Time for a humor break. First John C. Dovark uses Monty Python sound at the end of his Tech5 podcast. Then ICHC comes up with this briliant lol*cat picture:

What has this world come to? My classmates juggle Monty Python all day long, and now the Web is being invaded! Oh wonderful Internets…

Doug Kaye, of the Conversations Network, has put together a slideshow that details the ways to get the best quality in Skype call recordings. He mainly describes software-based tips (for Windows and Mac OS, and using a Netgear wireless router), and also recommends using a USB headset rather than a standard soundcard connection.

He outlines the following points:

• Configuring routers for the best possible connection Skype can get
• Capturing the audio Skype emits using vaious applications (Audio Hijack Pro and Call Burner)
• Reference levels for studio-, phone-, and Skype-quality audio

Apple, today, made an announcment confirming the opening of it’s third retail location in NYC, to be located at West 14th Street and 9th Avenue in Manhattan. The store will open on Friday, December 7th, at 6:00 PM EST.

The store is the largest one in NYC, as per the announcement:

Do your holiday shopping in style with three floors of all things Apple, including an entire floor dedicated to personal training, free workshops, hands-on technical support, and more.

This week, Apple introduced upgrades to their consumer-focused MacBook line of notebook computers. The systems now feature the Santa Rosa chip set from Intel, with a faster 800 MHz frontside bus. All of the MacBook models have been upgraded to Intel GMA X3100 integrated graphics, and the more expensive 2.16 GHz models now include 2.20 GHz chips.

The upgrades to the product line were very quietly introduced, with no formal announcement from Apple. The changes were made outside of Apple’s normal upgrade cycle.

This announcement is of significance to me because I plan on buying a MacBook in the coming months. Until now, pushing off the purchase has promised that I’ll get a copy of Leopard preinstalled, and now it’ll get me a machine with better graphics.

For a great second episode of the MichaelTech Podcast, I have reviewed some of the recent Apple news, and several rumors being spread about Microsoft and Apple.

Here’s a brief outline:

• Windows to be Open-Source Software by 2017, as predicted by Matt Mullenweg
• Release of Mac OS X Leopard Updates to MacBook and MacBook Pro
• Introduction of iPhone / iPod Touch SDK by February

View episode number two’s page or download episode number one

Great News! After less than five days of owning my Behringer podcasting kit, the premiere pisode of the MichaelTech Podcast is finally up and live! Hopefully, I will get off to a good start with this episode, which outside sources tell me was very well done.

View episode number one’s page or download episode number one

Apple fans are known for being (but aren’t always) incredibly self-loving, and a lot of the time, tend to shun away “PC” users. Being a “PC” user, I have a problem with this act of cultism. Macs are PCs too!

I’m not sure how the phrase “Personal Computer” was applied specifically to Windows-based computers, but it is very wrong to call them that name. Everyone (well, really only Mac fans) will take their MacBook with them, wherever they go. This would show that Mac-powered computers are even more personal than Windows computers, hence making them Personal Computers.

Previously, Matt Mullenweg of WordPress inspired me to start podcasting, but I only got as far as one introductory episode. The bottlenecks included not really understanding how to record podcasts, a cheap headset, and lack of content.

However, now that I read a lot more tech news, I’m on my way to getting somewhere with a podcast. Also, Daniel Brusilovsky has really enlightened me with his Apple Universe podcast; him being almost 15 years old and myself 16 shows that teens (myself included) can produce really good podcasts.

Yesterday, I went down to B&H to buy Behringer’s PodcaStudio USB podcasting kit (and ended up ordering it, since it wasn’t in stock at the store). It comes with a microphone, five channel mixer, headphones, a USB audio interface and some other stuff, and costs a meager price of $99.99 (plus NY sales tax, of course). It should be delivered to my house my Friday, at which point I’ll post a brief review, and record my first episode.

People say that Web hosts can be a pain in the neck – sometimes they speak the truth. Most of the time hosts are good until you start noticing downtime, end up contacting tech support, etc. So until recently, I’ve mostly been pleased by the quality of service from my Web host (not the Quality of Service protocols in routers), ComputingHost.

First, shortly after adding what’s called an Addon Domain (in cPanel terminology), I got locked out of cPanel. I emailed ComputingHost’s support, and after a somewhat long wait of about two days (fine by me, but unacceptable in the industry), they reset my cPanel login password. I didn’t like their new password, and wanted to change it, but their account management tools don’t allow changing that password. Whatever; at least I could get in to cPanel and do some work.

After getting home from school on Monday afternoon and checking the site, I noticed that it had been suspended. After an exchange of emails (this one also taking two days, the company being based in India), they sent me their report. Notice the broken English:

We have suspended this domain due to spamming from server.Also we got many phpmailer scripts under this account and which has been used in many folders.We would not unsuspend this domain unless and until all the sendmail scripts removed from server.

At this point my only remorse is using a cPanel based host. Usually these companies, using a variety of different tools for managing the account and Web site, provide worse support than those using their own custom and integrated solution. I’ll have to speak to the financial department (my dad) about switching hosts, which in itself will be a pain, as hosts go.