Subject: MacOS X 10.5.3 Update and WebDAV

From: Frank Lowney <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 31 May 2008 11:56:33 -0400

Hello,

I've just noticed what appears to be a rather serious issue involving  
WebDAV in MacOS X 10.5.3.  Recent, earlier versions of this OS had no  
problems interacting with WebDAV services but, now, the Finder will  
lock-up when dragging a modestly sized folder of files to a WebDAV  
volume (ditto for individual files).  This lock-up does not affect  
other applications running on the client machine but the Finder  
becomes completely unresponsive.  The Finder cannot be forced quit or  
relaunched so shutdown/restart can only be accomplished via power  
recycling.  I have reported this to Apple via their http://bugreport.apple.com/ 
  facility (Problem ID: 5975398 ).

So far, all of my testing has been against the now unsupported WebSTAR  
V server (failure), ,Mac (success) and Blackboard Vista 3.x (partial  
failure).  If folks here with access to MacOS X 10.5.3 could add to  
this list, perhaps a clearer pattern might emerge.

Right now, I suspect that changes to the WebDAV FS in MacOS X 10.5.3  
were made in anticipation of upcoming changes in the .Mac service,  
changes that may not be standard or may be so new to the standard that  
WebDAV support in some systems hasn't yet caught up.

I will need to do further testing but it seems that only certain movie  
files trigger this effect.  Rumor has it that iPhone synching will be  
added to .Mac (which is WebDAV based) so this might be a case of  
unintended effects stemming out of an effort to protect copyrighted  
video files on the iPhone when .Mac synching is invoked.

==================================================================
Dr. Frank Lowney  Georgia College & State University
     Senior Director for External Projects
        and Assistant to the Director, Digital Innovation Group @  
Georgia College
     Web Enabled Resources
     GCSU Library and Instructional Technology Center
     E-Mail: [email-masked]
     Professional Pages: http://www2.gcsu.edu/library/WER/
     Personal Pages: http://www.faculty.de.gcsu.edu/~flowney
Voice: (478) 445-5260
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==================================================================
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