I just got my DSL line installed today. I'm so happy, I could sing.
(But I won't; I don't want you all throwing me outta here :)

  Anyway, what I want is a list (maybe 5 or so?) of websites that just
BEG for a fast connection. I'm not simply looking for huge downloads,
but actual Web content. Web Sites that show off what a fast connection
can really do. Maybe with 3D navigation (Except not Adobe, I already
know that one) or .. well, I don't know what.. Impress me. You're
getting $1.00/link, so make them *REALLY* good.

Have Fun.
googlebrain-ga

googlebrain, 
 
Purely green with envy (sigh), this now-surly researcher suggests that
you try the following high bandwidth sites. Of course, content like
this remains in the clouds to DSL-deprived unfortunates like myself,
but you just go right ahead. Access this stuff in seconds and see if I
care.


Waste your time with entertaining animations and films. It doesn't
bother me a bit:

IFilm High Bandwidth Theatre
http://www.ifilm.com/ifilm/collections/0,4328,503,00.html?cch=8
[don't forget the "More showcases" link at the bottom of the page]


Watch previews of big screen attractions. Soda & popcorn are extra,
but maybe we can work out a little time-sharing deal:

The Internet Movie Database
Top 10 Trailers 
http://us.imdb.com/Sections/Trailers/

Sony Pictures
"Watch Previews"
http://www.sonypictures.com/start.html


Shouldn't you be working on your education, like these responsible
people?:

University of Rochester
2002 Webcast of the 152st Commencement Ceremony 
The College and School of Nursing
http://www.rochester.edu/commencement/live/


DSL people think they are soooo smart, so why don't you see what the
future holds?:

CG Channel
3D Animation & Visual Effects
http://www.cgchannel.com/

Seybold Boston Seminars
http://seminars.seyboldreports.com/2001_boston/quicktime/


At least you can do a little reading:

TextArc
An Alternate Way to View A Text
http://www.textarc.org/


If you can't lose yourself in a book, try an online game:

EverQuest
The World's #1 Massively Multiplayer Online Game
http://everquest.station.sony.com/


Or, explore the past in this dinosaur Art Gallery. Aren't T-Rexes
quite fond of goats tied to residential DSL lines? Hmmm...

The Dinosauricon Art Gallery
http://dinosauricon.com/artists/index.html


Explore the future. So what if the rest of us are stuck down here?:

NASA - Jet Propulsion Lab
Mars Exploration Videos
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/video/


Or just go back to the future:

National Air and Space Museum
Star Wars: The Magic of Myth
http://www.nasm.si.edu/StarWars/guide.htm


As all DSL users must, you will come back down to Earth. When you do,
take a few virtual tours:

Four Chambers Studio
360o Virtual Tours
http://www.fourchambers.org/creative_360.asp

Race Rocks Marine Protected Area
Video Cameras - Live from the Marine Science Center
http://www.uwc.ca/racerock/video3.htm


Well, Google's main search page (://www.google.com/) just finished
loading on my screen (why *do* they make it so image-heavy?), so I've
got some real work to do. With that timesaving DSL connection and all,
I guess you're just going to have look up a few more things by
yourself:

Across Broadband Entertainment Portal
http://www.acrossbroadband.com/

BroadbandReports.Com 
http://www.dslreports.com/

Ultimate 3D Links
http://www.3dlinks.com/


Have fun! Do come back and tell us what the high-bandwidth life is
really like. I'll be right here, just waiting (and waiting, and
waiting, and wait...) by my trusty old modem.

With a green-eyed wink and a nudge to the ribs,

huntsman


Search Terms & Google Results -

"high bandwidth" content
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=%22high+bandwidth%22+content

"high bandwidth" "cool site"
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=%22high+bandwidth%22+%22cool+site%22

"high bandwidth" links
://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&safe=off&q=%22high+bandwidth%22+links&btnG=Google+Search

"high bandwidth" panoramas
://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&safe=off&q=panoramas+%22high+bandwidth%22&btnG=Google+Search

"high bandwidth" test
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=high+bandwidth+test

---

Clarification of Answer by huntsman-ga on 22 Jun 2002 21:43 PDT

googlebrain,

It's sad but true. I don't have DSL, just a humble dialup which tops
out at about 3100 bps in my area. To view full content of these sites,
I would have been there until next Tuesday.

Without knowing your specific interests, or what you may have seen
before posting your question, it's difficult to get a good match. I
knew they wouldn't all be winners from your point of view, so I gave
several more links than you asked for (16 vs. 5).

I hoped for sites you hadn't seen yet (how could I know?), and for
those with a variety of entertainment, educational, or visual content,
not just data files or download tests*. Out of my thirteen suggested
links and three additional high-bandwidth resource links, only three
missed the mark, so apparently I scored some hits.

High-bandwidth content is harder to find. Although overall broadband
access is growing (http://cyberatlas.internet.com/markets/broadband/article/0,,10099_1141701,00.html#table2),
about 80% of users still access the Web via dial ups
(http://www.apts.org/html/digital/broadband/internet_stats.htm), so
low-bandwidth content is more widely available.

If you were to pick two or three subjects that interest you, what
would they be? Give me a few details and I'll look around some more.
Even without that big DSL pipe, I may still be able to flag some
things for you.

huntsman


*When you come right down to it, isn't *everything* that we see on the
Web -- every bit of text, graphics, images, audio, video, or software
-- a data download of kind or another? It's the context of that data
is what we each find appealing, and even face-to-face those particular
qualities are hard to nail down.

Mostly, these sites just had different versions of Big Downloads. I
did quite like some of the stuff (TextArc, for instance was cool, but
it seemed to be more processor intensive than bandwidth restricted)
Everquest? I've been playing that on a 56k modem for over a year. DSL
adds nothing. University of Rochester? Did you even read this page?
It's for their Live streaming webcast of their commencement ceremony.
It took place on May 19th. It's not even archived on the site.
Honestly, I didn't expect someone who DIDN'T have a fast connection to
attempt this question. Obviously I should have specified.

Hey googlebrain! Welcome to the realm of high-speed. I'll post another
comment when I actually FIND some sites that show off our connection.
Mostly I really like the fast download speeds. To try it out for
yourself and really be blown away, install www.speedbit.com 's
Download Accelerator Plus. Configure it to DSL line, the fastest
acceleration mode available, automatically begin download, don't
prompt for info, etc. Then let it fly. So far the fastest server I've
seen to download from is the 6 MB full virus definitions from
www.sarc.com (click on download virus definitions, then lick on
downlaod, then scoll down for the full 6 MB file) During weekday
mornings, I've hit well over 500 K/second.

Now, so that huntsman doesn't keep feeling so bad and green with envy,
let's compare connections.
What's your rated speed down/up? Monthly cost including line fees,
etc?

Mine:
C$39.95/month. Total cost for ADSL. No extra charges on the phone
bill. works out to around US$25/month
1.5 Mbps (1536 Kbps) downstream, 512 Kbps upstream.


I really will comment again when I find a site that shows off the
connection speed. The only one I thought of was iFilm. Go into the
preferences in iFilm, and set it to use windows media player, at 400K
speed. You can watch the videos pretty nicely, streaming, in full
screen.

huntsman-ga

No need to continue abusing your dial-up connection. sparky4ca-ga
seems to have figured out what I was asking for.

googlebrain-ga

Here are some big ones I think you'll only enjoy with a fast
connection:

http://www.launch.com/
Streaming music videos based upon your personal rankings of songs and
artists.

http://historywired.si.edu/
Innovative interface... and HUGE content that will make you wait, even
with DSL.

http://www.understandingusa.com/
If you hit this site with a dial-up connection, you'll probably think
your computer is broken <grin>.

http://www.earthbrowser.com/
The high bandwidth is most helpful when you start jumping to the web
cams stationed around the globe.  Otherwise, I suppose a modem would
be fine... though your DSL is "always on" which keeps your globe up to
date.

http://www.mitchhedberg.net/
You can download streaming video clips of Mitch Hedberg Comedy Central
show and late night TV appearances.  Perhaps you will find him funny.

http://www.hob.com/onlinemusic/concerts/
The House of Blues archive of concert webcasts.

try some BIG websites like
http://www.balthaser.com
OR
find some really BIG websites at http://www.linkdup.com which required
shockwave and flash to run the sites. This would help you check your
speed.

The first day I moved in my dorm room with a T-1 connection, I watched
the BBC World streaming video (200 k) live 24 hours a day.  The site
http://wwitv.com/tv.htm lists various locations where you can watch
streaming video from many places (try the broadband link).  The
Library of Congress has an archive website at http://memory.loc.gov
that begs for a high-speed connection.  Quicktime
(http://www.quicktime.com) offers mind-blowing trailers for upcoming
movies.  Many shows on PBS has been put online (http://www.pbs.org),
for example, Nova (http://www.pbs.org/nova).  If you think all of the
above are just downloads, try Shockwave (http://www.shockwave.com). 
Some games there are pretty useless with a dialup.
Congratulations on your newfound wealth and happy surfing.

Hmmm.

I just came across this massive (4MB!) site, that should give any
high-speed connection pause ...

http://www.e-sheep.com/delta/heartofthesun/index.html

Please note that it contains adult themes.

rico

ARGGH. I've been typing a list of sites for 90 minutes now. I go to
one site. I clicked a low-bandwidth link instead of high, so I closed
the player window. Everything closed! AAAGGGH!. Oh well, here's what I
can recall:

downloading from microsoft.com is pretty fast. good example of how
well a 386 handles adsl.

bandwidthplace.com has a great speed test.

be careful, this is the one that killed everything on me:
http://www.bilingualprek.org/sdl.html

www.movieweb.com is supposed to be good, but it's down at the moment

windowsmedia.com

apple.com/quicktime
great trailers. should have rememebred this, we use it at work to demo
a wireless LAN sharing a Shaw cable conneciton.

most of the movie studios have stuff.

www.nativeradio.com

not the most interesting, but:
http://www.lifesci.consortium.umn.edu/conferences/gmosconf.php#watchonline

list of some hish-end sites like ifilm:
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/e_business_basics/49413

high bandwidth links, but they're on a slow server:
http://www.netsite.co.uk/multimedia.asp

a temporary replacement for adcritic.com
http://www.boardsmag.com/screeningroom/commercials

kazaalite (www.kazaalite.com)
find someone with a good upload speed, and watch a movie in realtime
full screen as it downloads!

www.screenblast.com

not exactly blazing content, but the super-high site is still pretty
fast
http://library.thinkquest.org/2935/

some flash:
http://www.daywatch2000.com/episodes.htm

I usually avoid flash/shockwave because they're as much a strain on
the CPU as on the connection.

link #2 is nice:
http://www.museumstuff.com/links/art/periods/21_century/

http://www.multimediamotion.com/

quite the intro"
http://www.gulknit.com/

"showreel"
http://www.witsindia.com/

some big movies
http://www.arc.nasa.gov/computing.html

I recall NASA having a database of pictures from space shuttle videos
that were huge (taken on a 6 megapixel camera)
look around their main page
nasa.gov

EXCELLENT LINK!!!:
http://www.myst3.com/html/downloads.html
24 MB quicktime trailer for the game, on a very fast server. I had
finished downloading the file before I was even 1/2 way through
playing it. avergaed around 150 KBps (1200 Kbps) download.

more links
http://film.guardian.co.uk/cybercinema/storynonav/0,7645,429113,00.html

http://www.powerpopradio.com/
unfortunately, they use something called live365. I didn't want to use
their player, or interfere with my winamp playlist, so I chose
realplayer. Their site doesn't recognise realone as being realplayer 7
or better.
SOmetimes I don't either.
I've gone from realaudio 1 to realmedia something to realplayer 7 to
realplayer G2 and now to realone. Version number don't seem to meen
much any more.
Windows 3.0, 3.1, 3.11, 95, 95 OSR2, 98, 98SE, ME, XP
Word 1 to 6, word for windows 1 & 2, then word 6 for windows, 97, 98
(mac) 2000, 2001 (mac), XP
Netscape 1 and 2. netscape 3 (usually gold), netscape Communicator 4
(which included Navigator 4. shouldn't it be communicator 1?), 4.0x,
4.5-4.79, 6. No five?
NT 3, 3.5, 3.51, 2000 (what happened to the other 1996.49 version in
between? I must have missed those releases), XP. (Sorry, I can't count
to XP on my calculator. Or is XP actually "multiplied by P"?)

internet 2 to really make us ADSL users feel bad. Sonet, OC-48, and
T3/E3 speeds.
http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/750/aii/projects/internet2_nrn.html

some 256K videos:
http://www.wildform.com/resources/gallery_vv.php?sid=%7BSESSION_ID%7D#reagan1

my search terms on google:
high bandwidth websites -hosting
I went through the first 15 pages. You can fell free to look for more.

Some of the best highspeed content has vanished.
entertaindom.com used to have a great colleciton of streaming video.
They've been absorbed into warner brothers, but a lot of the content
has vanished. They used to have a hilarious spoof of scream/etc.
movies. Can't remember what it was called, just that it was about 15
minutes, and played great in full screen. no sign of it anymore.

likewise adcritic.com
used to have great highbandwidth versions of advertising to look at.