This isn’t so much a podcast as it is an audio apology. I don’t have any ideas for topics today. Sorry.
Category Archives: Site News
Academic Aesthetic Podcast 90
My last podcast was all about the DIY movement, and I suppose this is a continuation of that.
I’ve been building web pages since the early days of Tripod.com. My first attempts were the moderately ugly templates that free hosts often provide, but as I learned more HTML, Javascript, CSS code, and changed servers more times than I care to remember, I was able to do more customization.
Now I’ve taken the next step and found a web host that gives me unlimited MySQL databases. MySQL databases, in an oversimplified nutshell, are things that sit around quietly in the background and make your blogs, wikis, and message boards so dynamic and, well, usable.
Of course I’m still in the process of moving in. WordPress has a feature that allows me to import all of my posts and comments from Blogger, but I still want to tweak the code here and there to make it look more like it belongs to an art teacher.
Once that’s done, I’ll be a little mad with power, I think. I mean, I’ve got more space and bandwidth than I’ve ever had before. I can install ANYTHING on this server, and just might.
So what should I play with next? I’m already toying with a Moodle install for my Art Club (provided it doesn’t get me sued), but what else? Should I install a wiki? How about a forum or image gallery? I’d really like to have your input on this before I do anything like devoting hours of effort into a forum that no one uses or a wiki that no one edits.
And speaking of input, I’m still looking for audio comments to use in my 100th podcast. All you need is a microphone and this link, which makes it very easy to do. With only 10 episodes before the big event I’m starting to get some comments rolling in, but I want more! Don’t forget that you can also promote your own blog or podcast in your recording.
And of course this is my first podcast of the month, so if you like what you’ve been hearing I’d love it if you voted for me on Podcast Alley. C’mon, you know you want to. They ask for an email address to prevent voter fraud, but I’ve never gotten spam because of them.
RSS Switchover
If you can see this in your RSS aggregator of choice, then Feedburner has been successfully redirected.
Can everybody see me now?
After a few hours of mad panic, I’ve switched servers. Why? Because $7.95/month for 20 GB of space, unlimited MySQL accounts, and a terabyte (that’s right, a terabyte!) of bandwidth seemed too good to pass up. I’ll be leaving all of the old blogger.com stuff up because so many of you have linked to it, but from now on please visit academicaesthetic.com instead of academicaesthetic.blogspot.com. The RSS feed will remain the same, so you don’t need to worry about adjusting any aggregators like iTunes or Bloglines.
And yes, I know the site looks plain now. I’ll get working on that almost immediately.
Today’s podcast
Good news: Today’s podcast is ready to go.
Bad News: Both Big in Japan and Ourmedia won’t let me upload the .mp3. Is anyone else who uses these services having problems?
This is what I get for using sites that are still in alpha testing.
Podcasting hassles
Today’s podcast is ready to go, but both Big in Japan and Ourmedia are giving me problems. I’ll have it up as soon as one of the two services is feeling better.
Adventures in WordPress
I still want to move this site over to a more dynamic host than Blogger, but I don’t want to dive in head first without checking how deep the water is.
I’ve heard very nice things about WordPress, but not every host will support it. Lucky for me it only took a quick search on del.icio.us to find something that would suit my needs … for now.
You see, right now all I need is a sandbox to flesh things out. I’ve had others offer space on their own servers, but I don’t like to impose when I don’t have to.
My experiments will not stay on that server for long. Once I’m comfortable enough with everything I’ll be moving it over to a paid server.
EDIT: I should specify that my wordpress blog right now is JUST an expiriment. This will continue to be my main site and when I’m ready to move it I’ll be sure to let you know.
RSS Shuffling
Due to reasons apparently beyond my control, those of you using Bloglines to subscribe to my feed have been getting the “plain vanilla” version. This is because I asked the good people at Bloglines to fix an unrelated bug, and in doing so they created this problem.
Since then they’ve proved less than helpful, but I do have a workaround. If you’re using Bloglines and you’d still like to see the extra things I throw into my feed (pictures and links), then simply subscribe to the goodies below. If you’re using a different RSS aggregator then don’t worry about it – you’re already seeing these things.
*Flickr Photos (RSS)
*Furl Links (RSS)
Would you like to take a survey?
I’m looking at different survey services for an upcoming podcast, and I could use some help. I’ve created two short surveys (less than 10 questions) that are more or less identical, and would appreciate it if you took one or both of them.
Please?
Pretty please?
I’ll be your friend…
Link Reciprocation
I’m working on write-ups and/or podcasts for the PETE&C DEN event, really! But until then, I have something else to share.
I was going through my site statistics to find out what kinds of websites are leading people here. Some of them are obviously just from people clicking on that “Next Blog” link at the top to see another Blogger blog (is that too redundant?), but others are nice to know or, at the very least … interesting. In a lot of these searches I’m finding myself in very nice company.
- academic podcast (Google Search)
- aesthetic art education (MSN Search)
- aesthetic drawing (Google Search)
- art (Google Blog Search) (I’m not on that page any more – it updates too often)
- Acting to Improve
- Edu-Blogging 101: Teacher Blogs (Yes this is a shameless plug, but it’s also a way that somebody found this site.)
- flickr+limit (Google Search)
- “Helen South” books (Google Search)
- “new literacy” vs. “old literacy” (Google Search)
Ok, enough ego boosting for one day. My next post SHOULD contain a podcast, one way or another.