Time is not linear. One knows this from dealing with death and dying. But in terms of a server and live video, time becomes uprooted, almost implied instead of defined. Streams have no specific beginning, no standard size or speed, and the data doesn’t even have to be audio visual. The possibilities are endless, but coding and decoding for the modern net is a bitch. Not all streams will play on all hardware. Having multiple variations doesn’t simplify things. Sources change. And scheduling has given way to On Demand. But still, I’m not interested in making YouTube videos – I want real time, or as close as possible.

**Current State of Things:**

The mail server is fully functional and even gets along with Gmail, afaik. VPN is also functional but not in use (might be replaced). Photo management is finally solid, though I still have to sort through a bunch of pictures. This website needs to be updated with images and a revamped table of contents – the Legal section needs to be updated and almost everything else archived but still searchable. The front page is going to be a self-hosted BlueSky feed as I’m moving to more of a microblogging pace. There still needs to be a Jeep Page and an About section, but Contact and Comments will no longer be message board style since they only ever collect spam. Email is good enough, or video conference. I’m still considering Jitsi Meet instead of Discord or Matrix, but my focus at this time is on producing a live stream.

Publishing a 24/7 stream is not a small undertaking. Seems simple enough, but I envision something more than an online webcam. I have Jellyfin set up and working beautifully for receiving streams from all over and there is the potential for using it as a publisher, but a lot needs to be done there. Owncast is still planned to be the Skylight window but it converts RTMP to HLS and that all plays natively in browsers now. Mediamtx integrated with Jellyfin might still be the better choice, but we’ll see. Any player on any machine should work. Then, the vision is still to have a looped dynamic playlist that can be preempted by live content. And all this so I can spend my time producing instead of managing content.

Note: if you’re looking for a very cool and highly functional web-based stream player, check out vidgrid.tk.gg – included News feeds and the ability to enter your own m3u links, thousands of which are available at iptv-org.github.io

It’s all about the source. Although skysurfer.media is just a personal site, the vision has always been to create content. As a writer, a musician, and a photographer, it’s all about presence. Authoring has changed greatly since the advent of the internet, but it’s the medium that changes more than the expression – there are still rainbows and beautiful flowers in every codec. And soon I will be publishing from a drone, the jeep, or my phone – live. We’re almost there…