The Life Ledger

Fitness is a way of life.

A friend recently had an interesting problem - he wants to promote the use of podcasts to instructors as a component of courses taught online, and identified the excellent, open-source Audacity as their Windows tool of choice. However, as he began writing documentation for installing and using Audacity, he realized many instructors would be immediately turned off by the complicated installation process required to set Audacity up for exporting projects as mp3 files - many instructors who could otherwise be taught how to record and save projects would not understand how to unzip LAME, copy the DLL file into Audacity’s folder, then point Audacity to the lame encoder. Instead of writing thorough documentation that would likely daunt non-savvy instructors, I suggested an alternative - creating our own installer. It worked so well, I thought others might benefit from the idea.

First, a word about licensing.
I originally wanted to provide the one-step Audacity/LAME installer as a downloadable file, but started reconsidering after looking into license issues. Audacity and LAME are themselves covered by GPL/LGPL and therefore are re-distributable; however, I can’t tell what the SetupStream license terms are, and the patent mess covering the mp3 format may prevent distributing a package that installs Audacity with built-in mp3 output. Since I can’t really tell, I listed the steps required to make your own installer, and you can choose how you use or distribute it.

Step 1
First, I downloaded the tools I’d need. Since I was creating a custom installer, I needed the zipped version of Audacity, not their installer. Additionally, I needed LAME and an installation creator with the ability to insert registry keys. After trying a couple install creators, I chose SetupStream - it’s easy to use, freeware and offers a wide array of features, including all those I need.

• Audacity 1.2.6 - look under “Optional Downloads” for the zipped version
• LAME 3.97 - I used the 3.97 bundle available at RareWares (direct download link)
• SetupStream 2.082

Step 2
Next, some preliminary steps: unzip Audacity into its own folder, then unzip the file lame_enc.dll from the LAME zip file into the the same folder that contains Audacity.exe. Install and start SetupStream, select Create New Setup and click Next.

Read the rest of this entry »

Thank you for visiting The Life Ledger. If you enjoyed this article, check out the related posts below and subscribe to our feed.

A while back I mentioned listening to podcasts as one way I make exercising more fun and more consistent. I personally find podcasts much more interesting than music for exercising for three main reasons:

• Listening to people talk is much more engaging than listening to music
• Podcasts are topical, so I can listen to people talk about something I’m interested in (or you can listen to music centered around a particular theme, if that’s your bag)
• Podcasts are serial, so I look forward to the next installment as a part of my exercise routine

Since mentioning podcasts as part of my exercise routine, I’ve been asked what podcasts I listen to while exercising, what mp3 player I use and what podcatching software I use. I chose the SanDisk Sansa e280 media player because it’s flash-based (I’m not interested in a harddrive-based player), has a nice interface and an expandable memory slot. After using a couple of other podcatchers (including Juice, HappyFish and a few others), I settled on Ziepod due to the interface and slew of advanced features, like dynamically renaming files and tags as it downloads episodes. Here’s a Ziepod screenshot:

Here’s an incomplete list of some of my favorites podcasts to listen to while exercising:

• This American Life
  My absolute favorite podcast - Ira Glass has a way of picking the absolute most fascinating topics and stories that seem boring at first, but end up engaging, entertaining and thought-provoking. Make sure you set your podcatching software to download this one - only the current week’s episode is available for free.


Tech-related

• This Week in Tech (TWiT)
  Leo Laporte’s a strong personality behind the podcasting movement, and TWiT is the foremost show in his podcast netcast network. I have to admit I haven’t liked Leo much in the past - I liked Patrick Norton better on The Screen Savers (Patrick, by the way, is currently serving up shows at dl.tv), and liked Chris Pirillo’s version of Call for Help more than Leo’s. All that aside, I really enjoy listening to Leo’s netcasts - I think he really shines in this medium. TWiT in particular gathers together several personalities that enjoy talking about tech and BS about tech news, making for some great moments (my favorite so far is Steve Gibson and John Dvorak going rounds about spam). If you like tech, this is an entertaining fluff podcast.

• Security Now (Another member of Leo’s netcast network)
  Steve Gibson is pretty entertaining to listen to and does a good job breaking down complex security issues into understandable concepts. I like the interplay between Leo and Steve, and the topics they cover are interesting and advanced enough to keep my attention.
• This Week in Media
  This is a great podcast for someone who appreciates four people who love to talk about their passion - all things media. Fortunately, when these guys geek out, it’s still entertaining (particularly since they stopped talking about the Red camera).
• Other tech-related podcasts I enjoy include Chris Pirillo Show, Engadget, TalkCrunch, FLOSS, Windows Weekly.


Disney-related

• WDWToday
  My wife and I went to Disney World for our honeymoon, and I have been hooked since - I love going to WDW, I love reading news about Disney (check out Jim Hill’s articles for some fascinating reads), and I love listening to podcasts about Disney. WDWToday runs about 20 minutes per show, has great hosts and fun topics. This is one worth downloading and listening to previous shows - if nothing else, the antics of Len Testa (co-author of the my Disney bible, Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World and owner of the world’s biggest coffee drip) never fail to make me laugh.
• WDW Radio Show
  Lou Mongello has written a couple of Disney trivia books and hosts a fun, informative podcast. While Lou doesn’t make me laugh as much as Len Testa, I do enjoy WDW Radio Show for all the fascinating tips, trivia, Disney backstory and ride-throughs. Lou’s previous podcast, MouseTunes, is also worth listening to - although some of the information is dated, there are some fun, timeless segments to be found.
• Some other Disney-related podcasts I enjoy listening to include Magical Definition and Imagineering My Way.


Other topics

• The Wordpress Podcast
  Who’d have thought listening to people talk about blogging engines could be interesting? I just started listening to this show - as this blog runs on Wordpress, I enjoy listening to the latest news, plugins etc. For Drupal users, Lullabot hosts an interesting podcast.

For audio books, I’ve used two interesting resources: PodioBooks and LibriVox.

There’s a slew of other podcasts I’ve subscribed to or tagged, but just haven’t had the time to listen to. Have I missed your favorites? Share them in the comments!