Radio Free Upstate

Can anyone tell me why my comments RSS feed is validating, but my podcast and entries feeds are not?

UPDATED: A fresh install of WordPress seems to have fixed the issue. I haven’t reinstalled most of my plugins but at least the podcast can go out now!

Show Notes

• Gideon talks about Ted McClelland’s book The Third Coast and the idea of a unique Great Lakes culture while he stacks firewood in a snow storm.

Listen to this episode using the player below or subscribe to Radio Free Upstate.

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Show Notes

• Gideon talks from his car (with apologies regarding the road noise) about the aftermath of last week’s ice storm, as well as the upcoming Christmas season.

Listen to this episode using the player below or subscribe to Radio Free Upstate.

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Governor Paterson, as well as advocates for the blind, have slammed a recent Saturday Night Live sketch that makes several jokes about the Governor’s blindness and admitted past drug consumption.

Personally, I’m not sure if this sketch is offensive, really funny or both (I’m leaning towards both) but I thought it was interesting to see a SNL sketch that mentioned the importance of Upstate New York in the senatorial selection process, even if it did sort of make it sound like places like Utica, Syracuse and Schenectady are populated by characters out of a casting call for a remake of Deliverance.

As I mentioned in the last podcast, I thought it would be timely to include a holiday gifts list for those last-minute shoppers out there. Some of these items do overlap with items we recommended in our 2006 gift list and this list will likely remain a work in progress until a week or so before Christmas. We hope that it is useful to you as you search for the right gifts for your loved ones this season.

Gifts for Young Children

• What kid doesn’t love Doctor Seuss?  Inspire your child’s love of reading with this phenomenal (and reasonably priced) collection of 13 favorite tales.
• If your children are out of Seuss territory, we highly recommend getting them started on the timeless Chronicles of Narnia series.

Gifts for Older Children and Tweens

• Assuming that you don’t already own them, every family should probably have a set of the Harry Potter books. Although the books might be a bit dark for young kids, they are a great read for tweens, teens and adults alike. Unfortunately, there is no complete paperback box set yet available (although those so inclined can buy a pricey hardcover set). Fortunately, there is an affordable paperback box set of the first six books available.

Gifts for Grownups

• With the price of good beer rising all the time, why not make your own with this basic homebrewing kits? We’ve used this exact kit (in combination with a large metal stock pot and additional ingredients) to produce over 35 gallons of delicious beer and cider over the past year.
• If you have a loved one who might appreciate some great short (and true) stories about some of the great characters of the Central Adirondacks, we highly recommend The Last Real People by Joseph LaPointe. This book focuses on the author’s experiences in the Town of Newcombe, which just happens to where Gideon’s parents owned a vacation home during his childhood and teen years.

Show Notes

• Gideon talks about Pearl Harbor, the Radio Free Upstate Christmas gift guide and New York’s Senate vacancy while he works on insulating the windows and pipes in his basement.

Listen to this episode using the player below or subscribe to Radio Free Upstate.

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After reading additional reviews of the Amazon.com iPhone application I described in my previous post, I found out that the reason that I get such accurate results so quickly is because Amazon is using actual people to search the site for the products I have photographed. It’s still a really cool application, but I have to admit that some of the magic is lost knowing that it is an actual person doing the searching.

On the plus side, you can get paid to search Amazon (and for doing other tasks) through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk website. You probably won’t make enough to quit your day job, but it might be nice to pick up some extra cash while you are sitting at home with your laptop watching TV or whatnot.

As most longtime listeners know, I am an absolute Amazon.com junkie. From their great recommendation system to their awesome universal wishlist bookmarklet, the folks at Amazon.com never fail to impress me (except maybe with the Kindle ebook system).

Imagine my happiness when I saw that not only had Amazon.com had not only released an application for the iPhone, but that the application in question allows me to find products from their store by simply taking a photo of the product in question. There are similar applications available that can identify CDs, DVDs, games and books by taking a picture of the cover, but this application can identify almost any product imaginable. After downloading it, I immediately took a photo of a bag of cough drops that were sitting on my desk. Within 30 seconds, the application had transmitted my photo to Amazon.com and returned a correct description of the item and its current price. I received similarly fast and accurate results from random pictures I took in my house, including of a bottle of hot chili sauce on my counter.

Armed with this awesome new application, I might finally have to kick out for an Amazon Prime membership. I guess it’s probably time to talk it over with my patient, loving spouse…