Saturday, June 24, 2006

Real Player

And What I Think About It...



I think we've had RealPlayer in its various free versions on our computers for about ten years now. It's been a faithful friend until now.

When we got our current computer, I wanted to learn how to record our LP albums and put the music on CD's. In the learning process, I upgraded to the purchased version of RealPlayer because it allowed you to input LP's and cassette tapes and then record them out to CD's.

I eventually learned that Audacity, a free open-source program, did a much better job for me than RealPlayer. For example, with Audacity I could edit out many of the inevitable pops and crackles from our old vinyl.

Since then, RealPlayer has turned into less of a friend. Everytime I run AdAware to clean up the computer, it always finds a tracking cookie from RealMedia. Furthermore, I've had several annonying little pop-up windows out of the blue from RealMedia. Isaac said they pop-up due to shutting down RealPlayer. I'm not sure what he was doing, but I am sure that pop-ups are annoying and unwelcome and the only place I'm getting them from is RealMedia.

I wouldn't be too surprised if the free version produced tracking cookies and pop-ups, but I'm disgusted that a purchased version of the player behaves this way. I paid money for the darned thing so I hate to uninstall it -- but I'm thinking about it.

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1 comment:

Runawayimagination said...

I hate RealPlayer too. I had the same bad experiences a few years ago with it and will never install it again.

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CONTENTMENT: Keep your heart free from hate, your mind from worry, live simply, expect little, give much, sing often, pray always, forget self, think of others and their feelings, fill your heart with love, scatter sunshine. These are the tried links in the golden chain of contentment.
(Author unknown)

IT IS STILL BEST to be honest and truthful; to make the most of what we have; to be happy with simple pleasure; and to be cheerful and have courage when things go wrong.
(Laura Ingalls Wilder, 1867-1957)

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