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January 25th, 2006

Excellent Tips on creating a Podcast

It appears Craig Shoemaker’s Polymorphic Podcast is a year old this month. As a side-effect
of running through his year as a podcaster Craig gives out some great tips on how
to start, grow and publicize your own podcast.

This special show is under 15 minutes long and I recommend everyone listen to it. If
you are interesting in achieving a ‘fame goal’; MVP, Podcaster, CEO
of Disney or whatever than take tips from Craig and get yourself noticed:

http://polymorphicpodcast.com/podcast/files/PolymorphicPodcast-2006-01-11.mp3

http://polymorphicpodcast.com/shows/anniversary1/

Note: Craig did mention this blog in this show, but I had already decided to
make this post. Hearing my name on a Podcast is always a big deal to this shy
geek - thanks Craig!

Posted by Paul Lockwood as Other, Podcasts at 9:10 PM MST

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January 23rd, 2006

Plasma TV + PC? Make them Pixel Perfect

There is a lot of bad advice going around about hooking up a PC to a Plasma TV + I have seen several people driving their Plasma TV at 800×600 from their PC. Last week I bought an ED Maxent Plasma ($1200) so can finally comment:

What I knew people were missing is that most modern video cards allow you to set a custom resolution which matches exactly that of your Plasma TV. I took several screen shots when using my year old GForce 4000MX
with the latest NVIDIA common driver, but don’t have time to make a decent post and decided to just blog the basics:

If you have a regular ED Plasma set the resolution to 852×480 (16:9 480p) and preferably connect via DVI/hdmi which is 100% digital from your video card to the TV so there is no need to buy those expensive ‘monster’ cables unless the distance is more than a few meters. Note that HDMI is backwards compatible with DVI and adapters are cheap. If you get it connected and the picture is not perfect try 854×480 or lookup the exact resolution of your TV; when you hit the right numbers you will know as the result will pixel perfect.

My Plasma has 2 component, 2 s-video, one DVI and one RGB input that I could use with the PC. DVI is perfect. RGB is very good, but not all pixels are crisp, s-video was not so good and I don’t have an adapter to try the component. Just use DVI/ HDMI and demote the PVR to component video as TV. Hopefully it won’t be too long before TVs have at least three hdmi inputs.

Other randon Geek AV Tips:

Running out of digital amplifier inputs like I was? New amps are expensive so just use TosLink splitters/ combiners which are cheap. I ordered a whole bunch of 3′ and 6′ toslinks cables for next to nothing at the same time. Obviously only  one device can be on at once or the optical signals collide. Oh yeah many people don’t realize that their laptop probably outputs a digital signal too; if bought the standard Phillips $16 toslink cable then you already have a 3.5mm toslink adapter. Look for a red light in your laptops 3.5mm outputs - that’ll be the digital signal.

Are you now planning to run DVI cables through your walls to the media-server closet? Use hdmi and adapters instead because the connectors are much smaller and you’ll get a much neater looking faceplate + be more future-proof; I am doing this soon and will have two video cards in the same media PC to drive a TV in the family room
and one in the media room. I use Powermids to control the PC via infra-red keyboards and it works great. Powermids will also be used when I finally get a decent entertainment center to hide the front speakers + ugly PVR, amp, xbox etc (look for optional mesh door fronts to hide speakers behind if you are in the market; Haverty’s are good value). When the xbox-360 is hackable each room will get a 360 and the PC will become a real server; until then it is needed to view content like h.264 as the old xbox with xbmc does not have the horsepower to play higher bitrates.

NVidia is the card I recommend mainly because some buddies from my first Masters degree are kicking ass for them right now. Other cards should let you set a custom resolution, but I am no expert in video cards. Unless you play PC games I recommend just buying the cheapest Nvidia based card that supports DVI out and I’ll bet it will support custom resolution.

Finally, why did I buy a cheap Maxent? Well it was $500 cheaper than the Panasonic ED I really wanted + it whatever I buy today will be replaced when 1080p 50″ Plasma’s are affordable, which I estimate will be a reality in about two years. For fellow cheapskates the Maxent is a very good TV; not quite as crisp as the Panasonic ED, but when viewing from 13  feet away you will barely notice the difference. The Maxent has removable speakers too which was must-have along with the stack of video inputs. Real geeks buy LCDs for the true 1080p, but unless you play games from a few away you are better off looking at 42″ Plasma for TV viewing today (Jan 2006). LCD prices are dropping very quickly so you can maybe bur the true 1080p 42″ screen later in the year for under $1000?

Posted by Paul Lockwood as HDTV, Other at 9:22 PM MST

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January 14th, 2006

HanselMinutes Podcast Review

HanselMinutes (.Net and Tech
Tools)

Scott Hanselman has utilized Carl Franklin’s skills (or vice-versa) to deliver
a well produced podcast right out of the box.

Scott agrees with me that many podcasts are full of fluff and he tries hard to be
different. He has often said that Podcasting Sucks, and I would like to know how he
fills in his ‘dead time’ while commuting, keeping fit and mowing the lawn.
On tech news I now have such a leap over anyone I know it is untrue.

Back to Scott; you probably know already he lives technology 24/7 and I cannot believe
how much he knows about such a breadth of subjects. He must sleep 4 hours a day or
do research as part of his day job. On the podcast he talks about many of the tools
he uses + thi week gave some interesting information on his use of the xbox 360 and
other media servers using UPnP but
Scott brushed over the issues Carl alluded
to.

In summary: All developers should try out this podcast, I enjoy just
listening to how someone of Scott’s intellect talks about tech. As with 95% of podcasts
some sections bored me and it is a little ad heavy. If anyone knows
of a media player with a skip forward/ back button please let me know.

Posted by Paul Lockwood as Podcasts at 9:34 AM MST

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January 7th, 2006

Google Pack (all proles on Linux by 2010?)

It looks like Google is heading towards an ‘everything-casual-PC-users-need’ on their desktop pack:

http://pack.google.com/

Scott already made excellent comments on the s/w so I won’t repeat his comments other than to say Acrobat is not ‘that’ evil (unlike the Real Player), but I am swapping to FoxIt asap:

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/PermaLink.aspx?guid=b93fd18e-82cd-4038-9a1b-d7ed224d46ad

So it appears Google is attempting to get the proles hooked on their easy install software - it looks like it will auto-update eventually providing a maintenance free PC? Already it notifies of new versions available for download- nice! Now fast forward to eighteen months from now: 80% of regular internet users have the Google Pack installed, and by then it has good office capabilities (certainly possible if Google throws 300 cheap Chinese engineers at Open Office)…

Today several apps in Google Pack already exist in Linux. When Google Pack is a comprehensive desktop suite and identical software exists in Linux what is stopping a free Google OS based on Linux? Imagine a Net PC like Larry Ellison tried to offer in the nineties; it will be cheap, secure (because of intense peer review) and do everything 90% of internet users require. Would you like another prediction? In 2006 Google will make in-roads into their own DRM solution(s) - they need this before big-studios allow content on Google’s OS.

Am I way off base or is this a possible scenario? Either way this is much more likely that Google selling Pizza making robots; I love Bill, but public comments like that only show how much Microsoft fears cash rich Google.

Posted by Paul Lockwood as Other at 7:57 AM MST

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January 4th, 2006

Polymorphic Podcast Review

Given that my recent review of the Polymorphic Podcast was based mostly on vague memories amends have been made and I listened to six recent episodes since. The original ‘review’is repeated later, but be assured that the new text is still honest sans-hype. Always
covering positive and negatives is something of a trademark; it even got me fired once! After dumping the ‘difficult guy’ the project limped on using the same architecture for two more years, it cost millions more in taxpayers money before the Government agency finally caught onto their game. After three years the only product was a stack of high-dollar invoices! The moral? Save millions of dollars by hiring (and listening to) honest developers. In my thirteen years of IT consulting people playing politics has never helped a project. We were getting close to an enjoyable rant there, but let’s get back to the review:
Polymorphic
Podcast (.Net specific)

Craig Shoemaker has made great progress with this podcast which he clearly puts a lot of effort into. Craig appears to be a full time .Net developer and produces semi-scripted well planned introductions to .Net technologies spliced with interviews of .Net luminaries.

Much like DNR the interviews depend on who is being interviewed and Craig makes a pretty good Larry King extracting the most from his guests. I would be slapping the guests around for technical accuracy, but that is a one good reason I do not have a podcast! Talking of technical accuracy; not once did I hear Craig give out inaccurate information. He obviously researches before pressing record.

Audio quality is often a bug-bear of niche podcasts. In true ‘my laptop has a built-in-mike and I want to podcast now’ style the audio was initially terrible; I think Craig did it on one those ‘plastic-cup-tied-to-a-piece-of-wet-sting that ran to his neighbor’s house’ type device we all played with a kids. He was probably underwater at the time too, speaking through his nose… I could go on <g> Download his first podcast
and take a trip back to podcasts in early 2005.

Seriously like many other podcasts from early to mid 2004 the audio was bad, but it is now high quality well put together audio and it was wonderful to hear a podcast hero Scott Fletcher give a professional intro and exit piece (I love Scott’s podcast on podcasting and hope
he does not fade).

Advertisements/ sponsors: Many podcasters are attempting to monetize their shows, and considering the effort involved who can blame them? Given the number of ad-free podcasts still available the Slashdot review is only show where I put up with advertisements, because the content is worth it. Fortunately Craig’s advertisements are pretty unobtrusive with none disturbing a show’s main content; evidently he thought hard about how to advertise.

In summary this is a must try for mid-level .Net developers. .Net newbies will be lost because unlike DNR Craig makes some assumptions of the listener’s knowledge. Sadly book-consuming, blog-devouring seniors devs will not hear anything
new. For the senior guys interesting in podcasting, this is still a good example of how an amateur can produce a professional sounding show.
So was my first review really ‘that’ bad? Here it is unaltered:

From memory the audio quality used to really bad, but I caught some of the recent Atlas show and it has improved massively.

While typing this I am playing an episode in the background which activated a few neurons. This show has a format somewhat similar to .Net Rocks and has obviously taken ideas from Mr. Curry et-al. I am pretty sure the technical content is somewhat mid-level with a reasonable amount of non-technical content (like the ‘.Net Praise emails’ etc). Non-tech content is great when delivered with Rory Blythe’s humor, but as I subscribe to 20+ podcast feeds this ‘time-filler’ is why I skipped the shows quickly. Still I am sure many people enjoy this show.

In summary I have may have rated this show unfairly. Please flame me publicly below or email and I’ll amend this entry

Posted by Paul Lockwood as Podcasts at 8:21 PM MST

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January 2nd, 2006

Technical Podcasts Recommendations

Remember the debate over the word podcast? Bet you probably know someone who a better word for ‘compressed audio file transmitted via http and an RSS enclosure’ right? Media Cast, Radio Me, Audio Blog are just a few of the plethora of suggestions we heard; PodCast was just to aligned with Apple for most of us. How many times have you been asked if podcasts only work on iPods when try to explain podcasting to a (non-geek) friend, it is almost every time for me. Well it is too late Podcast is a word, and wait it gets worse, it is the New Oxford American Dictionary word of the year. This must be true as it says so in wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcast) LOL! You all heard the rumors about Adam Curry right? http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=adam+curry+wikipedia

Many of us were rooting for a less device specific term, but even after five product generations Apple’s iPod is still the MP3 player cool kids ask Santa for. Alternatives are available, but even I as a hard-core specification scouring, value demanding geek ended up with an iPod. After seeing endless conformist white ear-buds in Europe I would really like to change it but there is no good alternative to the iPod mini yet;
witness the higher than new prices of used iPod minis on eBay now it has ceased production. Atlanta’s tech-crowd seem have to labeled me as the local podcast guy, so I am upholding the un-elected position and giving everyone another nudge to check out at least few of my favorite podcasts.

.Net Rocks

Carl Franklin releases an incredible amount of energy into the .Net community. Not least of those efforts is his Internet Radio Show called .Net Rocks. This show predates the word Podcast having kicked off in August 2002, when the dinosaurs were still around burning their downloaded MP3 ‘podcasts’ to compact discs.

This show started out pretty technical with co-host Mark Dunn, really taking off with world famous co-host Rory Blythe and many of us are still weeping at his departure. The show’s format seems to have found a resting place with Richard Campbell helping Carl steer the helm. In 2003 and 2004 there were some terrificly technical shows particularly the ones with Kimberly Tripp, Don Box and Ted Neward. Over the last year the show generally gravitated to simpler subject matter and is now aimed at junior developers looking to keep up with the buzzword alphabet soup. I believe the audience is now very large which is great for Carl and Richard who play the fame game for their business (not a bad thing at all!!).

In summary this is one of the best produced niche shows out there; their audio quality is great and these guys have found a format that works. If you are less than a year into .Net then listen to this show all you can. Unfortunately if you have two or more years .Net you will find yourself frustrated with the amount of technical errors in the show. I still skim-listen to the shows, but am careful not to believe all that is said.

ASP.Net Podcast

This is almost a polar-inversion of .Net Rocks. Wallace McClure (MVP, multiple author, ASPInsider, blah blah blah) really know his .Net and his show would send shivers of terror down a junior developer’s spine. The audience for this show consists mainly of MVPs, Microsoft staff and senior devs, not as large an audience as for the slickly produced .Net Rocks, but very heavy in terms of influentials.

Recently the audio quality has gotten much better, but I don’t recommend digging too far into the archives unless you love listening to am radio while driving through a tunnel (sorry Wally!). This show is very much a bit flipper with a mike talking tech, and Wally often recruits other .Net talent from around the world to share their knowledge and ideas.

In summary this podcasts focuses on content rather than slick production tricks. If you are a senior dev then tune in; I am a fan of this podcasts but still use the skip button now and again.

The Polymorphic Podcast

Craig Shoemaker runs this show and appears to be a full time .Net developer. Unfortunately I have not listened to too many of these shows and must address this… check back tomorrow for a better review, by which time I will have listened to some recent shows.

Frankie’s Friday Flashback (.Net/ Technology)

Another friend of mine here; Frank La Vigne is a compulsive blogger has recently started podcasting.

If you are an amateur thinking of podcasting you must listen to Frank’s first show. He obviously took a lot of time in deciding how to assemble the podcast and it is very close to emulating professional quality. I for one hope he keeps this show up; I know the effort required to make quality podcasts is non-trivial.

TWIT - This Week in Tech

Returning from the Screen Savers Leo Laporte has done an excellent job with this podcast. For a while it was drifting into a just tech-journalists talking about how great they are, with useful subject matter like what their Nanny had for dinner last night (seriously!). If you stopped listening because of this tune in again, they have really got their act together.

The subject is general technology news and all in all I learn a good bit from these shows. Of course when they talk about a topic I understand (.Net, XviD, cars etc) it is obvious they have very little technical knowledge. Probably this is is true of any journalist on any topic, but at my level (bumbling bit flipper) this does not often matter; I just pick up buzzwords and get a feel for where markets are heading. Steve Gibson is the one exception of their crew; if you hear technical corrections being made then that’s Steve talking. In summary this podcast is a must listen unless they drift back into non-tech filler mode.

Security Now

Listening to Stephen Gibson talk about security can actually make my day. This show is about thirty minutes long and is pretty basic for the first 15 minutes. Stick with the show Steve opens up the floodgates in the latter half of the show and I always end-up expanding my knowledge.

In summary everyone in technology should listen to these shows, even managers with pointy hair.

One hour of typing later… well that’s my reviews for today - I have many more shows to recommend but I’ll wait and see if people liked this post first + after a two week vacation I need to grab my running gear and get outside before the pounds tart piling on again.Grrr…. I had nice CSS formatting on this post while creating it in Dreamweaver and Das Blog has zapped it, Grrrrr.

Posted by Paul Lockwood as Podcasts at 6:25 PM MST

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January 1st, 2006

My Highlights of 2005 and Goals for 2006

After finding Chris’, Paul’s and Wally’s posts
interesting I followed their lead:

Professional Highlights of 2005

Personal Highlights of 2005

Professional Goals for 2006

Personal Goals for 2006

Posted by Paul Lockwood as Other at 10:55 AM MST

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NON TECH: Science of buying a New Car [Update following flames]

Neighbors must wonder what is wrong with my finances; One year I’ll be driving a $3K used hatchback and the next a new BMW. The sticker cost of a car often has little correlation to the enjoyment it gives. As someone who obsesses over details the overall cost of car ownership is something I am very interested in. For many years all my auto purchases are rationalized with a little help from Microsoft Excel, Kelley’s Blue Book and Edmunds.com. Note that I use many techniques to obtain amazing discounts on cars too, but we are not discussing that today.

Within the next four weeks my intention is to buy a ‘99 Miata and prepare it for auto-crossing. Last night I realized the highly regarded new for ‘06 MX-5 Miata only costs $21K and with the warranty, rapid progress of car technology etc thought it might be a better buy than a used one…. some spreadsheet work later:

Do you see the power of taking a little time with research? A $21K Miata costs the same as a $31K BMW to own and double the cost of a used one!!! Also note that these are ALL IN COSTS, do not compare these numbers to lease quotes. The costs above include sales tax, insurance, maintenance, new tires, gasoline etc. They assume a private sale of the car after three years ownership which is obtained from KBB.com.

The spreadsheet looks like this and you can download it by clicking here:

carspreadsheet001.PNG


The spreadsheet does assume paying cash, which would otherwise earn 5% interest per year. Alter the percentage and I think it will be pretty close to financing. Open up the spreadsheet and you will be surprised at the real costs of some vehicles; interestingly in the USA the real cost is largely a function of residual value whereas in the UK fuel costs are normally a large percentage of the pie. The trick to good residual value is to buy a high regarded car with a strong market for used examples, the Honda Civic and BMW Mini are prime examples; then buy that car with as few optional extras as you possibly live without.

Did you notice in the spreadsheet that a base model BMW 325i costs $510/ month where a fully loaded 330i costs $1080/ month - these are essentially the same automobile, but over three years the loaded one costs an extra $20,500!! Are you looking to justify that surround sound kit and 42″ HD Plasma to your wife… I am kidding the money obviously goes into a pension or kid’s college savings fund, right?

Final tips on buying a car

Posted by Paul Lockwood as Other at 9:47 AM MST

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