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has the world gone mad??
Apr. 24th, 2003 12:19 pmThe latest people to provide freely available stuff but make it hard to use is Radio National, Australia.
For some time now they have made their online sound files available in streamable-only RealAudio format (a secret format that I detest). I got around that previously by using Streambox, a program which tricks the .ra file into streaming into a file on my machine so that I can play it later at my leisure without needing to be online, and without being subject to the vagaries of net-weather -- the stalling and stopping and starting of the file when bandwith gets choppy. (I have a very fast net connection, but still regularly have problems with that. God knows how people with normal connections manage!)
Radio National's online programs now defeat this streaming to a file trick so that my only options are to either download the program each time I wish to listen to it, or else record in real time while it plays. Both options suck royally. The program is online only temporarily, and recording through the sound system introduces distortion.
I read an article a little while back that was pointing out that the current fetish for "protecting" files against saving is going to be a nightmare for historians. A large chunk of our social history is just disappearing. We are not allowed to record it. It is quite mad -- most stuff simply is not kept because people don't have the time or room to save everything. The only people who do want to save it are exactly those that society benefits from. Those individuals who maintain the public record so that when we look back there will be something to see.
The greatest irony is when Radio National puts history programs online in a format that can't be saved for history.
For some time now they have made their online sound files available in streamable-only RealAudio format (a secret format that I detest). I got around that previously by using Streambox, a program which tricks the .ra file into streaming into a file on my machine so that I can play it later at my leisure without needing to be online, and without being subject to the vagaries of net-weather -- the stalling and stopping and starting of the file when bandwith gets choppy. (I have a very fast net connection, but still regularly have problems with that. God knows how people with normal connections manage!)
Radio National's online programs now defeat this streaming to a file trick so that my only options are to either download the program each time I wish to listen to it, or else record in real time while it plays. Both options suck royally. The program is online only temporarily, and recording through the sound system introduces distortion.
I read an article a little while back that was pointing out that the current fetish for "protecting" files against saving is going to be a nightmare for historians. A large chunk of our social history is just disappearing. We are not allowed to record it. It is quite mad -- most stuff simply is not kept because people don't have the time or room to save everything. The only people who do want to save it are exactly those that society benefits from. Those individuals who maintain the public record so that when we look back there will be something to see.
The greatest irony is when Radio National puts history programs online in a format that can't be saved for history.