• Staying with the current release means Apple is updating my platform, which in turn means...
• Better security/stability
• Better compatibility with the iGadgets
• Ease of use

The design philosophy for Server changed just a bit from Snow Leopard to Lion.  Lion Server is built on pretty much the same foundation, but the user-interface has been dramatically thinned out with the aim of making Server something that regular people could use.  I get that, and thing it's a rational decision by Apple.  I was astounded to learn however that I'm in the "advanced user" category and lost some capabilities when this happened.  Who'da thunk it?? 

So I've got to go looking for ways to "put back" some of the things I use the server for.  My goal is to either find work-arounds within Lion Server or find bits and pieces of software that I can run on top of Lion to do those things.

This post will be the place where I post my findings -- both about installing and configuring Lion, and solving the little work-around problems.  Should be fun.

Installation puzzlers

Running Lion in a VMWare virtual machine

Turns out that VMWare 4 brought in support for running instances of Lion in a virtual machine.  Kewl!  So I ran off and bought Lion Onna Stick (USB flash drive) from Apple, plugged it into my MacBook Pro, pointed VMWare Fusion at it, accepted the defaults, took a nap and when I came back I had me a Lion machine running on top of Snow Leopard.  Things to do differently from just accepting defaults;

• Give the VM at least two cores in the CPU (runs a lot better -- I may bump it to four the next time around).  Once Server is installed, my little Lion VM runs just dandy on the 2009 MacBook Pro -- consumes about 5% of the CPU when idle.  Sweet.
• When building Lion (not server, just Lion) pick a user/computer name that's not a real personal type name -- I ran into conflicts with my personal name in Open Directory because I'd already used it for the core Lion account.
• Pay attention to networking -- you'll be using the Ethernet adapter a lot more rigorously than the default NAT configuration in VMWare -- I set mine to go directly to the gateway router rather than using the default virtual-NAT.
• Since we're configuring the basis for a server here (especially if you want it to run Open Directory), this is the best time to get the DNS stuff sorted out.  I waited until later the first few times and the Server install vacuumed up a bunch of wrong-settings as a result.  I think I'll do a little "Networking and DNS" section about all that.  Open Directory's auto-configuration/startup process will break badly if DNS isn't set up right.  I never figured out how to fix it after the fact -- clean install with proper DNS was my path to success.
• Take lots of snapshots of the VM.  The basic Lion install was pretty clean (except for the wrong-DNS stuff, see below), but I had to fall back to it several times before I got Server settled in properly (especially Open Directory).  The nice thing is that the App Store was quite happy to let me re-download the Server stuff and re-install it once I'd bought it.  I don't know if there's a limit, but I've re-installed Server on top of my clean Lion at least five times so far.  The word "Doh!" covers the reasons-why pretty well.

Networking and DNS for Lion Server

One of the things that really caught me was installing Lion Server behind an at-home gateway router.  In the past I've always been using a data-center router as the gateway and DNS was a no-brainer -- just set up an A Record pointing at the server in DNS and go.  But home routers have a different job to do and those differences got pulled into the configuration of the server in ways that I wasn't expecting.  Here are lessons-learned.

• I'd never paid attention to the network name of my home router because in normal circumstances it doesn't matter.  But since I am now using it as a gateway out to the "real" internet, it does.
• My router thought it was in the "lan" domain -- which is fine for a NAT-providing home router.  The trouble came when Lion Server pulled that domain into the name of the server when it talked to Lion during install.  Lion had in turn pulled in that "lan" domain through DHCP during install and built the computer-name with it (Mikes-Mac.lan or somesuch).  Again, this normally doesn't matter, but that's not a good name for a machine that is going to be put out on the public Internet.
• My solution was to pound the real domain into the home router (CloudMikey.com in my case) before building Lion (yes Lion -- don't wait for the Server install -- many headaches avoided).  That way all the computer-name bits and bobbins will have a real internet-routeable name instead of a non-routeable name.

Replacing Functionality

The good news about Lion Server is that it's built on the same platform as all the earlier versions of Server.  The bad news is that the user interface has been redesigned with a different user in mind.  Not complaining, I get why they did this and it makes sense to me.  But I need to hunt around a bit to "add back" some of the tools that disappeared.  Here's where I'll take notes about that -- my first pass will be based on scouring the Apple discussion-list for Lion Server and then I'll see where I go from there.

Mail -- Mail-forwarding and email-group accounts

My use of the mail server is pretty standard, but I have a few accounts which forward mail to a different address (mostly family members that retrieve their mail from their ISP's server but want a consistent email address, or multiple people instead of just one).  I used the "Mail" tab in Workgroup Manager to do this on Snow Leopard, but that tab is missing in the Lion version of Workgroup Manager.

• In Lion -- build a filter using the webmail interface.  Once the account has been set up in the Workgroup Manager, log into the account with webmail and add filters that redirects messages to the downstream addresses.  One filter per address (rather than multiple addresses, separated by commas).  There's a limit of 4 destinations per account, which is fine for me -- most of mine are single destination forwarding accounts.  There's a hack to expand that 4-destination limitation but I haven't had to use it.

Mail -- Hosting multiple domains for email

I use several domains for email.  Under Snow Leopard I would add them as as either Local Host Aliases or Virtual Domains in the Mail/Advanced/Hosting tab of Server Admin.  Doh!  They're still there in the new version.  I was looking at Server rather than Server Admin.  Silly me.

Mail -- Email aliases

These work the same as before -- Workgroup Manager.

Web -- SSL on sites

Initial post:

SSL encryption is pretty important to me, especially on web-based versions of wiki, mail, calendar, contacts, etc.  Don't want people logging into those over an unencrypted connection, thank you very much.  So we gotta turn SSL on for some sites, but not all.

Argh.  I struggled with this for far too long. Did all kinds of fooling around with the files in the Apache "sites" folder, only to watch them get overwritten by Server each time I restarted it.  Worked all the way into the "readme" file in the Apache folder, on and on.  Terrible pain in the neck.  Nothing worked

Then I discovered the "Help" system in the Server app (not Server Admin, although the help system is fine there too).  SSL for virtual sites done in a different place.  Which Help told me.  Bah.  Went to the "Hardware/Server/Settings/SSL Certificate/Edit" menu, picked a certificate for the virtual site (and maybe restarted the web service) and it was set.  Does exactly the right thing too -- when somebody goes to an SSL-enabled virtual site, they're automatically redirected to the SSL version.

UPDATE 9-Jan:

Unfortunately, this returns to the "open issue, broken" status.  I've managed to wedge the Server app so that there are two states:

• State 1 -- everything turned off in the Server app including "web"

• httpd daemon is running (sites respond to external requests, but with the /var/empty folder)
• no functionality
• relatively quiet logs (sample: Jan  9 01:05:32--Jan  9 05:05:31)
• something odd going on with MySQL, probably unrelated)
• Jan  9 01:06:29 server SubmitDiagInfo[4016]: Submitted shutdown stall report: file://localhost/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/ipfwloggerd,mysqld,sh_2012-01-01-080056_localhost.shutdownStall 
• something odd going on with xscertd (once an hour)
• 1/9/12 6:05:24.632 AM sandboxd: ([6369]) xscertd(6369) deny job-creation 
• State 2 -- "web" turned on, but NO SSL certificates assigned
• httpd daemon is running (sites respond to external requests, but with the /var/empty folder)
• no functionality
• quiet logs -- check logs around 6:52;28 AM for startup messages.  here are interesting ones;

1/9/12 6:52:28.713 AM xscertd: Starting xscertd/1.0.0 (MacOS X Server)
1/9/12 6:52:28.721 AM sandboxd: ([6723]) xscertd(6723) deny job-creation
1/9/12 6:52:31.176 AM servermgrd: servermgr_web: waiting for pid, file /private/var/run/httpd.pid.

• 
  
• State 3 -- "web" turned on AND an SSL certificate is assigned
• httpd daemon is NOT running (browser returns "problem loading page" and "unable to connect" errors
• To get to this state -- 1) shut down "web" in Server.app at 7:00:08 2) assign cert at 7:01:16 3) restart "web" at 7:03:46 4) shut off "web" again at 7:29:19 5) removed cert at 7:30:43
• Here's an extract of the interesting log messages:shut down "web" in Server app - 7:00:08 

  Jan  9 07:00:08 server sandboxd[6807] ([6806]): xscertd(6806) deny job-creation
  Jan  9 07:00:09 server servermgrd[808]: servermgr_web: Disabling port forwarding for port 80
  Jan  9 07:00:11 server servermgrd[808]: servermgr_web: waiting for pid, file /private/var/run/httpd.pid.
  Jan  9 07:00:12 server servermgrd[808]: servermgr_web: Enabling port forwarding for port 80
  Jan  9 07:01:10 server CoreCollaborationServer[6852]: [main.m:103 40a280 +0ms] HTTP server listening at loopback:4444
  Jan  9 07:01:10 server com.apple.collabd[6852]: Jan  9 07:01:10 server.cloudmikey.com CoreCollaborationServer[6852] <Warning>: [main.m:103 40a280 +0ms] HTTP server listening at loopback:4444
  Jan  9 07:01:10 server com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.collabd[6852]): Tried to setup shared memory more than once
  Jan  9 07:01:10 server wikiadmin[6858]: Updating schema...
  Jan  9 07:01:10 server com.apple.collabd[6852]: 2012-01-09 07:01:10.231 wikiadmin[6858:307] Updating schema...
  Jan  9 07:01:10 server wikiadmin[6858]: Schema updates completed.
  Jan  9 07:01:10 server com.apple.collabd[6852]: 2012-01-09 07:01:10.235 wikiadmin[6858:307] Schema updates completed.
  Jan  9 07:01:15 server servermgrd[808]: servermgr_notification[I]: External configuration change detected, re-loading: c2s.xml
  Jan  9 07:01:15 server servermgrd[808]: servermgr_notification[I]: External configuration change detected, re-loading: Jan  9 07:01:17 server com.apple.launchd[1] (org.apache.httpd[6892]): Exited with code: 1
  Jan  9 07:01:17 server com.apple.launchd[1] (org.apache.httpd): Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds
  Jan  9 07:01:17 server servermgrd[808]: servermgr_notification[N]: jabberd service startup completed.
  Jan  9 07:01:18 server jabberd_notification/router[6886]: [127.0.0.1, port=57627] connect
  Jan  9 07:01:18 server com.apple.APNBridge[6901]: http server appears to have started
  Jan  9 07:01:18 server com.apple.APNBridge[6901]: Connected to XMPP server
  Jan  9 07:01:18 server jabberd_notification/router[6886]: [127.0.0.1, port=57627] authenticated as apn.server.cloudmikey.com
  Jan  9 07:01:18 server jabberd_notification/router[6886]: [apn.server.cloudmikey.com] online (bound to 127.0.0.1, port 57627)
  Jan  9 07:01:18 server jabberd_notification/router[6886]: [127.0.0.1, port=57628] connect
  Jan  9 07:01:18 server jabberd_notification/router[6886]: [127.0.0.1, port=57628] authenticated as pubsub.server.cloudmikey.com
  Jan  9 07:01:18 server jabberd_notification/router[6886]: [pubsub.server.cloudmikey.com] online (bound to 127.0.0.1, port 57628)

• restart "web" at 7:03:46
• Jan  9 07:03:09 server xscertd-helper[6808]: idle timer triggered, exiting
• Jan  9 07:03:46 server servermgrd[808]: servermgr_web: enabling
  Jan  9 07:03:48 server sandboxd[6979] ([6978]): xscertd(6978) deny job-creation
  Jan  9 07:03:49 server servermgrd[808]: servermgr_web: Disabling port forwarding for port 443
  Jan  9 07:03:50 server servermgrd[808]: servermgr_web: waiting for pid, file /private/var/run/httpd.pid.
  Jan  9 07:03:55: --- last message repeated 3 times ---
  Jan  9 07:03:55 server servermgrd[808]: servermgr_web: Enabling port forwarding for port 443
  Jan  9 07:03:55 server servermgrd[808]: servermgr_web: Cannot confirm Apache was started; missing or invalid pid file
  Jan  9 07:07:25 server xscertd-helper[6980]: idle timer triggered, exitingshut off "web" again at 7:29:19
  Jan  9 07:29:19 server servermgrd[808]: servermgr_web: Disabling port forwarding for port 443
  Jan  9 07:29:20 server servermgrd[808]: servermgr_web: waiting for pid, file /private/var/run/httpd.pid.
  Jan  9 07:29:20 server com.apple.launchd[1] (org.apache.httpd[7792]): Exited with code: 1
  Jan  9 07:29:20 server com.apple.launchd[1] (org.apache.httpd): Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds
  Jan  9 07:29:21 server servermgrd[808]: servermgr_web: waiting for pid, file /private/var/run/httpd.pid.
  Jan  9 07:29:25: --- last message repeated 3 times ---
  Jan  9 07:29:25 server servermgrd[808]: servermgr_web: Enabling port forwarding for port 443
  Jan  9 07:29:25 server servermgrd[808]: servermgr_web: Cannot confirm Apache was started; missing or invalid pid fileremoved cert at 7:30:43
  Jan  9 07:29:19 server servermgrd[808]: servermgr_web: Disabling port forwarding for port 443
  Jan  9 07:29:20 server servermgrd[808]: servermgr_web: waiting for pid, file /private/var/run/httpd.pid.
  Jan  9 07:29:20 server com.apple.launchd[1] (org.apache.httpd[7792]): Exited with code: 1
  Jan  9 07:29:20 server com.apple.launchd[1] (org.apache.httpd): Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds
  Jan  9 07:29:21 server servermgrd[808]: servermgr_web: waiting for pid, file /private/var/run/httpd.pid.
  Jan  9 07:29:25: --- last message repeated 3 times ---
  Jan  9 07:29:25 server servermgrd[808]: servermgr_web: Enabling port forwarding for port 443
  Jan  9 07:29:25 server servermgrd[808]: servermgr_web: Cannot confirm Apache was started; missing or invalid pid file
• 1/9/12 6:52:37.981 AM com.apple.SecurityServer: setupThread failed rcode=-2147418111

UPDATE 12-Jan:

The road to recovery.  I spoke with Apple Support and worked my way up to a Tier-2 support person who helped me out a lot.  He gave me a bunch of great pointers which I'll post here as I use them.  He was very careful to point out that some of this is for experienced folks only, your mileage may vary, if you break it you bought it and some of this may result in something that's so broken that it falls outside the normal free telephone support.  Be careful!

The problem seems to be caused by the way I set the server up.  Y'see, I built the server at the farm and then moved it to the data center.  So the IP address changed.  That IP address gets "baked in" to a bunch of things, and especially the SSL certificate that gets created when the server is first configured.  Moving the server to a new IP-address puts it out of sync with the information in the certificate and that's very likely what's causing the problem.

Step 1 -- Set the Web server back to defaults.

Here's a link to the page in the Advanced Administration guide for Lion Server -- https://help.apple.com/advancedserveradmin/mac/10.7/#apd163efc3a-1465-4a44-ad2d-c76094144512

My sequence of steps was this;

• Toggle off all the services in the Server application and turned off the SSL cert
• Run "sudo serveradmin command web:command=restoreFactorySettings" (omit the quotes) repeatedly while at the same time watching the logs in Server.  The command failed several times because it couldn't find copies of various default versions of config files in the /var/apache2/sites/ folder.  Fortunately, I have backup copies of those files so I just replaced them one at a time until the command ran to the end successfully.

Step 2 -- Create a new SSL cert

• Created a new SSL certificate in the Server application (Hardware/YourServerName/Settings/"Edit" SSL certificate/select the "gears" dropdown/select "manage certificates"/click the "+" button to add a new certificate/select "create a certificate identity"/accept the defaults/)

Step 3 -- Cycle the server and cross fingers

• Rebooted the server
• Waited for the logs to quiet down
• Started the Web service and watched it create it's config files in the apache2/sites folder -- logs were still quiet
• Assigned the newly-created SSL cert (I wish I could delete the old one but I can't) -- logs are still quiet
• Turned on the Wiki service -- logs are still quiet
• So far so good!  I think I'll leave things like this for a while before adding back the other services and the custom web sites.  More updates to follow.

Web -- MySQL

Lion switched from MySQL to PostGres (rumbles of ORACLE lawsuits no doubt) so I've got to start running a "real" version of MySQL so that all the little WordPress sites continue to function.

• Hm.  MySQL only supports OS X through Snow Leopard -- looks like we're kinda out here on our own.  <shrug, what could go wrong?>
• Downloads are here  - http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/ (roll down to the DMG file -- way easier install)
• Installation instructions are here - http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql-macosx-excerpt/5.5/en/macosx-installation.html
• Documentation is here - http://dev.mysql.com/doc/index.html (haven't used it yet)
• PHP needs to be tweaked - https://support.apple.com/kb/HT4844 (I only did the "change-sockets to /tmp/mysql.sock" thingy)
• Installed Sequel Pro (http://www.sequelpro.com/) and tested the installation by creating and dropping a database.

Web - loading up a WordPress site

Let's see how much of the Lion stuff I can use...

• Point a domain at the server (an A record in DNS)
• Create a new site in the Server app (using the same domain name)
• Copy in WordPress files (download them from http://www.wordpress.org)
• Give ownership to _www user (CD into the folder *above* the folder for the site is and type "sudo chown _www your-site's-foldername" in Terminal)
• Transmit ownership to all files in the folder (Finder/Get info/Unlock/Permissions/Apply to enclosed items)
• Create a database (I use Sequel Pro -- create an empty database and a user that has full rights to the database)
• Create the wp-config.php that points at the database

Web -- point multiple URLs at the same site

I don't do this often, but sometimes I point more than one variant of a domain at a site.

• Lion way -- create an addition site in the Server app -- new URL, pointed at the same content directory as the first site.  Works fine  Ooops...  things get sticky when doing this -- I wound up with a bunch of Apache site configuration files, and thus the opportunity of conflicts.  Better way...
• Set the site up in the Server app with *just* the domain name (leave the "www" variant for the next step)
• Edit the site configuration (file etc/apache2/sites/ip-address-stuff_port-number_domain-name.conf) and add ServerAlias records at the very bottom of the file, just before the closing </VirtualHosts> entry.
• Like this:

• ServerAlias www.example.com
• ServerAlias good.example.com
• ServerAlias bad.example.com
• Restart the web server (and clear the browser cache) to check

Web -- redirects

I like to throw redirects into sites from time to time.  In Snow Leopard, this was easily done through Server Administrator but that's gone in Lion.  Adding them into the Apache files isn't too bad though.  Here's how.

• Open the site file (etc/apache2/sites/ip-address-stuff_port-number_domain-name.conf -- I like the TextWrangler editor for this kind of stuff)
• Insert a section that looks like this (I lifted this from my Haven2.com file on the Snow Leopard file and stuck it into my Dissembling.com test site);

<IfModule mod_alias.c>
Redirect temp "/rss.xml" "http://feeds.feedburner.com/Haven"
</IfModule>

• Only need one set of bracketed "IfModule" statements, and stick in as many "Redirect temp" statements as needed.
• I'll probably just copy these sections over from their files on the Snow Leopard server and see how they work out.
• Restart the web server (toggle Web off and back on in the Server app)

Web -- separate log files

Some of my domains get a lot of traffic and it's handy to be able to strain out their stuff into a separate log file.  Not a show-stopper but handy.  Once again, the site files in Apache seem to be the place to do this.

• Open the site file (etc/apache2/sites/ip-address_port-number_domain-name.conf)
• Change the CustomLog and ErrorLog statements to point at a unique file rather than the default
• Restart the web server
• Check to make sure things are working by looking in var/log/apache2 for the new files after the restart
• Best to open the log files with the Console app -- lots easier to read the files (and get real-time updates)

Web -- rotate log files

I like to have the log files break themselves up into weekly chunks so i can go clear out the old ones every once in a while.  In Snow Leopard, this was easy -- just tick the little box and it did it.  Lion makes me work harder.

• Open the site file (etc/apache2/sites/ip-address_port-number_domain-name.conf)
• Change the CustomLog from this:

CustomLog "/var/log/apache2/example_access_log"

• To this:

CustomLog '|/usr/sbin/rotatelogs "/var/log/apache2/example_access_log" 604800 -360' "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b"

• Change the ErrorLog from this:

ErrorLog "/var/log/apache2/example_error_log"

• To this:

ErrorLog '|/usr/sbin/rotatelogs "/var/log/apache2/example_error_log" 604800 -360'

One wonders if making these changes to the default version of the configuration file would drive this stuff in automagically.  Might just research that some day.

Web -- permalinks in WordPress sites

WordPress has the ability to change the format of the URLs for posts and pages from the ugly PHP link to a prettier "permalink" structure.  Apache needed to be tweaked in Snow Leopard to make this work right, and it still does in Lion.  Here's how.

• The etc/apache2/httpd.conf file needs to be changed (only once, the first time through) so that the "AllowOverride" statement in the "/Library/WebServer/Documents/" section reads "AllowOverride All" (there are several AllowOverride statements in httpd.com -- pay attention to which one is being changed).  Note: I'm not sure this step is really required -- my testing was a little horked up and I'm too lazy to repeat it to verify
• Open the site file (etc/apache2/sites/ip-address_port-number_domain-name.conf)
• Change the statement "AllowOverride None" to "AllowOverride All" in the "Directory" section
• Create a .htaccess file in the site directory (use Terminal, CD to the site directory, "sudo touch .htaccess")
• Change ownership of the .htaccess file to the "_www" user ("sudo chown _www .htaccess") -- this lets WordPress modify the .htaccess file with the permalink rules.
• Restart the web service in the Server app
• When all else fails (I had a heck of a time getting the server to write the .htaccess file correctly -- although restarting Finder [Apple-menu/Force-quit.../Finder/Restart] may have cured that problem) I manually edit the .htaccess file.   Here's the code that needs to be in it:

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END WordPress

Conclusion

Well, none of this is real tough -- so I think I'm about ready to start moving stuff over to the Lion environment.  I'll probably wind up running it under a virtual machine until I've converted everything.  Then I'll explore moving it out of the virtual machine back into a native Lion install on my tiny little server.  Or maybe not.  That's for another day.

Here's where to start.  This is a spectacularly good/fun/accessible description of how to improve your Facebook security (and the security of your computers in general).  Unlike most of these things, this short (20 page) piece is written for regular people who don't want to be yelled at by security geeks.

Now for the stuff that I do...

I use Firefox as my primary web browser (and I keep it up to date), mostly so I can add a gaggle of plug-ins.  Here's the list

• 1Password -- a great way to manage a bajillion really-strong passwords on web pages, but costs (a little) money
• Adblock Plus -- a plugin which, once you've subscribed to the EasyList USA filter, gets rid of all the ads on web pages
• BetterPrivacy -- gets rid of "persistent" cookies that are used by lots of big companies (Google, Yahoo, etc) to track your behavior on the 'net
• Ghostery -- same sort of thing that BetterPrivacy does, but gets rid of trackers that aren't cookies
• NoScript -- allows you to choose which pages you trust, and blocks Javascript on all the rest
• ShareMeNot -- stops those Facebook/Twitter/etc. "sharing" buttons from sharing stuff until you click them
• Collusion -- visualize who's tracking you in real time
• Web of Trust -- take advantage of their huge database of "safe" and "unsafe" sites built by other Web of Trust users -- like me.
• HTTPS Everywhere -- a project of the EFF to redirect to the SSH-encrypted version of popular web sites

I also have peculiar web-browser habits to further reduce the risk that corporations (or other bad-guys) are tracking me

• I don't log into any of the "big data" services (like Google, Yahoo, etc.) unless I absolutely have to and I log out when I'm done.  They track what you do while you're logged in.  I just did a "What if Google Turns Evil?" podcast if you want to learn more about why I avoid Google services these days.
• I don't permit the web browser to "remember" any passwords -- I use 1Password for that
• I disable the "browsing history" feature, so the browser doesn't remember where I've been in the past
• I disable the "search" and "form" history features too
• I allow the browser to "accept cookies" and "accept 3rd-party cookies" but I only keep them until I close Firefox, then all cookies are deleted
• I have the browser open a blank page when it launches (just about every site plants a cookie when you arrive)
• I disable Google and Yahoo in the "search" choices (they plant cookies when the browser starts)
• I avoid putting cookie-planting sites (Google, Facebook, etc.) in the shortcuts bar (they plant cookies when the browser starts)
• I elect to clear history when Firefox closes
• I close and restart Firefox several times a day, especially after logging into Google, Yahoo, Facebook, etc.
• I use this link -- http://www.google.com/s2/u/0/search/social?hl=en#gc -- when logged into Google to determine what they know about my social-media connections.   My goal is a blank slate.
• I use the ICSI Netalyzr to check my DNS service-provider to see if they're intercepting/redirecting some of my traffic (also good for all sorts of performance-improving stuff like identifying "buffer bloat")

I'm sortof a softie when it comes to Facebook, but there are a few things that I do -- all of these can be found in the "Privacy Settings" part of the "Account" menu

• I periodically run the "Scan for privacy" tool from ReclaimPrivacy.org
• I'm pretty liberal with what people can see, but very conservative with what they can share about me with other people
• I'm very aggressive in blocking applications -- I try hard not to sign up for any applications and block them when they appear in my news feed
• I am pretty aggressive about blocking "bozos" in my news feed.  I don't unfriend them, I just block their inane posts.

There.  That's my list.

It started with this hint -- marking up Highway 88 to show where the fiber leaves the right of way and heads over the wetland on its way to the house (no, that white building isn't the house...).

Dale Goss of Nelson Telephone and Bob Travis of Finley Engineering came by this morning and took a look at the path the fiber will take from the road across the wetland.  We were a little worried, 'cause when they plowed in the phone line they had a pretty rough time getting across the sedge meadow that's right behind them.  But this time we're plotted a course that will bypass that stuff -- all smiles.  Thanks guys!

I gave the guy marking out the electric-wires a hard time about putting his cones out -- he's the only vehicle that's been down our driveway THIS WEEK. 

The plow is coming!  The plow is coming!  This gizmo turned up at our neighbor Emmit's place, just up the road.  I'm so excited I did my first-ever McPlank to celebrate.

Here's a video of the Day of the Plough. It compresses a 10-hour day into 4 minutes. The lads did great -- they avoided all the places we were worried about only got a little bit stuck in the mud. Way to go!

Photographer: Gregory Szarkiewicz

I have a gaggle of terrific domain names (bar.com, pub.com, grill.com, etc.) that I've had Since The Beginning.  Over the years I've pondered what to do with them and always come back to "sit tight" as my strategy.  I saw a great article today that lays out the reasons why.  Here's the link:

http://www.domainnamenews.com/domain-development/mass-development-flawed-model/8058#more-8058

Click HERE for the ICANN press-release.

Click HERE for a starter-page at Wikipedia.

Click HERE to watch him on an episode of Cranky Geeks (with John Dvorak) to get a feel for what's he's like in person.

I'm really glad to hear that he's joining the ICANN gang.  It'll give us some depth that we badly need in this area.

• I couldn't figure out how to get my password-minding application (1Password) to work on the iPad, so the killer-long passwords I maintain were impossible to use.
• What?  No plugins for Safari-mobile?  I saw web-page ads for the first time in 5 years.  Ugh.
• Picture-intense web-pages like Marcie's tour of the farm would only load about half the pictures and then would stall.  Maybe due to the WiFi problems.
• I had a really tough time getting used to running one application at a time -- it kinda took me back to my Apple II days.
• The whole iTunes/Marketplace sandbox weirded me out.  Cory Doctorow's piece spoke pretty loudly on this front.
• The whole Flash thing and how it breaks so many web sites.  Aside from the conspiracy theories, here's a Flash developer talking about why Flash is a problem on any tablet computer -- the inability to mimic the "mouse over" behavior.

But mostly it just wasn't fun.  So I returned it and took the 10% "restocking fee" haircut.  60 bux,  for 3 hours, so 20 bux an hour...

I think I'll wait for the boatload of Android tablets that seem to be just around the corner.  Maybe they'll make me smile more.  Take a look at this one, featured today on Engadget.  Not one but two cameras, SD slot, USB ports, etc. etc.

UPDATE:

My goodness what a difference a year or so makes.  I now own an iPad 2, think Google is evil and completely disavow any responsibility for this article. 

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/03/ok-go-rube-goldberg/

The big deal?  The sentence that really catches it for me is "we ad WORT don wanna tred up on the wee miroridy vuponts, so we jus wade undill eberyone am finely agreed."  Still works for me today, some 35 years later.  Thanks Jeff!

Here's my translation, since many of you aren't native-English speakers and might find this pretty tough to read in Jeff's native Pogo-style language.  Apologies to Jeff for any mistranslations.

Yes, it's a curious fact, that nobody is ever able to quite explain, how decisions get made at this particular radio station.  But they do.  This is a grievous hard and ticklesum thing for newcomers to digest.  Take, for example, the familiar caller who, in a fever pitch of excitement, has phoned up the station with his or her (or "it's" for that matter) idea for a program.   Rnnng.  He (let's just say it's a "he") says "My dog can bark heavy metal rock n'roll -- can he have 5 hours on Tuesday nights?"   Well, the person at the station (say it is a person) says "Isn't that the same thing as what's on WBRK every night?"  The caller replies "Yes, but my dog barks badder!"  Then that, says the person, is a question for the Program Committee.

The best thing then is if the caller hangs up, thinking all is well for the Program Committee will do its duty.  But if the caller says "Oh, what's the Program Committee?" then the person has to explain: The Program Committee are all the people that come to the Program Committee Meeting.  You can come.  So can your mother.  It's Friday at 8pm.  No, they never vote on anything.  Voting is against the rules.  So is parliamentary procedure. They just talk about things until everyone is agreed, and that is consensus -- the highest form of unanimity.

Then the caller says "oh."

Then the person at the radio station should continue: "Yes, it's a curious fact, but it seems to work.  So far, at least.  We at WORT don't want to tread on the wee minority viewpoints, so we just wait until everyone is finally agreed.  Nope, it's never failed yet...  which just goes to prove: you can make some of the decisions all of the time, and all of the decisions some of the time..."

Then the caller says, "can you put me through to the general manager?"

"No, there isn't a general manager.  Would you like to talk to Sarah-Gene?"

"She the owner?"

"Nope.  She's just another volunteer."

Volunteer
Vice Chair of Finance and Operations (of the)
Commercial and Business Users Constituency (which is part of the)
Generic Name Supporting Organization (which is in turn part of the)
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers

Can you see why ICANN has a bafflegab problem?

I'm quite excited about this one -- it's got lots of tasty issues and it's the ops and finance stuff that I love to do. 

I had another fold-out business card job back in the early '90's.  That fold-out business card read;

Temporary Interim Acting Assistant Associate
Vice President (supervising)
Administrative Information Systems
Business Operations
Quality Management
Operations Improvement (for the)
University of Minnesota

or...  Vice President of Stuff that is Busted.  This new gig is a lot less complicated than that one was.

This first one is the deck we used in Saint Paul to rally people around the "get ready for Y2k" initiative.  It's an example of how to do non-scary, what's-in-it-for-me? conversation around a pretty tough topic.  Maybe some of this kind of thinking can help the security folks when they're pitching to their customers.  Click HERE for the file (no warrantees -- scan it before you open it).

This next file is a huge deck I put together when I was first briefing the Big Kids at MnSCU about their enterprise security initiative.  This was the basis of selling senior management that this was a Good Thing and showed them how security could make them more money, make them more nimble, improve quality and oh by the way reduce costs.  This is an "everything including the kitchen sink" deck that might have a few ideas for people to steal.  Click HERE for the file (same warrantee as above).

There.  I feel like I've lived up to my advance-billing now.  Hopefully some security mavens will find some useful stuff in these.