Creating a Podcast

Podcasting is easy to get involved in for anyone who wants to create a podcast. The first thing necessary is access to a web server. The user needs to be able to upload files to the server itself, so podcasting can't be done from a simple blogging or journal site.

It's probably best to register a domain and find a host for the site. Once the site has been set up and the user has access to the host server, a small program called dircaster.php should be customized for your site, and can be used to automatically generate the RSS feed that the subscribers will download. The mp3 files should be uploaded to the proper directory after all the information about the file has been attached.

After they are in the directory, the address of dircaster.php, as long as it is in the same directory as the mp3 files, will generate an RSS file that will tell your subscribers where to download the latest podcasts from. To update and and a new episode, create and upload the new mp3 file to the same directory. When dircaster.php is accessed, it will recognize the new file and relay the information on to your visitors.

With these steps, it is easy for anyone to create a podcast with a small expenditure of time and effort. The site is easy to set up; domains and hosting are now cheap enough almost anyone to have a small site, and the programs necessary are all easy to find and use.

I'll take you to Music Podcasting in the next post.

Tribute to Miriam Makeba- "Mama Africa"

4th March, 1932 in Johannesburg, South Africa, a baby was delivered into the world; With a clenched fist filled with musical talents. She rose to become known as "Mama Africa". This baby was no other person but MIRIAM MAKEBA.

She started her singing career in the 1950s and was very active in the struggle against apartheid.

For starring in an anti-apartheid documentary film "Come Back, Africa" her passport was revoked and was forced into exile, in 1959. She did not return to South Africa, until 1990 after Nelson Mandela was released from prison.

Before then, in 1966, she became the first black African woman to win a Grammy Award, which she shared with Harry Belafonte. She paired with Paul Simon during the Graceland Tour in 1987 and was noted for her role in the musical film, Sarafina, based on Soweto Riots.

She took ill, after performing at a concert, near the southern town of Caserta, in Italy. The concert was against organised crime, which has been blamed for the September massacre of six immigrants from Ghana.

Amongst her most popular songs are Malaika, Pata Pata and the Click Song.

Though gone beyond our reach, I can still hear the echoes of her words:

"You sing about those things that surround you, our surrounding has always been that of suffering from apartheid and the racism that exists in our country. So our music has to be affected by all that."

Adieu Miriam Makeba, adieu Mama Africa.

Enjoy Mama Afrika's songs by typing Miriam Makeba into >>  Enter artist or band column in  ===> JUKEBLOG MPLAYER <===    click search to list, then click PLAY button on the player.
You can also use the "Google Custom Search" at the top of the page for more and any other related stories on her.

Other Sources:
YouTube: Pata Pata (Time: 3:03)
YouTube: With Paul Simon (Time: 4:03)
YouTube: The Click Song (Time: 4:50)
YouTube: Anampondo (Time: 5:00)
YouTube: Soweto Blues (Time: 5:23)

Software for Podcasting

There are many podcast software programs available for use and more are being created everyday, many of which are even free. Because of the decentralized, acceptance of podcasting, a wide variety of programs are available; from large programs with a big footprint that do many different jobs, to tiny little software packages that do minimum jobs.

Most of the podcast softwares are designed for online, while some are for home user computers. Feed subscribers also have the opportunity of viewing podcast from their web browser with software packages that contain both feed reader like the home user software does, but also incorporate a way to view or listen to the podcasts online from inside the browser. List of podcast software can be found in podcast directories that maintain podcast feeds.

Another type of online podcast software is the feed creators. The PHP scripting is used in creating the RSS file and it informs the feed readers where to download the podcasts from. The scripting can either make a virtual copy or create a hard copy of the RSS file and write it to the server disk when the feed is updated.

If generated virtually, the RSS file doesn't really exist on the host's server, instead, the address of the PHP script is distributed as the address of the feed. When accessed, the script looks at the recent posts at the site, generates the file and sends the results to the feed subscriber.

Audio Visual Podcasting

Explaining a podcast, Wikipedia describes it as, a series of audio or video digital-media files which is distributed over the Internet by syndicated download, through Web feeds, to portable media players and personal computers. Though the same content may also be made available by direct download or streaming, a podcast is distinguished from other digital-media formats by its ability to be syndicated, subscribed to, and downloaded automatically when new content is added.

A podcast client is the software used to access and download podcasts. Podcast clients are also known as media aggregators, programs designed to automatically access an online file, or feed, and download the audio or
video file associated with it.

Hundreds of these programs exist, with names like Juice, PodSpider, IpodderX, and Nimiq. These podcast clients are easy to find, and because there are so many available for free, it is easy to find one that suits an individuals needs and style. These programs run on the users computer,
periodically downloading a small RSS file from sites that it has been told to monitor. The file tells the program about an audio or video file stored on the server, and the podcast client then downloads that file for the user to view or listen to.

The podcast client makes it possible for the user to view information on a wide range of topics from their computer, without even using a web browser. Just like blogs let people find writers they enjoyed for any niche topic they were interested in, podcasts let people do them same for audio and video. Its like having a thousands of radio and television channels created to serve every possible interest, and more are still being made every day.

Using the podcast client to access and download the files makes it as easy to keep up with the sites one likes as it is to publish the feed.

Music: The Food of Love

Music is an inspiring tonic to the body and soul. Remember King Saul's encounter with the evil spirit- in the Bible- and how David quelled the King's troubled mind with music; touched his heart, healed and soothed his soul.

Great people and Philosophers knew the efficacy of music and they reflected foot-marks in the sand of our consciousness with great talks.

"Life is a song, sing it" Mother Teresa attested; while William Shakespeare recommended that "If music be the food of love; play on". So let the trend flow like the stream, let's follow some of the collection of inspirational quotes, proverbs, phrases and sayings on music.

Just as Jesus created wine from water, we humans are capable of transmuting emotion into music."
~ Carlos Santana ~

In music the passions enjoy themselves
~Friedrich Nietzsche~

"Music does bring people together. It allows us to experience the same emotions. People everywhere are the same in heart and spirit. No matter what language we speak, what color we are, the form of our politics or the expression of our love and our faith, music proves: We are the same."
~ John Denver ~

There are more love songs than anything else. If songs could make you do something, we'd all love one another.
~Frank Zappa ~

Music is well said to be the speech of angels; in fact, nothing among the utterances allowed to man is felt to be so divine. It brings us near to the infinite.
~Thomas Carlyle ~

A song will outlive all sermons in the memory.
~Henry Giles ~

It's a language which the soul alone understands, but which the soul can never translate.
~ Arnold Bennett (1867 - 1931) ~

Make a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons, and you will find that it is to the soul what the water bath is to the body.
~Oliver Wendell Holmes~

Music is the movement of sound to reach the soul for the education of its virtue.
~Plato~

There's music in the sighing of a reed;
There's music in the gushing of a rill;
There's music in all things, if men had ears:
Their earth is but an echo of the spheres.
~ Lord (George Gordon Noel) Byron English poet, 1788 - 1824 ~

True music must repeat the thought and inspirations of the people and the time. My people are Americans and my time is today.
~George Gershwin~

What we play is life.
~Louis Armstrong~