Webcasters go to Washington

Really, *what* are these 20-or-so potential webcasters going to be offering us? Audio? Video? Both? Going to the US Congress, while technically and/or legally necessary, is like going to the Devil Himself in view of the shameful track record the Senate has shown the world as of late. I have *precious* little respect for the US Senate these days. Streaming media, dRD, as of it's present capabilities, *sucks*. Technically, it's a supreme BORE, and insults the eyes of anyone who watches. Divx-5 *may* be an exception, but I doubt it. (Sorry Gej). You want streaming media? Get any ol' version of WMP, or (gag) RealMedia - and any other number of wannabe's software - and you'll get plenty of radio stations (acceptable), and NO video content I would be willing to watch, let alone pay for. Belive it or not, most of the free world is still hooked up to the internet via standard, dial-up modems. That puts a HUGE damper on any home user's ability to receive *quality* video content. Boy oh BOY! Am I *ever* dissapointed with Gerome Rota's change of direction! Yes! I *know* that Divx-5 has to be able to support itself, but if you go to his site at: http://www.divx.com/showcase , you will see restrictions, 5-day "rentals" and only-viewable-by-credit-card content that pretty-much underlies everything we were hoping for with Divx content. (you may not agree). Look at the new (god-d###ed Divx player!) - It's just as full of user-restrictions as WMP ever was. Either: When more people get hi-speed internet connections, AND/OR... Content providers provide something both artistically *and*, quality-wise, *worth* watching, ...will streaming video ever take off. That is my two-cent's worth. Thank you for letting me bitch. k.a.

P.S. By the way, I can't tell you how much I appreciate these frequent news updates. I'm watching you all the time. (Many thanks). Also, this new "direct approach" software (allowing members to post opinions immediately after the announcements), seems a Quantum leap forward. -- Mike -- (K.A.)

i think you're missing the whole issue here... first off, you're talking about all this video stuff when MUSIC and government and commercial control is more the issue here. the system is dividing so that the only people who will be in charge of communications in this world are people with tons of money, and thus all the crappy music is gonna stay being thrown in your face. you're gonna have to put up with all the crappy ads and crappy DJs yelling at you in between every song. meanwhile, the people all over the world who are trying to spread music from their region are getting sh** on just so some crappy boy band can get played 3 times an hour. the sound quality may still be lacking on winamp and real player, but when i play my brother's band on my radio show, you could listen to it in germany. in october, when the new rates go into effect, germany may never hear of ANYthing going on in my town ever again, and there's a LOT of music here in Boston. the internet is supposed to be an advanced form of communication, not another source of income. already, we pay for telephone and internet services which are almost completely monopolized. do we really want the same for radio?

Hi zb1KnObe. (Holee sh##, try keying that name in five times in a row!) I'm not really that 'up' on webcasting, whether private or commercial. You don't give enough information in your post. The only thing, radio-wise, I've sporadically listened to in the past, is with the Windows' Media Player. Sometimes, the webcasts can be interesting, sometimes *far* better than local stations for both diversity and quality content, and sometimes, just garbage. Overall though, I can take-'em or leave-'em. I know that there are 'ShoutCast' stations (with WinAmp, right?), but I've never listened to those. (Just no interest) So, like, what are you bitching about, exactly, in your above post? Does your brother webcast his band's music? Are these proposed webcasting fees going to affect him/you? What/whose webcasting system are you using? ShoutCast? Something else? Are these proposed fees only applicable to commercial music content, or do they also apply to private, independant bands from Boston like your brothers? Geographically, I'm not so far away from you (Nova Scotia -- a few bumps up the east coast from you). If I (and you) can do so freely, (and hopefully without having to install a truckload of proprietary software), I'll try to give you (him) a listen. Best Regards, Mike, an extraterrestial lifeform humanoid Klingon-like-shaped being from outer space whose name is much easier to pronounce (and type-in) than "zb1KnObe" =)

by all means, tune into www.abfreeradio.org every sunday night at 10pm EST for the Catacombs show (plug) and you might hear his band (aka MOMENT). again, i don't think you understand the seriousness of this matter. have you read all the articles posted? basically what is going on is that the new proposed royalty rates are too high for small webcasters (like the one i do my show on) to afford to stay in business. and apparently that was an intentional goal when the rate plan was originally thought up. i think this sucks because not only is my own show not going to be webcast anymore but every other small-time webcaster (MOST webcasters are small-time by the way). if you're a band trying to get your music heard, radio stations are a big help in that area.. on regular radio, they pay royalties for every song they play. the new proposed rates mean that webcasters will have to pay royalties on EACH AND EVERY STREAM BEING DOWNLOADED. average 30 listers at $0.07 a tune, 10 tunes an hour, 24 hours a day, 30 days a month... that's over $15,000 a month to stay webcasting. if you haven't even listened to webcast stations, then what the F*** are you posting here for?? and it's zb1kn0be (with a zero) as in the star wars guy. -zack

Chill out Zacky boy, don't tromp on my ass just because the new webcasting fees are about to deep-six your show. And, I post here because I F###ing-well feel like it, you got a problem with that? I understand the need for bands to gain exposure, and I DO sympathize with those who are going to suffer as a result of these new expensive fees. But frankly, I don't personally listen much to *any* online stations. Just haven't the time or desire, so don't get your underwear all bunched-up the crack of your ass if I don't manage to catch Catacombs or MOMENT next Sunday. My complaint (if you'll read my initial post) is that, in my limited experience, I find the general quality of content (music reproduction, and often, artistic content) sucks. True, I only have a dial-up, but so do many others. And I was referring to large-time *commercial* webcasters, not the little fellers, who could certainly use a break. But for the LARGE concerns, I really don't give a rat's ass what they are charged. Have A Nice Day. -- KlingonAgent --

you're words can't be heard cuz you so absurd, so instead you post here thinkin' i won't murder you with my verbs, kick your back in and leave you on the curb, just feel like rappin, bet you're just a nerd, can't understand my thirst for battlin' your mind cuz you so blind to the curse, the shit that leave you bleedin, see you leavin in a hearse, oh wait, you missed my verse, too busy tryin' to figure out what matters most and it's the worst, you think that quality of content means everything's perfect, what i'd say? that's the worst sh*t! you can't accept the smoothe inertia of pulses down your vertabre from what i say, the word play, my third eye, tappin your nerves, hey, wake up, you still stuck in thursday, my bird's eye view of all of this is that we're bein PLAYED it's about ideas being saved and not lost, never communicated through music and prose cuz the cost is too high, no one knows why we're still in the throes of oppression, i'll tell you why, it's cuz everytime we have a chance to stand up we let 'em teach us the worst of lessons: submit to the ones who lessen your chances, cuz you're worthless, a slave to G8, the summit speakers who try to make the masses weaker. you klingon's gotta clean your glasses cuz you and your whole alien species are some whack ass bastids...you're more neanderthal than any man ever was cuz we're the fastest on the evolutionary scale, you at the bottom while i ride the crashes of waves and knock over your graves on my way to the top, i watch you rot, you silly and you should stop! in other words, dude, YOU relax-- i was just talkin' sh*t to you cuz you're fighting against what i stand for. i'm not gonna hunt you down and bitch you out if don't listen to my show. i was pluggin it, duh. didn't i write that? not everything is about you, ya know; not how good the sound quality or the music that's out there, and not everything i write here. you seem to be the one with the panties in a bunch... why don't you appreciate what you're already gettin' and stop messin around like a clown in heaven, cuz you shouldn't be steppin! as for me, i'm interested in what's out there in the world. if small-time webcasters go out of business completely (which is what the big guys want and are *getting*) i'm not gonna hear it. instead, i'm gonna hear everything in the mainstream, just like you're saying you don't want to hear... so... why take their side? why not help fight for our freedom to webcast so you don't have to hear that crap and people who don't have a lot fo money but have good ideas can try to solve the low-quality problem? i mean, jeez...this ain't no hopeless cause! but more importantly, in light of our little debate here, again: why are you even giving an opinion about webcasters going to congress if you keep saying you hardly listen to webcast stations?? not saying you can't have an opinion, but you just look DUMB. you're talking about streaming movies, when the only real video streaming out there is PORN. very few people even care about any other kind of streaming video besides the stupid crap you see on Windows Media Player and Real Video, content that is endorsed by the software companies. alternative media players, such as Winamp, don't rub anything in your face and give you the same quality, i might add. and THEN you talk about 56k modems so you obviously don't even know much about streaming ANYthing cuz it's probably so slow you'd rather not bother with it most of the time you are online. and THEN you post to EVERY article related to the topic. that's even funnier! ha! i laugh at you. zack

oops, maybe you only post to this article. i laugh at ME! ha!! bitch.

What a waste of online time. If you spend 1/5th as much time on your show as you waste typing-in your hip-hop trash as above, then you might really have a show worth listening to. Get a life. You're a write-off, fool. R.I.P. -- KlingonAgent --

ha! at least i can admit when i'm bein a fool, you don't even know your d*** from your n*ts when it comes to webcasting and you try to play it off with all this tech talk but you just TRASH, kid! don't think it takes me more than a millisec to bust out my sh*t. and if it ain't worth it, then why are you writin'? i obviously have a life if i'm being active with the airwaves, so go outline yourself in chalk, cheap thrill.

You know, it's funny in a way.... Believe it or not, I'm a cab driver. (Yes, that's right, I drive a taxicab for a living). As such, in my travels, I routinely see many people, mostly drunk, on the weekends, when I 'do the nightclub' scene. When these people are drinking, all the hurt, anxieties, bitterness, and black-hatred they have built up in life, all comes gushing out at me. They *need* someone to thrash on, and they figure I'm an easy target. I cannot (and will not) hand-hold these people through whatever life's miseries they happen to be going through, and when, after I have kicked their sorry asses out the door and they find themseves unbelievably standing by themselves on the street, they realize that some people (me) won't stand for their sh##. Zack, you have problems. Personal problems, and you are lashing out. At any target you can find. This is not the place to do it. I'm being very kind in even writing this. You are full of vindictiveness, black-hatred, and you want to cause pain. I really hate rap music, and rap artists. Rap music, to me, is like listening to someone scraping their fingernails across a blackboard. And if there's anything *worse* than rap, it's someone *typing-out* rap-trash, as you have done above. It is garbage. It is meaningless. YOU are meaningless for writing it. If you were in my car right now, you would shortly find yourself standing on your head on the nearest street corner. As I have stated, I have no axe to grind with small, independant webcasters. It is the large, commercial, self serving concerns who I have no use for. If that isn't plain enough for you, then you need help. I tuned in Allston-Brighton Free Radio just now, and was mildly pleased. (Soft music this time of the morning, 5:45 am local time). Not what I had expected. (Rap, hip-hop). And I read with sadness what may (probably will) happen to it come Dec. 31 of this year. I don't see what any of us can do about it. I doubt that writing to Senators is going to have much impact. Save your hurtful prose for another day - it looks very bad on you. Peace. -- KlingonAgent --

tsk tsk tsk... you're a riot. you take what i'm sayin waaaay too seriously. you obviously don't know anything about rap either, much less anything about me. you don't if i even have personal problems, you just assume that cuz i'm barkin' it means i'm "gushing out on" you. sorry you have to deal with whiney drunk people all the time, but you chose the profession. if you can't handle it then get a new job. as for me, i repeat: i'm just talkin sh*t, i'm not completely serious. you need to learn to laugh some things off cuz this is just a stupid comment thingy on a website-- i'm not coming up to you in real life, hell i'm not even writing to you're email directly! RELAX, dude. learn to laugh, cuz you're obviously the disgruntled one here. i mean, if you can't handle it then maybe you should think about not posting anymore... but this is how people talk in the real world cuz i'm a REAL PERSON. you need to start accepting it and look past my trash talk or else one day you're gonna end up committing suicide or sumthin cuz you just can't handle real life. back to the topic at hand... you still don't seem to understand that by not supporting small-time webcasting (and publicly making fun of it) you are basically saying that you don't mind having to put up with the big-time commercial sh*t which you keep saying you do not endorse. so.... just cuz YOU'RE too lazy to be active enough to write to the librarian of congress about it (not the senate, stupid) doesn't mean it's a worthless/hopeless cause. just to spite you: i drop you like your momma drops her panties whenever i see her, never shed a tear when i see sorry asses like you think you can dock at my peer, i sheer you like the sheep you are, drive your cab car through the park and leave your plates out so you get caught, then spark a J and i'm off, you try to doctor my words, well i won't turn my head and cough, so keep your hands off, i scoff at you and push you off into the rocky shores and watch the gore like horror movies and bram stoker!!

Wow, I'm being psychoanalyzed now. You do part time shrink work when you aren't playing DJ or writing annoying trash? Well, I'm glad you've got all the answers and have everything figured out. I was kinda hoping you had more to say, because I was going to risk having this thread closed by the sysops (would have made for fascinating reading). But since, in your own limited fashion you have exercised some sort of 'restraint' and only made 1/2 of-an-ass of yourself this time, I'll let it pass. But don't make a stranger of yourself..... -- K.A. --

Just a quick note.... This is almost painful. Now I know why I don't listen to webcasts much. I'm listening to mouthpiece's "show" right now from Allston-Brighton. God almighty what tired old tripe. The show's over half over and Zacky 'ol boy hasn't opened up his mouth once, quite unlike in here, so you can imagine my surprise. His partner has said a few words though, mostly just reciting the names of the last 4 pieces or so of trash-rock they've just played. "Techo-punk screech-rock" would be a fitting descriptive here, I think. Some "musician" is pounding his drums right now while some "singer" is screaming his head off in the background. There are no lyrics as such, just sceaming/noise. Pretty much the same old, tired, worn-out, recycled, street noise you've heard over and over ad nauseum. Our local Dalhousie University can run circles around this 'schtick'. It's not even 'schtick', really, more like "schtick-on-a-stick". "Aw, that ain't working, banging on the bongos like a chim-pan-zee" (Dire Straits) I haven't heard Zackie's bro's band in there yet. (What was it's name again? 'The Bounced Checks'? ' The 'Wannabees'? 'Limp Dick'? (Oh yeah, "Moment", that's it. Well, 'Moment' hasn't 'blessed' me with their presence yet. If anyone here doubts the uselessness of this show and doesn't mind wasting an hour's-worth of their life, let me know; I've run a cable from the sound card into a cassette deck. Oh oh, "Little Yellow Box" from Conneticut is next-up, I'd better get out of here. I've got to go back to work .....this FILL is beginning to rot my brain. Best Regards, -- KlingonAgent --

a) i'm sure no one is reading this thread (not even sysops) cuz it'd be a big waste of time. b) you don't care about finding out about new and interesting things from far off lands and i find that boring. c) you STILL don't know me and try to play it off like you do d) you STILL have yet to give me a good argument as to why webcasting should be shut down. e) you're dumb. f) if you're sitting there thinking this is annoying and stupid then why are you reading it and writing back? g) just cuz i say my opinion doesn't mean i think i know everything. h) [sigh] i) i'm not writing back anymore cuz this has lost it's fun.

Zak, Zak, get back here. I haven't given you permission to leave yet. (Just got back from work after a hectic night on the streets) Let's go through this - before you leave, I want you to know *why* you're 'not having fun' anymore. >> a) I'm sure no one is reading this thread Why? Who told you that? >> even sysops Syspops are *especially* reading these threads. >> cuz it'd be a big waste of time. You reap what you sow. If you solicit support, you have to show a modicum of TACT. You have not. >> b) you don't care about finding out about new and interesting things from far off lands and I find that boring. You take an awful lot for granted with blanket statements like that. Do you speak for all of us? How nice to be so informed. You must be psychic. Why don't you *ask* what others think about new and interesting things in far-off lands? >> c) you still don't know me... Of course not! What planet are you from? Are we *supposed* to know you? You get 'known' after you make yourself known by being around for awhile. You've been around for a grand total of *six* posts, mostly prickish in nature - did you never think that maybe, just maybe, nobody *wants* to know you? ... and try to play it off like you do. No one's done anything of the sort. You're ranting. d) >> You still have yet to give me a good argument as to why webcasting should be shut down. Who said it should be shut down? Certainly not me. Look over the posts and stop feeling sorry for yourself. Recall my words after visiting Allston-Brighton, zak: "And I read with sadness what may (probably will) happen to it come Dec.31 of this year." I care very *much* about 'the little guy'; I've always been a champion of those that get tromped on by Big Business, politics, and self-serving Corporations that seek to control. What I *don't* care very much for, is newbies coming into the site here shooting their fucking mouths off like you have done ever since you've been here. Maybe that's just your "way". Well, it's the Wrong Way. >> e) You're dumb. Certainly. That's why we're here. To learn, and not BE dumb. >> f) If you're sitting there thinking this is annoying and stupid..... Quite the contrary - this is the *first* time I am not annoyed by you, the *first* time you've actually made some sense, the *first* time you haven't annoyed us with that dumb-fuck Rap shit of yours, the *first* time you've given me a reason not to write you off as an obnoxious little prick. (Frankly, I didn't think you had it in you). item f) continued.... >> then why are you reading it and writing back? Because I may have more brains than even you imagined. >> g) Just cuz I say my opinion doesn't mean I think I know everything. There's nothing wrong with sharing opinions (even soliciting them), but a bit of diplomacy never hurts when you're trying to get your ideas across. >> h) sigh I was heaving sighs after your third post. i) I'm not writing back anymore cuz this has lost it's fun. You brought it on yourself. Whether you're just joking with people or not, you can't just shoot your farking mouth off as you have done and expect *others* to have 'fun' listening to it. And actually, I think AfterDawn is one of the most FUN places I have visited on the web. I guess it all depends on what you are looking for, zak. You needn't slither back to whatever rock you crawled out from under just yet, but if you do, I wish you well anyway. (Really). And Allston-Brighton too. I may give it a further listen to, if you can give me a good reason why I ought to. (Really, zak, that "music" show of yours I listened to, well..... (christ, it was awful). That just means I don't like the type of music your show is about, that's all. And look at what you've accomplished just by being here! You've gotten a relative newbie (me) listening to webcasts now !! (Well, sorta....) Regards, -- KlingonAgent --

i specifically unsubscribed for further notices of these updates so i dunno why i got one, but i figured i'd read anyways. finally, you've chilled out a bit. but i still think you're dumb. you're the one who started this thread by specifically stating that webcasters offer us nothing when you don't even know what they DO offer, much less take advantage of them. so you basically said that fighting for webcasting was a lost cause. then when i wrote back saying you totally missed the point cuz you were talking about all this video technology that was still lagging when the radio stations are the real issue here, you deliberately avoided my arguments from then on and instead defended yourself against my trash talk, which just proves you posted here with solid yet malnurished opinions in the first place and then didn't have the balls to admit it and tried to divert mine and other people's attention from it. that's just lame and i hope you DO keep reading and posting here so that you learn something about giving opinions in public forums. anyways, i haven't taken any of this seriously whatsoever, so i hope you haven't either, and that's why i said it would be a waste of time for anyone else to read. it wasn't a waste of time for me cuz (whether you'll admit it or not), you don't *really* know what you're talking about. this time i'm really not posting anymore cuz i'm getting too busy with real life. sorry if i hurt your feelings. "regards", zack

So long. -- K.A. --