Tag: Media

  • Soylent, Apple Watch and #DistractinglySexy

    Soylent, Apple Watch and #DistractinglySexy

    The entire Unwind Media library is now available on SoundCloud. We did it! Anyhow, now that the transformation of all the shows is complete, a lot more time just opened up for interesting new things…who knows what this summer will bring?

    Today, I ordered a 7-day supply of Soylent from a California company called Rosa Labs. It’s a nutritional replacement with all the essential carbs, proteins, fats, vitamins, and minerals a human needs to survive. It comes in a powder that you mix with water and consume over the course of a day. I’m not sure I’ll like it, but I’m really excited about what it will be like. I’ve been asked to document it, so I’ll definitely be trying this. It just recently started shipping to Canada.

    In a little sadder news, though Apple Watch is now available for in-store pickup, I won’t be getting one this summer. Real life wins again 🙁

    Anyhow, here are the shows from Unwind Media this week. I sincerely hope you enjoy them if you choose to listen! We had a great chat on Future Chat about the #DistractinglySexy hashtag and the sexism that seems to keep popping up in science. Subscribe if you do so you’ll be able to keep apprised of new episodes without this weekly post!

    This week, we spoke to Evan and Shane from Alpaca Party Productions. They do a weekly podcast and a web series called A Mouthful of Shane. We talked about…
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    This week, we talk sexiness in science labs, really old dinosaur blood cells, and so so much space news…
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  • Licensing Issues for Feedback…hmmm (Unwind Media | June 3 – 9)

    Licensing Issues for Feedback…hmmm (Unwind Media | June 3 – 9)

    This week, I finished moving Future Chat to SoundCloud, and by next week the entire Unwind Media back library will be over there!

    Feedback: The Music Volume I is nearing the date I said it would be out. I’m currently debating options for release, and trying to navigate doing it in as legal as way as possible, but without also spending too much money just to release it. Stay tuned, and if you know anything about this murky legal area or have released covers before, please do let me know!

    In this episode, we spoke to culinary nutrition expert Jenni Beharry. She’s trained in human geography, television broadcasting, and nutrition, and she’s…
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    In this episode, we talk about the newly discovered link between the brain and the immune system, give a look ahead to WWDC this week, and find out about…
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  • Feedback wraps Season 1, and #Taylorette1989 hits Phase 2 (Unwind Media | May 14-20)

    Feedback wraps Season 1, and #Taylorette1989 hits Phase 2 (Unwind Media | May 14-20)

    ‘Twas a busy week on +Unwind Media! We wrapped Season 1 of Feedback, which means Volume 1 of Feedback: The Music can’t be far off! As well as regular episodes of Ottawhat? and Future Chat, the next phase of #Taylorette1989 launched. I’m looking for a video or story about what’s special about my fiancée Julia, and stories about +Taylor Swift! I’d love to hear your favourite memories of Taylor!

    In this final episode of season 1 of Feedback, we discuss YouTube’s role in the fight against music loudness, the new Mumford and Sons album Wilder Mind…
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    This week’s episode features Keegan’s brother Branden On! He’s into all kinds of creative endeavours like acting, playing music, and drawing. We also hear…
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    This week, are Google cars less safe than human-driven ones, Nick uses his pirate voice several times, and we all lust after $1000 blenders (or do we?)…
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  • Adventures in Podcasting with SoundCloud (Volume I)

    Adventures in Podcasting with SoundCloud (Volume I)

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    I’ve been podcasting and building my website for a couple of years now, and I thought it would be useful to some people if I talked about some of the things I’ve gone through in getting my site up and running that I couldn’t find anywhere else on the Internet. This one is all about podcasting efficiently with SoundCloud.

    Now, I’m not a professional programmer by ANY stretch, but I like getting my feet wet with little bits of code from time to time. I also podcast a few times a week, and sometimes I’m lucky enough that these hobbies overlap! I recently moved my podcasts to SoundCloud, and they have a really nice web player (check out unwindmedia.com/feedback for a prime example). But I wanted to simplify my life and use one link for the RSS feed and for the web player embed.

    Luckily, they use a unique ID number for each upload to SoundCloud, it’s just a matter of finding it. It is a 9-digit number smack in the middle of the enclosure URL that SoundCloud uses for RSS, something like this:

    http://feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/204094299-channelname-episodename.mp3

    With a bit of Regex and replace magic (/.*/(d+)-.*/, “$1”) and some simple jQuery, I can extract that number, plunk it into the embed URL (see this page), and stick that into your container div.

    Once you have that embed URL, you just have to put in all the embed options you want for your widget, and you’re good to go!

    As SoundCloud opens up their platform to make it easier for podcasters, I hope this helps you simplify your life. I personally used this code on my Blogger site (unwindmedia.com) so I can have an audio player on my site that uses the enclosure link for the podcast episode, but in SoundCloud’s native player. It’s working incredibly well and I’m moving all my shows to this template in the coming weeks.

    The code I used is below, and you can see it in action online at unwindmedia.com! If you have any questions please ask and I’ll give you all the details you could ever want!

    EDIT (May 8): I made the code a lot simpler and got rid of redundant divs. Hopefully this is even simpler now.

    Pictured: Fun for Rob

    <div class=’”sound-container-” + “POST-ID”‘/>

     <script>
        $(document).ready(function() {

            var idVal = ‘POST-ID’;

            var idTrack = ‘ENCLOSURE-URL’;

            var encl = idTrack.replace(/.*/(d+)-.*/, “$1”);

            var open = “<iframe frameborder=’no’ height=’160′ scrolling=’no’ src=’https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/”;

            var close = “&color=1C4E94&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_artwork=false’ width=’100%’/>”;

            $(‘.sound-container-‘ + idVal).append(open + encl + close);

        });
    </script>

  • I’m A Professional Writer? (Unwind Media; April 30 – May 6)

    I’m A Professional Writer? (Unwind Media; April 30 – May 6)

    Some huge news on Unwind Media this week; I got a new job! I’ve officially begun writing for a Canadian technology blog called MobileSyrup, and I’m having so much fun with it! I’m writing for them mostly during the evening and on weekends, starting off pretty slowly. I’ve wanted to write on a professional level for quite some time, and I’m really excited to get the opportunity!

    I discuss it a little on Future Chat this week (see below), and you can read my work from the last week here, here and most recently here. Ottawhat? this week was also a lot of fun, we interviewed Lilly Tran, a young woman who writes closed captioning for a cable TV porn station. I definitely did not know that was a thing, and we all learned a lot!

    In this episode, we spoke with Lilly Tran, a closed-captioner for adult films. We discussed some of the weird things Lilly’s heard around her relatively normal office…
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    This week, Rob gets a new job, we discuss Microsoft’s Build conference (much to Nick’s chagrin), Tesla’s big new battery, and how a woolly mammoth burger…
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  • Too many Voicemails, too much Clickbait (Unwind Media; April 22-29)

    Too many Voicemails, too much Clickbait (Unwind Media; April 22-29)

    Guys, this is serious. Whoever is calling me, please stop. I am getting so many calls since I posted my new voicemail message that it can’t be a coincidence. Some fairly big news coming up soon on Unwind Media, so stay tuned.

    This week on the podcast, we spoke to Darren Shackleton, President of the Ottawa chapter of the Canadian Association of Food Service Professionals. We had…
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    In this episode, we discuss Google’s new mobile network, Google Fi, the possible “cure” for asthma, and decide whether buying a field Roomba (aka a tractor)…
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  • Voicemail, Feedback, Future Chat and Ottawhat? (April 15-21)

    Voicemail, Feedback, Future Chat and Ottawhat? (April 15-21)

    Lots going on at Unwind Media this week! I also finally closed down robattrell.com and moved that site over to this blog (which means that I now get a bunch of spam traffic here :(.

    I also FINALLY updated my voicemail message, which I also put online for your listening pleasure. In case it wasn’t obvious from the message, I don’t like voicemail very much.

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    This month on Feedback, we discuss the good and bad kinds of music hipster, how bands can successfully or unsuccessfully change their sound over time, and…

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    In this episode, we sat down with Drew McFadyen from Grimprov Ottawa, a local long-form improvisational comedy troupe. We learned about the various ways i…
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    This week on Future Chat, we were joined by a special guest, Christopher Johnson! We talked about the Apple Watch try-ons and Apple Pay, NASA and SpaceX, and the intersection of politics and new media.
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  • Listening Party Volume #6 – Kal Penn on the Nerdist Podcast

    Listening Party Volume #6 – Kal Penn on the Nerdist Podcast

    The Nerdist Podcast

    For the last year or so, I’ve had the Nerdist Podcast in my player. They do 2-3 podcasts a week with comedians, entertainers and cool Bills like Bill Nye and Bill Gates. If I know the person they’re talking to, I’ll listen to the show.

    This week, Kal Penn (of Harold and Kumar and House M.D. fame) was on the show. He’s an incredible guy and he left House in its heyday to go work for the Obama campaign. They talk about a lot of cool stuff and I found the whole thing very interesting, including a conversation about old-school, racist aspects of Hollywood that genuinely shocked me. You should listen!

    The episode in question is currently the 3rd newest, from March 27th: Kal Penn on the Nerdist Podcast.

    The Nerdist Podcast on iTunes

  • This Week in Unwind Media (March 2-9)

    This Week in Unwind Media (March 2-9)

    This week on Unwind Media, we bring Season 1 of Future Chat to a close. The show will start back up with Season 2 in April, see you then! Thanks for listening and look forward to some big news stuff in the coming months!

    I don’t think posting EVERY thing I do on this blog and on its own site, so I’m going to give the “synopsis” type post a shot for a while. Let me know if you think this is a good idea, or if you think it’s a mistake. I’m all for the feedback!

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    This week, daylight savings woes, Nick’s massive Canadian Election blog oeuvre, and faux punditry among the Conservative elite. Should Alberta collect sales tax? We think so!
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    This week, we sat down with comedian Colin Giles, who has been contributing to our Classic Ottawa segment for the last few weeks. He’s part of two improv troupes, EFT Improv and Hall of Justice, and has also been putting his energy into writing comedy.
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    In this episode, we discuss Canadian Open Source science research, updates to nuclear fusion, and dwarf planets. And much, much more!
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  • East Meets West #4 – I’ll Edit This Out

    East Meets West #4 – I’ll Edit This Out

    This week, we discuss the societal implications of the recent supreme court ruling on physician assisted suicide, discuss CSIS and the new terrorism laws, and finally wonder to ourselves how Target…