Dreaming of a Tech-Free Deployment Workflow

Tania Dastres, Seek Ltd Part of XW18

Apple’s DEP has allowed us to envision a tech-free deployment workflow. It has enabled us to dream of fast Apple to end user roll-outs, customers revelling in the delight of unboxing a new Mac, and Macs configured in a consistent and timely manner regardless of where our end-users are located or what our tech team availability is like.

This presentation will take you through the considerations and challenges encountered on the journey to ultimate Apple Admin utopia.

Tania Dastres has worked in IT for more than 12 years, all of which have been in Apple support. She started providing Tier 1 AppleCare Support for Apple, worked as an Apple Technician at RMIT for 9 years, and now works at SEEK, as an Apple System Administrator.

She is a wannabe programmer, and will search for any excuse to use Swift at work.

Making the World Accessible: Accessibility on MacOS and iOS

Lucy Mathis, Google LLC Part of XW18

Have you ever asked yourself, “What if one day I break my arm and I can’t create the best memes or sift through all those lines of code to find that missing semicolon?” Well, luckily, Apple has your back. Including recently becoming the industry leader in Accessibility emojis, the fruit giant™’s operating systems have consistently been the most accessible across the board. From the best built-in dictation software to enabling an accessibility keyboard based on your needs, we will explore all the features macOS and iOS have to offer to those who are in need and even those who want to compose emails just a little bit faster.

You will learn how to use accessibility features like VoiceOver for basic tasks, and how to tailor your products for those in need.

It is suggested delegates attending this session have earbuds or headphones compatible with their devices to get the most out of this session.

Currently, Lucy is an IT Resident at Google, as well as an OS X subject matter expert. She has worked closely with the core Google Mac Platform Hardening team since May 2015, including an in-depth, quarter-long rotation where she worked on their tools, including Santa. In addition to being a Mac SME, Lucy also works on Google’s accessibility team, centered around making internal tools more accessible.

Exploring The JAMF JSS With Python

Tony Williams Part of XW18

This presentation demonstrates methods of querying the JSS using the python-jss module.

The methods demonstrated require only a small amount of easily learnt Python. I show how to search XML using the functions built into python-jss and how to quickly turn your explorations into a Python script.

Attendees of this session will gain a good understanding of why querying the JAMF JSS from Python is a good tool for JAMF administration and how easy it can be. As well as simple Python it will show how IPython can make it even easier.

Tony is currently a systems engineer and responsible for managing over 9,000 iOS devices and 300 Macs. With over thirty five years in the industry he has had a myriad of roles including C programmer, Unix systems administrator, IT Manager, support specialist and Associate Editor of Australian Macworld. He has presented at X World a number of times including workshops on bash and python and presentations on using netBoot and DeployStudio and iOS programming.

Managing Macs at Google Scale

Clay Caviness, Google LLC Part of XW18

Google has one of the largest managed fleets of Macintosh computers in the world. Macintosh Operations is the internal team tasked with developing these tools and managing these machines globally. With nearly a hundred thousand assets to manage and an ever-changing security landscape, we have had to develop many of our own tools to effectively maintain our fleet and keep our end-users safe and productive. This session will discuss the tools we’ve developed, tools from the open-source community, and commercial tools we use to manage and maintain the fleet.

Technical fields: Large fleet management, configuration management, software deployment, imaging, MDM, security.

Intended audience: Macintosh system administrators looking for methods of managing that will scale with growth.

Clay has been a Mac and UNIX systems engineer since the early 90s and was thrilled when NeXT bought Apple. He has worked in advertising and technology companies since 1996. Clay is currently working at Google a Site Reliability Engineer in New York City, on the team managing a global fleet of tens of thousands of Macs.

Arek Dreyer to Present at X World!

We’re thrilled to announce that our second international guest at this year’s X world will be Arek Dreyer. Arek has been delivering courses and training in the Apple environment since 2001. He’s a consultant, author, course developer, trainer, and integrator. Arek provides coaching and mentoring for people that use iOS devices and Mac computers in complicated environments, and is the coauthor of many books and courses, including macOS Support Essentials 10.13, and Managing Apple Devices.

Arek is a long-time supporter of the X World community, and while we’ve lost count of the exact number of times he’s travelled to be with is, we’re sure that this is at least his fourth appearance, and we couldn’t be happier to have him back!

Learn more »

WWDC Student Scholarship Travel Assistance Applications Now Open

If you’re a currently enrolled student at an Australian or New Zealand University, and you’ve won an Apple Student Scholarship to attend WWDC 2018 (results announced Friday, April 20, 2018), we might be able to help out with your expenses. We’ve allocated 3 student support scholarships of $1500 each ($2000 for existing student members) to assist with airfares. Conditions apply, and applications close May 4 at 5pm (Sydney time).

Apply now »

Ed Marczak Confirmed for X World!

We’re thrilled to announce that the first of our international guest speakers for X World 2018 is Ed Marczak. Ed Marczak co-founded MacTech Conference and is a familiar face at Apple-related events all over the world, and we couldn’t be happier that he’s joining us this year!

Learn more »

WWDC Student Scholarship Travel Assistance

If you’re a currently enrolled student at an Australian or New Zealand University, and you win an Apple Student Scholarship to attend WWDC 2018 (results announced Friday, April 20, 2018), we might be able to help out with your expenses. We’ve allocated 3 student support scholarships of $1500 each ($2000 for existing student members) to assist with airfares. Conditions apply, and applications close May 4 at 5pm (Sydney time).

Learn more »

X World 2018 Call for Presenters

X World is our annual training event for OS X and iOS system administrators and support staff, and will be held at UTS, Sydney. This year the event will run June 27-29.

We are now calling for presenters who wish to offer sessions and workshops at this year’s event. If you have a background in the installation, configuration, deployment, or on-going administration of OS X based systems, or experience in iOS deployment, management and app development, or if you work in related areas, we’d really like to hear from you. Presenters receive free registration to X World, and qualify for subsidised flights and/or accommodation.

The call for presentations is now open, and closes Friday April 27, 2018, at 9pm Sydney time. Offers can be made by completing the submission form.

Want to request a session at X World? Submit an idea on our requests board. We can’t guarantee anyone will pick it up and run with it, but you might just inspire someone else to share their experience!