Missing my PDA

I'm traveling around in Korea now and it's got me thinking about all the digital accessories I tote. Ever since my Clie died a few weeks ago, I've been trying to live more simply... with out a PDA. I bring around my PSP, my iPod, my IXY 400, and my Vodafone handset so that I can have:

1. a portable game console
2. a PVP
3. a mass storage device
4. a portable PDF viewer
5. an MP3 player
6. a digital wallet
7. a 4MP digital camera
8. a crude planner
9. a crude to-do list
10. a cell phone

But I miss having

1. an E-book reader
2. a real planner
3. a real to-do list
4. all my addresses
5. a portable document reader
6. a digital notepad

With the new Palm TX Hyun-joo bought me for Christmas I'll also have

1. WiFi
2. Bluetooth

Photo Mosaic Software

Click to view website
Hyun-joo came up with a great idea to incorporate a mosaic into our wedding invitation. I didn't do a lot of checking around, but this software seems pretty decent.

The plan is to use poraits of everyone we'd like to attend the wedding to create a mosaic of something... we don't know what that'll be yet. Think of it as a surprise.

Recording for the podcast

I know, I know. I just gotta get the thing finished and published. I've got a lot to do in the next few days before vacation... stuff for classes... stuff for korea... x-mas stuff... and ofcourse the podcast. I've been wasting my time trying to figure out how I'm going to conduct field recordings, like interviews. My damn R-1 keeps giving me the "Low Battery" warning and dies during recording, even when I have new batteries in the thing! I'm using the factory supplied memory card and I don't want to go out to by yet another card just to find out that my R-1 doesn't work. What a pain in the ass. I paid over $300 for the R-1 and it's been unreliable at best! Don't buy one. The unit is made of flimsy plastic and the control knob pops off entirely. Don't buy one!

Damn I hate Education

Maybe more accurately, I hate the administrative end of Education. I'm trying to teach a CALL course here at KTC using Macromedia Flash in my Fifth Year Computers and English class. This past year I've been trying to teach them how to use Flash in different langauges. The students are all using Japanese versions of Flash MX and I'm using the English version of MX 2004. I end up having to teach the Ss on an individual basis, because I can't even make handouts for them since the screen captures look entirely different than their own screens. This sucks!

Worse yet, I don't know how to turn this situation and these complaints into a constructive alternative where I can work the system to my students' benefit. Damned if I'm not an idealist.

Pix from keitai to computer

I just got a prepaid Vodafone handset by Sharp and I've realized that I don't have a way to get my pictures off it anymore! I used to use the infrared port and send them to my Clie, but since my Clie died... I've lost the ability to get my pictures. I can't even email them since I haven't sucessfully been able to send an email. This blows. I have an infrared port on my laptop and on my portable printer, but I can't use them to access my pix. Waah.

PAL DVD to PSP

I've been having a hell of a time getting VOB's to PSP format. I was spending a lot of time trying to just get the image size ratio correct. I knew I'd have to scale the movie to 320x? and was having trouble with the vertical settings. Most of my converted movies ended up looking stretched. I remembered that QuickTimePro allows you to reset the movie size and resave the movie. Looks like it worked. At least on my Mac. I'll have to upload the video to my PSP to see if it really worked. I'll have to upload the movie manually since PSPWare doesn't recognize FFMpegX converted movies. No big deal. I think it has something to do with the lack of a THM file. I just hope that my conversion and resizing efforts finally worked. I've converted Elektra like four times now.

Death of a PDA

I bought my Sony Clie PEG-NX70V/U a long time ago now. It must have been about five or six years ago now. I paid over $500 for it and for a long time I felt like it was an overly expensive purchase.

With time I began to love the basic features, using them the most often. I was lured to the multi-media version, but found myself only using the voice recording feature for my podcasts. I don't need a camera, video, etc. in a PDA. I still prefer a dedicated digital camera, my PSP for video and pictures, and my iPod for music and for use as a digital wallet. But I really used the PDA for reading eBooks, PDF versions of mainly text HTML files, my world clock, storing passwords and other secure information, and keeping notes during meetings. I liked the folding screen since it would keep the PDA at a comfortable distance while lying down and reading. So ergonomically and functionally, I grew to accept the Clie as a part of my daily life.

Now, living in Japan, it's difficult to just run out and buy a new one. I'm considering making a move to live without one and slim down my digital quiver.

• planner, to do list -> on my new cell phone
• phone book -> essentials on my cell phone, the rest on my laptop at home
• emergency on-the-go storage -> PSP
• world clock -> my brain (oh no!)
• voice recorder -> Edirol R-1 (often buggy and it's bulky)
• eBook reader -> ???

The last one is a major issue. I can't figure out how to convert my secure eBooks into a text format for reading on my PSP. I wish Sony would allow folks the leeway of hacks or legitimate 3rd party software for the PSP platform. They're so f*ckin tight-assed. I could boycott them on that issue alone. But that doesn't solve my problem. Back to the internet...

Downloads to SVCD

Well, I've been having fun with ffmpegx. It's a very powerful program with rather cryptic interface that converts tons of different video format into other ones.

Recently, I've figured out how to convert downloaded movies into SVCD which is more convenient for watching, cuz we can just pop it into the TV. The big titles I like to keep in DVD format for the big screen, but there's lot of "secondary" movies that I can easily be happy with at SVCD quality. They look fine on the TV.

I learned that I have to becareful about making sure the source file is on the system hard drive and not one of my larger capacity, storage drives. I also haven't been able to sucessfully convert a PAL DVD into a format that I can use on the PSP. I ripped the DVD into a VOB and then used ffmpegx to convert it into a PSP compatible format. It worked great, but the aspect ratio was screwed up. I'll definitely try again.

Belated PSP Review

The PSP has been getting a lot of attention and for good reasons. However some of those reasons are positive, others negative.

Some points that are missing from a lot of the reviews I've read are:
- I hate the layout of the controls, namely the analog disk. A majority of the games and applications use the analog control and it's too low for either extended periods or when using in any other position than when seated (i.e. laying down).

- The screen is way too glossy! It's impossible the screen images clearly when you have any natural lighting.

- The WiFi is a pain in the ass. I haven't been able to access any wireless hotspots here in Japan.

No Photos on the PSP

I'm unable to view pictures on my PSP now. No more slideshows, sharing pictures, or viewing JPG exports from PDF files - no reading my magazines!

What's happening is that I can view the first ten or so pictures from an album or from the main Photo directory, but after that the PSP just crashes. All the photos are either baseline or progressive JPG files, come either from my digital camera or from a photo editor (iPhoto or Fireworks MX), are under 100KB in size and have been added to the PSP either manually using a Mac or via synching through PSPWare.

This all began to happen soon after I installed the v2.50 upgrade from Sony. Big problem is that I can't downgrade to v2.00 according to the tech support from Sony. I was asked but discounted the possibility of physical damage to the unit.

The Sony support guys asked me to format the MS in the PSP, then reset the defaults, then re-format the MS. I was able to view a bunch of iPhoto thumbnail files alright, but still haven't been able to view more than 10 "regular" images on the PSP without a crash.

I'm either going to have to wait for the next system upgrade, switch to my Palm for all my document reading, or experiement by using a PC to transfer the files over to my PSP.

I'm pretty pissed off right now.

Video iPod

We all new it was coming...
What an impressive peice of hardware. It's definitely slimmer than I expected, but it features a much smaller screen than I was hoping for. It would be a great up-grade. I could get rid of my old iPod and watch more movies on my new one... but the screen of my PSP is so much bigger for watching movies.
+ slimmer
+ larger capacity
+ cool color (black)
+ click wheel (vs. my Gen3 model)
+ remote control via dock
+ nice screen
- small screen
- would have to sell my old iPod

This is a nice walk-through of using MacTheRipper and Handbrake to convert DVD's into a format that can be viewed on the new video iPod.
Ripping movies to the iPod

What surprises me is the amount of anti-iPod sentiment there is out there. What's up? If you don't like it, shaddup! and buy whatever peice of crap you'd rather be lugging around. What's the matter, hate to be reminded how awesome Apple is compared to that crappy WinBox company you keep buying from? Whatever.

Hanashi Station Show

Is there going to be a show that I have to submit by October 7th?? Yikes!

Photo uploads using Blogger

Looks like Blogger is offering free uploads for pictures if you're using a Win box. Talk about easy! You don't have to upload pictures into Flikr (for example) first. I just saved the picture on the desktop and then hit the upload button!

Projecting the PSP onto a TV

I've been looking for a way to show PowerPoint presentations in class without lugging around my laptop. I could finally do full movies with transitions and such with this little gadget! (It's still bigger than I had hoped, but I'm not complaining.)

Portable Video Players

I watch a lot of movies. Usually, Hyun-joo and I roll out my Epson projector and kick back for some room-filling entertainment. During the past year or so I began to get interested in PVP's. Archos first turned my head with their line up, making me absolutely drool over the AV400 series.

The pricing was expensive, but ultimately I just couldn't answer the big question whether or not I really need a PVP (or how cool I would thing one was if I were to own one).

Then last month I bought a PSP for the intent of having somthing to play videogames with during my downtime. I saw some of my students playing with them and the PSP did look sexy. I'm less interested in playing games on it now than I am watching videos! And I have some good games (at least for my style of gaming): Twisted Metal, Metal Gear Ac!d, and Untold Legends. I bought "Appleseed" on UMD for a long flight, just to check out the quality. As impressed as I was, I still think it is silly to pay so much for somthing you can buy on DVD.

To be fair, you should guage the cost of the UMD, with the cost of a DVD, the time it takes to rip and encode the movie, the process of saving it to a MS as opposed to having a UMD to "throw" into the PSP at any time for viewing, and the quality of your ripped movies vs. that of the UMD. I guess in some cases, it might be a close call. Living abroad, that decision easily gets flipped into the "rip the DVD and encode it yourself" category. You choose.

Reading through the April 2005 edition of MacAddict I came over a product by Nyko that I had forgotten about. The "MoviePlayer" converts my 3G 40GB iPod into a media player. I haven't read any reviews about it yet, but I'm very interested in using my iPod as a PVP.

If you like movies and you're a gearhead... you'll probably never regret having a good PVP. You'll be amazed how you can fill up "small time" with some video entertainment of your own choosing. I just hope I don't lose my fiance now.

I'm not going to throw down any more cash for a different PVP now that I have a PSP, but I'm not totally satisfied yet. I'm not really happy with the line up of games for the PSP. The memory cards and extra batteries are outrageously priced. The encoding software for DVD to PSP has a long way to go. And I'm not happy that Sony limits the quality level for MS playback. Come on guys! Who knows what's the future of the PSP will be? It's not even a year old yet. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

PSP Batteries

I'm looking into purchasing another battery for the PSP for my trip back to Japan. Right now there seems to be two products available. Both of which are pretty expensive. I don't want to get an external option, like the Nyko Charger Case, since it's just too much - especially since the thing will eventually wear out as well.

PSP encoding

I picked up a PSP when I was in Hawaii and it's been kick ass! I've got three games and one movie: Untold Legends, Metal Gear Ac!d, Twisted Metal, and Appleseed. I've synched some photos using PSPWare and have even begun encoding movies to playback from a 1GB MSDuo. It would be great if someone could design a slim HD that used the MSProDuo interface so that we could really store a lot of stuff for our PSP's. It's a great little platform with a lot of potential.

I have some stuff to figure out about PSPWare: I'd like to know what's up with the QT encoding toggle for starters. It's a pretty slick interface and I don't have any complaints so far. I've been burning the PSP format movies to take home. Right now, I don't think I can take more than 2 movies with me on the go with just one 1GB card. The 2GB cards are over $300 freaking bucks right now! Ouch.

I found this post from the psp411.com forum:

There are many ways to get DVD -> PSP, as you pointed out. My preferred method, which you didn't mention above, is using ffmpegX. The PSPWare developers recommend HandBrake though. Personally, I haven't had and success with HandBrake at all.

This is how I do it.:

1) Use MacTheRipper to create a single VOB, click on MODE, then choose 'Title Only Extraction' (and choose the Main Feature, marked with MF) or to select a specific chapter to rip, use the 'Title - Chapter Selection' option.

At this point, you can drop the VOB file directly into PSPWare, however, you may end up with a movie that has the wrong soundtrack, or plays the commentary track etc. I would recommend using a single chapter extraction to test first. I rarely actually do this, preferring to proceed to step 2...

2) run ffmpegX, and drag the VOB file into the FROM field. At this point there are two paths to take...

2a) You can choose the PSP preset in the TO side of the window, and pretty much just click encode from here. This gives a very small file size. And the file can simply be added to the drop box in PSPWare, or can be copied to the correct directory structure under ~/Documents/PSPWare, and it will appear in the movie list when you next refresh the movie page in PSPWare.

OR

2b) (the option I usually take), leave the TO side as default. The advantage to doing this is that you can change various streams if need to, and you can also choose subtitles if you want them, such as when converting Anime titles. Click on the AUDIO tab. Here you can change the Audio Track, and you can also up the Audio Gain. I tend to set it to +9. Next click on the FILTERS tab. Here you can choose to add subtitles (tick the VOB Subtitles checkbox), and you can choose the subtitle stream in the next drop down. To ensure you have what you want, use the preview in the bottom right hand side of the window, this lets you preview anywhere in the movie. Now just hit Encode and wait.

3) Once the AVI file has been created, just drag that to PSPWarem and it'll output the PSP-ready file, with the correct audio & subtitle streams.

Before I leave...

Last minute projects

• publish fuji podcast
• edit audio clips for hanashi station
• make portable audio into's/outro's for podcast
• prepare stuff to burn DVD backups for Dad (and Lee)

Chillin' on the Podcast

Gotta get out at least one more show: the Fuji Downhill of 2005.

I wonder if I should try to publish a couple shows during the summer. It would be a kind of Kanaz@wee! on the road... like the podcast from Korea. Maybe I should make use of the Audioblog.com services I've already paid for this year. It sure does make recording shows a lot easier when I can just do it all from the computer. I can't add externally recorded material that easily, but I might be able to come up with a solution there using patch cables. Geesh another project. It's easy to come up with a show, it's easy to record and edit it... it's hard to be consistent.

4th & 5th Year Computer Classes

You can find links to my students' blogs from these two sites!
They've just begun them, so I hope to have them publish much more stuff as the year goes on!

• 4th Year Computer Class
• 5th Year Computer Class

Video in the Classroom

I'm trying to pull some ideas together about what to do with my 4th and 5th year computer classes. Right now, we're tackling PowerPoint, blogs, and Flash projects, but I'm trying to work the curriculum towards multimedia projects. I want to get the hardware to incorporate video and sound files into their work easily. I'd like to see the kids directing their own projects and really provide them with the resouces necessary to take off wtih their ideas. I'll have to check whether I can serve files from my computer on the network and by doing so make stuff available for the web. We'll need quick access to pictures, movies, and audio clips for our projects.

Workin' the Link Field

I was looking around at my students' blogs and saw that some of them had the "Link" field under their "Title" fields when creating new posts. I don't know why I didn't activate this feature earlier, but no big deal. This is the beauty of working online... things are easy to upgrade, relatively speaking.

Now, I really would like to add links to "Recent Comments" and "Most Frequently Commented". A few blogs have them and I have yet to figure out how folks add this functionality.

New chicklet

I figured since the podcast has been raking in over 40 subscribers I could finally add a counter that automatically updates that number. It seems a little self-promoting, but what the heck... I am trying to get the word out there.

Now, I wish I could figure a way to avoid the border around pictures in my posts. The "border=0" variable doesn't seem to remove the light border around images in my blogs. Oh, well.

Multimedia Video Projector

I found out a way to use my Canon S400 as a rudimentary video projector in conjunction with a TV.

1. Mount camera to an UltraPod II tripod so that camera faces directly downwards
2. Plug AV cable into camera and connection to the yellow video-in on the TV
3. Set camera to macro mode
4. Turn off the Auto Power-down mode
5. Switch display mode to off
6. Push shutter release half-way to focus camera on the surface of your materials
7. Begin your presentation!

This set up should work for any digital camera with a tripod mount, video out capabilities and a macro mode. It'd be hard to find a decent camera today that didn't have these three featues. Good luck!

After a long break...

I've published the latest podcast, show 11. It lacked the umpf of some of the previous shows. I was just happy to get one out there again, before everyone unsubscribed from my feed. I've been seeing more traffic, about a solid 30+ subscribers and almost a couple hundred hits a day. I had needed a break from things for the past couple of weeks for personal reasons. It's good to be back again. This project gives me something to shoot for, but ultimately I'm doing it for myself and if I don't want to do a show, I don't have to answer to anyone. It's nice to have a project with relatively low responsibilities.

On a technical note, I ran into some problems recording in the field. I would do a string of recordings and lose a few key segments. I would first get a clip with out sound, then the next clip would just be a string of pops and static, and then the remaining clips would be zero bytes. I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong in the field or if the unit isn't working properly. I did have a problem with the dial popping off in the basket. I'd better not lose it!

Daily Zieter-something-ma-whozit

I don't know how to say it, but... it's freaking cool! Now, folks can check out every single photo I post using my flickr.com account from almost anywhere! Check out the sidebar (since I can't add it as part of this post).

KTC Students up and running with their blogs

I had the guys begin their blogs today at the end of the class.
Here's the line up:
Akira, Masaya, Masashi, Tomoya, Kazuhiro, Masaki, Kazuya, Kentaroh, Ryoya

Macromedia Captivate

Oh, this software rocks! I just began using it to create simulations of software on the WinXP platform (ugh) and Captivate kicks ass! It is easy to record with and features powerful editing tools. You can change mouse movements and change or add captions to clarify actions within the software. It takes a while to make a tutorial, perhaps 2-3 times than it is to make the original document, but holy crap this software is great. Easy to learn and it makes really portable movie files when you're ready to publish! I highly recommend it.

Test: Post Shutterfly Pix

This is a test to see if it is possible to post pix from my Shutterfly account to my blog. Looks like it works. Here's how I did it:

1. Login to Shutterfly
2. Select the Album and picture you want to post
3. Right-click "Open Image to New Tab"
4. Copy URL and paste using HTML into desired post

Outback with Kanaz@wee!

Looks like I'm going camping this week with friends. I won't be able to record the show in my "studio" as usual. Looks like we're gonna have another show "on the road". I'd be fun to plan the show like usual but have all the features as "outdoors spin-offs" from their usual content. We'll see...

Adding a Flash MP3 Player

Now, I'm trying to look into ways of putting a web-based Flash MP3 player onto the Kanaz@wee! Podcast. I found this website that offers something to download for free:
XSPF Web Music Player Download
XSPF Web Music Player Help File
I'm hoping that blogger.com might have some suggestions as well.

Here's a cool tutorial on how to design your own Flash-based MP3 player.

Migrating the Podcast from Audioblog.com to Archive.org

I followed a tutorial how to use the free hosting services at archive.org and so far it's worked as "advertised". The only media file I uploaded that didn't pass the "screening" process on their servers or with their curators was a QTVR of Seoul Palace. Not a big deal. The one big caveat about using archive.org is that I have no idea how many times the files are actually listened to or downloaded, but audioblog.com stripped most of their hosting statistics from the admin pages in the last few weeks... so no big loss there. The big question is whether or not I'll be able to easily upload the next podcast. I'm also going to look for a flash based web player that can play my podcasts directly from the site.

Cool Flash-based Drawing Site

Check out this site to make online drawing. You can change the line thickness, color, paper pattern, etc. It's wicked cool!

Audioblog.com Problems

I'm too tired to even complain. I can't get my 8th show to download properly. It uploads fine, plays fine through audioblog.com, but the file fragements or something when downloading. I've made three different audio fliles and neither of them worked. I've been doing this all day. I think I'm finally going to cancel my audioblog.com account and try this "creative commons license" through archive.com or just get a professional host to hold my audio. What a pain in the ass.

Flickr.com Service Up and Running

I signed up for a flickr account the other day and I've been playing around with its features. I've found the web interface extensive with regards to features, but a bit primative - almost confusing - with regards to it's easy of use. It posts to my blogs accurately and dependably. You can find an example here.

I initally like how they've taken into account Mac users with a downloadable "uploading application", plus there's an iPhoto plug-in that's available as well. The slideshow feature looks great. You can publish slideshows for friends and family based on editable sets you can great from their website. There are lots of other photo editing and management tools available as well, but I haven't fooled around with them yet. Looks like they've done a decent job putting together a great service.

New Canon camera

While I was at Hyakuman-Volt I checked out one of Canon's new digital cameras, the PowerShot SD500/IXY600. This thing looks like it's gonna rock! First off, I like to travel light and take pictures and video. I'm often headed off to remote areas around Asia to go SCUBA diving. I've been using an IXY400 with an underwater housing to take decent underwater shots and videos. I had a fantastic experience with my Canon in Thailand last year. In my opinion, there isn't anyother option for a decent camera for amature travel/underwater photographers.

The Canon PowerShots take excellent quality pictures; the video is shot in an (easily) editable .avi format; Canon makes affordable underwater housings for many of their cameras; and they are durable and reliable.

I was really excited about this new camera since it can take VGA video at 30fps. They make a real underwater housing for the SD500 and not just a snorkeling model. (I think Canon uses blue plastic on their SCUBA models and orange plastic on their snorkeling ones.) My underwater videos will be so much better.

I'm not going to rush out to pick one up just yet. I'm waiting for the high speed 2GB SD cards to come out. Lots of cheaper, lower capacity cards don't do anyone any good 30 meters down. I empty my memory cards after each dive right now to make room for later dives. I store them on my iPod using a Belkin Media Reader. Hopefully I won't have to wait for them too long. It would be great to try out a new camera for my trip this summer to Hawaii and Vermont.

A brand new Edirol R-1

200504061740.jpg, originally uploaded by Pod_caster.

I just picked up my R-1 from Hyakuman-Volt, three weeks early so I'm psyched! But there were two things that didn't impress me right from the get-go.

(1) The control knob popped off almost the second I handled the R-1. It seems to be designed to do that. There didn't seem to be any glue bonds that were broken nor was there any kind of clasp or rivet holding it in place. I just hope I don't loose it.

(2) The carrying back is lame. It is a zippered foam sack that doesn't do more than protect it. I'm disappointed by the bare minimum choice there, especially for the price of the unit.

But it's what's inside that really counts and so far, I'm impressed. My funky ECM-TL1 earphone mic didn't work at first, but I changed the mic setting to "CND" which I assume means condenser and it records very well. I only wish the R-1 displays bars for monitoring the levels without having to use headphones. Since this thing is designed to be so adjustable, I'm surprised that it lacks this feature. At least from what I can tell from playing with it for about an hour or so. My manual is in Japanese too, so perhaps there are things that I'm missing. Now I just need to field test the device to see how well it really works. Overall I'm satisfied.

Videoblogging?

I've found a way to post pictures to my blog using flickr.com. I can post audio for my podcasts using my audioblog.com account. Now I would like an easier way to post videos to my blog.

Q:What services are there to post videos?
I can use my audioblog.com account, but that wouldn't be a good idea with my students. I need something that would allow my students to take their video from their cellphones and email them to a server where it could be posted automatically to a blog.

Osaka Castle

200411211525.jpg
Originally uploaded by Pod_caster.

This post is to test flickr.com services. This picture was taken using my FOMA Cellphone and then mobloged using email.

Digital Video on WindowsXP

I have been using Windows Movie Maker now for the past few months and have found it to be an easy and well designed application for basic video editing. It's perfect for educators since there are just enough features for almost any project. It's no iMovie, but I'm happy to have it here at work.

Video upload test

This is just a little test of Audioblog.com's video blogging service

Bittorrent bytes the phone

I've discovered over the past couple of days that when I'm running Bittorrent, the sound quality diminishes when talking on the phone. I'm not surprised actually. Running Bittorrent here on my G4 doesn't seem to interfere with the bandwidth elsewhere on the network. I can talk with Hyun-joo using Yahoo! Messenger's webcam and voice chatting without much loss in the signal.

Old-school Radio

I was searching around from some images and here are a few good ones I found:
Radio Broadcast: Hour of Prayer
Dick Whittinghill
1920's Radio Broadcasting
Jean Shepherd, K2ORS
Janet Flanner
New Zealand Broadcasting Service announcer Mr. Ensor

Recording Phone Conversations

I've been trying to record phone calls so that I can expand my interviewing options for my podcast. I had this odd Sony microphone that fits in your ear, but I think I broke it. It's not generating a signal anymore which majorly sucks. The last time I used it was with Casey.

I've tried to record Skype using Audio Hijack Pro and Soundflower, but I'm not getting decent quality sound through the system and there is a 3-4 second latency. I guess I'm going to have to research hardware options when I get back to the States. There's always something... but on the other hand I can edit, encode, publish, and update my feed without any problems now.

I'm going to have to think about my content more. I'm relying on setting up interviews with people and I'm not getting any good material that way. I'll have to consider using conersations that were candidly recorded. What kind of ethics are involved with using candid conversations? People take candid photos of others... I'll have to think about that one.

Podcasting article on CNN

My friend, Bruce, just forwarded this article to me that gives a nice explaination of podcasting by Adam Curry himself.

Tuning in to new radio trend
Thursday, March 31, 2005 Posted: 1724 GMT (0124 HKT)

Podcasting allows owners of MP3 players to have their own radio station -- all they need is a microphone.
LONDON, England (CNN) -- Apple's iPods and other portable MP3 players may not be radios, but that does not mean you cannot listen to radio broadcasts on them.

Podcasting Microphones

Now that I have a new recorder on the way, I'm thinking about my microphone set up. Currently I'm using a few different options and have a number options at my disposal. In order of frequency:

1. built-in mic on my Clie PEG-NX70V/U


2. Audio-Technica ATR55 Telemike


3. Sony in-ear phone mic


4. Samson Airline Micro Wireless Lavalier Mic


5. Radioshack Lavalier Mic

I was thinking that if I use a Y-splitter I can use two mics at once for recording sessions. But which mic's should I use? Should I use lav mics on my guests since those mics are inobtrusive and then the shotgun mic for myself? I need something that will capture everyone talking, but still isolate the sound and keep the quality as high as possible. How will the quality suffer if I have three or four mics attached through two to three Y-splitters? I suppose I should use a 4-channel mixer and pipe the feeds into the R-1 directly. It would give me more control over individual mics. I wonder what kind of portable mixers they use? Perhaps I should have just bought the R-4. Damn. What to do? Well, since the R-4 weighs in at $1600, I don't think that'll be the way I'm going to go. I guess I'll make the R-1 work. I'm sounding spoiled now.

Edirol R-1

I wrote Edirol about their R-1 since I was considering getting one to record my podcast on. I was attracted to its functions and that it was mobile yet flexible. I wanted the option to monitor what was being recorded and I got this email back in response:

Hi there,
The R-1 has a monitor function in the main menu, where you can turn select whether you want to be able to hear what's being recorded, or not.
Kind Regards,
Chris Douglass

So, I went over to Hyakuman Volt and picked up one for just under 40,000 yen - a much better price than I could get in the States. I just hope it works as advertised and well enough for my purposes of recording conversations, interviews, and phone calls using a special phone mic.

.cue and .bin files

I just found out what these file types were. I thought I could use Stuffit Expander to open a .bin file thinking it was a MacBinary file type. I was so frustrated I nearly deleted the files when I found a post that said that they were PC files that could be burned (in conjunction) using Toast Platinum. I opened the files using Toast 6 and they burned like a dream. My next problem was that the files were for the PC and not Mac versions... duh.

Quest to add a search field to a blog

I've been looking to find a way to add a search option for this blog. I'm still looking to find a way to do this but in the process I found some interesting information on searching blogs in general using Google.

Blogging technology out the window!

I am just beginning to realize how big blog technology has become. There are blogs updated by email, audio blogs, blogs updated through the phone, video blogs posted online using Flash and a webcamera, and even blogs that can post video you take on your cellphone camera! Damn.

Virtual PC 7.0

I just downloaded VPC7 using BitTorrent and think I messed up my current arrangement. VPC in general is such a pain in the ass. I wasn't sure whether or not v.7 took into account that i already had a disk image from v.5. Oh well, it froze and I just force quit the app. It was saying something stupid like it couldn't verify that version of windows I was running (which I was using just fine previous to that) and something about certain plugins were obsolete. What a pain in the ass.

But on the good side, I installed Toast6 with out much problems. I wish I could use SpinDoctor 2 as well, but looks like it needs something else included in the original installation.

Audacity to produce Podcasts

I think I finally settled on using Audacity to master my podcasts. Most importanly I need Audacity to export my final mp3 to audioblog.com. Using Audacity, I can produce my full length show, encode it and upload that file to audioblog.com for publishing. Audioblog.com still strips some of my ID3 tags and changes the name of the file to some undecipherable string of characters, but I'll live with that for the time being.

Audacity let's me import a large variety of audio file types and edit them while keeping a very low overhead. My last show was over 16 min long and the whole project weighs in at less than 150 MB where my other projects were topping 350 MB's! I still have to work out track management. I had a problem where I forgot to add a musical intro and i had to subsequently adjust the play positionings of each track all over again. It took too much time! I wish I could shift click and move a group of clips together. Oh well, for a free program, I can't complain.

Bittorrent Blues

I can't up or download files using the Mac BitTorrent client! Ugh. The files are frozen on "connecting to peers". Even though there are seeders providing data, nothing is happening. Any ideas?

Audioblog.com's new Podcasting feature

I forgot to mention that audioblog.com has a new feature for their members. It allows folks to create Podcasts without having to create and maintain a separate blog, from what I can tell. I'm not going to abandon my Kanaz@wee! Podcast site, but it is a very cool idea to help streamline the process. I'm sure it's the future of things to come. There are just too many steps right now and it's all pretty challenging to maintain. Pretty soon there will be dozens of providers for folks looking to get their own podcasts up and running. I'll probably experiment with it this weekend, ya know... outta curiosity.

Back home from on the road in Korea

I have to admit, getting a remote show out using audioblog.com's online Flash recording feature was quite painless. It'll be a real asset when I'm in Hawaii and on the Mainland this summer. I'll have to try a work around to get some intro music added, but I'm not gonna sweat it. I was thinking about feeding a line-in mix or even using audioblog.com's playlist feature. I'll think about it, but if nothing else, I'll be happy just to get out a quality show while "on the road".

The next step will be to try out recording Skype stuff using Audio Hijack. I haven't been too impressed with Hijack Pro, but we'll see how it goes when I'm online with Hyun-joo.

I'm sure there's other stuff I was thinking of adding, but playing Starcraft for the past couple of hours has worn me out. I just got it while in Korea. It's pretty sweet. A different twist to the Warcraft series. It was a blast to watch it on Korean cable.

The Kanaz@wee! Podcast feed is updated and running!

Apparently I have to keep the Kanaz@wee! site set to publish full descriptions, even though I loose descriptions for older shows. I'd rather have the show available through aggregators and online rather than looking good on the XML page. What a pain in the ass to figure all of this out. I think I have a handle on things now.

Audioblog.com - used for uploading and publishing (Audacity encoded) mp3's (@32kbps mono, max is about 45 min) and tracking direct download stats
Blogger.com - handles the shows, provides a site feed, and accepts comments from listeners
Feedburner.com - burns the site feed into XML for aggregators and tracks subscriber stats
Feedvalidator.org - checks the XML for integrity
Ping-o-matic - automatically pings Feedburner.com when a new show or updates to shows have been made.

Now I can record shows over 30 min long, post shows from on the road, have the mp3's available for download, and burn XML for subscriptions. The only fees are for Audioblog.com ($50/year). If I can only keep this all going consistently for the next month, I'll be happy.

Added "Podcasing Explained"

Well, I just spent the better half of the afternoon and evening changing my Kanaz@wee! Podcast blog and added a layperson's explanation of podcasting to the sidebar. Hopefully that will help break the ice for new podcasters, well for those who want to subscribe to podcasts. Ugh... I need to rest my eyes!

Expanding .rar files on MacOSX

Check out this software from Pescados.
I had a hard time figuring out which file I should drag to the "MacHacha" alias... but i think it's working. I tried opening files using the app's file menu... I don't recommend it. Draggin the file to the app or alias seems to be the way to go.

Audioblog up and running?

Well I gave Audacity a run and it worked fine once I downloaded the LAMELib to encode mp3's.
Before I forget: to get a stereo file converted into a mono file, you have to split the stereo channels into two tracks, then select one of the tracks and convert it to mono, then delete the remaining track. I exported the 22.5 min mp3 using 32kbps after I created the ID3 tags for the file.
Uploading to Audioblog.com was a synch. Feedvalidator.org said the RSS was good. I still can't download the new show using iPodderX yet. I don't know what that happens. Perhaps tomorrow it'll download. I pinged Feedburner, so that wasn't the problem. Maybe I have to wait until Feedburner creates a web-friendly XML version of the burned feed before agreggators can pull the file. I don't know!

Use a grid to plan your designs!

Good for Flash or PowerPoint! Using a Grid

I think I can use this in my class. Perhaps have the Ss use a grid background during the drafting phase to be replaced with another background when they're finished.

PowerPoint Tips

Here's a great site that Doreen found!

Audioblog.com Byte Me!

I went through the pain-in-the-ass routine of re-doing the show down to 10 minutes, cutting half my material and then...
What the fu*k? I keep getting these messages when I try to upload files...
Oops!A system error has occurred. Unable to convert your file to the proper format (code REQ).

First I can't upload encoded files below 64kbps... no I can't even up load 128kpbs files?
If they're going to terminate my account, then why not tell me about it and refund me? Why aren't they returning my emails? These guys suck.

This is a test

this is a test
Test MP3
Well now I know I can pay space for a traditional web host and then link my mp3 files using good ol' HTML.

Show 4 Split File Encode

Custom setting in iTunes
64kbps Mono (select 128kbps)
11.025khz Mono
optimized for Velocity Engine

Upload both audio files to Audioblog.com
Create playlist...
doesn't make MP3 file available for download
can iPodderX download the playlist?

Down with Audioblog.com!

I'm having serious issues with Audioblog.com's services.

I can't upload my 4th show in one file since it's bigger than 10MB. Even when I manually encode it at 32kbps to get it under the 10MB file size... they use some shitty encoder that junks the file!

I can't publish two or three MP3 each time I have a longer than 20min show! This bytes!

Sunday Production

I think I've pretty much settled on producing the Kanaz@wee! Podcast once a week, every Sunday. That way I can work when I'm fresh, I have a whole week to put the show together and folks can have a new show to listen to at the beginning of the week. I'm still not sure what I'm going to do when I'm abroad, well back home in the states. I guess I'll just use audioblog.com and phone in the shows. It'll keep me on my toes while I'm away.

Interviews

I was awakened an hour before I normally wake up with an idea to hit the streets and ask, "Who are the people in your neighborhood, in your neighborhood..." It would be a chance to use my Japanese, perhaps even motivate myself to learn more Japanese, and of course find interesting material for the podcast.

I really do my most creative stuff in the morning. I think I should begin doing my podcast Sunday mornings to post later that day. I'll probably be pulling back to one show a week.

iMic and a New Portable Recording Setup

I found out a way to use my Griffin iMic on my PowerBookG4 with out popping sounds or weird mic behavior. I just have to unplug all external drives and USB devices. Griffin recommends using their Powered USB Hub, but living here in Japan I know I'll have a hard time getting my hands on one. Plus I don't want to front for another USB hub. I still don't know how they could have made a PowerBook without a built-in audio mic-in jack.

I've taken over Hyun-joo's dormant MDPlayer/Recorder for my portable recording. I still have to use an analog line to transfer the sound to my computer, but what the heck. I can use an external mic while monitoring the sound... a huge plus. I don't want to spend the $450 for an Edirol R-1 so this will do nicely.

Check Flash versions

- verified home version of Flash MX v6.0 for MacOSX

- Flash tutorial topics:
Help > Lessons (1 day)
Getting Started
Illustrating
Adding and Editing Text
Creating and Editing Symbols
Understanding Layers
Creating Tweened Animation
Creating Buttons

Help > Tutorials (2 days)
no information, links launch safari without opening any docments, what gives?
found "Flash Tutorials.pdf" and source documents in application folder
how much different will the japanese version be?
can the students read the tutorial in japanese while using the english source files?

FeedBurner Support responses

I heard back from the guys at Feedburner. I was surprised how quickly they wrote back.

The first post
http://forums.feedburner.com/viewtopic.php?p=1681#1681
was about trying to get multiple shows to appear on my browser friendly XML page. Seems like I have to get the media links off and perhaps switch to short descriptions. It may not work, but I'll give it a try later. The most important thing is that the shows burned proper in the feed.

The second post
http://forums.feedburner.com/viewtopic.php?p=1682#1682
didn't get very far either. It seems since I changed my blog URL after my initial feed burn, two different stats are being compiled together which is alright as long as folks are still able to access the show and all the past shows.

Interviewed Casey

I just spoke with Casey about his fucked up ear. What a bummer. Sounds like he's getting better. I did get my first recorded phone interview using my iTalk and my phone mic. I hope the quality is usable.

I'm jazzed that Casey was so excited about the podcast. I even spoke with him for about 15 minutes about the basics of podcasting and how to get started. I really hope I can keep this thing going.

I just check my FeedBurner stats and looks like a couple more people have subscribed to the podcast. Yahoo!

Feedburner Woes

Well celebrations first. I've had my Podcast going for a little over a week and it's been quite the learning experience. I wanted to get into Podcasting now, in its infancy since I sorta missed blogging and audioblogging in their infancies. It's been a fantastic experience. Not with out its heartaches.

I posted two questions today in the Feedburner Forums.

The first was regarding updating a "Content Item" URL in the detailed statistics for my blog.

The second was regarding previous listings for my old shows in my feed. I can find audio players for the first two shows, but they don't have their descriptions or titles.

I was able to successfully generate banners to post in my signatures and on my blog site. They really help to spruce things up and will hopefully get the word out about the Podcast.

Getting the Podcast up and running has been a real challenge. I found the learning curve to be pretty steep, especially since I've been out of the loop for a while. Lots to learn about syndication.

Juggling the resources has been a headache in itself...
blogger.com
audioblog.com
feedburner.com
feedvalidator.com
and more.

I just hope I can make a quality show that others enjoy.