Family's best iTunes Friend - Mojo

Like more and more people I have a household of internet connected devices and a family sharing those devices. I've long used iTunes to acquire and manage music and until a few years ago having all iTunes activity concentrated on one computer was convenient enough. These days I need the library to be available on each computer. 

iTunes has a music sharing feature which works quite well if all you want to do is listen to the library from a "secondary" computer. However Apple has intentionally crippled library sharing by preventing you from burning a CD using shared songs (in fact you can't even create a playlist of your own using a shared song). My level of frustration from the inconvenience of having to buy music and burn CDs for the rest of my family finally reached the threshold to make me do something about it.

The key use cases I wanted to address were:

1. Ability to log into any computer in the house and burn a CD with music in the library
2. Ability to shop for and buy music from any computer in the house and have it accessible to all the other computers

It took quite a bit of searching to find a solution but I finally found a tool called Mojo by Deusty. Mojo has a free version which provides some nice sharing features. However it is the Pro version which caught my eye because it solves both use cases at a cost of only $11 (3 licenses). 

On each computer I have created a iTunes smart playlist that includes all music added in the last two months. I installed Mojo on each computer and used the Pro version's "subscribe" feature to subscribe to the "recently added" playlist. This means Mojo will monitor changes in the playlist on each computer and automatically download new music. The end result is a "hands off" method of making our music available to everyone in the house. It is working flawlessly and I couldn't be happier (well, if this was a feature of iTunes I'd be happier...).

One caveat - at this point virtually none of our music has DRM. When Apple announced almost all music would move to the Plus format, and have no DRM, I chose to update songs I had previously purchased. I had done some tests and found the audio quality improvement in the "iTunes Plus" versions was significant. If your songs are DRM'd Mojo will not download them.

Now know one has to be frustrated that Dad doesn't have time to get all the music files onto a single machine to burn their CD for them and Dad doesn't have to listen to whining :-)

From a security standpoint no one outside of our network can get to our libraries since our router blocks connections to the Mojo port. 

Getting VNC and the VPN to play nicely together

I work from home regularly but have always found my work laptop's display to be difficult to use for long periods of time. When my laptop wasn't on the VPN I had been using Microsoft's RDP to make use of my incredibly beautiful iMac 24" display to proxy for the laptop display. However this doesn't work when the laptop is on the VPN since incoming RDP connections are blocked by my employer.

As I worked from home more and more I finally got irritated enough by RDP's inability to display a full resolution version of the laptop's display and the inability of any of this to work when on the VPN to do something about it all. At least for now I don't want to have a separate monitor or try to go to a KVM setup.

I had already implemented the ability to SSH from my Windows laptop to the iMac using public key authentication. This allowed me to use VNC from the work laptop to the iMac and ensured I could keep all personal info off of the work machine. This capability is required in order to do the next steps (well, the public key part isn't required, password authentication would be OK but isn't recommended for security reasons). There are a lot of sites with info on setting up SSH and VNC to use from a work machine to a home Mac. I'm not gonna duplicate that info here. Once you have that working the rest should be trivial for you so the exact details have been left as an exercise for the reader :-) But here's the overview...

• I copied my original SSH script to create two more on the laptop. One for use when the laptop is on the VPN (in which case I use the public domain name of my iMac) and the other for when the laptop is off the VPN (in which case I have to use the IP address of the iMac). The scripts are identical to the one I use to SSH from the laptop to the iMac for accessing the iMac except the "-L" is replaced by a "-R" with the "R" telling SSH to set up a reverse mapping. Also the port is changed from 5900 to 5901 (see the note below for why).
• I run RealVNC's service mode server on the laptop. Once the reverse SSH connection is established I can then use Chicken of the VNC to display the laptop's "screen" on the iMac (other VNC viewers should work too).
• Since the iMac accepts incoming VNC connections on the default port 5900 the "Display" number must be "1" (i.e. port 5901) when accessing the laptop's display. Otherwise CotVNC will try to display the iMac's screen in it's window resulting in a cool but useless and frustrating recursion. For an address have CotVNC connect to localhost.

The main point of this blog entry is to let you know this is possible. If you have a question shoot me a message but note I can't provide detailed support. Also, FWIW, the reverse SSH technique is not Mac-specific and can be used on other flavors of OS.

Skype is Approved

Skype just came out with an iPhone version of their app. It allows calls over Wifi - i.e. it doesn't use up your mobile phone minutes. Calls to other users on Skype are free and there are low cost plans for calling landlines. The international calling rates are especially low compared to other long distance options.

The iPhone app is great for a 1.0 app. It's existence prompted me to set up an account and install the Mac and Windows versions as well. Calls on the iPhone are very clear. The one call I've done on my iMac was very good as well (even using the builtin microphone).

I'm a believer. This thing has legs :-)

Space on Mac OS Leopard

I think it is true that many Mac users aren't aware of Spaces. I saw this blog entry today on TUAW which gives an introduction. Since some relatives recently saw me using Spaces while looking over my shoulder and gave immediate ooohs and aaahs I thought it worth doing a post on how I use Spaces. Please read the TUAW post first as I'm not going to duplicate the info here.

I changed the default key to reveal all the spaces to F5 (from F19). This places it right next to the Dashboard and Expose hotkeys. I chose to run with 4 Spaces and use them thusly:

1. My main Space - Mail, Twhirl, Safari
2. Reference Space - iCal, AddressBook, iTunes
3. Secondary work Space - usually just has FireFox but I sometimes park others there
4. Multimedia work Space - usually Aperture but also other photo and video apps open here

I use the Spaces controls to force the named apps into the desired Space. I have DragThing set to appear in all Spaces since it is my main app launcher.

N.B. This blog is not as active as it was. I'm doing quite a bit of posting on FaceBook right now. We'll see how that works out...

Wow, may I have been right?

In my post a week ago I posited that there were indications we may be putting the worst behind us. Since then several positive signs have emerged. While I certainly have no crystal ball I remain convinced the world is not coming to an end and as always Americans, in particular, are adapting very quickly to the new financial reality. All that is needed now is for the government to finish articulating the "toxic asset" plan and then leave things alone for awhile. The ongoing threat of additional government intervention in additional aspects of business and life needs to be put on hold. People need to feel some stability and confidence in what the rules will be for at least the next year. 

Crazy "Customer Service" Letter

Just got a letter from my wireless provider, AT&T. It informs me of their efforts to "better serve you". I can summarize the lette :

1. I will have to change the address where the automatic bill payment is sent
2. My monthly service discount will no longer apply to the additional lines on my account
3. Various features and services will not longer be available (but of course in fine fashion it provides no clue as to what those may be)

Please explain to me how any of this better serves me...

Way out on a Limb

I'm going way out on a limb to say I am seeing some encouraging signs. Not items that are good news in the absolute sense but rather signs that the degree of necessary pain to put the worst behind us are starting to show up. Companies are finally cutting or eliminating dividends is one minor example. I mean, how insane is it to for a company that is facing huge funding and cash flow issues to keep paying a dividend? There is no shareholder value in going bankrupt...

Newly unemployed numbers are still huge but aren't accelerating. There is bound to be at least one more quarter of substantial layoffs. Heck, for all I know I'll be one of them. But with such poor government action there is no way to avoid this round of layoffs and the sooner they're done the sooner the bottom will have been reached. 

The massive numbers of people facing foreclosure and other loan problems is going to be a big boon to the financial service companies that are some of the ones facing the most dire situation. 

And it seems even GM is acknowledging that bankruptcy could be a viable option - something everyone except union-backed politicians has known all along. GM has long been a government subsidized company and can't compete without a bankruptcy to clean up unreasonable financial obligations. 

I'm not happy about all the pain. I'm feeling some now and it will be a miracle if I don't feel a lot more soon. But like a root canal the only option to get to a better days is to push through it.

Newest source of my disdain: People claiming things are as bad as the Great Depression. Get a friggin clue. Better yet, read some history books and pray for forgiveness.