Filed under: TUAW Business
Yet another introduction
Greetings, TUAW faithful! I'm Todd, and after writing for Download Squad for a year, I'm fortunate enough to be able to write for TUAW. A MacBook Pro is my primary machine and I'm rarely without my iPhone 3G (who isn't?).By day I'm a systems admin for a school district in central Pennsylvania where I manage a network of about 1400 PC's, 600 Macs, and 35 servers (a handful of which run Mac OS X). I handle all of the Mac client management, system imaging, and podcast-related functions.
In addition to my day job, a few nights a month I teach at a local career institute covering topics like Apache administration, Active Directory management, and Cisco configuration. I get to work with small classes in hands-on environments which allow the students to get a taste of the real "IT" world.
Drawing from these experiences, I hope to offer insightful articles ranging from the use of Apple products in the classroom to creating Mac system images for mass deployment. I look forward to interacting, sharing, and learning from you and the other great TUAW writers!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Christopher Fugle said 7:35AM on 12-09-2008
Good Morning Todd,
Welcome aboard to TUAW! This site always blows me away with insightful comments and leading stories. I am wondering if you may have a few links that would lead me to any discussion forum on implementing our first Mac OS X Leopard server. I work for a municipal government in Canada, and as the sole Mac support staff for a small be elite design group in an organization of 20,000 windows units, I am looking for a site that will allow me to pose technical questions outside of Apple's forums. If you have anything, I would love follow through with research. I hope to learn how to implement this server in a closed environment on a larger scale network.
Looking forward to your articles...
Season's best.
C.Fugle
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Todd Ritter said 7:56AM on 12-09-2008
Hi Christopher,
It is indeed very difficult to find OS X server forums (outside of support.apple.com), but I find it's easier to target your forum search at specific products for which you're trying to use. For instance, there is a decent Podcast Producer forum here: http://podcastproducer.org/forums
Aside from that, check out these general OS X server sites:
http://www.apple.com/server/macosx/resources/ - excellent pdf documents pertaining to most aspects of OS X server
http://www.afp548.com/ - general OS X server tips/tricks
Michael Rose said 11:59AM on 12-09-2008
Don't forget macenterprise.org!
Eric Lewis said 7:35AM on 12-09-2008
Does anyone care?
i think not!
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Lars said 7:38AM on 12-09-2008
You can claim your douchebag award in the lobby!
daenney said 7:43AM on 12-09-2008
Ohw man, Active Directory, I feel your pain... That piece of software has given me as much if not more headaches than the WIndows-platform all together.
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ds said 8:31AM on 12-09-2008
Good to see a fellow OS X Server admin on the team!
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Jim said 8:36AM on 12-09-2008
Central PA represent!
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Jesse W. said 9:03AM on 12-09-2008
Welcome Todd! I look forward to reading the articles you write. I also live in Central Pennsylvania so maybe I will see you around one day at Sheetz and not even know it! lol
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Todd Ritter said 9:15AM on 12-09-2008
Sheetz! I probably saw you there yesterday when I was getting my MTO for lunch.
Kevin said 9:29AM on 12-09-2008
Glad to hear some Mac love out there!
Also glad to hear something about Central PA! I grew up there and i'm at PSU for IST, and have been thinking/interested in some kind of system admin job at local school district, so if you had any insight or would email me back, i'd greatly appreciate it!
Kevin
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mbd said 2:24PM on 12-09-2008
Congrats on your new status at TUAW! I look forward to any stories relating to mac administration, integration into larger networks, etc.
We are currently using a deployment system whose heart is centered around Radmind (www.radmind.org). What setup do you use to image and maintain your macs?
@Christopher Fugle: The already suggested mailing lists and websites are probably the primary ones I'd suggest too, but you might also find some info at http://www.enterprisedesktopalliance.com/
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Todd Ritter said 3:22PM on 12-09-2008
I use an Xserve running Netboot to host images that I create with NetRestore Helper (which sadly is being discontinued). I just plug a MacBook or iMac into our network, hold the "N" key on boot, select an image, and wait a few minutes for the process to finish! The hardest part of the whole thing is deciding what settings to make on the seed machines before creating the image.
http://www.bombich.com/software/netrestore.html
Luigi193 said 9:10PM on 12-09-2008
The last few of you new TUAW writers have seemed VERY qualified!!!
Hurray! Hope to hear from you all soon!
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