Category: software

RealPlayer Alternative

Ashley Bischoff16 Comments

It seems like the streaming-media market is made up of evils and lesser-evils (Ogg and MP3 excepted, for the most part). And, when presented with a choice, I’ve never been sure whether it'd be more ethical to choose Windows Media or RealPlayer (since public support tends to legitimize a format).

Recently, I’ve been going with RealPlayer over Windows Media since at least it’s available as a cross-platform application. All the same, RealVirus (as some like to call it) is still one of the most user-hostile applications I’ve ever seen.

JetAudio may be the answer, or at least a small help. As described in the LangaList newsletter (subscribe), their JetAudio player can handle most of RealPlayer’s core codecs:

It plays .RA, .RAM, and .RMI files (which isn’t all RealAudio content, but it meets my simple needs.) It appears to be free of spy-, ad- or nag-ware, and (outside of some initial twiddling with the file associations) it appears to work perfectly. I tested the software on Real’s test site.

[…]

For a bit more info, see the discussion in “alt.comp.freeware” with the subject line “Real Audio Codecs”. It began on 4/15/2003. This link might get you there.

If it works as described, I’ll be able to listen to Marketplace and Fresh Air without guilt (woo!).

Update: Real also provides archived versions of its software — RealPlayer 8, anyone?

Rumor: “Piles” in Panther / Mac OSX 10.3

Ashley Bischoff1 Comment

This post on the OSX World Forums points to this article with the rumor that Mac OSX 10.3 (Panther) might include “piles”:

Mac OS X 10.3 will finally see the implementation of the “piles” interface concept patented by Apple back in the dear, dead days of Copland but never delivered to the desktop. The feature, which has been lobbied for by Bruce Tognazzini and other interface curmudgeons, is designed to ease the clutter of windows in the Finder: The Blade’s sources indicate that extraneous windows will shrink and jump out of the way automatically, rearranging themselves into scaled-down tiles in response to the user’s movements.) […]

Cool! And if Tog likes it, I look forward to the feature all the more. Of course, it’d help to have a Powerbook as well ;).

AIM Wonkiness?

Ashley Bischoff116 Comments

AIM has been acting a little odd lately, perhaps for the past couple days. Each time I sign on it says that my buddy list is gone:

Your buddy list and buddy icon are not available currently, but they have not been lost. Please try again later.

I’m not terribly concerned about my buddy list as I expect it to return eventually. But it sure is a nuisance in the meantime. Anyone else run into this?

OpenOffice.org 1.1 Beta Available

Ashley BischoffLeave a comment

I saw on OpenOffice.org’s announce mailing list that OpenOffice.org 1.1 Beta has been released. New features include:

  • Many new import/export formats like PDF, Macromedia Flash, DocBook, several PDA Office file formats, flat XML and XHTML
  • Support for Complex Text Layout (CTL) and vertical writing languages, such as Thai, Hindi, Arabic, Hebrew
  • Enhanced integration with Java, with up to 10 times better performance
  • Support for Accessibility throughout the entire suite
  • Support for add-on components
  • Initial support for recovering damaged OOo files
  • Support for a new data source type - MySQL
  • Improved online help

And, that’s just from the e-mail announcement. There are some interesting gems from the complete list as well:

  • The splash screen now has a progress bar.
  • Additional property pages for OpenOffice.org file types in Windows Explorer.
  • A new java-native-uno bridge with up to 10 times better performance.
  • New FTP file access component.
  • […]

OpenOffice.org is already pretty good, but I look forward to trying this new version.