SimplyTech Ep. 10 Postponed Indefinitely

Unfortunately, it looks like Zach and I will not have time to record another SimplyTech episode until the fall. It has been a good run, we really enjoyed our first adventure in podcasting and I hope all our listeners enjoyed it too.

But this is not the end of SimplyTech. Zach and I will record SimplyTech episodes next fall. And I am planning on doing some podcasting this summer with a friend of mine. His name is Jake Dahn. I meet him through my work on Flock, the social browser. The topics will be mostly computer-based, but Jake and I haven't discussed in detail what we want the show to be about, but I am quite sure that several episodes will be dedicated to open-source software, since we both love the open-source movement. We might even try to use our contacts in various open-source projects and see if we can set up some interviews.

technorati tags: simplytech

SimplyTech Ep. 6 and Flock 0.5.13

Well, it seems if I spend too much time away from my computer, the Flock community will surprise me with a new release while I am gone. One main attraction of the new version is the previously mentioned addition of Photobucket to the online photo sharing services Flock integrates with.

Also, I spent quite a bit of time over sping break doing QA work for Flock with Lloyd, a lead QA guy at Flock. I must thank Lloyd for helping me out in my work for Flock, especially these past few days as he has helped me improve my bug reporting and communication skills.

Also, Zach and I recorded ST Ep. 6 tonight, in which we continued our Home Theater series with an episode on DVD players. We mainly focused on the upcoming technologies, HD-DVD and Blu-ray. We figured most people understand standard DVD players well enough, so we speculated on the future of these movie players.

You can find the audio for Ep. 6 and the feed at SimplyTech.

Episode 5 Online

Zach and I were a little short on time this week, with mid-terms, work and Spring Break cramping our schedule. So, we didn’t get a chance to prepare this week. Rather than not have a podcast for two straight weeks (this coming week will not have a podcast due to Spring Break), we decided to record a casual podcast, and just discuss whatever pops in our heads. We discussed the latest news from the Mac camp, and Zach ranted a little about the future of cell phones.

This week’s podcast was also an adventure because we tried out GarageBand, instead of using Pro Tools. We wanted to try the new podcast-specific options in GarageBand. So we will probably try the configuration we had this week again next week, and see how it works with a normal episode, content-wise. Let us know what you thought about the more casual feel to the podcast, and your general thoughts on our work so far. I believe we keep getting better every week, which is a big goal for any podcast. Hopefully we didn’t regress this week.

Link: http://www.simplytechlive.com/podcasts/episode005.mp3

Feed: http://www.simplytechlive.com/feed.xml

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Busy, Ubuntu Lite, and SimplyTech Update

Well, its been awhile since I have posted here. And its all due to this great thing we call mid-terms. So while I am all excited to go home, relax, and work a little, but I had/have to do alot of homework and studying for exams this week. And if you know me, I hate classes that I don’t care about, and I have zero classes I care about this semester. So I was spending time on stupid classes, when I could have been reading tech articles, podcasting, and writing blog posts. That all puts me in a bad mood. But now I am mostly done with homework for the week, so I’m gonna take some time to write a few lines here.

Enough of the non-tech bumble, I have gotten a few questions about using Linux on an older computer. A group of developers have taken the Ubuntu distro, and made an official version of it, UbuntuLite. It is Ubuntu made for slower, older computers. If you are looking to make your old computer useful again, I would check out UbuntuLite, or DamnSmallLinux.

Also, as far as SimplyTech goes, Zach and I apologize for being late this week. School and work didn’t allow us to record, but we are planning on recording tonight. However, we are more than likely taking a week break while we are on vacation. We will see what happens in the next few days, but it’s looking like we will miss an episode. 

technorati tags: tech, Ubuntu, UbuntuLite, Linux, SimplyTech

Episode 4 Online

Well, about an hour ago, the mp3 was done being exported. So you guys are hearing from me right after I finished listening to things and editing the feed. I think the podcast ended up ok, and I loved talking about open source software tonight. Also, I am pretty happy that we actually released an episode on the scheduled day of week, albeit quite late on Tuesday. I’m still glad we finally got it up on a Tuesday.

Also, the website should be updated sometime within the next day or so. I do have a paper to write yet tonight, so I’m not sure if I will have to get the site edited with links to the applications we listed. I realize there were quite a few applications that we could have talked about like other distros of Linux, Flock, and many, many other Open Source products. However, we are trying to keep the episodes around a half hour in length. So we had to limit the number of applications we talked about.

*Update* Looks like I found the time to get the website updated. So check it out, I added a description of the podcast and also links to websites that pertain to the applications mentioned in the podcast. You will also find a link to the GNU page on the philosophy of open source software, which is a good read if you want to know why open source advocates feel the way they do. And there is also a link to our delicious account. You will find similar links to the ones on the site, along with links I looked at for the podcast.

Link: http://www.simplytechlive.com/podcasts/episode004.mp3
Feed: http://www.simplytechlive.com/feed.xml

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Episode 3 Online

Episode 3 is online now. We covered big screen TV’s in this podcast. Zach carried most of the show, as you all know he is the home theater guy. I tried to ask some important questions where I was confused cause I figured if I was confused, most of the listeners would be too. Show notes are not up yet, but we hope to have them up later on
tonight. I know we promised some links to examples of the TVs, so I’ll get Zach working on that once he gets back from work. The feed should be updated soon as well.
 
 As always, thanks to Chris Johnson and the Bethany Studio. If it weren’t for Chris and the studio, we would not be able to record these podcasts. Sorry Chris, that we forgot to put the thank you in the podcast. We also want to thank our good friend Jesse Becker for being willing to record that introduction for this. At the end of the episode, we have some pretty hilarious outtakes. Enjoy.
 
Link: http://www.simplytechlive.com/podcasts/episode003.mp3
Feed: http://www.simplytechlive.com/feed.xml

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Quick Update on Ep. 3

Hey guys, just thought that I should write a quick update for Episode 3. Zach and I recorded Monday night, and we worked on getting our new introduction figured out for 1.5 hours tonight. When we had to leave the studio, we were exporting the mp3. I will go back in there early tomorrow and get the podcast online for you guys. Anyways, I’m happy we are keeping to our weekly schedule, though it seems Wednesday is now the release, instead of the planned-on Tuesday. We are hoping for find a free Saturday and crank out several episodes, that way we can create a backlog. Then we won’t miss a week if we happen to get really busy. So, that’s the news on Ep. 3; expect the feed and show notes to be updated sometime tomorrow afternoon. 

technorati tags: SimplyTech

SimplyTech Episode 2 Online

Well, the 2nd episode has been out for a few hours, and I apologize for not posting here right away. But I got a little bit busy with all the other things I needed to do to get the podcast ready for your ears. There are few house-cleaning items I would like to get out of the way now.

One idea I had about a month ago for a different project that never surfaced was to set up a mailing list for everyone that is interested in receiving instant notification of new podcast releases. The plan would be to send out a mass email to the entire list the minute the new episode goes online. This would be an opt-in deal, and I would only use it to send notifications of the new episode. So if you need to know when the newest episode is out right away, send me an email at jon@simplytechlive.com and I’ll add you to the mailing list.

You can find the articles we used for our news stories about CES and the mp3 player debate online at SimplyTech. Also, Zach and I set up a del.icio.us account to share various articles we might want to use for the podcasts. Each article has a tag that relates to what episode we used it on, like EP1 or EP2. So if you want to see that, its online as well.

Like I said in the forums, we are always looking for feedback on the episodes. However, regarding this episode specifically, we are looking for feedback on the length of the episode, as Ep. 2 went quite a bit longer than the first. So do you think it was too long, tolerable, just right? So please share any thoughts on the length of the podcast, and also general comments on the podcast itself.

Also, in closing, I want to publically retract my comments about the Bethany Lutheran College IT Department. In the first episode, I said I hated the IT Dept, however that isn’t true or a fair thing to say. My main problem with the network here at school is that it doesn’t allow me to use Linux. So it was wrong for me to say I hate the IT Dept. I just really wish I could use Linux on campus.

Link: http://simplytechlive.com/podcasts/episode002.mp3
Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/simplytechlive
 

technorati tags: SimplyTech

Episode 1 Online

Well guys, Zach and I spent a few hours piecing together the first episode of SimplyTech. It is now online and available for your listening pleasure. I’ll be back later on with a more detailed post once I set up the feed and get on iTunes and such.

*UPDATE*
Just wanted to write out a more detailed post when I was a little less busy shaping up things. I have been busy getting Odeo, iTunes, Podcast Alley and Frappr set up. I am waiting for iTunes and Podcast Alley to accept SimplyTech as a new feed. I am also waiting for the Odeo servers to update and see that our channel has audio there. However, our Frappr group is all set up though and ready for all our listeners to add themselves to the map. As soon as I hear from iTunes and Podcast Alley, Zach or I will update up the buttons on the site. We will also get a FeedBurner button on site tonight or tomorrow.

On the first podcast, I realize we didnt cover that much tech content tonight. But as I said below, Zach and I wanted to give the listeners a sense of who were are, how the podcast came about, and what to expect in the future. Oh, one thing I should mention. You might have noticed as you were listening, the title of the podcast was Episode 1 (beta), or something like that. We named it beta because the plan right now is, once we determine our introduction music, to add that music to this episode and offer that as a download as well. The content of this first episode won’t change, but we will just have some cool music to intro the podcast.

I think that’s it. Enjoy the podcast, and don’t be afraid to leave some feedback. Whatever you have to say, we would love to hear.

Link: http://simplytechlive.com/podcasts/episode001.mp3
Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/simplytechlive

technorati tags: Simply Tech

Progress

Zach and I sat down for about an hour tonight and worked on some preliminary outlines for the first few episodes. We are planning to record our first show Monday night, though we might move that up to this weekend, depending on how things work out. So more details to come as we get closer to our pilot release. I’ll make sure to post on my blog when the first episode is out.

technorati tags: Simply Tech