Fear of Chicago

I’ve got two trips to Chicagoland already queued up for this summer.

The first one is Saturday, May 19. When, of this writing, I’ll be spending some time on a go-cart in Buffalo Grove.

The last time I attended one of these events, I was trapped on a permanetly-docked gambling boat near Aurora after dining at a suburban Hooters.

I’m betting on a more enjoyable trip this time around.

Wonderlick – Fear of Chicago

Anyone know a good source for downloadin…

Anyone know a good source for downloading, local, independent music. Specifically, I’m looking for Minnesota-based or MN, WI, NoDak, SoDak, IA music. Thanks

Update 27 April 2007:
I’ve Googled for answer to this question and come up with a number of local music directory projects – some clearly abandon, others just useless. All of these projects (alive or zombie) assume I know who all the musicians are.

I don’t…that’s why I’m looking.

At minimum, I’m looking for a Last.FM search or Pandora stream filtered by geography. A steady stream of recommendations – like AmigoFish for local music, not an alphabetical directory of meaningless artists names.

Daily Catch: Beer, Dr. Who, and the First Crack Podcast

Donavan Hall recently said some very nice things about the First Crack Podcast in his Daily Catch podcast. (After popping by and saying ‘thanks’ last fall, this episode finally came up on shuffle.)

He covers the new Dr. Who in the same episode and talks about some of the same issues I have with the episodes we’ve caught…Netflix hasn’t sent the anything from Season 3 yet. Tick….tock.

As you’ve seen here, I’ve been in a podcasting lull. Like I’m actively avoiding wanting to hit the #100 episode mark. I’m not. The podcast is. I can guarantee at least 2 more of the kind of episodes you know and love. “It makes me think about stuff”, as Donavan describes it.

Thanks again Donavan.

Learning the Rails

I’m taking a week off of active programming to focus on better understanding 3 aspects of Rails development I’ve been wistfully ignoring: Migrations, Testing, and Deployment.

There’s a tiny, fun little project I’m using as the venue for these subjects.

One week from today (May 1) is what I’m giving myself on this effort. Any longer and it’ll be a distraction rather than a learning exercise.

I’ve always have a conceptual issue with Migrations. While migrations make it super easy to iteratively change the database, I’m accustomed to having the database a rock solid representation of, well, the database. My inclination is to look in and modify the database directly, then within create_[model].rb, then within schema.rb. Having bits of the model strewn about numerous migration files feels messy.

I’ll get used to it. Probably even savor it once I wrap my head around it.

Podcasting’s Image Problem

I’m finally getting around to listening to the sessions I missed at last fall’s Podcast and Portable Media Expo. While there, all the sessions felt like we were prepping for a boom. Everyone looking for how to hit the mother lode.

Seven months later, listening to the sessions, that suspicion is confirmed. The tone, pitch, and demeanor (of all but Dave Slusher’s session) is one of snake oil pyramid scheme sales pitch.

From an aesthetic sense, even today, if ‘pod’ is somewhere a company’s name, the presence looks cheap, unpolished, half-baked, and feels as reputable as a payday loan provider.

This is a huge problem. For everyone that publishes enclosures via RSS.

It’s not a lack-of-money problem. It’s a customer experience problem. The latest Web 2.0 toysite is far more polished and thought-through from an experience perspective than people frantically digging for fool’s gold in podcastville.

Hopefully, we’re in podcasting’s dip. A lull. To shake out those that can be shaken out.

“There was no boom in podcasting technology, and there won’t be.” – Dave Winer

So, You Want to Be a Public Radio Star?

I had a great conversation with Tim Elliott and Phil Wilson this weekend at MinneBar, we started talking about the early days of podcasting and how Tim and I both saw podcasting as a farm league for broadcast radio in general – and public radio in particular.

The problem is by the time those institutions start asking, the podcasters have moved on. Realizing they don’t need the broadcast distribution model to be successful and podcasting is no longer the radio farm league, but a completely different game. Then, when the big league starts asking, you know something’s up.

“PRX has launched the first-ever Public Radio Talent Quest, a nationwide search for the next generation of hosts for public radio. Contestants can submit a 2-minute audio demo for their shot at $10,000 and the opportunity to produce a pilot show for public radio.”

Why Buying Local, Frontier House, and the Trade Deficit are All Silly

Russ Roberts’ EconTalk is consistently interesting and engaging podcast covering economics as a perspective and a practice.

I spent the first half of this week listening to his hour long conversation with colleague Don Boudreaux on the economics of buying local for the sake of buying local.

Boudreaux and Roberts expand on many of the same points as Roberts’ conversation with Mike Munger on the division of labor and boil it all down to: the division of labor creates wealth. Trade is simply an extended division of labor and a trade deficit with another country is as silly a notion as having a trade deficit with another state, town, or the local grocery store.