A Collection of Daily Wisdom by Dennis Sylvester Hurd since September 2003.

There was a certain comfort as a consumer of media in the old days. Lest I simply sound like every other aging boomer, let me explain in more detail. Because of the frightening lack of media options, one could be relatively certain others knew what you watched or listened to. We had common exposure to many cultural references. I'm not so sure that knowing how Gilligan prevented the stranded folks from escaping the island was crucial. At least there was commonality in that banality.

Now of course, media outlets and options continue to explode. I have very little hope that your world will mash up with mine. It's highly likely that today we will not have listened to, watched, or read any media in common. Other than this blog, in fact, I must assume that you probably did not.

I guess having choice is good. News, music, and information itself is becoming ever so more personalized. I do feel that the enormous variety may lead to cultural loneliness, a term I thought I had invented. Of course googling it turns up countless references of a different sort. My definition means to be alone within one's own culture because of the deluge of unshared media. You may not want to listen yourself, but I do have a need to include something which I listened to when driving home from work earlier. It's not an extraordinary episode but I want others to be able to experience some of the ideas which affected me today. I regularly listen to Buzz Out Loud from the folks at CNET. I first listened because of the subject matter but continue due to the personalities involved.

Buzz Out Loud 708: Meat Parade

Labels: Creative Zen, podcasts, technology

I'm beginning to understand. It wasn't until I got an mp3 player that I discovered podcasting and how it shifts the whole paradigm of radio. Summarily, a few days ago, I downloaded free TVersity software and I'm beginning to understand the future of television and video.



TVersity allows media to be streamed to my Sony PlayStation 3 via the home network. I first thought it'd be useful as I could listen to any of 8000+ music files through my home theatre system. I'd need not load them via my computer anymore. Of course, also being able to read thousands of personal photo archives off my external drive and display them on the larger, living room Toshiba screen promised to be fun too.

I had never seriously considered video podcasting as promising technology. After all, I'd not want to watch the tiny screen of a portable device, I thought. Now, I realize how useful Internet delivery of broadcasting may eventually become. With a Canadian Internet provider, it's not possible to watch U.S. television over IP. The networks block access. I'm especially disappointed in not being able to participate in www.hulu.com. However, the Internet is going to be a major means of delivery sooner than some might believe. A dozen years ago it was best practice not to create a web page that had over 50K of photos and text. Then, when radio first started arriving by IP, I wondered if we'd ever have sufficient bandwidth for such an extravagance.

I find it a little ironic that I'm enamoured by high definition content via satellite or Blu-ray but that I'm still so willing to watch grainy video on the 42" LCD. This playing around seems so refreshingly pioneering though. Yesterday, being able to watch live television from Sri Lanka was magic, although the teledrama was little better than a slide show of blurry images on the big screen.

I had been very skeptical of those who dismiss the importance of new high-definition discs. These people have written that Blue-ray's lifetime will be limited as the last physical medium. Their proclamation about the immediate future being in downloads seemed so pie-in-the-sky. Haven't those pundits witnessed how much time it takes just to download a movie trailer? I do admit I felt more than a little thrilled when throwing video around the network though. Demand will guarantee broad enough broadband. I'm a reluctant convert.

Labels: Internet, podcasts, PS3, technology, television

I always plug my Zen into the computer before driving into work. Doing so allows it sync the latest .mp3 copy of Global News from the BBC. The situation works well as it generally takes about twenty minutes for me to drive to the Burnaby campus from New Westminster. Of course the amount of traffic and how I hit the lights can affect the length of the drive. The round-up of news takes just about the same amount of time, so I don't feel as if I'm wasting any during my trip to class.

As an instructor, I'm aware of individual learning styles. I used to think I was a strong visual learner. I always thought I best learned through reading and graphics. Perhaps listening skills are a forte too as I may do well with auditory stimulus. I certainly feel as though I learn a lot during my morning commutes.

Learning about the world through radio was never much of an option. During my youth radio was simply for music. And to be honest, North American broadcast news in general spends a lot of time navel gazing. Both American and Canadian radio and television spend inordinate resources rehashing purely domestic issues. Some of the most advanced communication potential on the planet is often wasted pursuing the likes of Paris Hilton.

At least the BBC has reporters out there on foreign soil. In my daily podcasts from the BBC World Service I get a chance to hear voices of real people talking about the conditions affecting them. I hate to sound discouraged, but I suppose much of the general public here would probably have a hard time even locating these countries on a globe.

Labels: Creative Zen, podcasts

THE FUTURE: 1950 STYLE
Eventually, automated homes such as those described by Ray Bradbury will exist. As of today, I am one step closer to the part where the house plays music. Let's forget about the exact scenario of the short story from The Martian Chronicles as I'd rather leave the fear of nuclear devastation for another blog entry. Also it's important to note that he wrote this short story fifty-eight years ago. Smart houses are assuredly taking longer to come to fruition than my childish notions would've predicted.

SERVING MEDIA
I'm thinking about There Will Come Soft Rains, as I have thousands of .mp3 and .wma files on an external hard drive near my computer. I use it for the collection and backing up important info. from my main drive. As discovered on Saturday the new Playstation 3 will play these networked songs through the built-in media server in Microsoft's MediaPlayer 11. My PS3 lacks a direct DTS output for stereo files, unlike my computer's sound card. However, there's something quite simple and satisfying about making a selection on the large TV screen. It just feels right to pick music with the same remote I use when watching a DVD.

GETTING IT TOGETHER
Many people already have some sort of home network today. Most are wireless and used just to get the Internet on a notebook computer without a plug. This could be a wonderful basis for a smart house. The problem is that most of our consumer electronics products do not get along. Most of the devices are not designed for interoperability. In order to make any of them work together one must work too damned hard.

TO KNOW ME IS TO LOVE ME
I envision a day when, as one walks into the house, all gadgets will ask permission to connect to the home's network. For example, I should be able to listen to a podcast on a visitor's iPod. If the system were clever enough, a graphic representing the temporary device would automatically appear on a screen showing the current technology environment. As well as the calling-card information previously entered by the visitor, the system would recognize the unprotected media on the device. I'd simply be able to direct the system to play the podcast.

FIGHTING IN A FUTURE
This is a little more complex than Ray Bradbury's circuits and tapes in the walls. However, I can easily think of a good topic for a new, short story. Let's assume that all the system devices on our imaginary network have a priority on the system. What if various devices started fighting for supremacy in the heirarchy? Every iPod Nano lusts for power, you know. Somehow, that'd make for an interesting read.

Labels: computers, futurecast, Mediaplayer, podcasts, PS3, sci-fi, technology

There's a dearth of good podcast aggregator software for those of us who refuse to hop on the iTunes bandwagon. The Zencast software from the folks at Creative works well enough but it feels clunky and odd.

I heard rumors that podcasting was being integrated into the new Microsoft Zune software. It shouldn't matter much that I don't have one. I sort of believe there might eventually be one in my future. Anyhow, I simply wanted something to fetch my podcasts and arrange them nicely in a sub-directory on my hard disk. SyncToy would be able to quickly move them to my Zen Stone.



It works but I have a few comments about the Zune software. The first problem is that I live in Canada. That in no way sounds like a problem until I learned that excludes me from participating at all. I am well aware that the local shops don't carry the devices but there are major malls just across the border from most Canadian cities, eh? If I type in my hotmail address I get shown quickly to a page which says:

The Zune service is not yet available in your region.
Thanks for your interest! Please continue to check Zune.net for the latest news and information.

Yeah, thanks a lot, indeed.

Even with Web 2.0 I still sort of like Redmond's insistence in having code sit on each local machine. I somewhat still agree that life shouldn't entirely be experienced though a browser. It is possible to just download the software alone, so I did. The software recognized my IP as being north of border!

I installed. The software seems to be typically Microsoftish. What that means is in about three releases from now it'll unusable. Then after another, it'll be rock solid and soon catch up in popularity to iTunes. That should be in about five years, I'd say. First off, software developers, please allow us to cut and paste into the add-podcast box. How did you let it out the door with that major fault? Nobody wants to type in an arcane xml URL. In addition, let us do a complete podcast update with single button. As it stands I have no idea when it's going to pick up my feeds. Lastly, it'd surely be nice to have it run in the background. You know what I mean. When I close, I want it running over by the clock and not be forced to keep it open on the task bar. These seem like such simple things that I cannot understand how it was released these annoyances. How come I never get to beta anything? Send me a free 80GB Zune and I'll give you more useful advice ...

The interface is somewhat appealing so I allowed it to rummage through my music collection. I think under most circumstances I'll probably use it to locate and play music rather than running MediaPlayer.

Labels: Creative Zen, opinions, podcasts, software, Windows

I was chatting with a colleague in the PELD (Professional English Language Development) office before class this afternoon. I was excitedly showing how I've begun copying audio files to the BCIT share-out drive. Each course at the Institute is provided with general storage. It is easily available from any computer on campus by locating the J: drive. Additionally, students can access the data on the Internet via a web browser and their student ID / password. This got me thinking how much more accessible language study materials are now because of Internet access.

Once upon a time, when I began teaching, students just had access to the materials that were handed out by the instructor. Especially when overseas, additional information had to be purchased in the market. Now, getting examples of a new, target language are as close as a search engine. (I've decided to try to eliminate the habit of using Google as a verb.)

Today, I was tossing around mp3 files rather than text. Podcasts have made excellent audio available in a manageable, on-demand format. There really isn't any corollary in analog form. I remember using cassettes but the audio was held captive inside a plastic case. All students needed to listen at the same time and in the same location. Even if I knew a specific radio program would be of interest to my students, most weren't taped simply because it was too much of a hassle.

Labels: BCIT, podcasts, technology

Until very recently, I thought of the Internet as predominately textual on www sites. If you recall the Internet protocol meaning of gopher, raise your right hand and repeat the following: "I am very old and have always been pretty geeky."

That's imprecise. Let me clarify; I generally considered the Internet as text and image based. Okay, sure. I would've admitted that one needed computer speakers because some Flash animation contained sound, occasionally one might want to steam an audio file, or other folks might even want to listen to illegally-downloaded music files.

Now, I think of this net as a delivery medium for stored audio too. I've already said in this blog that buying (several) mp3 players has thrust me into an exciting new world of information. Discovering Internet podcasts is my most profound personal development related to computers this year. Now, I don't feel like I'm wasting precious moments when walking or driving. Those ear buds are not relaying the Top 40; rather, I'm gaining understanding on a world of new topics. Listen to the 5:12 minute audio clip by clicking the next line.

St Mary's Square, Munich, Germany

In about 25 hours our plane will be leaving the tarmac for this initial destination of this year's fall trip. I can copy a number of audio files into my Zen Stone and take them along. The device weighs less than a toothbrush.

Although I found a number of companies trying to make a commercial success of mp3 travel guides, I expect that fairly soon, it will be simple to find free audio help on getting around in many of the globe's tourist sites. How about suggested walk-abouts in famous museums without needing official guides? Why not have audio files explaining the best route around a city's parks? What about an informative stroll though any neighbourhood in most any town?

Let me access these freely through the Internet. Bring on the noise!

Labels: Creative Zen, Eurotrip 2007, Internet, podcasts

I'm a great deal smarter than I was last month. What do I chalk this up to? During the entire month of August I've been subscribing to podcasts. The personal changes due to my purchase of an mp3 player are quite profound. I used to have a rather unsavory option of those who walked around listening to portable devices. Let me see if I can find an example. At the beginning of the summer, I said this.

It's okay to have changed my mind. In the past, I've also written things within these files, such as:

"Do I contradict myself? Very well, then, I contradict myself. I am large, I contain multitudes."

-- Walt Whitman, Song of Myself

It must be a sign of age when one starts repeating oneself, don't you think? Perhaps, however, I should just chalk up the inconsistencies to my increasing wisdom. Times change and so do opinions. As I said, I'm a lot smarter than I was last month!

I'd venture I help form a very strange demographic of mp3-player ownership. I seldom, if at all, listen to music on mine. Oh, I have at least a dozen albums tucked away. Yet, I have spent many hours this month listening to reports more educational than musical. I seldom walk out the front door without podcasts in my pocket. Being able to listen to in-depth NPR stories from around the globe, or commentary on the latest technology buzz is extraordinary. It's as if an additional method of input, has increased how much I can experience in a single day.

I am most probably an auditory learner and it just feels so gratifying to have found media which can provide more than a few simple soundbites. Most standard, daily news coverage just glosses over several navel-gazing topics. If one ventures out into podcastland, there's a lot of meaty information to be discovered.

Labels: Creative Zen, opinions, podcasts

If you'd asked me a couple of months ago about audio on the Internet, I would've only been able to talk about streaming. That's been going on for more than a dozen years. I can remember trying to get adequate RealPLayer connections from my desktop at Dubai Men's College when the Internet first arrived in the UAE. Now, streaming is pretty old hat although I seldom spent much time listening. I've even offered the following .ra files from my website for at least a decade. [Editor's Note: These have now been converted to mp3 but suffer from poor quality of the original and coversion processes.]

MP3 AUDIO

---

Radio Archive 1994 - Dubai FM, United Arab Emirates
Educationally Yours.  The HCT BBS: Mike Friganiotis, Moh'd Al-Shamsi, and of course, me (30:06 minutes)

Radio Archive 1995 - Dubai FM, United Arab Emirates
Educationally Yours.  The Internet: Mike Friganiotis, Tonia Huculak, and me (25:39 minutes)

---

Things have changed though. I've only gotten interested in the concept of podcasting since buying my little 4GB Creative Zen Plus. (Incidentally, my RMA'd original unit really was dead and Creative is in the midst of shipping back a replacement by UPS. Meanwhile, I'm listening to a 2GB Zen Stone Plus.)



Podcasting is so cool. I like being able to walk out of the house with hours of radio which I've chosen to take along. I never use the FM tuner in the Zen. People may not know how easy it can be with aggregator software. Most of my friends probably know nothing about RSS feeds. It's simply a universal method to automate new Internet content so that it can be easily shared.

The image above is software that I use to collect my audio postcast episodes. Rather than getting involved in Apple's iTunes, I simply enter the rss feed into the ZENcast Organizer. It automatically updates all programs I've selected for download. Some programs might be daily while others weekly or monthly. It doesn't matter because as soon as a new show is released, it is waiting for me on my computer. I can listen on the PC or simply press a button to have the files copied to my Creative Zen.

It might take some looking around on the net to FIND the feeds but as soon as they're subscribed to, it becomes effortless. There are things from literally all over the globe. I favour technology over the news, and podcasting allows me to chose exactly what goes into my ears.

Labels: BBS, Creative Zen, Dubai, file archives, Internet, Mediaplayer, podcasts

Why do I listen to US National Public Radio nowadays? It could well be my age but I don't think that's the reason. I believe it has more to do with the organization's quick adoption of new technology.

The people at NPR have rapidly made use of podcasting as a way of sharing their extensive resources. The shear number of programs is quite overwhelming.

This sort of reverses the trends of the last 60 years. In North America, radio became quite isolated and independent as early radio networks morphed into being television broadcasters. Commercial radio moved to music formats with primarily local news and information.

Now, with the rising popularity of podcasts, public radio broadcasters have the unique advantage of making use of their relatively large collection of resources. Here, I'm also thinking of organizations like BBC and CBC. All of these offer an amazing amount of podcast material.

Take a look at the npr.org site. In fact, I challenge you to look through NPR's listing by clicking on the image of screen capture. If you cannot find something that interests you, leave me a comment. Actually, if you do find something that interests you, then leave me a comment too! (In order to do this, simply click the word 'comments' as found in the 'posted by' row below.)

Contrast this enormous collection of iPod and mp3-player material to most commercial, terrestrial radio stations where you'll probably not find a single podcast.

Labels: opinions, podcasts, technology

There's a link over there under my face but you might not have noticed its addition. For a week, I've been publishing a few podcasts found on my Creative Zen. I am quite excited by radio now that I'm the one in control. I'm downloading from nearly two dozen sources. The nice thing is everything arrives automatically onced released. For my digital archives, I'm saving a daily item. The collection will continue to grow over the course of the year. I wanted to let others know what I'm saving as examples. I call them the topCasts. Why don't you listen along?

Labels: Creative Zen, podcasts

This morning, for some reason, I couldn't sleep late, so I got up surprisingly early. For some reason at dawn, I figured it was time to make a few changes to this blog. You'll note an addition in the column on the right. Tucked under my face and MORE WEB DATA is a new option which reads: Tune to my topCasts. I even made a change to the landing page for my site to include the same.

Back on Thursday, I mentioned working on a place to make available the podcasts I'd enjoyed listening to. I added a few and it all seems to be working all right. Due to this, I thought I'd link between the new blogspot site and this which runs on my domain. I can't say how faithful I'll be adding files. I once added YouTube links and later removed them after failing to update frequently. I have remained excellent at this blog and for my daily Flickr pics.

Of course, syndication of mp3 files is most useful for automatic loading into your iPod or mp3 player, but you can also choose to listen to the files while at your computer. Why don't you give it a try? These files load from my home PC, so they may be, on occasion, offline although my computer runs 24/7.

Labels: blogging, podcasts

I blog because I want to keep a personal record of my comings and going. I do so wish I had kept a diary from, for example, my sophomore year in college, or my first year teaching in Kuwait. Sometimes am able to reminisce in blog format. I may occasionally even blog to vent my frustration with a particular event or situation.

A great deal of the time though, I probably blog just to play around with computer stuff. As a case in point, I set up syndication to share 1950's radio science fiction program called X Minus One. It must be said that I do subscribe to my own feed, in order to download two copies of the show to my mp3 player every week.

Here's a brand-new feed which I just created tonight. Although it is unusually interesting, I will not be adding it to my feed listing. This syndication is only to share some podcasts. I figure if pictures can tell about things I've seen, then these mp3 files provide some of my 'soundscape'. That can probably tell you something about me too. On occasion, I will share a podcast that I listened to during the day of being uploaded.

See what I listened to on the way to work this afternoon. Or better yet, subscribe and copy to your own iPod or mp3 player. To see if your tastes match mine, click the logo above!

Labels: blogging, Creative Zen, podcasts

During the last several weeks there have been a fair number of blog references to the purchase and use my Creative Zen mp3 player. Getting podcasts is a new hobby and listening to them while driving is now the norm.



I used to sometimes walk around with a Sony Walkman in the very early 1980's. Just today, I noticed I'm wearing what appears to be headphones in this old scanned photo. It was taken in Kuwait. I'm in the photo with Jamal. I was later involved in a car accident with him and others. They were killed and only I escaped alive.

Labels: Kuwait, music, podcasts

... a Beer Behind.

It does seem to go like this at times. This is an old phrase that can be used to describe the guy who's never on time, can't it? Okay, maybe the beer behind part was my own invention! I can't really remember. Some days I feel like that. Alright, you caught me, so let me be more truthful: There are some YEARS I feel like that.

Recently I've been very aware of audio communication. Did you check out yesterday's syndication of the beginning episode of X Minus One? I guess 1955 is a bit on the late side. You could, of course, listen at your computer but the whole idea of podcasting is to neatly tuck it into an iPod or mp3 player for later use. Now, there's noise, noise, everywhere!

I'm a beer behind due to the fact everyone is probably playing with Internet video nowadays. The more I try to catch up the behinder I sometimes get. I do provide answers to student exercises by audio though. I'll put a short example here. I made this one earlier today, so the students in the labs can correct their work at their own pace. So, although I'm not exactly state of the art, I am a few years ahead of many of my peers.

Labels: Mediaplayer, podcasts

Now that I've made time for audio in my life, I'm discovering there's simply too much available. Although I selectively copied several gigabytes of music on my Creative Zen, it seems that I spend more time listening to podcasts. People think of iPods or mp3 players as music players. So it's a little ironic I spend most of my time listening to people chatting.

Another irony involves how well the concept of old-time radio fits into today's iPods or mp3 players. By the time I was growing up the large networks had already morphed into television and standardized on musical radio formats. I always thought older people who talked fondly about listening to radio drama were silly old fogies.

Unfortunately, I guess really classic radio used to be produced live. It wasn't until the 50's when networks relented to using recordings. Due to this, a lot of the old stuff is forever gone. What remains can can easily be made into mp3 files. I discovered a Sci-Fi series quite by accident.

I listened to only one episode but decided I want to listen to all the others. Even though it's available for free copying on the Internet, I wanted to automate loading into my Creative Zen on a weekly basis. Okay, I was curious to see how easy it would be to set up a podcast feed too. I set up a site to syndicate X Minus One. I'll post a new episode in sequence each week and you're welcome to follow along. Try the intial one and let me know if you successfully captured it on your audio device.

[LINKS ABANDONED}

Labels: Creative Zen, podcasts, sci-fi

It's 9:30 am and the balcony door is wide open. It's going to be another hot one. June may have had a lot of awful weather, but July has been picture perfect so far. I have a good topic for today, but I fear I'm too lazy to do it justice.

This relates to my current, life-altering, new-found reliance on podcasts. I count myself now as one of those distracted drivers zooming around paying more attention to what's in my ears than what's on the road.

I was born at the tail end of the boomer generation, so some changes seem interesting, yet odd to me. I was a kid when we had something called mass media. In fact, I may have been among the first to really have really grown up with television. Whatever your thoughts about the quality of programming, TV did have a unifying force. If I ask a guy of my generation if his preference would run toward Ginger or Mary Ann, there's instant recognition of the reference. Isn't the whole concept of society simply access to shared experiences? Likewise, when we listened to the Top 40 on the radio, we knew that although not everybody's cup of tea, those same songs were being heard by just about everybody.

I was going through my podcasts yesterday and noticed how very focused my selection was. Most of my audio involved science and technology. I had spanned the globe in search of only the information I was interested in. I guess this sort of demonstrates the idea of narrowcasting rather than broadcasting.

I can't help but feel a little sad that in our future there'll be no common ground to which we're subjected. New media is giving us fewer and fewer points of shared reference as we each pursue our own little worlds of self interest.

Labels: Creative Zen, opinions, podcasts

I know that I sometimes temporarily fall in love with some new gadget or another. If you search through this blog, you'll find all kinds of entries about my Garmin GPS and geocaching. I cannot remember the last time I turned it on. That just proves I sort of fall out of love with gadgets too.

Right now, I'm enamoured with my Creative Zen.



I believe what I want to say involves the economic concept of marginal utility. The 'simplified to death' explanation is that people want a bang for their buck. For example, suppose folks have some extra cash to spend. This means they'd analyse the ways they could spend it and choose the item or service which could provide them with the greatest pleasure.

I sometimes decide on an extra purchase by how much I feel it will impact my life. I underestimated this one! The $120 I spend on the 4 GB mp3 player has already changed my life. I'd pretty much forgotten about radio. Although a Canadian resident for eleven years this week, I had never spent any time listening to CBC Radio. Now thanks to the convenience of podcasts, I'm listening to that medium through podcasts. I've subscribed to all sorts of things. This really has redefined my world. I know I could've listened to streaming audio from all over the world, but I didn't. Now science and technology podcasts from Digital Planet come automatically to my player from BBC England. NPR broadcasts turn up on the little screen. Even a weekly file of Andy Rooney slides through the USB cable into the player.

I outgrew old radio long ago. Now, I'm getting reacquainted with new radio.

Labels: Creative Zen, money, podcasts

I didn't really get it. Of course, I followed the world's infatuation with the iPod. I even collected and digitized a lot of music but that was mostly because my computer outputs DTS or Dolby Digital directly into my home theatre system. I have surely embraced the convenience of instant searches and the implementation of music management in recent versions of MS Media Player.

I guess I never thought that wearing around silly little wires made much sense. For you see, I greatly enjoy silence. Right here, I've said many a time that I enjoy looking out the window when on the SkyTrain and simply thinking. My truck doesn't even have a radio.

In order to use my time more effectively though, I finally purchased joined the rest of the world. I picked up a 4 GB Creative Zen. I cannot imagine living without and I haven't even had it for 24 hours yet. I just went down for my daily immersion in the this building's hot tub. While there I listened to half of the most recent NPR's Car Talk podcast. Those fellows have been on the air since the 80's and still cause me to chuckle. The brothers' accents usually remind me people I heard when growing up.

Labels: Creative Zen, podcasts