HOME   DIRECTORY   ACTIVITIES   PROPOSE ACTIVITY   APPLY   FOR VISITORS   ONLINE TALKS   OUTREACH 

Audio for Your Computer

To hear the audio, you must have a computer with sound hardware. Most Macintoshes, many PC/WIntel machines, and some Unix workstations (e.g., Sun Sparc 5's and Ultra's, most products by SGI,...) have sound hardware. If your PC does not, the upgrade need cost no more than about $40-50 --- a low-end sound card and a pair of small external speaker is plenty. If your Unix workstation has audio hardware, but sounds poor, the problem is most likely the tiny internal speaker. Consider investing in an inexpensive pair of external speakers (or earphones).

You must also install RealAudio software: either RealPlayer 5.0, RealPlayer 4.0, or RealAudio 3.0. This audio technology is one among several that we are evaluating. The software is commercial, but can be downloaded for free from RealNetworks by clicking on this button:

If you are using a Unix system, you probably need to ask your system manager to install it. If you are using a Macintosh or PC as a standalone machine, you can probably install it yourself; if on a local network, consult your system manager.

These pages have been tested, and work, on Netscape Navigator versions 3 and 4 with the RealAudio plug-in, and also on MS Internet Explorer version 4 with a separate RealAudio plug-in. MS Internet Explorer version 4 comes with a bundled RealAudio player version 2.1; however you need to upgrade this player, as our site requires at least version 3.

If your browser displays a box to download a file called something like "01.ra", you probably do not have the proper audio software installed --- this is merely its default behavior when it does not know what else to do with a file (in this case an audio file, don't bother downloading it). The same applies if your browser displays a message about "extending the capabilities", though in this case it is trying to be helpful by telling you what software to download.

This site performs best over an Ethernet connection, but the software functions reasonably well at low bandwidths, and you should find these pages useable over a 28.8kb modem line.