XplanaZine

We’ve talked quite a bit about the why’s and when’s of new technologies for military students in online courses, especially as it relates to downloading content to portable players. Here are some useful programs — most are free, with the official descriptions from the various websites, and a bit of commentary from me.

P2P File-sharing (places for content)

http://www.limewire.com

LimeWire allows you to search for multiple files at the same time, available in several different languages, and is most famous for its ease-of-use and cross-platform compatibility. LimeWire will run on Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Solaris, and other operating systems. I uploaded audio files for sharing, and was surprised at how many hits they received almost immediately (but without downloads). It is important to label your files correctly, and not give them erroneous genre labels (which is easy to do with Audacity).

Software for recording mp3 files using a headset

Audacity http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Be sure to download the LAME mp3 Encoder as well, or you’ll be sorry… (!)

Audacity is a free, easy-to-use audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems. You can use Audacity to:

• Record live audio.
• Convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs.
• Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, and WAV sound files.
• Cut, copy, splice, and mix sounds together.
• Change the speed or pitch of a recording.

Recommended headsets

USB: Logitech 980130-0403 Premium USB Headset 300

list: $49.99

It’s our most comfortable, most versatile, best-sounding PC headset… featuring everything you need to get more from your computer: plush ear pads, deluxe stereo sound, a noise-canceling microphone and in-line volume/mute control. Just plug it in to the USB port and it’s ready to work! Okay. Sounds good? It’s comfortable, but the mike is small, and the sound is a bit muffled. I’m not completely sold on the USB port concept. It uses up a USB port.

Features

• Inline volume and mute control with soft-touch surface for fingertip convenience
• Dynamic stereo sound lets you immerse yourself in games and music
• Premium adjustable headband is engineered for superior comfort with the flexibility of right or left microphone placement
• Noise-canceling microphone filters out unwanted background noise
• Plush ear pads cushion your ears for hours of continuous enjoyment
• Ideal for voice and video chat, music, gaming and speech recognition applications

Altec Lansing AHS 202 + Micro — list: $36.00

It is the ideal device for all on-line games and Internet telephony as it is light, comfortable and offers excellent audio quality. It is compatible with all PCS, walkmans and game consoles equipped with a mini jack plug-in. This is GREAT. I love it.

Free Internet calls — and, recordable conversations

Skype.com — http://www.skype.com Skype is free Internet telephony
that just works.Skype is for calling other people on their computers or phones. Download Skype and start calling for free all over the world. Skype is incredible. I love it.

ineen.com — http://www.ineen.com Never has it been so easy to communicate using Voice, Video and Instant Messaging. The hype is somewhat true. It’s easy, but the quality leaves a lot to be desired.

Multiple user chatroom

Chatzy. http://www.chatzy.com - Chatzy is a free private chat service. Fill out the form to create a chat room immediately - only for you and the people you invite!

Why Chatzy is a good alternative to traditional chat sites as well as ICQ, Yahoo, MSN and AOL Messenger:

• Chatzy has no registration steps - your friends can join instantly
• Chatzy is free and has no popup ads
• Chatzy does not require any installation on your computer (= no spyware)
• Chatzy works on any PC, with any language and through corporate firewalls
• Chatzy is simple and easy to use

Audio Feedreader

http://www.ipodder.org First of all, it’s still in development, and may not live up to all expectations. But it does work and hundreds of thousands of people are using it every day.

iPodder is small program that runs on your computer. Its only purpose is to download audio files, usually mp3’s, directly to your mp3 device. Currently iPod is supported on both Windows and Mac.

And it’s not just for iPods! Other devices are supported through Windows Media Player. Any device that can exchange files with WMP will work with iPodder.

iPodder.org is home to the community that develops iPodder applications and programming to subscribe to.

Free and/or very affordable blog providers

AudioBlogger http://audioblogger.com/

What is it?

Audioblogger enables audio posting to your current blog site with any phone at any time from any where. Its easy and fun.

How does it work?

Actually, it is simpler than publishing a text post. You call the number, record a post, then your blog is updated with an audioblogger icon and a link to your recorded audio. Super simple.

How much is it?

Audioblogger is FREE…ya, no money, zip, nada…(long distance charge may apply).

Blogger. http://www.blogger.com A blog is your easy-to-use web site, where you can quickly post thoughts, interact with people, and more. All for FREE .

Blogger was started by a tiny company in San Francisco called Pyra Labs in August of 1999. This was in the midst of the dot-com boom. But we weren’t exactly a VC-funded, party-throwing, foosball-in-the-lobby-playing, free-beer-drinking outfit. (Unless it was other people’s free beer.)

We were three friends, funded by doing annoying contract web projects for big companies, trying to make our own grand entrance onto the Internet landscape. What we were originally trying to do doesn’t matter so much now. But while doing it, we created Blogger, more or less on a whim, and thought — Hmmm…that’s kinda interesting.

Blogger took off, in a small way, and eventually a bigger way, over a couple years. We raised a little money (but stayed small). And then the bust happened, and we ran out of money, and our fun little journey got less fun. We narrowly survived, not all in one piece, but kept the service going the whole time (most days) and started building it back up.

Syndication means that when you publish your blog, Blogger automatically generates a machine-readable representation of your blog that can be picked up and displayed on other web sites and information aggregation tools.

Aggregators

Bloglines. http://www.bloglines.com Bloglines is a FREE online service for searching, subscribing, creating and sharing news feeds, blogs and rich web content. With Bloglines, there is no software to download or install — simply register as a new user and you can instantly begin accessing your account any time, from any computer or mobile device. And it’s FREE!

Bloglines is a window to a whole new world of dynamic content that is being created and distributed over the new “live” web. You can make your own personalized news page tailored to your unique interests from our index of tens of millions of live internet content feeds, including articles, blogs, images and audio. And it’s FREE!

Bloglines shields you from the confusion of news feed standards — RSS, Atom, and others. Bloglines allows you to search for, read and share any updates from your favorite news feed or blog regardless of its authoring technology. And it’s FREE!

Last, but not least, Bloglines provides you with the tools you need to begin creating your own clip blogs and blogrolls. Become a publisher, share your thoughts and opinions! And it’s FREE!

If you believe every single word of this hype, you are a true optimist. Bloglines has flaws. Be warned. I expect the bugs to be worked out soon, though.

NewNewsWire http://ranchero.com/netnewswire/ - NetNewsWire is an easy-to-use RSS Web news reader for Mac OS X. Its familiar three-paned interface –similar to Apple Mail and Outlook Express–can fetch and display news from thousands of different websites and weblogs, making it quick and easy to keep up with the latest news.

Syndic8 http://www.syndic8.com/index.php - This is the place to come to find RSS and Atom news feeds on a wide variety of topics. There is a lot here; be sure to explore all of the tabs at the top of the page

mp3 Players

iPod Mini — This is the top-rated mp3 player ever. Check out the reviews at mp3.com. http://www.mp3.com/tech/players_index.php

Rio Karma — mp3.com claims that this is the preferred player of geeks and audiophiles. Sounds pretty cool to me. It fits in the palm of your hand.