[PLUG] Streaming media in Linux?

[Jeme A Brelin]

On Tue, 12 Nov 2002, guy1656 wrote:
> Reply regarding Re: [PLUG] Streaming media in Linux? from Dan Young:
> : mplayer seems like a jack-of-all-trades media player, notwithstanding
> : compilation/installlation issues depending on your distro of choice.
> 
> That ("compilation/installlation issues depending on your distro of choice") 
> has been a show-stopper for me many times.

MPlayer has compiled for me straight out of the tarball every single time
with no trouble whatsoever.  There were times when certain proprietary
codecs didn't work as expected, but the fact that any of that stuff has
been reverse engineered when so many people like me are doing nothing to
help is fantastic and amazing, so I'm not bitching.

But anyway, I've compiled every release of MPlayer for the past maybe
eighteen months and never had the tiniest bit of trouble.

> The MPlayer site introduced me to the term 'lamer' which they define
> as a user who installs a program as-is and expects it to run. Geez,
> that's probably 90% of the PC users I know of. Thanks.

Well, if you're not making any effort, you may as well be lame.  I think
it's a fine description.

Recognize your lameness.  If it makes you feel bad, change your behavior
to be less lame.

Your response reminds me of a time in my high school chemistry class when
the later-valedictorian girl got her test back from the teacher with D on
the front.  There were two As in the class and lots of Ds and Fs (oddly,
no Bs or Cs).  The girl spoke up and said, "This is wrong.  You shouldn't
give me a D.  Nearly everyone got a lower score than me.  Not everyone can
be like those two over there."  She indicated the two A students who sat
next to each other and were actively interested in chemistry.  The teacher
looked at her with unmitigated scorn and said, "You gave me a D paper and
now want me to create some kind of formula that turns your D into an A
without you putting any more work into it.  That is simply not going to
happen.  Some people are capable of doing this and that has been
demonstrated.  You are not.  That may disappoint you greatly, but it's not
my job to make you feel good about your failings, just to show you where
they are."

> Also, there was mention of a security issue.

Is this an attempt to turn people away from MPlayer because they called
you a lamer?

If you are honestly trying to warn people of a security issue, you could
make the effort to actually explain the issue and provide links (mention
where?  what kind of issue?).  Perhaps you tried, but your lameness slowed
you down.  I can dig that.  I appreciate and respect that some people
carry handicaps.  Me, I can't play basketball for shit.  But for goodness'
sake, try to let us know your limitations so we can accomodate for them.

> Personallym I wouldn't mind being able to go to a storee and PAY a
> modest price in exchange for getting a disk that 'works.'

I'll sell you a disk image of my filesystem (minus /usr/local and
/home) for a fair price (a fair price being that exchange which gives me,
the seller, enough to compensate for the lost time and materials).  Say,
$1.00? 

Of course, it only 'works' if you have strikingly similar hardware to mine
as there are no extra modules compiled for hardware not present in my
system.  So maybe that's not an option for you.  However, I could point
you to instructions for building a system like mine that will be suitable
for your hardware and I'd do that for free (considering it would take very
little time and no materials other than some miniscule, unbillable amount
of electrical power and bandwidth), but I don't think you're willing to
pay the extended cost of your own time and energy to construct a system
that 'works' even when the materials and instructions are provided to you
freely.

J.
-- 
   -----------------
     Jeme A Brelin
    jeme at brelin.net
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