Aussie Geek Podcast #50

The team put together another episode of the Geek before the holidays, this time out was a bit of a milestone for the crew. For AGP #50 we had some special guests on the line, namely Tim and James who have both been key players in the history of the show over the past 6 years.

We discuss our own individual histories of computing and how technology and computing have affected our lives, and the technology-tracks that our lives have taken over the past couple of decades.

Podcast Roundup – New (to me) Apple & Mac Podcasts

I was on the hunt for some new Mac and Apple podcasts after becoming frustrated with the amount of blatant fanboyism and un-necessary Microsoft and Windows bashing I was hearing on the shows I had subscribed to. I wanted more shows that take an even-handed approach like Mac OS Ken or a lighthearted approach like the Nosillacast. I put a call out on Twitter and Google plus for recommendations and was given a couple of great new (to me) shows to listen to.

Mac Power Users

This show is absolutely brilliant. I’ve only been subscribed for the past week or so, but I’ve gone back and reviewed the last 10 episodes.

Katie and David do a great job of covering topics in enough detail to provide a complete review without getting into too many inanities. There are typically two types of shows. The topic-shows provide a deep-dive on a specific topic filled with lots of tips, tricks and keyboard shortcuts. The other show type is a “workflow” show where they typically bring on a guest to talk about how they use Mac and iOS products to get their work done productively.

Typical Mac User

I listened to the Typical Mac User a number of years ago, shortly after

Victor started the podcast I suspect, and for whatever reason drifted away from it. When George Starcher suggested over G+ that I check it out again, I found that I really enjoyed it. I’ve listened to a few different episodes in the past week which ranged from uber-beginner intros to OS X Lion, through to highly-involved automator/applescript discussions The show provides a good balance of introductory, mid-range and technical discussion and offer a range of guests to get insights on different parts of the Mac community.

Aussie Geek Podcast – Episode 46

The latest episode of the AGP is in the feed. This week Dave and I go over a few things that took place during our long absence and discuss news from Google, Twitter and Linux. We also have some fantastic apps for mobile, tablet and web and an illuminating story of recycling and ingenuity.

Dave and I had a great time putting this show together, and I had the opportunity to produce an episode of the AGP for the first time in well over a year. It felt good to get my hands dirty again, and I think Dave appreciated the break.

C# IsNumeric implementation

Here’s a quick and dirty implementation of “IsNumeric” in C#. This is one of those methods that just seems to be missing from C# which appears in so many other languages.

UPDATE 12-Apr-2011: After some fantastic discussion elsewhere I’ve modified the code to handle a number of additional scenarios. A point was also raised that a combination of Int64.TryParse() and Decimal.TryParse() would accomplish the same thing. They would, almost, but those methods test for valid 64-bit integers and valid 64-bit decimals — they don’t test whether a string is numeric. Feed them a long enough string of numbers and they’ll return false. It’s a pretty fine distinction, I grant that, but I figured since I was writing the code I might as well make it as robust as possible.

        public static bool IsNumeric(string s)
        {
            return IsNumeric(s, false);
        }

        public static bool IsNumeric(string s, bool allowDecimal)
        {
            bool result = true;
            if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(s))
            {
                return false;
            }

            if (s.StartsWith("-"))
            {
                s = s.Substring(1);
            }

            char[] chars = s.ToCharArray();

            if (allowDecimal)
            {
                bool decimalFound = false;
                foreach (char c in chars)
                {
                    if (c == '.' && !decimalFound)
                    {
                        decimalFound = true;
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        result = result & (char.IsNumber(c));
                    }
                }
            }
            else
            {
                foreach (char c in chars)
                {
                    result = result & char.IsNumber(c);
                }
            }

            return result;
        }

I built 14 39 unit tests for this on the project I built it for throwing all sorts of weird and null data at it, and it seems to run fairly well and reasonably quickly. Any comments/suggestions are welcome.

New Podcast: Short Order Code

Over the past several months I’ve mentioned occasionally that I’m working on a new software development focused podcast. The time has finally come for me to make a more official announcement about this new endeavour.

The new show called Short Order Code. The show will be a
series of audio podcasts and video screencasts focusing on a number of
areas of practical software development.

The first episode is out now, and the next few are in various stages of being produced while I put together the final bits and pieces and trying to sort out my process. Once that’s done and the first few episodes have been put together
I’ll try to provide more information around long-term plans for the
show.

For those who may be wondering, this is not going to affect my
affiliation with the Aussie Geek Podcast (despite our . I love doing the show, and plan to continue in my co-hosting role for the foreseeable future as long as the AGP community is willing to have me. Time zone considerations will probably continue to make a mess of our schedule, but we’ll do our best to produce a great show for the community as often as we possibly can.

So keep your eyes peeled for more information, and head on over to the website at shortordercode.com and subscribe to the feed!

32 Great Podcasts from my Podroll

Inspired by this post from Bill Wagner’s blog, here’s a quick look at what’s on my Podroll these days. I’ve listed each show below with its affiliated network or originating broadcaster in parentheses. Please have a look through the list and post any other great shows in the comments. I’d also love to know what you think about the recommendations!

Science & Technology Shows

Aussie Geek Podcast – Bloody Awesome Tech. Two Aussies (Dave and Cait) and a Canadian (that’s me!) put their unique slants on the technology news, applications sites and services each week (or so).

CommandN – Amber Macarthur and friends bring you a weekly dose of tech news.

Digital Planet (BBC) – The BBC’s weekly technology show looking at trends in tech and how they affect your daily life, hosted by Gareth Mitchell.

Discovery (BBC) – A weekly science documentary examining hot trends and profound topics in the world of science.

Knightcast – Tuning tech into your way of life, Knightwise offers a look at ways to make technology work for you, instead of the other way around.

Mac OS Ken – A daily dose of Mac (and iPhone) news delivered by the sarcastic, funny and insightful Ken Ray.

One Minute Tip (TP) – Byte-sized pieces of knowledge to help you be just a bit more productive with your everyday tech.

Podcasters’ Emporium (LPN) – James Williams and Dave Gray cover all the topics you need to know to become a better podcaster.

Quirks and Quarks (CBC) – Bob MacDonald’s weekly look at science and technology from the CBC mothership. The show looks at new and emerging sciences and technologies, often with an eye towards how they affect our environment.

Run As Radio (PWOP) – Richard Campbell and Greg Hughes provide a weekly batch of insightful trends and topics for the IT pro.

Security Now (TWiT) – Steve Gibson’s weekly dose of security news and security-related topics is very insigtful (even better if you skip over Leo Laporte’s TWiT ads).

Search Engine (TVO) – Jesse Brown’s brutally honest opinions and reviews of life in the Internet age.

The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe – Members of the New England Skeptical Society debunk the myths and frauds of the scientific age.

The Skeptic’s Guide 5×5 – A shorter companion podcast for the Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe.

Spark (CBC) – Focusing on the softer side of tech, trends and how these things work their way into our day-to-day lives.

Software Development Shows

Hanselminutes (PWOP) – Scott Hanselman’s weekly look at software and technology topics with his inside the MS machine take on things.

Herding Code – A group of “real-world” developers discussing topics and technology that affect code-slingers everywhere.

.NET Rocks! (PWOP) – .NET Rocks brings together the incomparable Carl Franklin and Richard Campbell who interview cool and interesting people in the Microsoft developer space.

Polymorphic Podcast – Craig Shoemaker’s periodic exploration of software and best practices for .NET developers was one of the first software podcasts I started listening to.

Stack Overflow – Jeff atwood and Joel Spolsky’s companion podcast to the Stack Overflow Q&A site project. A weekly chat about the project, interesting Stack Overflow questions and other software topics.

Humour & Entertainment Shows

Mondays (PWOP) – Mondays is a comedy show from the crew at PWOP that’s released on a somewhat sporadic basis. This one’s definitely NSFW — unless you have headphones. =)

Star Trek: Defiant – A fan-fiction podcast set a number of years after the events in Star Trek: Nemesis. Produced by the crew at Pendant Audio with a fairly talented voice crew. It’s a good listen.

Two Schooners (LPN) – Dave Gray and James Williams get together again for a somewhat less serious show covering the weird and hilarious stories of the week over a schooner of their favourite brew.

Business / News Shows

Campbell’s Comment (CKNW) – Michael Campbell’s daily business comment.

Get It Done Guy (QD Tips) – Sever Robins provides great productivity tips, business tips and general “how-to-cope-with-life-after-college” tips.

Modern Manners Guy (QD Tips) – The Modern Manners Guy’s advice on how not to inconvenience those around you.

Nutrition Diva (QD Tips) – Eat better, and learn about food myths that’ll keep you on the healthy track.

Reality Check (CKNW) – Bruce Allen’s pull-no-punches daily comment about social issues and pop culture.

Sports Comment (CKNW) – Neil McRae and others provide a comment on the sports world from a Vancouver perspective.

Grammar / Language Shows

Grammar Girl (QD Tips) – Mignon Fogarty’s weekly language show will help you tackle the tricky issues of trying to write successfully in the English language.

Kalye Speak – Learn tagalog as filipino’s actually speak it. By far the most successful podcast of its kind.

Podictionary – Charles Hodgeson gives great background on the etymology of words that we use every day. The show is insightful, fun and concise.

It’s been fun putting this list together. I’d love to hear your comments on these shows, or others that you listen to regularly.

Aussie Geek Podcast Receives Podcast Bunker Award

This past week the AGP received an award from the folks at the Podcast Bunker for its high-quality audio production.

For those who have listened to the show you’re already aware of the high-standard that the show’s founder Dave Gray sets for the show.

I take a note of personal pride in this as well having produced about a third of the episodes of the AGP since the relaunch last summer.

Here’s a link to Dave’s thoughts on the award too. We’re all very happy to have received the award and are looking forward to another great year of The Geek.

Aussie Geek Podcast #009 :: Eye of Newt

It’s quite remarkable! AGP’s three weeks in a row!!

This week’s show is a bit different in that we’ve scrapped our regular show format to take a moment to interview our musically-inclined geeky guest, Chopper Newt from The Lizards From Afar.

Sit back and have a listen. Its a pretty interesting interview, and a nice break from our regular show format.

Aussie Geek Podcast #009.

WordPress Weekly – Usability with Jane Wells

This past Friday I joined Jeffro for another episode of WordPress Weekly. This week we had the good fortune to interview Automattic’s usability maven Jane Wells.

Jane is one of the minds behind some of the dramatic new changes to the admin interface for WordPress 2.7. Recently Jane also posted a poll and a survey to garner some feedback on the new WordPress Beta that was released on Halowe’en night.

Give this week’s show a listen and check out some of the great answers to the questions that we came up with.

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Tag Archives: Podcasting