NPR's Car Talk Switches Back To RealAudio 377
taped2thedesk writes "Today, NPR's Car Talk, a 'call in talk [radio] show about car mechanics', announced they were switching back to RealAudio, after dumping it for Windows Media a few months ago. When the show switched to Windows Media, Real took notice and convinced the show to switch back, by addressing various listener complaints about their player (many of which were fixed in RealPlayer 10). The hosts say: 'We believe [Real have] made a serious and successful attempt to address those things that our listeners complained about most... They even offered to serve the audio for free online, which defrays an expense we'd otherwise have to cover.'"
Don't Cross The Streams (Score:5, Interesting)
Nice to know that I can listen to Click and Clack on my computer without being constantly bombarded with pop-ups from a piece of annoyware.
Oh wait, I've been doing that for weeks thanks to Real Alternative [hccnet.nl]. All the joy of streaming audio without Real's player.
Re:Don't Cross The Streams (Score:5, Informative)
Another interesting tidbit I came across was that they also have an alternative for the number one buggy movie player, Quicktime (which I likewise refuse to install). Now I can view both formats with none of the buggyness, and also have only one media player to worry about. Less is more.
realplayer 8 (Score:2, Insightful)
I still have my downloaded REAL PLAYER 8 installer from circa 1999, with REAL JUKEBOX. That's the only RealPlayer I install. It's great, just before the REALONE player. But I still get annoying "a new version of real player is available" messages.
Re:realplayer 8 (Score:5, Informative)
Re:realplayer 8 (Score:4, Informative)
Another happy Real Alternative User!
Re:Don't Cross The Streams (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Don't Cross The Streams (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Don't Cross The Streams (Score:5, Informative)
car talk, not real player (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Don't Cross The Streams (Score:5, Informative)
This is probably a little offtopic, but what the heck.
Interestingly enough, Rob Glaser, founder of RealNetworks [wikipedia.org], has 'crossed streams' with Microsoft. In fact, he was a top executive there before moving on to found RealNetworks.
So it's little wonder that the battle between Microsoft and RealNetworks is so fierce at times - there are no enemies like old friends.
Re:Don't Cross The Streams (Score:4, Funny)
I thought those guys were a piece of annoyware. Go figure.
Re:Don't Cross The Streams (Score:5, Funny)
You think that was bad? I used to listen to them on the radio in the car. You know how hard it is to close a popup on your windshield while keeping your hands at 2 and 10? It's damned hard, I tell you.
RealPlayer is a commercial virus. (Score:5, Insightful)
If my only option for a site serving streaming media is RealPlayer, I will just skip on by and not watch / listen. There are too many alternatives on the web; I can always find somethign as good or better that won't force me to install RealPlayer.
RealPlayer lost my trust a long time ago and there are too many options that are far more consumer-friendly for me to bother to give them a second chance.
Fuhgettaboutit.
Re:RealPlayer is a commercial virus. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Don't Cross The Streams (Score:5, Informative)
Free-Codecs.com [free-codecs.com]
and
CodecsDownload.com [codecsdownload.com]
These two domains are mirros of each other, and also good source of many video codecs and even some free/OSS media players.
Don't Cross The Streams - A More Complete Thought (Score:5, Funny)
Venkman: I'm fuzzy on the whole good-bad thing. Whattya mean "bad?"
Egon: Try to imagine all media players as you set them up stopping instantaneously and every file association on your computer exploding at the speed of light.
Ray: Total protonic reversal....
Venkman: Right, that's bad...OK.. important safety tip. Thanks, Slashdot.
Re:Don't Cross The Streams (Score:3, Interesting)
I personally have no problem using Real software. Well, not the current version, which isn't quite so buggy as older versions. But I know how to disable all the obnoxious features still left.
But that's not true for most people. Which is why no ethical content provider should require its listeners to deal with Real.
The sad fac
Re:Don't Cross The Streams (Score:5, Insightful)
While I personally am downloading their new software to see if they have learned their lesson, I can hardly fault others for writing this off as too little, too late.
Re:Don't Cross The Streams (Score:5, Insightful)
While I admire the parent poster's fair-mindedness in giving Real another chance, I can't advise anyone else to emulate Saucepan (12098).
Why can I not? Because several versions of RealPlayer ago, I recall that Real has also claimed that they'd realized their mistakes and that their then-current version wasn't full of annoyances and spy-ware. So, trying, like the parent poster to be impartial and fair-minded, I installed that version -- only to discover that it hid anti-privacy settings deep in its settings UI, and that it attempted to phone home regardless of those settings, and that it hijacked extensions and ran unnecessary processes and in general was ill-behaved.
And on actually using it, I found that its main UI gave over as much screen real (no pun intended) estate to advertisements as to whatever I was playing, and that it wouldn't start without bombarding me with ads, and that when I actually did play any media with it, the playback quality was abysmal compared to its competitors. Oh, and
Real has claimed once too often that it has corrected its excesses for me to spend another half-hour installing it, and another week uninstalling it and resetting all the various settings it mucks with to status quo ante.
With apologies for invoking Godwin's Law, I've just finished reading William L. Shirer's The Nightmare Years: 1930-1940, in which he recounts reporting on Nazi Germany first for the Chicago Tribune and later for CBS Radio (in fact, Shirer and colleague Edward R. Murrow pretty much pioneered the format used by radio and TV news to this day, of having an "anchor" in one place with correspondents reporting in from the field).
Naturally, Shirer recounts, as does any history of that period, Adolf Hitler's various speeches, in each of which Hitler would claim his latest territorial demand would be his last: first he wanted nothing more than the Rhineland, then his claims ended with the Austria Anschluss, then absorbing the Sudetenland would settle his claims, then Danzig (Gdansk) and the Corridor, etc., etc. In each speech, Hitler would claim he was working for peace -- and that it could be attained by granting his latest -- and, he claimed, final -- demand.
Real's actions, while nothing compared to Hitler's of course, do seem to follow the same pattern: we are told that each new version is that last we will need, and that each news version "fixes" Real's anti-social and sneaky behavior. But with each new version, we find that somehow, despite Real's protestations to the contrary, the anti-social behavior remains. I'm sorry, but the little bit of content that can only be played using RealPlayer just isn't worth the aggravation -- or the chagrin of finding, on installing RealPlayer, that I've been tricked once again
Re:Don't Cross The Streams (Score:3, Insightful)
Some people are complaining that Real waited too long to make the changes. It's like someone posted above (who got modded flamebait by a seething troll moderator), they're damned if they do and damned if they don't. One thing I've learned about on Slashdot: There are certain companies and individuals that people love to ha
Re:Don't Cross The Streams (Score:5, Informative)
Included are some testimonials from (allegedly) actual Real co. employees.
Very Good Reason (Score:4, Interesting)
Completely. Utterly. Requires a hard reset.
It has the disticntion of being the only peice of software I have ever installed that can do this EVERY TIME I START IT under Windows 2000.
Does that answer your question?
Re:Very Good Reason (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Very Good Reason (Score:5, Insightful)
Some other examples of the same principle:
'gcc reliably crashes when building this code' => there is a bug in gcc, not your code;
'my web browser crashes when viewing this page' => the fault is with the web browser, not the page;
'my computer crashes when I scroll the mouse wheel in a particular way' => the computer or operating system is faulty, not the mouse.
Re:Very Good Reason (Score:4, Insightful)
I have to ask, in all the time you spent asking the Mozilla developers about this problem, did you do anything to report it to the vendor of the operating system or device drivers you are using?
"Bug in the graphics driver or Windows' graphics subsytem is rather irrelevant" - no, the bug is in the operating system. It is not irrelevant.
I'm glad that you were able to stop triggering the OS bug by changing to a newer version of Mozilla, one that is less memory-hungry. I am sure there are many bugs that were fixed in Mozilla that stopped it stressing the system so much. But this means that a chance of fixing the real, underlying bug is lost. It may still exist and be biting some other user running a different application.
You have a too low opinion of Windows 2000 and an operating system's job. If the machine crashes this indicates either faulty hardware, or faulty operating system (including device drivers). Always.
Re:Don't Cross The Streams (Score:4, Interesting)
And there is a huge difference between pirated software and reverse-engineered software. Piracy is illegal and immoral, reverse-engineering is generally admirable and is afforded the protection of the law. This gives Real competition inside of their own product line. If there had been an alternative like this in 1997, they would have started cleaning up their act a lot sooner.
If it "hurts" real because they don't receive my e-mail address to spam, my computer to infect (still has a launcher), and my eyeballs to sell on a proprietary music service incompatible with everything else, then good. They should stick to making money by selling the video streaming solutions they are so good at / make so much more money doing.
Declarifying the topic... (Score:5, Interesting)
Wow. First Microsoft adds a project to Sourceforge and now Real has admitted that not everyone likes being bombarded by pushy bookmarks and shortcuts of unusual size. What next? SCO admiting that maybe they didn't invent sliced bread?
Seriously though, I'm glad to see that Tom and Ray gave Real a second chance. If it's true that they is dedicated to responding to customer's complaints then this is a good thing for everyone.
Re:Declarifying the topic... (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe RealPlayer 10 is crammed with Spyware(tm). I mean, if they give away the player and it doesn't blast you with ads and Real is footing the bandwidth for NPR, what's the business model?
Re:Declarifying the topic... (Score:2, Insightful)
Granted, I don't plan on installing this anytime soon (I get my Car Talk fix on the radio - part of my Saturday morning ritual), but I'll gladly sit back and let others install it ("Tragedy is a paper cut on my finger. Comedy is when you fall down an open sewer and die" - Mel Brooks).
Re:Declarifying the topic... (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, the concerns and responses as addressed on the cartalk website do mention not installing any software that you don't want installed.
The business model that RealNetworks is fulfilling by footing the bill for the cartalk stream is one where they generate large amounts of good karma with consumers. By getting cartalk to switch back they're going to get the invariably occuring coverage to spread the word about how good those guys over at Real are. In addition, with the cartalk site expounding the changes found in RealPlayer 10 it's showing what's changed to groups of people that were complaining in the first place and re-earning a spot on those users' hard drives for the company's software. Once they've gotten their foot in the door with cartalk listeners it snowballs into more support for a) other sites which use Real feeds and b) more support for the idea of going with Real for streaming audio when a site is confronted with having to decide what format they're going to go with.
Re:Declarifying the topic... (Score:3, Insightful)
There's also the sale of their Helix server, but that costs a shitload of money, and
Whats next (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Whats next (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, AOL.
(Okay, that was obvious. Sorry.)
what are the pluses again? (Score:2, Insightful)
I realize there are alternatives, but most people are unaware.
Mike
Re:what are the pluses again? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:what are the pluses again? (Score:5, Interesting)
And they even offered to serve the audio for free online, which defrays an expense we'd otherwise have to cover.
We're in no position to ever turn down generosity, no matter how misguided. So, we took them up on their offer, before they could reconsider.
Also they mentioned the "Hidden" free player problem. I mentioned it awhile back on slashdot but the trolls came out and said "Its right there!!!" Well, looks even Real admited the free version was hard to find.
On the issue of the "hidden" free player, they've agreed to provide a direct link from Car Talk to a clear, uncluttered, free player download page. On the issue of pop ups, they tell us they're gone.
Re:Not hidden on Real's site anymore... (Score:3, Informative)
Not bad, many many years later you can finally get to it in 2 clicks, and they still want to use a crappy web installer.
Sorry Real, too little too late. Real treated the customers like crap. Spam, Popup ads, couldnt find the link to download, application took over your system, file assocications, and the list goes on.
Re:what are the pluses again? (Score:3, Informative)
I think I speak for all of us when I say (Score:2, Insightful)
This is very nice, but I still wish Real would die slow and horrible death, with their marketing department who created StartCenter getting leprosy and plague and being sold into slavery and having to toil 20-hour workdays, and with children of their children being exterminated from the face of the Earth, so that any genetic knowledge that existed of StartCenter and default message preferences being selected for you right beneath the scrollable window would be erased from the face of this planet, and all t
Choose wisely... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Choose wisely... (Score:2)
unless the attack MUST kill you, in which case being shot would be quicker.
Re:Choose wisely... (Score:4, Insightful)
In fact, you strip away the Windows/Apple/Real logos and put the players and capabilities side by side, and they're pretty much like for like. Oh, except for Real's sucky spy/adware...
Personally... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Personally... (Score:2)
*nix support at Real (Score:2, Interesting)
"- Windows 98SE, Windows ME, Windows NT 4.0
with Service Pack 6 or later(playback only), Windows 2000 with Service Pack 2 or later, or Windows XP
- IE 5.0 or later"
I truly wish they would do more to support *nix users - they DO have *nix versions but they are well behind the development of the Window$ versions... I'd like to see a *nix version of their Rhapsody player made available as well.
Re:*nix support at Real (Score:5, Informative)
https://player.helixcommunity.org/ [helixcommunity.org]
Downloads are available here [helixcommunity.org]:
MS2.1 had problems playing back non-realaudio/realvideo datatypes -- if you need these, M2 is a better bet.
Nightly builds are also available -- see the player webpage for details.
What's so hard... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What's so hard... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:What's so hard... (Score:3, Insightful)
Media Player Classic (Score:5, Informative)
If you need a test station may I suggest O'Franken Factor [airamericaradio.com]
O'Franken Factor (Score:3, Insightful)
Now I know that talk radio is intensly irritating, even if I agree with the politics!
true statements often are (Score:3, Interesting)
No it is really meant to expose the hypocrisy and for people that read it to reflect of the danger of too much "Faith".
I think it's offensive
The comment is absolutely true I think the problem is that is co-opt a word that you think is useful for your agenda and I find dangerous.
Something is wrong (Score:2, Insightful)
car talk shows online (Score:5, Informative)
I know the site used to have archived "favorites" of many, many shows when it was hosted by cars.com. However, I don't see the favorite clips listed anymore...
Other sites making the switch unsuccessfully (Score:5, Interesting)
I hate the Real bundle-of-everything-I-don't-want-with-the-one-th
Really, what's Real's business strategy? (Score:5, Interesting)
On the other hand, Real's reason to exist is streaming media....and admittedly, they had a headstart over the others. But is it really feasible for them to survive based solely on RealServer software sales? I don't think any reasonably sane/not abnoxiously rich person would subscibe to their "Real Gold Superpass" etc.
I think that's why they were pushing on advertising, popups and spyware with such fervor - that's about the only means of income and existence they have left - without a reliable business plan.
Re:Really, what's Real's business strategy? (Score:2)
Real's subscription offerings are great if you want certain news/sport video, and don't get it from TV.
Nothing a little brib.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Hosting the show's audio for free is as good as paying the show to stay with them.
It's actually not too bad... (Score:5, Interesting)
It's actually really not bad at all. The install is fairly short and lets you pick your media types, what shortcuts to install, etc. and unlike old versions of RealPlayer doesn't just DO IT ANYWAY. ("Would you like your homepage changed to real.com?" "No." "Homepage changed!") It doesn't ask for some obnoxious registration, load itself into my start bar, or do any of that other "helpful" BS that made the old RealPlayer such a dog.
So far it seems to be a small little player that does what it does, and nothing you don't want. Since I still don't really trust Real, I'm waiting for some popup to come up, or wake up one day and find "RealConsole RAM-Fucker Pro" installed on my desktop or something, but so far, nothing.
But for now, it just plays Realaudio files. What a novel concept for an application. It's actually been pleasant to use. (RealVideo still sucks, though.)
Re:It's actually not too bad... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:It's actually not too bad... (Score:3, Informative)
Ran SpyBot right now. After a full scan in Advance Mode, nothing except a few cookies.
Now, I do notice that RealPlayer uses an embedded Internet Explorer window. So if it got a tracker cookie, that would be a red-flag on AdAware. But, so would going to just about any major website on the planet, so... Are you sure that Ad Aware didn't just r
Re:It's actually not too bad... (Score:5, Informative)
You do realize that the AdAware engine is not psychic, right? Nor does it use a heuristic to identify mal-ware.
AdAware -- much like a virus checker --, identifies Trojans and ad-ware by "signature", some array of bytes unique to the annoyance in question. Until somebody examines a program, decides it is mal-ware, extracts that program';s signature and adds it to AdAware's signature database, Ad-ware doesn't "know" about it.
For all we know, Realplayer installs -- or is itself -- mal-ware, but no one from Ad-ware has gotten around to labelling it as such. After all, RealPlayer Ten is rather new.
And people can legitimately disagree about what is ad-ware: surely RealPlayer has claimed that all its versions of Realplayer did nothing illegitimate, as RealPlayer maintained that it wasn't popping up ads, but "informative messages", and that phoning home uniquely identifying information about its users was a positive benefit for those users.
Don't misunderstand me: AdAWare is a useful product, but it's no panacea and it -- like a virus scanner -- will unavoidably always be a bit out of date. In the case of RealPlayer, I'd trust RealPlayer's track-record of untrustworthiness.
Still Crappy (Score:3, Interesting)
What about the complaint of reporting back to HQ? (Score:5, Insightful)
Does the current version still do this? It is not listed in the user complaints they responded to. Maybe this is the core way they make money. If so I can understand why this might be a complaint they don't want to make changes to please their users.
But some open-ness about it would be a good thing.
Or maybe they made this change a long time ago? Well, a lot of us don't hang on their every announcement...
Public Radio should not even use MP3 streams. (Score:3, Interesting)
As an avid WNYC listener and member, I applaud the choice to move away from Windows Media format. However, MP3 is a patented format [mp3-tech.org] that is not Free (as in Freedom). I am sure that I am in the minority here, but I can't help but feel that in some way I am being slighted. In my opinion, the principles involved in my choice to use Free Software on my computer are much akin to the reasons I choose to listen to Public Radio.
mp3licensing.com [mp3licensing.com]states:
"A license is needed for commercial (i.e., revenue-generating) use of mp3/mp3PRO in broadcast systems (terrestrial, satellite, cable and/or other distribution channels), streaming applications (via Internet, intranets and/or other networks), other content distribution systems (pay-audio or audio-on-demand applications and the like) or for use of mp3/mp3PRO on physical media (compact discs, digital versatile discs, semiconductor chips, hard drives, memory cards and the like)."
"However, no license is needed for private, non-commercial activities (e.g., home-entertainment, receiving broadcasts and creating a personal music library), not generating revenue or other consideration of any kind or for entities with an annual gross revenue less than US$ 100 000.00."
How does this apply to WNYC? I for one prefer not to have my contributions to be used to pay support this kind of thing, when it is against my social and political ideals. Especially when there are free (as in beer and speech) alternatives such as the Xiph project [xiph.org].
It is my hope to not second guess the current decision to standardize on MP3, but to perhaps begin a dialogue for openness in media formats in the future of public radio. For now I can live with MP3. I will have to compromise and add non-free software to my computer, for now.
Re:Public Radio should not even use MP3 streams. (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, they're only using the de facto standard in digitized audio: they must really be out to fuck you over.
Mp3 has been a standard -- not an agreed-upon standard, but a "well, everyone can listen to it and it works well enough" standard for years; the "decision to standardize on MP3" as you put it, was made ages ago, and just about the only thing that has even come close to putting a dent in mp3 is wma's ubiquitousness and windows not including an mp3 encoder by default (ie, you have to BUY one, because windows media player won't just use LAME -- and 99% of users wouldn't know LAME's use if you explained it to them in 78-point font.)
Re:Public Radio should not even use MP3 streams. (Score:3, Informative)
Benefit to cellphone users! (Score:2)
p.s. T-Mobile unlimited data plans make this all possible, btw!
--D
Ogg Icecast? (Score:5, Informative)
I found a list here:
http://www.icecast.org/streamlist.php [icecast.org]
Not as many as I had hoped to find.
steveha
Re:Ogg Icecast? (Score:3, Informative)
what is wrong with MP3? (Score:4, Insightful)
Free player really is easy to find... (Score:3, Interesting)
Hey, didn't Complaint #5 deal with popups?????
--D
BBC adware-free (Score:3, Informative)
Very close to the edge (Score:5, Insightful)
It's incredible that a company should have to back down from a series of agressive marketing techniques in this way: it suggests they have either seriously misunderstood their market, or that they are under serious pressure to exploit it harder, even at a high cost in credibility.
I suspect that it will eventually become standard procedure for software to become fairly agressive in taking over the desktop, uninstalling or crippling other products, redirecting browsers, etc. The techniques currently used by the most evil spyware trojans (like CoolWebSearch) will probably become mainstream as companies look for a way, any way to keep their software visible on the users' desktops.
Or maybe I'm just being pessimistic.
Re:Very close to the edge (Score:3, Insightful)
From closed to closed - what's the point? (Score:5, Interesting)
I understand (and sometimes make) the argument that "gratis" doesn't always mean "cheap", since someone has to run the system and in this setting you'd probably have to pay them to do it. Still, the whole reason I love listening to these guys so much is that they are the alpha geeks of the automotive mechanic world. It's not like Tom and Ray are a couple of guys who tinker with cars in their back yard and have no technology background.
Real Player doesn't come with Windows XP, so you can't use the argument that you don't want to make your users install additional software, since they'll have to anyway. The official answer from NPR [npr.org] is that
although I'm not quite ready to believe that compressing to Real or WMA format is less costly that compressing to Vorbis.heh....hosting it for free eh? (Score:3, Insightful)
But I suppose dirty tactics are fair game when you're competeting with Microsoft. .
Still, I wouldn't let any Real software touch my computer with a ten-foot pole. It's disgusting how it takes over once you give it a foot in the door. I use the Real Alternative [free-codecs.com].
Streaming Audio (Score:5, Insightful)
It annoys me that sites like NPR and Air America Radio use Real, not to mention other news sites.
Thank goodness for RealAlternative
I already get CarTalk w/o ads or Real -- VCR it! (Score:5, Informative)
An old radio, a sound card, and a few shell scripts -- that's all it takes.
Bangs head on wall (Score:3, Insightful)
Why do they have to force us to use shitty proprietary players? I could give a crap about Car Talk, but there's some good shows on NPR that I WOULD love to listen to if I could, but I refuse to pollute my Windows box with RealPlayer.
Won't someone please think of the end-users?
Re:Bangs head on wall (Score:3, Funny)
There is something redundant about this sentiment, but I can't quite figure out what it is.
Sorry....low blow
Obvious (Score:3, Funny)
That's the only line that means anything in the whole article.
Why is this news? I can walk down to the streetcorner if I want to see whores.
Here's an even better solution (Score:5, Interesting)
Pros
The worst ad's are sponsorship recognition
You learn something new every day
You become more liberal every day
No spyware
Supported by most AM/FM radios
Better news coverage than Fox News
Less Hollywood gossip induced brain atrophy
None of that [BUFFERING....] [97%][BUFFERING...] crap!
Cons
You still have to listen to the registration notice [Fund Drive] twice a year, even after you've paid the annual support fee! :)
Friends look at you funny when every other sentance starts with "I heard on NPR that..."
Screw you ClearChannel, we don't need that poppy Britney, Timberlake, OMG WTF Celeb shit, or the 57 Minute Non-stop Commercial MegaMixes!! Get your spam off of my radio
Sorry for the rant, Car Talk rulez, keep it real Click & Clack!
Re:Here's an even better solution (Score:3, Funny)
Because my local NPR station plays light string music instead of talk radio 90% of the time that I'm near a radio!
Re:Here's an even better solution (Score:3, Funny)
Unless you're fortunate enough to live in an area that can pick up more than one NPR station. At least here, they haven't become smart enough to run their fund drives simultaneously :).
Re:Here's an even better solution (Score:4, Insightful)
Hell, I think even regular old ads would be better. I find them far less disturbing for some reason.
Re:Here's an even better solution (Score:4, Insightful)
I know that's the conventional wisdom about NPR, but I just don't hear it. Perhaps it's the case on PHC or some of the other weekend fare, but as for ATC and morning edition (I commute 2 hours every day) it all sounds fairly balanced to me. I don't agree with every opinion expressed, and that's how it should be. And besides, whenever a story is not presented in a completely equal way, some listener is ready to write in explaining the inequity, and then they read the letter on the air.
I guess my point is, at least they try to be fair, and are ready to air criticism if they are less than fair. I imagine if they really were so liberal, Mr. Franken et al would not feel the need to start their own left-wing radio.
Re:WTF? (Score:3, Informative)
I am going for the first time use my karma bonus to set this straight. In every other place than the US, liberal is very similar to libertarian. Indeed what is called in United States as libertarian in Europe and in political science is called liberal.
Wikipedia Political Liberalism article [wikipedia.org] is saying:
Notable among these are "free market liberalism" (the most common use of the term in Europe) and a br
What really made them to go back to Real? (Score:5, Funny)
mp3 streams (Score:4, Informative)
Luckily the GENIUSES at Science Friday [sciencefriday.com] help make it possible by maintaining a rather concise list [sciencefriday.com] of NPR streams of various formats, including mp3.
But these are all localized streams, and likely not localized to your location. Would be nice if there was a national stream available for free in an open format.
One would think donations from large organizations like Real Media would make it possible to offer MORE choices, not less.
Doing everything right (Score:5, Insightful)
1. They start working heavily with the open source community through Helix [helixcommunity.org], including making a free Linux player that handles real (which, btw, is probably where the people who made the Real Alternative got the material to make the codecs).
2. They remove the bloat and ads from their software as a direct result of people's complaints. Not only that, they let you turn off all their popups. Name 3 other free closed source softwares that allow you to do that.
3. They're working with the Doom9 community [doom9.org], which is probably the biggest internet community about audio/video matters.
And none of this is good enough? Christ, that's as pig-headed as idiots [microsoft.com] who keep chanting that Linux is just a hobbiest server OS [microsoft.com] and will never be useful on the desktop.
For the record, I hated Real too, but since they seem to be genuinely giving it a real effort, I figured I'd give them another try. So I downloaded and installed Real 10 just now. Fiding the free download off their website was trivial -- it was in big bold blue letters on the side of their downloads page. Who would have trouble finding *that*? Yah, it's not as big as the big graphic showing their pay version, but hey, they have employees to pay. Get over it.
Install was easy -- It did ask to take over all my media files, but I just turned them off, then went into advanced, and turned on DVD playback for Real -- Real does a much better job on DVDs than WMP, for sure. Only other annoyance during install was they asked me to register. This is not unlike other media players [winamp.com] that I use regularly, so I did. A quick click to turn off the popups from their quick-launch app, and I'm done. Not exactly the nightmare of previous Real installations.
So yeah. I can see people complaining about Real because of what they did in the past, but jesus, they're giving it an honest effort here, and remember, any time Real wins, Microsoft LOSES. =)
If you have not actually TRIED real 10... (Score:5, Informative)
So I tried Real 10. So far...no crashes, and if you disable the browser feature it's JUST AS FAST AS REAL 8...and for any of you that ACTUALLY have an open mind and want to try it, here is information from the Helix community forums on how to optimize Real 10.
>
>
> I work for RealNetworks, and I am the first to admit RealPlayer is not my favorite media player. For video, Media Player Classic (MPC) is, and yes, I use MPC to play my RV9-EHQ aka RV10 content.
>
> Previous RealPlayers have been pretty impolite to put it mildly, and along with so many other computer users, I have been ticked off by its behaviour in many ways. It has been possible to make it well mannered, but it has included being forced to delete certain files to prevent that annoying Message Center. However, it has not been spyware in a long time, even though one old player did send back some usage information. That's long gone, but it's hard to be forgiven for that mistake.
>
> Considering how past players have created such a bad reputation, this post is probably futile, but anyway... Thanks to those few positive posts though, especially for the Linux and OS X players. It is nice to see someone taking the time to give it a another chance.
>
> This RealPlayer 10 is better than before, it is fast, small, and does not run +10MB services in the background, like one well known example, name withheld. However, this post is not really about performance, even though a lot could be said about improvements in this area. More importantly in this discussion, it is also better in terms of its behaviour, albeit less better than me, many of my co-workers, and all of you, had hoped for.
>
> Here's what you need to do when installing:
>
> * Choose Custom Install
> * Uncheck all the boxes you don't like for stuff on the desktop and quicklaunch bar. There is nothing hidden by a scroll bar, at least not with my computer screen size.
> * Check only the media types you want it to play. This is the only time you will be asked this, it will never try to take back any media types. Now, is this really so bad compared to other software, in regards to media types? It's not as polite as MPC, but I have other media players which take over media types, and there is not even an option to customize this..
> * Start RealPlayer, you may have to create an account. Everybody hates this, and wish it would go way. Agreed, but RealNetworks has to make money somehow, and the number of users is a needed measure to document. So use fake information if you like.
> * Then go to Tools->Preferences->Automatic Services, Click Configure Message Center, then uncheck "Check for new messages". Click OK on the "warning" that comes up. Now you will never be bothered by the Message Center. In previous versions, you could not disable the Message Center completely, without deleting certain files. Minor improvement, it's still opt-out, but at least it's possible. Check or uncheck Auto-update in its sub-menu as well.
> * Go to Tools->Preferences->General and set On startup display to "Player only". That way, no browser, and it starts much quicker.
>
> So to summarize, a few clicks are needed to opt-out, you have to "sign in" the first time. Yes, somewhat annoying, but that's about it. It could have been better, but compared to many other examples, it's not that terrible. Since it has been so very bad in the past though, it clearly should have changed more to make a shining example, but since it is RealNetworks' main vehicle for generating revenue, there is a lot of nervousness about changing things too quickly.
>
> Download the free RealPlayer 10 Beta here, with no re-direction or sales tricks:
>
> http://www.real.com/freeplayer/?rppr=slashdot [real.com]
>
> A
industry whoring (Score:3, Interesting)
This kind of practice is rampant in the industry. A company with large resources gives away inferior products and services in order to maintain business. A classic example of how the larger companies intentionally lose money to maintain the status quo, stifle innovation, and keep smaller operations from getting good contracts.
Obviously in the case of Real verses WMP, it's two big companies, but you'd think MS might also jump into the whorehouse against Real, but since WMP is the crux of a lot of suspected anti-trust activity, maybe they won't? In any case, all this stuff is really bad for consumers and the industry.
I don't know what version of Realplayer I have, but if I dare click on a link, when the program launches, it still installs that insideous tkbell.exe "worm" in my startup. I'm sick of Real.
Good News Garage (Score:5, Interesting)
The guys in the shop were not what you usually expect a mechanic to be. What I saw in those guys was the same thing I see in my propeller-headed software engineer colleagues. They were car hackers.
The most interesting visual in my memory was the heavy bearded guy welding a muffler with safety glasses on his face (i.e. no face mask) and a cigar hanging out of his mouth, talking about the physics of engine compression and how it is related to the exhaust system.
How to make RealPlayer 10 play nice (Score:3, Informative)
Here's a step-by-step guide [doom9.org] on how to install RealPlayer 10 with all the nagging features turned off. And the guy who wrote it should know - he's a senior engineer for RealNetworks.
Talking Car Radio? (Score:5, Funny)
You say "Rock", you get the rock station.
You say "Country", you get the redneck station.
You say "Classical", you get Beethoven and friends.
The other day, he was driving around and two kids ran right out in front of his car.
He screamed "Fucking Kids!"
The radio started playing Michael Jackson...
I don't know... (Score:3, Funny)
[Buffering... 3%]
I'm glad I complained! (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Software I won't install (Score:3, Informative)
Start->Run
mplayer2.exe
View->Options->Formats
Select all media types you don't play in winamp.
The only thing I've found that won't play in Mediaplayer 6.4 is Microsoft's latest 6 channel pro audio codec (and I have only seen one file that uses it, since you have to pay for the encoder and it isn't useful for most normal audio). Everything else can be played if you install the codecs (you might need to go to Microsoft and do search for their 6.
Re:Software I won't install (Score:3, Informative)