How do YOU listen to AM?

[podakayne]

back in the day it was from a Mac w/windows media player...later after becoming a patron its from G4 or G5 via itunes...i like my monitors speakers, and will use headphones to jack in when i feel the need.

at home ...G4(one of them)...kitchen w/good speakers

gee peter i'm green w/envy

[progdirjim(Admin)]

Originally Posted by VAXman

Well, there was an Archos MP3 play here at one time. A complete piece of shit and the software -- well, weendoze only based -- was just as crappy.

Zune has become a non-product. Why? M$ couldn't do anything revolutionary that would have it compete with the iPod.

The ipod is NOT revolutionary. My 1st mp3 player was an Archos, at a time when there WASN'T an ipod. It was primitive, sure, but it was innovative. When I showed it to people, their jaws dropped (this is, I don't know, maybe 10 years ago). It survived a drop on concrete at 20+ mph, for a few weeks before it died. The hardware was pretty solid.

My 2nd mp3 player was a Creative Nomad. At that time, the 40GB Nomad was $100 cheaper than the 20GB ipod. Now that I've used both, I have to say that the Creative software is WAY better than itunes, and the user interface is WAY better than the ipod. The ipod is a decent product, and has two major advantages: the size factor (nice and small) and the capacity (160GB). The only reason I bought the ipod is that my 40GB Creative was full and I didn't want to delete anything.

As I said, the ipod is a decent product, but I'm tired of people worshiping Apple without holding them accountable.

I wasn't joking when I complained about itunes. It doesn't even understand filing solo artists under their last name. David Bowie is filed under "D"??! LAME!! Try loading album artwork if you have Bowie, David. itunes can't find it.

Oh yeah, and the ipod, when you're scrolling (with that stupid touch wheel), and you get to "Z", what happens? Duh, you have to go backwards all the way to "A" instead of wrapping around to "A" like the Creative. Yuk.

I was editing this post, adding info about the weak connector on the bottom of the ipod (PM me if you want details), and Firefox crashed. Hmmm. Sounds like $teve Job'$ version of e$tabli$hing a monopoly.

While I'm ranting, anytime you're in itune$, they're trying to $ell you mu$ic.

[abmlober]

Originally Posted by gr8sho92

Interestingly XP doesn't have a native player that recognizes .PLS files. I've always had a player installed that was capable of playing .PLS so the problem never hit me, but I recently ran into a case where I had sent a link for AM to a friend that also enjoys prog and I got back a question saying it didn't play with windows medial player.

When you open .m3u files and .pls files in a normal text editor, you see that they are just ASCII files, and you wonder even more, why WMP does not understand them...

For listening to radio streams I use XMPlay, a really tiny tool with some nice features. WinAmp always brings chaos to my registry, so that mp3directcut and mp3tag no longer work correctly. My MP3 collection is administered with WMP, but to listen MP3 I use VLC media player.

When I am away from home, I use WMP11 on my office laptop or my Archos Gmini (30GB)...

Ciao,
Andreas

[VAXman(Admin)]

Originally Posted by progdirjim

The ipod is NOT revolutionary. My 1st mp3 player was an Archos, at a time when there WASN'T an ipod. It was primitive, sure, but it was innovative. When I showed it to people, their jaws dropped (this is, I don't know, maybe 10 years ago). It survived a drop on concrete at 20+ mph, for a few weeks before it died. The hardware was pretty solid.

I never said it was. I was referring to the Zune. A late comer to the market and it offers nothing new; in fact, it's more limited than many of its competitors.

Originally Posted by progdirjim

My 2nd mp3 player was a Creative Nomad. At that time, the 40GB Nomad was $100 cheaper than the 20GB ipod. Now that I've used both, I have to say that the Creative software is WAY better than itunes, and the user interface is WAY better than the ipod. The ipod is a decent product, and has two major advantages: the size factor (nice and small) and the capacity (160GB). The only reason I bought the ipod is that my 40GB Creative was full and I didn't want to delete anything.

The difference has always been the size. The 2.5" form factor drives are cheap because they are also used in laptops. The 1.8" ff drives cost more and thus, the devices using them cost more.

Originally Posted by progdirjim

I wasn't joking when I complained about itunes. It doesn't even understand filing solo artists under their last name. David Bowie is filed under "D"??! LAME!! Try loading album artwork if you have Bowie, David. itunes can't find it.

Neither do the sites we link with for bands. THe CDDB doesn't either. I wonder what your other software does with Jethro Tull or Timothy Pure or Pink Floyd... Floyd, Pink? What do you file 5UUs under?

Originally Posted by progdirjim

Oh yeah, and the ipod, when you're scrolling (with that stupid touch wheel), and you get to "Z", what happens? Duh, you have to go backwards all the way to "A" instead of wrapping around to "A" like the Creative. Yuk.

That doesn't bother me as much as not being able to scroll through an alphabetical heading (A-Z) and then drill down. With hundreds of artists, it is difficult to scroll to one quickly.

[quote=progdirjim;29987
I was editing this post, adding info about the weak connector on the bottom of the ipod (PM me if you want details), and Firefox crashed. Hmmm. Sounds like $teve Job'$ version of e$tabli$hing a monopoly.
[/quote]
Apple now owns Firefox?

Originally Posted by progdirjim

While I'm ranting, anytime you're in itune$, they're trying to $ell you mu$ic.

I'm in iTunes all day long. I've never ONCE gotten an add for music purchases. In fact, I don't even have a link to the iTunes Store in my iTunes! You can turn it off you know... don't you?

[gr8sho92]

Originally Posted by abmlober

For listening to radio streams I use XMPlay, a really tiny tool with some nice features.

Thanks for the pointer, Andreas. I'm listening to AM using XMPlay now. Talk about tiny! The entire download is 305kb (yes, kilobytes) and some of the modules are optional. Reminds me of the old DOS days when people took pride in building small useful applications.

(BTW, it doesn't appear to support AACplus.)

It uses about 6.7MB of memory when running, and the display contains the available song information (artist and track title). Net is this is fine solution, albeit not mainstream, way to listen to AM. If anyone has a player that can beat this, I'd like to know about it.

[VAXman(Admin)]

Somebody posted this for me on the Marillion on-line forum and I thought I'd share it here.

Redmond, Seattle. A screen saver of a roaring log fire flickers on a huge LCD monitor perched on a wide expanse of mahogany desk. Bathed in its glow, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and his PA, Atkins, are drinking eggnog - whatever eggnog is, Americans always seem to drink it at Christmas.

"Hell of a year!"
"Hell of a year, sir!"
"And all the big news happened in January, didn't it?"
"Er, yes sir."
"Windows Vista launches, The 'big wow'."
"Oh... I see sir, yes sir."
"You say 'yes, sir' as if you mean 'no sir'?"
"No sir,"
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, sir."
"Goddamit. Why don't people like Vista? What was wrong with the big wow?"
"Nothing sir, it's just not quite the wow effect we were after."
"And what are we doing about that? Was there a problem with the marketing? I spent a fortune on it."
"No sir, it was more a problem with the product. It didn't quite live up to the 'wow' expectations."
"But it looks like Mac OS X, comes in six versions and it's about to get a service pack. What more do people want? Are we planning a new ad campaign?"
"No sir. The old one was fine. We didn't have time to make any significant improvements to the software so we've just decided to redefine the industry standard of 'wow'."
"Good thinking."
"Yes, sir. Our lawyers have been busy since February. I'm happy to say it's been successfully redefined, sir."
"Excellent, what does 'wow' mean now?"
"More like 'Hmm'."
"The big 'Hmm'. I like it. Has it had any effect on sales?"
"No."
"Hmm."
"That's the spirit, sir."

[progdirjim(Admin)]

Originally Posted by VAXman

Apple now owns Firefox?

I was (tongue in cheek) implying that Apple was monitoring my post and crashed my browser to prevent a negative post.

Originally Posted by VAXman

I'm in iTunes all day long. I've never ONCE gotten an add for music purchases. In fact, I don't even have a link to the iTunes Store in my iTunes! You can turn it off you know... don't you?

Well no, I don't. I wouldn't have bitched about it if I knew that. It's certainly possible that I'll like itunes better as I become more familiar with it. The Creative software was so damn intuitive (at least for me, and I know that can be subjective) though.

I like the ipod OK, and it does have some advantages, but I get really weary of the "Apple good, everything else bad" preaching that goes on pretty much every day. I'm no particular fan of Microsoft, but can we just stipulate that you (and quite a few others) hate them a lot, their software is bloated, and their management are boneheads to a man, and not talk about it every day? Please?

[Michael]

I use itunes..i also used winamp as well a while ago.

[Rick and Roll]

Originally Posted by progdirjim

I'm no particular fan of Microsoft, but can we just stipulate that you (and quite a few others) hate them a lot, their software is bloated, and their management are boneheads to a man, and not talk about it every day? Please?

What would there be to talk about then? (Seriously, thank you for articulating that Jim)

This verbal masturbation about how one sound system is better/worse than the other is the highlight of my day!

I have friends who hate Microsoft too. I just smile and turn the other cheek.

I only use itunes to convert music to mp3. As Dale says, you can use Real Player instead for the ipod. You can use anything for most things really. And you know what? It's all free. So I can't complain.

WMP works just fine to hear AM. So does itunes or Winamp.

As for the ipod, I have no need or want for one. I'm too busy, and I have all the music I need. If there were no more recordings I would be set for life. I just buy because I care. Shit, I can't even file my music in a decent amount of time anymore. It's hard enough just to get back to the kind artists who send or turn me on to music. My one kid has his ipod implanted in his ear. My head would explode if I had to put my music on the computer to put it on something else.

It's just not that important to me to have a portable music device like an ipod. Great idea if you like it though, it's a cool thing. But I'm never in one place long enough to enjoy it.

[VAXman(Admin)]

Originally Posted by progdirjim

I like the ipod OK, and it does have some advantages, but I get really weary of the "Apple good, everything else bad" preaching that goes on pretty much every day. I'm no particular fan of Microsoft, but can we just stipulate that you (and quite a few others) hate them a lot, their software is bloated, and their management are boneheads to a man, and not talk about it every day? Please?

Well, it's all commodity market crap. I just weighed the pile of malodorous sweat socks against the buckets of fetid noxious shit and I choose the former as the least olfactory offensive.

As a VMS bigot, we used to have a saying: unix isn't all that bad once you get used to its smell. I'll take the unix based OS X over that montage of hacked-up shite known as Weendoze any day.

[VAXman(Admin)]

Originally Posted by Rick and Roll

I have friends who hate Microsoft too. I just smile and turn the other cheek.

You have smart friends then.

Originally Posted by Rick and Roll

I only use itunes to convert music to mp3. As Dale says, you can use Real Player instead for the ipod. You can use anything for most things really. And you know what? It's all free. So I can't complain.

I've asked how now twice and still no answer. If REAL does this then please explain how.

Originally Posted by Rick and Roll

It's just not that important to me to have a portable music device like an ipod. Great idea if you like it though, it's a cool thing. But I'm never in one place long enough to enjoy it.

I have one and seldom use it. I houses my iTunes library for when I am on the road but I've found I usually just tune into AM.

[Rick and Roll]

Originally Posted by VAXman

I have one and seldom use it. I houses my iTunes library for when I am on the road but I've found I usually just tune into AM.

I've seen yours in action...you do spend more time on the road than I do and the plug in feature to the car is handy...

I used to make cassette mixed tapes long ago. I realized that I ended up with full CD's anyway...dopey me. I'll just pull out CD's for the car for trips now.

[OverHillandDale(Admin)]

Originally Posted by VAXman

Well, it's all commodity market crap. I just weighed the pile of malodorous sweat socks against the buckets of fetid noxious shit and I choose the former as the least olfactory offensive.

As a VMS bigot, we used to have a saying: unix isn't all that bad once you get used to its smell. I'll take the unix based OS X over that montage of hacked-up shite known as Weendoze any day.

Well, then. I do believe you've made your opinion on the matter ABUNDANTLY CLEAR.

I hearby call this matter completely, utterly, ultimately and finally CLOSED.

WE NEVER, EVER, NOT IN A MILLION, GAZILLION YEARS, NEED to hear about it again unless it is specifically solicited.

[VAXman(Admin)]

Originally Posted by OverHillandDale

Well, then. I do believe you've made your opinion on the matter ABUNDANTLY CLEAR.

Opinion? Not. Fact! Yes.

Originally Posted by OverHillandDale

I hearby call this matter completely, utterly, ultimately and finally CLOSED.

Not so fast...

Originally Posted by OverHillandDale

WE NEVER, EVER, NOT IN A MILLION, GAZILLION YEARS, NEED to hear about it again unless it is specifically solicited.

We? I.

I'm still waiting for the RealPlayer/iPod instructions alluded to herein so that I may assess it for myself. I have tried to figure it out but its less than intuitive interface eludes me.

[gr8sho92]

Originally Posted by VAXman

I'm still waiting for the RealPlayer/iPod instructions alluded to herein so that I may assess it for myself. I have tried to figure it out but its less than intuitive interface eludes me.

The Help Content talks about this. On my server, I do see my iPod listed as a device that it can sync to but haven't been motivated to try it. I only use RP for listening to streams.

My master library is setup using iTunes only because that's what I've gotten used to. If you recall, the original iPod was sold with and was only supported by MusicMatch via firewire interface until Apple released iTunes software. I still use MM to rip MP3s because I like their tagging function which is still not available on the new Yahoo replacement software.

[tracer]

Was this note a thread on listening to the Moon? I don't care about which OS someone is using, I whatever works for my needs at the time. In the spirit of the current postings I offer this ... http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse....gi?u=macs_cant

[gr8sho92]

Originally Posted by gr8sho92

Thanks for the pointer, Andreas. I'm listening to AM using XMPlay now. Talk about tiny!

I'd be curious if anyone else has had experience with this player. If nothing else it's fun to play around with.

I followed the directions provided and removed the extra plug-ins provided by the original zip file and the entire player is as follows.

12/21/2007 09:06 AM 269,892 xmplay.exe
12/23/2007 10:29 AM 3,353 xmplay.ini
2 File(s) 273,245 bytes

Maybe we should all write in and get them to either change the name to AMPlay or get a branded version for the station!

P.S. I suspect there is a plug-in to make AACplus work, but the fact that this works for MP3 as-is is quite qonderful.

P.P.S. There is no installer supplied but it doesn't really need one. You just need some basic skills to unpak the zip to someplace you can find and then run the app.

Cheers,
Carl

[abmlober]

The XMPlay homepage gives some plugins. And to choose one skin is also nice.

[abmlober]

:-]

[gr8sho92]

Originally Posted by abmlober

The XMPlay homepage gives some plugins. And to choose one skin is also nice.

Okay, I give up. Is there one from you? I thought you might be hinting there is an AM skin there?