Slashdot Mirror

Wow, I didn't think this would get onto Slashdot. Anyway, I enabled WP-cache, so the server can handle the load now.

Here's a direct link to the book, just in case the server goes down again:

http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomycast/365day s2007.pdf

More important than hundred year old dusty lightbulbs, Lynne's Sci Fi News has decided to go off the air... Lynn Griffon, an Aussie girl with a distictive laugh, had a long running Sci Fi podcast for hardcore Science Fiction geeks. She finally decided to pull the plug on this week as she no longer had time for it because of a new job...

http://lynne.libsyn.com/

einstein
http://anarchy-tv.com/

Science Friday had a good episode last week covering some of the more absurd patents and the culture at the USPTO.

More links to check out:
http://pedologues.libsyn.com/
http://www.annabelleigh.net/
http://www.boyloverlinks.net/
http://theboyloveblog.blogspot.com/
http://www.cblf.org/
http://www.logicalreality.com/
http://www.inquisition21.com/
http://www.ipce.org/

I've been podcasting with Libsyn for almost a year and a half, and I would recommend them heartily over any free services out there.

The basic Libsyn accounts costs $5/month for 100MB upload a month, then $10/month for 250MB upload, scaling upwards. If you are using the basic account, and say one month you need to bump upwards for more space, there is a $5.00 dollar charge to change service levels, and no charge to scale back down. This is an excellent option, if you have one particularly busy month out of the year, and don't necessarily need the more expensive account all the time. There is also no bandwidth limit.

There is an ftp upload, as well as other features like future publishing (uploading a podcast, and having it published, i.e made available at a future date). Libsyn is probably in the 99.5% uptime bracket. Maybe once a month there are a few hours of downtime for upgrades, or the occasional hardware problem. Users are always notified of these events, and these aren't an issue for me, given the overall excellent quality of the service.

Libsyn RSS feeds are automatic, and are actually integrated with the Feedburner feed service, which provides scads more functionality than the basic vanilla RSS. There are also a host of Podcast content listing sites out there, that automatically index all Libsyn feeds, so without any effort on your part, your podcast will be indexed on probably 20 or more Podcast aggregators.

As for iTunes. When iTunes first starting listing Podcasts, all Libsyn feeds were automatically included in their Podcast store, but this has been tightened up recently. Podcasts now have to jump through more hoops to get listed, and generally seem to have to have an established track record. Try to get on iTunes anyway you can though, as over 80% of my initial listeners come through iTunes (though this trends down towards 2/3's over time for each individual Podcast).

I believe Archive.org does allow FTP uploading. http://ourmedia.org/ uses a proprietary uploader, or did when we used it earlier this year.

You could also look at http://blip.tv/ and http://revver.com./ Both provide RSS and hosting for free and with Revver you can actually make money.

We use http://libsyn.com/ for some of our media hosting as well. They are good, reliable and cheap. They have FTP and tools to create a blog onsite (though we use a drupal site for our main site).

Good luck and create good podcasts!

Never used them, but have heard that they're good.

http://www.libsyn.com/

Feels very strange to look at their web site though, somehow to me the name just doesn't click in the modern era. Here's what Commodore are doing today. As I understand it, a company bought all rights to the name and launched themselves as Commodore. Via the Retrobits podcast I heard an interview with a US salesman for them - apparently they're quite serious about the Commodore name, and want to revive the spirit and attitude of working rather than just the name.

Having read about the way Commodore worked I'm not especially certain that's a great strategy, but it'll be interesting to hear what happens.

Cheers,
Ian

It's just like any other "new" medium - a shit ton of noise that you have to dig through to find some good stuff, but when you do, it's really great.

I hate using the term "blog," but for some reason "podcasting" works for me - I don't know, I have no idea where the line gets drawn. I'm on Slashdot, so everything's relative in terms of how lame something is. =P

I do host a show for writing and filmmaking, so a niche market, and half the time it's really just myself and my co-host holding a discussion on whatever it is we feel like and hoping maybe someone who hears it has something to add and answer a question we may have, or having sit-down interviews with some of our favorite authors (two done already, a third coming soon). Or talking about seeing some kid get kicked in the face at the public park.

One thing that I'd probably want to know more about podcasting would be advertising/marketing. I really don't care about making money, but it would be nice to bring together like-minded people to hear the show and maybe stir up discussion, or get the word out to where new or more popular literary authors and filmmakers would be willing to talk to us.

At the end, most people who get into podcasting do it for selfish reasons. The ones who actually admit that right off the bat are the ones who tend to last longer.

http://misnomer.libsyn.com/

While "real KP" may be a myth and is certainly rarer than one could get the impression of, there is indeed much "pedophile acticity" on the internet. Their highly organized and long-standing community includes message boards, blogs, link directories, podcasts, radio stations, and more.

I have gone the same way. I am disgusted with the music industry these days. I have not bought a CD for myself in 5 years. I still listen to music, I just find free alternatives. Last.fm has done me some good, as have some podcasts.

If you want to try something really awesome, I highly suggest this:
http://scififriday.libsyn.com/

These are old sci-fi radio programs. I know what you are thinking, cheese upon cheese. I thought the same until I gave them a try. These old radio shows are damn fine. As it turns out violence WASN'T invented in the 21st century. I have not had so much good sci-fi in ages. Far from being cheesy, some of these tales are down right terrifying or surprisingly deep.

I had to twist the arm of my friends to give these radio shows a try, but now we have one going every time we need to make a long trip.

Who cares I mean if someone wants to have fun for a while in a virtual world how is it effecting you. I was an online gamar with everquest and it was the most fun I have ever had. I even shudder sold online items. I stop playing because I didnt have the free time to play. I'm not a fat ugly no life whater everyone is stero typing as either! I played for fun wake up its the modern world and nerdo kids dont play monolopy or scrabble anymore. This is the internet. ------------------- Science Fiction Fan girl Lynne's SCI FI news VIDEO podcast WEB: http://lynne.libsyn.com/ Latest show: http://media.libsyn.com/media/lynne/episode13.m4v

Who cares I mean if someone wants to have fun for a while in a virtual world how is it effecting you. I was an online gamar with everquest and it was the most fun I have ever had. I even shudder sold online items. I stop playing because I didnt have the free time to play. I'm not a fat ugly no life whater everyone is stero typing as either! I played for fun wake up its the modern world and nerdo kids dont play monolopy or scrabble anymore. This is the internet. ------------------- Science Fiction Fan girl Lynne's SCI FI news VIDEO podcast WEB: http://lynne.libsyn.com/ Latest show: http://media.libsyn.com/media/lynne/episode13.m4v

Well, let's at least make it easier for folks to discover Jonathan, even if his website no worky poo.

Here's a Wikipedia article

http://eventful.com/r/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki /Jonathan_coulton

Here's a page on Eventful with more information and a way for you to "demand" Jonathan come to your town (cool concept!).

http://eventful.com/performers/P0-001-000000067-4

And here's a podcast that played three of Jonathan's songs, full length because of Creative Commons.

http://treehouseconcerts.libsyn.com/index.php?post _id=80711

The first is about an evil genius (think arch-villian, Syndrome, from The Incredibles) who lives atop a lonely mountain but with much love in his heart. Or maybe that's just the voices in his head.

The second is a tender ballad about the love of his life...his Apple Macintosh G4 laptop.

And the last is about a little furniture store called Ikea. Just some oak and some pine and a handful of Norsemen. Selling furniture for college kids and divorced men.

No problem.

You can learn about them the way I did, through a podcast actually. Here is the link:

http://media.libsyn.com/media/twit/TWiT49AH.mp3

I listen almost exclusively to music podcasts, since I find amateurs talking at a mic only slightly less annoying than professionals on the radio talking at a mic, but just like blogs, the best way to find good podcasts is to find one you like, then find what other podcasts that podcast's website links to.

My favorite music podcasts, though, are:
The Beat Oracle (Downtempo Electronica and smart hip-hop)
The Data Sound (Indie Alternative with some eclectic touches)
the letter g (very eclectic from week to week, could be hip-hop, could be electronica, could be alternative)
Space Music (Downtempo and Ambient Electronica brought to you from the Netherlands)
Beats In Space (Electronica and Hip-hop, maybe slightly dancier than tBO above)

Enjoy!

Obviously the best out there for new music is The Indie Sermons of the Rt. Rev Fischer (RSS).

More seriously there are some from a non-geek perspective (it's good to get out a bit):

Dreadful Snake Radio (RSS
A middle aged former musician turned corporate guy. He mixes his love of folk/blues in with his world travels. It is a little "what I did today" but what he does daily is amazing. Everything from podcasting while doing a 5k with his son, while biking in Beijing, at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, to Church (state sponsored) in Beijing on Christmas.

Rocket Boom
Just great. (actually a video cast)

Earth & Sky (RSS)
A great public radio science show. It is not always just new science, it is a lot of explanations that you have probably always been curious about. And it is the best way to stay up to date on cool science events (eclipses, meteor showers, that kind of thing)

Obviously the best out there for new music is The Indie Sermons of the Rt. Rev Fischer (RSS).

More seriously there are some from a non-geek perspective (it's good to get out a bit):

Dreadful Snake Radio (RSS
A middle aged former musician turned corporate guy. He mixes his love of folk/blues in with his world travels. It is a little "what I did today" but what he does daily is amazing. Everything from podcasting while doing a 5k with his son, while biking in Beijing, at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, to Church (state sponsored) in Beijing on Christmas.

Rocket Boom
Just great. (actually a video cast)

Earth & Sky (RSS)
A great public radio science show. It is not always just new science, it is a lot of explanations that you have probably always been curious about. And it is the best way to stay up to date on cool science events (eclipses, meteor showers, that kind of thing)

• Cinecast is an excellent movie review podcasts the IMO beats the snot out of Ebert & Whoever (of course you can catch their podcast as well.) RSS Feed
• Keith and the Girl still stands as one of my regulars, although not for everyone, but very funny. RSS Feed
• Coverville is a wonderful high production values music podcast that features only covers of songs. I love it. RSS Feed

As for RSS feed readers/podcatchers (another hated word mashup), I still use the original Juice receiver (previously called iPodder). It has plenty of flaws, but every time I give other feed readers a try I always come back to it. I still haven't found one that will synch with my iRiver correctly. I use the new version of WinAmp for that.

I don't know why everyone always recommends using iTunes. I abhor their podcast interface and always get confused as it dumps me in and out of my library, search, back to their store, etc. Hate hate hate!

I listen to a few...

The Signal; A podcast about Firefly and Serenity.
http://signal.serenityfirefly.com/

TWIT; Basically Leo Laporte and his crew talk about tech stuff for an hour.
http://www.twit.tv/

Slice of SciFi; for all the science fiction news you could shake a stick at.
http://www.sliceofscifi.com/

FireflyTalk is good too...
http://fireflytalk.libsyn.com/

Ira Flatow (yes, of Newton's Apple fame) covered this on the latest edition of Science Friday. They have the segment available as an MP3. (The whole weekly show is also available as a podcast at feed://www.sciencefriday.com/audio/scifriaudio.xml if you're interested)

The podcast:
http://www.sciencefriday.com/audio/scifriaudio.xml

The MP3:
http://libsyn.com/media/sciencefriday/scifri-20060 11325.mp3

Have you tried good 'ol Radio 4?

Not a podcast I know, but, and I hate to sound like I'm spamming, one of the best non-music sources of audio on this planet that I know about. You can get selected programmes - From Our Own Correspondent, for example - as podcasts (they're in the iTunes database of podcasts), and listen live, albeit over an EVIL real stream. In terms of fiction, radio four really is top notch - watch out for some of the plays, and have fun for the 'Listen again' buttons. Download the stream, and convert to MP3 for iPod-liciousness. Yes, I hate streams too...

Part of the reason I think we see lots of information-orientated podcasts is simply because most commercial radio seems to be not exactly unbiased - and doesn't cover 'speciality' subjects - and, it has to be said, probably because good original fiction is a hell of a lot harder to produce than throwing a skirt infront of a microphone and feeding the result into a DJ-4000 box (á la Bart).

Oh! And for 'erotic fiction' that is actually quite good, as well as a not-really-smutty talk about the adult industry, try open source sex (If you're into that kind of thing).

Ahoy. FWIW: I have just posted a podcast on this article, with commentary on the actual published paper. Although I tried to get the scientists of record to answer some questions, I'm sorry to say they declined.

The interesting thing about this study is that the human brain cells appeared to behave much more like mouse brain cells than they did like human brain cells.

The podcast is here: overclocked.libsyn.com.

See -- Open Source can be sexy... ;-)
Open Source Sex -- they even have podcasts. http://violetblue.libsyn.com/

I've had no problems with full-duplex communication using Skype on my Mac, and others at work have used it on their Windows PCs with no problem. I would suspect your half-duplex issue is related to your specific setup.

There IS a problem with Skype not being "full-duplex." I think that Skype has to switch transit and receive in the system, sorta like a very fast push-to-talk. There's also the inevitable latency lag for each side of the conversation. This is a problem for me personally because I tend to even have real world conversations in "full-duplex." I might jump in a bit as we talk but it's partly "signifying."

We recorded 3 remote partipants in a Skype conference call - one on a cell phone called using Skype out - for episode #14 of The Pilotcast. If you listen you'll hear about midway through when I'm rudely interrupting, but we found that Ron on his phone couldn't hear me. I edited out a handful of other times that happened. We often have "Sorry. No, you go first." during sessions like this.

This Skype conference call was hosted on a single 1.4MHz 1GB Mac Mini which had 2 recordings - local mic and Skype - being made at the same time with Audio Hijack. I did open up a port for Skype on my firewall. The recordings we used for the show were done on Dan's PowerMac G5, where I'm one of the three remote on Skype to him. He's the only one recorded locally. You can hardly tell the difference.

Although we have had crashes, Skype has held up for us really well during show recordings. Let's hope it gets better and not worse as eBay takes over and these Radio Shack customers join in.

The iPod WITHOUT a iTunesMusicStore wouldn't be WORTH any more than any other player. It couldn't COST any more either.

Apple is able to command the prices it changes for the iPod because the entire package is actually worth it.

Also, with the podcasting revolution, content is becoming available from unusual sources for unusual uses, not just ditties. (One person's music is just another person's noise.)

----

I was using a wiki for all my ideas and getting no traction. Nobody cares about software development, or so it seemed. Also its hard to index the content of my database, no?

So I've shifted media and I've started blogging and podcasting, and I'm about to start vodcasting, (vod = video on demand,) though what I've been able to achieve with just pictures using PodcastAV is pretty impressive.)

Thinking up stuff and writing on a wiki is one thing but getting the blog out there (for the real information) and a podcast out there (for clarification and additional information,) and promoting it through iTunes is the bending end.

I recommend http://screencastsonline.com/ for great instructional info. It is really inspirational too.

I found out everything I actually needed to know about RSS feeds, podcast production, distribution and promotion through iTunesMusicStore.

I'm going to blow my own horn. :-)

I am now officially OiRc (Objects, instances; Relationships, connections) on http://oirc.blogspot.com/ http://oirc.libsyn.com/ and the OiRc Podcast on the iTunesMusicStore.

And now that the tests have all worked, I'm going to record 'casts for all the episodes.

----

From a McLuhanistic point of view, this medium is fantastic.

Its both cold, as print and sitting passively consuming movies in a theater was/is, and hot as television was supposed to be, with community TV I guess.

But with narrow casting of the information I want to share, but only with the individuals who can act on it, leaving the rest of the world blissfully unaware, I believe that podcasting is a real revolution in the media.

The barrier to entry has falled from multi-million dollar studios and specialized staff down to my Macintoshes and my ideas.

No I am not going to change the world.

No I'm not going to become rich and famous (through I can hope for some recognition.)

But if some people in the world of software development can at least hear and take notice of my ideas, even if they tell me I'm full of shit (I know I'm not,) I'll be satisfied.

Two of my favorites that you did not mention:
slacker astronomy http://www.slackerastronomy.org/slack-live.xml

skepticality Science and Skeptic Thought http://skepticality.libsyn.com/rss/

        Incidentally, I wonder if this article will slasdot itunes podcasts section? Podcasts don't seem to get the greatest amount of bandwidth compared to the rest of the itunes Music Store.

I just posted a podcast on this topic (see ::overclocked), there are many reasons for Microsoft to split up, and many investors were disappointed when it didn't happen before.

There are good technical reasons to break up the company, as well as good financial reasons. Look where Microsoft's stock price has been for the past few years... right where it is now. Now Microsoft as a whole doesn't gain a whole lot from upward movement of the stock price, but it's very important to employee retention in a world where stock options are a key component of compensation, and Google's stock is going through the ceiling.

But simply decoupling the software groups from each other will enable each to move more quickly and more effectively.

So whether it's actually broken into distinct entities, or whether Microsoft simply tries to unravel the unhealthy entanglement between unrelated divisions, this has to be seen as a good move on Microsoft's part.

Whether that's good for the rest of us... hard to say.

... is available on the iTunes store podcast section. Search for "Agile". Otherwise, you can get it here.

Many podcasts are less commercial than radio shows, but it doesn't mean that quality would have to suffer. Net is full of great quality podcasts, like Spacemusic spacemusic.libsyn.com and some lowsy low quality ones (and still interesting) like lugradio

I fully agree with ArkieNerd, here in Italy I had no choice in listening tech radio show at my convenience before podcasts. Now I do not waste any more my commuting time listening stupid radio show, thanks to podcasting I can listen to "Perlcast" (I am a faithfull listner since show number 1) or to "Slashdor Review" or to "Digital Experience Podcast". I started my own italian podcast show also (http://www.audiocast.it/), I bought the Todd Cochrane's book and I found it very useful: may be his english is not perfect, his own way seems the best way in the book, but I found real good advice on few items like http://www.libsyn.com/ to cheaply host shows or the "Semiprofessional podcast studio" suggestions.

there is a podcast called overclocked that had an entire podcast on this topic a few weeks ago, it was pretty interesting...worth a listen.

http://overclocked.libsyn.com/

I made an error in the url. It should be pcast://feeds.feedburner.com/BitzofBrin

Other niche podcasts of interest are:
  5 Minutes with Wichita Rutherford (http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa /viewPodcast?id=73331701 | http://wichitarutherford.libsyn.com/rss/
  Dave's Lounge (http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa /viewPodcast?id=76244035 | feed://daveslounge.com/rss)
  Harry Podder (http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa /viewPodcast?id=74265045 | pcast://feeds.feedburner.com/HarryPodder)
  Nashville that nobody knows (http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa /viewPodcast?id=73330734)

And quicktime vlogs work in iTunes4.9 as well. These two are excellent examples of vlogs:
  Josh Leo (pcast://feeds.feedburner.com/joshleo)
  Rocketboom (http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa /viewPodcast?id=73329586)

• CronCast - http://www.croncast.com/wp-rss2_2.php
• Lascivious Biddies - http://feeds.feedburner.com/Biddycast (Wonderful independent music group.)
• Keith and the Girl - http://shitecom.libsyn.com/rss
• Coverville - http://www.coverville.com/index.xml (Great little show featuring all cover songs)
• Distorted View - http://www.distortedview.com/show/index.xml (Compare to a News of the Weird report done by Conan O'Brian on steriods.