Two For One Netcasts

No net@nite this week - Amber and I couldn't work out a time to do it. You'd think for two self-employed people like us that would be easier! There are new FLOSS and FIB episodes, however, to help you make it through the night. And I promised my mom I'd blog more, so look for more posts from me soon!

Mysterious Visitor From The East

I got a surprise birthday greeting this evening as Amber and I were taping net@nite - you'll hear the whole interview on next week's show... Birthday greetings Can you name that actor?

net@nite Update

Amber and I did our first test recording of the new net@nite yesterday and despite a few technical glitches I think we're ready to go back on the air together. The new show is going to be similar to the old one with a couple of exceptions. First, it's no longer going to be live. It's just too hard to commit to recording it at the same time every week. With a little flexibility it will be easier for us to do it. I'm hoping to record and release the show on Wednesdays, moving MacBreak Weekly back to Tuesday to make room for it. I'm finding that it's better to release the topical shows on the same day as they're recorded whenever possible. The second big change is that I'm hoping to do it as a video show. We tried recording video this week and everything fell apart, but I'm hopeful that the new iChat will make this possible. It supports the very high quality AAC-LD audio codec, the same I use for the radio, and offers video and audio recording. Amber has retooled the content, as well. The show will still be an hour long, but divided into segments:

• Web News
• Best Tech Trick
• Best Web Idea
• Best Music Pick
• Best Web Service
• Best Video Pick
• Web Design Pick

We'll have guests on whenever we've got someone we want to talk with, but one bit we'd like to do every week is our pick for Worst Web Idea. We're hoping we can get the creators of these sites on to defend their pathetic concepts. Should make for some fun. I'll post yesterday's run through sometime this week - it's a little rough but it's still entertaining. We hope to begin the video version the first Wednesday in November. We're just waiting for Leopard to ship. (I'm going down to Cupertino to get a briefing on it next Thursday. If I can get a copy then we'll do a test show next week.) Watch for the new net@nite - I think you'll like it!

net@now

I'm back from MacMania V - and I had a wonderful time. I took a few still pictures, but I spent most of the time playing with the Sanyo Xacti HD1a. I'll post some video in a day or so.

Meanwhile, our first episode of net@nite went pretty well Sunday night. We had a surprise visit from YouTube founder, Steve Chen (did you know the Google-YouTube merger talks started at Denny's?), and a number of nice calls. Our host, Talkshoe, suffered some growing pains, but I expect most of the wrinkles will be ironed out by next week's show. I told them that there would be a few people listening!

The high-quality edited version will go out on the Inside the Net feed Tuesday, but you can hear the raw and uncut right now at Talkshoe. Show notes are available on the net@nite blog.

I've also posted a brand new TWiT, recorded aboard the ms Veendam. It's a completely new cast - none of the regulars were on the cruise - but I think it's a very good show. Steve Stecklow, a senior writer for the Wall St. Journal was along to explain what the latest stock option backdating scandals mean, the very funny Andy Ihnatko weighs in on bottled water, and security and Perl guru, Randal Schwartz makes boat sounds. Stay tuned at the end for an interlude from our Captain.

I'm home this week, with lots of podcasts to record and post, then it's back to Toronto for another week of Call for Help. The wonderful Cali Lewis of Geekbrief.tv will co-host once again for nine shows. The remaining six will be hosted by three different candidates to replace Amber MacArthur. Yes, on-the-air auditions. It's a first for me, and I'm sure it will be a little scary for the propspective hosts, but that's how they do things in Canadia. The shows will air some time next month. Oh, and one more thing. While I'm in Toronto we'll be holding a launch party for the new undo.tv. Save Tuesday, 11/14, on your calendar. We're taking over No Regrets once again for the event. Details to follow.

Testing Testing

We just ran a short test on Talkshoe in preparation for the launch of our new TWiTcast: net@nite with Amber MacArthur. I was very impressed by the sound quality and interactivity. This is going to be fun!

Talkshoe

2 comments

This is the user interface. You can listen to the show and chat with other listeners live from the Talkshoe site, or call in (a long distance call unless you live in Pittsburgh) to participate. The stream and resulting recording on the Talkshoe site will be telephone quality. I am also recording locally and that high-quality recording will be available on the net@nite podcast feed (http://leo.am/podcasts/itn) the following Tuesday.

Talkshoe Test

3 comments

Just so you can hear the difference, you can hear the local Talkshoe recording (identical to the stream) on the net@nite talkshoe page. The local version that will go onto the podcast is here: