Duane on Macs

My company does consulting on Mac-Windows Integration, Apple Certification Training, and database projects using Filemaker and mySQL.

I have been amazed lately how much our Filemaker business has grown. It is a combination of companies upgrading from version 5.5 to version 9 and some new projects taking over for people with databases that have outgrown their expertise with Filemaker.

This growth has taken me by surprise and I am wondering if this is due to the increase in Macintosh sales or the fact that Filemaker has evolved into a very capable database that can easily integrate with both the web and other SQL databases like mySQL, MS SQL Server, and Oracle.

We now have 4 Filemaker programmers on staff and are looking to add another. Another indication that Filemaker is becoming more popular is the number of calls and emails I am getting from Indian companies to offer assistance with our projects. It would be interesting to see sales figures for Filemaker over the last 3 or 4 years and see how sales have grown.

To quote Mark Twain, “The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated“.  Apparently this can also apply to the Mac Mini.

If this is true, what would you like on the next version? I can think of a few things.
4 USB Ports with room enough to attach flash drives
Target Mode for USB
eSATA Interface
400 MB FireWire
Video capable of driving 30″ monitors
up to 320 GB hard drive
up to 4 GB RAM
Smaller Form Factor achieved by eliminating the optical drive but letting the Mini use the Air’s external Optical Drive

I use Minis in my training classrooms and as test servers. I have one dedicated for Server 2003 and Active Directory testing. Several of my customers use them as workgroup servers by booting off external 3.5 inch drives and in one case a Drobo.

Personally, I love the Mini and hope it doesn’t go away for a very long time.

As I work more with Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5) Server, I really get excited in using the new collaboration services, especially the wiki and calendaring server. Unfortunately, these features of the Server are not ready for prime time. I had hoped with the release of 10.5.2 that the calendaring server and AFP would stabilize, but unfortunately in my experience, they still have too many problems to trust Leopard on a production server.

We have been using Leopard as a production Web only server since late November without any ill effects. The combination of Apache 2, php 5, and mySQL 5 works very well.

Unfortunately, I have tried to use Leopard as an Open Directory Master, Calendar Server, and AFP server at one account since 10.5.2 was released and in stops functioning under very light load at least once a week. The server starts refusing connections and complains and incorrect user:password combination was entered. After troubleshooting, I have not determined the cause, but I did find out the problem can be solved by stopping and starting the AFP server. Hopefully this will be fixed with the 10.5.3 release.

In remembering the transition from 10.3 to 10.4 server, I recall having problems until the release of 10.4.4. It was easy to hold off upgrading from 10.3 because there were not as many new features in changing to 10.4.

I guess that’s why they call it the bleeding edge.

It is been interesting to me all the stories about the death of the music industry and how the record companies are trying to keep their existing business model together. However, it caught me by surprise to read the article today.

I know ever since I got my first mp3 player I have purchased a lot more music, both in digital format and as CDs from Amazon. My teenage daughters also buy a lot of music online (or should I say charge it to my credit card). I’m sure that a lot of kids just copy their friends music, but since the original Napster has been shut down I think the piracy must have stabilized. That is why I was very surprised how quickly Apple bypassed WalMart, especially after Walmart shut down their online music business. Was their online store that bad, or did they expect a much faster ramp up?

Regardless, it is odd after Walmart dictating terms for years to the record companies, now Apple is top dog. It would be interesting to know if the margins for the record companies are better with Apple than Walmart.

As I make reservations for attending WWDC, I realize that I much prefer it to MacWorld now. About 3 years ago they added the Enterprise track, now called Information Technology because Enterprise is a non supported entity at Apple

This made the Conference much more valuable for me to attend as there are plenty of sessions for system admins that discuss scripting, directory services, deployment, and other like topics. With the advent of the IT track some developers complain that it has dumbed down the conference, but there are still many, many sessions on topics memory management, writing device drivers, etc.

A third track new for this year cover all things iPhone with sessions with titles like “3D Graphics for iPhone using OpenGL ES”, “iPhone Multi-Touch Events and Gestures”, and “Using Xcode: Source Editor, Refactoring, Debugger, and SCM”. It will be interesting to see how many new developers those sessions attract.

I just hope that all the new developers don’t screw up the keynote session. I am disappointed how Steve’s Keynote is used at MacWorld now to sell the high end conference tickets. I always have attended the excellent MacIT conference put on by Schoun Regan in conjunction with MacWorld. Unfortunately, the $900 ticket for the conference does not guarantee you a seat into the keynote anymore. In fact this year, after waiting outside in a line from 6AM to 9AM we were finally ushered into an overflow room with the keynote on a projector 15 minutes after it had started.

If you enjoy the WWDC as much as I do let me know what you like most about it. The networking (people), the networking (wireless or wired), the sessions on new stuff, the parties, etc.

My Goodness, what is happening. Everyone seems to have all sorts of rumors about the iPhone. 

First, it was that no iPhones were available in Apple Stores in New York City, then an analyst predicted Apple would sell 45 Million iPhones before the end of 2009. Shortly thereafter, rumors began to come out on new contracts being signed for 3G iPhone production. Then, iPhone shortages all around the US along with a 7 day wait for iPhones ordered from the online Apple Store.

Analysts then pointed to the iPhone shortages as a sure sign that the new 3G iPhone will be released shortly. Enough already! Just let me know when I can trade up.