BBC
I threw together a proof-of-concept version of a downloadable packages script for the BBC, and burned a BBC and put up two packages -- aumix and ogg123 -- on the net. Then I booted the BBC and asked it to download those packages and install them in a ramdisk. After about twenty minutes of fixing bugs related to library paths, I got the BBC-booted system to load the SoundBlaster module and to play the Ogg of Total Eclipse of the Heart (well, I had it sitting around) over an SSH connection, and then to play one of the Oggs from Vorbis.com over an HTTP connection. Streaming media using protocols that weren't designed for streaming media is really cool. It's very easy --
ssh foo cat Total_Eclipse_of_the_Heart.ogg | ogg123 -d oss -
Sorry if that doesn't look easy to non-Unix geeks. It's really straightforward.
When I visited Ben, I saw a demonstration of a streaming media server that used HTTP and MP3s -- it was really neat, and it worked over an 802.11b wireless network, so you could take a laptop anywhere in the building, not plugged into anything at all, and then at any time choose a song or album from extensive menus on a web site -- and the song would be "broadcast" (it's actually just an HTTP GET) to you through the air and your laptop would start to play it. Very cool.
So now I just have to get Ben to convert all that over to Oggs instead of MP3s, and it will be even better.
