This post collates some of my previous postings into a series of coherent, sequential steps for a  podcaster to create and host a new podcast. This method utilises only pre-installed OSX software, freeware and free online accounts (ie Google, Twitterfeed, Twitter, Facebook, Internet Archive, iTunes).

While the steps below assume an audio-podcast, they apply equally to video-podcasts (vodcasts).

DIY podcasting – 7 easy steps

1. Record Audio. I’ve written elsewhere about: investing in an USB microphone to capture external input, and selecting a suitable space to use as the ‘recording studio’.

2. Mix Audio. Garageband users can check my Garageband posts for suggestions on mixing in Garageband.

3. Upload Audio. Upload your audio files to a remote server. I recommend the Internet Archive: see further my online storage post for additional details.

4. Create Feed. The feed is an xml file: the xml tags can be hand-coded, or generated using specialised software. I recommend using Vodcaster to generate the feed xml: Vodcaster allows the simple bulk-updating of remote-server information for all items in a given feed.

5. Upload Feed. Upload the xml file of your RSS feed to a remote server. For example: the account space provided by your ISP.

6. Direct feed into an online Feed Manager. A feed manager acts as the “middle-man” between your xml file and the public accounts which will publish your content. Feed Managers should generate their own static URL: that remains constant even if the source xml files are relocated. I recommend using Feedburner: this post provides more detail.

Feed Managers also publish your feed to your social media accounts. To give two examples:

1. Feedburner connects an RSS feed with a single Twitter account.
2. Twitterfeed connects an RSS feed to multiple Twitter and Facebook accounts.

7. Submit podcast to iTunes. Follow the iTunes instructions to submit the URL generated by your Feed Manager (in step 6 above). iTunes – having approved your feed – will add it to the iTunes library.

Trouble-shooting & Maintenance.

• Adding new episodes? When  you update your podcast xml file and then over-write the remote copy, the Feed Manager will handle the rest: automatically publishing your new content to your selected services.
• Broken links? Periodic link-validation is a must: Feedburner’s Podmedic service makes this easy.

Which openoffice suite is best for OSX: NeoOffice, LibreOffice, or OpenOffice?

Of course, users can download and install all three: each are compatible with (ie can import/export to) Microsoft Office formats – along with many other others, including pdf.

I’ve previously written separately about NeoOffice and LibreOffice, but this post will offer a few points of comparison between all three office suites.

1. NeoOffice. NeoOffice is written specifically to run natively under OSX: it is feature rich (floating tool windows, native file lockin,g etc). But NeoOffice images are no longer free for download: and while the NeoOffice code is available to “compile it yourself”; most users will simply prefer to install one of its pre-compiled competitors (see below).
2. LibreOffice. The OSX port performs quite smoothly (in fact, a little faster than NeoOffice in many tasks). Annoyingly, LibreOffice currently lacks the automatic update feature (unlike either Neo- or Open-Office).
3. OpenOffice. Good Office suite: although OpenOffice appears to run slower and use more RAM under OSX than the other suites.

Want to know more?

• NeoOffice home
• LibreOffice home
• OpenOffice home
• Wikipedia: NeoOffice, LibreOffice, OpenOffice
• NeoOffice: Office Suite Performance Comparisions Neo 3.2.1 vs Libre 3.3.3 vs Open 3.3
• EasyOSX: Office Suite Feature Comparision

As noted in a previous post, NeoOffice executables are no longer available for free download from NeoOffice.org. So what can a freeware lover do? Change to another Office suite of course! This post will introduce one alternative Office Suite: LibreOffice.

LibreOffice is a fully-featured Office suite sharing much of the same code that drives OpenOffice. LibreOffice loads quickly (more quickly than NeoOffice) and includes useful additional pre-loaded functionality by default: including dictionaries and grammar-checker.

Being – until recently – a NeoOffice user, I had no difficulty swopping to LibreOffice. If looking for a NeoOffice substitute: LibreOffice is worth a try.

If only one browser could do it all! But the simple fact remains that some sites will work perfectly well in one browser – but work poorly (or not at all) in another.

The good news is that there’s no need for users to restrict themselves to a single browser: having multiple browsers installed allows users to switch browsers on-the-fly when site-specific difficulties are encountered.

Here’s a quick introduction to three of the more popular browsers for OSX:

• Safari OSX’s native browser, that comes installed with the operating system. Safari performs best on its native OS, where it  compares very well on most benchmarks with its rivals.
• Firefox is a strong competitor: later versions demonstrate steady improvements in speed and performance: to the point where Firefox now out-performs Safari on some benchmarks.
• Chrome is the browser to watch closely: it regularly out-performs all rivals on various benchmarks on OSX (and Windows): prompting some benchmarking sites to award Chrome the top ranking for overall performance.

Want to know more?

• Safari home.
• Firefox home.
• Chrome home.
• Benchmarking Browser performance on OSX: Safari V5 vs Firefox V7 vs Chrome V14
• Wikipedia – Comparison of Web Browsers

Needing to tranfer DVD content to iPod / iPad / ITunes? You can’t do better than to use Handbrake: it’s simply the best freeware available for such tasks.

While I have previously reviewed iSquint and MPEG Streamclip for ripping DVDs, both these packages are not ideal: iSquint is no longer supported, and MPEG Streamclip does not include all the required CODECs in its freeware version. MacTheRipper copies entire DVDs – but cannot convert DVD content to other formats.

Handbrake suffers from none of these disadvantages: plus its GUI is excellent and straight-forward to use.

Note

The Methodshop Handbrake tutorial reports that Handbrake requires the freeware media player VLC for some functions: you can download VLC here.

Want to know more?

• Handbrake tutorial
• Handbrake user manual
• Handbrake home

I wrote twelve months ago about free online storage solutions. This post provides recommendations and updated information on the top contenders I’ve discovered: Box.net, Archive.org, and  Google.

Box.net

My top pick for general online file-storage was – and still is – box.net: who now offer 5GB per user account with an file size limit of 25MB per file.  While there are other online-storage providers with free accounts advertising more GB of storage space, the ones I explored all cripple the useability of their free accounts by imposing very low file size limits.

Therefore my 2010 recommendation still stands:  for free, general-purpose file-storage online: get yourself one (or more) box.net accounts.

Archive.org – The Internet Archive

A great choice for audio / video files is the Internet Archive. Unlike Box.net or Google, files hosted by the Internet Archive are all publicly available. This is ideal for (for example) hosting podcast media: otherwise go with one of the other options listed on this post.

The Internet Archive accepts audio, video or text files: the latter preferably as Portable Document Format. Individual file size limits are 2GB per file: there does not appear to be any limit on uploads per user account.

Google

Google provides a more nuanced approach: splitting up storage space by function, but linking together the relevant accounts for an individual user.

More specifically, Google now offers each user: 7GB Gmail storage, 1GB additional Google Docs storage (not including files uploaded & converted to Google Docs format), and another 1GB additional Picassa storage. Video files can be stored in a linked YouTube account. Underused capacity in one area cannot be transferred to another. File size limits for individual files also apply: 25MB per email attachment, 20MB per photo, otherwise 1GB per file (whether uploaded to Google Docs or Picassa). YouTube file limits for standard accounts are basically 2GB / 15 minutes per video file: but there are exceptions.

Here you can read more about: Gmail limits, Picassa limits, Google Doc limits, YouTube limits.

Using garageband to produce your own audiobooks is straight-forward: just keep these things in mind to maximise the quality of your recording:

1. Purchase a USB microphone to capture, and desktop speakers to create, audio input. An entry-range USB microphone is much better than any built-in microphone. (One example is Logitech’s USB desktop microphone).
2. Setup the microphone & speakers away from your laptop/ desktop, in a quiet room. The aim is to eliminate picking up as background noise the computer fan and other external signals as the sound from the speakers is captured by the mike.
3. Choose the text to record. Many online repositories contain public domain full-text, including: Gutenberg.org, and the Online Library of Liberty.
4. Open a new Garageband Project.
5. Use Apple’s Text-To-Speech function to read-back the selected text. ‘Alex’ is my preferred voice, but there are also others to choose from.

Note – Garageband under OSX 10.4 automatically pauses after recording continuously for about 3 hours 21 minutes: but saving the file and again clicking ‘record’ allows individual Garageband project files to store much more. It is up to the producer to select the best trade-off between: the convenience of storing an audiobook in one / a few large files, and the increasing difficulty of processing Garageband project files as they become larger.

*Update* – omit steps 1, 2, 4 and 5 by using txt2mp3mac.

During 2011 NeoOffice ceased being free: a “required donation” must now first be paid before users can download the pre-compiled executables. The source code is still freely accessible – but freeware junkies will have to compile it themselves. Here you can read more about the “required donation” issue.

What to do? Lovers of freeware have two basic options:

1. Switch to LibreOffice. LibreOffice is another fully-featured office suite within the larger OpenOffice family: users can download and install it from LibreOffice home.
2. Download NeoOffice sourcecode and compile it yourself. The NeoOffice sourcecode remains freely available under the terms of licencing agreement: here are instructions on how to download the sourcecode and compile it locally.

Note: Users choosing the second option must first install a CVS client to download the sourcecode. Here’s a helpful review of OSX CVS clients.

Last year – after Techcruch’s was slapped in the face by YouTube – I posted on how to download videos from YouTube. However the internet – like the sea – never remains static: so here’s an update for 2011.

Techcruch never re-entered the video-downloading game: but other enterprising players now fill the gap. I suggest Savevid.com – whose security certificate was verified by my browser (unlike several competitors). Just cut and paste URL of the online video you wish to save, click savevid.com’s “download” button, choose your format, and then click to download. Simplicity itself.

Need to know more? Read more @ howstuffworks.

*Update*: Even when using the same web-service (eg savevid.com, refered to above); all browsers are not equal. Savevid.com may hiccup in Firefox – but work perfectly in Safari.

How tragic: despite your love affair with OSX, you’ve discovered that you still have to run that dratted Windows program after all! What to do?

Here’s some options:

1. Emulate Windows: by purchasing Apple’s Parallel Desktop (after having purchased a 32-bit Windows OS license).
2. Dual-boot Windows: using OSX’s own Boot Camp having purchased a 32-bit Windows OS license. (OSX Boot Camp provides full hardware driver support.)
3. Run Windows applications: using WINE.

Options 1) and 3) above allow you to execute Windows applications simultaneously, whereas option 2) Boot Camp will only run one operating system at a time. However, options 1) & 2) both  involve additional costs: option 3) alone is completely *freeware*.

This post will explore the freeware option 3) WINE in greater detail: follow the above links for more information on the others.

I used WineBottler’s version of WINE, as WineBottler provides a pre-compiled disk image. Install and run WineBottler (which installs WINE): then make sure you check the “automatically check for updates” option on both programs to get the most up-to-date versions (see graphics below):

Click on the WINE – File Manager menu to run its file manager interface (see graphic below):

Use file manager to locate and execute (by double-clicking) your windows apps (see graphic below):

NB. In using WINE, I find that running Windows applications is a “hit and miss” exercise: some apps will run perfectly, while others will not run at all. Unless WINE can run every Windows app you require: clench your teeth, buy a Windows license and fall back on Boot Camp (or Parallel Desktop) to better guarantee that your much-needed Windows apps run properly.