From the RAT Files circa 2003: News Tickers and More!

The following was originally composed as radio copy for THIS WEEK IN AMATEUR RADIOwhich first aired in June of 2003. Please click on http://www.twiar.org/ for addiitonal information on this amateur radio news service.

Hey, listen!

The news is:

The news is BIG news.
Have you heard the news about this?
Everybody wants the news.
Everybody needs the news.
We just can't seem to get enough of the news.
The Cable News Network.......
The Fox News Network.........
The Bloomberg Business News..
The CBS Sixty Minutes News...
The NBC Dateline News........
The ABC 20/20 News...........
The Ted Koppel News..........
The local TV news stations...
The all news radio stations..
Rush Limbaugh................
Mike Savage..................
Oliver North.................
G. Gordon....................
Matt Drudge..................

Every body's got to get their news fix in somehow.
And there are so many choices:
Even on the Internet.........
So many news Web pages.......
Real News....................
Quasi-News...................
Questionable news............
Bogus News...................
False News...................
Pure Fantasy News............
Amateur Radio News...........
Like this program here.
On...........................
And on.......................
And on.......................

And even with all this news, you can still put the BIG news on your very own PC desktop. Yes, News Junkies Jockeys Fans and Aficionados, you can now even get the news on a virtual thing called a NEWSTICKER! That's right! This is Bill Baran - N2FNH - with more rant from the R-A-F. No, not the Royal Air Force but the Random Access File, your usual monthly plunge into the bilge with a deluge of dynamic variation on no particular theme, so let us give some lip service to these ticky-tocky streaming words. So far, I have discerned at least two species of the Internet news ticker:

The first such manifests itself as a chunk of HTML source code which is appended to an existing Web page document. An excellent example can be viewed at http://www.twiar.org/, the home planet for that which you are paying attention to right here. Go to this page and you will observe a narrow, almost three-dimensional slit with words tracking to the left along the length of it. In this example, up to the minute amateur radio news information putters, flutters and sometimes sputters across the screen. Many Web pages will provide this ticker format as a unique adjunct to it's own format and design.

I am not sure if the above feature is still available, contact Greg K4HSM at TWIAR.

The other sort of news ticker is a downloadable job which you can dump to your harddrive and then on to your desktop and there are several brand names of these available. For the benefit of this report, I FTP'ed a few flavours.

In no specific order, they were:
The BBC NEWS TICKER............................
The RADIO NETHERLANDS NEWS CLOCK..............
A ticker from the REUTERS NEWS SERVICE........
Plus two topic-specific versions, including:
HALIFAX TODAY.................................
And BUNKERWORLD INTERNATIONAL.................

Of these news tickers, the BBC is perhaps the oldest software. The BBC Web page provides ticker versions for Windows 3.1, which functions very nicely on the N2FNH Retro Machines and a more recent version prepared for Windows 95 with loud disclaimers that it may not work well on Windows 98. But it does so AOK anyway. As such, it appears that the BBC news ticker is a largely forgotten project on the part of its creators but it's a fairly simple affair with short headlines that can be clicked on for more detail. All these tickers work in this same way. Key on a headline and your default web browser pops up and then leaps to the position on the Web page where the story is located.

http://www.brothersoft.com/bbc-newsline-123375.html
(Windows 95/NT)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/help/3223354.stm
(Windows 2000 and up)

The RADIO NETHERLANDS NEWS CLOCK is a more graphical interface with the set-up executable weighing in about two Megs prior to installation. There is a Mercator Projection of the Earth displaying where the sun is supposed to be shining and where it is not. A pretty package, however like the BBC job, most of the news headlines are specific to their respective countries first and foremost.

http://www.brothersoft.com/wereldomroep-news-clock-131367.html
(Windows XP, 2000, 98, ME, NT)
http://www.rnw.nl/xml_newsfeeds/newsclock_download_en.html
(Same as above)

The ticker from REUTERS is less showy but is a slicker, more professional design. Here, the headlines fade in and out in a colorful blue, black and white motif rather than track across the interface. But the big problem with REUTERS is that it's extremely difficult to establish a connection. It may take three, four or more attempts to link with the home base before the words begin to propagate.

http://www.microsite.reuters.co.uk/ticker/uk/download.htm

The HALIFAX TODAY and BUNKERWORLD INTERNATIONAL tickers are very tightly focused on their respective namesakes. HALIFAX TODAY has all the news that you will need for the lovely city of Halifax in Canada's Atlantic Maritime province of Nova Scotia while BUNKERWORLD INTERNATIONAL deals specifically with news and views of the oil industry and all that goes with it, business-wise.

For Halifax Today: could not locate.

Hey listen Ham Radio Dads! Did you know that you can entertain your kids using both the ECHOLINK and EQSO amateur radio Voice-over-IP networks? Turns out both these systems offer a TEST SERVER channel or room where you can adjust and set your transmit and receive audio levels before entering any of the fully operational environments. This past Sunday afternoon, I was noodling around with the ECHOLINK TEST SERVER. My son Zachary, who had been completely engrossed and totally one with his big Nintendo ZELDA THE WINDWAKER video game, dropped everything when he heard Dad's voice echoing back like a big old tape recorder and by the way, does anybody remember what a tape machine is anymore? Big Box with big reels and a mile-long strip of plastic tape with brown rust stuck to it which makes noise?

Anyway, for the next forty-five minutes, My Number One And Only Son quoted personally favorite lines from personally favourite books, personally favourite commands, announcements, music and sound effects from personally favourite video games and then as anticipated degenerated into some twenty minutes worth of personally favourite mouth farts, personally favourite burps and personally favourite grunts.

It's a fair bet that the ECHOLINK and EQSO TEST SERVERS were not intended to be used in this way. But since no one can hear but you, what's the big deal. So your kids should enjoy themselves, digging the computer, the radios and their Dad!

If you plugged in last month to this indescribably verbose audio extravaganzo, I clued you in to a hereto for unexplored socially interactive philosophical approach to personal electronic recreation and enjoyment. I officially billed it as "Entertainment By Proxy". If you missed this, the plan is simple: You suggest to your friends, your family, your fellow hams, those who currently possess DVD players or computers with DVD playback devices built-in, you..convince these folks to lay out the dough, the scratch, the scheckels, the mulla-schmulla for the plastic software with program titles that you personally will find enjoyable...highly pleasurable listening to... or watching on their requisite hardware.

In short, your friends and family please you with movies and feed you with the snacks, the chips, the ice cream sandwiches and the Coke and the Pepsi. Then you go home and enjoy the vast wide open spaces in your house that would otherwise be avast and awash in a tangly, snarly Sargasso Sea of machines, wiring and piles and piles of discs.

Since that analysis delivered to you last month, I am happy to report significant progress to all fledgling and aspiring electronic party moochers that I have secured four, count them four, very willing hosts on tap to support my shameless parasitic pastime. To date and I will mention names, Jeff Bennett - WA2AIB - here in Albany has invested in several hundred dollars worth of DVDs for me to watch at his place any time I want. Really cool retro science fiction film fare such as THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, THE CRAWLING EYE and Japanese classics such as GODZILLA and RODAN, all at my beck and call. Then there is Tim Maxwell - KA2PKH - who was the inspiration for this plan in the first place. Tim already has many selections that just happen to coincide with my personal tastes. How about EARTH VERSUS THE FLYING SAUCERS and KRONOS? Fabulous 50's sci-fi films.

And then there is our technical director here at THIS WEEK, George Bowen - W2XBS - who has displayed excellent judgement in pursuing DVD titles that he knows will provide me with a wealth of great pleasure. An astute choice he recently provided me with was the famous MTV series, THE OSBOURNES. And yet another entry, our own Bill Continelli - W2XOY - who recently advised me that he that he has, not one but *two* DVD players. This demonstrates advanced thinking since Bill recognizes that by having two machines on hand, equipment failure need not hamper my personal enjoyment of his DVD purchases.

Someday I may purchase a DVD player myself.(I did eventually) I may have to especially if these guys get wind of my diabolical master plan. - 30 -