vision

iTunes Dilemma

Good Morning!

Recently one of our customers brought to us a problem and asked if we had seen this situation before. They were using a RSS feed proding service and when they tried to publish their blog to iTunes, it picked any and all enclosures that they had in the blog. All the wanted was their podcasts. After many hours of reading posts on iTunes support forum boards, other automated RSS feed providers boards and Google search, we discovered that the customers podcast blog was a sub-directory of the main blog and that automated RSS feed generators were not sophisticated enough or designed to handle this situation.

But I had also read that podcasts, when submitted to iTunes, were not showing up for days/weeks or sometimes at all. So I decided to do a test. Our company provides a podcast recording and hosting service. We also record podcasts for our customers use. I took a podcast we had recorded, manually generated a RSS XML sheet and submitted it to iTunes. Admittedly I had a few errors in it. It took me a bit to find a reference to the iTunes specific tags. Here is the link I found so you don't have to look: http://phobos.apple.com/static/iTunesRSS.html
After getting it to pass Itunes RSS feed validation, I waited for it to appear in their directory. That was Wednesday and behold, this morning, Friday, it was there. A 2 day turnaround?

So here is my 2 cents worth. I understand that some folks are not html/xml savy and that they may have to use some of the automated services to generate their RSS feed XML, but newer isn't always better. When a process is automatically generated, it limits you to what that service thinks is important. There is less flexability. That's why I prefer the older ways sometimes. The web is full of information on how to accomplish things like this. And instead of jumping on the latest greatest new fangled service to pop up, I will continue to use the methods that work. Period.

A BIG thumbs up to the support staff at Feedburner. They were all over this and offered helpful suggestions in a timely manner. They weren't always able to fix the situation, but they acknowledged that fact and were helpful in finding solutions.

As for iTunes, Thumbs Down. I noticed very poor support board monitoring. Also the disclaimer for their service basically says, Use us, but forget about any help with your problems.

If you are still having problems getting your podcasts to publish on iTunes, shoot me an email and I will see what I can do to help.

Are you using all your resources?

As the title says, "Are you using all your resources?" I am an IT person in a one deep slot. What does this mean? It means, I wear multiple hats. Webmaster, network engineer, helpdesk, etc... Often this means that I do not have the time to properly research issues, new products, etc... So what do you do?

One of the things is to have an account setup with a general purpose vendor like PCMall. My account manager is Rosemary. She has taken the time to learn my business and what I need. Thsi helps her keep me informed of products and services that I may need or would be interested in. We talk regularly. It's almost like having an extra person on my staff of one. She does the research and product comparison that I often don't have time to do. Thanks for all your help Rosemary.

I also subscribe to newsletters from PC Magazine. They have soooo many different one that I can't list them all here. But I get emails daily on new products, security risks, VOIP and many others. Again I let others simplify my research and keep me informed.

Great Idea

Thought of a great idea for a book.

Procrastination for fun and profit.

Think I will start on it tomorrow.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

Winter time has finally hit us here in Iowa. Cold weather, short days, snow and of course ICE! I hate ice unless it is the kind in my "Ice" tea or the kind you use to make "Ice" cream. But I have to admit that it does look pretty on the tree branches with the light shining through. But those same tree branches now weigh 25 pounds and hurt like (insert expletive here) when they break and hit you. I drove a speedy 30 mph today on my way to work. I like to play it a little cautious on icy roads. But I notice that others don't share the same feelings. Just because you have 4-wheel drive doesn't mean you can still drive 60 through town. Well, you can but you will just hit the ditch with the same frequency that we 2 wheel drive people do, just a lot harder.

Never hold a Dust-Buster and a cat at the same time

A friend of mine sent me an email the other day with a list of "Great things little children have learned". Now, I have probably received this list a few hundred times. Once when email first started, again when my sister discovered the internet and again as friends and family discovered the "WOW, this great" internet. I do believe that my family invented "SPAM". As each one "discovered" the internet, I would get a fresh wave "Send your old Nike's to...", "If you send this email to 25 friends, you will get...", etc... But when I received this the other day, I really had to laugh. The Cat and the Dustbuster reminded of an incident when I was in the military.

I was stationed in Denver. Four of us shared a house and one of the guys had a couple of cats. My friend, let's call him David (cause that's his name) was mildly allergic to cat dander. Not itching, puffy eyes or hives type of allergy. Just the sneezing type. David would stop by Powderhorn National Bank, actually it was a liquor store but we called it that casue the owner let military people float checks there, picked up a 6 pack of Miller Lite tall boys and head home. By the time he got home he may have 1 or 2 left which he would share with me. Let me say at this point, "DO NOT DRINK AND DRIVE". OK the disclaimer is out of the way. Now comes the part about the Cats and the Dustbuster. As he walked through the door he would scoop up the cats and head to the bathroom, close the door and turn on the shower and bathe each cat using shampoo and conditioner. And then blow dry the cats with a hairdryer. The first few times he did it, he would come out with his wrist in shreds. But over time the cats got used to it and didn't claw him up much.

I have laughed at and shared this story with many friends over the years. And David, where ever you are, shoot me an email sometime.