February 21, 2005
Another day...another show launch at The Podcast Network
Today we launched The Jazz Show over at The Podcast Network. Head over to the site, subscribe to the feed and listen as your host, Andrew Dubber, introduces you to some of the best "podsafe" jazz music around...including (you have to hear this to believe it)...a jazz piece by a bagpipe... :)
PS. More new shows on the way ;)
February 19, 2005
Claybourne...is this the first podcast radio drama???
"Claybourne" is the The Podcast Network's latest show addition. It was a sci-fi / supernatural thriller / soap opera radio drama, recorded and broadcast nationwide in New Zealand in the late 1990s.
A total of 96 shows were produced by Andrew Dubber (who will be hosting one of our music shows for us) and Belinda Todd. It premiered on New Zealand radio in 1998 (1999 perhaps?), was made with the help of New Zealand On Air and also won an award as the Best Dramatic Production at the 1999 New Zealand Radio Awards.
Andrew Dubber has given us kind permission to syndicate the show at The Podcast Network, and I hope you really enjoy what is probably the first serialised radio drama podcast on the internet.
This is a really cool podcast and a fascinating concept...hopefully it will be the first of many "radio drama's" that we present.
February 18, 2005
The first Gadget News show goes up at The Gadget Show
The Gagdet Show over at The Podcast Network has put up its first news show...well done Richard
This whole network thing is turning out pretty cool and its a whole lotta fun... :)
PS. Its a whole lotta work as well....
February 16, 2005
The Bulletin Podcasting article
As i mentioned a couple of days ago, both Cam and I got interviewed by Joshua Gliddon from The Bulletin for an article on podcasting. Well...the other day they sent a photographer around and we did a photo shoot for it as well..and today...the story is out :)
Not only can you get to read a two page spread about podcasting in Australia's premier businesss magazine, but you also get to feast your eyes on a photo of me out on the street at my local shopping area, with my laptop...a set of studio headphones and a serious studio microphone. They figured that would look better than a photo of me at home with my $50 Altes Lansing headset with built in boom mic...I should try and organise the next photo shoot in a proper recording studio just for the hell of it :)
Soooo..if your interested...here is the article on the ninemsn Buletin site (minus the photo)...and here is a PDF (2MB) of the article as well.
February 15, 2005
On the Pod with Darren Barefoot
Just in time for the Northern Voice blogging conference in Canada, we have put up an interview we did with one of the organisers, Darren Barefoot.
The big change here, is that this is the first G'day World podcast to be running 100% over at its new home at The Podcast Network
February 14, 2005
The Podcast Network is live and open to the world
Well..its finally happenend....its just gone 5am on the morning of the 14th of February 2005 on the east coast of Australia, and i have thrown the switch to start The Podcast Network.
Four sites are now live and open to the public...
The Podcast Network Blog
This is the network blog that will keep you all up to date on what is happening at TPN (The Podcast Network). Keep an eye on it for network updates, new shows releases and announcements of new hosts.
G'day World
G'day World is moving over to join the network...check out its new home.
The Gadget Show
The Gadget Show is hosted by Richard Giles and will become THE place to find out about the latest going-ons in gadget land.
The Mobiles Show
The Mobiles Show is hosted by Ewan Spence and the "All About" team and will cover developments in the mobile phone space from both the developers and the users perspectives.
So there you have it...go and check them out...more shows are on the way...and i'll have some news on other hosts in the next couple of days.
Let The Podcast Network revolution begin... :)
February 12, 2005
On the Pod with Staton Rabin
In the latest G'day World "On the Pod" show to go live, we talk to Staton Rabin who has written a book called "Betsy and the Emperor", a young adults book about a friendship between Napoleon and Betsy Balcombe, a fourteen year old who lived on the island of St. Helène where Napoleon was kept on after his capture by the British.
Cam's the big Napoleon buff who ran across the story that her book is being turned into a film starring Al Pacino as Napoleon and organised to get her on the show...cool..
An interesting interview for our first non-tech / non-geek guest...
I've been busy..damn busy....
Its been a hectic week...along with the podcasting photo shoot for The Bulletin magazine interview, building all the backend structure for thepodcastnetwork.com and talking to some of our network show hosts at 4.30 in the morning, I haven't has time to scartch myslef let alone to make any blog posts...
I have spent a lot of time configuring the server and playing with nightly builds of WordPress and i'm pretty sure i've had Photoshop open more in the last week than i have in the last 6 months...oh well....nearly ready :)
February 10, 2005
The Visa Mini
Oh c'mon...this is just taking things a bit too far...
What's next???...a credit card that hooks into iTunes???
February 9, 2005
On the Pod with Steve Rubel
Another G'day World "On the Pod" episode is live...this time we chat with one of the best PR bloggers in the whole blogosphere...Steve Rubel...
For those that don't know...Steve's blog is over at Micro Persuasion and he works for New York PR firm, CooperKatz. Its a fascinating conversation we have so go and check it out...
February 8, 2005
hmmm...chapters in MP3 files
How about "An MP3 ID3v2 tag which describes chapters"..nice idea Sean...very nice idea...
Don't take this the wrong way, but you should hit your head on the toilet bowl more often ;)
First the bad news...the 2005 Australian Blogging Conference has been postponed...
It’s with great sadness and amazement that I have had to postpone (and hopefully will not have to cancel) the 2005 Australian Blogging Conference.
While I have had a great response from people showing their interest in attending and speaking, along with two possible keynote speakers from the US raising their hands for the keynote position, and some early interest from local Australian sponsors...it appears that the business community in Australia is not so much behind the idea of blogging as we all like to think.
In the last month and half, out of all the organisations that said they would be interested in sponsoring the event (quite a few), I have had only one of the sponsors actually come through and agree to be involved. I have tried to get companies on board up until last week...but at some point i had to face the inevitable... :(
And a big thankyou goes out to Nick Bolton at streamhouse.tv who is all set to provide live audio and possibly even live video feeds on the day of the event onto the internet.
What happened I hear you ask...did I ask for too much from the sponsors??? I really don't think so...we needed someone to cover the audio/video feed, someone to cover printing of programs and delegate badges, someone to provide WiFi or broadband into the venue (it is a blogging conference after al), someone to cover lunch and refreshments for between 80-120 people and finally someone to pick up the venue hire (which would have included the A/V gear)...we didn't even come out asking for cash…we just wanted the services to be paid for...none of the money was to even cross our hands.
Yes...we were going to charge a $150 entry fee, and that would have gone to cover any other incidental costs not covered by sponsors...and what ever was left was going into the "future conference kitty"...I had this strange thought that people and companies in Australia were ready for some quality tech orientated conferences again after what has been a drought...well...the people are...but the companies appear not to be...I guess they just want the same old crap we have been getting for the last couple of years...
So...will the conference happen??? I really hope so, but I’m just not sure when…hopefully it will be in late March or early April.
I am throwing out an open request to any companies that may want to step up to the plate and show that they believe in not only blogging but also the "community" that has developed around this area over the last 12-24 months in Australia...and I’m talking about a serious business and tech blogging community...not the "diarists" as some call them. Have we lost so much faith in this business that we don't believe in getting together and talking any more unless it costs us over $1000 to get in??? I hope not...for all our sakes...
Wheres the good news??? I'm hoping its coming soon...
Principius blog :: posts for the week ending 6 Feb 2005
Principius blog posts for the week ending 6 Feb 2005
Short week of posts over at Principius....lots on... :)
February 7, 2005
In the press....again....
Seems the press thing is ramping up again...i sort of got mentioned in a newspaper called the Courier Mail in an article on blogging..and my blog and the front page of the SplaTT website got included in full colour glory ;)
I got interviewed today (along with Cameron) about G'day World, podcasting and thepodcastnetwork.com by a journalist from an Australian magazine called The Bulletin...i also have an up and coming interview with the Sydney Morning Herald on podcasting soon.
Some time soon Cam and I are getting interviewed by a few US media outlets as well...its certainly in an interesting time at the moment :)
February 5, 2005
On the Pod with Frank Arrigo
This is the podcast that all of the Australian developers that listen to the show have been hanging out for...a chat with Frank Arrigo...who for those of you that live under a rock...is currently the head of the Microsoft Developer Platform Evangelist Team in Australia.
Listen to Franks story and get the inside news on how the G'day World podcast came about...the period when Frank was briefing Bill Gates on presentations...why Steve Ballmer had a hole in the wall in his office...why Windows 95 was called Windows 95...how ninemsn started in Australia...and a whole heap of other things...
Frank is such a great guy, you just don't want to miss this interview...
February 4, 2005
Earth Browser...very cool...
Go and get this application now...the EarthBrowser is one of the coolest desktop apps i have seen for a long time.
"EarthBrowser is a three dimensional model of the earth with constantly updating live information. Exploring the earth is fun and easy with a point and click interface that lets you rotate and zoom to any desired location. EarthBrowser's dynamic nature makes it an information resource that is always useful and fascinating."
Trust me on this one....they have both a Windows and Mac version available so no one needs to miss out...well...except the Linux users...
I found out about this app today when we were interviewing Dave Gallo from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for a future G'day World episode.
February 3, 2005
On the Pod with Marc Orchant...
Another great interview goes live today at G'day World...
This time we talk to Marc Orchant...the man behind the Office and TabletPC blogs at WeblogsInc...the man behind "Getting Things Done" and "Marc's Outlook on Productivity" at Office Zealot...one of the authors on "The More Space Project"...and a huge fan of the Moleskine journal...oh yeah...and to top it all off, a great guy...go and check it out...before the bandwidth dries up :)
The Podcast Network meme starts getting picked up by the press...
As is obvious by one of my previous posts, the initial holding page is up and running for the The Podcast Network.
What is cool, is that we haven't even got the press release out and we are already being picked up the media....check out this CBS Market Watch short report on our little plan... :)
Doc Searls and G'day World in the car
It appears that Doc Searls likes listening to G'day World podcasts on his car stereo...hopefully our ID3 tags are OK....
iPods at Microsoft....are they spreading like a virus???
Picked up a link to this Wired News article up via a post from Robert Scoble's blog...or as i like to call him now...the King of Redmond ;)
Here's a little excerpt from the article...
The source estimated 80 percent of Microsoft employees have a music player -- that translates to 16,000 iPod users among the 25,000 who work at or near Microsoft's corporate campus. "This irks the management team no end," said the source.
Hmm...it just sounds a little strange to me...you would think that this would have got out to the blogosphere before it got to wired....
A letter from Bill Gates...not actually to me though...
Following the announcement of the launch of the new (non-beta) MSN search website (oh yeah...like the RSS feed idea guys)...the local Australian arm of MSN, ninemsn, has put a letter from Bill Gates up on their site for people to read...
February 2, 2005
Ewan...you know Ewan...the O'Reilly writer... :)
A buddy of mine from Scotland, Ewan Spence, who runs a number of symbian and mobiles based sites (links on his site), has had an article he wrote about the Nokia 9500 published over at the O'Reilly Network site....well done Ewan...and congrats on the book thats coming out soon as well...
Wha is even mroe exciting is that Ewan now has his own profile page along with RSS and ATOM feeds at O'Reilly's..how cool is that????
The Podcast Network
The web site is live over at www.thepodcastnetwork.com...but what is it???
"The Podcast Network will be the best collection of podcast's available anywhere that are managed and aggregated under the one roof."
Chatting with Howard Rheingold
If doing the G'day World podcasts has given me one thing...its the fact that i have had the chance to speak to some amazing people...and this morning (at 4.30am), Cameron and I got to interview a man whoose books i have read over three decades and who has influenced my thinking about technology more than anyone i know...Howard Rheingold.
In the mid 1980's i read my first Howard book, "Tools For Thought" which set the tone for my continued interest in computers outside of childhood (i think i was around 15 when i read it)...in the early 1990's i read his great book on a subject that become a big part of my life for a few years called "Virtual Reality"...in 1993 Howard gave us one of the best books produced to date explaining "Virtual Communities"...and then in 2003, we finally got to see "Smart Mobs" which is one of the must read books about the merging of technology and human behaviour ever published...
Thank you Howard...for a great interview (short as it was)...for three decades of reading material...for influencing my life and career...and for giving me somewhere to hang out on the web for the last couple of years with like minded people.
We are truly "not worthy". ;)
February 1, 2005
Windows focus...error....bug...or sloppy coding????
Garth brings up a really good point here...and Nicole jumps in with her opinion as well...
This has actually been annoying me more and more lately...and i remeber at least a few occasions that it has manged to stuff up a document i have been working on or accidentally caused me to misplace a file in the save process...
So join the "Don't steal my focus" initiative and help the desktop become a safer place....
Australia Day....the G'day World tapes....
Another quality podcast ;) has gone up over at the G'day World website.
In this episode, along with the usual interesting tech chatter like Firfox vs IE amd iTunes vs Windows Media Player, listen in as my co-host, Cameron and I sing (or attempt to at least) the Australian national anthem..."Advance Australia Fair" to start the show and we also close the show off with "Waltzing Matilda"....consider yourself warned...
hey hey were the monkeys...i mean chipmonks...i mean koala's...you will hear what i mean...
Just ran across this fantastic flash tool for embeding audio files, playlists or even RSS feeds into web pages...very similar to Eric Rices' audioblog.com tool.....except for one difference....my G'day World podcast co-host and myself sound like
Seriously...click the playbutton, full forward onto the 2nd or 3rd show and have a listen...I cracked up laughing when i heard this....
And this little flash tool is just so nice...well done guys...seriously well done....