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WANTED: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 CPU

I’m about sick of my current dedicated PC I used to encode the WebSeth live streams.  For those that are savvy, it’s an Asus P5N MX motherboard with an Intel Dual Core E2180 2ghz which I was able to keep after the closing of an office I managed back in 2008/9.  With both cams each running at h264 480x360 300-400kbit/s the CPU is pegged at 99% all the time, this creates a very unstable environment and causes the crashes,  lock ups, black frames, and red question mark screens I’m sure you’re all used to seeing. 



The existing motherboard would support a maximum CPU upgrade to the Intel Q9650 @ 3ghz x 4 cores, that’s about the most reasonable upgrade I can imagine without replacing the whole system which is a hassle and out of budget anyway.  Of course, that budget is zero — as I’m sure you know the premium area only just breaks even, and the sponsored links haven’t been effective on the small scale traffic WebSeth receives.   

So I’m reaching out to the WebSeth community, if I can get 180 euros from any one or many of you I can drop in that CPU and improve the WebSeth experience with more reliable streams allowing for improved resolution and bitrates, at least 640x480 and 600kbit which will greatly improve full screen and archived quality. 

If you can help, please use the Chip In or contact me by EMail, Facebook or Twitter private message, or in the WebSeth chat and we can work out the details.

Thanks to everyone for being a part of WebSeth and keeping the experiment going for 16 YEARS now including the original Seth’s Homepage meta-refresh cams! 

Seth

Using Twitter

I want to point out two advantages that twitter integration with webseth offers that users haven’t been taking advantage of yet.

First, by posting an @webseth mention on twitter both Dion and I get an alert on our phones as to the activity — this is an important method of bringing technical problems to our attention for quick remedy: anything from black cam screens, website errors/down time, or even if it appears a camera switch was forgotten. You can also just alert us to let us know you like our hair if we’re away from the chat and it’s appreciated just the same! 

You can use the same method of including “@webseth” in any tweet to also alert my twitter followers as to an event on cam that I haven’t announced for whatever reason. This kind of alert crowd sourcing I think would be very valuable for webseth viewers and I encourage everyone to make use of it!  The more people that do it, the more benefit it brings.  

To remind and make it easier, I’ve added a “Tweet to @webseth” link next to the webcams for everyone to use.  If you still haven’t set up a twitter account and followed me I encourage you to do so today to take advantage of this functionality. 

Thanks to all and looking forward to a warm summer!

Seth

Anonymous asked: you state that your website is strictly a passive look into your life and that it should need influrence your life yet you post adult themed videos in your premium members only section and promote them for income. please explain that paradox? Thanks

That’s a valid question, and one that’s been posed before.  The short answer for those that don’t want to click through is that the paradox is a result of an imperfect compromise.  I don’t think it’s possible to do a sincere attempt at life casting while imposing a no-nudity rule (though that hasnt stopped some from trying, I’m looking at YOU JTV).  Once I’ve accepted that nudity is part of the complete picture of this “documented life” the dominoes fell in a row until the result is what you see today as the pay-walled premium area. 

Though I do want to point out that the premium content isnt exactly “promoted,” unless you mean it’s pointed out that it exists in my own little circle of content.. It’s not like you’ve seen webseth banners running on cam4 or anything.  

But hey, I do appreciate every sign up as it goes towards keeping webseth self sufficient without having to be run out of my own pocket while at the same time making the “picture” of webseth complete, rather than going down the no-nudity censorship road. 

New hosting configuration

I just want to alert everyone that webseth is now hosted on a content distribution network (CDN), this is for a variety of reasons that I wont go into now but this change has a number consequences to how the site operates behind the scenes.  If you get any strange behavior on the site either on the forum, gallery, premium functions, cams, etc — please do not hesitate to email me so that I can address it quickly.  

Much appreciated for everyones help with this
Thanks

Anonymous asked: What's your thoughts on the PS4 Reveal?

I’m skeptical honestly — the main features announced that are interesting to me are instant on/suspend (this is a duh feature that should’ve been in all consoles), and the real-time spectating obviously for the lets play broadcasting.  The cloud gaming thing is interesting, though it’s really just a scam to get us to buy games we already own again which bothers me.  Remote play doesnt interest me unless I will be able to remote play my PS4 on my old PS3.  I think that would be pretty cool, especially if they could use the PS3 as as a form of multiplayer split screen terminal.  You could throw player two onto a remote play instance on another tv with the PS3 rather than splitting one screen on one console. Also I’m glad that my move-wands are forward compatible, that’s something. 

The real value in upgrading is just the brute force power — I would love 1080p 3D, a lot of the games on PS3 now lose resolution when in 3D making the graphics blocky and blurry (I’m looking at YOU sports champions 2!!!).  Graphics, resolution, physics, AI — these are all things that need more resources to be improved.  BF3 is worthless on console with the 24 player limit, for example, that’s a sign that an upgrade is badly needed. 

Anyway, we’ll see.  I’ve always had a playstation, and I do love my PS3.. So I’ll probably end up with a PS4 eventually (hopefully as a gift :D), but I’m not fanboy excited or anything.     

Anonymous asked: So what's the new play toy in the living room. And if you want to disclose, what does it cost. Looks inviting and fun.

That’s actually a play-seat and logitech g25 race wheel setup that I’ve had since 2008 or so, however sam managed to get to it in my old house where i had it stored in 2009 and proceeded to clip up all the cables of the wheel/pedals/shifter.  At that time i made a half hearted attempt to repair the cables and failed so the whole thing got put away in storage and it wasnt until around christmas that I mentioned the broken cables at the in-laws house (Dion’s dad is a gamer as well) and he offered to take a look at it to see if he could fix it.  Result: SUCCESS!! So we’re excited about it and finally able to enjoy Gran Turismo 5, which ironically is why I bought the wheel in the first place but never got a chance to play because it hadn’t been released yet at that time. 

As for cost, it wasn’t cheap.  At the time I think the two together cost me around 400 euros..  I had more disposable income back then, we all did really.  These days I imagine it’d cost about the same depending on which wheel you go for, I’d imagine you dont want to go any lower in quality than a G25/G27 or a Fanatec which go for 200-400 euros just for the wheel kits without the play seat depending if you buy used or not.  Of course, theres plenty of ways you would be able to create a home-made play seat that works just as well and save some cash. 

Anonymous asked: Is Dion back to full time school. I notice she seems to be gone alot, but don't see her studying at the computer like before.

Poor Dion is doing her internship now and unfortunately that entails a 1.5 hour commute each way which is zapping her dry, in addition shes still holding on to hours at her part time job she has/had before the internship so that’s taking her out on weekends.  So yeah, she’s at her limit right now but she should be able to finish that internship in about a month or so and then focus on her final paper and graduate at the end of spring, which we’re all looking forward to. 

Bunny Cam!

I know it wasn’t exactly popular in the past, but I’m glad to have the Sam Cam back in rotation on the streams.  Some new software became available that was compatible with my flash streaming infrastructure that made this possible, and I figure bringing Sam back is better than the alternatives of an empty chair and couch, or dropping to one active stream instead of two.

Everyone look at my bunny!!!!

Anonymous asked: How are you coping with the financial crisis?

Poorly.  If you have any employment opportunities for someone with 10 years experience in financial services with a computer science degree send me an email!  Preferably something I can either telecommute for, or work within the EU. 

I would rather not lean on webseth itself as a business model for financial support, it pays for itself for the most part but I dont see it as a path to stability otherwise.