I have been able to view videos on Linux using Xine by taking the video path (eg.
"/video/showbiz/2005/06/22/nat.top.movie.quotes.af fl"), prepending "http://www.cnn.com", and appending "/video.ws.asx".
Strangely, this does not work with MPlayer. When I execute the same command line, but substitute "mplayer" in place of "xine", I get an error stating that "avisynth.dll" cannot be loaded.
This error is misleading, because avisynth.dll is certainly not necessary in order to play these video files. The file avisynth.dll does not exist anywhere on my WinXP system, but the video still play fine. In addition, Xine is playing it fine without that DLL.
I agree... in fact, many RoadRunner customers (including myself) had free access to CNN.com videos all along - it was one of the benefits of being on the RoadRunner network.
Now, the switch from RealVideo to Windows Media means that it's still free for me, but I can no longer view the video feeds on my Linux machine.
I just called the SCO support line at 800-726-8649. I like to call the company every so often (OK, multiple times a day) to remind them of what I think of their actions... usually something along the lines of "Oh, I'm sorry, I was trying to reach a corporation with ethics." *click*
Today, however, instead of reaching an unwitting support person, I received the following message:
"Thank you for calling SCO. We are sorry we are unable to take the calls at this moment because we are in a meeting. Please press 1 to leave a message. Thank you."
The whole company is in a meeting??? Hmmm, I wonder what that's about. *grin*
I agree that Trillian is the best IM client currently available for Windows. And yes, it does work on Linux using the Crossover Plugin. When I was using just plain Wine, I had major problems where Trillian (and all of X11) would freeze whenever I moved the Contact List. I would have to CTL-ALT-F1 to a console TTY and kill all the Wine processes in order to unfreeze my desktop.
I also agree that Kopete is a fantastic IM client, and seems to be the closest thing to Trillian running natively on Linux (via KDE3). Even the icons for the "Big 4" IM protcols are the same as Trillian (although Yahoo is not yet actually supported).
In an ideal world, the Trillian and Kopete developers would work together to produce a Linux native version of Trillian.
I think that if and when Trillian for Linux is released, it will quickly become the top-rated Linux IM client. GAIM, Jabber, and Everybuddy are wonderful Linux IM clients, but each has its own shortcomings, and none of them are in the same league as Trillian in terms of features, configuration, interface usability, and overall professionalism.
It will be interesting to see in what direction IM on Linux heads.
Slashdot Mirror
For example:
bash$ xine http://www.cnn.com/video/showbiz/2005/06/22/nat.to p.movie.quotes.affl/video.ws.asx
Strangely, this does not work with MPlayer. When I execute the same command line, but substitute "mplayer" in place of "xine", I get an error stating that "avisynth.dll" cannot be loaded. This error is misleading, because avisynth.dll is certainly not necessary in order to play these video files. The file avisynth.dll does not exist anywhere on my WinXP system, but the video still play fine. In addition, Xine is playing it fine without that DLL.
Now, the switch from RealVideo to Windows Media means that it's still free for me, but I can no longer view the video feeds on my Linux machine.
And this is supposedly a step FORWARD???
Today, however, instead of reaching an unwitting support person, I received the following message:
"Thank you for calling SCO. We are sorry we are unable to take the calls at this moment because we are in a meeting. Please press 1 to leave a message. Thank you."
The whole company is in a meeting??? Hmmm, I wonder what that's about. *grin*
I also agree that Kopete is a fantastic IM client, and seems to be the closest thing to Trillian running natively on Linux (via KDE3). Even the icons for the "Big 4" IM protcols are the same as Trillian (although Yahoo is not yet actually supported).
In an ideal world, the Trillian and Kopete developers would work together to produce a Linux native version of Trillian.
I think that if and when Trillian for Linux is released, it will quickly become the top-rated Linux IM client. GAIM, Jabber, and Everybuddy are wonderful Linux IM clients, but each has its own shortcomings, and none of them are in the same league as Trillian in terms of features, configuration, interface usability, and overall professionalism.
It will be interesting to see in what direction IM on Linux heads.