It is that time of year again. CeBit 08 is coming to Sydney in May.

 Now for the best news, if you go to http://www.cebit.com.au/ before March 1st you can save yourself $65 and register for entry for free. That's right FREE!

CeBIT Australia 2008 is the largest and most important business technology event in the region, targeted squarely at serious business users.

The event features 720+ technology solution providers organised into 28 specialist show floor categories – ranging from CRM and Telecommunications to e-Marketing and Open Source Software – making it quick and easy for YOUR business to find the products and services you want to investigate.

CeBIT Australia 2008 is an excellent networking event for senior executives and business owners, with more than 35,000 pre-qualified business visitors gathering in one place to compare notes. Featuring five specialist business conferences focused on core ICT issues, CeBIT Australia 2008 brings together the most ambitious international speaker program assembled in this country.

CeBIT Australia 2008 is backed by the Australian Government and key industry groups, and draws on the expertise and international resources of the world's largest and most effective trade fair group, Deutsche Messe AG.

 See you at CeBit May 20-22

Firstly a number of components on our site are in the process of being upgraded or replaced to make them perform happily with our new X Serve. A number of these components have had a problem after moving from PHP 4 to PHP 5 but the benefits far outweigh any negatives.

Secondly we are about to upgrade Joomla the content management software we use to run our site to version 1.14. The big news however is that Joomla has announcied the final release of Joomla 1.5 a far improved version which is much more XHTML compliant than earlier versions. I have been testing a beta version for the last few months and it looks great. This means that soon we will be updating the look of our site with a new template specially designed to work with the new version. For those that do not know what Joomla is, it is the Content Management System (CMS) that runs our site. Joomla isn't just any CMS, it has won the best Open Source CMS Award at the last two Linux Awards. Not bad for a program who original code was developed in Australia (in those days it was known as Mambo).

For those wondering about Leopard - we have already set up Leopard Client & Leopard Server for testing on two XServes. If everything works as expected we could be ready to upgrade our server within the next month or so.That said we won't be rushing the upgrade as there a still a number of bugs in Leopard that we would like to see fixed before making the change.

The final step in stage one of the upgrade process will involve migrating our mail server to Leopard Server. This is the most involved part of the upgrade process. Once thesae services are in place the real fun will begin with Stage 2 of the upgrade process which you will find out about in the next progress report.†

In the past I have made a few not so flattering comments about the quality of service I have received from Next Byte, but now all is forgiven.

After 6 months trying to source two sets of XServe Rail Mounting Kits to fit 2 of our G5 XServes, so I could finish installing thems, Alex from Next Byte, Baulkham Hills has delivered the goods.

His professionalism and ability to come through where so many in the past have failed is greatly appreciated.

I guess it comes down to a company only being as good as its staff and after his assistance I no longer feel reluctant to refer our members to NextByte Baulkham Hills.

For years this store was the only Apple Reseller in the Parramatta/Hills District and perhaps they felt they had a captive audience and did not need to go that extra yard but at last they seem to be catching on that if you do not keep your game up customers will go elsewhere.

Another small thing that may have influenced them was competition. No longer are they the sole Apple Reseller in the area. NextByte has also opened a new store at Castle Hill Towers which should keep them on their toes. Add to that with the never ending growth in Apple products a number of new resellers have entered the frey.

Myers Department Stores now also sell Macintosh products. They can be found at Parramatta, Carlingford Court and again at Castle Hill Towers.

That's not all though, Dick Smith Powerhouse stores now also sell Macintosh products, so check them out also at their Northmead store.

One thing is certain, at long last the people of Sydney's Western & North Western suburbs finally have a choice where buying  Apple products is concerned.