So. You may have, at this point, realized that there has been no episode of View From The Quad so far this week. This is because of many reasons, and will be something that will start to happen more and more often as this school year continues on. Happily, I have some prerecorded material I can just chuck into the feed for when things get really bad, but not this week. If you simply HAVE to listen to my wonderful voice, how about watching this video of me unboxing a Secret Santa gift I got in the mail?

Anyways, if you were mentioned as winning a copy of 7th Son last week on the show, chances are that you should now be holding it in your grimey hands. Let me know what you think, and if you have got it!

Laters,
Cian

So, now that the Star Trek movie is just about to come beaming onto your screens (It’s a double pun!), Amazon are having a HUGE ASS sale on all their Star Trek stuff. Like, really REALLY big. How about 51% off Star Trek Voyager: Seasons 1-7 ? Or maybe 42% off Star Trek: Enterprise: The Complete Series, which come in pretty awesome boxes? Or 44% off the Star Trek: The Original Series (Remastered) – Three Season Pack, getting you all the seasons for something painfully cheap like $139.99?

In fact, just head too The Star Trek Store over at Amazon to check out the rest of the swag they are offering. Oh, and if you happen to have free tickets to the Star Trek Premier, I would be happy to take them off your hands…

Until you head to the screening, check out the trailer. It looks epic. A bit TOO epic, in fact. Time will tell, though.

Here at VFTQ I am well aware that even in this floundering economy, I am much better off then many people in the world.

I have time to be talking to YOU, for instance, instead of fighting for my life on the streets or in a hospital.

This is where Blog Action Day comes in. Today, the 15th of October, blogs all over the world aim to help put a stop to poverty. How can you help? If you have some spare change, donate it to the fund. If not, just blog about this event. Facebook, Bebo, Blogger, Wordpress… I don’t care how you get the word out, just DO!

Thank the lords of Cobalt that you have the chance to be listening to me yabber on ever week, and help us reach our goal.

Tags: blog action day

I’m heading down to Podcamp Ireland on Saturday 27th of September. It’s a free event in Kilkenny city, so you shouldn’t have too much trouble getting there. Shoot me an email if you are coming and we can chat! Cian@viewfromthequad.com

Tags: con, podcamp

Are you attending Podcamp Ireland?

“PodCamp Ireland is the very first stand-alone event to promote the use and provide guidance and tips on the subject of social media in Ireland.

Podcamp Ireland is an unconference. In other words it relies on the active engagement and collaboration of participants to make it happen. Everything about an unconference comes from the participants. That includes the topics which will be discussed, the time and place, and even the decision as to whether to hold such an event at all.”

I will be there. It is on Saturday 27th of September, in Kilkenny city. Go to www.podcampireland.com/register to register for the free un-conference. Should be great fun!

Hey there kids! The Starting World of Warcraft (or Starting WoW for slightly shorter) podcast has just been launched at www.StartingWoW.com and you are invited to listen! It is only a short 3-4 min episode, explaining what will be going on, but remember to subscribe in order to get it for free every time an episode is released! If the iTunes button doesn’t work on the site, click the RSS Podcast button next to it and then select iTunes on the page which opens if you are using iTunes.

To who it may concern.
Over the past year and a half, or there abouts, I have been a paying member of Switchpod. Basically, they have pretty much disappointed me at every hurdle, from the stats system, which I have been promised on numerous occasions will “Be updated tomorrow. We Promise!” The strange downtime, the errors with the log-in system and of course, the terribly designed website.

I have decided that I refuse to take any more of this, and want to switch to Libsyn. Imagine my surprise when it is hinted at that not only will I have to give up my feed when I stop paying because of the switch, but switchpod will start inserting advertising into my feed.

Continuing, Switchpod support staff have REPEATEDLY refused to answer two simple questions, related to the above thing which surprised me.

1. Is the redirect feed option available for non-paying members
2. will ads be inserted into the redirected feed.

I feel that if it is not available for non-paying members, or if advertisements are inserted, I deserve to keep my “paying” account without actually having to pay for it, for the sole use of redirecting my switchpod feed to a libsyn feed or maybe my own feed from my own web hosting service. I believe this for the following reasons

1. From the get go, switchpod lied about their service. When I signed up, they were promising “The most advanced stats” and, as we can all see, the stats system is an utter joke. The joke even goes as far as to STILL have the following message printed on the stats page. “Hi, We are experiencing some technical difficulties. We are working to make the new stats page better for the site. We will be moving the stats engine to a new server to improve server performance. We will email when every thing is up. Thanks. – Jan. 28, 2007″. Rob, over there at wizzard.tv personally promised me, in person, at the PNME that switchpod would have a nice stats system running withen a week of the PNME 2007. We shook hands, and he went on to say that if there was not a new stats system, The coder responsible would be fired.
I mean, january 2007, we were being promised new stats. Have they shown up? NO.
2. Check through your support files to see how many problems I have had with switchpod, from files deleting themselves to my account being inaccessible for large amounts of time, remembering that I actually have to give the support staff my username and password, something which I find really… silly. Not forgetting that they tend to dance around questions so that they don’t have to answer them.
3. I was promised by somebody at wizzard.tv that you were working on getting “Switchpod up there with the big boys of podcast hosting”. Has this happened? Clearly not. Switchpod is a system which by rights, should have a warning on the front page saying that any podcaster who takes themselves seriously should not sign up.

In conclusion, I am requesting a transfer to Libsyn, with however much “credit” I have left on switchpod going into the libsyn account. I would also like for switchpod to redirect my feed for free, without inserting advertising into it. I will remove all my files from switchpod, and host them on libsyn instead, because leaving them on switchpod would not only be useless, but unfair to them.

Yours Sincerely,

Cian Mac Mahon
—————————————————————
Cian Mac Mahon
Professional Podcaster
Available for voice work, consulting

www.viewfromthequad.com

Hi there all you Tee Morris and Leann Mabry enthusiasts.

As you well know, Tee Morris is currently nearing the end of work on Billibub Baddings and the Case of the Singing Sword.

As you ALSO know, I am a great fan of Tee’s work, and will continue to enjoy it until whenever he decides to stop making it.

So, in another one of my crazy times, I decided to take on the responsibility of organizing the BBPC phone-in show. This is like your regular podiobook Question and Answer show, just with the added novelty of being able to call into the program using your favorite phone and ask questions, directly to whoever happens to be on the other side.

“So”, I hear you say, “I can phone in and directly ask Tee Morris questions?”

Yes, but THATS NOT ALL!

Also in the line-up will be top-of-the-class Voice Actor Leann Mabry. She will be joining Tee in the hotseat, and feel free to phone in with questions for her. She might even answer requests for the ‘voice’.

This bad-boy will be happening on the 7/7/07, (we expect no competition from other events happening around the same time. I searched but could not find any worth mentioning) and you can join in the fun by going to my Talkshoe.com page. The fun will begin at 5PM EST or there abouts.

In order to join in the fun, you will need to get a talkshoe.com account. You can do this by going to www.talkshoe.com and registering.

When the time comes, you will need to join the ‘Live Talkcast’. In order to do this, you will have to go back to my talkshoe profile and then press the Join button. A run down on how this works is right over here.  Any other questions you may have will be answered in the Talkshoe QandA right over…. HERE!

Can’t wait to hear from you, and stick around to check out my podcast! You can skip to an interview I did with Tee by clicking ‘Interviews’ at the top of the page.

I get to see Setenity on the big screen on June the 16! Join me, by emailing this kind soul and ask for information on the Dublin Serenity Screening.