Podcasting

"Describe the process of recording and editing an audio track and uploading it to a podcast."

The application I will use for recording is audacity. It is available for download from http://audacity.sourceforge.net/. Once installed the application is ready to use. It does not posses MP3 export support due to patent licensing issues. A file is required to add MP3 support, the DLL required for the LAME encoder can be found in the audacity downloads section; it is installed by selecting export MP3 in audacity and selecting the DLL file that you have downloaded and extracted that is called lame_enc.dll.

The application is now ready for use. You must connect your recording equipment and verify it works. You may have to adjust the windows audio settings at this point. When you are finished configuring you can select the record button in audacity to test your configuration. If this does not work you will have to diagnose the fault.

You can then edit the tracks in the prohject until you are satisfied with your results. You can save your entire project as a .aup file which is an audacity project file, this will make is easier to edit in the future.

Download a sound track from www.flashkit.com and add it to audacity. I downloaded Epic-Music-ma-5443_hifi.mp3 from the site and will add it to audacity for editing. You can add existing audio to a project by going to project -> import audio.

To edit recorded sections of a track selected them using a mouse and then edit or appended using the multitude of options available in audacity including fade and amplify.

Your finished recording can be exported as an MP3 and suitable ID3 tags added.

You can then log into www.mypodcast.com with your login credentials. In the episodes section, select create new. Using the file upload section select the file to upload and click the file upload button. Fill in the meta data fields as appropriate. Then select publish podcast to complete the task.

Thats the general idea of how to record a podcast.

XHTML

Why use XHTML?

XHTML is an Extensible Hypertext Markup Language, it is a standard create by a combination of XML and HTML. XHTML is intended to replace HTML it has a stricter syntax and is an official W3C recommmendation. It is required to standardise web standars as some browsers support proprietary tags such as "blink" and "marquee" that are only supported on some browsers but not on others. XHTML can be extended by adding new tags, the existing tags remaining unchanged, thus it is backward compatible. A poor standard of HTML documents led to the creation of browsers that are extremely lenient with regard to the code that they will accept, this has led to alot more sloppy code being created; this major problem needs to be addressed as it increases the resources and the development effort of browsers to handle all these exceptions.

Differences between HTML and XHTML.

There are several differences between HTML and XHTML, XHTML is forward compatible, it will not have depreceted tags, on the other hand HTML is not and tags supported change from version to version, with some tags being included and others being removed. XHTML alleviates the need for browser "hacks" whereas HTML it was common place to have different bits of code for different browsers to maker them work at all.

Difference in Tags:

All XHTML tags including standalone tags must have a closing tag, this is achived in stand alone tags by adding a / to the end of the tag, i.e. .
All tags in XHTML are lowercase, whereas in HTML they could be either and both.

Web Theory

Question: Why is it important to create a client agreement when undertaking a web design contract?

Answer: It is important to agree in advance what items are required for implementation in the website and charge accordingly. Anything else is an extra and should be agreed to be billed seperately. It is important to ensure that you know what you are getting into and thus agreeing before hand is essential.

Question: What is the purpose of the alt attribute in the img tag in xHTML?

Answer: The alt attribute in the img tag used in XHTML is used for several realted purposes. The alt attribute acts as a caption for all users, this usually manifests itself in the form of a tool tip. The alt tab can be used by visually impaired users via a normal browser or a screenreader. The alt tag will also cause text to appear instead of an image in the event of the image not being available or images being switched off in the browser settings.

Question: Give some tips for creating a navigation scheme when designing a web site.

Answer: Have bewteen 5 and 9 main navigation links, make it clear to the user what links they are and ensure they degrade gracefully. Flashy CSS navigation looks good in modern browsers but may not be accessible.

What i want to be when i grow up

Dear Blog,

I want to be a network Administrator, its a fun job and you can control everybody elses connectivity. Thus you are very important and can ensure job security for yourself. I know about networks from studying networking and from on the job experience, with this knowledge I can improve my networking skills and ensure that any prospective employer who rewuires a network administrator will select me over all the other canidates for the job. Then when I get the job I can sit around all day drinking Tea/Coffee and be just like a real life network administrator.