[Editor's note: I have added one key missing instruction about modifying apache.conf to the details; this is also discussed in the comments.]

"Guestwhat" wrote in with a question:

Could someone help me to enable a turn key on my web site in Mac OS X Beta? What I meant was when a user log go to my web site I want to have a username and password inorder for them to access.

One method of doing this is with .htaccess files. When your server goes to serve a page, it looks in the top directory for an .htaccess file, and then checks each sub-directory down to and including the directory that holds the requested page. So if you place an .htaccess file in the top directory of your server pages folders, you will protect all the files in your domain. Read on to see how I used this to protect my home site.

If you use SSH or telnet to connect to your OS X box remotely, you'll notice that you see Welcome to Darwin! every time you connect.

If you'd like it to say something more meaningful or entertaining, simply pick your favorite editor and edit

/etc/motd

Insert the message of your choice and save your changes. Now you'll be connecting to "Tom's Terrific G4 Tower of Terror!" instead of boring old Darwin!

The Apache web server built in to OS X can support virtual hosts (basically more than one web server on one machine; read all about it on Apache's Virtual Host information page).

Over on this MacNN forum, however, there was a discussion on difficulties getting SSI (server side includes) to work on virtual hosts.

In a nutshell, you need to add a new section to the apache.conf file. Read on to see the exact required steps.

crontab is a program that is used to schedule programs to run at certain intervals. It's used in OS X to schedule things like the updating of the index that makes "locate" and "whereis" function. You update crontab through a terminal session.

"anothermacguy" posted on the MacNN forums that he had found a GUI front-end for crontab. Sven Schmidt is the author, and you can find information and the program on his homepage.

This one comes from a message posted by "Fred" to OmniGroup's "Mac OS X Admin" mailing list. He notes that if you open OSX's Date and Time system preferences panel and specify a time server to be used to keep the system clock synchronized, the built-in copy of ntpd will be started locally, which will enable other machines on the network to get correct time from your OSX machine.

A few days ago I posted in "Help Me" if anyone knew how to use Palm desktop Software to HotSync with a Handspring Visor Deluxe. Though there was a comment "not possible" I finally got a reply from Handspring Online-support which is quite interesting:

Dear Handspring User,

Thank you for your e-mail.

At this time there is only a Beta Version that is available for the Mac OS X. Once the software becomes available it will be posted on the web site.

Thank you,
Handspring Technical Support

Anonymous FTP allows guests to access your machine in a limited manner, to either upload or download files. You can put FTP links on web pages that connect the users directly to your anonymous site; it's a convenient way of giving them easy downloads.

Read on for step-by-step directions on how to set this up on your machine. Before proceeding with this one, you should be comfortable at the command line, and probably have at least some knowledge of users, groups, and permissions in UNIX.

If you're having trouble getting something to work right, and that something is based on a text file (for example, a Perl CGI script or a page of HTML), make sure you don't have any hidden Mac line breaks (also called line endings) in the file!

If you installed or modified the file using a GUI-based tool, there's a chance you accidentally inserted Mac line breaks. I know (from personal experience!) that Mac line breaks can make both Perl scripts and static HTML pages non-functional if they show up in the wrong spot. Read the rest to see how to find and remove the line breaks...

If you have an older Mac that's been upgraded with a G3 or G4 card, Ryan Rempel has created a package that will enable the backside cache, giving a notable speed increase to these systems.

He's also provided a highly detailed instruction page, which I would strongly encourage you to read and understand before proceeding!

For those brave souls running the PB on G3-upgraded 7300 to 9600 models, one annoyance is a lack of sound, due to the different sound chip in these machines.

Ryan Rempel has posted an explanation page that explains why it doesn't work, and a downloadable package to enable audio on these older machines.

If you're the type that likes to do everything yourself, he's also included instructions. Start a terminal session, and:

su root
cd  /System/Library/Extensions/AppleScreamerAudio.kext
vi [or] emacs [or] pico Info-macos.xml

Find the line that reads

<string>davbus</string>

Below it, insert

<string>awacs</string>

Save the file, restart, and you should have sound.