not verify that it worked with Exchange 2007, but I can tell you that it does function with Entourage 2008 with Exchange 2007.

Once again, the iPhone rules the press with a heavy dollop of enticing news.

There’s a lot here on the surface and a lot below the surface. Let’s scratch the surface first.

The announcements about Apple licensing ActiveSync are interesting. There was lots of speculation in this regard and greetz to those who called it. I myself lost a bet. I was thinking that Apple might actually thumb their nose at ActiveSync and employ webdav for Exchange 2003 (much like Entourage) or web services for Exchange 2007. Of course, that would not be a quick route to policy controls on the device itself (i.e. remote kill), so ActiveSync makes the most business sense both in time and money. It’s a good investment. I was just hoping they wouldn’t just… well, because.

Full text of MSFT e-Mail: Microsoft execs on Vista problems: “Full text: Microsoft execs on Vista problems

A federal judge today unsealed internal Microsoft e-mails that have been used to support the plaintiffs’ case in the lawsuit over the ‘Windows Vista Capable’ program. Snippets were previously read aloud in court, but the full messages go further to reveal extensive hand-wringing, at the highest levels of the […]”

(Via Dvorak Uncensored.)

It just occurred to me, while reading Mr. Dvorak’s post, that there’s a possibility that Intel specifically torpedoed Microsoft and Vista over the past few years to turn the tide in favor of Apple.

Here’s a late night pondering for you as I traipse off to bed.

Ask yourself: does the subject matter of a blog control what browser share you’re likely to experience on your site?

Given the stats that I’m getting, I can say (without much of a doubt) that yes, that’s true…

Eh. Just interesting is all.

Once again, I’ve stayed up far, far too late. Someone shoot me so I can get some sleep, please?

iTWire – From Windows to Linux – and back again

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again… the battle for the corporate desktop is fought at home. Microsoft has known this for a long time – Apple knows it too. That’s why Apple is sneaking up on Microsoft and they’re just not paying attention. They’re too busy mucking around in other businesses that they don’t belong in instead of focusing on the real business (operating systems, servers and Office).

I’m really enjoying the new setup – especially the part where I get to blow money on stuff like a USB headset mic… printers… bleh, stuff like that. This has been a good setup. This Mac Pro screams. It’s by far the most elegant computer I’ve ever come into contact with.

I’m starting to get a little disappointed in the Canon PIXMA MX700 though. For some odd reason, it keeps thinking the genuine Canon magenta cartridge is not recognizable and refuses to print anything. Okie, why have a printer if it won’t print anything? It’s starting to get on my nerves. I see some people have the same problem, so I’m trying some web solutions.

I’m in awe of the raw processing power of this Mac Pro. Really. I’m even going to see how it handles Vista.