micromux

Assessing Your TimeMachine Backup Strategy

Since returning to a predominantly Macintosh household a few years ago, we have been diligently maintaining backups on our shared TimeMachine volume. Everything is being kept current, and it has been comforting to watch the periodic swirl of the TimeMachine backup status icon in my toolbar. However, we have yet to test this backup strategy and it is now getting to the point where it would be good to know that it’s working.

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Convert OpenOffice to Microsoft Office

My first exposure to OpenOffice was a demo from a Sun representative where he was extolling the virtues of Sun’s StarOffice while running his actual presentation from another product (Microsoft PowerPoint). It clearly wasn’t ready for general consumption at that point, but it quickly improved and became the predominant office platform outside of Microsoft Office.

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Apple Virtual Store

Apple has finally done what Microsoft should have done years ago, they have an App Store where programmers can sell products and take advantage of an instant electronic distribution mechanism. There are quite a few benefits inherent to this infrastructure, and for anyone who has tried to develop and market a software application it will be nearly self evident. Read on for my list of benefits and of course the set of counterpoints you will want to consider before publishing to the Apple version of a virtual electronic storefront.

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AirPrint for Mac on Linux

Apple is finally offering printing services from your iOS device, they are marketing this capability as AirPrint and it is in fact an amalgam of a number of existing network technologies. There are some HP printers already configured for AirPrint, but the list is rather short. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could use your existing printers to do this?
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Building Your AFP TimeMachine

While it is possible to use a Windows or NFS share for your Apple TimeMachine backups, using the native Apple file sharing protocol (AFP) together with a service like Bonjour to broadcast the file services available you will find yourself with a much better file sharing experience. This tutorial walks you through how to configure your Ubuntu server to serve as an AFP host on your network and then discusses what you will need for TimeMachine to work properly.

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