Syncing with third-party applications
The Macworld site has posted an extract from Michael E. Cohen's Take Control of Syncing in Tiger here.
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August 31, 2006
August 29, 2006
Bloggers As Public Intellectuals
I'm blogging another panel I heard at L.A.Con IV; this one was on blogging.
Speaker(s): MaryAnn Johanson, Phil Plait, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Kevin Drum, Teresa Nielsen Hayden, Cory Doctorow (Moderator).
H.L. Mencken, Edmund Wilson, I.F. Stone, Germaine Greer, Gertrude Stein, Hannah Arendt all gained prominence as American public intellectuals through newspaper columns and books of collected essays. Is the Blogosphere spawning a contemporary generation of important public thinkers? Who are the ones you can't afford to miss? What are they saying?
The panelists introduced themselves, and spoke a little bit about their reactions to being described as "public intellectuals," and their impressions about the intellectuals they were associated with. Kevin Drum referred to a recent article in Mother Jones News which compared bloggers and nineteenth century pamphlet writers. This idea is not new. Patrick Nielsen Hayden suggested that I. F. Stone, particularly with respect to Stone's I. F. Stone Weekly, might be considered a proto-blogger. MaryAnn Johanson described one of the virtues of blogging as "no corporate gate keepers telling us what we can and can not say" (this is unfortunately increasingly not the case).
Cory Doctorow discussed the idea of blogging as "terse," with respect to BoingBoing, because the content is driven by the constraints of RSS. Readers of BoingBoing increasingly read it via an RSS reader, so that terse content is more effective. Doctorow is essentially talking about the Economics of Attention. BoingBoing might be competing for a reader's attention along side a thousand or three other blogs; terse, specific, effective subjects and descriptions are thus more effective at grabbing attention. This is much like the idea behind much journalism; that the shape of the column or article is like an inverted pyramid; the basic information is neatly, effectively, presented at the base of the pyramid, preferably in an attention-grabbing way, and increasingly, the information is increasingly less important so that the tip of the pyramid, and the end of the post, has unimportant details.
MaryAnn Johanson spoke about "blogs as conversations," and about the fact that the underlying software tools, the blogging systems, ease writing because "the software takes care of it for me."
Teresa Nielsen Hayden picked up on the idea of the blog as conversation and observed that "if you [blog] using the classic, closed, essay form, you leave your reader no place or point to comment." This led to a discussion of post length, which, again, relates to an economics of attention. Several panelists commented on the importance of voice, and the idea that blogs are personality driven. Phil Plait mentioned PZ Myer's Pharyngula, an an example, and Cory Doctorow mentioned Fafblog.
MaryAnn Johanson closed by observing that Cory Doctorow had recently finished an 80K word book by using pieces he'd previously posted on BoingBoing as his research fodder; this is an instance of the blog as commonplace book. Patrick Nielsen Hayden closed by observing that "The uses to which people put your writing is not necessarily what you had in your mind" when you wrote it.
August 27, 2006
Podcasting Resources
I attended the World Science Fiction Convention, L.A.Con IV, where, among other things, I listened to a panel discussion on pod casting on August 24th. Here's the official description from the program guide:
Podcasting Science Fiction Speaker(s): Stephen Eley, Evo Terra, John O'Halloran, Paul Fischer (Moderator)
Is there a market for science fiction and fantasy via podcast? Is there even an audience? Can you make money directly or is it just a way to get your material known? If you're a reader/consumer, is this a good way to find science fiction and just how do you find what you want?
The panel began with an overview of what podcasting is, with some discussion of its virtues. John O'Halloran likes the fact that podcasts are available on demand; the data is available when you want it, primarily because of the use of RSS and other Web services to distribute podcasts. Fischer agreed, emphasizing that it's what you want, when you want it, and if you decide you don't want it, you simply stop downloading it. Evo Terra added that if you don't find what you want in terms of a podcast, then you can create it. He also mentioned the importance of receiving a response from listeners via email or blog comments.
Since many of the audience weren't yet making or downloading podcasts, a fair amount of time was spent on basic information in terms of locating, listening to, and creating podcasts. You don't need an iPod to download or play podcasts; the normal file format for a podcast is an MP3 file, playable in iPods and hosts of other MP3 players, on computers, a number of CD-ROM and audio CD players, and of course, MP3s can easily be converted to other audio formats and even burned to an audio CD.
Apple's free iTunes player, for Mac and Windows is an easy way to locate and play podcasts. Some people prefer the free Mac or Windows application MyPodder from PodCastReady.com, which allows you to find and download podcasts to a variety of media and devices. Other ways of finding podcasts, aside from the usual 'net sources like word of mouth, or positive mentions on Web logs and Web pages, are dedicated services, like SFFAudio.com, which offers reviews of SF and Fantasy audio in a variety of formats, both online and off. PodcastPickle.com is a searchable directory of podcasts, organized by name, by genre, by language and by popularity.
The following are suggestions, and pointers, for the beginning podcaster, culled from the panel participants and not necessarily attributed:
- Get a decent microphone. It doesn't have to be expensive if you're doing spoken word.
- iRiver MP3 players like the T30 support voice recording and work with Windows; they're good enough to use for recording live interviews and spoken word.
- If you're recording a group of people, Paul Fischer suggests putting a microphone inside a salad bowl, and have someone point it at the speaker; it's an inexpensive but effective parabolic microphone.
- Liberated Syndication is a syndication and hosting service. For a flat monthly fee they provide server space (starting at 100 MB/$5.00) for your actual podcast file, an RSS feed, and an interface to distribute your podcast. LibSyn also works with extant blogs, they charge only for storage, not bandwidth, and provide archive storage so old podcasts are still accessible but don't affect your monthly storage total.
- Think about using Skype for phone interviews.
- Paul Fischer suggests that you listen to your podcast in all the ways you think your audience might; on a computer with speakers, using headphones, in a car, on an MP3 player . . . make sure the sound is OK for each.
- RSS or some other form of Web service for syndication, which allows listeners to subcribe to your podcast and download it automatically, is crucial. PodPress is a plugin for the WordPress blogging system that takes care of the syndication/RSS feed for you as part of your blog. Feeder is a $29.95 Mac OS X (PowerPC and Universal) application that takes care of creating the RSS feed for your podcast. Feedburner is another alternative.
- CreativeCommons licenses are an easy way to protect your rights to your content to the extent you feel comfortable about, yet allow listeners to freely download and use your content.
- Apple's GarageBand 3 for OS X makes podcast production and editing very easy but do be sure to correctly export the default GarageBand Podcast file to an AIFF, then compressing and converting it to an MP3 file (possibly with QuickTimePro) which is universally usable and listenable instead of the default M4A iPod/ACC/Apple only format. There are some suggestions about how to do that and even an Automator workflow, and a step-by-step-tutorial. Also see Apple's Podcasting tutorial and Podcasting resources. Audacity for OS X and Windows is an opensource and free alternative.
- Steven Eley suggests working with some sort of a script, even if it's only a list of topics, doing multiple takes, then editing. He uses a dog clicker to mark the spot when he knows he has a slip; the sound produced by the clicker creates a distinctive sound wave form in the editing software, making it easy to edit out the error.
- In general, advice about creating a podcast include the suggestion to talk slowly, and to think of your first podcast as -5, and that your sixth is the one you actually release to the world. Subject-specific podcasts do better; find a niche. Don't bother with paying for Google text ads; link to other bloggers and podcasters, get listed in the directories, and ask other podcasters to link to you.
August 7, 2006
The Missing Sync
I've been using a Palm PDA, an IIIxe with all of 8 megs of memory, since 2000. Mostly I used it to read e-books., though I did use it to sync with Outlook at work. The Palm is very convenient when I'm traveling since even my "ancient" Palm could easily hold eight or nine books. In the last year though the IIIxe stopped being practical since it began draining batteries very very quickly.
Last week my spouse bought me a new PDA, a Palm TX. It has a larger, brighter, color screen, is slightly thinner, and uses flash memory in addition to the built-in 100MB of user-accessable memory. It also has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and supports sound, images and video.
I love my new Palm. It's already been useful at the library for keeping track of the books and articles I need, and I haven't even installed FileMakerPro Mobile yet. I love reading e-books on it; the backlighting is lovely, the text is crisp and easy to read. This Palm going to make plane trips much more pleasant. I'll be giving it a real workout tomorrow, as I expect to have a day of "hurry-up-and-wait" as a potential jury member.
Because of what I'd read in Take Control of Syncing in TigerI decided right from the start that I wasn't going to even try to use the Mac OS Palm Desktop for syncing, or iSync, which depends on the Palm software, and so inherits some of its annoying qualities. Instead, I'm using The Missing Sync from Mark/Space. I've never had such an easy time with syncing my Palm, ever. I can sync iCal data, iTunes, (in mp3 format), iPhoto, and even Microsoft Word and .RTF files. I can easily make different profiles to sync for different purposes, and indicate whether I want to install something on the Palm or on a flash card. I don't believe in "intuitive" interfaces, but this is a Mac OS X interface that works; it's easy to figure out how to do what I want, and the software behaves beautifully. It's transparent, in that the GUI is so similar to other OS X applications that it looked familiar right from the start.
August 6, 2006
New E-Book: Take Control of Syncing
Michael E. Cohen's latest book, Take Control of Syncing in Tiger is out; this time it's a Take Control ebook, from Tidbits publishers Adam and Tonya Engst.
Take Control of Syncing in Tiger covers:
syncing phone numbers between a Mac and a mobile phone, iPod, or PDA; syncing files between desktop and laptop Macs; and syncing Safari bookmarks, keychains, and other data via Mac. The ebook covers what hardware and software readers need to move data between devices; explains how to connect devices via Bluetooth, USB, FireWire, and Ethernet; and offers the best strategies for successful syncing. Finally, a troubleshooting section offers reassurance and practical advice for anyone who has experienced a syncing feeling upon realizing that the wrong data was overwritten (Take Control press release).
Take Control of Syncing in Tiger is 135 pages of syncing explanations, tips, procedures and resources, and while it's a downloadable PDF file, you can print out hard copy if you want, or even use a print-on-demand service with which Take Control has collaborated.
What's interesting about Take Control ebooks is that they really take advantage of the virtues of PDFs. Take Control of Syncing in Tiger contains numerous embedded links, some of which go to syncing software and information resources and others which interconnect specific sections of the book itself. The links make it very very easy to find the information you need, and the procedures that will best serve your particular syncing needs (whether using .Mac, syncing between two Macs, syncing a cell phone, iPod or PDA).
You can read more about Take Control of Syncing in Tiger and order your own copy. That link lets you see a 24-page PDF sample with Table of Contents, Introduction, Quick Start, and section starts.
While I'm possibly biased, I asssure you, no one can be a more demanding critic of a Mac technical writer than a spouse who is a Mac technical editor and consultant and who depends on syncing between multiple devices in multiple locations. I learned stuff from this book that I didn't know, and not just the how and why of syncing, but actual practical, useful information about things (like the Keychain) that have already made my life easier.
There's also a coupon included that's worth 50% off any syncing utility from PocketMac.