itunes

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So why do you watch Stilgherrian Live?

03 January 2009 in Stilgherrian Live by Stilgherrian | 25 comments

Image of Stilgherrian from the Stilgherrian Live Christmas Special

Stilgherrian Live is currently on summer break, but will return soon. My question to you today is: Why do you watch it?

My plan is that when Stilgherrian Live returns in 2009 I’ll give you more of what you like and less of what you don’t like. Plus I’ll be getting the marketing sorted out, as well as recording it properly so it can go on iTunes and other places to reach a wider and more vulnerable audience.

So what do you like about it? It’s quite random at times and the production values are, erm, not the highest in the world. Does that matter? Is that its charm?

So far the regular segments are, in rough program order: a cheap and nasty opener, a rant about something that’s annoyed me that week, the “Cnut of the Week” segment, some random TV adverts via YouTube, Stilgherrian’s Street View (a few minutes of random footage in some street), more ranting with the occasional talkback call, a closing song — and then after the “official” program more random crap I’ve found on that Internet thing.

What should stay? What should go? What is the appeal of Stilgherrian Live? What is it that I bring to be small screen which is unique? What else should I know while I’m thinking about this? Over to you…

Links for 05 July 2008 through 08 July 2008

10 July 2008 in Daily Links by del.icio.us | No comments

Stilgherrian’s links for 05 July 2008 through 08 July 2008, gathered with string and glue:

  • The State of the Web – Summer 2008: A million people mentioned this fine commentary on the current state of the web. Nice work.
  • Future of Media Summit 2008 | Future Exploration Network: The third annual Future of Media Summit will be held simultaneously in Silicon Valley on 14 July and Sydney on 15 July. Why was I not told about this? OK, time to scam…
  • TuneRanger | Acertant: A tool to synchronise, copy or merge multiple iTunes libraries and iPods over the network. Available for both OS X and Windows. US$29, with 30-day free trial.
  • Mercury Messenger: Client software for MSN Messenger written in Java and runnable on OS X, Windows and Linux. Allows you to use the Mac's built-in iSight camera for video chats, unlike Microsoft's own software.
  • Scrivener | Literature and Latte: Word processors are for processing words. Like processed cheese. If you CREATE words, then you need a writing tool. Scrivener is just that, for OS X only.
  • iPhone in Australia – now for the bad news | Web Directions: A comprehensive analysis of the available data plans to support iPhone in Australia. Recommends NOT getting an iPhone yet to force carriers to lift their game.

Stilgherrian Live Alpha: a program brief

07 May 2008 in Internet, Media, Personal, Stilgherrian Live by Stilgherrian | 4 comments

Photograph of Sennheiser S825 microphone

Decided! The first episode of Stilgherrian Live Alpha will be “recorded live” on the Internet this Thursday 8 May at 9.30pm Sydney time. Oh shit! That’s tomorrow!

I won’t repeat what I’ve already written about my plans [1, 2]. This post presents a Program Brief — so I can clarify my thinking as much as anything else — and gathers a few recent thoughts. I’m intending to make the entire process transparent in the immodest hope that someone might find it useful.

Aims

  1. Continue my process of moving from doing hands-on technical work to media production, executive production and consulting.
  2. Build upon the “Stilgherrian as a blogger” brand to establish the core personal media global microbrand of “Stilgherrian as a presenter”, around which I can gather other projects.
  3. Establish a regular audience who can become the core of my 1000 True Fans.
  4. Develop and document production workflows so that we can produce similar programs quickly and cheaply.
  5. Experiment with and settle upon a suite of hardware, software and services which works for me in this context.

See, there is method to my madness!

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The Geekery of Linux on an iPod

01 May 2008 in Internet by Stilgherrian | 5 comments

Photograph of iPod Photo with partial installation of Linux

I’ve finally found a use for that iPod Photo 60GB that’s been languishing in my desk drawer. I’m going to use it as a field recorder for my podcasts.

The resale value of an iPod that’s bigger than a postage stamp but doesn’t play video is, presumably, three-fifths of bugger all. However it can record sound.

Apple deliberately crippled the iPod’s recording functions to mere 8-bit quality — OK for recording dictation and the like, but not good enough for snarfing surreptitious bootlegs of a Silverchair concert. But running Linux on the iPod unleashes its full 16-bit glory.

After a couple hours’ work I now understand the process of Linuxing a ’Pod. But to get it to work, my MacPod (that is, an iPod formatted for Mac file systems) has to be turned into a WinPod (one using Microsoft’s file systems). I won’t bother explaining why, but it’s yet another example of that old phenomenon…

In general, Macs can read Windows file systems, but Windows machines can’t read Mac file systems. Sigh. I’ll finish it on the weekend.

Creating podcasts on a Mac, Part 1

03 April 2008 in Blogging, Internet, Media by Stilgherrian | 2 comments

Podcasting is now far, far easier and cheaper even than I’d imagined — even for complex productions. I’ve been experimenting. Here’s a very quick summary of what I’ve learned so far about doing this on a Mac, my platform of choice.

Now if your podcast is just you talking then you can take a much simpler approach. Read no further.

However this investigation was inspired by the “live recording” of the 2 Web Crew. Having an audience contributing comments and questions via text chat created an interesting dynamic — similar to talkback radio but less formal. I wanted to explore further.

The technical challenge is combining all of the audio elements before the audio or video stream is piped up to Ustream or wherever. There’s probably quite a few ways to do this, but my starting-point was The UStream Tool Kit — which also covers Windows.

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ABC Playback: so this is the future of television…? Nope!

29 March 2008 in Internet, Media by Stilgherrian | 17 comments

Screenshot from ABC Playback

On Thursday an email told me that I’m a beta tester for ABC Playback, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Internet TV trial. So here we go…

I’ll gloss over the geeky stuff because the massively-brained Simon Rumble has already done a technical reconnaissance. Just three key points there from me:

  1. It uses a Flash front end over XML program listings. Simon reckons it’ll be easy to hack up a Linux version for those who can’t use the official Windows and Mac interface. Or who want to avoid the pointless animations. Or who’d rather an easier-to-read high-contrast interface than trendy translucency.
  2. A 30-minute program is compressed to a mere 130MB, which seems a reasonable compromise between quality and bandwidth — at least for infotainment — given the ABC’s need to serve regional audiences out on the Information Super-goat-track.
  3. Did we really need to spend taxpayers’ money putting a clock in the top right of the screen? Computers already have clocks.

Technically it works just fine… but that’s not the real issue…

Disappointingly, ABC Playback seems more like the last gasp of old-style broadcast TV than a prelude to something new and wonderful.

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iPod-powered Vibrator

24 August 2006 in Human Nature by Stilgherrian | 6 comments

OhMiBod Music Powered Vibrator The promotional copy tells you everything you need to know:

The OhMiBod vibrator is a whole new way to enjoy your iPod® or any other music player. Everyone loves music. Everyone loves sex. OhMiBod combines music and pleasure to create the ultimate acsexsory™ to your iPod.

What’s especially impressive is their use of iTunes playlists:

OMB users can instantly (and anonymously) become part of a fun, hip community called CLUB VIBE, where other OMB aficionados write about their experience, trade tips, share their favorite playlists, and more. Log into iTunes and search “OhMiBod” under the iMix section and see what music is turning other people on and purchase those songs quickly and easily! Regardless of the musical genre you are sure to find new amazing music here. If you don’t see something that tickles your fancy, upload your own iMix and share with others what works for you!

Oddly enough, the fine print says this product isn’t endorsed by Apple…