bitdepth

Synthesizing Stories on Bad Metaphor 11

With some of my online homes I’ve been quite active and with others, not so much. One of the things that is quite enjoyable to do is record audio podcasts with my son John. We started doing the Bad Metaphor podcast (an audio podcast) a few years ago and would sporadically update it. Due to some perfectionism and procrastination the output has grown increasingly infrequent, but John always wants to create more, so we’ve started recording podcasts again in a more casual way to try and get them done and up more often.

The wonderful thing about technology is that it advances and makes things easier and cheaper all the time. So last weekend we sat down on the floor with my MacBook Pro, my Zoom H2, and John’s Nintendo DSi along with a stereo omnidirectional microphone from Giant Squid Audio Lab and we recorded a new episode of Bad Metaphor in Soundtrack Pro. The neat thing is that we were able to do some multitrack recording right to disk with the audio from each of us going to separate tracks and the music going to a stereo track. This means we can adjust the levels after the recording and also means that it is much faster to edit. It’s a setup that works and I’m really glad that we figured it out and I hope that we’ll be doing a lot more soon. So go on over and take a listen to the under 8 minute episode 11 of Bad Metaphor: Synthesizing Stories where John plays some music using his Korg DS-10 emulator.

November 21, 2009 badmetaphor, john, music, nanowrimo, podcast, synthesizer, writing

The Return of Bad Metaphor

A few years ago my son John and I started an audio podcast called Bad Metaphor where we talked about technology and growing up and any other things that John was interested in. But we procrastinated and while John kept working on different themes and came up with topics, I never got around to actually recording more of them.

The site lapsed (it was built using Typo) and I stopped updating it. But in the new year I resolved to start it up again and I dusted off the site and now Bad Metaphor Episode 10: Procrastination is out in the world. The archives are also available, so now it’s all up and running and we will hopefully be able to keep up with a regular publication schedule and rebuild our audience. In the whole process I found that I really love WordPress (it was ridiculously simple to set up, so now I have two sites running two separate installations of WP), but that setting up an audio podcast now seems to be more complicated than video. The hosting provider I used before isn’t doing it any more and there aren’t a lot of free places to host audio files (with one very notable exception). The files are all hosted in the Internet Archive, which is faster than it was a few years ago and it’s where I like to put stuff to share. Continue…

January 23, 2009 bad metaphor, podcast

The Long Tail Up Close

While OS X and most Apple stuff is well-designed and simple, there has always been a bit of room between the smooth lines for utilities and software that make it just a bit better. Fascinating little economies and ecosystems spring up around things like the iPod or Dashboard or the iPhone and the indie Mac developers are there making their stuff and being part of the community. It really hit home with me as I listened to the first Core Intuition podcast with Daniel Jalkut and Manton Reece.
I found out about podcast through Daniel’s Red Sweater Blog, which I found out about because I use (and bought) MarsEdit (which I’m writing these very words with). My using MarsEdit for writing blog posts came about because it was originally developed by Brent Simmons, who also writes NetNewsWire, but Red Sweater took it over. It was originally included with NNW and then became separate and I bought both because they’re useful and I like supporting the little guys in the same way that I like supporting indie bands.
In the Core Intuition podcast it is just two indie Mac software developers talking about developing software and the world that they live and work within. Not overly geeky (a bit geeky, I guess) or technical, but very real and human, which I like. (Cyborgs generally aren’t interesting in a podcast.) So much of the software and films and music that we use now is made by large groups of people with massive amounts of money, and I realized how the Long Tail really applies to the small Mac developer who isn’t developing things for the biggest market. For me it’s the same as buying food and produce at the farmers market as you’re a lot more connected with what you’re getting. It’s about the people and the connections.
Manton’s shareware product is Wii Transfer, which I’d thought of trying out (it lets you listen to music, view photos and move video to your Wii), and now I took the plunge and bought it before I tried it. Luckily I like it and I’ve no regrets. While I don’t think that the intention behind the podcast is to drive a massive amount of sales, it does show how having a voice and a presence can have indirect benefits. It’s nice to be connected a bit more to the people who make things that I use and I think that it’s great both ways as you’ll make better stuff if you know your customers by name.
Even though they’re both relatively far away geographically, it feels like I’m buying locally as they’re members of my community in terms of software and what they do. That’s why I also love being able to buy from indie developers and keep their virtual factories running.

June 5, 2008 longtail, marsedit, people, podcast, software, wiitransfer

Bad Metaphor #8 – Camping

Things don’t always turn out the way that you plan which most of the time is a good thing. Hitting a home run every time would start to get boring after a while as Buck 65 says. The big Summer of adventures that John and I planned changed a lot, but we’ve had some fun. I wrote about our rainy day in Fundy and our abbreviated adventure on my Vox blog, but we also recording some audio that has made it into our eighth Bad Metaphor, which is about Camping. You can see the pictures from our camping and hiking in Fundy on Flickr and I may be uploading some video snippets from the still camera to my blip.tv blog.
tags: badmetaphor, podcast, fundy, camping, summer

August 21, 2006 badmetaphor, camping, fundy, podcast, summer

commandN Episode #58

The 58th episode of the video podcast commandN is live and ready for download now. I’ve been helping tape the segments from Halifax and have made a few appearances as well. Since it’s the Summer and I’ve been on vacation, it’s been possible to spend a bit more time working on the segments and that means that we’ve gone to some interesting locations and continue to shoot in ways that are more fun. If you haven’t looked at commandN yet, it may be a good time to check it out to get caught up with technology trends with a Mac flavour. In this episode Jeff and I did the webPICKS segment from Halifax where I talked about Dabble, which is a great way to find and share video. We shot it in the Hydrostone neighbourhood, which has some neat views of the city through the trees.
tags: commandn, video, technology, news

August 21, 2006 commandn, news, podcast, technology, video

Bad Metaphor 6 – Work

Last month I took John in to work and we recorded a podcast at the Halifax Downtown Site of the Nova Scotia Community College where I work. Bad Metaphor 6 – Work is finally edited and uploaded and you can listen to it now. I give John a tour and we talk about work. If you haven’t checked out Bad Metaphor yet, you should take a listen and subscribe to it as we’ll be making more podcasts during the summer in an attempt to document our adventures.

May 28, 2006 badmetaphor, podcast, work

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