Re: LiveCD Media Project

[Luis Villa <luis villa gmail com>]

On Mon, 06 Dec 2004 00:48:10 -0500, Ian McIntosh
<ian_mcintosh linuxadvocate org> wrote:
> > If we can find it, maybe a copy of the redhat 'first they ignore you...'
> > video?
> 
> Given the space limitations, only one video will fit.  Do you prefer
> "first they ignore you..." (FTIY) to "Building on the Past"?
> 
> Just a thought: if FTIY isn't under a CC license it might make things
> more difficult.

I haven't seen the Building on the Past video, so can't judge. Link?
 
> Regardless, let me know if you can find FTIY because I'd like to see it!

I can't; apparently it still isn't widely released. Shame.

> > > MP3/OGG, 4MB, a CreativeCommons-licensed track? (which?)
> >
> > I can rip any/all of the Wired CC CD if you need it. (It's still in the
> > pristine wrapper ATM, oddly enough.)
> 
> Good idea.  We'd just have to pick some tracks.  The whole thing is
> available here: http://creativecommons.org/wired/ (but they're in MP3
> format).
> 
> I think the question is which songs have the broadest appeal, and which
> fit in best with the LiveCD experience.
> 
> I solicited input from my musician roommate and together we chose:
> 
>  Dan the Automator - Relaxation Spa Treatment
>  Gilbert Gil - Oslodum
>  Thievery Corporation - DC 3000

Any particular reason you didn't put the Beasties track in there?

> But I'd love to hear other opinions.  Also, if anyone knows of other
> good CreativeCommons music, please share.

It seems like the Wired CD is very, very high profile- we should use
it if we can. I've also got recordings of Moglen and Lessig speaking-
maybe those would be good?

> Another possibility is to have the songs fade out after a minute.  Then
> we could include several tunes in different formats.

The fadeout idea seems decent, but I think we should stick to ogg as
much as reasonably possible.
 
> > > JPG/PNG, 1MB, some nature photos or GNOME-branded art? (which?)
> >
> > Unless we find something oddly compelling, I don't think we need flat 2D
> > art here- showing off 'we can show images' in 2004 is roughly like
> > bragging about printing text, it seems to me.
> 
> The reason I wanted to include it is not so much to prove that it can
> show images, but rather to give them something to play with in gThumb or
> the GIMP.  Plus, to show how Nautilus draws pretty thumbnails.

Then just symlink some stuff from elsewhere on the CD; there is plenty
of art that needs to be included in the default desktop.

> > In an ideal world, someone could do an MPG->Theora conversion and we'd
> > ship Theora in preference to MPG, assuming we want to be consistent
> > about our message.
> 
> I'm not entirely sure I agree with the presumption here.  Is it better
> to choose OGG over MP3 or Theora over MPG for a Demo CD?  I wonder if
> saying "it plays your files" is better than "it plays these cool but
> relatively unknown open format files."  It may be more realistic in this
> non-ideal world. :/  But I'm a bit torn about this.  Thoughts?

(1) It's not at all clear that it is even legal for us to ship
software play mpgs and mp3s.
(2) I feel strongly we need to push open formats; a little note that
says 'sure, we can play mp3s as well' is fine. We need to be talking
about how we are a complete infrastructure, and not just dependent on
the stuff other platforms are pushing/creating for us.

Luis