World Wire 5

3.5 out of 5 stars 3.5 (15 votes)

(June 20, 2008)

Windows 2000/Vista/XP / Shareware; $19.95 / 454 downloads

Word Wire is a small light weight ticker program that will display news feeds (RSS) scrolling unobstructively across the bottom of your screen.

  • Publisher

    mrpolitics

  • Homepage

    World Wire

  • Limitations

    Yes - 10 day timeout

  • Requirements

    .Net 3.5 Runtime

  • Uninstaller

    Yes

  • Latest Changes

    - Added: Notification when internet connection is lost, and auto-refresh when connection is reestablished

    - Added: Improved scrolling speed

    - Added: Improved Add/Remove feeds window. Now includes sample feeds for your convenience

    - Added: Improved stability! New Icons and more

Reviews of World Wire

  1. 3 out of 5 stars
    mrpolitics

    Reviewing RC2 (Oct 23, 2007)

    Thank you for your comments on the program and your criticisms. If you could tell me what exactly happened when it crashed I would be most appreciative.

    I myself give this one a 3, a new version will be out soon with some bug fixes.

  2. 5 out of 5 stars
    Diam0nd

    Reviewing RC2 (Oct 23, 2007)

    5 for the conception. ZERO for its realization: almost zero customization, crashes a lot on vista. BUT again, i think the concept is extremelly well-thought.

  3. 1 out of 5 stars
    Administraighter

    Reviewing RC1 (Aug 18, 2007)

    If you think this program is worth a 4 as it is now, then there can be no hope for it. What you are saying is that there is minimal room for improvement, which--as has already been pointed out--is far from the truth.

  4. 4 out of 5 stars
    mrpolitics

    Reviewing RC1 (Aug 8, 2007)

    The program is only the first release candidate. When I designed it I wanted it to be as minimalist as possible. You have pointed out some features that have already been put into the planning stages. I give this program a 4 myself.

  5. 1 out of 5 stars
    hell0

    Reviewing RC1 (Aug 3, 2007)

    It is completely nuts to give this program a rating of 5, and rave that it is "excellent". While it does work, sort of, it could really benefit from refinement.

    For example, the installer doesn't even create shortcuts. None. Anywhere.

    Also, there are no program options whatsoever. (I don't count adding/removing RSS feeds as "options".) The ticker is a huge white bar, and you can't configure how tall it is, where it is (top, bottom, or float), what color it is, or how fast it scrolls. You can't configure the font used (and the font used is a serif font that I'm not fond of).

    How often does World Wire update the RSS feeds it is pulling from? I have no idea, because there is no documentation, and you can't configure how often it checks for feed updates.

    I have World Wire configured with 8 feeds--Google News, and 7 from Yahoo! News. I keep seeing the same items over and over and over. Which leads me to wonder...

    How many news items does World Wire display from each feed? Again, I have no idea, because there is no documentation, and you can't configure how many items it displays from each feed.

    The "options" window (all it actually does is allow you to add/remove feeds--as I said, there are no real options) lacks buttons. To effect an "OK", you close the window. On my system, this takes several seconds (that is, the window remains open for that long before finally closing). This is annoying and unnecessary.

    There are parsing problems. For example, I've seen quotation marks display as "#39" rather than as quotes. I've also seen periods imbedded where they don't belong, for some odd reason.

    There is also no preview feature, like some others have, other than a small, nearly-useless tooltip.

    You can't grab the ticker with the mouse, to pull a headline you partially missed back into view.

    I mean really--just HOW MUCH does software have to suck in order for you to realize it? Does it have to display a message saying "I AM GOING TO FORMAT YOUR HARD DRIVE NOW", and then actually do it?

    I know it's not final software, but that is beside the point. The point is that it sucks as-is, and deserves such a rating.

    And, of course, it requires the Microsoft .NET Framework. I don't mind this too much, but some people do.

    All in all, like I said--yeah, it performs its basic function, at least partially, but it does so in a truly craptastic manner. If everyone gave software like this a 5 rating, they would do well to do away with the rating system altogether.

Discuss World Wire