[Vision2020] Media Players - Was:Re: The Auntie Establishmentand Brother Carl Show (November 3, 2007)

[KRFP]

What we have here is a classic example of what I call the "Battleground 
Syndrome",  or "Media Player Wars".  The big media players (Windows 
Media Player, iTunes, Real Player, WinAmp, and a few others) all want to 
be YOUR media player, so thay take advantage of the many holes that 
Microsoft left in it's OS to take over YOUR computer just for YOU.   
Un-clicking all (or most of) the boxes when you install can help 
alleviate some of these problems.  And of course they won't integrate 
with each other.

But if you read the fine print of the agreement that you just clicked 
away it says essentially: "... and I give Big Brother permission to 
modify my computer's operating system and snoop into my files".  And 
they do! 

You also give them the right to delete files off of your computer that 
don't have the proper DRM (Digital Rights Management) tags.  
Irregardless of whether or not you actually have the rights to that 
file, if the tags aren't right they have the right to delete them.  They 
have not yet exercised these rights, they are waiting for some 
technology to permeate first.  See YouTube: "Trusted Computing".

OK, here's a link (if it works, seems my old one didn't), it also 
appears that the industry group has posted a lot of pollution.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuI6SLFnGbQ

So what are you to do?  That's hard, if you un-install the media player 
it does not un-install the spy.  Some of the spys can be removed with 
SpyBot Search and Destroy and/or AdAware, but these programs are always 
playing catch-up (use both and don't forget to get the new 
definitions).  I have found that if you just delete the spy program 
(TKBell.exe for RealPlayer, but this is old news and is probably 
different now) then your system will become unstable until you delete 
the many references to it the the registry, and the many pointers to 
those references, and the pointers to those pointers, and..., and I 
often end up re-building my computer's OS from scratch at this point.  
(In which case I say give Big Brother the finger and install an OS made 
by people for people: Ubuntu Linux, but that's another thread.)

An excellent alternative to the big media programs is the program called 
VLC, it is cross-platform, light, and plays most media formats out of 
the box (but not the new Real formats, as I explained below Real changed 
their format to make sure that everyone installs their program).  It can 
also be integrated into FireFox.  It doesn't have a media library, which 
many might not like, but I feel that the library's are part of the way 
they take over your computer (by keeping you dumb as to where your music 
files are actually located).

What amazes me is how many people connect to our web stream with the 
default Windows Media Player, they haven't even upgraded (not that I 
recommend "up"grading).  I don't think they have ever installed anything 
else.  They also seems to have problems connecting, which I've looked 
into but can't figure out what's wrong.

(As always, the views express are my own and do not necessarily reflect 
those of Moscow's finest radio station, Radio Free Moscow, 92.5FM)

Dave
KRFP Pseudo-Engineer


B. J. Swanson wrote:
> KRFP,
>
> Thank you. I decided to give RP a try so I could listen to AEBC on the 
> way to work. AAARRRGGGHH! I HATE Real Player. Now I think my computer 
> is crawling with all their spyware crap. And after all that, it 
> wouldnt work with an iPhone anyway.
>
> B. J. Swanson
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Nov 5, 2007, at 7:03 AM, KRFP <krfp at radiofreemoscow.org> wrote:
>
>> Hey Tom:
>>
>> Did you know that installing RealAudio on a a computer is akin to
>> intentionally installing a virus?  This is why the free program called
>> Real Alternative was developed in the first place.  Unfortunately
>> RealPainInTheAss couldn't handle not being installed (and constantly
>> running) on everyone's computer so they changed the format making the
>> open source codex obsolete.  The open source guys are working on a new
>> one but it's not out yet. Leaving the (wise) consumer with a choice:
>> intentionally install spyware on your computer or not listen to
>> RealAudio streams, I choose the latter.
>>
>> Dave
>>
>> Tom Hansen wrote:
>>> Greetings Visionaires -
>>>
>>> This week's show was exemplary of Auntie's and Brother Carl's 
>>> punditry as
>>> they discussed various topics central to Tuesday's city council 
>>> election.
>>> What was a surprise, though, and developed into a very entertaining
>>> community service, was the candid call-ins from the Hamilton Aquatic 
>>> Center
>>> by several of the candidates.
>>>
>>> You may listen to the streamed show at:
>>>
>>> http://www.AuntieEstablishmentandBrotherCarl.com
>>>
>>> As this is a first attempt at creating RealAudio files and streaming 
>>> them
>>> online, I would sincerely appareciate any comments concerning any
>>> difficulties you may experience.
>>>
>>> Seeya round town, Moscow.
>>>
>>> Tom Hansen
>>> Moscow, Idaho
>>>
>>> "We're a town of about 23,000 with 10,000 college students. The college
>>> students are not very active in local elections (thank goodness!)."
>>>
>>> - Dale Courtney (March 28, 2007)
>>>
>>>
>>> =======================================================
>>> List services made available by First Step Internet,
>>> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
>>>               http://www.fsr.net
>>>          mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
>>> =======================================================
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>> =======================================================
>> List services made available by First Step Internet,
>> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
>>               http://www.fsr.net
>>          mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
>> =======================================================
>>
>
>