Linux Radio

An anonymous reader writes "This might very well be the nerdiest site we'll ever encounter... Linux Radio is an online radio station broadcasting the Linux kernel! Each time someone visit the site, a random source file is selected and read loudly by a virtual speaker materialized through the open source speech synthesizer eSpeak. Will it prove useful to anyone is probably a difficult question to answer, but the excitement provided is worth experiencing at least once. However, this concept proves once more the advantages of open source over proprietary software making such achievements impossible : whoever in his right mind would want to listen to binary files loudly?"

Re:Binary

[sourcerror]

Actually, around 87-89 in Hungary it wasn't uncommon for radiostations to broadcast homebrew C-64 programs. The C-64 casette-tape only used the audible spectrum by spec anyway.

Re:"Binary files"?

[Genrou]

When I started using computers, they used K7 tapes to store programs. You know, they were mostly used for audio, but since they were cheap, it was a perfect media for home computers of that time -- bits were converted to sound, mostly using some sort of frequency modulation. There was no Internet then (I know, how can one imagine a world without the Internet), so the only source of information about computers were magazines and an occasional TV or radio program. Well, there was a weekly radio program where I lived that broadcast computer programs -- the binary files themselves. You just pressed "record" in your tape recorder, hoping the transmission was good enough, and then you could load it in your computer. Sometimes, they broadcast ZX Spectrum, sometimes it was MSX programs. They usually worked well, but sometimes the noise in the transmission would cause a lot of errors. It was a very nice way to distribute the programs