Re:Instead of bitching on slashdot...
on
Real Problems
·
· Score: 1
Not necessarily. In this case, my point is that Windows Media is just as, if not more, closed and proprietary than Real Media, and that its streaming quality is poorer, at least from my personal experience.
Instead of bitching on slashdot...
on
Real Problems
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
... I emailed them.
To Whom It May Concern,
I am writing to express a viewpoint on the issue of the digital media format used by Minnesota Public Radio for its streaming programming. My impetus for writing was an article on the web site Slashdot (http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/04/06/17122 36&mode=thread&tid=141&tid=188), which referred to an article on Wired (http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,62617,0 0).
According to the articles, MPR staff are considering switching the streaming and archived digital audio format from RealAudio to Windows Media. The article indicates that MPR is frustrated with the difficulty of locating the free player, that the free player is getting more confusing, and Real's aggressive marketing practices.
I would argue that Windows Media Player is no better, and both share other problems as well: they are more closely tied to the Windows platform, and are not available at all on the Linux platform.
I believe that MPR, with its interest in serving the public, should instead consider streaming MP3 or Ogg Vorbis technologies, which allow end users the ultimate choice in which software they use to hear content (among many free, often pre-installed packages as well as commercial ones), require less licensing investment on your part, and have no obtrusive advertising or marketing strategies to pay for them. These technologies are typically easier to deploy, more stable and robust, and require little to no infrastructure or software investment beyond the proprietary technologies you are considering.
Almost every modern computer on the most common platforms (Windows, Mac OS, Linux, UNIX) come with a free player capable of handling MP3 and Vorbis streams. This is not true for Windows Media nor Real content.
I have for years been an NPR/MPR listener and supporter. I am dedicated to both the concept and reality of public radio, and consider it a blessing that I live in an area where I can receive the quality programming that MPR has to offer. I believe that MPRs use of proprietary streaming media technologies is bad for listeners specifically and bad for the Internet in general, and that MPR has the power to make a major positive change in how it reaches its listeners. For me specifically, I don't listen online because it would require using RealPlayer.
I use them every chance I get. It looks a lot cooler than using a cell phone. Unfortunately in my area, they have hidden them, in the lobbies of secure buildings or they turn them off at 9 pm and turn them on way earlier than i ever wake up.
I think that Apple's secret goal IS to get OS X running on x 86 and then blow Borg out of the water. Think about it. They've put a decent interface onto *nix, which is something that the Linux community has yet to do. They're including the development environment. They're releasing before there's a lot of software, so current Mac users get used to the new OS while being able to use their old software. What happens next? More software gets released. They iron out the bugs on the PPC platform, port the code to x86 (etc...), release it to the world cheap ($100 or so--not too much more than a documented Linux distro) and Kill the Borg. Having Mac hardware will make the experience even better, because you won't have to hack everything to make it work right, but you'll be able to run on x86 if you want to get going cheap.
I think that this makes perfect sense given Apple's involvement in and adherence to new standards for their hardware platforms, such as Firewire and USB, as well as their groundbreaking efforts in audio and video. Imagine if, in 2 or 3 years, you can buy a sub-$1000 computer that can edit video, burn it to DVD, and be a fully-functioning, commercial grade web server? Sure you can do that with Linux now, but you'll spend $1000 and have to spend a man-year getting it set up and running right.
The wuestions may be slanted, but I'll bet that those questions ended up in the hands of the other candidates too, and they haven't put their answesr up on their web sites.
I really doubt that either Bush or Gore would answer the questions the same way. Neither probably know about the serious privacy abuses, let alone have any concern about the fact that we're the only country in the world (practically speaking) that has a government that just doesn't care about its citizens' privacy. I think that Nader's answers to the question prove that he is at least knowledgeable about the issue, has some interest in it, and even has a few ideas about what can be done to fix it.
The resources clearly exist to handle this kind of thing, as high school debate competitors all over the country do it all the time. Throw in a little mass media data collection tactics, and everything would be hunky-dorey. Okay, so here's how it works.
Currently, there are 16 candidates who are on at least one general election ballot. For each to debate the other one on one, there would have to be 120 debates...a few too many for me to handle. So lets bust it up and have a first-round of 4 4-way debates, with the candidates appearing in each debate selected randomly.
Use a system of weighted averaging of scores from judicial and congressional judges and people who actually watch the debate to pick the top two candidates out of each debate. Then have another set of 4 4-way debates as the only elimination round. The two winners of each of these four debates would reduce the number of debating candidates to 8, thus reducing the number of remaining debates to 28, plus the 8 that have already occurred, for a grand total of 36 debates. Way more manageable.
After that, it goes to one-one-one, with no scoring or winning. Each of the remaining 8 candidates would have a chance to debate each other. Spread this process out over a year, and I think that most Americans would have a much better ability to evaluate which candidate is best for the country.
Almost everyone I have talked to about their DSL service agrees: use the phone company for the line and a high-end, local ISP for service. I chose to use USWest (the local provider in Minneapolis) to give me the line, and visi as my ISP. They have a great reputation for technical excellence and quality customer service. I have had only one outage, and the ISP called me before I even knew about the outage, just to let me know. I have had several friends who have had severe problems when their ISP is also the phone company. Mostly it amounted to overbilling, but I've also heard about major, long-term outages, outages of some services (POP and SMTP), and a lack of cool services (like the static IP my ISP throws in for free). It may just amount to my experiences, the experiences of those around me, and a general disorganization at USWest, but it seems like the formula works pretty well. I've been told by a couple of people that the nationals (concentric, flashcom) are kind of hard to deal with because they're very large and have to deal with multiple companies to complete service, but I've also heard that Covad rocks.
Slashdot Mirror
Not necessarily. In this case, my point is that Windows Media is just as, if not more, closed and proprietary than Real Media, and that its streaming quality is poorer, at least from my personal experience.
I use them every chance I get. It looks a lot cooler than using a cell phone. Unfortunately in my area, they have hidden them, in the lobbies of secure buildings or they turn them off at 9 pm and turn them on way earlier than i ever wake up.
I think that Apple's secret goal IS to get OS X running on x 86 and then blow Borg out of the water. Think about it. They've put a decent interface onto *nix, which is something that the Linux community has yet to do. They're including the development environment. They're releasing before there's a lot of software, so current Mac users get used to the new OS while being able to use their old software. What happens next? More software gets released. They iron out the bugs on the PPC platform, port the code to x86 (etc...), release it to the world cheap ($100 or so--not too much more than a documented Linux distro) and Kill the Borg. Having Mac hardware will make the experience even better, because you won't have to hack everything to make it work right, but you'll be able to run on x86 if you want to get going cheap. I think that this makes perfect sense given Apple's involvement in and adherence to new standards for their hardware platforms, such as Firewire and USB, as well as their groundbreaking efforts in audio and video. Imagine if, in 2 or 3 years, you can buy a sub-$1000 computer that can edit video, burn it to DVD, and be a fully-functioning, commercial grade web server? Sure you can do that with Linux now, but you'll spend $1000 and have to spend a man-year getting it set up and running right.
The wuestions may be slanted, but I'll bet that those questions ended up in the hands of the other candidates too, and they haven't put their answesr up on their web sites. I really doubt that either Bush or Gore would answer the questions the same way. Neither probably know about the serious privacy abuses, let alone have any concern about the fact that we're the only country in the world (practically speaking) that has a government that just doesn't care about its citizens' privacy. I think that Nader's answers to the question prove that he is at least knowledgeable about the issue, has some interest in it, and even has a few ideas about what can be done to fix it.
The resources clearly exist to handle this kind of thing, as high school debate competitors all over the country do it all the time. Throw in a little mass media data collection tactics, and everything would be hunky-dorey. Okay, so here's how it works. Currently, there are 16 candidates who are on at least one general election ballot. For each to debate the other one on one, there would have to be 120 debates...a few too many for me to handle. So lets bust it up and have a first-round of 4 4-way debates, with the candidates appearing in each debate selected randomly. Use a system of weighted averaging of scores from judicial and congressional judges and people who actually watch the debate to pick the top two candidates out of each debate. Then have another set of 4 4-way debates as the only elimination round. The two winners of each of these four debates would reduce the number of debating candidates to 8, thus reducing the number of remaining debates to 28, plus the 8 that have already occurred, for a grand total of 36 debates. Way more manageable. After that, it goes to one-one-one, with no scoring or winning. Each of the remaining 8 candidates would have a chance to debate each other. Spread this process out over a year, and I think that most Americans would have a much better ability to evaluate which candidate is best for the country.
Almost everyone I have talked to about their DSL service agrees: use the phone company for the line and a high-end, local ISP for service. I chose to use USWest (the local provider in Minneapolis) to give me the line, and visi as my ISP. They have a great reputation for technical excellence and quality customer service. I have had only one outage, and the ISP called me before I even knew about the outage, just to let me know. I have had several friends who have had severe problems when their ISP is also the phone company. Mostly it amounted to overbilling, but I've also heard about major, long-term outages, outages of some services (POP and SMTP), and a lack of cool services (like the static IP my ISP throws in for free). It may just amount to my experiences, the experiences of those around me, and a general disorganization at USWest, but it seems like the formula works pretty well. I've been told by a couple of people that the nationals (concentric, flashcom) are kind of hard to deal with because they're very large and have to deal with multiple companies to complete service, but I've also heard that Covad rocks.