For all the details, check out the changelog but this is one release that cleans up a ton of mess and adds in support for full integration with the Podango API.

Theres still a few tiny features I want to add in, but its in good shape, and I need sleep so I can run off to the Podcast Expo in a few hours.

UPDATE - Bug in this version… of course, so hang on for next release due out in a few hours

I had been using vBulletin for a little over a year when I started podPress and wanted a place for users to create a community and to provide support. The forums have been very successful and tend to have on the order of 20-30 postings a day, with many more viewers.  Now vBulletin is commercial software, so I had to pay $85 to use it, and figured that donations would cover the costs and I mistakenly had thought the way the licensing worked is that after one year I could keep running the forums, but could no longer get updates which seemed fair enough to me.
Well, the license I did buy doesnt allow for that, and I had to find out the hard way. After my license had been expired a couple months I received an email saying I was in violation, which I ignored on the assumption that it was a mistake or SPAM. I mean, why would software I paid for become invalid to use? It does when you purchase leased software! Read the rest of this entry »

Today I was pondering the success of the podPress project since it started which got me to trying to remember how long its been. So a quick look at the change log shows that I released the first version on Feb 2nd of 2006.

So, its only a year and one month old!

What started as a quick hack to wordpress that I wanted to use to bring attention to my little podcast, has become far more widely appreciated and used than I could have ever guessed.
I want to thank you all for your support and thanks that I get in forum posts, emails and paypal donations. They all matter very much to me, and encourage my development to continue.

A special thanks also to macx who, over the last couple of months has really taking the initial quick little stats feature and turned it into something impressive. Its always great fun when I can chat about code with another developer and enjoy the collaborative artistic effort that software development can be.

I did an interview thats been posted on CrazyEngineers.com.

Go check out the interview, along with the forum thread discussion.

Today I got an email from the Daddo of the http://driftkikker.com/ website and he sent over a new Powered By logo to replace the lame one I threw together some time back.

My best effort          vs       Daddo
 

Daddo wins!

I had the great pleasure of being interviewed about podPress by the one and only Michael Geoghegan. I got in a small plug for my podcast as well, so Im pretty happy.

The Podcast Academy: Dan Kuykendall

 

 Standard Podcast [29:06m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (2422)

In the latest episode of Upon Further Review the podPress plugin (and me) was reviewed. Im happy to say we got a 4.5 out of 5 rating and in general alot of glowing praise.

The podcast itself is very well done for an episode #3, and theres lots of other good stuff in the episode so have fun listening.

James Woodcock will be interviewing me in the coming days, and so posted this on the forums.

Click here to get to the forum topic

Dan (Mighty Seek) developer of the PodPress plugin for Wordpress, will be interviewed in one of my future blogcasts on my website.

If you have any questions you would like him to answer about either his PodPress plugin or security, please ring my automated (non-premium) voicemail on UK: 0207 193 3092 or Worldwide: +44 207 193 3092 or for free on skype id: glidem

The best questions will be included in the show…..
__________________
>> Hear more about PodPress, in my audio interview with Dan Kuykendall <<

http://www.jameswoodcock.co.uk - My personal online diary covering the internet that I find of interest including audio interviews, music, gaming, technology, gadgets, websites, free downloads and general articles.

Today I learned about iTunes support for password protected podcasts, and am thinking about the security issues, planning out how I can support this in PodPress as well as what this means for podcasting in general.

Overall I think this is very cool for podcasting, because it can open the doors for various content providers to jump in and start offering content. It may also allow existing podcasters to start offering special pay-only content. I know many want everything for free, but Im not opposed to paying people for the time and talent they pour into creating great content.

That aside, I was most curious about the technical issues involved. So I dug in…

Last week I heard that radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh announced that his show would be available from within iTunes. For several months his show was available as a “podcast” which meant his subscribers could download MP3’s a few hours after each show aired. At the time this happened, I dug into the custom downloader, sniffed out the traffic and figured out how it all worked. It wasnt complicated, but it wasnt a real podcast, there was no RSS feed with enclosures, and no way standard podcatchers could ever support it.

Now the landscape has changed, and this is a new solution that works with iTunes. I still didnt know how it was going to work, but my guess was that it had to do with HTTP BasicAuth. This morning the website had the link, and I had my Paros Proxy. I configured my computer to run thru the local proxy, and I went about getting the show into my iTunes, recording all the network traffic along the way.

It turned out to be much easier than I expected. It did use HTTP BasicAuth, and it only does so for the rss feed.
So what we have is a link to the RSS feed, but with the protocol defined as itpc, which I assume to mean ITunesPodCast and is something that iTunes is registered to handle.

So the link looks something like this:

itpc://rss.premiereradio.net/podcast/rushlimb.xml

Note: Just because the protocol is itpc instead of http, does not mean you couldnt go to this URL with your browser

http://rss.premiereradio.net/podcast/rushlimb.xml

If you try, you will get a password prompt. This is using standard HTTP BasicAuth, and once you give your credentials you would get the RSS Feed.
The feed itself is a standard iTunes compliant RSS2 document like we are all used to. As far as the MP3 files themselves, there is only security by obscurity. I will not give an actual URL to one of the MP3 files, but its something along the lines of

http://rss.premiereradio.net/download/rushlimb /username/48123789787qe98/rushlimb/2006/03/ Rush%20Limbaugh%20-%20Mar%2010%202006%20-%20Hour%201.mp3

If you had the actual URL, you could download the MP3 without any sort of authentication. Of course, security by obscrurity is not an ideal solution, but in the case of this type of content it serves the need. It should also be easy use the same HTTP BasicAuth to protect the MP3 files is so desired.

I have also found out that the popular podcatcher Juice supports HTTP BasicAuth as well, so using this solution really seems the way to go.

I believe I can add support into PodPress for all this at some point, and the bottom line is that this is an interesting and exciting development in the Podcasting world.

- Additional Resources -

* Just found out about another blogger who did a write up here

* http://juicereceiver.sourceforge.net