War of the Worlds by the Star Trek Cast

eDavidLu writes "Here is a radio remake of The War of the Worlds. From the promo: 'Join actors from Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation as they recreate this classic radio thriller. The breathless pace and convincing details make it clear why the 1938 broadcast of an eyewitness report of an invasion from Mars caused a nationwide panic in 1938. Originally performed by Orson Welles and his Mercury Theatre of the Air, War of the Worlds is truly the mother of all space invasions, offering a rare combination of chills, thrills and great literature.' My local NPR station KPCC broadcast this show last Saturday night, and the streaming audio for the entire program is available for one week only on their site. I was going to submit this story for Halloween eve, but KPCC was in the middle of a fund drive. Now that the fund drive is over, the slashdotting can begin. If you like this type of programming, remember to contribute to your local NPR station." Update: 11/05 17:53 GMT by Z : Edited for jerks. Thanks, guys. Seriously. Way to be responsible members of the internet community.

Comments

oi you

[Anonymous Coward]

Stop reading the comments idiot, get downloading before she blows!

Re:oi you

[freedom_india]

I bought the copy from Audible last year. It is really a beautiful adaption of the story for America.

With some funny speech by Quark thrown in.

I like WoW very much and i have the classic book, original movie (not the tom cruise shit), and the audible version.

Re:oi you

[harlows_monkeys]

I like WoW very much and i have the classic book, original movie (not the tom cruise shit), and the audible version

You might find Jeff Wayne's musical version interesting to add to your collection.

first post?

[Anonymous Coward]

dum de dum

I thought the movie was pretty bad

[ReformedExCon]

Lots of action and explosions, but I generally find movies with that have an actual plot to be much more interesting than ones based on "star power".

I'm interested in how the Star Trek cast is able to fix this pile of dung, but I suppose limiting it to pure audio is one good step.

Re:I thought the movie was pretty bad

[dancingmad]

Uh, I haven't listened to the progam, but its probably based on the H.G. Wells book (or the radio drama by Orsen Wells, which is based on the book) not the movie, which had very little do with the actual novel.

Re:I thought the movie was pretty bad

[Bananatree3]

The movie version is completely Hollywoodized. While it may be easy to say the "War of the Worlds movie is bad, so everything War of the Worlds is horrible", remember that often excellent stories are chopped up, minced and gutted when they are ran through the movie industry. If you wanted to get a taste of the original version, check out the original broadcast here.

Re:I thought the movie was pretty bad

[aussie_a]

No matter how you slice it, the ending sucks. It hears/reads/looks like the creator went "Well shit. The baddies are undefeatable, and humanity doesn't have a hope. But I have to finish this in 10minutes/pages, I know! I'll have all of the aliens suddenly die. Now what's a good reason, ooh! A virus. And it's scientific, so everyone will think I'm oh so clever."

Sure, it's scientifically plausible. But as a novel/play, it sucks. It sucks big time. Just because something is scientifically plausible, doesn't mean it's good. And it's the one consistent element in every incarnation of War of the Worlds. I thought Hollywood, being Hollywood, would change it. But they didn't. Typical.

Re:I thought the movie was pretty bad

[Anonymous Coward]

If you want to get a taste of the original version, check out the BOOK, here - http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/36

Unless, of course, you are American, in which case you will require the story to be transfered to the USA, as was done for the radio show.

Re:I thought the movie was pretty bad

[raoul666]

In 1938, it was pretty damn clever, actually.

Re:I thought the movie was pretty bad

[Mistshadow2k4]

Actually, I could see an invasion ending exactly that way. "Let's scan for harmful bacteria. Yep, there's plenty. Let's innoculate ourselves. Ok, we're innoculated. Nothing can stop us now....... Oh wait. This bacteria is growing immune to the vaccine/it's interacting with other bacteria in us/the vaccine (or some drug, whatever) caused it to mutate, etc."

Of course, that depends on the aliens being just as prone to mistakes and overconfidence as we humans.

Re:I thought the movie was pretty bad

[moviepig.com]

No matter how you slice it, the ending sucks.

Different strokes, to be sure... but I think the ending's defensible as one of sci-fi's all-time greats. (Don't be misled by the century of fiction since it was written.)

Meanwhile, fans of War of the Worlds, in all its incarnations but especially the original 19th-century book... should definitely check out the "other", much maligned, direct-to-video recent version. You may (repeat may) find it to be an unexpected treat, as I did...

Re:I thought the movie was pretty bad

[swmccracken]

You're quite correct. I recall reading in an article republished in the NZ Herald, the first version of work as H.G. Wells originally wrote it, the martians *won*. Humanity was destroyed - everyone, irrespective of your socio-econonmic class.

It was only after his publisher balked at this that H.G. Wells changed the plot so that humanity survived. However, note that humanity didn't save itself.

Re:I thought the movie was pretty bad

[bobintetley]

It was the cutting edge of science when the book was first published in 1898 (the discovery of viruses and the common cold being relatively new).

It's public domain now and you can read the original book here, along with HG Wells complete works (which I highly recommend - he's the grandaddy of science fiction).

Re:I thought the movie was pretty bad

[zakezuke]

> In 1938, it was pretty damn clever, actually.

And the basic plot device was used in Independence Day... when everything else failed the aliens were vulnerable to a computer virus... but since their computer network was not compatable with anything on earth, and appletalk is also not compatable with anything on earth... makes for a simple resolution.

Re:I thought the movie was pretty bad

[freakybob]

I thought Hollywood, being Hollywood, would change it. But they didn't. Typical.

Contradiction. If Hollywood DID change it, you'd still say typical.

Re:I thought the movie was pretty bad

[paskie]

That makes sense, because the story just wasn't built up and ready for that ending, and it's hard to imagine that such a great writer as H. G. Wells would miss that. For a good ending, the story has to build up for it (which doesn't mean it can't be surprising - but it still has to be plausible as seen from _inside_ of the story). For a random example, if you are into anime, this is precisely the key difference between Nausicaa and Princess Mononoke. Deus ex machina.

Re:I thought the movie was pretty bad

[Xaria]

So instead you want "and we went in and blew them up, yay for us humans"? I thought this was a much more thoughtful ending. You know what, we're not invincible.

Re:I thought the movie was pretty bad

[aussie_a]

Any sources online for the original version? I'd be quite happy to read a good ending for once :D

Re:I thought the movie was pretty bad

[aussie_a]

Actually, I'd be much happier with an ending that didn't involve a deus ex machina (it was IMO definitely artificial, yes good science, but bad literary device). Any other ending couldn't have been worse. Having the martians have factions, with a faction opposed to the war, and finally stopping the invasion. Having the machines use be extremely old and eventually fail. Hell, have the martians win.

Re:I thought the movie was pretty bad

[Rich0]

Keep in mind that one of the book's themes was a criticism of imperialism - which was rampant at the time. The prevailing view was might makes right. Consequently, it was important that the human race be portrayed as completely impotent against the martians. That is what is so terrifying about the concept in the novel - that every counter devised by men to the invasion was doomed to failure from the start, as the martians were far superior in every respect, and had every advantage conceivable. Man was simply to be systematically exterminated.

Just as rats in a home have no hope of resisting a human extermination plan, humans would have no hope of resisting an invasion from a far more technologically-developed culture.

The idea of the humans turning things around and saving the day, while exciting, completely defeats the whole point of the novel. In some sense I was a bit disappointed by the recent movie adaption in that they had to factor in the cheap-shot missle attack against the staggering tripod. (Did a sick martian accidentally flip off the shield generator? I doubt that the bacteria made that sick...)

Re:I thought the movie was pretty bad

[AndroidCat]

Orson Wells and Mercury Theater had very few radio listeners in England. If the idea is scare the piss out of your audience, re-locating it in their backyard makes sense.

Re:I thought the movie was pretty bad

[Mr2cents]

The content of the .ram file shows http://www.earthstation1.com/WOTW/War_of_the_World s.ra for those who prefer wget.

Re:I thought the movie was pretty bad

[RLiegh]

'm interested in how the Star Trek cast is able to fix this pile of dung, but I suppose limiting it to pure audio is one good step.

How do I trolled web?

Re:I thought the movie was pretty bad

[Tim Browse]

You may (repeat may) find it to be an unexpected treat, as I did...

I assume you're being funny. A friend of mine bought the DVD from Amazon US (not available outside US due to copyright reasons), and 3 of us watched it one night, not expecting much.

We were right. I haven't seen many films that are fucking diabolical, but that was one of them. It was unbelievably long, the acting was terrible, the effects quite literally laughable (pretty sure they were all done on the director's laptop). And there was so much walking! I've never seen so much footage of people walking. My friend was asked by his wife what the running time of the movie was, and he said it was about 90 minutes, but that unfortunately the walking time was another 90 minutes.

Re: acting - The main character was, I presume, trying to do an English accent (as were they all, but his was the most execrable). It was pathetic, ranging from 'posh' (I assume that's what he was going for - it sounded like an effete Afrikaans speaker) to 'cockney' - all from the same character, of course, and quite often within the same sentence. To hear him keep saying the word 'tennacles' in the midst of his presumably upper-class speech was perhaps an unexpected treat indeed. The rest of the acting was terrible too. And there's a dinner table scene that is presumably included for comic relief that quite simply beggars belief, it's so bad. So bad.

The director (Hines) was actually quoted re: this film saying that adaptions of books are quite hard, and that unlike what most people think, it's not just a case of changing the past tense to the present. I think that tells you all you need to know about the director, really. Especially as it seemed that about all he actually did do was change the tense.

On the flip side, I saw the Tom Cruise version at the cinema, and I thought it was great. But then I wasn't expecting a slavish adaptation of the book - although I was fairly surprised how closely it did follow the book in various places, even if only in spirit. I went in expecting an entertaining Hollywood version of WotW, and that's what I got.

But my god, the Hines version is bad. Bad director! Bad! Back in your box!

Re:I thought the movie was pretty bad

[Fortran IV]

Unless, of course, you are American, in which case you will require the story to be transfered to the USA, as was done for the radio show.

Kiss my kippers, you chauvinist! :-) I'm an American born and raised, never been out of the country (unless you count walking a few hundred yards into a Mexico border town). But several of my favorite authors over the years have been English, and I don't just mean J.K. Rowling.

I would no more find The War of the Worlds improved by having it moved to America than you would find Christine (by the quintessentially American author Stephen King) improved by changing the car from a 1958 Plymouth Fury to a 1959 Morris Mini.

Time and landscape are part and parcel of stories like these, and they rarely benefit from being translated. Only because Welles was a master storyteller himself was the Mercury Theatre production so successful.

In fact, my wife and I prefer the Bloomsbury editions of J.K. Rowling, because the Scholastic Books versions have been so painfully Americanized—("Sorcerer's Stone", indeed!)—so I can understand where your attitude arises.

P.S. Of course, since one of my favorite British authors is Nevil Shute, my image of England tends to be stuck in the '50s when everything was falling apart and the smart people were leaving for Australia.

P.P.S. It's spelled transferred, not transfered.

Re:I thought the movie was pretty bad

[hmccabe]

Ditto for Dracula, by Bram Stoker. Things like recording technology (and IIRC, the methods of hypnotism) were new at the time, and they were included to give the novel a modern feel. If we're recommending books for everyone to read, it gets my vote. H.

Re:I thought the movie was pretty bad

[moviepig.com]

I assume you're being funny...

Not being funny. (Not intentionally, anyway.) I confess that I'm only halfway through the Hines version, but I'm guessing that's enough to reliably opine. What Hines was trying to do (imo) was to channel the movie Wells would've made in 1898, including camera-work, pacing, film-stock, acting, etc. (I know there's a ton of anachronisms in there, but make allowances...) I'd even include the movie's Warhol-ian 3 hour running time. For a somewhat related well-regarded effort, take a look at the recent DRACULA: PAGES FROM A VIRGIN'S DIARY. (Rent or borrow, don't buy... and do have a fallback dvd on hand...) And, fwiw, I though the Spielberg WOTW was the summer movie of the year...

Re:I thought the movie was pretty bad

[Tim Browse]

I just like the fact that you're only half-way through the Hines one. :-) I suppose you must have seen about 40 minutes of walking footage by now.

Watch out for the tennacles!

And keep an eye out for the horses! You'll swear they're not actually there ;-)

wow

[TheDarkRogue]

That's cold man, they operate on the funding of listeners, and so you 'save' them from a slashdotting during a fund drive.

Re:wow

[Almenius]

He probably wanted to save the site from crashing so people not from /. could make their donations.

Re:wow

[McFadden]

I thought it quite a considerate move considering that by definition, a slashdotting means bye bye website for at least a few hours. How is that going to help people trying to make donations?

Sorry

[Criliric]

Resistance is Futile

Yeah I couldn't help it.... but that better be said at least 8 times in this version...

Real Media format

[aussie_a]

I was willing to listen to an act or so, to see how bad it was. But then I realised it was in Real Media format. Sorry, I refuse to download that piece of spyware onto my computer, and I haven't had much luck downloading alternate applications and getting them to work with the Real Media format. I'm not going to try, yet again, merely to listen to something I'm likely not going to like. There are very few sites that use this format. Why do the fringes continue to use it though? I'll never know.

Re:Real Media format

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Real_Alternati ve.htm

Works fine with windows media player 6.4.

Re:Real Media format

[Anonymous Coward]

And mplayer doesn't work for you? Works fine for me out of the box (figuratively speaking of course) and I can use -dumpstream to keep a local copy of the files.

Re:Real Media format

[Anonymous Coward]

Posting as anonymous just to piss you off.

Re:Real Media format

[CaptnMArk]

No, no, no. The Real format is *required* to simulate the aliens' jamming of the radio signal.

Re:Real Media format

[thevoice99]

I also saw it was in Real Media and quickly closed the window. That combined with the poster's peddling of NPR just made me nauseous. Seriously, they are tax funded and yet we're pushed to order a CD, check out their site, and give them more money. Anyway, enough about NPR. I just hope someone puts out an MP3 of this because the Star Trek cast contains some of the best actors and voice actors in the business.

Re:Real Media format

[Anonymous Coward]

to see how bad it was

Dude...just look at the credits. It has the vile, scenery-chewing Brent Spiner. I don't think you need to go any farther than that. The only thing that would be worse is if John de Lancie were acting, as well as directing. Well, Patrick Stewart would be worse than that.

OTOH it might be interesting to hear just how awful and hammy Spiner would be.

Re:Real Media format

[Dan East]

1994: L.A. TheaterWorks does a live production of the original Koch script. Featured actors include several from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Brent Spiner and Will Wheaton do a creditable job, as does Armin Shimerman ("Quark"). Leonard Nimoy, as Professor Pearson, seems to have a bad throat problem, so his voice is very hoarse and his energy level is low and unfocused. Gates McFadden (Dr. Crusher), as Carla Philips the reporter, is pretentious and stiff. It was directed by John de Lancie ("Q"), whom I have grown to appreciate as an actor. It was performed live before an audience as part of the L.A. Theaterworks regular broadcasts in November of 1994. This is a pretty good production, though not the best that the Theaterworks and producer Susan Lowenberg have done. Tapes or a catalog of their productions can be obtained by calling them at, 1-800-708-8863, or their website at http://www.latw.org/.

http://www.greatnorthernaudio.com/sf_radio/wow.htm l

Dan East

Re:Real Media format

[Anonymous Coward]

Even works on Microsoft Windows.

Re:Real Media format

[Egregius]

The combination of Realalternative and that particular ram file doesn't seem to work on my computer.

Re:Real Media format

[Anonymous Coward]

The only thing that could have caused me to shudder and snap the window shut faster would have been if it had been in Windows Media format.

I don't like Real Player and I think NPR is a bunch of leftist suck faggots.

Re:Real Media format

[Anonymous Coward]

Real Media format?? Looks like an MP3 to me...

The file you download contains:
[playlist]
NumberOfEntries=1
File1=http://mprondemand.streamguys.com/content/kp cc/news/shows/latw/2005/10/20051029_latw.mp3

I'll tell you more, it's a 21Kbit VBR, 44.1kHz Mono MP3

This is over 10 years old

[aarku]

It is from 1994.

Re:This is over 10 years old

[Selfbain]

But is it a dupe.

Re:This is over 10 years old

[Directrix1]

Nice sig. Another fun one for when you are bored and near a Wal-Mart computer is (if I remember correctly, I haven't used Windows in about 2 years):

REM Start of thisfile.bat
start "1%1" /REALTIME thisfile.bat 1%1
call thisfile.bat %1
REM End of thisfile.bat

Re:This is over 10 years old

[Kalak]

But now you can listen for free instead of paying for it. Not to mention you don't have to look at the hacked goatse image to order it.

Re:This is over 10 years old

[Anonymous Coward]

Nice bat file. Who's got the nice sig? I took a look at the parent of your comment and don't see anything. Provide a link? thanks.

Re:This is over 10 years old

[the_greywolf]

the parent of that post has the C snippet "while(1) fork();" in his sig. it's the same principle, really, just a lot deadlier. kinda like the Bash forkbomb.

modU Down

[Anonymous Coward]

when done playi8g Tired argumen+ts

Panic

[Anonymous Coward]

From what I have read elsewhere the whole 'Panic' phenomenon surrounding the War of the Worlds Radio Show is an Urban Myth. The Police reports show nothing unusual for that night. Then again the Police may have been in on the whole invasion anyway...

Re:Panic

[ddmcd]

It's not an urban myth. Read Hadley Cantril's 1941 study "Invasion from Mars: a Study in Panic." Here's what the Midwest Book Review, quoted by Amazon.com, says: Hadley Cantril was chairman of the Institute for international Social Research: his Invasion From Mars: A Study In The Psychology Of Panic originally appeared in 1940 but remains a modern classic even in its reprint edition over fifty years later. The focus on the lasting effects of Orson Welles' radio adaptation of the fantasy War of the Worlds explores how radio could have such an effect - and how people judged the accuracy of what they were hearing on the radio.

how about an MP3?

[Anonymous Coward]

ANYONE?

Department of Redundancy Department

[Anonymous Coward]

1938 broadcast of an eyewitness report of an invasion from Mars caused a nationwide panic in 1938 http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Redundancy

Who has the original?

[Anonymous Coward]

Does anyone have a recording of the original broadcast? Surely there exists one recording somewhere in the world? I've been looking for years!

Re:Who has the original?

[luguvalium2]

http://www.mercurytheatre.info/

Re:Who has the original?

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1555 690025/qid=1131181257/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl 14/103-8559000-3491026?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

eh, wish I knew of someplace to download it, or buy it on CD.. but there ya go.

Re:Who has the original?

[waferhead]

Includes a .torrent, .mp3 format, from the copyright holders no less.

Re:Who has the original?

[DoctorBit]

Mod parent up! The torrent link for all Mercury Theatre performances, including the War of The Worlds, is at the bottom of the page. I'm getting about 150 KB/s.

Re:Who has the original?

[vague disclaimer]

Certainly in the UK (or a rather Region 2) the DVD Special Edition of Citizen Kane includes the Mercury WotW production (and other play, the Happy Prince). Fascinating listening. The first half or so is in the 'we interupt this programme for an eye-witness account' style after that the style switches to more a conventional format.

Re:Who has the original?

[ggvaidya]

NOT the copyright holders actually. From TLA:

Who owns the copyright on these shows?

Copyright on old radio shows is an extremely hazy area. Nobody seems to know who owns the rights to these broadcasts, and a good argument could be made that they're public domain. A couple obnoxious individuals over the years have claimed that they own the rights to certain shows and have threatened to sue collectors and webmasters that have made episodes of the shows available. Tellingly, they've never actually taken anyone to court, and have only relied on bluster to assert their ownership.

For further exploration of these issues, please see the OTR Law Journal. Please don't write me asking how to get clearance to use The War of the Worlds in your project; I'm sorry, I just don't know.

Re:Who has the original?

[Martix]

I found a 12" Vinyl recording of it in great shape.
cost only 4 dollars CDN in a used record shop.

Re:Who has the original?

[pontifier]

YES!! I had this on cd but it got scratched and this remake sux.

Re:Who has the original?

[shish]

torrent -- http://www.mercurytheatre.info/mercury.torrent

The individual files have been slashdotted (getting 2kb/s), the torrent which contains all the files put together is likely to download faster than any of the files individually...

Make it into MP3 & Torrent it

[Pao|o]

Could anyone convert the Real stream into MP3 and torrent it?

Re:Make it into MP3 & Torrent it

[millennial]

I'm in the process of doing it, but my upload speed sucks (capped at 28KB/s). It's 30.5 MB as a RealAudio file, and RealAudio tends to get bigger when converted to MP3.

Re:Make it into MP3 & Torrent it

[thehunger]

Well post it here when done..

Re:Make it into MP3 & Torrent it

[Kalak]

Have mercy on my tracker.... Here is a torrent for an .ogg.

I've edited out the hour long performance after it (never liked I Love Lucy anyway), so it's 53 minutes.

Leonard Nimory is good, but Orson Wells is excellent, and overall I like the original much better. Even the scratchiness of the reproductions adds to the realism (AM radio then). I would everyone get the original (linked below) and listen to it instead, or at least get both and decide for yourself.

I'll remove the link when KPCC does.

Re:Make it into MP3 & Torrent it

[jpostel]

Any chance of getting this .ogg? My torrent client is trying to connect to peers, but I have not gotten anything yet.

[OT]: Is there anyway to filter ACs?

[aussie_a]

Is there any way to surf at -1 and still filter out ACs? Cause I'm having a lot of trouble with it, and can't work out how to do it.

(MODS: Mod this down to -1 Offtopic)

Re:[OT]: Is there anyway to filter ACs?

[irc.goatse.cx troll]

In the preferences page you can set threshhold to -1 and Anonymous bonus to -6, which should hide all AC posts that arnt +5

Re:[OT]: Is there anyway to filter ACs?

[Punboy]

Go to your comment preferences, and change all the "Reason Modifiers" to +1, then set the Anonymous Modifier to -6. Then browse @ 0 and you should see everything except Anon Cows.

Re:[OT]: Is there anyway to filter ACs?

[Punboy]

That won't work, because the system won't let anything go below -1... thus Anon Cows simply stay at -1, don't go to -2/-3/etc.

Re:[OT]: Is there anyway to filter ACs?

[Anonymous Coward]

Go to your comment preferences, and change all the "Reason Modifiers" to +1, then set the Anonymous Modifier to -6. Then browse @ 0 and you should see everything except Anon Cows.

He'd also lose any comments posted with a karma penalty putting them straight to -1. Don't think there's a way to fix that though so your way is probably as close to what he wants as he's going to get.

Re:[OT]: Is there anyway to filter ACs?

[Anonymous Coward]

Way harsh, dude. :'(

Communist radio

[Anonymous Coward]

"If you like this type of programming, remember to contribute to your local NPR station."

Like I am going to donate to a bunch of communists. PBS I yes, but no way in hell am I donating to NPR.

Re:Communist radio

[sroddy]

Socialists anyway...

Re:Communist radio

[drphil]

Anonymous Coward Flamer: "Like I am going to donate to a bunch of communists. PBS I yes, but no way in hell am I donating to NPR."

Oh, sure. Now you'll contribute since Tomlinson has committed to turn PBS into GOP BS

Re:Communist radio

[Anonymous Coward]

NPR and PBS have one thing in common with ABS, NBS/MSNBS, CBS, FOXBS, and CNNBS; they're a part of the communist liberal movement of the US. That's why the demoncrats are their biggedst contributers, and why they support only demoncrats. They are willing to destroy America at any cost.

Re:Communist radio

[WilliamSChips]

I can't tell whether you're serious or joking...

url for capturing stream?

[Anonymous Coward]

For those of us newer to free software, can someone provide a url (or better yet, a working command and url) for capturing the stream? I've tried mplayer -dumpstream http://www.publicradio.org/tools/media/player/kpcc /news/shows/latw/2005/10/20051029_latw but that redirects to a different url in a browser window, and I can't see the url in the source code of the redirect page.

Any help would be appreciated. tia.

Re:url for capturing stream?

[MynockGuano]

That file downloads some 20051029.smil, which has the file rtsp://archivemedia.publicradio.org/5559/kpcc/news /shows/latw/2005/10/20051029_latw.rm in it. This one can be fed to mplayer.

Re:url for capturing stream?

[RizwanK]

I've found, for using with streamripper or hidownload, its acting at the moment as if its using RTSP over port 80, so I've been downloading from rtsp://archivemedia.publicradio.org:80/5559/kpcc/n ews/shows/latw/2005/10/20051029_latw.rm and thats been working. Watching realplayer work with TCPView verifies that its actually using port 80 for whatever reason. Rizwan Kassim

Re:url for capturing stream?

[Anonymous Coward]

Or you use the original URL:
mplayer -playlist http://www.publicradio.org/tools/media/player/kpcc /news/shows/latw/2005/10/20051029_latw

How to download the stream and convert to mp3

[curmi]

If you want to download the stream, convert to mp3, and then play on your iPod/iTunes/whatever, check out this link. And Mac OS X users should look at this.

Oh - and the original 1938 broadcast can be found here.

Re:How to download the stream and convert to mp3

[Anonymous Coward]

whoooooOo00oo00oOoooorererer

Re:How to download the stream and convert to mp3

[Frobisher]

Replay Radio works great. No hassle at all.

Re:How to download the stream and convert to mp3

[theCoder]

Bah, it's not too hard to convert a RM stream to something better. Here's a script I wrote a while ago to do just that (requires mplayer and oggenc).

#!/bin/sh
 
RTSP=$1
OGG=$2
 
if [ -z "$RTSP" -o -z "$OGG" ]; then
        echo "Usage: $0 rtsp://realserver/path/to.rm output.ogg"
        exit 1
fi
 
TMPFILE="$OGG.wav"
 
mplayer -ao pcm:file=$TMPFILE $RTSP
[ $? -ne 0 ] && exit $?
 
if [ ! -f "$TMPFILE" ]; then
        echo "$TMPFILE not created by mplayer!"
        exit 1
fi
 
# uncomment the next line and comment out the oggenc line
# to encode to mp3 instead
#lame -a -m s --abr 128 --nohist $TMPFILE $OGG
oggenc -b 64 $TMPFILE -o $OGG
[ $? -ne 0 ] && exit $?
 
if [ ! -f "$OGG" ]; then
        echo "$OGG not created by oggenc!"
        exit 1
fi
 
rm $TMPFILE

In the case of this stream, the appropriate command is

rtsp2ogg rtsp://archivemedia.publicradio.org/5559/kpcc/news /shows/latw/2005/10/20051029_latw.rm 20051029_latw.ogg

(be sure to remove the /. introduced space in the rtsp URL)

Of course, it would be nice if NPR stations at least put up stuff in a more accessible format. After all, they are brought to us "by listeners like you" (and yes, I do contribute to my local station).

Re:How to download the stream and convert to mp3

[kehren77]

If you want to download the stream, convert to mp3, and then play on your iPod/iTunes/whatever, check out this link [antville.org]. And Mac OS X users should look at this [macosxhints.com].

Or play it in iTunes and use Audio Highjack Pro to record it.

That's my favorite myth, too.

[Errandboy of Doom]

The next day, newspapers across the country carried stories of terrorized people hiding in basements, panic flight from New Jersey and New York, stampedes in theaters, heart attacks, miscarriages, and even suicides. During the months that followed, these stories were shown to have little if any substance, yet today the myth of War of the Worlds stampedes and suicides persists as part of American folklore.

-Prof. David L. Miller, Introduction to Collective Behavior and Collective Action.

Here's the passage online.

Re:That's my favorite myth, too.

[Life2Short]

His claims would be more believable if he backed things up with some data of his own or some references. Sorry, but if my choices are contemporary news reports and some guy from Western Illinois University with no data or references, I guess I'll go with the contemporary news reports. Also, later in the passage he seems perfectly willing to accept that 20% of those listening to the broadcast experienced some form of panic, and he attributes this to mass hysteria. No one is saying that every American east of the Mississippi shit a brick that night, but I don't see anything here to suggest that the idea that the broadcast freaked a lot of people out is a myth.

Re:That's my favorite myth, too.

[pm_agapow]

Actually it's not just "some guy from Western Illinois University". There's quite a body of work on the myth of the WotW hysteria. As for the veracity of contemporary newspaper accounts (because newspapers are always truthful, right?) - almost none of those accounts were first hand. They used the familiar motif of "just over there, just beyond what you personally know about, there's some astounding things going on". Just like cannibals are always in the next village, and the choking doberman / vanishing hitch-hiker / stolen kidney stories always happened to a friend of a friend (of a friend ...), the stories of hysteria were safely placed in the next state, the deep south, somewhere else.

Did the broadcast wierd some people out? Sure. Did it lead to widespread panic and hysteria? No. Fortean Times carried an article on the hysteria myth last year. Check out their website for it.

Re:That's my favorite myth, too.

[6*7]

Some media stories that were real a couple of years ago, suddendly became a myth. If you trust the media blindly you might want to watch http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0402577/ and maybe start comparing a little of the news you get.

Re:That's my favorite myth, too.

[Errandboy of Doom]

Here's another source, admittedly it's probably better supported.

Two black eyes and 10 pissy telegrams! Does this sound like mass hysteria to you? Alas, history has preserved in amber the perception that The War Of The Worlds broadcast was the epitome of mass hysteria.

So the people of the U.S.A. had fallen for a hoax -- but the report of the spread of panic is something of a hoax itself.

But you don't need to trust me, you can Google for this stuff on your own.

OW was a genius

[trollable]

OW was a genius. And I'm quite sure that it would work today too.

[troll]
The panic was total in the USA last year when the president announced that Irak will attack.
[/troll]

----
http://www.milliondollarscreenshot.com/

Curious Coincidence on their Site

[ishmalius]

I noticed that the program listed after War of the Worlds is the Brothers Karamazov. The 1958 movie version of this story co-starred none other than William Shatner as the brother who became a priest.

DO NOT CLICK THE LA THEATER WORKS LINK!

[DiamondGeezer]

Some slimeball has hacked the LA theater Works website and put a picture of Mr Goatse on it. Well done idiots. *slow hand clap*

Re:DO NOT CLICK THE LA THEATER WORKS LINK!

[AYauFu]

Please mod parent up. (At least until the site is restored.)

Re:DO NOT CLICK THE LA THEATER WORKS LINK!

[rah1420]

Or you could write to webmaster@experiencela.com, who hosts the LATW site, telling them of the hack. That might be more useful than /. mod points.

Re:DO NOT CLICK THE LA THEATER WORKS LINK!

[Anonymous Coward]

*CLAP*


*CLAP*


*CLAP*

Re:DO NOT CLICK THE LA THEATER WORKS LINK!

[Discopete]

I tried to call the Tech & Admin contact in the whois record, but it's the office which is currently closed.

Re:DO NOT CLICK THE LA THEATER WORKS LINK!

[Discopete]

Contacted KPCC, got the Control Manger, he's calling the Program Director and a Tech who are going to contact the LATW staff.

Re:DO NOT CLICK THE LA THEATER WORKS LINK!

[Discopete]

See my post below.

The whois contact number is the LATW office, so I contacted KPCC who are going to contact LATW via their channels.

Re:DO NOT CLICK THE LA THEATER WORKS LINK!

[DiamondGeezer]

Here is the reply from the MD, Michael Rohla:

We more than appreciate bringing this really horrible violation to our attention. As you can imagine we are shocked and are trying to get our service provider at home to come in and correct it.

I replied that hopefully when the site is restored (and properly secured), he can let Slashdot know.

Re:DO NOT CLICK THE LA THEATER WORKS LINK!

[Overly Critical Guy]

Haha, you're pissed because Slashdot got FUCKING OWNED YET AGAIN.

This site is in the dumper. Go visit Digg.com for actual up to the minute tech news, where they now get 6 million visitors and growing.

Re:DO NOT CLICK THE LA THEATER WORKS LINK!

[Anonymous Coward]

Hahaha excellent. Bravo, anonymous hackers!

Re:DO NOT CLICK THE LA THEATER WORKS LINK!

[Discopete]

Excellent.
I see now that they have removed the offensive photo and have replaced the page with a blank place-holder.

Re:DO NOT CLICK THE LA THEATER WORKS LINK!

[OverlordQ]

nope, it's still there.

Re:DO NOT CLICK THE LA THEATER WORKS LINK!

[Anonymous Coward]

I see now that they have removed the offensive photo and have replaced the page with a blank place-holder.

Huh? I just checked (2200 GMT), and it's still there: http://latw.org/audio/detail.aspx?title=War%20Of%2 0The%20Worlds:%20Invasion%20From%20Mars

Re:DO NOT CLICK THE LA THEATER WORKS LINK!

[Discopete]

Firefox shows a blank page. I am able to get the photo with IE. odd. Perhaps some screwy IE only shit.

Great idea! Not...

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, I sure want to convert all my things into an extortion format to play via my DRM promo program, instead of enjoying any kind of freedom. Sheesh.

didn't expect "The Ending" so soon....

[Animaether]

I knew the movie was going to end the way it did... however...

A good bit before the end, humanity (in the form of Tom Cruise - egads!) *DID* find another method to at least destroy the walkers. I had thought they would at least explore this a bit more, show a few more walkers getting destroyed, etc. But alas, it wasn't to be.
However, I believe they still set up the possibility that humanity *could* defeat the invasion on their own - and the ending as it was, was just a "Hah.. well whaddayaknow.. 'guess we won't have to bother at all :D" happy-go-lucky-with-a-twist-of-thought-provoking ending as standard in any War of the Worlds retelling.

Oh, and I rather enjoyed the movie for what it was :)

It would appear they've been hacked...

[Anonymous Coward]

I followed the link and was greeted by the most disturbing of images. Either the link at the bottom is bust or the site's been hacked.

Suspension of Disbelief?

[Squideye]

I can't help but think that hearing voices associated with Star Trek, TNG and such will not exactly be making a positive contribution to the immersive suspension of disbelief which so distinguished Orson Welles' original broadcast.

I don't think thousandss of people are going to be running into the streets after hearing Patrick Stewart and Leonary Nimoy, f'rinstance, declaring that aliens are among us...

Re:Suspension of Disbelief?

[pionzypher]

I'm fairly certain that suspension of disbelief has nothing to do with it. This is a geek novelty. If you're looking to hang your disbelief up at the door, perhaps consider downloading the origional radio show.

I can't help but think that hearing voices associated with Star Trek, TNG and such will not exactly be making a positive contribution to the immersive suspension of disbelief which so distinguished Orson Welles' original broadcast.
I don't think thousandss of people are going to be running into the streets after hearing Patrick Stewart and Leonary Nimoy, f'rinstance, declaring that aliens are among us...

Re:Suspension of Disbelief?

[d34thm0nk3y]

...and Leonary(sic) Nimoy, f'rinstance, declaring that aliens are among us......

Hello. I'm Leonard Nimoy. The following tale of alien encounters is true. And by true, I mean false. It's all lies. But they're entertaining lies. And in the end, isn't that the real truth? The answer is: No.

Re:Suspension of Disbelief?

[NanoGator]

"I don't think thousandss of people are going to be running into the streets after hearing Patrick Stewart and Leonary Nimoy, f'rinstance, declaring that aliens are among us..."

Um. I really don't expect that happening either way. Thousands of people probably would, however, listen because it's the TNG cast.

Doctor Who - Invaders From Mars

[Frobisher]

On a related note, don't miss BBC7's 4 week broadcast of Doctor Who, Invaders From Mars starring Paul McGann. If you're quick, that link should get you Episode 1. Episode 2 is broadcast today and will be available to Listen Again from Sunday.

More info on this story (and CD) at http://www.bigfinish.com/drwho_main/bf028_invaders frommars.shtml>Big Finish.

How to throw away your software freedom in a trice

[jbn-o]

No matter which way you do this, you're merely switching masters—from the proprietary RealPlayer format to the patent-encumbered MP3 format. Unless there is some new reverse-engineered RealPlayer codec I don't know about, merely decoding the RealPlayer data will require proprietary software.

The first page you linked to is particularly unintentionally funny on this ground: its author boldly claims that there is a "spyware free" RealPlayer program from the BBC. How would most users learn what the program actually does if the program is proprietary? They wouldn't, of course, users are encouraged to take on faith that this program has no spyware; perhaps because other users of this program didn't (somehow) see this program do anything untoward. So these early users simply assume that the program is incapable of doing anyhing undesirable outside the perview of the user. The idea that looking at a program's user interface and not knowing all that the program is doing (or capable of doing under the right circumstances) is apparently thrown out of consideration. Because if that line of logic were taken seriously, proprietary programs would be considered unwise to run by default.

I think it is better to preserve your software freedom, get the $15 audio CD, and rip it with free software into an unencumbered format like Ogg Vorbis. This way you don't have to live with DRM, you don't have to settle for a low-quality encoding of the performance, and you can transcode it into a number of other formats as your whim dictates all without losing much quality.

GOATSE???

[wizzy403]

Ok, who the F hacked the LA Theatre Works site and put that goatse image up there??? I thought when slashcode got changed to show the URL I'd never have to see that horrible thing again!!

Re:GOATSE???

[dr_dank]

Actually its for their upcoming production of "Goatse: A One Anus Show".

Show begins at 2 minutes 45 seconds into the RAM

[Frobisher]

FYI.

It could get much worse

[harlows_monkeys]

Some slimeball has hacked the LA theater Works website and put a picture of Mr Goatse on it

I was happily surfing porn sites, and in the midst of an otherwise lovely thumbnail gallery, there was Mr Goatse.

Worse...it was a different shot of him, so we've only seen the beginning of this horror.

I quickly closed the window, but it wasn't quick enough to prevent the horror, as it is hard to act quickly when surfing with only one hand...

Ahg!

[pontifier]

I bought a copy of the original broadcast a few years ago, and I listened to it many times. This remake sucks. It seems hurried. The voices are too forboding, too hurried, too excited, or flat. It seems to lack a sense of timing. The dialog almost seems to run on continuously. Also the sound effects in the original far outshine the generic sound bytes used in this recreation.

The mercury theatre worked together very well, Orson Wells knew how to tell a radio story, and they had a great sense of timing.

Part of that performance that realy made it good was the music at the beginning. It was good music, and worth listening to on it's own(it's supposed to be "the ever popular Stardust"). When the report cut away you were annoyed, and when it got back to the music it left you there long enough to almost forget the first report.

I sit here wishing my copy of the original wasn't scratched.

Thank you.

[freedom_india]

Thank you for your suggestion. I find the music interesting.

goatse?

[coyotl]

Why is goatse on the L.A. Theatreworks page? I mean, I'm as much a goatse fan as anyone, but it was a little much first thing in the morning...

no Patrick Stewart :(

[Anonymous Coward]

Very cool. But I couldn't help being disappointed that Patrick Stewart wasn't in it.

Bah, No wonder.

[Dog and Pony]

$ HEAD http://latw.org/audio/detail.aspx?title=War%20Of%2 0The%20Worlds:%20Invasion%20From%20Mars
200 OK
Cache-Control: private
Connection: close
Date: Sat, 05 Nov 2005 14:55:14 GMT
Server: Microsoft-IIS/5.0
Content-Length: 17505
Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8
Client-Date: Sat, 05 Nov 2005 14:52:51 GMT
Client-Peer: 66.77.245.167:80
Client-Response-Num: 1
Set-Cookie: ASP.NET_SessionId=wq0hme4534e45b55owp5vmi0; path=/
X-AspNet-Version: 1.1.4322
X-Powered-By: ASP.NET

Re:Bah, No wonder.

[Afrosheen]

Yay for Microsoft, yay for IIS, some poor tech gets another Ruined Weekend TM.

Re:Bah, No wonder.

[vertinox]

Yay for Microsoft, yay for IIS, some poor tech gets another Ruined Weekend TM.

Apply patches, apparently he did not.

NPR already gets my money...

[chudnall]

... courtesy of the federal government. Until that changes, I see no reason to open my wallet any further. I like a lot of thier programming, but something about a state-sponsored media outlet just gives me the heebie-jeebies. Besides, it seems like the only time they have the really good stuff on is during their stupid fund raisers. Frankly, I'd rather have commercials. Once the fund raiser is over, it's back to the pipe organ music show...

Re:NPR already gets my money...

[cnerd2025]

You know, I actually resent that comment. Arts and sciences are two of the areas that America should invest in, even with tax dollars. NPR is not state-sponsored. That's like saying that C-SPAN or the local access channels are state-sponsored. NPR does recieve Federal money, but if you look at the break-down about 1/8 of their budget is covered by Federal funds. I work at a particle physics lab and it's similar. The only difference is that the DoE actually owns the place. A consortium of universities in the Southeast US run the place. It receives money from the government and is "owned" by the government, but is run by private entities. NPR is similar, but NPR isn't owned by the government. It doesn't answer to a specific agency or anything like that. There is no "party representative" per se. I am actually very much for the subsidising of arts and sciences. Art and science are integral components of progress, but their speculative nature makes them unattractive to the private sector. To keep the two areas really functioning, we actually need government. This is the rare exception when I put aside my libertarian views.

Re:NPR already gets my money...

[gekhond]

cnerd: right on! The original poster's comments are indicative of an attitude where people refuse to maintain the very infrastructure on which our civilization depends like the arts or sciences.

Our commercial radio and TV system has amply demonstrated what a poor job it does of informing the citizenry of this country. NPR does a fantastic job with funding that is completely dwarfed by other public expenditures like e.g. the war in Iraq. But to my surprise some people still feel compelled to critically examine NPR funding while ignoring the billions spent in other areas.

Like you, I consider myself a libertarian, but there is no denying that societies can be subject to the tragedy of the commons.

Re:NPR already gets my money...

[Snaller]

Since most people are not very intelligent or artistic, the state needs to fund it - otherwise society slides back into the slime.

Orson Welles collection

[Main Gauche]

Orson Welles collection. I have it. It's worth listening to, as an educational experience at the least.

Site Is Hacked

[virtigex]

It appears that latw.org runs IIS and has been hacked. Try purchasing the CD of the broadcast.

Re:Site Is Hacked

[Anonymous Coward]

Is there a CD of Goatse?

Re:How to throw away your software freedom in a tr

[pontifier]

...proprietary programs would be considered unwise to run by default.

If taken to it's ultimate conclusion: any code you didn't write yourself, and compile with a compiler you wrote yourself, to run on hardware you designed yourself would be unsafe to run. And that's making the big asumptions that nobody snuck in and changed things without you knowing, and that you can trust your own memory.

Re:How to throw away your software freedom in a tr

[Anonymous Coward]

Get bent.

Using the enemy's bullets is sometimes necessary.

[Anonymous Coward]

Absolutism isn't that useful. One has to begin somewhere and using the computers we have in order to liberate ourselves from the control of proprietors is perfectly reasonable. Just as 20 years ago people questioned that anyone would write a free software operating system, people today use absolutism to avoid directly challenging if we are better off now then we were then.

Clearly it is foolish to settle for proprietary or patent-encumbered encoding algorithms in favor of freely available, publicly-specified, and unencumbered algorithms to do the same job.

--jbn-o

Torrents?

[Anonymous Coward]

Anyone have a torrent for a converted mp3?

I want to download it now and listen to it later, but I dont even have realplayer on this computer, and it would have to stream anyway.

Download faster than realtime

[Anonymous Coward]

Is there any method for downloading an "rm" faster than real time? The methods I know of are basically to run a media player and capture its output.

fringes?

[Anonymous Coward]

Dude, get some perspective; at least the audio streams are common, for example broadcasts from the BBC (unless you want wmv[9?]). I have seen *users* viewing real video streams and have sometimes found rare content (which I could then dump as raw and encode as I wanted).

You certainly loose quality that way, but in times where a 'stream' is often advertised as a 'download' I like the ability to actually *store* the content.

And I found this act a bit boring, you didn't miss too much.

Fair-Weather Libertarians

[chowbok]

Yeah, you guys are both libertarians except when the government is paying for something you like.

NPR and PBS have the best-educated, highest-paid demographic of any broadcast media outlets. If the government pulled funding, their existence would not be even slightly endangered. This is just a boondoggle for the rich and upper-middle class. We're basically taxing the poor (and underfunding much-needed services for the poor, like schools and police protection) to provide a service for the most well-off members of society.

Re:Fair-Weather Libertarians

[Anonymous Coward]

So? And who pays the larger percent of taxes . . . even after Bush's attempts to do otherwise, middle class and above. Phuque you and your welfare moms . . . give me my Sesame Street now!

Re:Fair-Weather Libertarians

[PhreakOfTime]

How exactly is PBS and NPR a service for the most well off members of society? Are you well off? Do You listen or watch either of those entities?

Something tells me that the richest memebers of society arent taking telecourses on PBS at 10pm at night. Merely, it is somehow your preconception that only rich people listen to NPR, or watch PBS. Rich children dont watch sesame st, they get taken shopping by their servants.

So, lets take all govt funding out, INLCUDING the standard deduction you get on your income taxes every year. After all, it wouldnt endanger your existance in the slightest. And writing off property taxes as a deduction? Hell no, if you can afford a house, then you can afford to not take the deduction. Its just a boondoggle for the homeowners that they can be exempt from paying taxes to the govt because they pay taxes on a house.

Or, in other words, you dont have the slightest idea what you are talking about. Mainly, because the views you are expousing are not your own, you are simply parroting what you have heard other people say.

Re:Fair-Weather Libertarians

[chowbok]

How exactly is PBS and NPR a service for the most well off members of society? Are you well off? Do You listen or watch either of those entities?

Yes, and yes, as a matter of fact. But to paraphrase one of the best-ever Slashdot comments, I am not a statistically significant sample size.

Something tells me that the richest memebers of society arent taking telecourses on PBS at 10pm at night. Merely, it is somehow your preconception that only rich people listen to NPR, or watch PBS. Rich children dont watch sesame st, they get taken shopping by their servants.

This is really not something that's up for debate. Both NPR and PBS, like all media outlets, keep very close tabs on their viewer demographic. Allow me to quote from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting:

Compared to the general public, NPR listeners are 152 percent more likely to own a home valued at $500,000 or more; 194 percent more likely to travel to France; and 326 percent more likely to read the "New Yorker."

... [PBS's] viewers are 44 percent more likely than the average Joe to have a household income over $150,000; 39 percent more likely to have a graduate degree; and 177 percent more likely to have investments of $150,000 and up.

(from here.)

As for the property tax deduction: I'm not sure what that has to do with anything, but yes, I support eliminating that (along with the mortgage deduction), for similar reasons.

Or, in other words, you dont have the slightest idea what you are talking about. Mainly, because the views you are expousing are not your own, you are simply parroting what you have heard other people say.

Because I disagree with you, I must not have any original views? Only people in favor of government-funded broadcasting can think of arguments on their own? How do you figure?

Word of advice: ad hominem attacks just weaken your argument, and make you look petty and juvenile.

Re:Fair-Weather Libertarians

[cnerd2025]

Uhm, not quite. I'm not rich and I listen to NPR, occasionally watch PBS. I merely think that people who want to spend spend spend on things like war and defense at the expense of services that society needs are just delusional. I was replying to the parent who said that the government funds NPR and insinuated that the government wholely owns NPR. It doesn't. It simply provides grant funds, just as grants are provided to other non-profits. I said that the reinvestment in society is crucial, because people are too lazy/stingy/self-centered/scared to help society out. It sounds like "we can spend money better than you can" but in a sense, science and art is like this. There is no guarentee that a given hypothesis will be correct. That's certainly not the case at the lab where I work. But the research is crucial to our understanding of physics. Consider NASA. So many people say "why do we spend billions of dollars to go into space?" But they fail to recognize the innovations that NASA has come up with. They also fail to recognize the knowledge that we have gained about our universe because of NASA. I think state-sponsorship is all-out bad. It's literal communism, and it's utterly biased. But I think the government has the right to fund certain institutions or purposes. In fact, if you look at it, libertarianism is not rooted in paying taxes, it's in liberty itself. Libertarianism suggests that all liberties ought be negative, and the government's role is to ensure that no power becomes too powerful to coerce. We happen to favor few if any taxes at all. In fact, I sometimes favor a profitable government or at least an investment system in which the government would fund itself. But that's a digression for another day. The bottom line is that art and science always stimulate progress in civilizations, and unless art and science somehow become profitable, funding is the best way out.

Re:Fair-Weather Libertarians

[gekhond]

It's not about demographical statistics. It's about providing opportunity for everyone with a radio or television to stay informed about the news, science, arts, etc. Sure, lots of rich people listen to NPR, and perhaps they're a majority, but it's still an important public infrastructure that merits public funding and attention. Even if only a minority of the poor rely on NPR to get some well-balanced, in-depth reporting it'd still be worth having.

Re:Fair-Weather Libertarians

[chowbok]

The point isn't the merit of NPR, or whether it's "worth having". The question is, should the government be in the business of funding a broadcasting outlet? If so, why? "Because NPR is really cool" is not a good reason.

Besides, you're assuming that if public financing of public broadcasting was stopped, there'd be no more public broadcasting. That's just not true, which is obvious when you're looking at how well-heeled NPR's (and PBS's) audience is. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that if NPR member stations went on the air during fundraising drives saying, "those evil Republicans are cutting off our funding," they'd end up ahead.

Re:Fair-Weather Libertarians

[gekhond]

I don't get the point. If something is truly worth having, indeed, let's have it. This is about a society deciding to make certain public services an essential part of its infrastructure.

I personally belief that informing and educating the public is so essential that it can not be made dependent on the ebb and flow of donations by "well-heeled" supporters, nor the interests of commercial radio and television.

There's a parallel to funding basic science here. Our society has decided this is a crucial element of our national infrastructure and it is being funded at levels that match that commitment (or lack thereof). Your argument is similar to claiming a bunch of rich people will get together to take care of funding basis research; have our national laboratories organize yearly fund-raisers so that their rich, liberal defenders could be made to pay for their own science.

In fact, I would now go a little further and argue that if you are willing to make that point, it is equivalent to saying you care but not really mean it. Sure, we care about science, but why should we be in the business of funding it?

Re:Fair-Weather Libertarians

[chowbok]

I agree that it's worth pointing out that only a small portion of NPR etc.'s budget comes from public funds, and so it shouldn't be considered "state media" like, say, the BBC.

But I think you're wrong that NPR would just vanish if it weren't for state funding. My point about their audience wasn't that no poor people ever listen to public radio, just that they have a reasonably affluent fanbase that could more than pick up the slack if government monies vanished one day. If people are "too lazy/stingy/self-centered/scared" to support NPR, then how is it getting all that other money? I've worked several public radio fundraisers and I can assure you that there are a *lot* of people out there willing to support it.

Re:Fair-Weather Libertarians

[PhreakOfTime]

"This year, hundreds of thousands of Americans will earn their high school or college degrees through courses screened by local public television stations. Millions of teachers will use classroom versions of our most famous programs."

Its not that I disagree with your view, which I do. But that you are offering statistics that say just because some wealthy people do watch and listen to PBS that its funding must be eliminated. You simply do not have an original argument. It is the same one that has been going around for over a decade, and its worn out. Mainly because most people see right through it.

The main problem being, is that your opinoins are all words, and no actions. Somehow, its ok that you are using the "Internet" which was started with public money. Somehow its ok that you drive on roads, which are constructed using public money. You talk a great game, but you dont live any of it. ad hominem or not, your argument is as easy to see through as you are. I can be the biggest jackass in the world, it still doesnt change the fact that your argument is not your own. When you stay off the internet, dont drive on the roads, notify your local paramedic to stay off your property under all circumstances, never use a landline telephone, and grow ALL of your own food... then and only then will the argument you put forward carry any weight. Live by example, show us that its a better life, and the law of the free market will dictate which solution is the better. That is what you want, right? To make everyone see the light of day? Well, get to it! Lets all see the example, and let each choose the system of living that they want. There is nothing more libratarian that that. The choice is truly left to the individual. Dont pawn off what you think are your ideas as a better practice if you wont even follow them yourself.

We have jails that are federally funded because some members of society cannot control their actions and it hurts other people, and we consider that important. We have schools because some members of society cannot educated their own children, and we consider that important. We have roads because some members of society want to move from point a and point b. We have libraries because "private book stores" do not have the same materials available readily. You get picked up in an ambulance when you are injured, because you might be incabable of driving yourself to a hospital. We have hospitals because nobody can take care of themselves when they are unconcious.

No man is an island, where you are now is not independent of other people. And some members of society do not want to see, or care about the advancement of their fellow human beings in a way that they choose to embark on. Even though you might want that, as you rightly claim "You are not a statistically significant sample size." And if you dont want to see the success of others, its simply because you are failing to recognise that your success is directly related to the success of others.

Are you free to not pay taxes, absolutely. Move to an island and grow your own food, and tend to your own wounds. Better yet, take all the money you have and buy a large tract of land, and incorporate yourself as a villiage. Thats an option too. If not, accept the fact that you live in a place where we DO care about the rest of our society. And a place where we DO recognise that if left to the individual, while we would be more 'independent' in your view, we would also be much less developed as a society.

Word of advice; argue by your actions, not by your words. Otherwise, everyone will see it for what it is. A bunch of ideas you think so highly about, that you dont even live by them yourself.

Re:Fair-Weather Libertarians

[chowbok]

Wow, could you stuff any *more* straw men in your argument? Where are you getting this stuff? What makes you think I'm against public funding of roads or jails? I'm obviously not against school funding, since one of the reasons I gave for being against public broadcasting funding was that it takes money *away* from school spending. And when did I object to taxes? Don't use me as a proxy for all your canned anti-libertarian rhetoric, especially when you don't know if I *am* a libertarian.

Yes, other people have made the same points about public broadcasting and arts funding as I have. But so what? Guess what, none of your arguments are original either. People have been arguing about these issues for decades; it would be pretty surprising if one of us managed to come up with a wholly original point that has escaped everyone else for the last 100 years in an off-the-cuff discussion in Slashdot, for God's sake. But just because people have made the same arguments that I have (or that you have, for that matter) doesn't make them prima facie wrong. Why not address the points I'm making, instead of trying to make them seem that they're so retro they're uncool, like earth-tones or jeri curl?

Re:Fair-Weather Libertarians

[PhreakOfTime]

We dont have to worry about addressing the ideas you have brought up, anymore than we have to address the ideas I bring up. It has already been decided by the society we choose to live in. And you DO choose to live here, as by your own words, you have the means to live anywhere you want.

You talk about me throwing up straw-man arguments, again it still doesnt change the fact that you do not live the ideas you expouse.

Take a stand, live the way you think you should. After all, the consequences are just proof that the way we do things now is 'wrong', and you can be percieved as a trailblazer which attracts attention to an alternate way.

Face it, most people dont have any interest in your ideas, and have already chosen the alternative to it a long, long time ago. Many of us lived in the land you describe. However, most people stop being so selfish at some point in their adult life. While it certainly is no measure of correctness, the moderation of our conversation and the associated mod points should give you some idea of how the people in the country you live in want to govern themselves.

Will PBS or NPR cease to exist without government funding? Absolutely not. Will they be better off without that grant money? Absolutely not. Its not about a mere matter of existance, its about using money as a proxy to support the things that are important to you. To aim to get the most useful, and important information out to as many people as possible. After all, you can exist just fine with a cardboard box for shelter. But you think that something more is of more benefit to you, so you live in a house or in your case an apartment.

Can Someone please give these guys a Reality Check

[TwoTailedFox]

Seriously.

Using RealMedia to stream this? What's so hard about linking to an MP3, and let us feel free to listen to it at our leisure?

I'd Rather Just Download an MP3

[Nom du Keyboard]

Streaming doesn't work well with my connection. And no, why should I have do use capture and rip-to tools when it could have been provided in MP3 to start with?

We should be demanding clean, uncluttered, format neutral downloads of material that they are offering anyway from every provider.

Error w streamripper

[Anonymous Coward]

Connecting...

error -14 [SR_ERROR_NO_HTTP_HEADER]
bye..
shutting down

What, Zonk?

[Overly Critical Guy]

Thanks, guys. Seriously. Way to be responsible members of the internet community.

Is Zonk seriously suggesting that Slashdot is some sort of responsible member of the Internet community?

Christ, even Linus Torvalds hates you guys. You post false or exaggerated news, dupes, and you kill everybody's webservers and don't give any crap at all because you're busy getting money from page hits for your corporate employer, OSTG.

Interesting...

[Anonymous Coward]

I always preferred "The Kraken Wakes" by Wyndham, but this was well worth a listen. Anybody have a Streambox dump torrented yet? It'd keep their server from being slashdotted.

BTW, I've been told that there is a spyware-free version of RealOne player, although the stream seems to work with Real Alternative.

That wasn't the goatse.cx guy

[Anonymous Coward]

That was George Takei.

MacOS X users -- get Audio Hijack

[Astart�]

Grabs audio on the fly from any app--local or streamed. I use it to make sound clips from my DVDs.

http://rogueamoeba.com/

Hey, why don't you re-hack LATW

[glengineer]

Instead of bow-wowing about how bad goatse is, why don't you hack in and undo the goatse pic? (Maybe a nicely dressed Jennifer Aniston ???) I'd do it myself but I'm not a hacker, just a loser-lurker...

Re:Hey, why don't you re-hack LATW

[Baricom]

While that may be an ethical thing to do, the fact is that (at least in the U.S.) that's still a computer crime, and if the server owner happens to be a nutcase, you can get the same penalty as the guy who cracked it first.

Re:Hey, why don't you re-hack LATW

[Anonymous Coward]

While that may be an ethical thing to do,

The ethical thing to do would be to plug the hole by posting this picture.

It was Red Lectroids from the eighth dimension!

[Artifice_Eternity]

Haven't you seen Buckaroo Banzai?

Re:It was Red Lectroids from the eighth dimension!

[mink]

You forgot Planet Ten.

Re:How to throw away your software freedom in a tr

[d34thm0nk3y]

No matter which way you do this, you're merely switching mastersfrom the proprietary RealPlayer format to the patent-encumbered MP3 format.

How much time is left on those patents anyway?

Wikipedia says: MP3 is a popular digital audio encoding and lossy compression format invented and standardised in 1991...

So what, 2008?

Re:How to throw away your software freedom in a tr

[justins]

Well, I found the trice, but it's pretty small. I don't think my freedom is going to fit.

I am pretty sure...

[hummassa]

mplayer can convert the audio to Vorbis directly.

Where's the sig?

[Anonymous Coward]

Am I not seeing the sig because I'm posting as AC and not signing in? I went to the parent's home page and don't see any sig there, although it is so short I might've missed it. But I'm now assuming that since I'm AC and not signing in, I can't see sigs.

Invaders From Mars - not the whole thing...

[Rob T Firefly]

It should be noted that the radio broadcast version has been noticeably cut down from the CD version due to time constraints. It's a good story, one of BF's best so far IMHO, although their Welles impersonator isn't the best ever and as with so many British productions all the "Americans" tend to sound like they've been dipped in Boston Harbor.

'i see no RealMedia here.'

[schotter]

I must be missing something: the KPCC site just seems to link to a .pls file that lists one http url... an ordinary mp3 stream, with some plain text output before it which doesn't seem to bother my players. curl is working just fine, though it's only half-done:

curl http://mprondemand.streamguys.com/content/kpcc/new s/shows/latw/2005/10/20051029_latw.mp3 > Trek_WotW.mp3