Monday, July 03, 2006

Flashback Alternatives Warning!

While FA is super-cool, what's not cool is the pop-up ads that listening to the WMA stream brings. I listen with WinAmp at home, but here at work, I've got to use the Windows Media Player and while the stupid display which buries the song info at the bottom of a scroll window sucks, what sucks harder is coming back after a half-hour away to find 14 ad windows opened in IE. Seriously lame.

DO: Listen to Flashback Alternatives.

DON'T: Use the WMP. Use WinAmp.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey.. thanks for the mention!

Yes, the popups are a royal pain - but they are 1.FM's main source of revenue. For those that don't know, we became part of 1.FM in June.

Now for a little secret - in Windows Media Player, right click in the Window and select No Visualizations. You will no longer get the popups - at least for a while. For some reason they eventually come back - but it can take a few hours.

Dirk Belligerent said...

Oh, I understand the need for advertising, but it's terribly obtrusive and I'm afraid people will tune away to a less annoying entertainment source.

As for turning off visualizations - that's the best part!!! The colors, man....the colors....

Anonymous said...

It's possible that people will go elsewhere - however there are ways to avoid the popups, so I don't think it is that big a deal.

The visuals are cool, but most people don't sit and stare at them at work - they just want the music, so the right click to turn them off is a good deal.

Also, there are other players that can play the WMA stream without the popups - but I understand not being able to install them at work.

Ed