Photos of a new mural in downtown Middletown, Ohio. The city has a number of murals done by a local artist, Eric Henn. Middletown is located north of Cincinnati, Ohio and is home to AK Steel.
You can view all photos in the set.
The Enquirer has their voter guide on the website. Enter your address to find local elections, candidates, and issues. When you enter your information, the site will generate a sample ballot that let’s you compare candidates. This is especially useful for local elections where campaign advertising is at a minimum.
I have been promising for a while to podcast some of the other OTR dramas that I have. Now that I got the Superman podcast automated I am ready to do another. As some of you may have seen I didn’t always keep up with the uploading of the Superman OTR podcast. Well I was editing the XML file by hand, literally typing it in then uploading the MP3 manuallly. Well I am not good at repetitive tasks, which is why I picked the occupation of computer programmer. I created an applcation in Microsoft .NET called Autocast. This console app will automatically edit the XML file and then upload both the new XML file and Mp3 to the server. There will be more on that later.
Any rate, the point of this post is that I am now ready to podcast the Nero Wolfe radio drama. There are not many of these, only 23 in fact. And unlike the Superman OTR, which are 10 minutes, the Nero Wolfe episodes are 30 minutes. So I am going to do one per week. A new episode will be released every Sunday.
You can subscribe to Nero Wolfe through feedburner.
I have been using the Griffin iTrip to listen to my iPod in the car since February. I never did like the fact you had to program the iTrip with the frequency using the iPod interface. On several occasions the iTrip would “forget” what frequency to use and me not liking to keep the frequency programmers on the iPod (more on that later) would be in for a very dull commute. if I did have the iTrip frequency “tunes” (They are actually mp3 files that program the iTrip.) on the iPod they would advertently get played and screw up the iTrip. Which was easy to do if you used the iPod’s shuffle feature. And resetting the iTrip was an ordeal that only following the step by step instructions could fix. In other words, can’t do while driving.
Anyway, on my commute home Friday the iTrip got screwed up for the last time. It was the final straw. I recalled Griffin had announced an iTrip with a built-in tuner. So I went straight away to the Apple store in the Kenwood Towne Centre and purchased one.
The new iTrip allows you to adjust the frequency with the roll of a dial. Oddly though the frequency I actually used in not available in this model. For anyone using 87.9 you will have to find another channel. The iTrip begins on 88.1. I eventually settled on 90.1 90.5, although I will have to see if it works on my 35 mile commute. I swear there is a radio station for just about every .1 of the dial. My logic dictates that there should be a small sprectrum of radio frequency left untouched for portable consumer devices. Say 80.1 - 89.9 or something. I mean if 192.168.1.x can be used for every router why didn’t we think to do this with radio frequencies?
My intial findings are; unless $40 is too steep for you or if 87.9 is the only free frequency in your area, there is no reason not to upgrade. Now it’s time to remove these annoying iTrip MP3 files.
I think Derek and I are in competition on our August spending spree. I have been wanting to buy an SLR camera for quite sometime. So I was pleased when Dell had a sale on the Canon Rebel XT 350D for just $739.
I snapped a few photos (view the original size to get the full effect), which are an amazing 3456 x 2304 resolution. Of course this comes with a price, each photo is 4MB. I think this will do nicely for our trip to CES this year.
Features:
* Fast start-up time–.2 seconds
* Powered by rechargeable Lithium-ion battery (included, with charger)
* 8.0-megapixel CMOS sensor captures enough detail for photo-quality 16 x 22-inch prints
* Includes Canon’s EF-S 18-55mm, f3.5-5.6 zoom lens
* DIGIC II Image Processor provides fast, accurate image processing; captures images at a rate of up to 3 frames per second
My first attempt at growing…anything. So here I am documenting my progress. I planted tomatoes and a bell pepper plant in a small area of my backyard.
I have a before and after pictures of the tomatoe plants.
An organized Flickr photo collection of London’s terrorist attack on July 7, 2005.
As of this writing there is over 500 photos in the Flickr pool.
The first software update to actually be released early. That’s right, this update to iTunes wasn’t expected until next month. This update was promised by Steve Jobs himself and adds podcasting support directly within iTunes.
Manage Podcasts. Select subscription options and download your favorite podcasts automatically.
The last few updates have been adding new features like this to iTunes. 4.8 added support for Quicktime videos. Fueling rumors of a Video iPod. And 4.7 added support for PDF files. iTunes makes a great way to manage your PDF library by the way.
The entire feature list for iTunes 4.9:
iTunes for Mac & PC.
iTunes, the #1 music download store and jukebox software, now makes podcasting as easy as iPod.
- Music Store
- Best Selection. More than 1.5 million tracks and 1,000 independent labels with 30-second previews.- Shop Easily - Shop Easily. Buy entire albums or single tracks. Give gift certificates or set an allowance for the kids.
- Find music fast. - Find Stuff Fast. Search for any artist, song, album or podcast on the store with virtually instant results.
- Discover Music - Discover Music. Browse Billboard and radio station charts, music videos, and free weekly downloads.
- Manage Podcasts - Select subscription options and download your favorite podcasts automatically.
- Share Your Taste - Share Your Taste. Send a friend music links in an email with cover art or share an iMix with everyone.
- Listen to Audiobooks - Listen to Audiobooks. Choose from more than 11,000 best-sellers, classics and radio programs.
- Import Music - Import Music. Gather all your music in one place in AAC, MP3 or Apple Lossless format.
- Party Shuffle - Create Playlists. Generate lists of your favorites. Dig deep into your library with Party Shuffle.
- Share Music - Share Music. Let the whole family listen to your collection in any room on Mac or Windows.
- Burn CDs - Burn CDs. Burn any playlist. Create CD inserts with mosaics of cover art and track lists. Make backups.
- Sync with iPod - Sync your music, podcasts, audiobooks and photos; enjoy them on the go.
As always you can download the latest version of iTunes at Apple.com.
Sadly, Apple chose not to support BitTorrent, so I stil have to use iPodder for my downloading my podcasts.
According to a Euro RSCG/Columbia study, 51% of journalist read blogs. But despite using blogs for researching and referencing facts (43%) and finding sources (36%), only 1% of journalist said blogs are credible. Why would you use any source you didn’t deem credible? And it’s a little ironic that this is being reported in a blog. I find this number to be extremely low. And would count blogs (in general) as being just as, if not more credible than traditional media.
The study also says that journalist use blogs for finding story ideas and sources. This particular interesting since I was interviewed based on a article on my blog. (And yes I will keep bring that up, since it’s the only time I was ever mentioned in the newspaper without the words, “Still at large.”)
A good example of the media using blogs for sources and content is Open Source. An NPR show which defines itself as “Not a show about blogs. It will use blogs to be a show about the world.” Where they interview blog writers about political/social events. I particularly like the way Open Source defines a blog:
A blog is a way of thinking. It’s a way of recording the argument you are having with yourself, admitting that you may be about to be wrong, and ensuring that, when you are wrong, you make your wrongness available as a public record. A blog is Socratic that way; it knows that it does not know.
How long until blogs replace mainstream journalism? Well that’s anyones guess. But I think it will happen, as I read more blogs than articles in print. So there you have it, my 1%.
Sure G4 is the new MTV, full of mindless garbage. The Whip Set anyone? But that doesn’t mean all hope is lost. With these links YOU TOO CAN recreate the experience of having actual INTELLIGENT content to watch (or listen to.)
These are placed in order of how I rank them.
Let’s hope more content like this springs up. With the current success TWIT, I would say people are clamoring for this stuff.
