************************************************************** * * * CYBERSPACE * * A biweekly column on net culture appearing * * in the Toronto Sunday Sun * * * * Copyright 2000 Karl Mamer * * Free for online distribution * * All Rights Reserved * * Direct comments and questions to: * * * * * ************************************************************** A broad solution Broadband is a problematic solution looking for a problem. What are we going to do when most middle classed homes are wired with a cable or DSL modem? The growing percentage of users wired to the net seem to be currently using their high bandwidth connection to trade MP3 music files. A net app named Napster (see www.napster.com) has made trading MP3 files as easy as searching for web pages about UFOs on Yahoo. You install the Napster client and then log on to a Napster server. The server lets you look in the music directories of thousands of other Napster users currently sharing over half a million song files. The vast percentage of these MP3 files have been stripped from a commercial CD and are shared in defiance of copyright laws. Imagine nearly any song you desire, from Time Zone's World Destruction to the Barenaked Ladies hard to find McDonalds Girl ditty, and chances are you can find it searching with Napster. Half the fun of using a product like Napster is sharing your own music library and seeing what people download. I have a friend who maintains a selection of "chick songs" so he can chat up women who come to investigate his public music directory. I guess it takes all kinds. For the true musical exhibitionist, you can install a product called Shoutcast (www.shoutcast.com) and turn your MP3 collect into an Internet radio station. The ultimate promise of broadband is to turn the net from what is still a print medium into a 500 million channel universe (skipping over the broken promise of the 500 channel universe). Imagine a world where there are as many TV shows as there are currently web pages. Granted most of these TV shows would be little more than very disgusting men who incorrectly assume people want to see them naked. So far the most successful use of Internet video technology such has been to promote traditional theatrical films. The hot download last year was the Phantom Menace trailer. The hot download this year is the Lord of the Rings trailer. Despite the focus on movie trailers, there is some promising made-for-broadband content out there. The IFILM site (www.ifilm.com) hosts a large number of films in popular video streaming formats. The quality ranges from backyard pieces o' crap to wide screen films made by professional film makers. Blair Witch parodies are legion. I find IFILM's documentary section particularly compelling. Two Oscars are awarded for the documentary format, and they always seems to be the most contentious awards of the night, but popular media gives one little opportunity to see documentaries outside of the confines of the high school chemistry class. My favorite documentary available at the site is called Adult Help Wanted. A New York film student interviews for a position as an escort and turns up some surprising information. Most of the pictures at IFILM suffer from low production values, bad acting, and terrible writing. It can be fun to look through the slush pile and discover gems. However, if you want some solid content, check out the shows produced by Honkworm International (www.honkworm.com). If you were a fan of Seinfeld, check out Honkworm's animated series Siliconites. Three self-absorbed techies ponder life, romance, sex, and stock options. The writing is clever, verbose, and rapid fire. The actors doing the voice overs, while a bit rocky in the first couple installments, have smoothed out their performances and imbue their characters with a degree of likableness. Fans of Terry Gilliam style animation will find Honkworm's Fishbar series appealing. It's like /Cheers/ meets /The Little Mermaid/ meets /Brazil/. Fishbar is a surreal journey into the demented mind of French speaking aquatic life. It may take a couple viewings to "get it". But when you do, you'll want to belly up to the Fishbar.