OK, so I’m new to all this high-falutin’ tech stuff, but I’m working on it.
As far as I can tell, "Q & BA" is now up on iTunes! Sortof. If I search on "astronomy" it’s in the list of podcasts (#39 at the moment, FWIW). Cool. Ditto for "bad astronomy" (though ironically it’s #3 out of 5; those darn Slackers beat me at my own game for interviewing me). But when I go to the "Science and Medicine" category — where I should be listed — nada. Zippo. I’m not sure why, but iTunes confuses and frightens me. I’m willing to listen to advice.
Anyway, if you dare, you can simply drop the RSS URL (http://badastronomy.libsyn.com/rss) into the Advanced –> Subscribe to Podcast option and get it that way.
I’m toying with switching from LibSyn to blip.tv after a commenter mentioned it… or maybe doing both. Comments? Suggestions? I’m new to this, and my ultimate desire is to be king of all media (once I bump off Howard Stern) or at least the Online Astronomy Guru.
One more thing: I know you can’t force viral stuff, but if you like what you see here, please Digg it! There’s a link at the bottom of every post to help you. Digg.com is very cool, and I check it all the time to see what’s hot in the cyberrealms of science. Join up, (it’s free, yadda yadda) and you can digg my posts and get me that one crucial step closer to being lord of all I survey.
Oh yeah– send more questions! There’s a lot of astronomy out there. Surely you must wanna know more about it!
February 8th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
Phil said: “OK, so I’m new to all this high-falutin’ tech stuff, but I’m working on it.”
Says the man who has worked on and with the Hubble Space telescope.
Don’t make me come over there!
Not sure about Digg. Digg makes Slashdot look enlightened.
February 8th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
BA,
The only problem you’ll have w.r.t. moving off Libsyn is that the people that have already subscribed to Q&BA will have to do a bunch of fiddling to re-synch with the new server. Maybe. I’ve never used Libsyn, so I don’t know if they make switching away from them easy (some hosts don’t).
What you MIGHT want to do (just a suggestion here) is set up your .htaccess file so you can have a virtual feed on badastronomy.com (say, badastronomy.com/qba_rss or some such) which the .htaccess file “temporarily” redirects to the host-of-the-moment. Once you have everybody signed up with the BA.com feed, you can just tweak your .htaccess file as needed to track where the content is *really* located.
Does this make sense? Just thought it’d save some grief over the long haul.
Sam
P.S. According to the iTunes store, Q&BA is listed under “Science and Medicine: Natural Sciences,” where currently you’re ranked #21 (couldn’t tell you how they compute rankings, though).
February 8th, 2007 at 5:08 pm
Yeah, the RSS has me a little concerned, but not that many folks have signed up yet.
February 8th, 2007 at 6:41 pm
Sweet. I’ve had no problems, and I’m listening to the first one. Now I don’t have to listen to Penn Jillette (though I still do, and have been for a year, that guy kicks ass) to get my Bad Astronomy fix.
My new favorite podcast? Maybe. We’ll see.
On the RSS feed, libsyn is very good, and I don’t see a reason to change the feed at all. However, if you do plan on changing hosts later, it may be wise to go ahead and create the virtual feed.
February 8th, 2007 at 7:08 pm
I went to the iTunes Store and subscribed.
Cool show on Galaxies! What discs did you sacrifice?
I also posted to DiggIt!
Keep at it, BA!
February 8th, 2007 at 9:37 pm
Hey Phil! I’m probably not the most unbiased person to continue to add comments about blip.tv, since I’m the one that suggested it in the first place *grin*, but a good overview of it’s high points is contained in this interview with the CEO, Mike Hudack (http://www.dvguru.com/2007/01/29/interview-with-mike-hudack-from-blip-tv/). Talks about what they’re trying to do. (Note: I am associated with blip.tv in no way other than using it. I think they’re doing a great job, though).
The point about already having a feed at libsyn is valid, of course. Though there’s no reason you couldn’t do both, and I do agree with the idea of setting up a virtual feed via a redirect from your domain. Very good idea…keeps you in control, and lets you move things around behind the scenes if Something Goes Awry with a hosting service.
Regardless, I think both your blog and the new vlog are great…thanks for everything! Science needs champions, and you’re definitely one.
February 9th, 2007 at 5:39 am
Does BlipTV have BlipVerts? I don’t want my head to explode !!!
February 10th, 2007 at 8:04 pm
Thanks, Phil!
Quiet_Desperation says: “Digg makes Slashdot look enlightened.”
Roger that, a big 10-4, you got that right, etc. etc.!