TIME TO SUBMIT YOUR PODCAST SEGMENTS FOR THE NEXT PODCAST

[mouser]

the next podcast is to go out this sunday.. so you only have 5 days left to submit something.
more info: http://www.podcast.donationcoder.com

let's go people!

[housetier]

ayayay! And I don't have a THING to wear say! 

lets see how much groklaw history I can pack in five minutes...

[Deozaan]

The topic is our favorite program, right? I have lots of favorite programs depending on what I use them for.

For instance, The Elderscrolls IV: Oblivion has been one of my favorites lately. 

But I also like lots of others for other purposes. I guess I'll try to summarize a few of my most used progams. I'll try to submit the file by Friday at the latest.

[zridling]

Am I the only one who hates the sound of his own voice? jeez, I sound like a dufus.

[Wordzilla]

Is it possible that we adopt the OGG format for our podcasts instead of MP3?

MP3 is rather old tech and it's proprietary. 

[Josh]

proprietary? How so? Ogg would require users to install a 3rd party codec when you can play mp3's out of the box in just about any media player on the market.

[mouser]

i could make an ogg version available in ADDITION to the mp3 version if desired.

[Wordzilla]

proprietary? How so?

-Josh (July 12, 2006, 07:42 AM)

yes, MP3's always been proprietary. 

From Wikipedia

Thomson Consumer Electronics controls licensing of the MPEG-1/2 Layer 3 patents in countries that recognize software patents, including the United States and Japan, but not EU countries. Thomson has been actively enforcing these patents. Thomson has been granted software patents in EU countries and by the European Patent Office [1], but it is unclear whether or not they would be enforced by courts there. See Software patents under the European Patent Convention.

For current information about Thomson's patent portfolio and licensing terms and fees see their website mp3licensing.com.

Ogg would require users to install a 3rd party codec when you can play mp3's out of the box in just about any media player on the market

-Josh (July 12, 2006, 07:42 AM)

There are many free OGG players out on the web and also, OGG is natively supported by many well-known music players. 

Check these links out:

Mobile players known to support Ogg Vorbis
http://wiki.xiph.org/index.php/PortablePlayers

3rd Party Software known to support Ogg
http://www.vorbis.com/software/


Just for your information, Ogg is the official audio/video container format for Wikipedia, Wikinews et al.

Yeah it's true that MP3s are ubiquitous and you can play it out of the box, however it's still proprietary. And it's not good. 

[Carol Haynes]

Trouble is a lot of podcast client software (such as iTunes) only support MP3.

[Josh]

Another good point Carol. I would be in support of adding an ADDITIONAL stream in ogg, but moving it strictly to ogg would alienate alot of users who might not know about ogg, or might not want to use ogg. MP3 is the mainstream format, and is supported by every player, proprietary or not, and it works well.

[Wordzilla]

Another good point Carol. I would be in support of adding an ADDITIONAL stream in ogg, but moving it strictly to ogg would alienate alot of users who might not know about ogg, or might not want to use ogg. MP3 is the mainstream format, and is supported by every player, proprietary or not, and it works well.

-Josh (July 12, 2006, 08:14 AM)

couldn't agree more.

[nudone]

Am I the only one who hates the sound of his own voice? jeez, I sound like a dufus.

-zridling (July 12, 2006, 05:14 AM)

no, i hate the sound of your voice too, Zaine...

... you know i'm joking (i hope).

but seriously, i've yet to meet anyone that didn't believe their own voice sounded odd - well, on this subject most people think their voice isn't just odd but quite awful. if i heard someone say that they actually liked the sound of their own voice i'd consider them a certified egomaniac.

maybe it's just something we all have to get used to - after a while i would hope that ones own voice stops sounding so alien, or perhaps, because you'll always hear your own voice resonating through your skull more times than you'll hear it through a speaker system you'll always think it sounds strange.

this is not to say that some people do have horrible voices - my mother's voice sounds like an out of tune shriek - and now she has lost a tooth at the front of her jaw she makes a disturbing air sucking sound too.

it drives me insane.

i may be disrespectful but it's all true.

[zridling]

I think it's my voice that's been holding me back in life. But others say it's my laziness, procrastination, bad attitude, and weirdness.

No, I think it's the voice. Or maybe they resent my beautiful nails.

[JavaJones]

lol. Yeah, I've heard even voice actors say they think their voice sounds weird or bad.

So, yes MP3 is "proprietary", but what is the real, practical advantage to going with OGG? Will there be any *actual* positive impact besides the principle of the thing? I mean are you saying that if enough podcasters got together and switched to OGG then it would become the standard? Maybe. Fat chance getting that to happen until one of the big corps supports it though (Apple or MS basically). And until then going OGG-only would basically just be "cutting off your nose to spite your face". And if you just do OGG in addition, what's the real benefit? It's all in principle it seems to me. No real practical impact as far as I'm concerned.

- Oshyan

[Deozaan]

Sorry I didn't submit anything. :-(

I can't even listen to the latest podcast because the school computers won't let me download anything! I understand (but still despise) not being able to download .exe and .zip files, but .mp3? That's ridiculous.

So far the only thing I've found I can download are Office documents (including PDF) and images.

I might have to take a trip to the city's public library and try my luck there.

And as for people not liking the sound of their voice recorded? I don't know anyone who does. I've worked in a call center where the calls are recorded for QA and everyone has to review a few of their calls each month with their manager and it took me a few months there before I got used to the awful sound of my own voice recorded. I never liked it, but I got used to it eventually, at least in that setting. I still cringe at my own voice when it is recorded for anything else.

I have a question about the filesize of the podcast. It says that this month's podcast is 18 minutes and 20MB. Last months podcast was 40+ minutes and is 20MB. . . How is this possible?

As for switching to OGG, there is a great benefit to the people who distribute music: If they distribute music in MP3 format, they have to pay licensing or royalties or some kind of fee to use the format. Since OGG is open source format, it is free. I have heard that it has a better quality/filesize ratio but I can't personally testify to that. If portable electronic equipment would support OGG, then I would have no problem switching to that format. Unfortunately at this time, OGG is not widely supported away from a PC (to my knowledge) and that leaves MP3 as the next best thing, since it can be played almost anywhere and while it is proprietary it doesn't necessarily have the DMR to prevent it from playing anywhere else.


In other news, I start a new job in a few weeks so maybe I'll get the internet at home again at that time. !yAy!

[mouser]

congrats on your new job!

i had a lot of trouble with the podcast this month - one of the segments resisted all efforts on my part to get it down to a low (48 or 64) kbs bitrate.  it was painfull.  so i eventually had to save it purely as 96kbs, that's why it's bigger.

i have recognized that this will be my last podcast production - i have to pass the torch to someone who has some audio radio show production blood in their veins..

now we just have to find someone with those skills..

the job is a bit of work. it involves:
1) reminding and soliciting people to send in segments (hard!)
2) selecting and cutting down clips to proper length
3) editing them together and recording intros between the segments
4) mixing in a bit of music
5) doing any processing to try to get volumes matched and reduce noise
6) rendering it as a full mp3