TWiT to Fans: Pay Up to Comment?

From ThisWeekInTech.com:

We've clearly outgrown the commenting capabilities of Drupal. Many folks have asked me for forums, so I think it's time to set these up and close down comments here. In an effort to avoid the mess that public forums have become elsewhere, and to thank supporters, I am going to limit access to TWiT contributors. I don't have an automatic way to do that just yet, however, so I guess you'll just have to apply for an account. ... I think by making the forums accessible only to donors we'll ensure a lively but respectful message board. And I do owe donors something above and beyond the shows!

There is speculation that it was due to the alleged massive amount of negative feedback from the most recent episode of TWiT; episode 40, titled Yellow Lasers. The tone of the show gets into a political discussion starting at about 10:30(minutes seconds). Getting noticeably (you can hear it in his voice) disturbed by Leo and Woz' political discussions, Patrick jumps in at 15:48 and says:

Well yah but doesn't that undermine the entire hacker ethos? If we say, if we say freedom of information is bad is that not undermining the entire hacker ethos that we've been promoting?

Leo states, at 16:10:

No I'm not against censorship. I think, though, that Google is not - should not be in the position of censoring. Google is not a ...

John C. Dvorak(at dvorak.org/blog) interrupts, adding that he(Dvorak) is against censorship. Kevin Mitnick mentions that it can be circumvented, Leo agrees then Mitnick adds that "politically [Mitnick] do[es] not believe in censorship but that is [Mitnick's] own personal view" What do you think? Was it a calculated effort to kill negative feedback, a ploy to get money so ads would not have to be placed, a bandwidth overload, or some other factor? Let us know at nerdcast [at] gmail [dot] com.

Video from over the pond!

If you're looking for more video content to add to your sexy, new video iPod then we have the site for you! My good buddy Lee hosts Exposure Shorts which hosts a collection of short, low budget indie films from the UK! Each film is about 6-7 minutes long, and a new one will be out every Sunday. Enjoy! Here is the feed! http://feeds.feedburner.com/exposureshorts

Feed Problems Fixed

Thanks to all of you that sent instant messages, left comments, and sent us e-mails alerting us to the problems you were experiencing with the Nerdcast Video feeds. I goofed in coding them. I found and fixed their errors so we should be good now. FeedBurner and iTunes will take a few hours to update the feeds so please just bare with us on that. I apologize for having goofed this up. But thank you for wanting to check us out! We really appreciate that and all of your feedback! There are two feeds for Nerdcast Video:

• H.264: http://feeds.feedburner.com/ncvh264
• MPEG-4: http://feeds.feedburner.com/ncvmp4

If you use iTunes you may want to remove Nerdcast Video from your subscriptions and then re-add it. However it will take a few hours at the least for the changes to propogate. Again, I am very sorry for the problem and thank everyone for their interest in the show! We have another video coming out later tonight so stay tuned! :)

Nerdcast #11 - Marty from Juice Receiver

In this episode I interview Martijn Venrooy, the Design/User Interface Developer for Juice Receiver. Juice Receiver (formerly iPodder) is an open-source podcast receiver, podcatcher, podcast catcher, program. It allows you to manually add the web address of a podcast's feed or to find them through the integrated directory. If you have only ever used iTunes, now is as good a time as any to give this free (donations are graciously accepted), fast, light client a shot. Grab it at JuiceReceiver.com. Huge thanks to Marty Venrooy and Andrew Grumet for the t-shirts, interview, and hanging out at the Portable Media Expo. From all of us at Nerdcast and AMP to all of you at Juice Receiver, keep up the great work! :) Stay tuned for episode 3 of the video. It is available in two, healthy flavors:

• MPEG-4: http://feeds.feedburner.com/ncvmp4
• H.264: http://feeds.feedburner.com/ncvh264

And don't forget that you can win a video iPod. Scroll down to episode 10's show notes to find out how. Host: Brian DeWitt Runtime: 07:42 Download: nerdcast011.mp3 Subscribe to the Show: iTunes | Odeo | RSS

nerdcast #10: The FeedBurner Interview

WARNING: Video is coming down at you this time as well as an mp3 file. You may remember that I went to Los Angeles for the first Portable Media Expo in November 2005. I did some work while I was there and now we're starting to see (and hear) some of what I did. You know, besides drink and geek out. Here we present my interview with John Zeratsky from FeedBurner. You might have heard of them. They're kind of a big deal. John educates us a little bit about what exactly FeedBurner is. Did you know that there Struts help it out? Neither did we until we gave John a sneak peek of the video version. I want to thank John and Traci from FeedBurner for their support and just all around awesomeness while we were at the expo. It was great to meet some of the hard-working people behind a service I'm sure most of us podcasters and bloggers take for granted. If you use FeedBurner, take a moment to say thanks for all their hard work. And I want to thank them for letting me do the interview. Thanks so much John and Traci! =) Oh that reminds me! We have it available in not one but TWO flavors of video in addition to the mp3. We also have two new feeds to accomodate the two formats we will be releasing video in:

• The H.264 version - http://feeds.feedburner.com/ncvh264
• An MPEG-4 version - http://feeds.feedburner.com/ncvmp4

We have a listener's survey as well and would love it if you would please fill it out . :) Host: Brian DeWitt Runtime: 3min 24seconds Download: nerdcast010.mp3 Subscribe to the Show: iTunes | Odeo | RSS | IRN Superfeed! Host: Brian DeWitt Runtime: 3min 24 seconds Download: NCV002_FeedBurner.mp4 Subscribe to Nerdcast Video: MPEG-4 | H.264

nerdcast #9 : Yes, an Apple Product F'd Up.

Well, as I explain in the cast, I lost my side of the conversation, so we had to start all over. I'm playing around on my new computer, and I lack the proper audio editing gear, so I had to throw this together in...iMovie. So, it's a basic, raw show. We took an extended holiday break, so we have a long show for you.

• Let's make fun of Ben.
• Now we make fun of Brian
• The best Peanut Butter in the world! Honey roasted Chunky.
• Site traffic, and lack of feedback.
• RaptorX 150GB hard drive! Has a clear cover for you case modders. $350.
• Clear cases for your computer is lame. Lian Li PC-V1100 is the way to go.
• Davis and Droz are selling their old nerd toys on eBay! The Rich Geek's Move Out Mystery Auction!
• Davis keeps his word. James, you're getting five dollars.
• Stripper what? Stripper what?
• Droz reaches a cross road and almost quits drinking.
• The "Mike Davis Loves His Girlfriend," segment. We almost missed it.
• We have a listener's survey. Please take it :)
• This small company called IBM has slowed down light.
• nerdcast the movie.
• Super Mario Bros. The Movie ruined my childhood.
• We almost ended the show here.
• Nerd gift round up.
• Beer break.
• LMwSA! Sergio talks about the new Nintedo DS games from JAPAN!!!
• Talk about Nintendo things.
• Ben pees in the closet and more funny stories. OK! We think they're funny.

nerdcast is giving away a free iPod video. Here is what you do...

1. Register for a account at our messageboard. Make sure you leave you contact information in your profile.
2. Post a message in this thread.
3. If we get 200 unique posts in this thread, we will randomly select a person and give them the iPod.
4. Remember, you must be a registered member. No guest posts.

Good Luck! Hosts: Ben Taylor, Mike Davis, Brian DeWitt, Mike Droz. Runtime : 1hr 6min Download: nerdcast009.mp3 Subscribe to the Show: iTunes | Odeo | RSS | IRN Superfeed!

Happy Year New!

Well, well. We took an extended holiday break it seems. We work hard, and we deserve every break we get. Like, I would apologies for not deleviering a holiday special, but screw it. Anyways, here is some info on what I'm calling... 2006 : the nerdcast empire.

1. A new site design is in the works as well as a new logo. It should be online in a week or two.
2. More episodes of nerdcast! It depends on how well CES goes. We might release little daily sniplets of what we think of the day's announcements. Our opinions matter.
3. More nerdcast video on its own feed.
4. A dash of focus.
5. New characters to the show
6. More stories of Davis' underage girlfriend.

Stay tuned, campers.

nerdcast #8 : Baby Dick (nsfw Brian, you retard)

Here it is. Christmas is almost here, and we have a special planned, so we are releasing #8 early.

• This week's beer. Schlicht! We like it
• TVTAD. It's Tivo you don't pay for.
• "Um, nah, that's it. We're done. That's all we have for this episode."
• Ben gets a Black, 30GB iPod video.
• Ben rants about FM tuners and CNET while Davis cuts him off.
• Davis is a shoe in for the iPodderX contest.
• "Are we that drunk already?"
• Adam arrives
• "You want to record nerdcast tomorrow? Nah, fuck Adam he sucks."
• The Vienna Sausage off. 5 months and two days until Sausage Day.
• Adam gets to hold the bowl. Which is for the juices.
• Baby Dick.
• Hormel WINS!
• Davis tells Adam what a podcast is.
• Baby Dick.
• Whatever dead hooker in the matress situation you get in, Adam will get you out of it. He's gonna be a lawyer.
• The Legitament Minute with Sergio.

Hosts: Ben Taylor, Mike Davis, and Mike Droz w/ Sergio, Dave, and Adam. Runtime: 34:58 Direct Download: nerdcast008.mp3 Subscribe to the Show: iTunes | Odeo | RSS | IRN Superfeed!