Archive for the ‘podcast-journal’ Category

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Thanks from Musician’s Radio

Thursday, January 15th, 2009

This is going to be a different kind of posting. It is about a random act of caring at the crossroads of music and technology. I am a child of the sixties and count myself fortunate to have been at Woodstock at age 18 where the seeds of my activism were  planted by the likes of John Sebastian, Joe Cocker, Country Joe, Jimi, and Joni. I recently sent a note to one of my favorite podcast shows called Musician’s Radio, where I listen to interviews with survivors of the bygone era of my youth such as Graham Nash and David Crosby. Whether young or old, the guests all speak with a level of frank humility that gives the show an air of authenticity. The tagline of the show is “For Musicians, By Musicians”. I find the allusion to the Enlightenment hopes of Jefferson, Madison, and Lincoln inspired, and anything but corny or misplaced. Although I am but a rank amateur, the show inspires me to let music into my life and direct other kindred spirits in the ways of righteous musicality.

While updating my list of podcast favorites, I noticed why my podcatching software had difficulty downloading the last couple shows from Musician’s Radio. I had worried the show had fallen into hard times. As the following exchange will prove, my concern was unfounded.

Error in Musician’s Radio RSS feed

I love your show and recommend it widely. However, there has been a PHP bug in your RSS feed for at least a few months. Whenever I upgrade Ubuntu on my Desktop/Web Server, I have to remember to update the php.ini file.

I suspect the bug can be fixed by setting  output_buffering = On in your php.ini file.

I run Firefox on Ubuntu. This is what I see when I try to view your RSS feed:

A PHP Error was encountered
Severity: Warning
Message: Cannot modify header information – headers already sent by (output started at /home/musicia9/public_html/index.php:4)
Filename: controllers/rss.php
Line Number: 52

Greg Hoke

I got two very kind responses. This one came from the web developer, and, yes, I got a kick out of it. Can you tell?

Musician’s Radio RSS Feed

Hi Greg,
I’m the original developer of the site, and wanted to thank you for emailing your suggestion to fix the RSS feed. They forwarded it on to me and I took a look, and thought you’d get a kick out of the problem if you’re a developer yourself.

[...Techno-trivia didacted...]

Anyway, thanks again for emailing them, otherwise it probably never would have come to my attention.

Rock on,
- Dylan

I also got a note from one of the frequent hosts of the show, Kevin McCormack

Thanks from Musicians Radio

Greg-
With your help we are hopefully getting to the bottom of this and some  other issues.
I really appreciate your taking the time.
Glad you like the show.
Best,
Kevin

I just checked. The Musician’s Radio RSS feed is fixed! Subscribe to it and enjoy! It is sure to please.


Posted in podcast-journal, politics, programming | No Comments »

Beautiful to Behold

Sunday, January 11th, 2009

We have a thin layer of ice on the branches this morning. Not enough to break anything, but beautiful to behold.

Ice on branches from yesterday

Ice on branches from January 10, 2009

Here’s a BBC article about the return of Pooh, the bear with very little brain, due out in Fall 2009.

Listen to the interview. The author hasn’t quite got the voices right. That calls for a real actor. Why not try out your acting chops with an appreciative young audience? It’s sure to please.

Oh, and here’s another book that may serve for interacting with the younger set. It is a boon to substitute teachers and anyone wishing to introduce science to young people.

Here’s the link to Science Friday where I heard an interview with the two authors. One is still in high school. THAT should inspire envy in us all.

Smart kids are one part nature and nine parts nurture.

Posted in Education, family, podcast-journal | No Comments »

Podcast Journal December 2008

Tuesday, December 16th, 2008

This link is from a weekly podcasts called Philospher’s Zone. The school is in Sydney, Australia where philosophy classes are held for 12 year olds once a week. I was very impressed by the level of discussion between the students. This link will take you to the episode. From there you can listen to the show or go to the transcript.

Shouldn’t we all be raising our kids to explore important questions such as what constitutes a meaningful life? The teacher admits that he or she does not have the answer, so there is no pressure to accept any dogmatic view. The students seem very used to the process of inquiry that will aid them in making important decisions. They agree and disagree openly and without rancor. It’s very refreshing.

Tags:
Posted in philosophy, podcast-journal | No Comments »

First Specimen

Wednesday, November 14th, 2007

Hymenoptera

My son has an internship. He loves biology and has worked hard gathering insects, mounting them, and learning about the places they occupy in the web of life. Today he learned how to take highly focused images. He shared a photograph of this beautiful wasp. I hope to see many more such beautiful images.

“This is a lateral habitual image of the wasp, as if you were looking at its full body in nature.”

The November 8 Nature podcast (text) celebrates 100 years of Drosophila research with the theme “Hurah for the Humble Fruit Fly!”. Amongst other gems I learned a good joke:

“Time flies like an arrow, but fruit flies like bananas.” – Marx

Be sure to listen to Tanguy Chouard’s statement about the publishing of 10 new fruit fly genomes at 11:21 in the podcast.

Posted in Education, ecology, nature, podcast-journal, science | 1 Comment »

Three “Best of” Podcasts and a Holiday Wish

Monday, September 3rd, 2007

I like science podcasts that make science understandable to the average citizen. Two of the best such shows are Naked Scientists and CBC’s Quirks and Quarks. Last week’s shows were both replays of some of the best segments these shows have to offer. The US can learn a lot from other English speaking countries when it comes to the popularization of science. I especially like when Quirks and Quarks puts scientists on stage to answer questions from the audience such as, “Why do some people have freckles?”

I hope you are having a nice time over the long Labor Day weekend. In 1896 when American working people fought for the eight hour day, the slogan was, “Eight hours for work, eight hours for sleep, and eight hours for education.” I really like that sentiment! Appreciate what past generations have made possible and try to create a better world for those who come after.

Another “Best of” show that will be worth your while is Best of the Left. Segments with a common theme such as global warming and health care are collected from shows such as Democracy Now and Randi Rhodes.

Posted in Education, podcast-journal | No Comments »

Berkeley and the Birth of Idealism

Wednesday, August 29th, 2007

Here is a Philosopher Zone podcast about the theory of knowledge. It discusses Descartes, Locke, Berkeley, and Newton.

Berkeley is the one who Lisa Simpson quotes when she asks, “If a tree falls in the forest, and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?”

The podcast has some interesting quips, but not the one my philosophy professor, Sam Varnadoe liked best: “Bishop Berkeley said it darkly, ‘If I can’t see you, you can’t be you.’”

In other words Berkeley claimed we can’t know the world except through our senses and ideas. Hence we know nothing of the real world. Plato would have said we can only see the shadows of “ideal forms” on the back of the cave, but not things in themselves. It is a hard argument to refute, but it was Samuel Johnson who said, “I refute it thus!”, while at the same time kicking a large stone.

Enjoy, and I hope you like philosophy. It will enrich your life.

Posted in philosophy, podcast-journal | 2 Comments »

Cork On a Wave

Thursday, August 16th, 2007

The diagram above shows a transverse water wave moving in the direction shown by the velocity vector v. At the instant shown, a cork at point P on the water’s surface is moving toward…

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Posted in Education, podcast-journal, science | No Comments »

Desperately Seeking Inspiration

Wednesday, June 6th, 2007

Recently I have made a push to increase my running and biking. Work has become so stressful with layoffs and increased workload, that I am desperately trying to squeeze a little enjoyment out of my free time. Two times this week, I ran a couple miles and then rode an hour, mostly along Alum Creek. I enjoy reviewing chance impressions of wildlife I see on these outings. Today’s wildlife “snapshot” was marred by a chance interaction.

Yellow-Crested Night Heron

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Posted in fitness, nature, podcast-journal, reflection | No Comments »

Podcast Journal: RSSbus

Monday, May 21st, 2007

Those impressed by the power of Yahoo Pipes, will find this podcast about RSSBus illuminating. The RSSBus server side exposes selected database fields by creating RSS feeds. It uses namespace extensions to describe the fields. The tool makes it possible for non-techies to create the RSS feeds. The client side code is an ASP application that runs with a browser. It can be used to combine various RSS feeds. I will have to try it out, but I think the main innoavation is on the server side that creates the RSS feeds. Will it help me create RSS feeds out of web-based lists, so that I can do correlations between data souurces that interest me? Probably not. Perhaps it will make it easier for more companies and researchers to create RSS feeds, so that I won’t have to do it for them.

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Posted in Education, podcast-journal, programming, tech | 1 Comment »

Astronomy: Venus and Saturn

Tuesday, May 8th, 2007

Astronomy Cast show 33, entitled Choosing and Using a Telescope, reminded me of my love for the night sky. The show is packed with excellent advice for amateur stargazers, but it really served to get me to dust off my Meade telescope I bought about ten years ago.

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Posted in astronomy, podcast-journal | No Comments »

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