*** ANSWERMAN INTERNET EXTRA *** For the week of January 27, 1997 This is the weekly newsletter for the community of Internet users on America Online. This week, AnswerMan's Focus is Streaming Audio. =*=*= IN THIS ISSUE =*=*= AnswerMan's Update -- Streaming Audio Free Book of the Week -- The mother of all e-books sites Upcoming Weekly Focus & Chats -- What's coming up The End -- How to contact us or unsubscribe =*=*= WHAT YOU CAN DO THIS WEEK WITH ANSWERMAN =*=*= Go to keyword: For: AM FOCUS Links to all manner of Net stuff, neatly categorized ANSWERMAN Member web sites, daily tips, more good stuff NET HELP Get quick help for your Internet questions NET TUTORIAL Clueless about the Internet? Start here! AM CHAT Read transcripts of Internet chats that you missed AM GLOSSARY RTFM to decrypt that Internet jargon Here are direct links for AOL 3.0 users: Go to keyword AnswerMan AnswerMan Focus Net Tutorial =*=*= ANSWERMAN'S UPDATE -- Streaming Audio =*=*= It's 3 A.M. and I'm listening to the day's top news stories from National Public Radio. It's 3:10 and I'm listening to a Seattle grunge band. It's 3:15 and I'm learning about the Earth's core temperature on Earth and Sky, a science program. Three minutes later, I am tuned into interviews from the U.S. Open Snowboarding Championship. Next, I think I'll listen to a classic rock station in Pittsburgh, or a country music station from Paris, Texas. No, I am not a fickle radio listener. I am listening to all of this fare -- music, interviews, talk radio, cybercasts and excerpts from albums, over the Internet, using a relatively new, but popular, type of tool -- audio streaming software. It's like having a radio that can play whatever I want, when I want it. "Audio streaming" means that your computer plays sound as the sound file as downloads. Thanks to clever programming and hearty sound compression, audio streaming applications provide "audio on demand." Once you have an audio player installed, you'll find many choices for good stuff to listen to, an eclectic mix of gleaming corporate audio sites and back-room sound experimentation. The content ranges from online rebroadcasts of traditional radio stations to Internet-only "cybercasts." Information providers also utilize audio streaming to aurally welcome visitors to their Web pages, even to offer an audio tour of the site. The variety of content in this burgeoning field is astounding. What's out there to listen to? C|net radio offers news and commentary about computers and the Internet. Every day, c|net radio presents original commentary on the digital world created exclusively for broadcast over the Internet. www.on-air.com offers kickin' 80's music. And the Internet Jukebox offers a spiffy interface that lets you listen to entire albums while you surf the Net. net.radio, billing itself as the world's first 24-hour-a-day, live, Internet-only radio network, specializes in vintage rock, unsigned bands and classical music, as well as news and sports. Streaming audio works very well with AOL. You'll need AOL 3 for Mac or Windows (if you don't have AOL 3 yet, go to keyword UPGRADE to grab it.) There are many different audio technologies -- and players for hearing them -- available. You could spend a weekend just downloading and installing various helper apps for various audio streaming tools. But the most popular streaming tool -- the one that's used on the most sites -- is RealAudio, so going to show you how to use RealAudio here. You'll have to do a one-time installation process. Once that's done, the RealAudio player will automatcally start any time you contact a Web site that has something for you to hear. -.-.- Mac users -.-.- First, you'll have to download and install the free RealAudio player. Go to http://www.realaudio.com/products/player/download.html, and fill out the form to download the software. After it's been downloaded to your computer, sign off from AOL. Now, run the RealAudio installer (which is more than likely in the Online Downloads folder within your AOL folder.) The installer will want to know what browser you're using -- tell it that it's MS Internet Explorer. Make a note of where the installer puts the RealAudio application -- you'll need to know that in a minute. When the installation is done, run the AOL software again. Choose Preferences from your Members menu then choose "Helpers". You need to tell the Web browser how to handle RealAudio files: click "Create". In the "Open files with the following MIME Type" field, enter "audio/x-pn-realaudio". In the "Following suffixes" field enter "ra, ram". Now press "Select" and show the program where the RealAudio application was installed. Click OK and OK again. -.-.- Windows users -.-.- First, you'll have to download and install the free RealAudio player. Go to http://www.realaudio.com/products/player/download.html, and fill out the form to download the software. There are two versions of the RealAudio player, a free version and a $30 "plus" version. If you're cheap like me, get the free one. After it's been downloaded to your computer, sign off from AOL. Now, run the RealAudio installer (which is more than likely in the Download directory under your AOL directory.) Make a note of where the installer puts the RealAudio application -- you'll need to know that in a minute. When the installation is done, run the AOL software again. Choose Preferences from your Members menu then choose "WWW" then "Helpers". You need to tell the Web browser how to handle RealAudio files: click "New". The setup is slightly different for the Win95 version of the AOL software. The correct way to access the setup menu for AOL for Win95 is: 1) Members menu, 2) Preferences , 3) WWW , 4) Programs tab , 5) Viewers/File Types , 6) New Type. In the "Description" field, enter "RealAudio". In the "Content Type" field, enter "audio/x-pn-realaudio". In the "File extensions" field enter "ra, ram". Now press "Browse" and show the program where the RealAudio application was installed. Click OK! -.-.- Both Mac & Windows -.-.- Now you're ready to roll! Log in to AOL. RealAudio has an index to all the audio offerings at http://www.timecast.com -- listing sports, music, news and other great stuff for your ears. Pick something interesting and turn up the volume on your computer's speakers. The quality of the sound you hear will vary depending on your modem speed and the network bandwidth. At 14.4 and 28.8, the audio is surprisingly good, but there can be dropouts if you're pushing the bits too hard. You may have to experiment to get the best sound quality. Here are direct links for AOL 3.0 users: AnswerMan Focus: more streaming fun AnswerMan Community Center Download RealAudio player RealAudio home page TimeCast - RealAudio program guide c|net www.on-air.com =*=*= FREE BOOK OF THE WEEK =*=*= By now you know that there are free books available on the Web. I've been telling you about a few of the best online books about the Internet. This week, I discovered the mother sites for those of us who love free computer books. It's called "Computer and Internet Related Online Books" and you can find it at http://home.earthlink.net/~jlutgen/cirob.html. The site is a massive index to books about computers that you can read online, usually for free. Not just books about the Internet -- here you'll find books on many computer-related topics, from "Windows 95 Tips, Tricks, and Secrets" by Travis Solin to the "AppleScript Language Guide" for Mac programmers. I haven't counted, but there are certainly links to hundreds of computer books there. These books are available in digital format on the Web, in their entirety. (Most of these books are also available in traditional printed format, for a price. This is more expensive than the online version but easier to read while you're on the bus or in the bath.) Here is a direct link for AOL 3.0 users: Free Books =*=*= THE WEEKLY FOCUS & CHAT =*=*= Every Sunday, AnswerMan hosts a live chat to close out that week's Focus topic. Here's what's coming this Sunday, February 2 at 6 PM ET: Using Streaming Audio -- This hour, AnswerMan will show you how to hear high-quality, live audio from the Internet using "streaming audio" technology. Using tools such as RealAudio, you can listen to radio stations, news sources and other audio content from around the world. All you need is the AOL 3.0 software and the information in this session. Every week, AnswerMan focuses on a particular facet of using the Internet. Here are the Weekly Focus topics we'll be covering in the near future: Feb 3 - Feb 9: Viruses Feb 10 - Feb 16: MUDs and Telnet Feb 17 - Feb 23: Great web sites for Mac and Windows Feb 24 - March 2: Tax Time Here is a direct link for AOL 3.0 users: AnswerMan Chat and Transcripts. =*=*= THE END =*=*= That's all for this week. Got comments about this newsletter? We want to hear them! Send 'em to AnswerMan. The e-mail address is "AnswerMan@aol.com". We would hate to see you go, but if you must leave, there are two easy ways to unsubscribe yourself from this newsletter. You can use either. #1: Send an e-mail message -- To: LISTSERV@LISTSERV.AOL.COM Subject: UNSUBSCRIBE Body: UNSUBSCRIBE ANSWERMAN #2: For AOL 3.0 users only: Click here then press "Unsubscribe". Copyright 1997 by America Online. All rights reserved. This newsletter may cause you to see things umop apisdn.