[merged] Realplayer 10

[Ramrod]

omfg....am I glad I started this thread

[erol]

Originally Posted by Jerrek

Europe used to be free market, but has steadily drifted towards socialism and planned economies. What you have right now is semi-capitalism with a touch (ok more than a touch...) of planned economies. Planned economies do not work. Just compare East Germany to West Germany. North Korea to South Korea. Hong Kong and Republic of China to People's Republic of China.

Why is it that you advocate restriction of fundamental liberties and freedoms when you walk through the door into a factory or business? Who are you to tell another company how to run itself? Who are you to force companies to go into certain directions, or to prevent companies from expanding into certain fields?

I'm sure you would object if all your personal actions were to be reviewed and planned by a higher authority. Your life just wouldn't work out. The same can be said for corporations and businesses. The economies of the above-mentioned countries are prime example of what planned economies end up with.

The United States' GDP per capita is $37,000. The quasi-free economies of western Europe can't even reach $30,000 except for a few single exceptions. The former planned economies of eastern Europe is even worse. China's GDP per capita is below $4,000.

So no, planned economies do not work, and Europe is drifting steadily over to the left that advocate exactly that. Restricting a company's freedom to innovate is a bad idea. Luckily, the United States is still around so even if you restrict innovation, research, development, and entrepeneurship, you can still marginally reap the benefits of American ingeniuty and innovation.

See here: http://www.time.com/time/europe/maga...574849,00.html

Europe gain it's dominance by controlling markets and limiting imports. The USA did the same. One you have a position of dominance (by limiting imports) you then cry for free markets, becasue you have dominance and you know if others protect their markets they may be able to catch up with that dominance.

Just look at Japan and the 'asian tigers' and compare them with brazil. Japan and the asian tigers built their economies from third world to first world by controlling markets. South america followed the doctrine of free markets (imposed by US and Europe) and they are f*cked.

If you believe in free markets then presumably you have written to your president to object to the tarrifs imposed on foreign steel imports?

If you read Adam Smiths writtings on the free market (the father of free market ideas), then he is totaly clear that free markets require free movement of labour. So are you going to open the border with Mexico and allow a free market in labour as well? I think not. Free markets is a 'do as we say not as we do' rant from those at the top of the heap, designed specifically to keep them at the top of the heap. It is the primary mechaism by which powers like the USA maintain their power. It has nothing to do with 'freedom'. It's about dominace.

Originally Posted by jerrek

Europe used to be free market, but has steadily drifted towards socialism and planned economies. What you have right now is semi-capitalism with a touch (ok more than a touch...) of planned economies. Planned economies do not work. Just compare East Germany to West Germany. North Korea to South Korea. Hong Kong and Republic of China to People's Republic of China.

Hang on. In one breath you denounce Europe as 'drifting towards socialism and planned economies', then in the next breath you want us to contrast Communist East Germany with West Germany? Last time I looked at my atlas, West Germany was a European country. I have been suggesting all along that your point of view is fundamentally flawed because it only takes account of extremes (Capitalism Vs Communism). This demonstrates my point neatly. Western Europe is as red as a London bus by your reckoning, yet its economy is demonstrably more successful than was achieved by that most loyal of the former Communist European states, East Germany.

Originally Posted by jerrek

Why is it that you advocate restriction of fundamental liberties and freedoms when you walk through the door into a factory or business? Who are you to tell another company how to run itself? Who are you to force companies to go into certain directions, or to prevent companies from expanding into certain fields?

Who I am is a free citizen of a democratic country, with a right to help determine the function, priorities and freedoms of the society in which I live.

Consider these two contrasting statements:

There is no such thing as society - Margaret Thatcher

No man is an island, entire of itself. Every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were. Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee - John Donne

The evidence of my eyes is that the latter is true and the former is not. Therefore everybody in my society has a responsibility to every other. If people, whether personally or corporately, refuse to acknowledge this responsibility, I reserve my democratic right to use Law to make them change their ways.

As Erol has pointed out, 'liberty and freedom' is all to often the cry of protectionism. What did you make of GW Bush's protectionist action on steel tariffs? Hardly the actions of a true capitalist.

Originally Posted by Jerrek

The United States' GDP per capita is $37,000. The quasi-free economies of western Europe can't even reach $30,000 except for a few single exceptions. The former planned economies of eastern Europe is even worse. China's GDP per capita is below $4,000.

Either the figures back up your point, or they don't. You can't pass off 'a few single exceptions' just because they don't fit your argument. GDP per capita figures from the world bank for 2002 put Luxembourg, Switzerland, Norway and Lichenstein ahead of the US. I will grant you Lichenstein as an exception as it is minute. The others may well be very small by US standards, but we might well ask why the US, with its vast natural resources, and having escaped WWII with its infrastructure virtally intact, is not doing rather better?

Originally Posted by Jerrek

So no, planned economies do not work, and Europe is drifting steadily over to the left that advocate exactly that. Restricting a company's freedom to innovate is a bad idea. Luckily, the United States is still around so even if you restrict innovation, research, development, and entrepeneurship, you can still marginally reap the benefits of American ingeniuty and innovation

Your sign-off proves what I have suspected - that you are allowing hand-on-heart patriotism to cloud your rational judgement. You analysis of political systems is deeply inadequate, your analysis of GDP and its significance is flawed and you have completely failed to account for wider factors that have helped to determine the economic status of Western Europe and North America in the last 50 years.

And what has all this got to do with Realplayer?

[downquark1]

Originally Posted by Jerrek

What you have right now is semi-capitalism

If I remember my GCSE business studies, we call it a "mixed" market economy. And yes, we are aware of it and we choose to.

[MadGamer]

Right, after downloading and installing this i have encounterd 2 problems with it. It kept on freezing while i was trying to listen to some music. Im not impressed with it at all and i took it off my system straight away after i encountered those 2 problems.

I DO NOT recommend that you download it as it can crash.

WNA

[Defiant]

WMA you really should check before posting,
http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/sh...ght=realplayer

so most already know its C#ap

oh man, not another realplayer 10 thread

Despite what some people have said about realplayer I'd be surprised if it was so horribly buggy as it appeared to you. It works ok on my PC at work, but I only have the freebie version. Is Gold the one you pay for?

[MadGamer]

Originally Posted by towny

oh man, not another realplayer 10 thread

Despite what some people have said about realplayer I'd be surprised if it was so horribly buggy as it appeared to you. It works ok on my PC at work, but I only have the freebie version. Is Gold the one you pay for?

You can download the Gold version for free. I kept on getting

Real Player has encountered a problem and needs to close.

Originally Posted by WNA

You can download the Gold version for free.

Weird ... wonder why they call it 'Gold' when it's just the free version. Is there a 'bronze' or 'silver' version?

And come to think of it, what happened to 'RealOne' - I notice it's just plain old 'Real Player' again. If the developers are as indecisive as the marketing department, maybe it is as bad as you say...

[paulyoung666]

i wonder if any passing mods fancy merging this thread , shows it is worth doing a search , and realplayer is devil spawn , i wouldnt thank you for it

[dilli-theclaw]

Originally Posted by paulyoung666

i wonder if any passing mods fancy merging this thread , shows it is worth doing a search , and realplayer is devil spawn , i wouldnt thank you for it

If I was you I'd SEROUSLY consider WHAT you put on your pc at the moment

Anyway - I must admit I've never liked the 'real' stuff - but I do visit some sites that use the format so I generally use the alternative thingy.

Originally Posted by paulyoung666

i wonder if any passing mods fancy merging this thread

oh man, was merging this really such a good idea? The original thread was waaaaaay off topic by the time it died out...

Now it's back on topic - and can stay that way.

[~Dan~]

Can anyone who's tried realplayer 10 say whether it's less overbloated than previous versions. I'm willing to bet it's not.

While I have realone installed, I never use it. A handy little winamp plugin (just search google for tara winamp realaudio) lets you play all realaudio and video in winamp. You need realplayer/realone installed for it's codecs, but winamp plays the files cleanly without stealing system resources and making your system unstable.