“The Power of Poetry”

Attached is the outline of my groups poetry podcast.  We’d love for anyone’s opinions and we hope everybody likes it!

our-podcast.doc

Jared Spool was even better than I’d anticipated

I had the opportunity to attend the (1st Annual) Webmaster Jam last FRI + SAT here in Dallas and the speaker I was most excited about was JS.

I was not disappointed.

His presentation was so clever – Why Good Content Must Suck with a subtitle of “Designing for the Scent of Information.” Now the SUCK part is not as in BAD but rather, it’s like sucking the viewer into the site, to entice them in with content. He was utterly entertaining.

Let me highly recommend that you attend the second annual Webmaster Jam next year – even if it’s not in Dallas!

This Looks Interesting: Podcasting and WordPress

PodPress is a plug-in for podcasters using WordPress. I will be checking out this one fer sure.

For Our Interaction Designers.

What is Interaction Design? From IT Conversations and the GigaVox Network. With Dan Saffer. The blurb:

If you ask Dan’s parents what they think their son does for a living, they might say he’s in advertising or that he’s a computer programmer. Pressed further, they develop somewhat of a blank staring response when asked what their son does as an Interaction Designer. With that type of response in mind, both from his parents and from many people outside of the Interaction Design community, Dan Saffer presents a definition of his trade.

From the highest level, Interaction Design is all about communication. Dan’s presentation starts from there and further breaks the communication into three layers. The first layer takes the perspective of the technology itself; what is it, how does it work, and what problems can it solve. The second layer focuses on behavior; what happens when a user pushes this button, and what behaviors will the user exhibit as a result. The third layer is all about people and how they will use a technology to interact with one another.

Dan takes time to define exactly what an interaction is. He identifies some of the attributes of an interaction that designers measure while they create products and services around the interaction. He discusses some of the history of Interaction Design, and some of the people involved in the discipline early on. Lastly, Dan takes a moment to map out the many disciplines that make up the User Experience universe and identifies where, he thinks, Interaction Design fits into this large community.

Podcast Hosting. A Start.

Aaarrggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And I’m not speaking pirate.
What’s frustrating me is researching free, or low cost, podcast hosting for class. My first thought was using ourmedia.org, as Dean and I had discussed. But the last few times I’ve gone to the site, the site no worky. Can’t have that.

Of course, this being the era of excess on the internet, everybody and their dog (or cat, no discrimination here) have free, or low cost, podcast hosting. But as I looked into our options, I was swamped by choice, too many choices, swimming in choices, drowning in choice.

So, as a public service to you guys, I am collecting a mix of links for you to review. Some are podcast host links. Others are articles relating to podcast hosting. This is just a start. If you find something you like, or dislike, post it via comments here or as a separate post on the blog for all to view. There is a good chance as I find, or learn, new stuff about podcast hosting I will update this post, probably through the comments section — so browse the comments!

And now, the links …

Switchpod.

(free: 200 mb per month; other plans range from $5 for 500 mb to $30 for 2000 mb; does not accept video uploading, $5 plan does; unmetered bandwidth.)

How to Podcast.

(includes tutorial on setting up an Our Media account.)

Podcast Spots.

(use their software to record and upload your podcast to the site.)

(demo for Podcast Spots.)

Shockpod.

(90 mb of space, 30 mb per-file upload limit, add inserted into RSS feed.)

Libsyn.

(paid site, ranging from $5 to $30 a month; $5 is for 100mb of storage. check out site to see how to measure what space you will need for hosting. have heard the site is slow, but Libsyn is an early player in this game and has respect for delivering quality at low cost.)

PodOmatic.

Podcast Hosting Services List.

(from Dave’s Imaginary Sound Space)

Odeo on Podcast Hosting on the Cheap.

Another listing, fro TipMonkies. Note: comments were late 2005, so some of these services may have changed.)

PodBean.

(free hosting, 100 mb space, audio and video.)

O’Reilly Media article on the subject.

Nophus.

Jellycast.

(from England, an interesting possibility; link to FAQ.)

CyberEars.

(more of a premium service.)

Okay to Play.

(podcast  hosting comparison chart; I have no idea when this was done but it might provide some basic information to compare.)

How to screencap movies

Here’s a super simple walkthrough on how to screencapture videos – in case you wanted to share some screens from a movie or something.

I use VLC player for windows. There are several other programs you can use like PowerDVD or Fraps. Mac users can use GrabMac.

Download VLC player.

Change Video Settings
Change “video snapshot directory”. This is where your caps will be saved.
Change “video snapshot format”. This must be in “png” if you want high quality caps.

Change hotkeys Settings
Click on “Advance options” and find “Take video snapshot”.
Now you can leave the original hotkeys settings for “Take video snapshot” the way it is or you can uncheck Alt and Ctrl and use only one hotkey to cap your video. My hotkey is “c”.

Save settings.

Open the disc or file. VLC plays lots of file types. Check here.

Now when the movie plays you just hit your hotkey (“c”) whenever you want to capture the frame and they will all be stored in your video snapshot directory.

I’ll be periodically adding screens from movies here.

I Quit My Job On Friday.

For the first time in my professional career I resigned from my job. Decided it was best to concentrate on school, teaching, and an internet startup venture than to continue working in product design and development. I loved it, and have learned loads, but the last two years have been rough and the learning has slowed to a near standstill.

Never stop learning.

Risky times are ahead, but risk is one of the things that makes life interesting.

Blog Update.

Several of you are zipping right along with your blogs. Way to go. But there are a few of you — and you know who you are — who have not touched their blogs since Day One. Better pick up the pace. The first eight-week grading period ends Oct. 12, with grades due Oct. 13.

Class 06 Homework, Presentation, In-Class Interviews

First things first: the presentation for class 06 has been uploaded to the usual spot. This one is of note because it has the M-Audio MicroTrack documentation for your review and the timeline between now and the final projects. Time is passing by rapidly.

Also, because we practiced with the MicroTrack and microphone during class, we did not get to the end of the Emac3326 podcast, “episode 2”. While it was meant to be rough and to show the use of Soundtrack Pro, there is a “car cast” at the end where I discuss interviewing. Please at least skim this before class …

Because …

The past two weeks we’ve discussed the heart and soul of podcasting,  your passion and the ability to tell some sort of story, and the brains, the interviewing to bring it all to life. This is new to a lot of you, but it’s necessary for podcasting and videocasting success. After listening to your “interviews” from last Thursday, it’s clear that most of you are comfortable behind the mic — when you relax and be yourselves. That’s so important. Alfredo surprised me with his interviewing skill. Guy may be an old hat but he has something to say. You’ll get to hear their stories, and others, this week …

Except for the ones who did not figure out how to use the recorder or who held the microphone too far from their faces. This can be corrected. And, as I have said, get comfortable with the equipment, play around with it, do the testing, testing, testing thing while moving the mic to and from your face so you can find out the best placement for your podcast. Nothing is more frustrating than having to re-record due to a poorly placed mic.

Now, while you guys are on the verge of some good podcasts and videocasts, now comes the time when we need to knuckle under. All except for Rizwan & Co. owe me an outline of your show for this week’s homework. Some of you are fairly well defined, but I still need something from you that states what you are going to do, what the show’s intent is, and what the first show or two or three looks like. At a minimum, you will need an intro, the show, and the outro, but I’d like to see something a little more than a basic show. Be creative. Have fun. Throw in a song or two, or something else that interests you. As I said before, a half-an-hour show can go by pretty quickly with a little planning.

Get more out of Pandora via Lifehacker

For those of you that have found Pandora, this might be a handy article. There are some pretty good tips.

Technophilia: 15 ways to get more out of Pandora