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MS Silverlight To Stream Obama Inauguration Events
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.
That certainly didn't take long to have the rhetoric fail and the reality take charge.
Many of the people held there are simply too dangerous to let go. Many of the others who aren't have no where to go
The US Department of Defense operates many military prisons. They can all easily be transfered to a military prison within the US. They were only held offshore to avoid jurisdiction, and that point's been rendered moot.
Developers: We can use your help.
Especially since Silverlight is a brand new technology with small market share(flash is around 94% last I checked). This is much different than complaining about having to use popular, longer-lasting MS software such as Word or Visual Studio.
Isn't that sort of the point of closing gitmo? To try them in a court of law, as opposed to hold them illegally and indefinitely without trial?
I refuse to support Silverlight for the same reason I won't support the Xbox. I simply do not want MS to dominate any more markets. We all should know by now that when that happens, things get bad.
Don't you think that the very point is that this is the *official* site we are talking about?
Oh my God, turn on the damn TV, it'll be on every frakking channel. I am so sick of techies having hissy attacks because every damn thing isn't instantly streamed to their iPhone or twittered to their PSP.
You are misleading as well. The Obama team has been heavily focused on using the Internet, and their choice Internet deliver methods is very important. The choice to use Silverlight 2, and offer no alternative for users who cannot use that platform (PowerPC users, people with out of date computers, etc.), and to offer no non-streaming alternative (for people without reliable Internet connections, or who want a copy on their hard drive without worrying about copyright issues), indicates something about their "tech savvy campaign." The outsourced their content deliver to some company that sounds like the 2009 equivalent of a dot-com, and gave no consideration to any tech issues beyond what the latest buzzword is (hint: web enabled streaming media).
Yes, the TV option is still available, but this team has not given it much attention. This team is setting a precedent in streaming the proceedings, and future presidents will follow this example. My biggest concern is that, over the next decade, the ability to record a TV program will only be available to those who pay for "DVR service," likely locked down to prevent users from keeping copies without paying, and that if that happens, and these proceedings are streamed by websites like YouTube, people will lose their ability to keep personal copies of government proceedings. Most people will just shrug, but for some activists, the ability to record the government is important and should not be lost because of misguided efforts to be "tech savvy."
Palm trees and 8
It's anticompetitive because it doesn't run on Mac PPC, Linux and FreeBSD? RFTS.
Firstly, Apple don't support Mac PPC anymore, why the fuck should anybody else?
Secondly, Linux and FreeBSD account for less than a single percentage point of the desktop market. Even so, you have people working on it.
Thirdly and finally, you don't have to watch at the official site. There's probably a hundred places online you could watch it. If you don't want to use Silverlight - don't.
"It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him." - Tolkien
80% of /. never heard of the presidential inaguaration comittee web site.
90% of the remaining 20% will not watch any of it over the Internet (Perhaps TV!!).
90% of the remaining 10% of 20% will watch a stream from a major media outlet (CNN, CSPAN, MSNBC, FOX, ABC, CBS...)
99.9% of the remaining 10% of 10% of 20% will be using Windows or OSX (Intel-Mac)
The President elect would like to extend his heart felt apologies to Chuck in Ohio.
Look, you choose to use an operating system built by essentially hobbyists in their spare time. Not everything is gonna work--that is a feature not a bug. And while I hate to say it, if you dont like that, perhaps you could dedicate some of your time to Moonlight so that you *can* use Silverlight stuff. Don't expect people to use their non-free time to develop software for a free operating system.
And yes, I do contribute to the free operating system I use in production environments--FreeBSD. I've contributed many ports to build and install CPAN modules. If something isn't in the ports tree and I need it, I don't just expect somebody else to put it there nor do I bitch, moan or cry--I take the time out of my day and write the damn port myself. That is how open source works--you give back to it and everybody benefits. If I didn't give back, I'd be a leech. That is also one of the biggest flaws in open source, you have to have the skills *to* give back, and not everybody does.
Silverlight exists, it is an amazing platform, and soon enough it will become widely adopted. Accept it as fact, and either either get used to being left out or get started working on Moonlight or something like it. Calling me a "Microsoft fanboy douche" will not result in the open source faeries giving you Silverlight support. You have to make it work!
Getting shit to work is what Linux is all about (or at least was all about). Back in the day, your only reward was the pride you got by getting $IMPOSSIBLE_DEVICE to work on Linux! Now I guess Linux is all about the politics of getting something for nothing. Sad. ...Now get the hell off my lawn!