response 39 of 76:

Mar 12 02:26 UTC 2002

One of my coworkers has XM radio.  He seems pretty happy with it, though I'm
a little less than impressed with the variety of what I hear from his office.
  w.r.t.  classical stations, I've still not seen a match for andante.com.
I've started to check out bbc radio a little, based on ken's rantings :) but
I've yet to find any shows that I'm really impressed with.  Not ready to give
up yet, though...

response 41 of 76:

Mar 12 03:31 UTC 2002

flem in resp:39 :: are you paying for andante?  Can you lay out some 
details about their audio operations?  I've only used their site to 
read text articles.

response 43 of 76:

Mar 12 16:56 UTC 2002

I'm not paying for Andante.  They seem to have a couple of tiers of streaming
audio.  "Andante Radio" is free, linked to from the main page.  No
commercials, except thirty seconds every half hour or so advertizing their
membership services.  These seem to include live concert broadcasts as well as 
on-demand streaming of various recordings.  I've not really looked into it 
a great deal.  
  My coworker bought an XM unit that can be removed from the car and plugged 
into a second adapter/antenna thingy in the office.  It has a normal audio
output, that he plugs into a small desktop stereo system.  He has had some 
trouble with the reception inside the office, but he has a window (pointing
east, I think) and has found (and carefully marked) a couple of spots 
near the window that seem to do all right.  

response 45 of 76:

Mar 12 23:35 UTC 2002

        This line is hear so I can find the item in general and 
forget it there, as agora is about to rap up.

response 47 of 76:

Mar 14 18:14 UTC 2002

The original article (sorry to get back to that) may be scary, but no 
scarier than those old "pop star interview" LPs I've occasionally seen 
in used-record stores.  They were distributed to local radio DJs along 
with scripts.  You, the DJ, read the questions from the script, pop the 
needle down on the record appropriately, and - this is almost an exact 
quote from the blurb - it'll sound like Famous Star is RIGHT THERE in 
the studio with YOU!

Early 60s, most of this stuff, IIRC.  Nothing's changed.

response 49 of 76:

Mar 14 18:52 UTC 2002

For me, too, one of the fun parts of travelling is listening to different
radio stations.  I particularly like tuning around the AM dial at night.  I
can remember driving through Tennessee after dark listening to WABC New York. 
It was coming in strong, but with that periodic fading you only hear on
skywave-propegated signals.  Fun stuff. :)

response 51 of 76:

Mar 14 19:17 UTC 2002

The commercials sometimes are pretty entertaining especially out in 
BFE. 

response 53 of 76:

Mar 15 05:28 UTC 2002

        Anal intercourse, Egypt.

response 55 of 76:

Mar 15 15:09 UTC 2002

        Comcast continues Mediaone's sordid tradition of selling late-night
airtime to infomercial providers.  It's virtually impossoble to find
programming after 2 am.

response 57 of 76:

Mar 16 07:23 UTC 2002

I wonder what the origin of the BFE reference is.  I've known it most of my
life.

response 59 of 76:

Mar 19 06:04 UTC 2002

Slashdot pointed to an interesting article about the Sirius satellite
radio system, the competitor to XM.  I'm not sure I fully understand
it, but I think Sirius is asking the FCC to restrict the usage of 
the 802.11 wireless networking frequencies, because those frequencies
are close enough to the Sirius frequencies that the music 
service is seeing some interference issues.

response 61 of 76:

Mar 19 13:37 UTC 2002

It wouldn't surprise me.  802.11 is rapidly becoming the new Citizen's Band,
complete with a total disregard for the legal limits on effective radiated
power. ;)

response 63 of 76:

Mar 19 19:46 UTC 2002

Oh?  Are they operating under Part 15?