Category: Technology

Posted on

Pluggd is fixing the meta issue with podcasting

Wired published an article about Pluggd, a company that is developing new technology to search the internet, and we’re not just talking about text anymore.

Pluggd has found a way to index podcasts, talk shows and other spoken-word content. The company’s service then allows users to search the audio files for specific words.

You can try Pluggd’s word-searching demo yourself right now. Enter your search term and you’ll see mentions of your word highlighted in various colors — heatmap-style — on a timeline of the show. The redder “hot spot” areas represent denser clusters of your search term, and clicking on one will cause the player to jump straight to the discussion about your desired topic.

Rather than just reading a transcript of a conversation, you can search for a term and hear it spoken in context by the original speaker in seconds. The ramifications for podcasting and more traditional spoken-audio formats are significant, and that’s just for starters. [wired]

If they get this right, the podcasting medium stands to take a huge boost. Take a look at the demo. It gives a nice preview of the service that they are working on. I’m still picking my jaw up off the floor a little bit.

Additionally, Digg did a design overhaul to their site plus some other goodies. They’ve added support for podcasting. That basically means that the same way that you can Digg a news story or blog post, you can Digg a single episode to share with others. I’m not too sure how it works from the podcasters end, but please feel free to Digg any of the RadioZoom or The Crazy Canucks episodes. 🙂

Posted on

The Skype free ride is about to end

SkypeI have been greatly enjoying the free, unlimited calls to regular phones on Skype for nearly the past year. It’s been a wonderful way to call up friends and family back in the states. The quality is pretty good, but on heavy traffic days on the internet, not so much. How are you to argue with it being free?

Enjoy it while it lasts. The free, trial period is coming to a close at the end of this month. I had hoped that Skype would just eat the bandwidth and keep it free, but that stands to not be the case.

Internet phone service provider Skype plans to start charging U.S. and Canadian users US$29.95 per year for unlimited calls to regular phones in both countries, as the end of a free trial offer looms.

Users who sign up before Jan. 31, 2007, will receive a special rate of $14.95 a year and 100 free minutes of international calling, Skype said on Wednesday. Any user wishing to continue using Skype to make calls to regular phones or mobile handsets after the free trial expires Dec. 31, but does not want a yearly plan, can pay for SkypeOut at a rate of 2.1 cents per minute for calls within the U.S. and Canada.

Computer-to-computer calls using Skype software will remain free. [macworld]

Still, that’s not a bad deal to pay that much per year for free calls between the U.S. and Canada. Naturally, there will be some people who will think that this is a load of crap. In my hometown, we used to run a free, local BBS[wiki] (yeah, remember those things from 1995?) and users flipped when they had to pay $25 a year to dial in over their modems. Sometimes you just need a little help with bills, and I could really see paying to use Skype’s service. However, I am a total sucker for free stuff.

Posted on

No one and everyone is listening to podcasts

For me, podcasting is a lot like arguing over who is and isn’t listening to radio. For or against. It’s stupid, or it’s worthwhile. I get so tired of it. It’s like we’re back in 1995 and arguing over Mac vs. Windows. I learned a long time ago that it’s all a matter of preference. Whatever works for you, and you like it, then great. Go have fun. I’ll do my own thing in the meantime.

Last week, PC World wrote about how very few people in the world are listening to podcasts. Citing an article from the BCC, the numbers would tell you that this is true. And okay, I’ll buy what they are saying. The sad thing is that there will be media organizations who will look as this research and make a decision for not podcasting content. The study is there, and over paid consultants live and die by these things. In fact, PC World ended their article by asking readers if, based on this BBC article, they should do their own podcast.

Then you have an article from MacNewsWorld today. They report that the medium is doing great, but they base this off of the amount of content that is being created everyday. It’s on the rise, from amateurs to professionals alike. I also think that part of the article is just a way to advertise products for prospective podcasters, but the first portion of the post is what I’m mainly focusing on.

I lend more credit to this frame of thought. I don’t care about who is already out there that I can reach. Providing content and bringing in those who want to consume it, iPod owners or not, should be more important. If podcasting is dragged down by the name implying that you need an iPod to be apart of the fun, then use that as a marketing strategy.

Step out there and put out your content. If you can, then do it. You won’t know until you try, and you stand to bring in even more people who will check out podcasting in general.

Posted on

The iPod is making running pretty neat

This is the kinda of stuff that I dig. Make the joy of running even more geeky and you can count me as happy. As if the Nike+iPod wasn’t good enough, Amp+ puts the controls on your wrist with real time feedback about your route. That’s slick.

Nike is adding a new product to the Nike+ iPod line, according to Men’s Health. The Amp+ is a Bluetooth remote bracelet that not only lets users control playback without touching their iPod, it displays relevant information from a player (such as running statistics) in real-time. The data is projected through an LED readout tucked under the black matte surface of the bracelet. The Amp+ should be released sometime in 2007 for the price of $80. [electronista]

Posted on

Flaw in Mac OS X; proof-of-concept code exploit

Worth noting and passing on to other MacOS users.

A security researcher has published attack code for an unpatched flaw in Mac OS X, the latest vulnerability in the “Month of Kernel Bugs” campaign.

The proof-of-concept code exploits a security hole in the way Apple Computer’s operating system handles disk image files, the researcher wrote Monday on a blog devoted to the campaign, which promises to reveal details of a new flaw in low-level software every day this month.

“Mac OS X com.apple.AppleDiskImageController fails to properly handle corrupted DMG (disk image) image structures, leading to an exploitable memory corruption condition with potential kernel-mode arbitrary code execution by unprivileged users,” wrote the researcher, who goes by the initials “LMH.”

The vulnerability could be exploited remotely, as Apple’s Safari Web browser loads DMG files from external sources, such as one found while visiting an URL, LMH wrote. That could let an outsider compromise a system. [cnet]

To put it into simple terms, there is a risk, but you have to actively download a file from the Internet for anything “bad” to happen. Nothing happens from just having your computer connected to a network. I’m sure Apple will attempt to fix this in the very near future.

Just be smart with what you are doing. Don’t download anything you can’t be really sure of. If a website that you visit automatically has a file start downloading onto your computer, stop it as soon as you can. If it gets downloaded anyway, do not allow it to expand or activate. Cancel anything your browser asks, and do not double click on the file itself. Delete it as soon as possible.

Posted on

The seven phases of owning an iPod

I caught this on Podcasting News and had to pass it on. Drivl.com posted “The Seven Phases of Owning an iPod – An Illustrated Journey“, and I laughed.

My parent's new iPod NanoThe 7th is completely true. My green iPod Mini has served me very well, even though its battery life is starting to dwindle. I’m content with living in the old school age for now. You cool kids with all your fancy color LCD displays and long battery life can go on enjoying what you got.

Speaking of, my parents just got a new iPod Nano. Adding even more to my jealousy, my dad even picked up the Belkin TuneTalk Stereo for it. I doubt he’s going to start podcasting anytime soon, but that’s a setup that I could easily use for my ventures. He’ll use it more to record voice notes for himself.

This is what we do in my family. We try to out geek each other.

Posted on

Welcome to the world of baseball 2.0

This video report from CNet truly scares me. In case you don’t feel like watching it, I’ll do my best to sum it up.

Cisco demoed new technology to “enhance” your ballpark experience, focusing mostly on the new stadium that is being pushed for the Oakland A’s. Electronic tickets on your cellphone or PDA is alright, but the idea of letting video screens detect you in the proximity of their display and then changing to specifically target you based on what your wireless device says about you is a bit on the tacky side. Of course, it’s all technology meant to get more money out of your pocket.

The other thing that left me not liking what I saw was the concept of using mobile PC’s while watching the game from your seats. Score keeping goes digital, get instant replay as it happens, or get an alert that you were on the fan cam on the scoreboard. You see the picture as well as the many ways that you can purchase the picture, much like going on amusement park rides.

There is something to be said about the simplicity of just enjoying a day at the ballpark, and the last thing that I really want to do is have a whole bunch of gadgets getting in the way. Don’t forget about the dude behind you who just dumped his beer on your mobile PC. The first thing I want to do when it comes to enjoying a baseball game is turning off the rest of the world.

Oh, and don’t think that this is just limited to the ballpark experience. They mention that this is a new concept in the way of enjoying professional sporting events in general. Once again, when I go to GM Place for a Canucks game, I’m all for getting alerts about better seats for a game. After that, I just want to be in my seat and enjoy the atmosphere that is hockey.

Posted on

This is the MacBook Pro that I was looking for

Apple MacBook Pro 15-inchActually, I’m really torn. I love my 17″ Powerbook G4, but the processor is getting closer and closer to the low end of things. I’m probably on borrowed time until the hard drive starts to give me fits, so if I’m going to replace the whole thing, then I’m going to stick with the notebook way of life.

Just today, Apple launched some new models of the MacBook Pro that I am very interested in getting my hands on. The big thing for me is FireWire[wiki] 800. Processor speed, graphics, and memory kind of come second. However, the specs on these suckers are looking sweet.

Apple today announced that its entire MacBook(TM) Pro line of notebooks now includes the new Intel Core 2 Duo processor and delivers performance that is up to 39 percent faster than the previous generation. All MacBook Pro models now offer double the memory and greater storage capacity than the previous generation, as well as a FireWire(R) 800 port for connecting to high-speed peripherals. [macrumors]

When you go with a laptop, your hard drive is never going to have enough space on it for you. As space gets cramped, much like on mine, you need to think external. At the same time, the speed of your hard drive is critical, and very rarely do you get anything above 5200 RPMs. Why? Heat and power consumption. It’s all correlational.

With the amount of audio editing that I like to do, I have to have my external, 200GB hard drive. FireWire 800 makes it really easy to make backups and copy files really quick like, but the best part is actually doing all my recording and editing to it. Before this, the fan on my Powerbook would spin quite a bit, not to mention programs hiccuping from time to time because the internal hard drive couldn’t be accessed quick enough. The software was outdoing the hardware, but life is better when you work on the external and allow the processor more room to breathe.

Now that FireWire 800 is apart of all MacBook Pro models, it has me thinking about moving away from the large screen screen world of Apple notebooks. I know that the 15″ is not that much smaller than the 17″, but it can start to matter when you think about simple portability. Bags and protective cases for large laptops are a bit of a specialty, not to mention that you can forget how big that laptop in your bag really is from time to time. The door can and will hit you on the way out if you forget that it’s there.

Posted on

Skype 2.0 goes gold for the Mac

Video panel in the preferences of Skype 2.0Skype is the staple of The Crazy Canucks podcast. I got it downloaded and tinkered with it just a little bit(the image posted here is a quick screenshot of the video panel in the preferences, which has similarity to iChat). We’re actually looking to record another episode this evening, but I doubt this will really effect anything involving VoIP. The major addition to this version is video support being added for Mac users, making video chatting available between PC users of Skype.

Posted on their blog yesterday:

Skype for Mac 2.0 goes gold today, which means that we’ve tested it, you’ve tested it and we all agree that it does a pretty good job. Download it now and video call your friends, family, colleagues or anyone else you’d like to see face to face. Remember not only does it work with other Mac users but it also works with Windows users too. That means even more people for you to video call with.

We’ve improved the video quality and made changes so that video calling can now work on older systems allowing more of our Mac community can use it.

Thanks for all your feedback and help to improve the quality of video throughout the beta. A lot of you have sent in your stories on how you’re using Mac 2.0 to get face to face with far flung friends and relatives and we’re delighted we can help to bring you all closer together. Many of you also told us that you’re using video calls with business colleagues across the globe or to see your family back home when you’re away with work. If you have any more stories you’d like to share with us please email them to stories@skype.net. [skype]

The question will be about quality when you make your video calls across platform. The quality of your video card combined with the quality of your webcam will offer mixed results, more so when it comes to the world of PCs. Regardless, you’ll still be able to see grandma wave to you over the internet, no matter how blurry or pixelated she might look. You’ll just never know if she’s giving you the finger or not.

Posted on

Followup thoughts on Levelator

My initial post about Levelator was more to raise awareness about this application.  As I said before, this is a brilliant concept for podcasters and audiophiles everywhere.  It’s a drag and drop program that compresses, levelizes, and limits your audio, all on its own.  What more can you ask for than that?

Within minutes of making that first post, Doug Kaye dropped by my blog and offered some thoughts on what I can do to make my use of it better.  Ignoring the pretty cool fact that he is one of the orginal podcasters, I thought it was great that one of the main guys behind this application was quick to offer solutions on Levelator.

I have an episode of RadioZoom that I will released later today, if not tomorrow, in which I have my first venture into utilizing this program.  I am very impressed with what it did to a single AIFF of nearly 38 minutes of audio that I recorded with my mic and minidisc.  It was a mobile interview, and this application just cut my editing time by over fifty percent.

The quality is just as impressive.  It gives you solid sound that can take hours of tweaking, depending on how precise you want your audio to be.  I can get pretty picky some times, but this is an answer to that for sure.