Podcasting Tools

Just thought I'd let people know what tools I'm using for Podcasting at this point. I'm using Windows XP so I'm stuck with Windows software only. I used Audacity (found at sourceforge) for the audio mixer. I have a Plantronics USB headset for the microphone. I am trying out a piece of software from Red Square called Podifier for publishing the RSS Feed to my site. The link in the previous post is actually a link to the rss feed generated by Podifier.

First Podcast

I've created my first podcast. I obviously need to find the best place to syndicate it and am actively looking but I needed to see what it would take to produce a simple show. It was fun and very cool.

Here is the Link.

Bellsouth Should Spice Things Up With Naked DSL

From where I'm sitting, Bellsouth seems dazed and confused by the myriad of voice over the Internet (VOIP) offerings. In an effort to save their waning residential phone line business from the grasp of cell phone and VOIP providers, Bell continues the policy of requiring an active phone line (POTS Line) in order to install high speed DSL. While this policy may seem sound within the rank and file of the Bell organization, customers tend to view it as a strong-arm tactic. Interestingly enough Bell's active phone line policy plays right into the hands of its two biggest rivals: Comcast and Vonage. Customers are beginning to connect the dots realizing that they can drop their POTS line by switching to Comcast and ordering a VOIP line through Vonage.

Fundamentally, most customers don't care how a phone line is delivered, only that it works reliably and is reasonably priced. As such, it would be wise for Bell to allow for Naked DSL and roll out a competitive VOIP offering. Since they own the data network end-to-end, they can offer quality-of-service (QoS) on the VOIP phone line that would be superior to Vonage if they so chose.

Alas, the monopolistic mindset is a crutch in a capitalistic world. It's difficult to say how many customers will be lost before Bell realizes that it's cheaper to lose incremental revenue to their own offering than to lose the customer entirely to their competition.

Bill Butler owns Butler Networks, an Internet Service Provider in the Middle Tennessee area.

Lancaster Christian Academy

Wow,

My wife and I decided to hunt for a private School in Smyrna because we really felt that she could receive a better education than she was getting in the public school system. We set up an appointment to visit Lancaster Christian Academy. We met with Mr. Lancaster at 10am. He seemed like a nice enough guy, maybe a bit scatter-brained at first blush. He showed us the various classrooms for the different age groups. This all went fine. Then came the sit-down. He started by letting us know that they promote a Christian doctrine, building Christlike character, which came as no surprise considering the name of the school. Although I don't share a belief in the myth of God, I do believe that a person named Jesus existed who was a great human-rights advocate and an exceptional role model for love and tolerance.

He then stepped up on his pulpit and began to rattle off the various churches that his employees attended accurately naming denominations and informing us of each teachers' religious affiliation and strength of belief. I held a pretty good poker face. After 2-3 minutes of this, he basically said that most of the people here were born-again Christians. I've never felt so out-of-place or alienated in my life. We feigned interest, took a brochure, and as the door shut behind us, we broke out in laughter at what we had just witnessed.

The owner of this educational institution spent more time preaching than he did informing up about the educational value of the school. He made some ridiculous allusions to Christian retentiveness, I suppose the theory that Christians retain knowledge better than non-Christians. When I asked him about their music program, he told me that they had one. I requested details on the instruments they taught and he replied with a very vague comment about students playing rock and roll in a band and that they taught music theory.

I thought about posing some questions regarding their evolution curriculum but decided that he was not worth the time. I have since spoken with a friend of mine who had previously enrolled is children here. He told me that he would not send them back. Apparently, his child was the number one student in the class for several years. When he moved his child to a new public school they struggled to keep up with the class.

Well, at least my daughter will be happy. She didn't want to go to a private school anyway.