Thanks for the Transcripts

[pablo]

I just have to say thanks for posting the transcripts. That makes your podcast an awesome tool. I had started trying to do it myself, but my Spanish is not very advanced, and it was taking me an hour to do just one minute of the podcast. Even then, there were some phrases I just could not understand. It is absolutely worth the cost to me.


As for suggestions, enhancing the audio with pics would be nice, and it doesn't take much time (I use Garageband, not sure what to use on a PC). It would be nice to see a couple pics of places you are doing the podcast from or discussing, or even a few spellings of words that you are emphasizing in that podcast.

Regardless, thank you for this podcast. It's a great tool, and entertaining.

[Ben]

Thanks Pablo, it's great to hear that the transcripts so useful. There should be another out by the end of the week/early next.

I will look into enhancing the podcasts with at least one photo... the trouble is that real enhanced podcasts are only any use to ipod owners or people listening on itunes so I'm not sure the extra work at this end, plus producing an extra feed etc, will be worth it at the moment.

[Alan]

I have to second that, Ben. The enhanced podcasts would make things awkward for me unless you produced two sets of RSS feeds, and I don't ask for that. I don't mean to mock, pablo, but is it worth all this hassle to a lot of users just for a wee photo?

[pablo]

The enhanced podcasts would make things awkward for me unless you produced two sets of RSS feeds, and I don't ask for that. I don't mean to mock, pablo, but is it worth all this hassle to a lot of users just for a wee photo?

I didn't realize it was so difficult for people to access enhanced podcasts. For me, subscribing to any type of podcast (audio, enhanced audio, video, PDF, etc.) is the same very simple process: click "Subscribe". I'm guessing you are a Linux user? And no, for a wee photo it doesn't make sense -- that might as well be on the website. What would be helpful is seeing the spelling of the 15 or 20 featured words in the podcast as they come up in conversation. I'm one of those visual learners, so it would be nice. Still, it was just a suggestion. I am thrilled with the audio and the lulu transcripts.

[Alan]

Oh it's no problem accessing it on Linux :P I can watch anything on this :D I can even watch the loverly quicktime videos in fullscreen without paying for the program from Apple :D

So, as I say, it's not access that is a problem, but transferring to an mp3 player, especially the older standard MP3 players. I have a Creative Zen Xtra which cost me too much to go replacing it just yet. It's a couple of years old, but it still works excellently. Any new format would have to be backwards compatible to not upset a lot of listeners. We don't all have iPods.

I might put Linux on my Creative :) Then I could do whatever I want with it :)

I do like your idea of the words appearing on the screen as they're being said, but I see that as being a lot of work considering that a new podcast is released once a week or more. Alas, it's up to Ben. As long as a plain ordinary MP3 is available, I'll be happy.

[pablo]

Ah, yeah, MP3 players. I forget sometimes that the iPod is not completely ubiquitous :). And yeah, to be enhanced the files would have to be AAC, as MP3 does not allow for XML. MP3 has been around so long anything can play it, so it's simpler. Point taken. I will say though, that adding pics to audio for a podcast has gotten incredibly simple. It would only take the time to type the words, then drag them in the timeline. Still, I agree that MP3 is the way to go for a while.

[Ben]

From my point of view things will have to stay as they are for now, in mp3, purely for time reasons - if everyone could play the enhanced podcasts it would be different, but while this remains just an ipod thing I think we'll stick with mp3. But all may change in the future of course!

[timg]

Still, I agree that MP3 is the way to go for a while.
<geek>or you could switch to Ogg/Vorbis - an open format with (supposedly) better quality compression than MP3</geek> :)

[Alan]

Yeah, the Creative doesn't support that either :) But it SHOULD!