Podcasting

College Acceptance Podcast

Andy Kim — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 03:40:25 -0800

You know times have changed when a college sends out acceptance letters as a podcast.

[via Wired Campus Blog and Podcast Free America]

The Future of Web Apps Conference Podcast

Andy Kim — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 23:29:42 -0800

Here's a chance to listen to the developers behind some of the tools we use everyday such as Del.icio.us, Google Maps, Flickr, and more.

The Future of Web Apps Conference

I noticed that although these are called podcasts, that there is no feed that you can subscribe to in iTunes. So, I created for myself a quick podcast in Podcast Maker using the external link feature. You too can access it here:

Subscribe to Podcast Feed in iTunes

UPDATE: They took it down and moved it to a different server without setting up any redirects. Feed has been modified. Please update the podcast in iTunes if you are subscribed already. On the upside, it no longer takes 3 hours to download one mp3.

Technorati Tags: futureofwebapps

Password Protecting a Podcast

Andy Kim — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 10:16:00 -0800

A click is worth a thousand words.

Click here!

Surprised? I was too when I discovered that iTunes lets you access password protected podcasts.

Oh, by the way, you can use the username guest with the password guest to access that podcast.

Why?

At first, password protecting a podcast might sound counterintuitive, but there are actually many reasons why you might want to do such a thing. You might be a teacher or professor who wants the podcast to be available only to your students. You might want to share the podcast with just your friends. I know some people who share their music this way. You might want to podcast your work to clients so that they are automatically updated as you publish changes. You might have a podcast that you want only your department to have access to. Or you might want to do a "closed beta" of your podcast.

How?

The feed you clicked on is protected through the standard HTTP authentication schemes. iTunes supports both the "basic" and "digest" flavors of HTTP authentication. Combined with SSL this will provide robust security for your podcast.

Basically, you put a .htaccess file into the directory that contains your podcast feed with content that looks like this:

AuthType Digest AuthName "Potion Factory" AuthDigestFile /usr/local/apache/conf/digest_passwd Require valid-user

You also have to use the following shell command to make the digest_password file:

htdigest -c /usr/local/apache/conf/digest_passwd "Potion Factory" user1

I suggest you don't try this yourself unless you really understand what is written above. There are many reasons why the above will not work. Ask your webmaster to do it for you if you are not comfortable.

If you really want to try, here is a site with more detailed instructions:

Comprehensive guide to .htaccess - Password Protection

Credit goes to Mr. Mark B. Priddy of Affiliated Media Group for letting us know about this iTunes feature. We actually learned something answering a support email!

UPDATE (2/27/2006): You can password protect your podcast easily if you use FeedBurner. FeedBurner has an option to password protect your feed, which does exactly what I describe here. The only downside to the FeedBurner way is that it only allows one username and password, but it is still tremendously useful for something that only takes a few clicks.

Doogtoons

Andy Kim — Sat, 04 Feb 2006 10:39:12 -0800

Doogtoons by Doug Bresler is living proof that podcasting can empower the creative individual to be heard and seen in front of a massive audience. While most of the top 100 podcasts at iTunes are based on repurposed materials from big organizations such as ABC and NPR, Doogtoons is just one guy producing the whole shebang and still being ranked up there with the giants. He is also a long time Podcast Maker user. Check out his funny podcast, especially, the very first episode.

Check out Doogtoons

Newsflash!

updated 2/23/2006

Doogtoons is now featured in the main podcast section of iTunes:

Congrats Doug for reaching the holy grail of all podcasts! You da man!

Magnatune

Andy Kim — Sun, 29 Jan 2006 08:24:12 -0800

Magnatune is a record label with the motto We Are Not Evil. Based in Berkeley, California, it is the perfect antithesis of the trigger happy lawyer toting RIAA label. It is a strange one, as far as record labels go, but in a very good way. Some of many interesting facts about Magnatune:

You can preview all of the music in its complete entirety without paying a single dime for as long as you want. In fact, you can use it as an online radio while you work.
When you do want to buy the music, you can choose the price.
Half of what you pay goes directly to the artist.
You can get the music in one of these DRM-free formats: WAV, MP3, OGG, FLAC, AAC, and in a rootkit-free CD.
Good Music.
You can podcast their music without paying a cent. Use it as an intro, outro, or segway music.

The last bullet-point is the raison d'être for this post. It may be old news to some of you, but all of the 5487 tracks by 206 different artists under Magnatune are Creative Commons licensed. This is a good deal for both the podcaster and the artist. Magnatune is an underdog in the music industry, but it is a company that totally gets the changes coming with the digital era and this podcast loving attitude is just one example of many.

There is an IT Conversations interview that I recommend with the Magnatune founder John Buckman

here. He explains in depth how Magnatune is different from traditional labels and gives us his insight on how the music industry is changing in this digital era. It was interesting for me because I am also a producer of digital content and his perspective on things is refreshing. I sincerely hope that ventures like his succeed in taking a huge chunk of the business away from the crap pushing greedy cartel of the Big 5 record companies.

At this point I would like to do a shout out. Mr. Jade Leary
is a Magnatune artist and a Podcast Maker user. His album The Lost Art of Human Kindness is the 9th highest valued Magnatune album of all time. So if you are into alt. rock you should definitely listen to Mr. Leary's music
here and check out his podcast
here.

Magnatune -- Podcast Our Music!

ABC of Podcasting

Andy Kim — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 01:12:15 -0800

You do know about PFA right? PFA, or Podcast Free America, is a great blog on podcasting by Ryan Irelan. It has a bunch of helpful tips for podcasters of all expertise levels, including you. Right now Ryan is doing the ABC of Podcasting, a group of posts on podcasting for each letter of the alphabet. Ryan is also really good about keeping people updated on the latest happenings around the podosphere. It goes without saying that you should jump the mouse right now Bruce Lee style. The kicker is that although I have been reading his blog for quite some time I didn't know he was a user of PM until we did the podcast gallery page.

Jump to ABC of Podcasting at Podcast Free America

CocoaRadio

Andy Kim — Sat, 14 Jan 2006 04:54:42 -0800

We met up with Blake Burris of CocoaRadio at the Macworld Expo. Blake gave us these stickers and we wanted to pass out all of them since we love the show so much, but we still have some left. So I'm passing them out here in the blogosphere. CocoaRadio is a podcast that features interviews with various cool Mac software developers. We have been listening to this podcast from day one back when we had to turn up the volume all the way. I heartedly recommend the recent episode with Wil Shipley of Delicious Monster who is a veteran in this industry. I think you will find it fascinating even if you are not a developer.

We should be on there pretty soon as well.

Subscribe to CocoaRadio Podcast

Visit CocoaRadio homepage

Moving An Existing FeedBurner Feed

Andy Kim — Sat, 07 Jan 2006 23:59:46 -0800

Justin Valiquette emailed us an excellent question which I will share with everyone.

I have an existing Podcast that is registered with iTunes already. To create this podcast, I used the difficult method of creating a blog, and a feedburner account to create the .xml feed. I want to begin using Podcast Maker from now on. Also, I just purchased new hosting space that I want to transfer all our existing podcasts to, and put all the new ones on.

How can I create new podcasts using Podcast Maker that will register under the same podcast title on iTunes so people don't have to re-subscribe.

Thanks,
Justin

The nice thing about FeedBurner is that it acts as a layer between your real feed and your listeners. So even if your real feed moves, all you have to do is point FeedBurner to the new feed and your listeners won't even know that the switch happened. There are two parts to this move. Publishing your new feed, and reconfiguring FeedBurner.

Part 1 - Publishing Your New Feed

To publish the new feed, open up Podcast Maker and choose File then Import Podcast Feed in the menus.

Put in your current feed URL in the dialog that pops up.

After you hit the Import button you will see a new document with your podcast. Now, if you don't need to move all your existing media files from its current location, all you have to do at this point is hit the Publish button and upload your feed to the new server. Move on to Part 2 if this is you.

If you also want to move all of your media files to the new server, transfer all those files to a new directory on the new server using your favorite FTP program. Make sure that it's accessible from a web browser.

In Podcast Maker, choose each episode and look at its Basic tab. At the bottom you will see a URL in the Location field. Edit the URL of each episode to match your new server's URL.

Now publish your feed. You are almost done. You just need a simple configuration change in FeedBurner.

Part 2 - Configure FeedBurner

Login to FeedBurner and choose the feed that you are moving.
Click on Edit Feed Details...
Put in your new feed URL in the Original Feed field.

After this maneuver it will be easy to publish new episodes since you will be using Podcast Maker. The best part is that nobody will know that you changed anything.

Thank you Justin for the excellent question.

Fly With Joe

Andy Kim — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 01:04:42 -0700

I want to point out an exceptionally well done podcast to beginning podcasters. It's called Fly With Me by Joe D'Eon. It is about the ins and outs of the airline industry from the point of view of a pilot. It isn't at all just about the technicalities and information about working in the airline industry. He manages to bring out the earthy qualitites of the people working the skies. The most recent episode is about recognition. It is an entire episode about how getting a pat in the back can mean so much. Joe's podcast is refreshing to listen to since so many podcasts these days are in a talkshow format. It's a wonderful showcase of what a podcast can be with a bit of creativity and hard work.

In addition to having interesting content, Fly With Me is also very well produced. The audio quality is superb, and the selection of music is wonderful. It's just great all around.

Give it a listen