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.