Conference marvin::uk_music

    Well after a couple of phone calls......
    
    
    First stop - Mr Tommy Udo, News editor (only number I could find in
    this weeks NME apart from the subs desk) - 
    
    Me:"Mr Udo, Do you know what is going on with the web page as I seem to
    be having problems accessing it?"
    
    Mr Udo: "Don't ask me, pal! This is the news desk!" (quote)
    
    Me: "Look, I apologise for phoning you, but I can find no other number.
    Do you know anything about the state of play?"
    
    Mr Udo: "The site will not be up until tonight" (begrudgingly)
    
    Me: "Cheers!" 
    
    
    Next stop - A general number in IPC that leads to an NME person......
    
    Me: "I know this is not the right number but I cannot find one. Can you
    help" (rest of query included)
    
    NME: "Eeerrrr, I don't know what is going on with the page"
    
    Me: "Is Brendon Fitzgerald, the web page editor, available, or do you
    have his number?"
    
    NME: "I can't see him in the office at the moment. Try the page later,
    it should be working by then"
    
    Me: "Cheers!"
    
    
    Basically I am not a happy bunny! 
    
    
    		
    			Stretch.

    
    the local Newsagent had no NME's in today, is it being replaced by the
    electronic version ?
    
    Also, looking up NME on Altavista I followed a link to OPC magazines
    and discovered that I'm now not a part of their core business %^/
    
    the following was ripped off without permission :-
     
    New Musical Express
    
    A unique blend of irreverent journalism and musical expertise, plus
    exclusive coverage of the latest
    music scene. 
    
     Total circulation (July - Dec 1995 ABC):
                                            117,169
     Launched:
                                            1952
     Cover price:
                                            85p
     Frequency:
                                            weekly
     Adult readership (Jan - Dec 1995 NRS):
                                            641,000
     Median age of readers:
                                            24
     Core target audience:
                                            men 17-25
     ABC1 profile:
                                            61%
     Biggest ad category:
                                            hi/fi audio
     Colour page rate, run of paper:
                                            �5,820
    
    
    

Hi Stretch,

Sure they didn't outsource it all to Digital?

g

    Well I tried the obvious  http://www.nme.co.uk  but it wants a username
    and password to access it :-(
    
    tmp

    http://www,nme.com is the listing in this weeks NME. This will either
    ask you for a password or say come back on June 5th.

    
    Looks like it's now on-line...........well, at least it's no longer
    asking me for u/n and p/w and my screen's turned bright yellow!
    
    Leonie.

I know someone involved with the NME page.  Perhaps I'll badger them to see 
what the deal is.

Chris.

    
    I've gone through the registration bit, that seemed to work okay
    however you can't actualy logon because there's an error in the HTML
    around the password field. It doesn't actually display a field for you
    to type into.
    
    Graham

    
    Well, that was quick ! I leeft the site and then went back to it a few
    minutes later and it crashed Netscape; I restarted it and re-loaded and
    the PAssword field now works okay - except that I don't seem to be
    registered yet - I now get :-
    
            Yikes what did you do? C'mon go back and give it another go
    
    Oh well, try again later I suppose .
    
    G.
    

    I have not attempted it yet. Anyone in the UK got in?
    
    
                             Stretch.

    
    Yes, I've got in now - looks as though my first registration didn't go
    through coz when I tried again with a different username/password it
    came upp with a different screen which prompted for both and then
    allowed me to enter.
    
    Hey, this could save me 85p a week !
    
    G.

    > Hey, this could save me 85p a week !
    
    But you're using Digital's resources instead. Perhaps you should 
    submit 85p to the kitty.
    
    ;-)
    
    Goldy.

    > Hey, this could save me 85p a week !
    
    My reasoning exactly!
    
    
    Stretch.

You now need a Password to read the NME???

grahame

    
>> You now need a Password to read the NME???
    
    ..only so that they can track who's accessing the site I think,
    probably for advertising or so that they can show they're being
    responsible if visited by the 'Net Police'. Also, it allows them to
    mail-shot you with lots of offers you just can't refuse.
    
    There's no fee, you just type in your name, e-mail address, postcode
    and then a username/password combination of your own choosing. Then,
    your'e allowed in - there's also the choice of frames or non-frames.
    
    Graham  

Hi,

Yes, I just gave it a go, though my ageing VAXstation complained. Lots of rude 
words in the chat section, and no Charts. I liked the yellow though!

And I'd have thought a newspaper editor would be able to resist putting an 
apostrophe in "its."

g

    Well, I had just gone through the registration process when my Netscape
    went down. I rebooted the PC and went through the process again,
    assuming my details were not on the system, only to get an error
    message saying the users name had already been used. Trying the
    original login, and the new login, I keep getting error messages. 
    
    AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!
    
    From what I have seen the pages seem to have all the articles from this
    weeks NME, pretty much word for word.
    
    
    				Stretch.

    
    Stretch, i think it's more than coincidence that Netscape crashed after
    you'd registered, mine did too. What I then did was registered againb
    with a different name & password, it _should_ then prompt you to enter
    name/pasword ot enter the site - perhaps it weas trying to do this when
    it crashed.
    
    There is a lot of good stuff in there but a lot is missed out too,
    there's a review of the new Fall album for instance but for some of the
    other albums it refers you to the paper version.
     
    G.
    

    G. 
    I will give it another go on Friday. It crashed while I was in the
    site so it had accepted my username + password. I may just stick to
    paying the 85p each week as I have not got a whizzy, multimedia sound card
    PC, so audio clips etc. are of little use to me. Also the chat pages
    seem to already have a fair amount of drivel appearing!!
    
    
    			Stretch.

    I've got in and it looks impressive. Gorgeous colours.
    
    Goldy.

    I registered this morning, but going back to it now I get the 'Yikes,
    what did you do' message.  Did you guys re-register under a new
    username to get back in?
    
    mikef

    Mike, when you registered did it then ask you to enter Username/pasword
    to enter ? and if so did it work ?? 
    
    It seems as though it should do this when it accepts your entry, the
    first time I tried it didn't and that user/pass combi didn't workj when
    I tried later.
    
    G

    Yes - I entered my username, gave it my password (twice), and it let me
    go in.  Going back to it later, I got the 'yikes' message, and it wont
    let me re-register under my username.  
    
    mikef

    Using Netscape 1.1N (after having it crash several times) I thought I'd
    registered but didn't get the confirmation message.  Using Netscape
    2.01 has worked fine so far.  I think the site is a bit too fussy about
    which browsers are being used.
    
    tmp

    Looks like I will have to upgrade somehow then.
    
    cheers all
    
    mikef

    If you are using a PC, Microsoft have recently made the Internet
    Explorer version 3.0 available, that might help.  Try something like
    http://www.microsoft.com/ie
    
    tmp

    I'll have a hack, I'm just looking for netscape v2 at the mo, it must
    be out there somewhere...
    
    mikef

    Netscape 2 for what platform Mike ? I've got it running on an Alpha
    running Digital Unix, and we also have various flavours of Mosaic running
    on Alpha and Vax VMS. Oh, we've alos got Netscape on a few PC's and NT
    boxes. Let me know what the platform is and I'll give you an address to
    fpt or copy from.
    
    G. 

    Seems to work fine with X Mosaic (2.7b2A) - registered this morning,
    just got back in OK.
    
    Phil Gill.

My contact has been well and truly hassled about any shortcomings of this web 
site ("Oi!  Dickie!  It's crap!") but he denies all responsibility for the 
crap bits.  The NME's lawyers were expected today for our merciless 
slanerding.

Chris.