[clug] ANU Lecture Recordings

[Iain Little]

On Wed, Mar 12, 2008 at 8:46 AM, Pilcher, Fred <Fred.Pilcher at act.gov.au> wrote:
> #1 daughter is in her first year at ANU this year. She missed lectures
>  yesterday and tried to download them from the ANU's site, without
>  success, so called to Dad for help. The system is an abomination. The
>  recordings are only available as streaming Real Audio - they can't be
>  downloaded, the system doesn't recognose Firefox as a browser, and what
>  should be a simple HTML page is so thoroughly java-infested that I
>  couldn't but shake my head in bewilderment.

Oh - *that* system... I remember wasting at least 3 or 4 hours to
listen to a 1 hour lecture.  (Engineering law about 3 1/2 years ago...
the lecturer couldn't be at some of the actual lectures, and so
pre-recorded something instead.)

>From what I remember, it works better when nobody else is trying to
use it, and it works better if you are trying to use it from somewhere
inside the ANU network.  If the server is under too much load, then
your connection has a tendency to drop out, and you have to start
listening right from the start all over again...  (and once people
start having to do this, the congestion escalates)

I am astonished that this system is still in use.


Iain