For Christmas 2007, my wife and I made a movie with our 8 year old nephew playing all of the roles. It turned out pretty well. My sister-in-love and brother loved it, it was definitely a surprise.

Filmed with a Canon GL2, edited in iMovie HD.

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I wrote an article about my experience with renting a movie via the Apple iTunes store. It’s published on TheAppleBlog.com.

Well, hopefully it is only a heart attack. It was fine yesterday, went to turn it on this morning. Nothing. I read these pages at Apple.com:

• iMac G5: Troubleshooting when your computer won’t turn on
• iMac G5: Loose power cord could cause power loss
• iMac G5 Repair Extension Program for Video and Power Issues

And hooray (hooray ?!) my serial number is in the range probably covered by the extended repair program. I have an appointment on Monday morning at the local Apple Genius bar. I did call Apple tech support, and got someone on the line. He was as helpful as he could be, he walked me through a couple steps and acknowledged it probably is a hardware problem.

I should have gotten the extended warranty (Applecare) plan, but I forgot about it until after the year had passed after getting the iMac in December 2004. Hopefully, the machine will be able to be repaired for free.

Lorelle asked “What Blogs Make the Best Podcast Blogs?”

I have two podcasts: ShowBizRadio.net (theatre information for the Washington DC area) and ChristmasMusic247.com. Key things I’ve learned:

1. Pick a publishing schedule and then keep it.
2. Bandwidth usage can increase exponentially. For some reason China loves my ShowBiz podcast. I hit 32GB of downloads in March. Disk storage space increases linearly.
3. iTunes directory is a great way to get exposure. It’s by far the most used directory for my podcasts.
4. Audacity is open source audio recording and editing software, works very well.
5. Get a Mac.
6. Transcripts work well when starting out, to help seed your content into search engines. We use Transcriva from Bartas Technology. Transcripts are a pain in the rear once you start publishing new podcasts more regularly, but your audience will grow to expect the transcript.
7. It will take longer than you think to get a huge following.
8. Before publicizing your podcast, have at least three complete episodes recorded and in the podcast feed. Be aware that this also sets the listeners expectations of what to expect in the future. But 3 episodes gives you enough info to decide if you really want to make a commitment into the future.
9. If you are doing discussion only, you don’t need a high encoded bit rate. 40Kbps is fine for discussion. Including music would probably need a higher bitrate, which directly converts into larger files, hence a larger storage and bandwidth bill.
10. Listen to some of the existing podcasts in your field (your competition). Note what you like and don’t like about what is already being done.

Bonus tip: Audio or video demands more time of your subscribers than does text. See above note about transcripts.

There’s a lot more, but that’s definitely enough to get started.

(Off topic to Lorelle: I think the Bookmap was comment spam, via a human instead of an infected Windows system.)

Woohoo! I am now writing for The Apple Blog. My first article came out today, and of course I made a stupid mistake in it. But regardless, it’s out there. MacBook Pro vs. MacBook/iMac vs. MacBook/Mac mini Now I have to continue writing one article a week.

I was cleaning out some old files in an ancient file cabinet at my office and found some receipts for purchases of some Apple equipment. Think what you could get for that money today.

Apple Powerbook 5300cs/100. 8MB ram, 500MB hard drive: $1,999

16MB Memory Module: $408.95

Global Village Platinum Pro PC Card (28.8bps fax/modem 10MB newtowrk PCMCIA (PC Card) card): $484

Total: $2,891.95 (purchased Sept. 17, 1996)

PowerMac 7200/120, 16/1.0. 4x CDRom: $1.985.00

- PowerPC 601 processor running at 120Mhz
- 16MB RAM, and 1GB hard disk
- Quad speed CD ROM and 256K level II cache

PowerMac 7200/120, 16/1.2. 8x CDRom: $2,245.00
- PowerPC 601 processor running at 120Mhz
- 16MB RAM, and 1.2GB hard disk
- Eight speed CD ROM and 256K level II cache

PowerMac 7600/132, 16/1.2. 8x CDRom: $2,945.00
- PowerPC 604 processor running at 132Mhz
- 16MB RAM, and 1GB hard disk
- Eight speed CD ROM and 256K level II cache

Multiple Scan 15 Display: $500

Multiple Scan 20 Display: $2,000

In Mac Server Series: Initial Set Up Brian shares the first steps in a video on setting up a Mac as a server. He works for a web host that lets you send them a Mac Mini, and then you can run your web sites and email off of it. I priced it out, and it is definitely cheaper (and less expensive) then my current hosting provider, Rackspace. I think using a video to show the steps is a wonderful marketing idea.

Aaron Adams in The value of AppleCare gives a great example on why Applecare pays for itself.

I agree, AppleCare is invaluable if you have a portable. I’m not as sold on AppleCare for desktop machines though. Desktops aren’t subjected to the same torture of being lugged around in bags, being dropped, being carried by one hand, etc… My office now has AppleCare on every laptop we buy, and I think well over half of our laptops have had to go back to Apple at least once in their three year coverage period. The iMacs and Emacs are running along fine, no AppleCare on them.

I just called the staff at the Apple Store Clarendon to get clarification. They said it is per person, and they don’t really track how many computers you bring in, but if you were to bring in a different computer every day for the “annual cleaning” service they’d suggest I purchase more ProCare accounts. And if I buy 4 ProCare cards, I get the fifth for free. So, yes this is a good value. Because the times I really need to talk with a Genius, I really need to talk with a Genius. And being able to schedule appointment for the next day is handy, as opposed to having to wait up until midnight. Thanks for the clarification Jake.

Original Message: MacMove is recommending the Apple ProCare card for better access to the Geniuses at the Apple Store. The major problem is you have to get a Procare account for each computer that you want covered. So for my small office of around 20 Macs, we’re talking an extra $2,000/year. At that rate, it’s cheaper for me to simply buy a new Mac when one dies. It’s simply not worth it to be able to schedule Genius appointments up to one week in advance. Whenever I’ve needed a genius, it’s been needed immediately.

Another huge issue to keep in mind is that the people who are buying the $300 Dells are probably the ones who will need the most technical support. So if Apple suddenly had a zillion new users buying $300 Mac Pamphlets instead of the $1,100 Mac Book, Apple would have a lot more tech support calls to deal with. And those calls would quickly cause the few dollars made on the sale to evaporate.

Original article: The Truth about the “Apple Tax” at AppleMatters.com