Monday, July 23, 2007
The Todcast - Episode 10: Chapter 1
In part one of a multi-part series, we join Travis and Sofie on their whirlwind tour of Germany and Switzerland. In a rented Peugeot 307 cabrio, the two travel to Leipzig and Nürnberg enduring rain the whole way and checking out the sites. To be continued...
To Download Episode Zehn: Teil Eins Ten: Part One, ctrl+click here
To Download Episode Zehn: Teil Eins Ten: Part One, ctrl+click here
Labels: Berlin, Germany, podcast, todcast, travel
Friday, July 20, 2007
How to Subscribe to an RSS Feed and How to Subscribe to a Podcast.
This has been a long time coming and I know my parents need it as they always seem to forget I have a blog:
Firstly, What is an RSS feed?
An RSS feed (forget what the acronym means as not even the experts can agree on that) is basically a file on the internet that stores the "meaty," important portions of several articles. This basically includes the title, date published, a snippet of the text (sometimes the whole text) and a link to the actual webpage that the post is on.
Every time I make a new blog post, or the BBC puts up a new news article a new entry is added to the RSS feed with the "meat" of the post. What having a separate file for this does, is allow you to get the content of the post without having to go to the website and get all the graphics, ads, and other stuff involved with a webpage. Dial-up internet users and Eastern Bloc European Countries, rejoice!
You can find RSS feeds by this icon:
Next, How to Subscribe?
This gets a little more tricky, but bear with me. Unfortunately RSS feeds are still kind of a nerdy concept so the magic standardized crossover between computers and RSS feeds hasn't been developed yet. This means you'll need a third-party program (translation, you'll have to install something). What this program will do will allow you to put all the feeds you want to subscribe to in a single place. It's like having all the content of the webpages you visit in a single glance without having to visit them.
If, you have Firefox, congrats, you've already installed something that will read and store RSS feeds. Wherever you see that icon above or a link that says "Subscribe to My RSS Feed!" you can click it and Firefox will prompt you to "Subscribe to this feed using: Live Bookmarks." Clicking "Subscribe Now" will give you the option to add it to your Bookmarks Toolbar. If you do this, it will be place right above your browser window and you can click on the link to activate a drop down that lists the titles of all recent posts on the site. Nifty, huh?
For the Firefox users who are a bit more savvy, I recommend the Wizz RSS News Reader Add-on. It creates a nice little side panel listing all your feeds.
And finally, if you don't have Firefox (or I should mention Apple's Safari, now for Windows!, does the same thing), there are a lot of other great desktop RSS readers for download.
What is a Podcast?
Even though "pod" is in the name, you don't need an iPod for Podcasts. Let's get that out of the way up front.
A podcast is basically on demand radio or TV. That's a concept we're all familiar with at this point, right? You see a listing radio shows or TV shows, you click one, you can watch it right then. If you really like that series you can subscribe to it and get the whole season and every new episode that comes out.
This is the same with podcasts. The come in two flavors, audio (radio) and video (tv), and use the technology above (RSS) to tell people when a new show is posted. Best of all, they're free!
How to Subscribe to a Podcast: My way ... Or the Highway.
Disclaimer: Ok, I'm only taking one approach to this, and here's why: One: I'm an Apple fanboy. Two: All my podcasts are in m4v format. Three: I'm getting tired of typing.
Basically, if you haven't already, do yourself a favor and go get Apple iTunes. Its an amazing music player with a lot of other great features.
Once you have iTunes subscribing to podcasts is a snap. If a link is formated right (like mine) it will open iTunes automatically and subscribe for you.
Otherwise, it will bring up something that looks like the RSS feed we clicked on above. To subscribe, open iTunes, click "Advanced" in the menu bar, and then choose "Subscribe to Podcast..." This will bring up a text box called URL. Copy and paste the website address (URL) from your browser into this text box. It'll look something like this: http://www.travisjtodd.com/podcast/podcast.xml . Then click, "OK."
This will automatically subscribe you to the podcast, and once its done downloading you can view it by clicking "Podcasts" in the left hand side of your iTunes. You can even get a description of the show before you watch it by clicking the little "i" in a circle at the far right side of the window.
Try this out by clicking the links on the right of this site. And comment below if you have any questions. Merry Internetting...
How to Subscribe to an RSS Feed
Firstly, What is an RSS feed?
An RSS feed (forget what the acronym means as not even the experts can agree on that) is basically a file on the internet that stores the "meaty," important portions of several articles. This basically includes the title, date published, a snippet of the text (sometimes the whole text) and a link to the actual webpage that the post is on.
Every time I make a new blog post, or the BBC puts up a new news article a new entry is added to the RSS feed with the "meat" of the post. What having a separate file for this does, is allow you to get the content of the post without having to go to the website and get all the graphics, ads, and other stuff involved with a webpage. Dial-up internet users and Eastern Bloc European Countries, rejoice!
You can find RSS feeds by this icon:
Next, How to Subscribe?
This gets a little more tricky, but bear with me. Unfortunately RSS feeds are still kind of a nerdy concept so the magic standardized crossover between computers and RSS feeds hasn't been developed yet. This means you'll need a third-party program (translation, you'll have to install something). What this program will do will allow you to put all the feeds you want to subscribe to in a single place. It's like having all the content of the webpages you visit in a single glance without having to visit them.
If, you have Firefox, congrats, you've already installed something that will read and store RSS feeds. Wherever you see that icon above or a link that says "Subscribe to My RSS Feed!" you can click it and Firefox will prompt you to "Subscribe to this feed using: Live Bookmarks." Clicking "Subscribe Now" will give you the option to add it to your Bookmarks Toolbar. If you do this, it will be place right above your browser window and you can click on the link to activate a drop down that lists the titles of all recent posts on the site. Nifty, huh?
For the Firefox users who are a bit more savvy, I recommend the Wizz RSS News Reader Add-on. It creates a nice little side panel listing all your feeds.
And finally, if you don't have Firefox (or I should mention Apple's Safari, now for Windows!, does the same thing), there are a lot of other great desktop RSS readers for download.
How to Subscribe to a Podcast
What is a Podcast?
Even though "pod" is in the name, you don't need an iPod for Podcasts. Let's get that out of the way up front.
A podcast is basically on demand radio or TV. That's a concept we're all familiar with at this point, right? You see a listing radio shows or TV shows, you click one, you can watch it right then. If you really like that series you can subscribe to it and get the whole season and every new episode that comes out.
This is the same with podcasts. The come in two flavors, audio (radio) and video (tv), and use the technology above (RSS) to tell people when a new show is posted. Best of all, they're free!
How to Subscribe to a Podcast: My way ... Or the Highway.
Disclaimer: Ok, I'm only taking one approach to this, and here's why: One: I'm an Apple fanboy. Two: All my podcasts are in m4v format. Three: I'm getting tired of typing.
Basically, if you haven't already, do yourself a favor and go get Apple iTunes. Its an amazing music player with a lot of other great features.
Once you have iTunes subscribing to podcasts is a snap. If a link is formated right (like mine) it will open iTunes automatically and subscribe for you.
Otherwise, it will bring up something that looks like the RSS feed we clicked on above. To subscribe, open iTunes, click "Advanced" in the menu bar, and then choose "Subscribe to Podcast..." This will bring up a text box called URL. Copy and paste the website address (URL) from your browser into this text box. It'll look something like this: http://www.travisjtodd.com/podcast/podcast.xml . Then click, "OK."
This will automatically subscribe you to the podcast, and once its done downloading you can view it by clicking "Podcasts" in the left hand side of your iTunes. You can even get a description of the show before you watch it by clicking the little "i" in a circle at the far right side of the window.
In Conclusion...
Try this out by clicking the links on the right of this site. And comment below if you have any questions. Merry Internetting...
Labels: Apple, firefox, itunes, podcast, RSS, subscribing
Sunday, April 29, 2007
The Todcast - Episode 6
Sorry for taking forever to finish this podcast. In this episode we go to a live music concert in Berlin, I record some craptastic quality music and we enjoy the mind-boggling Berlin flohmarkt flea market. I also challenge you at the end to find where my next podcast will be filmed.
To download episode Sechs six, ctrl+click here.
To download episode Sechs six, ctrl+click here.
Labels: Berlin, Germany, podcast, todcast, travel
Friday, April 13, 2007
The Todcast - Episode 5
Oops, Uploaded the Todcast but forgot to make a post about it. Episode 5 is shot from my new digs in Berlin, about 4 blocks from the old location. I went to IKEA and spent to much, but the room still looks empty. I also went to a little jam session with a couple friends and snagged some footage. Overall a quick and dirty podcast with a little stop motion fun.
To download episode Funf five, ctrl+click here.
Oh, and if you want to send me something, here's my new Address:
Travis J. Todd
bei Jörg Messing
Stubbenkammer Strasse 12
10437 Berlin
Deutschland
To download episode Funf five, ctrl+click here.
Oh, and if you want to send me something, here's my new Address:
Travis J. Todd
bei Jörg Messing
Stubbenkammer Strasse 12
10437 Berlin
Deutschland
Labels: Berlin, Germany, Ikea, podcast, todcast, travel
Sunday, April 1, 2007
The Todcast - Episode 4
Here's a fun one. We went down to the middle of nowhere outside Berlin for a couple days to their Tropical Island. The whole resort is inside this massive temperature-controlled dome. Inside are a "sea," a "lagoon," a "jungle," some 50 meter high water slides and all sorts of other American-like resort goings-on. It was nice to be in the sun and sand for a couple days, but really weird to realize you were in the countryside of Germany.
To download episode Vier four, ctrl+click here.
WARNING - It's kinda shot in bad-home-movie style. Sorry. ;)
To download episode Vier four, ctrl+click here.
WARNING - It's kinda shot in bad-home-movie style. Sorry. ;)
Labels: Germany, island, podcast, todcast, travel, tropical
Saturday, March 17, 2007
The Todcast - Episode 2
Uploaded the second episode of The Todcast (all thanks to Levi Ratliff for the name, as I got an IM about it ending in "h8h8h8"). It's a little longer as I didn't pre-record part of it like I had before and took forever to edit. I'm going to work out a middle ground here soon.
To download episode zwei two ctrl+click here.
To download episode zwei two ctrl+click here.
Sunday, March 11, 2007
The Todcast - Episode 1
I posted the first episode of my podcast yesterday. It's my first attempt at this sort of thing and is still kinda rough. I forgot to write down a script and was kind of being rushed by my lovely girlfriend who was cooking dinner for me (you can hear her singing in the background). I promise they'll get better as I work more things out.
To download it, ctrl+click here.
To download it, ctrl+click here.
