Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Mounting Network Volumes on Macs

I like having my Mac automatically attach a couple of our network volumes when I login.  I've found a few ways to do this, which our clients' Mac users seem to really appreciate.  Here's the best method I've landed on so far.
  1. The Mac OS includes an application in the Utilities folder called AppleScript Editor.  Open it, which will give you the ability to begin creating a script
  2. Insert the following, including the quote marks and substituting your server name and share where indicated:  mount volume "smb://[servername]/[share]"
  3. Repeat on as many lines as necessary for as many shares as you'd like to automatically mount
  4. Save the script, then save it as an application
  5. In System Preferences, under Accounts, go to the user's Login Items and add the app you created in step 4, and then check the Hide box associated with that app
  6. Restart the Mac and let it mount the apps; mine takes about 40 seconds to mount two volumes
  7. Finally, in Finder, drag and drop the mounted volumes to the Devices section of the Sidebar to make them easily available when saving files in applications
Those seven steps are actually a quick and easy process that will help the Mac users on your network.  And once you've created the script and application, you can copy it to all of your Macs!

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Strategic IT Outsourcing

I just released an article for publication on strategic IT outsourcing that identifies which church and ministry IT roles might be wise outsource candidates.

If you'd like to read it, click here!

Friday, November 12, 2010

The Internet Archive

Today I needed to look at a website's content from years ago.  Not finding what I needed, I called my friend Ross Gile who steered me to an amazing resource!  You may find it as helpful as I did!

Point your browser to http://www.archive.org and put the website you're looking for in the search field.  That'll take you to their Wayback Machine, and the content there will likely amaze you as much as it did me!

Thanks for your great help, as always, Ross!

Monday, November 1, 2010

Protecting IT From Disaster -- Article Update

While at lunch last Friday with a good friend and IT colleague, I was challenged to look at the security section of my recent Surviving an IT Disaster article.  He was right, and I've updated the article accordingly.  I hope you find it helpful... click here to download a free advance copy in PDF format.