Volume Number: 26
Issue Number: 12
Column Tag: Editorial

From the Editor, December 2010

December? Already? Well, there's the same amount of time between the beginning and end of the year, every year, of course. It sure seems to speed up toward the end, though. More events, more family gatherings and so on inject themselves into your routine and put projects on hold. Good! Hopefully, you're taking the time to enjoy family and friends and rejuvenate. I certainly know I've gotten too deep into technology lately. If I'm not experimenting, I'm reading about technology. If I'm not trying to write some new code, I'm perusing Reader feeds. It's time for a break - it's really important mentally to turn your attention to an alternate task for a bit. It's good for creativity, too. So, while this time of year seems a bit hectic, be sure to catch up with family, take some time to read a new book, watch that series you always meant to, visit someplace that you haven't, or just get some extra rest.

Our cover stories this month span a broad range of topics. The first is part of the continuing, "Cowboy Consultant" series by Ryan Wilcox. If you're already off on your own, or just thinking about it, Ryan has some advice and things to think about when going independent.

Next is another continuing series from our Mac in the Shell column. This month, we continue our coverage of MacRuby with some practical example code for Sys Admins.

The third article mentioned on the cover is our 'secure for the holidays' piece. How do you know your credit card and other information that you give to web shopping sites via web forms is safe? Mike Hjörleifsson explains the tech behind SSL/TLS protection.

The big cover story this month is our annual buyer's guide. What cool, useful tech is out there that would make a great gift (for someone else, or, of course, yourself)? Also, see our Gadgets for Geeks article, where we get to list products we've used over the year to make our tech life more pleasant.

Returning author Nathan Toups lists 10 ways to keep up, or gain, some Sys Admin street cred. If you're just starting out, pay attention here. If you're advancing in the field, part of advancing yourself includes meeting and exchanging ideas with other Sys Admins; speak the language!

Boisy Pitre brings to us another topic critical for developers: logging. Cocoa supplies NSLog, but that, on its own, only gets you so far. Developer to Developer shows you a more intelligent way of logging.

This month in MacEnterprise, Greg Neagle brings another installment about Munki, the software installation solution for OS X. It has been a real pleasure to not only watch this software mature, but to also gain great community involvement and frequent updates and additions.

The MacTech Spotlight for this month highlights Jamie Phelps. If you use 1Password, you're familiar with a small portion of Jamie's work. For more on advice, insights and what else he's doing, check out this month's MacTech Spotlight.

Have a great holiday season and New Year - MacTech will see you in 2011.

Ed Marczak,

Executive Editor