brainwagon

A direct question from Ruth Meers at Bloggercon served to percolate a question that has been kicking around subliminally for quite some time. What is your podcast (or more generally) your weblog about? Brainwagon isn’t really a personal diary weblog. I do occasionally mention stuff about my personal life, but that isn’t the focus. I […]

Sorry the team working on iPodder, but I’ve become too frustrated with it to continue using it. I have been having problems with iTunes crashing periodically, with items which are downloaded and inserted multiple times, and with a situation where a feed which botched once and refused to download again, even after uninstalling and reinstalling […]

Where your host describes the fun he’s been having with his new cell phone and his travails in trying to get MythTV installed. Links for the show: The Motorola MPx220, my new Cingular cell phone Useful sites for MPx220 information: mpx200.org and pdaphonehome.com My ASCII television hack: over two years old, but still fun. Inspired […]

Well, it’s November 29, which means that my podcast of the classic radio serial The Cinnamon Bear has officially begun. There are 26 episodes, each slightly longer than ten minutes, which culminate on Christmas Eve. I hope you all enjoy it. Initially there was a small bug in my RSS feed generator which accidently produced […]

In episode 37, your intrepid host reports on his new cell phone, talks about his as yet unsuccessful efforts to get MythTV to work, plays a song from Comfort Stand, an online record label and then is hastened away to the Sponge Bob Squarepants movie. Anyone who wants to serve as my mentor on the […]

This morning the gadget sites (as well as some podcasters) were all a twitter over the possibility of Apple producing a new audio interface code named Asteroid. This is supposedly a firewire interface with two XL mic inputs and a bunch of other stuff. What struck me as funny were the two different artists renditions […]

I mentioned in yesterday’s audio podcast that it would be nice if ipodder clients did more to manage your collection of online audio from podcasts. I suggested that you might want to pick a size such as 10gb that you are willing to use for podcasts. As new podcasts come in, the oldest would be […]

Where your host describes his upcoming special holiday treat, yammers about a couple of interesting bits of software, and plays some holiday music to prime the pump for the largest shopping weekend of the year. Links from today’s show: I’m going to be presenting podcast for the classic 1937 radio serial The Cinnamon Bear. You […]

Where your host rambles and meanders through the topics that seem appropriate on a Saturday. Links from the show: I use lots of command-line tools to process and convert video files. Some of the more important ones are mplayer, transcode and ffmpeg. All three are useful and powerful, but have steep learning curves. Still, for […]

Where your host describes a number of interesting gadgets and gizmos, and then plays some Halloween sounding music: Links from the show: The Aiptek DV4500, pictures, video and sound files coming soon. Grayson: a film trailer created by amateurs, telling the story of Dick Grayson, aka Robin Jeri Ellsworth designed the Commodore One, a clone […]

Where your host laments the problem with his SUV (bad alternator) and comment spammers, chats about the NPR program regarding political speech and the public domain, talks a bit about his microphone setup, plays some blues music, and recalls all the terrific Cajun food he had during his only trip to New Orleans. Links: Home […]

Herbert Baerten reported that my feeds weren’t valid RSS and that his client Doppler was having difficulties with it as a result. It should be fixed now: Feed Validator gives it a clean bill of health. If you had difficulty getting Brainwagon Radio, I apologize and will try to be more careful in the future.

Where your host tries to give a meaningful introduction into digital audio by explaining the basics of digital audio. Topics covered include: What is sound? What does your computer do when it records a digital audio file? What does sample rate, sample size and bitrate mean? The sound settings that I use to record these […]

I happened to be seated a couple of rows in front of Russell Beattie during the Mobile Weblogging session at Bloggercon, and he caught me on video. I’m the red blob in the center of the Quicktime movie, and also visible in the larger snapshot. See honey, I wasn’t just going to Fry’s all day.

Where your host, refreshed by two ibuprofen and eight hours of sleep, replays his experience and impressions of Bloggercon. Closing music from garageband.com: Push: Don’t want to say goodbye Errata: I said “Michael Scoble” on the podcast, he is of course Robert Scoble. Why is it that my brain can remember thousands of Simpson’s quotes […]