Lion Server – Software Update Server

Yesterday, many Mac system administrators learned on Twitter of an urgent change arriving to their servers leaving less than 24 hours until the expiration day for Apple’s certificate used to sign updates. This change affects a tool that gets little fanfare and is deeply buried as one of 20+ items that Profile Manager can do. Although a Software Update Server (SUS) can normally be set up once and mostly forgotten, but doing so can save money, conserve bandwidth, reduce support tickets, and make a company’s Macs more stable.

The Software Update service allows all the Macs to get Apple software updates from a local server rather than having to use the public servers that Apple runs. This is a huge benefit, saving bandwidth on both Apple’s and the business’s ends, since each update gets downloaded once instead of for every computer. Also, when a company wants to test updates before they hit all their hundreds (or thousands) of computers, SUS allows those Mac administrators to release updates after they have been tested to avoid disrupting their colleagues with update conflicts interacting with other business critical software that could have been caught with some testing. more »

I did my Wikipedia research on the train before I stepped foot in Grand Central Terminal for the inaugural opening of the largest Apple store in the United States.

The iconic opal clock above the central information booth is valued between $10 to $20 million. The building is properly referred to as Grand Central Terminal, not Grand Central Station. During World War II, soldiers were instructed to shoot on sight anyone who gained unauthorized access to the hidden AC to DC converters, which powered tracks along the entire Eastern Seaboard. The ceiling zodiac, originally painted in 1912 and scraped clean of tobacco soot in 1998, is painted backwards, as if onlookers are glancing in on the universe from the outside — from God’s perspective.

On a typical day, 750,000 people pass through Grand Central Terminal. Today, Friday December 9 was not typical.

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Seattle’s Apple Store is located in the University Village shopping center. As of late October, so is the Microsoft Store.

Perhaps because Seattle is near Microsoft’s hometown Redmond, Microsoft has put a lot of effort into promoting this new store. Before the store opened, Microsoft opened a tent for people to play with Kinects and Windows Phones. If you visited the store on grand opening day, you got free tickets to a Black Keys concert.
So, overall, a very aggressive promotion strategy. But that isn’t the only aspect of the store that has been aggressive. Take, for example, the location.

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Steve Jobs, RIP

Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple. — Remembering Steve Jobs