Need for Feed II

My friend Jeff told me that about 95% of all blogs are abandoned in the first month.

"Really?" I said.

"Yeah, most people start out all gung ho but within a month have given it up".

"Hum, I guess I could see how that could happen".

Well, its been seven days since my last post but I haven't been wasting time. I've been pretty consumed with this podcasting stuff and have been busy working on my own podcasting software, dubbed Feedia, and grabbing and listening to podcasts. My software is progressing nicely. Currently I can define and download feeds and grab the content from the enclosures. Once downloaded I can update any defined Media Player playlist with the new content. I'm planning to automate the sync to device process as well but have found that this is not supported from the .Net environment. I emailed Jake and Scoble about this and am now in touch with someone from Microsoft to help with the issue.

On the iPod side of things, Jeff is making good progress on his iPod database library for .Net. When this lib is finished it will be possible for me to have Feedia also sync to an iPod. The nice thing about having our own custom iPod DB code is that we will have more control, and thus more options, then currently provided by the iTunes COM interface used by iPodder, et al. We have a couple of ideas that will provide some very unique features when podcastng to an iPod.

On the podcast enjoyment side I have been enjoying content from Adam Curry, WGBH, and IT Conversations (check out Wil Wheaton's Gnomedex talk - its funny and inspirational). It seems like new podcasts are being added daily and is on the verge of really taking off.

Oh, BTW, publishers of podcasts, in writing my code I've noticed some various problems with your feeds mostly related to the use, misuse, or lack of use of pubDate.

WGBH - you aren't including a pubDate which makes grabbing time based content impossible.

IT Conversations - many of your pubdates are of the form Tue, 12 Oct 2004 00:00:00 -0700 even though the content was published much later in the day. This makes Feedia think the new content is older then the last get time and it will skip this new content. Please use an actual timestamp.

Microsoft - Your System.DateTime.Parse() function doesn't really work for RFC1123 timestamps and I had to write my own parser. Please make your code support all timezones not just "GMT" and please add support for numeric offsets like -0600.

I should have a decent version of Feedia in another week or so and hopefully more then one blog post per week.

Need For Feed

Since getting back from Gnomedex I've been talking quite a bit with my friend, Jeff, about the various technologies that were mentioned at the conference. One that was quite interesting to me was podcasting. Jeff is the author of foo_pod and we also collaborated on two iPod transfer programs for an online music store in France. While driving to work we have been discussing the idea of making our own podcasting application.

Today when I got to work I had an email from Jake Ludington who I met in the Denver airport on the way to Lake Tahoe. He was asking if I knew anything about podcasting or would be interested in getting something together that would work with Windows Media Player - how ironic.

I've downloaded the iPodder source code and am starting on a modified version that will work with Windows Media Player. Meanwhile, Jeff is interested in reworking the iPod database stuff we've used to work in .Net which would allow us to do a an iPod version that did not need to rely on iTunes. iPodder probably is working on WMP support as well but I thought this would be a fun project to work on and a good learning experience. I'll see what I can get going over the next couple of weeks.

Beyond Gnomedex

Well, Gnomedex wrapped up Saturday night with a banquet and a couple of final presentations - one about My Yahoo and a wrap-up by Chris Pirillio. After those wrapped up there was a showing of the movie Primer.

I said a few goodbyes to the few people I had met and then walked around the casinos one final time on my way to the location for the Primer screening. I really wasn't sure what I wanted to do so I ended up just walking around for about an hour and a half going from the casino to the Primer showing and back. In the end I decided it was just time to call it a day and went back to my room and hit the sack.

I got up early, packed, and headed back to Reno to catch my flight back to Des Moines. I was back in my house at 8PM that night - long day. The kids where already getting ready for bed so I decided that I'd wait until tomorrow to pull out the Gnomedex swag bag and give them their goodies (Google LED pins, Google Glow Cups, Yahoo colored pencil sets, etc.) .

Ate a quick dinner and hit the hay since I had to to be back to work Monday morning. All in all I enjoyed Gnomedex and I hope I can attend again next year.

Gnomedex Day 2 - Wil Wheaton

When I saw that Wil Wheaton was scheduled to give a 90 minute talk at Gnomedex I was intrigued. I wouldn't call myself a fan of Star Trek the Next Generation but I watched it from time to time and enjoyed the episodes I saw. Suffice it to say, I watched it enough to recognize the name Wil Wheaton as the actor who played Wesley Crusher.

I immediately started Google-ing for Wil Wheaton to find out what he had been up to and why he might be included in at Gnomedex. http://www.wilwheaton.net is all I needed to make the connection. Turns out Wil is a blogger, author, well, read his site and see for yourself.

Wil took the stage and after breaking the ice a bit and giving a little background he went right into reading some stories from his two books, Dancing Barefoot and Just a Geek. At first I thought it was going to be lame that he was just reading from his book but after a few minutes I was sucked in and really enjoying his delivery and the content of his stories. He also interjected some comical tidbits during the readings. One of the funniest stories was about how financial concerns forced him to sell a Wesley Crusher action figure on eBay. But hey, enjoy it for yourself - buy his books or find the recording of his presentation.

He actually ended up going over his 90 minutes but no one, including me, minded. When he concluded I noticed I was smiling. I had really enjoyed myself and was thinking "wow, Wil Wheaton is not only a geek, but he's really an interesting and inspiring person. Wil, if you are reading, all I have to say is "Dude".

Gnomedex Day 2 - Morning Panel

Thankfully, the planners of Gnomedex assumed everyone would be staying up late Friday night and the Saturday events didn't start until 11AM. I slept in a bit and woke up feeling pretty good except for feeling like I had smoked a pack of cigarettes - the second hand smoke in the casinos is pretty horrible.

The morning panel was titled The Future of Online Content. I'm happy to report that the futre of online content can be summed up in three letters, RSS. The panel,

• Scott Johnson
• Greg Reinacker
• Steve Gillmor
• Dan Gillmor
• Peter Kaminski
• Jason Calacanis

all seemed in agreement on the role RSS will play in future online content delivery. I'd probably have to agree as well. The flexible and open nature of RSS seems to have a wide range of practical uses for both the home and business. Overall, a very good panel discussion.

Next up is lunch and then its time to finally meet Wil Wheaton (I saw him in the casino last night but I was too busy raking in the benjamins to flag him down and introduce myself).

Gnomedex Day 1 - Nightlife v2.0

I headed down the street from Harrah's toward a place I had seen earlier in the day. I can't recall the name - something Irish Pub. The place looked more like a treehouse as it was on the second floor of a 2 story building and had an outside deck that was built around the giant trees. It was a small place but there was a decent crowd and a band was cranking out some awesome blues. To top it off they had Sierra Nevada on tap which in itself was reason enough to hang out.

I grabbed a SNPA and took a spot up close near the band. They rocked! I believe they were called The Trey Stone Band and they played a great set that included covers of BB King, Jimi Hendrix, George Benson, and Ray Charles to name a few. The lead singer/guitarist was incredible. Sorry, Silicon Valley Houserockers, you got a ways to go to top this band. Three (or was it four) beers later I was ready to head back to the hotel and finally take a stab at a little BlackJack.

I walked around the tables a bit and tried to pick up on some strategy and finally picked an empty table thinking I'd rather start playing with no other players in case I made a big fool of myself. It was a $10 minium table so I pulled out $20 and got a enough for at least 2 hands. I bet $10 and was dealt a 10 and a 9. The dealer busted. I was up $10. This is cool. I played a few more hands. Won a few and lost a few but I was up to about $75. A few more people sat down and the table was full. With four players things got more interesting. I started picking up on how their hands could help me win and also when to hit or stand based on the dealers up card. I was having a lot of fun but I was losing. I was back down to about $35. I told myself I'd play until I was out of chips but I wouldn't go over my initial $20.

Then things started going my way and I was creeping back up. $75, $125, $175. Then came my killer hand. I had bet $25 and was dealt two aces. So I doubled down (yeah, I knew the lingo now) and was dealt an 8 on the first ace and another ace. I doubled down on that was dealt a 10 and another ace. I doubled down again and was dealt a King. The dealer drew 19 so I ended up winning 3 of the 4 hands. I don't recall the exact take but I won something like $175 on that hand.

I ended up playing on my inital $20 for about 2 1/2 hours and was up over $550 at one point. I made a pact to not drop below $400 and played and lost until I hit that limit. So, I walked away with $400 bucks. I like BlackJack.

I headed back to the room around 3AM, very tired but happy the nightlife v2.0 had fixed the bugs in v1.0.

Gnomedex Day 1 - Nightlife

After the final panel we had about an hour to kill before the dinner and live band event was scheduled to begin. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do but I knew I needed to get up and move around after a full day of sitting on my butt. I took a stroll through Harrah's/Harvey's Casino stopping to watch the table action. I wanted to take a stab at some BlackJack but I couldn't get up the nerve to sit down and start losing $10 a hand - maybe later.

Instead I walked down to the Cabo Wabo. In an effort to make it super easy for guests to drink Sammy's tequila they conveniently had a portable bar out front complete with cute bartender ready to whip up a Waborita or other crazy drink. I opted for a shot of Cabo Wabo Anejo which was something I've wanted to try for awhile. It was pretty good and I had a nice talk with a couple other patrons while sipping it.

Now what? I walked around the casino a bit more and then decided another drink was in order and I wanted to check out a place on the 16th floor of the hotel call Cliche which promised "a 1920's feel and signature martinis". I walked in and the place was deserted (but it was only 6:15PM). The bartender was in a tuxedo and the waitress was pretty nicely dressed too. The place was pretty swank with top shelf wines and spirits lining shelves on all the walls. There was also a great view of the lake. I bellied up to the bar and ordered up one of those "signature martinis". I have to say it was pretty darn good. The bartender had a way of shaking it that resulted in a fine layer of ice shavings on the top of the drink when he poured it. Ice cold, nice big olives - yum, I'll take another.

Well, two martinis later I realized it was 7:35 and I was missing dinner. I paid up and headed back down to the conference area on floor 2. "Dinner" was underway and was actually more a fancy spread of munchies then dinner - fruit, veggies, spinach puffs, pate, crostini, etc. No drinks - lucky I had the cabo and two martinis on board. I munched some food and then made some small talk while I waited for the band. I had a bit of a bad feeling about the event since everyone was just sitting around not looking overly excited about anything.

Unfortunately my gut feeling was right. The band was so-so and being bored with small talk I decided it was time to give the Tahoe nightlife a go.

Gnomedex Day 1 - Final Panel

The final panel for the first day of Gnomedex was one I was pretty excited about. It was titled Maximizing Your Digital Lifestyle and featured some well known panelists including Jim Louderback. The panel also included a representative from VIA so I was hoping to get some good information on the VIA mainboards which I've been moderately interested in since Jeff and I worked on our mCube HTPC project a a couple years ago.

While not chock full of great information the panel did generate some interesting dialog since some panelists were big time digital geeks while some took a much more minimialistic approach. One panelist, *gasp* didn''t even own a cell phone, digital camera, or an iPod. But like the other panels there were some stretches that degenerated into "blah blah blah iPod blah blah blah convergence blah blah blah have I said iPod blah blah blah...". Luckily I had my computer and was able to do some coding and chatting during those periods.

The final panel wrapped up and there was time for a break and then we were supposed to be back around 7PM for dinner and some live music. I was ready for a break and hoping the evening would prove fun and exciting. I'll tell you how it turned out in my next post.

Gnomedex Day 1 - The Woz

Steve Wozniak has left the building - but not before giving me his digital John Hancock. He gave a very interesting and comical 1.5+ hour talk which covered the broad range of his experiences from learning about hardware design to starting Apple.

Over the break I also was able to talk to my family back home - big deal right. Well, in true geek fashion this conversation was not by phone but with VoIP using a nifty program called Skype. I have it set up on the TabletPC so I can fire that up, ring the family, and then hear and be heard (again thanks to the free Gnomedex WiFi). My kids think it is pretty cool.

In today's world no one gets a second glance if they are walking around talking into a cell phone but walking around and speaking (well, shouting thanks to the poor microphone in the TabletPC) into a computer about the size of a large novel still results in some curious stares - even from this tech savvy crowd. Maybe it was the fact that I was doing this while using the bathroom.

I'm back in for the final panel of the day which is about "The Digital Lifestyle" and features several well known geeks. I've been looking forward to this panel. More at the next break.

Gnomedex Day 1 - Lunch

So, I know from my previous post that talking about what I ate is major boring s--t but I did have a great lunch break. I was hunry for sushi and took the hotel staff's advice and walked about 8 blocks to a place called the Naked Fish only to find that it is only open for dinner. Bummer. So I headed back toward Harrah's and picked a place called Cecil's Steak and Brew because, hey, I love steak and I love beer even more. Cecil's is a small brew pub and has a great Pale Ale called the Mt. Tallac Pale Ale - very hoppy, very tasty. Anyway, that is not what made lunch good (it didn't hurt though).

Anyway, when I walked in there were a couple other Gnomies who were gracious enough to invite me to join them which was great because I've been eating alone since yesterday morning. Mike and Eleanor are both from California and we had a great conversation while enjoying the libations.

I brought out the TabletPC with my AutogaphInk application and got both of them to sign. I'm up to 5 digital autographs so far and hope to get quite a few more today during the afternoon sessions.

So I'm back at the convention center at Harrah's and Steve Wozniak has just started his keynote talk so I think I'll tune in to this one.

Gnomedex Day 1 - Morning Session

Well, the first day of Gnomedex panels is underway with the first panel covering the future or computer security and the second about maximizing your blog.

I knew I was in trouble of appearing incredibly lame when I arrived yesterday and was asked at check-in what blog url I wanted to appear on my conference nametag below my name. "Hum, ah, let's see... I don't have one". The shame, the horror, how could I call myself a geek.

Well, I've known about blogs for quite awhile but I've never been compelled to create one of my own. In general the ones I've read seem filled with large amounts of crap and by crap I mean really useless crap. Do I need to spend time reading what Joe Blogger ate for breakfast yesterday? Not really. Does anyone out there want to read what I had for breakfast today? Not really.

But blogs are huge as evidenced by the fact that everyone here has one except me. So to avoid further shame to my geekiness I am taking the opportunity during the blogging panel (thanks to the free Gnomedex WiFi) to set up my very own blog.

Setup was a snap, http://www.blogger.com, register, pick a template, start blogging. In fact it is taking me a lot longer to compose this witty first entry then to actually set up the account.

And to that end I'm out of clever things to say in this first entry so I'll wrap it up and continue with the Maximizing your Blog Strategy panel and see what I can learn.

BTW, I had the Tahoe Special - eggs, sausage, bacon, hashbrowns, biscuits, and OJ for breakfast... oh, and a double Cafe Americano.