Web Loading Expectations

Looking for the graphic of a remote control, related to the previous entry on this journal, I decided to visit some specialized websites -dedicated to remotes- where I could search using the model of the corresponding TV. While listening to streaming radio, the first site with a suggestive name "Universal Remote Control, Inc." at hometheatermaster.com, loaded an impressive flash presentation on a clean interface with a few and clear menu items, with a background music that repeats forever :o{ ...there is no way to stop the music, so I had to stop my Windows Media Player, only to be surprised again, because that welcome page does not have a 'search' menu option. Thanks to broadband, I can recover quickly, but that episode made me remember of a pending issue with one web page I could improve.

After searching and searching for several minutes, I gave up and decided to take a picture of my own remote, then noticed the red circle with a white arrow pointing up on the top-rigt corner of my browser; clicking the red circle, started the process of updating the Mozilla Firefox browser, which didn't work with the radio on; stopped my classical listening pleasure again, and the browser was upgraded to its 1.0.3 version. The browser had to be closed to proceed, but when I opened it up again, the red circle was still there; recalling a previous experience, clicked the red circle again, to find no updates this time; the circle vanished after verifying that there were no updates available, and without the need to reload the browser. Curious to see why the Firefox browser on the other computer I have at work didn't show the red update circle, found its version to be 0.9.1 + (time for its update too).

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   Friday, April 15, 2005  

English Close Caption

Watching Telemundo television station in Spanish at the start of its 10pm show, we noticed the availability of its CC3 close captioned track in English, which I tried to display to experience a reverse translation.

The remote control is the only way to access those advanced functions, so we had to turn the lights on to see where the buttons were; the SAP button did not do the trick, so I had to start playing with the Menu button; accessing the menu, the arrows positioned on a circular fashion on the middle of the remote, moved the cursor to get to the required option.

Associating the cursor arrows around the circle (like a digital camera) I selected the options pressing the center of the cirle, but in response I was taken each time to a list of bookmarked channels; thinking that the options were not taken, I started repeating the steps and found that the option for CC3 was taken, so I browsed thru other close captioned options to see if one of those worked on the fly; ready to give up, I noticed the option to display close caption as part of the menu, which I selected, sending me to the list of bookmarked channels again.

Pressing the menu button, the list of channels dissapeared, and after a moment of silence, the close caption white letters on black strips started showing. Unexpectedly, the play moved to a verbal conversation in English, with its corresponding translation to Spanish in large letters, behind the CC3 white English text on black strips. At that moment, we all had to understand English, or ignore the dialog.

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   Thursday, April 14, 2005  

Internet Radio at Work

Selecting a radio station I saved within "My Stations" previously, ChoiceRadio.com New Age in Windows Media Player, I am taken to a web page with many advertising sections, all fighting for my attention; on the top portion I see an option to become a member, which is not what I am used to do to listen to one radio channel; after a long time waiting for the 'Buffering' signal, I rather go to choose another radio. MSN Radio Plus on Windows Media Player, RadioPass on RealPlayer, and LaunchCast Plus in Yahoo!, are the paid options I can understand. I have seen paid subscriptions offered per individual radios, but it would be unreasonable to choose one station instead of a complete selection.

I liked listening to the RealPlayer radio, until recently when I selected several free stations in sequence, and waited for the introductory advertising, only to get the standard message that "this radio station has reach its maximum of its listeners capacity - please select another station" or something like that.

Yahoo! LAUNCHcast radio was my choice before their connectivity failed on my desktop. I still connect to LauchCast from home, where I don't have to deal with the firewall at work. I can still connect to Beethoven.com or "New Age Essentials" via Windows Media Player at work, but the selection of free stations is getting ridiculously small. Furthermore, using Windows Media Player or Yahoo! LaunchCast, once in a while I notice lower volume, or even complete silence, while the interface shows a song being played.

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   Tuesday, March 01, 2005  

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   Friday, February 04, 2005  

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