podbat: tradesushi
a sometimes intellectual, sometimes goofy podcast from kosso - and random guests via skype... coming eventually...
- Last build:
- Fri, 23 Dec 2005 03:13:21 GMT
- Language:
- en-gb
- Feed URL:
- http://blog.podbat.com/categories/tradesushi/rss.xml
RSS FEED IDEMS: podbat: tradesushi
- IT'S ELEMENTARY, MY DEAR GOOGLE
XML FOR DUMMIES?
Now, someone please correct me if I'm wrong here, but I was just reading the instructions on the Google Base Bulk Upload section and took a great interest in finding about doing bulk uploads with RSS via ftp. I've been thinking about scripting bulk uploads from dynamically-aggregated user-generated content (phew!) from any source, using PHP on my servers. But I've spotted a schoolboy error (I think!).
Here are their specs for using RSS2.0 and extending it with extra 'stuff'...
It says:Can you spot the mistake?!
Section 1: Extending RSS 2.0
Below is an example of a basic single-entry RSS 2.0 document. Based on the RSS 2.0 specification there are three recommended attributes at item level – title, description, and link.
And then goes on list the customisation you can do around RSS 2.0
They even missed the clue in their own Google Base Schema! I left a clue for you in the title ;) The error runs throughout their docs there. Is this wrong? Am I wrong? Is Google wrong?
Remarkable!
Thu, 17 Nov 2005 22:21:01 GMT - YAHOOBAT!?? DAMMIT
Dammit. I knew this would happen! One of the internet bigcos have confirmed that they will be building podcasting creation tools and a publishing/hosting system. Thanks Yahoo! :(
Damn. Damn. Damn. And Blast. I spent nearly a year working in my spare time - a few hours in the evening, when I could, to create my dream of easy podcasting tools. See the screencast here.
I've spoken with lots of people about it, but these things have not led to enough. This has ALOT to do with my place of work. You really can't do alot outside your normal job, if your normal job IS TO CREATE publishing tools for people to create national news stories in video and audio.
If I could have spent my working weeks, the normal working hours on this, I believe I would have had the first system for this. Damn Damn Damn. And people wonder why I get disheartened at times.
Now I hear rumours that Google are going to do the same. Damn x 10.
What hope is there for the single lonely developer to get thngs done in time? What am I supposed to do? Sell up vapourware in an attempt to raise the money to leave my job and build the tools I really want, full time? ie: Don't waste my time actually building stuff?
I feel really sorry for 'the Dave's' at Libsyn, as they have worked hard on their system and are being killed by recent drops on hosting plans from other companies. But I know they have a backup plan ;) - I even started buidling a libsyn podbat for them. It works.
There are still opportunities out there. Seizing them is damn hard work to keep up on your own. So maybe that's what needs to change. We need systems which can loosely knit ALL of them and us together.
Tue, 15 Nov 2005 12:20:55 GMT - CALLING ALL OPML DIRECTORY NODE MANAGERS
ATTENTION: OPML NODE MANAGERS OF EARTH!
This is a public service announcement: could all OPML lists that you maintain make sure that any entries you have that point to an RSS feed have the type=''rss'' attribute.
Without this attribute being used correctly, the functionality of the directories themselves will suffer. I find many erroneous entries in the indiepodder directory which many of us 'feed' from.
And we don't want that do we? We want to make everything BETTER! :)
UPDATE FOR OPML EDITOR USERS:
For full instructions on how to make your OPML Editor help you manage the type attribute, please open this OPML file in your OPML Editor, where you will find instructions and the required code.
Please see the OPML guidelines here.
http://hosting.opml.org/kosso/how_to_manage_type_attributes.opml
FYI: I am building an OPML list and RSS browser here.;)
Fri, 11 Nov 2005 15:39:21 GMT - PODCASTING HITS PRIMETIME
A whole round of Jeopardy featured PODCASTING as it's subject recently. And to top that Adam Curry gets his mention - "no joke"! ;)
Best of luck to everyone who's showing at the Portable Media Expo! Make sure you record some good stuff for us back here! ;)
Fri, 11 Nov 2005 15:07:59 GMT - A NEW 'MEME ENGINE'?
Kevin Burton asks for a new name for 'meme engines' such as Memeorandum, Blogniscient and his own TailRank.
Here's mine: *drum roll*
The Magnificent ATTENGINE!!*crown goes wild*
measuring our collective ATTENTROPY from a GLODAL perspective.
I also had something to say about this on my OPML blog the other day.
Wed, 09 Nov 2005 01:48:53 GMT - BBC NEWS VIDEO RSS
BBC News now has RSS feeds for their News AV Console. Cool! I've been after this for a while. Hopefully soon, they'll have a feed for developers at BBC Backstage to play with, so they can create their own media player consoles and aggregators. ;)
Here's a story about it.
Here's a link to an OPML file with them all in.
I also added them to an OPML browser/aggregator/player I am building to integrate with the podbat. [Hey, I just added a basic Yahoo! map - it took all of about 30 seconds to do it :) cool!]
Fri, 04 Nov 2005 12:52:16 GMT - A SIMPLE EQUATION : P.R.O.F=I.T
Maybe I should make the PHP+RSS+OPML+FLASH to the power of Kosso. :)
P.R.O.F.= I.T : where I.T = Intellectual Technology. Geddit?
Sites shown: Bluggcaster, Kossopml0.1, Podbat, PodbatMini, GadaBe Demo, TechCrunch Demo
Sources: Gada.be - The great new 'MetaSearch' system from Chris Pirillo! : TechCrunch - Tracking Web2.0
With thanks to Dave Winer and his OPML Editor.
Tue, 11 Oct 2005 16:24:23 GMT - kossOPML PROVIDES INCLUSION
Roll up, Roll up! Come and see the all new 'kossopml' OPML browser!
Now with added INCLUSION : See here for more details.
Readers who are familiar with directories like indiepodder.org (used to be ipodder.org) with have experienced 'inclusion' while drilling through their podcast directory structure. That is, each category level, as it loads into its parent category 'node', is actually sourced from another host to indiepodder.org (a totally different website). But it 'feels' like it's all part of the same 'tree'. That's inclusion.
This makes it alot easier to manage large hierarchical directories of information, allowing delegation of category management to anyone with internet access and tools to manage their OPML feed.
In our increasingly taxonomic (and folksonomic) world of data, this is a good thing.
Tue, 11 Oct 2005 14:54:43 GMT - THE STATE WE'RE IN
Just a short rant: cast your mind back to the seventies. Particularly the TV gameshow. Here we are 30 years on, and what's on? Semi-famous d list celebrities, SPELLING. Great.
Jeez. I give up.
Don't get me started on so-called reality TV.
It's all a complete waste of time, as is this blog. Radio keeps crapping out on me and not publishing correctly. It has become annoying and crashes regularly.
The OPML editor is better in that way, but I can't use that to publish to my own space: also annoying.
Podbat development is stalled at present: due to one reason and another. One being sheer exhaustion. Another being lack of interest from all but a couple of people. Now, don't get me wrong, those two people or so, are highly valued by me, but I need to think about how best to spend my time now.
I will get there in the end. Wherever 'there' is.
I need a better host too. Does anyone know of any good ones? Are ARE you one? Drop me a line, as I have a business proposal for you. ;)
Mon, 10 Oct 2005 19:22:14 GMT - A conversation starter?
PodbatMini
Hmm.. could this start a conversation? The toy over on the right will send an mp3 file smaller than 2mb to my server (but I obviously can't do that forever!) at http://lab.podbat.com and add it to an RSS feed. Lots more things to add, as this could also be part of A podbat system bringing on all sorts of things like tags, a memebership layer etc. It's a bit like podbat 'lite'. It can't do the ID3 tagging, and can't record (without Flash Media Server).
These tools are the building blocks to communities, channels, feeds, offers, nuggets, info, news and all sorts. It's time to get all this stuff knitted together - loosely ;)
Wed, 05 Oct 2005 00:19:58 GMT - PODBAT LAB EXPERIMENT
This is a tool to create a podcast, which you will find here at http://lab.podbat.com
It's quite possible you've never seen anything like this before... ;)
Hit the 'I WANT TO CONTRIBUTE' button to have a go. You'll need to get your hands on an MP3 file smaller than 2Mb. Then just follow the SIMPLE instructions.
I could create a membership / registration / login layer on top of this, which is effectively phase 2 podbat. This test interface uses Flash functionality only found in version 8 of the Flash player. Neat huh?
Sun, 02 Oct 2005 14:54:07 GMT - Preeesenting The Podbat Alpha SCREENCAST!
Finally after months of preparation, I give you... a demo in the form of a 20 minute screencast!! Now, don't say I never give you anything ;) Heh. Sit back. Watch. Enjoy? ;) - hope so!!
Wed, 21 Sep 2005 04:30:40 GMT - PODBAT ALPHA 0.0.2
Calling all alpha testers of the podbat alpha.
There's an update for you in the download area. This update fixes a
couple of niggles and burps that a few of you have mentioned.
I plan on doing a full 'screencast' demo tonight for everyone to see. It might help explain a few things further.
I had a few connectivity and unrelated server issues over the weekend, and didn't get a chance to fully demo the podbat at PodcastconUK (though a few people were craning their necks behind me, as I played with it during the conference ;) )
PodcastconUK was a great day. Good to put faces to voices (Nicole Simon : Useful Sounds, Mark Hunter : TartanPodcast, Chris Skinner : Simulacrum) and make new friends and feeds (Simon Toon: Slamidol Podcast, Hugo Schotman) and Lloyd Davis from Perfect Path (who has put up a movie of the day)
Well done to all involved in the organisation: Paul, Alex and Neil and the Britcasters. Finished up the day with more drinks and Chinese nosh up in ChinaTown. Hopefully 'official' podcasts of the day will appear soon, as there were some really interesting presentations. I particularly reccommend Podcast (Lawyer) Paul's presentation on the legal ins, outs, ups and downs of podcasting and the content we might put in them. All that and a 'live' Richard Vobes Radio Show and a 'live' Simulacrum. Surely future earners! :)
Cheers!
Mon, 19 Sep 2005 20:52:38 GMT - PODBAT ALPHA RELEASE!
If you signed up for the alpha test, you've got mail! :) Waaahhhooo!!! (and eeeek!)
Now it's way past my bedtime and we have PodcastConUK to go to tomorrow/later! I can't see me getting much sleep though, this is all a bit exciting! Depending on initial issues with the alpha testers etc I will a link up to the download page very soon. ;P
Time for a nightcap first though, I think. ;) Cheers!
Sat, 17 Sep 2005 05:35:27 GMT - POSTELIA
Dave Winer posted an interesting story today on a fictional continent called 'Postelia'. I have no idea why it should be called Postelia, but I think I get what he's saying. :) Or at least, here's my take on this little parable.
I think it is totally analogous to software support, or knowledge garnering and the like. I think it's about people who ask for help, when they should know there are other, more fruitful ways of finding out the solution. I'll hold my hand up and say I'm guilty of it, but only when I'm either pressed for time or resources are thin. There needs to be a fastrack to a solution sometimes. ;)
When I started thinking about building the podbat, I knew I could do it. I knew I could learn the things I needed to know to build it. I have learned so much in this process. New coding skills, as well as new conventions. Google, forums, groups etc, all have played a part in this learning process, as I have had to ask many questions and find the anwsers for myself. Believe it of not, I actually LOVE this process! [I've spent my whole career in this place] Self-learning from global resources in a global community gives me a real kick. You can find out ANYTHING you need to know. (You might even find out things you didn't want to know! ;) )
During this journey of discovery I come across many people on a similar path, or have been to the same place I have been, and I can tell, because of their 'skill trinkets' hanging around their neck. They might see a trinket of mine that they want and ask me how I got it. So I tell them. It's nice. No reason not to. (I've done alot of support in places I have worked too) But I do like them to go through the same path of discovery that I took. Giving the straight answer isn't always the best move, because if they are asked by someone else where they got their trinket, they might not have the right directions, or they might miss something fundamental. It could get messy.
Hands on experience and really doing something for your self and learning in the process is so incredibly rewarding. Doing it any other way might be considered 'cheating'. Getting someone else to find out for you proves you don't really care (that much).
Now, has anyone seen my wallet? ;p
Fri, 16 Sep 2005 17:16:14 GMT
