Customs, Interviews, PodCasts and Books

I have finally completed this software rollout which has had me traveling all over the planet.
I do like to travel, however on these trips, I never had any time to do site seeing and so they were just work. The pain of traveling abroad is definitely heightening and I found myself grimacing at the thought of having to be asked multiple times at the same airport who packed my bag and if I was carrying any sharp objects and battery operated items.

On my second to last trip, when I was returning from Belgium, I was stopped at customs because I carry a South African passport. You can read all about it in a previous post.

This last trip had me traveling to France. On my return, I was not spared. I was made to go into the waiting room. This time I had to wait about 20 minutes while they processed other people. When I finally got my passport back I asked the officers if this could be avoided.
They told me absolutely not and that every South African would be stopped every single time.

All of this thanks to some idiot selling South African passports to al Qaeda.

Today I was very fortunate to be able to interview John Berks for my Capital Radio 604 web site. John Berks has had a very long career in South African radio, including a few years on 604.
I was using my Gentner SPH-5 phone hybrid for the job which allows me to record phone interviews with great clarity. Sure this Gentner is old but I bought it off eBay and it looks in mint condition. It works very well.
Since I have given up my regular phone service (and those archaic copper wires), I was using my Vonage phone for the interview. In all reality, using Vonage is no different from using say, Verizon, its just that Vonage is much cheaper and more flexible. The Voice over IP call provided better audio quality than my old Verizon phone line would have which added to the quality of this interview.

There was an audible AC hum on John Berks' side of the call (which he told me happens quite often) but I was able to digitally remove it using my trusty audio tool of choice, GoldWave.

I made the interview available as a Windows Media stream, but decided to also make it available via my new PodCast. I decided to try out PodCasting because it is rather a neat idea.

A few years ago, I wrote a business plan for a re-launch of Capital Radio 604, and proposed the idea of making on-air broadcasts available to download to MP3 players like iPods.
Now, it seems, someone has come up with a clever way to automate this process. The PodCast concept is designed for Apple iPods and iTunes, but the general concept could be applied to any MP3 player.
You put an MP3 file(s) on your web server and create an XML file which has details on the PodCast and the MP3 file(s). The user installs a PodCast client like iPodder. They subscribe to the PodCast by using the XML file in the PodCast client (similar to the way you use an XML file to subscribe to a BLOG). The PodCast client will check for updates on the PodCast and automatically download the file and insert it into your iTunes playlist.
The PodCast creator can add multiple MP3 files to each PodCast.

To subscribe to the Capital Radio 604 PodCast, click here.

Last, but certainly not least, I am in final negotiation stages with John Wiley and Sons Publishers to write a book. I will disclose the book title and contents later, but its safe to say that it is a 500 page technical book.
I should be finished with the manuscript in February 2005.