More podcasts are coming, Hulk, never fear! I just resolved an issue that’s been the holdup for the past couple of weeks. I bought a new little recorder…crappy cheap thing, but a) line-in (for mike), and b) mounts as USB device. Cool.

But…(always a but when I buy something cheap) in the default (low-quality) record mode, the output is one funked-up WAV file. It’s 8Hz, 1 channel IMA ADPCM audio, and my standard podcast management tools (ReZound for editing, lame for encoding) are unable to read the file correctly. And even though there’s a higher quality mode I can set it to for the future, I already had several recording sessions…a cursory listen to the file sounded ok, the USB mount was fine, etc. Dangit!

mplayer (as always) to the rescue, though. You can listen to the entire file w/o issue using it (other tools could listen to about the first 80 secs, and then thought it was corrupt). I knew there was some way to pass that data on to other tools, but I’m no mplayer command line guru, so it took me a couple of passes to figure it out. For those interested (and me, in case I forget *grin*):

mplayer kaz-2006-11-18-01.wav -ao pcm

dumps out the uncompressed raw PCM audio to disk. Everything understands that. Woot! I’m back in business. Thanks again, mplayer! Expect podcasts to start streaming up soon, sportsfans. I have two that are now pretty much ready.

Well, I’m in the process of actually implementing several additions to the site that have been bouncing around in my head for some time. Most visible already is (a start to) the rework of the the homepage; I’m moving towards using it as an overview of my public info (what I’m reading, watching, posting, podcasting, etc.). The design is still teh suck, but I’m starting to get there idea-wise. Inspiration from Mike Hudack of blip.tv, whom I shamelessly stole the design from. Thanks, Mike!

Behind the scenes, I need lots of new data, obviously. Some is coming from outside sources like blip.tv and del.icio.us, in various formats (primarily JSON, which is cool and fun to play with). It’s nifty to finally start to do some of my own, home-grown web mashups. Some is internal-only, though…like when I read and rate a book, or finish a podcast or a movie. So I’m taking a whack at my own media library schema. It’s pretty simple (primarily Dublin Core resource attributes at this point), but should be sufficient for me.

As a double bonus, this also solves a related problem for me regarding syncing media (podcasts and videos primarily) on and off on storage cards. I need a way to identify that a podcast (for example) has been listened to, so that I know that I delete it from the SD card, and stick something else on. I finally realized the other day that I could use the act of rating a listening event as an indicator that I’ve completed the podcast! And if I use my website’s media library database, I can build the library, post updates, rate files, and improve my media sync tool simultaneously! Joy. It at least sounds plausible…now I just have to finish it up. Details, details…*grin*

Can you say paintball minigun without drooling? Me neither.

Oh, crap…is this awesome or what? Google has added overlays for historical maps to Google Earth. I LOVE old maps…and these are particularly nice, as they appear to be from David Rumsey’s historical map collection, which is an awesome resource for old map fans.

link from MAKE: Blog

Also on:

I’m afraid I’m going to have to jump on the it’s buggy bandwagon for Firefox 2.0. It’s, uh…kinda annoying. Hopefully I can hold off on my home Debian box until a patch or two comes out…of course, I get to actually install Iceweasel there, because, of …um…stuff. I just love being a pedantic Free Software nut!

Note: I have faith; I dig the browser. This is first release, and is typical. Just a bummer. (and yes, I’m doublechecking the [few] extensions I have installed).

I’ve been light on reading list updates recently, but it’s b/c I’m finally catching up on Battlestar Galactica. I accidentally deleted several of the episodes just before the season ender, so I had to wait for them to get rescheduled in order to Myth ’em again. Worth the wait…I’m almost caught up (starting “Collaborators tomorrow on the train to work), and it’s good stuff. There’s not much on TV that I’m watching right now, but BG definitely makes the cut.

When I do have time, I am re-reading Schismatrix (Bruce Sterling) right now, b/c I found a ecopy that I could put on my Nokia 770. It’s always good to have a least one book available, in case you’re out of podcasts, and in a wifi deadzone! Or in the mood to read. *grin*

I really wish I could get more good non-DRM’d fiction. If I could get etexts for the same price (or a bit cheaper…there’s no manufacturing costs, after all) as paper, I’d buy them that way. But what you can find is generally DRM’d to hell and back, or beyond crazy expensive, or both. Usually both. Which sucks. I troll Project Gutenburg, but I’m not always in the mood for 19th stuff! manybooks.net also has a decent selection, but again, mostly old, out of copyright stuff. (In fact, it’s mostly PG stuff with more formatting options, but there seems to be some other stuff as well). And Blackmask Online is your one-stop shop for the Shadow and Doc Savage, but they’ve been in litigation w/ Conde Nast (over copyright, natch), and don’t appear to be up right now. Bummer.

Fictionwise is the best place that I’m aware of for unencrypted, mulitformat ebook fiction. Dave Slusher has mentioned them multiple times, and it looks like they may be worth pursuing.

Here is the blip.tv page, and direct MP3 download link for the October 31st episode.

Sorry for long turnaround! Quick post to catch up and say hi, and chat about Songbird, a cross-platform media player framework that I’m digging. Links:

• Songbird
• G’day World
• Magnatune

Just listened to an excellent podcast from C-SPAN’s Podcast of the week: U.S. District Judge John Jones talks about his ruling on intelligent design and judicial independence. From America and the Courts (10/28/06) [description from the C-SPAN site]. Direct link

REALLY good straight talk on judicial activism, the ID ruling, the role of precedent, etc. He’s really well-spoken.

I’ve been trolling Creative Commons music sites recently looking for music to play in my blog (both as a base track, and as in-cast music). Magnatune always shows up high on any such list…John Buckman has done an absolutely outstanding job with this company. He completely and totally groks the concepts of distributing and promoting music in the 21st century, and has some great stuff. Indeed, I noted that some of the new authors that have been added since the last time I was there looked promising.

While checking out the new stuff, I bumped into a couple of services I hadn’t noticed before (they may not be new…I’m just slow sometimes).

• Magnatune’s podcasting guidelines kick ass…heck, they’ll give you a free pass to d/l high-quality versions of their music, just to make sure it sounds good!
• Magnatune has their own music podcasts! Tons of genre-specific stuff; just what I need to fill out the music player, and also to find good stuff for the podcast.

Awesome. Thanks, Magnatune! Expect some podcast lovin’.

Just doublechecked with Netflix, and it’s been almost exactly 2 years since I last watched The Siege. I’m overdue…and right before the election, too, so as to make sure I’m wound up! Sorry, Grosse Pointe Blank…you’ve got to go back unwatched. We’ll catch you on the flip side.