Blog Jones

This has to be the coolest thing I’ve ever seen:

Have you heard The Seanachai yet? If you haven’t, you’re missing out on the best podcast out there, period.

[Brief Interlude to define podcasting for the uninitiated:

Put simply, a podcast is an easy way to subscribe to audio content. Just like a newspaper subscription brings you written content every day, a podcast brings you audio content on a regular basis. Whenever the podcaster publishes a new mp3 file, the podcasting software automatically downloads it to a folder on your hard drive.

From there, you can either put the files on an mp3 player, burn them to a cd, or just listen to them, just like any other mp3 files. Some podcasting software will even automatically load them onto your mp3 player for you. (What convenient times we live in!)

You subscribe to a podcast with a program like Doppler or iPodder or any of the other programs listed here. I use Doppler myself.

End Interlude]

Now, there are many kinds of podcasts, although most are spoken-word rather than music. Some, like the Rip-n-Read Blogger Podcast, are about current events. Others, like the CIO Podcast and the Slashdot Review are about technology issues. Others are about business issues, like 800-CEO-READ Podcasts, still others are about spiritual issues, like those at Godcast.org. The Seanachai is in a different category altogether: It’s very entertaining short fiction.

In fact, here’s a new 60-second commercial that he’s created to promote the podcast. Go listen, then come back.

…

My personal favorite stories are The King of the Lendu, A Very Slow Getaway, and his St. Patrick’s Day Episode.

Now, fair warning for the easily offended, since my audience does consist primarily of conservative Christian BJU students: The author does occasionally curse, so don’t play it too loud in the dorms. (Personally, I’ve decided that people curse, and that you’ll cut yourself off from a lot of good content–like the Seanachai–if you don’t learn to ignore it. Besides, you can’t go through life expecting the whole world to change its behavior because it offends you. But I do realize that others don’t feel the same way; hence the warning.)

It’s really a great podcast, full of very interesting and entertaining stories. And hey, it’s free! What more could you ask for?

Oh, one more podcast to mention: If you prefer hearing some of the classics, I recommend Tim Aldrich’s readings of Sherlock Holmes stories. He’s already completed A Study in Scarlet and is in the process of reading The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.

Podcasts definitely make my commute to BJU much more entertaining.

It looks OK from the outside, but wait until you run it through the airport security scanners.

Try explaining that to the burly security guard while you’re on the floor with a gun at your head. “It’s not a nuke, honest!”

This story was brought to you by The Inquirer, a website run in a country whose language has no word for “laptop.”

(Via Engadget)

This looks really, really cool.

I tried doing this; it’s harder than it looks, and it only works from one angle. (No wonder we haven’t invented cloaking devices yet.)

(Via Engadget)

Do I Need A Jacket?

Here’s a program that might help you bloggers out there: It’s called “Send to FTP.”

(For the benefit of the uninitiated, FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol; programs called FTP clients use FTP to send files around over the internet. It’s the best way to add files to web servers like the one that hosts Blog Jones.)

I don’t know about you guys, but there are a lot of times when I’ll want to upload one or two files to Blog Jones; say I want to add a picture or a new plugin for WordPress. Before I found this program, I would have to go find my FTP client (either LeechFTP, which works well, but was last updated in 1999 and was poorly translated from the original German, or the File Manager on cPanel, which was pretty, but slow) connect it to my server, locate the folder on the server I wanted the file to go to, upload it, and close the program; a lot of steps.

Now, I can just right click on the selected file or group of files, highlight “Send To” and click “Send to FTP.”

It’ll prompt you for the name of the server, your username, and your FTP password, and then you hit OK. Seconds later, the file arrives on your server, ready to be shown to the world.

The software is simple, efficient, and best of all, completely free. Definitely worth a download!

Imagine if your cell phone company recorded every single conversation you had and stored all of them in a huge database someplace. Everything: From your plans to go to the mall after work to company trade secrets.

Imagine further that they could make this database available to anyone they wanted–including selling it to other companies or playing conversations on advertisements.

Let’s also pretend that the cell phone companies had the capacity to send this database (or portions of it) anywhere in the world and could keep all of the data forever.

Scary picture, isn’t it?

Well, under the new America Online Instant Messenger service’s Terms of Service, they claim the right to do all of the above with your conversations on AIM.

Here’s the relevant portion of the Terms of Service agreement, my emphasis:

by posting Content on an AIM Product, you grant AOL, its parent, affiliates, subsidiaries, assigns, agents and licensees the irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide right to reproduce, display, perform, distribute, adapt and promote this Content in any medium. You waive any right to privacy.

(via SlashDot)

Wow! This cool. Wired News reports that UCLA scientists have modified HIV to fight cancer in mice. Yay for gene therapy!

(Via SlashDot.)

I got an email earlier this week asking me how to use Proxomitron as a profanity filter. (Seems I mentioned it in an earlier post. Hooray for the miracle that is Google.) Here’s how to do it:

Google, my all-time favorite company, has a new service: Google Maps. I absolutely love it.

A fairly graphics intensive walkthrough follows in the extended entry

As I mentioned last post, I’m the proud owner of a Creative Zen Touch, a Christmas gift from the folks. (I’ve never called my parents that before, actually.) I’d heard of something called “podcasting” before, and decided to give it a try.

What is podcasting? Well…. It’s like blogging, only with mp3 files instead of webpages.

Here’s what I do: When I find a podcast I want to listen to, I drag the link to it from the web browser to BlogMatrix Sparks!. After a few moments, Sparks! figures out what to do with it and it pops up on my list of Podcasts.

As you can see, there are two different kinds of posts on the list. The ones with just a blank page icon are text posts; the ones with a green note on them have MP3 files attached. The next step is to right click on the new blog’s title and click “Settings,” then to select the Attachments and Podcasting tab. Check the “Automatically Save Attachments” checkbox and hit OK.

Now Sparks! will download all the attachments automagically. I have Creative MediaSource, the horrendously ugh-ly Media Player software that was included with the Touch, set to monitor the folder that Sparks! downloads to. When I plug my MP3 player into my computer, MediaSource detects it and opens, again, automatically. I then click the “AudioSync” button, click next, and the new files are added to the player.

Now, whenever the new website is updated with a new MP3 file, all I have to do is to plug in my MP3 player and click a button. A minute later, I can listen to the new content wherever I go.

My favorite podcast is the Rip ‘n’ Read Blogger Podcast. Every day I can listen to a quick summary of the most popular topics of the previous day. I’m also subscribed to The GodCast Network for The Whole Truth, a podcast which will read the the whole New Testament over the course of 2005.

It’s all very cool. All I need to do is figure out some way to make it so that I don’t have to click *anything*.

UPDATE: I don’t recommend Adam Curry’s podcast, seen in the screenshot. Here’s a tip for any podcaster wanting my attention: Watch your language. And say something interesting. Thanks.

One question: The regular iPod doesn’t have a shuffle mode?!

My Creative Zen Touch does.

Ha Ha!

That is all.

Apple’s latest computer, the Mac Mini is pretty impressive. Aimed at the first time Mac acolyte, it actually has a decent price ($500), claims to be compatible with your monitor and your (USB) keyboard and mouse, and advertises that “It Just Works.”

It’s also pretty slick; as befits the name, it’s tiny–just 6×6x2, about the size of a car stereo. Check this out:

It’s a very nice computer. The specs are OK, for such a small device: 1.25 GHz, 40 gig hard drive, 256 MB ram (upgradeable to 1gig).

BUT: Here’s where the Mac and I part ways:

Enchanting Enhancements

Mac mini offers plenty of juice to power your digital life, but you can kick it into overdrive with extras. Add the SuperDrive option to burn DVDs of your home movies or to make a backup of the music or audiobooks you buy at the iTunes Music Store. You can minimize the desktop clutter of cables with wireless connections. Surf wirelessly with an AirPort Extreme Card installed in your Mac mini. Or configure your Mac mini with internal Bluetooth to use wireless keyboards and mice. You can also choose up to 1GB RAM and increase the 40GB hard drive to 80GB. Some of these options must be installed by Apple at the factory; the rest can be added in-store at an Apple Store or an Apple authorized reseller.

I’m sorry? I can’t upgrade my own computer? I can’t even slap in my own RAM? No, no, and no.

I can put up with not upgrading my laptop much, but even that lets me slap another stick of RAM in. That, and it’s portable. The tradeoff between a desktop and a laptop is less power and customizability for portability. The Mac Mini has the worst of both worlds: It’s virtually un-upgradable, it’s less capable than other desktops because of its small form factor, and it’s tied to the desk, unlike other small computers.

I mean, it has its niche, but I don’t want one. Especially when you consider that I hate using Macs.

Why, why, why do I have to mess with that weird little clover-leaf key instead of using my trusty old keyboard shortcuts? I hit Alt-F4 cloverleaf-F4 to close my program and…nothing happens. So I click the red button on title bar of my program’s open window. The window closes but… the program stays open. I have to go to the menu bar, which is strangely detached from individual windows, click File then Exit Program, and it finally goes away. ARGH!

I like my Windows OS. I’m used to it. I can (usually) make it cooperate with me. The buttons do what I expect. Microsoft Word doesn’t make noises at me. The Mac OS is pretty, but it’s darn near unusable.

Whoops. I didn’t mean to get into all of that. Now I’m going to get some Macolytes in here. I’ll quit kicking the anthill now.

This does make a nice entry-level Mac. But you can’t just go grab a new and improved video card off the shelf and install it. You have to take the unit to the Temple of Apple where the highest members of the Order work their magic to make your games (all 5 games that work with the Mac) run faster.

Now, I’ve never built my own PC. (I want to sometime, but I can’t justify it to myself at this time.) I rarely do my own upgrades, and it’s usually a pain in the rear end when I do. But I can. I have the freedom to easily modify my own device. I can’t on a Mac.

But if you really, really want to switch to Mac, you can try it (kind of) cheaply now. But, why not get a Dell Dimension 3000 and get a monitor, twice the RAM, and twice the processing power, for the same price as the Mac Mini?

I saw a very strange advertisement today over at baldilocks.

So… I should pay $17 to write about somebody else’s idea?

Here’s a better idea if you have writer’s block. Go to Google News, pick an article, and write about it. It’s current, about something that’s interesting to a number of people, and you got the idea for free.

Yay! Our friends over at w.bloggar have issued the first upgrade to their software in over a year! It has better support for extended entries, and, I’m told, better trackback support. Can’t complain about that.