The Prepared Mind Discussion about designing human interaction.

OK, I know I promised that podcasts would resume a little while ago and I even recorded a podcast around the time I said I would. Problem is that apparently the new version of Skype on the Mac is terrible with regards to echo cancellation. I recorded a podcast that is completely unusable because it is full of echo on the side of the interviewee.

Thankfully Secret Cameraman from Beach Walks with Rox turned me onto a piece of software called Gizmo Project. Gizmo project is great! It works just like Skype in terms of allowing you to make free computer-to-computer calls as well as cheap computer-to-land/cell phone calls. Best of all, it has built-in recording capability so I don’t have to use software like AudioHijack.

Stay tuned, I’ll try to have a podcast out for Christmas. Ho, ho, ho!!!

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I just registered for a channel on Odeo, so those of you who are on Odeo, feel free to leave me a message with some listener feedback. For those of you who are not familiar with Odeo, it is a web-based service that allows users to record voice messages via their own computer as well as via telephone. Once you have recorded a message, you can then send it to other channels on the Odeo system or email it to anyone you wish.

I’m starting a new segment on future podcasts where I’ll be including listener feedback/comments and you never know, your voice just might be included!

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Wow! The HOW magazine email newsletter went out yesterday afternoon and the hit stats are through the roof! Thanks again to the folks at HOW and welcome to any new visitors to the blog. Take off your shoes and get comfortable! There’s cold beer in the fridge.

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If you enjoy our podcasts, LET US KNOW! Please take a moment and fill out this quick survey so that we can learn more about what you enjoy about our podcasts as well as areas where we can improve.

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Yahoo recently rolled out it’s podcasting service, Yahoo! Podcasts. Knowing Yahoo! like we do, I’m sure that it will become a major player in the podcasting arena right behind iTunes. By the way, if you search for “The Prepared Mind” you’ll find our little podcast located on Yahoo!’s new service. If you get a chance, stop by and rate us. Also feel free to give us a nice little review.

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We haven’t made any changes to this blog since I launched it back in April. The response to the blog and podcasts has given me plenty of ideas for how to improve things around here.

Starting today, you’ll notice we’ve updated the theme. The new design is based on the Mallow theme and we’ll probably be making more and more changes to it over time.

We’ve also added individual pages for “About This Blog”, “Contributors” and “Reading List”. I’ve already added some content to some of these areas and will be adding more to others. We’ll also be adding a feature that allows users to be notified when new content has been added to the blog in the form of either posts or comments. This will be useful for those of you who have engaged myself or others in conversations in the comments to some entries.

Feel free to send me any suggestions you might have.

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Just like most of us — whether we admit it or not — can’t help occaisionally Googling ourselves, every so often I check the feedburner stats on the podcasts I’ve done as well as the web stats on site traffic.

WOW!

Apparently yesterday The Prepared Mind’s podcast appeared on iTunes and ever since then, site traffic and downloads of the podcasts have trippled! Welcome, everyone. Due to the success of the first two podcasts, it has gotten much easier for me to get very interesting people to agree to be interviewed for future podcasts, so we have some very exciting content coming up. In the meantime, thank you so much for taking the time to stop by and read/listen. Hopefully I’ll make the time taken from your busy schedules worthwhile.

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It has been brought to my attention that on our podcast with Ed Gold, some of you had a difficult time hearing Ed’s audio. I apologize for this. We have only done 2 podcasts so far and so there are still a few adjustments that I need to learn how to make. For the next podcast, I will have these kinks worked out so that the audio is much better and it is easier for everyone to hear all of the content.

Thanks!

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I mentioned to some folks that our first ThePreparedMind.com podcast would be available today and we DID record it yesterday, however unfortunately I screwed up with the bit-rate setting and my CPU caused a ton of skipping and gaps in the audio, making our conversation unintelligible.

We will be trying it again, though. Hopefully Neil Tortorella and Taughnee Stone will have some time tomorrow but and we can give it another go. Sorry for the delay.

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I’ve just purchased a good set of headphones and followed Glenn Fleishman’s excellent tutorial on “How to Record a Podcast” so look out for The Prepared Mind’s first podcast interview!

I’m lining up some potential interviewees along the lines of some of the subjects we commonly tackle here such as certification, globalism & design, standards, etc. Stay tuned!

.chris{}

“Boooonnnnnnng!!!!”

That was the sound my computer made on Saturday evening after I finished installing Macintosh OS X 4, better known as Tiger, onto my computer. Due to no fault of Apple, the process wasn’t as smooth as it could have been. My first few attempts were greeted with error messages, due to my apparently poorly-formatted hard drive. So I ended up doing what I knew I should have done in the first place — make a completely new installation. No biggie.

I’m not going to use this space to gush over Tiger’s fantastic new features like “Dashboard” or “Spotlight.” You can read just about any review from just about any computer magazine and read that. The OS rocks! What I will do is state the obvious…. Apple is leading the corporate world in taking design to new heights.

Great design from top to bottom
Apple has always had a special place in the hearts and minds of graphic designers and so to state that it is a company that is taking design to new heights is hardly news. No need to stop the presses on that observation. But one would have to admit that it would be hard to find another corporate giant who shows the level of attention to design and branding like Apple does. Especially when one considers that this attention spans across both print, web, interior and industrial design.

From Powerbooks to iPods to iWork to Apple stores to Tiger. Design is an integral part of the way Apple thinks. Perhaps they….. think different?

Way to go Apple! LOVE Tiger!!! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!

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