Category: Uncategorized

Real To Support Ogg Vorbis I don’t know how I missed this one. As a follow up to Real’s embrace of open source, Real and Xiph have teamed up to have Real’s new player, the Helix™ DNA Client, support the truly open source Ogg Vorbis audio codec. Per their press release, “Ogg Vorbis is a…

Another mediageek radio show note: all shows uploaded since July 5 can be listened to in streaming mp3, saving you having to download 5 megs of mp3. Should play just fine in Winamp, RealPlayer, Windows Media Player, amongst many others.

Wired News reports on those who are “Girding Against the Copyright Mob”: It’s a sunny summer day and you pull your CDs from your home stereo, toss them in your bag and head out. In the car, you listen to your music, and when you reach the beach, you slip a CD into a portable…

Last Friday’s mediageek radio show is finally on-line. The show features an interview with University of Illinois Prof. Dan Schiller, who gives some perspective on the financial crisis at WorldCom and the effects it will have on us all. Download and listen in mp3 (24kbps 5 MB) Download and listen in Ogg Vorbis (52 kpbs…

Congressional Democrats Urge FCC Chair Powell To Actually Be a Regulator. Powell declines, prefers to deregulate, slack, take industry-funded junkets, and bide time until cushy telecomm job when Bush loses 2004 election. At least he concedes that maybe the Commish shoudn’t shut down its accounting safeguard division. I guess that makes up for how your…

FCC Business Just Under Our Radar FCC watching can be a full-time job. That’s why radio stations and other telecomm business have to hire $500/hr communications law firms to keep them legal (or at least out of trouble), and on the inside track. How’s that for democracy? After reading my last post about the FCC’s…

What Do YOU Think About the FCC’s Plans? I just became aware that the FCC has a draft five-year strategic plan that’s open for public comment until Aug. 2. The plan details the FCC’s goal in six core areas: BROADBAND: Establish regulatory policies that promote competition, innovation, and investment in broadband services and facilities while…

Hey Reps. Berman and Coble — Who’s your Daddy? That’s right, Jack Valenti’s your daddy! Aw yeah, bend over real good! — CNet reports that “Congress is about to consider an entertainment industry proposal that would authorize copyright holders to disable PCs used for illicit file trading…. Sponsored by Reps. Howard Berman, D-Calif., and Howard…

The Mainstream Is Addicted to Itself, or I Have Met Narcissus and She Is Journalist Meta-blogging alert: Yet another tired mainstream press article about blogging has appeared, this time late in the trend cycle at the SF Gate. This one was triggered by U-C Berkeley’s addition of a course on blogging to their journalism school…

CNet reports that Real Networks intends to open its source code for its streaming media products. That’s one I could have hoped for, but never would have predicted. I’m a professional user of Real’s streaming server, and have found it to be the most user-friendly and flexible one available, but the independent in me has…