has the world gone mad??

[miriam_e]

The 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.

Comments

[loco-indahouse.livejournal.com]

Ummm....I was wondering if you had read those poems tht I put up on LJ?


Do you know when you will be coming up?

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

I'm hoping to come up in another couple of weeks -- probably during the second week of May, if everything works well.

Just read the poems today. Amazing stuff Lois!
Join a writing or poetry community on LJ and submit them -- particularly the incredible "Her Hair in a Ponytail".

litcrit is one. They have all kinds of literature here, including poetry. It was originally started as a place to get constructive criticism and seems to be continuing quite nicely.

fiction_writers is an interesting place. They have mostly stories as far as I can see. Their color scheme is terrible and I get a bit of a headache trying to read their page, but they seem to be a very lively bunch and often have writers' rounds, where a whole lot of people write a story, taking it in turns to write a chapter. It is a good way to force yourself to practise writing and have fun while meeting other writers. Most of the others in that community look quite young.

writingcritic is a community like litcrit. It is not really for poems, though a lot of people post poetry there anyway. Nobody seems to mind.

poetrycritic was started by the same guy who started writingcritic. This one is specifically for poetry.

fictionwriters is another writing community.

A great way to find communities is to go to community_promo and look thru all the zillions of communities being promoted by people in them. Remember that it isn't a complete list of communities; just a list of postings by people wanting to say "Hey! Here we are!" They can be old communities or new communities.

Just a little pointer... when you post a story or a long poem on a community it is considered polite to put the cut-tag around the bulk of the post. So you would do something like this...

Here is your short, few lines of introduction/description
<lj-cut>

then you put your main story or poem in here

</lj-cut>

and you can put a few more lines after the cut-tag if you want, but not many people bother to.

You should join some communities. There are lots more out there -- I've only listed a few, and they are a terrific way to meet wonderful people.