ISPE Update

[jsmaje]

Interstellar Preliminary Examination - Update ..."a 10 minute, narrated, slide show. It's the first part of a series of updates to come".

Great, if only I could view it !
It apparently requires 'Quicktime', an Apple app which has always caused problems on my XP PC and which I've had to banish more than once. Having nevertheless downloaded the latest (albeit free) version of QT 7.3.1 for XP today, all I got after 3 attempts and an inordinately-long loading period each time (I have a fairly speedy broadband at about 6 Mbps) was Andrew Westphal's voice-over with a totally blank green screen. Clicking on it I found that there was an 'updated' QT version available but, after having then had to give them my name and email address as demanded, that it would cost me 'x' amount of money, without any explicit guarantee that it would work even then. Sorry, no way!

I can't help thinking that this "ISPE" idea (introducing yet another unnecessary confusing acronym!) is directed more toward the media & potential funders for promotional purposes rather than us regular dusters, just as the original forum Update section has sadly morphed into the fancier-looking but less frequent and totally unresponsive Blog. How long can we expect to wait until the next ISPE Update for example, and can we be guaranteed to able to view it?

Forgive me Andrew if I've got it all wrong. I know I tend to complain perhaps too readily, but would like to view the slide show if possible, so any help would be welcome.
John

[DTF]

John,

Like you I tried to look at the slide show and couldn't.

Bear in mind that I am on dial up, and as such, have a super slow access to updates and graphics, much slower than you do. I deal with that mostly by doing other activities while downloading files and updates.

Anyway, I did open my existing Quicktime program, and since I seldom use it, I was immediately reminded that there was an update available. I chose to update and run the update, which on my dial up was over an hour in the making. When the new files were installed the new QT version was 7.55.90.70 and it was available without any additional cost to me (and, I assume to anyone who wants it).

I then went back to the Stardust post of Dr. Westphal's ISPE presentation and was able to view it perfectly from beginning to end. Of course, my download of this presentation took a considerable amount of time compared to what you will most likely view almost instantaneously. It's likely worthwhile for you to keep trying until you succeed, since it is an interesting presentation and the succeeding presentations will likely require the same or further updates of QT as time passes.

For some reason, American academia have long tended to prefer Apple hardware and Apple programs and applications over those of MS and PC ones.

My computer is also a PC running on XP(home version).

[jsmaje]

Thanks DTF for pointing out that the latest QuickTime version is 7.55.90.70.

I spent about three hours hours today downloading at least four copies - all 'free' but simply time-limited trials after which you are expected to pay - first from Apple themselves then other satellite agent sites (having had to disclose my name & email each time, to which I object). While it installed OK at each attempt it still refused to show me any video - just a static green screen with AW's voice-over, as before.

Nor did I get any joy from fiddling with my Control Panel or QT's settings - trying to make it the default video player for example, and/or to accept all MIME types (which, paradoxically, was the reason I originally had to banish it before because, whether wanted or not, it delighted in taking over every file type then making a hash of them).

Basically, QT isn't built for Windows and all supposed MS-compatible versions are clearly troublesome, as the hundreds of web references I've looked at for help attest. I'm sure you're right that US academia prefer Apple (which I acknowledge is for good reasons), but given MS's de facto global hegemony, it would be nice to think we slaves to Bill Gates could still be allowed a peek at the good stuff!

Can the team or anyone else help? I'm sure/hope there may be something simple that I've so far missed to get it working.
Or couldn't it be published in an alternative WMP format?
John

[DTF]

John,

I have to tell you that after reading your latest comment above, I attempted both yesterday and today to again view the slide show and I was unable to do so.

I don't know what I did or didn't do that was successful in the one viewing I did have.

So now there are at least two of us and probably many more in this situation and I would also like to add my voice to yours in requesting assistance of some type in solving our problem.

[the moon]

Works fine with vista and my version just says 7.5 (861). I only had to disable QT checking for updates automatically or it crashed itself.
I don't want to start a whole back and forth tech support thing here, but my advise would be to update your video card driver, then look for older versions of quicktime. My limited experience with apple software (itunes and quicktime) is that they remove features and functionality, and add ads and big brother stuff over time, so older software is better.

[Will]

I can't help thinking that this "ISPE" idea (introducing yet another unnecessary confusing acronym!) is directed more toward the media & potential funders for promotional purposes rather than us regular dusters, just as the original forum Update section has sadly morphed into the fancier-looking but less frequent and totally unresponsive Blog. How long can we expect to wait until the next ISPE Update for example, and can we be guaranteed to able to view it?

Forgive me Andrew if I've got it all wrong. I know I tend to complain perhaps too readily, but would like to view the slide show if possible, so any help would be welcome.
John

Sorry to hear that you're having problems with the videos, John! I'll talk to Andrew and Robert and see if we can easily dump them out in additional formats.

That ISPE acronym is used internally by the project. With so many different phases and investigations going on we tend to slip into acronyms instead of taking the time to give long titles every single time. What you're getting is a glimpse into the internal complexities of the Stardust project as a whole.

Andrew was briefing us on the viewgraphs that he presented to the project science team at a recent conference. We thought that you dusters would be interested in getting the very latest results, too. But the viewgraphs themselves have very little explanation on them: the interesting stuff (I think) is what Andrew says using the viewgraphs for graphical content and to provide an outline. So we came up with the idea of having Andrew narrate the slide show as if he was giving it to you dusters at a conference. He spent quite a bit of time thinking about how to best present this material and went through a couple of revisions of the narration before arriving at the material that was put on the web.

[Wolter]

Works fine also here on XP pro. There is no problem with the QT viewer for windows and there has not been for years.
There are however problems with PC's when installing and de-installing a multitude of programs over the years. De-installing on the windows platform does tend to leave traces of the software and their settings wich, in time will cause al kind of strange phenomena. A thorough clean-up or complete re-install of your system might help here.

[robertl]

Hi All--
I'm working on lower bandwidth and different formats for the updates. I will make lower bandwidth QuickTime version(s) and Flash version(s). I'll post the link here first.

Robert

[robertl]

I made a very small QuickTime version (~1.6MB), if your streaming speed is set to 28.8/33.6 Kbps (or Automatic and you have a low speed connection); QuickTime should deliver you that file.

Also, under the image are 2 links to download Flash versions of the file. High Quality 700 Kbps (~10 MB) and Modem Quality 40 Kbps (~1.8 MB).

Let me know if this helps. I will most likely tune the files as we release more updates.

http://stardustathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/ ... /index.php

Thanks,
Robert

[pier]

I made a very small QuickTime version (~1.6MB), if your streaming speed is set to 28.8/33.6 Kbps (or Automatic and you have a low speed connection); QuickTime should deliver you that file.

Also, under the image are 2 links to download Flash versions of the file. High Quality 700 Kbps (~10 MB) and Modem Quality 40 Kbps (~1.8 MB).

Let me know if this helps. I will most likely tune the files as we release more updates.

http://stardustathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/ ... /index.php

Thanks,
Robert

I have also problem with this dowload with both the suggested releases. I can see nothing with XP home and I can see the show only on another computer with XP pro.

Due to the fact that this should be the first of a series, should be possible to have the show apt to be directly loaded on a DVD in order to have the full set of shows visible also on a TV?

Thank you

Pier

[fjgiie]

I was able to view the original video after downloading the QuickTime program which I deleted soon after using along with iTunes and Bonjour. With QuickTime installed I cannot use the Virtual Microscope because of the frequent updates and other problems.
To view the new flash version I had to "SAVE" the video to my documents and "Open with" RealPlayer. I could not play the new flash video directly from the URL. It was paused and I could not get it to start.

fjgiie

[DTF]

Thank you, Robert, this works for me! As fjgiie says above, downloading the file and then playing it on RealPlayer was necessary for me to view it, also, but if I probably would have downloaded the file anyway.

[jsmaje]

Thanks to robertl & fjgiie from me too, but this really is a tangled web:

I gave up on Flash Player when it repeatedly refused to install yesterday. Fortunately Real Player was no problem, via which I could at last view the Flash version of the ISPE Update (and which I can say was worth the hassle).

However, during his presentation, AW provides the URL for another movie which turns out again to require QuickTime (no alternative Flash or other version available). That seemed a no-go until I tried re-downloading QT, this time version 7.6, which in fact seems to be the latest. It installed without problem, and successfully played the movie after entering the URL (though without sound, but I don't know if there was supposed to be any - is there any way of knowing?)

So far reasonably good, but then trying to view the original Update I found that QT 7.6 just gave me a small, scrambled, static image with only sound, i.e. little better than before - aaargh...

Today, out of masochism, I decided to try downloading Flash Player again, this time in the guise of 'Adobe Media Viewer', which (to my surprise) duly installed and played Robert's Flash file just fine! So I guess I don't now need Real Player any more ... but can I be sure?

At present I therefore now have four (including the default WMP) players all sitting there taking up space, ready to make battle over which of them commandeers whichever innocent file types happen to come along, whether they can handle them properly or not. I've been here before and it hasn't been a pretty sight .

John

[fjgiie]

http://ipac.jpl.nasa.gov/web_movies/pa/ ... 2_full.wmv

Try that URL John. It should play on Windows Media Video, then you can get rid of QuickTime again. I don't think there is any sound but a beautiful movie.

fjgiie
ps: see above where I also delete iTunes and Bonjour along with QuickTime. They come with it, sometimes.

[robertl]

I hope I didn't make this a bigger mess! But I made the flash files so that there are now embedded. So when you click the link below the QuickTime image you see the slide show "in" a web page; using the flash plug-in.

HQ
http://stardustathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/ ... ash_HQ.php

Modem speed
http://stardustathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/ ... _modem.php