Now I’m The IT Guy

snapshot_000DC5D4C863_20150221162928When I started my studio project I had no idea I’d become “the IT guy.” Everything is digital. Nothing is analog… except me.

The good news is I like this stuff, but this is way deeper in than I’ve ever been. I’ve got servers and a bunch of other single purpose computers, like my switcher and the modem that allows me to send HD video over the Internet.

Nearly every device is sharing with every other device. Files need to be available no matter where I am or they are.

I poked holes in my firewall and forwarded ports to allow the outside world to communicate directly with some of my gear. It’s not without danger. Miscreants are robotically probing for weaknesses in systems like mine 24/7.

In the analog days video and audio were like water flowing through pipes. You could cut the pipe at any point and split it or meter it.

Not today.

The flow is more orderly and intensely complex. Data doesn’t flow, it’s routed. As you might imagine, 1080i video consumes lots of data. Every hour my studio is feeding it sends around 5Gb of data.

Packets are flying through my network at breakneck speed, but it’s still the bottleneck of my system… of most complex networks. Optimization is everything. I’m working with vendors’ experts who know their systems to tweak every last bit of performance.

This isn’t a never ending project, is it?

Charlie Gibson Announces His Retirement

He is without a doubt the smartest and best informed anchor I’ve known. A graduate of Sidwell Friends in Washington (where Chelsea Clinton went), he later graduated Princeton.

ABC announced Charlie Gibson’s retirement today. He’s 66.

It’s an exhausting job–the kind where you’re on-call 24/7. Maybe he just felt it was time.

There’s nothing in this whole affair that suggests it’s a Cronkite/Rather thing… that he’s being pushed. Diane Sawyer moves from GMA to World News as the new anchor.

It’s easy to misunderstand the importance of the news anchor. Most of what we see is nothing more than a reader. Many news managers (who should know better) fail to see beyond that superficiality. That’s why there are so many pretty, though vacuous, boys and girls on the news.

The anchor is the firewall. He/she is the last chance to check something before it hits air.

A good news anchor does more than just read. A good news anchor understands the context of the story and makes sure what’s on reflects that. Some of the more adept anchors also become managing editors–acknowledgment of that firewall.

I worked with Charlie Gibson a bunch of times when I used to fill-in on GMA (GMA–you’ve still got my number, right?). He is without a doubt the smartest and best informed anchor I’ve ever known. A graduate of Sidwell Friends School in Washington (where Chelsea Clinton went), he later graduated Princeton.

He will be missed.

That being said the impact of the single evening network news has diminished in this 24/7 cable/Internet era. TVNewser printed the combined evening viewers for the three networks over the past few years and the trend isn’t good.

Week of August 28, 2006: 23,380,000

Week of August 27, 2007: 21,310,000

Week of August 25, 2008: 20,290,000

Week of August 24, 2009: 20,330,000

Good luck to Diane Sawyer, though it’s tough to wonder if Charlie is really the last of the heavy hitters in that chair.

The Great Google, Firefox, Fortigate Incompatibility Caper

You expect problems like these to follow hard and fast rules. What am I doing differently the fifth time I press retry than the fourth or third or second?

gmail-ssl-error-message.png

Don’t feel alone. I don’t understand what that error message is saying either. I’m just plagued with it!

It’s a tech problem at work. It’s an incompatibility between Firefox 3.0, Google’s encrypted sites (like Gmail, Adsense, Webmaster Tools, Google Docs, etc) and our Fortigate firewall. Intermittently my web requests to Google get rejected with error messages. It can take a half dozen retries before my Gmail is sent or other task completed.

It’s a strange problem because it’s both software related and intermittent. You expect problems like these to follow hard and fast rules. What am I doing differently the fifth time I press retry than the fourth or third or second?

There is very little about this online. I can find people with my problem. I find a smaller subset who’ve realized it’s this specific firewall box that’s the wild card. I can’t find anyone with concrete tips to make the problem go away!

It wasn’t this way until Firefox went from version 2 to 3. It only happens with Google’s SSL encrypted sites.

It’s driving me slightly nuts.

Please Check/Reboot The Weather Content Engine

But, belaboring the point for effect, it’s nearly 4:00 AM

I just got an email from a server run by the TV station. So did a half dozen other people. The server was unhappy. It needed to be fed.

This is an automated message from the Recol weather.wtnh.com server.

This warning is issued when a new copy of our SkyMax Doppler or other specified weather image has not been uploaded for more than+25 minutes.

Please check/reboot the Weather Content Engine, or check the WatchGuard firewall. Reminder, the DCE hostname is localhost.

OK… but I am in my pajamas… and it’s almost 4:00 AM.

Actually, we’ve been having trouble with this particular box lately. Something has changed. It’s a got to be software problem on this thinly installed system.

Unfortunately, trouble is typical of new programs, especially this one which lashes together a few totally separate systems to produce round-the-clock web graphics.

But, belaboring the point for effect, it’s nearly 4:00 AM.

Because of our earlier tsuris, I installed logmein.com’s free remote control software. This is a godsend. I can’t figure out what their business plan is, but I love their product.

Logmein puts the remote computer’s screen right in my web browser! My mouse becomes its mouse and my keyboard its keyboard. It’s not as fast as working your own computer, but it’s not that bad either.

I scouted around on the station’s machine enough to jot down some symptoms. Then, I rebooted it. A few minutes later, I logged back in to make sure everything was running.

Actually, this is the second time today I used this software. Earlier, I did some troubleshooting on a friends computer the very same way. It must be weird to sit on the remote end and watch your cursor glide across the screen as phantom words are typed.

Meanwhile, work problem solved. I’m going to sleep.

No Bars At Home

AT&T is not alone in causing this kind of angst to a good customer. They have totally removed those who know what’s going on from those asking the questions. In essence, they’ve put their thinking staff behind a firewall. That’s what banks and airlines and all sorts of what were once called ‘service businesses,’ now do.

cell-screen.jpgNot one of my finest photos on the left. Just a little something I took a few minutes ago. It’s my cell phone explaining to me there’s no longer cell service where I live! It says “Emergency Service” because that’s now the only call I can make… if there’s even enough signal for that (It’s not the kind of thing you idly check).

OK – that’s an exaggeration. If you stand in just the right spot, a marginal signal is sometimes available. It’s not a total loss, but pretty close.

Look for yourself. With no strength bars showing, the signal indicator now resembles a screw head – as in… well, draw your own conclusion.

This all began Friday afternoon. My phone rang at work. It was Helaine. She was calling the station’s phone and she was using our POTS&#185. Usually she calls my cell from her cell.

“No cell service,” she said.

It’s electronic. It’s complex. I understand.

When I got home from work, I had no service. Stef was in the same boat.

Friday turned to Saturday, then Saturday to Sunday. Friends came to play poker and those with phones from AT&T found they had no service either.

Today, on my way to work, I called AT&T. Of course their rep saw no reason for my trouble, though the woman on the phone said she’d check for possible ‘service downgrades.’ There are two scary words for someone with the majority of a two year contract in front of him.

Do they honor payment downgrades?

I e-mailed Robert, the guy who sold me my phone, and who seemed pretty technically proficient. He is now asking for assistance on my behalf.

AT&T is not alone in causing this kind of angst to a good customer. They have totally removed those who know what’s going on from those asking the questions. In essence, they’ve put their thinking staff behind a firewall. That’s what banks and airlines and all sorts of what were once called ‘service businesses,’ now do.

So, I’m waiting. I’m sitting on my hands hoping there’s really no need for my cellphone at home. Unfortunately, it has become my number of choice when people ask how they can reach me.

I’m not sure there’s anything I can do.

&#185 – POTS = plain old telephone service.

Greetings From Ventnor City

I’m writing this from the kitchen of my friend Peter’s condo in Ventnor City, NJ. Honest, there is a Ventnor City, NJ… just down the road from Atlantic City. The people here call it Ventnor.

My journey started after work Friday night. Knowing I have no organizational skills, or willpower, going home after work would have just meant an extended period of putting off going to bed… so I set out for Peter’s house, in Cherry Hill, NJ at 11:35 PM.

That was a good idea because traffic was light and I made it in just under three hours. Not bad. EZ-Pass is good on the NJ Turnpike, making the trip even easier.

I didn’t relish the idea of a long drive but I had my cell phone along with the earpiece I seldom use. I knew if I got my Cousin Michael on the phone from California… well, let’s just say Michael is never at a loss for words.

That’s a good thing because I enjoy talking with him. Between Michael, Melissa and Max (their son) I kept busy through the Bronx, over the George Washington Bride and well into New Jersey. Finally I gave up because my ear was getting sore.

I also decided to run a ‘science experiment’ during the drive. I put my laptop in the front seat, powered by an inverter, working off the car’s battery so it would last the whole trip. The laptop had a wireless network card and GPS receiver hooked up and ran a free piece of software call NetStumbler.

As I drove along, sometimes every few seconds and sometimes only a few times an hour, a little sound went off and the computer would log the presence of a wireless access point. Some were password protected while others would have gladly (OK – gladly is overdoing it) allowed me to connect to the Internet or anything else behind their firewall!

After I return to Connecticut I’ll try and publish some lists and maps to show you what got logged. It was very interesting to me and I tried disparately not to look at the computer screen as I sped along at 70 mph.

I made it to Peter’s house around 2:30 AM. For me that’s the shank of the day. For Peter, it’s the middle of the night. He woke up and let me in. He even nuked a few burgers for me!

Saturday morning started with a visit to his nephew’s baseball game, breakfast at a deli and then a trip to the Jersey Shore. Peter recently bought a 2005 Acura RL and we felt it was necessary to test all the buttons&#185.

Some parts of the car, like the XM Satellite Radio, were interesting. Peter and I agree the XM ‘decade channels’ play too many marginal songs (not hits) – probably an effort to avoid repetition and there’s no real ‘oldies’ channel as such. I did find the comedy channels interesting and am envious of his ability to hear every baseball game… though as a non-sports fan he will listen to none.

When a car is packed with gadgets, as this one is, there are things which seem superfluous or a little over the top. If, instead of touching a button, you’d like to wait five or ten seconds and hope your command is understood, you can tell the car’s climate control system to turn down the fan or adjust the temperature. Using the button is easier!

Mostly this is a sweet car and I enjoyed the ride to the shore.

Though sunny, today was blustery and cool. Still, we decided to take a walk down the boardwalk. The water was rough with spray coming off each breaking wave. The beach, as you might expect for April, was empty.

As we walked the beach, we ran into a flock of tiny birds. Though they do fly, most of the time they scamper on the sand, chasing the waterline in and out with the waves. They’re looking for food, I’m sure, but they were fun to watch because they’re totally in sync and choreographed perfectly.

There is no outward sign of communications between these birds, but they must know what the others are going to do. They change direction on a dime and never bump into each other!

Tonight we had dinner at the Tun, near the Atlantic City Convention Center. I’m on Atkins (again), so I told my waitress I’d rather not have the potatoes with my meal. Could she substitute something else? “How about French Fries,” was her reply.

The steak was very good and there was plenty of it. There was no Splenda for my coffee (a recurring theme of late), so I pulled a pack from the stash in my wallet. This is what 54 year old guys carry in their wallets instead of condoms.

After dinner we went to the Tropicana to see a comedy show. The Comedy Stop at the Trop has been there for at least 25 years. Recently it moved to nicer quarters in the hotel’s new wing called The Quarter. In fact the whole addition is very nice, somewhat reiniscent of the shops at some Vegas casinos.

We stopped in the Spy Store where I found some items going for many multiples of what the same thing sells for on EBay. I wasn’t expecting bargains, but this was a little ridiculous.

The comdey show itself was good and the comedians fine… at least that’s my impression from the audience reaction. Maybe I just wasn’t in a comedy mood tonight?

&#185 – There is a button that Peter just can’t figure out. If you have any idea what the “DISP MODE” button does, drop me a line.

Windows XP Service Pack 2

Over the last year or two, the Windows operating system has started to resemble the South Bronx in the early 80s. Yes, it’s intrinsicly valuable, but it’s also become dangerous. The young and innocent must be protected from predators.

Over the weekend, Microsoft slowly rolled out a massive service pack for Windows XP – the latest version of its operating system. Since I have a bunch of machines to update at home, I downloaded the 225mb version and then passed it across my network to all the machines.

The size of the download will certainly keep people with dial-up accounts from getting the pack. It will probably intimidate many broadband users as well. That’s a massive file to download.

I’m taking few chances, so it was installed on my spare machine first. I figure there’s nothing mission critical on this machine so I can survive should the machine be unhappy with what I did.

Microsoft actually expects to see some troubles, though I have seen few specifics. Since it closes holes in certain ports with its new firewall, it’s sure to break programs that communicate in a non-standard way – even if they’re doing so for a perfectly legitimate purpose.

After the download, installation took about 25 minutes. It didn’t ask for my help, other than clicking off on the EULA.

As far as I can tell the installation was a success. I immediately noticed my wireless network, which needed me to manually start it on every reboot, was now finding its own way to operation. I’m not using Internet Explorer or Outlook Express on that machines, and I know that’s where a lot of the security enhancements were aimed.

There are two things which trouble me. First, this service pack doesn’t address problems for people running Windows 98, a perfectly fine and usable operating system. We have two machines at home (Steffie’s desktop and my laptop) which are running Windows 98. Neither machine has the firepower to switch to XP. They will continue to be susceptible to all the same attacks that brought this service pack on in the first place.

My second problem concerns whether Microsoft will allow this patch to be used on systems with bootleg copies of XP. It would seem obvious that they shouldn’t support those who steal from them, except for the fact that many of the ills this service pack stops are passed along to legitimate users. So, no inoculation for them means they may make my computers sick in the long run.

It is certainly a quandary for Microsoft. I don’t know what I’d do if it were me. However, if viruses and spam from zombie machines continues because of Microsoft’s policies, I’ll be ticked.

I’m Going to Say Something Nice About Microsoft

My friend Farrell grew up in New Orleans. His mom, a widow, still lives there. Over the past few years she has begun to enjoy using a computer, and to celebrate that, Farrell got her a very nice Compaq laptop.

Of course, as is the case with so many computer users, when things began to spiral out-of-control and she had nowhere to turn. Being in Connecticut, I couldn’t drive over to help.

I had spoken to her over the phone, but it was difficult. She didn’t know where everything was and had a lack of confidence in her own ability to follow my instructions. There had to be a better way.

This afternoon I called her on the phone. Using Microsoft’s Remote Assistance, which is built in to XP, I was able to control her computer from my computer. It was my keyboard which sent the commands to her machine and my mouse which moved the cursor.

The experience wasn’t without problems. We disconnected twice, taking her back to a login screen. But, by and large it worked just fine.

I was able to install the Google toolbar, remove some icons from her desktop, resize her screen to the proper 1024×768 (from the 800×600 it had been set at), add a quick launch toolbar and desktop links to some newspapers she reads.

There is no possible way this could have been done without Remote Assistance. Because of its direct connect nature, it would not have worked had she been behind a firewall or router, as I am. One router is fine. Two is one too many!

There is another benefit as well. As I moved and manipulated things, I could show her what she would have to do when I was gone. Very valuable.

Microsoft hit a home run with this feature, though it’s probably underused.

Blinking Lights

Right before I go to bed, after I turn the lights off in my office, I look back into the darkened room – only to see what looks like a miniature airport. Everywhere you look there are tiny lights. Some are steady. Some blink. Some used to be steady but now blink or quiver with age.

Why are they all there? Why does every new piece of electronic equipment seem to need a light?

Most are dumb. They’re saying, “Hey, I’m plugged in” and nothing more. Some, like the light connected to the charging circuit on my camcorder, blink according to how close to fully charged the battery is.

My cable modem has five lights. One, the test light, is never on. I don’t know how to test the test light. It might be burned out. How would I know? Three others, Power, Cable and PC, remain lit ’round the clock. The data light blinks incessantly as computers from around the world attempt to connect to my computers.

That’s not a good thing.

The blinking data light is chronicling the computer equivalent of walking down the block, stopping at every door and jiggling the doorknob to see if it’s unlocked.

The router between my cable modem and computer acts as a defacto firewall, keeping the miscreants out, so this blinking doesn’t mean someone’s hurting me. Still, I know what some of them are trying to accomplish by looking in the log the router keeps.

It used to take a few days to fill the log. Now, it’s full in a few hours. Here’s a sample:

Thursday, December 18, 2003 8:19:35 PM Unrecognized access from 68.163.201.167:3102 to TCP port 17300

Thursday, December 18, 2003 9:01:42 PM Unrecognized access from 82.82.167.36:2219 to TCP port 1433

Thursday, December 18, 2003 9:01:45 PM Unrecognized access from 82.82.167.36:2219 to TCP port 1433

Thursday, December 18, 2003 9:02:00 PM Unrecognized access from 168.158.192.243:1115 to UDP port 1434

Thursday, December 18, 2003 9:03:17 PM Unrecognized access from 64.156.39.12:666 to UDP port 1026

Thursday, December 18, 2003 9:32:05 PM Unrecognized access from 68.63.66.150:4625 to TCP port 80

Thursday, December 18, 2003 9:32:08 PM Unrecognized access from 68.63.66.150:4625 to TCP port 80

Thursday, December 18, 2003 9:44:50 PM Unrecognized access from 67.26.94.85:2911 to TCP port 17300

Thursday, December 18, 2003 9:57:23 PM Unrecognized access from 67.201.162.153:2771 to TCP port 17300

Thursday, December 18, 2003 10:12:22 PM Unrecognized access from 82.139.65.182:55765 to TCP port 17300

Thursday, December 18, 2003 10:39:02 PM Unrecognized access from 203.40.196.206:1239 to UDP port 1434

Thursday, December 18, 2003 10:49:17 PM Unrecognized access from 68.63.64.108:3380 to TCP port 80

Thursday, December 18, 2003 10:49:20 PM Unrecognized access from 68.63.64.108:3380 to TCP port 80

Thursday, December 18, 2003 10:52:46 PM Unrecognized access from 208.30.189.21:4436 to TCP port 80

Thursday, December 18, 2003 10:52:49 PM Unrecognized access from 208.30.189.21:4436 to TCP port 80

Friday, December 19, 2003 12:03:32 AM Unrecognized access from 68.63.64.108:4846 to TCP port 80

Friday, December 19, 2003 12:03:35 AM Unrecognized access from 68.63.64.108:4846 to TCP port 80

Friday, December 19, 2003 12:05:17 AM Unrecognized access from 12.231.175.190:3764 to TCP port 17300

Friday, December 19, 2003 12:31:32 AM Unrecognized access from 68.63.64.108:3089 to TCP port 80

Friday, December 19, 2003 12:31:35 AM Unrecognized access from 68.63.64.108:3089 to TCP port 80

Friday, December 19, 2003 12:48:44 AM Unrecognized access from 202.103.172.45:59355 to UDP port 1026

Friday, December 19, 2003 12:56:01 AM Unrecognized access from 68.63.64.108:3359 to TCP port 80

Friday, December 19, 2003 12:56:04 AM Unrecognized access from 68.63.64.108:3359 to TCP port 80

Friday, December 19, 2003 12:57:24 AM Unrecognized access from 210.75.208.22:39452 to TCP port 443

Friday, December 19, 2003 12:57:27 AM Unrecognized access from 210.75.208.22:39452 to TCP port 443

Friday, December 19, 2003 12:57:33 AM Unrecognized access from 210.75.208.22:39452 to TCP port 443

Friday, December 19, 2003 1:26:37 AM Unrecognized access from 203.30.181.253:2136 to TCP port 4899

Friday, December 19, 2003 1:27:04 AM Unrecognized access from 68.63.64.108:4153 to TCP port 80

Friday, December 19, 2003 1:30:02 AM Unrecognized access from 67.120.13.53:3296 to TCP port 4000

Friday, December 19, 2003 1:30:04 AM Unrecognized access from 67.120.13.53:3296 to TCP port 4000

Friday, December 19, 2003 1:40:25 AM 192.168.123.101 login successful

Friday, December 19, 2003 1:44:11 AM Unrecognized access from 130.13.127.64:3788 to TCP port 17300

Friday, December 19, 2003 1:44:22 AM Unrecognized access from 66.169.181.90:1030 to TCP port 27347

Friday, December 19, 2003 1:47:39 AM Unrecognized access from 221.6.135.154:1097 to UDP port 1434

Friday, December 19, 2003 1:49:30 AM Unrecognized access from 68.63.64.108:2594 to TCP port 80

Friday, December 19, 2003 1:49:32 AM Unrecognized access from 68.63.64.108:2594 to TCP port 80

Friday, December 19, 2003 1:51:12 AM Unrecognized access from 67.119.218.75:4868 to TCP port 901

Friday, December 19, 2003 1:51:15 AM Unrecognized access from 67.119.218.75:4868 to TCP port 901

What does it all mean? Let’s take the first entry.
Thursday, December 18, 2003 8:19:35 PM Unrecognized access from 68.163.201.167:3102 to TCP port 17300

It comes from:

Honda Pen Motorcycles

268 Bush St #5000

San Francisco, CA, 94104

US

I have no idea who Honda Pen Motorcycles is, but they’re assigned 8 Internet addresses, including 68.163.201.167. The addresses are, in turn, controlled by a subsidiary of their local phone company:

Pac Bell Internet Services

208 Bush St. #5000

San Ramon, CA, 94104

US

When Honda Pen Motorcycles’ computer tried to contact mine, they’re probing port 17300. That implies that one of the computers at Honda Pen Motorcycles is infected with the Kuang2 virus. In all likelihood, it’s wandering around the Internet, checking for other infected machines, or machines susceptible to being infected. The folks at the Honda dealership have no clue this is going on, or if they do, don’t know how to stop it.

Thanks guys!

Most of the activity causing my data light to blink doesn’t even show up in the log. Little of it is data I asked for. Less is there for my benefit.

There are dozens of little lights in this room. Some, like the blinking light on my desk phone, I disregard. In fact, I disregard most of them. They’re mostly telling me that appliances without on/off switches are plugged in.

All of these together probably don’t draw as much power as a night light. Still, in the aggregate, all these little lights in homes and offices are causing power plants to burn a little more coal or oil.

However, in their defense, my darkened room look very high tech.

The End of the Hobby Era In Computing?

The lead story on Extreme Tech is all about building a computer. Build It: A Speedy PC For $800

I’m certainly not adverse to building a computer. The PC this is being typed on was assembled right here on my office floor from parts I specified. It does everything I designed it to do (though it has incredibly noisy fans to remove its internal heat, and I wish I would have designed that out). And, as a bonus, it actually worked when I plugged it in!

The question is why build… and even if you want to, how much longer will that be possible?

My computer was built to edit video. To that end, I threw in the ATI All-In-Wonder 8500DV video card (on which the DV “Firewire” connection never did work) and a Soyo motherboard with built-in RAID (two disk drives act as one for the faster service necessary for video). The on-board audio conflicts with the video card, meaning I then had to go get another audio card.

It was a great learning experience, but today you can buy machines off the shelf that do the same thing. And, increases in processor speed cover a variety of sins. So a machine not totally optimized for video will still do fine because everything else is so much faster and the disk drives are so much larger.

As I was passing by Home Shopping Network earlier today, they were selling a Gateway PC (I am not a fan of any particular brand. All major computer manufactures are just putting together other people’s parts.) with 17″ monitor and printer for under $1200. The CPU on their machine is better than twice as fast as mine! If you’re interested, here are the specs.

It’s tough to build when a speedy machine, pre-assembled, sells for a price like that.

For hobbyists, like me, there will always be the allure of building the ‘perfect’ screaming machine. But, I suspect within the next few years that won’t be possible either.

I remember in high school, a friend of mine bough a Model “A” Ford and restored it to running condition by hand. What he couldn’t get, he modified. Now, there’s hardly anything on a car you can fix or modify on your own.

Computers are going in that same direction. There are a number of reasons, but the most significant seems to be intellectual property rights. My computer is capable of copying DVDs… even copy protected DVDs. I can do all sorts of other things that upsets other rights holders too!

Just as printer manufacturers have added chips to try and thwart aftermarket ink cartridge manufacturers, PCs will be ‘smarter’ (really more restrictive) in what they let you do. The quaint concept of ‘fair use’ will go out the window, because manufacturers now understand how easily their hard work is ripped off.

Will future versions of Windows be built so it only works with ‘trusted’ hardware and software that can be more closely controlled? My opinion is, yes. Sure, a computer could be run on Linux or some yet-to-be-designed operating system, but that would deprive you of much of what’s available today.

I’m not sure where the ‘sweet spot’ is, balancing the rights of those who produce with the rights of those who use. I suspect that PC’s wouldn’t be where they are today… capable of doing what they do… if the restrictions to come had existed earlier.

Continue reading “The End of the Hobby Era In Computing?”

Have I Just Seen the Future of TV?

Helaine and I watched the Philadelphia Eagles game this afternoon. It’s a game that wasn’t on local TV. We don’t have a satellite receiver, nor does my cable company have an out-of-town game package. We watched because a friend, near Philadelphia, fed it to me.

The concept is the important thing here, but first, I have to explain the technical specs. His PC has an ATI All In Wonder 8500DV video card, with a tuner. He downloaded Microsoft’s free Windows Media Encoder, which will serve streaming video. We also temporarily ‘punched a hole’ in his firewall/router, so an arbitrary port we chose would be available to me in Connecticut. I connected with Windows Media Player, directly, without first using my browser.

The video he sent was encoded at a fixed bitrate of 148 Kbps, 15 fps, with 320×240 resolution. We tried a higher bitrate first, but his connection wouldn’t keep up and the video was unacceptably choppy. Next time we’ll play around with the compression parameters to find something custom which works better.

What I saw was sharp when the camera wasn’t moving, pixelated with minimal change or motion, and choppy with heavy motion. I was easily able to read the on screen graphics for time, down, etc. The audio was perfect. Other than the initial point of connection, we never hit a point where I had to wait while the stream was buffered.

This is video on demand in the simplest and most pure sense. It was what I wanted when I wanted it.

Because my friend has limited upstream capacity on his cable modem, what I watched was compromised. But, it was so close to being very good, that I can assume it wouldn’t take much more bandwidth – maybe 250 Kbps – to hit a sweet spot. You’ve got to figure variably compressed video, streamed using Windows Media server or another server allowing a variable bit rate, would give even better video for the same bandwidth.

The fact that the video wasn’t too large on my 1400×1050 laptop screen was fine. Unlike ‘television’, I was watching this up close. In fact, while the game was on, my wife and I were doing other things on the computer, though the game was our primary focus.

It isn’t necessary to have full screen video to have a meaningful streaming experience!

Whenever I read about the promises of VOD or using the Internet for television type programming, I hear about the huge bandwidth necessary for full screen, VHS quality. It’s just not necessary. In fact, full screen might be a detriment.

Computers are viewed differently that TV’s. It’s an immense difference. We’re closer and we’re not adverse to doing multiple tasks on the screen at once. Someone is going to have to step up to the plate with that realization and then VOD over an IP network will be reality.

After the game, I asked my wife if she’d be willing to pay for a live concert, by an artist she really likes (Rick Springfield), at this smallish screen size, but with sharp video and good stereo audio? She said, “yes.”

To me, this makes some events economically feasible that wouldn’t make sense as free TV, basic cable or even pay-per-view. There are undoubtedly other applications, with similar niche audiences.

The current streaming technologies from Microsoft and Real make it easy to integrate advertisements in many different ways, often without stopping or disturbing the actual desired content.

This is the 500 channel universe we’ve heard about. Except, it’s really an infinite channel universe.

Of course, there’s a question of whether there’s enough bandwidth right now to handle it. The answer’s probably no – but – there is a plethora of ‘dark’ fiber, waiting to be powered up. If video is the next killer app for computers, there will be plenty of incentive to unleash enough bandwidth to enable it.

I work for a local TV station, but I don’t consider this our ruin. If we’re smart and aggressive, we’ll be able to sell the content we already produce, and specialized content that demands our localized expertise, in this new venue.