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: 1998/10/06 13:57:28 $ (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. 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 www.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>. Sorry about the preaching; I had to get it off my chest.
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 yet). The files appeared in the /sounds/rte/
directory on goof, with the archives of the last 7
day's files also available. Refer to the RTÉ To Everywhere
page for further details.
You can get additional programming at the WRN site, 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's the whole point of our mirror site experiment!
2FM, RTÉ's second radio station, now have a live feed (RealAudio), as well as a simple archive of newscasts. The aggregate bandwidth to this site is (I think) 64 Kbps.
The older files formerly available have been restored:
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 offered this free mirroring and archival service for their files.
Please note that the files as mirrored here are exactly the same as those on RTE's main web server. No editing, alteration or any other modification is made to them. They should not be re-published elsewhere without prior consultation with RTE themselves (as we have done).
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, as you can see via their main web page under the audio section. All this content is in RealAudio format (follow that link to get a free RA player for your system, for Unix [including Linux and Sun], PC/Windows, and mac). I have started to mirror three of their files, as listed below. I don't have a RA server so they won't start playing right away.
The Australian site hasn't been downloading the file in a while (from
what I can tell of my logs); the UK site is active, but faces an uncertain
future due to an over-enthusiastic but under-informed person at a certain
institution 
. I'd rather
not go into more detail (yet)...
The Swedish Mirror site is now working normally, also with the new
perl-based script. The only file there is the news9am.ra
file, however. The other mirror sites (Australia, West Coast, Sunsite)
are no longer active.
Please note that all RTE-generated RealAudio files are © by Radio Telefí Éireann.