Yesterday I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Jeff Chandler on the WordPress Weekly Podcast! It was great to be back on the show, even though the spotlight was on me this time. I’ve been participating on the WP Weekly podcast since the start (episode 1) so it was fun to reminisce a bit about how we both started into WordPress and how the podcast came to be.

Hal Stern also joined in at the beginning of the show to discuss our new book, Professional WordPress. Jeff and I also discussed many different topics including the challenges of running a business around open source, secret projects in the works, my thoughts on WordPress and how it compares to other open source CMS solutions, and much more! Be sure to check out the episode and let me know how I did!

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On Friday I joined Jeff and Keith for episode 40 of the WordPress Weekly podcast.

I joined the hosts at the beginning of the show to discuss a couple topics. The first topic was the freshly released WordPress MU 2.7 final. The second topic was the BuddyPress beta 2 that was released earlier in the week. I’ve had some lengthy exposure to both so it was fun to chat with the guys about my experiences.

Starting next week WordPress Weekly is moving to WPTavern.com, the new WordPress centered community created by Jeff Chandler. I wrote a guest post for Jeff last week titled The Bittersweet Taste of Bleeding Edge Software. The community is really starting to grow so if you haven’t already head over to the Tavern and get signed up! You’ll learn something, guaranteed!

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This past week was an insanely busy nerd week for me.

On Tuesday I recorded the 7th episode of the SitePoint Podcast with special guest host Sarah Milstein. We dedicated the episode to talking about Twitter and the many uses it has, both personal and business.

On Wednesday my business partner and I attended the New York WordPress Meetup for a presentation by Johnathan Andersen on WordPress as a CMS: The Strategy of Content Publishing. Johnathan did a great job presenting how he utilizes various plugins and custom fields to transform WordPress into a CMS.

On Friday I joined Jeff Chandler on the WordPress Weekly Podcast to ask Dan Milward of the WP E-Commerce plugin some questions. It was a fun show and I’m looking forward to getting back to the round table discussions like the earlier days of the podcast.

I’ve also been pretty active on the WP Tavern Forums. WPTavern.com is a new site started by Jeff Chandler of WordPress Weekly with a focus on all topics WordPress. It’s a great site for sharing your experiences with WordPress and learning lots of valuable information. Get registered and get involved!

Oh and did I mention my company launched two new website redesigns in Thesis? MattBites.com and RetroRenovation.com. MattBites.com was migrated from TypePad and launched with WordPress and a fresh clean look provided by the Thesis theme. RetroRenovation.com was redesigned using Thesis with help from Kenneth Smith. Both sites look amazing and we are really excited to see them go live!

This has been an awesome nerd week and I hope to have many more like it!

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By StrangeWork.com: I’m excited to announced to launch of the Official SitePoint Podcast, which I am a co-host on!

We have been working on this podcast behind the scenes for over a year now, so I’m extremely excited to see the show finally launch! I’m joined on the show by some really talented and knowledgeable friends from Sitepoint: Patrick O’Keefe, Stephan Segraves, and Kevin Yank.

The SitePoint Podcast will feature top news headlines as related to Web Developers and Designers. We will also feature a main discussion topic each episode. New episodes will be released bi-weekly. On the first episode we discuss how the Internet industry is affected by the current economy situation we are facing worldwide.

This is a new and exciting venture for me and SitePoint, so I’m anxious to see how it’s received. Take a listen and be sure to post comments and feedback on the blog post at SitePoint.

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By StrangeWork.com: Today I joined Steve Gillmor on his IT podcast The Gillmor Gang to talk about my new Identi.ca Twitter Bridge! Also on the show were Marc Canter (Broadband Mechanics), Evan Prodromou (Identi.ca), and Kevin Marks (Google).

On Monday I decided to make the switch to Identi.ca full time, but to do this I needed a way to post messages from Identi.ca to my Twitter account. After searching for a solution that would fit my needs for a bit I decided to just create one, thus the Identi.ca Twitter Bridge was born.

Steve Gillmor registered shortly after the application launched. I didn’t know at the time, but Steve hadn’t updated Twitter in over a month. Now he was sending all of his Identi.ca updates to Twitter. Steve was pretty vocal about his thoughts on the app, which was great. As a developer I always want to hear feedback on applications I build and launch. Having someone at Steve’s level review an application I created was a real treat!

I joined in the later half of the show and talked about my application, how it works, and where it is going. I also spoke on some new features that will be implemented, including the option to disable @replies on posts to Twitter. Steve isn’t a fan of this feature (bug as he calls it) and decided to deactivate his account. I respect Steve’s decision, but as a developer I have to give the users some flexibility with options. Not all users are the same, so I have always programmed to please the majority.

Steve also mentioned he is in the early stages of organizing a Microblogging conference and extended an invitation to me! I think a central gathering of techies to help define what Microblogging is and where it needs to go in the future is an excellent idea! I also hope they have developer specific sessions as well, and if so I’ll probably submit to be a panel member of some sort.

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By StrangeWork.com: I’ve been invited by Jeffro to participate in a weekly podcast on TalkShoe.com called Wordpress Weekly.

WordPress Weekly will discuss WordPress related news, tips and tricks for using WordPress, plugins, updates, and everything else involving WordPress. We will be recording new episodes every Friday evening at 9PM EST on TalkShoe.com.

Be sure to join us during the live taping of WordPress Weekly and get involved! Call in to the show and ask questions, give suggestions, or tell us about your experiences with WordPress.

We plan on having a great time and I’m sure it will be entertaining. Hope to see you there!

WordPress Weekly TalkShoe Information:

Talkcast Name: WordPress Weekly
Talkcast ID: 34224
Phone Number: 724-444-7444

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By StrangeWork.com: StartupWeekend.com recently launched a new podcast called Startup the Show.

Hosted by Andrew Hyde of StartupWeekend.com and Rana Sobhany of RoleShare.com, Startup the Show will discuss startups, culture and business. They will also be interviewing many founders of companies from their startup weekend adventures. New episodes will be released three times a week from various Startup Weekend locations.

After listening to their first full episode it’s obvious there is a great chemistry between the two hosts that should equate into a great show! Be sure to tune in for each episode, I know I will!

Who knows, maybe they will have me on someday to talk SnapFoo!

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By StrangeWork.com: As most of you know I purchased a Zune 80 last week, just in time for my road trip to North Carolina for the holiday. My new Zune was a godsend. The 10 hour drive flew by as I listened to hour after hour of audiobook and podcast. After returning from my trip I really made the effort to stop using iTunes and use the Zune software as my primary mp3 program. Well after day one I can honestly say that isn’t going to happen.

The Zune software makes it too hard to determine which Podcast shows have new episodes. So I decided to switch back to iTunes for downloading and listening to podcasts/music, but I still wanted to sync to my Zune.

Below are the steps I used to download Podcasts/music from iTunes and sync to my Zune automatically.

Step 1: Unsubscribe from all of your Podcasts on the Zune Software. This will stop your Zune software from downloading new episodes when they are released. iTunes will do this for you from now on.

Step 2: Find your iTunes media folder

1. Open iTunes
2. From the Edit menu select Preferences
3. Click the “Advanced” tab

Your media folder is listed where it states “iTunes Music folder location” Remember this location

Step 3: Change your media folder in Zune Software

1. Open up your Zune Software.
2. Select Settings > General
3. Click the “Change Folder” button and point to the media folder you pulled from iTunes in the previous step.
4. Save your settings

Step 4: Change your Podcast folder in Zune Software

1. Open up your Zune Software.
2. Select Settings > Collection
3. Under the Podcast section add the media folder you pulled from iTunes in Step 2 and select the Podcasts subfolder (ex: c:\music\Podcasts) The folder will already exist.

That’s it! The Zune Software will now look in your iTunes media folder for new Podcast episodes and add them to your collection automatically.

Hopefully Microsoft will update the software soon to fix many of the complaints we have about their Podcast section.

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By StrangeWork.com: I’m addicted to podcasts, there I said it. Admission is the first step right? Right! For those of you not familiar with podcasts, here is a quick explanation.

Wikipedia definition: A podcast is a digital media file, or a series of such files, that is distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds for playback on portable media players and personal computers.

My definition: A podcast is a downloadable online radio show.

Podcasts are a great way to stay current on any topic your interested in. Of course I only listen to technology related podcasts, but podcasts exist for just about any topic.

Below is a list of my favorite technology related podcasts:

1. TWiT Network – Founded by the former host of TechTV’s The Screen Savers Leo Laporte, This Week in Tech (TWiT for short) is the leading technology podcasting network in the world. TWiT offers an abundance of technology netcasts including This Week in Tech, The Tech Guy, net@nite, and many more!

2. Cranky Geeks – Hosted by John C. Dvorak, Cranky Geeks is a weekly video podcast focusing on the top tech news. Dvorak is joined by many different leading innovators in the tech industry each episode.

Mini Podcasts – I classify the next three podcasts as mini podcasts because their run time is typically under 5 minutes per episode.

3. TeXtra – Hosted by Natali Del Conte, TeXtra is a technology news video podcast. The episodes are short and sweet, yet still manage to nail the top tech news headlines each episode.

4. GeekBrief.TV – A technology news and gadget review video podcast hosted by Cali Lewis. The show boasts they are “fast, fun, fresh and flirty”, and that is exactly what it is! Very enjoyable!

5. WebbAlert – Hosted by G4’s Morgan Webb, WebbAlert is the newcomer on the scene. Just a few weeks old, WebbAlert has already made a big impact on the video podcast scene. Morgan brings the humor and charm were all used to seeing and delivers a great technology headline video podcast.

It’s always good to stay current with technology news and podcasts are the best way to do that! If you haven’t listened to any of these shows give them a shot. You won’t be disappointed.

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