Happy New Year!
2018 was certainly “interesting times.” I have the feeling 2019 will not dissappoint in this regard either.
While many admins seemed to enjoy just taking a week or two off, some took the time for some very interesting posts and projects.
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News and Opinion
- My Must-Have Mac Apps, 2018 Edition – John Voorhees, MacStories
- Apple Admin Conferences – Charles Edge
- Why 2019 could be an enormous year of change for the Mac – Jason Snell, Macworld
- Last year’s hardware, next year’s promises – Howard Oakley
- 2018: Arbitrary Boundary Condition Met – Tom Bridge
- Letter from Tim Cook to Apple investors
- Happy 14th Birthday, krypted.com – Charles Edge
MacAdmins on Twitter
- Jamf: “In case you missed it: @MacTechConf is now in October and JNUC is in November. We’re working together and looking forward to sponsoring the event again in 2019!”
- MacDeployment YYC: “2019 Conf. Dates: @macaduk 26–27 March, London @acesconf June 4–6, Kansas City MO #MacDeploy June 10–11, Calgary @MacDevOpsYVR June 12–14, Vancouver @psumacconf July 9–12, State College PA MacSysAdmin 1–4 Oct., Göteborg @MacTechConf Oct. 15–18, L.A. JNUC Nov. 12–14, Minneapolis”
- Geert Barentsen: “2019 is the final year for Python 2. No bug or security patches will be applied to Python 2 beyond Jan 1st, 2020. Time to start using Python 3 only! pythonclock.org”
- Jason Broccardo: “Apple will upgrade system python sometime in 2020.… ”
- Joseph Chilcote: “More likely Apple will remove system python sometime in 2023.… ”
Bugs and Security
- How thoroughly does Gatekeeper check existing apps? – Howard Oakley
- Four months after its debut, sneaky Mac malware went undetected by AV providers – Dan Goodin, Ars Technica
- App signatures are always checked on launch, but serious errors may be ignored – Howard Oakley
- Update on identifying installed and uninstalled apps in iOS – Alexis Brignoni
- USB-C could soon offer protection against nefarious devices – Rachel England, Engadget
Support and HowTos
- How Mojave messes up printing – Howard Oakley
- Managing Firefox extensions via configuration profiles on macOS – Paul Galow
- Enable The Safari Debug Menu – Charles Edge
- Simple Stats in macOS – Charles Edge
- Setting up a new (or repurposed) Mac: 6 Fitting a quart into a pint pot – Howard Oakley
- Managing Osquery with Kolide Launcher and Fleet – Mike Arpaia, Kolide
- Disable Videos From Playing Automatically in Safari – Charles Edge
- Enabling automatic macOS software updates for OS X Yosemite through macOS Mojave – Rich Trouton
- AMFI: checking file integrity on your Mac – Howard Oakley
- How to build an APFS bootable clone in Terminal – Howard Oakley
- A Bit About Python Module Imports – Charles Edge
- Munki hacking for Fun – Bart Reardon
- Download Older Versions of macOS and Mac OS X – Charles Edge
- Setting up a new (or repurposed) Mac: 7 Choices diagrammed – Howard Oakley
Scripting and Automation
- Backing up macOS management policies from Jamf Pro – Rich Trouton
- Looping cURLy Braces – Charles Edge
- macos-scripts/signature_check Script to check signature of macOS Apps
- Programming Arduino Micro as a Arduino Automaton in Mac Deploy Stick – Tim Perfitt (Video)
Apple Support
Updates and Releases
To Watch
- Michael Lynn, Fact Finding – QueryCon 2018 (via @Kolideco)
- ‘From Apple Seeds to Apple Pie’ from Objective by the Sea – Sarah Edwards
To Listen
- Episode 106: MagentaGate, MacADUK, and MacMule.com – Mac Admins Podcast
- Episode 107: Sweet Rootkits, a Year in Review
- The Year in Mac and iOS Security – Intego Mac Podcast, Episode 63
- Jamf After Dark: Managed App Config
Support
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