Many mp3 playing programs have an option to buffer playback so that the player can play from the buffer if the decompression routines are unable to keep up (due to system load, etc). I know for sure mpg123 does, not sure about kmp3. If you have playback problems AFTER setting up a buffer, then you can look at some of the more complicated problems that people have proposed. (always try the simple things first, eh?) When you enable a playback buffer, you shouldn't have to worry about atd, cron, etc... (as long as your buffer is big enough). =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- What the president of the Motion Picture Association of America says about taking away your constitutional rights: "I'm rather jubilant now. What Judge Kaplan did was blow away every one of these brittle and fragile rebuttals. He threw out fair use; he threw out reverse engineering; he threw out linking." - Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- ______ _ __ "If you don't have the freedom to use what you / ' ) ) own - then you do not own anything." / o ______ / / _ . . No apologies to Jack Valenti or the MPAA / <_/ / / < / (_</_(_/_ -- tneu at visi.com / http://www.visi.com/~tneu --