Welcome to 'Transmitting to Earth'. I'm Charssun and I'll be your host. This blog and podcast is a byproduct of VoyagerRadio.com and is intended to provide the most timely information about this Internet radio station. It is also intended to be a fun and accessible electronic journal with commentary focusing on Internet radio, podcasting and webcasting issues and technologies, music, and some of my other interests. I also offer personal perspective about being an Internet radio broadcaster (and podcaster).
My Feed:
This is the RSS (and podcast) feed for this blog (and its podcasts);please copy the link and paste it to your newsreader and/or podcatcher.
|
Just received a compilation CD from Swirly Girl Channel as the prize for winning an Internet radio contest last week. The CD is full of some of the more ethereal music of bands such as Cocteau Twins, The Doves, Medicine and Sigur Ros. Which I'm just in the mood for. Who knows, maybe some of the music will find it's way into the VoyagerRadio playlist? Even if it doesn't, be sure to drop by Swirly Girl Channel's Live365 Internet radio station and listen to these fine tunes any time you're in the mood for some darker soundscapes. It's that time to take a look at the Red Planet. Get out your telescopes! Mars hasn't been this close in years--60,000 of them, to be exact. While reviewing Google's advanced search options I spotted a link to Froogle, Google's search engine for locating "products for sale from across the web". Froogle is currently in beta. The next time I have money, which may be a long time from now, I'll be trying Froogle before heading over to Pricewatch. (Does anyone still use Pricewatch?)
So what do you use to find "products for sale"? See? Some people buy music after listening to Internet radio. And yet the RIAA still wants us to believe that Internet radio stations don't make a lick of difference. Ah, I've still got so much to learn about XHMTL and Cascading Style Sheets. My Internet radio website is written in valid XHTML Strict code, but I'm still at a loss as to how this is going to help me in the long run. I understand that the effort I made will make it easier to update my site, especially utilizing Cascading Style Sheets to change the look of your entire site in a matter of moments--and I also understand that XHTML conformity may allow for better compatibility with future browsers, mobile devices, and other devices. I'm also happy to make my website more accessible to disabled visitors. But what else does XHMTL allow for? What are XSLT transforms? What is XPath? What can XML do for me? Really, I want to know, so that I can take advantage of whatever it has to offer. I'm willing to learn.
Let me know what XHMTL can do! Will I be able to extend my existing website flawlessly into the realm of mobile devices, and how? Any ideas? I'm interested in having my website in the palm of your hand, to be read, listened to, and communicated with. Sure, today it's still fairly basic, but hopefully I've planted the seeds for a website which can be extended in various ways and displayed on various devices. Perhaps the website will be read to you if you are blind. Perhaps the mobile extension of the site will display a playlist while you are listening to the webcast through your headphones. Perhaps you will be able to chat with other listeners while surfing the site wirelessly (as soon as there's more content, of course.) Perhaps a community forum will be up by then, XHTML Strict, and accessible from nearly any device in the world. Okay, I'm a dreamer, but I want to learn. I'm willing to read as much as I need to, but I don't have much time at the moment. So tell, if you may--will I be able to do any of these things, and what else can/will I be able to do with XHTML? And please, don't send me to the W3C. I want to know what you're thinking. What do you think is possible? So I'm using this new service called Google Alert. It's supposed to automatically track anything you want Google to search for every day and email you the results. I was under the impression that these results would be entirely composed of Google news stories, so when I received the email displaying the item titled "Internet radio goes mobile", I got really excited and almost came in my pants. Then I looked at the date of the news item: June 26, 2001. After scanning the story, which describes Live365's ancient foray into developing a streaming app for mobile devices, I realized I'd already read this story--a few times over the past few years.
So this brings me back to one of my favorite concerns. When are we going to see Internet radio truly go mobile? And don't tell me it already has; I've tried that one and it doesn't work. Back in June, I alerted readers of my Internet radio newsletter that StreamGuys and RadioStorm were delivering wireless 'net radio, but that turned out to be a dud, for me. I'm talking about real, walking-about-with-your-headphones-in-full-stereo-sound mobile Internet radio, not some cellphone that's barely feeding you mono sound to one ear. And if I'm wrong--if the StreamGuys/RadioStorm solution works well--by all means, correct me. I couldn't get it to work, but maybe you did. In the meantime, I'm looking for that iPod of Internet radio. Maybe I'd have more luck developing that gizmo myself; I don't know the first thing about engineering, but at the rate this is going, the world may see a makeshift mobile Internet radio from a clown like me before Apple or Sony gets movin' on it. Watch out, world--here comes the H-Radio, to a headset near you, wherever you may be. Transmitting to Earth--even if you're out in the bush. How about you? Do you want a mobile Internet radio device in your hands and ears? (Press the "Comment" link below to answer.) An interesting discussion regarding Macintosh Internet browsers has been brewing in Todd Stauffer's MacBlog. Some of us are a bit concerned about the future of Mac browsers, especially in the light of recent news that Microsoft will no longer be developing Internet Explorer for the Mac operating system--while others are very excited about the prospect of switching over to Apple's Safari browser full-time. I've recently had a great deal of trouble with all the browsers on my Mac, including Netscape, Mozilla, Opera, iCab, and Internet Explorer. Most of the browsers either crash, freeze up my system, or simply don't render many websites correctly. Internet Explorer 5 has been the only relatively stable browser in my arsenal, but even that has a knack for crashing at the most inopportune moment.
This is not to say that all Mac browsers are crap. I'm still using the old and rapidly-becoming-ancient 9.1 Mac operating system, and haven't yet delved into the world of modern OS X browsers such as Safari, Omniweb, Camino, or Mozilla Firebird, so I really can't say much about the "latest and greatest" crop of web viewers. Still, with Microsoft abandoning Apple, and with Apple taking over the browser business on the Mac side, I fear that us Mac users will be left with a substandard and murky window on the World Wide Web, reminiscent of the days of IE 4.5--an era in which I'm certain many Mac users invested in PCs solely for their Internet browsing. Hopefully Safari will turn out to be the saviour that IE 5 turned out to be, and since it's Apple's own, maybe it will be around a bit longer. What do you think? Looks like Napster is going to be resurrected, yet not in its original form. The saviour of music lovers everywhere may now return by year's end as an entirely different species, one more akin to existing music-downloading services like Apple's iTunes Music Store and BuyMusic.com. Internet radio and artist interviews will also be featured in the new Napster, and more music will be available than existing services, but the question still remains: will we be able to keep the music we download? Here's another space-themed. The seven astronauts who perished in the Columbia space shuttle disaster earlier this year are now being honored by asteroids, which will be named after them. These asteroids circle the sun in an orbit between planets Mars and Jupiter and have the potential to last for millions of years. How's that for a tombstone? [Thanks to Fark.com.] This has nothing to do with music, but since VoyagerRadio is space-themed and once included lots of news about astronomical events, here's a link to some free astronomy software, and here's a link to some more! Currently researching/locating music. Here's what I'm currently reading/listening to right this moment. Looks like The Derby in Hollywood is now hosting laptop jams. [Spotted on digital cutup lounge.] Besides this blog, a narrative blog called something that happened, and various other projects, I also moderate a discussion forum: Please consider subscribing to engage in a dialogue about all things having to do with Internet radio! |
Send Us Your Music
Artists! Want to be heard on this station? Email your MP3 audio, one file at a time, to our Program Director or mail your CD promo(s) to the following address:
Harold J. JohnsonVoyagerRadio
547 Gayley Avenue #1
Los Angeles, CA 90024 Make certain to let use know whether we may use the audio in our podcast, too!
Download the Podcast
We are officially podcasters now that we have revitalized and reintroduced our downtempo show Tempo of the Down, this time around as a podcast. Now showcasing independent downtempo we've been granted permission to offer for download, Tempo of the Down is our entry into the future of Internet radio.
Head over to our new Podcast area to download the latest session!
