Cocktail Confessions

This rings true for me more times than not.

A cleverly crafted letter, or a direct phone call to the people that matter (without losing your cool), that spells out logical points and is based on a solid argument generally works out in your favor more often than you’d think.

Over the years I’ve been able to get out of a myriad of CC late fees, fraudulent billing statemnts, and other similar infractions that had any semblance of being in a ‘gray’ area. 

When it comes to actual product mishaps, disappointments in performance, design flaws, or whatever, the same principal also applies.  I have gotten my share of free meals, charges reversed, complimentary samples, upgrades, shipping credits, etc. based on solely on my confidence and persistence.

Like your mama may have told you as a life lesson:  ”It’s easier to catch flies with honey than shit.”  Well, on second thought, that’s probably a bad analogy, because I can never recall a time where a fly turns down a nice fresh pile of steaming shit, BUT, the principal is there:  Striking while the iron is hot and fresh and doing it in a calm and rational way will generally give you the results you want.

I could launch into a plethora of examples for you, but let me combine my most recent one with a product review at the same time.

About 6 or 7 months ago, possibly longer, I purchased a set a ‘cheap’ headphones from Best Buy by a company called Skullcandy.  I spent all of $19.95 on a pair of Ink’d earbuds for my Zune player as the default pair that Microsoft includes with their players are cheap and very uncomfortable in their own right.

Anyway, as it turns out, Skullcandy earbuds are pretty much like all other earbuds out there other than the fact with a few jazzy color schemes, some slick marketing and a creative name, they seem to command a slightly higher price.  That doesn’t mean they are actually any better than other OTC earbuds under $50, but they make the consumer ‘believe’ their product is superior through an above average presentation.  Another selling point is that they supposedly have a good warranty program in placeas well.  But let’s be honest, we aren’t talking about a personal computer or new plasma television set.  How many people actually fill out the warranty card or even take the time to register $19 earbuds with any company?  I’d wager to say less than 10% and I even think that’s being generous.  Most people don’t register hardware products under a certain value as it just seems easier to replace them by buying new ones.

Now before I get into the meat of what I’m dropping here today, let me do a quick review of the Ink’d earbuds themselves:

I read an article not to long ago that led the reader to believe that all OTC earbuds and portable earphones are pretty much supplied and manufactured by one company in China.  That’s right, in the end it doesn’t matter if you buy “ABC” brand’s metallic glow-in-the-dark, or “XYZ’s” Shiny Sound 2000′s….they are all made by the same company, they just get fancy names and pretty paint jobs by those that sell them domestically.

I’m not sure if that also rings true for mid-level and high-end earphones, but all the ‘low-ends’ are pretty much the same.

My experience with my Ink’d's are as such: they sound a little ‘tinny’ or hollow to me.  Don’t expect deep bass sounds (there’s no huge magnet driving these puppies).  They come with three different size silicon ear inserts, and by default the mediums are installed.  I did find these a bit uncomfortable after long periods of wearing them.  I’m a tad lazy in swapping them out for the smaller inserts, and for all I know the smaller ones may fit my inner ear better and be more comfortable in the long run.  But I give Skullcandy credit for including three different sizes….most brands don’t, so they must figure everyone has the same size ear and thus just accepts the feel.

The wires themselves are coated in a silicon like rubber that aren’t smooth and give the earphones a feel that they may be a bit more rugged and weighty; an impression that they may be more durable.  It’s my experience there really is no added protection to the internal wiring underneath this sheathing.  I noted that after a few months, something exposed a little piece of copper wire and they get just as tangled up, if not more so than all other brands.

The biggest problem with all these damn earphones is where the wire meets the RCA jack itself.  I’d say 90% of all earphone failures all happen here.  No one has been able to design a rugged enough ‘sleeve’ around the RCA plug itself and the internal wiring.  Overtime this thing just gets bent and disconnected somehow.  You’ll sit there like a dolt wiggling the wire back and forth, trying to tape it in place for a few weeks, but eventually they’ll give out.  This happened to me and to just about every other headset I’ve ever owned in my life. 

What Skullcandy does have for it, as I mentioned earlier, is a vast array of color schemes that go beyond the standard black or white ones that we’ve all seen 1000 times. 

So my final take? Eh, you end up buying them for their color schemes first, and maybe the ear insert second, but I see no real difference in sound quality themselves, which makes sense, if they are indeed all made by the same Chinese company.

Now back to my initial issue.  My headphones broke at the common point of failure where the wire meets the jack.  I can’t even remember when I bought the damn things and the simple thing to do is just to buy another pair.  But since I wanted to try my hand at the warranty and see if I could get a free replacement, I went ahead to the Skullcandy website.

While the website itself may look ‘cool’ and relatively simple in design (less is more), all the darn pictures take a bit longer than I’d like to load.  Doesn’t matter what PC I use (work vs home), or what browser (IE vs Firefox)…it just takes longer than you expect to load, but no big deal, unless you use the forward and backward buttons to check out individual products…then the page refresh gets old fast.

First I had to create an account, validate my email, blah, blah, blah.  Then I had to register my product, but since I can’t remember when or did I keep the receipt, I made one up in the probable time frame.  So far so good.

The problem starts when you have to get an RMA number.  They pretty much discourage a calling at this point  and request you fill out a warranty claim and get an RMA number via email.  You then have two choices for a claim: 1) aggressive enjoyment (?) -or- 2) manufacturer defect.  I didn’t know what to select and since there was no guidelines I chose #1 (mistake – more on this later).

Once you get your RMA, your instructed to place your damaged earphones in a padded envelope and mail to them along with a tracking number.  Thank goodness the tracking number is optional, because if I had to pay for Fed Ex to give me a tracking number, it’s already too much work and additional investment for $20 headphones.

I press on.  I mail my earphones and am instructed to wait for an email upon their receipt.  Should take 3-4 business days, but for me it took at least 6 – 7 business days (not weekends either).  My email said it would take 4-6 weeks processing.  Stop right there.  4-6 weeks to process a request for a replacement of $20 ear phones….after waiting for over a week just to get confirmation they received them?  Buying a new pair seems highly plausible as this point.

I call them up and am put on hold for a good 10 minutes until I get an actual person.  To Skullcandy’s credit, I will say that everyone I spoke to was both nice and spoke English, and for those two facts alone, I hung in there.  I told the first guy I spoke with that this 4-6 week processing seems unreasonable.  You look at the earphones, you plug them in to see if the work or not, and you make a determination on the spot.  There are no moving parts here, nothing radioactive or needs DNA screening to my knowledge.  He said it’ll probably be faster just hang out a few more days, so I agree.

Sure enough a few days later I get an email stating that my claims was processed and I’ll get 50% value credit to their online store.  Okay, that’s ‘cool’ I guess, but why not 100%?  Not my fault that the internal wiring breaks.  I call up again, wait another long period of time and this time get a young lady who is equally nice.

Now here’s the moral of the story folks….this is where persistance pays off (note: the first time)……I remainded very cordial and made my case and she agreed.  In realtime right then and there, she credited my not only 100% ($20) but gave me free shipping as well.  When I asked her why I only got 50% the first time, she said because I chose ‘aggressive enjoyment’.  If I would have chose ‘manufacturer’ defect, I would have most likely got 100% credit the first time around (read: they don’t check or test their claims…probably not worth the time and effort for a quick cheap replacement).

Armed with online store credit, I chose a new pair, but then here’s where I ran into issue #2.  Again, whether I tried either IE or Firefox, their website rejected my home address and asked me to ‘try again later’.  Well, I tried off and on multiple times over the course of two days, each time double checking my own address which I lived at for the past 7 years, and each time my address was rejected.  Screw this, I’m calling back.

And yet again, I get the nicest guy on the phone.  I tell him the issue, and he says he’ll be happy to fix it and push it himself…which he does and even before I hand up the phone with him, I get an email confirming my address and….get this….an additional 20% off my next purchase.  How awesome is that?

So while I may have had to jump through a few extra hoops, and do the leg work myself, in the end I got a full replacement plus a 20% coupon to boot.

In the future, I probably wouldn’t buy a new headset unless it was in the mid-tier ($60+), but Skullcandy customer service was a positive experience.

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:

•  
  • 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.

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.