I’m really clever me. I think I’ve got it all figured out. Let me explain, I make my living from creating and selling digital computer files, as you know those files are podcasts. It’s very important that nothing bad happens to those files once we’ve made them. A lot of hard work and care goes into them and in many ways they are priceless. The audio that is captured will never happen again, it’s unique. If I were to lose them all we couldn’t just throw a few more together.

Because of how important these files are I take several precautions to protect them. When a podcast is completed it gets moved to a Completed Podcasts folder on my computer which is automatically backed up to an external drive. When that external drive is full I make a copy of it, leave one in a cupboard at home, and take one to my Parent’s house. That way I don’t have to go running back into the house if there’s a fire in the night. Because of the massive size of the files it would be too expensive for us to attempt to back them up online. Continue Reading…

I can often be heard moaning and generally going on about how there isn’t a single phone maker out there that just sticks every cool piece of technology going into their best phone. It’s always an iPhone with a rubbish camera, or a Sony Ericsson with a great camera but with an OS that makes you want to climb a clock tower with a riffle. There are Nokias that look good on a web page but all too late you realise that Nokia haven’t moved on since 1998.

Why oh why oh why can’t somebody make a phone with something like the Android OS, 8MP camera, 720p video capture, at least 16GB of storage, a nice capacitive touch screen and 8.0211n instead of the old a/b/g standards. Then they should go and stick something in there that sets it even higher above every other phone, something that hasn’t been seen before, what about putting a miniature DLP projector in there that will let you project your 720p video files on a wall at something like 52 inches. It would be amazing if just one of the many phone manufacturers did that, I mean why not? All the technology exists to do it. If only somebody…..what? What’s that you say? Samsung Halo? Available Q3 2010? Now you have my undivided attention. Now I need clean pants.

Google went and did something very clever here. They woke up one day and realised that they are the owners of a massive social network. It took them so long to see it because it was all over the place. They had a way for users to send messages to each other called Gmail. The had a place to upload your photos to called Picasa, and a little thing for videos called YouTube. They had a homepage and chat. Everything that people use in Facebook. The difference was that you log into Facebook and it’s all there. It’s all part of the same website. It isn’t lots of services scattered across the internet. Google Buzz brings it all together in a nice little social networky kind of way.

Remember FriendFeed? It’s like Twitter only better. They were never as big as Twitter but they offered features that you sometimes forget Twitter is missing. It’s a micro-blog just like Twitter, but you aren’t limited to 140 characters. Yes I understand that the whole web 2.0 thing makes limiting yourself a cool thing. Almost a bunch of internet hippy crap. There are so many things I’ve wanted to say on Twitter but haven’t been able to break it down to 140 characters. There are those out there who would say “You know, if you can’t say it in 140 characters then it isn’t worth saying.”. Get lost. What if I use some really intelligent big words? What if I want to say something very complicated? I’ve always preferred the opportunity that FriendFeed provides. Continue Reading…

You’re either a podcast listener or a podcaster yourself, so you know what I’m talking about when I describe The Look. It’s the way someone looks at you when you mention the word “podcast.” Most people don’t know the word, and never will, and that’s their loss. Yes, I’m talking about the guy I know who thought it had something to do with fishing.

On the B side of that record are the people who turn their noses up at anything podcast-related. They sneer at chat rooms. They frown on forums. They use email at work and that’s about it. Strangely, these same people tend to be the ones staying up all night playing Farmville, but that’s another issue.

I have grown tired of explaining all of this to every random person who stares at my Starbase 66 business card and says “What is it, a fan club?” So here goes: Ten myths about podcasters debunked.

MYTH: The average podcaster is a pasty white male who has trouble finding large enough trousers. He sweats Diet Coke and smells like Doritos, and the last time he had a date was the hour before his inflatable Monica Lewinsky sprung a leak.

TRUTH: Yes, there are guys like that, but we don’t call them podcasters; we call them “gamers.” But for every one of them, there are hundreds of podcasters drawn from every walk of life, every age, every country, every occupation. While they share a common level of geekery, they are, for the most part, fairly normal looking. Except for gaming podcasters. Those guys are scary.

MYTH: Podcasters live in their moms’ basements.

TRUTH: Some do. Some live in their grandmothers’ basements. Others live in nice suburban homes, or university dorms, or quaint villages, or huge urban metropoles. You can’t lump them all together like that. That’s discriminatory, and you owe my mom an apology. I’ll get her; she’s just upstairs.

MYTH: Podcasters like to twiddle their knobs.

TRUTH: “Twiddle their knobs” is a phrase used to refer to the highly skilled art of audio manipulation on a mixing console. Get your mind out of the gutter.

MYTH: Podcasters spend all their time comparing microphones.

TRUTH: While some prefer the smooth, simple elegance of the condenser mic, others like the raw, rugged power of the dynamic. It’s only natural that podcasters, when gathered together, will whip out their tools and compare. Podcasters are blessed with big, thick microphones; most people just make do with the little one that came with their laptop.

MYTH: Podcasters are self-centred nerds who are just looking for an audience for the things they care about.

TRUTH: I disagree. Nothing could be further from the truth. And let me tell you why: I don’t think that’s the case. I’ve never heard of anyone thinking that, anyway.

MYTH: Podcasters are just cheap amateurs, and are to radio what drunken karaoke is to proper rock music.

TRUTH: Podcasting isn’t trying to be radio. It’s a different art form altogether, something I can assure you, having worked extensively in both fields. Podcasting is much more free, much more natural, and far more real than radio, unless you’re from a radio station, in which case I can only say I’m coming at you Live with the Drive at Five!

MYTH: Podcasters never have groupies waiting outside the studio.

TRUTH: Not true. The issue here is geography, of course; listeners could be anywhere. But we get our fair share of groupies, and some of them are local. I signed my name to a huge bare breast just the other day down at the comic book store; you’re welcome, Jim.

MYTH: Podcasters are no-talent hacks who couldn’t make it otherwise.

TRUTH: Many podcasters have gone on to huge successes, and you know who they are. No, I won’t tell you. You need to work this one out on your own.

MYTH: Most of those “successful” podcasters you’re so bad at being subtle about are people who went from mainstream radio and TV to podcasting, with established names and known brands, and that’s why they’re so successful. Not because they’re podcasters.

TRUTH: Those guys aren’t podcasters. They’re media whores. Podcasters live for their art. They don’t call them ‘netcasts’ or endorse guitar strings or hair gel or whatever it is those people do. Real podcasters starve for their art, whether they want to or not, and anyone willing to donate Burger King coupons to help the show along will get a special mention.

MYTH: Podcasting won’t make you rich.

FALSE: If you define “rich” through money only, then you are cheapening the whole experience. I define “rich” as having a wealth of knowledge and experience, meeting new and interesting foreigners and having amazing audio adventures on a global scale. Plus, I made eight cents on ad clicks last month … the empire is growing, people. By this time next year, I should be able to afford hair gel.

– Kennedy, Starbase 66

Are you ready for this one people? As if they’re shouting a big F You to MacWorld, Apple have finally come clean and announced that on the 27th of this month the world will be treated to the very first view of their new baby.

The rumours have been running wild for weeks now and a lot of people seem to think this might just be the long awaited tablet mac that some have been waiting for. I must admit it’s the kind of thing that makes me raise my right eye brow like Roger Moore in The Saint, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to want one in the end.

It’s important to remember that we don’t actually know what’s going to happen, we only know that something is going to happen. If it’s a tablet mac then there are probably going to be a lot of very happy people. However, it’s entirely possible that they’re going to show off the next version of iWork and iLife. That’s going to be like asking for an XBox for Christmas and getting a Wii. It’s not that it’s bad, it’s just not what we asked for. Continue Reading…

Just a quick note to let you OS X owners know that Google have released a beta version of their excellent browser Chrome. It’s a few versions on from the developer build that they made available for a short time a couple of months ago.

I’ve been using it for a while now and I have to say that it’s excellent. Not as functional as something like Safari, but it will certainly let you get done what you need to get done. The one thing it has is speed. Unfortunately the time browsers take to render a web page is now measured in fractions of a second so you’ll be hard pressed to see any difference between Chrome and Safari. However it is a little bit quicker, it has never crashed for me, and it loads almost instantly. In that respect it beats Firefox in every way I can think of.

Personally the release of Chrome has signalled the death of Firefox. Both Chrome and Safari load instantly, never crash, render pages perfectly, and work so quickly it’s crazy. Firefox takes 15 to 30 seconds to load, is a pain in the arse when it comes to rendering pages correctly (if you don’t believe me, try building a web page), and crashes most of the time. Long live Chrome.

Check it out at http://www.google.com/chrome

Remember Mallet’s Mallet? It’s a word association game where you mustn’t pause or hesitate from our collective UK childhood. You start with the words HP Photosmart C309a, and I say TURKEY! The damn thing just won’t print like it’s supposed to. Sure it will print, it will even print onto A4 paper completely borderlessly, yet when I define a page size with my own margin size it won’t work properly. I have spent the last month going back and forth with HP customer support and all they’ve managed to come up with is to tell me to reinstall the printer drivers. I’ve now done that close to 80 times and it never has an effect.

My Mac is running Snow Leopard 10.6.2, so I tried printing from Allison’s computer which is running Leopard 10.5.something, and so is using completely different printer drivers. It still didn’t work. Customer support have managed to keep me hanging on just long enough for me not to be able to return the device without a fight. Even if they take it back they say it will be subjected to testing to see if it really is faulty. A system which I expect is in place to give them the opportunity to say that it prints (which it does) and so refuse to give me a refund. Either way the printer is now back in it’s box and is for sale on Amazon.co.uk so I can try to get some of the money back that I wasted on it. Whatever ends up happening with that, so be it. Buying an HP printer was a mistake I won’t make again.

Now I face a choice and not an easy one at that. It’s time to get a new printer. I need one very quickly because there are store orders I need to produce and send out in time for Christmas, if they aren’t sent by the end of next week I risk more than a few justified complaints.

The old broken printer was an Epson. Back in the day they were very good, but now they seem to have let things slide, so I won’t be going down that road. Basically I’m going for Canon, either the iP4700 or the MP640. That’s where I don’t know what to do and I’m interested to see what you all think. Here’s the problem…

The iP4700 is just a printer and the MP640 is a printer/scanner/copier. Both have identical print quality according to Canon and they both use the same cartridges. The MP640 is around £30 – £50 more expensive than the iP4700.

First of all I have to ask myself what I need a printer/scanner/copier for. We already have a scanner of higher spec than the MP640 has and I haven’t needed to copy anything since I left teacher training. All I could say is that it would be nice to have the functionality incase I ever need it. Is that really justification for spending the extra money? More importantly the MP640 has Wi-Fi and the iP4700 doesn’t. Again I’m not really sure I can justify holding out for that either. In all honesty the only reason I want Wi-Fi is so that we can print from Allison’s computer, and as this is a Simply Syndicated printer bought with Simply Syndicated money, it’s fair to say that printing from Allison’s computer is absolutely nothing to do with Simply Syndicated, so why should it pay for it. On top of that even if the iP4700 is connected to my Mac then we can still print over the network as long as my machine is switched on, which it usually is.

Next, the only place I can buy the MP640 is online. Today is Saturday and if I order today it won’t be processed until Monday. I spoke to the only online store I could find that has one (thanks to @MrSnoobs on Twitter) and they say I can expect to have it between Wednesday and Friday next week. That means I could start sending out orders by Thursday next week at the earliest. Most would go out the following Monday. The iP4700 is sold in most electrical stores and I could go and pick one up right now, do the orders over the weekend, send them on Monday and most people would have their order in their hands by Tuesday. Does that difference in time really make it worth getting a less functional printer that I can’t really justify getting in the first place?

Finally there’s the price. If I ordered the MP640 today it will cost £148.70. If I went and bought the iP4700 from our local branch of Comet it will cost £109.99. A price difference of around £30. Being that a complete set of new cartridges is around £35 that means I’m spending a set of cartridges on functionality that “would be nice to have”. Further problems arise with the iP4700 being available online for around £90. If I’m willing to wait until the end of next week for the MP640 doesn’t it make sense that I should be willing to wait the same amount of time for the iP4700 in order to save £20?

Right now I’m thinking I should get my ass to Comet, buy the iP4700, make the outstanding orders over the weekend and have them in the mail on Monday. Over the course of writing this post I think I’ve talked myself out of the MP640. While £50 isn’t a lot of money in the grand scheme of things I can’t justify spending it, especially when £50 might represent Simply Syndicated income for a month.

I’d love to hear what you all would do in the same situation. Please help!

Of course, if the damn HP printer worked in the first place I wouldn’t be in this mess. That was £157 pissed away.

-Rich

And so the ever continuing phone debate rages. Who will win? Who has the most apps? Does it really matter? Well, no. All that really matters is that you choose the phone that’s right for you, you just have to make sure that you’ve looked at all the different options and haven’t gotten caught up in hype. Apple are ever so slightly good at creating hype, especially when it comes to the iPhone. However, I still think the iPhone has many shortcomings and now there is a competitor breathing down its neck. Continue Reading…

When I switch on the computer in the morning there are a couple of things that I look at right away. First I check my email, then I fire up Tweetie to see what’s going on with Twitter. I use iTunes to see if there are any new podcasts for me to listen to, and then it’s time to read the news.

My news comes to me in one way, Google Reader. Aside from Gmail, Google’s online RSS reader has to be my favourite product from the Silicon Valley giant. For those of you who haven’t come across it yet, Google Reader allows you to subscribe to RSS feeds much like you can with Safari or Firefox, only it’s online. That means that wherever I am I can read the news. Continue Reading…

Is podcasting dead? In a word… maybe. But then it really depends on what you mean by podcast and what you mean by dead. Like many things in the world it’s all about how you look at it.

This is a complicated issue so let’s start at the beginning. What is a podcast? I think there’s a very common misunderstanding that a podcast is an audio or video show that you download to your computer or other device to play. It’s not. You see there are two ways you can use the word podcast, it’s either a noun or a verb. For example, Movies You Should See is a podcast. An episode of Movies You Should See is a podcast, and we podcast a show called Movies You Should See. Before we start declaring it as dead I think we need to be really clear what we’re talking about. It’s my own opinion that the correct use of the word is the verb. I podcast, you podcast, he/she podcasts etc. Continue Reading…