smackfoo.com | I find your lack of faith disturbing.

There is something I have been listening to of late that is entirely reminiscent of the early days of podcasting, before it became the “new voice of radio” complete with corny jingles, endlessly long intros, fast talkers with wares to sell and the production values of a top-notch recording studio.

The Talk Show, featuring roughly thirty minutes of unscripted, off-the-cuff banter between John Gruber and Dan Benjamin borders on a complete and utter shambles. It starts in the middle, jumps to the beginning and then ends when one least expects it. There are moments of dead air, over-talk (where both speak at once) and there is absolutely no sense of planning or control.

It’s like walking into a room where two people are caught mid-sentence, whom then continue on oblivious. There are wild debates over vaguely topical tangents and moments of absolute clarity mixed in with comedic buffoonery.

It is completely and utterly terrible. And I absolutely love it.

Because it isn’t scripted, it isn’t structured and doesn’t suffer the “wooden” feel that many of the current crop of podcasts are so desperate to achieve. It’s 30 minutes of solid content. And you know right from the moment the headphones go on to the moment the sudden end takes you by surprise that you will learn, laugh, potentially cry, become frustrated and most importantly be challenged to think.

There have been suggestions a jingle is in order, perhaps show notes or a more structured feel would be better. In other words, take what works then ruin it entirely by focusing on the execution rather than the content.

No sir, no sir that would be just plain wrong. The podcast succeeds because the listener is immediately engulfed in talk radio, transported back to a time when it was far more talk than advertising. It’s the same feeling as when one switches on the radio and is immediately knee deep in an active discussion. It’s engaging and draws the listener in.

John and Ben have started to introduce themselves towards the beginning of the show and don’t waste my time with some 10 minutes of epic intro. Because of that, I don’t feel like I need to skip a damn thing. Why have show notes when there’s nothing to miss?

There are shows that cover technology, have strong production values, are highly organised and have very structured content. That’s great and I congratulate the podcasters who have made it that far. Somehow that just doesn’t seem a good fit for Gruber and Benjamin.

Whilst they both have highly creative yet very structured blogs, the alternative and relaxed style their podcast favours is easy to follow and a comfortable fit. It’s unscripted talk — structuring it seems an antitheses at best.

At roughly thirty minutes it covers the morning commute; the tight time-frame means the content is distilled to it’s best. If it were any longer then some of that brilliance may be diminished in kind.

So if the dynamic duo are reading, please don’t go changing a thing.

Just do what you do, talk as you have, keep the editing tight (yet fluid) and keep doing it well.

Came across this earlier today - could it be the open source alternative to OS X and Garageband?

Coming this April… Ubuntu Studio.

A multimedia creation derivative of Ubuntu.

Ubuntu Studio is aimed at the linux audio, video and graphic enthusiast as well as professional. ~ Ubuntu Studio - Let your Creativity Fly

I’ve been pondering restarting podcasting, indeed Heilemann decided to volunteer me for a potential Habari podcast candidate, in a recent comment via IRC. However the biggest stumbling block has been finding a Microsoft Windows, or Linux based audio editing software or platform that makes the process less intensive and time consuming, without breaking the bank in the process.

A recent addition to my ipod podcast list has been the wordpress podcast, which is a great way to keep tabs on news and events surrounding wordpress development and the community in general.

In the latest episode - Episode 8: Dealing with splogs, posting by e-mail and more a goodly number of plugins are covered, including sig2feed and a little coverage of the joy that is splogging.

The sleeping ogre that is the Incoherent Ramblings Podcast has rolled out back out of it’s coma after a month break - and is as bad as ever…
check it out!

So..
I’ve cleaned up and added to the Apple iTunes
enhanced wp-rss2.php from Geek Speak Radio, based on the
official apple specifications. You can find an example of the updated RSS2 feed file
right here. I’ve added the tags:
- “ additional keywords to aid in iTMS searches..
- “ + `< itunes:name>` additional location for name, podcast […]

I’ve updated the Incoherent Ramblings podcast RSS feed php script, with a
hacked version courtesy of
Geek Speak Radio.
This may be of particular interest to Podcasters who use Wordpress. :)
With the advent of iTunes with podcast support - Apple have added a number of supported RSS tags to provide greater detail in for podcasts, including […]

I hinted in my
most recent podcast that this might happen.
Podcasting is catching the attention of mainstream media, commercial radio and software vendors, like Apple. Their next version is rumored to sport an RSS podcast client - with content accessible via the iTunes music stores, as well as via the usual RSS feed process.
Slashdot is […]

I’ve been busy doing “nothing” lately.
Well, more correctly I’ve been making time to do nothing - to simply relax and watch a DVD, or go for a walk.
The next podcast is taking shape, which rocks - hopefully it will be of a higher quality and calibre than previous attempts. It’s something that tends to evolve […]

The next incoherent ramblings podcast is going to kick some serious butt.
I’ve just received complete authorisation and permission to feature some awesome music in the
Incoherent Podcast. :)
It’s a secret for now - however all will be revealed in the next ‘cast due out this weekend..
If you haven’t already, please feel free check out my […]

So, recently I’ve noticed a trend in my web statistics that has prompted me to update folk on a few things.
Firstly, an update on the RSS feeds for this site & the podcast feed:

- Main RSS feed:
http://centripetalforces.com/feed/
- Atom feed:
http://centripetalforces.com/feed/atom/
- Podcast feed:
http://centripetalforces.com/podcast/feed/

The comments feeds are dynamic and listed underneath each post as part […]