ARMING THE HAPPY REBELS

"My God. . .hey, look out, they've got TV stations!!"

Do you ever feel like the world just ended but nobody noticed?

Some of us have a nose for such things. I'm not claiming any particular expertise in this area, but my own life has seen a number of these turning points.

[dark interlude]

They aren't always happy events, of course: one that jumps to mind is the Kent State shootings on May 4, 1970. Before that day a lot of us were worried that the government was out to "get" us, but it took National Guard bullets thudding into the chests of college students to Ring the Big Bell: "Do what we say or we will kill you!" (NRA-sympathizing politicians may have noted the passing of an era after the massacre in Colorado, too. Every time Charleton Heston's mug shows up in an ad from now on, we'll all see those images of bloody, screaming high school kids . . .*)

[return to theme]

But fear not, brothers and sisters: this is not about evil portents or innocents sacrificed to make the rest of us do the right thing. This is about a positive life-altering breakthough! A few examples from my own experience would be hearing Dylan and the Band go electric with "Like A Rolling Stone" (live!), seeing the first color picture of the earth from space, and standing at the railing looking down at the Rio Grande Gorge. (That last one is strictly personal but equally earthshaking.)

One of those pivotal moments occurred last week, even if Dan and Peter and Tom didn't mention it on their newscasts. It's actually rather appropriate that they didn't, because the three of them may well be the last of their kind. I'm talking about the introduction of [drumroll] . . . QuickTime 4.0!

("Hooowhee, baby! Yee-haw! Ringy-dingy-ding-dong!")

A documentary video producer at the National Association of Broadcoasters show in Las Vegas last week, speaking of QuickTime 4 and Final Cut Pro, said that "the axes are back in the hands of the rebels, and we're going to break through this homogenous cheese." A designer from a British multimedia firm emailed me to say that "there's a large steam train heading into the Net with the letters QT4 written on the front of it."

I'm no engineer or priest, but I know when something's up. This is a BIG DEAL! The world has just come to an end and been reborn, and anything is possible. Do you know what's going on here? Do you think anybody else does? You'd better believe it! Robert Morgan of Apple Recon and RFI Report fame has been talking revolution for some time now. Look at the bottom of this Apple Recon page under "26 Mar 99" where it says "The Revolution Will Be Televised!" Interested? In his last two RFI Reports for MacWEEK.com, Morgan has alluded to the special significance of the April 19 QuickTime 4 introduction date and stressed that the "Greek chorus" lamenting the lack of an Apple machine with sufficient PCI slots is missing the big picture -- "look to the revolution," he says. (Cryptic enough for you? ;-) I smell Truth here: Morgan rocks!

If any of this is really news to you or you don't have the foggiest notion of what we're talking about, you'll need to do a search for "Golden Convergence," among other things. That's a little off-topic for this essay, but not really. You just need to understand that a lot of things are inexorably coming together. This means that the way pictures and sound are produced and delivered to your homes is going to change: a year or two from now we'll all be using information and entertainment appliances that don't even have names yet. (And by the way, Apple is planning to manufacture most of them.)

"What the devil you talkin' 'bout, JohnBoy?"

Look at this Apple Web page about QuickTime Streaming Server. It'll explain what "streaming" is and why you want it, but basically this is broadcasting, just like radio and TV, except that it comes through your telephone line, TV cable, wireless modem or whatever. QuickTime 4 is software multimedia technology that facilitates streaming. If you have the following minimum requirements and an Internet connection (the faster the better), you can set up your own broadcasting station!

"Power Macintosh G3 computer or Macintosh Server G3 with 256MB or more of RAM, 1GB of hard disk space, and a software update to Mac OS X QuickTime Streaming Server 1.0. "

Is not an iMac a G3? Let me run that by you once again: as Apple says, "QuickTime Streaming Server on Mac OS X Server turns the Internet into a powerful alternative broadcast medium for the rest of us." If you don't have a G3, Apple will sell you the whole package for about $5,000: 400 MHz server, software, the works. You'll be able to stream high-quality audio and video content to up to 1,000 users at a time, and that's 1,000 users anywhere in the world. . .

Is this getting through to you now?? "A powerful alternative broadcast medium for the rest of us." (Anybody need an axe?)

Live video. Films. Music. Anything. Absolutely anything. And no one can tell you what to broadcast or how to do it! No FCC! No government! All this for only five grand or less. "Are we rolling, Bob?" Are you excited yet?? (WHY THE HELL NOT???) I can't possibly list all the ramifications of this, nor can I predict them, but this is flat-out freaking wonderful. And to have this drop on us in 1999, of all years, is just too delicious for words. I wanna climb to the top of the barricade and start waving the big banner. I wanna do bad things that feel good. I wanna rock and roll! "The axes are back in the hands of the rebels." YES!!!

Now please, everyone out there with reasons why I'm full of it, all you smart people eager to tell me such-and-such won't work because of bandwidth, Bill Gates, or the Baptist Church, post it to the forum and leave me alone, 'cause I ain't listening! Anyway, I'm no techie so I might get a few details wrong, but I'm a damned good wind-sniffer, and this puppy is outa the pen and running down the road to join the other dawgs! Others? Take a look at these items from the latest ICONOCLAST, and remember that QuickTime 4 isn't even on the radar screens of the people writing the following:

"With home access speeds accelerating dramatically over the next few years, through aggressive deployment of broadband cable and ADSL services. . . the broadcasting use of the Net will expand dramatically."

"The promise of worldwide broadcasting, largely unfettered by government regulation, has already attracted 2,261 Internet radio stations, according to BRS Media, up sharply from 1,252 stations just one year ago. Just three years ago, there were a mere 56 online radio stations."

"Consumers will be able to download massive amounts of video content from the Net, equaling the best features of interactive TV. There's no doubt the Net is on an entertainment convergence path, so get ready for an avalanche of Net/PC/TV consumer devices."

Yes, the big boys like Sony, Disney, Yahoo, AOL, Viacom and others are trying to buy or merge their way into this scene. But who cares? A dinosaur is a dinosaur. The real action is going to be with the many thousands of new content creators and Internet broadcasters, the rebels with QuickTime 4 competing for everyone's attention on a worldwide stage.

Listen up, boys and girls. You wanna be a star? A radio consultant writing to the same Web publication cited above predicts: "the next wave of rock artists will break out of the biggest community of all....the Internet."

Well?? Save your quarters, buy the server software, a mixer, a couple of mikes, plug in that iMac and broadcast your own music! Put that garage band on the damn Internet and blow some minds in Uzbekistan. Build up a fan base and let 'em download your songs. There are ways to get paid for that, you know, some of which haven't even been invented yet.

You wouldn't have to haul a van-full of gear all over creation and hang out in smoky bars to get noticed. Or if you wanted to do that scene, you could take your PowerBook G3 along and. . .

Consider yourself armed and rebellious! Don't it feel good?

John H. Farr also edits the Apple Computer News for Applelinks.com and welcomes comments from any and all. His own Web site, the ZOO ZONE, will soon be eligible for a historic preservation grant but is still a hoot and continues to showcase amazing cast bronze sculptures.

The Farr Site Forum may actually be functioning properly by the time you visit (most recent messages were on the bottom!).

The Farr Site archives provide access to all 69 columns for reckless souls all over the planet.

Picture Credits: © 1999 Apple Computer, Inc.

Official Farr Site Tip: a Web site by a participant in the events of May 4, 1970 is packed with useful historical information and links.

*Needless to say, high school was not like that in the three that I attended. And to the poor misguided kids who carried out the slaughter I can only say: Jesus, wasn't there anyone around to point out the possibilities of positive role-playing and fantasizing? All that effort wasted. . .you coulda had lives!

January 08, 2009