Here's some good news: you can now listen in
live, anytime to both Radio 1
and 2FM. I recommend trying one
at a time though!![[Silly Logo]](http://orangutan.cv.nrao.edu/images/pmurphy/rte_to_everywhere.gif)
The most recent change to this file was on $Date: 1999/07/07 00:16:15 $ (GMT/UT, i.e. Irish standard time; I use RCS for version control).
October 6, 1998:
Here is an extract from a message I sent this morning concerning the RTE To Everywhere experiment.
Sorry about the preaching; I had to get it off my chest.The one weakness in the mirroring scheme (if it is a weakness) is that it assumes the source files are indeed current each day. Lately that has not been the case, and in fact over the past few weeks I've only seen a small handful of days on which the news9am.ra file downloaded from the RTE ftp site has been current. In other words, the mirroring scheme is more reliable and robust than whatever mechanism is used to place the *.ra and *.ram files on the ftp.rte.ie server.
The only breakdowns the mirroring scheme has experienced have been when the RTE ftp server was offline or one occasion (in the past 2-3 years) when the cron jobs were temporarily disabled. This system works with Open Source software: FreeBSD for an operating system, Perl for a shell scripting language, Apache for a web server, and ncFTP as a ftp client. I think as an experiment, the mirroring scheme has proven to be an amazing success.
However, based on the unreliability of availability of the source material, and the usage statistics on the goof.com web server, I've decided to shut down the goof.com part of the experiment. We started out over 5 years ago wanting to prove a concept: that it was possible to distribute news and other radio programming via the net. Back then the very idea seemed preposterous and it wasn't until a bleary late winter's morning in 1994 when Aengus and I heard the familiar voice of Frank Hall blaring through the speakers on our respective systems. Then it really hit home what we were trying to prove and that it could be done.
I'm of course very grateful to all those who helped over the years, especially Liam Relihan, Aengus Lawlor, Dermot O'Sullivan and Paul Arbuckle. Because of your hard work, RTE managed to get an online presence long before it might otherwise have.
My only parting thoughts are that I may yet be proven right on the merits of Open Source software.
<soapbox mode on>
Back in '95 (I think?) I recommended to Paul that an Intel system running Linux and Apache be used as the basis for an inexpensive but powerful web/ftp server. Now it seems that various companies are seeing the merits of such an approach. Corel (WordPerfect), Oracle, Informix, Sybase, Caldera, Netscape, and even Sun Microsystems are all jumping on the Linux bandwagon. It buys you reliability and dependability at an affordable price. I don't believe Mr. Gates will ever achieve this without an Open Source approach. Buying into NT and Microsoft may appear the "safe" thing to do, but it will cost you much in the long term.
<soapbox mode off>
It's been fun getting this technology to work, but it's time to move on to other things now.
Here's some good news: you can now listen in
live, anytime to both Radio 1
and 2FM. I recommend trying one
at a time though!
The remainder of this document is left mostly intact for historic reasons.
A perl-based
mirroring script was used to "mirror" selected RealAudio files from Radio Teilifís Éireann, and to
provide a 7-day rolling archive (the latter is currently unavailable from
RTÉ themselves -- still). The files appeared in the /sounds/rte/
directory on goof (no recent files there anymore), with the archives of the last 7 day's files also available.
Refer to the RTÉ To
Everywhere page for further details.
You used to be able to get additional programming at the WRN site (but not since June 1999), and more variety of programs (though no archive yet) at RTÉ's main web site. Please be mindful of bandwidth; the connection from Ireland to various foreign places such as the UK, Europe, Australia and North America is still very limited. That was the whole point of our mirror site experiment!
2FM, RTÉ's second radio station, now have a live feed (RealAudio), though I don't know if they still have an archive of newscasts. Their older site (websters) only had a 64 kbps bandwidth when it first set up; I don't know how fat a pipe they have now (hopefully larger!)
Some older files of note:
Note: The main RTÉ To Everywhere web page was at http://www.bess.tcd.ie/ireland/rte.html and was maintained by Paddy Waldron at Trinity College, Dublin (he has had to cut back on his online activities since then, and AFAIK no longer maintains that page). I started out mirroring this page but my copy has evolved somewhat and ended up being quite different. Also, you may want to look at the Main RTÉ Web pages, published by RTE themselves. The RTE To Everywhere experiment has no connection with Radio Teilifís Éireann, other than an informal cooperation where we have freely given them technical advice and open source software, and offered this free mirroring and archival service for their files for several years.
Please note that the files as mirrored here were exactly the same as those on RTE's main web and ftp servers. No editing, alteration or any other modification was made to them.
It's basically over. No more files will be automatically uploaded.
The experiment has now set an example. RTE themselves are now providing audio content, in RealAudio format (follow that link to get a free RA player for your system, for Unix [including Linux and Solaris], PC/Windows, and MacOS).
Seeing as most/all of them fed off my distribution point at goof.com, I believe they are all down at this point. We had, I believe, 5 mirror sites on three continents as well as the "master" mirror site (orangutan/goof in Virginia, CSUSB in California, Sunsite in North Carolina, Australia, Sweden, and the UK).
Please note that all RTE-generated RealAudio files are © by Radio Telefí Éireann.