I have long felt that the solution to many of the problems Americans face could be found in, first and foremost, popping the media bubble that we are forced to live within. Humans use mirrors to see themselves -- we seem to almost uniquely have the ability to understand something external as representing our selves. That mirror was never going to present a perfect reflection, but it's now being strategically used to present to Americans a willfully falsified picture of themselves as a people. Individually, we create a world from the myriad inputs our senses provide; as a people we create a world from the inputs available to us. The single most influential of these is TV.
Whoever controls TV controls the reflection we judge ourselves to be -- they define us to ourselves; they create our national identity.
That mirror is crazed and cracked. The image is monstrous, mistaken, wrong.
Here on DKos, almost everything we do is part of an effort to correct that wrongness. It's how I came here, and why I not only stay, but rely on DKos for news and insight -- for that most precious of things, a straight draught of reality. (Of course, all media is a mixed meal; one orders what seems nutritious, and passes on dishes that are not.)
This diary is not about that -- not directly. I do think it's a proper way to reflect on what I present below the mating orange winkles: how to get the full BBC Olympics site, with all 24 live feeds, when you live within the media bubble of the US. Fill your lungs, and let's go below. Make it a deep breath -- we are leaving the land NBC pretends we live in, leaving behind NBC's canned, boiled, canalized, childized, all-for-the-good-of-advertisers pablum-pump.
The BBC is doing a fantastic job of covering the Olympics. They are putting on-line up to 24 live feeds (two live studio feeds featuring summaries and highlights, and 22 feeds from venues), and, after a short delay, every single taped event. All 5,000+ hours of coverage are going to be available on-line.
Unless you live in the US. The BBC Web servers reject all requests from computers located in the US. Screenshot {External}
Your overlord has spoken.
There is a way around this: use a computer in England to send your page requests and to receive and forward pages served to you. To the BBC servers, you are in England. They communicate with the computer in England, the computer in England automatically routes all your requests to wherever they are addressed (whether to the BBC servers or not), and routes all served pages to your computer. Wonderful. The computer you set up to do this (for our purposes, in England) is called a
proxy server. I will tell you how to set one up.
A few cautions before we begin:
- I'm just an amateur. I have always worked with computers, and even made money setting up small business networks, but that was long ago.
- This is legal, as far as I know. Everything I have read about it — I looked — says, "This is perfectly legal". I expect DKos Web-weevils will be able to provide any needed additional information.
- Whenever watching video on the Web, speed counts. You will need an up-to-date, fast Internet connection to take advantage of the video access. I have Verizon's FiOS service, with throughput of "up to 5 Mbps". It works.
- Even with a super-fast connection to your ISP, you will still find that the video frequently skips (buffers), and fails (corruption). As far as I can tell, this is happening at the BBC end of things, and there is nothing to be done but click the "I have problems" button and report what's happening. There are 23 other feeds to sample.
- It is not free. You have to pay someone for the Web proxy. A reliable service is currently offering a 1-month "Summer Sports" special for $10 US.
- It may not work. I has worked for me. It has worked for others. I can't predict that it will work for you (and I likely can't trouble-shoot it if it does not).
- These instructions are for systems running OS X. If you run Windows or Linux, you should be able to set this up without too much effort, but you are going to have to go to some sites and read how to install software particular to your system.
And a thanks:
- I learned about this from a post by Matt Markovich at BakersfieldNow.com.
OK — off to the races:
0. This is not as complex as it looks. I have tried to be comprehensive.
1. Download the proxy server.
- Go to http://www.hidemyass.com/... (The company is reliable. I always advise anyone to Google for reviews and ratings prior to purchasing anything on-line.)
- Purchase the 1-month Summer Sports Special. It looks like this may now be available for $5 US.
- Note your Username and Password!
- Do not check the "auto-review" button. The Olympics will end before your 1-month subscription.
2. Install the HMA Pro VPN software and the TunTap OS X system utility.
- I followed the instructions for installing for OS X. This meant that first I had to download and install a separate, free, system utility: TunTap. Do so.
- The installations are straightforward. The Utility and the HMA Pro VPN software go in your Applications folder.
3. Launch and configure HMA Pro VPN.
- If you are running OS X Mountain Lion and have Gatekeeper turned on (the default state), you will have to right-click the installed application file (in Finder) and select "Open". It will not open otherwise.
- HMA Pro VPN should open.
- If you are asked to install Growl, click "Yes" and follow the prompts.
- - Growl is a small utility that shows you alerts and messages that programs use to communicate to you. The messages you will see inform you when you are logged in, and where the proxy server is located.
- - I configure Growl to show the alerts at the bottom right corner of my screen.
- Fill in your Username and Password.
- Check the box "Remember my user name and password"
- Click the "Connect to VPN" button. ("VPN" = "Virtual Private Network.)
- Screenshot: {External}
- You should see some action in the Connection Log pane, and then you should be logged in to the nearest HMA server (almost certainly in the US).
4. Change to a UK proxy server.
- Click the "Quick VPN Country Change" drop-down, and select a server in the UK.
- On my machine, all twenty or so UK servers return nearly identical speeds. It shouldn't make a difference which one you select.
- If HMA Pro VPN offers to auto-select the fastest server in the same location, allow it to.
- You should see Growl notifications telling you what is happening.
- You should end up with a UK proxy server.
- Screenshot: {External}
Note that I am not currently connected — you should be.
5. Log in to the BBC Olympic coverage page, find the live video link, and enjoy
- BBC Olympics 2012:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/...
- BBC Olympics live video:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/...
- Click the right-pointing info-arrow to start the video
- Hover your mouse over the video feed window and click "More Video" to see all 24 feeds.
- The first two feeds are BBC 1 and BBC 3, which provide a hosted overview of what's going on at the Olympics (similar the the network broadcast familiar to Americans).
- At night in England, the number of feeds drops to 12 or even 6.
- The UI for the video feeds is quite good, but requires a bit of clicking around to find what's what.
- Be sure to click the "Extras" icon at the bottom right of the video pane. This presents overlays of information about the sport and competitors you are watching.
- Note the video scrubber bar, and hover over the yellow bricks to see individual events/games/rounds/what-have-you.
- The full schedule of all events (302 medal events in 26 sports) is here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/...
- Click an event rectangle to jump to the event. Note the key to event coverage:
- - Screenshot: {
External}
Try them all!
- - "Catch up" means "Watch a previously recorded event".
- The best viewing time is live in England. I've gotten better sustained feeds in the early morning (EST) than any other time.
6. Logging out and logging back in.
- You can sever the connection to the proxy server at any time. Either close HMA Pro VPN, or on the HMA Pro VPN dashboard page, click "Disconnect from VPN". Your Internet connection should return to the default you have set up.
- You can log back in at any time, using the directions above. Don't forget to click "Connect to VPN". Watch the Growl notifications to see that you are logged in, and where.
Enjoy! I will be able to check in the rest of the day and might be able to answer questions.