Nutty Bites 33: Dragon*Cant LIVE Nutty Debate – Listening vs Reading Fiction

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Dragon*Cant LIVE Nutty Debate Panel - Podiobook vs Dead TreeNutty Debate: Reading vs Listening to fiction: Podiobook vs Dead Tree.

This is a Google Hangout recorded by youtube with quite a number of people on the call. The audio quality isn’t as top notch as normal and some of the guests have bad mics/connections but it’s listenable.

Debaters:

Hangouters:

Promos:

Contact/Feedback
nuttybites@nimlas.org
(347) NUTTY42 or (347) 688-8942
Created by NIMLAS SUDIOS

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

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Dragon*Cant: Cover Art Panel – How to visually represent your audio project

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Nutty Bites and The Weird Show cover art shows how to get your brand and your show idea across to all platforms

September 2nd, 2012 I held a panel (Google Hangout) in conjunction with Dragon*Cant, How to visually represent your audio project.  Below is the full video with the tutorial and discussion, in addition to the dos and don’ts you will be able to see a demonstration of Photoshop and GIMP, two of the most popular image editing programs out there.  One is free (GIMP) and anyone can use it, and one costs butt loads of money and needs a lot of skill to learn.  In the video I also cover some other image editing choices.

For the TL;DR crowd:

Do’s:

  • Include your brand.
  • Show name, episode title, and episode number.
  • Make sure to post your album art in both the mp3 file AND in your blog post so facebook and google plus will generate an image preview to the episode link.
  • Make two sizes of your art, 1400×1400 for iTunes and smaller for your webpage.
  • Make your art square.
  • Have you art relevant to the topic of the episode.
  • Ask for help.
  • Use the same image style and brand on your website, your facebook page/group, your G+ profile, twitter account, and all other forms of social media.

Don’ts

  • use bizarre color combinations
  • get in over your head (if you have little knowledge with image editing, don’t buy photoshop, start simple)
  • ignore cover art
  • ignore social media sites, you need to get your podcast in people’s faces, that starts with the cover art that links to the website.

Do you have tips or suggestions to add to this?  Please leave it in the comments, thank you.

Nutty Bites 32

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It’s hot thanks to it being summer so I recorded this at the radio station in sweet, sweet air conditioning. (oh and I call Nathan Lowell a jerk… for being so talented)

My goal was to make a shorter episode, I ended up failing at that, sorry folks.

I heard it on Twitter

What I’m Watching:

  • Life on Mars (US & UK)
  • Being Human UK
  • Bedlam UK
  • Dark Knight Rises
  • The Olympics

What I’m I listening to:

What I’m Playing:

  • Smallworld
  • ZOMBIES!!!
  • Fiasco
  • (ArtRage – not a game but an iPad app)
  • Arkham Horror & Settlers of Catan (mentioned)

Bumpers:

  • Scott Roche
  • Mark The Encaffeinated One Killfoil
  • LuLuBizou
  • Mainframe
  • MadPoet Zach Ricks

Promos:

Contact/Feedback
nuttybites@nimlas.org
(347) NUTTY42 or (347) 688-8942
Created by NIMLAS SUDIOS

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 58:12 — 40.1MB) | Embed

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NIMLAS Studios will be at Dragon*Cant!

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Every year geeks flock to Dragon*Con and WorldCon and many other cons, while more geeks are left at home wishing they could go.  Three years ago a joke on twitter between @BrandG, @SVallie, & @Nlowell became a haven for those of us left out of the con club.  Dragon*Cant, the virtual con, the un con, the all the con with none of the crud has grown and flourished over the past three years.

Through the magic of the internet (Ustream and Google Hangouts) we are able to not just host or attend a panel but to participate in them.  Not only are the panels but meeting in the bar in between panels.  With Twitter and Google hangouts over the next few days you can interact with geeks from all over the world, some your friends, and others friends you haven’t met yet.  Both prior Dragon*Cants have brought me new friends I had never met before and gotten me closer with people I had only just seen on twitter.

Last year I hosted a panel on Pop Art, this year on Sunday, I will be hosting two panels and The Clockwork Doctor (our intrepid GunGeek columnist) will be hosting a panel of his own.

  • Panel: Nutty Debate: Listening to Fiction, or reading fiction, which is better?
    Host: Nuchtchas
    A panel of debaters will discuss the pros and cons or reading from a book vs listening to a podiobook when it comes to fiction.
    Platform: Google+ Hangout
    Starts: 2:00 pm – Ends: 3:00 pm, September 2, 2012 (Eastern Time)
    More details
  • Panel: Our Friend Newton: How real physics should be used in Sci-Fi
    Host: the Clockwork Doctor
    A humorous, geeky panel with the working title of “Our Friend Newton: How real physics should be used in Sci-Fi”.
    Platform: Google+  Hangout
    Starts: 3:00 pm – Ends: 4:00 pm, September 2, 2012 (Eastern Time)
    More details
  • Panel: How to visually represent your audio project
    Host: Nuchtchas
    In this panel we would cover album artwork, the visual aspect to your website, what’s needed in a facebook group/page or google+ page to grab your listeners attention between episodes. If there is time, we will also cover the elements of cover art for prose.
    Platform: Google+ Hangout 
    Starts: 4:00 pm – Ends: 5:00 pm, September 2, 2012 (Eastern Time)
    More detailsYou can find the rest of the schedule at www.dragoncant.com/schedule, follow on twitter @dragoncant, Facebook, and Google+,  and keep checking back as new panels get added every day.  I hope to see you there

Answers from the Vault: I answer YOUR questions….on Mars!

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A beautiful view of Mars, from Wikipedia and NASA

“What would the wingspan of a glider on Mars be?”

Flying on Mars is tricky.  I know, I’ve done it.  Well, that is to say, I’ve done it in a simulator.  Because a flight simulator is nothing but a giant physics engine with a bunch of mathematical constants plugged in, its possible to have the simulator spit out the atmospheric conditions of almost anywhere, and then re-create it.  X-Plane, by Laminar Research is perhaps the best such flight sim available on the commercial market, and using some NASA atmospheric and geographical data, allows you to recreate flying on Mars in a pretty believable way.

Wings (airfoils) only work when the air current flows over them at a certain speed.  That speed is dependent on the airfoil shape, and is subject to a lot of heavy math well above my humble head to try and figure out.  If the speed of the flow over the airfoil gets too low, it stops generating lift.  This is called a stall, and is generally bad news for whatever the airfoil is attached to, that is: the rest of the plane with you in it.  So a certain speed needs to be maintained in order to stay in the air.  With a powered airplane, the engine provides that forward speed.  In a Helicopter, the rotation of the blades provides the lift, and in a glider it is gravity pulling the plane downwards that provides the lift.  Let’s throw a theoretical number out there.  Imagine that Glider X needed to maintain a minimum speed of 20 miles per hour in order to stay airborne.

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