Go Back to the B3 Home Page
Complaints, compliments, arguments? Email me.
[<< "Edging closer to the abyss..."] [Archive Index] [>>"Troops in Iraq, etc."]
04/05/2004 Archived Entry: "Air America gripe..."
Air America gripe...
So I got to their web site this morning to get on the audio stream, and I find out that i can't listen until I sign up....
Okay. So I go to the signup form and enter a user name and password. I note that the password needs to be between 5 and 32 characters long, so I enter a password which is seven characters long, and hit the submit button.
The form gets coughed back, saying that may password needs to be between 5 and 32 characters long. I re-enter the seven-letter password once again and submit the form. This time it goes threough, saying I'll receive a confirmation email. I get the email with a confirmation code and enter it.
The form takes me to what seems to be their old home page, saying I arrived at that page unexpectedly, and that I should return to the home page. I go back to the home page and log in, and hit the button.
Which takes me to a page that says 'Server error.' Here's the error message:
Server Error
The server encountered an internal error and was unable to complete your request.JRun closed connection.
I tried this three times, got the same error message three times. I gave up, and am currently watching CNN.
Here's a goddam clue, Air America - you've been crowing about your 'record numbers' all weekend. Well, one sure way to drive those numbers down is to install a clunky, flawed registration system that takes three attempts to register and when you're done, doesn't let you log the fuck in.
I do web sites for a living, and if I put that system live on a site that I designed, I'd be getting shit by the bucketload from my client right now. Jesus, fucking get your shit together already.
But wait, there's more! I got to their 'contact us' page, where I see an email form with a drop-down box to choose the topic. Right at the top, 'Problems logging on to web site' (I wonder how they knew to put that at the top of the list?). I choose the topic, put in a two-sentence message telling them to fix the stupid web site, and hit 'submit.' I get this:
Server Error
The server encountered an internal error and was unable to complete your request.JRun Connector Protocol Error.
Now I'm bugged. I look at the bottom of AA's home page and see a logo - 'powered by istandfor.' I click on their web site and get a phone number. I call and ask the guy who answered the phone if they built the Air America web site.
He says, 'No.' (!!!!)
I ask him why, if they didn't build it, is their logo at the bottom of every page. He has no answer.
I tell him that the web site's a mess, every other page is an error page, nobody can listen from the site at this point, and none of their forms work.
He says they'll 'get right on it.'
This is too much like fucking work. Thank you for pissing me off on a Monday morning, Air America.
12:13 Update: All references to logging in, signing up, etc. are now gone from the site. When I click the link to 'Listen Live' it tells me to 'Please tune back during broadcast hours.'
Screw it. I'll wait until 3:00 and listen to Randi from 'JNO's stream.
Replies: 21 people speak up
Hey, server happens.
Just to play devil's advocate...you too have had server problems in the past, have you not?
Expect a bug or two with any launching. It may be they are getting too much attention bandwidth wise as well.
Posted by juan @ 04/05/2004 11:10 AM NY
Try hitting the audio link directly (although right now I get an audio message saying that they're off the air right now). Here's the link:
http://play.rbn.com/?url=airam/airam/live/live.rm
If that doesn't work, then y'all should listen to TBTM Radio 'til it does.
Posted by Hoffmania! @ 04/05/2004 11:17 AM NY
I've had server problems, but not on this scale. And I have done web sites for a couple of radio stations.
Every form page on the goddam site is busted, as far as I can tell.
What breaks me up is I called the company who built it, and they don't even know they built it.
Posted by editor @ 04/05/2004 11:18 AM NY
You know, to win, we need to show a little persistence, and a little patience. I had the same troubles this morning, it took nearly a half hour of going step-by-step through registration and confirmation and so on and so forth. I imagine the kinks are being worked out - but it was important enough to do right away.
I agree, these little obstacles are frustrating. Bitch away if you want to - I don't mean to tell you to shut up. But realize this is nothing to panic over. If this is te roughest part of your morning, or your day, you live a golden life.
If you have to work longer than I did - about 30 minutes - then I can see frustration reaching a boiling point.
Posted by Proteus @ 04/05/2004 11:34 AM NY
well, they must know that something is wrong, the registration feature has been removed from air america's site. hopefully they will fix things soon and we can get back to listening. at least now i know i wasn't the one having the problem, that's a good thing for a monday morning.
Posted by cathcatz @ 04/05/2004 12:17 PM NY
Proteus,
You're right, of course. It's really small potatoes, and I'm just being cranky.
But I'll tell ya - if it was me who was responsible for that site, I would have never rolled out the login scheme in the shape it was in.
There's a lot to be said for thoroughly testing your work.
Posted by editor @ 04/05/2004 12:18 PM NY
Same here, references to logging in are gone but now just says "please coem back during broadcast hours"
WTF? Some of us here in Flyover country aren't lucky enough to be within the Chicago station's range. I pray to Mel Gibson that they either get this streaming stuff sorted out or get a station in Indy.
Posted by Jason @ 04/05/2004 12:19 PM NY
I've been using the stream out of Portland; here's the URL (via Tiny URL):
http://tinyurl.com/2gsul
Posted by Linda @ 04/05/2004 12:23 PM NY
It's on now. Click the Listen Live graphic and it's up and running.
Hooray.
Posted by Jason @ 04/05/2004 12:24 PM NY
I had the same problem yesterday. It wouldn't accept any password, no matter how long, because it was "too short".
Today, I see they have removed the membership signup button, but I can't even get the live feed now.
I admit that I sometimes upload pages with errors, and have to fix them soon after. But then I only have a few thousand readers, they claim hundreds of thousands. Leaving their entire site non-functional and not even noticing it shows more than a little incompetance.
Posted by ThomasMc @ 04/05/2004 12:41 PM NY
yeah, I was able to log on this AM from home, tried to log on from work and the same probs you describe, same for their rollout last Wed. good to hear they're getting it figured out, hopefully it just means they are being overwhelmed.
one thing that worries me a bit though is that Onstar is a major sponsor, wonder if this means they won't cover the passive listening/Big Brother aspect of Onstar? or worse, they want us to get it so they'll have more to listen in on?
Posted by preznit giv me turkee @ 04/05/2004 12:45 PM NY
The Air America Radio site is an embarassment. They've built it on expensive commercial software that isn't even best-of-breed. They'd have more success with linux or Mac OS X and JBoss. Obviously they hired some slick consulting company that sold them a bunch of snake oil.
And what is wrong with a simple mp3 stream? Nothing like using the most resource-demanding streaming protocols you can find.
Posted by kherr @ 04/05/2004 01:10 PM NY
As someone else has suggested, try the KPOJ/Portland live streaming feed. (It works on Macs with Safari, the AA feed requires RA and I refuse to load RA onto my Powerbook)
For AIR AMERICA:
see http://www.super62.com/jacor-common/pdx/streaming.php
Also for the Randi Rhodes show, go to her website at
http://www.therandirhodesshow.com/streaming.html
This site doesn't stream all of the AA programs, just Rhodes,
KPOJ doesn't stream Rhodes live so I go directly to her site.
I can imagine what's entailed with launching a series of major radio programs along with a web presence all at the same time so I'm giving AA a little slack.
Hey, it's a helluva lot better than having to listen to Rushbo to get your political fix every day.
black_ice
Posted by black_ice @ 04/05/2004 01:29 PM NY
i don't know...I've noticed the problems with signing up, but that's honestly been going on for days now since they started...a good portion of that time the option hasn't been shown, so they may just be testing it. Have some patience, this isn't AOL. It's obvious the sign up system isn't ready yet. And as for the stream, I noticed a problem connecting a few times the first day, but that was it. C'mon, I get errors on bigger corporate websites all the time.
It's working fine now through Real Media. And RandiRhodes is of course stealing Franken's spotlight in the afternoon.
Posted by Josh Davis @ 04/05/2004 01:42 PM NY
It works perfectly for me. I've been listening to Al and Randi every day since they came on the air and haven't had one bit of trouble with it! I have not been asked to sign in, either. My RealAudio box pops up and it starts streaming...every time!
Posted by Jack Eldridge @ 04/05/2004 02:00 PM NY
I have a "listen" button on my blog, it seems to be working fine (of course, I only just tested it five minutes ago, it might not have been working earlier). No registration crap. It just takes you right to the RM stream.
click here
horklog
Posted by hork @ 04/05/2004 03:18 PM NY
I experienced too many "Listen Live" problems also at the AA site so began using the KPOJ link.It's been great but they pre-empt Randi Rhodes after Franken for some guy named ED. To get around that, I went back to the AA site 10 minutes ago, hit "Listen Live" and was connected right away, no registration required, no problems encountered. Maybe they're listening to us, hope so if they want us to listen to them.
Posted by redmonkeyblues @ 04/05/2004 03:39 PM NY
Real is the debbil. Read the fine print. Also, try to figure out how much spyware they dump on your machine.
Mosy oukky.
-K
Posted by K @ 04/05/2004 03:51 PM NY
All's working fine now, listening to Randi right now, Alhamdullillah.
Posted by Yasmin @ 04/05/2004 06:17 PM NY
I listen to all the show's on
http://ccdig.liquidviewer.com.kpoj
I get ofranken factor-big ed-
randy rhodes. Try this link.
hope it works..
Posted by Don @ 04/05/2004 08:41 PM NY
Where the hell are the archives they've been promising?!?
Posted by Tanystropheus @ 04/06/2004 09:10 PM NY
