I hate it, too. The only reason I keep it around at all is that it is the only thing that I know of that will play certain formats such as .rm files. If someone knows of a way around their proprietary formats, I’ll banish it to the depths of user interface hell along with PowerBuilder.
That evil sack of bits that must have fallen from Satan’s asshole keeps taking the MP3 association, AND THAT PISSES ME OFF!!!
ANY PROGRAM THAT TAKES A FILE ASSOCIATION WITHOUT ASKING IS A VILE PIECE OF SMEGMA THAT DESERVES TO BE ERASED OVER AND OVER UNTIL THE FAINT MAGNETIC FORCES THAT ONCE COMPRISED ITS EVILNESS ARE INDISTINGUISHABLE FROM RANDOM NOISE!
How else am I supposed to get the BBC Worldservice streamed to my awaiting headphones, eh?
I use RealOne Player, though. Maybe I’m just not as easially annoyed as some…
I refuse to install it any more as it has spyware. Screw them.
Ah, I see. I sympathize. My boss still lets me use notepad, but he’s nudging me towards “something with change control,” which probably means Dreamweaver MX or another IDE of its ilk.
My boss still thinks animated GIFs are a nifty idea, and laments the death of the <BLINK> tag. :rolleyes:
Ahhhh… I am truly at home here in this thread. I’ve been vocally lamenting the widespread use of RM files on the internet for a long time now. It’s so nice to see most everyone agreeing!
Some info. Once upon a time, I triied the Tara Plugin to Winamp to play Real Player (.ra, .rm, etc.). I never finished it, but apparently some people think it will work. At the time I had Winamp 2.8 something, but I believe they’ve gone to 3.0 or something now.
This link is from the Winamp Forum website, where I was asking questions about it. This is sort of old now, but there is some good info on the site. This link is a link I found giving details of how to set it up.
Things to think about before trying this:
[ul]
[li]Winamp, in the tradition of Real and Microsoft stepped up the file-type grabbing with version 3, which was the reason I abandoned my project. [/li]
[li]Winamp/Nullsoft, I’ve heard, is owned by AOL. :eek:[/li]
[li]Real Player must be installed for this to work. You don’t have to use it just install it. My second link gives a link to the best version of Real to install.[/li] [/ul]
There is another player that can open RealMedia files. It’s called UnRealOne. Good luck finding it, though. I have a copy, but I’m having some serious trouble finding a link (or even a mention of it on the web!) for you guys.
As far as I can tell, the program is an old version of Windows Media Player hacked to use the RealPlayer codecs. Whether this is legal, illegal, or in a gray area, I can’t say. All I know is that it works. I’ve tested it on several newer RM files. There are no ads or spyware and it opens just as fast as you would expect an old version of WMP to open (i.e. very fast).
On the downside, the install process isn’t automated. You have to copy a few files and run a .reg file, but it’s really no big deal. The instructions were easy to follow and took me only about a minute or so to carry out.
So, where to find it? Good question. I had downloaded it from a newsgroup, but the article is probably expired by now, as it was posted in a high-volume group. In the readme file, the author says you can contact him on #adult-swim on Efnet IRC, so you might want to try there.
I would say to just email me and I’d send it to you, but, as I’m unsure of the program’s legality, I won’t make that offer unless the mods approve.
That’s what the last one said.
While we’re on the subject, here’s a link to the current anti-Quicktime rant.
Like I said there, I won’t even bother with RM files. Unfortunately, MLB.com only uses RM, so my Giants-winning-the-2002-pennant radio clip is the sole reason I’m leaving the piece of shit on my computer. Then again, I guess I could tape the audio out and re-record it on the computer and save it as a SND or WAV. Hmmmm…
[hijack] If you like the World Service, you’ll love BBC Radio 4. [/hijack]