iPod Hacks: “www.freeipodsoftware.com has released a free and open source Windows application for converting single or multiple MP3 files into a single iPod Audio Book (.m4b) file. It’s very easy to use.
Mac OS X and Linux versions are planned. Visit the website for more information.”
Macworld
details how you can easily save your dynamic iTunes Smart Playlists as
a regular static playlist by simply dragging and dropping the Smart
Playlist onto the Playlists header.
Once you drop, the contents of the Smart Playlist will be
automatically copied to a new playlist that you can rename to your
liking. We’re nuts about Smart Playlists,
and every now and then those dynamic playlists produce a list so killer
that you’ll want to listen to over and over again. This simple tip
offers a quick way to make it happen. Works on Mac and Windows.
Cory Doctorow: Evo Terra and the Podiobooks folks have posted the podiobook of my reading of Eastern Standard Tribe, my second novel.
Podiobooks are free audiobooks that are delivered to your podcast player in installments. Instead of getting a full ten hours of audio in one go, the story is sent to you in manageable chunks, on the schedule you set.
The raw audio for this podiobook came from my podcast, but the Podiobooks people have taken my readings and cleaned them up, cut out the intros, and equalized the levels across all the installments. It sounds dynamite.
The timing on this couldn’t be better — this is just in time for International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day, when Internet creators post free material for sharing and enjoying.
What’s more, this book also has the distinction of having been banned by the Mayor of Boston from Boston’s free WiFi network (Boing Boing is also banned!) I’m especially proud of this, since part of the book is set in Boston. I’m lucky to have been censored by the best. Link
If you listen to any form of internet radio, it’s time to do something, or kiss your favorite radio stations goodbye!
Pandora: “Hi, it’s Tim from Pandora,
I’m writing today to ask for your help. The survival of Pandora and all of Internet radio is in jeopardy because of a recent decision by the Copyright Royalty Board in Washington, DC to almost triple the licensing fees for Internet radio sites like Pandora. The new royalty rates are irrationally high, more than four times what satellite radio pays and broadcast radio doesn’t pay these at all. Left unchanged, these new royalties will kill every Internet radio site, including Pandora…”
Whedonesque: Fresh from the first-ever launch party for a novel in the online community Second Life, the 7th Son podcast novel trilogy has achieved another “first” in podcast history: Actor Nathan Fillion, star of the TV sci-fi series “Firefly” and film “Serenity,” will appear in the free audionovel 7th Son, Book Two: Deceit on Nov. 14 as a special guest reader.
Boing Boing: “Cory Doctorow: Paul E. Martens’s story, ‘What Dead People Are Supposed to Do’ appeared in last week’s edition of the horror podcast Pseudopod (I’m just catching up with my podcasts after a week teaching the Viable Paradise science fiction writing workshop on Martha’s Vineyard) and it’s fantastic. Perfect for Hallowe’en.
Brad is a gormless single manager in a telemarketing firm whose father died in debt and was therefore revived and turned into a telemarketing zombie who works to pay off his credit card bills. Iris is Brad’s ex, who is trying to make Brad understand that their relationship ended because Brad just doesn’t care about anything. Spurred by a need to impress Iris and by the impending repayment of his father’s debt (with concomitant switch-off) he decides to show his zombified father a good time.
It’s funny, it’s got heart, it’s sick — what more could you ask for?
My dad sits in his recliner. He doesn’t talk, or eat, or breathe. He watches TV. He comes home from work and he watches TV. I don’t know if he knows what’s on, or if he cares. We sit in the dark and the light from the TV screen flickers on his already greenish skin, reflected light and shadows lending his face the only animation it’s capable of. It looks unnatural, which, of course, it is.
But what is natural these days? Talking monkeys? Dogs that go shopping? Designer diseases? Crops that pick themselves? Gene-jockeys and bio-mechanics have tinkered with so many things that I’ve lost track. Maybe it’s a good thing that there are still laws about what they can and can’t do to people. People that aren’t dead yet at least.
Iris said it was wrong of me to have Dad brought back from the dead to work off his debts. But I didn’t ask him to run up the balances on all those credit cards. I think a son should be entitled to inherit something from his parents. Am I wrong?
Boing Boing: “Cory Doctorow: Kara sez, ‘LibriVox.org enlists volunteers to create free, public-domain audiobooks in mp3 format. In a departure from straight audiobooks, we’ve just finished our first play, The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, and we’re very excited about it! Volunteer cast members from all over the world recorded their lines individually. The recordings were then spliced together to produce the play. As always, our recordings are free to download, copy, and share.’ Link “
“
BoingBoing: “Cory Doctorow: My friend Bill Shunn’s story ‘Observations From the City of Angels’ (originally published on Salon as Love in the Time of Spyware) has been adapted for spoken word by the excellent science fiction podcast Escape Pod. The story is about a guineapig in a program to track criminals with reality-TV-style spyware that transmits their sensoria to a home audience. He’s kept company by robots and an omnipresent voice of the panopticon computer, each guiding him through a life where his every word and deed and sensation are transmitted to the world.
Link “
What a great idea…gonna have to check this one out…
Slashdot: “dougman writes ‘Today James Lileks mentioned his ‘friend and all-around comic genius/good egg Michael J. Nelson’ called, to tell him about his brilliant new project, RiffTrax. Here’s the pitch: ‘…free-lance commentary tracks. Bottom line: Mystery Science Theater 3000-style commentary for big famous beloved movies like Titanic or The Matrix. The hitch: you have to provide the movie. It’s genius: no worries about copyright. You buy the commentary tracks for $1.99, rent the movie or get it out of your collection, load the commentary on your iPod or burn it to a disk, then watch them together in true you-got-peanut-butter-in-my-chocolate bliss. … The first movie is Roadhouse.’ Cool! I voted for The Matrix as the next one to be riffed.’ While I (and many others I know) preferred Joel, Mike was not without his share of funny moments too. Without Crow and Servo it just might not be the same, though.”
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