Podcasting
WREK Bootleg Podcast Feeds
WREK - the Georgia Tech student FM station at 91.1 FM in Atlanta - has had podcast feeds almost as long as there have been podcast feeds. One week after I started my podcast, I wrote a script to generate some RSS feeds for some of their programs. These were the ongoing Subgenius programs The Hour...
read articleWhere It All Began - the First Episode of the Evil Genius Chronicles from August 20, 2004
Twenty years ago today, inspired by Dave Winer and Adam Curry I sat down in front of my laptop and started talking. The methods and equipment have changed but I've never stopped. Today I am celebrating that auspicious date by reposting my original episode. This preceded the coining of the term...
read articleQuestions for Podcasters
Hey fellow podcasters, I am setting up two new podcast sites right now. I get to start over clean without all the cruft of my EGC site. If you had to do it all over again, what Wordpress podcasting plugin would you use? I have tried a number of them over time and am not sure which one to start over...
read articleEnd of an Era?
Over at AmigoFish I have several vanity search podcast RSS feeds. Yes kids, you can do that over there! Subscribe to a search FTW! One of the shows that turned up on the search for "evil genius chronicles" is this episode of the Eight Things podcast. It's kind of a depressing take on...
read articleBalticon
Over Memorial day I will be a guest at this year's Balticon. Paul Fischer has been inviting me for years and for once I was able to accept. I've never been to Baltimore in my life, so that should be interesting. From here forward, I'm probably not traveling that far to any solely new media...
read articleVery Timely Podcaster Equipment Note
Sorry for this, but you have 3.5 hours to act at publish time. I've never heard of this site before today, but at 1 Sale a Day today's deal is for a hard-sided aluminum case with configurable foam inserts. They bill it as for "photo/video" equipment but it also looks like it would be...
read articleSay Hi to Tony (Kahn) for Me
I'm lucky enough to have made the acquaintance of Mr. Tony Kahn in the podcast era. I first met him as far back as Bloggercon 3 in Palo Alto, way back in the wild days of 2004 when many of us had only been podcasting a few months. Tony did a lot for podcasting in the early days with his Morning...
read articleA Little CREATE South and AmigoFish Love
I was just listening to the first episode of 2 People Talking from the Comic Book Noise podcast network. It's the relaunch of what used to be called "Indie Comic Book Noise." At the end of the show, not only does Derek throw out a little promo for CREATE South but also talks about...
read articleSee the Institutional Biases of Media Companies in their XML
Here and there over the last few months I've been doing some data cleanup over at my podcast directory site AmigoFish. For all of 2008 and some of 2007 the site was left pretty much on autopilot. It worked and continues to work, but there are things that need to be done to clean up data cruft over...
read articleThe CBC Exaggerates
While doing some data pruning and cleaning up on AmigoFish, I ran across this CBC podcast listing. What I found interesting was this claim from the info about their show. It's in their RSS feed, which is how the AmigoFish tools found it to import as the description: CBC Radio 3 Podcast with Grant...
read articleNate Powell Insight
I'm listening to Nate Powell getting interviewed on Inkstuds. I'm not that familiar with him, but I might be converted to his fan by this interview. He just had an insight so profound that it might have just sold me Swallow Me Whole. On why he chose to settle in Bloomington, IN instead of other...
read articleWhat Do I Do Next?
This morning I listened to episode #98 of Skepticality which was a follow-on discussion to the whole "Where Do We Go From Here?" talk of a few years ago. They referenced a PDF document with 100 points of action that people can take as a skeptic. I don't really identify as a skeptic even...
read articleHow I Manage My Podcast MP3s
For years now, I've been using whatever cheapo MP3 player I can find as my podcast player. Currently that's a 4 Gb Insignia Sport that I got on clearance for around $50. Given my directory that holds all of my downloaded MP3s, I still need to get them from my MacBook on my player. Over the last...
read articleDeep Podcast Queue
This seems a little odd, but I can pinpoint the time my podcast queue got out of hand. In December 2007, I had actually underflowed my list. I was running out of things to listen to and by the end of the day, everything downloaded the previous day would have been listened to. In the middle of that...
read articleThe Wasteland, The Rite of Spring and the Collapse of our Present
I've been a listener of BBC's In Our Time program for about as long as they've been podcasting it. I listen with varying degrees of interest. I'm not terribly versed in history and especially British Isle history, so I learn a lot from the historical shows but I wouldn't say they are a primary...
read articleEGC Recording Tonight at 8:30 PM EST
I'm going to continue the experiment of recording my podcast and streaming it live. Tonight at 8:30 PM EST I'll be recording and streaming it live via Ustream. In the immortal words of the philospher, "We'll do it live!!!" Come join up, chat, and hear all the mistakes that never go out in...
read articleJonathan Hickman on the Marvel Podcast
Even as I get back into buying comics regularly, I'm still learning a lot about the state of the industry as it is today. I used to read the Comics Buyer's Guide cover to cover ever week for many years. Nowadays I don't even understand 2/3 of the things Marvel and DC are up to. I've been getting...
read articleStreaming Podcasting
Partly because I think it is fun when the guys at Good Clean Fun do it, I've started experimenting with streaming it live when I'm recording episodes of my podcast. Thus far, I've only done it once. As I type this, I'm about to do it again. You can see it at my very own Ustream channel. Come and...
read articleSteve, It's Open Source
Via Doug Kaye comes this link to a new version of the Gillmor Gang. This might well be the best one yet. I'm just waiting for the Andrew Keen puppet. Maybe I should build one and start competing with...
read articleAround the Podosphere 10/22
On Elvis Mitchell's The Treatment from a few weeks ago, he interviewed Clark Gregg. He's one of those character actors that I like every single time I see him on screen. I like him almost enough to watch "The New Adventures of Old Christine." Almost. I did not know until hearing this that...
read articleMorning Stories at a Crossroads
For those of you who listen to the Morning Stories podcast from WGBH in Boston, you know that show has come to an end. The budget ran out for the program and it is no longer being produced under the aegis of WGBH. However, my friend Tony Kahn has not yet given up, and he has set up an alternative...
read articleNew Reality Break Episode featuring Tobias S. Buckell
I've recently published the most recent episode of the Reality Break Podcast, and this one is an interview I particularly liked, my chat with hard science fiction author Tobias S. Buckell. We sat down in a bar in a noisy hotel lobby at Dragon*Con and it actually sounds pretty decent. I've certainly...
read articleAround the Podosphere
Here's some random things I've been listening to. My close personal acquaintance Mary Robinette Kowal put up a reading on her site of her short story "Evil Robot Monkey." I both liked the story and liked her reading of it. I'd love to one day have a chance to spend a little more time with...
read articleNetworks and Podcasts
Because I've been busy with umpty-zillion projects lately, I haven't been doing as much data gardening as I should over at AmigoFish. I just ran into a case this morning that is a classic pattern I've seen over and over. When existing old media networks of any kind - TV, radio, cable, even...
read articleNew Reality Break Episode: Mur Lafferty
For those of you who don't subscribe to my other podcast project, this is just a heads up. My interview with podiobook favorite Mur Lafferty that we recorded at this year's Dragon*con has been posted at the Reality Break podcast site. If you are one of her many fans, you should check it out. It has...
read articleSurprise Good Clean Fun
Last night I was feverishly working on the Mur Lafferty episode of Reality Break at the same time I was listening to the live stream of Good Clean Fun and was in the chat. Yeah, I know. They got to talking about the early days of podcasting and decided to call me, which was a bit of a surprise and I...
read articleNew Reality Break Episode is Live: Bruce Sterling!
It is belated, but Reality Break #5 with Bruce Sterling is up and live. In order to make up ground and repay listener patience, I'm going to accelerate the timetable for the next few episodes. I aim to put up the interview with Mur Lafferty this weekend and the one with Tobias Buckell the weekend...
read articleThe Secret of New Media Success
Evo Terra spills a closely guarded secret, that of how to be a new media success. Shhhh, don't tell anyone. They might soak up all the new media riches that are rightfully mine! Spoiler Alert for Said Secret: OK, it involves working your ass...
read articleMur Lafferty Live Interview at Dragon*Con
I have an hour slot to record at Dragon*Con, which will be Friday at 10 PM. I just posted over on the Reality Break site that I've booked Mur Lafferty to be the guest for the live Reality Break episode. The plan is to do both a Reality Break and an EGC clambake episode in the allotted time. First...
read articleDragon*Con Schedule
I'll be at Dragon*Con next weekend. I'm doing a live taping of this podcast and/or an epsiode of Reality Break on Friday from 10-11 PM. On Sunday at 8:30 PM I'll be giving a talk on the podcasting track entitled "Why Podcasting Matters." Earlier today I described it as "a mashup of...
read articleAround the Podosphere
Here's a few things that have struck me as interesting from my recent listening. I'm a fan of Harry Shearer's Le Show and the July 20th episode featured a lot of talk with John M. Barry, a writer and expert on New Orleanian issues. I liked how Mr. Barry debunked the whole ridiculous "why...
read articleSurreal Podcast Moment
Not to brag or anything, but it's not that unusual to hear my name mentioned on podcasts. I like it, it's generally a fun experience (unless the mentioner is a specific Canadian dude) but it has long ceased to be a novel experience. However it is definitely surreal to be driving home from work...
read articleChris Penn Challenges Podcamp Philly
Chris Penn has a post challenging the attendees of Podcamp Philly to not just geek out but build something of practical use to the citizens of Philadelphia. I really like that idea. When we put on CREATE South our primary motivation was to provide a framework so that people could walk out with a...
read articleLevelator Oddness
I needed to redownload the Levelator to stay current, and I noticed something odd. In the download statistics, it says that the OS X version was downloaded 3186 time and the Windows version 66 times. First, can the numbers really be that low? They must have been reset at some point. Second, is the...
read articleInsignia Sport, My Best Podcast Player So Far
My Creative Zen V Plus has been getting flakier and flakier lately, requiring hard resets and just acting funky. Under the best circumstances it never has been a perfect device for podcast listening - acceptable at best. When my boss told me that he got an Insignia Sport 4Gb player from Best Buy for...
read articleListen to Me on Good Clean Fun
I very seldom put external files in the feed here. In fact I'm not sure if I've ever done it before. I want to for this one. As far as I'm concerned this was part of the EGC canon. I really enjoyed being on Good Clean Fun with Butler and Jasper. Balls were busted, jokes told, people were ragged on...
read articleMe on Good Clean Fun
My favorite podcast to come along in some time is Good Clean Fun with Butler and Jasper. I weaseled a little and now I'm going to be on the show tonight. We are scheduled to record at 7 PM PDT/ 10 PM EDT and their will be a live stream available here. It would be great if there was at least one...
read articleAmigoFish Down
AmigoFish blipped off the net last evening. That sort of thing always gives one a sinking feeling, but this did seem different from an average box outage because the name didn't even resolve DNS. By fooling around a little, I was able to figure out that it wasn't just my box but a big chunk of the...
read articleMevio/Podshow "Never Believed in User-Generated Content"
Yesterday I got an email from Derek Coward, pointing me to this pair of articles: one about Podshow changing their name to Mevio, and another about how Mevio was focusing on professionally produced content, as opposed to that shitty stuff that they've focused on for the last three years, I...
read articleRudy Rucker on Evangelism of Ideas
I read Rudy Rucker's blog, listen to his podcast when it is published and have read his fiction for the last 20 odd years. One day I'd like to interview him as he is quite and interesting dude. As I get into really old Google Reader posts, I ran across this one from him a few weeks ago. He talks...
read articleThe First Podcast Advertiser
According to the whacked out Comic Strip Blogger,he was the first ever podcast advertiser. I'm going to have to see a date on that. iPodderX was advertising on my show in October or November of 2004 and I'm pretty sure there were others before me. That flag might be planted in sandy...
read articleiPodderX Lives (Sort Of)
I haven't listened to TWiT regularly in some time, but I was curious to listen to the episode that Steve Gillmor was on. During that episode Dave Winer talked about iPodderX. That started an interesting chain of events. Both of the iPodderX guys posted their views of the situation, first Ray then...
read articleAround the Podosphere, Money Edition
I felt like doing one of my roundups of interesting things I have seen or heard lately in my podcast experience. It seems like a fair bit of it overlaps with the recent discussions here of "going pro" in new media, of making money and general issues of new media as an industry. Let's what...
read articleNews Gang
Today I was invited to participate in a new Gillmor venture, the the News Gang. Steve's always liked me despite whatever dicklike behavior I exhibit, so what could I do but say yes? Late in the afternoon I got a direct Twitter message from Steve inviting me. I was a little worried about the...
read articleAdd Album Art To an MP3 from Command Line
As I work on Super Secret Project X, one of the things that would make it a little handier would be the ability to add album art to MP3s from the OS X command line. I had been using mp3info2 as my tool for manipulating ID3 tags from the command line, but it doesn't do album art. I dug around a...
read articlePodcasting and Money: Round Two
Here is a guest blog piece that follows the post the other day about new media serving either the audience or the sponsors but not both simultaneously. J Wynia wrote me a very thoughtful email on the subject and with his permission I’m blogging it here. Everything from here out is him talking. I...
read articlePodcasting: Who Will You Serve?
There are certain debates in new media that I've had so many times that I end every exchange thinking that I will never get embroiled in that particular turdfight again. The "make money fast" end of podcasting is one of those I've sworn off many times, just like someone who quits smoking...
read articleThe End of Bittorrents for My Podcast?
In the first month or two of this podcast (way back in fall of 2004) I did an experiment of publishing episodes of my show as bittorrent files and putting them in a special feed for that. At the time, most or all of the podcatchers anyone was using supported bittorrent. The experiment was so...
read articleBlacklisted
One of the best things that has happened to me in the new media era is that I occasionally get to talk to Tony Kahn. I love that guy as a person, as a broadcaster and as a wit. A while ago he was nice enough to give me a copy of the series he produced in the mid 90's called Blacklisted. It is his...
read articleAround the Podosphere
More things I've heard lately on podcasts. I'll admit it, I downloaded this episode of Indy In Tune because my name is in the show notes (it's automatic, I'm subscribed to an AmigoFish search on my name). I listened, liked it, and am now subscribed to the show. I like the Chad Mills music in the...
read articlePodcast Circle Jerk Tally
Just for an excercise in completeness, I'm going to tally the results from last weekend's Podcast Circle Jerk Awards versus my estimates I posted from my distribution of podcast award sentiment. I find that I needed two more buckets than originally specified, because there are some shows I have...
read articlePodcast Queue Underflow
Usually when I get freakishly busy with work, it corresponds to me having a big backup in my podcast listening queue. Lately though the opposite has happened. Because I've been spending extra time at my desk where I have the possibility of sitting and listening to my player, I have actually hit the...
read articleMissing Friends and the Podcast Industry
So Podcast Expo came and went without me. Even if I had gone, it would be over by now and I'd be on my way home. I'm sad that I didn't go, but not as bummed as you might think. I've been sanguine about the whole thing. Wednesday night I realized how insane it would be if I were getting ready to...
read articleNo Me at PNME
Sadly, I had to cancel my attendance at this years Podcast and New Media Expo. I really want to go and give my talk but I just can't swing it this year. The summer and into the fall has been brutal at the day job and I can't spare the time or the energy. From Myrtle Beach to Ontario CA is a full day...
read articleMichael Butler on a Tear
I listened to all three of Michael Butler recent interviews with geezer rockers. I tally them as going two for three. I loved the interview with Howard Kaylan of the Turtles and Flo and Eddie fame, and I loved the interview with Tommy James. Both of those guys were really nice to Mike, very candid...
read articleGarrick on Podcast Advertising
Garrick van Buren posts a musing on podcast advertising and references this here clambake in it. I sort of agree with his basic points and don't know what to do about it. I could have an index of every firm that has ever sponsored the show. Would that be value add or just noise? Update: Dave...
read articleAround the Podosphere
In the last few days, I've listened to several interesting interviews. The first has to be my favorite episode of the Rock and Roll Geek Show so far. In Episode #251, he interviews Howard Kaylan of the Turtles, Mothers of Invention and many other places. I liked the Turtles but I loved a lot of what...
read articleBittorrent Plugin for iTunes
The author dropped me a note letting me know about this plugin to Bittorrent support to iTunes podcasts. This allows you to not only download torrented podcasts but to seed them as well. It is currently Windows only, but OS X support is in the plan. If you are a developer who wants to help move that...
read articleOrycon Interview Table of Contents
Just as a convenience for the Portland SF fans, I thought I'd prepare this summary article for the Orycon Interview shows. As I publish new shows, I'll keep this post updated with fresh pointers. All the skiffy interview goodness you could want in one place! Orycon Interviews Part One Orycon...
read articleSend Me Your Podcast Schwag
In two weeks I'll be in Portland Oregon for Orycon with Cory Doctorow, Ellen Datlow and others. Some people have rightly noted the flaw in taking lots of schwag to PME in Ontario, California when mostly you are promoting to other podcasters. That's true enough, so if you have leftover schwag and...
read articleHistory of Podcasting
Dan Klass wrote this article about the early days of podcasting. I participated in it grudgingly and with mixed feelings. On the one hand, getting the story as correct as possible is a fine goal, but on the other I'm not terribly interested in navel gazing self-hagiography of ourselves and our new...
read articleThe Death of Podcasting
Lest I was tempted to comment on this piece by Frank Barnako (how shocking, a big media guy is gleeful that iTunes is focussing on big media podcasts), Steve Gillmor is already on the case. Thank you Steve, for removing that temptation and doing it far more entertainingly than I could. Let me just...
read articleSex, Cash and Podcasting
Mark Cuban posted about cash and podcasting, which included this: Podcasting is hot. Podcasting is cheap and easy. Podcasting can be fun. Creating your own podcast and trying to make a business out of it is a mistake. Unless you are repurposing content from another medium, it will be rare to find...
read articleNew Toy
New Toy Originally uploaded by evilgenius. Thank you to everyone who has ever supported this show by buying the stuff package. This is the first bit of kit purchased with those proceeds. I've had it for a few hours and I absolutely dig it! Thank you, one and...
read articleiTunes Podcasting
At least from my perspective, the iTunes rollout of podcasting support was completely bungled. Like I reported earlier, they seemed to have my Bittorrent feed in their catalog without having Bittorrent support in the client. That is exactly how they rolled it out, in non-working fashion. People can...
read articleClambake Episode for June 26, 2005
Here is the Bittorrent link and direct MP3 download for the EGC clambake for June 26, 2005. I play the newest interview bit with John Mark King where he talks about his own notions of open culture and play the newest Rocket City Riot song; I talk more about open and closed culture; I talk briefly...
read articleMy Listening Breakdown
I've grown weary of the way pundits talk about podcasting. This is a situation much like the parable of the blind men and the elephant, where some assert that it is like a rope while others assert it is like a tree trunk and so on - all being completely certain they are correct. The framework is...
read articleFollow the Money
Several people have already dissected this David Coursey anti-podcasting article. Mike Dunn, for example, really ripped a new one on it and Coursey (citing me and the term "knee jerk off" in the process). Check out the anti-populist condescending sentiment in this: Personal Podcasting,...
read articleKatz Responds
Don Katz of Audible.com has a post that responds to some of the criticisms of the Audible/podcasting thing. This includes a namecheck of me, for god's sake! For the record, I've had multiple exchanges with Mitch Ratcliffe about his response to me, in the comments here, in the comments there and in...
read articleMore on iTunes
This iTunes support of podcasting thing is slowly sinking in. Since almost the beginning here, I could make the assumption that the vast majority of podcatching clients supported Bittorrent. Unless some heroic Apple engineer puts in support and quick, that assumption is going to change when iTunes...
read articleiTunes 4.9 Walks the Earth
Phil Torrone notes that he is seeing iTunes 4.9 hitting his RSS feed. I am too. Note to you Apple engineers: you are using the Bittorrent feed and seem to not be getting anywhere. Try using the direct MP3 feed and you'll have better results. Update: Cool, TUAW picked up on this. Just to clarify,...
read articleUmmm, OK
I'll admit to not understanding this one at all. Mitch Ratcliffe disputes my statement that when Don Katz claims Audible.com does "something much like podcasting" it involves a centralized authority. I read his whole post through a couple of times and I don't get what his refutation...
read articleFools Onboard
Oh lord, I've seen podcasting referenced in a Motley Fool email newsletter. From a recent one was this quote: - "Podcasting" will do for audio what TiVo is doing for television -- sending advertisers scrambling to reinvent their profession. So the question is, if the Motley Fools have...
read articlePodcasting: Mechanist View vs Humanist View
I'm going to take another run at this, even though I've long since tired of the topic because I keep feeling like I'm tantalizingly close to expressing something so that someone else might actually understand where I'm coming from. Rob Greenlee responded to my post about his interview with Don Katz,...
read articleAudio Hijack and Wordpress Experiment
I recorded my experimental zero-edit, zero-post-production show this morning. It's very short by my standards, less than 10 minutes. Since I'm using the unregistered version of Audio Hijack Pro, at 10 minutes some godawful static is overlaid - you can hear it in the last seconds of this episode. It...
read articleiPodderX Version 3
I've been using this for a while, so long in fact that to be honest I forget what all features are new since 2.2.9. I can say that iPodderX 3 is a huge step up and it is now released into the wild. I've been sworn to secrecy on the feature set, but it is damnably cool and features lots of stuff I've...
read articleDon Katz on Podcasting
Yesterday I listened to Rob Greenlee's interview with Don Katz of Audible.com. I remain kind of befuddled by Rob's approach to the podcasting world. He cannot talk about the subject without trying to point out that aspects of it existed previously, to the point that it has become a tic. It's like...
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