Author: John

A podcast DIY

Poddy!

Just spotted this on MAKE (still waiting for issue two guys!)
I have a few friends (Eugene and George listen up!) that are thinking of doing a podcast. Armed with an outline like this it’s pretty much a no brainer to add the content, spiff it up a bit, and figure out how to make it avaliable to the masses. Heck, I might even do my own. Any one want to hear me yak about all the cool stuff I have going on in my life? (write me at ‘teamdroid at gmail dot com’. BTW, if your at a loss on how to decrypt my L33t anti-spam measure than you should go back to your Yahoo page.)

I’ve created guidelines for creating short, organized shows that can help you either get started in podcasting or organize your existing podcast into manageable, predictable chunks. As a society, people have become conditioned over generations to expect certain patterns in radio-like content. Podcasting is no exception. Even if your podcast sounds like radio, the most important piece of the podcasting puzzle is that it’s made by everyday folk.
With this model I’ve created, there is room for flexibility and expandability in the event that you are either missing some of these elements or have longer content (like interviews) that tends to take up more space.

Eric Rice :: How to build a 10 minute podcast

podcast, DIY, MAKE, creative

Trash Trivia

album14/dscn8224_trash_day

I bet you thought the recycle and no-recycle bins were hard to figure out! Trash in Tokyo is a complex thing, not only do you have to cover the trash up so the monster crows don’t strew it all over the place (see my photo above), but you must sort it according to a complex scheme of colored bags. When I was there I remember seeing notices about putting your PET bottles in clear bags and when to put them out for pick up but nothing about the colored bags. It’s also worth noting that the Japanese people are insane about over packaging things. If you were to buy a package a taro chips (very yummy by the way) you can expect an outer bag with the name of the item on it and an inner ‘tray’ to keep the bags shape and protect the chips from damage. Or if you buy a box of candy its not uncommon for the box to have smaller boxes in them each with a celo wraped candy on it’s own little plastic sled. It’s as if there is some law that states that ‘like food shall not touch like food’. It’s crazy. No wonder they have such a huge trash problem.

Most of cities in Tokyo have strict rules for disposal. It often drives me crazy so, those rules must drive most of non-Japanese freak out.
In my district Fussa, I have to buy certain garbage bags. Blue bags for burnable waste, yellow ones for unburnable waste. If I use other bag, they don’t take my bag. I usually buy M-size bags. 10bags for 300yen.

Metroblogging Tokyo: Disposal Rules

Japan, recycle, garbage, Tokyo

FREE!

Free at last

Opportunity is once again free of the sand dune and can continue on its extended mission.

The Mars rover Opportunity has successfully escaped from a sand trap. JPL engineers cheered when images returned from Mars showed the rover’s wheels were free. Engineers worked for nearly five weeks to carefully maneuver the rover out of the sand dune

The Latest News from Mars

Mars, Opportunity, NASA, space