Die Broadcom
Why is it that when someone throws a free laptop in my direction it turns out to always have a Broadcom network card in it? For extra bonus credit this time this Dell Inspiron 5160 has two Broadcom cards in, one wired and one wireless. Neither of which work under Ubuntu 7.04 out of the box, so I’ve got my crappy ancient PCMCIA wired card poking out the side of it. Also, 256MB RAM, which ought to be a huge amount and instead is little enough that Gnome feels a bit sluggish despite the fact that you can store TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTY EIGHT MILLION BYTES just in memory and it’s still not enough and grnch grnch grnch. Broadcom are welcome to choke to death on my magnificent penis, by the way.
In other news, now that I have this ancient NE2000-compatible PCMCIA thing plugged in, for the first time ever I have actually seen NetworkManager detect and use a network card correctly! I thought NM was a plot of some kind foisted upon me by people who I wronged in a previous life, but no, it actually works. Fuck me.
No-one has sent me any interesting mail in the last few hours so now I have no reason to avoid this bit of work I have to do. Thanks for nothing, world. Someone tell me a joke or offer me a job or something.
New fantastic luck from gedit, too, which seems to think that it’s Talk Like A Pirate Day and is therefore highlighting the word Arr in my code. STOP IT.
Ah no wait if I save it it goes away. I R teh win.
Back to work. Descent into the maelstrom continues.
Oh, and: free M J Ray LugRadio hatred for your viewing pleasure.
Not hatred. Mainly surprise. And a little explanation of what I meant by jumping the shark. Why not fix the licensing or editing of LugRadio instead?
3 hours later
Because every time this comes up in discussion, the team decide that we’d rather have people listen to LugRadio the way it’s presented. Opinions on this are divided, but that’s the conclusion we generally come to.
10 hours later
He’s got a point about the show lengths though. Some comments in #lugradio have shown that quite a few people take a long time to listen to an episode because of the extended lengths (perhaps they listen on the bus etc.). To the extent that some of the die-hards rarely complete an episode.
10 hours later
Doesn’t that sound like a lot like putting the group ego above the pragmatism of getting the topics out to the widest-possible audience? The sort of control-freakery that Jono often seems to flame OSI and FSF for: ‘our message must be presented in exactly this way or else’?
15 hours later
I don’t think anything has changed since previous discussions on the licence, to be honest. Maybe it will in the future.
Tony: that’s interesting. I’ll bring that up.
24 hours later
MJ - we have been through this a million times before - we feel that we have some rights as content creators to have the show aired in the way we create it - it is a show, and I am not going to re-iterate the exact same reasons when you last brought this issue up - we have come to this decision as a group, and each of the four presenters has different views on it. The derivative aspect to the license makes little difference to how the show is picked up - people listen to the show because it interests them or they like it. Not everyone in life looks at a license agreement before they do anything.
Your have got my statements in your analogy wrong here - here you are playing the equivalent role of the FSF - complaining about a damn license clause whereas we have been producing a show, regular as clockwork for three years, building a community and using it as a medium in which we hope to spread the message of free software and the many and various issues involved. And yes, I do consider it a far more worthwhile contribution than complaining about a license.
26 hours later
Bah, we’ve not been through this a million times before: at most twice, maybe even only once.
Anyone who actually bothers to read the reasons I stopped listening - instead of going off at half-cock - will see that the licensing only became a blocker when the show got too long and off-topic. The poor editing was the actual reason to stop listening.
Some others just ignore the licence and re-edit the show AFAICT (for example, the sheepeatingtaz mirror hosts a split version in http://www.sheepeatingtaz.co.uk/lugradio/season4/ep17/lugradio-s04e17-230407-high.mp3-tracked.zip
and I’ve seen better edits), but not everyone likes to two-finger the creators’ rights in that way.
LugRadio is doing exactly the same as the FSF does with some of its content: it has to be presented exactly as its creator wants or not at all. GNU-slashes in front of Linux, or guitar idents and rants in front of interviews… Of course, you have the right to insist on that, but others have the right to point out the absurdity of using your rights in a way that limits distribution and audience.
So much for pragmatism! Three years on, how many stations and networks are repeating the show? How wide is the LUG message spread by the show?
36 hours later
The “LUG message”? I always thought LUGRadio was the wrong name for it. Given they don’t represent the opinions/views and activities of _all_ LUGs (how could they?). They also don’t seem to represent many of the individuals who frequent LUGs (in the UK [that I am aware of]). For many people this is fine, and they will continue to listen because “LUG Radio is their LUG” .
What they do achieve however is the creation of a programme which is listened to by a considerable number of people, has high visibility in the podcasting world, has a pretty sizable community around it and is the jumping off point for a community event each year (LRL). This is all not to be sniffed at in my opinion.
I do agree with Tonys point in that one of the main reasons I don’t listen to LUGRadio any more is the length of the shows. I still have it in my podcatcher, but it sits there occupying space. If it were shorter, less rambly and more punchy then I’d probably listen more often. Of course part of the problem is the other podcasts (and real life stuff) which occupy my time.
37 hours later
Bah, URL ripped out of my post “LUG Radio is their LUG” http://popey.com/How_many_mickles_makes_a_muckle#comment-1686
37 hours later
MJ - some replies:
“Anyone who actually bothers to read the reasons I stopped listening - instead of going off at half-cock - will see that the licensing only became a blocker when the show got too long and off-topic. The poor editing was the actual reason to stop listening.”
OK, so licensing is only a problem when you don’t like a show any more - so you were perfectly happy with the licensing when you did enjoy the show? I doubt it. I seem to remember licensing being an issue for you since the beginning.
As for the poor editing - how exactly is it poorly edited? The editing has only got better over the years - better software, clearer cuts, better fades, better audio compression, improved mics, better acoustics in the studio. Please let me know how the editing has declined, or how it has been bad from the beginning - I am keen to improve it. :)
Regarding sheepeatingtaz’s edits, our license has always stated that we are always happy to make exceptions to the license when people ask for permission, and we have never, not once turned down a request - and I seem to recall sheepeatingtaz asking for permission, so his edit is perfectly fine.
“So much for pragmatism! Three years on, how many stations and networks are repeating the show? How wide is the LUG message spread by the show?”
I resent this statement. LUGRadio may not meet your tastes or licensing requirements but don’t kick what in my mind is a pretty decent achievement for any podcast - thousands of listeners, a worldwide community, an annual event and a number of cases in which LUGRadio has introduced people to free software, shed light on interesting projects and questioned the free software ethics of various companies and organisations. Your statement just shows just how little you know about the show - it is a podcast and as such doesnot need stations and networks, and the show is not about the LUG community - it is a general show about free software, Open Source and related issues. Oh, and on your blog you said “I doubt they’ll free LugRadio - they don’t seem to rate freedom highly” - how the hell can you say this when the four of us have shown such commitment to free software and furthering the free software community through the various projects that each of us are involved in. Oh, thats right, it doesn’t meet the MJ Ray criteria for freedom, so we are all therefore freedom-hating heathens. Right. How about you stop lambasting others about freedom and actually work to spread freedom yourself instead of just bollocking people?
If you don’t like LUGRadio or the presenters, fine, I don’t really care, but I think creating LUGRadio is a hell of a lot more of an achievement than just whinging to others about their projects, work and efforts.
Tony/Alan - I agree the show is too long, and we are going to work to shorten it - we know its becoming a little too rambly in places and we need a spring clean to tighten it up. :)
37 hours later
MJ Ray: How can you complain about the editing quality? Have you tried to listen to any other Linux podcasts? LugRadio is the only one I listen to regularly because its the only one that I’ve found that:
Isn’t completely dry (even if you don’t love their sense of humour, at least it’s mixing things up a bit)
Has presenters that sound like normal people and not basement-dwelling Sesame Street characters
Doesn’t sound like it was recorded on a PC microphone, down a tin can and string phone system
The Presenters: With regard to length, I love the longer episodes, I have 2 weeks to listen to them in! I think the main problem is that recently there’s been a bit too much hypothesizing about broad issues rather than technical info on new projects etc.
38 hours later
popey and Tony: Your point about the length is well taken, but…what would you see as a more adequate length? Is it actually the length of the show that’s the problem? I mean, say we made it the 74 minute maximum that it always used to be (so it fitted on a CD); would that 15 minute shortening make the difference?
38 hours later
[...] as days pass by scratched tallies on the prison wall « Die Broadcom [...]
38 hours later
Personally I reckon an hour is about as long as any podcast should be. It allows you to fit it between other things that sync on the hour - kids bed times, other traditional media programmes and so on.
I used to listen to LUGRadio on the train, which of course is a journey only I do, so this is just my experience. It was a journey of about an hour. I found myself listening to the last 10-20 mins of the show at my desk at work as my computer started up or whilst I got my first coffee of the day. I found myself easily distracted (by work) :) from the content I was listening to. LUGRadio is the kind of podcast you kinda need to devote brain cells to listen to rather than a traditional radio programme where you can dip in and out throughout the duration.
As such if you want to commit to listening you really need to be doing pretty much fuck all else at the time or you’ll get distracted as I do. As a result of the increased duration you need to find longer chunks of idle time to do that. There are already plenty of things fighting for my “idle time” so the longer the programme is, the less chance I will listen.
Hope that makes sense.
38 hours later
@Aq. I think there are two issues (of course). Back in series 2 I used to listen to each episode at least twice. Nowadays I don’t, in fact I struggle to listen to each episode before the next one is out. The length of the shows makes it difficult to listen to - it might take three lunch breaks, for example. But the other factor is that the sections are more rambling and I don’t feel I get much out of them, so I’m less motivated to listen again. I was always really keen to get S2 episodes and would listen eagerly and look forward to listening to the good bits again. There were still loads of jokes, crudeness and other LUG Radio traits, just in a tighter package.
My perception is that it is increased waffle in segments that MJ is referring to when he talks about the editing being worse. Content rather than recording quality. As I understand it, segments aren’t edited internally in this way, but whatever the cause there’s more waffle in the discussion segments. Although I don’t want to speak for him, the license becomes an issue because no-one can take an episode and edit out the waffle. (At least, not without asking permission.) The license wasn’t an issue in earlier episodes, because there wasn’t a lot of waffle to cut out. Whether anyone would be interested in doing so is a different question. :)
38 hours later
Alan: we never set out to be a show about LUGs or to be representative of LUGs. We chose the name LugRadio for a couple of reasons:
1. We wanted to capture the spirit of Wolves LUG meetings.
2. It was never a show solely about Linux, but took in all the broader stuff that a good LUG does.
Similarly, the BBC Asian Network doesn’t have to be all about people of Asian descent or be fully representative of the British Asian community.
As for licensing: I can see positives and negatives either way for automatically allowing derivatives or not. What I object to is the idea that we’re obliged to follow one person’s definition of freedom.
38 hours later
Matt, I know you didn’t set out to do that, but there is a perception out “there” that with a name like “LUGRadio” there is some implied intent. I don’t want to get bogged down in that part of the debate to be honest, it’s not that important in my opinion. I was merely pointing out to MJ that I don’t think LUGRadio intends to have a “LUG Message” or if they do it’s not (as I understand it) LUG-specific. More of a FLOSS message perhaps? FlossRadio maybe :)
39 hours later
I’d just like to put a vote in for the episodes being as long as the presenters can keep a discussions going. I have no problem with 90 minute episodes; I’d have no problem with two hour episodes. I’ve listened to every minute they have broadcast and never tuned them out to this point, so they have to be doing something right. If a long episode runs over the amount of free time I have at the time, well, that’s what pause buttons are for.
39 hours later
I have a double-edged opinion about the so-called ‘waffle’. The waffle, in a way, is the *point* of Lugradio. It is the free-ranging discussion that is the ‘essence’ (oh my god, shoot me, I’m going all analytical) of the show. This is one big reason I like it.
However, the waffle leads to longer shows and unfortunately I rarely have time to listen to an episode. That’s my problem though, not a problem with Lugradio.
I think that any content-editing, generally, would degrade the feel of the show.
39 hours later
I think everybody has their own opinion, but here’s mine anyway….
My “usual” listening habit is to listen to the show twice - once while at work (and thus partially distracted) and once on the commute (undistracted). Sometimes this takes longer than normal.
In the past couple of weeks, while I’ve been on paternity leave, I’ve not been commuting, but I’ve still managed to listen to both of the shows released in that period in their entirety.
Thus I have no problem with the length.
FWIW, the past two years have seen me relisten to every episode in the run up to LRL, so maybe I’m just “dedicated” ;)
39 hours later
I quite agree that free ranging discussion is the point, but that doesn’t mean that everything should be left in. An example that I haven’t been able to find is in a recent episode where there are some mis-takes with, iirc, Aq suggesting that it should be cut out but Jono repeating that it would stay in. It was a minute or two (which is small fry really) of waffle which you could definitely argue adds to the character of the show - but if it had been left out it would have done no harm whatsoever.
I listen to every episode, but I too struggle to find time to do so, often getting three or four behind. As Alan says, you really need to concentrate just on the podcast or you’ll miss what’s going on.
40 hours later
Ye legs! Jono, stop making up things to argue against! I wasn’t happy with the non-free-software licence (and I didn’t invent that standard), but it wasn’t an active problem then. I mentioned it because I saw it as a potential problem - and that potential was realised.
To be honest, my hearing is so broken that apart from fewer compression burbles, I don’t notice the improved audio quality. The poor editing I mean is like presenters talking over each other (who’s working the mixer?) with far too many half-finished sentences and run-ons. Look at a transcript… it’s very hard to follow at points. There are some segments which seem pretty off-topic and/or time-independent - drop or postpone them and get each show back near a neat hour, then put out bonus shows in other weeks or fill the season breaks with the extra material.
As for the “stop lambasting people” - I wasn’t the one discussing another lugger without telling them, in a place I knew they didn’t check any more. For what it’s worth, I’m now promoting, installing or producing free software in places where free software has seldom gone before, and strengthening its presence in other places, so don’t tell me I should do more work to spread freedom just because I’m not preaching to the choir so much any more. After all, I’m not the one publishing stuff under a non-free-software licence and talking about people behind their back.
@Matthew Revell: you’re not obliged to follow it - where has anyone obliged you to do that? I’ve written more than once that it’s your choice and right to do whatever you want with it - but you’re not exempt from criticism. It’s a good podcast, but is it as good as it used to be? As good as it could be?
@Thom: no, I don’t listen to any Linux podcasts now, as far as I can recall. LugRadio was probably the last one I dropped. I listen to some other tech ones, some media and many business ones. What I’d really love to hear is something like freepress.net’s Media Minutes for free software news.
@Alan Pope: I think you’re right about the name. It gives a false hope for what the show will hold, but I think FlossRadio would too.
@Tony Whitmore: spot on.
@gilmae: I feel it’s gone past the point where the discussion keeps going. Some parts are rants with heckling, sometimes ill-informed. On the length, pause is all well and good, but does any audio player do something like bookmarking yet?
40 hours later
I’m thinking that the show should be as long as the presenters want it to be as a whole.
I think there is a benefit that could be had (as I just suggested to one of the TLLTS presenters recently) if the show could be put out both as a whole and it’s individual segments. I don’t know how that would work editing wise, but it would have benefits for those that would like to recommend particular segments, listen as they have time, and allow the whole show for us that enjoy it as one long block. I’m fortunate that I have time to listen as a whole show. For the presenters the arguments/discussions/interviews would not be cut up randomly by others so the integrity of the discussion holds.
And with the mirroring system being what it is, I don’t see it as being much more of a load distribution wise, unless I’m way off base people will tend to get one set or the other. When something gets Dugg/Slashdoted/whatever the benefit becomes smaller downloads for particular segments.
40 hours later
To Be fair, I did not ask for specific permission to release a tracked version. I am more than happy to take my tracked version down, as I did not realise/remember the licence terms (sorry!) I did ask for permission to chop out my interview from S04E01, and that was granted.
Guys, please let me know if you want me to remove the tracked version, and I will get it done pronto!
41 hours later
“The poor editing I mean is like presenters talking over each other (who’s working the mixer?) with far too many half-finished sentences and run-ons.”
This is just a result of normal people talking and having a good time. Its just like normal conversation, and that makes it much better to listen to. If you want a dry and formal podcast, there are many out there, but I do not think that was the original intention of lugradio.
41 hours later
Ok, I feel a little support is needed here. I’ve been listening to lugRadio for much longer than I’ve been a linux user. After my initial interest in Linux, I found this show educating and influenced my switch.
Quality: I listen to this show bearing in mind that this is not supposed to be a profit making commercial radio show, and am happy to put up with the odd technical glitch. I don’t expect them to have the same high quality equipment available to the bbc or virgin radio. However, I do wish that Jono would put that fucking drum-stick down! It might be worth considering that presenters talking over one another isn’t really a quality issue so long as the heated discussion (most linux users have these) benefits from this. To put the breaks on these types of discussions would lower the quality of the show.
Length: I believe the last show was the longest so far (I’m sure I’ll get corrected if I’m wrong), but it was also the best, great interviews, very informative, etc… I can’t see why people are complaining about this. If the content is there keep the current episode lengths. If the listeners don’t have time to listen to the entire show in one sitting they could consider breaking it up over several periods, or fastforwarding if they get bored…
Basically, I’m saying keep up the good work. If people don’t like the show they’ll stop listening. Then you might want to consider revising the format.
42 hours later
And here’s my 2p worth. I’ve been listening to LugRadio from about the middle of Series 1. I have to say as a midlander myself who’s now stranded up north I’ve always found the banter between the guys to be the main reason that I listened to the show because it always felt like I was back at home ranting with friends. Second reason was because I’m a Linux nut and thirdly was to do with news etc. I imagine everyone has their different reasons for listening to the show. But for me the rambling is the best part. I, personally, find some of the interviews the worst part as they are more “reserved” and lacking in pace. Obviously, some of the interviews are good when the other person is “down with the LR vibe.”
As for length. I sometimes struggle to listen to a whole ep between the two weeks of another one being released but it’s not like it’ll be deleted or become irrelevant after two weeks so I can always catch up when I have a spare hour or so. And like someone above said, I can always pause it and come back to it. If the presenters want to shorten it, then fine it’s their call. If they want to lengthen it, it’s also their call. They’re doing it for free and people should just be grateful of that and if they don’t like it they don’t have to listen or if they feel it’s too long fast forward through the bits that don’t interest you.
And, to be honest, how can you say something with Aq on isn’t interested in freedom? ;)
45 hours later
My thoughts: I do a 2h commute every day, so I have time to listen. However, my car CD player does not read Ogg Vorbis, so I have to burn it as a CD. Keeping the show under 74 minutes would be more comfortable for that. I don’t mind some rambling now and then, but I wouldn’t miss it either. Also, I much rather have a discussion talked through and hear everyone’s opinions than just a quick summary of the issue. Audio quality is superb, but I’d happily trade some of that in if that meant not using proprietary software to record it.
46 hours later
MJ Ray: If you stop listening to a podcast on an iPod, go listen to something else and then come back to the podcast it picks up from where it left off. But then, I hate freedom.
47 hours later
[...] Jono Bacon’s PA (is this for real?) commented: “I will get Jono to schedule a call with you sometime to discuss these problems if thats fine with you. He can probably fit you in before Bill Clinton at 2pm on Tuesday.” It also appeared (with a few comments from me) on as days pass by: Die Broadcom (and yes, Die Broadcom!) [...]
2 days later
Feel I should chime in for no other reason than I disagree with MJR. I find the length never long enough to be honest. I have an hour lunch which in reality I never get to fully take but I get at least 30mins listening and in fairness it’s 2 weeks between episodes, I can’t see how anyone wouldn’t be able to snatch the time (but not knocking anyone who can’t I know some folk are mighty busy).
LUGRadio was the thing that got me into ScotLUG although I’ve not been able to be there for a while and was certainly what made me meet a cool bunch of lads that went down to LRL06 and meet even more cool people there. I like the rambling talk, it’s like being in the pub having an argument, and when you haven’t time to go to a LUG or like me are about to move to France were you can’t speak the language well enough, this type of thing is invaluable.
To be honest and a bit unfair all the other podcast are mince, they try to be too short and to the point but sound like they are either reading from a script or have no passion. So I’m glad with LR we get some spirit behind an arguement….
So keep up the awesome show !
2 days later
Grrr, my comment of 2 days ago hasn’t appeared because I’ve just discovered Open ID and fscked up using it here. And I’ve more or less forgotten what I said :(
I think the rambling nature of LugRadio is part of its charm. Yes, it means I can’t always listen to the whole show in one sitting, and sometimes skip past segments. But I’d rather have that than lose the LR atmosphere.
However, I wonder if an edited version could be made for those who don’t want the whole thing. Just have an intro, a few of the best segments (interviews rather than the likes of mmmm, betty- which belong in a longer show) and announcements at the end (leave the emails for the full-length show). It’d be a bit more work, but a member of the community who is good with sound editing software could pitch in (though it’d have to be the Large Gents choosing what segments get kept). It could bring the show to a whole new audience.
Personally, though, I’ll keep listening to the uncut version.
2 days later
I’d like to vote for slightly shorter eps, too. I still listen to the show and enjoy it, but I find myself hitting fast-forward quite a lot these days - the chatter is part of LR’s charm and shouldn’t disappear but frankly there are times when I get tired of listening to ten minutes of people talking over one another and failing to finish their points. Banter is only funny when you can follow it properly.
On the other hand, this is preferable to (e.g.) TLLTS, which I find excruciatingly dry. I do like the idea of splitting the show up into segments, with perhaps a little bit of preamble so that each sgment still has the LR ‘feel’.
2 days later
@Matt Jones: Not being dry doesn’t mean it has to sound like a wall of noise. In a chat in a pub, you look at the person who’s talking that you’re interested in, which makes them louder than the others. If you can’t switch between them, it becomes a jumble, which is why radio shows are mixed, why live panel chairs have to be fairly strict about one-at-a-time and one way that LugRadio’s editing has fallen lately. If they’re unwilling to remix the show to put the speaker on a higher level than the heckles, they need to be a bit better at shutting the fuck up when someone else is speaking. (Not too much, else yes, it could get too dry…)
Another thing that makes it a frustrating listen is that one or more of the presenters (I’m a midlander, but my broken hearing means that I can’t always tell them apart) seems to keep talking at all costs - not giving way, even when they aren’t ready to say their point. Then that’s all getting left in the show. Ready the bundled socks and physically put a sock in it, please!
@Félim Whiteley: would an hour a week instead of two hours every 2 weeks make a difference to you?
@McLurker: I think sheepeatingtaz’s tracked versions would be good enough, if there were splits on segment boundaries and they appeared in the podcast feeds.
@gilmae: hrm, my Samsung also hates freedom a bit (but supports Ogg) but doesn’t have that useful feature!
2 days later
I notice you took down the comment regarding HD-DVD numbers and quite right to, but lets not let the Digg community find out or they will be all over here as well. It appears to have been a few days of editorial discussion and positioning ( even the Ubuntu planet got edited quickly thanks to the Dell story).
The point is , that editorial decisions are being made quite a bit lately and this thread seems to have gone from “reaction over criticism” which in turn was a reaction over comments, to a thread about editorial content. Personally I found that comment regarding MJ Ray and other comments such as “Smoking is cool” are inappropriate material for a publically broadcast and internationally popular show.
It is entirely your show to do with as you will. If asked what I would prefer , a shorter show with less opportunity for mouths to run ahead of minds, but thats my preference. I thought I was the only one who was listening less these days , because I was just getting older , its interesting to see that a few other listeners have made the same comments about listening less.
Possibly the community wants to have a conversation about the show, possibly its time to listen again.
Though these are just my opinions and do not constitute facts.
3 days later
What comment about HD DVD? I don’t even know what you’re talking about there.
3 days later
it was the spurious hexadecimal character strings that someone dropped in , at first I thought it was just another spammer or possibly a encoded message ( done for a laugh i suppose ) but I see today its the HD-DVD story that it was linked to.
3 days later
Although, admittedly, I’m not on the show much at the moment, I still want to reply :)
We’ve always spoken over each other a bit too much and we always say we want to improve it. You have to be in the studio, at a recording, to understand why it happens. It really is just like having a chat down the pub and it’s easy to forget the microphones. We’ll work on it, honest :)
Show length: again, I think this is something we’ll look at. We used to be more disciplined with segment length and Jono was always the person who kept his eye on timing. I think the other three of us wore him down a bit, though. However, being tight was something that I think distinguished us from many other podcasts so I don’t want us to lose that.
Licensing: this is something that we’ll no doubt look at again but I dunno if we’ll come up with a different answer.
3 days later
@MJ Ray: My tracked version was never pimped as being an ‘edited’ version. My blog post here: http://www.sheepeatingtaz.co.uk/blog/2007/04/23/lugradio-tracked-high-mp3/
states why I created it, and it’s nothing to do with editing it, it’s because of the way the mp3 player in my car works!
3 days later
The length of the show has never bothered me. As others have said, seeing as the show is fortnightly, I like having more stuff to listen to and re-listen to, while I’m waiting for the next ep. It’s true that I rarely get to listen to the whole thing in one session, but I’m happy to do the pause-resume-thing.
The mates-at-the-pub tone of the show is great. There’s real opinions and arguments brought forward. There’s unashamed humour and piss-taking. I want to hear all of that. If I want polished, I can listen to NOA - although the content subject-matter is a bit different.
I agree with others: maybe edited and unedited versions would make people happier as long as the capacity requirements don’t cause issues. If a decision has to be made, maybe the download figures of each version could help with that.
As for the licensing - what are you afraid of? I haven’t seen the discussions on this topic before, so I’m not being rhetorical. Attributions I get, but I don’t get no-derivs considering what all of you do. What are the pittfalls you’re seeing?
4 days later
See, I think it would be nice if the segments of each episode were available individually. I intend, when I can get the time and the recording quality, to make my own podcasts about Free Software… it would be useful, and nice if I could include interviews or other segments from other podcasts in mine. I would want people to do the same with my podcast.
Also, allow them to have commercial usage. I don’t think there’s any reason to restrict this.
I guess I’d use BY-SA for my podcast - now, if the LUGRadio guys don’t want to do this, that’s a shame. I like LUGradio, and it would be useful to be able to include segments. Can I do this? Please? Under BY-SA?
MJ - do your own podcast, seriously, please. You’re a smart guy, you have a good insight to free software and I’d like to hear your thoughts.
I think you’ll find that making a regular show, for no-money, in your spare time, and editing it, and putting it out there, and sorting out bandwidth bills and all that goes with it, and then building a community and keeping that going, and then having events, and making sure they’re well attended, with a range of other people, all coming to give up their time.
I might disagree with some of what LUGradio says, but I’d miss it not being there, BY-SA-NC-UB-UN-TU or not :)
2 weeks later
@Matt Lee - I spent years mixing, co-presenting and generally helping shows on volunteer broadcast radio, so I know what’s involved. Actually, more so, as LugRadio doesn’t go out live like our shows did (there’s nothing like a snapped tape or dropping the wrong phone line just before an interview to get the adrenalin flowing!) and doesn’t have to meet the broadcasting rules or fit in with other programming.
As I’ve mentioned above, my hearing is not so good any more, so you know that you’re on safe ground challenging me to make my own podcast - it’s not something I’d be able to do well enough that it’s worth putting out there. That’s why I moved from radio to the web over 10 years ago…
I’d quite like to be able to mix stuff, but few podcasters give enough permissions to do it in audio (damn Creative Commons and their encouragement of NC and ND terms), so it gets done in text if at all.
2 weeks later
why can’t I connect my Virgin broadband to my new Dell computer. It has a Broadcom 440 x 10/100 which is working but the Virgin istallation says no network card installed.
12 weeks later