QDIS Blog

This is a somewhat unusual post. I have now made available an application I had someone develop for me that takes an enhanced podcast (AAC) with a m4a or m4b extension and takes the chapter names, URLs and time code from the file and exports that into html for creating shownotes from an enhanced podcast! This does require that you have Quicktime installed but that shouldn’t be a problem.

About PodChapter Exporter

If you use Garageband to create an enhanced AAC podcast this software is for you. It makes creating shownotes from the file a breeze! Let me know if you use it and like it.

Technorati Tags: enhanced podcast, podchapter exporter, podcast show notes

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I became aware of a unique search site recently that I wanted to let you know about. It is CrossEngine and it allows you to search a given site and then immediately go to another site and perform the same search. It is organized first by type of information; quick, web, images, video, audio, news, etc. Then you have a search text box to type in your query. After that, you choose your search engine.

After that, if you want to see the results from a different search engine, just click on a new search engine and the same query will be run on the new search engine and the results displayed. I personally like this as I always recommend checking at least two major sites for any serious search activities.

As an example, I recently wanted to know about the Salmonella in Pater Pan peanut butter for a future posting here. I went to CrossEngine chose the News tab from the top. Then I typed in “Peter Pan” peanut butter Salmonella and then choose Google. I can look down thru the results and I even found an article from my alma mater college paper the Purdue Exponent.

I then wanted to see what else there was so just clicked on Yahoo and I get their news listings for the same query. The first listing showed me that it wasn’t only Peter Pan brand but also Great Value peanut butter. I then clicked on NY Times and found they had two articles, one on the peanut butter problem and other related to Salmonella problems with cantaloupe which mentions the peanut butter problem also. CrossEngine allows me to quickly and easily with very few clicks, look at the results on different search sites.

My only real concern as a power user is that not all the search engines use the same syntax for advanced searching. As an example, inurl: works on most but not all the web search sites. In Wisenut it defaults to searching for the word following inurl instead since Wisenut doesn’t support searching in specific fields. This isn’t a big deal for the vast majority of users and really isn’t a problem.

Since I do a lot of science related searching, I’d like to see them add a tab at the top to search science specific sites. I have sent them a list of my favorite science search sites (for more on this see my latest podcast Science Search Sites) and hope to see this incorporated in the future.

Overall, I like CrossEngine and it has replaced many of my bookmakrks on my web browser window. I use it to quickly look across various sites without having to retype my query. I had previously used bookmarklets to achieve this but there had to be a different bookmarklet for each engine. I like this approach much better. I always recomend checking at least two sites and CrossEngine makes that very easy.

Technorati Tags: CrossEngine

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I’ve mentioned Govtrack recently and wanted to highlight what a great resource I think it is. If you want to track and be alerted to specific bills, then this site makes it easy, especially with RSS feeds (web feeds).

Here is a search for all bills containing “drug OR pharmaceutical” in the House of the 110th Congress with any status.

GovTrack: Bill Search House (drug OR pharmaceutical)

This contains links to the full text of bills of 11 bills.

Here is the corresponding Senate bills.

GovTrack: Bill Search Senate (drug OR pharmaceutical)

The Senate currently only has 6 bills before it at this time. Both these links should continue to work and give you all the bills at later dates.

You can also use topics set up by the Congressional Research service (CRS) to monitor topic. As an example, here is the link for the topic Medicines. There is also an RSS feed (web feed).

I encourage everyone who has an interest in what Congress is doing to us this resource.

Technorati Tags: drug cost, drug imports, drug price, Government Information, Govtrack

Email Ed Vawter

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In this time of the New Year and making New Years Resolution, here’s one I’d like to see many folks make. Better manners when using cell phones and blackberry-like devices. There was a recent article on Yahoo that got me to thinking about this.

Are BlackBerry users the new smokers? - Yahoo! News:

One of my major complaints is something I see quite frequently when traveling, especially at airports. Men standing at urinals, doing their business while talking on their cell phone! I have observed this with a disturbing increasing frequency over the last year. They stand their chatting away while urinating. I’m not sure what the people at the other end of the phone think?! I’ve even overheard men sitting on the toilet talking on the phone while performing their bodily functions. I certainly wouldn’t want to be on the other end of those conversations.

Manners with new technologies are a growing concern. Many restaurants are banning cell phones and I agree with that manly because I don’t want to be forced to listen to someone else’s inane conversation while I’m dining. Also, people tend to talk louder on a cell phone than they otherwise might and forget those around them.

Here is my list of things I’d like to see people work on in the coming year.

1. Get voicemail and use it. Call people back after you have finished whatever business you have at hand. This way you give the other person your full attention.
2. Find an area away from others to have a cell phone conversation if you must take the call. In restaurants, either step outside or find somewhere where you won’t bother other diners, but not the restroom.
3. Don’t send email while having a conversation! Many people seem to want to multi-task but this is disrespectful in some situations, especially if you are having a one to one interaction. Sending a quick email note during a meeting is okay, but don’t spend all your time reading email.
4. Don’t have a long loud conversation on a bus. A short call is okay but avoid long drawn out conversations in crowded situations.
5. Place phones on vibrate when in meetings, conferences, at dinner, etc. This way you know you have a call but don’t submit everyone around you to your ring, especially when it is a song.
6. Regarding ring-tones. Picking a song or jingle that you like and enjoy is fine. However, don’t continue to let your phone ring just so you can listen to an entire song!! I’ve seen people pull out their phones and wait for several seconds before answering just so they can enjoy their ring-tone.
7. When on an airplane before take-off, please hang up when asked to by the flight attendant. I have been on many flights where the push-back from the gate is delayed because someone refuses to end a cell phone conversation. On this subject, I truly hope airlines do NOT start allowing people to use cell phones while in flight!!
7. Just be aware of your surroundings and try to avoid disturbing others. Most people don’t mind a short conversation however, most of us don’t want to hear a five minute conversation about your toodler making poo-poo or a discussion of who at your company may get fired for sleeping with their boss (I have overheard both of these conversations in the past year).

I think technology is wonderful and can make life much easier. However, as with all new technologies, it needs to be used in a manner that is respectful of others.

Technorati Tags: cell phone manners, cell phone use, manners, politeness

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QD Information Services is pleased to announce they now offer podcast consulting services. If you want to learn what podcasting can do for your company and you want to start a podcast QDIS can help. QD Information Services has been involved with podcasting since its inception in August 2004 and now produces the podcast “Searching the Internet“.

Podcasting is not jut a fad but is an efficient method, unique, low-cost method to communicate with your costumers or just anyone with access to the Internet.

Feel free to contact me if you’d like to further discuss how podcasting can help your company.

Technorati Tags: consultant, consulting, podcast, podcasting

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Voting is an important duty for everyone in the US. I also think people should spend time going over the issues and candidates in order to make an informed choice. With that in mind, I wanted to let you know about what is easily the most important episode of “Searching the Internet” that I have done to date. Episode 12 covers information for voters and I review sites to help you make intelligent decisions in the upcoming election. All the sites reviewed are non-partisan and give unbiased information about the candidates and issues. I’m hopeful that people will find this review of election and voter information related sites useful and helpful.

I feel voting is very important and wanted to contribute something to the podcasting community. I went through many sites before settling on the ones I decided to include. Episode 012 covers election information sites. These include:

• Yahoo News Midterm Elections 2006
• C-SPAN
• CNN America Votes 2006
• Fair Vote
• getvoting411.us
• League of Women Voters
• Vote411.org
• Electionline
• Elections 2006
• Factcheck.org
• Media Matters for America
• Politics1.com
• Project Vote Smart
• RealClearPolitics
• Election Protection 365
• Election Incident Reporting System
• Electroral-Vote.com
• Election Projection - 2006 Edition
• Clusty Results for 2006 Midterm Election
• Mooter Results for 2006 Midterm Election

I feel voting is the most important duty of any American and I hope this episode helps people make informed decision at the polls on Nov 7.

Technorati Tags: election, vote, voting

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One of the great products released at the recent Podcast Expo was Levelator from Gigavox Media. This is a very easy to use and runs on any platform since it is Java based (actually it’s in C++ but has a Java wrapper). I’ve used it and it does indeed work well, although I’ve not had a audio file that really pushes it to its limit.

Basically it takes any WAV or aiff file and will level the sound volume. This is particularly useful if you do live interviews or have a situation where the levels are uneven.

And the best part is it’s free. Note though that it is still beta and almost certainly has bugs in it.

Here is Michael Geoghegan CEO of Gigavox, posting about Levelator on his blog.

Technorati Tags: audio software, audio volume, Gigavox Media, podcast, sound volume

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By now everyone surely knows that Google purchased YouTube for a whooping $1.65 Billion (that’s with a B).

Google snatches up YouTube for $1.65B - Yahoo! News

First, as a podcaster I believe that video is indeed here to stay and not just a fad as some think. So, I do believe there is value in video over the Internet. However, I really don’t think a brand new company such as YouTube is worth that much. I am glad to see that Google did the deal as an all stock transaction. Maybe the fact that I think Google’s stock is way over valued makes up for part of the inflated price.

Some folks have said its about culture and not business. However, I think both need to keep in mind that they are in the business of making money especially since Google has shareholders they are accountable to. It is good to see that Google will allow YouTube to operate as an independent unit.

I realize Google wants to be a major player in video and their attempts to date have not been very successful. It is nice to see that they don’t have the “not invented here” mentality and are willing to go after a major player in the online video area.

The price paid is too much when you consider the amount of potentially copyrighted material on YouTube. While I realize that YouTube has managed to get a truce with Universal, there are many other media companies out there who are not as likely to settle in my opinion. Also, this transaction has served to put YouTube on the radar screen of other major media companies. Also, not that YouTube will soon be a part of Google, there are now much deeper pockets involved. Some analysts seem to think that media companies will now rush to make a deal with Google, but I fear the opposite is true. Too many old stream major media companies still do not understand the new economy and the impact of the Internet. They would much rather take legal action against anyone they feel has impinged on their territory.

Bottom line, I think it was a good acquisition for Google, but I think they vastly overpaid for it. Only time will tell if it was a wise move.

Other Sources

News Stories

• google youtube - Google News
• Yahoo! News Search Results for google youtube

Blog Posts

• Google Blog Search: google youtube
• google youtube - Ask.com Blog and Feed Search

Technorati Tags: Google, video, Youtube

Email Ed Vawter

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With the coming of the fall TV season I’ve noticed something I’ll call the “Tivo Tide”. I joined the lucky ranks of timeshifters for TV about a year ago and have rarely watched live TV since. When I purchased my Tivo (it is indeed a true Tivo unit) I got the largest hard drive available and so have quite a few season passes.

I have several shows on the major networks that I watch regularly and I have these set to only record first run episodes. Then lower in my season pass list are some other shows that I like to watch but they aren’t priorities. I have these set for first run and repeats. What this allows is that I see the shows I want and after the regular season I get to catch up on the lower priority shows. This is particularly true when two shows are on at the same time.

This lets me see two shows that may be on the same time without having to either have two units or a unit capable of recording two shows at the same time.

I call it Tivo Tide because the shows on my Tivo seem to go through a series of undulations and now shows that I haven’t thought about or seen an episode of in a long time are appearing. Then as the TV season slows and comes to an end, those fade and I get to see a whole new crop of shows and catch up on them.

Technorati Tags: television, Tivo, Tivo Tide, TV

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Seems there is more to the story I reported recently concerning Advanced Cell Technology techniques to produce stem cells without destroying the embryos.

Stem cell experiment killed embryos, researchers say - baltimoresun.com

Although it may be possible to extract stem cells without destroying embryos, in this case, they actually extracted cells several times and did indeed destroy the embryos in this case. The report was accurate but there seems to be a misunderstanding. Here is an excerpt from this article:

M. William Lensch, a stem cell researcher at Harvard, said using the method to create stem cell lines might be more difficult than the study implies because it’s not clear why only a small percentage of the extracted cells formed new lines.

“I think the study was written in a clever way so that it’s technically correct, but what they claimed beyond the paper, and on the Nature Web site and in the popular press, isn’t right,” he said.

In an interview yesterday, Dr. Robert Lanza, the senior author, noted that he and his team never claimed the embryos survived the experiments. When the study was published, Lanza and other experts had noted in interviews that embryos routinely survive when single cells are extracted in genetic tests at fertility clinics.

It seems more work needs to be done but I feel it is a step in the right direction and the work should continue with the hope in the near future of actually accomplishing what was reported in the popular press.

Technorati Tags: Advanced Cell Technolgy, stem cell, stem cells

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