Synchronicity or Home Mass Media Mayhem*

I've spent a lot of time building a couple of websites for some friends.

I'm trying to become reasonably proficient in yet another programming language.

I've been writing an automated configuration program only to have the “customer” completely change his mind when the software was ready to be delivered. Now he wants to name the computers in a completely different manner. The program specifications now requires the user to be able to read AND type at the same time. Something I've never suspected possible by some of the field technicians, at least at the same time.

All of this requires relatively unrestricted Internet access.

The phrase “at the same time” has come up quite a few times in conversations, television and website advertising and of course blogs. Being on the trailing edge of technology at home has helped me ignore a lot of the commercial drivel out there. Ignorance is bliss. I was totally unaware that AT&T iPhones were unable to web browse and maintain a phone conversation at the same time and Android phones can do it. (Or do I have that turned around?) Big whoop-de-do. Obviously I don't own either.

Actually I'm not really sure why someone would want to do both simultaneously. Outside of jacking in a Borg-ish headset or going to speaker-phone and treating your nearby humans to your potentially private conversation, I'm not sure how you could actually do that physically on a small handheld device. The phone companies love it I suspect since they can charge you twice for the same airtime-minutes. Throw in texting and they can charge you three times. I know. I get the bills.

Simultaneous operations is a server's raison d'être. Of course my 2 kids use the Internet at the same time in their rooms. And of course they watch or listen to 2 different websites, never the same thing, of course. However, I've noticed when I remove my earplugs, that they seem to at least listen to similar cuts of music over and over again and watch the same programs, if not the exact same episodes. The network connection gets maxed out quite often. A formula that a proxy server with storage might help relieve, since the old man has to share the connection with these 2 local mass-media black-holes.

Since they seem to often watch episodes in the same shows, I could possibly setup some sort of “subscription” and download the shows ahead of time when the network connections are semi-idle, midnight to next-day noon on weekends and 2 or 3 in the afternoon before they get home on weekdays since they're teenagers. That leaves the network connection more open when I want unrestricted access.

This is going to take some research. Proxy servers in the past made note of webpages visited and kept copies of those pages. I'm not sure how to trigger a download of a program that hasn't been seen previously but is accessible through the same page visited repeatedly. Call it a pre-proxy. Yes there are DVR type devices out there but its not just video I need to grab and temporarily store. Although I've seen predictable media behavior, they are teenagers.

* pronounced like "hmmmm".