At 01:37 PM 6/1/2002 -0700, you wrote:
>I've never tried this, but apparently it will play RealPlayer ( .ram files
>), and it's free. hth
>
>http://www.ultraplayer.com/
>
>Al Thompson

I downloaded this little hummer.  (I really needed another music
player.)  It's a very nice little program with good visualizations and
skins, and it does play Real Audio files.  While it's not the issue it once
was, I checked how big of a resource hog it is.

UltraPlayer 6%
WinAmp       5%
Real             8%
WinMedia   23%

of processor use while playing Shina No Yoru, as determined by
WinTop.  Guess that tells us what not to use to play mp3s.

Robert Humble

      "Hold No Punches.." Rode brings you great shareware/freeware
        programs with his honest opinions in this weekly column.
                       http://freepctech.com/rode