Switching…

I’ve decided to stop the ability to comment to blogposts and articles on this blog. The content on the site is not really up-to-date any more and doesn’t reflect the current state of much of the software used. As a benefit it also keeps out the spammers.

If you have any questions on the articles and how-to’s posted here you are better of on my other site which is kept up to date as much as possible. The content covers the same matter (apache, mysql, php and mailserver), but also covers Leopard.

The DIYMacServer.com site is also equipped with a forum where you can ask all the questions you want.

Sorry for the inconvinience.

It’s been a while since I blogged here, mostly because my other site is taking up so much time to keep everything up to date. The latest development is that I’ve got a Mac Mini in the Macminicolo.net datacenter. You can read more about it on my other blog. This site has moved now as well.

When wading trough the backlog of RSS feeds and emails which piled up during my vacation I found a reference to the O3:magazine (The Open Source Enterprise Magazine) which has an issue which is completely about using open source software to create an enterprise email solutions. It covers the following topics:

• Building Secure Postfix Appliances
• Using DSPAM
• Designing Scalable SMTP Networks
• MobilityEmail Client
• Voicemail / Email Integration
• Using Dovecot for IMAP / POP3
• Webmail with RoundCube
• Encrypting Email Protocols

I’ve playing with the idea of releasing all the instructions as a PDF download which you can save locally so you can print it or keep it on the Desktop whenever you need it without having to have an internet connection working. Would you like to be able to download this and would you be willing to pay for the download (for a few dollar/euro) to reward all the work that went into it. I haven’t thought this through yet but I guess if you would pay you would get all the updates as well for a period of time. No DRM !

Yes, I’m away for a while to a place that I don’t think has permanent accessible internet access. This means I won’t be responding to all your comments and questions for two weeks, but don’t dispair. If you’ve got issues and are willing to share them with the other I suggest using the forum where others are willing to repond to your needs. See you again in 2 weeks !

Sorry for having the site offline, almost for 24 hours this time. The cause, a telco-telco migration of my DSL line! My ISP has been taken over by another larger ISP and now they are moving everybody to the new owners network. The actual move yesterday wasn’t announced, I only noticed I was suddenly offline while I wasn’t at home and couldn’t do a thing. We’ll see how they will perform and if it will become a buggy connection I guess I’ll have to get myself a different ISP.

The blogosphere and all the Apple new sites have covered it by now. Is it for real? Does this mean no more small headless Mac ? Should we buy up the last ones and keep upgrading the CPU till there is no more fit or can we switch to a more powerfull Apple TV as the new low power Mac server platform. A Mac Pro is way to powerfull, loud and power consuming to be as this effective. I guess we will need to wait and see what will be announced at the WWDC.

But don’t hold your breath as it is still not a fact! I guess I will buy one of the last mini’s to replace the last G4 I still have running. As you might know I’ve got a Intel Core Duo as my desktop machine and a G4 1.5 as the server where I run everything on.

Update: There is a petition you can sign to persuade apple to keep the mini alive!

It’s been a while since I blogged here, this is been caused by several things that have been going on which precented me from blogging.
First there was the moving of the documentation which at first consumed most of my time.

Second there was the problem of PHP 5.2.1 not properly compiling on the PPC platform, I’m still looking for a solution for that.

Third, I’ve been very busy with job interviews and reviewing the company in question using my contacts in my professional and personal network. I can happily tell you that the last activity has resulted in some success. I can tell you that I’ve accepted the offer that was made to me and that I will start my new job on the first of may 2007.

I hope to spend more time blogging till that moment and hopefully find the time to solve that pesky little PHP problem. The blog might change a bit in he future as I might get the opportunity to do some work related blogging as I’m working in the exciting world of integration software (middleware) where SOA is now an accepted and somewhat generally understood buzzword…

Well, it’s the end of the day here and I need to get this of my heart. I’ve become 40 today which got me a bit depressed for the last week. 40 means that you are becoming an old man. While I still feel like in my 20′s although my body is protesting a lot more than before and doesn’t always agree with me.

The last few years life has been good to me on a personal level, my relationship is blooming, I’ve become a father and I feel more alive than ever.

Well it’s said that it becomes easier if you pass 40, the getting older, I hope they are right because currently I don’t feel 40 but I still have to tell everybody that I am and currently it s#cks.

It’s official, the new site DIYMacServer.com is open for business. I couldn’t wait any longer even though it is not finished yet. The site is still building up on content, as I’m rewriting most of the stuff and incorporating some changes on how things are written. I’m still tweaking the site and some of the look and feel, so don’t look strange if something might look a bit different the next time you visit.

The new site comes with a new forum, using BBPress, which is from the makers of WordPress. It has some nice features which I think will make the information more accessible like tags. Tags make it easier to find posts that span more than one Category. Another feature that will help me and that is the Akismet anti-spam feature. It saves me a lot of time not to have to delete all the spam users from the forum everyday. Akismet saves this blog from more than 100 spam comments each day. (I don’t even get that many via email).

Please note that all updates, blog posts and such concerning the old “ISP in a box” (from now on called DIYMacServer) documentation will no longer be put onto this blog. If you have an RSS reader please subscribe to the new site for all news on updates and changes for the DIYMacServer stuff.

Just wanted to see if there are any objections to move the Apache and PHP installations from their current location in ‘/Library/’ to ‘/usr/local/’

The layout for Apache will become:

<layout DIYMacServer>
    prefix:        /usr/local/apache2
    exec_prefix:   ${prefix}
    bindir:        ${exec_prefix}/bin
    sbindir:       ${exec_prefix}/bin
    libdir:        ${exec_prefix}/lib
    libexecdir:    ${exec_prefix}/modules
    mandir:        ${prefix}/man
    sysconfdir:    /etc/httpd/
    datadir:       /var/www
    installbuilddir: ${datadir}/build
    errordir:      ${datadir}/error
    iconsdir:      ${datadir}/icons
    htdocsdir:     ${datadir}/htdocs
    manualdir:     ${datadir}/manual
    cgidir:        ${datadir}/cgi-bin
    includedir:    ${prefix}/include
    localstatedir: /var
    runtimedir:    ${localstatedir}/run
    logfiledir:    ${localstatedir}/log/httpd
    proxycachedir: ${localstatedir}/cache/httpd
</Layout>

This brings everything in-line with normal other installs. The configuration is as it was with the original Apache in ‘/etc/httpd‘ and the log, cache and pid file are all in ‘/var‘. Although I’m still having doubts about the datadir, I would have put it in ‘/var/www/‘ but on the normal OS X install it would be in ‘/Library/WebServer/‘. What do you think ?

PHP5 will be located in ‘/usr/local/php5‘, the php.ini file will be located in ‘/etc‘.

I hope to open up the new site tomorrow if all goes well…