Category: I do not subscribe :: Go to Main
April 19, 2005
Podcast Review: May it Please the Court podcast
This entry posted in:
2 and a half stars
, I do not subscribe
, Podcast Review
WLF | May it Please the Court Law Weblog
Format: short audio blog posts
Content: quote of the day, commentary, rants
Rating: 
What I'm going to do: not subscribe
Typical Length: 1½ - 3 minutes
May It Please the Court is the irregularly published podcast from the Williams Law Firm in California. J. Craig Williams et. al. produce short podcasts containing a quote of the day and some commentary on the headline of the day. Most of the time the headlines and related commentary are related to a legal issue or court case that's come to the attention of the producers. On a few other occasions the loosely law related headline serves as a spring board for a rant about congress in baseball or Microsoft Word.
Don't get me wrong, sometimes a rant is just what the lawyer ordered. I'm certainly guilty of enough of them. But in this case the rants take away from what I perceive to be the value of this 'cast: a short opinion by a lawyer that could serve to clarify a complicated issue. The May It Please the Court blog at the link above certainly fulfills this purpose more often than not in its posts, but the podcast does it less often. On some Fridays, MIPLC repodcasts several other podcasts (Grape Radio and Reel Reviews Radio, to be specific). I'm assuming for the sake of this review that he's got the rights to do so, but I'm not sure why he would choose to repackage that content here.
In terms of audio quality, the actual sound quality is satisfactory, although there are a few occasions where there's significant clipping of the vocals. It's encoded at 128 kbps, which is quite high for the content, but given the short length of the 'cast the size of the files is still negligible. The quality of the actual delivery is sometimes uneven; it seems as though the podcasters are still getting used to the medium, but if they continue to podcast I suspect that will improve.
Speaking of rants, this is probably the first podcast the I've reviewed where I have a beef with its RSS feed. For one thing, there's no
May It Please the Court also produces a tech channel and a video blog ("Vlawg") with different content. They originally requested reviews for both podcasts, but unless there's some more activity on the tech channel I don't see a reason to add it to the queue.
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Tagged: podcast podcasting review law williams vlawg video
Posted by cori at 09:35 PM
April 12, 2005
Podcast Review: Shakespeare Souffle
This entry posted in:
3 stars
, I do not subscribe
, Podcast Review
Format: rambling talk
Content: talk about Bradley family culture
Rating: 
What I'm going to do: not subscribe
Typical Length: 15 - 30 minutes
Shakespeare Souffle is a "blogcast" of the audio antics of a family of 4 from Chicago. Subject matter is as widely varied as the activities and events of Bradley family life, ranging from a soundscape of a typical day to a recording of a trip to the field museum to 2 or 4 of the family members (and maybe some firends, too) sitting around a microphone and talking.
This family has the good fortune to get along well and to lead fairly busy and interesting lives, as families go. They're homeschoolers and have what appears to be a wide social circle. Daughter Fiona and son Liam get along as well as can be expected, as do the parents Ken and Kim. They have a cat. Fiona is a girl-scout, and Kim participates as well.
If you found the preceding paragraph somewhat interesting then Shakespeare Souffle is for you. If you found it less than compelling (as I did) then probably not, because that's largely the extent of the content on Shakespeare Souffle; details of the Bradley family life. My intention here is not to belittle the effort the Bradley's are putting in to their podcast; quite the opposite. They enjoy the podcasting, and it is the first podcast that I've heard that involves an entire family. They have a great time doing it and it's a great new way for a family to spend some additional time with each other, which is great! However, for some listeners the subject matter will be less than riveting.
Early in the podcast series Shakespeare Souffle suffered from some problems with audio quality. They've made great gains in that area more recently and their "at home" podcasts are intelligible, although with 4 or more people around a microphone it's inevitably hard to hear some portions and other portions are too loud. Their mobile 'casts still have some quality difficulties, but that's perhaps in the very nature of mobile podcasting. Track-naming is adequate but not ideal, comprised of the podcast channel name and podcast number, but no date; the file names contain the date and a shortened name, which is fairly accessible. Tracks are encoded at a variety of bit-rates, from 64kbps (probably a good rate) down to 24 kbps (too low in my opinion), and may be the cause of some of the quality problems they've had, especially seeing that the later podcasts have been the one with the higher bit-rates. The show is typically kid- and work-friendly, but on occasion hasn't been - and they've let the listeners know when it's not, which is good form. The Bradleys podcast somewhat irregularly, but average about every 2 weeks.
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Tagged: podcast podcasting review Chicago Shakespeare Bradley family
Posted by cori at 03:57 PM
April 08, 2005
Podcast Review: open source sex
This entry posted in:
3 and a half stars
, I do not subscribe
, Podcast Review
tiny nibbles - podcasting
Format: talk
Content: education sex talk and reading of erotica
Rating: 
What I'm going to do: not subscribe
Typical Length: 15 - 35 minutes
Disclaimer: this review may not be suitable for all audiences
Our host for Open Source Sex, Violet Blue, is a professional sex educator, author, and porn reviewer. As such she is highly qualified for the content of her podcast. Not only does she have a strong background in pornography and sex education; I believe she's also given up her day job to do this stuff full-time. Violet (may I call you Violet?) is striving to open our minds to the power of eroticism, fantasy, and sexual play.
She does a good job of it, as well. Her voice is well-suited to reading erotica, with a soft and sultry quality, and while she's not an actor she clearly enjoys the reading and puts herself into the characters' roles.
Early in her podcasts she was including a little more in the way of educational topics, and the more recent ones have been directed more exclusively at readings of a wide variety of erotica, from the racy to the raunchy. I don't think of myself as a prude, but I'm less interested in the erotica than in the educational topics Violet covered in her first podcast or two. She has returned to more "informative" topics in her latest podcast, however. In any case, if you're looking for erotica in a podcast, this is the place to go.
Violet's early podcasts suffered from some audio quality problems; the audio was difficult to hear on my portable player, even when turned all the way up and piped through my car's audio system. The levels were OK for listening on my laptop, however. In addition, there was a liitle bit of a tin-can syndrome in the first few podcasts. Since then, however, the audio has improved greatly, although they could still stand a little more volume. Violet encodes at a variety of bitrates, the early podcasts encoded at 32 kbps, which probably accounts for some of the quality issues. The more recent ones are anywhere from 64 kbps to 128 kbps, although I think the 64 kbps would be sufficient. The podcast meta-data is lacking some detail, but the latest few have been OK, albeit without a date tag in the file name (rant).
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Tagged: podcast podcasting review
Posted by cori at 06:31 AM
April 01, 2005
Podcast Review: Acowo Podcast
This entry posted in:
3 and a half stars
, I do not subscribe
, Podcast Review
ACOWO: Introduction of High Quality Netlabels
Format: individual music tracks
Content: independent music
Rating:
What I'm going to do: not subscribe
Typical Length: 3 - 12 minutes
The Acowo podcast is essentially a companion to the Acowo blog, a resource for "Introduction of High Quality Netlabels." In other words, Acowo is essentially a site for tracking new releases from a few hand-picked netlabels.
Your host at the weblog is Kengo Miyazaki, and for this site he's picked a few "labels that are dealing with minimal, techno, abstract, experimental, ambient, noise and stuff like that." (from the FAQ). Kengo blogs information about new releases from his chosen labels, including label, artist, album, track information, availability of a donation page or shop, license for the MP3s, and host for the MP3s. There is often additional descriptive information about the artist culled from the source site for the netlabel. To that extent, the Acowo site seems to be a very useful place to find new music of this sort.
The podcast aspect of the production consists of the individual tracks that Kengo links to from the blog posts; all of the tracks he posts links to on the site are also 'cast over the feed. In this sense the Acowo podcast is very similar to the Starfrosch Podcast. I have detailed my opinions of single-track podcasts previously, in the reviews for both the Starfrosch Podcast and The Big Chap Podcast, so I won't go into detail here. Suffice it to say I can't comment meaningfully on delivery or production values for this podcast. The music Kengo podcasts is not altogether to my taste, but it is well executed and of high quality. The encoding rate is high (typically 192 kbps or above) frequently resulting in fairly large downloads. Given that the podcast comes out several times a week, you'll be downloading a fair amount of data. Track naming is satisfactory, and the file naming is OK as well, although it's sometimes difficult to decipher.
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Tagged: podcast podcasting review music minimal techno abstract experimental ambient noise netlabel
Posted by cori at 03:58 PM
February 10, 2005
Podcast Review: HOT Radio
This entry posted in:
3 stars
, I do not subscribe
, Podcast Review
Format: talk
Content: trading tips and market information
Rating:
What I'm going to do: not subscribe
Typical Length: 15 - 20 minutes
The HOT Radio podcast is aptly named; not only is it about High Octane Trading, but your host, Steve Wirrick, is definitely high octane as well.
From what I can discern, Steve's podcast is an extension of Steve's existing stock market training business. From what I can hear in the podcast, Steve is either fairly successful at what he does, a very good actor, or optimistic to the point of insanity. His high-energy podcast leaves you in no doubt that there's money to be made with Steve's High Octane approach, and Steve markets his podcast as "The Quickest and Easiest Way For You to Consistently Learn My Money-Making Secrets." The only question that I have is whether or not Steve is intending to train people who already know something about trading or whether he is targeting his podcast at the complete trading neophyte. Because I have to say, I'm one of those neophytes and I didn't understand more than 1 word in 5 of what Steve was talking about. I'm sure once you know the jargon Steve's rapid commentary is meaningful, but certainly not from the outset.
All of that said, I should also point potential liseners to Steve's disclaimer, where he states:
Neither Steve Wirrick, nor anyone else at Planet Cash, Inc., are registered as a securities broker-dealer or an investment adviser either with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission or with any state securities regulatory authority.
I am neither an economist nor a trader, but much of what I could glean from what Steve had to say seemed to contravene what I understand is commonly held to be sound investment strategy - invest for the long haul. Steve's strategy seems to be about short-term trades. To be fair to Steve I don't think he's pitching a long-term strategy here, but based on that fact this may not be the strategy for you. Your results, as they say, may vary.
Steve is very comfortable behind the mic, and his delivery is fast and smooth. A habit of his that I found to be somewhat annoying was his repetitive use of the NATO phonetic code to represent the ticker symbols of the companies whose stock he's discussing. While certainly helpful for clarity's sake, a little less repetition of those codes would be preferable to my listening pleasure. The meta-data for the HOT Radio Podcast is good, with a full title and date in both the file and track names and consistent tagging elsehwere. Steve's audio balance is good for the most part, although at the beginning and end of his vocal content he often seems to be fighting against the volume of his intro / outro music, so perhaps fading that music down a little more before he starts to talk would make things a little easier both for him and his listeners. In a strange twist of podcasting chance, Steve uses the same intro / outro music as another energetic podcaster, another paragon of promotion, Matthew Bischoff of Esc From The World!. In fact their delivery is so similar that if they didn't live on opposite sides of the country I'd be tempted to say they might be related.
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Tagged: podcast podcasting review
Posted by cori at 10:56 PM
Podcast Review: The Skinny on Sports
This entry posted in:
4 stars
, I do not subscribe
, Podcast Review
Skinny on Sports - Podcast - skinnyonsports.com
Format: talk show
Content: sports talk
Rating: 
What I'm going to do: not subscribe
Typical Length: 10 minutes
Andy and Matt Skinn are podcasting a good, compact volume of sports talk once a week (usually Sundays) for all the sports interested podcatchers out there in podcast-land.
If you're a regular reader of the site, or have looked at the back posts, you're probably aware that I'm not much on sports. Don't watch 'em, don't really pay that much attention to them. But I've long been surprized that sports podcasts aren't a lot more popular, given the fairly common shared interest in various sports not just in North America but seemingly world-wide. However, I do see that that's changing; while the iPodder.org : Podcasts directory only lists 7 or so, SportPodcasts.com lists around 30. That's great news for you sport fans, I think.
Back to Andy and Matt's podcast. The guys have a good format put together. They've broken each episode into 4 quarters and an overtime, dividing the 'cast into 5 roughly equal-length segments, each about a different sports topic. Their topics often involve recent games and/or predictions for upcoming ones, but they often also discuss the intersection of sports and society (issues such as women playing men's sports or steroids in Major League Baseball). They've also had a few interviews and seem likely to have more. They have fairly insightful things to say about all these subjects and seem knowledgeable about the sports side of things (I'll have to defer that decision to the more sports-knowledgeable among you since I hardly know the difference between a full court press and an offside pass). Their sports "obsessions" are dealt with in a fairly level-headed manner, which is refreshing.
The style of the podcast is likewise refreshing and easy to listen to; it has the feel of a couple of guys having a conversation at the water cooler (which I suppose it largely is, minus the water cooler). While in their interview at Podcast Alley they comment that they think they've gotten more comfortable since the first podcast, they were pretty comfortable to begin with and now they sound highly professional, with nary a stutter or hesitation to be heard. The audio balance between the musical bed and intro / outro music and their vocals is satisfactory. I would say, however, that while the use of the quarter-buzzer as a device to delineate between segments is effective and fitting, it's fairly loud and often obscures part of their commentary. While I'm sure it serves to keep them on target time-wise (because they are very conscious of their self-imposed 10 minute limit) they might be better served by playing it only when they're truly done with the commentary in any one section. File- and track-naming is satisfactory - while the track name doesn't contain the full podcast name they are consistent in using the name of the podcast for the artist tag, so the data is easily available.
All in all, if you like sports you're likely to enjoy The Skinny on Sports
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Tagged: podcast podcasting review
Posted by cori at 12:23 AM
February 08, 2005
Podcast Review: The Overnightscape
This entry posted in:
3 and a half stars
, I do not subscribe
, Podcast Review
Format: personal talk radio
Content: new york area life, product reviews, personal commentary
Rating:
What I'm going to do: not subscribe
Typical Length: 30 minutes
The more podcasts I listen to, the more I am impressed with how personal the content of many podcasts are. The Overnightscape is no exception to that tendancy. Your host at the Overnightscape, Frank Edward Nora, brings to the podcasting world his experiences and unique perspectives dealing primarily with New Jersey, New York, and the mental space between them. Throw in a few product reviews, some Nora family members, and the audio from a home-cooked video series and you'll have The Overnightscape.
Frank's is certainly a unique voice, both from the aural standpoint, and from the point-of-view standpoint. As is the case with most "personal record"-style podcasts, I think most listeners appreciation for this podcast will be primarily based upon their sense of Frank's personality. Frank's got some interesting things to say about working in New York City and living in New Jersey, and having spent a little time in NYC (but not much) there's a certain fascination that goes along with hearing about day-to-day events in Manhattan and its surrounds. Frank's attitudes regarding his fellow New York/New Jersey denizens is sometimes a little harsh, but to his credit Frank often turns that same harsh light on himself. These two sets of commentary, coupled with the sessions with Frank's father, Frank Ralph Nora, comprise the best of what The Overnightscape has to offer.
On the other side of the coin are the product reviews and the "Beublin A. Richardson" video series. I didn't find Frank's product reviews particularly insightful or entertaining, and the video series isn't particularly captivating either. To be fair, I had no interest in any of the products that Frank reviewed (OK, that's not true. The Hot Nuts sounded interesting, if mildly risque) and the current episodes of the Beublin A. Richardson videos that Frank is playing may be less successful for the fact that they are originally in video. Frank indicates that later in the series it switches to audio-only, and perhaps those episodes will be more successful in the podcast format.
Frank's delivery is very comfortable and the production values are decent; he's obviously at home with the microphone, and while the intervening music is somewhat bland, the fades between segments and the encapsulating music are well-executed. The audio levels are even and require little, if any, vloume adjustments during the course of the podcast. Meta-data is acceptable - the tracks are easy to identify in Windows or on my portable player, although a date-tag in the file-name would be welcome (rant). Frank has recently changed his format to a 30 minute show every day instead of a 2 hour show once a week. I think this is a great move on his part for the podcatching audience at least - I tried to listen to a few of the 2 hours broadcasts before I was overwhelmed with backlog and never was able to get all the way through one. The Overnightscape site also has a lively user community built around the show (many of whom seem taken aback by the format change).
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Tagged: podcast podcasting review
Posted by cori at 11:40 PM
February 02, 2005
Podcast Review: TheCommute
This entry posted in:
3 stars
, I do not subscribe
, Podcast Review
Format: conversation
Content: whatever comes up - often light tech talk, traffic, daily goings on
Rating:
What I'm going to do: maybe listen occasionally
Typical Length: 15 - 25 minutes (as long as the drive to or from work)
One of the two participants in this podcast (who are known only as voice one and voice two) thinks "it is entirely boring toss," whatever that is. In some ways, I agree. If Samuel Beckett wrote scripts for podcasts, this would be one of them. Nothing ever happens in this podcast (not that anything has to happen in a podcast), and little of any interest in it's own right is discussed. This is the blog-about-my-cat version of podcasting, where the greatest interest is likely to be from those who know the participants (disclosure: I have blogged about my cat). You know, if there were sparks that flew occasionally, or even some philosophical disagreement on a subject that I'm interested in - an interchange of differing opinions, whether it be confrontational or good-natured - that might give some compelling interest to the podcast.
But that's not what this podcast is about. And in point of fact, I was much more interested in Voice 1 and Voice 2's daily commute than I was in Chris Rockwell's dinner, and this is, if anything, less work than what Chris puts into his shows - a fine example of the fact that a person can podcast about anything (or nothing). No, this is a podcast about the mundanity of everyday life, and in fact revels in the basic boringness of driving to work and the ways these two gentlemen find to make it not so boring (for them, and by extension for us). And to be honest, I listened to a dozen or more of these an made sure I heard every bit of every one and while I wasn't enthralled, it was a briefly interesting slice of life in another country. Not something I'd want to listen to every day, and while there is somewhat of a through-line to the conversation as the participants refer to things they talked about several days ago or that occurred off-mic, none of the stuff they're discussing is important enough for me to feel the need to go back and find the earlier references, which is refreshing.
These fellows actually do a good job in keeping their conversations real. There's no attempt to make the podcast interesting for listeners - what you hear is what you get. And at least one of the participants is enjoying it enough to keep doing it five days a week. A classic podcast about nothing.
File-naming leaves a little to be desired here; while there's a date tag in the file-name, the file- or track-name "TC20050201H.mp3" isn't particularly revealing - the rest of the meta-data (artist, album - tags like that) is OK (rant). No music is played (although maybe they listen to the radio occasionally), so tack lengths are irrelevant. I would say that for the type of content (all talk) the 96 kbps encoding rate is pretty high, making for largish files. Aside from that there are no production aspects to speak of, and the participants are noticably un-self-conscious in their delivery. Since the motivating force behind The Commute seems to be enjoying what they're doing, I firmly encourage him to keep it up.
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Tagged: podcast podcasting review
Posted by cori at 06:11 AM
January 21, 2005
Podcast Review: Two Rights Podcast
This entry posted in:
3 and a half stars
, I do not subscribe
, Podcast Review
Two Rights: Conservative Political Discourse
Format: radio show
Content: conservative discourse
Rating:
What I'm going to do: not subscribe
Typical Length: 30 - 45 minutes
Bill Rice and Keith Burwell (with the support of Thomas Gaume of ipodio) have laid claim to the role of the conservative response to the liberal bias of the podosphere. From their "About Us" page:
Two Rights is now the strongest conservative voice on the Podasphere.
Whether they have a right to that title is an excercise for those you think about such things - I'm just here to review their podcast.
The format of the Two Rights podcast is still in a little bit of flux, which they mention in one episode; based on listener-feedback they're playing around with the overall format. At one point the format consisted of a Going Deep section where they discuss some current events in some depth, a Blog Bullets section where they parroted headlines from their blog posts for items that they don't have time to cover in depth on the podcast, and a Higher Level segment where they discuss in some detail a single issue of their choosing. At this point it's hard to determine what the format will be of course, but they haven't made drastic changes yet and some items from the prior format remains.
One of the goals of the podcast is "to create Political Discourse on the ... podasphere," and to their credit they do a fairly good job at this. They are interested in discussion with liberal listeners and thinkers and have participated in a debate with Mark Levine of RadioInsideScoop.com and played a clip of the debate on their podcast. Not only do they welcome further interaction with liberals, but they also do not share a monolithic conservative view point and we hear a conservative discourse between the two of them on some of the issues they cover. This is refreshing to hear.
Bill and Keith obviously put a lot of thought into their viewpoints and as political commentators of any stripe go they rely more on thinking and analysis than on emotion and FUD. However, like political commentators on any side of any aisle they have an unassailable belief in their grasp of the facts which, depending on your own version of the facts, may seem deeply flawed.
The Two Rights audio is still a little rough - in some of the latest couple of shows that I listened to the vocals were somewhat distorted, perhaps they recording at too high a level. They currently break their show into segments with promos for podcasts and ads, and the transitions between the vocal segments and the interstitials are well-executed. Their delivery has been improving continually since they started and they now seem comfortable "on the air". Track meta-data is great; they even use the ISO 8601 date format that is my personal preference, and unless you find their view-points offensive, the podcasts are both work- and child-safe.
In total, this is a well-executed podcast. My "not subscribe" action is due less to the quality of this podcast than to my disinterest in political commentary.
Subscribe to mp3s. I believe you can get the podcast via bittorrent at ipodio, but I can't get to that link right now.
Tagged: podcast podcasting review
Posted by cori at 04:46 PM
January 19, 2005
Podcast Review: Goin' Deep with the Paralyzer and Mr. Clean
This entry posted in:
3 stars
, I do not subscribe
, Podcast Review
Goin' Deep with the Paralyzer and Mr. Clean
Format: on air get-together
Content: crew of guys talking - girls, booze, current events, girls, booze
Rating:
What I'm going to do: not subscribe
Typical Length: 50 - 80 minutes
I was never "one of the guys" when I was growing up - always a little too geeky, I suppose, being in band and heavily into RPGs. My idea of sports was cross country, and I didn't drink during high school until a graduation party (some peach schnapps concoction - ugh). After listening to Goin' Deep, I've determined that I didn't really miss all that much.
The content on Goin' Deep centers mostly around women and liquor. Thrown in for good measure are the occasional tidbit of current events or sports, and the guys tell quite a few personal experience stories (mostly revolving around women and liquor). One actually enlightening exchange in a recent podcast was the information about whiffleball - I had no idea that whiffleball was so difficult and certainly no idea that it was a popular sport with the over-12 crowd.
The Paralyzer's audio for the podcasts has its ups and downs. Frankly I think they mostly do a pretty good job with making everyone audible; there are usually 4-6 guys in the room at the same time and the listeners can hear most of what's going on. On a few occasions the audio has been poor with many of the vocals cutting in and out and very difficult to discern, but this is the exception rather than the rule. The delivery is pretty smooth - most of the guys are competent story tellers and fairly comfortable behind the mic (maybe that's the Seagram's talking). Production quality is pretty good, with the musical interludes and intro / outro being fairly well integrated into the show. Track- and file-naming is adequate, with both including an identifiable podcast channel name and date.
The show is not work- or child-safe (disclaimer prominently displayed on the site). In fact, it might not even be girlfriend-safe.
While I didn't care much for the content personally I'm sure many guys out there will enjoy it, and the crew is definitely having a good time, and no one can fault them for that.
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Tagged: podcast podcasting review
Posted by cori at 11:28 PM
January 12, 2005
Podcast Review: The Daily Download
This entry posted in:
3 stars
, I do not subscribe
, Podcast Review
Daily Download
Format: man talking
Content: music, talk, daily toilette
Rating:
What I'm going to do: listen to Bandtrax
Typical Length: 5 - 10 minutes
I don't know Chris Rockwell (aside from having reviewed his other podcast, Bandtrax), so I can't rightly say that I agree with his wife, Lorrie, when she says "This is the stupidest thing you've ever done," at the close of every Daily Download, but I can say this: this is one of the stupidest things I've ever heard.
The more credit to Chris, I think he might agree. In fact, I think that's the point. It seems that Chris has an overactive sense of irony, and it amuses him to produce the stupidest content that he can think of with what might be the most ground-shaking media technology since wireless radio. He's doing a pretty good job.
Chris's studio is his bathroom, and with a small stretch of the imagination I think you can determine what the primary content of his podcast is. Chris always discusses what he's had for dinner the last day or so and we "get" to hear the results of that, as well. To Chris's credit, there's other content in addition. Most Saturdays are new music Saturdays, when Chris play some new music for his listeners, and on Sundays there's usually a sermon. In addition, Chris accepts "experiments" from his audience - although they might be more accurately described as challenges (things like "How do women with really long fingernails use the toilet" or "Try some of this [reference to painful excretion] hot sauce"). By far the best show that I heard was the Thu, 30 Dec 2004 edition with Chris's wife Lorrie. The woman must have the patience of Job, although she gives Chris some pretty good jabs; I know my wife would laugh me out of the house if she knew I read on my laptop in the john, let alone if I was recording on it. Hint to you Lorrie; I have found that when experiencing difficulty in the toilet after eating hotsauce the results are often in direct proporation to the quantity of hot sauce consumed, not the heat of the hot sauce itself.
All in all, Chris does a pretty good job with the content he's limited himself to and has a pretty amusing podcast. If you can get past the given content (or think that it's funny in its own right) you might find something you like here. For myself, however, while I get the point behind what Chris is trying to do, I'd be much more interested in seeing Chris (or someone else) podcast from a variety of silly / stupid / difficult situations rather than the same one all the time - I think that would point out the ease with which anyone can do a podcast more clearly than The Daily Download does.
Audio is decent, with good levels and balance between vocal and musical bits. He only occasionally plays a full track of music on the show (once a week or so), but doesn't give us the track length (rant). File- and track-naming is okay, though I'd like to see the date in the track title. Chris encodes at 64 kbps, which is a good bit-rate for this podcast, and surprizingly, his laptop's internal mic does a pretty good job, and he's got a mini-disk recorder for remote set-ups that also gets pretty good quality.
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Tagged: podcast podcasting review shit poop crap dump excretion bowel movement
Posted by cori at 06:00 AM
January 06, 2005
Podcast Review: In The Trenches
This entry posted in:
3 and a half stars
, I do not subscribe
, Podcast Review
Format: talk show
Content: tech talk and personal commentary
Rating:
What I'm going to do: not subscribe
Typical Length: from 15 minutes to an hour, but mostly 20 - 40 minutes
In The Trenches is one of several strong technical podcast available to podcatchers these days. When ITT started it was one of the few podcasts that was focused on the IT professional, as most of them were more directed at users. Now there are a few more podcasts available for the IT Pro, but ITT is still the only one I know of that is for System Admins. Kevin Devin, your host at ITT, puts together plenty of good content for the Sys Admin crowd (too much good stuff to go into here), and some general technical info of a slightly more personal nature (problems with his new iPod being the latest of these sagas).
As part of the ITT series, Kevin also occasionally Skypes together a group of interested parties and the result is an ITT Tech Chat where the folks on the call discuss some technical subject. When these episodes are on target they can produce some great content; when they're off they're a little less informative but still quite listenable. In The Trenches has also recently been including a great segment called Geek Speak, which is directed a little more at the user end of things but still includes some informative bits for the professional. Kevin has invited others who are interested in podcasting but are concerned they don't have enough content for a stand-alone podcast to contact him. Perhaps this will lead to other segmants to be included in the podcast.
The In The Trenches audio is fairly good, even in the Tech Chats, where the limitations of Skype impact the overall audio quality. Production quality is pretty good as well, although Kevin occasionally has a little difficulty with the fades between his show and the intro and outro, making those clips overpower the vocals. No music tracks in the podcasts, and the file- and track-naming is sufficient, although using the full podcast channel name instead of 'ITT' would be appreciated (rant). Kevin's bit-rate varies widely, which makes me think he might be encoding at a variable bit-rate, so the file sizes also vary widely.
All in all, I won't be subscribing to In The Trenches because I'm not a Systems Admin, but I think ITT has a lot to offer folks in that field.
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Tagged: podcast podcasting review
Posted by cori at 12:44 AM
December 28, 2004
Podcast Review: podcat ... daily best of podcasting
This entry posted in:
3 stars
, I do not subscribe
, Podcast Review
podcat ... daily best of podcasting
Format: compilation
Content: clips of other podcasts
Rating:
What I'm going to do: listen occasionally
Typical Length: 35 - 60 minutes
Podcat's providing a service to the podcast community with podcast ... daily best of podcasting. Since podcasting is a viral sort of community, podcat's interlinking of podcasts provides an expression of appreciation for the podcasters doing the work and some good additional attention to good podcasts. It's also a great resource for newcomers to the podcasting phenomenon, who can rely on any of the podcasts they'll hear in a particular episode of the daily best of podcasting to be at the least enjoyable and a good listen. More seasoned podience members may find this podcast to be somewhat less useful than newcomers but might still enjoy it as a resource to discover and "test drive" podcasts they've never heard. For myself, however, the second round of clips (podcat usually has a quick run-down of clips from the podcasts he's covering followed by the full 5 - 10 minute clips of each one in turn) is too much - by that time I'd rather be listening to the podcasts themselves.
There's no commentary about the content of the podcasts included, I believe by design - podcat's letting the podcast clips speak for themselves. There is also no mention of what inclusion in podcat's podcast (that's kind of fun to say) represents; does it mean that a particular episode was strong, or is it a commentary about the podcast channel as a whole? If it's about the specific episode, are the clips presented the parts that pushed it into the best of... , or are the representative of the podcast as a whole and not necessarily the best parts. These are questions I had while listening, but I probably ask too many qestions.
Podcat has had some issues in the past with his audio, in particular his musical bed overpowered both his vocals and in some cases the podcast clips he was playing. He's largely overcome these challenges in the most recent postings, and hopefully he'll keep the balance between underscoring and transition music and the vocals and clips easy to listen to. Podcat's delivery leaves a little something to be desired for me. Podcat speaks fairly slowly, and while this is important when communicating something that a listener might want to write down for later reference, but for the rest of podcat's commentary the slow speech patterns do little but increase the length of the podcast. Podcat does have some nice production touches in the 'cast; I especially like the use of the cat sound effect to point out a jump from one clipped segment to another - makes it much easier to follow the clips. Other production and audio aspects are primarily well-handled, including fades between music and vocals and the interleaving of the clips from any one podcast.
The daily best of podcasting is a bit of a misnomer for the title of this podcast (I know, a bad case of the pot calling the kettle black); podcat's publishing more like once a week. Podcast meta-data is satisfactory.
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Tagged: podcast podcasting review
Posted by cori at 12:45 AM
December 03, 2004
Podcast Review: Not Work Safe Radio Podcast
This entry posted in:
3 and a half stars
, I do not subscribe
, Podcast Review
ultraILK - got ilk? Home of NWS radio Podcast
Format: online conversation
Content: talk, humor, sometimes off-color
Rating:
What I'm going to do: listen on occasion
Typical Length: 30 - 40 minutes
I've been putting off reviewing Not Work Safe radio for a little while because I couldn't get a bead on it. Ilk's format has changed substantially since his first couple of podcasts, but it seems as though he has a direction now, though he states on his blog that he's still experimenting.
Ilk and his recent guest Ash produce an online ramble that we're invited to at Not Work Safe Radio. They talk about a wide variety of subjects, relying on items they've seen on TV or the web, not to mention thier own unique interests. In particular Ilk and Ash are seemingly fascinated (obsessed?) with various sexual subjects. I am less interested in such things (or perhaps I'm just in denial), so those parts of the podcast were less enjoyable for me. On the other hand, other parts of the podcasts were genuinely very funny, including the flat, emotionless reading of a chat transcript from the latest podcast. I've also really enjoyed Ilk's musical choices, especially in his latest show.
The audio, while rough in the first few posts, has matured and is now well mixed and easy to listen to. The backing music and vocals are well balanced and the volume changes from vocal to musical content are minimal. The transitions from music to vocals are nicely done as well.
The file and track naming for Not Work Safe Radio is satisfactory; I can identify the podcast easily both on my portable and in my file system. However, it would be nice if Ilk told us the track lengths for the music he's playing (rant).
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Tagged: podcast podcasting review
Posted by cori at 06:24 AM
November 25, 2004
Podcast First Take: iPodLounge Podcast
This entry posted in:
3 and a half stars
, I do not subscribe
, Podcast FirstTake
Format: commentary
Content: iPod product reviews and commentary
Rating:
What I'm going to do: not subscribe; don't own an iPod.
Typical Length: 30 minutes
iPod Lounge's podcast is an experiment; the editors of iPodlounge don't know if they are going to continue to produce it or not, but they request a review, so there you have it.
Jeremy at iPodLounge is the narrator of this podcast, and if you own an iPod or are interested in the technology (or even are thinking about purchasing one) then this podcast contains a great deal of useful data. The iPod Lounge website is one of the best-known resources for iPod users, and much of what makes the site so valuable can be heard in the podcast. If you are not interested in the iPod, however, this podcast is probably not for you. In addition, I think much of what makes the site so terrific a resource is the member interaction, which will be difficult to reproduce in a podcast. That said, the attention to detail in the reviews and commentary is quite impressive.
In the first 'cast Jeremy reviews the iPod Photo, Oakley's Thump sun-glasses/mp3 player, and Bose's iPod Dock. As I said, these reviews are higly detailed and they are well-organized, commenting on everything from the features of the device in question to (in the case of the iPod Photo) delving into the operation and weaknesses of the accompanying software. The reviews are impartial and factual - no product pushing here, but there are enough details for you to listen to the podcast and make an informed choice about a putchase (if one opinion is enough).
The vocals for this podcast are recorded using an iPod Photo and the Griffin's iTalk recorder, and as such the audio for the podcast is acceptable. The vocals in specific are clear and easy to understand. I don't know if the post-production work (if any) was done on the iPod, but I suspect the musical intro and outro were mixed in after the fact. These clips of music were a little distorted on the bass end on my portable, but not so bad in my automobile. The music does not cut off Jeremy's vocals at all and the fades are handled smoothly, but a little bit of a musical bed might make the podcast a little less flat.
The podcast is encoded at 56 kbps, which seems to me to be a perfectly fine bitrate for this sort of podcast, and the resulting mp3 clocks in at just over 10MB for the almost-half-hour podcast. iPodLounge's meta-data is satisfactory; files and tracks are easy to identify both in my portable and in the Windows filesystem. There are no musical tracks, so track lengths are unimportant.
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Tagged: podcast podcasting review horowitz
Posted by cori at 06:58 AM
November 21, 2004
Podcast Review: Emayhem Podcast
This entry posted in:
4 stars
, I do not subscribe
, Podcast Review
Format: radio show
Content: talk, local events, some music
Rating:
What I'm going to do: tune in occasionally
Typical Length: 20 - 40 minutes
Dave Mansueto and his friends over at EMayhem Productions put together a great podcast. They are incredibly enthusiastic about what they're doing and have a great time. The interaction between the participants is a lot of fun to listen to.
Some of the content in EMayhem is very location specific to Pittsburgh, which matches with the guiding principles of their website: to encourage and support Pittsburgh artists. If you're located in or around Pittsburgh, or are visiting Pittsburgh, the events calendar is worth listening to - this is a great use of podcasting. They also offer some commentary about broader artistic material - movies, music, etc. Also interesting to note is that this is the first podcast I heard that has a sponsor (although I've heard a few others since).
The audio in the EMayhem podcasts is good - even though they sometimes have several speakers sharing a mic they are all easy to hear. They make good use of intro and outro music and musical underscores, and use a local music track to close out each show. Their delivery is enjoyable and intimate, and they podcast quite regularly (usually at least 5 days a week). The podcast is encoded at 112kbs (never seen that level before), so the files sizes aren't huge, but they're not tiny either.
One segment of their podcast is The Stalls, a serial cliff-hanger skit (they call it PodDrama) produced roughly once every 10 days (or so). While the humor is not right up my alley, the segments are tremendously well-produced, you can easily follow not just the narrative, but also the wide variety of characters and locales. A pretty ambitious production, and quite successful.
EMayhem's meta-data is good, and since they typically only play a complete musical track to close the show, track length isn't as important as it otherwise might be.
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Update [2005-01-25]: Seems Emayhem have both new web-site and RSS feed urls. These have been updated. And they're still podcasting strong.
Tagged: podcast podcasting review stinky
Posted by cori at 07:59 AM
November 15, 2004
Podcast Review: Linux Log
This entry posted in:
3 and a half stars
, I do not subscribe
, Podcast Review
Format: reference/news column
Content: linux, unix, and open source news articles
Rating:
What I'm going to do: subscribe to the site, listen sometimes
Typical Length: around 30 minutes
The Linux Log gives fairly in-depth coverage of the current buzz in the media about whatever's up right now for Linux, unix, and open source - obviously leaning a little harder towards the Linux side (given the title). The Linux Log podcast expands on that theme in an audio format.
The idea here is that Adrian Bacon and his fellows excerpt an entire week's worth of media coverage about the topics that the Linux Log site is tracking and podcast it in a half-hour podcast every Monday evening. The concept is good and the information valuable. In addition, Adrian is interested in being as supportive of multiple audio filetypes as possible - this is a great thing for OGG or FLAC users - just contact Adrian at the site and request the format that you want. However, currently Adrian is serving up both mp3 and WMA attachments in the same feed; I can't get the the WMA file, but that probably has to do with the iPodder platform, which may be ignoring WMA file. My concern is that when iPodder begins to listen for WMA files (if it's not already), I may get them both. Hopefully if the choices are expanded Adrian will split them into different feeds. For now you can get them from the site if this is a concern. Editor's Note: Actually, I've determined (with Garth of the iPodder development team's help) that iPodder actually just retrieves the first enclosure in each
If you're a real Linux propeller-head, this podcast probably isn't going to be a huge help for you. Adrian covers a lot of articles in a relatively short time at a relatively low level of detail. If you know nothing at all about Linux you're unlikely to care much about what Adrian's talking about. However, if you're only a little bit of a Linux geek (like a lot of the IT professionals I know) then this podcast will likely be right up your alley.
Adrian's delivery is a little dry at times, and the audio sometimes leaves a little to be desired; Adrian's vocals are a little muted, but he's aware of that problem and hopes to resolve it soon. Adrian also makes do without any intro / outro music or underscore, which adds a little to the dryness of the podcast; given that this podcast has a tremendously well-defined target, maybe that's OK, but a little extra production punch would add a little interest to the show, in my view. However, the think I'd like to see most out of this show was a slightly deeper analysis of the news stories he's bringing up. I'm not a huge media geek, and I don't really care too much about what media sources picked up thi story or that one, or hwhat the media source count is fior this story at Linux Log. What would be the most helpful to me is to have Adrian tell me a little bit of what makes this story so important to the Linux community. I want more why the story was picked up and a little less who picked it up. All in all a valuable resource that is sure to become more so as Adrian works out the kinks.
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Tagged: podcast podcasting review media log linux adrian bacon quicksurf
Posted by cori at 02:26 PM
November 13, 2004
Podcast Review: 5 Speed Cassette
This entry posted in:
3 and a half stars
, I do not subscribe
, Podcast Review
Format: radio show
Content: personal and sports talk, some music
Rating:
What I'm going to do: not subscribe
Typical Length: around 20 minutes
Mark Falcon and his co-host, Zack, from 5 Speed Cassette present us with some conversation and good non-RIAA music.
Mark's typical topics of conversations are about FormulaOne and World Rally Championship racing and the bicycle circuit and he's got a lot of information to share about these subjects; if you're into these sports, 5 Speed Cassette will definitely be a good choice. He discusses personal details to an extent, though not nearly to the point of, say, Dawn and Drew; Mark is clearly a very proud parent. Mark is personable and easy to listen to, though the goings on around him are occasionally distracting. His musical selections are from IndieFeed and from a CD from MP3.com, and are typically strong.
Mark handles the transitions between vocals and other content fairly well. Mark's background track typically consists of Zack's various emanations; Zack is in the room when Mark records. His vocals are a little muffled-sounding; I'm not sure if this is a technology or a mixing problem, but he's still perfectly audible, and the balance between Mark's vocals and the other content in his podcast is fine - no need for me to adjust my volume.
Marks' blog has links and additional comments about what he covers in his podcasts. He does not give us the track lengths of the music he plays [rant], but filenames are good, including both podcast name and date information. His meta-data, however, contains only the name of the podcast (all of them say "5 Speed Casette") [rant].
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Tagged: podcast podcasting review formula one world rally sports falcon religion family god
Posted by cori at 06:26 AM
November 12, 2004
Podcast Review: The Miller Report
This entry posted in:
3 and a half stars
, I do not subscribe
, Podcast Review
Grand Forks Times Online - Blogging and Podcasting
Format: news radio show
Content: talk, local news, politics, some music
Rating:
What I'm going to do: subscribe to his blog - listen occasionally
Typical Length: 25 - 35 minutes
Dave Miller at The Miller Report has some radio experience, and it really shows in the quality of his podcasts. His delievery is smooth and inviting - he treats the listener like a friend, drawing you into his conversation. Dave's audio is crisp and clear, and the balance between the music and vocals is good. Transitions in and out of musical tracks and the intro / outro are well-handled. Dave does not use a musical bed, but there's little dead air and the underscoring isn't missed.
The content on the Miller Report is a mixture of politico-social commentary and local news. Dave's political comments are a little hard to pigeon-hole (though he does lay claim to the "libertarian" label), a fact which I like a lot about his podcast - it's always challenging and interesting when someone's political commentary matches completely with your own on some topics but diverges completely on others as Dave's does with mine. The local information is less interesting, but surely valuable to residents.
Dave has made the decision to play only non-RIAA music in his podcasts (he usually plays one or two tracks a 'cast). The exception to this rule is Fridays, when Dave plays a "Top 5" list of music from this week in 1996 (obviously he's using RIAA music for this). He's plugging the bands he plays with a vengence, which is good to hear. Dave has a lot of good things to say about podcasting.
The blog has good content and links to many of the items he discusses - it's a good companion to the podcast.
Dave's mp3s are well-named and the meta-data in the mp3s gives me enough to go on both in Media Player and on my portable, but he does not give the track lengths for the music he plays (rant).
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Tagged: podcast podcasting review dave miller grand forks report libertarian
Posted by cori at 04:06 PM
November 08, 2004
Podcast Review: World's Largest Dungeon
This entry posted in:
3 and a half stars
, I do not subscribe
, Podcast Review
World's Largest Dungeon Review
Format: online Role Playing Game session
Content: 5 players playing Dungeons and Dragons
Rating:
What I'm going to do: Watch their feed; listen occasionally
Typical Length: typically each session is about 2 - 3 hours long, typically split into 2 parts of 1 to 1-1/2 hours
These folks have stumbled upon what must be defined as a niche market - they're podcasting audio transcripts of their Dungeons and Dragons role-playing sessions.
The first thing I noticed when listening to these 'casts was the accents, which threw me for a little bit of a loop. In the group I played with, British accents were typically a sign of a player trying (usually poorly) to speak "in character". These accents, however, are very authentic (probably because they're actually Brits that are producing them).
I must say that this was a refreshing trip into the way back machine for me; it's been more than 15 years since I last sat at a table with dice in my hand - in fact, it was not that long ago that I took my Advanced D&D Player Handbook (my version pubb'ed around 1984) to the used bookstore. These people get on well and have a good rapport, which makes the sessions very enjoyable to listen to. In fact, I found myself listening to far more of these then I ever thought I would.
There are basically no production values in these podcasts - they are sent out completely unedited. I'm not sure slick production particulars like intros / outros, fades, and music beds are of any real value to this kind of 'cast, but I thought I'd mention it. The audio quality leaves a little something to be desired, but I'm not sure what they could do about this - since they're recording from a single source and the players are presumably different distances from the mic, some voices are louder than others and the overlay of the conversation can sometimes be difficult to parse. However, since they don't have the time to do any high-powered editing to balance the voices or to record from multiple source and mix the results (and I don't blame them for that, certainly), there's not too much they can do to allieviate this problem. I especially wouldn't advise trying to listen on a portable player, even moreso in an environment that has any ambient noise (like a car or bus) because much of it will be difficult to understand. However, when listening over full headphones at my laptop, I was able to understand what was happening without any real problems.
The site; RPGMP3.com also has streaming files of these podcasts as well as several Call of Cthulu sessions.
If you are (or were) into D&D at some point in your life, or are curious as to what it's all about or want to decide if you want to give it a try, this podcast is a must listen - at least a few times....
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A little background from Paul from the site after the jump....
Here's what Paul has to say about RPGMP3:
It started out accidentally back in January 2003 when I accidentally recorded part of a D&D game when testing out a new microphone for my MiniDisc recorder (I'd forgotten I'd left it on) - and ended up with over half-an-hour of us playing 'Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil'.I found it on the disc a little later -listened to some of it and thought it was worth adding to my website as a curio.
It kind of took off.
With thousands of downloads and a number of emails saying how entertaining people found it. There are very few (if any) recordings of such games - so if you also want to justify it as recording for posterity, you can. :D (That's what you get when you're also a bunch of Archaeologists.) Anyway, RPGMP3.com was eventually born earlier this year (2004), and we've been putting files on fairly regularly ever since, people seem to like them if our traffic is anything to go by.
Final encoding is done in MP3Pro format at 32kbps/24(44)KHz which we find acceptable for voice quality and allows people with 56K modems to stream directly if they wish. Visitors have been listening online and downloading to their iPods for a while now, and once we discovered Podcasting it seemed a natural avenue to take as an alternative and convenient method of distribution.
As you'll have noticed the audio files are pretty much raw with very little or no editing. There are two main resoans for this - Time - because they are usually 2-3 hours per week and Realism - that's how we play, not a polished drama that you would normally expect hear on the radio.
While people find them entertaining to listen to, it also appears that it's having a certain effect on people who used to play - or want to play RPGs. Check out the comments on this page for example:
Tagged: podcast podcasting review
Posted by cori at 08:16 AM
November 05, 2004
Podcast Review: Northwest Noise
This entry posted in:
3 stars
, I do not subscribe
, Podcast Review
Format: Radio show
Content: Tim, Portland, University of Oregon, some music
Rating:
What I'm going to do: listen occasionally
Typical Length: 10 - 30 minutes
Tim Germer of Northwest Noise presents us with a podcast that is mostly about...well, er...Tim. He discusses his views on politics and life, his girlfriend, his new job, &ct. If you like Tim, then you'll undoubtedly like his podcast. If you don't care much about Tim one way or another you'll probably not care too much about his 'cast. If you don't like Tim...well, you get the idea. Tim also discusses a lot of subjects primarily of interest to Portland residents, especially University of Oregon alums and students.
Tim's delivery is fine - few hesitations or dead air. He does the 'cast without editing it, and does a pretty good job with that - there are few segments glaringly in need of editing. He's enthusiastic, although one might ascribe that the the quantity of coffee he apparently drinks. His vocal balance is generally good - I didn't have to adjust my headphone volume often while listening. One thing I didn't care for much is that Tim often will play a segment of a song, but rarely lets the ong play through. Maybe that's intentional, but I found it frustrating.
I really like Tim's intro/outro - it's well produced and interesting to listen to (if a little long, about 45 seconds in and 30 out). He also typically has a pretty good musical bed, although sometimes the vocals in the background are a little distracting. His fades are also competent for the most part, although there are occasional abrupt transitions. Tim encodes at 64kbps, which is a pretty good choice for the content.
If you're from the Northwest, especially Portland, or are a U of O alum, or just like Tim's style, then this podcast would be a good choice.
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Tagged: podcast podcasting review
Posted by cori at 05:21 AM
November 04, 2004
Podcast Review: The Wizards of Technology
This entry posted in:
3 and a half stars
, I do not subscribe
, Podcast Review
Format: Radio show
Content: technology talk - aimed at the less technical
Rating:
What I'm going to do: tune in sometimes
Typical Length: 45 - 60 minutes
I think these guys are a little ahead of their time in the podcasting world, but not much. Their show is all about being technical resources for people who aren't that technical. However, I think they really have something - once podcasting becomes a lot more mainstream and the podience grows more substantially beyond the techie folk that seem to be the major consumers...
You know, scratch that - I don't know who the consumers are; only who the podcasters are, so I can't really say that the consumers are all techies, now can I?
Let's begin again.
Mister Marc and Digital Bill of The Wizards of Technology Podcast have focussed their podcasting efforts on the non-techies among us. They've targeted their show at making technology accessible to the non-technically minded. I think they're really on to something.
The content they deal with is very broadly distributed. They talk about tech news, of course, and have a lot of good commentary to dish out. They dive in a little deeper about a few subjects on each show as well, covering viruses/phishing, giving gadget reviews and suggesting websites. Their commentary is insightful, but they're at their best when they have slightly differing views on a topic, which adds additional dimension to the dialog. They're also requesting that podcatchers send in questions; this will add some good content as well.
They're music choices are ok, and their use of it for breaks between the segments is great. The fades are all well-handled. They are still learning some of the ropes of the recording technology (little things, like remembering to turn off their mics and the like - nothing that's a big deal), and the bridge music sometimes overpowers their vocals when they're come in to or out of a segment. The audio is good for the most part - they're clear and easy to understand; there are only occasional distortions and muffled sound. They've been including interviews, which haven't been as successful from an audio standpoint; one of them was very muffled and difficult to understand, and one (that was coming from a taped source) only had the left channel. That said, I think it's ambitious of them to want to include the interviews, and the interviews are interesting and full of valuable content.
These guys also aren't afraid to try something new - their last 'cast was done from within a restaurant, which I thought was a great idea.
They chosen to encode at 48kbps, which I think is appropriate for a talk show and leads to a very acceptable file size (around 20MB for an hour-long show). Their website has a ton of great information linked back to the podcasts and is extremely helpful. They do speak at a liesurely rate, which I think will be comforting for those technical newbies they're targeting, but when I'm listening on a player that allows me the control I speed them up (Windows Media Players 1.4x rate seems to be just about right).
All in all a worthy effort, and I think it will be a hit with their intedned podience.
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Tagged: podcast podcasting review
Posted by cori at 06:43 AM
November 03, 2004
Podcast Review: Tech Shorts
This entry posted in:
3 stars
, I do not subscribe
, Podcast Review
Format: radio show
Content: talk with some music
Rating:
What I'm going to do: listen on and off
Typical Length: 35 - 40 minutes
I believe Richard Wifall of Tech Shorts qualifies as a full-on geek (I hope that's not an insult). I mean, this fellow has a computer in his car that syncs with his home network over wi-fi. I can't think of much that's geekier than that.
Richard's geekiness works to our benefit for the most part; he talks about a wide variety of technology subjects, from gaming to media technology to gadget commentary, in relative detail. One draw-back that I see is that his commentary is a little behind the news; he's talking about things that have been in the tech media for several days. It's difficult to keep up with all of the news, but given the very wide array of tech podcasts available and the frequency of publishing, timeliness is going to be very important - listeners often aren't going to want to listen to something in podcast A that they heard about 2 days ago in podcast B.
He's getting a lot of his music from Magnatune, which is a good choice for legal music. Some of the music is a little distorted at the top end, which is a little surprizing; the source sounds OK on my device and Richard is encoding at 128mbps, which should be satisfactory.
Richard's vocal sound is a little empty and tinny, and so is some of the music (this both on my audio device and on my better quality headphones on my laptop), but his vocal balance is good for the most part and his technical handling of fades and the like is competent. He's chosen to do with out a musical bed for the show, but for this type of show that's probably just fine.
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Tagged: podcast podcasting review
Posted by cori at 07:52 AM
November 01, 2004
Podcast Review: Bibb and Yaz Take Over the World
This entry posted in:
3 stars
, I do not subscribe
, Podcast Review
Bibb and Yaz Take Over the World
Format: talk show with some music
Content: commentary on american culture
Rating:
What I'm going to do: unsubscribe
Typical Length: 30 - 60 minutes
Seems like Gary Bibb and Yaz Larino are working towards being podcasting's answer to Howard Stern. For fans of Stern's style this is probably a good thing, but I've never been a particular fan of Howard Stern.
Bibb and Yaz are positively scatological, and their humor is very broad. Lots of bodily function jokes. Definitely anti-PC. Again, this is sure to appeal to many listeners.
Technically, Bibb and Yaz do a good job. They rely heavily on effect carts or tracks but they're well-placed, as far as that goes, so there's not a lot of waiting for the cart to catch up to the voclas like you might hear on community radio shows using those kinds of effects. The balance of vocal to music / effect volume is good, and the fades into and out of music tracks are well executed. They are both easy to hear and understand, as well. One thing that doesn;t work as well is their intro, which pops on very abruptly.
[Editor's note: Forgot to mention that Bibb and Yaz are definitely not child- or work-safe (but you probably figured that out already). They're also a little over-encoded: they were encoding at about 128Mbps, but have dropped down to about 96 on their last 'cast]
Like Curtis from the sportspod, these guys lay it all out there and have a good time doing it, which is critical to a good podcast. All in all, if you like Howard Stern, I think you might like Bibb and Yaz and you should tune in. I won't be.
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Tagged: podcast podcasting review
Posted by cori at 06:29 PM
October 31, 2004
Podcast Review: Career Opportunities
This entry posted in:
3 and a half stars
, I do not subscribe
, Podcast Review
Career Opportunities: The High-Tech Career Handbook with Douglas E. Welch
Format: Audio Column
Content: Technology Career commentary
Rating:
What I'm going to do: unsubscribe
Typical Length: 6 - 7 minutes
Douglas E. Welch writes a Career Opportunities column for ComputorEdge[sic.] This podcast is an audio version of the column read by Douglas.
This is a good example of purely informational podcasting. Douglas isn't out to amuse, but instead to impart information to the listener, and this he does well. Douglas's writing is easily accessible and concise, and his reading of his columns is clear and easily understood. His handling of the audio and production aspects of the podcast is competent; his intro/outro track is satisfactory and the fades well-handled and the balance of voice to music volume is nearly perfect.
Being in the IT world myself, a lot of the information Douglas talks about seems to be pretty obvious, but I expect that less experienced folks may find a lot of value in this 'cast, and as I expect that many of the podcast listeners right now are technically interested people who are not currently in the IT fields, this may be of interest to them.
My biggest complaint about the 'cast is the amount of content versus the amount of intro/outro information. In the 'casts I listened to, Douglas spent more than a minute and a half of his 6 minute podcast giving contact, publication, and sponsorship information. I understand that his columns aren't that long, and maybe I'm being a little hard on Douglas with this comment - I understand his desire to publicize his and his wife's work, but 25% of the podcast seems a long time to spend on that information.
Subscribe to mp3s.
Update (2005-05-04): updated the Career Opportunities feed url.
Tagged: podcast podcasting review
Posted by cori at 06:27 AM
October 29, 2004
Podcast Review: Lowgravity.org
This entry posted in:
2 and a half stars
, I do not subscribe
, Podcast Review
Format: talk
Content: politics and religion
Rating:
What I'm going to do: hmm, probably not listen
Typical Length: 15 - 20 minutes
From somewhere on the other side of the politcal and cultural spectrum, we have Todd Higginbotham at lowgravity.org.
Todd's got a lot he wants to say, and he's a little bit of a rarity in the podcast world as far as I've seen, being a social conservative and supporting Mr. Bush (he comments on it in his 'cast). While I may disagree with his politics, I think this is a good thing - it's refreshing to see some actual discourse from the other side of the aisle, and I'd hate to see podcasting become so homogenous that there was only one political voice being heard.
That said, Todd definitely has a message to deliver and he tries to hammer it home through repetition. I didn't care for his equation of liberalism and hatred, or his exclusive equation of his religion and positivity, both of which seem inaccurate at best. He spoke a lot about open-mindedness while simultaneously commenting that there is only one path to truth.
In his latest 'cast he was commenting on wanting his podcast to be more like radio, which seems limiting to me, but I hope he has success with incorporating Skype into his 'casts as a mechanism for live commentary others.
Todd's audio quality is fairly good; his voice is clear and easy to understand. He's created his own intro/outro that sounds pretty decent, and he's chosen to do with out a musical bed. In his later 'casts the outro is a little loud and overpowers his outgoing speech. In his last 'cast the vocal quality was pretty muffled, but he's aware of that problem and promises to fix it in the next 'cast.
Todd's website has links to some of the content he talks about in his 'cast.
Subscribe to mp3s.
Tagged: podcast podcasting review
Posted by cori at 07:08 AM
October 28, 2004
Podcast Review: sportspod
This entry posted in:
3 stars
, I do not subscribe
, Podcast Review
sportspod - sports talk on demand
Format: Radio show
Content: sports talk and commentary
Rating:
What I'm going to do: ignore it
Typical Length: approx 10 - 20 minutes
Curtis over at sportspod certainly loves sports. You can hear it in his voice and his enthusiam.
Me, I'm not a sports fan. In fact, I'm probably closer to a sports-hater. But since this is the forum for fair and balanced podcast reviews, I'm going to give it my best shot. I'll start by giving Curtis 1 star for content - assuming that since I know next to nothing about most sports I'm not qualified to judge Curtis's content.
That said, I think Curtis puts on a decent show. As I mentioned, he's enthusiastic to a fault. He also seems to have a lot of information to draw on for his commentary. And he's definitely got his heart in the right place when it comes to podcasting - he's giving it his all and holding nothing back. He's put himself right out there for all of us to listen to, with no reservations, which is arguably the most important thing in a successful podcast. While his humor is not to my taste, the sports fans I know will probably enjoy it.
Curtis's biggest drawbacks are his audio and production quality. His edits are sometimes very choppy and sometimes it seems like he's forgotten to turn his mic on until he's part of the way into a word (that could be latency on his machine as well). He's come up with a pretty funny intro/outro track, but it plays a little too long. One of the 'casts a listened to had several cut-outs and some popping. The volume of the clips he plays are sometimes not great, forcing the listener to adjust volume a few times, but in his defence, Curtis is probably not working with the greatest source for these clips (sound like some are recorded via mic from his TV or radio). If he's listening to his 'casts after they're done, and trying to work out these problems, then I'm sure these aspects of his 'cast will improve.
Curtis's podcast is not work- or child-safe.
Give Curtis a listen by subscribing to mp3s.
Tagged: podcast podcasting review
Posted by cori at 06:03 PM
October 27, 2004
Podcast Review: The Hitching Hours
This entry posted in:
3 stars
, I do not subscribe
, Podcast Review
Format: Radio show
Content: tracks from unsigned bands
Rating: 
What I'm going to do: tune in again
Typical Length: 30 minutes
The first phrase that comes to mind when trying to describe The Hitching Hours is MLP (mindless link propogation). I think I could recite the couple of urls Hitch wants folks to visit in my sleep at this point, which is exactly what he wants. You see, Hitch wants to play only music from unsigned bands that have registered on his unsigned band site, Urban Decay, and unless he gets a lot of bands to sign up he'll have a hard time keeping his podcast going. At this point he seems to have about 50 bands signed up, so perhaps he'll be able to back off on the url quoting a little bit.
Hitch really seems to love music and had a lot to day about the band he played on his second podcast. I didn't care too much for that band personally; musically there were fine, but I'm not much for screaming metal; I think plenty of others will love it. The bands who have signed up at Urban Decay are of all sorts, so I think Hitch'll be able to cater to many different tastes.
The sound quality for the music is good, it all comes across clearly; however, Hitch's voice is too low for the level of the music he's playing, requiring the listener to adjust the volume before and after each music track. This seems to be a pretty common problem with music related podcasts, so I'm wondering if the levels between voice and music sound differently when being recorded (normal skull resonance aside). Hitch also does a nice job of handling fades around his vocals, but his intro and outro are each 1:30 or 2:00 long, which seems too long to me. He's also got about a 4-7 second silence at the beginning of his 'casts that he could trim and he could stand to trim his verbals down a bit - give us a little more music and a little less talk.
Subscribe to mp3s.
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Tagged: podcast podcasting review
Posted by cori at 11:25 AM
October 26, 2004
Podcast FirstTake: The Fifth Institution
This entry posted in:
2 stars
, I do not subscribe
, Podcast FirstTake
Format: Talk
Content: Politics; Socialism
Rating: 
What I'm going to do: check back in a few shows
Podcast Length: 24 minutes
Michael Murray proposes to be the Fifth Institution, helping to cover the area where we are failed by the Fourth Institution, the Press (I'm pretty sure he means Fourth and Fifth Estates, but who knows).
Seemingly Michael is a political junkie. Taking a look at his blogroll from his website, political blogs outnumber those of every other category 4 to 1. That being so, I suppose it's not too surprising that Michael has a lot to say. And I agree with a lot of what he has to say.
But I'm not here to discuss politics, whether I agree or not. And when it comes to what I am here to discuss, this podcast is sadly lacking.
If we begin at the most basic level, the audio for this 'cast is poor. The volume is far too low for me to be able to hear clearly while out walking - although maybe I could have if I was wearing full headphones. Production was adequate; the fades in and out of the intro/outro and the music break were competently done and the selection of music (from what I could hear) was satisfactory.
Michael's delivery was a little rambling and repetitive, but like anyone else, I have every hope that he'll improve with experience. I was less enamored with his support for some of the arguments he put forth, which seemed only sketchily laid out.
I have high hopes for the ability of fringe politics to be heard in the podcast medium; it seems extremely well tailored for that kind of discourse. I'd love to see some political podcasts that can compete on a more rational level with the professional Air Americas of the broad/podcast world. Perhaps Michael will come to be one of those voices, so I'll be checking back.
Subscribe to mp3s.
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Tagged: podcast podcasting review
Posted by cori at 09:53 PM
October 25, 2004
Podcast Review: Digital Passages
This entry posted in:
1 and a half stars
, I do not subscribe
, Podcast Review
Format: Talk with pictures
Content: virtual slide show
Rating: 
What I'm going to do: can it
Typical Length: varies; 5 - 15 minutes
Don Larson, of Digital Passages really wants to live the digital lifestyle, it seems. He creates his own music and artwork available at the Digital Passages site. He also runs Time Out Of Mind, a website dedicated to digital storytelling.
He's also started podcasting what seem to be primarily narrations of slideshows that you're intended to view at Time Out Of Mind. In this sense it seems to me that Don has missed the boat on the podcasting meme; these narrations would be much more appropriately placed on the TOOM site along with the images you're intended to view while listening to them. There's no reason that I can discern for anyone to have this content automatically loaded onto their portable audio device of choice (wait, do I sense a new acronym here? PADOC?).
The production aspect of the podcast was decently executed; Don included some intro and background music and faded between those tracks and his voice smoothly. The only complaint that I had was that for much of his narration it seemed like he had both the intro music and the background music playing simultaneously, which gave a kind of distracting pastiche of sounds in the background. The intro and outro also played a little too long for my tastes. The audio was competently recorded and I was able to clearly understand everything that Don was saying as he gave his podience a tour of his vacation. Don's delivery is OK, but not better - it sounds well-practiced but a little stiff.
Again, I think there's potential audience for Don's stuff, but again, it's not me.
Subscribe to mp3s.
Tagged: podcast podcasting review
Posted by cori at 05:50 AM
Podcast Review: Agile Business Success
This entry posted in:
1 star
, I do not subscribe
, Podcast Review
Format: Talk
Content: interview
Rating: 
What I'm going to do: can it
Typical Length: varies; 25 minutes
Agile Business Success touts itself as "Successful people, businesses, methods in the Agile Business community." I'm not really sure what that means, but anyway.
I listened to Kimberly Black's first podcast; posted over the weekend. She interviewed Chris Barrow, the UK's dental business coach. I was actually pretty interested in hearing it - I was interested to see if there was some non-podcast, non-tech-geek, non-music, non-rant related podcasting going on.
What I got sounded a lot like an infomercial.
The production of the Agile Business Success podcast left a little to be desired; there was a little intro music that lasted way too long before we got to the content, and the cuts between segments were fairly choppy. The audio for the 'cast sounded like it was recorded in Jimbob from Whole Wheat Radio's proverbial tin can - well, actaully, it sounded more like a conference room, an open mic, and a speaker phone. I was able to hear the entire conversation, but some of the interviewee's part of the coversation was distorted and difficult to understand.
The content was pretty well focused on what seemed like leading questions to give Chris a chance to talk about his business, and what of little interest to me. Kim's delivery left a little to be desired, with hesitations and pauses in the flow o fthe interview.
I give Kim Black credit for putting herself out there and putting the work into this, and I'm sure she'll improve in her podcasting efforts if she keeps with it. I'm also sure that there are folks out there who are interested in this content (just like there are folks interested in hearing about the Bun and Thigh Roller for 30 minutes) and I hope Kim finds them. I'm just not one of them.
If you're so inclined, subscribe to mp3s.
Tagged: podcast podcasting review
Posted by cori at 04:43 AM
October 24, 2004
Podcast Review: Treo Podcast
This entry posted in:
4 stars
, I do not subscribe
, Podcast Review
Format: Talk
Content: currently details of the Treo experiment and some news
Rating: 
What I'm going to do: check back
Typical Length: varies; 5 - 15 minutes
Speaking of interesting things at OpenPodcast.org, Russell Holliman is doing some really interesting stuff. He's been creating his podcasts (almost) entirely on his Treo 600 cell phone.
He's running some software that allows him to play sound clips through his phone, he's handling all the fading in and out of the music from his phone, basically everything; all really cool stuff! The only part of the process that he doesn't handle on his phone is the encoding of the .wav file the phone generates into an mp3; from what I understand, the phone even builds the RSS feed that is uploaded to the server.
Russell has had a few problems with bit-rate, with some apparently interesting effects, but with the change to a faster memory card these seem to have been worked out and the quality of the audio in the podcasts I've heard is good.
The only concern that I have thus far is that Russell's content is not overwhelmingly compelling - it's been a lot of bits from the news media in Houston, where he's located. He has addressed this in his 'casts and seemingly had plans to provide more generally interesting content; since this is primarily an experiment in technology at this point, I have a lot a hope for this one down the road.
Subscribe to mp3s, or also at the OpenPodcast RSS Feed. Russell has some more information at his weblog . Go visit and give him some encouragement!
Tagged: podcast podcasting review
Posted by cori at 04:38 AM
October 20, 2004
Podcast First Take: Do You Compute?
This entry posted in:
3 stars
, I do not subscribe
, Podcast FirstTake
Format: music/talk
Content: per Dan, alternative music and talk
Rating: Rating:
What I'm going to do: come back again
The first post of Dan Nordquist's Do You Compute was well executed. His voice volume was adequate and the transitions between voice and music were smooth. Good mix of music and talk; most of his speech was talking about podcasting and his techonlogy and experiences, which should be well received by other new content creators. He also had some interesting things to say about the breadth of music choices for his future broadcasts. I think his choice of an under-score was also pretty strong, and I liked the music he was playing.
Some of the post sounded edited, which is to be expected, and it sounded well done and smooth. I'd much rather have well-edited posts than raw ones any day.
He also introduced me to a new band (for me), Interpol, which is always a good thing.
After taking a look at Dan's blog, I'm interested to see how often he posts and where he takes it.
This 'cast ran about 15 and a half minutes - no idea if that's the length Dan is shooting for or not. You can subscribe to Do You Compute on mp3
Update: Dan seems to have left podcasting behind - from the posts on his website as near as I can tell he hasn't podcasted since 2004-11-11.
Tagged: podcast podcasting review
Posted by cori at 04:00 PM