If
you have not yet been able to enjoy the the music on our class site, you
should do something about it
because you are missing the single
feature that will most magically bring back good memories and enrich the nostalgic experience
the site was intended
to give you. In its precious few words, a song says best what most
of us feel but cannot otherwise express.
So try the following tips:
1. Make sure you have a
compatible sound card installed with speakers, that the volume is turned
on and that your internet settings in Windows have enabled sound (Start/Settings/
Control Panel / Internet Properties / Advanced).
2. You need to know that
our music (and some sound effects)
files are in .mp3 format. If you are using a very old
version of an internet browser such as Microsoft Internet Explorer, it
may be time to upgrade it. Go to the supplier's website (e.g.,
www.microsoft.com)
for information about downloading upgrades. They're usually free
unless your old browser is so old, it is no longer supported.
3.
To play the .mp3
sound files, you also need a fairly current version of a reliable
media player such as Windows Media Player
or RealPlayer (see last paragraph of section 3) for your system The
most current version of Windows
Media Player appropriate for your operating system can be downloaded free from
Microsoft at www.microsoft.com. from www.real.com.)
If the sound still doesn't load, open the Windows Media Player, and go
to Tools / Options / Formats, and make sure that mp3 is checked. If
not, check it, press Apply, and then refresh (or reload) the webpage.
(RealPlayer can be downloaded (also free for a "Basic" version)
We
determined some time ago that our audio files will play on several popular,
alternative, non-Windows browsers such as Google's Chrome and
Mozilla's Firefox
, but for FireFox (and possibly others), you will
probably have to install a media player
plug-in such as Apple Quicktime to get the audio to play. If such is the case, you should see
a graphic appear near the top of the page like the one at right. (In some
cases, you may receive a message asking for your permission to open the
media player.) Our audio has been confirmed to work on an Apple Mac with Safari
but not on an iPhone; if you use Chrome
with a Mac or IPad, who knows?
4.
In the unlikely event you are still struggling with
a really old-fashioned 56K modem, the music files could take 2-3 minutes to
download and will start and stop playing several times during that
period the first time (until they are stored in your computer's cache
―
see para. no. 5, below). If you have an even older 28K
modem, you'll never hear the music; it is definitely time
to upgrade. If you want really great
performance (about 100 times the speed of a 56K), get a wonderful, but a
little more expensive, high-speed internet connection. When everything is
set up right, the music will be
there for you ― right on cue!!
If not, see paragraph 5, below.
5. Sometimes, if the sound
file doesn't load, it will if you press the refresh (or reload) button
in the tool bar at the top, and try again once or twice. (Once it is
automatically stored in your Temporary Internet Files or
"cache," this usually won't be
necessary except if you periodically clean these files out.) You may want
to expand the space on your hard drive allocated to the Temporary Internet
Files to about 200 MB. This can be done by accessing Tools/Internet Options while you are in your browser.
6. If you are unable to do
the foregoing, or if you did it and it still doesn't work, I have no
idea what to tell you except to
rent
a teenager
―
they know
everything!
|
"All
my best memories
Come back clearly to me
Some can even make me cry
Just like before
It's yesterday once more." |
|
―
The Carpenters, 1973
|