Update on QuickTime issues

The QuickTime issues for both PowerPC and Windows have been resolved. The PowerPC issue is best resolved be reinstalling the QuickTime update directly from Apple and the Windows problem required a new client, available on IUWare
(see the user guide for more details http://variations2.indiana.edu/use/problems.html).

QuickTime 7.2 update

Apple QuickTime 7.2 Bug.

On July 11th, 2007, Apple released QuickTime version 7.2.

If you installed this update on a PowerPC machine it will cause Variations2 to fail to launch with the error NoClassDefFoundError:quicktime/internal/jdirect/Linker.

If you installed this update on a Windows machine it will cause the audio player to get stuck 'buffering' the track and will not play.

We are currently working on a fix for these problems.

Variations2 4.2 now available for download

Variations2 version 4.2 is now available via IUWare Online. What's new? The announcement last October that Variations2 was available for home installation commented that that version of Variations2, version 4.0.3, will only work for audio, not for scores, but it said "we hope to make scores available eventually." The "eventually" has arrived! 4.2 also fixes some bugs.

As with the previous version, if you're a student, even with Variations2 installed, you must be enrolled in a class that requires Variations2 or you won't be able to access music with it. (Most School of Music classes in Bloomington and a few non-music classes satisfy this requirement.)

When the semester ends...

If you installed Variations2 at home but are not taking a music class next semester that requires Variations2 use, in January you'll find you no longer can access the music in Variations2. You may be interested to know you can still use Variations2 to create timelines for music you have on your hard drive. Other than that, there's not much you can do with it. Maybe someday we'll have a collection of recorded music in the public domain that everyone can listen to for free. Someday.

Mark Notess

Can Variations2 handle exam cram?

This fall was the first regular semester Variations2 was in full production use. Today, at the beginning of exam week, we're starting to see high usage. One measure of usage is how many people are streaming audio at the same time. The chart shows the number of simultaneous audio streams since midnight last night. We're nearly at 60 now—the horizontal lines in the above chart are at 0, 20, 40, 60, etc. 61 is our high point for the semester so far. I'd thought exam week would be higher, so we'll see.

How many simultaneous audio streams can we handle? We did some testing earlier in the year and found 400 was about our limit. So we should be in good shape!

Incidentally, we had 1104 downloads of Variations2 from IUWare Online this semester by unique login names (218 for Macs, 924 for PCs).

Mark Notess

Apple releases bugfix for QuickTime 7

Today, Apple released a repaired version of QuickTime 7. Install the new version from http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/standalone.html.

QuickTime component expires, damaging Variations2

If you have installed Variations2 on a Windows PC and are using QuickTime 7, Variations2 probably stopped working yesterday! Why? Because the version of QuickTime for Java Apple included with QuickTime 7 expired after October 15!

We've submitted a bug report to Apple, and we've also written up instructions on how to work around the bug by uninstalling QuickTime 7 and doing a custom install of QuickTime 6.5.2. Here are the instructions.

We'll let you know when Apple posts a fix.