Lewies Blog

A few of you who have come by recently may have noticed that I have started to educate myself with podcasting and some of the services and software that is involved. Today I will talk about a piece of software called Audacity. This is a free program that lets you edit your audio files. It works on many platforms and the code is open source. If you know how to make changes, then you have the power to do so.

I don’t know much about sound editing, but I thought that I would give it a go and try it out. I wake up each day and try and remember what I just dreamt of. The audio is full of “Uhs”, “Ands”, and “Buts” along with a lot of silence. My digital voice recorder also has a nack of adding a few scratch sounds here and there.

It was pretty easy to figure out how to select a portion of audio and then cut it out. I started out with over five minutes of audio and chopped it down to just over two minutes. That should save on some bandwidth! Because I am a little new at this, it did take me a while to do all the editing. Also, my audio file sounds like I never come to the end of a sentence. I’ll have to work at it a little more to do it the rite way, but I like what I am hearing already.

If you are podcasting and need a way to edit your audio files, then I recommend Audacity. If you are interested in hearing my results, then check out my audio blog called Lewies Dreamy Audio or subscribe to the RSS feed.

Tags: Podcasting, Podcasts, iPod, MP3, Audio, Audacity, Free, Open Source, Software, Broadcasting, Sound Editing, Sound, Editing

For those of you who don’t know, podcasting is a term for blogs that offer audio files with there posts. It is called podcasting because people would listen to the audio files on there iPods while they were on the go. So for most people, you would be broadcasting to iPods. I don’t have an iPod or even an MP3 player, so I just listen in on my computer.

There are many types of podcasts out there. I have one that I have been experimenting with called Lewies Dreamy Audio. I wake up each day and talk into a digital voice recorder about what I had dreampt of. I haven’t done it for a while, but I may start back up again soon.

I find that most podcasts range from five minutes to thirty minutes. The longer ones usually have small breaks throughout the show playing portions of songs from different artists. A few of the really good shows have a custom introduction that sounds as if you are listening to a radio show.

Podcasting may change the way we think about radio. You don’t need to worry about setting up a special web server to stream audio. You don’t need a broadcasting license either. It is usually just a bunch of static MP3 files. It is much easier to start podcasting too. There are a few sites that will do everything for you. All you need is a web browser, a microphone, a voice, and something to talk about.

There is a new podcasting service on the block. I was looking at some of my statistics and saw that someone came to my blog from Talkr. I hadn’t heard about this and decided to check it out.

I was amazed. Truly amazed. This service takes the RSS feed from your blog and converts it to audio. You can hear an emotionless digitized female voice read everything from each post. I added another feed for my friends blog, Aurorealis. It took a few minutes before the server gave me an option to subscribe to two of her feeds.

Apparently the service converted her feeds into audio while I was waiting. I was able to immediately download MP3’s from each of her most recent posts. The service also offers an RSS podcast feed that you can subscribe to as well. I have a hard time comprehending what I read. This service just made it so much easier to understand. You start to get used to the digitized voice after a few posts.

I have recently found out that the iTunes software provided by Apple now supports podcasting. This is really big news! Before, I would either import my MP3’s manually or use something like iPodder to do all the work for me. I bet it will not be long before the Microsoft Windows Media Player supports subscribing to podcasts as well.

Last on the list is Odeo (prounounced like rodeo). I finally got my invitation for the beta program last week. They have a nice directory for browsing different channels. Just like every other service, they also support tagging and form a topological map so that you can navigate through related content. I was able to claim my dreamy audio feed and will start looking for a icon to display with it tonight. They have a lot of cool feeds on the site.

Tags: Podcasting, Podcasts, iPod, MP3, Audio, Radio, Broadcasting, Streaming, Services, Talkr, RSS, iTunes, iPodder, Windows Media Player, Odeo, Channels

I’ve used AJAX in many home-brew applications such as Chat, a Chatbot (ELIZA), Seti Statistics, a Color Picker control, and a guestbook. It gets really complicated really fast. For those who don’t know what AJAX is, it is a relatively new term slapped on technologies that developers have been using for a while. It is simply using JavaScript to communicate Asynchronously with your server via XML over HTTP. This method allows developers to communicate directly with the web server without the end-user having to click links and wait for the entire page to load again.

On an article at Builder AU, Charles Fitzgerald (Microsoft’s general manager for platform technologies) was quoted with the following:

People who do (AJAX development) are rocket scientists. In some ways, this papers over the mess that is JavaScript development. It’s easy-to-build ’spaghetti’ code.

I don’t believe that I’m a rocket scientist. Those guys have brains beyond imagination. They probably have a lot more stress as well. Think of how many lives and millions of dollars you are responsible for as a rocket scientist.

Any how, one thing that helped me out is that I made some genaric libraries to help me interface with xml on the server depending on what browser you are using. Every browser deals with Xml in a different way. By creating one interface, it was easier to code with.

I think one problem that people don’t realize is that Internet Explorer itself can’t make use of this technology in Government Web Applications. The reason is that it uses the XmlHttp Active-X control. The government doesn’t like anything dealing with Active-X controls. You usually have to jump through some high hoops to get what you want. The XmlHttp object comes with the default installation of Internet Explorer, but you still run into problems trying to use it.

So while AJAX is catching pretty quickly, Microsoft has some Active-X issues to work out. It would have been better if they built Xml rite into the browsers DOM rather then making it a seperate Active X control.

Tags: AJAX, Atlas, Microsoft, Active X, DOM, XML, HTML, XmlHttp, JavaScript, Programming, Development, Technology

Every day on my way home from work, Sherlock Holmes comes on my XM Radio on Sonic Theater Channel 163. It is a bit fun listening in on the show, but little thoughts keep crawling into my mind.

One of the clues that comes up most often is that a killer is left handed. There are so many of these, but you never hear the detective state that other killers must be right-handed. It is kind of funny with how often this comes up.

Sometimes I get the impression that Dr. Watson is mumbling things under his breath as he watches Sherlock flaunt his skills in front of a potential client. I am sure that you could make a parody radio show from this one if someone hasn’t already.

Tags: Sherlock Holmes, XM Radio, Sonic Theater, Dr. Watson, Dr Watson, Watson, Holmes, Sherlock, Detective, Radio, Radio Show, Murder

My old phone became handicapped a while back due to some wreckless behavior around the house. After a few months, I had finally replaced it with a VTech i5687 5.8 GHz Digital Spread Spectrum Expandable Cordless Phone with Digital Answering System and Color LCD Handset (Model 5867). Isn’t that a mouthful? My old phone was an analog phone with speakerphone capability and caller id display.

So here are some of the features of my new phone.

1. Speakerphone - on the handset
2. Cordless
3. Digital Answering machine
4. Custom Ringtones
5. Color LCD Handset
6. Custom Pictures uploaded via USB
7. Uses 2 AA rechargable batteries

So all of this is cool and stuff, but everyone including myself can hear clicking sounds. For a while I figured that maybe the wires in my house were not setup rite. My sister came to visit the other day and pointed out that her friend had the same exact phone and asked me if I had clicking sounds.

If she knew about it, there must be tons of people with the same problem. Sure enough a simple search on Google returned many similar stories. It turns out that the answering machine makes the clicking sound after a couple of weeks. So … don’t buy from VTech. They are cheap, but so is the quality.

Tags: VTech, Phone, Product Review, Warning, Handset, Cordless, Batteries, Clicking, Annoyances, USB, Speakerphone, LCD Handset

I’m sure many people have seen advertisements on the net offering you money to work from home. I’ve been very curiouse about them, but I always have this fear that they are just scams. I would like to try a few of these out with my wife’s spare time, but not if they are going to require her to work herself to death over these things.

Before the internet took off, I heard horror stories about people hireing there whole family to lick envelopes. One person went for the teddy bear scam where you have to buy your own supplies and then the company rejects all of the bears that were made.

Today the internet is full of offers to take surveys, watch movies, try out new products, or participate in a focus group for cash. Is this a dream come true?

Have you worked from home successfully through one of these offers? Has it helped you out any? Did it work just as they advertised? Were there hidden costs or disappointments?

Tags: Work At Home, Work, Home, Work From Home, Scam, Surveys, Focus Groups, Products, Preview Movie Trailers, Perfect Job, Money, Cash, Job, Employment, Side Job

I recently found out that my brother likes pie. What kind of pie, I am not sure of - but I think he was referring to the kind that you consume.

One of my fond memories growing up was my mom preparing lots of food from the garden. She was really big into the canning of tomatoes, zuccini, horseraddish, etc. She even had a dehydrator to make fruit rollups and banana chips. She also made pie.

In my early years, I hated rubarb and cherry pie. I sort of developed a taste for them in my later childhood. Mom got this gizmo that screwed onto the end of the kitchen table that we would use to pit the cherries. You would have to keep pressing this long metal rod with a black knob on the end. The spring would push it back up at you and it would were your arms out. Us kids would take turns at it. It was a real group effort.

Mom usually did this on her own, but sometimes we would all help out. Since we had our own cherry tree, there was no end to the supply. So you were either picking cherries, making dough, pitting cherries or measuring the ingredients. In the end, you had some killer family pie.

Mom also made some great pumpkin pie too. I don’t remember helping out with that but I do remember my dad growing a big giant pumpkin one year. It took him, my brother, and I to roll it up to the house. That too was a lot of fun. I can still remember the smell of pumpkin seeds roasting and then having them salted.

Next to the cherry tree out back was the green apple tree. The apples were kind of sour tasting but became a bit sweet when you put them into pie. I don’t really recall too clearly, but I thought we later got one of these old apple pealers. It looked like an antique. I do remember that it got the job done really quickly.

Now the last pie that I can think of had walnuts. We had this really big walnut tree rite outside the back of our house. You would hear the nuts thumping on the roof during the summer and fall. I think mom cracked most of these nuts open and it must have taken quite some time to do. Walnuts are not exactly the easiest things to pull out of there shells.

I remember that we had an area set aside for all of the walnuts while they were still in there husks. Us kids would run over the area and rub our feet against them to try and get the husks off. I liked the noise that it made.

Tags: Pie, Canning, Cherry Pie, Pumpkin Pie, Rhubarb Pie, Walnut Pie, Apple Pie, Family, Memories, Childhood, Happy, Dad, Mom, Pumpkin, Cherry Tree, Apple Tree, Walnut Tree

Last night I watched Blade: Trinity. As always, the main character, Blade, is a really cool hero with cool gadgets and special effects. I almost got the sense that I was watching a video game at some points. Some of the other weapons introduced with other characters in the movie were cool as well.

Blade falls prey to a setup and becomes a wanted man. He joins up with the nightstalkers - a group of young adults. It would be cool and everything, but the way that they play it off ruins portions of the movie. Apparently they are not seriouse enough in blades eyes to do some real ass kicking. The characters in the movie even sarcastically rip on there own pathetic humor at times.

Spoiler

In the end, dracula appears to actually be a deamon - his true self. When he dies, he turns into the human form of himself to give blade some last words. In most movies, when a changling dies - they become there true self - not the other way around.

In the beginning, we see some people arrive in Iraq by helicopter in the middle of the day. They are completely covered by camaflage, masks, hoods and the sort. One guy turns around and gives the finger to the sun up in the sky. Oh so lame …

One of the nightstalkers builds a playlist before each killing spree for her iPod. Funny - I would have gone with the U2 iPod since it is black and would have matched her outfit better. While she was fighting, I was more in deep thought of how she can hear anyone comming up on her. The other thought was that wire for the ear phones. Its wires were going to get caught up sooner or later with all of those cool moves she was doing.

Vampire dogs. These things looked more like the preditor with how there mouths opened up. Even dracula had the same thing going on. Just stick with the extended teeth and that would be scary enough.

Chance Encounter? Apparently Blade and the Nightstalkers have been working in the same city for some time on the same job but have never ran into each other. Odd isn’t it?

Tags: Blade, Trinity, Movie Review, Movie, Review, iPod, Nightstalkers, Spoiler, Vampire, Dracula

My sister Bonnie arrived her today and is spending the night. She went through about 3 hours of rush hour traffice from Baltimore, MD. Ouch! My brother also stopped by later on and hung out with us to chat.

I got to meet her children and they are not as bad as I heard. We caught up on some of our colorful past childhood and some thoughts about our parents and how we were brought up. We also got caught up with what is happening in our lives today.

Bonnie also brought with her a lot of old photos. I was so happy. For some reason, I treasure these very much. It is almost like looking into someone elses life. I don’t remember some and others look like a life that I never lived.

I look and see how happy these kids are in the photos. Some are of me having a really good time. The weird thing is, anytime I think about what I do remember in my childhood is usually very depressing. I don’t remember being happy - but here is physical proof rite here in my hands.

Tags: Bonnie, Photographs, Childhood, Memories, Sister, Nephew, Neice, Children

Ok, I just looked at my free iPod referral status and noticed that I finally have five referrals. This magic number is the minimum amount of people that I needed to sign up in order to get my free iPod. 54 people have signed up but only five have completed an offer. That is a little less then 10%.




So I’m reading over the message that they have posted.

You currently have the minimum number of referrals needed to get your FREE iPod. One process we must perform is to approve your account, and comfirm all of your referrals as unique, valid, and have legitimately completed an offer. We also check your referrals’ referrals, and make sure all offers were done with no signs of fraud or abuse. If you referred someone who we find suspicious you may not receive credit for their referral. Some accounts will have 1 or 2 referrals that do not get approved, so you may want to refer extra friends to improve your chances of approval.

If you feel like you have completed all necessary steps according to the FULL requirements of our Terms & Conditions, then you may click the button below to request this approval. Once approved you will be able to order your FREE iPod! Please note, however, that ANY type of abuse or attempts to fraud our free offer will be taken very seriously and may result in your account and/or your referrals being placed on HOLD status

The way that they capitalize “FULL requirements” made me go back and read the Terms & Conditions. There is just so much to read and comprehend. It sounds like it may have been all for nothing.

Should I email the people who did complete the offer and check with them to see how they are doing? What happens if someone below me appears to be abusing the system? Do I start from scratch again? Couldn’t they setup something that lets me know how many referrals the people under me have and how many completed offers there are? That would give me an indication if the person is participating as well.

Should I hold out and try and get a few more referrals? On average it will take me about a month to get another referral to complete there offer. What should I do? I am so tempted to request approval but I don’t want to mess this up.

Tags: Free iPod, iPod, Completed, Goal, Milestone, Decision, Confusion, Fraud, Requirements, Referral, Free