Comments on: New Lifebox Website , Writing Notes , New CAPOW, Podcast (?) of a New SF Story

By: Gunnar

Gunnar — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 11:29:28 +0000

wrt Reed reviewer:
You had me at: “gnarled prose of computer science”

By: Mac

Mac — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 04:37:20 +0000

Publishers Weekly seems committed to dumb-as-dirt reviews. No tolerance for originality. Their review for my nonfiction book was equally wrong-headed, if not quite as stupidly diminishing. “Negatively charged” indeed.

By: emilio

emilio — Sun, 18 Sep 2005 15:11:46 +0000

The audio quality of the dialog portion is pretty poor. I couldn’t even understand myself:-( OTOH, you are still clear and it gives folks a feel for your style.

By: emilio

emilio — Sun, 18 Sep 2005 14:43:30 +0000

Friends don’t let friend go to star bucks unless there are no other options available.
I have to concur with the comment about audio quality. OTOH, it is understandable.
I find it fascinating that the same guy pushing “everything is a computation” has trouble with the idea that there should be any difference between us a agents and us as “real.”
It reminds me of a thought that I keep coming back to, that survival is our measure of things. That is, we value those things that represent our survival to us. I mean this in a very personal sense.

By: Marshall

Marshall — Sun, 18 Sep 2005 10:48:09 +0000

Going over to Amazon now.

By: Lisa Williams

Lisa Williams — Sun, 18 Sep 2005 08:47:36 +0000

As far as quality goes, I like to hear a nicely produced podcast — it’s like getting the opportunity to drive a Bentley. But I don’t think of less highly produced ones as “bad quality” but rather more like a Jeep Willys — certainly not as smooth as the Bentley but with its own rugged charm. That said, a simple clip-on mike is inexpensive and really does dramatically increase audibility. Try a site like Podcast 411 for suggestions.
Lisa W.

By: Lisa Williams

Lisa Williams — Sun, 18 Sep 2005 08:44:13 +0000

Hello, Rudy,
Thank you so much for making these recordings available. A bit more technical information:
Podcast clients that automate the download of podcasts — like iTunes or iPodder — read the RSS file and look for a link to a file wrapped within tags. Some blogging systems do this automatically, but most don’t, and after looking at your feed I can see that the enclosure statements aren’t being generated.
So, easy way to do it, there are two:
1. You can use Feedburner or Listgarden. These two programs will take your existing feed and munge it to make it more podcast-friendly.
2. You can use a site like Gigadial. On Gigadial, you can drag and drop links into your “station.” They can be from lots of different places or all your own podcasts. Gigadial automatically creates an RSS feed with the podcast bits — and, essentially, you can be an RSS DJ, dragging and dropping any audio on the net into the feed.
(I wonder if it works on video, like Mefeedia and FireAnt?)
Lisa Williams

By: Alex McLaren

Alex McLaren — Sun, 18 Sep 2005 03:43:52 +0000

I’ve pre-ordered the The Lifebox, the Seashell, and the Soul today.
I’m really looking forward to reading this book. And I sure wish I was in San Jose so I could take your class!
Keep up with the great work.

By: Rudy

Rudy — Sat, 17 Sep 2005 22:48:21 +0000

I’m doing some fixes to block those pesky sp*mmers.
So now if you put up the six-u or the hooterpootie components of web addresses it should fail.

By: MP3 quality, enclosures, and links

MP3 quality, enclosures, and links — Sat, 17 Sep 2005 10:42:40 +0000

The quality of the recording of your reading is not good enough, unfortunately, in my opinion. It sounds like the recorder was on the top of a table, or something. You should put the recorder in your pocket, and use a lapel mike, with a nice stubby foam noise reducing protector. Q&A sessions are best handled without shuffling mikes in the public, but simply repeating the question to the audience, and the recorder (this sometimes helps by rephrasing the question, and making sure it was correctly understood). Discussions in small groups could either have the lapel mike being passed around with a long enough cord, or a cordless mike. I hope you’ll keep experimenting.
For being considered a podcast proper, the formatting of your rss should expose the mp3 as an enclosure, not as much a link. The podcasting clients, which I admittedly do not use, grab the enclosures automatically, so humans can pretendend to listen to tens, or hundreds of hours of more or less intelligent talk while commuting (yes, it is in order to avoid this pretense that I do not use those specialized clients).
Hey, make our life easier, and sell more books: when you say “go on Amazon”–link to it! …and if you want to earn a few more cents, you can also embed an affiliate ID in the link. We won’t mind at all.