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Showing posts from November, 2007

Classic look for Charlottesville Podcasting Network now available

Michael Strickland has done it again. The web designer of the Charlottesville Podcasting Network has added a page which presents a classic view of the community podcasting site . We switched it to the magazine format, which some people didn't like so much. They thought it made it harder to find if new things had been posted. I must admit, I think I'll make this the main way I check the site online. I am more used to this style, given that it's how I read mostly everything online. It seems more real, and things don't get buried like they currently do. Thoughts? Thanks, Michael!

A sunny day in Thanksgiving

Another Thanksgiving, another trip to see Henry in England. Of course, England is in mourning having lost 3-2 to Croatia last night, meaning that their hopes of entering Euro 2008 are now over. I watched the second half at my family's house in Dunstable, and everyone was upset. James went upstairs in disgust to play Freespace2, and then Jim stumbled home from the pub, distraught. Even Pam was livid, and was questioning why the about-to-be-sacked manager decided to play Carson in goal. At the cafe where I went for breakfast, it was much the same. Elderly lady after elderly lady decried the result, and it seemed that everyone here is quite gloomy. Except cousin Georgina, who thought it was funny that England are crap. Today is not gloomy. I am bright and cheery and happy and well rested after my first day here yesterday. I worked up to the last minute, and dashed out the house, thankfully with everything intact. Things could have gone wrong, as our Saturn is on its last legs and does

Lessons from Sci-Fi Friday

Now, by now you likely know that I do enjoy my science fiction shows. And I'm not ashamed of this, either. I like to follow stories that inhabit intricate universes, where things may or may not be different. So, with that basic character trait, I've been watching the Sci-Fi channel on Friday nights in order to watch glimpses of an upcoming movie of which I've written about quite often in the past. They've been showing clips from Battlestar Galactica: Razor (debuts on November 24!) during commercials of Flash Gordon and Stargate Atlantis. That has meant I've watched shows that inhabit very uninteresting universes. In my case, that means that it has incredible aliens, dumb accents, or just isn't very believable. Or, isn't very consistent. Or the acting was awful. Just like the show I'm watching now. Stargate Atlantic doesn't seem to have anything to do with its predecessor. Somehow the idea of going through space via a gigantic portal controlled by h

British writers won't cross US picket lines

Well, so much for my fantasy, in which Britain's best comedy and television writers would get a golden chance to remake the American airwaves. The Writer's Guild of Britain has asked its members to honor the strike by members of the Writer's Guild For America. This isn't unexpected, and of course, my fantasy is pretty far-fetched. But, the scenario outlined below is something I frankly would love to see: “We are contacting the major UK broadcasters and producers, and the UK Film Council, asking them not to dump UK material into the US market, and not to dress up American projects to look as though they are British. Any such manoeuvres would bring at best a short-term advantage, whereas the adverse consequences could last for years." That's Brian Corbett, chair of the Writer's Guild. While the solidarity is impressive, this would be a good chance for American audiences to see first-run British stuff, rather than recycled remakes. Much has been written about

BBC's In Business presenter writes about podcasting

Peter Day is the presenter of In Business on BBC Radio 4 . He's written an article for the Daily Mail about how podcasting has drastically increased the profile for his show, which he's been hosting since 1988. I woke up to what was happening when I went to Cambridge and a procession of dons and local business angels mentioned recent favourite programmes they'd heard in the gym. It seems to be a good fit, this half an hour of workout accompanied by half an hour of keeping up with busines trends. Whenever I meet teachers, they talk about the use they can make of In Business in schools. Podcasting makes this 'resource' much more accessible. And we've now made available on the website a downloadable archive of programmes going back years. When the BBC started podcasting two years ago, I made a programme about it. 'Although I report endlessly about technology,' I said, 'you only notice what's happening when it begins to effect your own job.' Here

Podcasting Charlottesville Beyond Charlottesville

This blog entry prompted by Leslie Middleton who was alarmed at the weird pingbacks she was getting on her latest Rivanna Rambler podcast . These days, pingbacks are mostly spam, but every now and then I get an example of how the Charlottesville Podcasting Network has a vast potential audience. The Islamic Cultural Community of Northern California is having Dr. Abdulaziz Sachedina speak in December, and what better way to pitch his talk to potential attendees by linking to his recent appearance on WINA's Charlottesville--Right Now! with Coy Barefoot ? I'm sure they found it by typing "Sachedina podcast" in Google. I'm always glad when this sort of thing happens, because it turns a one-time radio appearance into part of the public record. And, it's good for a couple extra fifty downloads or so, I reckon. That particular recording has been downloaded 122 times now, so we'll see if this goes up over time.

Radio on the television / television on the radio

I was searching out new mp3s to listen to just now , and came across this absolutely painful interview. Luke Burbank of NPR interviewing Icelandic band Sigur Ros and it goes pretty poorly. After the first long pause, it's pretty clear the group has no interest in being interviewed for this show, which is also being filmed for YouTube (hence the video). I thought it odd to watch an interview like this, and to see it going so poorly. It's a very raw interview, with people who has clearly not been prepared for interview. There's absolutely nothing going on here, and the host points that out at one point, and then it just goes downhill from there. I've never been very good at live radio. For me, it's all got to be scripted. I've not been writing many radio pieces lately, and I miss the structuring of creating a script. When I write for radio, I transcribe everything I can, even the soundbites, to see if there's a way I can present the information as succinctly a

iTunes podcast subscribing as easy as dragging and dropping

You would think that the guy who runs the Charlottesville Podcasting Network would have figured this out already. Today I was reading through one of the e-mails I get from Poytner about how to improve my craft as a journalist. And, I noticed there was a podcast involved as well. The innovation, though, was a suggestion that I could "drag and drop to iTunes." So, I tried it. I opened up iTunes, opened the Podcast folder, and dragged the link to Poytner's podcast feed in, and it worked. I'm now subscribed! Easy as pie. Try it yourself! Charlottesville Podcasting Network feed: Drag to iTunes Charlottesville Tomorrow podcast feed: Drag to iTunes One thing to note is that feeds directly into the iTunes music store do not work this way, which I don't find terribly surprising. Edit: I had to delete two of them, because I can't seem to get Feedburner to work correctly with the sub-category podcasts. Need to upgrade CPN's Wordpress and Podpress to get this started.