Folks,

It's been a while since the last newsletter, but I've been busy with the MacWorld show. I gave a talk called "IP Failover and Load Balancing for Mac OS X Server".

<http://macworldexpo.com/live/20/events/20SFO07A/conference/tracksessions/Mac+OS+X+in+the+Enterprise+Arena/QMONYA04SWVT>

The punch line is that you can do active-active clustering of AFP home directories by using a load balancer and Xsan — except that I couldn't get the demonstration working. I'll post an article once I get it figured out -- Joel Rennich swears that he just turned it on and it worked, but I kept getting directories turning into Unix sockets after the failover.

The Keynote and the iPhone

Just a couple of thoughts from the keynote:

1. Apple's legendary UI subtlety is running full throttle on this device. If you watch the stream once Apple posts it on the website, look at the right edge of the screen when Steve Jobs is scrolling a list. A thin, vertical scroll thumb appears that shows where you are in the list and how much of the list is visible in the window.
2. Yes, I believe that the iPhone has the potential to transform the cell phone industry. What I believe will be interesting to observe is what will happen in three or four years' time. In 2001, the original iPod cost $399; today, there is a range of iPods with prices from $79 to $349, and there is a whole ecosystem of third-party products that work with the iPod. What will the iPhone ecosystem look like in a few years? How will third party products fit into the picture?

The Speaker Lounge

It's a pretty cool place to hang out. They feed you breakfast and lunch, and you get to hang out with speakers from all different session tracks. It's pretty cool to hear from user-side folks like Shawn King of Your Mac Life, or meet some of the people in person that you only know as an e-mail address. There is a separate wireless network for speaker use, and there is a small staff to help out with issues.

The Speaker Gift Bag

When you hear this, what do you think of? I think of a nice little bag with maybe some chocolates and a gift certificate or something. Not soft-sided luggage with wheels and a pop-out handle that's so big that you have to put it into checked luggage to get it home! It was chock full of all kinds of geek goodies, software, and iPod accessories. I'll be writing about some of the things that were in there that I found useful and/or interesting in the next few weeks. I don't normally attach photos, but just this once I'm going to make an exception, because you gotta see it to believe it.