• (cs)

    Let the RealPlayer bashing begin!

    RealAlternative is the best.

  • skztr (unregistered)

    That's a valid, clear, completely understandable error message. RealMedia or RealNetworks or Real or whatever, yeah, the whole of them should be shot for treason (yes, shot. yes, treason.) but the error message is fine.

  • (cs)

    i actually just run windows media player 10 on my laptop, the only thing i don't like is that shuffle is really very random, keeps hitting the same artists/albums... on my linux box at work i run amarok, and have been pleased with that so far, just started using it though. i pretty much avoid real player though... let the bashing continue, lol

  • Terrier (unregistered)

    There they go again! Running out of the trash when they should be running into the trash.

    CAPTCHA (appropriately): ewww

  • Whitey (unregistered) in reply to akatherder

    But c'mon, you have to admit, realPlayer completely blows. Its barely this side of spyware with all the crap it throws on your system.

    captcha: pirates ARRRG!

  • General K (unregistered)

    Okay, I don't get what's funny here. RealOne sucks, but it's just notifying the user that it's running out of the Trash (which is probably not the desired location of the program.)

    It would have been funny if the dialog had said "This copy of RealOne Player appears to be Trashed." But this? T

  • Will Perdikakis (unregistered)

    Worst Windows Programs (in no particular order):

    • Adobe Acrobat Reader (Get FoxIt)
    • Norton Isavirus (Use nothing)
    • Apple iTunes (MPC)
    • Real Player (MPC)
    • Microsoft Word (Open Office) (though neither have gotten bullets and numbering with auto-indentation right)

    As far as Real Player alternatives go, MPC all the way.

  • (cs)

    RealPlayer is probably the worst example of crapware that I've ever seen. It has so many thinly-veiled marketing tactics that it almost makes me laugh whenever I see them. The "Message Center" is telling me I have an "urgent critical update announcement" which is just an ad telling me to buy something from RealNetworks? Amazing! And it steals all of my associations by default? Great! It phones home whenever I play a file? Well, I don't think the current version does, but RealPlayer G2 did at least.

    Media Player Classic works well enough for me. It gives me the convenience of playing basically every filetype, at least.

    And the obligatory:

    http://www.krellan.com/rant/real-buffering.jpg

  • (cs)

    LINUX_FANBOY_MODE_ON=1 The worst Windows program is Windows!

  • (cs)

    While this may be treasonous to the geek cause, I must admit that actually, RealPlayer for Linux (based off of the FOSS Helix Player) is pretty much OK. Not something spectacular, but not a piece of garbage that contaminates one's computer either.

  • A Nonny Mouse (unregistered) in reply to Saladin

    Well I quite like RealPlayer. I like the playlist setup particularly. If you don't want any of this crap:

    If I thought said software sucks because it installs a bunch of desktop shortcuts with GREAT OFFERS for FREE INTERNET ACCESS, installs an unnecessary system tray application, tries to reset all file associations for all media files on my computer each time I run it, adds a Quick Launch button and top-level Start Menu shortcut, and installs a useless IE toolbar, I should keep it to myself.

    then don't choose it when you install it! At least its not like iTunes which takes over your entire machine.

  • Aaron (unregistered)

    The real WTF is that none of you have noticed that this is from a Mac.

  • Will Perdikakis (unregistered) in reply to A Nonny Mouse
    A Nonny Mouse:
    Well I quite like RealPlayer. I like the playlist setup particularly. If you don't want any of this crap:

    then don't choose it when you install it! At least its not like iTunes which takes over your entire machine.

    Do not forget the whole "Auto-Synchronize" iPod "feature". This feature allows users to delete their ENTIRE flipping music collection from their iPod if the connect to a computer with iTunes installed and an empty Music folder.

    I hate iTunes.

  • Paul (unregistered) in reply to General K
    General K:
    RealOne sucks, but it's just notifying the user that it's running out of the Trash (which is probably not the desired location of the program.)
    Oh, but it is.
  • dp.design (unregistered) in reply to Will Perdikakis
    Will Perdikakis:
    A Nonny Mouse:
    Well I quite like RealPlayer. I like the playlist setup particularly. If you don't want any of this crap:

    then don't choose it when you install it! At least its not like iTunes which takes over your entire machine.

    Do not forget the whole "Auto-Synchronize" iPod "feature". This feature allows users to delete their ENTIRE flipping music collection from their iPod if the connect to a computer with iTunes installed and an empty Music folder.

    I hate iTunes.

    It asks you if you want to re-associate your iPod before it does that.

    CAPTCHA: Sounds like you got BURNED

  • dolo54 (unregistered)

    Real Player running out of trash??? I find that hard to believe. I'm sure they have more trash on the way in the pipe. Just be patient little popup... more trash is on its way.

  • (cs)

    It's now 12:12pm and the sticker page still keeps saying "come back at noon"

    WTF gives?

    Addendum (2007-03-02 12:30): Edit: Ah, Alex ran out of stamps!!

    Addendum (2007-03-02 12:31): Edit: "This Alex appears to be running out of Stamps"

  • esquilax (unregistered)

    Sorry, Charlie, RealPlayer on the Mac is actually not that bad.

    As for this dialog box, I'm not sure how you get to that, because you can't launch apps in the Trash, and if an app's running, you can't move it to the Trash.

    CAPTCHA: tacos!

  • (cs) in reply to Will Perdikakis
    Will Perdikakis:
    - Norton Isavirus (Use nothing)

    Uh.... wow. You don't run antivirus? I hope you have a killer firewall, and never use IE, and vet everything you download very very carefully.

  • Terrorantula (unregistered) in reply to utoxin
    utoxin:
    Will Perdikakis:
    - Norton Isavirus (Use nothing)

    Uh.... wow. You don't run antivirus? I hope you have a killer firewall, and never use IE, and vet everything you download very very carefully.

    I've stopped using anti virus programs after not getting a single virus for 4 years. I still do the odd full scan once every 3 months just to be sure, but stil nothing.

    If you are careful with what you do, youw ont get viruses. Kindof like STDs. IF you dip it in a professional woman (or man) your pretty much bound to end up with a few new buddies.

  • IHaveNoName:-( (unregistered) in reply to utoxin
    utoxin:
    Will Perdikakis:
    - Norton Isavirus (Use nothing)

    Uh.... wow. You don't run antivirus? I hope you have a killer firewall, and never use IE, and vet everything you download very very carefully.

    Maybe he's running Linux?

  • ahem (unregistered) in reply to IHaveNoName:-(

    Interesting that the programmer of that error message thought to even check to see if the program was being launched from the trash bin.

  • (cs) in reply to Terrorantula
    Terrorantula:
    utoxin:
    Will Perdikakis:
    - Norton Isavirus (Use nothing)

    Uh.... wow. You don't run antivirus? I hope you have a killer firewall, and never use IE, and vet everything you download very very carefully.

    I've stopped using anti virus programs after not getting a single virus for 4 years. I still do the odd full scan once every 3 months just to be sure, but stil nothing.

    If you are careful with what you do, youw ont get viruses. Kindof like STDs. IF you dip it in a professional woman (or man) your pretty much bound to end up with a few new buddies.

    +1

  • Paul (unregistered) in reply to dp.design
    dp.design:
    It asks you if you want to re-associate your iPod before it does that.
    Haven't used iTunes much, but if that's all it says, the term "re-associate" sounds pretty harmless. I would hope it would at least warn that re-associating your iPod with a different computer could cause you to lose all your music. Anyone know more about this?
  • Neal (unregistered) in reply to utoxin
    utoxin:
    Uh.... wow. You don't run antivirus? I hope you have a killer firewall, and never use IE, and vet everything you download very very carefully.

    I don't know about him but I don't and I don't and I do (only when I have to) and I do but only somewhat carefully.

    It's been something like 17 years since I first got online and I've had a continuous connection via cable or DSl for at least 4 years of that. Progressed from Win95 through Win98, Win98SE, and finally XPSP2. Internet Explorer as my primary browser until last year and Outlook express for email since its inception. I don't have a virus scanner on my computer and haven't in five years, though I have downloaded and run an occasional spyware scan in that time.

    The only virus that I've ever gotten came when a "tech savy" friend booted my computer off an infected floppy in the early 90's.

    No viruses, spyware, or trojans here. zip!

    Yes, I do know that for a fact. It's not that difficult if you're wise, cautious, and of course lucky that your box isn't a hard target.

  • (cs) in reply to Terrorantula
    Terrorantula:
    utoxin:
    Will Perdikakis:
    - Norton Isavirus (Use nothing)

    Uh.... wow. You don't run antivirus? I hope you have a killer firewall, and never use IE, and vet everything you download very very carefully.

    I've stopped using anti virus programs after not getting a single virus for 4 years. I still do the odd full scan once every 3 months just to be sure, but stil nothing.

    If you are careful with what you do, youw ont get viruses. Kindof like STDs. IF you dip it in a professional woman (or man) your pretty much bound to end up with a few new buddies.

    Plenty of amateurs pick things up, too. That's why I keep AVG running at all times. What if the next virus is aimed at something I use? Better safe than dead.

  • Cotillion (unregistered) in reply to Paul

    I bought a new computer last week. Trying to move my music to the new computer was a bit of a pain but iTunes did warn me that if I hit "ok" it would erase everything on my iPod.

  • (cs) in reply to utoxin
    utoxin:
    Will Perdikakis:
    - Norton Isavirus (Use nothing)

    Uh.... wow. You don't run antivirus? I hope you have a killer firewall, and never use IE, and vet everything you download very very carefully.

    I think what he means is that if you want to use Norton you are better off using nothing, which I agree with.

    Of course there are other anti-virus programs out there, and while I don't use Norton, I do use something. Regretfully I had to fix a friends machine so it would even dial out with the modem a few years back and I had my laptop with me. Had to get the driver for the modem off the internet. So it was a quick connect, locate the driver, download and disconnect. In that short amount of time I actually got hit with a virus, can't remember which one. didn't realize it until I went home and plugged into my networks and my firewall started raising flags.

    Never got a virus while I was behind the firewalls BTW, so I probably don't really need one when safely tucked away at home, but the laptop is made to travel and you never know what you might run across.

  • (cs)

    "You've sent a secure payment of $1.50 USD to Alex Papadimoulis through PayPal. You'll receive an email receipt shortly."

    Woohoo!

  • (cs)

    Hehe, Reminds me of a client's PC(I do freelance stuff at times, Mostly free of charge).

    One day after I cleaned the Ad-Ware and a hacked messenger service, I get another emergency call: "My computer is running slow again". I take one look, and the damned thing is infested worse than last time. Apparently they had one of their "Techno Guru" friends play with the PC, They installed a Norton package from a weird site I never heard of... Oh, They don't have a firewall either.

  • (cs) in reply to Terrorantula
    Terrorantula:
    If you are careful with what you do, youw ont get viruses. Kindof like STDs. IF you dip it in a professional woman (or man) your pretty much bound to end up with a few new buddies.

    LOL. I love it!

    I didn't have antivirus the whole time I was on dial-up. Didn't when I moved to broadband, either. Went a total of about 10 years without antivirus. Then, I made the mistake of turning on IP passthrough on the router to see if it really was the router blocking an app from communicating. Sure enough, a damn worm came through that kept causing RPC to crash along with Windows which caused a perpetual reboot cycle. So, now I'm running AVG.

    Side note: I also sent the $1.50 via PayPal. Bring on the sticker!

  • (cs) in reply to Neal
    Neal:
    No viruses, spyware, or trojans here. zip!

    Yes, I do know that for a fact. It's not that difficult if you're wise, cautious, and of course lucky that your box isn't a hard target.

    No, you don't *KNOW* that for a fact unless you actually scan your machine with a virus scanner. AVG Free is a decent scanner, and if you don't want to have to download and install one, here are two good free online scanners:

    http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ (Trend Micro Housecall) http://onecare.live.com/ (Windows Live OneCare Safety Scanner)

  • The Fox (unregistered)
    Worst Windows Programs (in no particular order): - Adobe Acrobat Reader (Get FoxIt) - Norton Isavirus (Use nothing) - Apple iTunes (MPC) - Real Player (MPC) - Microsoft Word (Open Office)
    It would be nice if you'd back up those statements. I think Adobe Reader (version 7, 8 was SLOW++), Norton, iTunes, and Word are fine programs. Open Office is overrated.

    And I don't think that error messages is particularly good. It doesn't give the user any possible solutions, or even say that you're not allowed to run anything out of the trash.

  • (cs) in reply to cparker
    cparker:
    "You've sent a secure payment of $1.50 USD to Alex Papadimoulis through PayPal. You'll receive an email receipt shortly."

    Woohoo!

    Yay he's rich !

  • Nick (unregistered)

    From what I've heard of my friend's forray into the iPod scene, iTunes attempts to make sure that your iPod and iTunes music folder have the exact same songs. If there's any discrepancy then it deletes or adds files to the iPod to make them the same. Empty music folder? Empty iPod.

    And as for realplayer, I don't really see why people keep making .rm and .ra files. Must be my hatred towards proprietary formats...

  • Magus (unregistered) in reply to cparker
    cparker:
    Neal:
    No viruses, spyware, or trojans here. zip!

    Yes, I do know that for a fact. It's not that difficult if you're wise, cautious, and of course lucky that your box isn't a hard target.

    No, you don't *KNOW* that for a fact unless you actually scan your machine with a virus scanner.

    No, you never KNOW that for a fact, even if you've just scanned your machine with a virus scanner. That only tells you that you don't have any of the malware the scanner knows how to find, and that only if you have reason to be confident the scanner hasn't been somehow compromised.

  • (cs) in reply to The Fox
    The Fox:
    Worst Windows Programs (in no particular order): - Adobe Acrobat Reader (Get FoxIt) - Norton Isavirus (Use nothing) - Apple iTunes (MPC) - Real Player (MPC) - Microsoft Word (Open Office)
    It would be nice if you'd back up those statements. I think Adobe Reader (version 7, 8 was SLOW++), Norton, iTunes, and Word are fine programs. Open Office is overrated.

    And I don't think that error messages is particularly good. It doesn't give the user any possible solutions, or even say that you're not allowed to run anything out of the trash.

    The developers probably didn't imagine someone would want to run the program from the trash and added that dialog as an easter egg.

  • Sean (unregistered) in reply to Paul
    Paul:
    dp.design:
    It asks you if you want to re-associate your iPod before it does that.
    Haven't used iTunes much, but if that's all it says, the term "re-associate" sounds pretty harmless. I would hope it would at least warn that re-associating your iPod with a different computer could cause you to lose all your music. Anyone know more about this?

    Yeah, it tells you that if you reassociate your iPod you'll lose all the music on it. Of course if you run your iPod in manual update mode, you don't have to worry about this.

    Oh, and RealPlayer for the Mac isn't anywhere near as bad as it is for Windows. I'm not sure how you'd run the program from the trash, but assuming you did, that's not a completely unreasonable error message, if a bit short on information.

  • ahem (unregistered) in reply to cparker
    cparker:
    Neal:
    No viruses, spyware, or trojans here. zip!

    Yes, I do know that for a fact. It's not that difficult if you're wise, cautious, and of course lucky that your box isn't a hard target.

    No, you don't *KNOW* that for a fact unless you actually scan your machine with a virus scanner. AVG Free is a decent scanner, and if you don't want to have to download and install one, here are two good free online scanners:

    http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ (Trend Micro Housecall) http://onecare.live.com/ (Windows Live OneCare Safety Scanner)

    I have Trend Micro's pc-cillin. Pretty good on the anti virus/ad-ware, but spam mail filter blows chunks (wrong 95+% of the time).

  • (cs)

    The thing that gets me is quicktime. I used to use iTunes as my default mp3 player, until they started bundling it together with QuickTime.

    Biggest problem is that when I'd install iTunes, QuickTime would hijack associations for mp3s. WTF is that about?

  • Nick (unregistered)

    Oh my, how could I forget about quicktime? yet another wtf on why so many movie files online seem to be in a format intended for one computer (Macs), with an intrusive program to make them semi-runable on PC's.

    Must stop, before I blow a fuse.

  • Neal (unregistered) in reply to cparker
    cparker:
    No, you don't *KNOW* that for a fact unless you actually scan your machine with a virus scanner.

    Yes, I do know that for a fact, or I should say I did know that for a fact when I booted my computer this morning 10 minutes before my post. It could have changed in the minutes since, but we both know that's not what we're discussing.

    One can indeed know that for a fact without the use of a virus scanner. That you cannot comprehend any way that a computer can be known virus free without a virus scan speaks to your ignorance or to your presumption of mine.

  • (cs) in reply to AbbydonKrafts
    AbbydonKrafts:
    ...I made the mistake of turning on IP passthrough on the router to see if it *really* was the router blocking an app from communicating. Sure enough, a damn worm came through that kept causing RPC to crash along with Windows which caused a perpetual reboot cycle. So, now I'm running AVG.
    That kind of giggle also happens when you reinstall Windows XP (pre SP2 disc) with a working connection ("So I can do that funky Dynamic Update thang and get you to SP2 without you bothering"). When it had finished reinstalling, I had a nice shiny new copy of Blaster all my own and a hosed connection before I'd even clicked "Start"...
  • (cs) in reply to Will Perdikakis
    Will Perdikakis:
    Worst Windows Programs (in no particular order):
    • Adobe Acrobat Reader (Get FoxIt)

    Acrobat Reader at least used to be buggy as hell. It almost always crashes on my machine when it loads in Firefox, often remains resident and then crashes on logout, etc. The also stole one of the worst UI atrocities I've seen (the MDI that looks almost like SDI and which I could go on for some time ranting about) from Excel 2002, PPT, etc. (not Word though, interestingly enough). It was slow and bloated; there's a speedup program that helps a bit with that though.

    But the reader on my computer here was just upgraded to Reader 8. And it's great! It's WAY faster, fixes the UI bug, and seems to work properly in the browser. One of the most worthwhile upgrades I've seen in a while.

  • Random user (unregistered) in reply to Neal

    You sir, are an idiot. Or you're talking about a computer that isn't connected to the internet. There is also the distinct possibility of both being true.

    This is exactly the same thing as not being able to know for sure that you personally don't have an illness. Sure you may not show any symptoms, sure you may not be affected and may only be a carrier, but you cant be sure that the germ is not running around in your body.

    Any time a program connects to a remote computer you run the risk of infection, because no program is 100% flawless. The best you can hope for is the remote computer you connect to is friendly and bug-free. Even coming to this site puts you at risk because you cant be certain that

    1. your browser is secure
    2. this site isn't already compromised and spouting viruses
  • (cs) in reply to esquilax
    esquilax:
    As for this dialog box, I'm not sure how you get to that, because you can't launch apps in the Trash, and if an app's running, you can't move it to the Trash.

    The Finder is a bit mixed up on this one:

    http://telcontar.net/Screenshots/botm.php?entry=2006-11-05

    It gets even more mixed up with files:

    http://telcontar.net/Screenshots/botm.php?entry=2006-11-13

    Seems you can't launch a trashed file from the GUI. Maybe from Terminal, or a bug in Launch Services that we don't know about?

    Still, Mac OS X lets you drag a file from the Trash to another program and it will open just fine. This also works in Windows with Winamp -- you can drag a trashed file into Winamp's playlist and it accepts it.

    But you can't trash a running program in X? I can in 9.1 -- I'd have to boot X to see if Apple forbit such perverse joy now. Mac OS has traditionally allowed you to rename open files, too, which rules. (It does require that the application leave the file open, or reference it purely by UID on next re-open, which I am not sure is possible, since FSSes contain a name. I've frequently moved and renamed open files though with compliant applications.)

    Addendum (2007-03-02 14:04): OK, you can launch an application from the Trash via Terminal. But you can't trash a running app any more :(

  • (cs) in reply to cparker
    cparker:
    Neal:
    No viruses, spyware, or trojans here. zip!

    Yes, I do know that for a fact. It's not that difficult if you're wise, cautious, and of course lucky that your box isn't a hard target.

    No, you don't *KNOW* that for a fact unless you actually scan your machine with a virus scanner. AVG Free is a decent scanner, and if you don't want to have to download and install one, here are two good free online scanners:

    http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ (Trend Micro Housecall) http://onecare.live.com/ (Windows Live OneCare Safety Scanner)

    I find that Trend Micro Housecall crashes my computer; I prefer Panda Software's Active Scan.

    http://www.pandasoftware.com/activescan/activescan/ascan_2.asp

  • (cs) in reply to akatherder

    Dang I never got a free sticker.

    My guess is that there were never any to begin with and Alex just wants to make a butt load of money $1.50 at a time.

  • codemoose (unregistered) in reply to utoxin
    utoxin:
    Will Perdikakis:
    - Norton Isavirus (Use nothing)

    Uh.... wow. You don't run antivirus? I hope you have a killer firewall, and never use IE, and vet everything you download very very carefully.

    Me neither. I find it's a lot easier to exercise care and caution with my network/computer than to deal with AV fartware. Your odds of being infected are about the same, and you don't deal with the headaches.

  • Anonymous (unregistered)
    Mac OS has traditionally allowed you to rename open files, too, which rules.

    Well, you can do that as well under Windows... that is, if less applications would open everything in FILE_MY_PRECIOUSSSS mode.

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