Don't dare deviate! Get down during Giggles Radio D! Develop your docile dwelling-mates into dancing demons by dominating the den with the demerara sounds of Giggles Radio D.
Welcome to Giggles Radio Episode D. Each show our host Alex Andronov demonstrates his deft handling of a mixing desk by playing around two hours of songs themed around a letter. This week the letter is D.
Whilst Mr C drools over the iPhone, I have been quite happily making use of my Google phone. The G1 was the first phone to run Google's Android operating system, and every day I keep finding new and exciting things that it can do.
Just recently, we discovered the app from the live streaming site Qik, and we had to give it a try. It was free, easy to install, and we immediately signed up for an account so we could get sharing. The idea is that you can hit a button and be streaming live to the internet straight away, in any situation. It's quite scary how easy it is, but also pretty awesome. However, we spent some time today figuring out how it works for the future. Below are the replays that become available once the live stream has finished.
Firstly, we had to test it out in the office, and that meant Mr C bugging me whilst I was trying to write a blog post.
We decided that being stuck in the office wasn't exciting enough, we can already stream perfectly well from there, so unusually for us, we headed out into the sunshine. Well, in the car, anyway.
Venturing out of the car, we found some trees and scrubland to demonstrate what a beautiful summer's day it was. Outside the audio leaves a little to be desired, but the picture quality is amazing.
The sun was a bit hot, so we went into the forest where it would have been a little bit scary and Blair Witch if it wasn't for the children playing and screaming in the background.
In which Mr C decides that we are in a life streaming battle with Alex. Good luck with that.
This time, we thought it would be fun to push live commenting to the limit and re-enact the TV show Treasure Hunt. The problem is, the audio sucks. Mr C may or may not have had his hand over the microphone during the first bit, so you suddenly hear me say 'helicopter' and take off running. There's also a crazy bit at the end, which we can't explain. We're still learning and this software can be a little ropey.
And with this final one, we are back in the car, and you will hear Mr C say that twice. For some reason, the full video loops, so you get the same thing over again, just like Groundhog Day. It really is early days for this application.
I know the above isn't necessarily interesting, but this is just a precursor to what could be in the future. Do you recall when we had the Sidepodscience Meetup and we live streamed a conversation from the park? To do that, we took a large collection of hardware and the result were no-where near this good. The microphone onboard the G1 isn't great, but visuals are excellent.
If we were at a race, we could capture moments on camera and stream them to the folks at home. Something we have attempted in the past, with little success.
There is potential here, and whilst it's early days for both the technology and our abilities, we're quite happy we can now take on Alex and his live updates. Remember back in 2007, when we started using an unknown service called Twitter? Today felt a little like that. We don't know what use it might be, but if nothing else, it’s a lot of fun.
A very, very long time ago, eons ago in fact, we introduced the idea of 'free F1 content for your website'. Essentially this was an embeddable audio player containing news in the form of F1 Minute. That generic player has done remarkably well for us, and we have seen it appear in the most unexpected of places and there have been many more downloads of the daily minute as result. Now we're taking the concept to the next level.
Much as we did with Sidepodcast's Partner TV Player, we're offering a branded version, tailored with a custom image and audio introduction, to anyone who's interested in including it on their site. For the past month or so we've been trialling the idea in two places - Pitlane Fanatic and Racing Bulls. If you haven't already seen them in action we recommend you go check them out now, but here's a heads-up for the uninitiated.
Pitlane Fanatic
Jackie and Jolly from Pitlane Fanatic were on the show a couple of days ago, and you might've got the impression Jolly is something of a fan of Christine's daily minute. We're just as big fans of them too though, and we love the look and feel of the site. The F1 Minute player fits snugly into the silver design.
Ian from Racing Bulls is a familiar name around these parts and for the second time he signed up to be our beta tester. The branded F1 Minute player is situated above the ever popular message board and just like the previous example contains a custom logo and audio introduction.
If you're interested in partnering with F1 Minute, please either email Christine or let us know in the comments. The audio is updated every weekday during the off-season and seven days a week once the racing gets underway. It's free to use, easy to install on most sites (we can help if you're struggling), and now you can integrate and brand it as your own. What's not to like?
On his site today, DoctorVee offers a fine analysis of a recent in depth Mosley interview conducted by Adam Parsons of the BBC. It's well worth a read, but there's one point I'd like to add after watching the video myself.
It's clearly not coincidental that the only visible prop used in the shot is a scale model of a Ferrari, Max appears more than happy to face the FIA's Ferrari International Assistance criticisms head on. What I do find odd though, is the decision to display the back-end of the car.
It's clearly a pre-2008 model (maybe someone could name the year / chassis?), because it features blatant Marlboro decals on the engine cover and rear wing. I have to ask though, what statement is Max trying to make, is he personally sponsored by Philip Morris and why did the BBC allow such shameless and blatant advertising? Especially given that their advertising policy states:
The BBC is not permitted to carry advertising or sponsorship on its public services. This keeps them independent of commercial interests and ensures that they can be run instead to serve the general public interest.
Add to the mix the fact that tobacco sponsorship has been banned in the UK since the summer of 2005, and you have a right mess of conflicting ethics coming from auntie.
Doubtless, prior to filming, the camera crew spent considerable time picking a prime location for the interview and then lighting the set correctly. Even then, if a mistake had been made, the branding could easy have been blurred post-production, as is frequently the case in news bulletins. You could argue that the logo isn't clear enough to be of any concern, but with Ferrari happy to run around the world displaying a set of subliminal stripes, the appearance of the infamous Marlboro typeface should be more than enough to set alarm bells ringing.
The beeb ran this video as it's lead motorsport story yesterday and they appear to be happy to promote a certain brand of cigarettes with impunity. I guess those F1 rights didn't come cheap at all.
As you may have noticed, we released a new video last weekend, and via the comments we received a couple of requests to enable better sharing of said new content.
We've become pretty adept at distributing audio with F1 Minute recently, so we have a pretty good idea of how to go about it, but we've been neglecting Sidepodcast on that front.
If you've been following the comments, you'll know that Lou suggested that F1 Rewind would make a fine Facebook application, while Shaun asked if there was a simple way of embedding the videos into his site.
We're always keen to receive input and feedback, and it seems only fair that when people make cool suggestions we act upon them, and we've done just that.
We have a shiny new Sidepodcast TV Facebook application ready and waiting to be added to your profile. We threw together a version during the weekend, and polished it up today. New episodes are added the moment we release them, so you're always up-to-date with the latest content.
For anyone still living outside the walled garden we've added embed codes to the information beneath each video on this site. The codes work just as you'd expect and allow you to copy a single episode onto another web page. Shaun has an example on his blog if you'd like to see it in action.
Finally, we've added one more piece to the puzzle, and that's the ability to add an entire playlist to another site. In short this means that you only have to copy the video player once, and you'll be sure that new content will appear as and when it's available (we're hoping weekly). If you have a blog with space to spare, stop by our video sharing page and check out the details.
There's one last thing to add. It's always been possible to embed episodes of Sidepodcast TV, using sites such as YouTube and Dailymotion. We've been uploading shows to them since the day we started and we're not going to stop now. We're simply offering additional options for anyone who wants them.
Many thanks to everyone for their suggestions and if you have any more requests / ideas for things we should be doing, please let us know via the usual methods.
As Formula 1 heads into it's 'winter break' and the daily influx of gossip and rumour fades to a quiet whisper, we figured it would an ideal time to launch a news site!
They don't pay us the big bucks for nothing, let me tell ya.
Actually, it's not really a news site per se, we're just giving F1 Minute a home of it's own. The recent addition to our podcasting stable, has grown so rapidly and consistently that it's ready to leave the tender bosom of Sidepodcast, and venture out into the big, bad world on it's own.
You can view the new site at: http://www.f1minute.com/. It's still a little wet behind the ears, but basically fit for purpose. Feel free to have a poke around and let us know what you think.
So What's New?
From a listerner's perspective, nothing changes. The feed is still in the same place as it always was, so if you've subscribed to the podcast, you'll not miss a moment's news. iTunes and various other podcast directories are already pointing to the new location and we've moved all posts and comments across to the new domain.
Additionally Christine has created a Twitter thingy, to keep you bang up-to-date with the latest in news and gossip. Just in case the idea of 'F1 news every single weekday', is simply not enough information for you.
So Why Change?
We've created a new home for F1 minute, because it was getting a little bit swamped by all the action on this site. Many search engines struggled to pick up the latest posts and because it didn't get a look-in on the homepage, not everybody spotted it.
Additionally we've picked a pretty solid hosting company (that I believe is the same as Ollie's), which should give us an extra layer of stability after some of the hosting problems we've had here. Ideally we'd like to move to Amazon's EC2 cloud, but the technology is too immature to make the jump right now. Media Temple offer a good compromise, which is less flexible, but not so cutting-edge.
What About Embedded Content?
If you've jumped on board and added the embeddable F1 Minute player to your site / blog / forum, we've not forgotten you. The good news is you don't have to change a single line of code. You've probably noticed that today's episode is still happily running on your site and it will continue to do so.
However, if you've got five minutes to spare, we do recommend that you take a look at the new sharing page. The code listed there has been tweaked in order to point to the new domain. Upgrading code on your site will enable you to benefit from the increased reliability that the new host's offer us, and we'll also be adding new players and customised embed options to that page soon.
Just to re-iterate, you don't have to change anything, we know you're busy people and we don't like to impose.
In Conclusion
So, there you have it. New domain, new host, better stability and a web site dedicated solely to the vocals of Ms. Blachford.
Oh, I almost forgot. The new site is entirely at the disposal of the gravelly-voiced damsel, there'll not be an anti-McLaren post in sight (although I might stop by with some inflammatory comments). If you thought she had a lot on her plate before, you've not seen nothing yet!
Please stop by and say "howdy", leave a comment or peruse at your leisure. As always, thoughts, ideas and criticism are readily welcomed.
As Formula 1 heads into it's 'winter break' and the daily influx of gossip and rumour fades to a quiet whisper, we figured it would an ideal time to launch a news site!
