Ohhh no! Yet another we-pretend-to-be-free just-give-us-your-email-so-we-can-send-you-lotsa-spam enjoy-10-banners-and-5-popup-windows -while-we-spend-10-minutes-doing-5-second-worth-job please-don't-mind-that-we-sneaked-thirty-cookies-onto-your-computer kind of boradcasting company? No thanks. Get a straightforward broadcaster, or get lost. :/
The only other solution Butters' and myself would have is to have someone with plenty of bandwidth to relay our broadcast as we do not have the bandwidth need to host anymore than maybe 3-4 people at one time, and when I check the status, there are nights that we manage to go up to ten or more simultaneous listeners. Live365 provide us for a measly 14.95 a month to relay our broadcast and have more people listen in. Can you provide us the same service for the same price?...
I didn't think so.
You don't want the stinking ads, then you can get a premium account, or other ways to avoid them are to configure Live365 to use a different player like Winamp. Once the broadcast starts in Winamp, WMA, iTunes, whatever, you can close the main Live365 and go on about your pop-up free business, or use a pop-up blocker. Don't want to be spammed? The click the checkbox that says "Please do not give out my e-mail address" when you register.
The only e-mails I received from Live365.com are the billing statements. I don't not received any other junk from them as I did checked that nice little box.
As for the rest of the junk you get, they already get your e-mail address off of any web page that's published it (do a Google search on it and you'll be surprised), any newsgroup you've posted to, via attacks on your mail server (where they send millions of bogus e-mail address requests to a server 'till the find a legitimate one), or any of the other service you (or a "friend"; ever heard of scams like eCrush.com where they ask you to enter in the e-mail addresses of 5 of your friends?) may have signed up for.
But, hey, don't take my word for it. Just continue being a dickhead and I'm sure you'll go pretty damn far in life.
Awww. My language experiments might've steered me into trouble. :( Sorry if it sounded a little too harsh; I didn't mean to hurt anybody's feelings.
Now on to the subject.
Don't get too much faith in power of "Please do not give out my e-mail address". I check it on each and every site I visit, and still my hotmail account gets more and more spam each day (I intended it to be spam-account though... but still). And that account isn't mentioned on any webpage or newsgroup, so it couldn't be discovered by a spambot.
And they CHARGE you for the right to show their banners/popups/send spam to your listeners?!? Now THAT's an ultimate impudence!
For $75 (i.e. add just extra $25 to their usual DSL package), you can get Yahoo DSL with 1mbps out / 2mbps in (that's what we've got at our office). Should be enough for 16 listeners at least.
There's a freeware broadcasting tool (can't recall the name right now; you can easily find it on Google) that works just like any p2p network: you stream out just about 3 streams; the rest of the clients get those streams re-broadcasted by other clients. Thus, _your_ bandwidth stops playing any important role; the more people listen to you, the higher virtual bandwidth you get.
Quote of the day:
Eager people seek opportunities; passive people seek excuses.
You're forgiven from my end, but I'm more worried about Butters'. Apologize to her.
Now, in rebutal...
1. That still leaves the venues of having Hotmail "attacked" to find valid e-mail address, and you need to check to see if your friends have given out your e-mail address.
2. Yes, they charge and they still serve ads. I don't like it much either, but it's either I pay more to remove 'em (75 dollars a month for ad-free broadcasting and no need to use the Live365 page at all to listen; sorry, I work and live in Chicago as lowly tech' support peon and can't afford it), or have the end user deal with a few ads to get to the audio stream. Again, they don't have to use the default Live365 player. If you have the stream fire up in Winamp, you can shut down your web browser and continue to listen ad-free.
3. That does sound a bit more reasonable, but I've heard way too many complaints from DSL subscribers though. How long have you been using their service and how's the tech' support? Seriously, I want to know. I've been itching to switch broadcast providers if I can get a good deal and good service.
4. I'm assuming you mean PeerCast. While I do admit it sounds like a lovely program, listeners would have to download a plug-in to have it configured to relay it to other users. There fact makes it sound like there's a bit of a learning curve to set it up, and using Live365 makes it relatively simple. Also I don't think it's not acceptable at some places (like places of business and school where they monitor and block suspicious network traffic) to run a P2P broadcast (let alone install the software needed; The restriction of the workstations at my work are anal, but the less software that's installed, the easier it is to service.)
1. Hotmail claims they have all these nifty site-wide spam-protection features; so supposedly it should block such a scan attempts. Besides, let me offer you one simple trick: when signing up at some website, or for snail mail catalogs, etc, make a single mistake in the spelling of your name; on each site a different one. It doesn't really hurt, because you can always claim that _they_ misspelled your name somehow; but the advantage it gives you is, you can always tell who exactly sold your address out. Just match the misspelled name on the envelope with your list of how exactly you misspelled your name at each particular company.
2. Well, it's out of my business actually, but let me disbeleive you. One can always squeese out extra $50 or so; it's only a matter of saving on simple things (and willingness to do so, too). No Starbucks coffee; less driving and more public transportation; going to movies less frequently or not going at all, etc etc. Though again, it's out of my business, so I'm not gonna discuss it here. I only have to note that it works for me pretty well.
3. It's hard to evaluate customer service. Maybe they're amazing to serve a homewife type of user, but as soon as they encounter a knowlegeable person, they fail miserably. For one instance, Earthlink customer support kept insisting that something is wrong on my side even after I determined that the trouble is somewhere at the exchange. "No no, your modem is bad, we send you a replacement". Still doesn't work. Two weeks later, "We're really sorry, it turns out that somebody improperly re-routed wires in the switchbox on our side. -- Damn you, I told you that within first ten seconds of my call!!!" Outcome quite positive though, next month of service free and a free cable modem, too. :) Same thing for Yahoo DSL, "Guys, you gave us these IPs saying they're our static IPs, but I can ping them even with all my equipmenty off; therefore, I can't use them because some other computer is using them. You have to reconfigure this-and-this. -- Nah, you have trouble with your computer, ....... Damn, the procedure I have in my book doesn't work, we need to check, call next week... (next week) ...We're sorry, we gave you addresses from the wrong pool... -- Damn, that was the first thing I told you!!!"
4. Strict netowrk environments usually block ALL types of streaming content, and even some websites, so you can't listen to audio streams in such an environments anyway; so what's the difference? And, where's the once famous American spirit of independence? Yes independence comes at a price, but I still beleive it's worth to rule your site yourself than to let some abusive company host it.
Just let me tell you the whole story real quick, so you have a better understanding of my feelings.
www.livejournal.com. Friends. Butterscotch has got a broadcast channel. Wow, why not take a looksie? Checking URL shown in the status line at the bottom of the window. Hmm. www.365radio.com. Never heard; is that just a station directory or do they stram from their servers too?.. Let's see. Click.
"365radio wants to set up a cookie." Deny. "Another cookie". Deny. "3rd" Deny . "4th" Deny . ... "7th." DENY FROM THIS SITE ONCE AND FOREVER, DAMN YOU!!! Popup window. "You have to enable cookies." @#$!.. I only wanted to LISTEN to the music! Edit->Preferences->Cookie Manager-> Allow cookies from www.365radio.com. Reload.
Popup window. Banner. Block banners from this site. Play button. Click. Another banner. Block images from this site too. Oh finally, looks like a Winamp playlist. Play with Winamp. Buffering... 0%... 1%... 2%... (5 minutes later) 100%... playing... (narrator's voice in Dolby Surround:) "Welcome to our site! To listen to this music stream, please go to www.365radio.com and register for free blah blah blah blah blah......."@#$#$#$#$#$#@$#$@@@!!!!!!!!!
Ok guys, Enough! I'm getting really tired of this rant in my LJ. I'm friends with you both, and I can see where you both are coming from on this. Let's play nice now and drop this, ok? Thank you.
Wesha - Apology accepted. If you don't want to deal with the stuff Live 365 puts on your computer, that is your choice.
Ash - I can understand how even the $14.95 a month can hurt one's wallet. Trust me, I know. We do the best we can with what is available.
So can we all be friends now? Please? Pretty please?
*batts her pretty vixen eyelashes in hopes it might calm things down between two of her RL friends*
Yeah.. on point number one there, I definatly have gotten mail from live365 though I checked the opt-out box. It doesn't work. For the person paying the bill, you don'/t get any spam, but me.. I get plenty of it to a seeded account. live365-email@.....org .. it's definatly getting plenty of mail, and is only set up for l365.
Sorry, Butter. Til they stop selling my name against their policy, I won't use their service
For parity, next time when you improperly use an idiomatic expression in foreign language, that turns out a little more harsh than you thought it is, I will let it slip too, deal?
I can see text turning unfriendly and all, but you told your friend here to get lost? *squints* My mother always told me to think my comments through. As I see it, this can also be applied to online relations.
But check it, don't worry about me. I don't matter.
This is true, as I know Wesha's native language to be very different from our own here in the US. For that reason and for a few others, I'm willing to let this pass by.
Ha! That explains it, he's from Russia! Don't get me wrong, I'm not implying people from Russia act like complete asshats, or anything. But this *does* explain a lot to me now, on a serious tip. One of my best friends [Alek, or Alex] is from Moscow. The language barrier is incredible! I can barely understand him on the phone. Online, I will sometimes say things like "Hey Alex. How do you say [profane phrase] in Russian?" "Uh...there are no words that exist that mean this exact thing." "WTF, it's only [common profane phrase]!" "Ok well, something similar will be [russian], and it will litterally mean monkey buttocks." "MONKEY BUTTOCKS? Man, that's not very insulting to me!" "But it is really insulting in Russian. I can't explain, just use it."
Didn't you just post "Eager people seek opportunities; passive people seek excuses." as your Quote of the Day (http://www.livejournal.com/users/butterscotchvix/92003.html?thread=349795#t349795)?
Exactly what kind of opportunity did you expect me to seek in this case? Opportunity to write in my native language? That I could, but I really doubt you would understand me.
Anyway. No matter how I worded it out, Butterscotch-sweetie was able to understand what I really meant. If you wasn't, that's your problem, not mine or hers. =~.~=
Exactly what kind of opportunity did you expect me to seek in this case?
Well, usually I [in yoursituation] would take the oppurtunity to make a joke, an appology, or verbally turn this around on the other person. Sometimes, if it's particularly annoying, all I'll respond with is "too long, didn't read", which severely pisses the other person off.
With me, your best bet is to joke around, or become as sarcastic as I've been with you. ;-)
to write in my native language?
Sure! If you want to! On a serious tip, I will understand you. If you choose to do that though, please provide a link to Russian character set...this is a new computer, and I do not have it installed. If you spell it out phonetically, I'll have a lot easier of a time. Russian is damn hard! :P
Guy, I'm not sure if you realize this, but I've been just playing around from the moment I posted [well, after the "cuntrag" post, anyway]. I'm a complete joker. Don't mind me, really.
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(no subject)
Date: 2003-05-02 08:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-05-02 09:35 pm (UTC)OK, now that's not very nice.
The only other solution Butters' and myself would have is to have someone with plenty of bandwidth to relay our broadcast as we do not have the bandwidth need to host anymore than maybe 3-4 people at one time, and when I check the status, there are nights that we manage to go up to ten or more simultaneous listeners. Live365 provide us for a measly 14.95 a month to relay our broadcast and have more people listen in. Can you provide us the same service for the same price?...
I didn't think so.
You don't want the stinking ads, then you can get a premium account, or other ways to avoid them are to configure Live365 to use a different player like Winamp. Once the broadcast starts in Winamp, WMA, iTunes, whatever, you can close the main Live365 and go on about your pop-up free business, or use a pop-up blocker. Don't want to be spammed? The click the checkbox that says "Please do not give out my e-mail address" when you register.
The only e-mails I received from Live365.com are the billing statements. I don't not received any other junk from them as I did checked that nice little box.
As for the rest of the junk you get, they already get your e-mail address off of any web page that's published it (do a Google search on it and you'll be surprised), any newsgroup you've posted to, via attacks on your mail server (where they send millions of bogus e-mail address requests to a server 'till the find a legitimate one), or any of the other service you (or a "friend"; ever heard of scams like eCrush.com where they ask you to enter in the e-mail addresses of 5 of your friends?) may have signed up for.
But, hey, don't take my word for it. Just continue being a dickhead and I'm sure you'll go pretty damn far in life.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-05-02 10:15 pm (UTC)Sorry if it sounded a little too harsh; I didn't mean to hurt anybody's feelings.
Now on to the subject.
Quote of the day:
(no subject)
Date: 2003-05-02 10:34 pm (UTC)Now, in rebutal...
1. That still leaves the venues of having Hotmail "attacked" to find valid e-mail address, and you need to check to see if your friends have given out your e-mail address.
2. Yes, they charge and they still serve ads. I don't like it much either, but it's either I pay more to remove 'em (75 dollars a month for ad-free broadcasting and no need to use the Live365 page at all to listen; sorry, I work and live in Chicago as lowly tech' support peon and can't afford it), or have the end user deal with a few ads to get to the audio stream. Again, they don't have to use the default Live365 player. If you have the stream fire up in Winamp, you can shut down your web browser and continue to listen ad-free.
3. That does sound a bit more reasonable, but I've heard way too many complaints from DSL subscribers though. How long have you been using their service and how's the tech' support? Seriously, I want to know. I've been itching to switch broadcast providers if I can get a good deal and good service.
4. I'm assuming you mean PeerCast. While I do admit it sounds like a lovely program, listeners would have to download a plug-in to have it configured to relay it to other users. There fact makes it sound like there's a bit of a learning curve to set it up, and using Live365 makes it relatively simple. Also I don't think it's not acceptable at some places (like places of business and school where they monitor and block suspicious network traffic) to run a P2P broadcast (let alone install the software needed; The restriction of the workstations at my work are anal, but the less software that's installed, the easier it is to service.)
(no subject)
Date: 2003-05-03 07:18 am (UTC)2. Well, it's out of my business actually, but let me disbeleive you. One can always squeese out extra $50 or so; it's only a matter of saving on simple things (and willingness to do so, too). No Starbucks coffee; less driving and more public transportation; going to movies less frequently or not going at all, etc etc. Though again, it's out of my business, so I'm not gonna discuss it here. I only have to note that it works for me pretty well.
3. It's hard to evaluate customer service. Maybe they're amazing to serve a homewife type of user, but as soon as they encounter a knowlegeable person, they fail miserably. For one instance, Earthlink customer support kept insisting that something is wrong on my side even after I determined that the trouble is somewhere at the exchange. "No no, your modem is bad, we send you a replacement". Still doesn't work. Two weeks later, "We're really sorry, it turns out that somebody improperly re-routed wires in the switchbox on our side. -- Damn you, I told you that within first ten seconds of my call!!!" Outcome quite positive though, next month of service free and a free cable modem, too. :) Same thing for Yahoo DSL, "Guys, you gave us these IPs saying they're our static IPs, but I can ping them even with all my equipmenty off; therefore, I can't use them because some other computer is using them. You have to reconfigure this-and-this. -- Nah, you have trouble with your computer, ....... Damn, the procedure I have in my book doesn't work, we need to check, call next week... (next week) ...We're sorry, we gave you addresses from the wrong pool... -- Damn, that was the first thing I told you!!!"
4. Strict netowrk environments usually block ALL types of streaming content, and even some websites, so you can't listen to audio streams in such an environments anyway; so what's the difference? And, where's the once famous American spirit of independence? Yes independence comes at a price, but I still beleive it's worth to rule your site yourself than to let some abusive company host it.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-05-03 07:34 am (UTC)"365radio wants to set up a cookie." Deny. "Another cookie". Deny. "3rd" Deny . "4th" Deny . ... "7th." DENY FROM THIS SITE ONCE AND FOREVER, DAMN YOU!!! Popup window. "You have to enable cookies." @#$!.. I only wanted to LISTEN to the music! Edit->Preferences->Cookie Manager-> Allow cookies from www.365radio.com. Reload.
Popup window. Banner. Block banners from this site. Play button. Click. Another banner. Block images from this site too. Oh finally, looks like a Winamp playlist. Play with Winamp. Buffering... 0%... 1%... 2%... (5 minutes later) 100%... playing... (narrator's voice in Dolby Surround:) "Welcome to our site! To listen to this music stream, please go to www.365radio.com and register for free blah blah blah blah blah......." @#$#$#$#$#$#@$#$@@@!!!!!!!!!
Now ain't I pissed off?
Re:
Date: 2003-05-03 09:00 am (UTC)Ok guys, Enough! I'm getting really tired of this rant in my LJ. I'm friends with you both, and I can see where you both are coming from on this. Let's play nice now and drop this, ok? Thank you.
Wesha - Apology accepted. If you don't want to deal with the stuff Live 365 puts on your computer, that is your choice.
Ash - I can understand how even the $14.95 a month can hurt one's wallet. Trust me, I know. We do the best we can with what is available.
So can we all be friends now? Please? Pretty please?
*batts her pretty vixen eyelashes in hopes it might calm things down between two of her RL friends*
(no subject)
Date: 2003-05-03 11:09 am (UTC)*hugs* *cuddles* *nuzzles* You won. =^.^=
Re:
Date: 2003-05-03 02:32 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-05-03 08:34 am (UTC)Sorry, Butter. Til they stop selling my name against their policy, I won't use their service
Re:
Date: 2003-05-03 08:47 am (UTC)Re:
Date: 2003-05-03 09:18 am (UTC)I'll follow ya :)
Re:
Date: 2003-05-03 09:20 am (UTC)I'll be sure to let you know if and when that happens. Thanks!
(no subject)
Date: 2003-05-03 06:20 am (UTC)Nice quotes. *eyeroll*
(no subject)
Date: 2003-05-03 06:46 am (UTC)It's text.
Date: 2003-05-03 09:13 am (UTC)But check it, don't worry about me. I don't matter.
Re: It's text.
Date: 2003-05-03 11:11 am (UTC)Re: It's text.
Date: 2003-05-03 02:34 pm (UTC)Re: It's text.
Date: 2003-05-03 08:16 pm (UTC)Re: It's text.
Date: 2003-05-03 09:59 pm (UTC)Re: It's text.
Date: 2003-05-04 04:48 am (UTC)Don't get me wrong, I'm not implying people from Russia act like complete asshats, or anything. But this *does* explain a lot to me now, on a serious tip. One of my best friends [Alek, or Alex] is from Moscow. The language barrier is incredible! I can barely understand him on the phone. Online, I will sometimes say things like
"Hey Alex. How do you say [profane phrase] in Russian?"
"Uh...there are no words that exist that mean this exact thing."
"WTF, it's only [common profane phrase]!"
"Ok well, something similar will be [russian], and it will litterally mean monkey buttocks."
"MONKEY BUTTOCKS? Man, that's not very insulting to me!"
"But it is really insulting in Russian. I can't explain, just use it."
*laugh*
Re: It's text.
Date: 2003-05-04 08:29 am (UTC)Re: It's text.
Date: 2003-05-03 08:13 pm (UTC)Re: It's text.
Date: 2003-05-03 08:40 pm (UTC)Anyway. No matter how I worded it out, Butterscotch-sweetie was able to understand what I really meant. If you wasn't, that's your problem, not mine or hers. =~.~=
Re: It's text.
Date: 2003-05-03 10:00 pm (UTC)Re: It's text.
Date: 2003-05-04 05:01 am (UTC)Re: It's text.
Date: 2003-05-04 08:23 am (UTC)Re: It's text.
Date: 2003-05-04 04:56 am (UTC)Well, usually I [in yoursituation] would take the oppurtunity to make a joke, an appology, or verbally turn this around on the other person. Sometimes, if it's particularly annoying, all I'll respond with is "too long, didn't read", which severely pisses the other person off.
With me, your best bet is to joke around, or become as sarcastic as I've been with you. ;-)
to write in my native language?
Sure! If you want to! On a serious tip, I will understand you. If you choose to do that though, please provide a link to Russian character set...this is a new computer, and I do not have it installed. If you spell it out phonetically, I'll have a lot easier of a time. Russian is damn hard! :P
Guy, I'm not sure if you realize this, but I've been just playing around from the moment I posted [well, after the "cuntrag" post, anyway]. I'm a complete joker. Don't mind me, really.