[mulmen]

Streaming is not exclusively live video. Streaming is viewing the file as it downloads. As a stream. The alternative is what we did in the dark ages. Download the entire file before beginning playback.

[fnord123]

Even in the dark ages (e.g. '97) we could watch the fragment of the avi videos as they downloaded.

[mulmen]

‘97 is classic antiquity. The dark ages came later, after civilization fell. We obtained WMVs from Kazaa because that’s all that was left.

[xdavidliu]

I myself preferred realplayer ("buffering...") and its more advanced cousin realplayer G2.

[richardfey]

From what I remember WMVs were mostly fake so I would never download them

[michaelmrose]

WMVs can embed instructions on where to grab codecs or authorization to play the content in the multimedia. Back in the day if you played WMV with windows media player this could be used to pwn your computer.

[kevinhq]

damn. then I've been living through those ages. I feel old.