Jeffrey A. Miller: JKoenig

Blog Audio: Odiogo, FeedForAll, and TextAloud

Tue, 08 Aug 2006 16:34:15 GMT

iTunes decreases my blog consumption

After all this time, I'm finally blogging again. I think the issue has been the lack of time (other things are more important?) and the lack of motivation (i.e., burning desire). Oddly enough, I think podcasts have taken me away from blogging. Since I no longer use NewsGator and FeedStation to download podcasts (I use iTunes instead), I spend less time in my news aggregator. Oh, I still consume blogs, and I think that they're still a great innovation, but I'm not using them like I used to.

A twist on blog consumption: Text-to-Speech conversion

One new product that puts a twist on consuming blogs is Odiogo. It's software that will "audify" RSS content to create MP3 audio consumable by your media player or portable audio device. This is similar in concept to a combination of products I saw a while back: mixing FeedForAll, an RSS publisher, with TextAloud from NextUp.com. This combo allows you to create a "podcast" version of your blog. TextAloud also has other uses for text-to-speech conversion as a stand-alone product. Odiogo, on the other hand, combines an RSS aggregator with a text-to-speech converter in one product. The price is fairly accessible at $29.99. I may try it. There are some sample audio clips of Odiogo available. One thing I noticed is that Odiogo seems to offer only one voice (male). TextAloud, on the other hand, offers multiple voice options with a range of sampling rates from vendors including AT&T (Natural Voices), NeoSpeech, Cepstral, and ScanSoft (RealSpeak). TextAloud comes only in a Windows version and costs $29.95. FeedForAll costs $39.95 and is available for Windows and Mac. They have an interesting set of partners offering complimentary products related to RSS feed consumption, RSS-friendly web hosting, and podcast creation.

Conclusion

I may try the audio blog content option. Unfortunately, most of my podcast solutions involve a lot of manual labor to put it onto my player (my Palm Zire 72 with an SD card). The other downside is that the text-to-speech output can sound somewhat bland, causing me to zone out instead of actively listening. I'll put it on my Someday/Maybe list (GTD).

Don't like "Podcast?" How about "Syndicast?"

Wed, 22 Feb 2006 18:27:49 GMT

Some people are confused about what the term "podcast" really means. While it originally involved a reference to Apple's iPod, the term has expanded to mean much, much more. I heard somewhere that Microsoft was trying to find a way to refer to a "podcast" without calling it a "Pod-cast." "Blogcast" was the substitute I heard offered. However, that was only a rumor.

I think there's a better word, still: syndicast. Syndication and broadcast combined. Jason Dunn of PocketPC Thoughts describes several alternative names for podcasts in his article on Microsoft's site.

The problem with coining a new term and supplanting the old term is difficult. "Podcast" is already a powerful meme. I don't suspect that it will make much difference proposing it, but I couldn't keep a clever idea to myself.

And for another perspective, Chris Pirillo says some people think it's "not important": "This is Simply Smarter Broadcasting."

It's nothing more than Internet radio at its core, folks. It's audio, on-demand, that's easily synchronized with your computer system / portable media device...

Podcasting, or syndicated downloadable content, by whatever name, is definitely here to stay.

After the Crash

Fri, 16 Dec 2005 16:29:41 GMT

My blog has been down because my Linux server died. I've bought a hosting account and I'm trying to recreate it in the new space.

Please be patient with me. My blogging skills are getting rusty, but I still contend that I am a blogger. After all, I put it on my license plate, so I'd better live up to the label.

Update:I've been having fits trying get Radio to update my weblog! My upstreaming doesn't work. In fact, if you see this paragraph, that means that it is working again. I'm using this text as an update to trigger a "refresh."

Still not working...Aargh! I'm beginning to think it's time to ditch Radio as my authoring tool. Though, it could be my hosting account that has a problem...

Mon, 12 Dec 2005 22:23:06 GMT

The Firefox Hacks You Must Have. With a new version of the open-source browser out, we offer our guide to the nifty, fun Firefox extensions that will change your life. By Quinn Norton. [Wired News]

Time to Reinvent

Wed, 26 Oct 2005 20:46:19 GMT

OK, it's time to reinvent some things here. I'm ready for a change. I've shaved off my goatee. I'm updating my resume. I'm considering deprecating the Xagronaut blog in favor of a new personal website. I'll still post to it now and then, probably. But the point is that some things have changed in my life. Other things need to change.

Managing the Change Online

The first thing I did was to redirect my existing domain (xagronaut.com) to my new domain (jmill.net). I made old blog a subdirectory of the new site. My next decision is whether to use Radio to manage the site. I may use Drupal. I may use a custom PHP-based solution. I may use a hybrid of approaches, including Gallery for photos and PHPGedView for tracking the family tree.

A Question of Goals

It's time to reevaluate. Do I want to focus inward, on family and personal interests? Do I want to focus outward, on church and work activities? Do I want to retreat and retool? Do I want to branch out and expand my reach? Much to consider...much too much to consider...

Sat, 22 Oct 2005 14:27:08 GMT

Company Claims Patent Over XML. Aviran Mordo writes "News.com reports that a small software developer plans to seek royalties from companies that use XML, the latest example of patent claims embroiling the tech industry. Charlotte, N.C-based Scientigo owns two patents (No. 5,842,213 and No. 6,393,426) covering the transfer of 'data in neutral forms.' These patents, one of which was applied for in 1997, are infringed upon by the data-formatting standard XML, Scientigo executives assert."

[Slashdot:]

Palm Zire 72 camera review

Mon, 22 Aug 2005 19:57:02 GMT

Here's a picture from the camera on my new Palm Zire 72. What I like about the camera:

I can capture pictures when I need to (sort of).

I can moblog (sort of).

I can take short videos (sort of).

I say "sort of" on the above items because the quality is not so great. What I don't like about the camera:

Taking pictures is slow. You have to be very steady with the camera and wait several seconds for a shot to "take." If your hand isn't totally steady, your pictures blur easily

Low light situations cause poor picture quality. The camera doesn't have a light or a flash, so taking a picture inside can be difficult.

Sunlight washes out pictures taken outside. Yeah, that cuts down on your optimal picture taking conditions, doesn't it?

It's a feature I was convinced I had to have. It was either the Palm Zire 72 with a camera and no WiFi or a HP RX3115 Mobile Media Companion with WiFi and no camera. Now, I think I might have opted for the WiFi instead with all other things being equal (which they never are). With WiFi, you can sync wirelessly over the network, surf the Web, and check email. The Palm Zire 72 only has Bluetooth. You can sync over Bluetooth, but I haven't tried it yet because my desktop doesn't have it. The problem that I see is the physical range that is required with Bluetooth. I don't have the specs, but Bluetooth is definitely more localized than 802.11b. My computer is in the basement, and I like the idea of charging and syncing without ever going down there. Oh well, that's opportunity cost, right?

Wed, 03 Aug 2005 13:28:44 GMT

Andrew W. Mathis. "It is bad luck to be superstitious." [Quotes of the Day]

Wed, 03 Aug 2005 13:28:24 GMT

Samuel Johnson. "What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure." [Quotes of the Day]

Blogs4God is moving to Drupal/CivicSpace

Wed, 03 Aug 2005 13:09:02 GMT

Moving to CivicSpace. Between moving to a new state, a new job and a new house (you're darn right my legs are stiff), I've also been toying with new software to support the blogs4God do-over. Part of the problem is where I wanted... [blogs4God - WWJB?] Cool! After all I am a Drupal man. I just hope the "cool" icons don't disappear from the blog lists. I earned mine fair and square, and I don't want to lose it. :-)

Why Blog? Because Neil Cox Says So!

Wed, 01 Jun 2005 21:27:52 GMT

I like Neil Cox's content. I don't read enough of it, though, so I'm going to highlight some of my catching up here. Let me start off by saying that this is probably going to sound like I'm kissing up. Whatever--think what you want. In preparing for a presentation on a Drupal community website implementation for a ministry in Columbus, Ohio, I wanted to find material that would reinforce my recommendation that the participants start blogging. Blogging is great stuff, but explaining why to the uninitiated can be a challenge. After all, you don't want it to sound lame, right? To gather ammunition for my persuasion, I searched Google for the phrase "Why Blog." I found a few good hits, and I'll probably go back for more goodies. Ironically, though, I found Neil's "Why Blog" through other means. I was exploring the site, again in preparation for the presenation. I use his site as an example of a weblog that is relevant to ministry. It's obvious from the themes on his website that Neil enjoys making change happen. If nothing else, the names "Got Change?" and "Loving Change" should make that obvious. I can tell that he's making a splash in Indy, spreading hi-tech to ministries that need it very much. Next, Why Feed RSS to the Aggregators makes compelling arguments for why people should use RSS. He personifies news aggregators as the modern "secretary" (very funny, LOL):

Secretaries used to run the world. We all know that, right? ... But then came the information age, economies tightened, and we lost our secretaries. ... Our organizations failed. Global competition overtook us. Enron had to take shortcuts. Gas prices went up. Our dog ran off. Maybe our wife. Life was chaos without our secretaries. Well, baby... SECRETARIES ARE BACK! And they have voracious appetites for digesting & prioritizing information. In fact, now we've gone beyond calling them secretaries or executive admins, we now call them 'aggregators'.

Unfortunately, (and I know this is a stereotype), my aggregator doesn't take dictation or make coffee. :-) I haven't gotten to meet Neil in person yet. I hope to someday soon. We met through this wonderful medium we call the Internet, and he introduced me to someone who has become a dear friend and colleague, Jeff Koenig. Jeff K. was working just seven miles from where I live, and I would have never met him if not for Neil. God works in very cool ways.

RSS and Atom--There Is a Difference

Mon, 30 May 2005 21:43:34 GMT

I tried to leave this comment on the Loving Change weblog, but it doesn't allow anonymous comments, and I wasn't about to sign up for Blogger just to leave a comment. So here's what I would have written to my friend Neil Cox of IndyChristian.com from Indianapolis about RSS on his weblog:

Neil, Your weblog does not support RSS. It only supports Atom. Unfortunately, there is indeed a difference. I run a website for Paul Hoy of Halftime in Columbus. We use Drupal as the site platform. Drupal produces and consumes RSS, but it does not yet consume Atom. I was bummed, because I wanted to include your site in the feeds that I syndicate to the Halftime team. Your icons ( and ) say RSS, but the feed on your weblog is an Atom feed. And, sadly for both of us, there is a difference. Your friend, Jeff

Neil, if you read this, I'm not trying to be critical. I wish Blogger would provide RSS 2.0, but they decided not to. "Them's the breaks," I guess. For anyone interested, try searching Google for the "RSS Atom difference."

Mon, 16 May 2005 19:10:36 GMT

Dan Gillmor moves to Drupal: Bayosphere.

Dan Gillmor is a prominent journalist, author and commentator on technology in the San Francisco Bay Area (Silicon Valley), known for his technology articles in the San Jose Mercury. He recently left the San Jose Mercury to start a "grassroots journalism project", and it is finally here: it is called the Bayosphere and is powered by Drupal. Jay Campbell, Dan's Technologist, writes about why they chose Drupal.

[drupal.org - Community plumbing]

Exchange of Words

Fri, 25 Feb 2005 03:29:54 GMT

Paul Hoy and I had an "exchange of words" today. While you might think of this phrase as meaning an argument, we instead had a literal exchange of words. We traded new words. I told him about my word, techumenical, as in an a technical ecumenical movement that brings technologists together to build God's kingdom, crossing denominational boundaries to work on shared projects. I wrote about this word in my article on Evangelistic Serendipity. He told me about a new word that a friend of his, Ford Taylor, created: biznistry. Biznistry is a combination of business and ministry where professionals use their everyday job skills to serve others in a ministry capacity.

Sweet! RSS Calendar

Thu, 24 Feb 2005 20:27:25 GMT

Check it out: www.rsscalendar.com Set up your calendar as an RSS feed.

BlogWiki

Thu, 24 Feb 2005 19:13:48 GMT

Richard Hall over at connexions has started BlogWiki, a wiki about, what else, blogging. There are some interesting tidbits in the works, but much more can be done. Let's help out and contribute to the effort. I've already edited a page, DesktopBloggingClients. Here's a thought, how about some external links to the software mentioned on the wiki? I like his comment:

This wiki has been set up to enable bloggers to share information and advice and provide a forum for the discussion of blogging issues. Of course, this already goes on in blogs themselves, but it's in the nature of a blog that discussions quickly "drop out of sight". On a wiki this doesn't happen.

(emphasis mine) On wikis, the discussion is maintained in the "Perpetual Now" where a conversation is fluid, evolving, and represents the current state of affairs.

A Christian Wiki

Thu, 24 Feb 2005 18:41:52 GMT

Evidently, there is a Christian wiki called Compass. I'm a technologist, so my first thought was that the wiki being referenced was a wiki software implementation. So I wondered, how can you make wiki software Christian? On the same note, how would you make a spreadsheet or a word processor Christian? I suppose you could integrate a Bible verse lookup or include Christian clip art, but other than that, there's not much you can do with it to brand it in a religious manner. But, contrary to my initial impression, Compass is a wiki "document" containing introductions to the Christian faith. I hope that this will remain a civil exercise rather than descending into the pits of unwinnable dogma wars. I believe in absolute truth, but not everybody believes in the same absolute truth that I do. So a wiki could be very useful for interaction, but it could also be very controversial and divisive if the right people show up. Like I said, I hope that things remain civil and constructive in Compass over at connexions. Good show, man, good show! Bravo!

Fight Spam with a Spider Trap

Mon, 31 Jan 2005 21:12:59 GMT

Fight Spam! Click Here! Here's more information on Spider Traps.

Cool Upcoming.org features

Mon, 17 Jan 2005 01:54:44 GMT

Upcoming.org has some interesting features:

US "Metros"--cities with events

Upcoming.org's limiting policy

Mon, 17 Jan 2005 01:38:04 GMT

Upcoming.org has some interesting features, but by its own words, its use is limited:

Upcoming.org is not for self-promotion, either by a single organization (e.g. a political candidate, artist, or band) or a single venue.

Also, Upcoming.org is not for personal events (e.g. birthday parties, weddings, Little League games). If your event isn't of interest to the public, please don't add it.

I would love to use functionality like that of Upcoming.org for syndication of themed events, but its policy prohibits that. And, as far as I know, its functionality is not available in other forms. Well, its feature set is compelling and worth imitating for a calendar syndication application.

Response to OpenEvents

Mon, 17 Jan 2005 01:19:52 GMT

I know I'm following an old, cold trail, but here are some comments I found on the OpenEvents [standard?]

I have never heard of it, seen it in action, or seen any kind of spec on what it is or what you think it should be.

[Christopher Schmidt]

Anything to solve the current calendaring hell. I'm all for the "conversations" that blogs are enabling, but at the end of the day, sometimes I just want to meet people face-to-face. It's a higher bandwidth form of communication, plain and simple. We definitely need something akin to web RSS syndication for events (whatever happened to RDF calendaring?) - assembling centralized event sites make no sense.

[Brendon J. Wilson] Hmmm...centralized event sites? Well, they have their place, as long as they are well-themed and focused. But I think Brendan would agree that we should have lots of them--select the ones we want. My goal is to have a centralized event site that offers a standardized client or clients. I want Outlook integration, web accessibility, and extensibility. Is this possible?

ESF - the Nonexistent Format?

Tue, 11 Jan 2005 02:06:06 GMT

ESF seems to have fallen off the radar. Or has it? The real question is, has it been adopted? And the next question is, what ESF clients/tools exist? There was some discussion by Jeff Julian and John Bristowe of a NewsGator extension, but it seems to be MIA. Then there is another XML format of unknown weight--the RDF Schedule format. My goal is to integrate syndicated event information into Microsoft Outlook. Is there an existing way to do this? There is the vCal format for sharing appointments, and its cousin, iCal. But these solutions all involve a multi-step pull operation via email. This is where RSS excels. You don't have to sign up on an email list. No spam! ESF gets a few hits on Google (around 67,000 as of today). I still need to research more to find tools for ESF. But if ESF is as obscure as some reports, maybe ESF is not right for the job. Is anybody still working on it? Here are the sponsors of the standard:

We'll see. I left a comment on John's blog with a question about the status of the briefly-celebrated NewsGator extension. I first got excited about it when I saw Jeff Julian present it in Columbus, Ohio at an INETA user group meeting. It had me drueling! Well, maybe not drueling, but certainly excited. Update: Jeff Julian says this is the "Year of the Event." He points to an updated ESF/ESS spec. The other competitor for event syndication is the OpenEvent specification.