luminary blur

I’m really more interested in trying this out than anything. When Apple finally announced official 3rd party app support, my initial idea of a “killer app” was mobile blogging software. Now that Wordpress for the iPhone is out, my wish has been realized (I know TypePad was first but I’m a Wordpress guy) and here I am blogging from work. Will this newfound ability increase my output? Doubtful. I’ve vowed to be more prolific too many times to count yet this blog still chugs along at one post a month.

Still, the idea of slowly crafting a post via iPhone throughout the day when a spare moment presents itself is an attractive proposition. Heck, it sure beats wasting time on Twinkle which seems to be slowly morphing into some sort of Web 2.0 dating service (see attached screen grab - “female playmate” - enough said).

And so concludes my first truly mobile post. I hope there will be many more.

Note: After posting originally with Wordpress on my iPhone, I went back in with ecto to center the image (for some reason I hate left-aligned images) and also to add a few links to the body of the post. Despite some minor post-production, I think posting from my iPhone is powerful indeed and will—hopefully—drive me to be more active.

written by Ben \\ tags: iPhone, Twinkle, Wordpress

I feel I’ve been neglecting Luminary Blur for a while. Normally I’d blame it on procrastination or disinterest or really good TV shows (how about that Lost finale). This time, however, I’ve got some good reasons.

• Building a podcast network. Yes, a network. “Doesn’t a network require more than one podcast,” you ask. Indeed it does, and I’m proud to say that the Kwinix Podcast Network now features two regularly produced podcasts. The first is The Switchcast, which amazingly is up to four episodes with the fifth coming any day now. Mac vs. PC, OS X vs. Windows, iPhone vs. Windows Mobile. It’s always a lively debate and I anticipate more intense discussions as the launch of the 3G iPhone is almost here. The newest addition to the network is Dinner Voyeur, a fine dining podcast featuring Scot T. Kokandy. While the first episode was a solo effort, Scot is looking forward to bringing more collaborators into the mix to create some lively discussions around the finest restaurants in Chicago (and beyond). In fact, if you know of any establishment that begs for Scot’s podcast treatment, send him an e-mail. Finally, to create a more “unified” feel to the network, I’ve created an intro that identifies our shows as belonging to the Kwinix Podcast Network. I’ve embedded it below for your listening pleasure—don’t worry, it’s only eight seconds long.
  Kwinix Podcast Network Intro
• Building a website. This is something I used to do a lot and wouldn’t mind doing it more often. I’ve become quite a Joomla expert (I’m currently building a new version of my mom’s Pella Community Day Care site) so when my old college roommate asked me if I was interested in deploying a site for Gonzales Regal Miniature Dachshunds, I jumped at the chance. The site is done for the most part and the first litter has arrived.

I guess that isn’t too much but these two projects have really taken up a lot of my time for the last few weeks. I hope to continue to develop both my podcasting prowess as well as my website development expertise. Thanks for journeying with me.

written by Ben \\ tags: Dinner Voyeur, Kwinix Podcast Network, Podcasting, Tech, The Switchcast

For all your Microsoft fanboys out there, I just had to excerpt this Paul Thurrott rant from the latest episode of Windows Weekly with Leo Laporte. I laughed the whole way through because it’s so true. So very very true. And it’s linked (and playable) below for your listening enjoyment.

Windows Mobile Rant from Windows Weekly 58 [128 kbps MP3, 2.8 MB, 3:04]

written by Ben \\ tags: Leo Laporte, Microsoft, Paul Thurrott, Tech, Windows Mobile

I finally ordered my Flip Video Ultra and got it today via the fine United States Postal Service. Here’s my unboxing video:

I anticipate shooting much video with my new Flip and will be posting it in one of two places:

Vimeo or Flickr

written by Ben \\ tags: Flickr, Flip, Tech, Video, Vimeo

Yes, I’ve finally decided to actually do an audio podcast as a compliment to my wildly successful video podcast, The Ben Show. It’s called The Switchcast and is essentially a podcast about Apple vs. Microsoft, OS X vs. Windows, iPhone vs. the rest of the phones, etc. I’m serving as the resident Apple evangelist and my cousin Tim Wachowiak is providing the alternative, Microsoft-oriented viewpoint. So far we’ve got one episode up although it’s so far off from what we intend the podcast to eventually become that I haven’t even assigned it a number—it’s just a “feed test.” I’ve included a link below that will allow you to play it inline if you so choose.

Switchcast Feed Test [128 kbps MP3, 11.45 MB, 12:24]

Tim and I had originally settled on a weekly Friday evening recording schedule but we’ve already missed our first Friday so I’m not sure what will happen at this point. Maybe tomorrow we’ll get around to recording Episode 001. The hardest part about a regular show—as I’m sure veteran podcasters can attest to—is finding enough stuff to talk about. I’m trying to come up with a set of “features” that we’ll have every episode. Borrowing from Leo Laporte, I’d like to have a “tip of the week” for both the Mac and Windows listeners. i’d also like to highlight something each of us has found useful in the past week, whether that’s a new app, a web service, or some sort of gadget. I’m entertaining ideas for other segments so if there are any suggestions out there please send them to switchcast@gmail.com.

Continue reading »

written by Ben \\ tags: Podcasting, Tech, The Switchcast, Web

I listened to Episode 5 of Don Reisinger’s great The Digital Home podcast on the way home from work today. I enjoyed everything that Andy Ihnatko had to say (as I almost always do) and most of what James McQuivey of Forrester Research had to say. That is until he got to talking about the Apple TV.

Continue reading »

written by Ben \\ tags: Apple, Apple TV, Handbrake, Tech

Now that I’ve got 1.1.4 jailbroken on my iPhone with not one but two package managers with which to obtain 3rd-party apps, I may not care what Apple announces on Thursday. For now, here’s some shots of my home screens…after the jump. Continue reading »

written by Ben

As a new Leopard user (as of today), I was very happy to see this tip. I already have a black dock.

Open source System Prefs pane by Quicksilver author “Alcor” that gives you a GUI for tweaking secret preferences, both for software that ships with Mac OS X and for third-party apps, with the information about the secret prefs coming from a publicly accessible database. (Via Chris Messina.)

? [From Secrets 1.0b13]

written by Ben \\ tags: Apple, Leopard, Tech

Wow. Gruber quoting someone from Opera? Makes me feel less guilty that I’m an Opera for Mac user. Speaking of which, did you know that Opera has a new developer blog devoted entirely to the Mac version of the currently-in-beta Opera 9.5?

As for the quote below, while I don’t disagree with what Mr. Altman is saying, I haven’t noticed any serious problems with using Gmail’s IMAP implementation with Apple Mail for Tiger. I’m assuming Apple Mail for Leopard will work similarly well. I haven’t ever tried using IMAP with Opera’s M2 mail client although I did use it in the past as my primary POP e-mail program.

Tim Altman, QA lead for Opera Mail, on Gmail’s IMAP support:

Gmail’s labeling system could integrate marvelously with IMAP clients if only it used IMAP keywords. Instead, IMAP mailboxes are used to represent labels. All messages (sent and received) are always available in the “Gmail/[All Mail]” mailbox, so any time a message is labeled, a duplicate message is added to the label’s IMAP mailbox. IMAP clients then receive several copies of the same message, none of which integrate with the client-side labeling system. If Gmail had instead used IMAP keywords, only one message would be needed and integration would be seamless.

? [From Gmail’s Buggy IMAP Implementation]

written by Ben \\ tags: Apple, Opera, Reblog, Tech, Web

This popped up in my Rogue Amoeba “Under The Microscope” RSS feed and I think it provides some invaluable information for podcasters so I’ve decided to reblog it here. I’m a paid user of Audio Hijack Pro and absolutely recommend it.

Podcasting has come a long way since it was first mentioned on our blog in 2004. Instead of a separate podcasting app, we’ve worked to improve Audio Hijack Pro, making it the premier tool for recording podcasts. There are now hundreds of podcasts being recorded with help from Audio Hijack Pro and Skype.

Now, Doug Kaye and Paul Figgiani have posted a fantastic tutorial on recording Skype from Audio Hijack Pro.

This tutorial goes into great depth, providing step-by-step instructions for checking your net connection, configuring Skype and setting up Audio Hijack Pro. If you’ve been looking to get into podcasting, or just need to record Skype conversations for any reason, check out this tutorial then grab Audio Hijack Pro to get started.

[From How To: Record Skype Calls With Audio Hijack Pro]

written by Ben \\ tags: Podcasting, Rogue Amoeba, Skype, Tech, Web