Dragonball Wishes "You Know What? This Really Sucks" Written: July 18, 2001 Okay, I haven't written an editoral in a long time because I just haven't gotten in the right mood to do so. Please bare with my horrible writing style. The spark that started the fire occured today, when I was trying to find Xing's MPEG Encoder in order to make stuff into spiffy MPEGs. While I'm on the topic, I'll elaborate on my encoding woes. First of all, I don't like WMV format. However, it is the only thing that I've been able to encode in that works. RealPlayer just doesn't look good... ever. I just don't like RealPlayer... In my opinion, the only good thing about it is the amount of size that the files take up. I've just had too many bad experiences with RealPlayer. I like MPEG, but the program that I've beeing using, VideoWave II, just doesn't like MPEG. If you're gonna make an MPEG as good-looking and smooth as Castor's and VegettoEX's music videos, then it's gonna be a big file size with an annoying window size. The window sizes for MPEGs on VideoWave aren't the same as the window sizes that VegettoEX and Castor have for their MPEGs. So what does VegettoEX recommend? According to his response to an entry in his Guestbook, the only way people serious about music video production should distribute their music videos is with Xing MPEG Encoder. Only the luckiest of the lucky people have that program... that or people with lots of money. From what I've heard, it used to be over 200 dollars to purchase! Granted, that's cheaper than most, if not all, of the MPEG encoders, but that is not the kind of money I want to spend on a computer program. Now, Real merged with Xing (sigh) which will probably crappify their software. To my surprise, I took a look at purchasing it, and it was only 40 dollars. That's a good price, but of course, it's not Windows ME compatible... I want Windows 98 back! So... so much for Xing. What about DivX? Well, too many people have computers that, for some reason or the other, can't view files in that format properly. Plus, you'd think DivX would be a universal codec, but it doesn't seem to be. I downloaded an older version and the new version from the same DivX codec distributor (the old distributor moved to DivX.com, where the new version is offered). My DivX-encoded media only works with the old DivX codec, not the new one. I'm pretty much done trying to offer music videos in DivX because it just never seems to work for anyone, not even me (the smaller the file size, the worse the framerate). I think VideoWave II probably encodes DivX format improperly, which would explain why a quality file takes up 100 MB. I've seen DivX movies, 90 minutes in length, that looked better at about that size! To rap up my encoding rants, let's just say I'm really angry at how I just can't produce good MPEGs or ASFs like everyone else seems to be capable of doing... Some people are even fortunate enough to have the FULL VERSION of Adobe Premiere, which costs 400 dollars! Okay, now on the main subject of this editorial, the thing that I've been itching to write for a long time. As many of you probably know by now, the internet economy has been downhill for a while. Just when you begin to think that it may be stabilizing or picking back up again, another major site goes down the tubes. There is a large list of sites that this internet recession (yes, I believe it's a recession) has taken a toll on. And it's all because of the companies that have been advertising on the internet have been pulling out, deciding that the internet is no longer a 'cool fad.' It's because of this that so many websites that we love have stopped updating, some even vanishing because they have nowhere to go. One of the reasons efront shut down was for this very reason. But their main page is still there! Die, efront! Er.. ahem... When efront stopped their hosting services, sreanime.net and kebie.com died, leaving Daizenshuu EX and I to look for new homes for our websites. He had enough of a fanbase to be hosted by pokeball.net, while I had to return to this site's old home. And even to this day, I am still here, waiting to be hosted by someone better than hypermart. One issue that really angers me is the way that hosting seems to work. I don't have a large audience, so I'm not able to get a good free host. I don't have a large audience because I don't have a good host. It's an endless cycle of doom, unless some miracle occurs (like Planet Namek linking to me or something). If any of you have taken a look on my counters' stats, you'll notice that I had a massive peak for two weeks or so. Why is this? That was because of a plug from DBZ Homeworld, a site that was popular for their full episdoes, which are ILLEGAL, if I may add. To make matters worse, they were hosting DUBBED FULL EPISODES, which FUNimation should've put a stop to right away. But of course, they have something that I don't seem to have... luck. They got away with it and they may still be, wherever they are. Kebie had them plug me while they were in the process of moving, which gave me MASSIVE HITS (woohoo!). I fear that those are probably the most hits in two weeks that this site will ever get... I had some decent hits back when I was at kebie, for good reason... my multimedia. I also had some good multimedia ready for when I'd be able to update at efront again (during their server upgrades) but I wasn't able to get it up because kebie was shut down, and later every site efront hosted. If I could still host all of my multimedia, I would have a lot of good stuff up right now... a lot. I suppose you could argue that you can get some good hosting for money (I haven't seen where though, but I'm sure it has to exist somewhere). Keep in mind that we DBZ webmasters aren't the people that like to pay to work. VegettoEX even stated that if they ever get into a situation where he has to pay to run his site, he will let it go because it's just not something that he has the willpower to pay out of his pocket to run. I agree with him that it is just not worth it to pay for a site that we get no money out of. If anything, we should be making money for working on these websites, much less paying for them. Things are looking more and more grim for America's internet every month (not too sure about Europe, Asia, or other countries since their advertising may be from different companies than the ones that are pulling out here). To be honest, I'd laugh if it ever got so bad that the only sites in existance were ones that could run them whether they have to pay for it or not (abc.com, microsoft.com, movie websites, etc.). I'd laugh when people are sitting around saying to themselves, "Where did the internet go? There's nothing here anymore!" I'd point my finger and yell that I told them so. America is too obsessed with trends... Just because the internet was popular for a few years and the trend is going downhill doesn't mean that it won't pick back up again. Look at all of the retro cars that are so popular now and keep in mind that even though they may have taken a long while to become popular again, an internet year is a lot longer than some may think. Sites that have been around for three years are considered old school, for crying out loud. Due to advertising agencies pulling out, several great sites have shut down or have gotten much worse. I believe that DBZ Uncensored, my most favorite DBZ site of all time, could've had a little bit longer of a life span if it wasn't for having to move. Even if he had decided to shut down at the same time that he ended up doing so, atleast his site would still be around to look at... Ginga GIRI GIRI, one of my all time favorites, has had to move countless times due to amount of bandwith that his site generates. Due to the fact he's on cvgnet, his site is always down due to problems that cvgnet seems to always be having (let's hope this time is the last though... It's been what? Two months?). Planet Namek has had to cut most of its multimedia sections, due to bandwith cost issues. Several other wonderful sites have been forced to vanish, shut down, stop updating, or move a bunch of times due to the internet's current state. I myself am in deep trouble. 50 MB is just not enough disk space for this site. 500 MB of data transfer is nowhere near enough. I'm lucky that this site wasn't shut down months ago! If hypermart.net ever shuts down their hosting services, then this site is in some major trouble, folks. I lost half of my audience when I had to move here without being able to post where I was going. I have also been looking for somewhere, anywhere where I can safely store a music video or more for you people to have the pleasure of downloading. Let's discuss some free hosting sites, shall we? Hypermart - they would shut down the site, just like how they shut down my old account. Geocities - no files bigger than 5 MB can be uploaded. Angelfire - won't let me sign up for some reason. Webjump - tried it already... they just shut down the site. Terrashare - closed their hosting services. Fortunecity - no files bigger than 3 MB. iReg - costs money to be hosted. Fateback - no files bigger than 5000 KB. Crosswinds - costs money to be hosted. I am currently looking at Homestead and if I still can't figure out how to work it, then I'll try tripod. Well, to sum these rants up in a nutshell: 1) I am having some serious encoding woes, 2) The Internet is in a rut, 3) I am angry at the internet advertisers that are causing the internet to be in a rut, 4) This site is in an endless loop of pain and suffering, 5) Let's all hope this gets better. To all of this site's faithful fans: Thank you! It is you people that have kept this site alive. You all deserve lots of love and happiness. Geez... I think it's about time I changed this site's main page banner. -Sir Viktor- Back to Editorials Site design and content ©1999-2007 by James Walker (Sir Viktor) The Next Dimension is a non-profit fansite. Any copyright violations are completely unintentional. I highly recommend viewing this website with Microsoft Internet Explorer and Javascript enabled.