UPDATE!  The complaint in this post has been satisfied.  See ….

A Mac doesn’t work with your stuff when:

Your office has a Windows 2003  file server with AppleShare enabled and you just bought a new Mac with OS 10.7 “Lion”.

Why does your Windows server support that old AppleShare protocol anyway?  Maybe because you have 20 thousand files that were named and saved when AppleShare was Apple’s premier method of networking, and you need to see the special characters that help you identify them.

Or maybe your office firewall allows the AppleShare port to reach the server from the outside so you can do some work from home.   The AppleShare port is more secure than Samba, so the easy way to connect without a lot of expensive or complicated VPN solutions is by using AppleShare.

But now you have Lion and suddenly you can’t connect to your Windows file server using tried and true AppleShare.  Those familiar steps of selecting Connect To Server and typing  afp://server.myoffice.com now result in the following accusatory message.

Your server does not support this kind of connection.

So it’s my server, not the fact that Apple deleted DHCAST128 in their latest product line?

Apple’s cheery claim that a Mac works with your stuff has a long list of caveats.  And the solution is always that you must fix your stuff.  Here’s one community support thread.

Can’t open network share

Question:  Why use a Mac if the important tasks must be done in a command line?

I read every possible article and tech note about Lion before I advised clients to go for it.  No where did I find warning that the so called improvements would force costly upgrades and changes to procedures.

I predict that Apple will gleefully tell consumers that their change is a good thing and you’ll be better off if you change your whole routine to their standards.  It’s only money and time right?  That shouldn’t stand in the way of progress, should it?

But is this progress?  Is it better?  At some technical level that only matters to Apple is it probably better.  I don’t see what’s better about losing weeks and months of productivity while solutions are deployed.

For creating the perfect mood in your home, few things do the job better than music.  A whole house audio system ties the house together with sound unlike lights, paint, flooring, and decor can.  As you move from room to room, hearing the same music adds a sense of continuity.  And because the music is all around coming from overhead, it doesn’t have to be loud.  Hidden components is also a nice benefit.  There is a richness to whole house audio that raises the personal value of the home while you’re occupying it, but also raises the real value when you sell it.

There are many ways to go about whole house audio, but the basic premise is to send sound from a single point to multiple sets of speakers.  Why do you need a single point from which to send?  Well, you don’t.  You could put a stereo and ceiling speakers in every room, but that’s not whole house audio.  As you enter each room you would need to turn on the system.  And each room would be playing its own music, unless you only listen to radio and tune every room to the same station.  Never mind the fact that you would need to buy as many systems as rooms.

The purpose of whole house audio is to simplify the music control process.  Or gain greater sophistication, depending on how advanced your wiring design and equipment is.

This article describes a few of the most common designs.  They all achieve the goal of sending music to the rooms from a central point.  The differences are in the method of selecting and controlling the music.

Lets review the three basic control options before we examine the different designs.

• Room Selection:  This is what is coming out of the speakers in any given room.
• Room Sound Level: This is the volume of the music coming out of the speakers in any given room.
• Music Source:  This is any device that feeds music into the central power amplifier.

Basic Whole House System

Figure 1 describes the most basic whole house wiring design and the one that will cost the least to install.  The speaker distributor is a simple device that splits the single set of speaker wires coming out of the amplifier into as many “zones” as you have rooms.  Speaker distributors reduce the power by a factor of the number of zones.  This keeps your amp from blowing up because it’s powering more speakers than it was designed to power.  Most speaker distributors let you turn zones on and off in case you’re not going to be in a certain room.  The power amplifier can be any stereo receiver, or purely a power amplifier.  The advantage of using a receiver instead of a power amplifier is that receivers have radio tuners.  If all you do is listen to radio, then a receiver and a speaker distributor is all that you need.  Receivers also let you select the music source.  You can select your CD carousel, record player, cassette tape player, MP3 player, even “listen” to movies from a DVD player.

A basic whole house design is in fact quite versatile.  But in practice, it is not convenient.  To adjust the volume level in the rooms, or change the station, or select a different music source, you need to stand in front of the receiver.  The changes you make apply to all of the rooms.  You might like the volume in one room, but not in another.  And you can’t play different music in each room.

These rules can be bent a little depending on the kind of receiver.  Some high end receivers have network connections and web interfaces.  By connecting the receiving to the network, you can use a web browser to display a virtual control panel.  The web based virtual control panel allows you to do the same things you can do while standing in front of the receiver.  You can turn the receiver on and off, adjust the volume, select music sources.  In the case of some receivers, you can tune into internet radio.  Despite all this convenience of remotely controlling the receiver, the same problem of individual room control remains.  Every room must play the same music, at the universal volume.

Advanced Application of a Basic Whole House System

Figure 2 is a Basic Whole House Design used in a way that takes advantage of recent trends in media streaming products to simulate an advanced design.  Bear in mind that independent music selection and volume levels in each room is not possible.  The reason for that is clear by looking at the figure.  The device that the speakers are connected to is the speaker distributor.  The rooms play the music that is passing through the distributor at whatever volume it is passing. The distributor is passing the music coming from the amplifier’s single set of speaker outputs.

But let’s assume for a moment that we like the universal volume level in each room, and we want the same music playing in each room.  Accepting that solves a lot, leaving us free to do some cool things with music selection and play controls.

The figure shows a smart phone communicating with a computer that has music lists.  The computer in turn is communicating with a media streaming appliance.  The media streaming appliance is sending the music to the amplifier.  The advantage of this configuration is that it allows you to play the music lists that you’ve compiled from the convenience of your computer.

You don’t need a computer however.  Media streaming appliances also have the ability to connect to the Internet and play music from online stations and services such as Pandora.  From your computer or from your smart phone you can control the media appliance directly.  You can select the service, select the music, play and pause, and adjust the volume by altering the volume output of the appliance.  But if you’re like most people, you probably have a particular music collections you want to play, and managing them through appliances designed for accessing third party services isn’t going to give you the personal experience you’re seeking.

For the ultimate in personal music management, here’s how I use Figure 2 in my home.  There is a computer sitting along side the amplifier.  It runs iTunes where I have a variety of music lists designed for different house activities.  The computer also runs VNC.  VNC is a program that let’s my iPhone run a VNC client to control the computer.  To change the music, or the entire house volume, I log onto the desktop of the “music server” and adjust iTunes as if were standing in the closet.

There are a couple of big problems with my practice.  For one, I can’t turn off the amplifier remotely.  To save energy and the amp, I have to walk into the closet at the end of the day and turn it off.    Using iTunes on a tiny iPhone screen is a pain.  Most people don’t have an extra computer to use as a music server.  If you’re looking for a “press and play” that every member of the family can use (not just the computer geek), this is probably not a good option.

Before we get to advanced central music selection and management designs, lets look at a basic system that’s been modified to provide one crucial element of the whole house audio experience – individual room volume control.

So who DOES own your domain? There’s only one way to find out. You must do a “whois” search in a domain registrar database. But be prepared. You might be in for an unpleasant shock.

Unbelievable as it may seem, when you rely on someone else to register your domain name, more often than not they list themselves, and not you, as the legal, administrative, and technical owner of the domain. Some ISPs and HSPs are guilty of this practice. Almost all “friends”, computer gurus, and in-house tech people are guilty of this practice. Why? Well, there are several reasons.

First, since domains are reserved on a first come, first served basis, there is usually a mad scramble to register and reserve the domain once you’ve determined what it will be. Remember, you are competing with everyone else in the WORLD for that domain name. The person helping you register it must act quickly and competently. For ease and fast results, that person will most likely secure the domain using THEIR established account and listing them selves as the owner.

Second, the Internet has no rules or regulations which prohibit someone from arbitrarily registering and reserving domains in which they have no intent on using. In fact, it is a common practice for people to register a gamut of domains with the clear goal of reselling the domains at a higher price to businesses for which the domain has more relevance. This is called domain speculation and/or domain squatting.

Third, most ISPs would rather deal with experienced, technical people. They don’t hold high regard for end users and often consider them ” stupid users who’ll mess up the records if they had an ounce of real authority” (quoted verbatim from a respected officer of a well known ISP).

So, unless you know the procedure and specifically ask to be the LEGAL, TECHNICAL and ADMINISTRATIVE contact for the domain, whoever goes through the motions to register the domain will usually list themselves as the owner. In other words, they become the Registrant. Ironically, what may start out as a well-intentioned act to make things easier, will often produce more headaches and difficulty than anything else.

There are endless nightmares to endure when domains are registered by those who do not place your interests first and foremost.

Nightmare #1: Your website does well. In fact, it does extremely well! Now you want the professionalism and security of owning your own domain. Well, the original Registrant has just bought themselves little “insurance”.The question becomes “how much will it cost you to get your domain in your name?” Technically, the cost is whatever the Registrant says it is. While there is legal precedence to combat this brand of “domain squatting”, the costs to pursue the matter legally can be astronomical. You will either pay the Registrant’s asking price, or pay for time spent in arbitration, if not Court.

Nightmare #2 : You ask your in-house quasi-computer guy (you know, the one that was originally hired under a completely different job description?) to register your company domain. Not having much experience, nor knowing the difference, he registers the domain in his own name. Six months later, he leaves your company. Yet he is still the owner of your company domain. You will still be tied to this person for the life of your domain unless and until you get it transferred to the company’s name. So, even when the registering party truly cares about you, problems arise if they don’t have the big picture.

We know all of the problems that can result, because we’ve been through it. Clients who were intimidated by the process often requested that we “do it for them”. So, we’ve made the mistake of registering domains in our own name simply as a matter of what we considered to be a convenience. Then, in the course of becoming educated and more comfortable in all other areas of their computer system, they became more confident and were willing to accept responsibility for their domain. However, that meant entering the whole convoluted realm of domain transfers, which is another headache unto itself, filled with endless administrative pitfalls and snags that complicate the process beyond reason.

The point is that these nightmares and headaches are completely avoidable. We know this and we now have strict, yet simple procedures in place that are meant to protect everyone: While we still do the legwork, ownership is given to the client at the outset and we are listed as the technical contact for front line troubleshooting in technical matters.

That’s how it should be for everyone, not just our clients. However, some of the most popular ISPs still continue to use procedures that do not benefit the users in the long run. Even worse is the plethora of do-it-yourself domain name registration websites, whose instructions are ambiguous and vague at best. It both delights us and chills us when a prospective client calls and says, “I just registered my own domain. How do I get a website and 10 e-mail addresses?” While on the one hand, they’ve accepted responsibility and taken the initial step, on the other hand, they’ll probably need a lot of guidance the in technical aspects of managing and developing the domain.

So, do you know who owns your domain?