On Sun, 25 Nov 2001, Bill Gaughan wrote: > ... And, how come some live365 sites let you have access with > "trplayer" thru "lynx" and others don't? I see all too many sites going exclusively with the M$ Windoze Media Player, with it's ultimate proprietary lock in. Take comfort in the fact that M$ has been a consistent failure in it's efforts to co-opt the internet and it's protocols, and that they're now, by their own admission, running scared of Linux. So vendors and stations will soon wise up, and switch to something more open (if they survive). In the meantime, the internet has a vast selection of alternative sites. I used to chuckle at the sites that tried to register you, and even tried to charge fees for access. Some wannabees just don't have a clue about the internet, and that includes most of the old media (ABC, MSNBC, CBS, big newspapers and magazines, etc) with their carefully filtered news and old media biases (don't you just love trying to navigate their stupidly designed sites)? They are now all bleeding cash heavily, and many are dying, even as the New Media, exemplified by the leading www.wnd.com, and the new media sites they link to, prosper (while the Old Media pretend that that ALL the internet media are failing with them). > ...we have simply got to find a way around this "unsupported > url scheme" message we all get when we try to invoke JavaScript > in lynx. The solution of a previous poster (checking the HTML source for the URL) is maybe the most sensible idea for now. Automated solutions will come with time. And vote with your feet for the new media sites that have a clue about the internet, and real content. > I fear that lynx and maybe linux, will soon be useless to us > all unless we gain full meaningful and understandable access to > X-Windows and X applications like Netscape for Linux. I fear > that, once again, we will be left behind, or forced to stumble > thru the jumble of MS Windows software products. There's nothing to worry about there. This concern comes up from time to time on this list, among newbies to linux. You can consult the list archives for detailed discussions. I will only comment that once you understand the Unix philosophy (there are HOWTOs and FAQs on this), you will understand why text based apps continue to grow at an astonishing rate, and how much power exists in this arena (GUI apps can never hope to approach that level of functionality and power). Increasing, the GUI apps are just dumbed down front ends on top of these text and script based apps, or (often somewhat limited) alternative interfaces added to them. > Until computers and the computer hardware and software industry > develop national and international uniform standards, You mean, like the development of the internet and Open Source? <grin> > computers will continue to be useful toys. You may realize that M$ OS software has been routinely referred to as a toy on many expert discussion lists, for some time now, and for good reason. > Just look at what a disaster internet radio has become with the > folding of netradio.com last month. Not to speak of the > disaster the dispute over royalty pay to announcers and > advertising actors has done to internet radio. Many broadcasts > have pulled content from the internet because of the fear of > lawsuits, because the actors guild that records the > advertisements wants to be payed twice on their royalties, once > for conventional media (radio) and again for being broadcast on > the internet. Not familar with this. Sounds like more of the typical problems with the Old Media paradigm. Just be patient -- it's becoming increasingly obvious that there's nothing the old media giants can do to stop, or even slow the change. A good example is the recent discussion here of DRM (basically copy protection), as it relates to some new accessibility and electronic book standards. For an excellent discussion of what the old media are up against, just in the DRM area, in mp3 format, see: http://www.ima.umn.edu/recordings/Public_Lecture/2000-2001/feb_12_01/schneier-24.mp3 It is about 15 meg, so you may wish to download it at night, if you don't have a fast connection. This is a lecture, followed by discussion, by Bruce Schneier, a world authority in computer security and cryptology. This guy has a talent for explaining complicated issues in terms even ordinary mortals can follow, and he even manages to make it entertaining much of the time. If you want more info in text format, see his site at http://www.counterpane.com/ (hint, search for "copy protection" and "snake oil"). Note that we have come full circle here, to the original question, which was about accessible audio formats: M$ is promising what it can never deliver to content vendors (nor can anyone), in terms of DRM. Eventually even the dumbest of M$ customers (publishers and broadcasters) will get wise to the scam (well, ok, the survivors anyway). LCR -- L. C. Robinson reply to no_spam+munged_lcr@onewest.net.invalid People buy MicroShaft for compatibility, but get incompatibility and instability instead. This is award winning "innovation". Find out how MS holds your data hostage with "The *Lens*"; see "CyberSnare" at http://www.netaction.org/msoft/cybersnare.html