how to control selecttouislider control programmatically?

Question

a question regarding the programmatic control of the SelectToUISlider: 'http://www.filamentgroup.com/lab/update_jquery_ui_slider_from_a_select_element_now_with_aria_support/'

I want to have a play/pause button control this specialized jquery slider widget.

normal use seems for the user to slide the control, but I'd like to provide both the possibility for the user to choose a point on the slider, or to have a script control a simple movement across the slider.

here's a not-yet-quite-working example: http://eoi.oecdco.de/progress.html

while manual sliding works (for the four first months), I cannot work out how to have play button move and update the slider.

any ideas?