Cocktail Confessions

I finally bought a Zune 16HD after many month of self debating on whether to buy one, hold out for a new model, or go with a flash camcorder instead.

Well, today Microsoft introduced the Zune 64 GB HD to the world, commanding a retail price of around $350.  And what does 64 GB get you?  About 16,000 songs, 20 hours of HD video, or 25,000 pictures on average.  That quite impressive, but also complete overkill for someone like me who hasn’t used an MP3 player in roughly two years myself, and just recently noted I only have about 100 pictures on my Droid phone…and that’s only because the phone has a camera, otherwise, there would probably be none.  I can’t see myself transferring thousands of pictures to a MP3 player and carrying it around for what?  I tend to email pictures to people, or share via Facebook or Web Shots, and even occasionally on a small USB thumb drive, but to have thousands of digital images on a portable jukebox?  No, not my thing.  I’ll use it strictly for music, podcasts, and the occasional video.

My very first MP3 player only held 256 MB of music which was plenty for listening to music at the gym for about an hour when I work out.  The biggest hassle was after a few weeks, maybe getting tired of a few songs, and changing a few of them out.

My second MP3 player was a Creative Rio which had a 4GB internal hard drive.  It was really cool, with its docking stations/charger/auxiliary output ports, although it’s bulky shape and weight could prove to be a little unwieldy at times.  Even then, I don’t think I even filled it up 25% and had hundreds of songs on it.  I still possess it, although it hasn’t been touched in about 3 or more years.

So why the Zune now?  And why not the 32GB model, or iPod, or some other cheaper third party player?

A few factors come into play:

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  • I commute about 30 minutes to work, and 30 minutes back home, 5 days a week.  My car has Sirius/XM radio built into it and I’ve had a yearly subscription for the past two years.  The subscription is roughly $143 a year, and to be quite honest, even though there are over 100 stations, I only listen to about 5 on a regular basis, and even now find them somewhat tedious.  Sirius/XM would like to have you believe they are relatively commercial free, but I’ve noticed a lot more commercials popping up lately, so depending on the channel, there really is no difference from terrestrial radio.  After my contract is over this term, I may cancel it, because I just find it boring.  The shows I really want to listen to come on during the workday, and it’s blocked there anyway, so I basically pay a yearly fee to listen mostly on my commute to shows I don’t particularly care for any longer.
  • I drive a Ford with built in Microsoft Sync technology, so it basically plugs into the auxiliary port for hands free, voice commanded instructions.
  • Comes with a HD radio tuner built in.  I haven’t heard HD radio yet, but I understand it is CD quality audio and there are a few stations in my area have been promoting their alternative side bands.
  •  As much as people swear by MAC and all the flavors of iPod, I can’t get over the fact that Apple has a very strict DRM policy, and songs you purchase from iTunes basically only work on one portable device and can’t really be shared without a ton of hassle.  Not to mention Apple only recognizes their own proprietary format whereas I have a bit more flexibility with the Zune.
  • The Zune will tie into my PC, my car, and my Xbox 360 for a truly shared experience.  I’m a MS guy.
  • I already have tons of music in both MP3 and Wav formats, not to mention my friend Joe recently let me ‘borrow’ his terabyte external drive chock full of music from all genre’s.  Yes, you read right, he has a full terabyte drive full of music.
  • I listen to Podcasts at work.  A lot.  I’d also like to listen to them on my commute and on the job.  I’d rather put them on a device built to handle them than to keep putting them on my Droid phone and the required management there.
  • My wife already owns an older Zune, so I can also raid her library of songs as well.

Finally cost.  With the recent release of firmware update 4.5 and the 64 GB model, the price of the 16 and 32 have dropped.  I was able to find it at WalMart for $169 which BestBuy is obligated to price match.  I am also a BestBuy Rewards Zone member, which means I earn points on every purchase, and I also had an unspent gift card left over from Christmas that I have never used.  So my final cost in the end today was $0, and I still have money left over on the gift card.

I’ll probably use the remaining balance on some future video game, better headphones, or have it go towards a flash camcorder I am still eyeing.

As technology constantly evolves, as do widgets and plugins, so must this website if I want to maintain something relevant. 

Thus, as I do on occassion, came a time for a routine patching and maintenance to the site.

For those that are interested, you’re either as geeky if not more geeky than myself, or you are so utterly bored and pathetic at this very moment, you’re desperately still reading this as to fill some void in your life undoubtedly caused by unresolved mommy issues.  If it is indeed the latter, and you’re still reading this without being insulted, then my friend….stop what you are doing right this instant and grab yourself a strong drink.

Maintenance notes:

• Upgraded WordPress to current version 2.9.2 from the previous 2.7.1.  Kinda a big deal, but only to allow other plugins and widgets to operate normally.
• Blubrry Powerpress: Now v1.07.  Still need to incorporate more functionality into this site, but at least I have a place to possibly host future podcasts and video casts and register them properly with iTunes…if that day ever comes.
• NextGen Gallery: Now v1.5.3 that adds additional features and interface for picture galleries, slideshows and the like.
• Tweetable: Now v1.1.8.  This wouldn’t work previously with the 2.7.1 version of WordPress, but will now.  I haven’t activated yet as I need to register the application with Twitter, and place a widget in the margin to accept incoming Tweets.  Oh, and as of right now, you can still follow me on Twitter @alonedisciple.
• YouTube: Registered for a channel under the name ‘jaysonolson33′ that I have uploaded a few videos I plan to embed here if they are not a direct vodcast.
• GoWalla: A mobile social check-in application on my Droid phone that has the ability to also be tied into Twitter.  You can see where I am at if I happen to check in.  Also under ‘jaysonolson33′.
• Google Buzz: Once again, created under the moniker ‘jaysonolson33′, you can find and follow my Buzzes (many with pictures).  I hope the WP plugin ‘Socialable’ adds this soon enough.

Through the miracle of digital crack addiction phenom known as Facebook, I was able to recently reconnect with an associate I knew back in highschool some 20 years ago.  I learned that he has his own podcast over at teh website: SkurvyMonkeys.  A variety show chock full of music, comedy, and random musings between two dudes. 

I’m currently listening to the episode entitled ‘A Christmas to Drink by (part 2)’, and am very impressed.  This episode has some particularly funny holiday themeds music ranging from Disney to The Kinks.  A nice change from the ever so predictable Howard Stern crapola.

Production sounds a helluva lot better than my own futile attempts (Erik, don’t mind if I hit you up on some podcasting questions at a later date).  You can find their podcast on iTunes and I’ve included the links (skurvymonkeys.com and blendedmonkeys.com) in the right margin right here.  Anyway, go check them out!

Site Maintenance:

• MapPress upgraded to v1.5.8.9
• Blubrry Power Press upgraded to v1.0.4

The following enhancements and/or general changes were made over the last few days to the site as I continue to learn and make minor adjustments.

• Link added: Chris Richardson is the developer of the Map Press plugin and was very kind to help me out directly and very quickly when I sent him an email regarding some technical issues I was having in getting maps to display when ‘published’.  Added a link to his plug-in site in the Blogroll section entitled Map Press.  Go check him out if you have WordPress.
• Plugin update: Map Press v1.5.8.8 was updated 7/23/09.
• Plugin update: Sociable v3.4.3 was updated 7/23/09.
• Plugin update: Askimet v2.2.6 anti-spam was updated 7/21/09.
• Plugin update: Power Press v0.9.2 was updated 7/23/09.  However, I noticed when I did the upgrade some (not all) of my settings were lost.  I need to go back and ‘re-validate’ two of the feed settings so when I eventually try and post these to Zune or iTunes, these services will recognize new podcasts when posted.  Speaking of Zune and iTunes, I’m going to try and get at least one of these (probably Zune first) submitted over the weekend.  Crossing my fingers.
• Zoom H2 portable mic: Was supposed to be delivered today, however, most recent tracking update has now extended the window upwards of 7/29, which sucks, because its apparently at the FedEx facility in Aliso Viejo as of 6:30am this morning which is 10 miles from my house.
• Plugin deleted: Deleted visitor IP mapper running in background (my eyes only).  It didn’t seem to be capturing ‘all’ the data and therefor not doing it’s job correctly or accurately and thus just taking up space at this point.  No big loss.
• Plugin added: Added Next Gen gallery plugin that allows for slideshows and picture gallery enhancments.

First of all, I’d like to thank all of my friends who have so far visited my page and took the time to download or listen to my first trial episode and provide either words of encouragment and some helpful feedback.  Personally, I’ve been both excited and frustrated with this experience. 

The positive part is the feeling that I am indeed learning something new, and get to enjoy messing around with the technology and flexing a little bit more of my creativity.  For those that think I have ADHD, well maybe I do, and this is just another outlet for my sometimes idle mind.  I do have a lot of great friends and stories and I only get more excited when I think of future episodes when one of you is sitting across from me on the mic, sharing a beer, and just shooting the breeze.

The frustrating parts is the amount of work leading up to this and the continual tweak and modifications.  I really didn’t realize how much goes into a podcast, let alone oen that garners others people interest and word of mouth.  If you think about it, there are many components in the production of a blog: style, hosting services, various software applications, plug-ins, editing, feeds, post production, transfer and exportings of files, ID tagging, audio conversions, etc.  It can be really difficult when you discover than ‘current’ manuals are hard to find, and many things that appear to be compatible actually aren’t. 

You have a vision of how things are supposed to look and work on paper or in your head, but in actuality it doesn’t always pan out.  I’ve run across obsolete plug-ins, technical hurdles, vague or non-exsitant instructions, false data capturing and statistics, and more passwords and logins than I can shake a stick at.  To illustrate, despite how ‘easy’ various white papers say how easy it is to podcast, here are the various components I work with just to get this far:  GoDaddy as my hosting site, WordPress as my main blogging software, Audacity as my audio capture and editing device, FeedBurner along with Google accounts to provide an enhanced RSS feed, BluBrry as an embedded flash player and download tool.  That doesn’t even incorporate the various plug-ins: wordpress statististics for data capture, Social to share posts on social networking sites, and a few others.  Each time you install one, you need to make sure that it not only looks right on teh main page, but that it is compatible and actually works as described.  Easier said than done.  There were plenty of installs, just to rip it back out and look for a comparable alternative and I’m sure there will be more of that in the future as well. 

But for now, it looks as if I have the main gist of everything working properly.  The last two major hurdles, which so far appear to be the most daunting to date is the ability to learn MP3 ID tagging, not just for Windows (that’s easy), but the scripting/coding for iTunes.  Once that is done, then it will be submitting the appropriate feed to both Microsoft Zune and iTunes to have them be approved and available for everyone to subscribe from there.  The good news is I did a prelim test last night with iTunes, and it did indeed detect my feed and registered my episode (sans artwork and proper tags, but it is there in its raw format).

So on to the other stuff:  I added the first episode to the ‘Podcast‘ page.  This is where all epsiodes will reside via a download link without all the show notes, links, pictures, etc.  Think of it as the one-stop-shop for past episodes.  I also added another page, ‘Patrons‘  in which over time will be populated with a few lines of guest biographies and headshot pictures….just so you can put a face/name to the voices you may hear.

Whew, that was a mouthful.  Now hopefully from here on out, I’ll get to the fun stuff and leave the majority of this techo crap and geek speak behind. 

Now, let’s look forward to the next episode, so stock the fridge with some cold ones.

Getting close to getting this whole project off the ground.

I was able to download and print the white papers for submitting my podcasts to both Zune Marketplace and iTunes and am in the process of reading and digesting those.  Not sure which one I will attempt to submit to first as both have a few caveats I need to make sure I understand.

I downloaded a few more plug-ins from wordpress.org/extend/plugins that will supposedly ease the podcast process even further.  I did get a notice to update one plug-in: ‘Count per Day’ to v2.0, but it seems to not be working correctly after the update.  The problem is I chose to upgrade over the current version as suggested and there seems to be a code error at line 947.  I think I’ll just deactivate the plug-in, uninstall it, re-download the new v2.0 version and re-install.  Hopefully that will work as it it will be a clean install.

Creating new category: ‘Podcast Episodes’ which is different from the tag Podcast.  How so?  The category will contain actual recorded, and produced episodes that you can actually listen and subscribe too (either here, or at the aforementioned Zune Marketplace or iTune Store).  The tag ‘Podcast‘, will just refer to entries where I talk about podcasting in general (such as this entry), but with no actual audio file to download or listen to.

The big news is I was able to sit down and record my first raw audio episode last night and it went very smoothly.  It currently clocks in at just over 9 minutes prior to and editing, the addition of intro bumper music, and a little bit of sound leveling.  The hardest part was doing the recording without my dog going into a barking frenzy.  Every time I was about to hit record, Frankie, (my miniature schnauzer) would begin barking for five minutes straight, so after quite a few stalls, I finally got it done.

The next thing to do at this point is add the intro bumper music, re listen to the raw track and note the various time stamps of subject changes so I can write the show notes and then post.  Somewhere in here I also have to do the preliminary ID3 tagging so iTunes can register it correctly and I think that may require another plug-in I already downloaded but haven’t activated yet.  I also have a picture ready to post to accompany the post, so hopefully the first official episode will be up later this week.