Dedicated to my late brave, beautiful and silly mummy, Debra Ross. I love you mumster.

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Category archive for podcasting

Because archives are so much easier than having just hundreds of posts on the home page. I learned that the hard way.

Bill Withers had a lovely daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay

A tribute to IntoYourHead episode 113, one of the greatest New Time Radio podcast audio magazine interent radio shows I’ve ever heard.

Bill Withers

When I wake up in the morning… love
and the sun light hurts my eyes

And something without warning… love
bears heavy on my mind.
Then I look at you
and the world’s alright with me

Just one look at you and I know it’s gonna be…

A lovely daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay
A lovely daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay

When the day that lies ahead of me,
seems impossible to face
And someone else instead of me,
always seems to know the way
Then I look at you,
and the world’s alright with me

Just one look at you and I know it’s gonna be…

A lovely daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay
A lovely daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay

When the day that lies ahead of me,
seems impossible to face

A lovely daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay
A lovely daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay

And people say I’m weird. Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesh.

Andy The Code Kaufman Geass Quiz Kaufman

The Andy Kaufman, the self professed living comedian who supposedly faked his death sometime between 1912 and 2041 has a series of questions on his website, surprisingly titled AndyKaufmanLives.com.

It took me less than 5 minutes to finish it with what I 110% guarantee are all the SUPERIOR as well as CORRECT answers that were all figured out after months of laborious research. Now it’s just a matter of claiming my prize. Prize is spelt with a "z" right? To help me explain the salience in my answers (salience?), I’m going to employ some folks from Code Geass. The people from Clannad were getting fed up with my ramblings.

ASIDE:I believe it’s related to Santa Clause, Christ and grilled cheese sandwiches as part of a mission to expose covered briefcases that walk away from 70s era bubble walls. Slovakia is on the damned moon people, wake up from your coffee and smell the astroturf! It’s not hard to glance, pretend, expose or sauté mushrooms, all you need is a beginning, a middle and an end-faced bromide concentrate that doesn’t exist, but wishes it did. Damn it wishes it did. Like Baked Alberta. Wait, that was the wrong state.

I could be wrong though, I mean, there’s a first time for everything right?

Man on the Moon

  1. WE WANT THE TRUTH, BAG THE TRUTH MY FATHER SAID, LOADED
  2. He’s very creative, yes I am the babish bagman team oarswomen
  3. Do impressions maybe some bean macaroni
  4. He plans these things he takes over and helps absorb
  5. Mr. Kaufman gets his own naughty Sabbath

Andy Kaufman Revealed

  1. THE DEPTH OF THE CONSPIRACY WAS WITH WAG MACE
  2. I said I was going to look for a walker but ran oat to the bowls
  3. To Andy everything was theater and this was just more rock posture
  4. It was Wednesday May 16 1984 and I had grey hose
  5. Work them up get them angry stomping their feet ablaze, less faceless

Abel Raises Cain

  1. SHORTLY AFTER HAM MADNESS, MY FABRIC DIED OF A HEART ATTACK
  2. Taste it and say that’s Kapsiki not babka
  3. Because this idea was so absurd at the time it sparked an Icelandic Ianthina
  4. At this time I think we shoold talk about cannabis-resin
  5. Traffic had come to a halt because a bull and a cow with heptic sap

The Book of Illusions

  1. SUCH A BRILLIANT BOOK MR. ZIMMER YOU HAVE THE ROBOT TO KISS THE RAIL SMILE
  2. Oh martin Claire says don’t be Calippic
  3. I woold like to meet Hector Mann but how can I be sure he is alive to the baba
  4. After those first hectic minutes there was a sabayon of cake
  5. There is an irrefutable logic to Claire’s statement: Maglip kills his falafel

Bubba Ho-Tep

  1. MR. KENNEDY ASK NOT WHAT YOUR ROAD HACK CAN DO FAN
  2. It’s time for that laelia toast abbey
  3. Big damn bugs alright the size of my fist the size of a peanut butter and banana sandwich man what do I care?
  4. Well well well if it isn’t my favorite pachisi hat, and you!
  5. What kind of life he had you know his kids his gaddingly hip losers

Lost in the Funhouse

  1. WITH THE HELP OF MARTY KLEIN AND THE TALE OF OATEN ABACUS
  2. George Shapiro and Howard West had sold him to the aberrant baked-potato cabaret
  3. George quickly started selling Foreign Man with nagging sausage
  4. Tony Clifton was his name although nobody in New York km/h or hPa
  5. The movie was shot at Sambo’s and there was no Saigon

Eddie and the Cruisers

  1. WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU HAD THE TAPES DOC TWO MA JAWS TWO MA
  2. I want something great I want something nobody’s else does bakery
  3. In the morning they told me Eddie was gone they hadn’t found his ball
  4. When you’re hot you’re hot where you been hiding yourself with Moe
  5. Can I help you guys yeah tell Tony Eddie and the cruisers ass hats

The Rampler #23 through #30

  1. (FROM #23) WHO’S ANDY KAUFMAN A LOT OF TRIP WIRES JUST HAVE NO IDEA
  2. (FROM #24) So you don’t think we’re in some kind of a tabour shoe
  3. (FROM #25) What is this thing called I always see this stupid thing in tacky shells patterns
  4. (FROM #26) The chance that it’s the real andy kaufman is pachinko kool or law
  5. (FROM #27) People just naturally walk at different speeds so they are not like really next to Y2K

Thank you everyone. Questions, comments and suggestions are welcome and will be answered in the reverse order received, so make sure you collate your questions, comments and suggestions in advance so you all know who should post in what order.

9rules is not a manufacturer of luxury tape measures

Yesterday during one of my much enjoyed and looked forward to weekend coffee breaks with my MacBook Pro at the Boatdeck Cafe in Mawson Lakes, I posted a verbose, long winded, fun and largely ridiculous post discussing ways in which bloggers can help to maintain a regular post schedule.

ASIDE: I’m still holding out that if I mention the name of their establishment in almost every post I make, they’ll eventually start sponsoring this blog and my podcast. Flawless logic right? If they can’t afford to pay me, I’d just as happily accept a few free cups a day. Whatya say guys?

9rules leaf logoWhat I wasn’t expecting was a comment from none other than Mike Rundle not of our beloved Rundle Mall I discussed a few weeks ago, but of the selective 9rules blog community in the States. Who would have thunk it?

As it turns out, he was responding to an off the cuff remark I made under the "Caching Solution" heading:

To appear as though you’re more reliable to website alliances like 9rules that value regularity over quality, people write several posts a day, but release them over a period of days.

Mike was quick to correct my misapprehension:

At 9rules we value over quality over quantity any day of the week, and especially when we’re looking at blogs that want to join. If somebody split entries up over a few days just to look like they’re posting more frequently then we’d see right through that.

We’d much rather see a 9r member post great articles once a week or so then lesser quality articles every few days.

As someone who:

  • discusses his primary interest in computer software and lifestyle on his blog
  • posts only on a semi-regular basis
  • does it just as a hobby
  • enjoys grilled cheese sandwiches
  • isn’t even living in the same country as the time zone reported on the site half the time
  • posts as many multifarious, random posts as on-topic posts

… I would certainly never quality for 9rules or any other such site. It doesn’t bother me though because I’m clearly not what they’re looking for. Besides, it works both ways: I’m certainly not changing what I like to do to conform to another system!

I did appreciate Mike’s comment though and replied with a comment that looks quite like this one. Word for word almost, it’s uncanny.

Thanks for your comment Mike.

Rest assured I was mentioning your site very much tongue in cheek! That said, lets just say I know that on the basis of regularity (to say nothing of quality, and only talking about specific subjects) I certainly wouldn’t qualify, and I was making light of it.

I guess being a member of the "Ruben Schade" blogging network is enough work as is, right? :-)

You can find 9rules (surprising thought it may seem) at http://9rules.com/. For what it’s worth, I did manage to find Dan Lockton’s fascinating sustainable architecture website through them, even if he’s no longer a member.

My sophisticated blogging system
My very sophisticated blogging system! Photo from my Flickr account

Ourmedia has deleted me!

This issue has been resolved by the folks at Ourmedia. It did turn out to be a technical problem. I would like to thank them for their quick reply and action, I appreciate it.

Back in early 2005 when I started recording the Rubenerd Show, I discovered through an early show from IT Conversations a website called Ourmedia created by JD Lasica and Marc Canter. Essentially it was a service for free and independent media that you could upload your material onto with the guarantee that it would stay there.

All in all Rubenerd Shows 014 to 066 were uploaded to Ourmedia and were accessible from my generously provided profile page at http://ourmedia.org/user/38566/. In doing so I was able to tag shows, group them together and share them with other people in the system and through external links. I made friends. I discovered other people and materials. It was lots of fun. Unfortunately when I realised that I was going to do many more Rubenerd Shows than I had originally anticipated, I decided to revert back to my own servers because I just didn’t feel right using so much of their bandwidth, and it would only increase as I uploaded more stuff.

With the Overnightscape Rampler spinoff show in full swing, I thought I had finally figured out a less selfish way of using Ourmedia by uploading material I had recorded raw for others to listen to, but more importantly to resample and edit as people see fit in the spirit of Creative Commons and the Free Art Licence.

Ourmedia saying Rubenerd doesn't exist
Ourmedia saying Rubenerd doesn’t exist

Well here we are three years later from when I registered, and I’ve learned the hard way never to trust third parties again with my content! My profile page now redirects to a search page. I was given no warning whatsoever, and the page that replaced mine doesn’t even reference me in any way. Doing a search on Ourmedia for "Ruben Schade" and "Rubenerd" return no results.

The creepy thing is part of the reason I stopped using it was because I felt uncomfortable having so much of my content on a server I didn’t control. Ourmedia had so much potential, and I had a great way to use it. I’m hoping this is a technical glitch and not a deletion!

Update

I just checked, and I can still access my Ourmedia Blog, but when you click the Rubenerd producer link, you are redirected to the empty search page. Perhaps this is a technical glitch? It’s strange because as far as I can tell no other user has been affected, I can navigate hundreds of profiles without a problem.

My page listing the content I’ve uploaded is also available, but none of the links work.

Brian Jude rocks, chemtrails, Hanlon’s razor

Brian Jude has been listening to some Rubenerd Shows, and surprisingly he’s still alive to talk about the experiences afterwards! In his latest detailed comment over on Rubenerd Show 235 (2008.04.10), he made some really nice comments, along with his review of the chemtrail part of the show:

Hey, Ruben! Just finished listening to your dad’s debunking of chemtrails.

What strikes me is his claim that it would take hundreds of planes to affect anyone. Hate to break it to you, but I’m pretty sure there ARE hundreds of planes (I’m sure at least around 100 daily) over the skies of the NYC area dumping this stuff on us. Add to the fact that this has been going on for many years…

And mind control is only one theory of what they’re for. It could also be weather modification, among other theories.

Very curious what your father would say if he read all of the information there is out there, and what he could debunk, and what might make him think could be the explanations!

I’m really loving your show, BTW. Keep up the great work!!!

Brian

Unfortunately my dad doesn’t come back from his latest business trip until tomorrow, but I posted a response to help defend his position:

G’day Brian, thanks for your response, I’m glad you like the show!

As for the hundreds of aeroplanes comment, Singapore is a global hub for Asian-Pacific air travel itself as New York is important, the difference is that not all of these aircraft are over the same, small enough airspace at the same time, and even if they were the supposed biological or chemical mind control material they’d be spewing would not only be oxidised (something I forgot to mention on the show) by the engines and chemically altered when they were superheated, but dissipation forces would render them useless by the time they reached us.

You also have to notice how these purported mind control chemtrails have changed shape and appearance over the years as jet engines themselves have evolved to turbofans, to more efficient turbofans etc. If they really were specifically spewing chemicals, you would expect a similar visual pattern regardless of the aircraft dumping it.

Call me an anti-conspiracy theory guy, but the evidence for most conspiracy theories are either insufficient or downright terrible! I am a skeptic and don’t believe everything I’m told (I’m sure we all are to a certain extent), but asserting something on insufficient evidence sounds much more like Illuminati thinking than the events they’re supposedly uncovering. I’d go so far as to say that people who form conspiracy theories and who misinform people who then take those theories seriously (as opposed to fun, idol speculation we all have from time to time!) is almost akin cult thinking, and is actually not just some harmless fun to those who take them seriously, but is causing real and observable sociological damage.

That could just be me though! Personally I think Hanlon’s razor answers most conspiracy theories quite well, in a fun tongue and cheek way! I guess my biggest problem with people who have conspiracy theories is that they can’t laugh about it. If we don’t have a sense of humour about things, what’s the point of living? Plus what’s a surer sign of confidence than someone who can poke fun at their own position right? :)

Thanks again for the positive comments, I’m no Frank Nora, Jim Kloss, Israel Brown or Brian Richmond but I’m giving it a shot!

Cheers
Ruben

I’ll be off to Malaysia tomorrow, so depending on whether I can get internet access I may not be able to reply to any comments over the next few days.

The Lazy Conspiracy Theorist

Very expensive podcast folder nostalgia

Screenshot of Podcast folder info

I guess I’ve always been the type of person who likes collecting things, perhaps a bit too much for his own good.

Case in point I reinstalled Leopard on my MacBook Pro this evening so I could reformat the drive as case sensitive. As I was about to copy over my iTunes music library from one of my backup drives I noticed big the folder was, and how huge the Podcast folder had become!

I guess I’ve been downloading and listening to podcasts since early 2005, and they do build up! The question is though, what do I do with all of them? Some of the shows in this folder are no longer being produced or are even available anymore I think, and it’d be a shame to delete this collection after downloading for so long. In a nostalgic way it’s fun to listen back to old shows to see what people thought was exciting a few years ago. Look, it’s an iPod that plays video! Google will never buy YouTube! Ants on Mars! Irn-Bru in New York!

It also raises another question: if I don’t delete this folder, how large will it be in 2009? 2010? 2020? Will I need to contemplate buying even more terabyte hard drives or invest in a Blu-Ray burner and stacks of double sided discs just for this stuff?

So much for podcasts being free right? :-).

Old episode of Cranky Geeks!

The podcast word debate is anything but simple!

Afterword: After posting this entry thinking nobody would really read it, I received comments from five fantastic people who have all made me rethink this issue from the ground up… not to mention make me wish I had spent more time on this post in the first place!

You can read my gigantic reponse along with these comments (surprisingly!) in the comments section. Thank everyone for your help and feedback, you’ve all really helped a lot.

Isn’t the internet an amazing place? All this open dialogue with people from around the world, I’m loving it!

It seems there’s a growing number of people who aren’t impressed with the term podcast for one reason or another. From what I’ve been able to gather, these are the most common reasons why (feel free to post a comment below to add to the list):

Techy reasons
  • It implies you need an Apple iPod to listen to them
  • They’re not "casting" because XML is a client pull system, not a server push system!
  • You can’t immedietly figure out what it is when hearing the term the first time
  • It’s a techy, short sighted term with no longevity
The "don’t want to be associated with these" reasons
  • It describes horrible shows like Dawn and Drew
  • Podcasts have become too commercial
  • Antonym to above: podcasts are amateur and silly, nobody takes them seriously and therefore they have no business potential
  • The whole field is dominated by a few large egos

For what it’s worth, I really don’t agree with some of these points, and I’m honestly apathetic with regards to most of the others, I’m just playing devil’s advocate here.

Someone looks jealous!Someone looks jealous!

In response to this, a veratable splattering of adhoc words combined to create podcast-free alternative names have been created:

  • Frank Edward Nora coined the term New Time Radio even before podcasting took off and he continues to use it as an alternative
  • Jimbob Kloss from Whole Wheat Radio refers to them as audio magazines, very catchy!
  • Leo Laporte infamously decided to refer to them as netcasts, which other than the iPod mixup really doen’t solve any of the tech issues at all!

I’m sure a quick Google search would reveal even more such terms.

Which brings me to the Rubenerd Show. I’ve decided I’m going to distance myself from this issue once and for all by calling these shows exactly what they are:

INTERNET RADIO SHOWS

That said, I’ll probably keep using the term podcast interchangably with it though, it’s the accepted term that everyone seems to have settled on and agreed to, and I’m fed up with explaining other new terms to people. Perhaps with time the accepted term will change, in which case I’ll change too. After all, language is an evolving beast that changes as we do, right?

Frank Edward Nora’s electronic makeover!

If you haven’t noticed by now, the visual sorcerer Frank Edward Nora has changed a critical graphical element on two of his online endeavours:

The Overnightscape
The original and best New Time Radio show has got a makeover in the form of a very swish new logo with a crescent moon:

The all new Overnightscape logo!

ONS on Twitter
Frank’s profile picture is of his former self from several years ago. We have the same hair!

Frank Edward Nora circa 2002

RichardDawkins.net