It's not perfect, far from it, but it's at least working. You can find the project page for it here on my website, along with source and binaries, plus a help file here.

I'm currently working on something to download RealPlayer audio streams automagically at set intervals. I listen to a lot of the recorded programmes on the BBC website, especially those on Radio 1. Mainly it's because I'm not in to hear them live, but sometimes I like listening again to a show since it was that good, in particular Annie Mac's show's always worth a revisit.

So, once completed (another day or so I would imagine), you can provide to my program a list of the streams you want to download, when the show normally finishes (in the case of Annie Mac, that'd be 11pm) and the day that the show is on. Then, during some off-peak time period you define (Nildram caps my bandwidth outwith the hours of midnight to 8am), it will go off and download the new shows for you.

It's then a case of adding the .ra files it downloads to your Favourites in RealPlayer. Hey presto, no waiting time. What's even better is that if you've a laptop but no internet connection (or one you have to pay for often), you can download whenever you get a chance and then play back at your leisure. Like podcasting, but slightly larger and more obtuse.

With luck I'll have some more to say about that tomorrow. And with more luck I'll be able to push another couple of articles to my website, though that might be blue-sky thinking...