Vansmack Re: pubs with football (soccer)

[K8teebug]

There's a pub in Baltimore called Slainte and they have tons of football, I mean soccer, games.  You might want to give them a call and see if they have the games you're looking to see.
 
 Here's their website.
 
 http://koopers.com/

[brennser]

admittedly I don't know the reason for your message but smackie lives in CA?

[vansmack]

Thank you for the heads up, but yes, as Brennser pointed out, I have moved to San Francisco.
 
 I'm sure others on the board will find the information useful however.
 
 I will be using relatively new software developed in China to watch the Man U match next week.  It's called "coolstreaming" and allows for nearly crystal clear International sports broadcasts on your PC.  It's very clever - kind of like streaming media meets bit-torrent.   Google "coolstreaming" for more details or pm me for more info.

[vansmack]

I've had more requests for this then I thought, so I'll just post the info on coolstreaming here.
 
 Here's a technical paper on how it works, but I'll explain the concept below:
 
 http://www.cs.sfu.ca/~jcliu/Papers/CoolStreaming.pdf
 
 Basically, if you have the program open, it offers you international channels that broadcast, among other things, football, the NBA, and some MLB games next month.  There is regular programming as well.
 
 9 China Central TV stations are offered
 ESPN Asia
 Star Sports
 Guadong TV
 HBO
 
 Click on the channel that has your game at its live time and you will be able to watch it.  Schedules for the channels are provided online.  
 
 Unlike most streaming apps that get bogged down by the number of users, coolstreaming actually works better when more people use it because the stream that you're sent in is then sent out to other users (a la bit-torrent).  The more people watching, the more choices for streams, thus more data available to you.  In addition, the picture gets better the longer you watch.  I suggest starting the app at least 10-15 minutes before your chosen programming.  It works best on Win XP with WMP 10 and a broadband connection, although I've used it on Win2K with WMP 9 as well.  I'm not certain that it works on Mac, but I doubt it does.
 
 The .exe file will get blocked by most email programs, so here are relays to ten servers that will get you the application.  Some are faster than others, but most are slowed by the Chinese gov't so it will take between 20-45 minutes to get the program, despite the fact that it's only 2.6 MB:
 
 http://www.fxxz.com/SoftDown.asp?ID=27069&action=0
 http://www.fxxz.com/SoftDown.asp?ID=27069&action=1
 http://www.fxxz.com/SoftDown.asp?ID=27069&action=2
 http://www.fxxz.com/SoftDown.asp?ID=27069&action=3
 http://www.fxxz.com/SoftDown.asp?ID=27069&action=4
 http://www.fxxz.com/SoftDown.asp?ID=27069&action=5
 http://www.fxxz.com/SoftDown.asp?ID=27069&action=6
 http://www.fxxz.com/SoftDown.asp?ID=27069&action=7
 http://www.fxxz.com/SoftDown.asp?ID=27069&action=8
 http://www.fxxz.com/SoftDown.asp?ID=27069&action=9
 
 Enjoy.  I'll be watching United at 7 AM PT Saturday on Star Sports.