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NPR's Car Talk Dumping RealMedia

Posted by Cliff on from the fed-up-and-not-taking-it-anymore dept.

olcrazypete writes: "Click and Clack are apparently fed up with Real Networks. They have switched to Windows Media Player format. 'Why? Because, for a long time, we've had tons of complaints about RealNetworks. And the one that ticks us off the most is the perceived trickery they use to sell their premium products. This is just our opinion, mind you, but it's shared by enough of our listeners, that we finally decided to take action.' The whole story is here . My favorite line: 'It stinks so much that it even makes Microsoft look good by comparison. That's something, huh?'"

8 of 717 comments (clear)

  1. Realmedia by Bishop,+Martin · · Score: 5, Funny

    I would like to write an open letter to the people of RealMedia, telling them how I disp *BUFFERING*

    --
    Setec Astronomy
    1. Re:Realmedia by jefe7777 · · Score: 3, Funny

      You make some great points. AdPlayer! hee hee...

      What I don't under is that they had the chance to look like the good guys (for a while)...I mean they were going up against Microsoft's player.

      They should have take a page from the classic play book: Make it badass, Give it away for free, then later on when everyone loves you, start to slowly increase revenue generating schemes.

      As far back as I can remember, Real has made themselves the biggest nuisance.

      WTF were they thinking? Real Business Plan:

      1. piss everyone off
      2. piss everyone off some more
      3. let microsoft roll you

    2. Re:Realmedia by cmacb · · Score: 3, Funny

      " I would like to write an open letter to the people of RealMedia, telling them how I disp *BUFFERING*"

      Yeah, seems like no matter how high you set the buffering value it falls behind. It almost seems like that setting isn't actually connected to anything in the code. Maybe there will be an open surce equivalent soon that will let you write the whole godam stream to a file before it even starts playing. That would solve the problem...

      As is so often the case, Microsofts tactics (and I don't doubt for a minute there is some financial incentive behind this) will pay off for them. The more locked into WMA people get the more they will get screwed over in the long run.

      I can hardly wait for the fuckwits at Microsoft to Screw you Tapit brothers, I'll not be listening again. (They didn't give very good car advice anyway, it's just a comedy show these days).

      Couldn't they have at least waited for the community player to get off the ground?

      https://www.helixcommunity.org/

  2. Buffering...Buffering... by NightWulf · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's about...buffering.......time someone....buffering..buffering...realized realmedia sucks...buffering...for everything.

  3. Behind the scenes by Alien+Being · · Score: 5, Funny

    Car Talk's technical advisor, Meg Ahertz said that the RealMedia is complete bogosity. "I tried to reason with their VP, Hugh Jass, but he redirected me to their lawyers, Dewey, Cheatham and Howe." At that point, I turned the matter over to our staff mediators, Sue First and Bernadette Bridge. The rest is history.

  4. Re:Very little car talk on "Car Talk" by kevcol · · Score: 3, Funny

    Why is it that when someone has an opinion that is more than one step short of outright facism in this country...blah blah blah

    Hyperbolize much?

  5. Re:Real already changed the site in response to th by dazed-n-confused · · Score: 4, Funny
    "in the margin on the right, with grey text over a grey background, there is a link to the free player."

    Reminds me of this:

    "It's the wild colour scheme that freaks me," said Zaphod whose love affair with this ship had lasted almost three minutes into the flight, "Every time you try to operate on of these weird black controls that are labelled in black on a black background, a little black light lights up black to let you know you've done it. What is this? Some kind of galactic hyperhearse?"
    From The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, by Douglas Adams.
  6. Seconded! by leonbrooks · · Score: 4, Funny

    I have one customer who uses AutoCAD and therefore (until recently, anyway) MS-Windows. Machine A, running MS-Windows 98, plots fine. Machine B, running MS-Windows 98 (and the same versions of everything) refuses to plot to the same (LAN-connected) plotter.

    AutoDesk advise upgrading to Windows ME, so B is duly upgraded, and fails, and is wiped and reinstalled, and works. Hurrah! Both machines can plot.

    Management now decides to shoot for homogeneity, so upgrades to ME on A as well... and it stops plotting. Wipe and reinstall doesn't help. Wipe and revert to 98 does.

    Exit one technician, stage left, screaming.

    --
    Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing