.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.