posted May 26, 2004 10:15 AM
If you dislike and/or have problems with Windows Media Player, RealPlayer, the Apple Quicktime player, or Adobe Acrobat reader, you may find this post helpful. You will have to put up with a tiny bit of my educational ranting, though. 
But then, I am not writing this for fellow tech-heads. I am writing it for the rest of you, the ones who have not wasted ten billion hours of your life sitiing in front of a computer like I have. You poor people get so taken advantage of!...
Ahhh, proprietary formats. The new evil creeping into computing. Microsoft started it, of course, when they patented their Windows Media formats. This was the first time (that I can remember) someone ever patented a file format. Like many others, I was not happy.
The world of computing depends on standard, freely-available file formats. Who here does not use text files, rich text files, bitmaps, GIFs, JPEGs, MPEGs, and AVIs on a daily basis? We all do. Imagine how prohibitively expensive it would be to use a computer if we had to pay someone for the right to use every different kind of file. Geeks are usually very generous with their work; they come up with a new way to do something, and they share it with the rest of the world.
But the world is "moving on". Now there's Windows Media, RealMedia, and Adobe Acrobat. Instead of sharing a new way to use data with the world, they just capitalize on it. And this sticks you, the user, with their software. You cannot play RealMedia without downloading and installing RealPlayer. You cannot use Windows Media Video without Windows Media Player, and you cannot read .pdf files without Adobe Acrobat.
Or so they want you to believe. Did they really think we would not find a way around this?
Now, personally, I think .pdf files are the pits. They are HUGE. You can present the same text and graphics in a much more efficient way with standard formats. But the unwary world seems to be getting hooked on it. For a while, it seemed that government websites were going to offer their documents ONLY in .pdf format. There must have been some outcry from people like myself, who REFUSE to install the bulky, bloated Adobe Acrobat Reader into their systems, because now a lot of .gov sites are starting to offer their documents in good ol' HTML again. (HTML = HyperText Markup Language, the basic format all web pages are written in. Without html, there would be no LindaLand, or a World Wide Web, for that matter.)
Windows Media PLayer is another bulky program (we geeks call it "bloatware") and getting worse with every release. Likewise for RealPlayer, for which several Knowflakes have expressed their distaste and distrust.
Anything that be done on a computer, can be undone. (Which is why there will never be such a thing as absolute computer security.)
So, here are a few of my suggestions on how to deal with the proprietary formats of the Villainous Conglomerates*:
RealMedia Alternative - some kind geek reverse-engineered the RealMedia format, and extracted the necessary files for a computer to decode it without RealPlayer. You can get it at http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Real_Alternative.htm I have been using it for a good while now, and I can guarantee it will do no harm to your system, nor slow it down, nor interfere with any other program. (That goes for any program or file you will ever hear me recommend. I am the pickiest person in the known universe when it comes to software. And I use a trimmed-down version of Windows itself, so the programs I use cannot depend too heavily on Microshaft's bloated, buggy, built-in routines.) Now you can play .rm, .ra, and .ram files without Realplayer.
The same goes for Apple's QuickTime. Their player is a bit heavy. (Plus, I like to use ONE player for all my video). There is also a Quicktime, Alternative, and you can get it at http://www.free-codecs.com/download/QuickTime_Alternative.htm to play .qt and .mov files.
Windows Media Player can (and should) be replaced with Media Player Classic, which looks just like Microsuck's player (until you open the options dialog ). It is small, lightweight, and plays ANYTHING you have a codec for. Made by geeks, totally free. http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=82303&package_id=84358
In fact, Media Player Classic may be the only thing that will actually USE the RealMedia and Quicktime Alternatives. I am unsure. Since I found MPC, I have not really been interested in any other player!
I suppose I should explain codecs, it seems a lot of people are not aware of them. Codec stands for COmpressor/DECompressor. A codec is a small file that tells your computer (and whatever video player you have installed) how to read a certain type of video file. I think of them as language dictionaries. If I went to Spain, I would need a Spanish-English dictionary to read the newspaper. If I went to France, I would need a French-English dictionary. In like manner, your video player needs a "dictionary" to know how to read each different type of video file. These "dictionary" files are called codecs. Simple, right? So understand: the RealMedia and Quicktime alternatives are not video players, they are simply codecs to be used by a video player.
Now for Adobe. [rubbing hands together] Boy do I hate Adobe. And I refuse to install a piece of first-class bloatware like the Acrobat Reader. Fortunately, there are now a few programs available to convert .pdf files into something standard. I recommend the ABC Amber PDF Converter ( http://www.thebeatlesforever.com/processtext/abcpdf.html ) or PDF2WORD ( http://www.verypdf.com/pdf2word/index.html ), but there are others. Goodbye, Acrobat!
And just for the heck of it, for those who are interested in a faster-running, more bug- and conflict-free system, here are a few more good programs:
Instead of using Microsoft Works, Microsoft Word, or WordPerfect for a word processor, try Atlantis Ocean Mind ( http://www.rssol.com/en/html/download/ocean_mind.htm ) (nice name, eh? 
). It is a very small program yet has as many features as the Big Boys (and a few I had never heard of before, like AutoCorrect. Check it out).
A quick and handy way to look at picture files is to use ACDSee Classic ( http://www.acdsystems.com/English/Products/ACDSeeClassic/index.htm ). Got a wheel mouse? Heh, heh -- you will never use anything else again.
And for playing audio, nothing compares to WinAmp ( http://www.winamp.com ). Get the latest version, 5.02, but choose "custom" when you install it, and do not install the modern skin support unless you have a fast computer and a lot of memory.
I hope this post helps a few people out. I have spent years seperating the wheat from the chaff of computer software, and as a result I can do just about anything with my old, slow computer (233mHz processor, 64mb RAM -- for the layman, it is about 1/4 the power of the cheapest computer you will find at Circuit City or Best Buy these days).
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* "Villainous Conglomerate" is a term I picked up from a movie made by a friend of mine in high school, called Star Saga. It was a take-off of both Star Wars and Star Trek, complete with Muppets. Funny stuff, I wish I still had a copy!
Lindaland
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posted May 26, 2004 10:15 AM
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