Peggy Noonan on blogging
Peggy Noonan. Does that name sound familiar? If so, you probably remember that she was Ronald Reagan's speech writer. On February 17th, she published an article titled "The Blogs must be crazy." In it, she provides a list of 7 things she thinks are good about blogging and offers some predictions about what she anticipates will come from this phenomenon. The link came from David Weinberger's blog, JOHO.
- posted by Perry @ 9:54 AM 0 comments

 
Doc Searls on corporate blogging
Doc Searls, one of the authors of The Cluetrain Manifesto, has posted a significant contribution to the conversation about corporate blogs this morning. It serves to underscore how the metaphors we use to discuss these attempts to frame our thinking about them sometimes can cause us to lose sight of what we are trying to do with a blog.

For all of the publicity that blogs have gotten lately, both positive and negative, many still don't seem to get that they are about starting conversations, and the outcome of those conversations isn't predetermined by rules we set up. Their goal is to start real human-to-human exchanges of ideas, not one-way transmissions of tightly defined messages. You don't need a blog to send out your message; that's what advertising and newsletters do. If someone is going to blog, then they are saying to those who read them that they are willing to engage in a conversation. Such ventures have their dangers, but they also offer the possibility of the reward of building better relationships between those who participate. As Grace Murray Hopper has said, "A ship in port is safe, but that's not what ships are built for. "
- posted by Perry @ 8:57 AM 0 comments

 
Another source for information on Audioblogs
Thanks to this link at Tom Simpson's Webfeed Central, I discovered Harold J. Johnson's blog, Audioblogs.info tonight. He has some interesting information about the issues surrounding podcasting and audio information on the Internet. I've subscribed to his feed because I expect to find useful information there in the future.
- posted by Perry @ 11:58 PM 0 comments

 
Need a link to some podcasts?
The Podcast Directory at www.podcast.net is one of many collections of links to podcasts that are springing up like mushrooms around the Internet. Another is Adam Curry's collection at www.ipodder.org. Still another can be found at The Podcast Network. If you have a hankering for getting in on the fun and sampling some of the fare, these three links should be enough to get you started.
- posted by Perry @ 4:20 PM 0 comments

 
The Seanachai
The scale of quality in podcasts ranges from the proverbial ridiculous to the sublime. This one, called The Seanachai, by Patrick McLean clearly rests at the sublime end of that continuum. I find it inspirational that someone has taken the idea of podcasting and done something so absolutely wonderful with it. Highly recommended!

What, you ask, is a Seanachai? Here's the answer.
- posted by Perry @ 10:31 AM 0 comments

 
A Wired article on Podcasting
Annalee Newitz has a nice article on Wired Magazine about podcasting, in which she calls "podcasting, the medium that promises a future where anyone can make radio, instead of just listen to it." Check it out.
- posted by Perry @ 6:59 AM 0 comments

 
Screencast to introduce you to RSS
Alex Barnett has created a highly-informative, and to me entertaining, screencast that provides an introduction to RSS (Really Simple Syndication) that he calls RSS 101.

If you've read my comments about RSS before and thought that it was too complex for you to consider using, I'd recommend you take about 15 minutes and watch this screencast. I'm sure you'll understand it better after you do, and once you begin to use RSS, you'll find it hard to go back to plain vanilla web browsing. This technology makes tracking a large number of things on the web sooooo much easier than any other method that it becomes addictive.
- posted by Perry @ 9:09 AM 0 comments

 
LG VX6000 Cellphone
This picture is of my new cellphone, the LG VX6000 picture phone. While I can take pictures with it and send them to any email address, including to Flickr, the quality of the photos isn't as good as those taken with my Canon PowerShot G2, but its major advantage is that this "camera" will be at my side anytime I see a picture that I want or need to take.

When I got the cellphone, I chose to port out my landline telephone number to my cellphone, so that I, not my house, now have a telephone number. As some of you have found out already, I can make long distance calls anywhere in the U.S. without any extra cost, so now maybe I'll stay in touch with family and friends a bit more regularly than I have in the past.

It's amazing how the world is changing because of the advances in technology.

- posted by Perry @ 11:24 AM 0 comments

 
SanDisk SDMX1-1024-A18 MP3 Player
This is the new MP3 player that arrived on Friday. As you can see it is very small, but it has a 1 GB capacity that will hold both mp3 music files, as well as podcasts, which is how I think I will use it most often. It also has the ability to receive FM radio and to serve as a mobile voice recorder.

Someone once said, "the only difference between men and boys is the size and cost of their toys" or words to that effect. Now both men and boys, as well as women and girls, seem to seek smaller, not bigger toys.

- posted by Perry @ 11:13 AM 0 comments

 
Some Sunday morning links
For those of you who haven't seen this article at the New York Times (which requires a one-time, free registration), it provides a little more explanation of the phenomenon of podcasting, which has really taken off since about last August as a new form of expression on the Internet.

Doc Searls had an interesting post on February 16th, that I just read this morning, about the latest congressional attempt to regulate decency on the airwaves. I particularly recommend that you read the link titled The X-on Congress: Indecent Comment on an Indecent Subject, which is an irreverent piece written by a retired trial judge from Texas who is currently a professor of Criminal Justice at the University of Texas. Be prepared, if you follow my advice and read that link, for the fact that Judge Russell uses salty language to make his points about the importance of the First Amendment. His article was written in protest of the Telecommunications Bill that was intended to regulate speech on the Internet a few years back, and which has reappeared in a slightly-altered form in the current bill mentioned in Doc Searls' post.
- posted by Perry @ 9:34 AM 0 comments

 
A wonderful illustration of how a wiki works
This morning while catching up on a number of blogs using my RSS reader, FeedDemon, I discovered this absolutely fascinating piece that Jon Udell has created to illustrate how wikis work. Spend the ten minutes it takes to view this illustration and I'm confident you'll be as entertained as I was. It was this post from David Pogue in the New York Times that pointed me to it. By the way, following the link to David Pogue's article requires registration at the New York Times website.
- posted by Perry @ 9:21 AM 0 comments

 
Update
I fear I've allowed my regular schedule of blogging to suffer as I've been in training for my new job at U. S. Cellular and as I've been toying with MixCast Live. To those of you who check this site regularly, I offer my apologies, however there are only so many hours in the day that aren't occupied either with work or with sleeping. Still I hope that soon I may have a bit more time for my life online than I've had in the past. More about that if and when it happens.

On the MixCast Live front, I've created a couple of podcasts that I've made available only to a small circle of friends because I'm hosting them from my own computer and don't want to create an excessive bandwidth problem with my ISP. Perhaps I'm being grandiose to think that it would be a problem, but rather than risk it, I think I'll wait to make them publicly available until I've found a hosting service that I'm comfortable with using. I am told there is a new one coming available soon, and I want to hold off for that one until it is available. More than that, I can't say until it is announced.

Yesterday I took my own advice in a previous post here and purchased the SanDisk SDMX1-1024-A18 MP3 Player from this location at NewEgg.com. It should be here in a couple of days and because it is also a portable recording device, I am hopeful that I'll be able make recordings of conversations with people that I can then incorporate into my podcasts. Maybe I'll even do a sound scene tour of our sleepy little, lovable town of Knoxville. Of course all of that depends upon the quality of the recordings that the SanDisk generates.

In my last post I mentioned that I was traveling down to my son, Jeff's, house to pick up some of my recording gear that I had loaned him. That mission was accomplished successfully, though I made a really long day of it. I awoke on Saturday at about 4:00 AM and because I was wide awake, I stayed up and then drove to Georgia and back in the same day, arriving home about 9:00 PM. Because I had some new toys, I got caught up in playing with them and didn't get to bed until 1:00 AM on Sunday morning. It was an enjoyable day, but I suffered the consequences on Sunday. I could hardly muster the energy to do anything all day long. Still I'm pleased to have this equipment here at home again. And the new microphone really makes a difference in the sound of the podcasts I've done since installing it into the mix.

One final note. James Prudente released another update of the pre-release of the MixCast Live program yesterday. It's version 0.9.2, and in it he includes a much-improved WaveScope, which is a kind of oscilloscope that shows the waveforms as the sound is traveling through the program. With each new release, he keeps fixing problems and adding nice, new features so by the time version 1.0 comes out, this program is going to be one of the most effective tools on the market for creating podcasts or even just for creating MP3 files. If you haven't taken a look at it and you have any interest in being able to create these kinds of recordings, I'd suggest that you can't go wrong by giving it a try. You'll save $20 by getting it prior to the release of version 1.0.
- posted by Perry @ 10:49 AM 0 comments

 
On the road again
Today I'm leaving in a few minutes to drive down to Atlanta (actually to Lula which is 50 or 60 miles north of Atlanta) to visit briefly with Jeff and his family. The reason for my trip is to pick up some of my recording equipment that I had loaned him a couple of years ago so that I can use it in producing my podcasts. My experiments up to this point with MixCast Live have shown that the mic I am using for recording has the disadvantage that it introduces a lot of hiss into the mix. Because I already own a Shure 58 microphone, a Yamaha R100 digital effects processor, a Boss 16 channel mixer, and some other associated equipment, I plan to bring all that back here and integrate it into my computer system in the hope that it will improve the quality of the MP3 files I create for my podcast.

While I'm speaking about MixCast Live, I must mention that I've really enjoyed developing a close relationship with James Prudente, its author, and having the opportunity to discuss the development of the program with him and to feel his jubilation and enthusiasm for what he is doing. And, folks, I have to tell you that this program, which is already quite innovative, is only getting better with every iteration.

For instance, the other night he and I spent about a half hour working on "perfecting" the ability to record a Skype conversation. He was doing the recording using the latest incarnation of the program (MCL), and in the end we came up with a very clean recording of our conversation without any of the artifacts, such as echoing either end of the conversation to the other person, that have plagued my previous attempts to record from Skype. Though I don't understand all the "under the hood" changes he has made to the program to permit this kind of recording (he's calling them patch cables), it is a major leap forward and one that I personally see a lot of value in. I'm confident that once the initial release of version 1.0 of that program hits the market, anybody who is interested in podcasting on a PC will want a copy.

I have friends who still don't "get" why I would want to do a podcast. And I can understand their confusion. However, just as some of them don't get why I blog, I'm sure they will understand better once they get to hear some examples of what I want to do. Or maybe they won't, but that's alright. As with everything else, those who are interested will follow what is being done, while those who don't find it of value can find other ways to use their time. I've learned in my time on earth that there are a lot of people in the world and not all of us have to agree. I want to do it to prove that I can, and after I've leapt that hurdle then I can concentrate on making the podcasts something that I find interesting. One use of them that I'll mention is that my grandchildren and my children will have a "permanent" audio recording of some of my thoughts that they may appreciate at some future date when I'm no longer around.

So it's off to Atlanta now to get some more tools, and soon, you'll be able to listen to my ramblings rather than just read them.
- posted by Perry @ 7:39 AM 0 comments

 
A nice surprise from Comcast
This morning I received an email from Comcast announcing that, without any increase in price, they are increasing the download speed by 33% to 4 MB here in Knoxville. It's Christmas in February, it seems. Whoopee!

- posted by Perry @ 7:29 AM 0 comments

 
USA Today article about Podcasting
In the Money section of USA Today this morning, Byron Acohido reports on the state of podcasting and at the end of the article describes MixCast Live and quotes its author, James Prudente. For those of you who may be new to podcasting, this article will give you an overview of what it is and how you can find and listen to some of the selections available.

- posted by Perry @ 7:30 AM 0 comments

 
Paul's Cataract Surgery a Success
My 80-year-old friend, Paul Moor, who lives in Berlin, called at his usual time this morning to report that he underwent successful cataract surgery on his right eye today. He had been anticipating the operation with fear and trembling, but he reported that it was over almost before he knew it. He said he recalled that they administered a shot to his hand and the next thing he knew it was over. There was absolutely no pain and though he must now wear a bandage over his eye for a few days, he is eager to get the other eye done now as quickly as possible. In an interesting concession to modern technology, the doctors gave him a video tape of the operation so that he can watch it when he chooses. Now if he can manage to get through the next several days of walking his beloved dog, Maxe, without incident while he has the bandage on his eye, he'll have come through this experience with flying colors.

- posted by Perry @ 7:17 AM 0 comments

 
The MixCast Live pre-release is now available.
James Prudente announced this afternoon that the pre-release version of MixCast Live is now available. See his announcement here.

If you've been itching to get your hands on this new tool for creating podcasts, you now have that opportunity, and what's more it's available at a $20 discount from the opening price of $59.00. I would urge you to get on board if you think you'll want to have this program, because even in the beta stages it has shown itself to be a very useful program, whether or not you ever intend to publish a podcast though that is, of course, its intended purpose. James has also put up a new demo of the program in its latest incarnation. This version, known as the pre-release version 0.9.0, will still be tweaked before version 1.0 comes out, but even as it stands it is worth having.

- posted by Perry @ 11:37 PM 0 comments

 
I love Skype!
If you haven't downloaded Skype, what the hell are you waiting for?

I can understand if you don't have Win 2K or Win XP (for Windows users) or the comparable required Mac OS, but if you have the necessary OS then you should definitely get on board. "Why?" you ask. Well, the answer for me is that you can expand your world.

Tonight I had the pleasure of talking with Sean Wong, who lives in Sydney, Australia. He sent a request for me to permit him to see when I'm online. Now that is the typical way someone initiates a Skype relationship. However, Sean was smarter than the average bear. He had the good sense to add the fact that he has been reading my blog recently. Now that's the way to get my attention. Frankly it blew me away. I've been publishing this blog now for almost for three years, and this is the first time I've had confirmation that someone from the other side of the world was reading it. WOW! How reinforcing is that? A fellow has to be careful what he makes available for to the world at large to see. They may actually see it! I can only say "thanks" Sean, you have made my day. What's great about our conversation was that he seemed to be able to understand my southern version of English, and I could understand his Australian version.

In the hope that I can offer him some benefit for having contacted me, I'd like to include a link to his company's website. Check it out. You and your company might derive some benefit from having discovered it.

- posted by Perry @ 7:15 PM 0 comments