Many people have (or use) a summer reading list. I’ve never done that until now. I’ve got a 3 foot stack of books I’ve purchased in the last couple of months sitting beside my bed. I thought it might be helpful (maybe only for me) to review a few of those books.

Among the books in my pile is Blue Like Jazz. I’ve gotten about 11 chapters into the book & my son has borrowed it. Donald Milller has a wonderful fresh voice and has thought deeply about what it means to be Christian. One note of caution : DON’T READ THIS BOOK IF YOU’RE AFRAID OF CHANGE. If Miller hasn’t stood your world on it’s head by page 30, check your pulse…

Sitepoint recently ran an article by Jon Watson[1] that was a primer for podcasters[2]. Lot’s of tips & links to tools to help a fledgling podcaster get in the ‘bidness.

The tip I’m using right now is the following recommendations for bit & sample rates:

The most suitable bit and sample rates for a given show will depend entirely on its content. Finding the perfect match of rates and file sizes is something of a holy grail for podcasters. A general rule of thumb is that music should be recorded at a higher bit rate and sample rate, while speech may be recorded at a much lower setting. I encode my speech podcasts at a sample rate of 22kHz and a bit rate of 48kbps, which usually results in a file that’s about 6MB per 15 minutes of show. Here are some common benchmarks to get you started, but keep in mind that experimentation is the key:

* Pure speech podcast: 22kHz/48kbps
* Speech with some music: 44.1kHz/64-96kbps
* Mostly music: 44.1kHz/128-192kbps

A new tools I had not encountered is CastBlaster[3]. This tools looks like it has some features built into it that you see the guys on Mike & Mike in the Morning[4]. Pre-recorded snippits can be easily entered into the podcast on the fly, making your podcast more spontaneous, and easier to edit too!.

[1] http://www.sitepoint.com/article/professional-podcasting
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcasting
[3] http://www.castblaster.com/
[4] http://espnradio.espn.go.com/espnradio/show?showId=mikeandmike

I found this list of blog ping services[2] in the Wordpress Codex[1], in the section about update services for your wordpress blog to ping when you post. The list is designed to efficiently ping most of the active aggregator services without duplicating the any services and getting you marked as a spammer.

The list of URI’s go into the Option >> Writing section fo the admin panel at the bottom of the page in the Update Services box.

Links in this post:
[1] http://codex.wordpress.org/Update_Services
[2] http://www.instant-info-online.com/wordpress-compressed-all-inclusive-ping-list.html