Dear Community,

So much has been going on around us: new technology is invented on a daily basis.

This influx of technology is scary: how do we use this technology? When can I find time to learn how to use it? What happened to the good old days where all I had to do was flick a switch?

Those days are gone. Our life is beginning to depend upon technology; we need technology to help us move further in life. It is what makes our lives easier and simpler to manage, sustain and live.

We recognize that not everyone is able to keep up with rapid advancements in technology but we also realize that if people begin to fall behind with modern technology, how will we progress in life to make even more advanced technology?

We’re here to solve the problem. This summer Digital Independence will offer discounted computer consultation sessions. For one hour a day, one day a week, over a period of 5 weeks- Digital Independence will offer affordable basic computer training. An application for this program can be downloaded by clicking here. This program is open to anyone who wants to catch up on modern technology.

We ask, regardless of your age, gender or race, that you do not fear technology and will help us progress our society.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact us.
Again, the application can be downloaded by clicking this link.

Thanks,
Digital Independence :)

Background

DAAP (Digital Audio Access Protocol) was introduced into iTunes 4 as a way of streaming one’s music (and more recently other media like videos) to other computers on a local network. However, as of iTunes 7 this feature has been replaced with a modified version of DAAP not compatible with many other devices that are not running iTunes (ie. XBox, PS3, Android smartphones, etc). Since then there has not been an easy way to run a DAAP server on your Macintosh computer, until now! Thanks to mt-daapd, even if you have very little familiarity with Apple’s Terminal application you will likely be able to setup a DAAP server on your Mac.

Downloads

There is not much to download, but if you do not have any of the following you should download them now: MacPorts, StartupItems. The latter is only necessary IF you want the DAAP server to run when your Mac boots up. If you would like to: unzip it and place it in your downloads folder (if it is not already).

Installation

The installation process for MacPorts is fairly simple, you can either download from source and install using terminal, or download the .dmg and install. Once installation is complete open Terminal in ~/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app. Type:

sudo port install mt-daapd
sudo cp /opt/local/share/mt-daapd/mt-daapd.conf.sample /etc/mt-daapd.conf
sudo mkdir /etc/mt-daapd
sudo vim /etc/mt-daapd.conf

Edit the mt-daapd.conf file as necessary, changing the username, password, etc to your liking. For more detailed instructions see Elliot Cable’s blog, or the Firefly Media Server instructions. If you want mt-daapd to run on startup, execute these last two lines:

sudo cp -r ~/Downloads/mt-daapd /Library/StartupItems/mt-daapd
sudo /Library/StartupItems/mt-daapd start

Otherwise (if you do NOT want mt-daapd to run on startup) simply type:

sudo mt-daapd

And to stop the program from running:

sudo killall mt-daapd

So what?

Now you can stream your music to nearly any device without a hitch! Aside from their use as web servers, the Apple TVs that we sell running OS X 10.5 Leopard will come pre-installed with mt-daapd, so your iTunes content will automatically be streamed to any device in your home. Check out the link if you are interested in purchasing one.