Because Moodle uses the great MAMP package, it is as simple as dragging and dropping to get started with the site on a Mac server. And for those who use Leopard Server, there is a step-by-step guide for you too.

Moodle is free and can be downloaded for PPC or Intel Macs from the official site.

In this latest version of Daylite, Marketcircle offers two different applications for the client and the server. Daylite Server is now a separate install that makes it real easy to share your database for multiple users and multiple locations.

Today, I put together a quick video tutorial that walks thru the install and configuration process of Daylite Server. I setup a Mac mini in our data center, connected to it from my home office, and walked thru the whole process. It’s the exact same steps a new Macminicolo customer would use to get up and going right away.

So now, to go along with our ten reason to host Daylite with Macminicolo, here is a video showing how to install Daylite Server on a Remote Mac mini.

If you use your Mac regularly with a VPN, Shimo will be worth a look. “Shimo supports almost every VPN protocol that is currently used. Next to the widely used CiscoVPN, Shimo easily handles OpenVPN and standard compliant IPSec connections. PPTP and L2TP are no problem at all either. With Cisco’s new AnyConnect protocol and the zero-configuration protocol Hamachi the list of supported connection types becomes even longer.”

Macworld did a nice post on Shimo recently so you can read all about it there. Or, just head over to the developer’s site to download a trial or purchase a license. (€12.95)

“Digital Sentry monitors your system for specific events, and then can perform a vast array of unique actions in response. Watch for such system events as waking from sleep, program launches, closes, or switches, file modifications, incorrect password attempts, mouse and keyboard input, and many more. Then, perform any number of tasks like sending an e-mail, shutting down the computer, starting a simulated self-destruct, pinging a web URL, taking a web cam shot, taking a screenshot, playing a multimedia file, speaking some text, executing a shell script… the list goes on!”

The interface is nice and easy to setup. The cost is $19.95 and comes with a free trial. Download it here.

Each time I download an app, I’m impressed when the developer takes the time to make the disk image display nicely. Improvements come with a nice background, a shortcut to the Applications Folder, and a nice view of the icon. SimplyDisk makes it real simple to do all these things and more.

SimplyDisk is €12.95 and can be downloaded from the developer’s site.

For more on the app, see the official page at Bjango.com. Or, just head straight to iTunes to buy the iStat app. (iTunes link)

Just recently, the same company that develops these apps has announced iStat for the iPhone. It’s an incredibly good looking app that will let you watch the resources on your Mac. It includes views of RAM, CPU, network, uptime, temps, etc. It also offers great implementations of pinging and traceroutes to servers. Incredibly useful if you are running a remote Mac server.

This app will also let you take a look of the stats of your iPhone like memory usage, disk space, etc.

This app has been submitted to Apple for review and should be on the App Store soon.

And it gets even better for Macminicolo customers. In an exclusive deal with Bjango, all Macminicolo customers can receive free copies of the application. See here for more details and screenshots.

Until this point, this included opening hidden files and entering the vhosts by hand. This isn’t hard, but can be intimidating for a new developer and Mac user.

I was happy to find VirtualHostX. This application helps to add a new virtual host with just a few clicks. (They also offer a pretty nice tutorial on setting up vhosts while using MAMP.

The application runs $9 and can be downloaded here.

Web Help Desk is a web help desk software packaging that will allow you to track support tickets from clients. It’s server software installs fine on a Mac and has a lot of great options. (Email to ticket conversion, Knowledge Base, etc.)

The best part about it is if you are doing your consulting solo, you can run a single license copy of Web Help Desk free of charge. It’s when you have more than one tech support engineer that the licenses start costing money.

If you’d like a copy of the software (and instructions on installing) you can get it here.

With FTP Maker, you just start up the application and enter your information. (e.g., server address, directory, password, etc.) You can also add a logo for your company. Once complete, you just push “Create FTP Upload Application.” FTP Maker will then create an application that you can pass to your customers so they can easily upload to your server. Once they have it, they just drag and drop files on the application and everything else happens automatically.

What a great idea for an application. You can download a trial at the developer’s site. If you decide to purchase it, the license will cost $30.