I’ve installed Asterisk on two machines now, an old PowerMac G3 and a Linux box running Fedora. It all went pretty smooth. Configuration is another issue.

While I’m not a huge phone-dork like some people, Asterisk is cool to hack at. I managed to get Xten’s X-Lite SIPphone working with it, though I’m getting a bunch of crashes on one machine that I’m not sure if they are due to my Mac, or the Linux box. I’ll keep hacking at it.

My ultimate goal is to be able to use my Asterisk box which sits at home, behind the firewall as an answering machine for SIP calls from the internet. Not sure if that’s (easily) doable, but it’s worth a try. The Asterisk section of the VOIP-info wiki should come in handy.

Mark my words… As more and more features get added to the iPod (Audio? Photos?) it will eventually become the Newton.

Yes, you read that right. The Newton.

It will happen, and when it does, Steve Jobs will be the one laughing, and you will all be calling him some sort of genius. Maybe ‘marketing genius’ or maybe ‘evil genius’ I’m not sure, the only thing I am sure of is the price, it will sell for $2,499 - wait - I mean $666 - ok, I’m not sure of that either, I’m just sure that I still won’t be able to afford one. :(

Need a Halloween costume? I won’t be using this, so feel free to take it and run with it.

• Get a large piece of cardboard
• Make it white using paint or white paper glued onto it
• Make it look like one of those fancy iPod Photos all the cool kids are drooling over
• Go Trick or Treating!

Details: Make sure you cut a big hole for your face to fit in, right where the photo would be displayed, and fasten something to affix it to your body/head/shoulders, like string, or gum or something…

Oh, if you use this, Send me some candy!

Our latest wireless adventure is the one that should not be. See, I connect to the wonderous web through my cable company, and while they are experts at estimating the time they will arrive at your house (give or take 4 hours) they are not experts at internet connection problems.

I mean, I am a professional computer geek, and can troubleshoot everything up to the ethernet cable between my router and the cable modem, but once it hits the cable modem (which they own) it’s all up to them. So when the connection gets flakey, I call them. They have me redo everything I did before on my own: reset things, unplug and plug things in, say magic words, stand on one foot while holding the cable in the air while Woz laughs at me… I assume the guy on the phone is staring at some diagnostic screen and not just guessing, but I don’t know for sure. Anyway, none of this works, and they decide to send someone out. Oh, keep in mind that the connection goes between working and not working. At random.

So they send someone out, and someone who is not me is home to greet them while I’m at work, and they leave because they can’t find the splitter. Sigh… Thanks guys!

What to do? The connection is still semi-working sometimes… Ah! I plug the wifi adapter into my Mac and try to reach the neighborhood wifi point known as ‘linksys’ and I can’t. Hmmm, is it down too? Wait… Could these thick concrete walls and all of the dirt surround the basement of the house have something to do with it? I again stand on one foot, waving the wifi adapter near the basement window, but nothing. Finally I remove a piece of the drop ceiling and stick the adapter in the rafters and I can see the network!

So I worked that way for a while, with the adapter wedged into the ceiling, borrowing a wifi connection. I need to start recommending those Linksys products to all of my neighbors.

The connection seems back to normal now, and I realize that I really do need to write that app that monitors my connection and logs the disconnects so I can send them to my cable company and demand to know what is up with that!

As you learned in Wifi Adventure #1 we have entered the wireless age, and what an age it is!

Since we achived wirelessness, we had to test it. But wait, we have to go back in time first. How can we get to where we are now without going to where we were then? Hmmm?

Weeks earlier, I asked the local wifi expert a few questions, and got a few answers. He suggested I use WEP to secure my wireless network. I know, some people maintain open nodes, and we all say a big “thanks” to those people, good work all! I was not overly concerned about securing the access point, but figure I’d look into it. I’m not sure of the range of the WAP11, but behind me is a park, and I’m 99% sure 3 closest neighbors have neither wifi or even computers, I know the people across the street have no wifi gear, I assume I am teh most 13373 h4×0r around these parts, but still, there might be a nerd or geek lurking somewhere right? Oh yeah…

So when I set up the access point I still had no way to connect to it. I ran a port scan and found an unfamiliar IP address. What!? Is someone already using my access point? No, turns out it was Virtual PC running on my Mac… Whew…

As we all know those fine folks at Linksys give a default name to their gear, hence you might see a wireless network named ‘linksys’ while out and about. Well, I’m no dummy, I changed the default name on my access point. (See where this is going?)

So I’m testing the new Belkin 802.11b Wireless USB Network Adapter, and I finally figure out the software that controls it, and I see my access point, with the name I gave it. Then another wireless network appears, one named ‘linksys’ and at first I think it’s some odd error, or my access point is screwy, and then I realize, it ain’t me!

Yes, that’s right, I’ve found another wireless access point while in my own house. I know, this is not news, this is a non-story, except for the fact that if you have been to my house, and met my neighbors, you too would be as surprised as I was.

Well, I’ve always been the curious hacker-type, so I try to jump on this ‘linksys’ network, and it works! I’m on… Ok, a bit more… Ah, looks like they are using a Linksys Wireless Router, as I was able to log into it at 192.168.1.1 with - yes, you guessed it - the default password ‘admin’ - I kid you not…

Ah, I feel just like one of those 414er’s - except they changed our area code from 414 to 262 many years ago. :(

After drilling a hole in the wall, my electrician informs me he does not think we’ll get that cat-5 all the way down to the basement. That’s not what I wanted to hear…

Perhaps it’s time… Yes, time for us to enter the early 2000’s and actually look into wifi. The first thing we realized was that prices have dropped. Quite a bit. I mean, that Linksys WAP11 that cost well over $100 three years ago can be found on ebay now for around $30. So I actually got one, plugged it into the old router, and had a wireless network. (Well, after screwing around with Virtual PC, which sucks, but such is going the cheap route.) Of course it did me no good…

See, none of the dozen or so computers strewn throughout the house had wifi adapters. Since I was going the auction route, my plan was to get another Linksys WAP11 and connect them ala wireless bridging. Because I wanted to match the hardware rev for compatibility reasons, and not pay a lot of money (I’m cheap, remember?) I bid on a few, but did not win any… then along comes Other World Computing, and Belkin.

Other World Computing had this Belkin 802.11b Wireless USB Network Adapter on sales for $19.00. Did I mention I’m cheap? Well, I am, but this was a bargain! Cheaper than the Linksys WET11’s I found on ebay, and it says it works on Mac OS X 10.1, 10.2, 10.3 and even Mac OS 9.2 and something called Windows! This wireless thing just might catch on.

So now we’ve got a wireless access point, and an actual wifi adapter so that we can connect to that access point… It’s all so very exciting, isn’t it! Oh, just wait until Wifi Adventure #2 for more crazy 802.11b madness!

Oh sure, Google is the Search King right? And their new Google Desktop Search is awesome. If you use Windows. And Outlook. And Internet Explorer. And Word, and Excel, and PowerPoint. Who uses these things?

Ok, plenty of people use these things, but really, I thought Google was full of smart people. Their engineers are supposed to all be super-geniuses. Do they really use Outlook and PowerPoint on a daily basis? I know, they built this thing for the “average computer user” right? I suppose… but think about this, the hacker way says that you hack on things you care about, and you will be good at it, and put more into it, and scratch your own itch, and all of that. So while this Google Desktop Search thing was made by smart people for people who want to find things, I’m not sure I get it. Maybe I’m just a hacker snob of some sort…

I don’t really use Windows, or Outlook, or Internet Explorer, or Excel, Word, PowerPoint, etc… I do use Mozilla stuff, like Firefox, Thunderbird, Sunbird, etc. So how awesome would it be to have something that could easily search my browser history, email messages, and calendar info? It would be nice… Mozilla Search anyone?

We could add in formats that have been opened (either by their owners or others) like PDF, Word files (plenty of apps read them), HTML, RSS, RDF, Atom, text, EXIF data in images, and on and on…

I think you could hack together your own Desktop Search using ht://Dig, or mnoGoSearch, or SWISH-E, or some crazy combination of all of those, but it’s not something I want to do, I’ve already got desktop search, via find, locate, egrep and a host of other tools strung together…

Well, everyone seems set on defining podcasting, and heck, since I consider myself someone involved with it before it even had that name, I might as well toss in my two cents…

See, I keep reading and hearing people who say that podcasing is not new, I mean, it’s just the same as web-based radio/audio shows, except you can automatically download it. Or by gosh, I have some commercial application that records streams and converts them to ogg files, so that’s the same thing too! Right? Right?

Dammit people, it’s NOT the same thing!

I see podcasting as the combination of a few of things. Using the enclosure tag in an RSS 2.0 feed, and automating the process of receiving the enclosures specified in the RSS feed.

I think this is pretty close to Dave Shusher’s definition of Podcasting.

Oh, and the fact that it is using open stuff, like RSS 2.0 and (usually) MP3 is what made things really take off. Like I said, people were automating the download of audio content before, but it was a hack, not a platform. What is a platform? Something you can build upon. (Hopefully without having to buy your way into.)

I checked the date of itconv.pl and it says 2004-02-12, which means that in February of 2004 I had automated the download of enclosures from the ITConversations RSS 2.0 feed provided by Doug Kaye. (Oh, itconv.pl was about 50 lines of perl code I wrote to automagically download the new ITConversations Doug released…)

And as Doug reminds us, before he was doing it Dave Winer and Christopher Lydon did some stuff with enclosures as well, which is what spurred him on. (Looks like I added enclosures links to AmphetaDesk on 2003-09-24.)

And Dangit, let’s give some props to Dannie J. Gregoire, who appears to be the one who made up the word podcaster.

So anyway, podcasting happened, and is happening because of a combination of many things, and many people. I see things like “Podcasting came about from Adam Curry, Doc Searls and Dave Winer” or “A month ago, the only podcast was ”Trade Secrets,” a daily news-and-technology talk show co-hosted by podcasting’s pioneers: former MTV VJ Adam Curry and software developer Dave Winer.” and while Dave and Adam did a whole lot to move things forward, there were, and are, other people involved, and each one makes things grow a little bigger.

Do you think weblogging would be what it is today if the only sites doing it were the ones mentioned under ‘ye olde skool’ on tpoowl? Network effect people!

Ok, I’m tired, signing off…. Next time I’ll try to be more upbeat, or post something about the cats. ;)

(Note: It has been mentioned that Ben Hammersley is probably the first to use the term “podcasting” in public, though I still think it was Dannie J. Gregoire who applied the term to what we were doing in late summer 2004.)

Let’s take a trip down memory lane… Please turn the volume up to 11.

In May of 2000, I noticed that Wired had a news story as an MP3, it’s from their infrequently updated Wired News Radio section.

In June of 2000 we mention Greasy Skillet:

Speaking of which, if you haven’t checked out Greasy Skillet yet, do so now… The ‘audio log’ thing is similar to an idea I had a while back, but of course, never executed…

Hurm, that “never executed” bit, should be my motto…

A month later in July 2000 I mention my new audio gear:

Listen Up! I picked up a desktop audio recorder over the weekend (aka, a tape recorder) so I’m back on the audio track. When I find interesting, but long, articles, I just have computer read them out loud while connected to the recorder, then listen to the tapes in the car. I’ve also started (trying) to find good audio stuff to listen to.

And one more from 2000, an AIFF file welcoming visitors. There might be more, but that was all I felt like digging through.

Now, I’m not trying to jump on the (small) bandwagon of folks who are saying that podcasting is nothing new, that it’s just like radio, or it’s just audio on the web, or whatever… I’m here specifically to say that while all this was good and useful, and I was recording audio to portable devices back in the late 1990’s, this is different, and even though I had a loose collection of perl scripts for the past year that downloaded weekly web radio shows via cron jobs, this is different. Yes, podcasting, as it’s been named, is different. It’s due in large part to the community, of which I see Adam Curry as the center. Sure, others had similar ideas, or the same ideas, maybe even much earlier, but Adam managed to sort of pull a community together, and that’s what made the difference.

I remember the world of weblogs back in 1997/1998 (of course we didn’t have the word ‘weblogs’ as that came later) and it was full of energy and ideas, and I think that’s where podcasting is now. It’s gotten it’s “official name” much faster, and it’s detractors faster as well I suppose.

Damn, if this stuff isn’t exciting, I don’t know what is…

Today as I was pulling out of the driveway I had to pause for this teen to walk by, so I started to fire up the Car MP3 Player (aka Rio 500) as I waited. I finally pull the car out and drive past him and see he’s carrying an iPod.

Can you believe it!? Me, a proponent of the iPod Platform… a veritable early adopter of podcasting actually in near sight of an iPod owner and user! All the while fiddling with my Rio 500… Sigh… Is there no justice in the world?

I thought to myself, is he listening to Daily Source Code? Evil Genius Chronicles? Or even our own RasterWeb! Audio? Aw, probably just some MP3’s he stole from Steve Ballmer…

Perhaps it’s all just a ploy to get you to use this freeiPods referer link and get me that iPod…

Failing that, I’ve done some rough calculations, and have determined that with the ad revenue of this web site, we’ll be purchasing a (used) iPod sometime before 2006 rolls around…

I actually recorded an audio blog post about a month ago on the topic of indexing and searching audio files, but due to an equipment malfunction, all was lost, and I didn’t feel like trying to record it again. So I’ll write up what I had. (Oh, it was somewhat in response to Maciej Ceglowski’s Audioblogging Manifesto.)

Let’s go forward my friends. Forward, into the future! Imagine Google in 2019. I know, Google will be long gone by then, but as to not totally blow your mind, we’ll use Google as an example. Google has these different operators to use when searching, which might allow you to look in the url, or the title, or whatever, now imagine something like ‘inaudio’ or ‘invideo’ where you could found words contained within audio or video files? But how would Google (or it’s replacement) index words in audio files? Well, with some massive cluster of Linux computers of course, and some really smart software by really smart people. (Insert bit about advanced speech recognition here.)

While Maciej probably wrote up his manifesto, and then recorded it, most people will go the other way, first recording something, and then not typing it up. Yes, I said not typing it up. You shouldn’t have to, right? So that gives us these audio blobs (blobs, not blogs - ever notice how similar those words are?) that are these containers into which we can’t quite see into. Give it time. I’m saying 15 years because it’s a total guess, and if I look back at the world of computing and the internet of 15 years ago, I think we’ve come a long way.

Oh here’s another idea, what if the software or device you used to record yourself was able to do the speech recognition, and embed that in the file? Or able to recognize the background music or sounds and make note of them? Or add links based off of your mentioning web sites/urls?

Today’s MP3’s hold metadata about the audio, but tomorrow’s format may hold the audio, video, and hypertext versions of something, all combined into one blob, fully indexable, and readable even on an old 2010 PowerMac G9.

So while rich media search is happening today (see Singingfish) the world of indexing the actual content, not just the metadata, is going to happen. I’m sure of it. It’s all just a matter of time.

I know Adam has said he’s been trying to tie the bootstrap of podcasting for the last 5 years, and I’m pleased to see the knot being formed, but I’d like to take you back a bit, to the year 1997…

Streaming media was there, and so were we! Well, we were on dialup, and there were no really affordable “portable audio players” at the time that could connect to your computer and transfer files. It was all foreign in concept. What we did have was a handheld recorder, the same one we’d been using since the 1980’s mind you. So, we would play some streaming file and capture it via the tape recorder, and listen to it later. We had timeshifted audio, that was portable. Yeehaw…

I know, I could have fed the output into a stereo and done it right, but we’re hackers of the quick-n-dirty variety sometimes… We didn’t do this a lot, but we did do it.

Fast forward into 1998. (I think 1998, my memory is fuzzy…) My commute changed from being 15 minutes per day to close to 2 hours per day. I needed some audio. I needed… more cowbell! At the time you could still read slashdot and find value in the comments. I ended up writing code to convert text files to more phonetically correct words (like changing “Mac OS X” to “Mac Oh Ess Ten”) and then would have my Mac read those text files while my recorder recorded it all to audio tape. I did this almost daily, as long as I remembered to start the script before I went to sleep. Oh, I didn’t just listen to slashdot, but that’s one of the memorable ones.

Around the end of 1999 Geeks In Space appeared, and good gosh, doesn’t it look like what people are doing today, minus the automated delivery via RSS?

Ok, let’s move ahead to 2003, when I finally decide I can get an MP3 player for cheap, as I’m sick of making audio tapes of Your Mac Life and other internet radio-type shows. By now I’m getting sick of hitting web pages and downloading files, so I whip up some perl to grab the new files each week. Usually the shows did a weekly broadcast, so it was just a cron job and date calculation to get the file. It worked, and for a geek, it was alright.

Meanwhile the RSS 2.0 enclosure thing happens, and we start to see things change. Things get easier. Things are brewing. Sure, I have to email Doug Kaye and ask him to fix his feed, and ask the LugRadio guys to create a feed (which either broke, or they stopped updating) but it was working.

Along comes Adam with his iPodder thingy and manages to get others involved until we have this new thing called “podcasting” to deal with…

And it’s good…

Oh, just one more thing, Doc has been noticing the number of results for “podcasting” that Google gives, and how it’s growing. That’s a good thing, but I think what will really be cool is the day when Google stops putting: Did you mean: broadcasting on the page. ;)