[Free-sklyarov-uk] `listen.com'

[Chris Lightfoot]

On Wed, Jul 24, 2002 at 10:46:49PM +0100, Ian Firla wrote:
> 
> Here's the mega catch though for those of us not based in the States:
> 
>    12. Is Rhapsody available outside the U.S.?
> Due to licensing restrictions, Rhapsody's on-demand music subscription
> service is available to U.S. residents only. However, anyone, regardless
> of his or her geographic location, can take advantage of our free radio
> stations, which feature professionally programmed stations. We are
> working on expanding our subscription service outside of the U.S. in the
> future.

Ah yes, I've discovered that now that I've dug out
Microsoft Windows. I've just tried connecting to their
`preview' service, which doesn't require a credit card and
accepts `90210' as a zip code.

Once you've registered, you get to download the
``Rhapsody'' application. This is a large Microsoft
Windows program which you are intended to run to access
the service. The application is interesting -- it has
pretty graphics and all sorts of little windows and
buttons. I could play with it for hours.


Sorry, what was that? Oh, the *music*? No idea mate, that
bit of it doesn't seem to work.


However, it does have this really neat feature where you
input your username and password and it pops up a little
dialog box which says

    Network Error

and then in flashing text,
    
    Unable to connect to the server.
    Trying to reconnect to the server in 29 seconds.
    Trying to reconnect to the server in 28 seconds.
            ...

It then has one of those progress bar thingies, which goes
from 0 to 100%, and then it goes back to the beginning.

(This is all pretty good going on the basis that it's
presumably trying to connect to the server from which I
downloaded the program just a moment before.)


Oooh... it's working now. I should have known that
quitting and restarting it would work. It's even prettier
now that it's got a big list of songs to display.  And god
is it slow....


Ah yes, the music. Unfortunately this machine doesn't have
any speakers plugged connected to it, so I can't tell you
anything about the audio quality. My suspiscion is that
the free 30-second 64kbps clips will be hopeless.
    

-- 
``I need an immediately distinguishable character...
  so I'll use something that no-one will recognise.'' (maths lecture)