Comments on: Virtual Star Party featured at big Google+ meeting

By: Guido

Guido — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 15:59:19 +0000

Fraser, thanks for the tip! I’ve thought about using VPNs or Proxies, but I’ve tried some in the past and none were fast enough to play videos from Youtube. I don’t know if that has changed, but I’ll try hidemyass.com on the next opportunity. But sneaking around can’t be the ultimate solution…

By: Fraser Cain

Fraser Cain — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 14:23:47 +0000

Hi Guido, you can always use a VPN to route around any local censorship in Germany. I personally use a software called “Hide My Ass”. It’s also really good for keeping a secure connection when you’re using open Wifi while traveling.

By: Guido

Guido — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 11:49:30 +0000

Tim, that might be the problem, but I think the different timezones are also a factor. But that’s no excuse to kick Germany out of the livestreams altogether.

The bottom line, which I forgot to write last night, is: what can I do to change that? Is Google, as the parent company in the USA, even aware about that problem? It seems to me that the blocking of the livestreams was decided only by the local Google here in Germany.

By: Gerald Sorko

Gerald Sorko — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 10:04:15 +0000

Guido (#2) , have you tried using a VPN service provider? I have started using one recently and it works really well for me …
There are two big advantages:
1) makes your browsing more anonymous as they change your IP address every few minutes
2) Due to multiple worldwide gateways you can look like residing in any country you want to …

By: Navneeth

Navneeth — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 07:19:01 +0000

The name of the key-note speaker and Google SVP, is Vic Gundotra

By: Tim Patton

Tim Patton — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 03:40:07 +0000

We have been doing nightly virtual star parties on nightskiesnetwork.com going on 4 years now. It’s allot of fun to share what your looking at with the world and the instant feed back is great.
Guido, Maybe thats why we don’t have any broadcasters from Germany yet on nightskiesnetwork.

By: Guysmiley

Guysmiley — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 01:56:17 +0000

That was a really great video! And a pretty accurate distillation of what the virtual star parties are like.

By: Guido

Guido — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 23:40:09 +0000

First of all, yay for technology, science and clever people! I love what you can do with this technology, but there’s a huge downside…

If you look on a map of Europe, there’s a giant black hole in the middle, where the reception of livestreams from Youtube is impossible. It’s Germany! Our silly government wants to fine everybody €500.000 who makes a public television broadcast without a license, and they think Youtube livestreams are a tv-broadcast! So we’re the ONLY country in the world in which nobody is allowed to see a Youtube livestream. Google would need to apply for a broadcast license (“Rundfunklizenz”), something which they unfortunately haven’t done.

I’ve discovered this when I wanted to watch the Venus transit hangout and I was really, really mad. Especially because we can watch the recorded livestreams without problems, but if it’s a *live* broadcast, it gets blocked by default. Proxies may be a possibility, but I haven’t found one fast enough to allow streaming…

I know this isn’t the fault of anybody here, quite the contrary – but it’s half the fault of our government and half the fault of Google. But lots of Youtube is blocked here for silly rights reasons anyway and nobody seems to have noticed that the livestreams are not only used for commecial broadcasts, but also for private and educational things. And once again science and education gets kicked out .

Am I really the only German reader of Bad Astronomy, Universe Today & Co who has complained about this?

By: Matt B.

Matt B. — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 22:59:16 +0000

*tearing hair out* Too many videos. Streaming’s being blocked at work and my home computer is inexplicably stuttering all audio from the Internet. I’m getting further and further behind.