[Cube] Yes, we're back!

[Roy Hackett]

Thanks.
Roy Hackett

On Sep 15, 2009, at 11:56 AM, Eric Prentice wrote:

> Hello List Members,
> In case, you didn't notice, the lists at TheMacintoshGuy.com are  
> back! ;-)
>
> Many of you had noticed the lists slowing down over recent months  
> and we'd seen some very long delays in trying to get mail processed.  
> Unfortunately, the poor old XServe we were running on was having a  
> really hard time keeping up. Our IT friends made some attempts to  
> squeeze some life into the old server but as we dug into it, the  
> poor machine just died. Perhaps years of 100% CPU activity wore the  
> poor thing out.
>
> So instead of messing with things too much, we went out and got a  
> new machine, and started completely from scratch. We now have a new  
> server with 10.6 and 64-bit compile of all the server software.  
> (Read below if you want more details.)
>
> With the new server, we're able to put more things in place that  
> will help revitalize this community of lists. We're also looking at  
> some new lists (iPhone, MacTablet, etc.) that will help get us into  
> current areas of interest. We'll let you know when those are live.
>
> I want to thank you all for the community you've created and I look  
> forward to seeing it grow. It really is a special thing that we have  
> all created here together.
>
> We're planning on keeping the lists very open with very little  
> moderation as they have been for the last 10+ years. We appreciate  
> everything you do to keep the lists helpful, on topic, PG, and fun  
> to be a part of. We will work on doing a better job of communicating  
> what is going on. Unfortunately, the email addresses for the lists  
> have been around for a long time and are popular with spammers  
> apparently. While we do a great job of preventing any of that from  
> getting through to the lists, it does keep the admin accounts and  
> server pretty full of junk.
>
> So, take a minute to see what other lists you might want to be a  
> part of and start a discussion there. I was just looking and it  
> looks like we're approaching the 11th anniversary of our oldest list  
> later this month.
> <http://www.themacintoshguy.com/lists/>
>
> And for those who didn't know, I'm Eric Prentice,  
> themacintoshguy.com was a site I started in the mid 90s for my Mac  
> consulting business. Since then, I started Dr. Bott LLC, <http://www.drbott.net/ 
> > a distributor of accessories for the Apple market and that takes  
> the majority of my focus. Dr. Bott LLC is kind enough to host the  
> listserver and lend IT expertise to keeping it running. Our hope is  
> that the new server will be a better platform to keep things running  
> smoothly. If you have something you think we need to know, a email  
> to the list admin addresses are always a good idea, lately you can  
> also find me on Twitter. <http://twitter.com/tunaball>
>
> Thank you for reading all this and being a part of the lists!
>
> Eric
>
>
> If you are into technical details from our IT friends, read on...
>
> The old machine really had trouble coping with many many files  
> combined in a single HFS directory. We considered re-purposing some  
> existing hardware but decided if we're going to put in the effort,  
> we might as well start with some fast hardware and the latest  
> versions of all the applicable software.
>
> This machine was loaded with 10.6.0 Snow Leopard (client). We went  
> on to compile the current stable release of Mailman and configure  
> Postfix. I'm excited to say that all the software components for the  
> list server (Apache, Postfix, Python, Mailman) are running in native  
> x86_64 mode. Woohoo!
>
> System load and response time on the new server is obviously orders  
> of magnitude faster than the previous server, an Xserve G4. Snow  
> Leopard is still a x.0 release, so we realize there are a few minor  
> glitches, but we didn't run into anything that we could not work  
> around.
>
> Some of the problems we ran into:
> * SoftRAID (we love these guys, but it doesn't seem stable yet on  
> 10.6)
> * SNMP (wonky responses on some standard monitoring attributes)
> * Default configurations more secure (Apple has adjusted some of the  
> default settings for some services, tending to be more secure then  
> previous OS versions. That is generally good, but requires a little  
> extra sleuthing if you plan to install and operate software as  
> documented for installing on 10.4 or 10.5)
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