[Fed-Talk] Anyone go to the OS X Snow Leopard(Server) talk in DC? I think I went to a different one :-)
[Fed-Talk] Anyone go to the OS X Snow Leopard(Server) talk in DC? I think I went to a different one :-)
- Subject: [Fed-Talk] Anyone go to the OS X Snow Leopard(Server) talk in DC? I think I went to a different one :-)
- From: "Jacob, Raymond CIV SPAWARSYSCEN-ATLANTIC, 58420" <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 4 Dec 2009 23:03:29 -0500
- Thread-topic: Anyone go to the OS X Snow Leopard(Server) talk in DC? I think I went to a different one :-)
Was this the talk in the Lansberg building on 7th ST NW?
I must have gone to the wrong talk. The talk that I went to was four(4) hours
long. I came in about a half of an hour late to the OSX Snow Leopard Server
talk. The talk to me demonstrated the difference between the way DoD and the
Private Sector look at software and hardware. The impression that I got was
that the philosophy of apple is "delivering services to users that enhance productivity
and collaboration." DoD in my opinion is interested in securing and managing
services before deployment and delivery of the services. While listening to the
seminar I realized that I look or view the world through
STIGS, Security Checklists, DoD and other Government guidance or misguidance.
Secondly, I want to know how to manage the hardware and monitor the performance of
the hardware and software by trolling the syslog for new events.
What can I say? I am syslog junkie.
I don't want to give the impression that I am not interested in collaboration.
If one has ever been involved in an accreditation effort where more than
one person is involved then one knows that email or a network share folder does not cut it.
Especially, when one tries to look for a document on a network share and you can not remember
what folder the document is stored in, so one must search for the document from the root
of the network share folder/drive. In that case, a workspace or site in a wiki or SharePoint
server can be a god send.
One event or phenomenon that I noticed is that the auditors are not interested in the technical solutions
or data that the proves that a finding is a false positive or does not apply. At one time the
STIGS or the SRR-Security Readiness Reviews would have Notes telling the system admin that the
vulnerability did not affect say Solaris. I don't recall seeing those note any more.
However, I will admit that the quality of the technical information has increased.
The problem that I have is that I or the system admin checking the vulnerabilities become
the sole repository of that information. That information is passed from admin to admin
until one admin gets run over by a bus then we are in predicament. I used to write
copious notes and document everything I did until I realized that I am writing the
notes for myself and that non verbal learning is not everyone's style. I realized this
while looking at Cisco videos on YouTube. I felt less anxious looking at a video
demonstrating how to perform a router task than reading the information in a book
with no equipment to test on. I had mentioned to my supervisor that I wanted to
get a microphone and Camtasia Studio in order to do podcasts for junior members
of our team. As some of you know DoD is not always user friendly. It seems that my
supervisor is following in that tradition too.
So you may ask what does this have to do with the Snow Leopard Server talk in DC?
1. Snow Leopard Server has a wiki and previewer that renders a document without
the need for the user to have the application on her desktop.
2. Snow Leopard Server features Podcast Producer 2. "Podcast Producer 2" is a complete, end-to-end solution for encoding, publishing, and distributing high-quality podcasts - ideal for employee training, university lectures, presentations, and more. New features in Podcast Producer 2 offer more options for capturing, creating, and publishing podcasts, making it even easier to share critical content around your organization. If my understanding is correct, I could procure a "Mac mini($999) with Snow Leopard Server" and use the "Podcast Capture Utility" on the Mac or the "Podcast Web Capture Utility" on the PC.
/* Note to self Google-fu not strong today
* I could not find much on the "Podcast Capture Utility."
* I will have to try again with a new search term.
*/
I could see including small video's on technical details between notes on the accreditation process.
I would need "Quartz Composer" for certain transition effects. The presenter did mention adding
music to the podcast.
3. iTunes U integration - University lectures. I do not know why I like this site. I just find these
lectures interesting and refreshing.
4. Finally, I save the best for last http://www.macosxautomation.com/
Mac OS X Automation in Snow Leopard.
Power to Command
Sooner or later every individual, business, or organization is challenged to perform repetitive or complex procedures on their computers. Whether the task is renaming numerous files, batch processing images, or building documents using data from multiple sources, the need for powerful automation tools is shared by all computer users. Mac OS X is designed, from the ground up, for automation and offers a variety of integrated tools and technologies to solve your automation challenges.
The project leader for Automation gave the presentation. I forgot his name.
After his talk, he received a round of applause. I still get goose bumps when I think of his talk and I can not do his presentation
justice but I will try.
The presenter introduced the concept of "Point of Need".
The idea being if you are working in one application you should not have to get out
of the application you are in, in order to modify an object such as picture, in another application.
To demonstrate the concept the presenter opened a text file in a word processing application.
He gave an example of: Say a coworker sent a text file with the names of customers that
were not sorted and you wanted the names sorted. He selected a lines of text, right clicked
and selected sort. The names were then sorted. He called the action that sorted the
text a service and showed us how to build such a service. He went on to say
that he can use that service in other applications such as text in an email.
Then he asked the apple remote desktop project leader to identify himself in the audience.
The presenter said using the automater you can create automated workflows and services
that interact with remote computers over RDP /* I am not sure if this works with windows
PC's. The presenter might or might not have mentioned this. By this time I had drunk the
Kool-Aid and it was too late. */
5. Now that I have come down from my sugar high. Let me briefly mention: "Apple" that seems to
be in denial about the "Operating/System(Server) Virtualization" freight train bearing down
on all of us. As I heard one attendee say, I have plenty of dells and a shortage
of Macs. Another attendee asked during the Q & A if Mac OSX (Snow Leopard) Server would eventually run on VMware ESX?
You all can guess the answer to that one. "No"
6. Another attendee asked during the Q & A about his dis-satisfaction with tools for monitoring raid drives on a
xServe running Snow Leopard Server.
In conclusion, I liked the collaboration, video communication, automater tools and iTunes U integrator.
I had concerns that I did not hear that apple was not committed to virtualizing the Snow Leopard
as a type 1 hypervisor or as type 2 hypervisor on VMware. My assumption is that the talk
was supposed to give a broad over view of the features of OS X Snow Leopard Server. It did do that
in retrospect.
In my opinion, if Apple ever gives a talk in DC again. The theme would be "delivering services to government
system administrators. For example:
1. Parallels and Fusion are great but "VirtualBox" is free and has
the feel of open source, if Sun would make some one available via teleconferencing to demonstrate
and answer questions regarding running "Windows 7", "SQL Server", or "MS Exchange" on virtual box.
2. Invite Microsoft or an Apple Partner to demonstrate adding Macs to an AD domain, configuring
Entourage or the new mail client to access the MS Exchange server using CAC card authentication.
Ask for a show of hands how many people use their macs to access https://webmail.*.mil/exchange
or http://www.us.army.mil? Demonstrate the automator for automating windows system administrator
tasks i.e. if possible saving the event logs and copying them to a central logging server.
3. Invite splunk to the meeting to demonstrate searching the logs for an security incident.
4. Redo the wiki and podcast utility presentation to focus on training and capturing knowledge
that can be re-used.
PS: One of the presenters, I thought remember said it best regarding the "mac mini server", we took a $1000 operating
system and wrapped it in a "mac mini server" for $999. Apple gave me a lot of reasons to buy the Operating System but
no reason to buy the hardware.
Question: Why would one buy an Apple Xserve?
r/Raymond
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