Category: Geek Love

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Geek Love Knittastic!

I’m Going to Poke You in the Eye!

I Never Promised You a Rose GardenOk, ok, I’m not really going to poke you in the eye. I just sing that song to myself every time I think of the Pointy Sticks podcast. I really need to find out from Jay Lee if I can use a snippet of that Flying Fish Sailor’s song in the podcast – it would be the perfect intro music!

Episode 2 is finally live. At last! Whew. I had everything selected and downloaded yesterday so I could make the podcast after I returned from my Guild meeting, and then the sound card for the computer wouldn’t work! Gah! So I had to test out all the other computers to see if any of them would record in stereo (they won’t) and the set up the laptop to do the recording. It all worked out in the end … until I found out this morning that we had no internet access.

Talk about frustrating!

So now that the internet is finally working after the cable company came out to do repairs somewhere nearby, I was able to upload the podcast and the show notes. Whew. Now I’m going back to working on my Lady Eleanor and later taking photos of my knitting.

Categories
Geek Love

Would the Local Blogosphere Benefit from a Blog Critic?

Dwight Silverman of the Houston Chronicle TechBlog wrote a post asking, “Would the local blogosphere benefit from a blog critic?” He is talking about the Houston blogosphere, and a blog critic to help bloggers grow. I linked the post, you can read all the juicy details along with his “requirements.”

My response?

Personally, I think it is a terrible idea. I’ve been blogging for over 6 years now, since before the word “blog” was a household name or had caught the media’s attention in any way. I have hundreds of readers daily. However, in a “blog critic’s” eyes, my site might be terrible. And you know what? I don’t care.

I blog for me in the end. I write when I want to write, about what I want to write. When it comes to reading blogs, you either read it because you want to read it, you have a common interest with the person, or you don’t.

I’ve seen many attempts at being “blog critics” in the past, all of which have failed TERRIBLY. Feelings get hurt, names get called, mud gets slung. It always ends up BAD. It is much like the situation that happens around the blog awards that people coordinate. Not good at all.

I don’t think the Chronicle or its representatives should have any part in that. If you find a blog that is interesting and you feel it deserves attention, great. That is how my photoblog ended up in the Chronicle years ago, and another site of mine ended up in the NY Post. Positive reviews are great, but once you point out that a site has poor writing or bad code, it is going to get ugly.

I think Charles Kuffner said it best when he pointed out that whoever takes the task would need asbestos underwear. It would be flame city before long.

And my pet peeve of the day? When sites have the “TypeKey” sign-in link on their comment page and then don’t have it enabled. Gah! Remove the link or fix the code. Does Akismet work for MT? Because personally, that is the best thing ev-ah for getting rid of spam. I love being spam free!

Categories
Geek Love Knittastic!

Pointy Sticks Podcast is Alive!

The Photographer (B&W)

The Pointy Sticks Podcast, Episode 1, Take 2 is being uploaded as we speak and will be LIVE within a matter of minutes! I had recorded it originally on Monday night, but it just wasn’t … right. So I rerecorded it yesterday, edited, added music, and packed it up nice and neat for you!

It isn’t perfect yet – I need to learn more about the editing/processing software that I used, because there is some way to tone down the slight spikes in sound. I also need to find the perfect placement for the mic still. I know there will be some improvements over time, so I’m ok with this one being a bit rough around the edges.

While I talk about knitting in the podcast, it isn’t technical stuff (at least not yet) – I’m not reading knitting patterns to you or anything of that sort. So even if you don’t knit, I encourage you to check it out. There is even music in there! Fun music! And you get to hear me talk! Really, how cool is that? (I had a ton of fun recording this, so I’m really excited and ready to do the next one!)

Podcasts are all just mp3 files. You do not have to own an iPod to listen to them – any mp3 player will play them. NoIpodRequired.com has lots of information on this. Some people listen to them through their computers, so it is just a matter of personal preference. I use iTunes to download my podcasts. The software is free, and it is easy to “subscribe” to them so that whenever a new episode is posted it is downloaded for me when I launch iTunes. There are other software packages that will do this for you too. Also, if you use a RSS feed reader, you can subscribe to the feed and see when the site is updated. I post the show notes there, so the feed will update when it goes live.

My first Chemistry test is today – I’m just a bit nervous! My teacher is really great though, and she only tests on one chapter at a time so that we don’t have to remember a million formulas at once. I’m sure I’ll do fine. I think.

Categories
Geek Love Knittastic!

I Have Podcasted…

I Say A Little Prayer For You...

It is official. I’ve made a Test of the Emergency Podcast System and it was good. The first full podcast will be recorded TONIGHT, and will be available for download as soon as it is prepped and ready! (Tonight, or tomorrow at the latest.)

Wheeee!

On the knitting front, I have made it almost to the toe of my first Jaywalker sock. It has been a pretty easy knit lately, I just haven’t taken the time to work on it between the tests I have coming up and the podcasting work I’ve been doing. I still want to get the second sock done by the KAL prize deadline, but I’m not sure if I’ll make it. Oh well – at least I have a really cute sock, and I haven’t had any more issues with it like I did last week!

PS – The above photo made
#19 in Interestingness on Flickr for February 6, 2006. How cool is that! Thank you everyone!

Categories
Changelog Geek Love

Feel the Burn… (Er, the FeedBurner.)

Happy Honeymooners!I’m trying to convert all of my RSS feed readers over to using my FeedBurner feed. If you are reading this in Bloglines, NewsGatorOnline (my personal favorite), Google, My Yahoo! or your RSS feed reader of choice, would you mind converting? Just click here to subscribe. (I’ve included handy-dandy links on my sidebar too.)

One of the cool things about the Feedburner feeds now is that they offer features like including Del.icio.us links and Flickr photos in their feeds. I’ve enabled both of those for now for testing. I have considered posting my Del.icio.us links here, but this seemed like a good alternative.

If you have no idea what RSS feeds are, you might want to read these posts:
– Mmmm… Feed Me…
– NewsGator vs. Bloglines (My thoughts on why I prefer NewsGatorOnline to read RSS feeds.)
– RSS – You Know What it is, Right?

And an oldie but a goodie that I wrote for ScriptyGoddess – What is XML? And What is RSS? Why Do I Want It Anyways? Lots of little tidbits in there that are still applicable.

If you have a blog, enable feeds. Full feeds with pictures is best. Pretty please? I know it takes jumping through a few hoops on some hosted blogging platforms (namely Typepad), but it is so worthwhile. Let me know if you have any questions about this stuff – I’m a huge fan of feeds, so I’m happy to share any knowledge I might have.

But there is one thing to remember. If you read everything via feeds, take a moment to pop in to the sites you read every once in awhile and leave a comment or two. Every blogger appreciates your feedback. Well, unless they are really cold-hearted, but why would you be reading them anyways if they were?