512 Pixels

Well, this is amazing.

via The Loop

Our three-year old has been having nightmares about sharks.

While that’s a little crazy as we live in land-locked Tennessee, she’s woken up a dozen times over the last few months saying the same thing.

The other night, she started crying after going to bed. After calming her down, I went to check on our son.

“Why is Allison sad,” Josiah asked me.

I explained that his sister had a bad dream, and he settled back under his covers.

Tonight, after we brushed our teeth, the kids were about ready to hop in bed, when Josiah stopped to give Allison a hug.

“Have sweet dreams tonight, okay? Don’t be scared.”

It was about the sweetest thing I’ve heard from my kids in a while, and they generally get along very well.

While the interaction warmed my heart, it really hit home tonight.

Yesterday, Josiah went in for an EEG to help measure his seizure activity. Early last month, he had one so bad, we had to call the paramedics. He’s been on anti-seizure medication for years, but over the last few weeks, he’s had numerous small ones — they manifest as small headaches and a nap — despite his doctors increasing his medicine several times.

While this is worrisome, I really didn’t get worked up until his next check-up MRI was moved up from Thanksgiving to a week from now.

Since being on chemotherapy, Josiah’s brain tumor has been classified as “stable.” Even though he’s been off treatment for over three years, he still receives regular MRIs. This is the first time one has been moved off-schedule.

It’s possible that next Wednesday night, my wife and I get a call that everything looks fine ¹ with the tumor, and that the doctors will continue to monitor Josiah’s medication levels.

The alternative — and I can’t think of a third — is that Josiah’s tumor is active again. That could mean a million things, but none of them are good.

The thought of going back on treatment, sleeping on hospital couches and watching my son’s hair fall out again keeps me from sleeping. Thinking about doing this again with a second child is numbing.

We have a refrigerator covered with pictures of kids who haven’t made it and it haunts me.

Of course, until next week, we don’t know what the future holds. Until then, I’m trying to keep my imagination under control, pushing the nightmares out.

The Beard has spoken; prepare your credit card.

Chris Gonzales:

If there’s one takeaway from my experience with Pocket Casts 4, it’s that the developers have put an enormous amount of work into overhauling the experience. What I used to think was a crummy app has made a surprising comeback and overtaken Instacast for the top spot in its field, which is exactly the sort of thing that makes the iOS App Store such an exciting place to watch.

If you haven’t checked out the new app, you really should. It’s been on my home screen since the day it launched.

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There’s a lot more to the newest iMacs than meets the eye.

T.C. Sottek at The Verge:

Fox News has just unveiled a breathtakingly ridiculous newsroom, complete with novelty-sized Windows-based touchscreens, a Twitter wall, and a wannabe Minority Report style display, which it hopes will connect it with generations of viewers who use smartphones and apps.

You can Shepard Smith give a tour of the Fox News Deck here, if you’re so inclined. Spoiler alert: 55-inch touchscreen monitors are crazy town.

Timothy Egan:

Sarah Palin finally got her death panels — a direct blow from the Republican House. In shutting down the government, leaving 800,000 people without a paycheck and draining the economy of $300 million a day, the Party of Madness also took away last-chance cancer trials for children at the National Institutes of Health.

And now that the pain that was dismissed as a trifle on Monday, a “slimdown” according to the chuckleheads at Fox News, is revealed as tragic by mid-week, the very radicals who caused the havoc are trying to say it’s not their fault.

Non-crazy Republicans should be ashamed of their party.

Congress did look at the matter, along with federal park funds, as Pete Kasperowicz writes:

The House easily passed the parks resolution, H.J.Res. 70, in a 252-173 vote — the measure was supported by 23 Democrats and opposed by one Republican.

Along the way to passing the resolution funding the NIH, H.J.Res. 73, Republicans criticized Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) for dismissing the idea of funding programs that help sick children. When asked if he would support NIH funding to help even one child with cancer, Reid said, “Why would we want to do that?”

Sadly, it wasn’t nearly as cut and dry as some would wish:

Most Democrats opposed this bill as well and said it amounts to playing needy groups off each other.

“Every day, the Republican leadership tries to find a new way to pit one desperate group of Americans against another,” said Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.). “Today Republicans are pitting kids with cancer against kids who are hungry because of the shutdown.”

While the bill was passed by the House, Democrats should be ashamed, too, as it hasn’t been passed by the Senate, thanks to Harry Reid.

Kids with cancer shouldn’t be political pawns, and their families shouldn’t be jerked around by the federal government.

This is a guest post from Myke Hurley, the podcaster at 5by5 with the British accent.

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Over the last three and a half years, I have grown from hobbyist to semi-professional podcaster.

Most podcasters produce their shows in their spare time; there are very few podcasters who are currently making a passable living from this. However, this is changing. More money than ever is available to podcasters with popular shows.

Personally, I expect to be making enough money within the next year to be able to do this full time and leave my job.

Of course, podcasting as a craft is still growing and changing, but it is becoming a more viable business for people if they are willing to take the time to build an audience.

Audience building is a dark art. I cannot point to one thing specifically that will help you grow an audience for your show. For me, it has been a combination of hard work, sticking to a schedule, working with smart people and the kindness of others. None of this is new information or a magic formula, but it’s what has got me to this point.

Over the past week there has been a lot of talk about what makes a good podcast and a few friends of mine have launched a new project which defies the norms of what a traditional podcast actually is.

These events have prompted me to take some time to share some of my thoughts about podcasting.

Podcasts are a production. You need equipment, editing skills and something to say.

You do need all of these things, but the levels of each can and will differ from show to show. Some podcasts sound great, but the content doesn’t match the production, others have amazing content but lack quality audio. As podcasting is a hobby for practically everyone that does it and time is always a limiting factor, it isn’t all that surprising.

My first shows were terrible. I was using a Logitech headset mic, had absolutely no idea what I was saying and my editing skills were extremely lacking (to say the least). But I worked at it. I practiced and learned what I needed, listened to the feedback of my tiny audience and worked on making everything better.

To this day I still struggle with all of these things. Sometimes internet connections fail and Skype chews up the show, making my guests sound like they are in a tin can. Sometimes I edit something poorly and don’t correctly align tracks. Sometimes life gets in the way and I fail to outline topics as well as I should.

But this is the nature of the beast. This is reality for 99% of podcasts out there today. But for now, this is the medium we have; it’s a bunch of guys and gals trying their best to cobble something together that they are proud of. Independent podcasters work their hardest and open themselves up every week to be judged by their audiences, the same as all content creators do.

Recently, I attended the XOXO festival in Portland. A running theme of the conference was how terrifying it can be to release something you’ve been working on into the world.

For us podcasters, we do this on a weekly — sometimes daily — basis. We release something and the comments come in via email, Twitter and more. This feedback provides us with the judgment we need, but also they help guide the show. If our listeners agree with us, they tell us; if they think we are wrong, they tell us why.

This phenomenon is unique to podcasting. Radio and TV do not have this type of audience participation. Listeners are intrinsic to the process.

Podcast listeners feel involved in the process of creating the show with us. We receive follow up and ideas for topics. We are in their ears every week, sharing the thoughts and ideas that they have and can relate to.

This listener interaction is what makes our medium totally unique. No other entertainment medium is this linked to its audience. They rely on us to entertain; we rely on them to listen to the episodes, help us craft our shows and support us either directly or by checking out our sponsors.

Podcasting is still in its infancy, but is quickly moving towards teenage years. Gatekeepers are arriving, networks are growing, apps are being built, more sponsors are coming on board and listenership is growing.

A collection of my friends have just launched a project called the Unrecorded Podcast. I love these people dearly; I work with two of them on their other podcast projects. These guys are a collective of smart and creative guys and I can see that they are trying to push the envelope a little, but I feel they have missed the base with what they are making.

They are getting together to do a weekly show, but not release the audio, just the show notes.

People love podcasts because of the conversation. They hear how it flows from start to end and the show notes of an episode either add context to the discussion or allow someone to follow along. You will lose a lot without this and just be delivering a list of links to someone.

I don’t think I fully get this the way they do, but they are smart people that believe they are on to something different.

But Unrecorded is a podcast with the soul ripped out.

In a way I find it wrong to refer to this as a “podcast”, this is not what I work to create. It’s a project and a thing all of its own, it’s not what traditional podcasters do.

However, this project demonstrates to me is that people are trying to evolve the medium, which is an extremely positive thing. It’s something that I think about a lot.

So, what’s next for podcasting? I definitely do not have the answer for that, but I know I am going to find it eventually.

If you want to start a podcast, then you should just go ahead and do it. Don’t listen to people who tell you it ‘must be under an hour long’ or it ‘shouldn’t be about tech news’. Make the show you want to make and figure it out along the way. If you lack amazing editing skills (like I do), then just practice. Start with something raw and refine over time, you’ll learn what the bare minimum is that you need. ¹

What is podcasting? It’s an incredible, growing entertainment medium. The best days of the medium are yet to come. There are exciting things on the horizon.

Shame on you, Milford Haven School.

Richard Padilla at MacRumors:

Atlanta resident and veteran voice actress Susan Bennett has claimed in an interview with CNN that she is original voice of Siri, Apple’s popular iOS voice assistant that was first introduced with the iPhone 4s two years ago today. While Apple has not confirmed the information, the report states that professionals within the technology industry are familiar with her voice, and cites an audio forensics expert with 30 years of experience who is certain that Bennett’s voice and the voice of Apple’s digital personal assistant are the same.

Last month, The Verge published a feature on Siri that gave Allison Dufty credit for being Siri. The Verge has run a slight correction.

Meanwhile, Dufty has added this to her homepage:

Allison Dufty is an award-winning writer, producer and voiceover artist AND is absolutely, positively NOT the voice of Siri, a case of mistaken identity that has by now gone around the world of the internet and back again-and yet is still wrong!

I’m changing my “About Me” page to address this ridiculous mistake that won’t end.

Of course, with iOS 7, Siri’s voice has been updated, hopefully leaving behind this craziness.

Apple:

We’re pleased to announce that Mac apps will soon be eligible to participate in the Volume Purchase Program for Business and Education. The Volume Purchase Program allows businesses or educational institutions to purchase multiple copies of your app at once.

You may also offer a discount to educational institutions for multiple purchases. If you choose to offer a volume discount for an app, institutions that purchase 20 or more copies of that app in a single order will receive a 50-percent discount.

In recent years, Apple has paid a lot more attention to iOS education customers, leaving schools heavily invested in the Mac behind. With this move, the Mac App Store will become a lot more useful to schools, but it’s ridiculous it took them so long. My guess is the number of indie, paid apps used in school labs and 1-1 programs is about to skyrocket.