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MS Silverlight To Stream Obama Inauguration Events

Posted by kdawson on from the open-to-most dept.

Ilgaz writes in to let us know that we will have to install MS Silverlight 2 to watch the US President's inauguration online. Everyone running Mac PPC, Linux, and FreeBSD has been left out, as there are no working Silverlight 2-capable alternatives on these systems. Here is Microsoft's press release announcing the selection of Silverlight yesterday. Streaming of various events around the inauguration begins today at the Presidential Inaugural Committee site, which touts its "inclusive and accessible" coverage.

9 of 589 comments (clear)

  1. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 3, Funny

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  2. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 5, Funny

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  3. Re:Doesn't mean much to me ... by thePowerOfGrayskull · · Score: 2, Funny

    Letting the white house's computers run for another four years.

  4. Re:Or alternatively by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 5, Funny

    There's another alternative, too. It turns out that streaming coverage will also be available using a wireless, thin client protocol.

    I've set up my wireless client gear, and it's pretty sweet. For only a few hundred bucks, I got a 34-inch diagonal screen, WXGA resolution, and stereo sound. It streams video over a new protocol called "ATSC" in the ~500MHz band. And it all works for free without needing a subscription!

    This event in particular will be delivered by multiple, simultaneous video streams that they call "channels". I encourage anyone who's not familiar with this technology to check it out.

  5. It's what you get. by iamghetto · · Score: 3, Funny

    I use Ubuntu at home, and I use it by choice. We all now that if we're running FreeBSD of a PowerPC Mac there are certain things that aren't available for us either. It's the price we knowingly pay for the choices me make. We're the exceptions, not the rule.

  6. I feel you brotha by coryking · · Score: 1, Funny

    They've excluded me from the most open inauguration in history as well. As a lynx user, they haven't trascoded into a codec I can use, like streaming ASCII art.

    Sarah Palin would have fixed that. I bet all her moose hunting videos are available as streaming ASCII art. Plus she can see ASCII-Russia (or RSCII-Russia, really) from her house. Ron Paul would have been better too, he'd have just given us all free Gold Bullion.

  7. Re:WRONG! by lord_sarpedon · · Score: 2, Funny

    Uhuh. Linux users are essentially the paraplegics of the OS world. Nice try, troll!

    A Linux user might need a wheelchair, but it's probably because he sawed his legs off due to patent concerns over the relevant genes.

    --
    "Strangers have the best candy" -Me
  8. Re:So much for a tech savvy Whitehouse. by Dolphinzilla · · Score: 4, Funny

    you know if Bill Gates had a penny for every bug in a Microsoft product he'd be a Billionaire...

  9. Re:So much for a tech savvy Whitehouse. by pur1ty · · Score: 5, Funny

    yep. that's why I like MICROS~1 spelling better.