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Windows Updates
Jeffrey - May 19, 2003

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  Tindo@heart May 20, 2003
Winamp fades in/out on pauses or skips, it has for years. not by defualt, you have to go to "options/preferences/plugins-output/ and use the 'DirectSound output' then you can click 'configure' and alter you own fading times. I like the default fading settings.

Winamp has plugins for all of the modern audio codecs. I'm currently enjoying the ACC/MP4/.m4a plugin. MP4s sound so nice. It also has a wide user/fan base that consist of programmers that consantly keep it up to date.

The main reason I don't like WMP is that it's too damn big. I don't need a media player that takes up my whole screen. ... and it's too slow, ugly, and has stupid menus/GUI. No skin can fix this, it's bloatware.

"They really CAN'T afford to let you uninstall them."

Exactly! they could make it uninstallable, but choose not too. and force the consumer to use bloated and slow new software. I happen to think it is a tatic and not a neccessity.

Windows is a great product, I just don't like the tatics used. I hate how if I use MS Windows, I must use MS browser, MS WMP, and other MS's shit by default.

I also hate that instead of making optimized software that could run on a 486, they choose to write shitty bloated code that any new fast processor could handle. Programers once used slow computers to test their new product, and this would assure it would run fine on newer machines. Instead MS uses software that forces consumers to upgrade their hardware, and to throw away their old computer in some landfill. I think this is influenced more by business tatics than computer improvement.

Sure, the new Ghz processor are nice and are capable of things not yet implemented, and can do things no 486 can do. but why in the hell do I need 1.2Ghz to play an mp3, or an MPEG video for that matter. I remember playing mpeg's full screen on 33Mhz! I just think MS no longer tries to optimize their software, their too busy on preparing a yearly Windows release.

 racketboy May 20, 2003

  
	
	

		
		

			Originally posted by Tindo@heart@May 20, 2003 @ 10:22 PM



 Winamp fades in/out on pauses or skips, it has for years. not by defualt, you have to go to "options/preferences/plugins-output/ and use the 'DirectSound output' then you can click 'configure' and alter you own fading times. I like the default fading settings.


either my Laptop must not have had a fresh version of Winamp for a while or its just turned on by default now

I just installed it on a few more machines and noticed the fade.

BTW, MS has a little incentive to not optimize their software:

If it takes a fast computer to run it, people have to go out and buy a computer more often.

If they buy a computer, mostly likely they buy a new Windows license as well.

How convenient.

 Taelon May 20, 2003

  
	
	

		
		

			Originally posted by gameboy900@May 20, 2003 @ 02:23 PM



 DirectX is free (always has been) and is a VERY powerful multimedia library.



DirectShow is a very good and powerful video and audio library with tons of codecs.



MS has had their FREE voice synthesis and voice recognition libraries available for years now.



IE allows simple integration of many internet functions into apps.



VBA (while not completely free if you have any product that has it you can use it too) allows anybody to include a very powerful and standard programming language to add scripting functionality to their programs.



VBScript is a completely FREE scripting language that can be included in your programs.


DirectX is cool, but so is OpenGL, and the good ol' 3dfx Glide was hellishly fast, much faster then Direct3D.

DirectShow is cool, but architecturally complicated from what I understand.

Can't commend on speech synthesis or speech recognition. I've never known that to be part of DirectX. Is it?

Simple integration of IE into apps, that's gotta be a joke. Not being able to run certain apps without IE has pissed me off in the past, and IE itself just smacks of security holes and the annoying undeletable system folders IE uses for history, favorites, cookies and the cache. Not to mention MS' sneaky way of hiding these folders and their contents completely - even from DOS.

VBA is slow, bloated, and apparently unable to run any program without creating a mysterious .tmp file that remains locked for the entire runtime of the VBA-based app.

VBScript is inherently dangerous because so many viruses run on it nowadays. Any file ending in .vbs nowadays has to be treated with extreme caution. And nobody really needs it. I have not a single trace of VBscript on my system and never encountered a situation where it was needed.

http://www.fuckmicrosoft.com/...

Oh, and here's BSPlayer.... Enjoy!

 racketboy May 20, 2003
I like using VBA for writing complex Excel Macros.

I've wowed my former boss with some of my tricks.

Saved a ton of manual data entry.

But no, its not the most secure.

But its great from some quick and dirty solutions

 gameboy900 May 20, 2003

  
	
	

		
		

			Originally posted by Taelon@May 20, 2003 @ 05:42 PM



 http://www.fuckmicrosoft.com/...


BWAHAHA Thanks Taelon that site gave me the best laugh I've had in a long time.

I really loved their "INTERNET EXPLORER CACHE IS EVIL!!!11 " article. I always enjoy reading articles written by idiots who don't understand just what it takes to write a program and the things that ALL programs do to work better. I'm gonna go read that article again for some more laughs.

 Curtis May 21, 2003
Meh...I like Windows XP a lot - great stability, fastish, etc. I really don't understand people who bag Windows just for being Microsoft - it is damn impressive in my book. If you have XP and don't like WMP9, Start->run->mplayer2 and enjoy the old skool (like me )

 Taelon May 21, 2003
Uh... gameboy... you're mocking me, aren't ya... are you actually saying all this hidden-cache stuff is a good thing? You don't mind that your HD space goes to waste for stuff you thought you had deleted? What warped attitude is that? C'mon...

 M3d10n May 21, 2003
So, Gameboy, are you saying that, once in install WMP9 in my system, my OS will depend on it as if it were crack, thus why it'll not let me uninstall it?

And what are these appz that requires WMP9 to be installed?

I never installed any other WMP in my Win2K, and other players just run fine, since they are NOT mere wrappes for the WMP ActiveX control.

Also, DirectShow is HARDLY used. First, it's concealed in DirectX right now, I think. Second... the last thing that asked me to install DirectShow was FF7 PC, and the game (and the FMVs) just ran fine if I never installed it. You're just saying that WMP9 brings new updates that are required, when I think they are not.

Also, even in my old K6-II, WMP6.4 always appeared the second I double-clicked it. No need to load a bloated interface (that is using IE, BTW, requiring parts of it to be loaded as well).

When I want to watch a video, I want to watch the video, not the player. The video file is the center of my attention, not the player. So when I double click a .AVI file, I want it up and running ASAP, instead of waiting trillions of redundant little components to be loaded. Also, I hold in high regards the ability of being able to pause/resume the video by pressing the spacebar. Damn the CTRL+P!

Now, I downloaded the Media Player Classic 6.4, and it works like a charm. Loads as fast as WMP6.4, and has DVD support, along many other things. Then I had a nice idea: replacing the mplayer2.exe by the MCP6.4 exe.

Then I saw in shock how evil windows is! A few seconds after renaming mplayer2.exe to mplayer2_old.exe, a new mplayer2.exe file appeared out of thin air! Win2K just recovered the file! And it didn't ask me

Geez, I WANT to be able to fuck me OS!

 racketboy May 21, 2003

  
	
	

		
		

			Originally posted by M3d10n@May 21, 2003 @ 10:07 PM



 Then I saw in shock how evil windows is! A few seconds after renaming mplayer2.exe to mplayer2_old.exe, a new mplayer2.exe file appeared out of thin air! Win2K just recovered the file! And it didn't ask me 



Geez, I WANT to be able to fuck me OS!


THat feature can be turned off, but it's so non-computer-literate people don't accidentally delete system files.

 Taelon May 22, 2003
Yeahright. It's so the OS stays in control of itself under the guise of "protecting the system." Bullsh**.

Automatically restoring mplayer2.exe is one thing. Doing it behind the user's back, without warning and without explanation, leaving the user frustrated, is another.

Big applause for M3dion. Dude, you spoke from my heart.

 racketboy May 22, 2003

  
	
	

		
		

			Originally posted by Taelon@May 22, 2003 @ 07:51 PM



 Yeahright.  It's so the OS stays in control of itself under the guise of "protecting the system." Bullsh**.



Automatically restoring mplayer2.exe is one thing. Doing it behind the user's back, without warning and without explanation, leaving the user frustrated, is another.



Big applause for M3dion. Dude, you spoke from my heart.


well actually, you'd be surprised

I know of about 5 people personally (not online either) that have at least slightly messed up their win9x systems by deleting system files.

That includes my younger brother who is very computer literate.

I think it's a nice feature.

Like I said, you can turn it off.

MS should have made note of it better, yes, but I do like it as a whole.

 DBOY May 22, 2003

  
	
	

		
		

			Originally posted by jeff-20@May 19, 2003 @ 09:17 PM



 Now I have the option of upgrading my Windows Media Player 8 to 9. 



Should I do it? Is anyone running 9 and what are the differences? Are you glad you downloaded it?


When I upgraded to DirectX9 and WMP9, half my games did not run anymore since they crashed any time a video played.

I imagine WMP9 works just fine if you only use your computer for viewing porn though.

 gamefoo21 May 22, 2003
heh one side you got the ppl that see that not everything ms does is pure evil somethings yes others no, then on the other side of the line you have the hmm close minded linux,mac, alternative OS ppl that say anything MS does it is in the pursuit of pure and unrelenting evil. hmm and i am with the i like media player 9 i like the XP version and i use 9.0a and i haven't had any shit happen with my stuff hell it even let me play a buggy rip of LOTR2 and you can minimize the skin veiw to a pretty small size for listening to music.

 DBOY May 22, 2003
I use Windows XP, not Linux. I use it because I like playing games -- which I couldn't under Linux. I use it because every office I ever worked at uses Microsoft Office -- which under Linux I couldn't.

Microsoft isn't evil, but I think this upgrade is currently a buggy pile of shit. I'll wait till at least two fixes are out before I try it again.

It was not fun reformating my computer so I could get WMP8 and DirectX8 since Microsoft doesn't give you the option of downgrafing back to your old version. And being able to play Royal Blood II, Heroine Anthem, Xian Xian Jian Qizia Chuan, You Cheng Huan Jian Li, and Magna Carta are infinitly more important than being able to say "I have the latest DirectX libraries -- which nothing uses yet."

And if all you need are the new Windows Media Player 9 codecs, you can download them off their website and use them in your current WMP. There's really no reason to upgrade it. Unless you're just DYING to try one of the new skins (yeah right).

 Zero May 22, 2003
Well thank God for Mac's.

 DBOY May 22, 2003
New user, 3 posts, and all of them are about Macs.

You wouldn't by any chance be a troll from Apple's marketing department, would you?

 gamefoo21 May 23, 2003
well alas newer games force the install of it but i haven't had any problems with it since. the only problem i have is one game hates one file that runs my ati card very required DLL too. stupid bungie software.

 DBOY May 23, 2003
I havn't seen any games requiring me to upgrade yet.

 Jeffrey May 26, 2003
DAMN!

No one mentioned the MP3 protection. Microsoft is really pushing the WMA format.

It will not allow me to download any MP3s to my MP3 player!

It will only send WMA formats. I have checked all the options. My MP3 player doesn't recognize this format. Without the ability to switch back, I am stuck!

Thanks for recommending it. :bs

 cherok May 26, 2003
Personally I use Winamp 2 and GDivX (global divx)

Both are very RAM friendly, plus are easy to use and accomodating to many different file types.

Neither have a slew of ads like real media or WM have either.

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