Tag Archives: podcasting

Keith and The Girl – Robots and Parental Units

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As I’m catching up on the Keith and the Girl show, I just finished Episode 81: Earning Daddy’s Approval and haven’t laughed this hard in a while.

In this episode, Keith reads articles about new robots coming on the market in Japan and proceeds to talk for a bit about his fear of robots taking over the world. It sounds like this is the first episode in which his organization H.U.A.R. (Humans Unite Against Robots) was officially named. He then talks quite honestly about how crazy his father is and recounts interactions between him, his brothers and their dad.

This was a funny episode. If you want to laugh your ass off on the way to work, check this episode out as a really good sample of what you get 5 days a week on the Keith and The Girl show.

Zdot Podcast : Why Subversion Rocks

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Surfing around this morning I found a podcast that talks about Subversion. I’m in agreement with all of the points he makes in this podcast. As anyone who reads this site somewhat regularly would know, I am a big Subversion fan since the early pre-release days. It was cool to listen to someone who gets as excited about this product as I do.

An outline of some of the things talked about:

  • Challenges encountered in using CVS with Java
  • Early Adoption – Version 0.18
  • The Subversion Teams’ Process Maturity
  • API and database format compatibility commitment
  • Compatibility between clients and server versions of software
  • Recommendation of the Pragmatic Version Control with Subversion
  • Quick description of TortoiseSVN
  • Subclipse Eclipse Plugin – discussion of features
  • Reasoning behind running Subversion on the Apache Webserver
  • Integration with Apache Authentication Modules (specific example was integration with ActiveDirectory)
  • ViewCVS – Repository Viewer
  • Tool set growing around Subversion

While this podcast focuses explicitly on the Subversion tool and ViewCVS module, there are a number of other tools that you can use in your environment to lower your cost and increase your productivity, such as CruiseControl.

In a recent study I performed on my development groups process improvement over the past 5 years, we found that we had cut the cost of managing our build and release process by approximately 92% by incorporating Subversion and related tools like CruiseControl, ViewCVS, and other custom software (and major process changes that accompany them) to integrate and automate our release management processes. This savings does not include the reduction in licensing costs that come with using Open Source Software in lieu of proprietary software. They are time and people costs only. Now, this has been our experience. Your individual mileage may vary.

If you’re looking for a new version control tool, this podcast could be a source of information that can help you in your decision.

Check it out.

Re-edit of the Original Podcast

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This morning, since I woke up extra early, I re-edited the first podcast I posted on July 10, to remove some dead air and some microphone pops.

I found that the setup I have works fine and that the room hum in the background was a vent around the area of Kelsi’s room where I recorded it. When I’m not right next to it, it doesn’t make that noise! I’ve also figured out how to use the Stereo-Mix option of Audacity to be able to record songs I play through an mp3 player and get them in the mix. All really cool stuff.

Now I just need something to talk about so that I be a part of the ‘podcasting club’…

Songs, Schmongs – Subscribe to Podcasts!

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So I spent the equivalent of about 3 or 4 days loading up my iPod with music from the CD collection. I listen to that for about a week and then discover these things called ‘podcasts’. The next thing I know, I’m not shuffling music anymore, or really even listening to it that much, but I’m downloading podcasts and listening to them instead. I’m getting addicted to one show in particular, called Keith and the Girl.

I’ve always been a big fan of ‘personality’ type of radio. I’ve been a Steve Dahl fan since my Uncle introduced me to Steve and Garry back in 1980 or so. I was a big Howard Stern fan for a while. As time went on, and the commercial breaks got longer (and longer, and longer) and the FCC started renewed efforts to censor what I could listen to, I began to get disenchanted with radio as a medium.

As Stern began talking about his move to Sirius Satellite Radio, I seriously considered getting it. Then I got this iPod and found that there were actually independent, ‘real’ people doing broadcasts that I could download and listen to.

This is the kind of stuff I like. I like to listen to regular people. I like the concentrated hour of content rather than the multiple commercial breaks. Most of all, I like having full control of what I can listen to rather than someone else picking and bleeping things for me.

Keith and the Girl are Keith Malley (comedian and webmaster of shite.com) and his girlfriend Chemda. They started their podcast in March of this year. I really enjoy it.

Those with iTunes 4.9 can subscribe to the ‘Keith and the Girl‘ show and get daily downloads as you update your podcasts lists.

As I get caught up on this show, I am also going to start hitting the top 10 on Podcast Alley to see what else is out there. If you’ve got an mp3 player, and you haven’t started checking podcasts out yet, give them a shot. You might never go back to regular radio.

Podcasting: Do It Yourself Guide

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Podcasting: Do It Yourself GuideOn Sunday before creating the podcast, I grabbed the book Podcasting: Do It Yourself Guide by Todd Cochrane. In it, he gives a pretty detailed view of what you need to do in order to get started creating your own podcasts.

In the book, he includes information on things like:

  • Getting Started
  • The RIAA and playing music in your podcast
  • Recording Software
  • Microphones
  • Advanced Studios (Mixers, Noise Gates / Compressors, Phone Patches)
  • Recording your podcast
  • Post Production (including noise reduction, something I consciously skipped in the first podcast)
  • Editing Techniques
  • Identifying a hosting provider to host your podcast
  • Figuring out what bandwidth you’ll need
  • Promotion
  • … and a lot more

I found the book really informative and an easy to read primer on what you needed to do in order to get started. My goal was to put together one podcast and see if I liked the process. It was a lot more fun than I had originally thought it would be and I think it was worth the time spent. This book pointed me to software like Audacity, that allowed me to do it for the cost of a cheap, $20.00 microphone.

Todd currently runs Geek News Central, a web site dedicated to”create a quality site for people of all ages and backgrounds”. I just downloaded the latest podcast from this site to see what he is all about.

Bottom line, I enjoyed the book and found it really useful. Pick it up if you are looking to see what is involved in podcasting. The book is perfect for beginners, but also has a lot of advanced information. As I learn more, I keep referring to the book to find answers to questions and, to my surprise, I’m finding the answers in this book. So this isn’t just a one read book. The more you learn, the more you’ll pick up using this book as a reference.

Beginning an Addiction to Podcasts

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Yesterday I hit the Acts of Volition episodes that seemed interesting to me, today I hit Adam Currys The Daily Source Code. I heard two promos for shows that sounded interesting on that and am downloading them for tomorrows drive.

For those who are new to this as I am, a good resource for finding podcasts (aside from iTunes), is Curry’s site iPodder.

I think I have my latest addiction … its definitely made the morning drive a little more interesting.

My Introduction to Podcasting

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With the 4.9 release of iTunes, support for podcasting was introduced. Now, I have to admit, I’m behind on all this new-fangled iPod stuff, so I wasn’t really sure what was involved in it at all. All I knew was from what I read, that it uses RSS feeds to organize and publish audio files. I didn’t realize how cool of a concept it was until I downloaded my first podcast and listened to it on the way to work. The first choice, of course, was from the Acts of Volition web site, since I’ve heard a lot of great things about the show on the Internet and read that it was actually available through the iTunes Store – and therefore was easy to get right into iTunes (which should be read “I didn’t have to think that much”).

Here’s what I can tell you. Now that I have my Transpod FM and can listen to the iPod in the car without completely cutting out the world around me, I may just stick to podcasts from now on.

There’s something really nice about listening to someone talk about and play music that they are really passionate about, without all of the corporate bull getting in the way (you know, the 20 minute commercial breaks, etc). I was really entertained by Session #21 – A Musical Baton. Great music, by a guy that just loves music and wants to talk about it and give others the opportunity to listen to it and appreciate it with him.

This is really what radio should be. When I was a kid (and much into my adult life) I wanted to do that as a career. Now I’m tired of radio, of 15-20 minute blocks of advertising, and especially the FCC, who treat the American public like a bunch of idiots who can be turned into raving maniacs if they see a cartoon ass on the television.

The iPod and technologies like it, combined with publishing possibilities on the Internet, have the potential to completely change the way we view radio, allowing people to create and share things they are passionate about rather than what will get ratings from the currently popular majority.

I think I’m hooked and apparently so are a lot of other people, as 1 million podcast subscriptions happened through iTunes in the first two days after the release.

This new fangled technology stuff is really cool …