The Podcast Rebranded!

I have been podcasting now for two and a half years. For most of that time I have been producing The Global Geek Podcast. There have been a number of co-hosts and partners, it has been great fun and very rewarding. For most of this time the show resided as part of The Podcast Network, but there comes a time when you want to spread your wings and fly. The Global Geek Podcast is no more.

On the 19th of July the final Global Geek was posted. But this was not an end for myself and co-hosts. We decided to strike out on our own server and with it rebranding the show. So was born the Aussie Geek Podcast.

The reasons were many and we thought long and hard about making the move, it was a difficult decision. I really appreciated The Podcast Network and what C.E.O Cam Reilly is trying to achieve. The people and the community are awesome. We left T.P.N with no hard feelings that I know of and did not go out of our way to create any. Cam was aware however, that we were frustrated with not being able to tweak the blog in the way that we wanted to as well as having the fine level of control that we as geeks craved. Although it was very disappointing to have seen that comments on the last GGP referring to the new URL of the podcast were deleted by someone.

But we are off on a big adventure and we are loving it. We have built the site and are posting madly. It was awesome to see that we are already making great gains in Google results. Although I am sure that we have taken a big hit in numbers. That true figure is yet to be known as we have not posted a show as yet. The long and the short of that is that we are waiting on an update to the WordPress plugin called PodPress to be compatible with WordPress 2.6.

I am really enjoying the collaboration and multiple authors that we were not able to fully realize before. In addition Tim has been posting some awesome Quick Tips in video format and we have some great plugins that our readers and listeners can take advantage of.

It would be great to pull our community over to the new blog and podcast, so jump over and say hello. Don’t forget to upgrade your links and RSS feed while you are there! We will be posting the first full show as soon as we can.

I was bummed that we did not make it to the 100th show, at 90 it was so close. We have decided to start at 1 for the AGP.

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The Podcast Network v3.0

This is great news, although it did happen a few days ago now. But when it did we were in full swing getting the podcast ready and that means I have little time to blog anything. The Podcast Network announced the launch of  a brand new version of the homepage.

Complete with Ajax goodness and a completely different look. If you know nothing about podcasts there are links at the top to get you up to speed and listening to some great content. TPN is a the place to look for good regular podcasts. The right hand side menu gives you all the podcasts on The Podcast Network, separated into categories.

If you have not visited The Podcast Network before and want to know what it is all about, now is as good a time as ever. Nice work Cam and the development team. Next the show blogs! (That was a hint).

The Global Geek Podcast belongs to The Podcast Network. Hosted by Knightwise and myself weekly. Here is our latest show if you enjoy it, head over to our blog on TPN and subscribe. In addition to that I also post regularly there as well as here.

G’day World Podcast Reaches 200 Shows!

Rooster’s Rail extends sincere congratulations and a slap on the back to Cameron Reilly on reaching 200 episodes of G’day World on The Podcast Network.

Incidentally The Podcast Network turned 2 this week as well. Have a look at The Podcast Network two years ago using the Wayback Machine courtesy of Internet Archive. Great effort Cam and a huge achievement. Looking forward to the next 100.

Cam has put a show out nearly every day for the last two years, is CEO of The Podcast Network and has a firm conviction for the success and love of the medium that is podcasting.

Cam’s 200th show features the best of G’day World Guests since it has started.

An Irreverent Podcast

There has been a discussion going on in the latest podcast from Cameron Reilly of G’day World. It is about how can we promote podcasts and podcasting. There have been a few responses from listeners about what they think. Such as giving away a Wii. This to us podcasters would be great… as long as you are providing it! So I made the suggestion that people blog about a podcast that they listen to on The Podcast Network. Here is my take on G’day World and me “putting my money where my mouth is”.

G’day World is hosted by Cameron Reilly, CEO of The Podcast Network and pretty much the flagship show of the Network. Generally has a show every week day unless he has an Xbox night with his mates…

“G’DAY WORLD, the very first Australian podcast, is an irreverent rant about technology, science, politics and the arts by Cameron Reilly, CEO of The Podcast Network.”

Cam is opinionated, blunt and at times argumentative. His latest show talks in part about the fact that it was pointed out to him that he was abrasive when talking about certain topics. It was an interesting reflection that he had about himself in response to that. It is partly true as Cam believes he is right and you can get totally owned being on the show. Is that a good thing? In some respects yes. To be that self assured and certain about what you believe in is great. To be so at the expense of someone else nope. So it was good to hear Cam reflect on that, it showed his listeners another side of him. Something I thought I would never hear from Cam.

One thing that I respect about Cam is the fact that he is very well read and has wide and varied interests. This is reflected in the topics he covers on the show. He is a passionate movie buff and also co-hosts The Movie Show. Cam is into science and technology although does not consider himself a geek. History on the other hand is also an interest and is reflected in his hosting of Napoleon 101. He is also very passionate about online media and podcasting and what it means to be a podcaster.

So why does that make a good podcast? You Never know what you are going to get for one. I enjoy listening to Cam’s perspectives on life and everything. I don’t agree with him all the time but I think he is a deep thinker and has the unique ability to put that thinking into words. That is hard to do. I start putting what I think into words and it never comes out the way I expected or intended.

G’day World is also very funny. I remember one time I was listening in the car and almost ran off the road I laughed so hard. Can not remeber for the life of me what that was about now. But yes the show is also funny. Maybe another unexpected bonus that makes it a good listen.

Why do I listen to it. Not sure. I think it is because sometimes you can not help but to listen. I was a bit like that with one of the latest things Cam has been about: “Curing Christians“. I have not got into the argument, but I disagree with what he is doing. Cam doesn’t want Christians influencing politics and decision making as much as he perceives it does. His answer: Cure some Christians. I believe that a belief system is part of being human and part of who we are. Destroy that and you take some of the person away. I think Cam should attack the thing he has the beef with and that in my opinion is the influence that a minority have over the majority on public policy. He will disagree with that. But I listened and I respect his view, at least he has one and isn’t afraid to say it.

Cam is currently running a competition where you could win a $50 Amazon voucher. What do you have to do? Just register with the online form and send some referrals Cam’s way! Currently he has zero takers so if you are the only one to register then you’ll get the prize. For the record I have not registered nor a part of this competition.

G’day World is entertaining, period. Why? Even myself I am not sure why; but it is. I would recommend G’day World for a listen, it might not be your cup of tea but then you won’t know if it is or not unless you do. While you are there check out some of the other great shows on The Podcast Network you will find something you like. Please remember to leave a comment on the podcaster’s blog, just to let them know what you think or just your opinion. As podcasters we value that and it means a lot to us. Easy for you and invaluable to us. Keep up the good work Cam.

DISCLOSURE: G’day World is part of The Podcast Network where The Global Geek Podcast is also a part, of which I am one of the hosts. I have in no way been offered any incentive or been requested to write this post. These are my opinions and original ideas and not those of The Podcast Network or Cameron Reilly.

Edit ID3 Tags Easily

Being a podcaster I have cause to edit ID3 tags on a regular basis. For some reason unknown to me I have had no end of issues getting it right. To this day you download the podcast and I don’t see any album art. But I now have a great solution.

ID3 tags are like an attachment of extra data to an MP3 file that tell you all that good stuff about the file like who the artist is and what album it comes from. Or metadata for the geeks. This is especially important with MP3 players like iPods. Album art is a great addition to a podcast and ours has recently been updated and now includes Knightwise my co-host so I want it in there. Plus I am a perfectionist and I want everything perfect.

So I have tried a few methods and none have been great or easy. The first thing I used was the Advanced Tag Editor in Windows Media Player (WMP). Most people would say that was a poor choice, I agree. But since I had never done it before and the parameters I had to use were described in terms of WMP I used it. For some reason when I edited tags using the Advanced Tag Editor they would not be saved or would sometimes work and sometimes not. I have not been able to find out why, so I gave up and used the tag editor that is part of WinAmp, it worked but does not support album art.

It came up in our The Podcast Network Intranet that the Tag editor was a pain to find in WMP 11 (which is true). Then it came out that most of us did not use WMP. A few alternatives came out. One being iTunes which I was not keen on. Mainly because it added more things to what I had to do. Add file to Music, edit the tag, remove the file. Just painful, probably effective though. Then an application called AudioShell was suggested. This was the best bit of advice I could have received.

AudioShell is an extension to the Microsoft Windows Explorer shell. It adds two tabs to the right click → Properties screen as shown here:

From here you see the extended information for the selected file. The second tab is the editor. Edit the tag and add the art and hit OK or apply and your tag is complete. Very easy and simple. With seamless integration to the tasks that I do, I am stoked. (Note cool new album art for The Global Geek Podcast).

The supported file formats is impressive:

• MP3: all ID3 tag versions
• wma, asf and wmv (including DRM protected files)
• m4a, m4b, m4p and mp4
• ogg, flac (vorbis comment tags)
• mpc, mp+ (APE/APEv2 tags)
• monkey’s audio (APE/APEv2 tags)
• wav pack (APE/APEv2 tags)
• optim frog (APE/APEv2 tags)
• wav (ID3v2 tag in ‘tag’ RIFF chunk)

So that should cover most peoples requirements and certainly those of the average podcaster. So now I am going to use this over everything else because it can not get any easier. All the best things are free as is this software, so even better. Obviously being an explorer extension it is a Windows only application.

Many thanks to Ewan Spence, host of TPN Rock on The Podcast Network for his recommendation.