I just found the AOL Communicator program, and aside from a few kinks, I’ve been very happy with the package, including Radio@AOL. Of course I’m usually listening to the Celtic channel, which highlights Scottish, Irish, Welsh, etc music. I’ve had the pleasure of hearing a great variety of artists, including some wonderful pipe/flute/whistle music.
I know a lot of people look down on AOHell, but there are these ‘radio channels’ available through a lot of providers. Does anyone else take advantage of them?
I do the Celtic in the morning and evening, NPR during the day, and classical during dinner (yeah, the most used computer is here in the kitchen). Great way to hear music that I haven’t bought (yet).
AOL has a bad habit of trying to take over various functions, often rendering other netware unusable. It will also reset a lot of settings to suit its purpose. One of my workplaces forbade ANY AOL product on any computer it had contact with, and refused to guarantee its software on any computer running AOL.
But I have never had a virus get through email, and the communicator’s email sorting has reduced my spam to nearly nil…maybe one or two pieces a day. It rounded up and removed 124 pieces of junk from my three boxes today alone.
Me niether. I’ve always had good experience with it. May a few of the really early versions really sucked pondwater and it turned some folks off really bad.
I would just like to thank Tyghress for bringing this AOL Radio thing to my attention! Usually the “generic” radio guides suck pretty bad… So I never bothered to even look at it even though I’ve been using AOL for years. So Thanks!
I used to use AOL Radio but I fell in love with Satalite Digital Radio and now I listen to ALL the Scottish/Irish Traditional stations from the source! (only 9 bucks a month). My Favorite is BBC Celtic broadcasts.
I don’t know if this is exactly the same thing you all are talking about - but - I like Spinner- they’ve got pretty much everything, and it shows you the name of the tune, who’s playing, what cd it’s on and even where you can get it if you are so inclined. My favorites are the celtic channel and the baroque channel.
I am not certain either if they are the same thing. Spinner is/was awesome. I know Spinner was bought by Netscape and if you click Radio Netscape in their browser, you get a slimmed down version of Spinner. I haven’t used AOL Radio, but since AOL/Netscape are basically owned by the same company, my guess would be that they are the same.
I’m sorry, I really don’t get that either. What thinking is AOL doing for me that IE doesn’t? Okay, so with a regular ISP I have to use Outlook. Outlook used to have better mail but now AOL has upgraded theirs and it’s pretty good. More than useable. I think AOL has crappy Favorites organization compared to IE, but what else is there? Content? So you can choose a home page with IE and you cannot with AOL. That’s it.
I really want this explained to me once and for all. I have been hearing aout this for all my years on the internet and I’d love to understand.
John, as an AOL user from way back, I agree with you for the most part. But AOL makes assumptions that irritate the hell out of a lot of people. I’ll load AOL on a new machine, and think all is well, but then it changes settings without my sayso, adds programs that I didn’t ask for, and interferes with other programs.
BUT…I’ve never had an Outlook virus. Never ever ever.
…I’ve used chatrooms longer than most people
…found links I wanted just by making a guess with a keyword
…did huge amounts of work without ever seeing a popup
…didn’t have to do anything special to buddylist
Works for me. And cool radio too! But dagnabit, leave my settings ALONE!
Yeah, sometimes it tries to impose it’s will on you. But I have found that with lots of MS software too. Word does this indentation thing sometimes that drives me nuts.
I have also heard that AOL is pretty invasive with the registry etc, and that getting rid of it is like getting gum out of Carrot Top’s hair. I guess I’v e never needed to get rid of it.
From the standpoint of other programs, I think sticking with any single manufacturer for your programs opens yourself to all their problems. You don’t have to use Outlook if you use another ISP - Not with IE or Netscape.
There are serveral programs out there (Eudora, Pegasus mail, etc) for email that are not affiliated with your browser.
AOL does it all for you, and that’s good for people who are new, or who just want to get on with surfing. If you want to change anything - you’re locked in.
But if you don’t know what to change anyway, what difference does it make. You just adapt and move on.
There is a snobbery with everything, from I’ve got the hottest car, the prettiest girl/guy, to I can make the computer bark.
AOL is not for me. I enjoy playing too much. But I do recognize that some people just want to get on with it and not play.
