Lemonz Dream Blog

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

[via Wired Campus Blog and Podcast Free America]

In the spirit of the show Iron Chef, some mac developers have joined together for the first ever Iron Coder contest. Developers are given 24 hours to come up with something cool given an API and a theme. The API for the first contest was Accessibility and the theme was Mardi Gras.

Here are our entries (with source code!):

Jump to Iron Coder

UPDATE: You can get all of the entries here.

UPDATE 2: Lucas Eckels got the honor of being the first ever Iron Coder with his entry Symphony. Congratulations Lucas. On a completely separate note, Steve Harris of Reinvented Software and Feeder fame has created a mash-up of our submissions titled GrassyKnoll. You can now shoot beads at passing windows. Grab the mash-up here for some good laughs!

Technorati Tags: ironcoder

Macworld posted a review of Podcast Maker as a Mac Gem less than 12 hours ago.

Best thing is that they gave us a full 5 out of 5 mice rating. This is only the second time Podcast Maker has been reviewed in a major Mac news outlet and I’m proud to say that both times we got perfect scores.

I would write more on this, but I am very tired. We just released Podcast Maker v1.2 after an intense session to get all the bugs out.

Meet your Maker—Macworld review of Podcast Maker

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

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 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 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!

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

If you make enhanced podcasts, you might want to post a list of chapters in a webpage or a blog. Some of you might already be doing this by hand.

Follow these steps to do this in Podcast Maker the Potion Factory way:

1. Select all chapters (Command-A).
2. Copy (Command-C).
3. Paste into a text editor (Command-V).

What you will get is an html table with the timecode, chapter title, and link of your chapters. Delish!

This is the first hint of the day, because I think it really demonstrates how we do things around here. Magical simplicity is a luxury we strive hard to provide you. That is actually the whole concept behind Potion Factory.

Some of you have started to ask already what’s going to happen to Podcast Maker now that iLife ‘06 supports podcasting. The short answer is nothing. We will continue to improve Podcast Maker. It’s our baby and we want it to grow to be even faster, stronger, and sexier. If you want the long answer, read on.

I met Steve Jobs once in a previous life. This was back around the turn of the century. I wasn’t a Mac fanatic back then but a graphic designer wannabe/programmer who switched between Linux, BeOS, Windows and every other OS under the Sun every couple of months. I was continuously looking for the One True System back then. I attended a Seybold conference and it just happened that Mr. Jobs was giving the keynote. I think it was the year when he claimed that G4 processors running at 500 MHz were supercomputers. It’s funny if you think of it now, but he almost had me convinced. The force was strong with him back then too. In any case, after the keynote, I stepped out to the show floor to play with all the new goodies just announced and I spotted Mr. Jobs casually strolling by to gauge the crowd’s reactions. If he tried that today he’ll probably cause a stampede of the kind you get when you sell iBooks at fi’ty dollars a piece, but back then he wasn’t as much a celebrity.

I was more courageous than usual since I had some friends there with me. So I got my nerves together and barked at him a simple question in a very accusatory tone. It was a question about the number one thing that bugged me the most about the Mac.

“Why does the Mac still come with a single button mouse in this day and age?”

I thought he would laugh at me first then call me stupid. It seemed like the sort of the thing he would do because you hear so many stories about him. But he didn’t. He was very nice and gave me a minute of his time and a sincere answer. I don’t remember exactly what he said but basically he said that Apple wanted to keep it easy for the people who use computers for the first time: mostly kids and grandmas. I was unsatisfied with that answer back then because it seemed like the entire focus at Apple was building computers for newbs and/or idiots who can’t understand the concept of the right button. Thus, I ended up switching half a decade later even though I was plenty interested back then.

Speaking of the one button mouse, now that I have switched, I can see that it’s a double edged sword. On the one hand, you force application designers to make simple and elegant apps because they are restricted to only a single action input. But on the other hand, you sacrifice a lot of usability. The one button mouse is extremely learnable, but is not nearly as usable as a more featured mouse. Once a person learns what a scrollwheel and the right button do the whole system is a lot more usable. Throw in two more buttons for back and forward on your web browser and you see what I mean. A person who learns the one button mouse will learn how to use it very fast. But, when you show her the multi-button mouse with the scrollwheel she will never be able to go back to the one button mouse, ever again. Try taking it away; they will clutch it to their hearts with all their might.

So what does this have anything to do with Podcast Maker and iLife ‘06?

Well, you see, iWeb is like the one button mouse. iWeb is very limited. Just like the one button mouse, you are going to want to replace it with something better as soon as you get iLife ‘06 unless you are the most basic of basic podcasters.

GarageBand 3 on the other hand, is wonderful. I recommend it to any podcaster. If you podcast and you don’t have a Mac, go get a Mac because GarageBand comes bundled. But just know that GarageBand will never do everything that Podcast Maker does and Podcast Maker will never do everything GarageBand does either. They were designed for different purposes. Actually, GarageBand, married with Podcast Maker, is the perfect one two punch podcasting solution. Do your audio recording and editing in GarageBand and then bring it into Podcast Maker to have the RSS feed and ID3 tags and everything else done and uploaded. Similarly, if you vlog, make your video in iMovie and publish it using Podcast Maker.

There are many issues with iWeb, being a 1.0 product not the least of which as reported here. With GarageBand and iWeb alone, you are going to encode your podcast in AAC format and publish it to your .Mac account in a blog format. Not only do you need a .Mac account, but your audience will need to have iTunes and iPods. Of course there’s room to deviate from this standard scenario, but, it will be painful.

With Podcast Maker you can publish to any server that supports FTP or SFTP. Even if you want to publish to .Mac it’s a good idea to use Podcast Maker because you will yearn for the advanced features as you podcast more and more. You can do MP3s just as easily as AACs in Podcast Maker. With Podcast Maker you won’t have to figure out which files you need to upload to your server because it’s all managed for you. It’s just drag and drop. In iWeb, because all the exported files are named like machine code and spewed around everywhere, you are going to have a tough time trying to figure out what’s what and what needs uploading. Do you want to drop in the same album art image episode after episode in iTunes or GarageBand? You don’t have to with Podcast Maker. Do you want some of your files to be on one server while some are on another? Podcast Maker makes that seamless too. Do you need separated feeds for your mp3, enhanced podcast, and video? Do you need detailed statistics so that you can prove to businesses when your podcast becomes popular that it is worth advertising there?

Above all else, iWeb, as the name implies, is a webpage authoring application. Podcasting is just one of the tricks it can do. Podcast Maker on the other hand, is built to only do podcasting. It’s designed to save time for the podcaster. Lots of time.

In the end, I think you should get iLife ‘06 because Apple did such a fantastic job with GarageBand and iMovie to support the podcasting community. However, when you are done checking out iWeb, try Podcast Maker.

And as I said at the beginning, we will continue to make Podcast Maker better. iWeb, on the other hand, you will have to wait until 2007 for any major improvements.

If you are not tired of me already, check out episode 3 of Pom Pom Pom Pom. We discuss Macworld SF ‘06 and its impacts.

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