All Narfed Up words and photography by Bryan Villarin

Podcasts

Podcasts I love

In Funny, Photography, Podcasts on 27 October 2008 with 3 comments

When I’m on the Metro or driving without friends, I’m listening to podcasts. I haven’t made a list here in awhile, so I thought I’d share in hopes you’d like them, too.

• This Week in Photography (a.k.a. TWiP; iTunes Store URL)
• PhotoNetCast (Antonio Marques, Martin Gommel, Jim M. Goldstein, Brian Auer; iTunes Store URL)
• EXIF and Beyond (Jim M. Goldstein; iTunes Store URL)
• The Kevin & Bean Show¹ (KROQ, iTunes Store URL)

Yes, most of these are photography-related. I don’t have any favorites…I love them all equally! The last one is definitely the oddball out of the others, but sometimes I just want mindless humor.

One more thing: listening to podcasts don’t require the use of an iPod. You can listen to them on your computer, any MP3 player, or burned onto a CD-R disc.

Enjoy!

Speed up podcasts for free with foobar2000

In Podcasts, Software, Time Savers, Tip on 20 March 2008 with 2 comments

A commenter (Freddie) was struggling with speeding up podcasts with Audacity. (See my how-to on speeding up podcasts with Audacity, version 1 and version 2.) Then, he found this article:

“Time stretching [MP3s] and other audio” by Blake Tolbert

I haven’t tried foobar2000 — because I’ve only been into the Kevin and Bean’s podcast from KROQ lately — but it looks legit and much simpler.

Oh yeah, welcome the new blogger! He doesn’t have a contact page and his comment form is broken, so let’s send him some traffic so he could see a spike from my blog.

How to speed up podcasts for free with Audacity (v2)

In How-to, Open Source, Podcasts, School, iPod on 18 April 2007 with 18 comments

This is an update to the How-to article, “How to speed up podcasts for free with Audacity.”

In Audacity 1.3.2 (Beta), configuring the batch script is easier. The developers moved the location, though, so you might be lost if you recently updated to this version.

First, setup the chain: File > Edit Chains

In the left pane of the window that pops up, you’ll need to add a new chain. Title it “Speedup,” or whatever you like. With it selected, the right pane should have only one parameter: END.

Select that command, then at the bottom of the window, click Insert. Another window will pop up, and you’ll want to choose Change Tempo. Change the parameter to 25.000000, then click OK. (Later, you can increase the tempo if you’re comfortable.) Again, click Insert, select the ExportMP3 command, then click OK. Finally, OK out of the Edit Chains window.

Then, if you want to run the script, go to File > Apply Chain. Select the chain you just created, click Apply to Files, then browse to the folder where the podcasts are stored. Like I mentioned in the previous How-to, I copy the MP3s to the root podcast folder, so I’m not limited to one show (folder) at a time.

Conclusion

This’ll empower you to listen to podcasts, or any other supported audio files in a shorter amount of time, and you can convert multiple files at once. In addition to podcasts, I also speed up class lectures. 80-minute classes reduced to 64 minutes — awesome!

Podcast #3: Fantasy Baseball

In Podcasts on 1 April 2007 with no comments

I interview my friend, Chris Coulter, about fantasy baseball. He talks strategy, websites, and why he does it.

Time: 35:55

Download MP3 – Podcast #3 (24.6MB)

Notes

• I wrote up a list of questions — a one-page list. Next time, I’ll make it shorter and display a timer somewhere. Sorry about the length of the podcast!
• For the record, Yahoo Sports didn’t launch fantasy baseball until February 1999. So, if Chico only used Yahoo for fantasy baseball, then he’s only been playing for eight years.
• Yahoo! Fantasy Sports
• Fantasy Baseball (Wikipedia article)
• Yahoo! Fantasy Sports (Wikipedia article)

Fantasy Sports questions for podcast #3?

In Podcasts on 19 March 2007 with 1 comment

I’m sorry for the delay with the podcasts, but don’t fret! I’m scheduled to interview Chris Coulter this Thursday at 2pm. (I’d do it sooner, but I have an essay due that morning.)

By the way, this is not the Chris Coulter that was made popular by Robert Scoble, it’s another Chris Coulter.

Two of his specialties are fantasy football and fantasy baseball. He’s not famous or anything, but within our group of friends, he wins on a regular basis. With that bit of knowledge, do any of you have any questions you’d like for me to ask? Speak, or I’ll have to resort to lame questions conjured up at the last minute…

Update 3/28/07: I’m sure you noticed that we didn’t get around to doing this yet. His schedule is pretty brutal. Fortunately, we’ll celebrate César Chávez on Friday at 10am by finally interviewing Chico about fantasy sports! (Chico is his nickname.) I guess by the lack of silence, you either: 1) don’t play fantasy football or baseball, or 2) you’re all top notch fantasy football or baseball enthusiasts. In any case, we’re doing this for kicks, so just ask a crazy question!