Lumpy's Corner

I might as well just title this one "Kudos to Steve". In a previous blog, I ranted and raved about how I find all kinds of stuff on the web. I mentioned Amy Gahran, my IRC addiction and RSS feeds. At the close of the article, I mentioned that I often "spider" off of the links that I find. In other words, I find links inside the links.

Thanks to Chris Pirillo's pod cast and Steve's dummies guide, I have another source to spider from... Podcasting.

I know I have been a bad bloggin' boy of the late. At least that is how it looks, truth is I have been very busy on a number of projects. Much is going on which is not visible from this page.

Exios and I have now completed our fifth podcast and secured the radiostatic.am domain.

Exios and I would like to thank the hundreds on hundreds of individuals who are downloading our podcast. We never expected it to take off so quickly. The bandwidth issue is one we have managed to stay ahead on. We are working on other methods to remedy any future potential issues in this area. (And, yes, bit torrent is one of them.)

I have been doing a "podcast" a week now for about a two months now. I am amazed at how most people gaze at me as if I am some type of dark-voodoo practicing witch doctor when I use the term "podcast". There seems to be several areas of confusion and/or misunderstanding. A partial list would include:

1. Podcast are some type of high-tech technobable that only a web savy geek with an Einstienian IQ could comprehend.
2. Special equipment and software are needed to use this technogy.
3. A podcast is some type of special audio format, which requires all of the above to play

I would like to spend a few screens of text and de-mystify these three points. I assure you that even I, Ultra-Perma-n00b, Also known as Lumpy, is able to do so. Therfore, it can't be so hard.

Using the referances here, you should be able to easily find, save and listen to podcasts. So please stop dowsing me with holy water.

This is absolutely not true. If you can surf the internet and/or operate a radio, you can listen to podcast. In fact, Lumpy is confident that he could teach most monkeys to download podcasts. It really is as simple as point and click.

This Video shows us all just how simple it is. The video is only three minutes long and tells you all you need to start listening.

An IRC freind did a great guide to getting pod cast and is also nice enough to share his list of podcasts.

There are many, many places to find podcasts. In the very near future we will have a list of podcast directories in the left hand column of this site.

This is also not entirely true. If you have a media player, you can point, click and listen. Podcasts are nothing more than media files. If you can watch video and listen to audio on your PC, you can listen to and/or watch podcasts. If you wish to automatically download the newest version of your podcast, then you will need some software.

There are several good programs available for this. Lumpy's personal choice is Doppler. Others are also listed here for almost every OS known to man.

Well, yes and no... As I mentioned above, podcast files are nothing more than media files, but they do have RSS associated with them. It is this RSS that allows the above mentioned software to know when a new podcast has been released.

Short of that it is just an audio or video file.

Now get out there and listen. If you have any questions, I would be glad to reply. Send my a message at noise-at-radiostatic{dot}am.

I know that many of you have been wondering where the good Lumpy has been. Contrary to my X-wife's fantasies, I was not sucked into a Cyber-vortex and devoured by the Wicked Cyber-Witch of the West. I have still been doing what I do best...

That would be, of course, botching up things technical. I have simply expanded my horizons in that area and now do it in more ways and more locations. First off, Exios and I are still doing radiostatic. This gives me a whole new area to unleash my technological touch of terror. I can now play with audio and screw it up as fast as Courtney Love can screw up a love song.

I have often, likely too often, gone off about how great a resource all of the Gnomoies are at Wyldryde.org in the various channels they host. One of them being the person behind this stunt. Before I saw that video this AM, I had already begun this draft. I decided to add this little intro because Chris Pirillo has been mentioned here before and, after viewing it, I just had to... too funny.---

Nonetheless, before Chris' production served as a drafting intermission, it had dawned on me that I have yet to mention one geek of lore here at Lumpy's Corner. Possibly, the worse "how could I ..." in Cyber-history. Actually, I have mentioned this individual here before but only in passing.

I have mentioned many a blogger, author, podcaster and tech gurus here. I mention a podcast almost every show over at Radiostatic.am.

So, a podcaster, an author, a blogger, a tech guru... hmm. He is all of that. Am I leaving anything out?

Welcome to my latest resurrection of an old endeavor. I have shaken off the moth balls and decided to try it again. About three years ago, I did my first audioblog. I ended up abandoning to do radiostatic. Regrettably, it seems that trying to co-ordinate two busy schedules has made it impossible for exios and I to actually make it work. It is nobody's fault or blame but the reality is that we spend more time attempting to schedule it and talking about doing it than actually doing it. The obstacles of distance, health issues and technological problems have resulted in two critical problems. The first is but a semantic excuse for the second. We failed miserably at consistently posting shows. Every time we would gain an audience, we would have and issue and not do the show consistently, which is a key factor for a sucessful podcast.

If you gain listeners, they expect you to fulfill their desires for being there the next time. That is the worse thing we did. We let our listeners down. I am very sorry for that. It will not happen again. If it does, it is totally and entirely my fault.

Good Morning Readers,
I hope everyone is well today. Lumpy is still somehow surviving this allergy season despite his chronically infected sinuses. I stopped to mention a few quick things.

Just in case you have not heard, Firefox 3 will be released today. Mozilla is asking everyone to set a world record for the most software downloads in a single day. Today is also my kid sister's birthday so they picked a good day to release it.

You have likely noticed that over the past two years, my posting frequency has been about as consistent as the Cleveland weather. The combination of poor health and having too many pots on the stove so to speak have taken a toll. I had hoped that my chronic sinus condition would just go away. It is not.

I had hoped that once I had my sinuses under control I could begin posting more material again. The reality is that my sinuses are going nowhere and the best I am going to quoting my doctor "manageble". Reality is not just so simple though.

My inner child has been trying to ignore the fact that, at 44, I should slow down. At present I publish at up to 9 different locations. That is too much. I am going to cut back. How much and where is yet to be determined. The only thing I have deffinitely decided on is that I will be doing more live streaming and podcasting since that is what everyone seems to enjoy the most. Check out and bookmark my LumpCast Site.