Service Bulletins

After over a year in development (we're still learning about software design projects) and six weeks of beta testing by about 40 of our more adventurous users, we launched version 3 of the HOS Archive service today at 11:05AM.

We sent emails to every subscriber to alert them to the coming changes and did everything we could think of to make it a smooth transition. User IDs and passwords were carried over from the old Windows Media service. Personal Favorites lists were also transferred from the old site, but this process was less than perfect.

Some people couldn't find the Favorites menu button at first. Others found they were not completely up to date when they opened the "My Favorites" playlist in the new player. Rest assured, dear space fans: all of your favorites  are still in our database and we will get all of them where they are supposed to be shortly. When the smoke clears, you'll find the new favorites display page much improved because it shows programs, albums, and tracks in one place.

A few users with unusally small screens on "netbook" size computers discovered a problem with that our beta test did not uncover: it's hard to see the lower part of the site because the top part with the larger Flash player and menu bars does not scroll up and out of the way. There are advantages to having the player stay put, but not when you have a 600 pixel high screen! We are working on a fix for this and will push it out ASAP.

We fielded several hundred emails and phone calls from users with other questions, but considering the scope and number of changes (we call them "improvements") everything went very smoothly and space fans on several continents are now happily listening to our crispy new 128kbps streams.

Please don't hesitate to email us at help@hos.com if you have any questions about the new site.

:: SH

Some of you may have noticed that our service was down for about 15 minutes this afternoon. We were here working on it, so we noticed it immediately and traced the problem to one of our three online service providers. They had been alerted internally and were already working on the problem, so service was restored very quickly in this case. For those who want to know more, read on…

Our media authorization network (MAN) provider (log in, customer accounts, credit card transactions and security) suffered a technical failure to one of their routers (an Internet address and traffic directing machine) this afternoon that affected all their customers including us — a first. The machine was saturating our domain and others with thousands of requests per minute, similar to a "denial of service" attack.

They recovered and repaired the situation immediately by rebooting the confused machine. After that hos.com was again accessible but slow.  At the time of this post, everything is back to 100% speed and efficiency. We put up a "down for maintenance" notice once we became aware of the outage, then went back to normal when the issue was resolved.

The Internet may not be "a series of pipes" (Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska)  but it is run by machines, software, and people. And sometimes they don't behave as instructed and need a timeout.

Some of our sharp-eyed users noticed that this payment option quietly disappeared several months ago.

Long story short: we were having some technical problems with the accounts, and it looked like we would not be able to offer minutes with the new Flash/MP3 Audio player we are moving to this fall. We didn't want to continue selling an access plan we couldn't support in the future.

Good news! The technical issues have been resolved and the minutes accounts are working perfectly for current users, AND we found a way to make them work with the upcoming Flash player as well. So we re-enabled the option for users to buy Prepaid Minutes today.

Prepaid minutes aka timed usage-based accounts (vs. subscriptions) are popular with new users who just want to try the service. Some people prefer to "pay as they go" but once you find you are using the service regularly, it's easier and more economical to buy a subscription package.

We offer prepaid minutes in blocks of 600 (10 hours) and 900 (15 hours) Please see our ACCESS PLANS page for details. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to write to help@hos.com.

Hint: they make a great gift. See our gift certificate page for that.

:: Stephen Hill

Deeper into the spring transition…

01    834     SEASON OF HOPE   a new age taste of spring
02    815     VIHUELA   an excursion in the Spanish-Moorish soundscape
03    814     KEYS TO CONTEMPLATION   the piano as a path to peace
04    811     CRESCENT MOON   a journey in the Turkish soundscape
05    807     GOSSAMER   subtle, refined textural-melodic spacemusic
06    775     AIRTRIBE   a techno-tribal excursion
07    774     FLAMENCO FUSION   an excursion in the Andalusian soundscape
08    764     DEEP GROOVE   downtempo, chill and ambient electronica
09    743     REMASTERPIECE   classical masterworks gone ambient/electronic
10    733     SPACE GUITARS 6   dreamy, twangy, timeless and deep
11    732     INDO-TRONICA   the vibrant intersection of Indian music and electronica
12    726     FLOWING INTO SPRING   fresh melodies and lush harmonies for spring
13    710     PEACE AND POWER 2   sky and rock, light and space, shadows and time
14    704     AEGEAN RHAPSODIES   the contemplative sounds of Greece
15    698     DESERT VISION 3   more romantic transcultural exile music of the Middle East
16    690     MOUNTAINS OF MARS   electronica meets chilled-out jazz
17    680     SUSPENDED TIME   contemplative classical introspections
18    674     RETROTRONICA    the halcyon days of early electronic, new age, and world fusion
19    665     MYSTIC CHORDS & SACRED SPACES   Steve Roach’s epic 5 hour/4 CD box set
20    663     RISING SUN   Japanese-inspired spacemusic for spring
21    671     TRANS-TRIBAL EXPRESS   ambient electronics meet tribal rhythms
22    561     TRANCE-FORMATION   a trance-ambient introspection
23    760     UNDERSCORE   exploring the world of ambient film music
24    631     STILLNESS IN MOTION   world fusion from Eastern Europe, Spain, the Middle East & North Africa
25    459     SIX STRING RELIGION   focus on the contemplative acoustic guitar
26    484     ESSENTIAL   solo acoustic and small ensemble spacemusic
27    460     MICHAEL STEARNS RETROSPECTIVE   spacemusician and soundtrack composer
28    452     OCEANIC   oceanic sonics and the romance of the sea

New playlist today — less wintry;-)

01    833    GENERATIONS   continuing our communion with the Celtic ballad
02    832    KONTINUUM   infinitely extended electronic soundscapes
03    830    DAVID DARLING RETROSPECTIVE   soulful lyricism from the revered American cellist
04    829    GALACTIC TRAVELER   an electronic deep space excursion
05    828    DEEP WORLD   contemplating the polycultural soundscape
06    831    PIANISSIMO   a contemplative journey for piano
07    817    FLUTE RATTLE DRUM…SPACE   gene-splicing Native flute and ambient electronics
08    812    DYNAMIC EQUILIBRIUM   the sound of tranquility in motion
09    813    THE MUSIC OF MYST   a journey in mythic soundworlds
10    797    WORLDS BEYOND   a cosmic electronic journey
11    761    INVERSION   intra-seasonal electronic spacemusic
12    758    INFINITE GUITARS   a retro-future-cosmic-twangy guitar journey
13    760    UNDERSCORE   exploring the world of ambient film music
14    685    THE HEALING HARP   a celebration of the harp
15    581    ISLE OF DREAMING   a wistful journey in the Celtic soundscape
16    709    STARGAZER   spacemusic inspired by the celestial spectacle
17    721    SUSPENDED SPRING   floating in the space between winter and spring
18    722    TELHARMONIA   floating and flying on electronic waves
19    744    CEDAR SOUL   soft sounds and serene spaces of the native flute
20    512    ETHERWAVES    electronic sounds…past, present, and future
21    351    AMBIENT MEMORIES    a return to the thrilling days of early Ambient
22    431    EXOTICA    the exotic edge of world/space, with a focus on India
23    432    VANGELIS    tribute to the Greek recording artist VANGELIS
24    514    THE AMBIENT EXPANSE   atmospheric ambient music for deep exploration
25    422    PRANA   a journey on the sound of breath
26    515    SPACE GUITARS 4    a journey to the edges of the electronic guitar universe
27    061    AFTER THE RAIN    an environmental electronic journey for spring
28    464    AIR SCULPTURE    floating forms in electronic space

New programs today:

01    830    DAVID DARLING   soulful lyricism from the revered American cellist
02    829     GALACTIC TRAVELER   an electronic deep space excursion
03    828     DEEP WORLD   contemplating the polycultural soundscape
04    831     PIANISSIMO   a contemplative journey for piano
05    827     WINTER LIGHT   a cold day journey in blue-grey soundscapes
06    812     DYNAMIC EQUILIBRIUM   the sound of tranquility in motion
07    817     FLUTE RATTLE DRUM…SPACE   gene-splicing Native flute and ambient
08    797     WORLDS BEYOND   a cosmic electronic journey
09    758     INFINITE GUITARS   a retro-future-cosmic-twangy guitar journey
10    753     AURORA   a winter journey in the polar regions
11    760     UNDERSCORE   exploring the world of ambient film music
12    685     THE HEALING HARP   a celebration of the harp
13    581     ISLE OF DREAMING   a wistful journey in the Celtic soundscape
14    709     STARGAZER   spacemusic inspired by the celestial spectacle
15    537     WEIGHTLESS   an anti-gravity journey on floating electronic waves
16    689     DARKNESS AND DAWN   patient, forbearing spacemusic for late winter
17    721     SUSPENDED SPRING   floating in the space between winter and spring
18    744     CEDAR SOUL   soft sounds and serene spaces of the native flute
19    656     NORDIC SPRING   stirrings of spring from the far North
20    511     KANON   the mystic minimalism of Estonian composer ARVO PART
21    512     ETHERWAVES   electronic sounds…past, present, and future
22    245     ARS ANTIGUA   Plainsongs, Litanies and Romances of Medieval spacemusic
23    172     NUEVO TANGO   Astor Piazzolla’s bittersweet spacemusic from Argentina
24    351     AMBIENT MEMORIES   a return to the thrilling days of early Ambient
25    477     ICE AGE   artfully chilled winter electronica
26    422     PRANA   a journey on the sound of breath
27    431     EXOTICA   the exotic edge of world/space, with a focus on India
28    432     VANGELIS   a tribute to the Greek recording artist

The HOS web server had a hard disk failure Thursday afternoon. It took all night to repair the server and restore our files, but everything should be running normally now. We will continue to closely monitor the situation today and make any additional adjustments necessary.

We apologize for the interruption in service and are taking steps to prevent or radically reduce the time we can be down in the future.

— The HOS Web Team

New playist today:

01    822     RESTRAINT   subtle, lyrical Nordic spacejazz
02    821     LOVELY THUNDER   foggy keyboards and dark ambient electronics
03    820     SPECTRAL VOICES   the ghostly world of harmonic overtone singing
04    802     ARGUABLY POST-AMBIENT   new waveforms from the international electronic soundscape
05    791     NORDIC SOUL   a far north spacejazz and new music journey
06    799     MESSENGERS OF PEACE   music from the Tibetan diaspora
07    808     ATLAS DEI   Robert Rich’s music for the art film ATLAS DEI
08    790     INTERSTELLAR   a cosmic electronic journey
09    753     AURORA   a winter journey in the polar regions
10    728     THE EDGE OF THE WORLD   an ambient-electronic journey
11    713     INVOKING THE MUSE   the timeless, heartfelt sound of the female voice
12    620     THE GLASS PIANO   an hour of wintry piano soundscapes
13    664     DARK WISDOM   cello alchemy and the dark emotions
14    652     ICELANDIA   tundra music from Scandanavia, Iceland and Alaska
15    616     NETHERTRONICA   wandering in the soundworlds of ambient cool
16    608     DISTANT SPIRITS   ambient soundscapes for the Native American cedar flute
17    601     FRAGILE DIALOGUES   an East-West contemplative soundscape
18    597     THE CONTEMPLATIVE GUITAR   quiet, acoustic, mostly solitary guitar
19    594     SLOW MUSIC FOR FAST TIMES   the worthy cause of quality stress reduction
20    566     SYNTHETIC PLEASURES   99.44% pure all-electronic waveforms
21    549     THE RAPTURE OF METALS   contemplative percussion and its electronic descendents
22    604     HARMONIC HARBOR   the spacious world of the contemplative piano
23    551     WUNJO REVISITED   Giles Reaves’ spacemusic classic WUNJO
24    550     A NORTHERN PLACE   music from Arctic and mountain spaces
25    548     COLDBURN   a journey into the implacable heart of winter
26    546     NORTHERN NIGHTS   a Scandinavian winter’s journey
27    542     MNEMOSYNE   spotlight on the album by Jan Garbarek & The Hilliard Ensemble
28    522     WAVELANDS   fresh new electronic spacemusic waveforms

New winter and holiday programs today:

01    826   TO THEE WE SING   winter treasures from the sacred choral repertoire
02    823   POINTS OF LIGHT   a turn-of-winter ambient journey
03    825   HYMNOS   contemplative hymns and prayers for the holiday season
04    792   METALLICA   a wintry excursion for resonant percussion
05    822   RESTRAINT   subtle, lyrical Nordic spacejazz
06    793   HYPERBOREA   a journey beyond the north wind
07    824   VOICES IN THE NIGHT   heavenly harmonies and angelic voices
08    790   INTERSTELLAR   a cosmic electronic journey
09    788   COMFORT AND JOY 2   a seasonal potpourri — acoustic, electronic, Celtic
10    787   CAMERATA NOVA   Early Music reconsidered
11    789   CANTORUM   hymns and sacred spaces for chorus
12    786   WINTER ON THE WIND   deep, clear electronics : warm, floating harmonies
13    756   PIANOSCAPES 3   piano, personal and contemplative
14    750   PHOS HILARON   a journey in contemplative sound and light
15    752   VOX SUBLIMAE   sublime voices and eternal spaces of sacred music
16    749   TRANSLUCENT MUSIC   seeking the light, from darkness to hope
17    720   VAJRA WEST   neo-Tibetan songs and soundscapes
18    719   SUBLIMATION   supercooled wintry electronica
19    718   NORDIC CIRCLE   wintry orchestral spaces from the far north
20    715   MIDNIGHT CLEAR   Celtic-inspired acoustic music for winter
21    714   DECEMBER   artfully chilled piano and electronic keyboards
22    709   STARGAZER   spacemusic inspired by the celestial spectacle
23    722   TELHARMONIA   floating and flying on electronic waves
24    688   VIRTUAL DREAM BELLS   electronic bells and contemplative percussion
25    659   LUX AETERNA   a magnificent triple concerto by Norway’s TERJE RYPDAL
26    660   AERIAL BOUNDARIES   a flight across Guitar Heaven
27    649   CRYSTAL BELLS   clear and deep: a winter’s holiday journey
28    648   MEDIEVAL WAVES   a Celtic/Scandinavian/Middle Eastern winter’s journey

A playlist of older seasonal shows this time:

1      040   NORTHERN VISIONS   clear, blue, deep : electronic music for winter
2      119   JOURNEY TO STRATOS   a classic celestial deep space journey
3      183   WINTERSONGS   winter songs for silent landscapes
4      215   SILENT FIELDS   a deep winter journey
5      201   PIANOSONGS   spacemusic for piano, plus…
6      213   PEACEFUL SEASON   our 1989 Holiday Special
7      245   ARS ANTIGUA   Plainsongs, Litanies and Romances of Medieval spacemusic
8      249   WINTERGARDEN   a journey in the quiet spaces of winter
9      252   WINTERSCAPES   soundtrack music and the timbres of winter
10    263   RIVERS OF BELIEF   an ENIGMAtic mix of the spiritual & the seductive
11    275   SACRED SPACE 2   mystery and majesty for the winter holiday season
12    276   VOICE FROM THE CLOUD   sacred spacemusic from Medieval Europe and beyond
13    306   BLUE SHADOWS   modern guitar from Spaceblues to Blue Shadows
14    312   NORTHERN LIGHTS   the chilly side of the European soundscape
15    315   A WINTER’S TALE   a journey for the silent season
16    341   UNSEEN WORLDS 2   space adventure soundtrax and deep space explorations
17    340   SPIRITS OF EUROPA   accordion-friendly expressions of the European spirit
18    344   NEW ALBION   a ten year retrospective of the New Albion new music label
19    347   ELECTRONIC DREAMS   electronic spacemusic in the grand tradition
20    349   POLAR FLIGHT   Nordic spacejazz meets a California warm front
21    369   CONTEMPLATION   international masters of contemplative sound
22    376   RIDING SOLAR WINDS   interstellar electronics from the U.S. and France
23    407   ANGEL SKY   vocal, choral and instrumental Holiday spacemusic
24    382   SILENT LAKE   a ‘north of the border’ journey
25    406   GRAY LIGHT   an early winter’s journey in a land of gray light
26    408   ANCIENT AND MODERN   choral spacemusic–ancient and modern
27    411   NORTHERN LIGHTS 3   adrift in the winter atmospheres
28    412   UNDER STARS   robot electron fantasies in deep space