Oh, For Fuck’s Sake….

wmp_pattern.jpg
Need I say more?


OK, this is it. Ever since the Firm™ first started operating I was proud of the fact that we had some seriously good streaming set up. Windows media services 4.1 on our server and Windows media encoder at the source -it worked perfect. The fact that most of PCs have had Windows media player installed together with WIN200 and later WIN XP, only helped me widen my smile.

And until recently Windows Media solutions were one thing which in my view really moved Microsoft into the “good guys” area. I mean – the encoder is free, the server is not utterly pocket-crippling either, and the whole package acutally works. What more do you want?

And then they fuck it up big time with Windows Media Player 11… I mean I understand that thecnology moves forward, but why on Earth can’t it be backward compatible? Why did they have to drop the MMS protocol? I have nothing against RTSP protocol, in fact I like it a lot since mobile phones use it and it made my life a lot simpler when I was setting up our mobile streaming.

But why drop a perfectly good protocol especially if Widows Media Services don’t support RTSP? Is Microsoft really trying to shoot itself into the knee?

In my opinion it has already done so. If something is not done quickly with WMP 11, it will follow the path of Netscape’s 4.xx browser. I’ve never ranted agains a certain piece of software, but this change for the worse is simply incomprehensible to me. Thus I’m left with a shitload of work, trying to migrate to WIN2003 server – which supports RTSP – as soon as possible. Fuck….

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pengovsky

Agent provocateur and an occasional scribe.

44 thoughts on “Oh, For Fuck’s Sake….”

  1. Even though three quarters of the world uses Microsofft products we’ve all learned not to trust them. Never.Ever.Put.Your.Trust.In.Microsoft. I feel your pain, but it was to be expected. By the way, just for end users WMP 11 sucks just as much, since it has LESS functionalities than its predecessor (things like only selecting certain tracks on a CD are gone in this version). But that’s Microsoft : pay more, get less. I mean, who in their right mind would think about downgrading to Vista at this time? Sure, it has all the nifty visual whistles and bells (think Mac OS), but content protection and digital rights management mess up your whole system. Not to mention the obvious bugs in the system. I’m not taking any chances on my machine, as it’s used for music production. XP will be the backbone for a while longer.

  2. I’d love to keep my XP, too, since I’m satisfied with it, but the problem is in the updates: MS will stop providing them from 2008 or 2009 on. Everyone needing the most up-to-date OS (like translators) will have to switch to Vista by then. Vista has a very bad reputation in Germany ever since MS Deutschland divulged MS is working together with NSA…
    I installed WMP 11 “by coincidence” and cannot listen to most online radios ever since (not even with RealPlayer or WinAmp) and since I don’t know much about audio players, any change for the better will have to be coincidental, too. Luckily 🙁 , I will be paying “radio fees” soon because internet-PCs were declared to be “modern radio systems” – they can potentially receive “radio waves”, you see… 🙁

  4. @ARF: Indeed. WinXP will remain my OS of choice for the forseeable future. The thing that troubles me is the fact that for a short while it actually seemed that MS is on the right track. Office 2003 is a good system with plenty of functionalities, WinXP is a great OS – once all the major leaks were plugged and WMP 10 was actually one hell of a media player. I haven’t had the opportunity to test Vista as yet, but I fear the day… In any case I prefer to remain one step behind development as far as operation of critical systems is concerned. So I’m rather pissed by the fact that I will have to switch to WIN 2003 Server, just because WMP 11 doesn’t support one tiny protocol.

    @alcessa: This cooperation with the NSA came to light with WIN2k already. But I guess it is the first case of a European MS branch to work for an American agency. My only hope is the sheer volume of data – the fact that there will simply be to many users doing similar stuff to let NSA make any sense of it.
    Re: “radio waves”: WHAT? you actually have to pay a fee for owning a radio – and to listen to radio via computer? Whom do you pay this fee to?

    @Sunshine: You’re welcome – it was about time, wasn’t it? You’re free to download them, of course. I think we’ll also make a DVD out of it.

  5. I already did that with the ones I was interested in. 🙂 It clearly states that’s a preferable option for us morons that upgraded to WMP11 naively thinking it’s something better. And now it seems I can’t go back to WMP10 anymore. 🙁 🙁

  7. I only watched two. 😳 What I noticed was that the picture froze repeatedly sound was ok) if I watched it directly while it worked fine if I downloaded and watched it. Plus I heard that typical sound of a mobile phone disrupting the signal on one of those two videos. 🙂 No aliens on my father’s video though. 😉

  8. OK, great – as I was in a hurry I didn’t check the last few videos when I uploaded them. As far as mobile interference is concerned – unfortunately there’s nothing I could do – there were so many people around and some 50 metres of wiring that it was bound to happen. 🙁

  9. Yes: since we don’t own a TV we only pay the official “radio fee” (I don’t know what this is called in English, but you call it “radijska naročnina”) for our private flat. And since my office is in this flat and I am a freelancer owning a PC with an internet connection I have to pay additional 5 Euros per month for simply being able to listen to the radio via my internet-PC. Theoretically.

    (I’ve had loads of mind-numbing work these days and I really miss being able to listen to some music with it 🙁 )

  11. There is this special institution called Gebühreneinzugszentrale, also called GEZ – they are basically a state institution collecting those fees. People who turn up at your door, asking things like: You really don’t own a TV? This IS unusual, you see 🙂

  12. Idiots… Well, they do the same thing here. Only that the proceeds go directly to state television, until recently called “TV Znova”, because most of the time it just showed re-runs of programming, with a sign “Znova” (“Re-Run”) in the upper right corner.

  13. Btw, I forgot to mention yesterday… Jože Mraz, Olga Kacjan and Jadranka Tomažič are there twice. And Karel Brišnik recited Neiztrohnjeno srce, not Meiztrohnjeno srce. 😉

  14. well, why don’t you just switch to anoter streaming format and play frisbee with the Win2003-server-CDs? Winamp is free of charge for the end-users and available for several windows versions. The thing about WMP is, that Micro$oft seems to think, all of us have their system now and might be confident with it. Honestly – would you have upgraded a well-running server if they hadn’t made you with WMP11? See how they make you buy a new license? Theydon’t care if the whole world is complaining – as long as people are stupid enough to buy that crap. I can’t understand your decision to upgrade as I’m quite sure you’ll have the same problems with WMP 12 or 13 again…

    Regarding Radio-Internet-fees in Germany: initially they wanted PCs to be treated as televisions, which would have meant 16€/month. And if Alcessa had a second PC which she used for private stuff only, she might have to pay for it aswell, as one is private and the other one business… Seems like this country is becoming a loony bin 🙁

  15. Well, this is what I’m going to do: I’m going to start collecting fees (5 euro per internet-household) for Slovenian translation. And if people tell me: but I haven’t had any, I’m going to say: on my homepage you will find Slovenian expression worth 5 Euro, it’s your problem if you haven’t had at least a look at them. 😀

  17. For starters: Technicaly the Firm is not an end user, but regardless of that I prefer something that is easier to maintain and can be easily integrated into a website. And WinAmp is not easy on any of those counts. It is what I call a “guerilla solution”. Besides – I still maintain that WINs are not a bad OS – it is MS’s policy of doing incomprehensible things that drives me nuts.

  19. I know, that the Firm is not an end-user. But:
    a) I’ve experienced less problems with external players (integration? bah…)
    b) well, ok – just lock the users out who refuse to update
    c) what the hell is incomprehensible with the m$-policy? If you don’t upgrade voluntarily, we don’t support old formats any more, then you have to – suckers!”

  21. @Dietmar: Look, I’m not a die-hard fan of any system. I look at them from a cost-benefit perspecitve. And thusfar the scale was tipped heavily in favout of MS. We’ll see about the future though.

    @alcessa: Why not? Since one man’s translation is another man’s original, you might charcge for the whole lot. Much likr GEZ 😀

  22. Just pretend you don’t know that I speak Slovenian. 😉 But, you can definitely charge me for every single German word you have there, because it’s all gibberish to me. 😳

    Or we can make a deal that I pay my fee in a form of a few drinks when you decide to visit our beloved matkurja. 😀

  23. OK: if you allow me to buy you a few drinks at that same occasion for having suggested this profitable idea to me. 😀

    NO, DIETMAR: no drunken-moose-story here in progress, this is just us ladies talking! 😀

  24. We have a deal! 🙂 And later on (after a few drinks) we can go on an expedition extorting the fees for your page from people. 😉

  25. @pengovsky: me neither, I just hate it, if a computer-company tries to force me to use a certain program

    @alcessa: hmm, can’t be a coincidence, that MOOSE and BOOZE rhyme… 😛

  26. Dietmar: do you Swabians get told by your parents to use one and the same joke over and over, till it’s too worn out to bother? I mean, the others are for free, too… 👿 😀

  28. c’mon, I haven’t used this one that often. And it was you who started with that drunken-moose-story. But if you want a new one: alcohol and alcessa start with the same tree letters. Better? ;-):mrgreen:

  29. Of course it was me who started: it was me I was talking about. Klaro? 🙂

    I’m going to count the times you mention this connection from now on. 😀

    DIEtmar DIE Heimsuchung? 😈

  34. Well, you do not really expect expensive ones, do you? 😀

    We say in Slovenia that old jokes have grown a beard and that one is really hairy, don’t you think?

  35. Oh well… I already agreed on paying those 5 € anyway. 😉 Now give me the translation. 😀 *throwing herself on the floor like a little kid*

  36. Sunshine: Heimsuchung is visitation in Englich. But the joke was indeed a lame one: I used the first 3 letters of Dietmar’s name as the German definite article DIE.

  39. Dietmar, I am always that nice to you, remember?
    I wasn’t under the impression that you cannot bear my niceness? My being all sweet and charming? 😀

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