NauticusLX;166330 Wrote:
> Actually, my complaints are based on well over 4 hours of working with
> the "SqueezeBox 3" menu and submenus. I think thats obvious from my
> exhaustive review. Are any of the facts I described wrong? Do any of
> the urls I describe as non working actually work? Does anybody think
> its great that all the personality driven talk shows are scattered
> among half a dozen subsubsubgroups?
The only talk show I listen to is Car Talk... so no clue what others
would want.
>
> I have every right to expect Slim Devices to provide reliable content,
> either directly or through a chosen provider.
You can expect whatever you want: whether that is a realistic or fair
expectation is another matter.
>
> Slim Devices should at least be aware that this problem exists, and I
> see it as a problem.
>
So the problem is "I don't like how RadioTime works"... since all of
this is directed at the organizition of RadioTime.
See, IMHO, Slim does a couple good things with -any- link they provide
in their software: they provide free PR to whoever they link to and
they provide More Choice to listeners. The PR provides traffic to the
site which (if they have any sort of business model at all) brings them
closer to whatever their model is and will allow for growth. The choice
to listeners is always good, it encourages competition between start
ups.
Internet Radio is still a very niche market and has no stable listing
of what is available: ie, there is no Google-for-net-radio. There will
have to be something at some point .. a sort of generalized interface
for finding radio, but would you want to find it based on Geography ("I
grew up listening to X105! I miss that station") or format (ohh, and
that is gonna be fun.. what exactly is "rock" and "aor" and "top40" and
"pop"... Did I mention I get annoyed whenever I choose "Soul," expecting
James Brown or Otis Redding and end up with DJ Somebody?)
There are several sites trying with various levels of success to
organize radio. Not just RadioTime, there is Shoutcast and Live365 and
PublicRadioFan... ironically PublicRadioFan is my favorite. But the
others may at some point get more consistent in their reliability and
formatting. RadioTime seems to be doing the most work in their
categorizing.
At any rate: this sort of work is not the forte of Slim: it is the
forte of some other startup that wants to be the Google of Netradio --
not selling hardware or software, but making money on the service of
matching listeners to content.
> Imagine buying a car, and long after its been parked in a garage,
> discovering that it can be driven.
No, imagine buing a car, and long after it's been parked in a garage,
discovering that it has all sorts of parks on the GPS unit... and you
can.. drive to them for a picnic.
If you want to use odd analogies, be consistent. If Slim is selling
you a car, and the service is a GPS.... then the -destination- is
someone else's problem. It's not GM's fault that some parks charge for
parking or that some gang decided it would be a fun place to tag or that
the homeless now occupy it...
> This clearly demonstrates an obvious lack of integrity to the menu
> system, and Slim Design should at least be aware of this serious
> problem, and are, to a degree, responsible. All urls in the menu
> system should work, or at least be "valid". That only about 5-10% work
> is indefensible.
... i hope you mean "integrity" as in Quality Assurance and
Reliability, not fraud. It is hardly fraudulent to link to a site that
happens to link to a site that has since died. As far as QA goes, alas,
on the 'net sites coming and going is far too common. Validating them
routinely is very difficult. Google keeps dead links around for ages.
Just disable the menu item if it annoys you that much.
Did I mention that it sucks when my GPS system tells me where a
restaurant is, and I find out that the owners of the restaurant are
lunatics and keep the most nonsensical hours ever?
--
snarlydwarf
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