Hello again Safari

It must be middle age, but my tryst with FireFox was only a brief affair. And while I can't say I have any regrets, I'm very happy to be back in the metaphorical arms of my first love, Safari.

The number one reason? Speed. Safari is simply the fastest browser for Mac that I've tried. FireFox doesn't even come close. Sure, FF has all those extensions, but I don't use that stuff. And Safari is just prettier than FireFox. Again, the latter has extensions, but for deep-down, natural UI loveliness, Safari is my gal.

OK, I'll stop with the hokey metaphor... One thing that the brief switch did do, however, was to make NetNewsWire a permanent fixture in my computing experience. I was using Safari's RSS reader, but after trying out NNW for a few weeks, I can't go back. With NNW, it's so easy to sift through hundreds of feeds for the few readable nuggets. In fact, NNW is almost a browser itself, and surely browsers of the future will have to include a NNW-like interface.

The new Flock browser, just released in beta, also implements RSS, and while it does a better job than Safari, it has a ways to go before it achieves NNW's usefulness. But Flock has the right idea, I think, which is to start incorporating Web 2.0 features such as Flickr and blogging into the browser. I have yet to try out the blogging feature, but again, it appears to be a step in the right direction. (BTW, if anyone can tell me how to put folders into Flock's bookmarks toolbar, I'd be grateful. There must be a way to do this, but I can't for the life of me figure it out.)

Oddly enough, the reason that motivated my short-lasted defection to FireFox-- Quicksilver's Google Calendar module--turned out to be a bit of a bust as far as my workflow is concerned. I didn't use it once, and now that I'm back to Safari, I think it will be more useful to use QS's iCal module instead, which doesn't work quite as well as the Gcal module, but gets the job done.

Technorati Tags: Blogging, Firefox, Flickr, Google Calendar, Flock, NetNewsWire, Quicksliver, Safari

Will Apple release a phone?

One of the early posts on this blog had to do with speculation last year that Apple would release a mobile phone in the near future (check out that older post here). Today, an article in Wired talked about the supposedly necessary convergence of the mobile phone and the mp3 player. One of the points the author made (one that I agreed with, though I don't own a mobile phone) was that if such a marriage is to be successful, it would have to be as easy to use as the iPod is.

Though I don't own a mobile phone, my impression is that most of them have a lot of bells and whistles that most people don't use because they are too complicated. Which is where Apple comes in. But I don't think Steve Jobs and Company will, or should, come out with a simple "iPhone," mostly because the competition has too much of a head start in the field.

But while Apple would normally have trouble getting a toe-hold in the mobile phone business, they have a huge lead in the mp3 player side of things, and I think they could become a major player if the next iPod they release has some sort of mobile functionality too. In other words, this wouldn't be a phone that plays music, it would be an iPod that does mobile. With flash memory getting cheaper and cheaper, I think a 4- or 8-Gb flash-based iPod with telephone (and Bluetooth) functionality would be a big hit. And one of the main draws would be simplicity of design. Much of the work is already done, with contact and calendar info already integrated into the iPod OS. Just add a slip-out numeric keypad, or evolve the click wheel along these lines and you're off to the races. Heck, I would even consider getting one.

Technorati Tags: Apple, iPhone, iPod, mobile telephony, mp3 players

Hello Firefox!

This afternoon, I made a seemingly small decision that had far-reaching repercussions in my computer use.

It all started with an innocuous Quicksilver notification for a new gCal plug-in. I promptly installed it and tested it out. It worked like a charm. Adding an event to gCal via Quicksilver is, like most QS actions, now a matter of a few keystrokes. Great. One problem. I don't really use gCal, mostly because it doesn't play nice with Safari.

So I fired up FireFox and played around a little with gCal (I am of course referring to Google Calendar) and found I quite like it. It's not everything I want in a Calendar, but it's at least as good as iCal.

So I made a decision then and there to try using FireFox as my default browser for a while. There are pros and cons here: I won't need to have two browsers open (previously I had been using FF for a couple of specific sites that don't work well in Safari). On the other hand, I'll need to have a separate RSS feeder open alongside FF, so any CPU usage I'm saving by shutting down Safari I lose by having to run NetNewsWire.

Now all I need is some party invitations that I can add to gCal so I can justify such a grand dérangement.

(Sigh)

Technorati Tags: Firefox, Quicksliver, Safari, Google Calendar

CBC's expanded podcast lineup

As I have mentioned before the CBC's podcast lineup has been woefully inadequate for some time. I say this only slightly tongue-in-cheek, given that podcasting has only really been around for, a couple of years. Given the CBC's chronic underfunding and the fact that most of their resources are going into producing the Stanley Cup Playoff broadcasts these days, I suppose they can be forgiven for not setting the trend. But compared to other public broadcasters, they are definitely dragging their heels.

Well, that has now changed, at least somewhat, with the announcement yesterday that Canada's public broadcaster has expanded its offering to 22 podcasts. They have a series of seven daily podcasts, with a different one updated every day of the week; these include the excellent program Ideas, as well as other more newsy programs such as Dispaches, The Current and As It Happens.

A second series, called "Features" has five podcasts, most of which compile segments of CBC programs around a common theme. For example, the Words at Large podcast features snippets of literary interviews culled from a variety of programs. (Incidentally, I was not that impressed with this particular podcast. The host talked too much, and the interviews were truncated to the extreme. It was more frustrating than anything else. I'll be dropping the producer an e-mail for sure).

A third series has roundups of local news and stories from various regions of Canada.

Overall, I'd say it's a promising start. I'm particularly thrilled that I can now listen to Ideas at my leisure; this podcast will surely be on my weekly must-listen list. Now, if they would only get Writers & Co. for download, I'd be completely satisfied.

Technorati Tags: CBC, Podcasting, Public Broadcasting

Windows users: have your cake and eat it--but in separate rooms

Much ink has been spilled over the last 24 hours about the implications of Boot Camp, but so far, I haven't read a single article that really hits the mark as far as I'm concerned. Read on to find out the real reason Boot Camp is good for Apple, and what I think it will mean over the short and medium terms.

First, when Steve Jobs announced the switch to Intel chips--the first salvo of what is turning out to be a barrage--he mentioned that Apple had been building Intel versions of OS X since the very beginning. Many an eyebrow was raised at this, though it was probably the reason behind the long-standing and persistant rumours of the Intel switch. Jobs' purported explanation for the move to Intel was that the Power PC chip was no longer meeting the company's expectations and that Intel's chips provided a better roadmap toward the future. And while there is undoubtedly some truth to this, the real reason for OS X's "secret double life" is now beginning to emerge with the release of Boot Camp and the announcement that this functionality will be integrated into the next update of OS X, Leopard: an all-out, no-holds-barred assault on Windows. Such an offensive is not without risks, but Apple has always been a company that takes risks, especially with SJ at the helm, so it's not all that surprising.

As many others have said before, there is now no reason for the Mac-curious Windows user not to buy a Mac. The ability to boot Windows on the new Macs (and by some accounts at least, Windows runs blazingly fast on a Mac) means switchers can benefit from Apple's solid hardware and stylish good looks and not have to give up all their Windows "legacy" software. And of course there's the added benefit of being able to use OS X when they get tired of Windows' crashing or filling up with malware.

And this is undoubtedly what Apple is counting on: an initial boost to hardware sales as switchers buy Macs, followed by a gradual increase in the adoption of OS X.

So far, this plan sounds pretty solid and may be successful. However some have said that this spells the end of software development for OS X, since developers such as Adobe will simply throw their hands up and force users to use the Windows version of, say, PhotoShop, even on the Mac, since they don't want to spend the time and money developing an OS X-native version. But I don't buy this argument, at least not yet. First of all, in the short term, there are still a lot of power users on PPC Macs that will demand OS X native software, and it will be many years before the majority of Mac users have upgraded to Intel machines (heck, nearly 6 years into OS X, there are still a lot of people who swear by OS 9). This is even more the case now than it was during the last Apple transition because computers have much longer useful lives today than they did five years ago.

Of course, as is always the case with announcements like this, there were those who said Apple hadn't gone far enough. As soon as Bootcamp was announced, Apple forums and blogs began to fill up with comments like "this is great, but if I have to re-boot into Windows to use a Windows app, this is useless to me." And therein lies the crux of this whole issue, as I see it. Boot Camp is not for today's Mac users. It's for Windows users. It is a tool to entice switchers over to the Mac and eventually to OS X. I'm going to make a bold prediction here: Leopard will not have virtualization built in because Windows virtualization, much more than the ability to boot into Windows on a separate partition, WOULD threaten OS X software development. I don't think it's the goal of Steve Jobs and company to blur the lines between Windows and OS X. Apple wants Windows users to adopt Macs, and that includes OS X. Allowing Leopard to virtually run Windows would be a mistake, at least in the short term. If you'll indulge me in stretching a metaphor, letting Windows users have their Windows cake and eat their OS X cake in separate rooms is a brilliant move. But allowing them to have both cakes and eat them too would be disastrous. Of course, third parties will release virtualization software (in fact, it has already started), and there's no reason to think that Microsoft itself won't eventually release a version of Virtual PC that runs at native or near-native speeds. But I doubt Apple wants to make it too easy.

Only if and when OS X achieves a significantly higher portion of the OS market share will it be something Apple might consider. But we're still many years away from that.

Technorati Tags: Apple, Boot Camp, Leopard, OS X, OS X vs. Windows, Windows

Apple drops neutron bomb

If you haven't heard it yet, Apple today released a public beta of Bootcamp, a software package that allows users to install Windows XP on an Intel-based Mac. The site also mentions that this functionality will be integrated into Leopard, Apple's upcoming upgrade to OS X.

I think we will look back in history and see this day, April 5, 2006, as the beginning of a new era for Apple Computers. As they say in French, c'est de bonne guerre (all's fair in love and war).

Technorati Tags: Apple, Bootcamp, Leopard, OS X vs. Windows, Leopard, OS X, Windows

The Podcritical Review: The Science Show

This is the second in my open-ended series of informal podcast reviews. I've given myself a highfalutin name, but hopefully, the reviews will remain unpretentious. You'll find the archives here.

In the short history of podcasting, public broadcasters have been among the leaders in the field. While Canada's CBC only has a few podcasts currently available (though they are working on more, apparently), NPR in the US, along with the BBC and Australia's ABC, offer quite a number of podcasts. In fact, ABC offers over 80 podcasts for the avid listener to choose from. And while this is nowhere near NPR's 293, it is a mine that I have yet to properly explore. However, one show in particular has caught my ear: ABC Radio National's The Science Show.

Topic: Science (general)
Length: approx. 45 minutes
Subscribe:


The Science Show is a weekly science program broadcast by the ABC. Like most broadcast radio podcasts, the audio quality is generally quite high, as is the overall production value, so the podcast is easy on the ears. The program differs from many other science podcasts, such as the one offered by the journal Nature, in that it's not just a rundown of the week's science stories. The show covers stories that often don't make the science headlines and offers in-depth analysis of stories you probably wouldn't otherwise be aware of. For instance, the most recent program, for April 1, had a fascinating 20-minute segment on fish oil and brain development. But the show also has a quirky side, as evidenced by last week's mock-serious segment on the study of the disappearing teaspoons (no, really, it was quite funny). Occasionally, the program invites contributors to present a paper, or that's how it seems, which is a somewhat unusual format.

Not surprisingly, The Science Show has a perspective that seems more focused on Asia-Pacific stories rather than on North American or European science, though that may just be my impression since I've only been listening for a little over a month. But this is a good thing, to my mind; the Internet and podcasting are all about making the world a little smaller and seeing past our own back yards.

Host Robyn Williams is just funny enough (though he's no Robin Williams) to give the program some real personality without going over the top. I've come to enjoy it just as much as the CBC's Quirks & Quarks, another excellent Science podcast I may review down the road.

Podcritical rating: 5 stars.

If you know of a podcast you think I should review, drop me a line or leave a comment.


Ecto update: Halleluia. The Atom API bug appears to be fixed. Ecto, all is forgiven. Isn't love fickle?

Technorati Tags: Ecto, Podcast Review, Podcasting, Public Broadcasting, The Science Show

Another post to get free stuff

I know, I'm incorrigible.

Anyway, over at MacZOT, a website that offers daily discounts on Mac shareware, they're hosting the first "BlogZOT." They have teamed up with the developers of AppZapper with the goal of getting at least 259 people to blog about the site. AppZapper will lower the price of their product by 5¢ for every blogpost registered, until it becomes free (for today only, presumably). Since this is an app that looks like it could be somewhat useful to me, I thought I'd get in on the action (hopefully).

In Ecto news, the Blogger Atom API bug is still alive and well as of this posting.

Technorati Tags: MacZOT, software, Ecto

Happy Belated 30th, Apple

I would have baked a cake, but I was too busy checking out all the silly April Fools jokes. However, I did bake some hot cross buns, and Stevie J, if you want the last one, just give me a call and it's yours. You have until, say, 9 a.m. EDT, Monday April 3. After that, I can only guarantee a few crumbs.

But today is April 2, and I also have something serious to blog about. My love affair with Ecto may be waning. There seems to be a bug that prevents Ecto from properly retrieving account info from Blogger's Atom API (though to be fair, the bug seems to be on Blogger's end, not Ecto's). Read the Kula support thread and the Google developer forum thread for more info about the bug. Until now, this desktop blogging app has worked really well for me, so I sure hope the bug gets fixed soon.

Technorati Tags: Apple, 30th birthday, Ecto, Software

Blogger vs. Wordpress

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I've been trying out Wordpress, comparing it with Blogger by keeping a mirror of STA at a Wordpress URL, and I'm ready to write about my impressions so far. I should preface this by saying that I'm using the Web-based version Wordpress, which has its limitations compared to the desktop version.

Let's start with the drawbacks of Wordpress. The biggie is that Wordpress, unlike Blogger, does not allow users to modify the template. You choose from among a bunch of pre-fab templates and if you don't like something, your only recourse is to change templates. With Blogger, of course, you can access the template code and muck around to your heart's desire, which can be both dangerous and a great learning experience. Not having access to the template also means you can't do things like add code to your blog from sites like Pandora or CoComment. On the other hand, customizing your blog is much less, well, dangerous, and the overall result is probably better for readers, especially if you are like me and are no wizard at HTML (let alone CSS or Javascript). Wordpress also seems much pickier about how HTML is displayed. I'm not sure why that is. And Wordpress doesn't appear to have a built-in spell checker, something I really miss.

On the other hand, Wordpress does support categories and trackbacks, which is nice. You can also create separate pages to organize the information on your blog a little more coherently. Thus, on the Blogger version of STA, I have things like my profile, computer gear and blogroll listed in the sidebar, while on the Wordpress version, this is all accessible via what look like tabs at the top of the blog. This appeals to my neat and tidy side. I could do something similar with Blogger, but I'd have to create separate blogs for my account and then link to them via the sidebar... I might get around to it one day too. (yeah right)

But perhaps the best, and most addictive feature of Wordpress that Blogger lacks is integrated stats. On a good day, it's gratifying (a little too gratifying in fact) to see how many people read your blog. On a bad day, it's depressing, but then you remember that you're blogging because you like to write, not because you care how many people read your words... right?

So for now, I'll keep up the mirror. Frankly, the individual blogging interfaces have become much less important since I've been using Ecto. I'm pretty sure I'll pony up the registration fee when my trial runs out in a few days.

Technorati Tags: Blogger, Blogging, Software, Wordpress

Podcast Review

If you're like me, you think podcasts are the cat's meow. Right now, I listen to 15 or so on a regular basis, and I'm always looking out for new and original shows. But despite the fact that everyone is talking about podcasts and podcasting—so much so that the New Oxford American Dictionary named postcasting its word of the year for 2005—there are still a lot of people who don't understand what all the fuss is about.

In fact, I was speaking to my dad the other day about podcasting (in truth, we were text chatting), and he wasn't quite sure what it was, even after I explained it to him. I think the concept of on-demand media will always seem a little foreign to people who grew up huddling around a radio that only picked up one station to get their news.

In any case, I was googling for podcast reviews and found a few sites (dailypodcastreview.com, podcastreviews.net), and they are alright, but it's not like the Internet is brimming with them, so I thought I would start reviewing the odd podcast myself. Nothing pretentious or systematic, just a periodic description and overall rating of a podcast I listen to.

I'll start with Jay Ingram's Theatre of the Mind. Get the podcast feed here. Get the iTunes Music Store URL here.

Length: approximately 15 minutes, though the early shows were much shorter.
Subject: Consciousness and the brain

Sponsored by HarperCollins, the podcast is, it would seem, primarily a way to promote Jay Ingram's new book of the same title. But if so, it's a pretty soft sell. The show is co-hosted by David Newland, a Toronto-area singer-songwriter. The two make a good team and have a nice rapport. The podcast is non-technical yet interesting to those with a knowledge of science. Ingram is articulate and funny, yet obviously very serious about the subject. The show is well-produced and the sound is excellent. And yet in my opinion, part of what makes the podcast work is that it isn't over-produced. Ingram and Newman seem to be two people having a regular conversation over coffee. And you can tell some of the questions Newman asks are not rehearsed, because Ingram frequently just shrugs and says, "I don't know the answer to that," which is actually quite refreshing.

This is not one of my absolute must listens ever week, but it is an enjoyable podcast that is worth listening too, and it's not so long that it gets boring. I rate it a solid 4 stars out of 5.

If you have a favourite podcast you think I should listen to and/or review, please let me know either by leaving a comment or e-mailing me.

Technorati Tags: Podcast Review, Podcasting

FreeMacWare I love

Over at FreeMacWare.com, they are running a contest so that I can "let the world know about all the great Mac Freeware that [I] use." FreeMacWare is a great site, and I would highly recommend that any Apple enthusiast or recent switcher bookmark the site, or even better, subscribe to the RSS feed. Of course, most of the readers of STA (and I know you are legion, even if you are discrete) are already Mac aficionados, but if you are a Mac-curious newcomer, then maybe this post will bring you over to the good side.

The contest stipulates that I write an entry on my blog about my five favourite posts on FMW (in other words, the five freeware apps for Mac that I like the most). Let me tell you, it was not an easy job to whittle it down to five. Indeed, I could have easily posted 10 freeware apps that I use on a daily or weekly basis. But if whittle I must, then here are my five favourites:

1. Without a doubt, Quicksilver is the single most useful piece of software on my Mac (not counting the OS, of course). The beautiful thing about QS is that, like a great piece of literature, the more you delve into it, the more astounded you become. In fact, I think I might like QuickSilver more than Mac OS X. It's that good.
   
   
2. Adium. A wonderful multi-protocol chat client. It's easy to set up, wonderfully customizable and supports pretty much every protocol out there, including jabber. File transfers can be a problem, and it doesn't yet support audio or video, but it's a lean, mean chatting machine, and it's my main chat client.
   
   
3. Mail.appetizer. This little mail plug-in does wonders for my productivity. When mail arrives, a preview window pops up that gives you various options of replying, dismissing, deleting and so forth. The great thing is that you can specify which mailboxes you want notification for, which I'm sure Merlin Mann, of 43 Folders fame, would love. In conjunction with Mail.app rules, I have set it up so that only mail from my clients interrupts my work.
   
   
4. FlickrExport. Now that I own a digital camera, I frequently post photos to my Flickr site. And the easiest way by far is using this iPhoto plugin. It just works. Is there anything else to say?
   
   
5. And last, but not least, iBackup. This is an easy-to-use backup app. I use it every week.

• Honourable mention: As I said, I could have mentioned 10 apps, but at least one other deserves mention. Textpander is a great little app that allows you to program keyboard shortcuts for frequently used sequences of letters or words. I find it especially useful for HTML tags and e-mail.

There you have it. I'm sure others will have their own favourites, but these are mine, at least until FreeMacWare tells me about some other indispensable free Mac app. Ahh... the joys of being a Mac user.

Technorati Tags: Mac, Apple, QuickSilver, Software

The not-so-Mighty Mouse (and a confession)

When Apple came out with it's "two button" mouse, the Mighty Mouse, I ordered one the very same day. Generally, I was pleased with it, though I thought it was overpriced. But we Mac addicts take such things in stride, and I have been happy to use it. I especially like the scroll ball, and it's amazing how fast one can come to rely on horizontal scrolling.

The mouse hasn't been problem free, however. That same scroll ball I love sticks on occasion. I have usually been able to get it to work again by moving it in a circular motion. But the last time it happened, five minutes of circular scrolling didn't help. So I unplugged it, wrapped it in its little cord and it's sitting beside my computer waiting to be taken to the shop, since it's still under warranty.

The thing is, in what I thought was a stop-gap measure, I plugged my old Microsoft mouse back in and... well, I almost hate to admit it, but it felt like and old friend. It's slightly bigger than the Mighty Mouse, but fits my hand better. The two separate buttons work better than Apple's cute touch-sensitive "buttons." The only thing I don't have is horizontal scrolling, but the vertical scroll wheel has a nice solid feel to it.

So once the Mighty Mouse comes back from the shop, I think it will get thrown on the pile of computer junk I have sitting beside my desk. In retrospect, I think Apple got just a little to cute with this mouse. This is one piece of Apple gear I probably should not have purchased.

[posted using Ecto to both Singing the Apple--Blogger and Singing the Apple--Wordpress]

Technorati Tags: Apple, Hardware, Mighty Mouse

Ecto

So I'm writing this post using Ecto, a desktop blogging tool. We'll see how it goes after I hit publish, but so far, I'm VERY impressed with the interface and options, which include tags for blogger (we'll see how those work out too). You can download a 21-day trial, but the program itself costs US$17.95, or C$21.81. I've been waiting for Bleezer to work the bugs out, but after seeing this, I think I might be in love. Of course, love is fickle, and my love hinges on how well this post works out. If there are no edits to this post, it means "head over heels."

The other tidbit I wanted to mention was the very cool QuickSilver comma trick recently posted over at TAUW. I've been wondering if QS could do this. Now I know. The TUAW post actually links to a 43 Folders tutorial (to give credit where credit is due) and it's well worth a look if you're a QS user. The usefulness of this application never ceases to amaze.

Technorati Tags: Blogging, Ecto, QuickSilver, Software

Trying out Wordpress

I just imported all the posts on Singing the Apple from Blogger to Wordpress and will be running this blog in parallel on the two systems for a while so see how the two compare. I've heard so many good things about Wordpress that I thought I should see for myself. For now, I'm using the Wordpress-hosted browser-based version rather than the user-hosted desktop version (speaking personally, I'm still not sure if this blogging thing is a flash-in-the-pan or not, so I don't want to lay down cash on it, especially when there are so many fine free options).

One of the first things I notice with WP is that I can't fiddle with the template (or I can't figure out how to fiddle with it right now), which is no fun. On the other hand, Blogger doesn't offer me categories (something that continues to baffle me). I'll be sure to note which platform I'm using for each post until (and if) I make a definitive choice. Obviously, I've created this one in Wordpress, and the URL of the new blog is--tada! http://singingtheapple.wordpress.com.

In other news, I just posted an article in my newsvine column entitled Advertising I can stomach, about a subtle form of promotion I recently came across. Check it out.

The ABCs of podcasting

No, this isn't another post about the wonders of podcasting (wonderful as it is). No, it's simply a pointer to the site of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's podcast page. They have a really neat series of podcasts on a wide variety of topics. Heck, they even have one in French!

I love public broadcasting, and Canada's CBC is a pretty fine broadcaster. But on the podcast front, it's sorely lagging behind its British and Australian cousins. Granted, they say they are about to expand their podcast line-up. I, for one, can't wait to get programs like Ideas and Writers & Company on podcast. 

On a side note, I learned about the ABC podcasts via Newsvine, which went public yesterday. This means you can now read my Newsvine column at http://petergarner.newsvine.com. Not that there's anything so very newsworthy there that I wouldn't also post in my blog... 

Lamenting the Apple

Oh Apple, where did it all go wrong? Where did all your design engineers go? Where did your aesthetics go? And your plain good sense?

In case you're wondering, Apple today introduced a "fun" new product: the iPod microwave Hi-Fi. This thing is ugly, expensive and useless. Expensive and useless, I can handle. But ugly? From Apple? This can't be happening. Please tell me it isn't so.



They also introuced this leather case for their new iPods. In and of themselves, they're not bad, though you can't access the controls or view the screen unless you take the iPod out of the case (I wonder how long it will be before someone sues Apple because they dropped their iPod while removing it from one of these cases). No, the bad thing is the price: US$99. Give me a break. I bought my leather case for about $25, and I can plug it in, access the controls and view the screen without removing the iPod. Come on Apple. You can and must do better than this.

snowsculpture–Mt-Tremblant

snowsculpture–Mt-Tremblant
Originally uploaded by rangerteper.

Took this on a x-country ski trip earlier this week. Unfortunately, there had previously been a nasty ice storm and, coupled with the fact that the park's grooming machine was broken, the ski trails were closed for the most part for our trip, so went snow shoeing instead.

Kudos to CBC

So I downloaded the CBC podcast into iTunes this morning and low and behold, it came in as a single file. Looks like they decided to go the extra mile for iPod users after all. Good for them, and good for all the people who e-mailed the show to let them know how irritating the problem was. In this day and age of unscrupulous and opportunistic politicians, it's nice to know that someone out there is actually listening.

Of course, now the tip in my previous post is worthless, but what the heck...

On a side note, I'm posting this using Bleezer. Experimenting with the program, I have found that it works fine if you're posting text only, but as soon as I try to post any HTML, it doesn't get posted. I still have high hopes that the next build will work better because I really like creating my posts outside the Blogger text edit window.

Edit: Another Bleezer note. I tried to use the tags field in Bleezer and got a post error. After removing the tags, it posted fine. More growing pains, I guess.

Tags: iTunes iPod science+podcast CBC Quirks&Quarks Bleezer

Puncasting

I listen to a bunch of science podcasts, including the Nature Podcast and, my favourite, Quirks & Quarks. One of the downfalls of such shows, however, is that for some reason science show hosts, more than most others, seem to feel the strange urge to pun. Chris Smith of Nature is the worst at this by far; I find myself cringing every time I listen to the show. Hardly a sentence goes by during the story intros and conclusions that does not contain at least one--usually terrible--pun. Bob McDonald of Q&Q isn't quite as bad, and generally his puns don't score as high on the groan scale, but he has been guilty of a few doosies over the years too; however, at least McDonald usually seems sheepish about it, unlike Smith, who doesn't even seem to realize he's doing it.

Not that I'm not so naive as to think that the hosts are entirely to blame. The show's producers and/or writers also have a lot to do with this dubious popular science tradition. The question is: "Why?" My personal theory is that science has been elitist for so long that those in the media who bring science to the masses feel it incumbent on themselves to try and make the uninitiated feel more comfortable. And punning, being such a base form of humour (though admittedly some view it as the highest of art forms), is apparently the magic ingredient. God forbid that science ever stand on its own as entertainment.

Anyway, now that I've got that off my chest, let me also offer up a little tip for Q&Q listeners who listen to the podcast on their iPods. For whatever reason, Q&Q is downloaded into iTunes as separate mp3 files rather than one long show. Apparently for those people who use non-iPod players (all 7 of them), these files will play sequentially without any problems, but the iPod treats them as separate podcasts, meaning you get kicked all the way back to the main menu after each segment--a PITA to be sure. Here's my trick to solve this little problem:

1. You'll need QuickTime Pro, which will cost you some bucks, unfortunately (Bad bad Apple).
   
2. Go to Doug's AppleScripts for iTunes and download his Join Together v3.2.1 script.
   
3. Download podcast Chapter Tool (direct download link from Apple site).
   
4. Install the Join Together script and Chapter Tool as per their respective instructions.
   
5. Open iTunes, go to your iTunes library and select the Quirks & Quarks (or any other podcast) segments you wish to join together (you can't do this from within the podcast list).
   
6. Choose "Join Together and Chapterize" from the iTunes scripts menu, follow the instructions and let the script do its magic.

Voila! You should now have a single file in your iTunes library that contains all the segments of the Q&Q podcast. The one hitch is that the file won't appear in your podcast directory, but you can easily create a smart playlist called, say, Q&Q, then set the playlist rules to include files for which the artist is Quirks & Quarks and for which the genre is not "podcast."

I contacted the show's producers about this little bug, and they blame it on Apple breaking the podcast standard (whatever that is). Jim Lebans, of Q & Q wrote, "we can either satisfy the Apple owners, or everyone else, but not both without using two feeds, [...] which is a lot more work for us." OK, so I can sort of understand this, but I must say it irks me a little. Apple aficionados are constantly getting the old "we'd love to develop [insert application or service here] for Mac but there are simply not enough users out there to make it worth our while. But with the iPod, Apple users are for once vastly in the majority and should therefore (and often do) logically enjoy the benefits of content producers tailoring their output to iPod users. In this case, however, what would appear to be an anti-Apple bias has the tail wagging the dog.

Tags: iTunes+tip iPod science+podcast CBC Quirks&Quarks