Too many long, rambling podcasts

I started listening to the This Week in Photography (TWiP) podcast (episode 65) on my way in to work this morning. Over seven minutes into a one hour and 20 minute episode, and they hadn't really started talking about photography. So I skipped ahead to the next podcast in my playlist.

I much prefer the Tack Sharp podcast. The average length of the episodes is about 20 minutes, and each episode focuses on one subject only. I've learned something from every one of the six episodes so far.

Alex Lindsay and Scott Bourne, the founders and two of the regulars on TWiP are also regulars on MacBreak Weekly (MBW). So it's understandable that the style and format of their podcast is very similar. (They even have "picks of the week".) But what makes MBW (and TWiT) worth listening to (even when they rat-hole or ramble--although I'm often tempted to skip them when they're particularly long--the last MBW was just sort of two hours) is that I feel like I've gotten to know the personalities so each week feels like listening to old friends. (And Leo Laporte does a great job of keeping both podcasts interesting.) Perhaps if I kept listening to TWiP I'd get that same comfortable familiarity with it, but I only have so much time.

The TWIPPHOTO.COM blog has excellent show notes for the episodes, and there's plenty of other material there worth reading. So I'll probably favor their blog over their podcast. (But I find it harder to make time for blog reading than podcasts.)

I'm going to PyCon

I registered yesterday for PyCon, after getting my Travel Authorization approved just in time to still get the "early" rate (which ended yesterday).

I'm going to be there for the tutorials (all three)--since this is my first PyCon I want to get as much as possible out of it. I chose:

• Secrets of the Framework Creators (which I see is now full)
  
• Generator Tricks for Systems Programmers
• Django Code Lab

Sometime (in the next three weeks) I'll have to start planning on which sessions I'll attend.

Also (in the spirit of getting as much as possible out of it--and giving something back) I'm going to stay for the sprints. I'll almost certainly be joining the Django sprint, since I've begun using it at my day job (and for personal projects). This should be a good opportunity to learn a lot more about Django. I'll need to read Contributing to Django and follow the instructions in Preparing For The Next Django Sprint (which I heard about out about on the This Week in Django podcast #11).

You tell 'em Bill!

I enjoyed listening to the "Real Time Overtime from 1/25/08" podcast (which you'll find on iTunes and at www.hbo.com) on my run today. My favorite lines:

It's about time the people of faith backed off. Because they've gotten away with that for years; just by saying the word "faith", you can't even have a debate about it. But I'm gonna have a debate about it.

They certainly do have the right [to believe what they want to believe], and I have the right to say they're batshit.

Authoxy hits and misses (and Google SDKs and APIs)

I've been playing a little bit with Google Android and with the Google data APIs (aka GData), but the only way I've been able to make time is by coming in extra early to work. (The only other free time I have is in the evenings after the kids are asleep, but I'm a morning person--I'm usually too exhausted in the evenings to do any technical work.) But we of course have a firewall at work.

I've been very happy with Authoxy, which allows me to use applications that don't support proxy authentication.

So I tried to use it with the Android emulator, but with no success. I've posted on the Android Beginners mailing list hoping someone else has figured it out. I did get a helpful response, but I haven't been able to get it working yet.

Initially I didn't have any success with GData either (I'm using Python, naturally). I did a search and found a thread on proxy support with a reference to this Python CookBook recipe. So I tried setting the 'https_proxy' environment variable (to 'http://127.0.0.1:8080/') but it didn't work. I dug through Google's code and even stepped around in the debugger. I learned a few things (as I always do when reading code) but I just couldn't get it to work. So I set it aside.

When I came back to it, I noticed in gdata.py-1.0.10.1/src/atom/service.py (after searching for 'https_proxy' in Spotlight, which is very useful for searching sources on Leopard) that they also look for 'http_proxy'. So I set it too (also to 'http://127.0.0.1:8080/') and success! (This is certainly not the first time I've very quickly solved a problem when coming back to it after a break. Sometimes it seems like the longer the break the easier it gets.) As I learned from a Google Developer Podcast (which I recommend), one can use the Spreadsheets Data API to read and write entire rows, effectively using a spreadsheet as a flat file database. Pretty slick.

Update: I got the Android emulator working through Authoxy. See my reply on the Android Beginners mailing list. This morning (2008-01-14) Authoxy was batting 500, now it's batting 1000.

Unconditional Love

I just listened to another excellent episode of This American Life. In Act Two, "Dave Royko talks about the decision he and his wife faced about their autustic son's future..." which got me thinking about our short-lived fears about Henry.

It's been only a little over a month since I wrote "The flood gates are opening", and those gates have been opening ever wider since. We've lost count of how many words Henry uses on his own (and he will repeat very many other words after hearing Claire or I, or even Elleda or Gabe say it). And he has begun to say a few two-word sentences, like "Bye-bye Mama" or "Hi Dada".

We are so very lucky.

Radio Lab

Episode 336 of This American Life ("Who Can You Save?") contained an excerpt from the show Radio Lab from New York Public Radio. The TAL web site calls Radio Lab "arguably the most groundbreaking new show in public radio." That could be; it's certainly very good. It's a little like This American Life, but with an emphasis on science.

Like This American Life, a podcast of Radio Lab is available. My favorite episode (so far) is "Memory and Forgetting" (which I gave a rare 5 star rating in iTunes).

Elvis Costello podcast: The First 10 Years

If you're an Elvis Costello fan then you'll enjoy his "The First 10 Years" podcast. It's available on iTunes, or through elviscostello.com.

"Survival at a Price in an Iranian Prison"

I also recommend this story that I listened to during my run today. (Also downloaded from the NPR Story of the Day podcast.) There's a book excerpt at the story page.

Scott Simon is a brilliantly natural interviewer.

"Farmworker to Surgeon: Immigrant Lives Dream"

I enjoyed listening to this story during my run this today. (I downloaded it as part of the NPR Story of the Day podcast.)

Habeas Schmabeas

This episode of This American Life deserved to win a 2006 Peabody Award. The Bush administration may have had good intentions in denying the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay habeas rights (and Geneva Conventions), but it seems pretty clear now that now they’re struggling to cover up some quite shameful mistakes. This mess could use plenty more of this kind of sunlight disinfectant.

Baseball is back

Two of the little pleasures of my life have returned: the major league baseball season, and the ESPN Baseball Today podcast.

The A's have lost their first two games of the season to the Mariners, who have now won has many games against the A's as they did all last season! (Oakland won 17 of 19 against Seattle last year.) Hopefully Rich Harden can prevent a sweep tomorrow. (And tomorrow's game is on KICU, so I'll be able to watch it on TiVo after the kids are asleep.)

I subscribed to the ESPN Baseball Today podcast all last year, and I don't think I missed an episode. It's just the right length: 15-20 minutes (every weekday); long enough to cover all the previous games and point out the interesting match-ups of the next day. The host Alan Schwarz and his rotation of co-hosts don't waste much time focusing on payrolls or the politics of the league--instead they focus on the games themselves--which I like. I wish I could point you to an easy way to subscribe, but for some reason there's no iTunes link on the only web page I could find: http://espnradio.espn.go.com/espnradio/podcast/index. But you should find it if you search for "ESPN Baseball" in the iTunes Store.

I only wish I could download podcasts and videos of games. Last year I subscribed to mlb.com's Gameday Audio, but I could rarely get it to work on Mac OS X and it was even flaky on Windows. I got excited when I read "MLB highlights coming to iTunes Store", so I've been watching for the "MLB.com Daily Rewind" and "Games of the Week". (I downloaded the 2007 Season Preview from iTunes, and it was worth watching.) "MLB.com Network Just Added" is prominently featured in the iTunes Store today, but when I click on it they only show the preview and "Baseball's Best". I'll keep watching.

Update 2007-04-05 09:30 PDT: I just checked http://espnradio.espn.go.com/espnradio/podcast/index and Baseball Today is right at the top of the page (describing yesterday's episode), with an iTunes link. But I'm getting an error (8006--whatever that means) when trying to update the podcast in iTunes. Perhaps that means that their podcast feed is down right now while today's podcast is being posted. (I saw the same error yesterday, and it went away later and then I could download yesterday's episode.)

MLB.com "Daily Rewind" is available on iTunes. I bought a 30-day "multipass" for $8, and downloaded the latest (April 3rd) episode. I'll let you know what I think.

What a mess

Today I listened to This American Life episode "By Proxy" (#327). I was deeply moved by Ira Glass's interview of "Basim" in "Act Two"; but I wasn't moved to action or filled with love for my fellow man. Is there a word for when one is already disillusioned and surprisingly becomes even more so?

I won't summarize the interview; I do strongly recommend you listen for yourself. But what I found moving was that this Iraqi interpreter for the US Army is clearly a good man, trying to do the right thing. But tragically he had to leave Iraq for his and his family's safety, even though he realizes that there's no hope for Iraq if everyone like him leaves.

It's even more clear from listening to his story just what a mess the USA has made in Iraq. It's unlikely, but I hope that someone who has some power to change things there (I'm thinking Robert Gates or David Petraeus or someone with their ear) will hear this.

I remember hearing about Colin Powell warning George Bush before the invasion about the "Pottery Barn rule": if you break it, you buy it. "W" certainly has broken it real good, but his successors are the ones who will pay for it and have to fix it. And that's going to take a very long time.

This American Life is undoubtedly my all-time favorite radio program. It's consistently excellent, and not infrequently outdoes itself. I've paid to be able to download it from Audible.com for the last 4 or 5 years, but recently they've made a free podcast available. Don't miss it; every week.