The cartalk.com TIME KILL WEEKLY Special Audio White Flag Edition ______________________________________________ Killing Time, Unencumbered by the Work Process ______________________________________________ Maury Maille, Editor
What's new at Car Talk Plaza? RealPlayer, that's what. That's right. After several months of trying to make the Windows Media Player work, we're taking your advice and going back to Real. You might recall that, back in January, we switched our streaming audio from RealPlayer over to Windows Media Player. We did so after a long period of complaints by our site visitors. You can read all about it here http://www.cartalk.com/Radio/windowsmedia-switch.html Well, the switch addressed some problems but created others (thank you for all your angry e-mails, Microsoft lovers!). And the controversy also spurred the big guys at Real to get in touch with us. We've now had about a month's worth of serious conversations with the guys at Real. The bottom line is that we believe they've made a serious and successful attempt to address those things that our listeners complained about most. We've been impressed by their responsiveness. They offered us our own download page, where our users can download the free RealPlayer without confusion. And they've eliminated the pop ups you guys hated. (Little did we know, but a number of these changes had been in the works for a while.) You can read all about our conversation, and the results, right here http://www.cartalk.com/content/features/real/ Since switching to Windows Media Player, we heard from thousands (yes, it really was *thousands*) of you who had all manner of problems with your player. Now, we know about as much about computer programming as Brittany Spears knows about the secrets to a long marriage, but we do know this: for many of you, the Windows Media Player just wasn't cutting the sauerkraut. During our conversations, Real also told us that they missed us, and actually liked our lousy show. (We still don't believe them, but we appreciate the gesture.) And they even offered to serve the audio for free online, which defrays an expense we'd otherwise have to cover. Now, we're in no position to ever turn down generosity, no matter how misguided. So, we took them up on their offer, before they could reconsider. Thanks to all of you who wrote, to let us know that Windows Media Player simply wasn't working for you. And thanks to Surya at Real for addressing many of the concerns of our listeners-- not to mention helping us spread our lousy little show like the bad virus that it is, across the Internet. So, starting today, Car Talk will once again be available in via RealPlayer. As for Windows Media Player? It's disappearing. At least from our lousy web site. We're truly sorry for all the changes lately, and the difficulties you've had in hearing Car Talk on line. We hope that's all in the past now. Yours in maintaining a reliably, steady stream, Maury Maille Chief Audiologist Car Talk Plaza P.S. You can listen to the show for free anytime, via http://www.cartalk.com/Radio/Show/online.html P.P.S. Here's this week's Lame Joke Of The Week, courtesy of Greg Youngs: A man is driving along a highway and sees a rabbit jump out across the middle of the road. He swerves to avoid hitting it, but unfortunately the rabbit jumps right in front of the car. The driver, a sensitive man as well as an animal lover, pulls over and gets out to see what has become of the rabbit. Much to his dismay, the rabbit is dead. The driver feels so awful that he begins to cry. A beautiful blonde woman driving down the highway sees a man crying on the side of the road and pulls over. She steps out of the car and asks the man what's wrong. "I feel terrible," he explains, "I accidentally hit this rabbit and killed it." The blonde says, "Don't worry." She runs to her car and pulls out a spray can. She walks over to the limp, dead rabbit, bends down, and sprays the contents onto the rabbit. The rabbit jumps up, waves its paw at the two of them and hops off down the road. Ten feet away the rabbit stops, turns around and waves again, he hops down the road another ten feet, turns and waves, hops another ten feet, turns and waves, and repeats this again and again and again, until he hops out of sight. The man is astonished. He runs over to the woman and demands, "What is in that can? What did you spray on that rabbit?" The woman turns the can around so that the man can read the label. It says... "Hair Spray - Restores life to dead hair, adds permanent wave." ******************* Doing some car research? Via our lousy, little homepage you can... *Check important safety recalls *See what your car is worth right now *Check rebates and incentives on new cars *Search your town for new or used cars for sale *Place an ad to sell your car that'll actually be seen by people in your area *Research and compare new vehicles *Get the latest car news *Kill time until 5:00 pm rolls around and you can pack it in *It's all at http://www.cartalk.com ******************** Got more time to kill? This past weekend's new, lousy Car Talk show is now on the web site, at http://www.cartalk.com/Radio/Show/ ******************** Miss the puzzler? Losing sleep over it? Add your e-mail to our Car Talk Puzzler Psychic Friends Network and we'll personally hand deliver Ray's new puzzler to your inbox every Monday. http://www.cartalk.com/ct/maillist.jsp?puzzler_list=subscribe#psychic ******************* Embarrassed by having e-mails from Car Talk in your inbox? Can't say that we blame you. 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