Michael Lehman: Windows Media Podcasting

Mike's Manic MInute 18 Mar 2005 (WMA FORMAT)

Sat, 19 Mar 2005 00:56:10 GMT

March 18, 2005

Podcasting and Money. . .somebody *is* listening to this show!

Quite a few people heard the March 16th show and pointed me to others who have already been working in the podcasting-and-money department. . . So without further ado:

SoniClear Recorder Pro, which has great instructions for how to podcast with their software: http://www.soniclear.com/ApplicationNotes/Podcasting.html

Eric Rice's AudioBlog.com http://www.audioblog.com/

The home page advertises in big type: MAKE PODCASTS NOW!

LibSyn: www.libsyn.com - I forgot my own hosting company!! They provide a wonderful service that is an all-in-one Podcasting/blogging package.

BlogMatrix Sparks http://www.blogmatrix.com/sparks_main/ Just found out about this it's another all-in-one podcasting solution, ready to enter beta test and promising to be low-cost long-term.

Anybody got any more? Send them to mike at softwareland.org or leave a comment on this blog entry.

Podcasts. . .Shorter is better

At least that's what Rael Donrfest says over at http://www.raelity.org/entertainment/radio/shufflecasting.html

He even coins the term "Shufflecasting" to indicate the desire to randomly pick short bits of information flow.

I can't wait until we can split up large programs and provide meta data so you can find your way around various segments in an easy-to-use way.

Podcast of the day:

Incoherent Mumblings

http://www.incoherentmumblings.com/

Original music, original stories, great production

Manic Minute Recommendation: Listen and enjoy!

And that's your Manic Minute for March 18th, 2005. . .

Mike's Manic Minute 16 Mar 2005 (WMA FORMAT)

Thu, 17 Mar 2005 00:00:11 GMT

March 16, 2005

The money is starting to move into podcasting. . .

There are a number of new startups that are now trying to make money from podcasting, mostly by aggregating and promoting entertainment content.

www.boku.com is Adam Curry and Ron Blum's effort.

www.odeo.com is Evan Williams and Noah Glass's play.

And even Virgin Radio in the UK is now re-podcasting their morning show.

RSS is everywhere. . .

I have seen more interesting uses of RSS recently than I can even talk about. The concept of a reverse-chronological-order stack of content and pointers to content seems to solve an increasing number of loosely coupled distribution problems.

If you have a unique usage of RSS send me an email at mike -at- softwareland.org and I'll plug it in a future Manic Minute.

Every day I have more and more appreciation for how such Dave Winer's (www.scripting.com) simple concept (http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss) , unfettered by committee based design, continues to transform information flow.

Podcast of the day:

Firesign Theater

From my "late yout" in the early 1970's I have been an avid Firesign Theater junkie. And I didn't even smoke dope!

This shit is totally funny and now you can get your daily downloaded dose over at http://www.firesigntheatre.com/podcasting

Manic Minute Recommendation: Oh How Can You Be In Two Places At Once When You're Not Anywhere At All…

And that's your Manic Minute for March 16th, 2005. . .

Mike's Manic Minute 11 Mar 2005 (WMA FORMAT)

Sat, 12 Mar 2005 20:50:35 GMT

March 11, 2005

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes. . .

As I recently wrote on my Microsoft blog (http://blogs.msdn.com/mglehman) I'm going to consciously rearrange my life soon. . .The reason I went dark last week was indeed meetings, but a special kind of meetings called interviews! I'm doing an internal transfer within Microsoft which will have me moving to the corporate headquarters in Redmond sometime early next month. Soon I'll be a Technical Evangelist responsible for engaging third-party compiler vendors, "MicroISVs" (shareware authors and 1+ person dev shops) and a few other things that I can't talk about (yet). . .but one of the most exciting parts of my new job is that it has podcasting as an official part of my duties! I'll be involved with community efforts (blogs, podcasts, etc.) related to the upcoming Professional Developers Conference to be held this September in Los Angeles.

The Manic Minute will remain the same but I'm sure I'll also be doing quite a bit of work-related podcasting, my own as well as helping others on my new team jump into the fray!

Techpodacast are coming, Techpodcasts are coming. . .

Actually, http://www.Techpodcasts.com is here! The official launch of the Techpodcast Podsquad happened yesterday. This is a project I've been involved with, at various levels of (in my case non-profit) effort, for a few months now and it's great to see it on-the-air.

Podcasts of the day:

In honor of the Techpodcasts.com launch the podcasts of the day are the charter members of the TechPodSquad:

.Net Rocks Blog: http://www.dotnetrocks.com Feed: http://www.franklins.net/DotNetRocks_FullMP3.xml

Apple Log Blog: http://apple.quicksurf.com/ Feed: http://apple.quicksurf.com/wp-rss2.php?cat=10

Digital Experience Podcast Blog: http://lance.heathville.com/ Feed: http://lance.heathville.com/depmp3.xml

eDave.org Security News Blog: http://www.edave.org/Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Edaveorgpodcast

Esc Radio! Blog: http://matthewbischoff.com/blog Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/escradio

Geek News Central Podcast Blog: http://www.geeknewscentral.com Feed: http://www.geeknewscentral.com/podcast.xml

Home Network Help Blog: http://www.homenetworkhelp.info Feed: http://www.homenetworkhelp.info/wp/wp-rss2.php

In the Trenches Blog: http://kevindevin.com Feed: http://kevindevin.com/wp-rss2.php?cat=2

Linux Log Podcast Blog: http://linux.quicksurf.com/ Feed: http://linux.quicksurf.com/wp-rss2.php?cat=78

Mike's Manic Minute Blog: http://www.manicminute.net Feed: http://radio.weblogs.com/0141212/categories/manicMinute/rss.xml

Microsoft Log Blog: http://microsoft.quicksurf.com Feed: http://microsoft.quicksurf.com/wp-rss2.php?cat=7

Mondays Blog: http://mondays.pwop.com Feed: http://mondays.pwop.com/Mondays_FullMP3.xml

Software As She's Developed Blog: http://www.softwareas.com Feed: http://www.softwareas.com/wp-rss2.php?cat=6

Tech Rag Tear Out Blog: http://www.technewsradio.com Feed: http://sholden.typepad.com/weblog/audio.xml

The Bradcast Blog: http://www.bradfordgibson.net Feed: http://www.bradfordgibson.net/podcasts/podcastrss2.xml

The Feed Blog: http://the-feed.com/nucleus/ Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/the-feed

The MacCast Blog: http://www.maccast.com/ Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/maccast

These podcasts are all available from http://www.techpodcasts.com as well as individual links to all these podcasts, both blog and RSS URLs are on this blog entry at www.softwareland.org

And that's your Manic Minute for March 11th, 2005. . .

Mike's Manic Minute 10 Mar 2005 (WMA FORMAT)

Thu, 10 Mar 2005 16:34:39 GMT

March 10, 2005

Travel. . .can get in the way of podcasting

Sorry to have gone dark for so long, my last trip turned into an extended visit to the Microsoft campus in Redmond Washington and between meetings and meetings I lost the energy to produce the Manic Minute for a short while. . . But Now I'm Back!

Business Book Reading. . .Manic Minute Style

Don't have time to read all the business books you want? You've got to check out www.GetAbstract.com where they offer 5 page summaries of hundreds of business books with more added daily.

Getting To Yes. . .

Many years ago I ran into this book by Roger Fisher and William Ury and have, albeit somewhat unconsciously, used it's basic principals many times in the past decade and a half. From my point of view the two basic principals are (1) separate the people from their positions and (2) build agreements on top of previous agreements. The first principal means be aware that just because you don't like someone's opinion you don't have to not like them which means you may yet find common ground. The second principal means you can't go from "Hello" to "Yes I will withdraw my troops" in a single bound. Start with "Hello", move to "Sunny day, eh?", get the other party's head nodding in agreement and start to build a base of agreement on which to base further agreements. Links to the Amazon page for the book ( http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140157352/ ) and a summary from the Conflict Resolution Consortium ( http://www.colorado.edu/conflict/peace/example/fish7513.htm )

are on the softwareland.org blog .

Podcast of the day:

Slacker Astronomy http://www.slackerastronomy.com/

A weekly, five minute podcast covering a recent news item in astronomy.

Watch out for the "Phantom Astronomer".

The long tail at it's very finest.

Manic Minute Recommendation: Light Years are only a concept, Engage Brain Warp Factor 9!

And that's your Manic Minute for March 10th, 2005. . .

Mike's Manic Minute 03 Mar 2005 (WMA FORMAT)

Thu, 03 Mar 2005 16:26:53 GMT

March 3, 2005

One Hundred Shows. . .

It's centennial podcast celebration day here in SoftwareLand

Today's Mike's Manic Minute show marks the 100th podcast show that has been produced here at SoftwareLand studios.

Not bad for five months and especially not bad for someone who often gets excited about things but has legendary difficulty following through, me.

So bring out the cowbell, and celebrate everybawdy, I certainly am! :)

Podcasting production tools. . .

Are popping up all over!

This week alone we've seen the general beta of MixCast Live, http://www.mixcastlive.com/, WinPodCast http://blog.scon.de/siekmann/podcaster.nsf, and iPodCastProducer http://www.industrialaudiosoftware.com/products/ipodcastproducer.html

I'm sure we'll all be evaluating carefully if these all-in-one tools do what we want.

Just don't forget that podcasting is both developers AND users partying on!

Podcast of the day:

OpenPodcast.org

http://www.openpodcast.org

This is the ultimate mail-it-in everything service.

Simply record your MP3 file and email it to submit@openpodcast.org and thousands of people will hear you!

Manic Minute Recommendation: The ultimate podcast schmorgasboard!

And that's your Manic Minute for March 3rd, 2005.. . .

Mike's Manic Minute 02 March 2005 (WMA FORMAT)

Wed, 02 Mar 2005 18:25:41 GMT

March 2, 2005

Happy 10th Birthday. . .To Yahoo

Two college kids making a list of websites. . .How's that for a business plan that launched a billion dollar business!?!

What will the next "little big idea" be?

Decoding the iPod boot loader. . .

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7085

Nils Schneider, a 17-year-old computer science student from Germany got an iPod for Christmas and wanted to hack it to run Linux. However he couldn't get Linux to boot so he made an insightful leap that he could dump the existing boot loader encoded (modulated) as audio using the on-board piezoelectric sound "chirp", record it on a computer and then decode (demodulate) it via a pc-based application. He said it took 20 hours to dump the loader.

As they say, everything old is new again, can you say telephone acoustic coupler circa 1969!

Podcast of the day:

The Daily Vedic Horoscope

http://www.vedicastrologycenter.net

Sam Geppi (Sadavisa) does a well-produced sun-sign-neutral reading each day to stimulate thinking about the events and people in your life.

Manic Minute Recommendation: A metaphysical wack to the head is always welcome!

And that's your Manic Minute for March 2nd, 2005. . .

Mike's Manic Minute 28 Feb 2005 (WMA FORMAT)

Tue, 01 Mar 2005 16:21:33 GMT

February 28, 2005

Harry Pierson is podcasting. . .

One of my friends and fellow Microsofties, Harry Pierson, has started podcasting http://devhawk.net/Experimenting+With+Podcasting.aspx

He says it's at the suggestion of his boss (who he calls my boss Norman ) and I bet Harry is going to be a great podcaster. He's got a very unique point-of-view. Go check out his blog/podcast at www.devhawk.net

Welcome to the party!

From the handy tools department. . .

I'm constantly, give the volume of media files I generate and consume, awash in data and short on disk space, especially on my laptop.

Recently I've been investigating disk space visualization applications, you know, the kind that helps you figure out the answer to that perennial question: where has all my hard disk gone.

Yesterday I came across WinDirStat courtsey of Roy Osherove's Iserializable blog http://weblogs.asp.net/rosherove/archive/2005/02/22/377680.aspx

It not only provides the visualization of space it also categories the files by type so you can grasp at-a-glance the low hanging fruit if you need to clean house.

Podcast of the day:

Illinoise!

http://www.illinoise.net/

Having been born and raised in Iowa right on the Illinois border, I heard the name of my neighboring state mispronounced in this way constantly.

Having turned that now into a schtich, this couple, Just Pete and NASA Janet have created a fun and entertaining show that's climbing the podcast alley charts.

Manic Minute Recommendataion: It may be from Springfield but it's got big city style!

And that's your Manic Minute for February 28th, 2005

Mike's Manic Minute 25 Feb 2005 (WMA FORMAT)

Fri, 25 Feb 2005 15:50:43 GMT

February 25, 2005

Podcasting and money. . .part one

The news splash of today is the launch of Odeo by Evan Williams and Noah Glass

(www.odeo.com)

They are veterans of the blogging space (Evan was a co-founder of Pyra Labs which created Blogger) and think they know at least one formula to make money with podcasting. We don't know what it is quite yet. . . They're presenting at TED today. More tomorrow. . .

Podcasting and money. . . Part deux

I've been thinking about podcasting and money lately as well and have decided that, for me, podcasting is about projecting what Tom Peters calls "Brand You" http://www.tompeters.com/tpc/brand_you.php

When I started the Manic Minute I thought it might be an interesting thing to do for a short while and now I see that it's got legs as a uniquely identifying brand. I can't tell me the number of people who have told me that (a) they love it and (b) that they think it's so unique. Thanks everybawdy!

What's this go to do with money? Well I've started to seek out additional distribution arrangements for the Manic Minute and I'm going to be giving it away as advertising for the "Mike Lehman" brand.

So if you have a talk show, or know someone who does, and would like to include the Manic Minute regularly in a show, email mike -at- softwareland.org or call my eVoice line at 1-832-218-3161 and let's make a deal (the price is right!)

So please visit www.mikelehman.com for links to everything you'd ever want to know about The Mike Lehman Brand. . . And tell a friend!

Podcast of the day:

Dot Net Rocks

http://www.dotnetrocks.com/

Congrats to Carl Franklin and company on their 100th show bringing people from inside and outside Microsoft information about the Dot Net platform along with various and sundry funny asides (can you say Useless Crap, c'mon you want a dog T-shirt, I know you do. . .)

Manic Minute Recommendation: Dot Net Rock On

And that's your Manic Minute for February 25th, 2005. . .

Mike's Manic Minute 24 Feb 2005 (WMA FORMAT)

Thu, 24 Feb 2005 17:23:54 GMT

February 24, 2005

PodcastAlley. . . Vote!

Ok folks, I know many of you listen to this podcast but it's time for a shameless plug: Please go to podcastalley and vote for "Podcasting from Softwareland" That covers all my different feeds and, I guarantee, really, it'll make me happy! Thanks. I put a link on this blog entry, all you have to do is click, you do know how to click?

http://www.podcastalley.com/search.php?searchterm=softwareland#

Social Networking. . .it's amazing!

So today I was looking in my referrer log and I find a link from Nancy White's Full Circle Associates blog (http://www.fullcirc.com/weblog/onfacblog.htm) where she's blogging about Tod Maffin's Podcasting talk at Northern Voice (http://www.fullcirc.com/weblog/2005/02/tod-maffins-podcasting-talk-at.htm) in which he mentions the Manic Minute! Tod said:

Mike’s Manic Minute scripts 90 seconds of comment, then puts it into an audio program that eliminates every possible data error and it flies though. It is great that way

Now I've got to tell you, while I do put the Manic Minute through audio programs (in my case Cakewalk and SoundForge), I wish I had one that "eliminates every possible data error" especially those caused by my mouth!

Thanks Tod for the plug, Thanks Nancy for capturing Tod's comments and thanks everybawdy for listening. Tell a friend!

Podcast of the day:

The Digital Experience Podcast

http://lance.heathville.com

Lance is also a member of the TechPodcasts.com family.

He brings another view and another voice on the tech experience and that's what, in my humble opinion, podcasting and blogging are all about, filters on the ocean of information in which we're all swimming. No one person can notice everything!

Manic Minute Recommendation: Experience It!

And that's your Manic Minute for February 24th, 2005…

Mike's Manic Minute 23 Feb 2005 (WMA FORMAT)

Wed, 23 Feb 2005 18:40:24 GMT

February 23, 2005

New podcatching client. . . NuParadigm DrizzleCast

Shawn Miller's company has produced a new podcast download tool uses the built-in Windows Background Intelligent Transfer Service otherwise known as BITS

http://www.nuparadigm.com/Products/Toys/

The beauty of using BITS is that it automatically throttles back on network activity when you, the human, activate something that performs network activity and then ramps back up again when you're idle.

Bonus note: It also restarts transfers interrupted in the middle so it's perfect for road warriors like me.

The UI is a bit sparse but there are serious possibilities here!

TechPodcasts.com. . . www.techpodcasts.com

Is up! I've been working with this project for a while and then got sucked into the great black hole known as the three-headed-deadline-travel-meetings monster.

I just went to visit and see how things are progressing and lo-and-behold it's ALIVE!

You've got to check it out!

Podcast of the day:

eDave.org Security News

The world we live in is, unfortunately, now filled with people who want to take advantage of innocent users. So security is a must topic for everybody.

Manic Minute Recommendation: You need to know this stuf

And that's your Manic Minute for February 23rd, 2005

Mike's Manic Minute 21 Feb 2005 (WMA FORMAT)

Mon, 21 Feb 2005 18:48:58 GMT

February 21, 2005

An MBA in Three days. . .?

Well, I'm sure it's not exactly the same as a three year program but I just returned from a trip to training-land that was, in my humble opinion, some of the best use of my non-computer time I've made in decades!

The folks at www.conversation.com , in the person of Jim Bitterle, created a lively, fun and extraordinarily enlightening program, called the "3 Day MBA", that finally helped me make sense of all those pretty but incomprehensible reports my Quick Books used to create! While I'm not eager to become a CEO, CFO or COO I now have at least some clue as to what motivates someone in that position and thus, how to have a conversation. Hire these guys, they're great!

One thousand blogs a day. . .?

Robert Scoble http://scobleizer.com/linkblog/archives/1859

reads 1000 blogs daily and spoke about it recently at Northern Voice.

Scoble says, "I just poke at them. Some of them I don't. You'll see that I see the preview, if it is interesting I'll read in depth. If it says my name, I'll read more. If it is interesting I drag it to my blogosphfolder."

Podcast of the Day:

Drazz75 - The Polymorphic Podcast

http://www.drazz75.com/latest/

Drazz75 is a software-related podcast focusing on object oriented development.

Manic Minute Recommendation: Geeks Must Inherit The World First Before They Can Extend It

And that's your Manic Minute for February 21st, 2005!

Mike's Manic Minute 14 Feb 2005 (WMA FORMAT)

Mon, 14 Feb 2005 17:58:03 GMT

February 14, 2005

On the road. . .

I'm on the road this week so the Manic Minute is being produced on a laptop with a $40 USB headset. Let me know if there are any quality problems. Mike -at- softwareland.org

Happy Valentine's Day. . .Everybawdy!

Software and Love. . .always a dangerous mixture is highlighted today in USA Today.

It seems like www.Yahoo.com is the center of the online dating universe. www.PeopleFinder.com, www.eHarmony.com and others claim to have figured out algorithms that will match you to a member of the same species who is compatible with you. I say, love and software, will they ever get married? Who knows!

Memo to Michael Malone. . .

On Saturday Scoble (

http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/2005/02/12.html#a9394) pointed to Michael Malone's article.

I think reports of the death of Microsoft are premature. And I'm not alone! Many people recently read Malone's article entitled Microsoft RIP in which he tries to draw comparisons between the current state of Microsoft and Silicon Graphics of 10 years ago. I have a unique perspective in that I was working at Silicon Graphics in those days and am working at Microsoft now. From the inside, at least, they are so different. Yes, SGI had Windows at its heels just as Microsoft has Linux at its but the culture inside SGI at the time was one of entitlement and 6 month sabbaticals. I can tell you that everyone I know at Microsoft is aware of the rapidly changing environment and knows that we won't survive unless we pay attention every day.

Podcast of the day:

Just in time for Valentine's day: History's Greatest Love Affairs

http://www.texasmusicforge.com/HGLA.htm

Manic Minute Recommendation: Nice music, star-crossed lovers, what's not to Like!

And that's your Manic Minute for February 14th, 2005

Mike's Manic Minute 10 Feb 2005 (WMA FORMAT)

Fri, 11 Feb 2005 16:49:29 GMT

February 10, 2005

Podcasting. . .101

Marc Liron has just published a free eBook over at www.Podcasting-101.com

I have not yet read it but the site looks very, very professional. Heads up everybawdy. . . This is space is getting serious fast

Podcasting. . . From GM?

According to Dave Winer (www.scripting.com) the bloggers over at General Motors are now podcasting! Check out http://fastlane.gmblogs.com

A new podcatcher on the block. . .

Over at www.primetimepodcast.com they've released a new podcatcher that has a built-in playback mode. This continues to corroborate my experience that while many people listen on portable devices, just as many, if not more, listen directly on their computers.

Podcast of the day:

Vinyl Podcast http://vinylpodcast.com

Fair Use of Forgotten Music

This is what the web, in my opinion, is really all about, communal memory. Here's a way of listening to music you'd never be able to buy but that should not be forgotten.

Manic Minute Recommendation: Let's hear it for the revolution!

And that's your Manic Minute for February 10th, 2005

Mike's Manic Minute 09 Feb 2005 (WMA FORMAT)

Thu, 10 Feb 2005 15:42:07 GMT

February 9, 2005

VSLive. . .

Was a good way to spend a day. I had the opportunity to, once again, listen to Don Box give a talk that was both entertaining and educational at the same time.

However, I wish everyone giving presentations would remember the old Speech 101 mantra: Tell 'em what you're gonna tell 'em, tell 'em, and tell 'em what you told 'em.

Way too many presentations forget that the listener would love to have some context in which to understand the information being presented.

I know there are situations, can you say "MacWorld", where surprise is a key element but in almost every other case, I would love a map of the territory before I examine the pieces of gravel along the road.

Ok, Podcasting has finally arrived. . .at Starbucks!

This morning I went to my local caffine-o-torium to purchase my daily dose and what do I see, right there, above the fold on the USA Today but. . . Podcasting!

One thing was interesting, however, was that they used the 3,300 podcast count available over at www.ipodderX.com which neither I, nor quite a few others, have been able to corroborate. www.podcastalley.com still has us under 1000.

Podcast of the Day:

Dawn and Drew

Why: They made the front cover of USA today! Plus it's well produced and fun to listen to (although most of the time not work safe!)

Manic Minute Recommendation: Party On!

And that's your Manic Minute for February 9th, 2005

Mike's Manic Minute 08 Feb 2005 (WMA FORMAT)

Wed, 09 Feb 2005 19:45:13 GMT

February 8, 2005

ABC. . .Easy as 1-2-3

Today I'm off to VSLive to listen to a day's worth of presentations on the new web services stack that we're building here at Microsoft, code named Indigo. It's our attempt to merge our many different messaging technologies into a single scheme. The current mantra is ABC (Address, Binding, Contract). More tomorrow!

How To Podcast Dot Org. . .In Spanish

Later today there will be an update of the Spanish section of the www.howtopodcast.org site. Thanks as always to Jose Geldado.

The One True Mixer

On the Yahoo Podcasters group Matt May is looking for the one true mixer for podcasting. His requirements: 2, prefer 4 Line inputs, 2 phantom powered Mic inputs,

USB, SPDIF and line Outputs and sliders, crossfader, and jog dial for controlling DJ mixing software. I can't wait until someone starts to sell a podcast-specific hardware bundle.

Podcast of the day:

Coverville (www.coverville.com) Three-times a week a show of licensed songs by people other than the original artists.

I've always liked many covers more than I've liked the original, take Blinded by the Light as an example, Manfred Mann's rocking version beat Springsteen in my book any day.

Manic Minute Recommendation: Three times a week isn't enough!

And that's your Manic Minute for February 8th, 2005

Mike's Manic Minute 07 Feb 2005 (WMA FORMAT)

Mon, 07 Feb 2005 15:16:52 GMT

February 7, 2005

Podcasting Priorities. . .

Some of you may have noticed that I've been getting less and less reliable on my attempt to be "daily" in my podcasts. I've been doing some extremely interesting work lately and combined with traveling I've fallen behind. I will now attempt to get back on-schedule.

Quantum Encryption. . .

Is apparently coming to market. A 4-year-old start-up has begun shipments of what it says are the world's first commercial data-scrambling devices that use the radically new technology of quantum encryption. Magiq Technologies, is selling its Navajo Secure Gateway for $70,000. That gets you two boxes that use a combination of quantum cryptography and traditional cryptography to provide a virtual private network (VPN) running over fiber-optic cable.

Better not forget keys once you start using Quantum crypto. There's no way to get them back.

Podcast of the day. . .

The Pagan Power Hour

http://www.paganpowerhour.com/rss.xml

This is a shining example of how podcasting enables the infinite variety of expression at essentially no cost. I'm not a pagan nor am I the follower of any religious group but I'm delighted to see all voices being heard.

Manic Minute Recommendation: Listen with an open mind!

And that's your Manic Minute for February 7th, 2005!

Mike's Manic Minute 02 Feb 2005 (WMA FORMAT)

Thu, 03 Feb 2005 13:35:11 GMT

February 2, 2005

And the results are in . . .

I passed! (Whew!)

I mentioned on yesterday's program that I was taking one of the tests for a Microsoft certification. What I didn't say is that it was the first test I've taken, you know the sit down, answer the questions and get a grade kind of test, since 1977!

The test contained a variety of good, hard questions but now that I've taken it I have a better appreciation of the value of certifications.

I certainly learned about some things that I had never used before but it certainly isn't a substitute for experience!

Skype, Skype, Skype. . .

This evening I participated in a conference call using Skype. The quality was good enough but it wasn't quite what I expected. In 2001 and 2002 I was a co-founder of a startup that built an project-oriented email system and we used Yahoo Instant Messenger's Audio Conferencing to have group meetings 3 times a week.

Verdict: Skype when used for real phone calls is cool, for web conferencing, not bad.

Podcast of the day:

How To Blog for Fun and Profit!

http://blogforfunandprofit.blogware.com/blog

This is mainly a blog but is occasionally a podcast.

It is hosted by someone I recently met, T.L. Pierce who is a a great communicator.

Manic Minute Recommendation: Get it while it's hot!

And that's your manic minute for February 2nd, 2005

Mike's Manic Minute 01 Feb 2005 (WMA FORMAT)

Wed, 02 Feb 2005 14:23:53 GMT

February 1, 2005

Tomorrow is exam day. . .

For the first time in about a million years, I'm going to be sitting in a classroom and taking a test. As part of my group within Microsoft, we're encouraged to get certifications in, what else, Microsoft technologies. When I've seen resumes with these certifications I've often felt they were not very meaningful but I can now see that they complement, but can't replace, practical experience.

I've been a Windows C# developer for three and half years now and I learned quite a few things by studying for the test. These were things that I had never encountered in the development of the approximately 300,000 lines of code I've written since 2001.

The exam is as 8:30 am, listen to tomorrow's show to see how I did!

They Just Don't Get It. . . (yet)

This just in from Dewayne Hendricks (at http://weblog.warpspeed.com)

Mike Ricther says: "Those using BitTorrent or the other schemes understand the corporations; they don't care about them, but they get it. The corporations appear not to understand their customers". He goes on to say, "If there is a problem here at all, it is one the owner of rights can solve easily, as those owning rights to successful films have. It is to provide value added."

I couldn't agree more. You listen, I hope, to the Manic Minute because it gives you something you want. Other content producers are going to have to figure this out or die.

Podcast of the day. . .

The Digital Strips Podcast http://digitalstrips.blogspot.com/

A review of web comic strips by web comic aficionados.

A bit of audio quality issues (get some popper stopper guys!) but the content is sick (in the good meaning of the word)

Manic Minute Recommendation: Bam, Zap, Pow! - Bring it on

And that's your Manic Minute for February 1st, 2005

Mike's Manic Minute 31 Jan 2005 (WMA FORMAT)

Mon, 31 Jan 2005 15:17:30 GMT

January 31, 2005

The $100 laptop. . .

Nicholas Negroponte, the technology guru from the MIT Media Laboratory, prowled the halls of the World Economic Forum last week holding the holy grail for crossing the digital divide: a mock-up of a $100 laptop computer.

While I agree with BillG that people in those countries need food, medical care and shelter first, this looks like a great idea as well.

Pasted from <http://news.com.com/Tech+guru+pitches+cheap+PC/2100-1003_3-5556823.html?tag=nefd.top>

Two stage startups. . .3. . .2. . .1. . .Money?

An old colleague of mine from back in the Digital Research days, Tim Oren, is now a venture capitalist and observes that software startups are now returning to their roots as a two-stage proposition. First stage: Build something people want! Second stage: Get money. What a different world is now than it was in 1998! Not to sound like an old-skooler but that's exactly how we did it in the 70's and 80's and many of us actually made money instead of just spending it on sock puppet advertising. The only downside of Tim's piece is that he says everyone's doing it on the LAMP stack. Perhaps we at Microsoft need to consider a package of tools for first-stage ventures that are paid for when you make your first sale.

Podcast of the day:

MVB Radio Podcast

This podcast is from the My Virtual Band website where musicians collaborate in composing multi-track songs over the web.

I'm about to start posting some tracks of my own and can't wait to see what happens.

Manic Minute Recommendation: Rock On!

And that's your manic minute for January 31st, 2005

Mike's Manic Minute 27 Jan 2005 (WMA FORMAT)

Thu, 27 Jan 2005 21:03:43 GMT

January 27, 2005

The worlds first. . .MP3 players

Over at News.Com there a story (link on the blog) http://news.com.com/Bragging+rights+to+the+worlds+first+MP3+player/2010-1041_3-5548180.html?tag=nefd.ac

Talking about the first flash-based and hard-drive based MP3 players, the Eiger Labs MPMan and the PJB100 (which came out of Compaq Research and ran Linux) respectively.

When MP3 first hit the big time in late 98, early 99 I bought each of those devices along with a few others, most notably the Rio. To this day I still don't see much difference between those devices and the devices of today with one key exception: The PBJ100 had an SDK so you could at least write your own client code. It didn't allow you to update the on-device firmware which is the current crusade Adam (www.curry.com) and Dave (www.scripting.com) are on but you could manipulate the files on the device directly. I'm with you guys, we need a programmable player that we can customize!

Software Patents. . . Good or Bad? I say both.

I come to this discussion as both an inventor and expert reviewer of software patents. I hold patents on things like specialized software that is used to synchronize lyrics to music for Karaoke CDs and technologies that allow consultants to multi-task on multiple projects without having to manually start/stop a clock as they switch from customer-to-customer. I've also, prior to my joining Microsoft, been hired by various patent licensing firms to review patents for the validity of their prior-art; you know if you try to patent online shopping you'd better have filed it before Compuserve, not Amazon! I believe that patents have value but ONLY if they represent actual innovation. So go invent something new damn it!

Podcast of the day:

SherlockHolmesAudio

http://www.pinkgeek.net/weblog3

Reading of the public domain works for Arthur Conan Doyle.

I'm a big audio book fan and a Sherlock junkie so to me this kind of podcast this is simply spot on. It is well produced and professional sounding.

Manic Minute Recommendation: Grab your deerstalker, The Game Is Afoot!

And that's your Manic Minute for January 27th, 2005

Mike's Manic Minute 24 Jan 2005 (WMA FORMAT)

Mon, 24 Jan 2005 16:42:45 GMT

January 24, 2005

I've been. . . out of town

And I'm glad to report that some of the bloggers I read regularly are, and I'm not making this up, Human! (http://www.chrispirillo.com/ , http://blogs.msdn.com/jledgard/ , http://blogs.msdn.com/jobsblog/ , http://evelynrodriguez.typepad.com/ , and more!)

I had the pleasure of helping Robert Scoble (http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/)

celebrate his 40th birthday at what was indeed the "Cheesy-est" birthday party ever.

Guests were encouraged to bring a hunk of cheese to the party and it was amazing the number of different forms, textures and tastes that arrived. I had the opportunity to meet many people who blog's I read and some podcasters I listen to, many people who don't do either. I even had my Tarot cards read by Halley Suitt (http://halleyscomment.blogspot.com/) while sitting on Scoble's infamous "Red Couch". Happy 40th! Dude and many more!

On the day job front. . .6 months at Microsoft

I just recently celebrated the occasion of my first 6 months at Microsoft. I continue to be blown away by how friendly, smart and "non-evil" everyone is. As a long-time competitor, especially in the late 1970's and early 1980's when I was in the compiler business, and subsequently as the Director of Research and Development at Digital Research (the CP/M company), Microsoft seemed like somewhere I'd never want to work. Boy was I wrong! I do think that all of the blogging being done has helped even me to see that there are just regular people who share the same passions, desire to make people's lives easier and every-day attributes with me. I'm having the opportunity to work with some wonderful customers and on some new technologies I will be able to talk more about in another 6 months…stay tuned

Podcast of the day. . .

Exdrunkalog http://www.calebism.com/wordpress/

Subtitle: Sobriety and its discontents

This isn't normally the kind of content that I would probably choose but as one of the moderaters at the podcast-review group on Yahoo, I'm listening to many very interesting things, this is one very good example.

The content is well produced and thoughtful and thought-provoking.

Manic Minute Recommendation: Listen, Think, repeat

And that's your Manic Minute for January 24th, 2005

Mike's Manic Minute 19 Jan 2005 (WMA FORMAT)

Thu, 20 Jan 2005 04:07:39 GMT

January 19, 2005

For those new to the audio end of things. . .

From http://www.podcastingnews.com: http://www.audiocourses.com adds a Mixing/Mastering Course. It is a interactive training course featuring 7 CDs of session files for use on Mac or PC with : Pro Tools, Logic Audio, Cubase, or Nuendo

Peer Podcast Reviews. . .

On Yahoo, there's a group called podcast-review, of which I am one of the moderators. It's my turn this week to help pick the podcasts for review from the list of submitted podcasts. I've got mine for this week but everyone who's podcasting is invited to join and submit your podcast for evaluation by our "crack" team of peers.

While there will be more user-friendly URLs shortly, for now head on over to http://www.herecomespod.org.uk/review to check it out.

This podcast was reviewed in the first round of reviews and I got quite a few both positive and valuable comments, some of which I've incorporated.

On a decidedly non-podcast note. . .did you see the pictures of the Airbus 380?

Dave Winer posted a link to the internal schematic of the soon-to-fly double-decker mega plane (link at www.softwareland.org http://images.scripting.com/archiveScriptingCom/2005/01/18/380.jpg) . When's the last time you thought about an aircraft providing either a sleeping cabin or a stateroom?

Podcast of the day:

Escape from the World http://matthewbischoff.com/blog/

Teenager Matthew Bischoff has been podcasting since the "early days" of last October and still has a fresh and interesting view of the world.

Manic Minute Recommendation: Worth your time!

And that's your manic minute for January 19th, 2005

Mike's Manic Minute (WMA FORMAT)

Tue, 18 Jan 2005 23:04:32 GMT

January 18, 2005

Football Podcasting. . .?

Well, sort of. While not Podcasting, in the sense of RSS, it is still time-shifted content delivered to your iPod. I believe Audible is an excellent delivery vehicle (I'm a subscriber). I wish they made their free content downloaded available as RSS.

NFL is expected to announce an agreement with downloadable audio company Audible, to make recordings of this year's remaining playoff games available for portable audio players, including iPod. Replays of the Super Bowl will also be available under the deal.

The recordings--expected to cost around $10 each, while highlights of games are expected to cost between 95 cents and $4.95

Podcasting 3Hive. . .or any other mp3 blog

Yesterday I talked about 3hive.com and now Brian Pipa over at http://mostlytrivia.com points out that http://www.mfeeds.com can do exactly what I was thinking for 3hive.com (or any webpage with MP3s) - He's used it on a couple of other sites with MP3s on them.

From the Better Than My iPod department. . .

Doc Searls (http://garage.docsearls.com/node/view/524) holds forth on why we need iPod competitors. Check out the post and, more importantly, the comments over at garage.docsearls.com

Podcast of the day:

Cooking On The Radio

Jeff Nemcher is going to teach us all how to cook, "have your friends and family talking about your cooking prowess long after the party is over"

http://cookingontheradio.com/

Manic Minute Recommendations: Munch, Munch, Munch!

And that's your Manic Minute for January 18th, 2005!

Mike's Manic Minute 17 Jan 2005 (WMA FORMAT)

Mon, 17 Jan 2005 15:29:03 GMT

January 17, 2005

Free Music. . . Really!

The guys over at http://www.3hive.com/ daily post links to non-RIAA music and it's done in the form of a blog. I wonder if anyone's given thought to hook that up to SmartCast and make an auto-downloading podcast of it? Which then leads to the question of. . .is it ok to make a podcast out of someone's blog that contains media even if they aren't podcasting?

Got A Pocket PC?. . .get FeederReader!

Feeder Reader (over at www.feederreader.com) is an application for your Pocket PC that allows you to read blogs and download podcasts. I use it with my iPaq 6315 and, while it's still in Alpha testing, it works great. Note: It's author says it has too many knobs and dials for use on SmartPhone form factor devices

Ok, so then. . .Got SmartPhone?. . .get iPodderSP

Over at http://www.equin.co.uk/ipoddersp/ there's a podcast client for SmartPhone devices. . .You can even download it directly to your phone!

Podcast of the day:

Whole Wheat Radio

http://www.wholewheatradio.org/jbb/weblog.php

Jimbob And Esther Golton do comedy and music from their independent music labor-of-love webcast from their home in Talkeetna, Alaska

Manic Minute Recommendation: Enjoy!

And that's your Manic Minute for January 17th, 2005!

Mike's Manic Minute 15 Jan 2005 (WMA FORMAT)

Sun, 16 Jan 2005 00:06:38 GMT

January 15, 2005

Wardriving. . .and how to prevent it

Someone has come up with a paint that contains minute metal filaments. With it you can create your own "secure" room or house that would prevent someone, say Adam Curry (wink, wink), from using the "neighborhood" WiFi. Where I live there are at least 6 unprotected WiFi networks available to me. . . The only rub: The paint is water based so you have to paint it on the inside of your house!

This week in Palo Alto. . .$25,000 an inch

The big news around town: Someone at a "career day" told 8th grade students that they could make $250,000 a year as exotic dancers and that each 2 inches of bust line were worth $50,000 a year. People are shocked, c'mon most of these middle schoolers, whether we like it or not, know more about the "real world" (and you know what I mean) that we did when we were in college!

When freeware isn't free. . .

The creators of the free (as in free beer) Paint.Net application were rolling on the floor with laughter when they saw that someone had posted an auction on eBay not only selling their product but charging $6.95 shipping-and-handling for something you can download for free.

http://www.eecs.wsu.edu/paint.net/

Podcast of the day:

www.indifeed.com

I've heard two of the best songs I've heard in ages on the Alternative/Modern Rock channel: Signing Emo and recently Ikea.

Manic Minute Recommendation: Listen, damn it, listen!

And that's your Manic Minute for January 15th, 2005