On Wed, 13 Aug 2003 10:06:09 GMT, in <alt.privacy.spyware>, "Richard
Steinfeld" <rgsteinBUTREMOVETHIS@sonic.net> wrote:
>
[snip]
>
> I've read at times that Real was making their technology
> available in the open.
[snip]

I'll believe that when I see it. And I would expect a Genie to pop up from
my keyboard in a puff of pink smoke and offer an unending supply of
unconditional wishes, before that happens.

> > "Real Alternative" is pointless, since the ONLY correct answer to
> > Real Media content is to do your best Nancy Reagan imitation: "Just
> > Say NO!"
> >
> A fat lot of good she did.
>
[snip]

Agreed, but that's not the point.

> It appears that "Media Player Classic" and "Real
> Alternative" are the same thing.
>
[snip]

Maybe; but my understanding is that MPC is/was a pre-existing stand-alone
product that RealAlt is in part based on (i.e., it "calls" certain parts of
MPC in the course of its operation). Yes, you need to have MPC installed
for RealAlt to work; but that doesn't mean they're the same thing.

> > I have tried "JetAudio"; but I'm not doing handstands.
[snip]

> Well, it is OK if it is klutzy so long as it works without
> the abuse. At this point, all I want is some usable way to
> listen to the .ra audio.
>
[snip]

"Klutzy" would be one good description. Others would be, "Form over
function", or "Sizzle, over substance".

To be fair, it *does* work (at least for the formats I've tried -- that list
does not include .RA, tho'); it just doesn't work all that *well*, IMCO.

> > I understand, and sympathize. But you're bemoning this to
> the wrong crowd.
[snip]
>
> You know, I have made this point to them over and over.
> Their response is unsettling. They don't answer at all. For
> example, I have emailed "On The Media" repeatedly about this
> issue. They'll answer about other topics. About this one,
> all I get is silence, and it is an issue that they should be
> covering as a five-alarm fire. But I get silence.
>
[snip]

Well, no one I know has ever claimed that PBS/NPR were ethically managed.

Have you called or written your local Station Manager, directly? Perhaps
the latter, followed up by the former after about two weeks if you don't get
an answer -- the point of the call being "WHY have you not even had the
professionalism and courtesy to respond to my letter?"

If even that fails, perhaps try other media -- i.e., embarass them into
addressing the issue.

> It is as if Real is giving the webmasters payola.
[snip]

What makes you think they're not?

> Real is a juggernaut that I
> don't know how to stop.
[snip]

One [ex-]user at a time.

> I don't know...I have a similar dislike for Microsoft, and
> they get steadily more brazen. But we use their stuff, don't
> we? In my work, it is buy Microsoft products or starve.
> That's the choice.
[snip]

Not necessarily. Offhand, I can't think of *anything* MS currently produces
which cannot be effectively replaced by something else -- and usually
multiple choices of "something else", all demonstrably superior to the MS
corresponding product. And yes, this includes those applications that some
folks think are "must haves" for effective interaction with the mainstream
business world, like Word, Excel, etc. -- it's just not so, at least in the
VAST majority of cases.

(Tho' I acknowledge that corporate inertia and office politics can be very
large impediments to rational decision-making.)

--

Jay T. Blocksom
--------------------------------
Appropriate Technology, Inc.
usenet01[at]appropriate-tech.net


"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
-- Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759.

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