Geoffrey Long: Good news, bad news.

August 31, 2007
10:38 AM

Good news, bad news.

I've only been on campus for a little over an hour and a half this morning and it's already been a "good news, bad news" kind of day.

The good news: I conducted my first interview this morning using Skype Call Recorder, and it worked like a charm. The software records both sides of the conversation and dumps the resulting .mov file onto your hard drive in a location you specify. I haven't played with it much outside of that yet, but I'm suddenly really and truly excited about conducting interviews with people, whereas I'd previously been put off by the cost of recording hardware+software and/or my own lousy memory and transcription skills. This is, in my best ninth Doctor voice, fantastic.

The bad news: this morning the news broke that NBC/Universal won't be renewing its iTunes contract come December, which means that Heroes and Stargate are both going bye-bye. This stinks, because I'd just bought an Apple TV with plans to download my TV instead of TiVoing it. Guess I'm going to have to get cable (and a TiVo) after all. Rats.

August 31, 2007 1:37 PM

I don't know anything about Stargate, but last year I watched just about every episode of Heros for free on the NBC web site the day after they aired. I realize that doesn't help with your AppleTV, but it's something to consider if you're only talking about getting cable for one or two shows.

– David

August 31, 2007 1:38 PM

Too bad about the NBC shows going off of iTunes. I suspect they have something else planned, the question is where and how much?

It sounds like Skype is getting to be a really cool utility. My brother really used it a lot to talk to his gf in China last year, but I have not used it much. Perhaps I should give it a try. What are you conducting interviews to do? Hiring? Papers?

– Nick

August 31, 2007 2:06 PM

I'm conducting interviews for the next issue of In Medias Res, the CMS newsletter that I'm now editing as well as designing. After that, though, I'm totally thinking podcast... :)

– Geoff

August 31, 2007 2:45 PM

Cool! Podcasting would be great! Especially, for those of us who do not get to hear the timbre of your voice that often. :-)

– Nick

September 4, 2007 10:37 AM

Let me know if you need someone who's cranky and curses a lot.

– David

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