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On air check
From WWR
Contents |
Get Notified When We Are About To Go Live On-The-Air
The purpose of this page is to have a quick loading page that various applications can check to see if someone is live on-the-air at Whole Wheat Radio. In this sometimes unharmonious world, we need to realize that there is more than one type of operating system out there, so several flavors of tools are described below.
For Windows Users
An example of a free Windows web monitoring application is WebMon. If you'd like to set it up, here are general steps with things you type in italics:
- Download and install WebMon: http://www.markwell.btinternet.co.uk/webmon/
- For the webpage address to check use: http://www.wholewheatradio.org/onair.txt - that means you are checking this page to see if it has changed - which it will whenever the on-air button is turned off or on
- In the "Open Alternative Page In Web Browser" specify http://www.wholewheatradio.org/wiki/index.php/What's_playing if you want to open WWR automatically
- Set the Interval Between Checks to a time period that makes sense for you. One minute is the smallest interval possible.
WebMon has lots of nice options to allow it to just sit there quietly in the task tray and beep/notify you when someone comes on-air at WWR. If you'd like to try other webpage monitoring programs, here is a whole page discussing them in detail. In terms of other freeware monitors, the document states: If you really only need the barest of functionality you might try the freeware programs WebMon, Check4Me, InfoIC, or SiteSpector which offer fairly limited functions.
Starting with Windows
While WebMon has a "Run WebMon when Windows starts" option, it starts with the window open in the middle of your screen. It is possible to start WebMon minimized with a couple of small configuration steps:
- Leave the "Run WebMon when Windows starts" option in the program unchecked.
- Add the WebMon shortcut to your Start --> Programs --> Startup folder.
- Right-click and select Properties on your new shortcut.
- Select the option to Run: Minimized.
For Linux users
After selecting the proper download for your distro, and downloading WebMonX, a Linux version of WebMon: http://sniperbeamer.de/webmonx/, (I have Ubuntu so all directions are for the Ubuntu Distro)
- Double click the Desktop Icon
- Click Install Package
My screenshot already says "Reinstall Package" because I already have WebMonX installed
- After just a couple of minutes, the installation will be completed.
You will find the WebMonX app under Applications/Internet.
Go ahead and open the app now;
- Under the File Menu, you will see "Page", click that and then click "Add".
In the Description box, type in "Whole Wheat Radio On_Air" or something similar,
In the "Address" box, type in exactly "http://www.wholewheatradio.org/onair.txt",
Change the "Check Interval" settings to what ever amount of time that you feel comfortable with having the app check to see if Jim is going to start ranting about 
I chose 5 minutes for I like to be yelled at and would not want to miss a minute of catching flak!
Scroll down, click "Okay" and you are finished! Ain't that more simple then those other two (cough) Operating Systems? 
For Mac users
- Download iAlert
- Open the disk image (.dmg)
- Install the SIMBL package. It's in the SIMBL folder. Double click "SIMBL.pkg" to install it.
- Install iAlert by double clicking "iAlertInstaller.app"
- Launch System Preferences
- At the bottom is "iAlert". Click it to open it.
- Click "Start iAlert".
- Click "Preferences", and the preferences panel opens
- Check both "Launch iAlert at login" and "Check for update on launch".
- In the General panel, in the "Alerts default visual settings" adjust the settings to your tastes. Note that a sound is not selected as by default. Select a sound for an audio alert.
- Click the "Alerts" button (next to "General") and the Alerts panel opens.
- Click "iAlert" to see a list of alerts. Click on "Site Updated".
- Check "Activate" and "Show when application is active"
- Click "Show preferences", and a window for URLs opens.
- Enter "http://www.wholewheatradio.org/onair.txt"
- Change "Change every __ minutes" to 5 minutes. Close the window.
- Click the triangle on the iTunes menu item, and then highlight "New song played". Uncheck "Activate." (Otherwise an alert pops up every time a new song is played.)
Note: these are the settings Sparkit used for her setup. There are lots of variations like turning off the iTunes stuff. So, configure iAlert to your druthers. Also, she is just as new to this little application as you, so all insights are welcome.
