it looks as if there is a consensus about putting a html page between the
stream and the player. i think that is the most sensible thing to do. the
registration form can also include a brief description which moves the
model towards a text enhanced digital radio model. 

plus: it could be combined with a mailinglist. when the form is posted, a
copy of the data can be send to - let's say - this mailinglist.

>thats why i was thinkingabout possibilties of automation -
>server searches for RA streams based on a given list of urls - for e.g. by
>connecting to the server, if the connection doesnt fail, the link appears
>in the htmlpage. if it does fail, no link is included in that update. 

that *check* could not be done with perl, or could it? i know too little
about programming but i assume that if the error message (as you said) does
not reply as an txt file (if i understand correctly) there would need to be
some kind of intermediate agent to do the work. in which case that agent
might as well handle a big set of links so that database could sit quietly
on the server and would only need to be cleaned up every six months
(manually?)

>hence no problems with people who want to fuck up your page...

why should they?

>how does that sound?

sounds like a sound idea. possibly real.com have an idea how to build an
easy agent-solution to check active links.

that database could also be fit into a refresh model (or a random perl
script) which could build an addition to random archive play functions as
to be found on several pages.

it would also mean that (without any fancy java plug ins) you can run the
whole page from netscape 1.0 - if the same machine is capable of running
real player 5.0 ;)

so the last thing that needs to be done before throwing shared time and
knowledge into the pot is to find the matching metaphor and the name...

Micz Flor [micz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

-> http://www.yourserver.co.uk/crashmedia <-
-----------------------------------------------------------------
[t/f]+44.171.7395331 [t]+44.161.2956157 [a]http://www.art-bag.net
[b]http://www.yourserver.co.uk [c]http://www.metamute.com
[q]"There is no administrative production of meaning."
-----------------------------------------------------------------

 |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
(a) (c) (o) (u) (s) (t) (i) (c) ( ) (s) (p) (a) (c) (e)
 |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
information&comunication channel | for net.broadcasters
http://xchange.re-lab.net  (Xchange)  net.audio network
xchange search/webarchive: http://xchange.re-lab.net/a/