rats | Croncast - From Cool to Cul De Sac

jelly rats? que paso ikea?

Fri, 09 May 2008 18:40:28 -0500

one delicious sounding snack! mmmm . . . jelly rats.

nothing hits the spot like jelly rats.

Think differently about RSS and its uses

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 10:39:03 -0600

Over the weekend, as some of you may of you noticed, I live photo blogged my Saturday afternoon date with Betsy and our trip to Goodwill. For me it was a time to watch Betsy as she navigated her adopted habitat and to see her operate in a way that is far from the norm in our everyday lives.

I knew this was going to be an interesting experience. Why not share it in as many ways as possible (distribution to: Flickr, Twitter, blog and RSS) with as many people as possible? One input with multiple outputs across the various Croncast audiences.

Making it happen is a lot easier than you think with email and RSS.

First. it is the camera phone that takes decent photos. Second, is the phones ability to send email with photo attachments. Third, is a place to email the photos that has an RSS feed or other API connectivity to other applications. Tons of sites like Flickr, Seesmic and Tumblr offer these and can even do some of the distribution for you. Get these three things in place and sharing your experiences in near real-time has never been easier.

Currently, it does take a little more skill to distribute the photos to Twitter. However, if you get creative you can breathe life into photos that wouldn't normally have existed after it was consumed/viewed in a photo sharing site or through an RSS reader. It is worth the effort to figure this out, it's the next stage of content distribution online.

How do I know? Google Reader shared feeds are the perfect example. Typically once someone reads a post in their reader it has reached the end of the line. But if someone shares it with Google Reader it then gets added to the individual users shared RSS feed and resyndicated. A new life for that content. The same goes for photos that end up in Flickr or a Flickr RSS feed.

In my case, live photo blogging and my ability to cast a wider net wouldn't be possible if it wasn't for the Flickr RSS feed from my account. It is the magic API that feeds (pun intended) the river of resyndication that allows me to give that new life to our content.

Here's how it goes down:

1. Upload photo from phone to Flickr with subject line used as image title
2. In the body under the photo begin with an asterisk (*) if I want the photo, title and description to be a blog post also
3. In the body under the photo begin with a carat (^) if I want the title and a link to be a tweet
4. Add both asterisk and carat (*^) for blog and twitter
5. A PHP script grabs the Flickr RSS feed and reads it for asterisks and carats every two minutes and sends the photo, title and description where it needs to go
6. If it goes to the blog the title and description will be run through a keyword generations script
7. If it goes to Twitter only the title is sent and a shortened url is created to link to the photo

What all of this does is allow me to create multiple channels of distribution that can reach the different audiences that follow us. There is a bit of overlap with multiple audience members subscribed to the same services but quite a few are not. We have the Twitter audience, the blog audience, the flickr audience and the RSS audience. We also have our podcast audience but they are not really a part of this type of delivery

Summary: Look for ways to utilize sites like Flickr as a content management portal, if even from your mobile phone, to cast a wider net across your network. Work to find that one point of contact that has the lowest threshold for allowing you to get your media and thoughts online with the ability to resyndicate your content without having to lift a finger. Well, too many fingers. And make sure that it has an RSS feed!

Tags: live photo blogging RSS as API flickr twitter seesmic tumblr

Betsy and her husband Kris Oct 26, 2007

Thu, 25 Oct 2007 22:22:37 -0500

Croncast - 2007-10-26.mp3
Show: #425
Length: 29:27
Size: 20.2mb
Format: mp3

Betsy and her husband Kris Oct 26, 2007

Show us some love and leave us a review at iTunes

Super short show notes
I need to get to bed
Betsy is Wheel of Fortune crazed
The symptoms of crazy
You get money just for being on the show
It's your first hit of heroin
No you are drawing parallels between me and lab rats
Everyone gets excited about it
No you can't dumpster dive at night in an alley
I can't do it during the day
Well, you need backup
What did you say to me?
Thanks, Kris, for making me do the shows
It's paying off
Improv rocks
Casting calls suck
I have been on the casting side
Very personal
You don't have the balls to be a casting agent?

Audience Survey, please fill this out for us
Look for the graphic on "Audience Survey" on the main page

Tags: Wheel of Fortune Chicago improv classes dumpster diving industrials

FeedBurner goes Google for 83 percent lower emissions

Fri, 01 Jun 2007 14:05:00 -0500

Congrats to the ladies and gentlemen at FeedBurner.

I've watched a friend work really hard over there and travel like a mad man for a few years. Kudos!

Tags: congratulations FeedBurner FeedBurner and Google

Blogging debt gets a listener on TV

Sat, 05 May 2007 12:45:53 -0500

Longtime listener Jason got some tube time this week for his blog No Credit Needed. Congrats man!

Tags: No Credit Needed Blog NCNblog Jason tv tube time

OneMan gets some msm attention for obama2008.org

Sun, 21 Jan 2007 10:30:10 -0600

OneMan, friend, listener and commenter got himself some more local press for his domain www.obama2008.org.

The New York Times ran a piece including him a while back but now that the locals have it . . . you know it must be big.

Congrats Henry!

Tags: Henry Treftz www.obama2008.org OneMan obama 2008 obama for president

Betsy and her husband Kris Apr. 14, 2006

Fri, 14 Apr 2006 06:49:30 -0500

Croncast - 2006-04-14.mp3

Show: #215
Length: 40:58
Size: 28.1 mb
Format: mp3

Betsy and her husband Kris Apr. 14, 2006

Listen with iTunes? Leave us a comment - spread the word!

Show Notes

This humble home awaits demise and future teardown status.

Kris goes old school with the intro; it feels good
Go to Croncast.com and send an email with the contact form
"I am a mommy" it sucks your energy
You're not an iron worker
Pummeled by child, feed this one feed this one
Cabbage Patch Kids on eBay
The iMac is a shiny something that maintains Betsy's attention like a racoon
Cabbage patch kids with ink spots
Loose PayPal card means mommy is working hard
Old biddy pulls out vintage Cabbage Patch kids at Goodwill
Betsy's amazing knowledge of worthless garage sale info that floats in Betsy's head
If Betsy were the wizard she would be hugging the dolls
Marketing My Size Barbies to the the friendless
My size Barbie's cup overfloweth
My Buddy dolls are worth some bucks
I had a wagon that came out of the back of an El Camino (not really but a drag strip car)
Chicago style rats living in our shed as a kid
A pregnant rat from your worldly belongings
We had septic, don't worry about it
Sitting in a cloud of smoke watching Gator, "Don't worry son, you're safe, we got septic"
Crazy ass chainsaw with monster truck tires
A lumberjack should of had that chainsaw
Manly men and powerful chainsaws for your wifes blackberry patch
Taking care of the the sister
Finding a rental in Naperville isn't a mommy's job
Rubbing her head for the stressing me out look
There has to be a line
Fidning a rental over the internet
What do you lose, Betsy?
White Hen acostation where a nerd got put in his place
Teardowns are not evil
Kris says McMansion isn't fair term for the replacements
Kmart would have been a luxury (though i would never wear the clothes from there)
Betsy lays out her messed up youth and her liberal/conservative inner turmoil
How the shows will affect Elliot
Betsy wants stability, no moving, vacations and three squares a day
She's got Bush on one shoulder and Pauly Shore on the other
Every place is the same but a trade-off for some wierd bug or natural disaster
Slugs in the North West
Betsy will do whatever good Unitarians do on Good Friday
How are they going to pay first months rent?
Contest on Monday!! No idea what it is but the prize is a slightly used My Size Barbie

Tags: My Size Barbie contest Naperville McMansion Pauly Shore

Croncast - Betsy and her husband Kris 141

Fri, 28 Oct 2005 05:54:51 -0500

Croncast - 2005-10-28.mp3

Show: #182
Length: 39:56
Size: 27.4 mb
Format: mp3

Croncast - Betsy and her husband Kris 141

Show Notes

The mime
Calling each other 47 times a day
Kris' birthday party events balloon volleyball and jello through a straw races
The Geriatric games
More chest hair than head hair
The digital camera fiasco
Telling a nerd they did good could be the most dangerous thing a person can do
We're not buying today
Prints only from the camera store
He's making prints from a Nikon D50 8 mpx
Kris' rats nest hair
Why didn't somone tell me I need to brush my hair
My hair looks like a pelt
I can't do the bald guy with a goatee anymore
Detriment in Chicago during winter
Balding over-weight men with goatess are the dominant species in this planet
Kris' goatee is like a shrub hiding a rotting porch
There is a podcast voice
Betsy is going to put her dipthong to work at the telephone porn line
Well, okay der bear
It is pledge and donation time again
Cyclical with NPR
Server money is needed
Betsy says $4 per month doesn't make sense, $5 a month or $9.95 is better
The kids aren't yours
The one year anniversary of Croncast is coming
Doing the show 3 times a week is difficult
Kris has other projects to work on podcasting and not
Croncast will be moving to one day a week starting November 14
Send your audio or email of your Croncast memories
Harriet Mier, "liberals will rue the day that she didn't get the job"
New segment, "Goodwill Tonight" Betsy does sound effects
Visual a steam sterilizer and a triple stroller
I'm taking it to Goodwill to teach you a lesson
Screaming serpent roller coaster and rippin rocket
Betsy takes on an 11 year old girl at Goodwill
Someone took her on, she was the home team
First born kids are sibling slappers
Kris apologizes to his brother who is ripped
The hariest, largest woman in Goodwill
Time to scurry away with the baby
Dart them and take their stuff?
Betsy decides to stalk the family
Applies social work principles to get what she wants
Situation assessment for procurement
Lowlights of the old days
Why people don't want to remember the worst times
People work through it and move on and react out of fear
If you look behind you feel like it can happen again
A lack of empathy
Falling back on family if it is an option
Social service programs
How did Betsy make this political
A bit too harsh

Tags: betsy kris croncast hair work