Re: [-empyre-] radio free linux

alo,

hey

I believe there is generally a growing interest in open source
software
and people do not any longer mind the trouble of going through the
installation procedures.
Maybe it is both sides opening up. The developers trying to include a
larger non-specialist community by providing installers and packaging.
The public by accepting that getting software which is under constant
development, available for (almost) free and for all platform means a
bit of action.
It's probably the beginning of a real shift from a passive consumerist
attitude towards active involvement. Which brings me straight streaming
and the Free Radio Linux project.

hmmm...i would instead say that the technocratic class is enlarging, but
not growing as fast as the group of computer users that haven't ever used
a piece of 'open source' software on their local machine....

hmm....sure you are right for now but i guess we can already sense the dawn of a change here. i.e. with the european union's administration putting massive money into open source research and even proclaiming they plan to change their office computers to open source software soon, something is cooking here. well, yeah, but then that would probably not be "open source" as we know it anymore, so maybe there'd be other secluded technological elites doing other stuff.



However I think what makes this project really fascinating is the
interest in listening to the open source code which most listeners
weren't able to decipher.
It's there and it´s open to see for everyone, even more, it is being
broadcasted - and we are not understanding a single line of it (that's
were the humor lies for me).


actually, in the terminology you use is part of te point of Free Radio
linux...the code was 'audiolised' not 'visualised' - users could 'hear'
the code not 'see' it...but this was a minor point, hopefully to be
examnied more closely in some projects we are working on now


are you able and willing to tell us more ;)
just getting very curious......



Still, if your were reading the
ascii-gibberish of compiled windows source I guess nobody would bother
to listen to. It rather be a humiliating experience, being laughed upon.



well, i would say the two experiences are almost exactly the same!! :) the
point is, that listening to the code does somehow make it more accessible
to some - maybe because its the first tiem they have been confronted with
code...but actually, the experience would be teh same in some sense to
these kinds of peopel as listening to a binary file being spoken - they
dont really understand it, nor can they do anything with it- thats the
critique of open source that we offer - even if you ahve it -what will you
do with it? ...really?

yes, but the point is that they did listen en masse - knowing that they wouldn't know more about code or linux or open source afterwards.
in germany (at least before german hip hop turned up some time ago) people always listened to english music, in fact german music was (is) a minority on air.
you may argue that there is much more to (pop) music than just the lyrics which is of course true. anyway they all know they won't learn english that way and they know there are people out there who are able to decipher "the code" / understand english. still the fascination remains. in one of your first posts you mentioned the interest in the new, strange and alien sounds which shaped a more global soundtrack on the radio. part of the interest in RFL may simply stem from the curiosity for the new combined with the awareness that we will not be able to understand it.

i once listened to a very good piece of electro-acoustic music which was called "speaking in tongues" (don' remember exactly the group). an automatic translation system based on stochastic analysis was modified in a way it used the words of one language and the phonetic expression of another.
RFL was also read out and the code contained words and numbers that we can understand even if they don't make sense - in a way similar to that alien language with our own language's phonetic characteristic.

It's all mere possible explanations, anyway I'd like to hear some other's opinions about why they think RFL was so attractive?




how many can have actually seen C+ scripts? how many of 'us' can alter
code? how many of 'us' could alter someones elses code? what kind of
freedom is this then? it certainly isnt "free as in speech"...infact it
seems a lot closer to an offer of a "free beer" to someone that
doesnt drink to me....or perhaps worse, maybe its an offer of some hops
and sugar... ;-)

that's a very smart point, love to spin it around a bit.
maybe it's even just a guide to brewing, pretty nasty for the thirsty men at the bar...

RFL took more than one and a half year to read making it impossible for anybody to listen to more than a fraction.
so what do we get if we hook up on the stream? a new kind of muzak, massage for the ears?
i propose this now: if the stuff is free probably there is a need for some other form of admiration than spending your bucks on it ;) ?

seriously, I guess with all the graphic OS and shiny websites we all have long forgotten what code looks like. now there is no real revolution with open source software, anyway most of it are 100% rip-offs of existing programs. there is no magic in this code, same "procedure" as every year. so everybody is clinging to the openness of the code. we had forgotten the code, we had buried it under desktops and surfaces, now are we seeking revelation by being buried ourselves by millions of lines of code???


I would go as far as to say that we have got something very close to a
religon going on with open source...there are two churchs...Open Source
and Free Software, they both preach pretty much the same thing except one
is abit more liberal that the other, one evangelizes more than the other
('bring those bad propriety guys into our ways'), but basically they are
the same...and they HATE each other!!!!

of course, there can only be one true truth out there....and that one is hard to "share"..


I am still thinking about that religious aspect...will get back to this later

yours with tongue firmly in cheek 

i got a little tooth-ache but i am sticking to it :)


felix



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