Cocktail Confessions

Zune HD

Not that money is burnoking a hole in my pocket but sometimes I get this intense urge to purchasea shiny new gadget and it’s very hard to satiate or assuage that feeling until a transaction has been made.  Therein this dilemma lies a few various issues that bounce about within my noggin that I begin to wonder if I stumbled upon some warped psychosis of myself: 1) Do I ‘really‘ need a new gadget?  2) Do I have a mild case of ’shop-a-holic’ syndrome usually discussed by various yentas on shows like The View or Maury Povich?  3) Am I making an intelligent buying decision or do I wait for the next model?  or 4)  Do I shove this current desire deep down within and wait for something completly different at a later date…perhaps something I’m not even aware I need or want yet?

That’s where I seem to be at this point, and while I am proud I did not make fall into temptation today and make an impulse purchase while I was at Best Buy earlier today, I’m also kinda bummed I didn’t at the same time.  See, for Christmas I was gifted a new Playstation 3.  I would normally have kept this gift and be very excited about it, however, it was not a Playstation Slim.  I also own a Xbox 360 and Wii and really can’t afford to start buying yet another consoles games at $60 a pop.  And the fact that my wife purchased me a Panansonic Blu-Ray player doesn’t help my argument either.  So begrudgingly I did return the PS3 and received a store credit in the amount of $300+.

Now what to buy with it?  A few thoughts crossed my mind: 1) new Xbox hard drive and some games?  2) Use it sparingly over time to purchase some DVD’s and reduced games once I play and tire with the current games I own and haven’t yet completed?  3) Buy a Zune HD player (a few months ago I almost would have done anything for a Zune 32GB)?  4) Buy a Cisco FlipHD handheld camcorder, or now something I just learned today, 5) Buy a Sony Bloggie 360 camcorder?

Well, I learned that Best Buy doesn’t currently carry 100GB Xbox hard drives and data transfer kits, so that’s out.  I’ll have to look for that separately another time.

I think I recently changed my mind on the Zune HD 32 as well.  The price is still a bit high at $289 and I can’t help but think that over the last few years I’m lucky if I even have picked up any MP3 player.  I have an older 4 GB Rio that works just fine and I don’t go to the gym as much as I used to either.  I also have my new Motorola Droid which I can listen to LastFM, and various other audio and digital podcasts (which I currently do at work now).  The Zune 16GB ($199) may be better for me as by the time I actually fill it up to say 40% of songs, the price may drop even more or a new model may be announced.  I do like the idea of placing many of my CD’s onto it, being Droid independent, and its ability to hook into my Ford Edge’s SYNC system.  I currently use a small 256MB USB memory stick in my car that holds quite a few songs, but clearly not as nice as a Zune.  I also have a Zune account on both my PC and XBox 360 and fancy myself going back to the gym more often here in the future and being able to watch video podcasts on the run is very attractive.

FlipHD

Then there is the Flip UltraHD cam from Cisco.  Up until CES 2010 (last week) I was liking the idea of having a Flip.  Not that I video anything much now because I don’t have a portable device or an account on YouTube, but I recently discovered the use of my Droid’s video capture abilities at a trade show I recently attended and found it very cool.  I’ve been doing more on Facebook recently as well, and have ideas of including vodcasts here and another site I’m working on.  However, it’s a Cisco device and although very popular right now, I can already sense that it is overpriced by the nature of it being Cisco and I feel a new model is under development.  As a matter of fact, with Sony’s ‘Bloggie’ announcement last week, Flip has already dropped it’s price from $199 to $149 at Best Buy.

Sony Bloggie

I figure the price drop is to compete against the newest version of Sony’s Bloggie that was announced for $169 for the base model and $189 for the 360 kit.  Now that I know about the Bloggie and its superior resolution (5MP pictures and 1920 x 1080 video resolution), 4x digital zoom, rotating 270 degree lens and 360 video accesory feature, of course now I think the Flip is now out.  It also comes with a 4GB memory stick (upgrades to 8GB), editing software, and it’s ability to immediately share to YouTube, Shutterfly, and Picasa makes it very attractive for our social networking generation (Facebook, Myspace, etc..)

So I didn’t buy anything today.  It’s between my desire to possibly buy a Zune 16, a future Bloggie, or upcoming Blu Ray DVD’s and Xbox 360 video games.

It’s been over a week or so since my last post and I really don’t have much of an excuse other that to say I’ve been a bit tired and not feeling all so great as of late.  Not because I have the beginnings of the swine flu, but the recent heatwave, 3 day vacation, heavy work load as of late (especially the last few days), and restless sleeping patterns have given me both a mild headache and an overall sluggish or out-of-sync feeling.

I’ve been really trying and watch my spending as of late too.  I’ve been brown bagging my lunch a bit more lately and looking for discounted grocery items and not spending on an over-indulgence of toys (well, next weeks Zune’s release will be an exception).  Yeah, I’m not buying any new Xbox games, collectible action figures, or any other “wants’.  With my mom’s birthday later this month, my anniversary next, and the holidays almost here, I need to be really conscious of my spending habits and realize I can’t buy everything I’d like.

However, when it comes to listening to podcasts on my commute to and from work, and the really ‘boring’ moments I have at work (in tuning out my co-workers, and a lot of other minutiae here) I am really looking forward to getting a new MP3 player.  Currently I use my Sony PSP and it is kind of bulky and awkward to carry around.  It should also work with my Ford’s Sync technology as well where I can put on my huge collection of MP3 songs and just plug in my car and activate with my voice.  I’m torn between the two models: 16GB and 32GB, mostly because of the $50 and will I ever use a full 32GB.  I have an older Creative Rio 4GB player and I don’t even have that one full, but I have a lot more music today, plus Zune would allow me to download some video pod-casts as well which of course take up more storage.

The one recent diversion I have had as of late though is I am getting into model trains.  Due to space limitations at my house (and again how much money I am investing) I’m gearing myself to N scale, or 160th real scale.  I’m currently building a beginner N scale house circa 1930-something and I’m really enjoying it.  So much so that I am currently looking at other models to build as well and am now even think of starting yet another website to chronicle this new independent hobby of mine. 

I know, right in the midst of me stating I want to save money and watching my spending habits, I’m already looking at new ways to spend it.  Sigh.

Other than Sunday where I had some libations with my neighbors, I really haven’t been feeling well to even want to drink.  Not sure why, but the thought of having a beer right now just make me think ‘blaoting’.  I really just want to relax and lie down for a bit and not do anything in all honesty. 

So where does that leave me on pod-casting?  Eh, well….I’ve been thinking of recording my grandfather and my father in the coming weeks.  They actually have some great stories to tell, and I still have some friends who I need to sit down and schedule a session with, but it’s actually harder than it seems.  How does Adam Corolla get his guests to commit to a regular schedule?

Not much going on here as I’ve been in a training class all week to get my Network+ certification.  I wish I could say the class was really beneficial, but all the instructor did was basically regurgiate almost verbatim what the textbook laid out word for word.  I picked up a few things, but not enought to justify a week long 40 hour class.

Anyway, as I’m a bit behind on some of my podcasts (including the Big Brother recaps), here are some of the following changes made here:

• Added NextGEN gallery plug-in v1.3.5, but haven’t had an opportunity to use it yet.
• Upgraded plug-in Count Per Day to v2.2, but I’m not using it right now.  The earlier version didn’t seem to work and I just haven’t reactivated it yet.
• Upgraded plu-in Blubrry Power Press to v0.9.5 which is supposed to add better features for iTunes and other podcast feeds.  I tried to get recognized by ZUNE this past week, but I must have missed something.  MS has some quirky encoding requirements that seem trivial, but the documented instructions are so vague…if I get onto Zune Marketplace anytime soon, it will be purely by luck or trial and error.
• Added the following link to my favorites: http://tropicaldrinksblog.com Tropical Drinks Blog.  Site has many recipes with an island flair to them.

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.