Walter Gajewski http://www.csulb.edu/lats/itss/design/techtip.html A series of short podcasts offering technical tips from CSULB. A series of short podcasts that will help you cope with everyday technology. These mp3 audio and pdf text files will offer asistance with computer applications and digital media as well as helping to locate sources of technical information. These podcasts were authored by Walter Gajewski. You can contact me at CSULB with comments, ideas, suggestion for future episodes at gajewski@csulb.edu en-us © 2007 Walter Gajewski Walter Gajewski gajewski@csulb.edu Walter Gajewski Episode One: Welcome to Walter Gajewski's Tech Tips Channel A series of short podcasts that will help you cope with everyday technology. These mp3 audio and pdf text files will offer asistance with computer applications and digital media as well as helping to locate sources of technical information. These podcasts were authored by Walter Gajewski. You can contact me with comments, ideas, suggestion for future episodes at gajewski@csulb.edu http://csulb.edu/lats/itss/design/xml-files/tech-tips-episode-one.mp3 Mon, 19 Mar 2007 15:04:00 PDT 2:24 education, how-to, tutorial, technology Walter Gajewski Transcript of Episode One: Welcome to Walter Gajewski's Tech Tips Channel A series of short podcasts that will help you cope with everyday technology. These mp3 audio and pdf text files will offer asistance with computer applications and digital media as well as helping to locate sources of technical information. These podcasts were authored by Walter Gajewski. You can contact me with comments, ideas, suggestion for future episodes at gajewski@csulb.edu http://csulb.edu/lats/itss/design/xml-files/Transcript-episode-001.pdf Mon, 19 Mar 2007 15:04:00 PDT education, how-to, tutorial, technology Walter Gajewski Episode Two: Hwo to print to an online document when no printer is available. A series of short podcasts that will help you cope with everyday technology. These mp3 audio and pdf text files will offer asistance with computer applications and digital media as well as helping to locate sources of technical information. These podcasts were authored by Walter Gajewski. You can contact me with comments, ideas, suggestion for future episodes at gajewski@csulb.edu http://csulb.edu/lats/itss/design/xml-files/tech-tips-episode-two.mp3 Tue, 20 Mar 2007 17:04:00 PDT 4:00 education, how-to, tutorial, technology Walter Gajewski Transcript of Episode Two: Hwo to print to an online document when no printer is available. A series of short podcasts that will help you cope with everyday technology. These mp3 audio and pdf text files will offer asistance with computer applications and digital media as well as helping to locate sources of technical information. These podcasts were authored by Walter Gajewski. You can contact me with comments, ideas, suggestion for future episodes at gajewski@csulb.edu http://csulb.edu/lats/itss/design/xml-files/transcript-episode-002.pdf Tue, 20 Mar 2007 17:04:00 PDT education, how-to, tutorial, technology Walter Gajewski New York Times Select is now available free to university students and faculty members. A series of short podcasts that will help you cope with everyday technology. These mp3 audio and pdf text files will offer asistance with computer applications and digital media as well as helping to locate sources of technical information. These podcasts were authored by Walter Gajewski. You can contact me with comments, ideas, suggestion for future episodes at gajewski@csulb.edu http://csulb.edu/lats/itss/design/xml-files/tech-tips-episode-three.mp3 Wed, 21 Mar 2007 12:04:00 PDT 3:13 education, how-to, tutorial, technology, New York Times Walter Gajewski New York Times Select is now available free to university students and faculty members. A series of short podcasts that will help you cope with everyday technology. These mp3 audio and pdf text files will offer asistance with computer applications and digital media as well as helping to locate sources of technical information. These podcasts were authored by Walter Gajewski. You can contact me with comments, ideas, suggestion for future episodes at gajewski@csulb.edu http://csulb.edu/lats/itss/design/xml-files/transcript-episode-003.pdf Wed, 21 Mar 2007 12:04:00 PDT education, how-to, tutorial, technology, New York times Walter Gajewski Picasa is software for the PC that is similar to iPhoto on the Apple Mac. It will move pictures from camera to compouter and help with organizing, adjusting, printing, publishing and emailing photos. A series of short podcasts that will help you cope with everyday technology. These mp3 audio and pdf text files will offer asistance with computer applications and digital media as well as helping to locate sources of technical information. These podcasts were authored by Walter Gajewski. You can contact me with comments, ideas, suggestion for future episodes at gajewski@csulb.edu http://csulb.edu/lats/itss/design/xml-files/episode-004.mp3 Fri, 06 Apr 2007 08:46:00 PDT 6:13 education, how-to, tutorial, technology, digital photos, Picasa, computer Walter Gajewski Picasa is software for the PC that is similar to iPhoto on the Apple Mac. It will move pictures from camera to compouter and help with organizing, adjusting, printing, publishing and emailing photos. A series of short podcasts that will help you cope with everyday technology. These mp3 audio and pdf text files will offer asistance with computer applications and digital media as well as helping to locate sources of technical information. These podcasts were authored by Walter Gajewski. You can contact me with comments, ideas, suggestion for future episodes at gajewski@csulb.edu http://csulb.edu/lats/itss/design/xml-files/episode-004.pdf Fri, 06 Apr 2007 08:47:00 PDT education, how-to, tutorial, technology, digital photos, computer, Picasa Walter Gajewski Audacity is free software for PCs and Macs. It is a full blown audio workstation that will allow you to record, process and edit digital audio on your computer. A series of short podcasts that will help you cope with everyday technology. These mp3 audio and pdf text files will offer asistance with computer applications and digital media as well as helping to locate sources of technical information. These podcasts were authored by Walter Gajewski. You can contact me with comments, ideas, suggestion for future episodes at gajewski@csulb.edu http://csulb.edu/lats/itss/design/xml-files/episode-005.mp3 Tue, 17 Apr 2007 10:32:00 PDT 6:26 education, how-to, tutorial, technology, digital audio, Audacity, computer Walter Gajewski Audacity is free software for PCs and Macs. It is a full blown audio workstation that will allow you to record, process and edit digital audio on your computer. A series of short podcasts that will help you cope with everyday technology. These mp3 audio and pdf text files will offer asistance with computer applications and digital media as well as helping to locate sources of technical information. These podcasts were authored by Walter Gajewski. You can contact me with comments, ideas, suggestion for future episodes at gajewski@csulb.edu http://csulb.edu/lats/itss/design/xml-files/episode-005.pdf Tue, 17 Apr 2007 10:32:00 PDT education, how-to, tutorial, technology, digital audio, Audacity, computer Walter Gajewski iTunes is no longer the only way to dubscribe to a podcast. Today's episode brings you up to date on several new ways to subscribe. A series of short podcasts that will help you cope with everyday technology. These mp3 audio and pdf text files will offer asistance with computer applications and digital media as well as helping to locate sources of technical information. These podcasts were authored by Walter Gajewski. You can contact me with comments, ideas, suggestion for future episodes at gajewski@csulb.edu http://csulb.edu/lats/itss/design/xml-files/episode-006.mp3 Thu, 03 May 2007 10:42:00 PDT 7:15 education, how-to, tutorial, technology, podcasts, subscribe, computer Walter Gajewski iTunes is no longer the only way to subscribe to a podcast. Today's episode brings you up to date on several new ways to subscribe. A series of short podcasts that will help you cope with everyday technology. These mp3 audio and pdf text files will offer asistance with computer applications and digital media as well as helping to locate sources of technical information. These podcasts were authored by Walter Gajewski. You can contact me with comments, ideas, suggestion for future episodes at gajewski@csulb.edu http://csulb.edu/lats/itss/design/xml-files/episode-006.pdf Thu, 03 May 2007 10:41:00 PDT education, how-to, tutorial, technology, podcasts, subscribe, computer Walter Gajewski Use the free iTunes software to convert an audio file from the Windows Media (WMA) format to an MP3 audio file. A series of short podcasts that will help you cope with everyday technology. These mp3 audio and pdf text files will offer asistance with computer applications and digital media as well as helping to locate sources of technical information. These podcasts were authored by Walter Gajewski. You can contact me with comments, ideas, suggestion for future episodes at gajewski@csulb.edu http://csulb.edu/lats/itss/design/xml-files/episode-007.mp3 Mon, 14 May 2007 15:24:00 PDT 3:15 education, how-to, tutorial, technology, MP3, convert, computer, Windows Media, audio Walter Gajewski Use the free iTunes software to convert an audio file from the Windows Media (WMA) format to an MP3 audio file. A series of short podcasts that will help you cope with everyday technology. These mp3 audio and pdf text files will offer asistance with computer applications and digital media as well as helping to locate sources of technical information. These podcasts were authored by Walter Gajewski. You can contact me with comments, ideas, suggestion for future episodes at gajewski@csulb.edu http://csulb.edu/lats/itss/design/xml-files/episode-007.pdf Mon, 14 May 2007 14:24:00 PDT education, how-to, tutorial, technology, MP3, convert, computer, Windows Media, audio Walter Gajewski Use the Retrevo search engine to get directly to the user manual of a consumer electronic device. A series of short podcasts that will help you cope with everyday technology. These mp3 audio and pdf text files will offer asistance with computer applications and digital media as well as helping to locate sources of technical information. These podcasts were authored by Walter Gajewski. You can contact me with comments, ideas, suggestion for future episodes at gajewski@csulb.edu http://csulb.edu/lats/itss/design/xml-files/episode-008.mp3 Tue, 15 May 2007 16:30:00 PDT 4:12 education, how-to, tutorial, technology, search, computer, user manual Walter Gajewski Use the Retrevo search engine to get directly to the user manual of a consumer electronic device. A series of short podcasts that will help you cope with everyday technology. These mp3 audio and pdf text files will offer asistance with computer applications and digital media as well as helping to locate sources of technical information. These podcasts were authored by Walter Gajewski. You can contact me with comments, ideas, suggestion for future episodes at gajewski@csulb.edu http://csulb.edu/lats/itss/design/xml-files/episode-008.pdf Tue, 15 May 2007 16:00:00 PDT education, how-to, tutorial, technology, search, computer, user manual Walter Gajewski When sending email to a long list of recipients, avoid the problem of each recipient viewing your entire list. A series of short podcasts that will help you cope with everyday technology. These mp3 audio and pdf text files will offer asistance with computer applications and digital media as well as helping to locate sources of technical information. These podcasts were authored by Walter Gajewski. You can contact me with comments, ideas, suggestion for future episodes at gajewski@csulb.edu http://csulb.edu/lats/itss/design/xml-files/episode-009.mp3 Tue, 29 May 2007 15:21:00 PDT 2:19 education, how-to, tutorial, technology, email, BCC, email address Walter Gajewski When sending email to a long list of recipients, avoid the problem of each recipient viewing your entire list. A series of short podcasts that will help you cope with everyday technology. These mp3 audio and pdf text files will offer asistance with computer applications and digital media as well as helping to locate sources of technical information. These podcasts were authored by Walter Gajewski. You can contact me with comments, ideas, suggestion for future episodes at gajewski@csulb.edu http://csulb.edu/lats/itss/design/xml-files/episode-009.pdf Tue, 29 May 2007 15:20:00 PDT education, how-to, tutorial, technology, email, BCC, email address Walter Gajewski You can create your won iPod movies on a PC using Windows Movie Maker and the Videora iPod Converter. A series of short podcasts that will help you cope with everyday technology. These mp3 audio and pdf text files will offer asistance with computer applications and digital media as well as helping to locate sources of technical information. These podcasts were authored by Walter Gajewski. You can contact me with comments, ideas, suggestion for future episodes at gajewski@csulb.edu http://csulb.edu/lats/itss/design/xml-files/episode-010.mp3 Thu, 07 Jun 2007 09:13:00 PDT 8:05 education, how-to, tutorial, CSULB, California State University, Long Beach, iPod, video, free software, movie maker, Walter Gajewski Walter Gajewski You can create your won iPod movies on a PC using Windows Movie Maker and the Videora iPod Converter. A series of short podcasts that will help you cope with everyday technology. These mp3 audio and pdf text files will offer asistance with computer applications and digital media as well as helping to locate sources of technical information. These podcasts were authored by Walter Gajewski. You can contact me with comments, ideas, suggestion for future episodes at gajewski@csulb.edu http://csulb.edu/lats/itss/design/xml-files/episode-010.pdf Thu, 07 Jun 2007 09:11:00 PDT education, how-to, tutorial, CSULB, California State University, Long Beach, iPod, video, free software, movie maker, Walter Gajewski Walter Gajewski This episode explores News Alerts, RSS Feeds, Podcasts and Radio shows that will keep you informed. A series of short podcasts that will help you cope with everyday technology. These mp3 audio and pdf text files will offer asistance with computer applications and digital media as well as helping to locate sources of technical information. These podcasts were authored by Walter Gajewski. You can contact me with comments, ideas, suggestion for future episodes at gajewski@csulb.edu http://csulb.edu/lats/itss/design/xml-files/episode-011.mp3 Thu, 12 Jul 2007 10:07:00 PDT 5:50 education, how-to, tutorial, CSULB, California State University, Long Beach, iPod, RSS feeds, news alerts, google, Walter Gajewski Walter Gajewski This episode explores News Alerts, RSS Feeds, Podcasts and Radio shows that will keep you informed. A series of short podcasts that will help you cope with everyday technology. These mp3 audio and pdf text files will offer asistance with computer applications and digital media as well as helping to locate sources of technical information. These podcasts were authored by Walter Gajewski. You can contact me with comments, ideas, suggestion for future episodes at gajewski@csulb.edu http://csulb.edu/lats/itss/design/xml-files/episode-011.pdf Thu, 12 Jul 2007 10:06:00 PDT education, how-to, tutorial, CSULB, California State University, Long Beach, iPod, RSS feeds, news alerts, google, Walter Gajewski Walter Gajewski This episode explains how to pull the hard drive from a broken desktop or laptop computer and place it in an enclusre to use it as an external drive with your new computer. Welcome to episode twelve of Tech Tips from California State University, Long Beach. Today's topic covers removing the hard drive from an unrepairable computer and turning it into an external hard drive to be used with your new computer. When my laptop died, I was concerned that I might never be able to retrieve files off the computer's hard drive. At the same time, I was hoping to avoid the astronomical costs that would be involved with repairing that obsolete computer. The repair tech suggested an elegant solution. He determined that the hard drive itself was probably working properly, it was only that the computer's Central Processing Unit (CPU) was malfunctioning and could no longer communicate with the hard drive. He suggested I purchase a "hard drive enclosure" that would allow me to use the old hard drive as an external storage device with my new laptop. That would allow me to access my old files and to use the drive for storing additional files. I followed his instructions and it worked like a charm. Here's what's involved. Hard drive enclosures are sold at many consumer electronics stores. They can be purchased in one of two sizes, 2.5 inch (for laptop hard drives) or 3.5 inch for hard drives that come out of desktop computers. The cost ranges from 40 to 60 dollars. This might sound like a lot of money for something that simply encloses your hard drive but this cost covers the included electronics that operate the hard drive and allow it to communicate with your new computer though a USB port. After purchasing an enclosure, you will have to remove the hard drive from your old computer. This is pretty straight forward for most laptops. The compartment that houses the hard drive is usually accessible from the bottom of the laptop. Usually, a couple of screws hold down the cover to the hard drive compartment. Once you remove that cover, you should have no problem gently sliding the hard drive back to separate it from its connector. What you remove from underneath the laptop is usually the hard drive encased in a metal bracket. If the hard drive looks like it wouldn't fit into the newly purchased enclosure, it most likely still has the old bracket attached. Detach the bracket from the hard drive by removing several small screws. After removing the bracket, slip the hard drive into your new hard drive enclosure. Instructions for doing this should be included with the enclosure. Now you can connect the enclosed hard drive to your new computer with a standard USB cable. Some drives require a special USB Y-cable that should have been included in the hard drive enclosure kit. Working with an old desktop computer is similar. However, make sure you get a hard drive enclosure designed for a 3.5 inch drive. Also, getting the drive out of your old computer is a bit more involved. Instructions on opening your computer can usually be found in the owner's manual. Check with the manufacturer or search for the computer's manual by using the Retrevo search engine at: http://www.retrevo.com. Thanks for listening. This is Walter Gajewski for Tech Tips. http://csulb.edu/lats/itss/design/xml-files/012.mp3 Thu, 15 Nov 2007 13:00:00 PDT 3:38 education, how-to, tutorial, CSULB, California State University Long Beach, hard drive, CSU Long Beach, Walter Gajewski Walter Gajewski This episode explains how to pull the hard drive from a broken desktop or laptop computer and place it in an enclusre to use it as an external drive with your new computer. Welcome to episode twelve of Tech Tips from California State University, Long Beach. Today's topic covers removing the hard drive from an unrepairable computer and turning it into an external hard drive to be used with your new computer. When my laptop died, I was concerned that I might never be able to retrieve files off the computer's hard drive. At the same time, I was hoping to avoid the astronomical costs that would be involved with repairing that obsolete computer. The repair tech suggested an elegant solution. He determined that the hard drive itself was probably working properly, it was only that the computer's Central Processing Unit (CPU) was malfunctioning and could no longer communicate with the hard drive. He suggested I purchase a "hard drive enclosure" that would allow me to use the old hard drive as an external storage device with my new laptop. That would allow me to access my old files and to use the drive for storing additional files. I followed his instructions and it worked like a charm. Here's what's involved. Hard drive enclosures are sold at many consumer electronics stores. They can be purchased in one of two sizes, 2.5 inch (for laptop hard drives) or 3.5 inch for hard drives that come out of desktop computers. The cost ranges from 40 to 60 dollars. This might sound like a lot of money for something that simply encloses your hard drive but this cost covers the included electronics that operate the hard drive and allow it to communicate with your new computer though a USB port. After purchasing an enclosure, you will have to remove the hard drive from your old computer. This is pretty straight forward for most laptops. The compartment that houses the hard drive is usually accessible from the bottom of the laptop. Usually, a couple of screws hold down the cover to the hard drive compartment. Once you remove that cover, you should have no problem gently sliding the hard drive back to separate it from its connector. What you remove from underneath the laptop is usually the hard drive encased in a metal bracket. If the hard drive looks like it wouldn't fit into the newly purchased enclosure, it most likely still has the old bracket attached. Detach the bracket from the hard drive by removing several small screws. After removing the bracket, slip the hard drive into your new hard drive enclosure. Instructions for doing this should be included with the enclosure. Now you can connect the enclosed hard drive to your new computer with a standard USB cable. Some drives require a special USB Y-cable that should have been included in the hard drive enclosure kit. Working with an old desktop computer is similar. However, make sure you get a hard drive enclosure designed for a 3.5 inch drive. Also, getting the drive out of your old computer is a bit more involved. Instructions on opening your computer can usually be found in the owner's manual. Check with the manufacturer or search for the computer's manual by using the Retrevo search engine at: http://www.retrevo.com. Thanks for listening. This is Walter Gajewski for Tech Tips. http://csulb.edu/lats/itss/design/xml-files/012.pdf Thu, 15 Nov 2007 12:58:00 PDT education, how-to, tutorial, CSULB, California State University Long Beach, hard drive, CSU Long Beach, Walter Gajewski Walter Gajewski Use free applications running on your PC to record and publish your own podcast. (part one) Welcome to episode thirteen of Tech tips from the California State University, Long Beach. I'm Walter Gajewski and today I'll be talking about creating and publishing your own audio podcast, using free applications running on your PC. A podcast consists of a minimum of three files. There is one small text file that makes the whole thing work. That's the XML file and I'll talk about the XML file in detail in the next episode. Today, I'll talk about the two files that make up each individual podcast episode. These are an audio file in MP3 format, and the transcript of your narration as a PDF text file. Start by typing up your narration script. Do this with your favorite word processor. Most of you will probably be using Microsoft Word. Once you have a nice tight script, save it as a PDF file. Some versions of Word will let you save your document directly as a PDF file. Other versions of Word will convert your document to a PDF file if you select PRINT from the FILE menu and then choose Adobe PDF from the dropdown list of available printers. Or, if you have the professional version of Adobe Acrobat, you can use it to convert files into the PDF format. For my word processor, I use the free word processor called OpenOffice Writer which allows me to export my documents as PDF files. You can download OpenOffice Writer from www.openoffice.org. There are several flavors of PDF files. If you have a choice, save your text file as a tagged PDF. Now that you've got a script to read, record your voice narration and save the recording as an MP3 audio file. One of the best ways to do this is with the free audio recording software, Audacity. Instructions for downloading and using Audacity are included in episode five of this Tech Tips podcast. After recording the MP3 file, the next step is to move the MP3 and PDF files out to your account on a web server. You could do this with Adobe Dreamweaver or any program used for publishing web pages. If you don't have web authoring software, you can use any number of free FTP applications. FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. The latest version of Internet Explorer comes with built in FTP functions. You need to know the name of the FTP server used with your web system. Ordinarily this information is available from the administrator of the web server. On our campus the FTP server is called ftp.csulb.edu. When you're ready to move files from your computer to your web server, enter ftp:// up at the top of Internet Explorer and then follow that by the name of the FTP server. In my case, the whole entry would be ftp://ftp.csulb.edu. After I enter my user ID and password, I can drag files from any of my computer's folders into the web folder on the campus web server. You should be able to do the same with your web account. Now that you know where your MP3 and PDF files are located, you're ready to make the XML file I mentioned earlier. However, instructions of how to write the XML file will have to wait for episode fourteen. This has been Tech Tips from CSU Long Beach. I'm Walter Gajewski. Thanks for listening. http://csulb.edu/lats/itss/design/xml-files/episode-13.mp3 Sat, 8 Dec 2007 13:00:00 PDT 4:29 education, how-to, tutorial, CSULB, California State University Long Beach, podcast, CSU Long Beach, Walter Gajewski Walter Gajewski Use free applications running on your PC to record and publish your own podcast. (part one) Welcome to episode thirteen of Tech tips from the California State University, Long Beach. I'm Walter Gajewski and today I'll be talking about creating and publishing your own audio podcast, using free applications running on your PC. A podcast consists of a minimum of three files. There is one small text file that makes the whole thing work. That's the XML file and I'll talk about the XML file in detail in the next episode. Today, I'll talk about the two files that make up each individual podcast episode. These are an audio file in MP3 format, and the transcript of your narration as a PDF text file. Start by typing up your narration script. Do this with your favorite word processor. Most of you will probably be using Microsoft Word. Once you have a nice tight script, save it as a PDF file. Some versions of Word will let you save your document directly as a PDF file. Other versions of Word will convert your document to a PDF file if you select PRINT from the FILE menu and then choose Adobe PDF from the dropdown list of available printers. Or, if you have the professional version of Adobe Acrobat, you can use it to convert files into the PDF format. For my word processor, I use the free word processor called OpenOffice Writer which allows me to export my documents as PDF files. You can download OpenOffice Writer from www.openoffice.org. There are several flavors of PDF files. If you have a choice, save your text file as a tagged PDF. Now that you've got a script to read, record your voice narration and save the recording as an MP3 audio file. One of the best ways to do this is with the free audio recording software, Audacity. Instructions for downloading and using Audacity are included in episode five of this Tech Tips podcast. After recording the MP3 file, the next step is to move the MP3 and PDF files out to your account on a web server. You could do this with Adobe Dreamweaver or any program used for publishing web pages. If you don't have web authoring software, you can use any number of free FTP applications. FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. The latest version of Internet Explorer comes with built in FTP functions. You need to know the name of the FTP server used with your web system. Ordinarily this information is available from the administrator of the web server. On our campus the FTP server is called ftp.csulb.edu. When you're ready to move files from your computer to your web server, enter ftp:// up at the top of Internet Explorer and then follow that by the name of the FTP server. In my case, the whole entry would be ftp://ftp.csulb.edu. After I enter my user ID and password, I can drag files from any of my computer's folders into the web folder on the campus web server. You should be able to do the same with your web account. Now that you know where your MP3 and PDF files are located, you're ready to make the XML file I mentioned earlier. However, instructions of how to write the XML file will have to wait for episode fourteen. This has been Tech Tips from CSU Long Beach. I'm Walter Gajewski. Thanks for listening. http://csulb.edu/lats/itss/design/xml-files/episode-13.pdf Sat, 8 Dec 2007 12:58:00 PDT education, how-to, tutorial, CSULB, California State University Long Beach, podcast, CSU Long Beach, Walter Gajewski Walter Gajewski Use free applications running on your PC to record and publish your own podcast. (conclusion) It's time for episode 14 of Tech Tips from the California State University, Long Beach. I'm Walter Gajewski and today I present part two of Create Your Own Podcast. To get the most out of today's episode, make sure you're familiar with the material presented in episodes five and thirteen. Actually, if you were able to follow the instructions in episode 13 and you placed an audio file and a text file out on a web folder, you could make that material available to the world right now as links on a web page. In fact, to make your podcast episodes accessible to people who can't use the iTunes software, you should duplicate your podcast as a web page. You can see my web page version of this Tech Tips podcast at http://www.csulb.edu/lats/itss/design/techtip.html. The difference between the web page and an actual podcast is that with a podcast, listeners automatically receive the new episodes delivered to their computer as soon as they're published. To make your podcast something to which people can subscribe, you have to write an XML file. I've already written one for you. All you have to do is change a few lines to customize the file for your particular podcast. Start by going to the web page that has the text you need. It put it out at: http://www.csulb.edu/lats/itss/design/xml-files/xml-sample-file.html If you look at that page, most of it is a bunch of criptic gobbly gook. Don't let that scare you. The only words you have to replace are the lines printed in bold face type. To start, highlight all the text on the page. Actually, highlight all except the last line that reads Last Modified 12/7/07. Now that the text is highlighted you can copy the text to your computer's invisible clip board with a Control-C (hit the "C" key while holding down the control key). Next, you should launch a text editor. You can use a word processor, like Microsoft Word but it is easier to do this with NotePad, or better yet, with WordPad. Either of these can be launched from your PC's start menu. Click on START, then ALL PROGRAMS, then ACCESSORIES and finally WordPad. Now you can paste your text into the new, blank document. Click in the document and then do a Control-V (hit the letter "V" while holding down the control button. Now you have to save this file. Go to the top menu and select FILE, SAVE. When the dialog box opens, select a folder that will contain the file and make sure that you use the drop down menu to select the correct file type. You should Save as type TEXT DOCUMENT. For the file name use any simple single word without spaces or punctuation (except a hyphen) and I recommend avoiding upper case letters. Do not accept the default extension of TXT. The file must have the extension xml. So, the final file name would be something like podcast.xml or tech-tips.xml. Now you can replace all the text that originally appeared in bold face type. You'll have to refer back to the web page because your text editor will not retain any type face formatting. You will first replace the words "Put the title of your channel (podast) here." Replace that with the actual title of your podcast. The same is true of the next line that says "My Name" You'll notice that some bold face text on the web page is red in color, instead of black. This text also needs to be replaced but you have limited choices available for the replacement text. For the tag that says LINK, this should be the address of some web page you would like to bring to the attention of your listeners. In my case, I put the address of the web version of my podcast in this space. Note that you have to include the complete address, including the cumbersome http://. The iTunes subtitle can be just about anything that gives a bit more explanation of what your podcast is all about. The first time you see iTunes summary, that refers to a lengthier summary of what you are trying to provide to the subscribers of your podcast. Be careful of the copyright entry. The text you replace should consist of the current year as a four digit number followed by a space and then your name. The gobbly gook that precedes the year should remain as is. Once again, your name and email address are pretty straight forward. When you get down to the line that specifies the itunes:image href, note that you are going to put a web address inside of the quotation marks. This address should indicate the location of a JPEG image that is of 72 dpi resolution and be 300 by 300 pixels in size. Actually, some other size and resolution should work but iTunes prefers those specified dimensions. This address should be the location of the JPEG directly, not a web page that has the JPEG on it. The next two entries in red are an iTunes browse category and sub-category. These entries are limited to a select few special words. To see the approved list of categories and their approved subcategories, go to the website http://www.apple.com/itunes/store/podcaststechspecs.html and click on item number seven, iTunes Categories for Podcasting. You've taken care of all the text that describes your podcast channel and now you can enter the text that relates to the first episode of your podcast channel. The TITLE, AUTHOR, and SUBTITLE are pretty self explanatory. The iTunes summary can be a lengthy description of this particular episode or you can copy your entire transcript of the narration and paste it into this area. Whatever you provide as the iTunes summary here will show up on the screen of your listeners' video iPods. The enclosure URL is the location of the MP3 file you uploaded to the web space at the end of TechTips episode 13. Note that the URL goes inside quotation marks. To be sure you have the correct location address, first put it into the address area of your web browser. If you have the correct address, your browser will find the audio file and play it for you. The tag marked LENGTH is actually the file size of your MP3 file. This has to be a number entered without any punctuation. If you don't want to bother with this, it won't make any difference, just leave it as it is. If you do want to adjust this to match your particular file, find your file on your computer and right-click on it. Select PROPERTIES. You will see the files "size on disc" listed in bytes. Use that number but remember, no spaces, no commas. Going back to your XML file, the next entry is the GUID. This can be identical to the enclosure URL but notice that you are not using quote marks this time. The publication date MUST be in this exact format. The DURATION tag is the running time of your MP3 audio file in minutes and seconds. The iTunes keywords can be any search terms separated by commas. All the remaining entries are almost identical to those we used for the MP3 file except that now you should make reference to your PDF text file. Once again, if you want to make sure you have the correct URL address for this file, enter it into your web browser and the text should come up on your screen in the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Make the publish date of this PDF text file item a few minutes earlier than the date of the MP3 file. That's it. You have completed your XML file. Make sure you save it and make sure you remember where you saved it because every time you produce another episode, you will add information to this same file. In fact, you should see a notation near the bottom of this file that says "Place the next episode below." That is where you would recreate all the MP3 item information and all the PDF text item information that pertains to episode two of your podcast. You can copy and paste all the item one information and then modify it to reflect the details of episode two. However, make sure you leave the episode one information in place. In effect, as you add more and more episodes to your podcast, this XML file will get longer and longer. After you have saved your XML file, use FTP software to upload a copy of the file out to your web space. It will now reside in the same location as the previously uploaded MP3 and PDF files. That's it. You have a podcast. The address of that podcast is the URL location of the XML file you just uploaded. For example, my TechTips podcast address is: http://www.csulb.edu/lats/itss/design/xml-files/tech-tips.xml You can subscribe to it by using that address in the latest version of Internet Explorer or the latest Firefox web browser. If I want to subscribe using iTunes, launch iTunes. Click on iTUnes Store. Once you are connected to the Store, go to the top menu and select ADVANCED and then select "Subscribe to Podcast. . ." from the drop down menu choices. When the URL dialog box opens, enter the address for the podcast. To avoid typos, you should probably copy and past the address into that dialog box. Remember, the last part of the podcast URL will be your podcast XML file. Once you enter the podcast location in the iTunes URL dialog box, click on OK and iTunes will find and download your podcast, provided you are on the Internet at the time. Have fun podcasting and feel free to email me with any questions. You can reach me at walter.gajewski@gmail.com. For TechTips, I'm Walter Gajewski. That's it for now. http://csulb.edu/lats/itss/design/xml-files/episode-14.mp3 Tue, 11 Dec 2007 13:00:00 PDT 14:20 education, how-to, tutorial, CSULB, California State University Long Beach, podcast, CSU Long Beach, Walter Gajewski Walter Gajewski Use free applications running on your PC to record and publish your own podcast. (conclusion) It's time for episode 14 of Tech Tips from the California State University, Long Beach. I'm Walter Gajewski and today I present part two of Create Your Own Podcast. To get the most out of today's episode, make sure you're familiar with the material presented in episodes five and thirteen. Actually, if you were able to follow the instructions in episode 13 and you placed an audio file and a text file out on a web folder, you could make that material available to the world right now as links on a web page. In fact, to make your podcast episodes accessible to people who can't use the iTunes software, you should duplicate your podcast as a web page. You can see my web page version of this Tech Tips podcast at http://www.csulb.edu/lats/itss/design/techtip.html. The difference between the web page and an actual podcast is that with a podcast, listeners automatically receive the new episodes delivered to their computer as soon as they're published. To make your podcast something to which people can subscribe, you have to write an XML file. I've already written one for you. All you have to do is change a few lines to customize the file for your particular podcast. Start by going to the web page that has the text you need. It put it out at: http://www.csulb.edu/lats/itss/design/xml-files/xml-sample-file.html If you look at that page, most of it is a bunch of criptic gobbly gook. Don't let that scare you. The only words you have to replace are the lines printed in bold face type. To start, highlight all the text on the page. Actually, highlight all except the last line that reads Last Modified 12/7/07. Now that the text is highlighted you can copy the text to your computer's invisible clip board with a Control-C (hit the "C" key while holding down the control key). Next, you should launch a text editor. You can use a word processor, like Microsoft Word but it is easier to do this with NotePad, or better yet, with WordPad. Either of these can be launched from your PC's start menu. Click on START, then ALL PROGRAMS, then ACCESSORIES and finally WordPad. Now you can paste your text into the new, blank document. Click in the document and then do a Control-V (hit the letter "V" while holding down the control button. Now you have to save this file. Go to the top menu and select FILE, SAVE. When the dialog box opens, select a folder that will contain the file and make sure that you use the drop down menu to select the correct file type. You should Save as type TEXT DOCUMENT. For the file name use any simple single word without spaces or punctuation (except a hyphen) and I recommend avoiding upper case letters. Do not accept the default extension of TXT. The file must have the extension xml. So, the final file name would be something like podcast.xml or tech-tips.xml. Now you can replace all the text that originally appeared in bold face type. You'll have to refer back to the web page because your text editor will not retain any type face formatting. You will first replace the words "Put the title of your channel (podast) here." Replace that with the actual title of your podcast. The same is true of the next line that says "My Name" You'll notice that some bold face text on the web page is red in color, instead of black. This text also needs to be replaced but you have limited choices available for the replacement text. For the tag that says LINK, this should be the address of some web page you would like to bring to the attention of your listeners. In my case, I put the address of the web version of my podcast in this space. Note that you have to include the complete address, including the cumbersome http://. The iTunes subtitle can be just about anything that gives a bit more explanation of what your podcast is all about. The first time you see iTunes summary, that refers to a lengthier summary of what you are trying to provide to the subscribers of your podcast. Be careful of the copyright entry. The text you replace should consist of the current year as a four digit number followed by a space and then your name. The gobbly gook that precedes the year should remain as is. Once again, your name and email address are pretty straight forward. When you get down to the line that specifies the itunes:image href, note that you are going to put a web address inside of the quotation marks. This address should indicate the location of a JPEG image that is of 72 dpi resolution and be 300 by 300 pixels in size. Actually, some other size and resolution should work but iTunes prefers those specified dimensions. This address should be the location of the JPEG directly, not a web page that has the JPEG on it. The next two entries in red are an iTunes browse category and sub-category. These entries are limited to a select few special words. To see the approved list of categories and their approved subcategories, go to the website http://www.apple.com/itunes/store/podcaststechspecs.html and click on item number seven, iTunes Categories for Podcasting. You've taken care of all the text that describes your podcast channel and now you can enter the text that relates to the first episode of your podcast channel. The TITLE, AUTHOR, and SUBTITLE are pretty self explanatory. The iTunes summary can be a lengthy description of this particular episode or you can copy your entire transcript of the narration and paste it into this area. Whatever you provide as the iTunes summary here will show up on the screen of your listeners' video iPods. The enclosure URL is the location of the MP3 file you uploaded to the web space at the end of TechTips episode 13. Note that the URL goes inside quotation marks. To be sure you have the correct location address, first put it into the address area of your web browser. If you have the correct address, your browser will find the audio file and play it for you. The tag marked LENGTH is actually the file size of your MP3 file. This has to be a number entered without any punctuation. If you don't want to bother with this, it won't make any difference, just leave it as it is. If you do want to adjust this to match your particular file, find your file on your computer and right-click on it. Select PROPERTIES. You will see the files "size on disc" listed in bytes. Use that number but remember, no spaces, no commas. Going back to your XML file, the next entry is the GUID. This can be identical to the enclosure URL but notice that you are not using quote marks this time. The publication date MUST be in this exact format. The DURATION tag is the running time of your MP3 audio file in minutes and seconds. The iTunes keywords can be any search terms separated by commas. All the remaining entries are almost identical to those we used for the MP3 file except that now you should make reference to your PDF text file. Once again, if you want to make sure you have the correct URL address for this file, enter it into your web browser and the text should come up on your screen in the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Make the publish date of this PDF text file item a few minutes earlier than the date of the MP3 file. That's it. You have completed your XML file. Make sure you save it and make sure you remember where you saved it because every time you produce another episode, you will add information to this same file. In fact, you should see a notation near the bottom of this file that says "Place the next episode below." That is where you would recreate all the MP3 item information and all the PDF text item information that pertains to episode two of your podcast. You can copy and paste all the item one information and then modify it to reflect the details of episode two. However, make sure you leave the episode one information in place. In effect, as you add more and more episodes to your podcast, this XML file will get longer and longer. After you have saved your XML file, use FTP software to upload a copy of the file out to your web space. It will now reside in the same location as the previously uploaded MP3 and PDF files. That's it. You have a podcast. The address of that podcast is the URL location of the XML file you just uploaded. For example, my TechTips podcast address is: http://www.csulb.edu/lats/itss/design/xml-files/tech-tips.xml You can subscribe to it by using that address in the latest version of Internet Explorer or the latest Firefox web browser. If I want to subscribe using iTunes, launch iTunes. Click on iTUnes Store. Once you are connected to the Store, go to the top menu and select ADVANCED and then select "Subscribe to Podcast. . ." from the drop down menu choices. When the URL dialog box opens, enter the address for the podcast. To avoid typos, you should probably copy and past the address into that dialog box. Remember, the last part of the podcast URL will be your podcast XML file. Once you enter the podcast location in the iTunes URL dialog box, click on OK and iTunes will find and download your podcast, provided you are on the Internet at the time. Have fun podcasting and feel free to email me with any questions. You can reach me at walter.gajewski@gmail.com. For TechTips, I'm Walter Gajewski. That's it for now. http://csulb.edu/lats/itss/design/xml-files/episode-14.pdf Tue, 11 Dec 2007 12:58:00 PDT education, how-to, tutorial, CSULB, California State University Long Beach, podcast, CSU Long Beach, Walter Gajewski Walter Gajewski Copy most of this text as instructed in Episode 14 and paste it into a new document in your text editor. This is the dummy XML file you can use as a starting point for creating your own XML file. Replace my bold faced text with text that reflects the details of your own podcast. http://www.csulb.edu/lats/itss/design/xml-files/xml-sample-file.html Tue, 11 Dec 2007 12:57:00 PDT education, how-to, tutorial, CSULB, California State University Long Beach, podcast, CSU Long Beach, Walter Gajewski Walter Gajewski Fine Tune Your Podcast Feed to Make it Easy for People to Find You. Welcome to Episode fifteen of TechTips from the California State University, Long Beach (CSULB). Today's topic is “getting your podcast noticed in the iTunes Store.” Listing your podcast in the iTunes Store makes it easy for people to seek you out by entering your name or podcast title, your podcast category, or even key words in the iTunes Store search field. Getting included in the iTunes Store isn't difficult and there is no charge. Apple has posted detailed instructions. Find the instructions from inside the iTunes Store. Launch iTunes. Click on iTunes Store in the left navigation column. Inside the Store, click on Podcasts. At the bottom of the bottom of the podcasts page, under “Learn More,” click on “Podcast Technical Spec.” That will bring up the “Making a Podcast” page in your web browser. The first topic listed on that page is “Submission and Feedback Process.” Here's what's involved. You first have to make sure that you have a valid podcast. If you followed my instructions in Episode 14 and you were able to subscribe to your own podcast from within iTunes, you are ready to submit that podcast to Apple for inclusion in the iTunes Store. Before you do that, use your text editor to once again look at the XML file you created. The “Making a Podcast” web page you just opened has hints on how to fine tune your XML file (Apple calls it “your feed”) to help people search for your podcast. For example, they suggest making your podcast title as explicit as possible. Also make sure you've selected an appropriate iTunes category. You're limited here to the 16 categories listed at the bottom of the Making a Podcast page. On the other hand, the iTunes Keywords can be any words of your choosing, up to twelve words, each separated be a comma. Think carefully about which keywords people might enter to find your podcast. This might even include common misspellings of your name as well as your University's nicknames and initials. I include CSULB in my list of keywords. After you've made these minor adjustments to your XML file, replace the original version with this newly edited version and then try once again to subscribe using the iTunes “Advanced/Subscribe to podcast . . .” from the top menu in iTunes. If your podcast still works, you are ready to submit it to Apple to be listed in the iTunes Store. In iTunes, click on the iTunes Store and then on the Podcasts link to go to the podcasts page. In the left column of the Podcasts page, in the Learn More box at the bottom, click on the Submit a Podcast link. If you don't already have an Apple account that you use for purchasing songs off iTunes, you will be asked to create one as part of the podcast submission process. This includes providing Apple with credit card information. There's no charge for posting podcasts but Apple insists you set up an account anyway. You will also be asked to provide the podcast feed URL. This is the full address of your the xml file you've been editing. A couple of days after submitting your request to Apple, you will receive notification that your are now included in the iTunes Store. However, you'll have to wait several additional days before the iTunes Store search engine knows how to find your podcast. Be patient and good luck. I'm Walter Gajewski for TechTips from the California State University, Long Beach. http://csulb.edu/lats/itss/design/xml-files/fifteen.mp3 Thu, 3 Apr 2008 13:00:00 PDT 4:16 CSULB, podcast, iTunes, Walter Gajewski Walter Gajewski Fine Tune Your Podcast Feed to Make it Easy for People to Find You. Welcome to Episode fifteen of TechTips from the California State University, Long Beach (CSULB). Today's topic is “getting your podcast noticed in the iTunes Store.” Listing your podcast in the iTunes Store makes it easy for people to seek you out by entering your name or podcast title, your podcast category, or even key words in the iTunes Store search field. Getting included in the iTunes Store isn't difficult and there is no charge. Apple has posted detailed instructions. Find the instructions from inside the iTunes Store. Launch iTunes. Click on iTunes Store in the left navigation column. Inside the Store, click on Podcasts. At the bottom of the bottom of the podcasts page, under “Learn More,” click on “Podcast Technical Spec.” That will bring up the “Making a Podcast” page in your web browser. The first topic listed on that page is “Submission and Feedback Process.” Here's what's involved. You first have to make sure that you have a valid podcast. If you followed my instructions in Episode 14 and you were able to subscribe to your own podcast from within iTunes, you are ready to submit that podcast to Apple for inclusion in the iTunes Store. Before you do that, use your text editor to once again look at the XML file you created. The “Making a Podcast” web page you just opened has hints on how to fine tune your XML file (Apple calls it “your feed”) to help people search for your podcast. For example, they suggest making your podcast title as explicit as possible. Also make sure you've selected an appropriate iTunes category. You're limited here to the 16 categories listed at the bottom of the Making a Podcast page. On the other hand, the iTunes Keywords can be any words of your choosing, up to twelve words, each separated be a comma. Think carefully about which keywords people might enter to find your podcast. This might even include common misspellings of your name as well as your University's nicknames and initials. I include CSULB in my list of keywords. After you've made these minor adjustments to your XML file, replace the original version with this newly edited version and then try once again to subscribe using the iTunes “Advanced/Subscribe to podcast . . .” from the top menu in iTunes. If your podcast still works, you are ready to submit it to Apple to be listed in the iTunes Store. In iTunes, click on the iTunes Store and then on the Podcasts link to go to the podcasts page. In the left column of the Podcasts page, in the Learn More box at the bottom, click on the Submit a Podcast link. If you don't already have an Apple account that you use for purchasing songs off iTunes, you will be asked to create one as part of the podcast submission process. This includes providing Apple with credit card information. There's no charge for posting podcasts but Apple insists you set up an account anyway. You will also be asked to provide the podcast feed URL. This is the full address of your the xml file you've been editing. A couple of days after submitting your request to Apple, you will receive notification that your are now included in the iTunes Store. However, you'll have to wait several additional days before the iTunes Store search engine knows how to find your podcast. Be patient and good luck. I'm Walter Gajewski for TechTips from the California State University, Long Beach. http://csulb.edu/lats/itss/design/xml-files/fifteen.pdf Thu, 3 Apr 2008 12:00:00 PDT CSULB, podcast, iTunes, Walter Gajewski Walter Gajewski Modify my audio podcast instructions to create a video podcast instead. Hello again. I'm Walter Gajewski at the California State University, Long Beach (CSULB). Welcome to TechTips. Today's episode is about making your podcast a video podcast, also known as a vodcast. To see a couple of examples, launch iTunes, go to the iTunes Store and search for “Chemistry Lab Procedures” or try “Delicious TV Veg.” If you've been following the most recent episodes of this TechTips podcast, you already know the basics of creating an audio podcast. With only a few minor adjustments to my audio podcast instructions, you can create a video podcast. The most obvious difference is that instead of recording an mp3 audio file, you must create a video file in the mp4 format. This is usually done directly from within your video editing software. For example, if you are using SONY Vegas to edit your video, go to the top menu of the video editing screen and select File/render as . . . and then in the rendering dialog box, select Save as type Main Concept (*.mp4). Make sure you choose the Template called Apple iPod 320 X 240 video. If you are interested, your video file is now an MPEG4 file made with the H264 compression codec. Several video editors have Apple iPod Video listed as one of the formats available when you save your edited project as a video file. If Apple iPod is not listed, you can save video on your PC as an avi file and then convert that avi file to the Apple iPod format using the free utility called Videora. Instructions on how to do this are explained in Techtips Episode 10: Creating iPod video movies using free PC software. Now that you have your video file, the only other changes you have to make to produce a video podcast, using my previous audio podcast instructions, are changes to the text of the XML file you will edit and upload to your web server. In the XML file, everything in the first part of the file, the part that describes the “Channel” information is the same for either an audio or a video podcast. The differences are evident in the sections of the file that describe the individual episodes, listed in the file as “items.” In the item section of the XML file, you will see an “enclosure URL” tag. This URL has to be the fully described location of the mp4 video file. Make sure the URL is enclosed in quotation marks. Because this is a video file, make sure you have the “type” attribute listed correctly. No longer will you use type=”audio/mpeg” but rather type=”video/mp4” You also have to list your video file correctly in the XML file where it says “guid” As with the audio podcast, this part of the XML file should indicate the fully described path out to your video file. Note that in the guid section, there are no quotation marks around the address. And that's it. All the other instructions I provided in Tech Tips episodes thirteen, fourteen and fifteen still apply. As usual, feel free to contact me, Walter Gajewski with any questions at gajewski at CSULB dot edu. Thanks for listening. http://csulb.edu/lats/itss/design/xml-files/sixteen.mp3 Mon, 14 Apr 2008 16:45:00 PDT 4:36 CSULB, podcast, iTunes, Walter Gajewski, video, vodcast Walter Gajewski Modify my audio podcast instructions to create a video podcast instead. Hello again. I'm Walter Gajewski at the California State University, Long Beach (CSULB). Welcome to TechTips. Today's episode is about making your podcast a video podcast, also known as a vodcast. To see a couple of examples, launch iTunes, go to the iTunes Store and search for “Chemistry Lab Procedures” or try “Delicious TV Veg.” If you've been following the most recent episodes of this TechTips podcast, you already know the basics of creating an audio podcast. With only a few minor adjustments to my audio podcast instructions, you can create a video podcast. The most obvious difference is that instead of recording an mp3 audio file, you must create a video file in the mp4 format. This is usually done directly from within your video editing software. For example, if you are using SONY Vegas to edit your video, go to the top menu of the video editing screen and select File/render as . . . and then in the rendering dialog box, select Save as type Main Concept (*.mp4). Make sure you choose the Template called Apple iPod 320 X 240 video. If you are interested, your video file is now an MPEG4 file made with the H264 compression codec. Several video editors have Apple iPod Video listed as one of the formats available when you save your edited project as a video file. If Apple iPod is not listed, you can save video on your PC as an avi file and then convert that avi file to the Apple iPod format using the free utility called Videora. Instructions on how to do this are explained in Techtips Episode 10: Creating iPod video movies using free PC software. Now that you have your video file, the only other changes you have to make to produce a video podcast, using my previous audio podcast instructions, are changes to the text of the XML file you will edit and upload to your web server. In the XML file, everything in the first part of the file, the part that describes the “Channel” information is the same for either an audio or a video podcast. The differences are evident in the sections of the file that describe the individual episodes, listed in the file as “items.” In the item section of the XML file, you will see an “enclosure URL” tag. This URL has to be the fully described location of the mp4 video file. Make sure the URL is enclosed in quotation marks. Because this is a video file, make sure you have the “type” attribute listed correctly. No longer will you use type=”audio/mpeg” but rather type=”video/mp4” You also have to list your video file correctly in the XML file where it says “guid” As with the audio podcast, this part of the XML file should indicate the fully described path out to your video file. Note that in the guid section, there are no quotation marks around the address. And that's it. All the other instructions I provided in Tech Tips episodes thirteen, fourteen and fifteen still apply. As usual, feel free to contact me, Walter Gajewski with any questions at gajewski at CSULB dot edu. Thanks for listening. http://csulb.edu/lats/itss/design/xml-files/sixteen.pdf Mon, 14 Apr 2008 16:40:00 PDT CSULB, podcast, iTunes, Walter Gajewski, video, vodcast Walter Gajewski Use an online feed validator to find and correct mistakes in your podcast feed. I'm Walter Gajewski. Welcome to episode 17 of TechTips from the California State University, Long Beach (CSULB). Today's episode is for people trying to make their own podcast but having trouble because of small, difficult to find errors in their XML file, also known as their podcast feed. Something as small as a misplaced comma can cause Apple iTunes to reject your request to list a podcast in the iTunes Store. The easiest way to check your file for these hard to find problems is to use a feed validator. First, make sure your XML file is out there on your web server. If it isn't, place it there now using an FTP program as outlined in TechTips, episode 13: Create your own podcast (part one). With your XML file out on your web server, you can now use the feed validator found at www.feedvalidator.org. When you go out to that address with your web browser, you will see a pretty plain looking page that has a text box and a validate button. Put the full address of your xml file in the text box. Your address should start with http:// and end with the name of the XML file. Once you've entered the address of your file, click on the validate button. After a few seconds, you will see a report on your screen. It will almost always say “Sorry. This feed does not validate.” This is because the feed validator will find omissions from your file that aren't necessary for iTunes but are required for other systems like AtomFilms. However, in the list of your errors, Feed Validotor will identify which errors are specific to iTunes and which are required for AtomFilms. It is also possible that you might be missing some optional iTunes elements, for instance the itunes:explicit tag that only needs to be there if you have potentially objectionable language in your podcast. For the most part, feed validator will try to explain how to correct any fatal flaws. Some of the most common mistakes involve the publishing date. Make sure you have a valid date and make sure it is listed in the proper format. Days and months can only be listed as three letter abbreviations. So, Thur or Aprl are not valid for Thursday and April but Thu and Apr are acceptable. Often, the length attribute is flagged as invalid. Length is the size in kilobytes of the audio, video or PDF file that makes up the podcast episode. There should never be any commas or decimal points in the number. Feed validator might point out that you have a missing description element. You can ignore that admonition if you've included the iTunes summary element. iTunes is fussy about the element called iTunes category. There are only 16 allowed main categories. Some categories have a few allowable subcategories. To see a list of how to list a category along with some suggestions on other common mistakes, go to the Apple website at: www.apple.com/itunes/store/podcaststechspecs.html Topic number four on that page is “common mistakes.” Once you find your mistake, correct your XML file and move it out to your web server using an FTP program. The newly edited file will replace the erroneous file. Now you can check the new file with feed validator. However, you can't just click on the validate button again. You have to go to the feed validator home page and input the address to your XML file and then hit the validate button. Now you should see results based on the edited file. If all goes well, you will now have a file that is considered acceptable by the iTunes Store. Good luck. This is Walter Gajewski for TechTips from CSULB. http://csulb.edu/lats/itss/design/xml-files/seventeen.mp3 Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:45:00 PDT 5:25 CSULB, podcast, iTunes, Walter Gajewski, validator, feed Walter Gajewski Use an online feed validator to find and correct mistakes in your podcast feed. I'm Walter Gajewski. Welcome to episode 17 of TechTips from the California State University, Long Beach (CSULB). Today's episode is for people trying to make their own podcast but having trouble because of small, difficult to find errors in their XML file, also known as their podcast feed. Something as small as a misplaced comma can cause Apple iTunes to reject your request to list a podcast in the iTunes Store. The easiest way to check your file for these hard to find problems is to use a feed validator. First, make sure your XML file is out there on your web server. If it isn't, place it there now using an FTP program as outlined in TechTips, episode 13: Create your own podcast (part one). With your XML file out on your web server, you can now use the feed validator found at www.feedvalidator.org. When you go out to that address with your web browser, you will see a pretty plain looking page that has a text box and a validate button. Put the full address of your xml file in the text box. Your address should start with http:// and end with the name of the XML file. Once you've entered the address of your file, click on the validate button. After a few seconds, you will see a report on your screen. It will almost always say “Sorry. This feed does not validate.” This is because the feed validator will find omissions from your file that aren't necessary for iTunes but are required for other systems like AtomFilms. However, in the list of your errors, Feed Validotor will identify which errors are specific to iTunes and which are required for AtomFilms. It is also possible that you might be missing some optional iTunes elements, for instance the itunes:explicit tag that only needs to be there if you have potentially objectionable language in your podcast. For the most part, feed validator will try to explain how to correct any fatal flaws. Some of the most common mistakes involve the publishing date. Make sure you have a valid date and make sure it is listed in the proper format. Days and months can only be listed as three letter abbreviations. So, Thur or Aprl are not valid for Thursday and April but Thu and Apr are acceptable. Often, the length attribute is flagged as invalid. Length is the size in kilobytes of the audio, video or PDF file that makes up the podcast episode. There should never be any commas or decimal points in the number. Feed validator might point out that you have a missing description element. You can ignore that admonition if you've included the iTunes summary element. iTunes is fussy about the element called iTunes category. There are only 16 allowed main categories. Some categories have a few allowable subcategories. To see a list of how to list a category along with some suggestions on other common mistakes, go to the Apple website at: www.apple.com/itunes/store/podcaststechspecs.html Topic number four on that page is “common mistakes.” Once you find your mistake, correct your XML file and move it out to your web server using an FTP program. The newly edited file will replace the erroneous file. Now you can check the new file with feed validator. However, you can't just click on the validate button again. You have to go to the feed validator home page and input the address to your XML file and then hit the validate button. Now you should see results based on the edited file. If all goes well, you will now have a file that is considered acceptable by the iTunes Store. Good luck. This is Walter Gajewski for TechTips from CSULB. http://csulb.edu/lats/itss/design/xml-files/seventeen.pdf Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:40:00 PDT CSULB, podcast, iTunes, Walter Gajewski, validator, feed Walter Gajewski Move files between home and remote computers with the FTP function built into Internet Explorer. Welcome to TechTips episode eighteen. Today I'd like to talk about using Internet Explorer to move files between your home computer and a remote computer. I'm Walter Gajewski from the California State University, Long Beach. Lately, there seems to be more interest in moving files out to a remote computer. These files are usually web pages, podcasts, audio or video files, digital photographs, and MS Word or PDF text documents. It used to be the case that, to do this, a person needed a FTP (File Transfer Protocol) program. On a PC, WS_FTP is a popular FTP program. Mac users have several FTP programs to choose from, the most popular being “Fetch.” Robust web page authoring programs, like Dreamweaver from Adobe, have an FTP function built right in. But things have changed for the better now that Internet Explorer can be used as an FTP application. Let's take a look at how we might use Internet Explorer (version 7) to move files from your home computer out to your web account on the web server of the California State University, Long Beach. Many students, faculty and staff members don't realize they have a web account but if you have a CSULB email account, you also have a CSULB web account. So, here's how to move a file out to your account. Usually, when you are typing a web address at the top of the Internet Explorer web browser, it would start with http:// and that would be followed immediately with the address of the web page you'd like see. However, if you are interested in placing files out on the CSULB web server, you want to use the FTP capabilities of Internet Explorer and so you would start out by typing ftp://. After that, you have to supply the name of the University's FTP server, which is ftp.csulb.edu. So – the entire entry should read ftp://ftp.csulb.edu. Hit the ENTER key to continue. Now, near the top of the Internet Explorer window, click the menu choice called PAGE. A sub-menu will appear. Slide down and choose “Open FTP site in Windows Explorer.” You will be asked for a user ID and password. Your user ID is the same as the first part of your CSULB email account. For example, jsmith27. Your password for the CSULB FTP server is the same as your CSULB email password. Once you've entered ID and password, you will see files and folders that exist in your campus account. Double click on the folder called htdocs (h t d o c s). Now you should be viewing the files and folders that make up your personal web page. If you never created a web page, the htdocs folder exists as an empty folder. Now you can click on the FOLDERS menu at the top of the htdocs window. This will make your entire file and folder system visible, just to the left of the contents of the htdocs folder. You'll see folders that exist on the hard drive of your computer as well as files that exist in your account on the campus web server. You can drag and drop files back and forth as if all these folders were on the same computer. This is an easy way to make a digital photograph or MS Word document available to the whole world. Drag the photo JPEG file or Word file from a folder on your hard drive into the htdocs folder of your campus account. Once the file is copied to your htdocs folder, you can view it from any computer connected to the Internet, no password required. Let's suppose that my CSULB email account is jsmith27 and I just copied a file called readme.doc into my htdocs folder. I can now use a web browser to view this document from anywhere in the world by entering this address: http://www.csulb.edu/~jsmith27/readme.doc To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode. Similarly, I could drag a digital photo JPEG file into the htdocs folder to make it visible to anybody in the world using a web browser. That's it for today's TechTips. As usual, feel free to contact me at g a j e w s k i at csulb dot e d u. Thanks for listening. http://csulb.edu/lats/itss/design/xml-files/eighteen.mp3 Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:08:00 PDT 6:27 CSULB, podcast, iTunes, Walter Gajewski, explorer, ftp Walter Gajewski Move files between home and remote computers with the FTP function built into Internet Explorer. Welcome to TechTips episode eighteen. Today I'd like to talk about using Internet Explorer to move files between your home computer and a remote computer. I'm Walter Gajewski from the California State University, Long Beach. Lately, there seems to be more interest in moving files out to a remote computer. These files are usually web pages, podcasts, audio or video files, digital photographs, and MS Word or PDF text documents. It used to be the case that, to do this, a person needed a FTP (File Transfer Protocol) program. On a PC, WS_FTP is a popular FTP program. Mac users have several FTP programs to choose from, the most popular being “Fetch.” Robust web page authoring programs, like Dreamweaver from Adobe, have an FTP function built right in. But things have changed for the better now that Internet Explorer can be used as an FTP application. Let's take a look at how we might use Internet Explorer (version 7) to move files from your home computer out to your web account on the web server of the California State University, Long Beach. Many students, faculty and staff members don't realize they have a web account but if you have a CSULB email account, you also have a CSULB web account. So, here's how to move a file out to your account. Usually, when you are typing a web address at the top of the Internet Explorer web browser, it would start with http:// and that would be followed immediately with the address of the web page you'd like see. However, if you are interested in placing files out on the CSULB web server, you want to use the FTP capabilities of Internet Explorer and so you would start out by typing ftp://. After that, you have to supply the name of the University's FTP server, which is ftp.csulb.edu. So – the entire entry should read ftp://ftp.csulb.edu. Hit the ENTER key to continue. Now, near the top of the Internet Explorer window, click the menu choice called PAGE. A sub-menu will appear. Slide down and choose “Open FTP site in Windows Explorer.” You will be asked for a user ID and password. Your user ID is the same as the first part of your CSULB email account. For example, jsmith27. Your password for the CSULB FTP server is the same as your CSULB email password. Once you've entered ID and password, you will see files and folders that exist in your campus account. Double click on the folder called htdocs (h t d o c s). Now you should be viewing the files and folders that make up your personal web page. If you never created a web page, the htdocs folder exists as an empty folder. Now you can click on the FOLDERS menu at the top of the htdocs window. This will make your entire file and folder system visible, just to the left of the contents of the htdocs folder. You'll see folders that exist on the hard drive of your computer as well as files that exist in your account on the campus web server. You can drag and drop files back and forth as if all these folders were on the same computer. This is an easy way to make a digital photograph or MS Word document available to the whole world. Drag the photo JPEG file or Word file from a folder on your hard drive into the htdocs folder of your campus account. Once the file is copied to your htdocs folder, you can view it from any computer connected to the Internet, no password required. Let's suppose that my CSULB email account is jsmith27 and I just copied a file called readme.doc into my htdocs folder. I can now use a web browser to view this document from anywhere in the world by entering this address: http://www.csulb.edu/~jsmith27/readme.doc To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode.To see what this address looks like, the PDF text file transcript that accompanies episode. Similarly, I could drag a digital photo JPEG file into the htdocs folder to make it visible to anybody in the world using a web browser. That's it for today's TechTips. As usual, feel free to contact me at g a j e w s k i at csulb dot e d u. Thanks for listening. http://csulb.edu/lats/itss/design/xml-files/eighteen.pdf Wed, 30 Jul 2008 15:40:00 PDT CSULB, podcast, iTunes, Walter Gajewski, ftp, explorer