The downside is that if you connect automatically to a wi-fi network that has blocked ports, you’ll find that iMessage text messages aren’t delivered. They often just pause midway through sending.

Also, you may find that other push notifications for other apps (like Facebook, Calendar, etc.) don’t get pushed to iPhones.

Not to worry, it’s an easy fix (so long as your network administrator is amenable to fully supporting iOS features like this!).

iMessage and push notifications works over the APNS (Apple Push Notification Service) channel. That is TCP Port 5223 outbound to 17.0.0.0/8 (Apple). Your admin will know what to do with this information!

sudo find . -type f -exec chmod 666 {} \;

Likewise, to change only directories to 777 (rwxrwxrwx), I used:

sudo find . -type d -exec chmod 775 {} \;

Here’s how to reclaim the speed of Snow Leopard in Mac OS X Lion’s Apache configuration:

First, make a backup of /etc/apache2/httpd.conf.

Next, edit /etc/apache2/httpd.conf in your favorite editor.

Search for LoadModule.

Then, comment out the modules that you don’t need by adding a hash character (#) at the beginning of the line. Be judicious in what you turn off. For example, I turned off mod_userdir.so, which then caused Apache to fail on startup.

Running httpd -t from the terminal showed that Apple’s default httpd.conf file is using the mod_userdir.so module, so I left it on (since it presumably supports using home directories for serving Sites).

For me, the modules I turned off are:

#LoadModule authn_dbm_module libexec/apache2/mod_authn_dbm.so
#LoadModule authn_anon_module libexec/apache2/mod_authn_anon.so
#LoadModule authn_dbd_module libexec/apache2/mod_authn_dbd.so
#LoadModule authn_default_module libexec/apache2/mod_authn_default.so
#LoadModule authz_groupfile_module libexec/apache2/mod_authz_groupfile.so
#LoadModule authz_user_module libexec/apache2/mod_authz_user.so
#LoadModule authz_dbm_module libexec/apache2/mod_authz_dbm.so
#LoadModule authz_owner_module libexec/apache2/mod_authz_owner.so
#LoadModule authz_default_module libexec/apache2/mod_authz_default.so
#LoadModule auth_basic_module libexec/apache2/mod_auth_basic.so
#LoadModule auth_digest_module libexec/apache2/mod_auth_digest.so
#LoadModule dbd_module libexec/apache2/mod_dbd.so
#LoadModule mime_magic_module libexec/apache2/mod_mime_magic.so
#LoadModule unique_id_module libexec/apache2/mod_unique_id.so
#LoadModule proxy_connect_module libexec/apache2/mod_proxy_connect.so
#LoadModule proxy_ftp_module libexec/apache2/mod_proxy_ftp.so
#LoadModule proxy_scgi_module libexec/apache2/mod_proxy_scgi.so
#LoadModule proxy_ajp_module libexec/apache2/mod_proxy_ajp.so
#LoadModule dav_module libexec/apache2/mod_dav.so
#LoadModule dav_fs_module libexec/apache2/mod_dav_fs.so
#LoadModule bonjour_module libexec/apache2/mod_bonjour.so
#LoadModule fastcgi_module libexec/apache2/mod_fastcgi.so

Well-written web apps (like WordPress) already send the x-frame-options header. My personal preference is to turn this off globally and then ensure that my web apps send it as needed.

Here’s how to disable it:

In Mac OS X 10.6, it is included in the /etc/apache2/httpd_teams_required.conf file. Edit this file in your favorite editor and find the line that reads:

<ifmodule mod_headers.c>
   Header set X-Frame-Options "SameOrigin"
</ifmodule>

It’s obvious that Apple intends for this setting for the wiki/blog server in Mac OS X server, so let’s make sure it’s set up to still provide the protection needed by the wiki/blog server.

<ifmodule mod_headers.c>
   <location /groups>
      Header set X-Frame-Options "SameOrigin"
   </location>
</ifmodule>

Thankfully, it looks like Mac OS X 10.7 Lion is more judicious in how this header is applied.

BTW, for those interested, I located this line originally from the terminal using this command:

$sudo grep -ir 'x-frame-options' /etc/apache2

Download and install MacPorts from http://macports.org.

The following steps are performed in the Terminal:

Force MacPorts to update:
sudo port -v selfupdate

Now, install memcached:
sudo port install php5-ssh2

Copy the newly created shared object for mcrypt into Mac OS X’s default PHP5 extension directory:
sudo cp /opt/local/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20090626/ssh2.so /usr/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20090626/

Next, you need to edit php.ini to add the extensions. Find the phrase Dynamic Extensions, and add:

extension=ssh2.so

And finally, restart Apache:
sudo apachectl restart

To confirm installation, create a new PHP document called phpinfo.php with the following contents:
< ?php phpinfo(); ?>

Point your browser to the URL of that file. If all went well, you’ll see this block:

Here’s how:

Open terminal, and type:

echo 'export PATH=/usr/local/mysql/bin:$PATH' >> ~/.bash_profile

This adds the default location of the MySQL binary to your shell environment.

Then, you need to force the system to reload your .bash_profile file. Again, from terminal, enter:

. ~/.bash_profile

You can check your environment variables by entering:

env

Now, to access MySQL from the command line, you only need enter:

mysql

Download and install MacPorts from http://macports.org.

The following steps are performed in the Terminal:

Force MacPorts to update:
sudo port -v selfupdate

Now, install memcached:
sudo port install php5-mcrypt

Copy the newly created shared object for mcrypt into Mac OS X’s default PHP5 extension directory:
sudo cp /opt/local/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20090626/mcrypt.so /usr/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20090626/

Next, you need to edit php.ini to add the extensions. Find the phrase Dynamic Extensions, and add:

extension=mcrypt.so

And finally, restart Apache:
sudo apachectl restart

To confirm installation, create a new PHP document called phpinfo.php with the following contents:
< ?php phpinfo(); ?>

Point your browser to the URL of that file. If all went well, you’ll see this block:

mcrypt installed in Mac OS X Server's native PHP5

Download and install MacPorts from http://macports.org.

The following steps are performed in the Terminal:

Force MacPorts to update:

sudo port -v selfupdate

Now, install memcached:
sudo port install memcached

Set memcached to load on startup:
sudo port load memcached

Install the PHP5 module for memcache:
sudo port install php5-memcache

Copy the newly created shared object for memcache into Mac OS X’s default PHP5 extension directory:
sudo cp /opt/local/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20090626/memcache.so /usr/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20090626/

Install APC (Alternative PHP Cache):
sudo port install php5-apc

Copy the newly created shared object for APC into Mac OS X’s default PHP5 extension directory:
sudo cp /opt/local/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20090626/apc.so /usr/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20090626/

Next, you need to edit php.ini to add the extensions. Find the phrase Dynamic Extensions, and add:

extension=memcache.so
extension=apc.so

And finally, restart Apache:
sudo apachectl restart

To confirm installation, create a new PHP document called phpinfo.php with the following contents:
< ?php phpinfo(); ?>

Point your browser to that file. If all went well, you’ll see these blocks:

That highlights one common complaint I’ve made and heard about Podcast Producer — that it demonstrates it’s heritage with a decided bias for Apple-endorsed wrappers and codecs (read: QuickTime).

In my quest to use these fantastic(ly inexpensive-but-handy) Flip video cameras, I recently found out that simply adding a QuickTime plugin to Mac OS X 10.5 server provides the capability to transcode far more file formats and encodings than the stock installation of Podcast Producer allows: AVI, FLV, 3ivx, DivX, MS-MPEG4 v1 & v2, Flash Video, Indeo 1 & 2, to name a few!

The solution is drop dead simple (as any Mac OS X endeavor ought to be):

First, download the Perian plugin: http://www.perian.org/

Second, open the disk image.

Third, double click the Perian.prefpane icon in the disk image window.

IMPORTANT: Make sure you install for all users of the computer. This is because the Podcast Producer service runs as its own user. If you do not, it *will not* work for Podcast Producer.

Finally, confirm that the preference pane indicates and “Installed Version #.#.#”, and set the Audio Output to “Stereo”.

Restart Podcast Producer.