Penn State MacAdmins Conference 2012 Registration is now Open!

By Justin Elliott on March 5, 2012 1:44 PM

Registration for the third annual Penn State MacAdmins Conference is now open. The conference will be held at the Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel, State College from Wednesday, May 2 through Friday, May 4.

The conference will have presentations from Apple, Inc., Penn State, and Mac system administrators from across the country. Sessions will focus on fundamental to advanced Mac systems administration, including deployment, system preference management, and iOS management.

Registration is $350 per attendee for the entire three-day conference. Breakfast and lunch are included. Discounts for hotels will be provided in the registration confirmation e-mail.

Attendance is limited to 225 seats this year, so please register soon!

More information is available here:

<http://macadmins.psu.edu/conference/>

We hope to see you at the conference!

Thanks,
- The Penn State MacAdmins Conference Team ( macadmins-conf@psu.edu )

PSU MacAdmins Conference 2012 Proposal Deadline Extension

By Rusty Myers on February 1, 2012 3:38 PM

Greetings!


We've received a lot of really great session proposals so far, thanks to everyone who has submitted. We want to give everyone an opportunity to submit a proposal, so we've decided to extend the deadline for two more weeks. The new deadline for proposals will be at 5pm on February 15th, 2012.


If you are still considering a proposal but you are not sure what to speak on, here is a list of the topics we would like to see covered. If any of them look interesting, please submit a proposal as soon as possible to:

http://macadmins.psu.edu/cfp


iOS Mobile Device Management

System/Security Hardening

Packaging

App Store Best Practices

Load Balancing OS X Servers

Lion Migration (Server or Client)

Networking Forensics/Troubleshooting

Backup Strategies

Any other relevant Mac system administration topics!


If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact us at macadmins-conf@psu.edu. We looking forward to reviewing your proposal(s) and seeing you in May at the PSU MacAdmins Conference 2012!


MacAdmins Conference Team

PSU MacAdmins Conference Update - Pricing Announcement!

By Rusty Myers on January 20, 2012 4:16 PM
Come join us for three days of informative sessions on Mac system administration and iOS device management. The conference is scheduled from Wednesday, May 2 through Friday, May 4, 2012. The attendee registration fee will be $350. With your registration you will get access to three days of top-notch technical content, catered breakfast, lunch, afternoon service, and free wireless access.

Location

The Penn Stater Conference Center is the new location for this year's conference and has the added convenience of an on site hotel.

Find more information on the hotel at their website:


We have negotiated a block of discounted rooms during the event. To receive the discount, use the code "MACE12A" at checkout. The cost will be $91 a night.

The closest airport to the Penn Stater is the University Park Airport (SCE). More information can be found here:


Networking Event

In addition to three days of technical sessions, we will be hosting and evening networking event for all attendees. The event, which will be held at the C. Barton McCann School of Art, also provides a dinner for attendees. Transportation will be provided to shuttle people between the Penn Stater and the C. Barton McCann School of Art. More information about the C. Barton McCann School of Art can be found here:


Speakers Needed

We're still accepting proposals for sessions. Please submit your proposal to speak at the Penn State MacAdmins Conference 2012 by Friday, February 1, 2012. We're looking for any content that reflects system administration and IT support of Macs and iOS devices. Accepted speakers will receive a complimentary conference pass and free parking. If you'd like help deciding on a topic, feel free to email or twitter us (information below)!

To view topic suggestions and to submit your proposal please visit: <http://macadmins.psu.edu/conference/proposals2012>

Conference Updates

Twitter: For up-to-the-minute updates, follow us on Twitter at @PSUMacAdmns and watch for our #psumacconf hash tag.

RSS: The feed is available at http://macadmins.psu.edu/ for conference updates. Please free to tag your blogs, Flickr photos, YouTube videos, and Delicious bookmarks with the #psumacconf tag, which we will be aggregating on the site.

If you have any questions, please e-mail macadmins-conf@psu.edu.

Hope to see you there!

The Penn State MacAdmins Conference Team

Penn State MacAdmins Conference Date & Venue Change

By Rusty Myers on October 25, 2011 3:07 PM

After a recent major academic calendar change, we've had to change the dates of the 2012 PSU MacAdmins Conference. Besides having to push the conference up a week, we've also had to change the venue. We are excited to announce that the conference will now be held May 2 - 4, 2012 at the Penn Stater Conference Center:

http://www.pshs.psu.edu/PennStater/pshome.asp

The Penn Stater Conference center has great facilities to foster the Mac administration and IT support community. The conference center provides a great hotel, free parking, free wireless, and a large space to convene. Stay tuned for more information on the Penn Stater Hotel details, including hotel room discounts for conference attendees.

While we continue to work on other details of this next conference, we have a few that we can share now:

Speakers Needed!

Please submit your proposal to speak at the Penn State MacAdmins Conference 2012. We're looking for any content that covers system administration or IT support of Macs and iOS devices. Submissions will be accepted until Friday, February 1, 2012.

To view topic suggestions and to submit your proposal please visit:http://macadmins.psu.edu/conference/proposals2012

Conference Schedule

Come join us for three days of informative sessions on Mac system administration and iOS device management. The conference is scheduled from Wednesday, May 2 through Friday, May 4, 2012. The attendee registration fee will be announced when registration is opened. With your registration you will get access to three days of top-notch technical content, catered breakfast, lunch, afternoon service, and free wireless access.

Conference Updates

Twitter: For up-to-the-minute updates, follow us on Twitter at @PSUMacAdmns and watch for our #psumacconf hash tag.

RSS: The feed is available at http://macadmins.psu.edu/ for conference updates. Please free to tag your blogs, Flickr photos, YouTube videos, and Delicious bookmarks with the #psumacconf tag, which we will be aggregating on the site.

If you have any questions, please e-mail macadmins-conf@psu.edu.

Hope to see you there!

The Penn State MacAdmins Conference Team


PSU MacAdmins Conference 2012 Date Change

By Rusty Myers on October 13, 2011 4:22 PM
Due to an unforeseen event, the PSU MacAdmins Conference 2012 dates
have changed. Please plan on attending the conference May 2st - 4rd.

Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused. Hope to see you there!

-PSU MacAdmins Conference Team

Penn State MacAdmins Conf Call for Proposals

By Rusty Myers on September 30, 2011 10:01 AM

Greetings!

We are happy to announce that the call for proposals for the Penn State MacAdmins Conference 2012 is now open! The conference will take place May 2 - May 4, 2012 in University Park, PA.

We have been busy planning this next conference for anyone who does system administration and IT support of Macs and iOS devices. While we continue to work on other details of this next conference, we have a few that we can share now:

Speakers Needed!

Please submit your proposal to speak at the Penn State MacAdmins Conference 2012.  We're looking for any content that reflects system administration and IT support of Macs and iOS devices. Accepted speakers will receive a complimentary conference pass and free parking.  Submissions will be accepted until Wednesday, February 15, 2012.

To view topic suggestions and to submit your proposal please visit: http://macadmins.psu.edu/conference/proposals2012

Schedule

Come join us for three days of informative sessions on Mac system administration and iOS device management. The conference is scheduled from Tuesday, May 8 through Thursday, May 10, 2012. The attendee registration fee will be announced when registration is opened. With your registration you will get access to three days of top-notch technical content, catered breakfast, lunch, afternoon service, and free wireless access.

Conference Updates

Twitter: For up-to-the-minute updates, follow us on Twitter at @PSUMacAdmns and watch for our #psumacconf hash tag.

RSS: The feed is available at http://macadmins.psu.edu/ for conference updates. Please free to tag your blogs, Flickr photos, YouTube videos, and Delicious bookmarks with the #psumacconf tag, which we will be aggregating on the site.

If you have any questions, please e-mail macadmins-conf@psu.edu.

Hope to see you there!

The Penn State MacAdmins Conference Team
Continue reading Penn State MacAdmins Conf Call for Proposals.

MacAdmins Conference 2012

By Rusty Myers on July 19, 2011 9:32 AM
Hello everyone! 

The MacAdmins planning group is getting ramped up to work on the 2012 PSU MacAdmins Conference! We're very excited to see everyone again and spend a few quality days discussing Mac administration. Thanks for everyone's feedback from the previous conference, we are looking very closely at what we can do better. One of the more exciting tasks we have will be choosing speakers and sessions. We NEED your help! If you're thinking of presenting on a topic, don't spend anymore time thinking! Write down a few sentences about your topic. Use a bulleted list to map out your thoughts. 

Check out this page on creating a good presentation: http://ds9a.nl/presenting/

Once we open the Call for Proposals, we will announce it and ask everyone to submit a topic. We are very excited to start receiving your submissions, but until then think about what you'd like to present! 

If you'd like to see a topic presented, post a note here, via twitter, or email us at macadmins-conf@psu.edu. We're looking forward to hearing from you!

-PSU MacAdmins Conference Team

Tivoli Endpoint Manager Update

By Rusty Myers on July 1, 2011 8:37 AM
I received the June SysMan newsletter recently and was very happy to hear about a new computer deletion policy:

"Expired Computers Policy Changes

Starting on June 27th 2011, computers that have not reported into TEM for 122 days will be automatically deleted from the database and console.  The SysMan team modified this policy for more accurate client license tracking and database efficiency.  Expired computers are purged daily at 6AM.  Any deleted client that reports back in will automatically become manageable again through TEM."

Yay! Yes, yay I say! Computers that had not reported into TEM were very annoying. Usually they did not report because they had been retired or rebuilt (reporting under a different name). This clogged up the reports with old machines.

Another cool tidbit from the email was their Content Development Library. Visit this site to view and edit content for TEM tasks:

Grayed out Finder folder

By Rusty Myers on June 13, 2011 7:36 PM
I had the opportunity to take a look at an issue today that occurred on OS X. A user was working on a Final Cut Pro project and copied their data to an SMB file share. For some unknown reason, the folder became grayed out. It would not open on an OS X machine, but worked just fine on a Windows machine. 

So, what happened? It appears that the folder's creation date was set to a random date in 1943. 
While we are unsure of how it happened, we did figure out how to fix it. 

We used a few binaries that came with the Developer Tools, GetFileInfo and SetFile. GetFileInfo showed us the creation date of the folder. We overlooked it at first, but with closer examination it caught our eye. 

$ GetFileInfo Test/
directory: "/Users/user/Desktop/Test"
attributes: avbstclinmedz
created: 06/13/1943 06:13:00
modified: 06/13/2011 15:07:33

We then could change the creation date using the SetFile tool.

$ SetFile -d 06/13/2011 Test/

After seting the date back to a reasonable time, we can see that it has truly changed.

$ GetFileInfo Test/
directory: "/Users/userid/Desktop/Test"
attributes: avbstclinmedz
created: 06/13/2011 06:13:00
modified: 06/13/2011 15:07:33

The folder then showed properly in the Finder and was again usable. We also found that if you created an alias of the folder, you could see the data and move it out. Once it was moved out into another folder, the old folder could be deleted.

ANN: Save the dates for Penn State MacAdmins Conference May 10-12

By Rusty Myers on December 2, 2010 3:30 PM

Greetings

The Penn State MacAdmins team is happy to announce the 2011 Penn State MacAdmins Conference, to take place May 10 - May 12.

We are planning a really great conference for all types of Mac administrators. While certain details are still being finalized, we have a few details we can share now.

Plans

We are planning on having three days of informative Mac system admin sessions. The conference is scheduled from Tuesday, May 10 through Thursday, May 12, 2011. The registration fee will be less than or equal to $100 to cover food and other required resources. With your registration you will get access to three days of top-notch technical content, catered breakfast and lunch, and free wireless access.

Registration

Registration will open in February. We will send another e-mail notification at that time. Registration is limited to 150 people for this year.

Speakers Needed!

If you are interested in possibly being a speaker at the conference, we are ready to start the call for session proposals. Submit your proposal by February 28th, 2011 to be considered as a speaker at: http://macadmins.psu.edu/conference/proposals

Conference Updates

For up-to-the-minute updates, follow us on Twitter at PSUMacAdmns and watch for our #psumac2011 hash tag.

Please subscribe to the RSS feed at http://macadmins.psu.edu/ for conference updates. Feel free to tag your blogs, Flickr photos, YouTube videos, and Delicious bookmarks with the #psumac2011 tag, which we will be aggregating on the site.

If you have any questions, please e-mail macadmins-conf@psu.edu.

Thank you. Hope to see you there!

The Penn State MacAdmins Conference Team

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