Service Bulletins

Some problems developed today with our recent update that forced us to switch back to our primary Flash server. During the update we were running new software on our backup Flash server, but it needs more attention to work correctly.

We do everything we possibly can to avoid service interruptions during normal hours, but during this operation the streaming service was down for about 90 minutes. Service was restored at 1:45PM Pacific and is now operating normally.

If you were connected earlier today, you may need to empty your browser "cache" to reload the site (helpful instructions under EMPTY BROWSER CACHE in our HELP section). We sincerely apologize for this problem and are taking steps to prevent any recurrence.

:: SH

We fixed a few bugs and rolled out several improvements to our Flash player at 2PM Pacific time on Wednesday, June 24th. There was no service interruption during this update, though a few users had to empty their browser cache and reset the site to resume streaming.

The new player will load automatically when you come to HOS.com and you should only notice the changes and improvements to normal operation listed below. Everything will be as you expect as far as personal playlists and Favorites are concerned.

FIXES AND NEW FEATURES

Some of these improvements are pretty subtle and you may never notice them. Others improve basic operations for everyone:

• Dynamic Buffering : This advanced feature will improve operation for dialup users and anyone experiencing stream interruptions or dropouts. The initial buffer length is set to 10 seconds to ensure fast startup of stream. As soon as the initial buffer is filled and playback begins, we increase the data buffer to the equivalent to 5 minutes of music. This should eliminate almost all stream dropouts in normal use.
• Player Activation Trigger : The "active player" display view will fade out only after your mouse exits the player area. As long as the cursor remains in the player area, the active player view will always remain visible. This is more intuitive and prevents unwanted fadeaways while choosing or editing playlists. 
• ADD function activates player : If you add an item to a playlist while the player is in the "minimized" mode, the active player will fade in and display the newly added item at the bottom of the currently active playlist. The player will return to the minimized view after 10 seconds if the cursor is not in the player area.
• Swap Playlist Buttons Position : For convenience, the positions of the ‘Manage
  Playlists’ and ‘Add Playlist Item’ buttons at the bottom of the MY PLAYLISTS tab have been swapped. Now you just mouse straight down to pick a new playlist.
• Last Good Port Stored : The
  player now stores the last successful connection port in the Flash cookie so
  that users on corporate networks need not cycle though all possible ports on each
  connection attempt. Instead, the player tries the last successful port first. In
  the event the ‘last good port’ fails, the player will resume cycling through all other options trying to establish a connection to the Flash Media Server. This will speed up connecting at work.
• Return to 0:00, Start Over : The operation of the control for the ‘step back’ |< function has been revised. The button now behaves in the same way as iTunes or CD player. If the user clicks the ‘back’ button during the first 3 seconds of a track, the playhead will go to the start of the previous track. If
  the user clicks the ‘back’ button any time after the first three seconds of a track, the playhead will return to the start of the currently playing track.
• Player Busy Icon :  The standard Flash "watch" animation will appear briefly when the player is busy switching between streams and during voiceover on/off operation — just so you know something's happening.
• Refresh View Tab On Sign In/Out : The player will refresh the player tab when you sign in or out now so that metadata will always be in sync with your login state.
• Fixed Radio Channel Buglet : a very rare sequence of operations could cause the player to lock up. All better now.

We continue to work on improvements to our service operation and solicit your feedback and suggestions. Please write to help@hos.com with your comments.

:: SH

All you new spacefans have been keeping our new Flash Media servers so busy they need more RAM. So we'll be upgrading the hardware on our primary Flash server today, THURSDAY, June 4th, between 3PM and 3:30PM Pacific Time.

We'll be down for a maximum of 30 minutes, probably much less. During that time we'll have a service screen up to prevent frustration with dropped streams.

Apologies for the inconvenience — we usually do these in the middle of the night, but this one has to happen during business hours.

:: SH

We always try to do these things late at night when the minimum number of listeners will be affected. In this case, though, we had to take both our Flash servers offline for about 10 minutes to install new versions of our Flash server and our Flash player software. If you are reading this after the fact, there's nothing to do except enjoy the improved performance.

This is an important maintenance upgrade with the following improvements:

AAC compatibility
We're re-encoding our entire archive of programs and albums in the newer, higher quality AAC+ format. We've begun with the most recent programs first. The 800 and 700 series are online now; the 600 series is being uploaded. The rest of the archive will be re-encoded and brought online over the coming weeks. (We'll post notices here.)  You will hear a better stereo image, and much more natural resolution of solo instruments and subtle sounds. The difference for our remaining dialup users will be huge.

Fewer stream interruptions
We've improved our code so that streams won't be interrupted unless your internet connection actually drops out. This is one of many improvements to streaming stability that we're working on. We hate it when HOS stops!

Prepaid minutes are smarter
Prepaid minutes are now compatible with other Access Plans and may be combined with This Week's Show or Radio Channel subscriptions.

:: SH

Big thanks and congratulations, spacefans! We made our goal easily this weekend.
We asked for 1200 Sunday subscribers. Our total as of today is 1339:

531 purchased THIS WEEK SUNDAY recurring, for $12
432 purchased THIS WEEK SUNDAY one time, for $15
360 purchased other subscriptions
 
16 equivalent sent donations but didn't want or need subscriptions

We'll say it again: we're th-rilled with the response. Thank you for your support, your loyalty, and your personal stories.

We'll hold our prize drawing in a few days on May 15th. FIFTEEN WINNERS will be drawn from the new subscribers.

• 5 win AAA : ALL ARCHIVE ACCESS for a year, a $132 value.
• 5 win RADIO CHANNEL access for a year, a $72 value.
• 5 win THIS WEEK'S SHOW – Anytime Access for a year, a $24 value.

Safe Journey  ::  Stephen Hill and the HOS Crew

It's the final weekend
of our our first-ever subscription drive. For the last month we've
actually asked our listeners to help us keep our Sunday online shows
free — by signing up for a voluntary $12 a YEAR subscription!

We needed 1200 Sunday subscribers. As of Saturday May 9th, we had lucky 1111. 


We're thrilled with the response. Really! And we're
glad we asked, because we've been able to communicate with many of you
personally. Thank you for your support, and your stories.

We need just 89 more generous spacefans to support the Sunday show so we can keep it free for everyone else. No problem!  Sign up this weekend and you can win an upgrade to one of our full service plans.

Our $12 a year This Week SUNDAY plan

Cheap is the next best thing to free, so we made a new low cost Sunday-only access plan.
Every new subscriber who signs up for this plan will be entered into drawing on MAY 15th. 
FIFTEEN WINNERS will be drawn from the new subscribers.

• 5 win AAA : ALL ARCHIVE ACCESS for a year, a $132 value.
• 5 win RADIO CHANNEL access for a year, a $72 value.
• 5 win THIS WEEK'S SHOW – Anytime Access for a year, a $24 value.

Win or lose, you can make a real difference to Hearts of Space for only $12 a year.

Safe Journey  ::  Stephen Hill and the HOS Crew

Per our published notice on both our previous generation service sites six weeks ago, today we have discontinued both our legacy services.

A very small number of our most change-averse or technically limited users will be affected by this. Please be asssured that we have done everything in our power to make it possible for you to use our new Flash™ audio based service at our main web site, and will still be more than happy to hold your hand while you jump into the new service. Just email help@hos.com.

Since we launched our new Flash™-powered site and media player on February 11th, we've been busy fixing bugs and helping our beloved spacefans migrate to the new service.

Some of the bugs were pretty obscure and most users never ran into them. Others affected more people and required immediate fixes. And a few fell into "we can make this better" category; not really broken, but perhaps unclear or confusing — something we wanted to improve right away.

The worst issue was caused by conservative network administrators at various companies (and the Pentagon!) who blocked the electronic "port" that Flash uses to communicate with your computer. (It's that message about Port 1935 you see when the player is loading ). Once we figured out what was happening, our Flash programmers came up with a fix right away, but it took over a week to install it, test it, and roll it out to our main site.

ALL BETTER NOW.

Really. We've had about 10 days of almost completely problem-free operation. Our support experts Leyla and Joseph are starting to breathe normally again, and we are slowly turning our attention to additional upgrades and improvements. We're also bringing a second Flash server online to improve our delivery to people overseas and to backup our primary server. It's all very geeky, but it makes for a more reliable, problem-free service.

Finally, today we introduced a new service plan: $12 a YEAR for access to the new shows on Sunday.

"But drSpace," you ask, "I thought the show was free on Sunday."

Well yes, it is, but so many of you were streaming it (up to 8 times!) on Sunday, that the cost of providing it free has become really difficult for us. See Why Pay? for the full story.

Rather than taking away the free show, we're hoping that at least 1,000 of our Sunday listeners will sign up for the new plan and help defray the cost for everyone else, including folks who've lost their jobs lately and need the program more than ever. You can see the details on our PLANS page or here.

We're emailing about 15,000 of our Sunday listeners today with news about the new plan. While we're at it, we're holding our first-ever "contest" or "raffle" or whatever you want to call it.

From the new $12/year subscribers we will pick 15 and give them free upgrades to our AAA, Radio Channel, or This Week Anytime subscriptions.

Like the army who need "a few good men," we just need "a few good subscribers" to give Hearts of Space a firm financial foundation during these crazy "fast times."

Safe Journey :: Stephen Hill aka drSpace

A number of repeat visitors have asked us this question. It was working fine for them, why change it?

We started our web service in 2001 with 100 programs and Real Audio as the streaming format and the media player. Today this format is all but abandoned online.

We launched our Windows Media Audio service in 2004 when WMA was the leading format, because it was compatible with the vast majority of Windows machines out there and many Windows users had, umm, issues with Real Audio. But by 2007 we were spending hours every day trying to support Mac and Linux users as well as many Windows users who had serious technical problems with Windows Media — an unsustainable burden for a small company like HOS and an imposition on our users.

Today, Windows Media Player has been abandoned even by Microsoft, in favor of their new Silverlight format, which is largely a response to the enormous popularity of Flash on sites like MySpace and YouTube, and the fact that — after you download a tiny browser plug-in — Flash just works on all the major operating system and browser combinations.

This is what has driven us to move to Flash, not a perverse desire to keep up with technical fads and fashions. Not only that, it allows us to deliver a far better sounding and more feature-rich and fun-to-use experience to listeners (see the full list of new features below) a fact that weighs in our favor when users decide whether it is worth paying our modest fees for the full service.

The web is not a static environment. It changes in small and large ways all the time, and like it or not, we are all obliged to move along with it. I guarantee that you will not be using the same computer and software five years from now that you are using today. In fact, you may be using your 'smart' cell phone for many of the things you use your computer for today, including listening to Hearts of Space.

So please take your time getting used to the new service — you'll find it's a big step forward. If you're having any difficulties during the transition, please contact us at help@hos.com and give us the details of the problem. We're here to make the change as smooth and effortless as possible for you.

:: Stephen Hill and the small, progressive, compassionate, HOS Staff

Even better audio quality

• 128 kbps streams now standard for broadband users
• Automatic detection of connection speed sends 128Kbps or 32 kbps streams to broadband and dial up users

Better, more responsive player

• Built-in Flash media player for all platforms and browsers — no more media player hassles!
• "Heads up" display minimizes text and visual distraction during play, activates when you roll over it
• "NOW PLAYING" display identifies artist and track title as well as program or album
• Larger banner for weekly art
• Larger volume control, mute icon, and media progress bar with digital time readout
• Instant "one-click" navigation to anywhere in the progress bar
• New track replay |< and track forward skip |> controls to move to next or last piece

Continuous music experience

• Turn radio program voiceovers off and on at will with the microphone icon for uninterrupted music!
• Play Radio Channel with voiceovers off for 100% uninterrupted background ambience

Better Radio Channel

• Radio Channel draws upon the entire program archive all the time, no repeats.
• Programs seasonally appropriate music, automatically eliminating inappropriate themes
• Prepaid access time plans now apply to Radio Channel as well as individual programs

Personal Playlist Management and Favorites

• Old "Queue" function is now in the MY PLAYLISTS tab of the Flash player
• Create unlimited personal playlists of items from the HOS archive.
• Save, replay, edit, rename or delete any time.
• Personal playlists can include any combination of programs, albums, and tracks.
• "Drag and drop" items to change the order within playlists.
• New integrated FAVORITES listing includes radio programs, albums & tracks
• Move items from Favorites to a personal playlist with one click

Enhanced experience for non-subscribers

• FREE 30 second samples of everything in the Archive
• Guests and non-subscribers may use all site functions, including playlists
• Expanded free content includes full length program and album