[GreenKeys] Introduction to commcenter-2.net

[Bob McConnell]

w8au at sssnet.com wrote:
> At 04:26 PM 11/23/2009, Rod Lannon wrote:
>> AN FYI for those who may be interested:
>> http://www.commcenter-2.net/opnet.html
>>
>> This page is a 60wpm teletype emulator, complete with
>> sound. It is updated daily with anywhere from 10 - 20
>> new messages. The subject of these can be from actual
>> old messages we have uncovered on the internet, or
>> various news, Open Source Intel, and other items of interest.
> 
> Very nice emulation.  However, I did notice that the sound effects
> do not match the printed text.  Numbers-letters shift and Carriage
> return sounds occur during regular text run.  The staccato standard
> 45 baud "hammer sounds" are a little variable, too.
> 
> But, having stated that, I think it would take a lot more programming
> to get these things in sync, and for not much gain.  It's a great
> program, and I just let it run in the shack for sound effects.  I also
> find myself sitting there reading the serious text.
> 
> Congrats and thanks for listing it.

Even if you did synthesize the sound effects to match the text feed, it 
would not be possible to keep them in sync while using a browser. They 
would be processed by separate and independent threads, so would each 
run at their own speed and time. Given the vagaries of thread and task 
switching, the timing on each thread would drift freely and randomly.

What's worse is that they use Microsoft proprietary tags and attributes 
on the site, so it won't work correctly on any system other than 
MS-Windows and Internet Exploder. Since I don't have either available, I 
can't get the ambiance as described. On Linux, Firefox spawns Xine to 
play the streamed sound file once. It won't cache it so there is no 
possibility of looping on it. I emailed the webmaster about it, and his 
response was basically "so what?".

And then to join their mailing list or access the forums, you have to 
have a Yahoo membership. I have read Yahoo's terms of service, and 
cannot accept them in their current state. So there is no way I can 
participate in their little experiment.

Bob McConnell
N2SPP