Re: [Swprograms] Listening To Internet

["William Martin" <wgmartin@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks for the responses! I should have emphasized that the problems I
described regarding multitasking were specifically with spoken-word
programs, such as the science discussions on BBC, RN, RA, RCI, etc.,
and social/descriptive/historical informative ones from those and silmilar
sources. Music works well as something to let play while I type or read.
I recently discovered several Internet radio stations with music that is
enjoyable or interesting as background, and there are various music
categories already set up on services like AOL that help with that.

I have been hoping that the concept of city-wide WiFi takes hold
here in St. Louis as it has in Philadelphia. We have it now in the
downtown area. So far that requires registration but is free; it may
switch to a pay service in the future if the provider decides to do
that. I have seen some references to WiMAX, a wider-area form
of WiFi, that might also support easier access to Internet. The idea
of all that is that government-provided Internet access is a social
good, sort of the same way as public schools are considered to be.

I have considered buying a WiFi device and hooking it to my neighbor's
broadband connection with suitable security, and buying some portable
PC or equivalent device to access it from next door in my own home.
(I'd be happy to pay my share of his broadband-connection cost, too.
I'm not reluctant to get my own equipment for financial reasons; it's
mainly because I just don't want yet another source of problems in my
life. I've grown much less tolerant of things going wrong as I age... :-)

If I had this sort of environment, or if the city did get general WiFi or
WiMAX access, what hardware would one optimally use to serve as a
radio? It seems  just wrong to have to struggle with an unfolded
laptop as a replacement for a simple portable radio that I can have
in bed by my head as I listen. Yet I guess you have to have a keyboard
and display to get to web-based audio files. Maybe a notebook computer?
A PDA or some such small doohickey? What about battery life? It would
be nice to have wall power instead of eating up batteries, but there's
yet another wire. (I live amongst a spiderweb of cables, headphone
and antenna wires, and power connections now... :-) What sound
quality would one get from a little standalone unit? Decent speakers
attached to a desktop computer (like my neighbor has) provide
quite respectable sound but then we're back to a pile of
equipment and a maze of wires again. I'd be satisfied with the
same audio quality I get from a Grundig YB-400 or the like, and be
pleased with a similar physical package and as easy a user interface.
No "blue screen of death" please... :-)

Maybe I ought to send all this discussion to the BBC's "Go Digital" and
ask them to respond with an official BBC position on all this, based on
their expectation that people (especially here in the Americas) should
"listen to the BBC via the Internet". Just HOW, fellas?

Life is so much easier if broadcasters would just broadcast so we could
just receive, like we used to....

73, Will


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