lope | Croncast - Life is Show Prep

to envelope

Fri, 10 Jun 2011 07:25:18 -0500

Tags: envelope

to lope

Fri, 10 Jun 2011 07:22:36 -0500

Tags: lope

to elope

Fri, 10 Jun 2011 07:20:23 -0500

Tags: elope

to interlope

Fri, 10 Jun 2011 07:18:18 -0500

Tags: interlope

No Express, Hobo Sweat, Swag Dump

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 21:29:08 -0500

Episode: #663
Length: 31:02
Format: mp3

To listen to this and all new Croncast episodes Get Cool!

No express
Leftover sweat
From a hobo lovefest
Walking in Brooklyn
Park Slope sipping a 32 oz Michelob
Explain that to the kids
The bottles all have stories
Back to school shopping at BlogHer
Yes, in the swag dump pile
The kids are set

Tags: hobo juice park slope flatbush ave blogher shopping no express

Center Pieces, No Baby Prize, Elope Now

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 17:20:27 -0500

Episode: #604
Length: 27:20
Format: mp3

To listen to this and all new Croncast episodes Get Cool!

Fa Fa Fa Friday!
Great, great show today!!
Visualizing the date and month
On Facebook, right now
I never got to date her
I know that it is her birthday
That women is there
Well, happy birthday to the one Kris wishes he had
Making it out of a small town without having a kid is the grand prize
Anything after that is easy
Dating in the middle of Jersey
A minute is no longer a mile
A mile is no longer a minute
Totally upfront about getting it on with her
Is this a husband wife show?
You're my best friend at this moment
Good for you dude!
Total whore, total score
We're screwing around
Condomless
I will not be enticed
One that doesn't want to trapped
She totally wanted to catch a baby
If I were you I would have gone home and gotten a condom and come back
Can we get it back on dear?
I guess it is the Shilts blood pumping through my veins
That most blessed of all events
Getting hitched at 19
In a better universe you could come to my wedding
Just write a check
We could have done it up large in the Ozarks
Flip the wedding on it's head
Elope and go have some fun
I'm getting married . . .
Great . . .
Don't invite me
Find me a fat dress
Shiny to show off my creases
Damp white marks
Pay for it myself?
Yes.
We like the idea of rituals
It is the practice of rituals we're not so good at
Oh! And if you use the Twitters, check out Ville - http://ville.ag

Tags: wedding plans elope loose my mind married now fat dress

Season 24 Ep 04: A Sampling

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 17:06:11 -0500

Episode: #604 Sampler
Length: 4:10
Format: mp3

To listen to this and all new Croncast episodes in full Get Cool!

Tags: wedding plans elope loose my mind married now fat dress

Structured Data: Follow-Up to Palegroove Blog Post

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 12:02:54 -0500

In the my previous post at Palegroove, "Improving your SEO with RSS in 3 easy steps," I shared some insight about how to setup your RSS feed URL's so that they are search engine friendly. After reading the post again, well, I missed explaining why search spiders like feeds so much. The answer is structured data.

PC Magazine defines structured data as, "Data that resides in fixed fields within a record or file. Relational databases and spreadsheets are examples of structured data. Contrast with unstructured data." I'm sure a future revised version will include XML or RSS ;-).

When your content is placed into feeds it has the benefit of being described by a template - structured data. It is described by elements in the feed the same as mine, CNN.com, Apple, Microsoft or anyone else with a RSS feed. RSS is the ubiquitous, defacto standard for syndication. The simplicity of RSS as a standard to describe your content's title, description, dates, content, enclosures, etc makes it a magic API for search engines, developers and database administrators. Your website doesn't do this. It is full of unstructured data.

On your site the post titles could be in a h1-6 tag, div or a legacy table cell with a style applied to it. This makes it harder for search engines to understand your content. Sure, there are insanely engineered algorithms that are in place to create associations between the content on your site and the code that is used to display it, but RSS makes it uniform and much easier for search companies to cache, categorize, rank and re-syndicate your ideas. The primary reason is that the feed describes the data types instead ot telling a browser how to display it.

So, like I said in the last post, "Treat your feeds with the same care that you do your pages," with the caveat that maybe you need to treat them better because the next iteration of the web is being built on structured data.

Tags: RSS SEO structured data feeds seo

Season 21 Ep 11: The Kitty's Gone, CarMax Sale, Kelly Blue Book

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 12:14:43 -0600

Croncast - 2009-02-11.mp3
Show: #511
Length: 33:56
Size: 31.2 mb
Format: mp3

Show us some love and leave us a review at iTunes

This show brought to you by Affordable Promotions
Pick a post, any post to leave a comment
You can leave a comment for our 2012 shows
It's a whole new internet that I developed on my own
Valentine's day is 3 days away
Buy you love an "I love you baby USB drive"
You gave me the best gift ever Mr B for Valentines Day
Conversion van jokes search this site for John Elway
I read a thread
Ping me when you're ready
So you're reading this thread about CarMax
Supposedly they pay close to Kelly Blue Book for car
Saved by a bucket of chicken
Selling a car privately
Was much to worry about
The slow drive-by in the Ford Explorer
It's the same person
I've been to that garage sale
The same Velma
That would be Vonda
CarMax gives you an appraisal
So we go for it
The Volvo will be sold
Picking it up after detail
The car knew
The dash lit up with warnings
30 minutes later all good
We decide to get both cars appraised
Well, Kris' gift?
The photo above says it all
Trunk full of auto parts and a mechanic strapped to bumper
But we still did something that Dave Ramsey would frown on
Hit up the casino last week
It felt really good to be really bad . . . on a budget
What is so hot to ladies about a man that plays the tables?
No oxygen tank

Tags: Jaguar CarMax appraisal Kelly Blue Book Dave Ramsey

Kosso and Phreadz get some 1938 Media love

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 14:06:35 -0500

For our non-nerd audience you might not have ever heard of Kosso, general purveyor and developer of internet goodness, this video will help.

His new project is phreadz.com. Think of it as a swiss army knife for social video.

Best of luck, my English phrend.

Tags: Kosso Loren Feldman 1938 Media Phreadz.com

Maggers and the Dogalope

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 10:22:42 -0500

Asked to post this while I lay on the couch. Betsy snapped this shot of Maggie and Zeus a few minutes ago.

I am thinking that Betsy will be trying to pass Zues off as a dogalope soon so that she can get that goat from GRoAN (Goat Rescue of America North).

A dogalope would cement her as crazy and they would give her 50 goats.

Tags: dogalope goat betsy goats zues

Live photo blogging, immediacy and click-throughs

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 15:33:15 -0600

Right now I am really hung up on live photo blogging. Something is changing in the way that we interact online. The dynamic it is a changing.

My previous post is a perfect example of this but I think it has legs for where we are online with real-time micro blogging and subscription media. It is less intrusive for the audience as they have decided to participate by subscribing or friending you in an application. Say, something like Twitter.

I guess what makes this so poignant for me, using Twitter as an example are the links that I create for the tweets are done with the source code for turo.us, a url shortening site that Mike Marusin developed, that allows me to count click-throughs. From what I can tell from these counts and photo views at flickr, they are disproportionally higher than the number that I would normally receive from the same links in my sites.

I'm not sure why this is but I can guess that the immediacy of the interaction in Twitter and the fact that people made the effort to subscribe to me has something to do with it. Friends and even strangers subscribe to me, just like they would as part of any social network to be updated with anything that I share. They trust me. A trust not provided by an RSS feed but a more personal connection

In this context of immediacy and real-time interaction I think that trust matters most to raising the number of click-throughs. These links are more successful because they aren't passive links buried in a blog post. They are right up front and time sensitive. Maybe these links act as a call to action?

Set me straight if you think I am crazy.

Tags: Mike Marusin turo.us twitter links immediacy click-throughs live photo blogging

Raise your Google PR, add 'nofollow' to affiliate links

Wed, 21 Nov 2007 09:59:56 -0600

For the last six weeks I have paid the price for forgetting to upload updated scripts that had the "nofollow" attribute added to text links. By not getting this done when I wanted I suffered the wrath of Google's PR (page rank) drops for those with "paid" text links.

Though, mine weren't paid, they are a home grown system that I wrote for the eBay affiliate program. Turns out the Google algorithm never asked if I was being paid for those links. Stupid robots.

The impact has been that our Google search referrals went down by over half!

This cut my average monthly take from Adsense and the eBay affiliate program to less than $200 combined. Barely enough to cover my server and not enough from Adsense to even get a payout last month. Bluh.

Since Monday I have been watching search referrals steadily climb and our Adsense and eBay money generation increase accordingly.

My recommendation to anyone that currently relies on search traffic to make some loot add rel="nofollow" to all of your text links that might be interpreted as paid.

And if you are using a text link ad company, ask them if they are using it. If not, make your own affiliate links and blaze a DIY trail that Google won't punish you for.

Tags: Adsense eBay affiliate eBay developer Google PR text links

Kris Smith - New Media Expert For Hire

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 13:16:39 -0600

Time to plug myself like I have no shame!

Thus, in the true spirit of being shameless, I will create this unabashed self-promoting bit of text to tell you about the Kris Smith that many of you don't know.

Planet earth had just escaped the Y2k bug so we bought our first computer since they didn't destroy the world they must be okay. So in early 2000 I taught myself how to use Wavelab to edit audio and later that same year I took my first programming class to learn HTML. The rest is history, as they say in the biz.

In the last seven years, I've accomplished more things in digital media and web development than I could have ever anticipated:

1. Developed and coded the first version of Castlock a New Media and metrics platform
2. Founded the world's first company dedicated to podcast production
3. Worked with and produced for Fortune 500 companies
4. Spoken at conferences and universities across the United States about RSS, New Media and podcasting
5. Developed moderated media RSS feeds (mmRSS) for episodic and archived content delivery via RSS
6. Gained a network of professional colleagues across the globe
7. Interviewed celebrities and professional athletes
8. Became certified in DVD authoring software used for major motion pictures

If you have the hankering to check out my full repertoire and could use a self-starter with innovative skills, you can visit my Linkedin page, download my resume or search "Kris Smith" in your favorite search engine.

Tags: RSS guru Podcasting professional PHP Castlock New Media expert RSS expert

Stepping out of Room 214 into the hallway

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 09:49:34 -0500

In January of this year I took the position, VP, New Media with Room 214, an internet and search engine marketing company. I brought with me Castlock, the podcasting and rss metrics platform that I developed in early 2006.

This was an exciting opportunity. I had built a solid relationship with the founders of the company over the previous year working closely with them to produce podcasting and new media campaigns for the Alltel Racing podcast (NASCAR driver Ryan Newman), four podcasts for NFL Pro Bowl players during 2006 season and many other client podcasts; all the while holding a position as Associate Director, e-Learning for another company. Many of you might remember us talking about this last January.

The last ten months working for Room 214 have been great, but the time has come for all of us to move on.

What will I do now?

I'm not sure. But I do have quite a few options . . . probably more than I realize. There are a couple that leading the pack right now.

My first option is to make sure my resume is up to the task of assisting me gain new full-time employment. It is pretty amazing how over the last three years podcasting and rss have transitioned to "new media" and are being welcomed into the corporate structure. All that bickering about every company being a media company seems to be coming true!

My second option is to put more energy into my podcast production company, Palegroove Studios, and get back in the saddle for podcast production, consulting and licensing of Castlock. When I started with Room 214 I put it on the back burner since I was doing the same work as my "day job".

My third option, and least viable as a solution, is to go all out Croncast. I would love nothing more than to be doing the show full time and bring video into the mix but this doesn't seem to be the right time.

That's it, that is what's been up around here.

Like any time of transition this is an interesting and exciting time. I am already wondering which path I will end up going down and where the choice(s) that I make will lead my family next.

If you've got any thoughts send them to me from the contact page, email kris[at]croncast.com or send them the old fashioned way and give me a call on my GrandCentral line (thanks Rick!) at 630.445.1719.

Update: I should have added this the first time around (it was in the show notes from Monday!)

Feel freed to check out my Linkedin Profile

Tags: Kris Smith Room 214 VP, New Media Palegroove Castlock

Betsy and her husband Kris Oct 03, 2007

Wed, 03 Oct 2007 08:20:47 -0500
Croncast - 2007-10-03.mp3
Show: #417
Length: 31:01
Size: 21.3mb
Format: mp3
Betsy and her husband Kris Oct 03, 2007

Show us some love and leave us a review at iTunes

Bringing you the show for October 3rd
Be sly that that Google search person
It was good
New contest . . . Google you most creative result that gets you Croncast
You have to click through
You will win some stickers
The stickers were in your expo bag
Those gotta go out
Thanks to Steve, Mark, Rhonda and Craig
Betsy giving me looks as I slow down those names
They were at the live show
Betsy has some thoughts on the nerd convention
Every woman should visit one of these
There were no chicks there
1. No line for womens bathroom
You should be happy not to have many women while husband is away
Doing shots at the bar with Nick Starr
You are the hottest chick in the bar
Never happens to me in Naperville
It's an ego boost
It is so easy to compliment you people
You say something kind of clever . . .
Then I say, "I'm gonna twitter that"
Or say, "I am going to buy that domain"
Yeah, I used that a few times
Ahh, nerdom. I love it
Why don't we go to In and Out Burger again
Too much to handle
My lower colon just smiled at you
Twitter is addictive
It's like IM but one way
Do they build sonar into your phones?
You live in the dark
Come out into the light and you walk reading your device
Nobody has a iPhone hit the floor baby
It's not just guys
You have a vagina. You are supposed to be on my side
You are being so impolite, bears
I don't want to look like a nerd
No one calls each other at a nerd event
It's all sms baby, ping
Or we communicate by twitter
Swatting at invisible spiders
They are not nerd vacations . . . it's where business gets done
Everyone talks about what they have going on
Like Aaron Brazell mentioning mem_cache on MySQL
If I hadn't been on that trip I wouldn't have been able to share that with our developers
There were no babies or many wedding rings
I volunteered for something that I will pass to you, Kris
I have to decline
I do not want to volunteer for art class
It's no big deal Mr B
The children are making these collages
This is the most beautiful forest that I have ever seen
That's not your tree . . . that's your mother . . . oh!
Now I got to make a pipe cleaner cloud
It's all about balance
This flower . . . I can almost . . . smell it
Maybe a pipe cleaner porcupine?
It is the coolest funniest shit you've ever seen
We need rounded edges Mrs. Smith
Little boys making the "gun" hand on the playground
Fighting back instead of being pushed around
Being positive for the man
He has picked up a new habit that he is sticking with
Going full circle
Yes, my mom called 12 times today and left three voicemails
Would a neurologist have anything to look for in your ear?

Audience Survey, please fill this out for us
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Tags: iPhone twitter that nerdom Aaron Brazell nerd conferences

Kris Smith - New Media, RSS and Podcast Expert

Mon, 01 Oct 2007 16:43:14 -0500

Kristopher Smith
http://linkedin.com/in/ksmith
Naperville, IL 60565 (630) 445-1719 ● kris[at]palegroove.com

Career Objective

A leadership position with a company interested in benefiting from the opportunities presented by leading edge new media technologies where a commitment to innovative ideas and entrepreneurial spirit is recognized and rewarded.

Qualifications Summary:

Accomplished entrepreneur and strategist with a demonstrated history of success integrating new media technologies into existing platforms and campaigns for Fortune 500 companies.
Combined expertise in RSS and podcast development with an extended network of relationships with independent, corporate and mainstream media.
Developed and licensed Castlock, a robust new media management and RSS metrics platform that enables users to manage large libraries of content and maintain statistics privately.

Professional Experience

Room 214, Boulder, Colorado ● 1/2007-11/2007

Vice President, New Media

Leadership force for product development within an organization that integrates new media, public relations efforts, web marketing methodologies and technologies under cohesive systems that drive measurable calls to action via the Internet. Company services were solicited from some of the most recognized PR firms and creative agencies to positively impact corporate sales, brand awareness and communications.

Major Contributions:

Developed moderated media RSS feeds (mmRSS) for episodic and archived content delivery via RSS

Orchestrated product development and integration of emerging technologies such as Twitter and other social media APIs into Castlock, a robust new media management and RSS metrics platform

Created and delivered new products from the Castlock code base, RSSignite and Episodr

Spearheaded integration of new media including podcasting and RSS into new client product offerings and marketing campaigns

Invigorated existing client marketing campaigns with new media elements

Directed digital media production from concept to final deliverable

Initiated research and development for RSS strategies and effective RSS search engine optimization

Served as company spokesperson at industry and new media events around the country

Career Note: As a representative of Room 214 and respected authority in the new media field I delivered the following presentations:

Podcast & New Media Expo (Sept. 2007) Ontario, CA.Compression Killed the Video Star

PodCamp NYC (Apr. 2007) New York, New York. Panel Podcast Open Metrics Initiative.

eLearning 2007 (Mar. 2007) Chicago, IL. Using RSS Feeds, Podcasts to Deliver Distance Education

Podcast Academy 5 (Feb. 2007) Duke University. Understanding Authenticated & Personalized RSS Feeds

Joint Commission Resources/Joint Commission, Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois ● 5/2005-12/2006

Associate Director, eLearning

Promoted to direct eLearning digital product development for Joint Commission Resources. Led innovations in delivery of information required to comply with the accreditation standards of the Joint Commission on Accredited Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO). JCAHO accreditation and certification is the standard of excellence in health care organizations.

Major Contributions:

Identified opportunities for new revenue streams utilizing innovative content delivery systems

Evangelized blogging and podcast initiatives to integrate new media technologies within the enterprise

Directed a division to develop digital products and manage legacy products focusing on increasing sales

Engineered courseware implementation, software, coding and course development for field cadre and central office employees

Disseminated educational training information to 400 global field staff via a custom RSS application

Palegroove Studios, Naperville, Illinois ● 2/2005-Present

Founder/CEO

Pioneered the start-up and development of the world's first podcast production company. Advised Fortune 500 clients on utilizing this medium to extend their brands. Developed podcasts from conception to deliverables which includes consulting with client on: show content, format, script writing, transcripts and creation of royalty free musical intros,outros and sweepers. Developed and licensed Castlock, a robust new media management and RSS metrics platform. Produced over 700 podcasts since 2005.

Podcasts Produced:

MasterCard, The Home Depot, Abbot Laboratories (2007)

Nascar Alltel Racing Podcast (2006 & 2007) produced podcasts in conjunction with XM Satellite Radio

NFL Alltel My Circle Podcast (2006 season) produced with nationally recognized radio talent from official team media outlets

Nascar Coors Light Racing Podcast for Coors Light (2006)

Fab 5 Summer '05 Podcasts produced for MTV Networks Affiliate Marketing (2005)

Developed and independently produced Croncast (2004-Present) delivered 3 times a week since November of 2004 and recognized by a number of media outlets including: The New York Times, Detroit Free Press, FOX News, and NBC (Chicago)

Career Note: As a successful entrepreneur and recognized expert in the podcast industry I delivered the following presentations:

PodCamp West (Nov. 2006) San Francisco, CA. Keynote panel The Future of New Media

Portable Media Expo (Sep. 2006) Ontario, CA. Leveraging Your Knowledge as a Podcasting Consultant

Podcast Academy 4 (Sep. 2006) Ontario, CA. Web Design for Corporate Podcasting

Waubonsee Community College, Sugar Grove, Illinois ● 5/2000-5/2005

Distance Learning Technical Support Specialist

Trained and supported university and college faculty throughout Illinois on the integration of technology into the classroom as part of ILLCO, a state funded initiative

Designed and developed all graphics, wrote code, recorded, edited and encoded all audio for a Flash virtual tour of the college campus for use online, CD-ROM and hybrid DVD

Recognized as innovator within organization promoted four times in five years

Languages

PHP, MySQL, RSS, XML, HTML

Audio/Video

Sound Forge, Acid Pro, WaveLab, Vegas, Waves, Fruity Loops

Blogware/Podcasting

Castlock and WordPress

Design/Interactive

Flash, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator

Courseware

WebCT, aTutor, Scenario Studio, and HorizonLive

Education

BFA Visual Communication with an emphasis in Digital Design 2005

American InterContinental University, Hoffman Estates, Illinois

Associates of Arts Degree December 2000

Waubonsee Community College, Sugar Grove, Illinois

August 1993 December 1994

Bradley University, Peoria, Illinois

Tags: RSS guru Podcasting professional PHP Castlock New Media expert RSS expert

Is your system working? I'll tell you for $75

Fri, 22 Jun 2007 11:19:12 -0500
For $75 and one hours worth of time I can ask eBay if their developer XML API service is broken. It has been down now for over 6 hours and not a peep in any message board, service update or email regarding it's status. However, if I want to pay the money I could ask a live human being for a yes or no answer. I need a service like that!!!!

Though I can say from the developer perspective errors like this are really helpful:

1) Http/1.1 Service Unavailable
2) [function.simplexml-load-file]: failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 503 Service Unavailable

Are these errors account related? Is the service really down? Oy vey.

Any of you XML wizards have an idea of what I am encountering?

Tags: eBay affiliate eBay developer eBay API eBay XML developer

Sorry for the late shows

Mon, 09 Apr 2007 10:09:23 -0500
Hey guys, just want to apologize for the show timing lately. That couple hours can make a difference if you have developed a routine. Like this morning I had other work that needed to be done before I could put the show up.

I need to get back into the groove. I will be getting the shows up earlier in the morning like they used to be so that you can start your MWF right.

Tags: Croncast Palegroove Studios Castlock late shows into the groove

Podcasting's 13th Anniversary?

Fri, 23 Mar 2007 10:11:08 -0500
Crack research and a journalism degree can help you too when you need to write an article for your local paper:
"Podcasting, which was developed by Apple in 1994, stands for iPod and broadcasting."
This must have been the real first generation iPod the size of a backpack with swappable floppy's for memory and 10 second podcasts in aif format.

I don't really mean to pick on Ms. Carey, well, maybe a little. I would also think that the Editor also deserves some razzing.

What this article and eventual syndication to a sister Texas newspaper under the same ownership of Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc.(CNHI) highlights is that your tiny corner of the world isn't so tiny anymore. Especially, when it is brought to my attention by a Google alert for subjects I am interested in, like podcasting. Yes, your intended audience maybe local but that doesn't mean the 5000 people in your community are the only ones listening.

Publishing + Syndication + Internet + Filters = One very large conversation.

Maybe someone at CNHI should read the The State of the News Media Report 2007. Pay special attention to the section titled "Newspapers".

Tags: Meghan Carey Schools make podcasting debut Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc. CNHI The State of the News Media Report 2007

Betsy and her husband Kris Feb 26, 2007

Mon, 26 Feb 2007 06:51:04 -0600
Croncast - 2007-02-26.mp3
Show: #342
Length: 36:07
Size: 24.8mb
Format: mp3
Betsy and her husband Kris February 26, 2007

Betsy cranked out some more Resale Queen posts
I added a little widget that pulls you posts into Croncast
At least you can pretend
You're like my management
No I haven't seen the scissors, just the knife
Dog head collar in a homemade envelope
There's only two things shipped in that style of envelope . . . dope or anthrax
Sending packages through USPS media mail
Only books but nothing you wrote yourself
You're gonna tell me that you pay some ogre to open dirty books?
Any likeness to the real guy "One Eye" Pete is unintended
Are postal jobs hard to get?
We're not talking about Jeanie's mom
Taking disability and as a result you can have a post office job
Kris hired the crazy guy that worked at the post office
Yes, Betsy, he talked to his soup and giggled all the time
Little white guy, glasses
Yes, he had his car stolen three times a week and refused to move
He was a Vietnam Vet
Great guy
The Boulder Vet with his Duke's of Hazzard uncle Jesse look
So he was the Boulder information booth
Maybe he was on his lunch break
The FedEx people . . . I like them a lot there more laid back
Anything beyond a lobster
Did you know that you can ship 60,000 chickens through the mail
"I gotta get these chickens to Detroit in a week. Can you ship them?"
Putting the dog on the APC at the post office
Our 16 lbs. golden retriever arrives at our destination
I want that to be us
I want to be the old couple in the RV at Cracker Barrel and watch you walk our Pomeranian
Kris standing in his overalls and shiny sports jacket embroidered with "Betsy's Bitch"
My vision is you dressed super puffy cuff with a baby bjorn with the dog in it
Point of contention and Kris's car
It's what you are doing to my car
You're destroying my car
I'm just not into details
When I pull up into the resale shop in your Jag and I have to think twice about where to park it
You need to be driving the Volvo
Fancy schemlly coffee that has spilled all over in it
I'm calling you out on the show finally to make my point
I'll fill my car up tomorrow with your money
Betsy scraps with the loose cannon owner of the local gas station
He's an asshole . . . baby no he's not
Your card is no good
Crazy eBay lady just leave
I wanted to throw a donut at him
I got men to take care of
Soap, razors . . . those are expensive Mr. B
Can't you go with a single blade?
You'll get a rough more manly look
I have been converted to the more blades the better crowd
Why don't you use the power stuff?
Coming Wednesday . . . blowing a lot of dough, Kris comes clean

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Tags: Resale Queen blog USPS media mail FedEx people Cracker Barrel 60,000 chickens

Songbird is the bitchinest podcast receiver ever

Wed, 17 Jan 2007 19:11:00 -0600
I'm not quite sure that is the way that the uber developers of the Songbird media player would put it but as a podcaster I have never seen a program that makes it this easy to subscribe to podcasts or get media from the web.

The best part is that the word 'podcast' isn't used anywhere in the vernacular associated with Songbird. I find it refreshing. I should probably be questioning it as a guy making a living from his podcast skills (hoy ya!). But damn if they haven't taken all the mystery out of receiving a podcast by simply saying, "Play the Web". No more explaining to newbies what a podcast is or how to download one.

Even in this post at Wired the word 'podcast' is conspicuously missing. I have said the word 'podcast' once every 15 minutes for the last two years . . . so not to see it associated with a media player would be a non-starter for me in downloading it.

They make receiving podcasts so simple. It can be done one of two ways:

1) Use the Songbird and navigate to the website that has mp3's and it finds them for you and allows you to subscribe to the site.

2) Go to 'File' >> 'New Subscription . . .' >> Type in the URL of a website or add an RSS feed >> Point to a folder >> Hit 'OK'

All of the associated media will then download in the background and be ready when you are to play. Sick. What would make it even sicker is RSS auto discovery. That way a subscription could be chosen for the for the feed which usually has many more files than the site alone.

I haven't been this excited about a technology or piece of software since I first found out about podcasting. My recommendation is that you go over to Songbird's site and download the developer version and get a taste of what's to come in liberated distribution . . . the liberated media player.

I might be showing up late to the party since they have been public for over a year, but for me this is a big day. Not only to evangelize for Songbird but for thinking about the next iteration of podcasting.

Tags: Songbird Songbird media player podcast receiver wired magazine Pioneers of the Inevitable

Scoble CES lunch with Bill Gates

Mon, 08 Jan 2007 09:42:26 -0600
Robert Scoble has a great video of a lunch that he and other bloggers had with Bill Gates at CES. Thanks to PodTech for making this video available as an embedded flash player.
The first few minutes are some banter and then they get down to business.
Here's a link if you're reading this from RSS.

Tags: Robert Scoble CES Bill Gates Bill Gates CES BlogHaus CES PodTech

Ron asks, 'What Equipment Do You Use?'

Sat, 09 Dec 2006 13:27:57 -0600
It's been a while since I talked about the equipment that I use and no time seems better than now thanks to this question:
"Can you tell me what microphones and mixer you use to record Croncast? (I heard the "expensive" microphone show recently and I had to laugh--I'm more interested in two microphones that are in the $100-$125 price range [each]).
Thanks!," Ron
Here's what currently makes up my audio signal path, hardware and software for Croncast.

2 - Marshall MXL 2003 microphones (Ron, for an extra $25 you won't be disappointed) [link]
2 - Universal Audio 6176 channel strips w/ preamp and compressor [link]
1 - PreSonus Firepod [link]
1 - Sony VGC-RB62G computer [link]
1 - Sony Sound Forge 8 audio editor [link]
1 - Waves L2 Ultramaximizer mastering compressor [link]
1 - Sony Vegas 6 multitrack for putting show together [link]
1 - Xing MP3 encoder (included in Vegas) encoded to Joint Stereo, 96 Kbps at 44.1 KHz
1 - MP3 Tag Tools to edit ID3 tags [link]
1 - iTunes to add more meta-data specific to iTunes (I can explain way below this)

This is what takes a Croncast from nothing to something.

Here's the breakdown.

Marshall Electronics MXL 2003 [link] microphones . . . I recommend these mics to everyone that asks. And after recently cheating on them with a Neumann U87ai I like them even more. With a price tag of $149 at most dealers you can't go wrong. We've used them now for two years and I own five of them. The sound is clear, they knock a lot of ambient noise down and their pick up pattern is second to none with a great low end and limited high end. The mic comes with a bass cut and a -10dB pad switch that can help when finding the right sound for your voice and recording space. These are phantom power microphones so I need a preamp.

Universal Audio 6176 [link] analog channel strip with 610 Tube Microphone preamp and 1176LN compressor. These two units are a new piece to the puzzle. They've replace the dbx 166XL that I was using for some limiting. The 6176's bring a nice warm sound to the shows that the 166XL didn't have. Most studios use them for recording bass tracks or heating up/distorting some vocals but I prefer them on a little lower setting to add a level bass and compression to our voices that would take me a couple of hours to create in post production through eq and other plug-ins.

PreSonus Firepod [link] is a 24-bit/96K FireWire recording interface with 8 preamplifiers (8 XLR/line inputs with phantom power). I originally bought this to replace an M-Audio MobilePre that was flaking out and causing intermittent popping in tracks. The reason that I chose the Firepod was primarily the 8 XLR inputs with phantom power to multitrack instead of force output to a single stereo track . . . a huge plus when recording more than 4 voices for a show. Also, if the UA 6176 wasn't part of the signal chain anymore I could live with the sound, I did for five months.

Sony VGC-RB62G [link] Intel Dual Core 2.8GHz with 2GB RAM. I've done little modification of this box other than adding a new video card, an extra FireWire card, a gig of RAM and a second hard drive. Usually, I prefer to build my own computer but was in the middle of the Alltel Racing Podcast when the old one died and I needed something right away. I went to Fry's and this box was best thing that they had in stock that met my requirements. It is or was sold as a Media PC and came with remote, surround speaker set up and more software than I could care to have (primarily the shit that just gums up the system). The only complaint that I have had so far with this computer is that every input in the back of it USB, FireWire or 1/8' has a ton of electrical noise in it when used for recording. I am forced to use the front 4 pin FireWire input for what should normally be a transparent sound recording.

Sony Sound Forge 8 [link] audio editor. This is the software that I record the shows into. I have been using Sound Forge for the last 7 years. When I got my first computer in 1999 at age 25 I learned how to use it by working with Steinberg's WaveLab (another great audio editor) but late in that year switched to Sound Forge. WaveLab had a lot of great features but they never compared the bundle of plug-ins that came with or for Sound Forge. WaveLab relied on the VST model and Sound Forge on Direct-X which meant that there were also more plug-ins to choose from. The killer plug-in was the Noise Reduction tool that prior to version 7 (maybe 6) wasn't bundled with the license. It is the best noise reduction tool on the market. I've heard most of the rest first hand, even the ones used in million dollar studios and would still choose the one in Sound Forge. I don't use Noise Reduction on our show but when doing post on audio recorded out of the studio I use it about 90% of the time.

Waves L2 Ultramaximizer [link] mastering compressor. Yep, I already ran the audio signal through an amazing compressor in the 6176 but the L2 puts the finishing touches on the wav file before I close out Sound Forge. This plug-in is the secret in my sauce. I have used it for about four years and find it's sound brighter, more open and louder than any other including Ozone 2 or 3 (which is an attempt to recreate the sound at a lower cost).

Sony Vegas 6 [link] multitrack video editor. Video? Did Kris just say, video? I sure did. When this product was first developed by Sonic Foundry it started out as a multitrack audio mastering suite that was supposed to be an upgrade from their Acid line of software. That didn't quite work out and they released a second version for video. With two competing versions on the market they made the wise decision to morph them together into Vegas Video, Sonic Foundry was bought by Sony and the rest is history. I use Vegas basically the same way that I use Dreamweaver for coding pages, as a template. All i have to do for Croncast is plug in each new recording on the timeline and poof there is a fully mastered show.

Xing MP3 encoder (included in Vegas) all shows are encoded to Joint Stereo, 96 Kbps at 44.1. This lowest quality that I will encode my own work to or for that of a client. This range is somewhat higher than many podcasters will recommend for a speech driven show but I find that anything less sound hollow and purely focuses on midrange sounds. Blah. At a bit rate lower than 96 Kbps most audio encoders, like this one, won't allow for a sample rate of 44.1 KHz. I used to encode the shows to a lower value two years ago when we first started but then iTunes came to town and studios started cranking out CD quality audio files. Once that bar was raised I figured it was okay for me to join that party.

MP3 Tag Tools [link] to edit ID3 tags. It is open source and the best ID3 tag editor that I have found. It will allow you to make changes to version 1 and 2 tags that will cover most of the popular media players like WinAmp, Windows Media Player and iTunes. It'll even let you add up to 18 images per file in the album art that can be displayed in iTunes.

iTunes for adding iTunes specific data to the ID3 tag. Didn't you already do this? Sort of. iTunes uses on the variances of the ID3 V2 tag standard to display meta data that is included with the MP3.

That is it friends. Once all that crap has happened it is time to upload the show to the server, fire up Castlock, start adding show notes and then make the show available for download.

Tags: MXL 2003 Universal Audio 6176 PreSonus Firepod Waves L2 Ultramaximizer Sony VGC-RB62G

Betsy and her husband Kris Nov 20, 2006

Mon, 20 Nov 2006 06:59:19 -0600
Croncast - 2006-11-20.mp3
Show: #304
Length: 29:42
Size: 20.4 mb
Format: mp3

Betsy and her husband Kris November 20, 2006

It's a comments show thanks to Nick T.
Is Nick T. real?
Kris doesn't think so
Not gonna break down that wall
Betsy is gonna read the email
Turns out she reads it in a Tiny Tim voice
"Nick . . . our kids are in bed. It's my time to be an adult"
"What is compelling about our show to a 10 year old"
Nick is Kris from the future
The allure of 30 year olds hanging out on the cul de sac
Did Nick's parents put him up to it?
Betsy says she swears a lot for an adult
Betsy, "My life revolves around sippy cups and wiping people."
If it is real I am all for it
I new I was never going to get a job in the FBI
What would I do if the kids were awake
Elliot knows the Goodwill employees by name and length of employment
Do you think we should stop swearing?
No
Kris lays down the documentation of what we documented when we started the podcast
Betsy wants to stop selling junk and sell cars
She could take smoking up again and drink on the job
In 2006 with the Pomade in the hair . . . creepy
Her male co-workers would be in for it
The man really make all the big decisions
Man soap and deodorant
Too much hygienic responsibility for one man to take
High fa luting tooth brushes for the bear
It's too easy not gonna turn that one around on you
Being repossessed with your car
Ben's "Barf" comment
Barf means snow

When you gave that presentation in 5th grade did you show photo
Let me tell you about my dad's Nova
It was a grass killer, worm farm starter and plant holder
The old school steering wheel
The back seat was plywood with foam on top covered in denim
Did you wear a seat belt or bungee cord?
I was free range
Stuck my leg in the door and got leg closed in door
And Kris puked immediately
It hurt like the "dickens" . . . just for Nick T.
Mustache of grass 10 inches high
What happened to the Nova?
It eventually was removed upon municipal ordinance
It was the beginning of my worm farm days
Running the hose under the car at dusk to come and collect night -crawlers
The microphone comment and email . . . this is special
Congratulations to Dave and to Dave and Melissa
I'm sure he became more attractive after he opened the envelope
Kris would be a malpractice lawyer for patients suing cosmetic surgeons
Words of advice from Kris, go after Dr. 90210
Betsy can relate
"We need a hot cameraman," Betsy
PodCampWest talk on Wednesday

Tags: Barf detergent Dr. 90210 PodCampWest rusty chevy nova plywood car seat