Hippocrene beginner's series with online audio

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neumanc
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Re: Hippocrene beginner's series with online audio

Postby neumanc » Sun Dec 24, 2017 11:17 pm

Many thanks, Daristani. Nice to hear from you.

I am sure now that it is only a software issue: The website still won't load if I use Google Chrome or the Samsung Browser on my phone. But with Opera, everything is fine.

Nonetheless, this convinced me instantaneously that most online resources will most probably be lost for future generations. Very sad, indeed.

Merry Christmas, Daristani.
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smallwhite
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Re: Hippocrene beginner's series with online audio

Postby smallwhite » Mon Oct 22, 2018 3:37 pm

More languages are now available with online audio.
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neumanc
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Re: Hippocrene beginner's series with online audio

Postby neumanc » Wed Nov 14, 2018 7:04 pm

smallwhite wrote:More languages are now available with online audio.
Hello smallwhite, I would like to know how you managed to download the audio. As I understand, the website http://www.hippocrenebooks.com does not use https. I tried different browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Opera, SRIron, Samsung, etc.), all of them tell me that the website is "not secure" and refuse to show me the content. Instead, they show me nothing or some other website with some promotional links. I managed to "view" the website only via Google Translate. But as soon as I want to download the audio folders, I get redirected to the other website with promotional links. Is there any browser that lets one visit "unsecure" websites? I really don't want this kind of "protection", at least not in this case. What do I have to do to be able to download the audio?
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eido
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Re: Hippocrene beginner's series with online audio

Postby eido » Wed Nov 14, 2018 9:37 pm

neumanc wrote:Is there any browser that lets one visit "unsecure" websites? I really don't want this kind of "protection", at least not in this case. What do I have to do to be able to download the audio?

I know everybody hates Internet Explorer, but I’ve been able to access sites with these issues using that browser sometimes. You might try that. It gives you a message and asks you if you want to view it differently, or “anyway” I believe. See if it works.
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neumanc
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Re: Hippocrene beginner's series with online audio

Postby neumanc » Wed Nov 14, 2018 10:05 pm

eido wrote:I know everybody hates Internet Explorer, but I’ve been able to access sites with these issues using that browser sometimes. You might try that. It gives you a message and asks you if you want to view it differently, or “anyway” I believe. See if it works.
Thank you for your idea, Eido. It's a good idea, too, but I forgot to mention that I already tried Microsoft Edge and Microsoft Internet Explorer. As you, I had the vague idea that at least the latter one would work. But unfortunately, it didn't. What is Hippocrene thinking? It's a shame. They should update their website immedately. I've never had any such problems with the homepage of any other serious publisher. I hope Hippocrene reads this.
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Re: Hippocrene beginner's series with online audio

Postby aravinda » Wed Nov 14, 2018 11:42 pm

I have had this problem with Hipoocrene website before. Somehow, I was able to access their audio downloads page a few minutes ago.
Edit: It seems now I can’t access it anymore. :(
Last edited by aravinda on Thu Nov 15, 2018 1:44 am, edited 2 times in total.
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iguanamon
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Re: Hippocrene beginner's series with online audio

Postby iguanamon » Thu Nov 15, 2018 12:05 am

I used Hippocrene's Beginner's Ladino along with the much more thorough and deep Manual of Judeo-Spanish by Marie Christine Varol. Even though the book is less than ideal as a course, it supplemented my main course well as it concentrated more on everyday conversation.

Yeah, audio going online means that once the copy goes out of business or drops support for old materials that the resource is effectively gone and that's a shame. Still, having physical copies of compact discs is no guarantee of long term durability either. Right now, I can't find one of my Ladino cd's. So at least I can legally download it online.

The product, language course "book with audio" format, is somewhat unique in publishing and pertains mostly to language courses and other course books. The old DLI, FSI and Cortina materials are up online now thanks to dedicated members of this forum and others who wanted to preserve the material for use by those who need and want it and for posterity.

How many people these days have a cassette player, record player or even a cd/dvd player in their possession? Everything goes obsolete as technology advances. When Blockbuster here closed several years ago, I took advantage of their going out of business sale to acquire several dvd's in Spanish and other languages. The plastic dust covers on the boxes have been and are being eaten by uv light, the tropical weather and time. I have disks that are no longer playable.

A friend of mine found a box of vinyl record albums from the 1960's and 70's with classic Caribbean Soca music, and they still sound great. I doubt if my cd and dvd collection will last that long. My mp3's, pdf's, epubs and text documents will no doubt face a similar fate as the years go on and technology changes. Ever heard of floppy discs, punch cards, game cartridges or tape drive?

Shelf life of cd's and dvd's is something the US Library of Congress has been investigating. Apparently, the discs vary widely by manufacturer, manufacturing processes and even identical discs can age quite differently from each other. The article is a good read for those who may be interested.

Here's a clip of Audrey Hepburn learning Portuguese with Linguaphone in Breakfast at Tiffany's. Ironically, she was learning Portuguese to go live in Brazil and it's Iberian Portuguese on the record player. Hmmm, maybe we should think about going back to vinyl!
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Re: Hippocrene beginner's series with online audio

Postby smallwhite » Thu Nov 15, 2018 12:34 am

neumanc wrote:
smallwhite wrote:More languages are now available with online audio.
Hello smallwhite, I would like to know how you managed to download the audio.

Hi. I haven’t tried to download anything. I only saw more audio listed.
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BalancingAct
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Re: Hippocrene beginner's series with online audio

Postby BalancingAct » Thu Nov 15, 2018 12:52 am

Audio download works at the moment, at least with the Opera browser.
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neumanc
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Re: Hippocrene beginner's series with online audio

Postby neumanc » Thu Nov 15, 2018 1:25 am

BalancingAct wrote:Audio download works at the moment, at least with the Opera browser.
Some time ago, this worked for me, too. But now, I just get a blank page as soon as I click on download. I think it's because I updated my Opera browser to the newest version. It's quite probable that you did not update. Isn't there a way to access the downloads even with an updated browser?
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