tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sun Dec 10 18:21:17 1995

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Listowner's Rant (Re: Real Audio, the Universe, and Everything)

Those of you who have been on the list for a while have probably noticed
something strange about me, your listowner -- about once a month, I get
something wedged up my posterior and I go off on a lengthy rant on the
list -- Usually about silly people who can't read simple instructions, or
what hardware has broken THIS week, etc.

Well, it seemed time for another rant, so here you go. We're in for a bit
of a change in topic this time. Feel free to delete this message, if you'd
like -- Though what I'm ranting about does rather directly affect the KLI,
it has little to do with Klingon itself, so I'll probably bore many of you.

Anyone ever play with Real Audio? For those who haven't, let me explain:
Real Audio is a neat-as-all-hell realtime audio system for the 'net put
out by a company called (I think) Progressive Networks. It differs from
audio on the 'net in the past in the fact that it really is realtime -- You
click on a real-audio link, and you immediately (within 5 to 10 seconds) 
start getting audio... and the audio will last as long as whatever it is 
that's been recorded (read: hours). No waiting, no delays, and it works
over dialup (14.4) lines. You can even pause, fast forward, and rewind -- All
with realtime responsiveness.

So, I think, "aha!", what a marvelous invention -- Even if I'm not fond
of the company and product (they believe in closed computing -- Not telling
anyone how anything you write works, thus forcing incompatible standards
on the industry, etc...), I could think of about a million and one uses
for this technology on KLI.ORG -- After all, this is a _spoken_ language,
right?  We could put audio clips up now, but even  a few minutes worth of
audio turn into HUGE (multi-megabyte) downloads.

Imagine, going to the KLI homepage, and being able to get 6 free and easy
lessons in Klingon -- Spoken lessons, that you can rewind, listen to again,
pause, etc.. Along with, of course, printed lesson guides, exercises, 
etc... All available off the pages, ready for anyone to use to not only
learn the language, but how to speak it as well.

And that's just the -first- thing that comes to mind. I can think of many
other uses, to boot. Examples? The KLI has been on the radio a lot. Why not
get tapes, and put up the interviews for public consumption?

Now, here comes the fun part. 

I approached the RealAudio folks about getting a free/discounted server
for our cause -- We are, after all, a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit
organization. Their smallest server normally costs $2500, and that's just
a WEE bit out of their price range.

Indeed, Real Audio _does_ give out educational and non-profit discounts...
A whole 15% off. (Compare this to Netscape, who gives out their $5000 
commerce server to educational and non-profit orgs for _free_). So, all
told, for $2000 or so (I don't remember the exact figured for either number)
we too can have the ability to use this nice new technology.

I talked to them a little more, trying to see if it'd be possible to 
get them to back down a little bit more. The response I ended up getting
(paraphrased, but almost verbatim) was:

"We get almost a million hits a _day_, making us one of the 25 most popular
web sites in the _world_. We're currently working with companies like
ABC and NBC, so why should we bother helping you out?"

Shortly afterwards, the gentleman hung up on me. He didn't end the 
conversation, or anything like that, he simply blurted out "thanks.. bye"
in the middle of one of my sentences, and hung up the phone.

What a quality company. This person's attitude about matches that of 
everyone else I've ever talked to at the company. What kind of sales 
person or customer service person _hangs up_ on a customer?

Anyhow, I've gone through my mac and deleted everything on it that has 
anything to do with Real Audio -- As much as it's fun to play with the
technology, I refuse to support that company. Now, I obviously won't ask
anyone else to do the same (for most people, it's just too neat), but I
do want folks to think about this company the next time they go to play 
with the neat real-time audio on the 'net. Keep in mind what we _could_
have done with this technology, were this company even remotely interested
in _considering_ the possibility of doing something that, after all was 
said and done, not cost them a _penny_.

Welcome to the "new" internet, folks. I remember a time when people wrote
and distributed software because they enjoyed writing software and they
enjoyed sharing their work -- That is, after all, how most of the internet
we know and love has come into being.

In the "new" internet, nobody shares anything -- Everybody has their
own "proprietary" protocol, and their own greed. Nobody does anything 
if they won't make money off of it. Nobody shares their work, and hoards 
of incompatible protocols jump up instead.

And who loses? Naturally, the little people, the few folks remaining who
do things because it's a good deed, or because they like to teach, or share,
who do things because they're fun. Anyone whose entire existence isn't
centered around squeezing the last penny out of everyone and everything
around them.

I'm done. Stick a fork in me. Rant finished.

									-WW

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