mediageek

Author: Paul

  • The Future Home of Mediageek

    Mediageek will soon be making the transition to WordPress. The mediageek.net domain is the staging area for the change, which is expected to happen seamlessly within the next two weeks. If you’re here looking for the mediageek blog, go to mediageek.org

  • Where Old Technology Goes to Die

    At the University of Illinois the old equipment graveyard is called Surplus. It’s not exactly a graveyard, because a lot of the stuff still works — it’s just old. Of course, “old” is a relative concept. If you’re an English grad student looking to score a working PC for free for your office, you have…

  • News Headlines from the Oct. 21 edition of the Radioshow: Sen Comm Committee Passes DTV Bill, VNR Labelling Bill; RIAA Pushing for Radio Broadcast Flag …

    These are the news headlines as read on the Oct. 21 edition of the mediageek radioshow: Senate Commerce Committee Passes DTV Bill, VNR Labelling Bill; RIAA Pushing for Radio Broadcast Flag; A Wolf in ConsumersÂ’ Clothing.

  • DJ Johnny Silver Is Back and Online

    Got an email today from Nyack NY’s own pirate DJ Johnny Silver. He says Iron Action Radio is back up for nightly broadcasts, beginning tonight both at 102.5 FM in Nyack and on-line at Shoutcast. Johnny says the broadcasts will start along the lines of 7 or 8 PM Eastern time. I can confirm that…

  • How About Low-Power AM Radio?

    There has been some grassroots interest and organizing around establishing a low-power AM radio service for a number of years now. The engineering for AM radio is trickier than for FM — the long wavelengths typically mean much bigger antennas and towers. However, some innovative guys like Kyle Drake have come up with some engineering…

  • Another Reason Why US Broadband Sucks

    This morning on boingboing I noted that there have been all sorts of outtages at two of the biggest Internet backbones. I didn’t think much of it at the time, since my own access at work and home was working — aside from some sites being slow. A little later in the morning I was…

  • Tell the FCC To Hold Public Hearings on Media Ownership Rules

    The Consumers Union is running a campaign to get the FCC to hold public hearings before it engages its next attempt to rewrite media ownership rules. As part of the campaign they’re featuring a fun song and music video about media consolidation called “The Tower.” I think they should send CDs of the song to…

  • Why US Broadband Sucks

    Much of the industrialized world has much better broadband service to homes and businesses than the US. But providing good broadband service is not necessarily in the interest of the major telecomm companies, like SBC and Comcast. Rolling out high speed lines costs money and requires making long-term investments in the future, rather than reaping…

  • News Headlines from the Oct. 14 Radioshow

    These are the news headlines as read on the Oct. 14 edition of the mediageek radioshow: Clear Channel Purging Payola?; Conservative Former FCCer Out At CPB; Communications Unions Banding Together

  • Buying a Shortwave Radio on Ebay

    I go through phases of listening to my shortwave radio. It can be fun and it’s the only way to hear broadcasts from some countries or clandestine broadcasters. No, not all audio or all broadcasts are available on the internet yet. Really nice shortwave radios can be pretty expensive, and probably aren’t available in a…