Category: audiocasts

blogging and online comments

On By Rick McIn audiocasts, blogs, ethics, internetLeave a comment

I listened to an excellent audiocast:

Hosts: Leo Laporte and Tom Merritt

Best known as a prominent blogger, and Vice President and Chief Evangelist of Expert Labs, Anil Dash is this week’s guest.

Triangulation

Three of the smartest internet gurus, together.

Of greatest interest to me was Anil’s opine on why true blogging (better) was eclipsed by microblogs like Twitter & Facebook (inferior). The true blogging platforms (e.g. WordPress & Blogger) are still too much work. Tumblr is better.

Next … the pros and cons of online comments.

Gurus MG Siegler and Anil, amongst others, recently turned comments off on their sites.

Matt Gemmell did too. Then posted the most detailed commentary I’ve seen on online comments – Comments Still Off

Personally, I have few enough hateful and ignorant comments on my blogs not to feel compelled to turn them off. The value — especially comments correcting my many errors — outweigh the negative Karma.

Issues regarding comments come up about once a week or so on my Gymnastics blog. I try not to delete or edit, but am forced to occasionally.

My advice, as always — DON’T READ COMMENTS.

why eBooks are the future

On By Rick McIn audiocasts, books1 Comment

Whether you love old fashioned books or not, I’m thinking they’ll be an expensive custom order product sooner than you think.

Why?

The traditional publishing industry is driving all but best selling authors to eBook.

Take, for example, Trey Ratcliff, author of A World in HDR, which deals with a new technology, high dynamic range (HDR) photography.

He got a $20,000 advance from the biggest photography publisher, Peachpit, and 15% of each copy sold.

Sounds pretty good — right?

Nope.

After that misadventure Ratcliff launched an online company called FlatBooks to self-publish and now earns an “80% profit margin”.

Read his story on GigaOm – Why e-books will be much bigger than you can imagine

In 2012 the interface for reading eBooks is still evolving. I don’t enjoy it. In the meantime, I’ll stick with audio.

Apple soon may be releasing new software to help put old publishing out of its misery. God speed.

tech gurus

On By Rick McIn Apple, audiocasts, Google, product complaints, product endorsementsLeave a comment

The most popular Geekcast is TWIT, This Week in Technology.

I’ve actually become less attached to that show, preferring MacBreak Weekly and This Week in Google as audiocasts from the same network.

But the most recent episode of TWIT was excellent: There’s An App in my Lap

Leo Laporte, Om Malik, Robert Scoble, and John C. Dvorak

The first 3 are respected tech gurus. Dvorak’s there as a comic, contrary counterpoint. Here’s their advice:

• iPhone 4S is a winner — first as a replacement for you point-and-shoot camera. Still a great phone for regular folks. Tech geeks will be happier with the high end Androids. Look for the Nexus Prime with Ice Cream Sandwich to be launched next week.

• iPhone 4S Siri voice controller is “the future”, but works inconsistently so far

• Kindle Fire (coming Nov. 15th) likely to be a loser, a poor competitor to the iPad. Instead get a $79 Kindle e-reader, the low end. A perfect Christmas present.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

It costs $109 if you want NO ADS on that same cheap device. … I’m not sure how well it works around the world. Check first before you buy one if you’re not living in the States.

• huge fight looming between Facebook & Google. Many already spend most of their time in Facebook … when they can SEARCH and WATCH TV / Movies in Facebook, they’ll never need to leave.

• the future of watching what you want, when you want, online is still up in the air. Another looming battle.

• Microsoft bought Skype. The gurus have no confidence that’s going to work. Competitors could beat Skype.

P.I. Soccer Moms

On By Rick McIn audiocasts, product endorsements, things getting worse, TVLeave a comment

This American Life is the best radio show in existence. Always good.

But they outdid themselves in episode 447:

THE INCREDIBLE CASE OF THE P.I. MOMS
Originally aired 09.23.2011

What do you get when you take a P.I. firm, then add in a bunch of sexy soccer moms, official sponsorship from Glock, a lying boss, and delusions of grandeur? This week’s show.

Ira explains how a man named Chris Butler created a private detective agency where the investigators were good-looking soccer moms. Their publicist invited a reporter named Pete Crooks from Diablo magazine to do a ride-along with the PI Moms on a case. Pete thinks it’ll be a simple, fun assignment. Turns out he was wrong. …

Chris Butler is a megalomaniac who decides that his Soccer Mom private investigators would make him a reality TV celebrity. He now faces life in prison.

… On one level it’s a brilliant, astonishing story. On another an indictment of American “culture” in 2011.

To listen download from here, or subscribe to the audiocast via iTunes.

One bit of good news — the P.I. Soccer Moms reality TV show was cancelled.

in defense of Ayn Rand

On By Rick McIn audiocasts, books, economics, movies, philosophy1 Comment

“There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged.

One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world.

The other, of course, involves orcs.”

– Attributed to Paul Krugman.

Atlas Shrugged had that effect on me.

… explores a dystopian United States where leading innovators, ranging from industrialists to artists, refuse to be exploited by society.

The protagonist, Dagny Taggart, sees society collapse around her as the government increasingly asserts control over all industry (including Taggart Transcontinental, the once mighty transcontinental railroad for which she serves as the Vice President of Operations), while society’s most productive citizens, led by the mysterious John Galt, progressively disappear. …

I’ve given Atlas Shrugged to a number of teens. It’s an important book …

Kids need to learn that all men are not created equal, rather that all men should have equal opportunity.

Kids need to learn that we should promote and encourage greatness.

Kids need to learn that authority organizations can ruin their lives ... OK, they already know that.

Now I find myself defending Ayn Rand alongside fans as odious as Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh. That does hurt.

The new Ayn Rand movie adaptation Atlas Shrugged Part 1 got nuked and ridiculed on the Slate Culture Gabfest audiocast.

Click PLAY or watch the trailer on YouTube.

I’m going to see it. Unfortunately the producer of the Ayn Rand adaptation said:

… that he is reconsidering his plans to make Parts 2 and 3 because of scathing reviews and flagging box office returns for the film.

“Critics, you won,” …

I hope he joins Gault and makes the two sequels.

California – extreme democracy gone wrong

On By Rick McIn audiocasts, economics1 Comment

… California is now called a “dysfunctional”, “ungovernable” and even “failed” state. When Mr Brown began his first stint as governor, California had an AAA credit rating, the best there is. Today its rating is A-, the worst among all 50 states and not much better than “junk”. The boss of JPMorgan Chase, America’s second-largest bank, last year told investors that he was more worried about California’s solvency than Greece’s. For three years and counting, California has been mired in a budget crisis. At its nadir, the state was paying its bills in IOUs instead of cash. …

I’ve never understood how California can be failing. This article helps clarify:

The people’s will

California is an experiment in extreme democracy gone wrong, says Andreas Kluth. But reform could make it a model for others …

starting in 1978, the culture and system mutated. Jerry Brown was governor when Californians passed Proposition 13, ostensibly an anti-tax measure but in reality a fundamental constitutional change with vast, and mostly unforeseen, consequences. It led to hundreds of ballot measures as citizens increasingly legislated directly and in tense competition with their own representatives.

read more on Economist

Economist blames “voter initiatives”. What seemed like a good idea at the time, doesn’t seem to work in practice.

Better than the article is the accompanying audiocast – Lessons from California – The Perils of Extreme Democracy

in praise of bloggers

On By Rick McIn Apple, audiocasts, blogs, blogs Rick reads, economics, gymnastics, internet, product endorsements, things getting better1 Comment

My second and third favourite sources of information in 2011 are audio:

• Audiocasts
• Audio books

I pretty much always have an audio book or two in progress, buying most of those from Audible.com. … Sadly not every book I want is available in audio.

Audio podcasts are still quite crude. The most evolved, however, are superb: RadioLab, This American Life, CBC Spark, Economist Editor’s Highlights, and On The Media. Almost all audio podcasts are still free.

But my main sources of information … my most trusted … my most detailed and nuanced … are blogs.

The best are labours of love by passionate, often amateur writers. Most bloggers are unpaid, spending thousands of hours focused on a specific topic simply because they love that topic.

more photos of bloggers

For example, the best Apple blog is Daring Fireball. I don’t pay much attention to any other.

I do whatever I’m told by Michael Geist when it comes to Canadian government regulation of the internet. A big election issue right now.

There are 4-5 essential blogs on gymnastics, but if I only was allowed to read one blogger it would be Blythe Lawrence.

If you read Kraig Becker, you’ll know more about outdoor adventure than you’ll ever need to know for one lifetime.

… Those are just a few examples. Leave a comment if you’ve got a blog that I should follow.

(blogger photos via Spark)

This Canadian Life

On By Rick McIn audiocasts, product endorsementsLeave a comment

One of my favourite audiocasts is This American Life with Ira Glass.

One recent episode I loved.

#426:
TOUGH ROOM 2011
Originally aired 02.04.2011

This week we bring you backstage with comedy writers at The Onion. They start with over 600 potential headlines for their fake-news newspaper each week, and over the course of two days, in the very tough room that is their editorial conference room, they select 16 to go in the paper. …

It’s now airing on CBC Radio One on Sunday nights. I’m hoping that increases the Canadian audience.

The CBC, of course, is a great symbolic sacrificial lamb for conservative politicians. It may be cut in coming budgets.

Scientology fact-checked

On By Rick McIn audiocasts, product complaints2 Comments

NPR interviewed director Paul Haggis (who left the Church of Scientology after 35 years) in an audiocast titled The Church Of Scientology, Fact-Checked.

One of many Hollywood bigwigs in Scientology, the story of Haggis falling out with the secretive religion is big news after The New Yorker posted this story – THE APOSTATE – Paul Haggis vs. the Church of Scientology.

Haggis left the church mainly because some Scientologists supported California’s Proposition 8. Haggis felt it was discriminatory to gays and lesbians.

But his departure has blown up. The most important thread, in my opinion, is this detail about the life of L. Ron Hubbard:

… the founder of Scientology, had maintained that he was blind and a ‘hopeless cripple’ at the end of World War II — and that he had healed himself through measures that later became the basis of Dianetics, the 1950 book that became the basis for Scientology.

But checking American military records showed:

… there was no evidence that he had ever been wounded in battle or distinguished himself in any way during the war.

read more on the NPR blog – The Church Of Scientology, Fact-Checked

If Hubbard lied about that, what else is bogus about Scientology?

I’m disillusioned. 🙂

L. Ron Hubbard 1951

Leo Laporte in the NY Times

On By Rick McIn Apple, audiocasts, Google, product endorsementsLeave a comment

My man Leo got a nice shout out …

TWIT gets its name from Mr. Laporte’s flagship podcast, “This Week in Tech,” which is downloaded by a quarter of a million people each week. He produces 22 other technology-focused podcasts that are downloaded five million times a month. He also streams video all day long that captures his podcasting and a weekend radio show on computers, “The Tech Guy,” that reaches 500,000 more people through 140 stations. …

Talking Tech and Building an Empire From Podcasts

I’m a dedicated soldier in the TWIT army listening to perhaps 7hrs / week of his broadcasts from twit.tv.

Like almost everyone I subscribe via iTunes.

My favourite shows are This Week in Google and MacBreak Weekly.